Psychedelic Salon

Guest speaker: Dr. Preet Chopra PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 02:56 Preet describes the study he is working on at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center where he and Dr. Charles Grob are giving psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) to end-stage cancer patients who are also suffering from anxiety. 05:17 A description of the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study. 11:01 Preet takes us through a typical session with a study participant. 12:04 "According to some of the research that was done before prohibition, it was found that people who had more internal experiences were more likely to get the psychological intervention we’re going for with this." 24:03 "In my treatments as a psychiatrist I’ve never treated a psychedelic addiction. I’ve treated a lot of addicts who are addicted to a lot of stuff and who also used psychedelics, but that [psychedelic addiction] has never come into my emergency room or office." 29:39 "I think it’s kind of ridiculous to be a scientist and a doctor and not investigate and try to understand how we can use these tools in a Western culture safely." 36:11 "I think that ultimately the true wisdom about these plants comes from shamanic tradition, however, in today’s Western society people will often come to a psychiatrist to address the issue that in a different tribal kind of society they would seek out the shaman." Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Mentioned in this podcast "Counter-Transference Issues in Psychedelic Psychotherapy" by Gary Fisher, PH.D Additional papers by Gary Fisher, Ph.D.

Guest speakers: George Greer and Requa Tolbert PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 06:30George talks about how they began to use MDMA in their work. 07:37 "We didn’t want it to get in the newspapers, because we knew that because it felt good it would eventually get out on the street and be made illegal … as it was." 08:30 How people were screened before they could be treated with MDMA. . . . "Where are you pointed?" 10:01 "The purpose for taking it [MDMA] really is the most important thing, more important than the drug even." 12:41 Requa describes the formal structure of a therapeutic MDMA session as developed by Leo Zeff, "The Secret Chief". 16:30 George reads the 18th century prayer that Leo Zeff recommended using before a healing MDMA session. 23:57 "My idea is that MDMA decreases fear, the neurological experience of fear. So if you have a thought that would normally be frightening to you that would make you anxious and tense up and be defensive and push it away, that reaction just is blocked." 30:47 "Women seem to be more sensitive [to MDMA] independent of size . . . actually some research has been done showing women are more sensitive milligrams per kilogram. In Switzerland they found this." 32:33 George describes the work of Dr. Arthur Hastings who used hypnotherapy with former MDMA users to bring back the experience of their medicine session. 33:52 A discussion of beta-blockers. 34:43 "I think that MDMA would be excellent for people who are afraid of dying and afraid of death." Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Abstracts of papers by Greer and Tolbert "Subjective reports of the effects of MDMA in a clinical setting" "The Therapeutic Use of MDMA" "A method of conducting therapeutic sessions with MDMA"

Guest speaker: Michael Mithoefer PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 06:19 Michael tells a little about how his study came about and its current status. 08:27 Michael describes the screening, preparation, and flow of the experience for qualified participants. 11:56 "We were able to go back, retroactively, and offer MDMA to everybody that had gotten [only] the placebo so far." 14:06 "Everybody who’s gotten MDMA has had a significant improvement, either temporarily or sustained. More than half, the majority of people have had a very dramatic and sustained improvement." 18:35 "This is a pilot study, and we’re not really looking to prove efficacy. We’re looking to prove we can work safely with these subjects, and it has at least has a strong trend toward being effective." 22:48 A discussion about the neurotoxicity of MDMA. 23:12 "There is still a question about neurotixicity (or at least decreases in some neuro functions) with heavy recreational use. It looks like there probably is some effect, although that is still controversial. . . . It looks like [using MDMA] less than 50 times there is no effect. It is still not known if there is an effect higher than that." 28:31 "The question is about how sustainable is the effect. It really looks like, for some people, two sessions is enough to really, significantly heal PTSD." Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speaker: Bruce Damer PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 05:29 Bruce tells the story of the first and only Terence McKenna workshop that was held in a virtual world in cyberspace. 07:00 The story of the bizarre dreams Terence McKenna was having in the weeks before his first major seizure. 08:32 Bruce tells of Terence saying, "It’s all about love," a few days before he died. "Terence said, ‘The whole psychedelic movement, it’s about love. It’s not about all this other stuff. It’s about love.’ " 13:20 "It seems as though the universe is a sort of self-contained thing that never loses any information." 18:34 An epiphany about DNA. 21:09 "What if the universe, like Chris Langton’s brain, is gradually booting up an awareness of itself, and why would it do this?" 29:07 Universe2, the second phase of this universe. 30:19 "All events that happened in the past and that will happen in the future are happening at once. What you’re living in is a mesh. . . . Everything is happening at once." 33:19 "Why does the universe create human beings?" . . . and what about these amazing brains we have? Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option   Bruce Damer’s Web site Photo credits: www.damer.com

Guest speaker: Myron Stolaroff PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 03:48 Myron Stolaroff: “After I’d had LSD, there wasn’t anything that could come anywhere close to it. That was the most remarkable thing in my whole life.” 04:34 Myron talks about his meetings with Aldous Huxley. 07:39 Myron talks about Meduna’s mixture, carbogen. 09:42 Myron explains what a carbogen experience was like. 16:15 Why some people don’t seem to have a positive experience with psychedelics. 18:21 The importance of using psychedelics in small, supportive groups. 19:48 Myron discusses his favorite psychedelic substances. 20:37 Myron talks about Duncan Blewett 24:01Some thoughts about using music during a psychedelic experience. 25:05 Myron’s advice to psychonaughts. 28:20 Myron talks about his relationship with Timothy Leary. 31:00 Myron tells the story of removing Leary from the board of directors of the Institute for Advance Study. 33:30 Myron tells of his fist meeting with Dr. Albert Hofmann. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Books by Myron Stolaroff LSD manual mentioned in this podcast HANDBOOK FOR THE THERAPEUTIC USE OF LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE-25 INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP PROCEDURES by D.B. BLEWETT, Ph.D. and N. CHWELOS, M.D.

Guest speakers: Jean and Myron Stolaroff PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 04:53Jean Stolaroff:Tells the story of how she first became involved with psychedelic medicines. 07:50 Myron Stolaroff: Tells how Death Valley came to be a favorite location for taking acid trips. 09:20 Myron tells some stories about Al Hubbard and Death Valley. 10:24 Myron tells of an acit trip in Death Valley that he had with Willis Harman and Al Hubbard. 15:56 Jean: “I knew I’d get a lot of fringe benefits from marrying Myron.” 17:10 Jean and Myron discuss 2C-E, “One of the very best.” 18:31 Jean and Myron discuss compounds they have no desire to ever try again. 21:33 Myron talking about 2C-B and how some substances react in unexpected ways with people. 25:14 Myron describes his first LSD experience, which took place in Canada on April 12, 1956. 35:18 Myron talks about Gerald Heard’s influence on his decision to try LSD. 37:30 Myron describes his first carbogen experience. 39:53 Myron describes the preparation that was required of participants in the Menlo Park work. 47:11 Myrondescribes how he first became involved in meditation practices. 54:42 Myron: “You know, if you’re going to work with these materials, meditation is a marvelous supporter because as you use the materials you open your consciousness more, and that opens your meditation more. So then your meditation becomes more effective and more fulfilling. So it’s a growing process.” 59:58 Myron: “And the only way that you can keep developing and learning more, and getting into higher levels of consciousness, is by really exerting yourself and learning to use everything that shows up when you do have these experiences.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 03:08 Terence McKenna: “Another way of thinking of it (the Knot of Eternity) is it’s the nexus of connectivity. It’s a place where everything is cotangent, as the mathematicians say. Everything is connected, and I think that’s the place we are growing toward.” 07:30 Ralph Abraham: “If a present moment is between a past that’s familiar and a future which is completely different, then that’s a very special moment.” 10:18 Rupert Sheldrake: Begins a brief explanation of his theory of morphic resonance. 16:08 Terence: “The great successful conspiracies, the Catholic church, capitalism, the Communist Party of China, Zionism, these things don’t call themselves conspiracies. They call themselves historical social movements." 17:07 Terence: "The task of discerning shit from Shinola looms very large at the end of history." 20:52 Ralph: Tells about the experience he and Rupert had in a crop circle. 23:53 Rupert: Tells about being arrested while inspecting a crop circle. 27:33 Terence: "I think we’re going to have to come to terms with as the world moves toward this concrescence of novelty is that it gives off spurious reflections of itself." 28:54 Terence: "The truth will be beautiful, and it will be simple. And it will be persuasive to those who doubt it. So don’t get into some closed loop of viviology. Make the truth seduce you. Don’t be thereby seduced by error." 31:10 Rupert: Talks about ley lines. 33:49 Terence gives an update on his current thinking about the Timewave (Novelty Theory). 34:17 Terence: "We have created social institutions such as consumer capitalism that are so unfriendly to our innate humaness that they are actually redesigning us, these social systems, to be more brutal, less caring, more acquisitive, more fetishistic, than we naturally would be. And, again, the antidote to this is an awareness of your immediate environment and the tricks that are being run on you and the ways in which we are being manipulated. Man is not bad. Humanity is not flawed. What is flawed are ideologies and social systems that distort humaness for purposes usually of commerce or conquest. . . . Culture is an intelligence test." 42:47 Rupert: "I think that the suppression of ritual forms of violence can lead to an outbreak of sacrificial killings by crazed maniacs." 43:20 Terence: "Well, it’s not a good idea to fear anything. Technology is prostheses. Technology is tools. We’ve always been defined by our tools. There is nothing about us that would be human if it weren’t for our tools. Language is a tool. The cutting edge is a tool. Social organization is a tool. . . . Shamanism is simply a technology." Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speaker: Daniel Siebert PROGRAM NOTES: 05:44 Daniel tells the story about finding a Salvia plant at a Terence McKenna lecture. 12:06 He describes the traditional Mazatec way of taking Salvia divinorum. 24:39 Daniel talks about the various categories of experiences that are possible through the use of Salvia Divinorum. 25:25 "One of the more common types of experiences people have is often people have visions of places that are reminiscent of early childhood, places like school playgrounds or the back yard of their parents’ house where they lived when they were six or seven years old." 28:49 Daniel talks about his isolation of the active ingredient in Salvia Divinorum. 31:51 "In general, when taken in the traditional fashion of chewing the leaves, the effects are gentle, the onset is gradual, the experience is enriching and it can be utilized in a very controlled, directed, conscientious manner." 43:18 Daniel talks about the varying amounts of time a Salvia experience can last depending upon dosage and method of use. 50:40 A discussion about the current legal status of Salvia. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Daniel Siebert’s Web site www.SageWisdom.org "Salvia divinorum and Salvinorin A: new pharmacologic findings" (PDF file) by Daniel J. Siebert Legal Status Of Salvia divinorum The Sage Wisdom Salvia Shop

Guest speaker: Matt Pallamary PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 12:18 Matt provides some background information about his wild youth. 20:37 Some thoughts about what at what age it is best to begin deeply exploring one’s consciousness through the use of sacred medicines. 21:31 "This is one of the key tenants of shamanism, all you can ultimately go on is your own experience." 23:40 "I want to stress that there are a lot of substances that are not good. Crystal meth, bad. Obviously, heroin, bad. Crack cocaine, bad." 30:30 The discussion turns to shamanism. 32:33 "The medicines teach you to learn how to connect with your heart, and to follow your heart instead of your head, because your heart is actually a superior ‘brain’." 34:23 Matt talks about the course of shamanism study he has been pursuing. 37:44 "The absolute best thing you can do for yourself, and for everybody, for the universe, for the cosmos, for the race, for humanity, truly the absolute best thing you can do for everybody, is to work on yourself and heal yourself. Because when you heal yourself you heal part of the collective, and you begin to realize that everybody around you is a mirror. Because we are all one" 39:28 Matt explains the difference between shamanism and organized religion. . . . "Shamanism, on the other hand, is based on experiential knowledge. Period." 43:31 "Ayahuasca has a way of finding your deepest fears and bringing them out. So when you do it within a sacred circle that’s protected with a good intention, then those parts of you that you’ve been terrified of will come out, and you can deal with them more on your own terms." Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Matt Palamary’s Web site (mattpallamary.com) Books mentioned in this podcast: Land Without Evil   Food of the Gods

Guest speakers: Amanda Feilding and Mark Pesce PROGRAM NOTES: Amanda Feilding (Minutes : Seconds into program) 05:30 "Britain is America’s greatest ally in all the dreadful things it is doing at the moment, the war on terror and the war on drugs. And without Britain America would feel isolated." 07:12 Amanda discusses the new scale for drugs that is being proposed in the UK. 09:37 "Present drug policy simply doesn’t work, and indeed it is the policy which is causing most of the damages." 10:45 "My particular interest is in separating the psychedelics and marijuana from the rest of the drugs." 13:34 "We at the Beckley Foundation have decided to do some reports which will tell the truth. Because the United Nations report doesn’t tell the truth. It tells what the Americans want to hear." 14:18 "At the last Beckley Foundation Seminar, which was held at the House of Lords in London, we had the top of drug policy of the United Nations and of the EU. . . . and the United Nations man agreed with me that the regulations on psychedelics should be altered." 16:30 "At the moment it’s not illegal to do research on controlled substances, but no one does it because it’s not good for grant funding, or careers." 19:52 Amanda begins her description of the brain imaging work that is being done with high-level meditation. 25:03 "In my opinion, to experience getting high means that you see a bit of you from higher up the mountain with a greatly enlarged area of simultaneous association of the neurons. So you get more far-reaching associations." Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Amanda’s Web site: The Beckley Foundation Mark Pesce (Minutes : Seconds into program) 28:34 Mark Pesce: Talks about the Eschaton, the impending end of everything. "Knowing your expiration date is a very big thing." . . . but on what do you base your beliefs? 31:10 "Does the knowledge that there’s just a little bit more than six years left on the civilizational clock drive any individual that you have ever met anywhere? Have we seen anyone abandon their attachments and prepare themselves for this presumed, inevitable end?" 34:33 "What he [Terence McKenna] said [about 2012] was . . . take this and test it. . . . And I think his greatest disappointment was that so few people actually took that challenge." 36:36 "I have had enough of this [focus on 2012 being the end of history]." 36:54"I have often equated the Eschaton with the idea of technological singularity." 39:10 "What I would say is that there is no such thing as artificial intelligence. There is only intelligence, whether it is vegetable, or animal, or mineral, all intelligence is one." 41:16 "Wikipedia is the first identifiable artifact of the age of hyper-intelligence. It is the collective, and collective knowledge, of a billion human minds. It’s not artificial intelligence. It’s just intelligence." Mark’s Web site: MarkPesce.com Photos taken at the 2006 Burning Man festival by Lorenzo . . . more of Lorenzo’s Burning Man photos