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Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2020 21:06:46 GMT
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Post by Admin on Nov 9, 2020 18:37:51 GMT
Promising Preliminary Results from a Small Study of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapywww.madinamerica.com/2020/11/promising-preliminary-results-small-study-psilocybin-assisted-therapy/A new study offers promising results for psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for depression—but these results must be considered preliminary. The data indicated that 54% of those receiving the treatment remitted (no longer met the criteria for depression after four weeks). Still, there was no placebo-controlled group to which the results could be compared. The placebo response rate for depression is usually estimated as falling between 40% and 50%, but some studies have found placebo responses as high as 70%. The researchers write, “Further studies are needed with active treatment or placebo controls and in larger and more diverse populations.” Without a placebo-controlled group to which we can compare these results, it is unclear if the findings are due to the drug, the psychotherapy, or a placebo effect. Previous research has indicated that much, if not all, of the improvement in these cases, may be due to all of the aspects surrounding the drug use—preparation, expectation, relationships, a healing setting, an explanation of improvement, and a ritual. November 4, 2020 Effects of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy on Major Depressive DisorderA Randomized Clinical Trial Alan K. Davis, PhD1,2; Frederick S. Barrett, PhD1; Darrick G. May, MD1; et alMary P. Cosimano, MSW1; Nathan D. Sepeda, BS1; Matthew W. Johnson, PhD1; Patrick H. Finan, PhD1; Roland R. Griffiths, PhD1,3 Author Affiliations Article Information JAMA Psychiatry. Published online November 4, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.3285 jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2772630Key Points Question Is psilocybin-assisted therapy efficacious among patients with major depressive disorder? Findings In this randomized clinical trial of 24 participants with major depressive disorder, participants who received immediate psilocybin-assisted therapy compared with delayed treatment showed improvement in blinded clinician rater–assessed depression severity and in self-reported secondary outcomes through the 1-month follow-up. Meaning This randomized clinical trial found that psilocybin-assisted therapy was efficacious in producing large, rapid, and sustained antidepressant effects in patients with major depressive disorder. Abstract Importance Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a substantial public health burden, but current treatments have limited effectiveness and adherence. Recent evidence suggests that 1 or 2 administrations of psilocybin with psychological support produces antidepressant effects in patients with cancer and in those with treatment-resistant depression. Objective To investigate the effect of psilocybin therapy in patients with MDD. Design, Setting, and Participants This randomized, waiting list–controlled clinical trial was conducted at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Adults aged 21 to 75 years with an MDD diagnosis, not currently using antidepressant medications, and without histories of psychotic disorder, serious suicide attempt, or hospitalization were eligible to participate. Enrollment occurred between August 2017 and April 2019, and the 4-week primary outcome assessments were completed in July 2019. A total of 27 participants were randomized to an immediate treatment condition group (n = 15) or delayed treatment condition group (waiting list control condition; n = 12). Data analysis was conducted from July 1, 2019, to July 31, 2020, and included participants who completed the intervention (evaluable population). Interventions Two psilocybin sessions (session 1: 20 mg/70 kg; session 2: 30 mg/70 kg) were given (administered in opaque gelatin capsules with approximately 100 mL of water) in the context of supportive psychotherapy (approximately 11 hours). Participants were randomized to begin treatment immediately or after an 8-week delay. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome, depression severity was assessed with the GRID-Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (GRID-HAMD) scores at baseline (score of ≥17 required for enrollment) and weeks 5 and 8 after enrollment for the delayed treatment group, which corresponded to weeks 1 and 4 after the intervention for the immediate treatment group. Secondary outcomes included the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Rated (QIDS-SR). Results Of the randomized participants, 24 of 27 (89%) completed the intervention and the week 1 and week 4 postsession assessments. This population had a mean (SD) age of 39.8 (12.2) years, was composed of 16 women (67%), and had a mean (SD) baseline GRID-HAMD score of 22.8 (3.9). The mean (SD) GRID-HAMD scores at weeks 1 and 4 (8.0 [7.1] and 8.5 [5.7]) in the immediate treatment group were statistically significantly lower than the scores at the comparable time points of weeks 5 and 8 (23.8 [5.4] and 23.5 [6.0]) in the delayed treatment group. The effect sizes were large at week 5 (Cohen d = 2.2; 95% CI, 1.4-3.0; P < .001) and week 8 (Cohen d = 2.6; 95% CI, 1.7-3.6; P < .001). The QIDS-SR documented a rapid decrease in mean (SD) depression score from baseline to day 1 after session 1 (16.7 [3.5] vs 6.3 [4.4]; Cohen d = 3.0; 95% CI, 1.9-4.0; P < .001), which remained statistically significantly reduced through the week 4 follow-up (6.0 [5.7]; Cohen d = 3.1; 95% CI, 1.9-4.2; P < .001). In the overall sample, 16 participants (67%) at week 1 and 17 (71%) at week 4 had a clinically significant response to the intervention (≥50% reduction in GRID-HAMD score), and 14 participants (58%) at week 1 and 13 participants (54%) at week 4 were in remission (≤7 GRID-HAMD score). Conclusions and Relevance Findings suggest that psilocybin with therapy is efficacious in treating MDD, thus extending the results of previous studies of this intervention in patients with cancer and depression and of a nonrandomized study in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03181529
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Post by Admin on Nov 26, 2020 17:45:20 GMT
How Magic Mushrooms Are Changing the Lives of Terminal Cancer PatientsThe federal government has taken first steps to allow psilocybin-assisted therapy. A Victoria non-profit says much more can be done. thetyee.ca/News/2020/11/25/Magic-Mushrooms-Changing-Lives-Terminal-Cancer-Patients/Thomas Hartle speaks with a pronounced cheeriness that’s initially hard to reconcile with his words. “I’m honestly trying to do my very best to die with cancer,” he says. “Not from cancer.” That hasn’t been easy since Hartle was first diagnosed in 2016. Surgeries and chemotherapy did keep his stage four colon cancer at bay, but the tumours returned last summer. It’s now inoperable. The spikes of abdominal pain led to a new problem — “High anxiety levels in terms of panic attacks on a daily basis.” Hartle is just 52, and unwilling to let fear claim the time he has left with his wife and two children. Being a self-described “professional nerd” and an IT professional, Hartle says he’s drawn to research. He found a Johns Hopkins study that reported 80 per cent of cancer patients involved achieved significant clinical decreases in depression and anxiety using psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms. Although psilocybin has been illegal in the U.S. since 1968 and banned in Canada since 1974, Hartle discovered that Therapsil, a non-profit based in Victoria, B.C., was working to make the illegal psychedelic available to palliative care patients using Section 56 of Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. It allows the federal health minister to grant exemptions from drug laws if “necessary for a medical or scientific purpose or is otherwise in the public interest.” That’s how Insite, North America’s first supervised drug injection site, opened in Vancouver in 2003. In 2017 Health Canada began granting Section 56 exemptions to the Santo Daime church to import and use ayahuasca as a sacrament. Ayahuasca is a herbal tea with naturally occurring — and illegal — dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, similar to psilocybin. So Hartle joined a queue of applicants, shepherded by Therapsil, asking the government for permission to use psilocybin for palliative care patients. Last August, after months of lobbying, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu granted exemptions for Hartle and three others on compassionate grounds. A week later Hartle lay in a bed in a spare room at his home in Saskatoon. He donned a sleeping mask and headphones. He took seven grams of dried powdered magic mushrooms. Asking him to describe the next six or seven hours, is a bit like asking someone to describe a colour that doesn’t exist. “So the music that I was listening to created very immersive three-dimensional spaces,” he recounts. “I was not in those spaces I was experiencing though. I was those spaces.” Three months later, Hartle is still profoundly changed. “All the busy, useless sort of thoughts that you get with anxiety have become very quiet for me,” Hartle says. “It’s so much easier for me to remain in the present moment and that’s greatly improved the quality of my life. So now if I get a pain or something like that, it’s discomfort and I don’t enjoy it. But I don’t immediately go to you know, ‘Am I gonna die this afternoon?’” Hartle can describe his psilocybin experience at some length and detail. And even though I have had several sessions of psychedelic psychotherapy myself, the best I can do is listen and nod. It takes a therapist with experience in the power of psychedelics to help the patient plan their intentions for the trip, and to draw meaning from the result. Hartle’s Section 56 exemption was undoubtedly successful in part because he had a trained psychotherapist supporting him. Therapsil’s founder, clinical psychologist Bruce Tobin, flew to be at Hartle’s Saskatoon bedside for that first dose. “We’re very much a believer in the idea that when a traveller wants to go through an unknown mountain range, they would choose a guide who’s been there before who can help them,” Tobin says. Tobin, based in Victoria, has been practising for four decades. He grew up in the hippie age and had his own experiences with psychedelics before they became illegal. “I had the good fortune of knowing one or two people who had received professional treatment with a psychedelic in a hospital near Vancouver,” Tobin says, adding that while traditional drugs like antidepressants have their place, they don’t always work. “There are a number of major mental health issues including anxiety, depression, PTSD and addiction.” Tobin says. “There’s a whole range of patients for which we have no really effective treatments.” There’s a reason for that, according to Dr. Sean O’Sullivan, an Ontario physician and Therapsil’s medical director. “I’m also old enough to have practised medicine when psychedelics were legal entities,” O’Sullivan says. He says he witnessed their value for patients with depression and alcoholism firsthand in medical school in Dublin. “Most of the drugs that are used in psychotherapy are symptomatic treatments,” O’Sullivan says. “In other words, they are suppressive medications. They suppress symptoms and they suppress neural pathways that give rise to these.” Psychedelics like psilocybin are the exact opposite. “Psychedelics open the doorways of the unconscious and allow previously repressed material to emerge into consciousness. The psychedelic session is a raging river sometimes and you don’t want to try and stop the river or get in the way of the flow. You want to let it go through.” O’Sullivan says therapists untrained or unfamiliar with the emotional river which psychedelics can produce are liable to be unhelpful. “So, when people cry or weep or express rage or joy or bliss in a psychedelic session,” O’Sullivan says, “the volume is really turned up. So, if someone looks like they’re really, really, really, really suffering, a compassionate therapist might want to intervene and offer comfort and support and say, ‘there, there. It’s going to be all right.’” O’Sullivan says what’s required however, is to help the patient to go deeper into the river, not scramble for the bank. “So keeping your hands off patients and encouraging them, helping them through difficult passages and then letting them go back inside… that is the job of a psychedelic therapist.” And it’s a difficult job, requiring upwards of 30 hours for just one session, because of the advance preparation, the time the patient spends in the experience and the extensive reintegration that occurs afterward. Right now, there are only three doctors and therapists working with Therapsil who are comfortable doing psilocybin sessions. That was barely workable in August when just four patients were given the legal right to use magic mushrooms as part of their treatment. But the number of exemptions grew to 12 by mid-November. There are 50 more applications in the hopper. Another 50 could arrive next month. Therapsil plans to begin training therapists next year but it wants each of them to undergo their own psychedelic experience, so they know firsthand what their patients go through. To that end it has asked Health Canada to grant 19 otherwise healthy doctors the same exemption as the dying patients. It’s a move that is controversial, and could help explain why Health Canada still hasn’t made a decision on the applications more than five months after receiving them. The pandemic response may also have sidelined them. Health Canada hasn’t publicly explained. In response to a number questions about the process and the time it’s taking to decide, Health Canada responded to The Tyee with a general statement that the department is “taking into account all relevant considerations, including evidence of potential benefits and risks or harms to the health and safety of Canadians,” and that “assessments are done as quickly as possible.” One question likely being asked inside the department is why psychedelic therapists are any different than psychiatrists, who prescribe powerful antidepressants without having taken them. O’Sullivan says a more apt comparison is to consider traditional psychotherapy. You wouldn’t seek treatment from someone who’d never experienced it as part of their training. “If you as a therapist have not had any exposure to those realms of the human unconscious,” O’Sullivan says, “then you are apt to do what most people would do in these circumstances. You would either trivialize them or you will pathologize them, rather than looking at them as rich sources of information about the person’s unconscious.” Christian, a 43-year-old cancer patient on Vancouver Island who didn’t want his last name used, puts it more simply. “It’s like any profession. If you take your car to a mechanic, you want them to have driven before.” Two years ago, Christian’s workaholic life as a consultant helping startups with accounting and procurement in China hit a wall. His mother had died of breast cancer, he and his wife had been evicted from their apartment, and he was diagnosed with stage four rectum and liver cancer. Palliative care counselling offered through BC Cancer helped some. But by last August, pain had confined the six-foot-four formerly active go-getter to his bed for more than 20 hours a day. “Just to get out of bed now to go to the commode two feet away is like a half-hour endeavour,” he says.
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Post by snowstorm on Nov 26, 2020 18:19:23 GMT
Very sobering read above, so important to enjoy every day in whatever way, if you have good health it is a gift.
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Post by Admin on Dec 2, 2020 13:01:16 GMT
Psychedelics, altered states and transpersonal psychology: Guiding the genie out of the bottle.Written by David Luke Posted on November 16, 2020 9 min read thefield.aleftrust.org/psychedelics-altered-states-and-transpersonal-psychology-guiding-the-genie-out-of-the-bottle/Following the prohibition of psychedelic substances in the 1960s, and the steady year on year increase in drug use since then, virtually all human research with psychedelics ceased until the turn of the millennium, when isolated research projects quietly began the delicate task of seeking approvals to conduct such work. Over the next decade more and more research projects began, especially those exploring the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. As these studies began being reported the media also began publishing positive news articles about the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and their salience for a deeper understanding of neuroscience and consciousness. Now that tide has finally turned. Currently we are witnessing a psychedelic research renaissance, as evidenced by the exponential surge in academic publications of research papers on psychedelics, with dedicated centres for research opening up in 2019 at world leading medical science institutions, Imperial College London, UK, and Johns Hopkins University, USA, and a new one announced in 2020 at UC Berkeley, USA. Furthermore, the announcement in 2018 that psilocybin and MDMA have been granted ‘breakthrough therapy’ status by the FDA in the US indicates that these substances are likely to be licensed for medical use in the next 2-3 years, ushering in venture capital investment in psychedelic pharmacology and therapy to the tune of an estimated $2bn in 2020. The UK has seen its first psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy clinic appear this year, and in the US there are now already 200+ ketamine clinics for treating depression and addictions, which looked poised to adopt new psychedelic substances as they become licensed and legalised for medical use. In addition, the considerable growth in ‘plant medicines’ recently has seen numbers of retreat centres internationally grow exponentially (e.g., there are 70 ayahuasca retreat centres in the Iquitos region of Peru alone listed on Trip Advisor). The explosion of interest in psychedelics, coupled with their coming use in psychotherapy will require thousands of therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and ‘sitters’ (guides), versed in the transpersonal realms that emerge during a psychedelic experience, although currently there are few training or educational opportunities available. The need for a transpersonal psychological perspective on approaching experiences with psychedelics and other altered states of consciousness has never been more vital. Preliminary clinical trials using psilocybin (from ‘magic mushrooms’) to treat depression, anxiety, addictions and end-of-life fear of death has shown that one high dose of this psychedelic alongside therapy has massive potential in reducing symptoms for extended periods of time and leads to complete remission of symptoms in surprisingly high proportions of patients. What that research shows, however, is that the occurrence of a psychedelically-induced complete mystical experience – combining elements of a sense of unity, noesis, transcendence of time and space, sacredness, positive mood, love, peace, joy, and ineffability – is indicative of better therapeutic outcomes and is a significant mediating factor in recovery. Such mystical experiences have been the focus of study of transpersonal psychology since the name was coined by the psychologist William James in 1905. In addition to the classic mystical experience, those consuming psychedelic substances, and indeed those experiencing all other altered states, report very high rates of other ‘exceptional human experience’, such as experiences of deep connection, enhanced empathy, interspecies communication, telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, out-of-body experiences, near-death-like experiences, encounters with discarnate entities, mediumistic experiences, etc., and yet such experiences have been either ridiculed, side-lined, pathologized or demonised by society, culture and the traditional medical and scientific approaches. Consequently, as we move further into the renaissance in research into psychedelics, and as the use of psychedelics and other altered states continue to grow, we will increasingly need professionals working with people in and after such states that are versed and experienced in the kinds of experiences that occur. That is, the current era requires that a truly open-minded, non-judgemental, informed and rigorous approach to the nature of consciousness, mental health, altered states and exceptional experience be available to those exploring and working with altered states of consciousness. There are several guiding principles that emerge from transpersonal psychology in navigating psychedelics and other altered states. The first is a consideration of the process of having an ‘exceptional human experience’, as defined by Rhea White, whereby several stages to the integration of the experience have been identified, from the initial cognitive dissonance and questions about one’s sanity and previous worldview, towards realigning of one’s life purpose and way of being in the world in the final integration of life changing experiences. Another useful principle is the notion of ‘spiritual emergencies’, as conceptualised by Stan and Christina Grof, who identified that “some of the dramatic experiences and unusual states of mind that traditional psychiatry diagnoses and treats as mental diseases are actually crises of personal transformation, or ‘spiritual emergencies.’” Indeed, nothing other than a complete re-conception of mental illness and mental health is required as we move forward, now that experiences once pathologized, such as the mystical experience, are now gaining traction as important events for dealing with mental health conditions such as addiction, depression and anxiety. That way forward must incorporate the research, experience and collective wisdom of the approach of transpersonal psychology now that the genie is coming out of the bottle, lest it be once more just treated as a demon. ***** Alef Trust is launching a new Professional Certificate Programme in Psychedelics, Altered States & Transpersonal Psychology which starts in February 2021, and applications are open. This one year programme led by Dr David Luke provides a collaborative environment to study the transpersonal nature of the psychedelic experience, altered states of consciousness and exceptional experiences.
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Post by Admin on Jan 2, 2021 11:40:58 GMT
The Organization of Psychedelic and Entheogenic Nurses (OPENurses) represents nurses, at all levels of training, who work with patients utilizing therapeutic psychedelic medicines. We exist to establish best-practices; clearly define appropriate care in psychedelic sessions; elucidate a code of ethics and conduct; advocate for the full inclusion of nurses in psychedelic therapy; provide continuing education related to psychedelic therapy; and provide a place for professional networking.
https://www.openurses.org/
Please check back regularly as we grow this organization!
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Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2021 11:17:47 GMT
A good advert of psychedelics / the New Age? Jake Angeli: The Psychedelic Guru Who Stormed The Capitol Brian Pace, PhDJanuary 7, 2021 Capitol insurrectionist Jake Angeli is a self-appointed psychedelic guru who has opined about the urgent need for psychedelic shamanism to heal the world’s biggest problems. www.psymposia.com/magazine/jake-angeli-psychedelic-shaman-capitol-insurrection-trump/In the 2009 Canadian film Wild Hunt, a live action role-playing game (LARP) goes wrong when a character playing Murtagh, a Viking shaman-king, abandons his real identity and takes psychedelic mushrooms with his companions, descending from play-fighting into an orgy of real violence. Proving once again that life imitates art, those long-dismissed as right-wing patriot LARPers took over the United States Capitol building, resulting in the evacuation of legislators assembled to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden, and four confirmed deaths at the time of writing. Among the insurgents was a man dressed as an approximation of a patriot Viking shaman, wearing a horned headdress, red, white, and blue face paint, and sporting large black tattoos. He postured like a conqueror on the rostrum of the Senate chamber, in a fleeting moment of symbolic power. His name is Jake Angeli (born Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansely), also known as Yellowstone Wolf, Loan Wolf, and sometimes “The Q Shaman.” While Angeli was just one member of the group that stormed the Capitol, he is unique for being the only known self-ordained psychedelic guru of the bunch. His shamanic cosplay wasn’t just an act—it’s another example of the dangerous consequences of mixing psychedelics and far-right ideology.
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Post by Admin on Jan 13, 2021 1:40:21 GMT
Psychedelic Mushrooms Grew in a Man's Veins After He Injected Them gizmodo.com/psychedelic-mushrooms-grew-in-a-mans-veins-after-he-inj-1846044856A man’s experiment with psychedelic mushrooms went disastrously wrong and nearly killed him, according to his doctors. In a new case report released this week, they detailed how the man injected a “tea” made from the mushrooms into his body and developed a life-threatening infection that had them growing in his blood. The experience left him in the hospital for close to a month. Fortunately, he survived. According to the report, the 30-year-old man had been brought to the emergency room by his family after exhibiting confusion. He had a history of bipolar disorder as well as opioid dependence and had recently stopped taking his prescribed medications, his family told doctors. In the course of trying to self-medicate his depression and dependence, he came across research showing some benefit from using psychedelic drugs like mushrooms and LSD.
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Post by Admin on Jan 17, 2021 1:25:03 GMT
JANUARY 4, 2021 BY PSYCHEDELICS TODAY What do Alien Abduction and Psychedelic Experiences have in Common? Let Dr. John E. Mack’s Work ExplainBy Michelle Janikian The story of the Harvard psychiatrist who wanted to believe – and ended up introducing the entire culture to the possibility of transpersonal experiences “At their core Carlos’s encounters have brought about a profound spiritual opening, bringing him in contact with a divine light or energy, what he calls “Home,” which is the source of his personal healing and transformational powers. In our sessions, when he comes close to this light he becomes overwhelmed with emotions of awe and a longing to merge with the energy/light/being. Space and time dissolve, and he experiences himself as pure energy and light or consciousness in an endlessness of eternity, ‘a pure soul experience . . . I go back to the source because I’m not just human. I need to go back to the source in order to continue.’ Carlos, like so many abductees, has developed an acute ecological consciousness. He is deeply concerned with the earth and its fate. The question of whether this is an unintended by-product of a process that he, no more than any of us, can fathom, or is an integral part of the alien phenomenon, cannot, of course, be answered. Carlos clearly believes that the aliens, however awkward, or even brutal, their methods, are trying to arrest our destructive behavior.” -Dr. John E. Mack, M.D. Abductions: Human Encounters with Aliens (1994) Until many lines in, to us in the psychedelic community, the passage above reads exactly like insights from a psychedelic-assisted therapy or integration session. But to my surprise in my recent alien abduction reading, this was work being processed with abductees – or “experiencers” as they preferred to be called – by pioneering psychiatrist, John E. Mack, in the 1990s. Mack wasn’t only the Head of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, but also the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence (his 1977 biography of “Lawrence of Arabia” ), and a fearless anti-war activist as well. “John had always been so well regarded,” his former research associate and girlfriend Dominique Callimanopulos tells Psychedelics Today. “He was such a wunderkind in circles, such a bright light and leader in his field, and well known for his clinical perceptiveness and precision.” So how does a Harvard psychiatrist get into the fringe world of alien abductions? It probably won’t surprise our readers that the story has its roots at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. According to NY Times journalist Ralph Blumenthal’s upcoming biography on Mack, The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack (scheduled to come out in March 2021 on University of New Mexico Press), in 1987, Mack attended the “Frontiers of Health” conference at Esalen in which Stanislav Grof spoke about transpersonal psychology and hosted an unplanned Holotropic breathwork session for the group. It was Mack’s first time trying the consciousness-altering form of breathwork and he had a profound experience relating to the death of his mother when he was only nine months old, as well as his first truly transpersonal experience. Mack continued his exploration and training with breathwork, and according to Blumenthal’s book, by 1989, he had become a “regular” participant in Grof’s breathwork modules. Elizabeth Gibson, co-founder of Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork and co-author (with Mack and Grof) of the 2003 article, “Reflections on Breathwork and Alien Encounter Experiences,” remembers Mack’s involvement in the Grof breathwork group. On a Zoom call, she recalls that Mack was a facilitator at the first Holotropic breathwork session she had ever participated in, one of the “big weekend workshops” Stan and Christina Grof used to host. “There must have been 130, 140 people there that weekend,” Gibson recalls, “and John Mack was on the team with them [to help facilitate] and he brought with him a lot of the psychiatric residents that were then in training with him at Cambridge hospital.” Similarly, Callimanopulos recalls that Mack was part of a Grof breathwork “pod” that would meet a few times a year in different parts of the world for two weeks at a time. “That was a very strong bonding experience for all the people in his pod,” she says. psychedelicstoday.com/2021/01/04/what-do-alien-abduction-and-psychedelic-experiences-have-in-common-let-dr-john-e-macks-work-explain/
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Post by Admin on Jan 23, 2021 17:02:39 GMT
The whole-planet viewPsychedelics offer a sense of expansive connectedness, just like astronauts have felt looking back to Earth from space aeon.co/essays/psychedelics-can-have-the-same-overview-effect-as-a-space-journeyIn 1966, on a rooftop overlooking San Francisco, the writer Stewart Brand felt that he could perceive the curvature of the Earth, an effect of the psychedelic substance he had consumed. He wondered why no one had photographed the Earth from space yet, and realised how much this might help people feel connected to each other and to their shared home. Later that day, he wrote in his journal: ‘Why haven’t we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?’ Next day, he ordered hundreds of posters and badges to be made, demanding the answer to his question, in a campaign that quickly went viral across the United States. Just a couple of years later, on Christmas Eve 1968, the NASA astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders were aboard Apollo 8, the first manned mission to orbit the Moon. They had spent most of the day photographing the Moon’s surface, when Borman turned the spaceship around, and Earth came into view. ‘Oh my God, look at that picture over there. Here’s the Earth coming up,’ shouted Anders. Like the astronauts themselves, the world was awestruck by the first images of the whole Earth from space, which are today widely credited with triggering the birth of the modern environmental movement.
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Post by Admin on Feb 8, 2021 21:38:05 GMT
MUSHROOMS The Mushroom Moment ManifestoContemporary psychonauts are looking for insight, relief, fun, escape, and a million other things to make their lives more interesting and bearable. NICK GILLESPIE | FROM THE MARCH 2021 ISSUE reason.com/2021/02/07/the-mushroom-moment-manifesto/The Saturday after voters in Washington, D.C., and Oregon voted to loosen legal restrictions on magic mushrooms, my girlfriend and I celebrated in the most appropriate way possible. We each ate almost 5 grams of the stuff, ground up and stuffed into capsules. This was a Venti-sized, mind-blowing "heroic dose" in the parlance of the late Terence McKenna, the Johnny Appleseed of hallucinogenic fungi, and we tripped for a good chunk of the afternoon and early evening. Journeying to the center of our minds via vision-inducing drugs (variously called hallucinogens, psychedelics, and entheogens) is perfectly suited to a world that is hyper-polarized, literally and figuratively locked down, and increasingly a little too close to an Edvard Munch painting for comfort. Mushrooms and similar substances are known to produce quasi-religious feelings of universal love, connection, empathy, and hope. They work on an intensely individual level but help you get along better with your family, neighbors, and coworkers. Far from an escape from reality, they can provide an entry point to deeper engagement with your limitations, your fears, and your aspirations. What's not to celebrate? The mushroom votes—not to mention the passage of pro-marijuana initiatives in states as traditionally straight-laced as Arizona, Mississippi, and South Dakota—are undeniable confirmation that we're in the middle of a pharmacological revolution whose implicitly libertarian goal is nothing less than giving us all more and better control over our very moods and minds. As a popular meme puts it, the drug war is over and the drugs won. There are signs everywhere that, more than 50 years after drug pioneer Timothy Leary exhorted us all to "turn on, tune in, and drop out" (at an event preposterously, wonderfully titled "A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In"), we're finally ready to receive the message that powerful drugs not currently stocked by your local pharmacist can help you better understand the world and thrive in it. Wherever you look, the culture is saturated like a Merry Prankster's sugar cube with books, movies, and events featuring psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, ketamine, and ayahuasca, as well as friendly cousins such as GHB and MDMA. Knowing asides about "ayahuasca bros" and Burning Man, an annual festival that is practically synonymous with drug use, have reached a level of ubiquity at which they require no explanation. "Micro-dosing"—taking small amounts of LSD or psilocybin to boost mood and motivation—has been an accepted practice among Silicon Valley programmers, Wall Street traders, and even long-haul truckers for a decade or more. The 2020 documentary Have a Good Trip features celebrities such as Sting, Nick Offerman, Sarah Silverman, and Ben Stiller talking openly about their use of hallucinogens. (The film adds nuance and gravity to the subject by including interviews with the late Anthony Bourdain and Carrie Fisher, both of whom struggled with substance abuse.) Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris has just released My Psychedelic Love Story, which tells the story of Joanna Harcourt-Smith, Timothy Leary's muse and partner in crime while he was a fugitive on the run from the U.S. government following a daring prison escape in 1970. In 2017, Morris released Wormwood, a Netflix series investigating the 1953 death of Frank Olson, a government scientist involved with MKULTRA, the secretive Cold War mind-control program that dosed hundreds of unwitting subjects with LSD and other substances. Sidney Gottlieb, the head of MKULTRA, is himself the subject of a recent biography by Stephen Kinzer, Poisoner in Chief (Henry Holt and Co.), which revels in the irony that it was the CIA that effectively introduced LSD to the United States in a misguided search for a truth serum to use on spies. The psychedelic renaissance even has its own glossy magazine, DoubleBlind, a publication that's as sumptuously illustrated as any of the trips its articles describe (think National Geographic meets Wired). "We're not speaking to the veteran tripper nor evangelizing to the anti-drug square," write the editors, "We are speaking to everyone who is curious about psychedelics."
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Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2021 13:22:56 GMT
Psychedelic users wanted! Have you ever consumed any psychedelic substances (LSD, DMT psilocybin/magic mushrooms, ayahuasca, etc.) and want to help researchers understand the subjective effects of these drugs? Our friends with The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London need your help with their study! To find more about it and take part in the study follow the link below survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90293916/APE-Signup
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Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2021 13:46:38 GMT
Can Psychedelics Change the World? Panel Discussion & Exclusive Preview of The Psychedelic Renaissance Documentarydandelion.earth/events/60104e277391c40013cc6911Emerging from a taboo underground culture, the powers of psychedelics are becoming increasingly well-known amongst popular culture. With extensive scientific research into their ability to treat various psychological and physical conditions, psychedelics have found a foot in modern-day society. Branching from a role in psychiatry and medicine, how else will psychedelics impact the public? And will the mainstreaming of psychedelics materialise into global change for better or worse? In light of a global mental health crisis, psychedelics hold the potential to shift our cultural paradigms and perspectives on human psychology as a whole. Their nature-connectedness enhancement may aid in the ongoing ecological disaster of today and the capacity to boost creativity could yield a host of technological advancement. However, these compounds themselves are inert. How does an isolated experience manifest into change? How does individual change transition to systems change? And, will the power of psychedelics emerge in the public's hands or be overshadowed by large corporations? We have even seen the growth of psychedelics amongst the far-right, with Q-shaman’s rioting being a recent example. With psychedelics gaining popularity in the backdrop of capitalism and profit-motives, what shadows of psychedelics have surfaced? And with increasing continued glamorisation, what other dangers could the mainstreaming of psychedelics incur? Following the panel, all ticket holders will be given a link to watch unseen footage from The Psychedelic Renaissance - a documentary capturing the ongoing psychedelic revolution and its global cultural and social impacts. Among the current mass instability of our planet, we will hear from key contributors to the documentary as we ask the question - can psychedelics change the world? ____________________________________________________________________ We have even seen the growth of psychedelics amongst the far-right, with Q-shaman’s rioting being a recent example. With psychedelics gaining popularity in the backdrop of capitalism and profit-motives, what shadows of psychedelics have surfaced? And with increasing continued glamorisation, what other dangers could the mainstreaming of psychedelics incur? The Rise of Psychedelic Narcissism and ConspiritualityJan 29 www.thepsychedelicrenaissance.com/blog/the-rise-of-psychedelic-narcissism-and-conspiritualityOn 6th January, Trump supporters stormed into the United States Capitol to disrupt the formalisation of Biden's election victory. Forefronting the violent riots was the self-proclaimed psychedelic shaman, Jacob Chansley aka Jake Angeli the “Q-Anon Shaman, distinguished by his iconic, Viking-like image, with furred hat, horns and painted face. Responding to the media accounts of the self-proclaimed guru, one Reddit user quoted: "I always figured the world would be a better place if everyone took psychedelics once. I'm now rethinking that position."
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Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2021 16:17:59 GMT
We have even seen the growth of psychedelics amongst the far-right, with Q-shaman’s rioting being a recent example. With psychedelics gaining popularity in the backdrop of capitalism and profit-motives, what shadows of psychedelics have surfaced? And with increasing continued glamorisation, what other dangers could the mainstreaming of psychedelics incur? The Rise of Psychedelic Narcissism and ConspiritualityJan 29 www.thepsychedelicrenaissance.com/blog/the-rise-of-psychedelic-narcissism-and-conspiritualityOn 6th January, Trump supporters stormed into the United States Capitol to disrupt the formalisation of Biden's election victory. Forefronting the violent riots was the self-proclaimed psychedelic shaman, Jacob Chansley aka Jake Angeli the “Q-Anon Shaman, distinguished by his iconic, Viking-like image, with furred hat, horns and painted face. Responding to the media accounts of the self-proclaimed guru, one Reddit user quoted: "I always figured the world would be a better place if everyone took psychedelics once. I'm now rethinking that position." "Conspirituality doesn’t require psychedelics. Alternative spirituality employs syncretism to create bespoke, transcendent liberations, while conspiracy theory complexifies into ever-more insidious cages. Synergies abound. But be it conspiracy theory or spiritual practice, toss psychedelics into the mix and watch the fireworks. Psychedelic conspirituality has already demonstrated itself as contiguous with COVID denialism and the far-right. As such, it is well past time to acknowledge that right-wing ideologues have already staked a claim in psychedelia from multiple angles—from straight-laced ex-Goldman Sachs bankers introducing their psychedelic start-ups on Fox News and demanding we “make psychedelics boring again” to unhinged acid heads preaching the gospel of Alex Jones at the Capitol." Turn Off Your Mind, Relax—and Float Right-Wing?Brian Pace, PhDFebruary 8, 2021 On January 6th, 2021 at least two psychedelic heads stormed the United States Capitol. Strange as it may seem, those adhering to right-wing politics haven’t just established a beachhead in the psychedelic renaissance—they’re maneuvering to own it. www.psymposia.com/magazine/turn-off-your-mind-relax-and-float-right-wing/
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Post by Admin on Feb 17, 2021 20:57:29 GMT
FEATURES COVID-19: Some turning to psychedelic micro-dosing to cope with mental health stress, anxietyBy Fakiha Baig The Canadian Press Posted January 31, 2021 11:48 am Updated January 31, 2021 11:49 am globalnews.ca/news/7610610/pandemic-mushrooms-anxiety-micro-dosing/Jen Burke lost her full-time job as a clothing store manager because of COVID-19, but says the pandemic has been the most peaceful time in her life. “There’s so many people who were struggling and having a hard time with it. But I felt great,” the 30-year-old biology student says from her home in Edmonton. The reason, says Burke, is psychedelic drugs, which she has been micro-dosing along with about two dozen other members of the Edmonton Hiking and Psychedelic Society. As facilitator of the group, Burke says she has seen an increasing number of participants in online monthly group discussions about the psychoactive or hallucinogenic drugs. Members talk about exploring substances such as DMT, psilocybin, LSD and MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy or molly. “They come from all ages and backgrounds, people you wouldn’t expect, like one woman … she’s 75 years old. There’s nurses that come out, like a lot of nurses, and people from different trades.”
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