Timothy Francis Leary, (October 22, 1920 -- May 31, 1996) was an American writer, Harvard
Timothy Francis Leary, (October 22, 1920 -- May 31, 1996) was an American writer, Harvard psychologist, modern pioneer and advocate of psychedelic drug research and use, and one of the first people whose remains have been sent into space. As a 1960s counterculture icon, he is most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. He coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out." psychedelics dmt lsd
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Added: 1 year ago
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In the past two decades, the 'War Against Drugs' has effectively thrown a heavy curtain ac
In the past two decades, the 'War Against Drugs' has effectively thrown a heavy curtain across the subject of psychedelic drugs and their effect on human consciousness. But now, as a new generation seeks to smash out of the spiritual vacuum created by our materialistic society, there is renewed interest in these substances which have been used since ancient times by shamans and mystics to plug in to alternate realities. Perhaps one of the most interesting of these psychedelics is DMT -- dimethyltryptamine -- the main component of the South American shamans' brew ayahuasca.
While the effects of 'mainstream' psychedelics like LSD are quite well-known, those of DMT are only now beginning to get main-stream attention. DMT: The Spirit Molecule, by Dr Rick Strassman (available from Amazon US and UK), is probably the most straight-forward guide to the chemistry and phenomenology of this amazing chemical. Unlike LSD's 8-12 hour 'trip', the DMT experience is generally over within 30 minutes, and has as its hallmark a visit to what is described as 'another dimension of being', complete with sentient beings. These beings take many forms, but strangely enough some of these forms recur constantly in the experiences of separate people. Terence McKenna labelled them 'the machine elves', and they have often been described in similar terms, but some of the other more well-known 'types' include reptiles, insects, and clowns (no, I'm not kidding). These beings turned up regularly in Strassman's research, and the homogeneity of these encounters led him to gradually reassess his assumptions not only about the effects of DMT, but the nature of reality itself.
Dr Rick Strassman is a biological psychiatrist who has spent over a decade researching the effects of DMT, psilocybin, and the pineal hormone melatonin. He first began looking into the functions of the pineal gland due to its curious status of being considered the 'spirit gland' -- the place where the spiritual interacted with the physical. As he mentions at the beginning of the third chapter, Strassman was quite literally searching for a "biological basis for spiritual experience". It was while studying melatonin that Strassman began wondering about the possibility that DMT, a chemical produced by the human body as well as many plants, might also be present and able to prompt mystical experiences. This hypothesis led him to endure the agonising process of gaining approval for clinical research with an illicit drug. Happily, the end result was that Strassman was able to conduct the first new US-government approved and funded research with a psychedelic drug in more than twenty years.
The book begins with a very handy overview of psychedelic drugs -- in particular DMT - from chemical composition through to the history of clinical research using these substances. From there he moves on to a summation of his initial thoughts and research on melatonin and the pineal gland, which quickly leads back to his DMT hypothesis. The mid-section of the book is a narrative explaining the process of gaining approval for this controversial research. While this section is invaluable for those interested in the politics of psychedelic drugs, the lay reader may find some of this section a little tedious -- no fault of Strassman's though, as he is at pains to point out that he wanted to document the process so that others might be able to follow in his footsteps.
However, it is the case studies in the latter part of the book that make it something special. It was after listening to the reports of his volunteers that Strassman was moved to reassess his views on reality. This is a very similar scenario to studies in Near Death Experiences (NDEs), where many sceptical researchers have changed their point of view on the basis of the first-hand descriptions of the NDE realm. I think this is due to the overwhelming honesty and amazing facets in these reports, which lead to the intuitive knowledge that something is going on that is unexplainable in physical terms. And the reports of the DMT experience are no different, and are worth the price of this book alone.
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Added: 2 months ago
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Terence McKenna grew up in Paonia, Colorado.[1] He was introduced to geology through his u
Terence McKenna grew up in Paonia, Colorado.[1] He was introduced to geology through his uncle and developed a hobby of solitary fossil hunting in the arroyos near his home.[specify] From this he developed a deep artistic and scientific appreciation of nature.
At age 16, McKenna moved to, and attended high school in, Los Altos, California.[1] He was introduced to psychedelics through The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley[1] and Village Voice.[2] One of his early experiences with them came through morning glory seeds (containing LSA), which he claimed showed him "that there was something there worth pursuing."[1]
After graduating from high school, McKenna enrolled in U.C. Berkeley. He moved to San Francisco during the Summer Of Love before his classes began, and was introduced to cannabis by Barry Melton in 1965 [3] and tried LSD soon later.
As a freshman at UC Berkeley McKenna participated in the Tussman Experimental College, a short-lived two-year program on the Berkeley campus. He graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Conservation.
One of McKenna's most widely-promulgated ideas is known as Novelty theory. It predicts the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. McKenna developed the theory in the mid-1970s after his experiences in the Amazon at La Chorrera led him to closely study the King Wen sequence of the I-Ching. Novelty theory involves ontology, extropy, and eschatology.
The theory proposes that the universe is an engine designed for the production and conservation of novelty. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, or extropy (a term coined by Max More meaning the opposite of entropy). According to McKenna, when novelty is graphed over time, a fractal waveform known as "timewave zero" or simply the "timewave" results. The graph shows at what time periods, but never at what locations, novelty increases or decreases.
Considered by some to represent a model of history's most important events, the universal algorithm has also been extrapolated to be a model for future events. McKenna admitted to the expectation of a "singularity of novelty", and that he and his colleagues projected many hundreds of years into the future to find when this singularity (runaway "newness" or extropy) could occur. The graph of extropy had many enormous fluctuations over the last 25,000 years, but amazingly, it hit an asymptote at exactly December 22, 2012.[16] In other words, entropy (or habituation) no longer exists after that date. It is impossible to define that state. The technological singularity concept parallels this, only at a date roughly three decades later. According to leading expert Ray Kurzweil), another concept called cultural singularity (essentially cultural dissolution, or language dissolution), parallels this as well. Terrence claimed to have no knowledge of the Mayan calendar, which ends one day before the Timewave graph does: December 21, 2012, this is likely to be true as Mckennas timewave theory was published in The Invisible Landscape 12 years before the book which brought the Mayan calendar into public consciousness; José Argüelles's The Mayan Factor
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Added: 8 months ago
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Rick Doblin, president of Multidisciplinary Ass... (more)
Added: May 14, 2007
Rick Dob
Rick Doblin, president of Multidisciplinary Ass... (more)
Added: May 14, 2007
Rick Doblin, president of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, (MAPS.org) at Students for Sensible Drug Policy convention
Rick is the founder (in 1986) and president of MAPS. His dissertation (Public Policy, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government) was on "The Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and Marijuana," and his master's thesis (Harvard) focused on the attitudes and experiences of oncologists concerning the medical use of marijuana. His undergraduate thesis (New College of Florida) was a twenty-five year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He has also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Tim Leary's Concord Prison experiment.
Doblin has also studied with Stan Grof, M.D., and was in the first group to become certified as holotropic breathwork practitioners. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise "healthy" people, and to also become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He currently resides in Boston with his wife and three young children.
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Added: 6 months ago
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LSD's psychological effects (colloquially called a "trip") vary greatly from person to per
LSD's psychological effects (colloquially called a "trip") vary greatly from person to person, depending on factors such as previous experiences, state of mind and environment, as well as dose strength. They also vary from one trip to another, and even as time passes during a single trip. An LSD trip can have long term psychoemotional effects; some users cite the LSD experience as causing significant changes in their personality and life perspective. Widely different effects emerge based on what has been called set and setting; the "set" being the general mindset of the user, and the "setting" being the physical and social environment in which the drug's effects are experienced.
Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert considered the chemical to be of potentially beneficial application in psychotherapy. If the user is in a hostile or otherwise unsettling environment, or is not mentally prepared for the powerful distortions in perception and thought that the drug causes, effects are more likely to be unpleasant than if he or she is in a comfortable environment and has a relaxed, balanced and open mindset.
Some psychological effects may include an experience of radiant colors, objects and surfaces appearing to ripple or "breathe," colored patterns behind the eyes, a sense of time distorting (time seems to be stretching, repeating itself, changing speed or stopping), crawling geometric patterns overlaying walls and other objects, morphing objects, a sense that one's thoughts are spiraling into themselves, loss of a sense of identity or the ego (known as "ego death"), and powerful, and sometimes brutal, psycho-physical reactions interpreted by some users as reliving their own birth.[9][40]
Many users experience a dissolution between themselves and the "outside world".[41] This unitive quality may play a role in the spiritual and religious aspects of LSD. The drug sometimes leads to disintegration or restructuring of the user's historical personality and creates a mental state that some users report allows them to have more choice regarding the nature of their own personality.
Some experts hypothesize that drugs such as LSD may be useful in psychotherapy, especially when the patient is unable to "unblock" repressed subconscious material through other psychotherapeutic methods,[42] and also for treating alcoholism. One study concluded, "The root of the therapeutic value of the LSD experience is its potential for producing self-acceptance and self-surrender,"[43] presumably by forcing the user to face issues and problems in that individual's psyche. Many believe that, in contrast, other drugs (such as alcohol, heroin, and cocaine) which are used to escape from reality, LSD is seen as more of an introspective experience. Studies in the 1950s that used LSD to treat alcoholism professed a 50% success rate,[44] five times higher than estimates near 10% for Alcoholics Anonymous.[45]
Some LSD studies were criticized for methodological flaws, and different groups had inconsistent results. Mangini's 1998 paper reviewed this history. He concluded that the efficacy of LSD in treating alcoholism remains an open question.[46] Dr Abram Hoffer referred to Mangini's paper as "a good review of the literature" but said that, in common with many other scientists, the author has failed to grasp the important point that psychedelic therapy is a therapeutic experience.
The critics of psychedelic therapy have not taken this into account. Thus the Toronto studies studied the drug. They made no attempt whatever to induce a psychedelic experience. I saw at least two of the patients many years after they had been treated in Toronto and they told me that it was the most horrible experience they had ever had. It was in fact a true psychotomimetic experience and probably reproduced delirium tremens more than anything else. Not surprisingly their patients did not do well. They gave them 800 micrograms which is too heavy, gave them a barbiturate in advance to prevent convulsions, tied them to the bed so that they could not run away, and had sitting with them a psychologist who wrote notes all the time and did not interact with the patients.
—Abram Hoffer M.D, Ph.D, FRCP
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Added: 4 months ago
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is a contemporary spiritual teacher who wrote the 1971 bestseller Be Here Now. He is well-
is a contemporary spiritual teacher who wrote the 1971 bestseller Be Here Now. He is well-known for his association with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, both having been dismissed from their professorships for experiments on the effects of psychedelic drugs on human subjects.Alpert accepted a permanent position at Harvard, where he worked with the Social Relations Department, the Psychology Department, the Graduate School of Education, and the Health Service, where he was a therapist. He was also awarded research contracts with Yale and Stanford.
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Added: 1 year ago
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Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within is a feature length documentary which invites the v
Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within is a feature length documentary which invites the viewer to rediscover an enchanted cosmos in the modern world by awakening to the divine within.
The film examines the re-emergence of archaic techniques of ecstacy in the modern world by weaving a synthesis of ecological and evolutionary awareness,electronic dance culture, and the current pharmacological re-evaluation of entheogenic compounds. Within a narrative framework that imagines consciousness itself to be evolving, Entheogen documents the emergence of techno-shamanism in the post-modern world that frames the following questions: How can a renewal of ancient initiatory rites of passage alleviate our ecological crisis? What do trance dancing and festivals celebrating unbridled artistic expression speak to in our collective psyche? How do we re-invent ourselves in a disenchanted world from which God has long ago withdrawn? Entheogen invites the viewer to consider that the answers to these questions lie within the consciousness of each and every human being, and are accessible if only we give ourselves permission to awaken to the divine within.
Stan Grof, Marilyn Schlitz, Ralph Metzner, Alex Grey, Terrence McKenna, John Markoff, Daniel Pinchbeck, and Kat Harrison among others, postulate how the disenchantment of the modern world may be remedied by summoning the courage to take the next leap in the evolution of planetary consciousness.
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Added: 1 month ago
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Timothy Francis Leary, (October 22, 1920 -- May 31, 1996) was an American writer, Harvard
Timothy Francis Leary, (October 22, 1920 -- May 31, 1996) was an American writer, Harvard psychologist, modern pioneer and advocate of psychedelic drug research and use, and one of the first people whose remains have been sent into space. As a 1960s counterculture icon, he is most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. He coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
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Added: 7 months ago
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Documentaries differ in the sense that they purport to reveal a truth. They rely on narrat
Documentaries differ in the sense that they purport to reveal a truth. They rely on narrative as well, but the presumption is that this narrative is discovered from what truly exists and is shaped in a way that minimally helps us grasp it.
Here we have a narrative about a substance whose property is that it gives us a slippery reality. It and its cousins have profound powers and by simple osmosis have affected every visual thing, every cinematic lexicon, and much literary shape. And here we have a film that leaves out too much, and since it consists of primarily interviews with LSD researchers (all of whom testify to altered truth) the thing has problems.
The narrative is simple enough. This is a serious chemical with effects that are worthy of serious, scientific study. This study is not allowed in the US (while research in other drugs is). The reason in this story is because Tim Leary promoted the drug as something inevitable and necessary for everyone — the next stage. Scads of young people took it and ended up in anti-war protests, so the story goes. This, coupled with government guilt over sponsoring Army research into using it as a weapon, have resulted in unreasonable proscription of otherwise promising research.
But the story leaves too much out.
The Army research was much more nuanced than reported, and in fact related work continues today. The researchers that are interviewed all took the drug themselves, so we get a tangled mess in terms of perspectives. You can't objectively observe something you think changed your life.
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Added: 6 months ago
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