044: Interview with Dr. Rosalind Watts, Clinical Psychologist in the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London

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It’s April 2, 2017, and we are talking with Dr. Rosalind Watts, Clinical Psychologist at Imperial College London, working alongside Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris.

• Joe’s story of psilocybin on his first “date” with his now-wife, and psilocybin’s role in their engagement

• The Couples Using Magic Mushrooms as Relationship Therapy

• Kevin’s regular practice of taking psychedelic medicine with his wife

• How Ros came to study psychedelic therapy after initially becoming disillusioned with the limits of talk therapy for the treatment of anxiety and depression; her initial skepticism about psychedelics based on their negative legacy

• The importance of the patient-therapist relationship

• Some guidelines from one of the father figures of psychedelic therapy, Bill Richards: “We prepare people to welcome whatever they may encounter – no picking and choosing. Sometimes you have to go through the dark night to get to the top of the mountain and the sunrise. If the inner dragon or monster appears, look him in the eye – go straight towards him. If you look the monster in the eye and go towards it, ask it what it wants – there’s always resolution, transformation, and new knowledge. When you run from it, you get into panic and paranoia, like a typical nightmare – and then you say, ‘I’ve had a bad trip.’”

• Although psychedelics including psilocybin tend to be considered non-addictive, there are examples of people using them habitually

• Ros mentions some examples of people in the psilocybin study for depression giving up addictions and habitual behavior

• To help fund this important research, visit the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London

043: The LSD-assisted Dock Ellis No-Hitter

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It’s March 5, 2017, and we are discussing the famous LSD-assisted Dock Ellis No-Hitter.

Links:

• Check out the Video: Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No by James Blagden and No Mas, posted by Victory Journal
• See also: The Electric Dock Ellis Acid Test: An Attempt To Recreate His Drug-Addled No-Hitter, On Xbox
• AV Club article
• Snopes: “he worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to rehabilitate black prisoners, helped start the Black Athletes Foundation for Sickle Cell Research, and served as the coordinator of an anti-drug program in Los Angeles before passing away from liver disease in 2008.”
• Dock Ellis on Wikipedia

Other Notes:

• “I’m high as a Georgia Pine”

• Dexamyl - 90% of the league was using

• Benzedrine - also heavily consumed by pros

  • Lady in San Diego with the gold pouches

• “They knew I was high but they didn’t know what I was high on.”

• Dealing with the fear, the fear of losing, the fear of winning

042: Interview with Dr. Neal Goldsmith on Psychedelic Healing

This is Entheogen. Elevate the Conversation.

It’s March 12, 2017, and we are discussing psychedelic healing with Dr. Neal Goldsmith.

Topics:

• Neal’s book Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy and Spiritual Development provides copious discussion points for our conversation today.

• Neal's therapy practice, and how his use of psychedelics has informed his practice of psychotherapy

• Imago therapy

• LSD is a tool: Charles Manson becomes more Charles Manson; Richard Alpert becomes Ram Dass.

• The substitution of the eucharist as a proxy for the original psychoactive sacrament. Can we please go back to the active version? What are the consequences of inactive substitutes in religious ceremonies? How have alternative spiritual practices sprung up in the absence of sanctioned Entheogenic rituals?

• George Carlin’s Modern Man.

• Are we in the midst of McKenna’s Archaic Revival? Is this another way to internalize the unfolding ecological apocalypse?

“If we’re going to be post-post-modern, if we’re going to be integral, we can’t have a fight between tribalism and modernity. We can’t have a fight between spirituality and the material world.”

• Meditation, mindfulness, yoga, breathing…

• Deep breathing to expel carbon dioxide in addition to inhaling oxygen.

• McKenna’s conjecture that it’s possible to get to the same state of consciousness that psychedelics provide access to, using meditation or chanting or drumming, but who has time for that?

• What do you recommend to listeners who might be interested in some form of psychedelic therapy, present company included?

• The dichotomy of tribalism vs. modernism: our human ancestors living naturally but for shorter time, vs. modern humans living longer but disconnected from nature. Spiraling up vs. retreating to tribalism.

• Spirituality vs. science. The concept of rational mysticism. Einstein quote via Rick Doblin: “There's no real conflict between science & religion; there's a conflict between bad science & bad religion.”

Please support Entheogen by making a donation on Patreon. Become a Patron for as little as $1. Pledge just $3 or more, and get early access to new episodes, plus exclusive Patron-only features. Head over to EntheogenShow.com and click on Support.

Find the notes and links for this and other episodes at EntheogenShow.com. Sign up to receive an email when we release a new episode. Follow us @EntheogenShow on Twitter and like EntheogenShow on FaceBook. Thanks for listening.

036: Dr. Jami – Broaching Psychedelics with the Uninformed

This is Entheogen. Talk about tools for generating the divine within.

Today is October 23rd, 2016, and we are talking with, Dr. Jami, a psychologist in the Bay Area of California.

Find the notes and links for this and other episodes at EntheogenShow.com. Sign up to receive an email when we release a new episode. Follow us @EntheogenShow on Twitter and like EntheogenShow on FaceBook. Thanks for listening.

To reach Jami, please get in touch with Entheogen.

Topics:

• Jami’s professional experience with couples therapy, Imago, Attachment theory

• Encounter-centered Couples Therapy (EcCT)

• Burning Man experiences

• Our Burning Man opening ceremony this year, incorporating a buddhist meditation and mindfulness exercise

• Justin’s poem: “...and with the power of our Eucharist, the mystical compound more commonly known as lysergic acid diethylamide, we can, as smarter minds than mine describe, 'disrupt the default mode network' in our brain, allowing us to relish in our pleasure receptors, illuminating the interconnectedness of life, and urging us to, quite literally, trip the light fantastic.”

• Joe and Jami discuss their Zendo experiences

• Discussing psychedelics with the uninformed: strategies for raising the conversation, the uninformed vs. the misinformed, psychedelics in relationships

• Opportunities for therapists

• Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research from CIIS

034: Remastered: Interview with Rick Doblin, Alex Grey & Allyson Grey at Burning Man 2016

Do we have a treat for you.

To welcome our new listeners, we present you a re-mastered special edition of the episode we recorded live at Burning Man on August 31, 2016, which features three pioneers and key drivers in the movement to mainstream psychedelic medicine.

Special thanks to Rod for the audio engineering!

Special note for Patreon supporters: you will get a special before-the-show "opening conversation". Check patreon.com/Entheogen.

@RickDoblin, quoting Einstein: There's no real conflict between science & religion; there's a conflict between bad science & bad religion.

— Entheogen (@EntheogenShow) November 3, 2016

Burning Man 2016

We had the great pleasure and honor to speak with three pioneers and key drivers in the movement to mainstream psychedelic medicine:

Alex Grey & Allyson Grey, co-founders of CoSM, the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM.org).

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS.org).

We thank deeply all three of our esteemed guests for their time and generosity of spirit.

We’d also like to thank Dr. Bronner’s ReFOAMation Village for their hospitality and Alex & Allyson for graciously hosting the recording in their RV.

Topics:

• Alex & Allyson Grey’s take on the state of the movement to mainstream psychedelics

• Has non-violence slowed our progress?

• Alex & Allyson’s $2000 fine for cannabis possession upon entering Burning Man

• Alex mentions Roland Griffiths’ reprisal of Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment at Johns Hopkins University: Hopkins Scientists Show Hallucinogen In Mushrooms Creates Universal “Mystical” Experience

• Rick Doblin discusses the improved relationship with Law Enforcement and the Burning Man organization including better integration of the Zendo Project at Burning Man 2016

• Rick quotes Einstein: “There’s no conflict between science and religion. There’s a conflict between bad science and bad religion.”

• Rick talks about how he sees psychedelics being integrated into society in 25 years

• Rick discusses the “beautiful breakup” he had while on MDA

• Rick compares MDA to MDMA

• Allyson discusses her personal experiences with MDA and MDMA

• The idea of patient self-titration

• Alex, Allyson, and Rick discuss their milestones this year: 20 years since the founding of CoSM and 30 years since the founding of MAPS

• Rick describes building a handball court at New College of Florida, overlooking the nudist colony where his girlfriend was lifeguarding

• Rick discusses the first responders and veterans enrolled in the MDMA for PTSD study (“not just for hippies at Burning Man”)

• Cannabis as a neuroprotective, anti-tumor agent (and it makes you feel better too)

• Carl Sagan’s friendship with Lester Grinspoon

• Carl Sagan’s secret use of cannabis for 40 years

• Psychedelics and schizophrenia

• Rick’s idea to create a “drug license” system

• Time to “come out of the psychedelic closet”

• MAPS organizes Global Psychedelic Dinners to encourage “coming out” about our psychedelic use

• BuildEntheon.com

Thank you so much for listening to Entheogen and for supporting us on Patreon and for telling your friends.