Non-Substance

#55: Flow States with Bobby Lyte /  by Joe

We invited our friend Bobby Lyte to join us for an awesome conversation about flow states, focus, deep work, and fun. Bobby is a DJ, producer, software engineer, and the host of Flow State – a podcast to help you focus.

We discuss topics including the states of flow: Struggle, Release, Flow, Recovery; Engineering; Managing, and of course, Management.


"Should we be communicating all the time? Most workplaces today are essentially turning humans into message senders and receivers – which is terrible for productivity. We're trying to solve complex problems. We need to focus and stay in a problem space to solve those problems, and the work environments are not helping us get there." – Bobby Lyte @ 32:13

"Revisiting a previous thesis of mine that's been established in the show: Management…" – Brad @ 34:04

"Your lack of planning is not my emergency." – Joe Zap @ 38:06

"The temptation to multitask – I could get ahead a little bit if I just send this email while I drive and eat and read the newspaper at the same time." – Kevin @ 40:30


Bobby Lyte online:
https://twitter.com/_bobbylyte
https://instagram.com/our_flow_state/

Flow State – Bobby Lyte's Podcast to help you focus:
https://anchor.fm/flow-state
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/flow-state/id1573961748
https://open.spotify.com/show/4IssY4XjHXdpTNOzpaeyxh


Other episodes of Entheogen referenced in this episode:

Matteson Perry:
https://entheogenshow.com/podcast/2016/5/14/028-intro-to-entheogenic-comedy-with-matteson-perry

Stealing Fire:
https://entheogenshow.com/podcast/2018/2/18/045-stealing-fire-part-1https://entheogenshow.com/podcast/2018/7/31/046-stealing-fire-part-2https://entheogenshow.com/podcast/2018/10/19/047-stealing-fire-part-3

Julie Holland:
https://entheogen.squarespace.com/podcast/2016/7/12/031-dr-julie-holland

045: Stealing Fire Part 1 /  by Joe

This is Entheogen. Elevate the Conversation.

Today is November 5, 2017, and we are discussing Stealing Fire, a book by Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal.

Find the notes and links for this and other episodes at EntheogenShow.com. Support us on Patreon with a small monthly contribution to help keep the show going. Follow us @EntheogenShow on Twitter and like EntheogenShow on FaceBook. Thanks for listening.

Introduction

In more contemporary terms, the Eleusinian Mysteries were an elaborate nine-day ritual designed to strip away standard frames of reference, profoundly alter consciousness, and unlock a heightened level of insight. Specifically, the mysteries combined a number of state-changing techniques—fasting, singing, dancing, drumming, costumes, dramatic storytelling, physical exhaustion, and kykeon (the substance Alcibiades stole for his party)—to induce a cathartic experience of death, rebirth, and “divine inspiration.”

Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann and Harvard-trained classicist Carl Ruck argued that the barley in kykeon might have been tainted with an ergot fungus. This same fungus generates lysergic acid (LSA), a precursor to the LSD that Hofmann famously synthesized in his Sandoz pharmaceutical lab. — Excerpt from Stealing Fire

Part One - The Case for Ecstasis

Chapter 1: What Is This Fire?
Chapter 2: Why It Matters
Chapter 3: Why We Missed It

“The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.” —David Foster Wallace

  • Entheogen’s take on the book: “We like it.”
  • Debate on how to pronounce the word ecstasis
  • Why does “fire” need to be stolen? Why does access to altered states need to be banned?
  • How the Navy SEALs train for dynamic subordination, another kind of altered state
  • Partying with Eric Schmidt at Burning Man
  • Finding “flow” and why it matters
  • Signature characteristics of ecstasis: selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness, richness (STER)
  • An examining of the word “pale”
  • The “state sanctioned triad” of mind altering substances: caffeine, nicotine, alcohol -- what makes these special? What ends does accepting these particular substances serve?
  • The institutions that create / endorse stigma: the church and the state
  • Are humans already cyborgs? What is truly “unnatural” anyway? If humans are beings of nature, is anything that humans create also natural?
  • How altered states are directly related to evolution of humans as well as certain plants and other animals (like French Bulldogs)
  • The current and historical balance of individualism vs. collectivism, and its impact on the proliferation and acceptance of certain types of altered states

031: Dr. Julie Holland /  by Joe

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

Today is June 6, 2016, and we are talking with Dr. Julie Holland, psychopharmacologist, psychiatrist, and best-selling author of several books.

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.

Topics:

  • Julie’s origin story: how did she get interested in this area of research

  • Julie took MDMA with Rick Doblin on the last day it was legal: June 30th, 1985

  • “Cancer of Yang” – Jeremy Wolff’s phrase (Julie’s husband)

  • Vaginal administration of cannabis to avoid the liver from edible ingestion, 11-OH-THC

  • Edibles: Julie emphasizes the need to wait two hours before re-evaluating dosage

  • Overmedication of society

    • “Do you ever overeat and then feel bad about it?” Big pharma’s answer: strong, long-lasting amphetamine daily.

  • Medical and Recreational Entheogens

    • “Recreation is therapeutic”

  • THC, CBD and Terpenes

  • Some people don’t want to get high from their medicine.

  • Munchies mitigation tip: don’t start eating.

  • Punishment doesn’t work with addiction

  • Pornography and the “new normal”: no pubic hair vs. “very bushy” 70’s

Julie’s Books:

028: Intro to Entheogenic Comedy with Matteson Perry /  by Joe

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

Today is April 3rd, 2016 and we’re talking about Entheogenic Comedy.

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.

We’re delighted to be talking with Matteson Perry, writer and performer based in Los Angeles.

We start with a quote from Bill Hicks.

Matteson has a humorous memoir coming out on May 24.

Topics:

  • Comedy as an Entheogen
  • Laughter is an involuntary response, requires no thought.
  • Some people are just funny. Even just adjusting a mic stand.
  • Andrew Dice Clay
  • Jerry Seinfeld’s theory of comedy: getting an audience to laugh at joke is like getting them to jump across a ditch
  • George Carlin
  • Steven Wright a.k.a. Bucky Goldstein
  • Mitch Hedberg: “I used to do drugs…. I still do, I used to too.”
  • Jon Stewart, carrier of Carlin’s torch
  • Missed satire: the Steven Colbert effect.
  • Comedy is tragedy avoided; or, comedy = tragedy + time
  • Storytelling as quasi therapy
  • Lincoln jokes vs. JFK jokes
  • When you laugh so hard you cry
  • The Psychedelic Yawn can yield entheogenic tears, discussed in episode 025: Psychedelic Medicine Trials with Participant Kirk Rutter.
  • “Kids” movies: entheogens for everyone!
  • In Living Color, Kevin’s “gateway drug” into Entheogenic Comedy.
  • Ace Ventura: Pet Detective