‘Magic Mushroom Therapy’ Clinical Trials May Begin This Year In U.K.
We may be just a few years away from going to our neighborhood pharmacies for our monthly supply of medicinal mushrooms. From the Independent:
Magic mushrooms could one day be prescribed for depression after Professor David Nutt, the controversial sacked government drugs advisor, claimed research on healthy volunteers proved what a mistake it was to abandon therapeutic psychedelic drugs more than 50 years ago.
The first clinical trial into magic mushroom therapy could start by the end of the year after two small studies suggested the active chemical, psilocybin, had a profound affect on key regions of the brain.
Professor Nutt’s team, at Imperial College London, hope to test the hallucinogen on depressed patients who have not benefited from antidepressants or behavioural therapy.
Psilocybin would be infused into their bloodstreams before a psychotherapy session, tailored to elicit positive memories. If funding is approved by the Medical Research Council it would represent a major step…
Russell Brand & Daniel Pinchbeck In Conversation
Recorded by Mitch Schultz, Russell Brand joined Daniel Pinchbeck, Graham Hancock and a galactivated group of Reality Sandwich retreat-goers at the Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch in Utah for a frank and funny conversation covering a wide range of topics including the nature of contemporary media, quantum physics, the difference between psychedelics and “horrible drugs that nullify you”, what comes after time, and the idea that people have been “coded” by society not to anticipate change.
Follow Daniel on Twitter.
The LSD Portraits: Marc Franklin Spends 25 Years Photographing ‘Psychedelic Pioneers’
Remember the Reagan administration’s “This is your brain on drugs” ads? In response a photographer started a lifelong project of photographing all the living “psychedelic pioneers,” including Timothy Leary, Jerry Garcia, William S. Burroughs, and Ken Kesey.
“I thought, ‘You know, that’s such a load of horseshit … I’m going to dismantle that poisonous propaganda lie visually… I’m going to portray these people how they are.” He started with the man who invented LSD — Albert Hoffman — on its 50th anniversary in 1988, and at one point drove over 11,000 miles in just 7 weeks (including a 26-hour drive to drink beer with William S. Burroughs).
He’s interviewed by the former editor of High Frontiers magazine (”the official psychedelic magazine of the 1984 Summer Olympics.)”, and the article includes three of his best photos. (He’s exhibiting them this month in Los Angeles). But the strangest fact of all?
He started his career taking photographs…
Turn On, Tune In And Get Better?
Disinformation readers who have read Graham Hancock’s recent books Supernatural and Entangled are well aware that hallucinogens can be powerful and highly effective medicine, but until recently US government policy more or less prohibited any scientific research. The tide is starting to turn, as this article from the LA Times makes clear:
What a long, strange trip it’s been. In the 1960s and ’70s, a rebellious generation embraced hallucinogens and a wide array of street drugs to “turn on, tune in and drop out.” Almost half a century later, magic mushrooms, LSD, Ecstasy and ketamine are being studied for legitimate therapeutic uses. Scientists believe these agents have the potential to help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, drug or alcohol addiction, unremitting pain or depression and the existential anxiety of terminal illness.
“Scientifically, these compounds are way too important not to study,” said Johns Hopkins psychopharmacologist Roland Griffiths, who conducted the psilocybin trial.
In their next incarnation, these drugs may help the psychologically wounded tune in to their darkest feelings and memories and turn therapy sessions into heightened opportunities to learn and heal…
Psychedelic Art From Science Textbooks
50 Watts has a jaw-dropping collection of seemingly hallucinogen-inspired illustrations culled from 1970s science textbooks, revealing striking new ways of understanding biology, psychology, and sex ed concepts. School was truly trippy back then. Most of the art come from materials published by Communications Research Machines, including their titles Life and Heath, Psychology Today, and Developmental Psychology Today.
Robert Venosa, Visionary Artist, Dead At 75
Robert Venosa self portrait
We received sad news from Venosa’s wife, an extraordinary artist in her own right, Martina Hoffmann:
ROBERT VENOSA
January 21, 1936 to August 9, 2011Dear Friends and Community,
A great soul has completed his earthly journey and graduated to the next level.
The great Venosa left his body on Tuesday August 9, 2011 at 6:56 PM.
His transition was graceful and accomplished in the same composed and calm manner that he exuded throughout his life.
I feel honored to have been able to accompany him to the gate, having walked 30 beautiful years together in this life.
Robert had a long and brave healing journey with cancer and showed incredible strength on this path as well as tremendous courage in facing this great dragon.
He believed in the natural healing ability of the human body and proved the doctors wrong time and again, who only gave him a few month’s to live upon his diagnosis…
Joe Rogan & Jan Irvin Discuss ‘The Mushroom and The Cross’
“His conclusion is that, all of Christianity is a gigantic misunderstanding, what it is really about is the fertility cults and the consumption of psychedelic mushrooms.” –Joe Rogan
Here’s a fun podcast with Joe Rogan and Jan Irvin, contributor to the recent book The Holy Mushroom: Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity.
Elves of the Apocalypse: “Machine Elves” and the Self-Sabotage of Psychedelic Research
Beware the “clockwork [sic] elves” who control the global elite promising them “eternal life, total power, total control, everything you could ever want, just kill everyone [...] friendly little guys…” Via Modern Mythology:
Right. Most if not all mythologies include creatures resembling elves. Therefore the archetypal image must be based upon encounters with the Machine … Er … Clockwork Elves. As with all paranoid logic, this argument is easily felled by Occam’s Razor, which advocates that “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity,” in short, that the “simplest answer is most likely the correct one.” It is much more plausible to propose that the entities encountered during the DMT-experience could very well bear some measure of resemblance to elves (elongated and angular shapes are common); that one comes to think “if they look like elves, they are elves” at least makes sense!
THERE ARE NO FUCKING MACHINE ELVES!
To be fair, Alex didn’t make…
Drugs And The Meaning Of Life
Does the altering of consciousness, through means chemical or otherwise, lie at the very heart of existence? Author and neuroscientist Sam Harris, usually known for ripping religion to shreds, delves into the meaning and value of drugs in an essay via SamHarris.org:
Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person’s thoughts. Every waking moment — and even in our dreams — we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition toward states of consciousness that we value.
Drugs are another means toward this end. Some are illegal; some are stigmatized; some are dangerous — though, perversely, these sets only partially intersect. There are drugs of extraordinary power and utility, like…
Researchers Extol The Medical Benefits Of Magic Mushrooms
Not only that, but the researchers at John Hopkins say they’ve found the perfect dosage. Sadly, this looks to be one of those cases in which society lags behind science. Via Yahoo News:
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of psilocybin, a chemical found in psychedelic mushrooms. Now, they say, they’ve zeroed in on the perfect dosage level to produce transformative mystical and spiritual experiences that offer long-lasting life-changing benefits, while carrying little risk of negative reactions.
The breakthrough could speed the day when doctors use psilocybin–long viewed skeptically for its association with 1960s countercultural thrill-seekers–for a range of valuable clinical functions, like easing the anxiety of terminally ill patients, treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and helping smokers quit.
The Johns Hopkins study involved giving healthy volunteers varying doses of psilocybin in a controlled and supportive setting, over four separate sessions. Looking back more than…
Psychedelic Adventures at the Edge of the Abyss: The Ideas of Terence and Dennis McKenna
Many disinfo readers have been fascinated, at one time or another, with the psychedelic adventures of the Brothers McKenna (Terence and Dennis). We thought that you’d like to know about this course from Evolver – it should be a fantastic experience if you’re open to some mind expansion…
This Friday, May 20th is the last day to register at the $90 Early Bird rate for ”The Psychedelic Adventures at the Edge of the Abyss: The Ideas of Terence and Dennis McKenna.” Hosted by Dennis McKenna, the course features a special line up of close friends of Dennis and Terence who can speak with rare insight about the brothers’ legacy and their relevance for today: Daniel Pinchbeck, Dr. Luis Eduardo Luna, Ralph Abraham, Marc Pesce, Ralph Metzner, and Erik Davis.
The series has 4 sessions and starts on June 5. You will be in dialogue with these inspirational thinkers, asking them questions, challenging their assumptions.
Dennis and his…
Bored With Your Sex Life?
Marijuana won’t be legalized anytime soon. But that’s OK. Because what I’m about to tell you is going to make weed look like the cheap high it is.
When everyone catches wind of what I’m about to tell you — the establishment will be tripping over themselves to legalize every single drug in the book to keep from losing you as a customer. That’s how powerful this secret I’m about to reveal to you is. . . Your brain produces a chemical known as DMT; one of the most powerful hallucinogens in existence.
Reports of encountering “multidimensional machine elves” are common. And your brain produces this chemical naturally. In fact they say DMT is what makes us dream. Now what if there was a way to release this chemical into your body on demand? It would obviously have to be a form of self-hypnosis; a way of “tricking” your brain into mass-producing and…
Will Miley Cyrus Make Salvia The Next Big High?
Miley Cyrus has one-upped Michael Phelps’s infamous bong-smoking incident by filling hers with the psychedelic plant Salvia divinorum (see video below). Could Salvia become the next hot drug on campus in the U.S.? Comments especially welcome from anyone who has experience with the Magic Mint.
Graham Hancock: The War on Your Consciousness
Mandelbrot Islands of Consciousness. Image: David R. Ingham (CC)
Site editor’s note: This article was originally published as part of the Russ Kick-edited Disinformation anthology, You Are STILL Being Lied To. Hancock’s latest book is a novel dealing with some of the issues presented below titled ENTANGLED: The Eater of Souls.
We are told that the “War on Drugs” is being waged, on our behalf, by our governments and their armed bureaucracies and police forces, to save us from ourselves. “Potential for abuse and harm” are supposed to be the criteria by which the use of drugs is suppressed—the greater a drug’s potential for abuse and harm, the greater and more vigorous the degree of suppression, and the more draconian the penalties applied against its users.
In line with this scheme drugs are typically ranked into a hierarchy: Schedules I, II, and III in the US, Classes A, B, and C in the UK,…
Entangled with Graham Hancock – Disinformation: The Podcast
Disinformation: The Podcast: Episode 15 — Entangled with Graham Hancock
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This episode features an interview with Graham Hancock, author of Fingerprints of the Gods, Supernatural, The Sign and the Seal, and the recently released Entangled. We discuss Graham’s influential work in the field of alternative history, 2012, his recent shift from non-fiction to fiction, and his views on the “War on Consciousness.”
Disinformation: The Podcast is a monthly series featuring interviews with authors, artists and filmmakers about topics related to politics, the occult, conspiracy, magick, hidden history, spirituality, fringe science, and much more. Past interviews include Jim Marrs, Douglas Rushkoff, and the legendary Alan Moore.
High Society: Can Dope Give Us Hope?
Graham Hancock recently blogged for boingboing on the recent resurgence of the use of psychedelic drugs in medical research. Now there is an exhibit in London at the Wellcome Collection entitled “High Society.” The official description says:
From ancient Egyptian poppy tinctures to Victorian cocaine eye drops, Native American peyote rites to the salons of the French Romantics, mind-altering drugs have a rich history. ‘High Society’ will explore the paths by which these drugs were first discovered – from apothecaries’ workshops to state-of-the-art laboratories – and how they came to be simultaneously fetishised and demonised in today’s culture.
Jake Wallis Simons reviews the exhibit for the Telegraph:
…this Thursday, the Wellcome Trust will open the doors on High Society, an exhibition exploring the history of mind-altering drugs. In keeping with the Wellcome ethos, the exhibition blends a scientific and cultural approach, with curiosities such as a 20 metre opium pipe – an installation by the…
EsoZone Portland 2010 Starts This Weekend
EsoZone Portland is back for another year! Once it again, the event is an unconference — an event in which the schedule is set by the participants on the fly at the event. Anything can happen, but some of the possible subjects include:
Outsider Art • Discordia • SubGenius
The Occult • Satanism • Conspiracy Analysis
Life Extension • Intelligence Enhancement
Space Migration • Psychedelic Futurism
Consciousness Expansion • R/evolutionary Living
Renegade Metaphysics • Radical Psychotherapy
Aliens • Neo-Shamanism • Temporary Autonomous Zones
Body Modification • Alternative Sexuality • Fringe Culture
Human-Dolphin Communication • DIY Media
Cybernetics and Systems Theory • Pranks
Atheism • Zen • Martial Arts • Recession Hacking
There will also be performances by artists such as Cult of Zir and Ogo Eion and Psychetect in the evenings.
Terence McKenna 101: “The Future is Mental”
As more time passes, the research and conclusions postulated by philosopher and modern psychonaut Terence Mckenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) are proving themselves to be fact rather than fiction. His eloquent observations on the mind-body connection and in turn the human relation to the environment are essential to anyone who feels the growing disconnect between the western way of life and the natural/ecological world.
Also poignant is the political aspect of his talk, drawing the parallels between the dissolving of the soviet system to the eventual deterioriation of the western system
This is a fantastic 1991 presentation where he outlines the basic tenets of the Archaic Revival and the psychedelic experience and it’s place in the western modern technological world.
Evolver the Podcast: Sacred Psychedelics and Their Transformative Power
Chris Hopkins writes on Alterati:
In this episode of Evolver the Podcast we have discussions with two amazing individuals about their journey and transformation with psychedelics.
First up we have Evolver co-founder Jonathan Talat Phillips interviewing Reality Sandwich contributor Adam Elenbaas about his new book, Fishers of Men: The Gospel of an Ayahuasca Vision Quest. Adam discusses his journey from being a “hell-damning” fundamentalist Christian to recovering from drug addiction and healing himself and his family line through ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon. He shares his encounters with mystical beings and inter-dimensional creatures during his adventures with this shamanic brew, as well as his thoughts on why Jesus was the social activist version of the Buddha, how there is nothing to fear in the entire cosmos, and ways we might redeem modern Christianity.
Next up I interviewed Isabella Stoloff who is the Evolver Regional coordinator for Evolver Orange County. She is also a practicing Shaman and heads up…
