Tag Archives | Psychedelics

The Secret History of Magic Mushrooms

By Camron Wiltshire on April 21, 2012 in News 15

Why is Gordon Wasson important?

He’s considered the discoverer of the magic mushrooms, the man who launched the psychedelic movement, and is also considered the father of the field of ethnomycology.

I’ve discovered the following information – most of which has been verified with primary documentation. Some of the details may change as we flush them out completely:

1) Wasson served as a chairman to the Council on Foreign Relations (the CFR).
2) Wasson was a director of the Free Russia Fund, Inc. “has been founded to support the “morale” of “exiles from Soviet powers”: surely “morale” must be spelled out in terms of Russian values, not what our values might be if we were exiles.”
3) Wasson worked as a VP to JP Morgan Bank at 23 Wall St, a.k.a. “The Corner”.
4) Wasson was PR (propaganda) VP for JP Morgan, and helped to sell the current financial system created by his boss, JP Morgan, at Jekyll Island (see Secrets of the Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins).

… Read the rest

How The CIA Doped San Franciscans With LSD

By JacobSloan on April 7, 2012 in News 14

Did the CIA accidentally turn San Francisco into America’s grooviest city? SF Weekly on newly uncovered details on Operation Midnight Climax, one of the absolute strangest slices of U.S. history:

Wayne Ritchie may be among the last of the living victims of MK-ULTRA, a Central Intelligence Agency operation that covertly tested LSD on unwitting Americans in San Francisco and New York City from 1953 to 1964.

There were at least three CIA safe houses in the Bay Area where experiments went on. Chief among them was 225 Chestnut on Telegraph Hill, which operated from 1955 to 1965. Inside, prostitutes paid by the government to lure clients to the apartment served up acid-laced cocktails to unsuspecting johns, while martini-swilling secret agents observed their every move from behind a two-way mirror. Recording devices were installed, some disguised as electrical outlets.

To get the guys in the mood, the walls were adorned with photographs of tortured women in bondage and provocative posters from French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

… Read the rest

Tierra Vida – An Ayahuasca Journey

By majestic on April 4, 2012 in News 16

A short film by Alexander G. Ward on his Ayahuasca experience at the Tierra Vida Ayahuasca retreat in Pucallpa, Peru. Includes an introduction on Ayahuasca, the process of creating Ayahuasca, footage of an actual Ayahuasca ceremony and explanation on the psychedelic experience including his thoughts and conclusion.

The Day Frank Zappa Confronted Davy Jones

By moezilla on March 1, 2012 in News 2

Davy Jones, the lead singer of The Monkees, died on Tuesday. Remembering his strange life, this article resurrects a bizarre list of “forgotten classics” where Jones tried to escape his “teen idol” prison — including his theme to the campy 2006 indie film “Sexina”, and a Harry Nilsson song that ends with a Frank Zappa cameo from the movie Head. (Zappa actually walks on camera escorting a live cow, then tells Davy that “That song was pretty white.”)

There’s also a video of the grunge version of “Girl” that Davy performed in The Brady Bunch Movie in 1995…… Read the rest

‘Magic Mushroom Therapy’ Clinical Trials May Begin This Year In U.K.

By JacobSloan on January 26, 2012 in News 9

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 towards mainstream rehabilitation for such drugs since LSD was banned in 1966.

… Read the rest

Russell Brand & Daniel Pinchbeck In Conversation

By Daniel Pinchbeck on January 5, 2012 in News 22

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’

By moezilla on December 10, 2011 in News 2

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 for the annual report of Mobil Oil!… Read the rest

Turn On, Tune In And Get Better?

By majestic on November 30, 2011 in News 18

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

By JacobSloan on October 24, 2011 in News 2

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.

… Read the rest

Robert Venosa, Visionary Artist, Dead At 75

By majestic on August 13, 2011 in News 8

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, 2011

Dear 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 over eight years ago.

… Read the rest

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