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Tag Archives | Psychedelics

Inside Santa Fe’s Ayahuasca-Based Church

By on May 10, 2013 in News 7

ayahuascaIs this what the biblical Moses was dabbling in when he encountered the “burning bush”? NPR describes attending a plant-based Christian spiritist service:

A small church in Santa Fe, N.M., has grown up around a unique sacrament. Twice a month, the congregation meets in a ritualized setting to drink Brazilian huasca tea, which has psychoactive properties said to produce a trance-like state.

UDV stands for Uniao do Vegetal — literally translated “the union of the plants.” The Santa Fe church is the largest of the six UDV congregations in the country, numbering only 300 members in all. There are 17,000 practitioners in Brazil, where the church started.

The Supreme Court confirmed the UDV church’s right to exist in 2006. The church doesn’t seek new members and prefers to keep a low profile.

Barbara, an electrologist, says the tea cured her Lyme disease; Satara, a substitute teacher, claims huasca amplifies perception of herself and the world — like turning up the volume on a radio.

… Read the rest
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Bad Shroom Trip: The Opera

By on May 7, 2013 in News 4
Performance artist and opera singer Joseph Keckler unveils an epic, original Italian operatic aria that explores the dizzying highs and lows of a tumultuous psilocybin experience. Visuals provided by Sifl and Olly creator Liam Lynch:
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More Than 30 Million Americans Have Used Psychedelic Drugs

By on May 6, 2013 in News 9

psychedelic drugs

Is illicit use of hallucinogens in fact a part of normal behavior? Healthline reports:

A new study shows that an estimated 32 million people in the U.S. have used LSD, “magic mushrooms”, or mescaline at some point in their lives, many in the recent past.

Researchers Teri S. Krebs and Pål-Ørjan Johansen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology used data from a sample of more than 57,000 individuals ages 12 and older who were questioned for the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

According to Krebs and Johansen’s study, the rate of lifetime psychedelic use was highest among people ages 30 to 34, with higher rates in men than in women. The authors also found that older adults were more likely to have used LSD and mescaline, whereas younger adults were more likely to have used “magic mushrooms.”

In our experience, people are surprised about the high rate of psychedelic use in the U.S.,” Krebs said.

… Read the rest
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Neurons to Nirvana: Understanding Psychedelic Medicines

By on April 29, 2013 in News 6

Lets help bring to mainstream awareness a professional documentary with the potential to radically alter our cultures profound misconceptions surrounding psychedelic medicines and their value to humanity.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1055048000/neurons-to-nirvana-understanding-psychedelic-medic-0

Help share the TRUTH. Spread the word about NEURONS TO NIRVANA, a new documentary that dares to break the taboo surrounding psychedelic medicines and explores their proven potential to heal and alleviate suffering on a global scale.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

NEURONS TO NIRVANA: UNDERSTANDING PSYCHEDELIC MEDICINES.

This is the most important thing you will experience today. This is from Wikipedia about Ayahuasca:

“People who have consumed ayahuasca report having massive spiritual revelations regarding their purpose on earth, the true nature of the universe as well as deep insight as how to be the best person they possibly can. This is viewed by many as a spiritual awakening and what’s often described as a rebirth.  It’s nearly always said that people experience profound positive changes in their life subsequent to consuming ayahuasca and it is often viewed as one of the most effective tools of enlightenment.”

NEURONS TO NIRVANA: UNDERSTANDING PSYCHEDELIC MEDICINES is a richly-illustrated feature documentary about the resurgence of psychedelics as medicine.… Read the rest

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Oakland Hosts A Scientific Conference On Psychedelic Drugs

By on April 29, 2013 in News 0

psychedelic science

This is where to hear about cutting edge research on psilocybins as a treatment for depression, or an old man’s incomprehensible description of the ego death that occurs after dropping acid 50 times. Via the Daily Californian, Neha Kulsh writes:

This past weekend, the Psychedelic Science 2013 Conference, co-hosted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), took over two floors of the Oakland Marriott City Center. Recreational drug users and academics alike networked at a conference that UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology David Presti deemed “extraordinary.”

The headlining act of Sunday was easily Earth and Fire Erowid. Erowid, the nonprofit dedicated to educating users on psychoactive drugs and plants, also manages the site EcstasyData.org. Users can anonymously submit ecstasy (in tablet or powder form) to the DEA-licensed laboratory for testing. EcstasyData then publishes the findings on the website along with photos.

The conference’s main focus, however, was the use of psychedelics to alleviate pain for major ailments like PTSD and nicotine addiction.

… Read the rest
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Psychedemia

By on April 28, 2013 in News 2

On the 70th anniversary of the first intentional LSD trip, a compelling new documentary film about the academic study of psychedelic drugs is released.

Psychedemia was the first academic conference funded by an American university to explicitly focus on the risks and benefits of psychedelic experience. Ph.D’s, M.D.’s, M.A’s, graduate students and lay folk from all walks of life convened at the University of Pennsylvania over the 27th-30th of September 2012 to present new research addressing the historical and potential influences of psychedelics on knowledge production, health, and creativity. The four day event brought together scientists, artists, journalists, historians and philosophers from more than 10 countries for an Ivy League convocation unprecedented not only in view of its controversial subject matter, but in its unparalleled inter-disciplinary scope.

Directed and Edited by two-time Emmy Award winner Vann K. Weller and Drew Knight, the documentary is being dedicated to the Public Domain to be freely used for any purpose as an intellectual and cultural artifact – broadcast directly through YouTube.… Read the rest

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2013 – Year of the Witch (Eight Bells Edition)

By on April 22, 2013 in News 1

eight bells pictureEvery now and again you have moments in your life where profound realizations sort of creep up on you out of nowhere. I think it was because of a music nerd Facebook (friend me) discussion I became engaged with about guitar players years back that it hit me. Out of nowhere, I quite suddenly became acutely aware of the fact that right off the top of my head I could drop like 30 of my biggest guitar heroes and only one would be a heroine. That can’t be right, can it? I had to go through it about a 100 more fucking times because I couldn’t believe it. I had, Melynda Jackson from Subarachnoid Space, and errr…errr…umm…errr…no one. I mean, obviously Nancy Wilson, but as much as I like some Heart, I’ve never really ranked her as an influence on what I do specifically.

What a paternal head fuck our culture is.… Read the rest

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“They” Told Me to Write This (Continued)

By on April 11, 2013 in News 39

Who are they? Insectile hive mind derivative entities? Beings from the Sirius conglomerate of planetary intelligence systems? Holy Guardian Angels? Unholy Protector Daemons? They can be all of these things, and for the second time since I’ve been writing for Disinfo they reached into my psychic life, compelling me to blog about a specific subject matter. The problem is that unlike the last time, I honestly couldn’t understand the message entirely as it wasn’t as neatly succinct. Okay, it’s not like I didn’t understand the message, I just have a hard time wrapping my head around it for means of convenient articulation.

In fact, I’m honestly just managing to put it all together, sort of. For a while, I’d been contemplating creating what in magick circles is referred to as a servitor. The basic idea behind this concept is that it’s sort of like a software program you install into the interlocking grid of human consciousness.… Read the rest

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Brooklyn’s Prince Rama: The Band that Talks to Ghosts

By on April 3, 2013 in News 1

Early in 2012, Redefine proprietor Vivian Hua and I decided to do a series of interviews focusing on musicians who drew from esoteric spiritual pursuits for inspiration. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but what we ran into is that we don’t actually know of, or personally know too many of these musicians, so it didn’t get very far. The other thing we ran into was that a few people agreed to talk to us and then completely bailed when they saw the weird shit we were going to ask them. What the fuck are you going to do?

Fortunately for us, we did manage to chat with Brooklyn’s Prince Rama, whose Taraka Larson used to intern with Paul Laffoley strangely enough, and they pretty much knocked the ball out of the park. It was also another one of those odd witchery situations, because I talked to them after their show, but the recording was mysteriously inaudible.… Read the rest

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DMT Discovered in Marine Sponges

By on March 29, 2013 in News 1

Some people have all the luck. Some people get excited when they win a free order of fries and that’s the best they get. Not my pal, Hamilton Morris. No, he gets things like newly discovered variations of DMT. Before some of you get all huffy with your hours of arguments, just remember that this is scientific work on the cutting edge. Though it is controversial to some, an understanding of what we call consciousness is serious business to people like Hamilton.

That said, check out this astonishing article at Vice.com.

Modest though it may be, what we have contained in this letter is possible evidence of the first psychedelic drug of marine origin.1 In 1997 Alexander Shulgin wrote of marine tryptamines, “5-Bromo-DMT and 5,6-dibromo-DMT are found in the sponges Smenospongia aurea and S. echina resp. I have no idea if they are active by smoking (the 5-Br-DMT just might be)… I had the fantasy of trying to scotch the rumor I’m about to start, that all the hippies of the San Francisco Bay Area were heading to the Caribbean with packets of Zig-Zag papers, to hit the sponge trade with a psychedelic fervor.

… Read the rest
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