Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within

This full length documentary by Critical Mass Productions is now online for free viewing [Hopefully with appropriate permissions]. It may very well not be, so if you can not buy the DVD you may want to download this ASAP.

Stan Grof, Marilyn Schlitz, Ralph Metzner, Alex Grey, Terrence McKenna, John Markoff, Daniel Pinchbeck, and Kat Harrison among others, postulate how the disenchantment of the modern world may be remedied by summoning the courage to take the next leap in the evolution of planetary consciousness.

This film examines the re-emergence of archaic techniques of ecstacy in the modern world by weaving a synthesis of ecological and evolutionary awareness, electronic dance culture, and the current pharmacological re-evaluation of entheogenic compounds. Within a narrative framework that imagines consciousness itself to be evolving, Entheogen documents the emergence of techno-shamanism in the post-modern world that frames the following questions: How can a renewal of ancient initiatory rites of passage alleviate our ecological crisis? What do trance dancing and festivals celebrating unbridled artistic expression speak to in our collective psyche? How do we re-invent ourselves in a disenchanted world from which God has long ago withdrawn? Entheogen invites the viewer to consider that the answers to these questions lie within the consciousness of each and every human being, and are accessible if only we give ourselves permission to awaken to the divine within.

Buy Entheogen : Awakening the Divine Within on DVD

More 2008 World Psychedelic Forum talks

2008 World Psychedelic Forum

Mp3's hosted by futureprimitive.org

Mp3 recordings from the World Psychedelic Forum held March 21 - 24, 2008 in Basel Switzerland. The forum presented a unique opportunity for experts, researchers, and interested persons from around the globe, to exchange views and hear about the latest research on the value of these remarkable substances in medicine, psychology, science, religion, culture and the arts.

COLOMBIAN "MAMA" (LENGTH: 18:50 mins. SIZE: 8.62MB) Shaman ("Mama") from the Kogi indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.

JEREMY NARBY (LENGTH: 10:43 mins. SIZE: 4.91MB) Anthropologist and writer who spent several years living with the Ashaninca in the Peruvian Amazon cataloging indigenous uses of rainforest resources to help combat ecological destruction. Narby has written three books, as well as sponsored an expedition to the rainforest for biologists and other scientists to examine indigenous knowledge systems and the utility of Ayahuasca in gaining knowledge. Since 1989, Narby has been working as the Amazonian projects director for the Swiss NGO, Nouvelle Planete.

STANISLAV GROF (LENGTH: 42:34 mins. SIZE: 19.4MB) One of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology and a pioneering researcher into the use of altered states of consciousness for purposes of healing, growth, and insight. Grof received the VISION 97 award granted by the Foundation of Dagmar and Vaclav Havel in Prague on October 5, 2007. He developed a form of psychotherapy called Holotropic Breathwork believed to allow access to nonordinary states of consciousness. Stanislav Grof also presented: The Roots of Human Violence at the conference.

DANIEL PINCHBECK & JOHN LASH (LENGTH: 1 hr., 4 mins. SIZE: 29.4MB) Daniel Pinchbeck is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism and 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl and advocate of the use of psychedelic substances for enriching people's intellectual, psychological and spiritual beliefs through the psychedelic experience. John Lash is the author of Not in His Image and Quest for the Zodiac, co-founder and principal author of the Metahistory.org and one of the foremost exponents of the power of myth to direct and shape an individual's life, as well as history itself.

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World Psychedelic Forum 2008: Stanislav Grof

Stanislav Grof, MD, PhD

The Roots of Human Violence and Greed:

Observations from Psychedelic Research

Psychonautica Mp3 download: PART ONE, PART TWO
(right click, save as)

Google video: PART ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR

Stanislav Grof's presentation at the World Psychedelic Froum 2008.

Since time immemorial, violence and greed have been among the most important forces driving human history. Due to technological progress and exponential population growth in the twentieth century, they have become a threat for survival of life on our planet. It has become imperative to gain a deeper understanding of the roots of these forces in the human psyche and to find ways of reducing their impact in the world.

In this lecture, we will explore the observations from psychedelic research that offer new insights into extreme forms of human violence and social pathology, such as wars, bloody revolutions, terrorism, suicide bombing, concentration camps, and genocide. In a series of slides, we will demonstrate the astonishing similarities between the symbolism of posters and cartoons from the time of wars and the visions accompanying the reliving of birth and the experience of psychospiritual death and rebirth.

Stanislav Grof’s professional career has covered a period of over 50 years in which his primary interest has been research of the heuristic and therapeutic potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. This included initially four years of laboratory research of psychedelics - LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and tryptamine derivatives - (1956-1960) and fourteen years of research of psychedelic psychotherapy. He spent seven of these years (1960-1967) as Principal Investigator of the psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia. This was followed by seven years of research of psychedelic psychotherapy in the United States.

Stanislav Grof's Homepage