Terence McKenna: The Evolution of a Psychedelic Thinker

The Psychedelic Salon Podcast Episode 367
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This recording is from the first day of a month long session at Esalen Institute back in June of 1989. Featuring a great introduction to Terence McKenna, his background & ideas. I recommend it to everyone, those foreign or familiar to all things McKenna. If you never had an opportunity to experience an intensive workshop like this in person, this one episode of the Salon really encapsulates the magic that happened on the cliffs & hot springs at Big Sur. Listen and envision a small group of amazing minds, bodies & souls with our teachers coming together in the tradition of the classical philosophers in one of the most beautiful places in space-time.

[NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.]

“This is a very central part of the psychedelic attitude toward the world, to entertain all possibilities but to never commit to belief. Belief always being seen as a kind of trap, because if you believe something you are forever precluded from believing its opposite. So you have run a line down the center of the cognitive universe and divided things into the believable and the unbelievable.”

“In a sense, sexuality is the built-in psychedelic experience that only a very few people manage to evade.”

“Eros is an ego-overwhelming, boundary dissolving, breakthrough creating force scripted into human life that is pretty intrinsically psychedelic.”

“One of the core elements of this psychedelic thing is freedom, on the broadest scale.”

“Nothing is as boundary dissolving, except for psychedelic compounds, as travel. Travel is up there.”

“I have nothing but scorn for all weird ideas other than my own.”

“Without an understanding and a familiarity of the psychedelic experience you should be sued for fraud if you’re practicing psychotherapy.”

“The archaic revival is an invitation to historical humanity to view itself as a kind of a prodigal son.”

“What the psychedelics are for us as a species, rather than for each one of us as an individual, what they are for us as a species is an enzyme that catalyzes the language-making capacity.”

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Terence Mckenna OmniBus 2012

The Terence Mckenna OmniBus 2012, [TMOM2012], is a series of 12 clips released monthly of 2012 by the makers of Cognition Factor, Headspace Studios. Each webisode is exactly 12:12:12 minutes in duration and will deal with a different subject, culminating in December when Terence will broadcast his ruminations on the 2012 phenomena.

TMOM2012 features previously unseen interviews culled from our 'Lost Mckenna tapes' archive restored to High Definition with added dimensions of music, sounds, color and special effects to make this series worthy of representing Terence Mckenna's mojo for generations to come.

Coast 2 Coast: Dennis McKenna

Date: 11-25-12
Host: George Knapp
Guests: Dennis J. McKenna, David Paulides

George Knapp welcomed ethno-pharmacologist Dennis McKenna, who has been studying plant hallucinogens for over forty years, and is convinced there are major therapeutic applications of psychedelics. They discussed the groundbreaking work McKenna did with his brother Terence, the great raconteur of wide-reaching philosophical ideas.

In the first hour, former lawman turned investigative journalist, David Paulides, detailed a potential breakthrough in Bigfoot DNA research.

Biography:

Dennis McKenna is an ethno-pharmacologist who has studied plant hallucinogens for over forty years. In 1975 he co-authored the book Invisible Landscape with his brother Terence McKenna. The book was based on their investigations of Amazonian hallucinogens in 1971. He also acted as co-star of his brother's book True Hallucinations, which further described their experiences while in the Amazon. He earned his Master's degree in botany at the University of Hawaii in 1979, and his Doctorate in Botanical Sciences in 1984 from the University of British Columbia. Since that time, he has conducted extensive ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brazilian Amazon. In 2001 he joined the faculty of the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, serves on the Advisory Board of the American Botanical Council, and has been a board member for Botanical Dimensions. In 2012, Dennis released The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss!, a biography of his life's adventures with Terence.

Biography:

David Paulides, a former police investigator, has applied his skills to questioning Bigfoot witnesses. The results he has achieved in gaining access to witnesses and getting detailed information from them is both remarkable and intriguing.

Richard Dawkins on Psychedelics

Graham Hancock questions Richard Dawkins on psychedelics and challenging his world view. Dr Dawkins, author of books such as The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author and The God Delusion, is famous for his materialist views about the nature of reality and his belief that "the supernatural... can never offer us a true explanation of the things we see in the world and the universe around us."

On 3 November 2011, Dr Dawkins visited the British city of Bath to promote his new book The Magic of Reality and gave a reading at the Bath Central Library. In the Q&A session following the reading Graham Hancock, author of books such as Fingerprints of the Gods, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind and Entangled, pointed out to Dr Dawkins that many traditional hunter-gather cultures believe there are other realities -- spirit worlds and so on and so forth -- and concrete techniques, such as the use of psychoactive plants, to access them. "As a scientist," Hancock asked, "have you ever seriously engaged such techniques to have first-hand experience of what they're talking about, and perhaps even to challenge your own concept of what is real?"

In view of Dr Dawkins' influence and importance as a shaper of public opinion his reply, given before an audience of several hundred, is a matter of public record and public interest and shows him to be more open-minded than many of his critics might allege.

History Channel: The Stoned Ages

THE STONED AGES explores the history of drugs. From the early cave dwellers who first stumbled upon psychedelic mushrooms to the over 6000-year-old tradition of opium cultivation in the East to a modern pharmaceutical industry with over 24,000 drugs on the market, drugs have played a role in our lives since well before recorded human history.

THE STONED AGES explores the reasons we've used drugs through the ages to heal our bodies and minds, to connect with a higher power, to feel better, for recreation, to escape, for performance enhancement, and even to prolong our lives while considering the devastating consequences that accompany the choice to use certain drugs. This fascinating, fresh, and insightful documentary will ask the question: overall, have drugs done more to help us or hurt us?

Hosted by Dean Norris, THE STONED AGES will journey through the millennia and look in on the greatest civilizations in human history to discover if drugs helped these societies flourish or fail and whether drug use was holy or hedonistic, a savior or a curse. How can drugs that are worshipped in one society be morally reprehensible and often illegal in another? And what causes some good drugs to go bad?

THE STONED AGES will interview the writers, historians, doctors, pharmaceutical reps, religious leaders, policy makers, FDA scientists, DEA representatives, and drug addicts who shape the often conflicting roles that drugs play in our lives today.

Drugs can kill and enslave, heal and provide hope, and alter our consciousness in deeply profound ways. THE STONED AGES will tell the story of how drugs have helped us become who we are.

Hallucinogen actions on human brain revealed

Mushrooms' magic? Tuning out is key to turning on
By: Melissa Healy
From: Los Angeles Times
Date: January 23, 2012

Psilocybin mushrooms' power to throw open the doors of perception is well documented in ancient legend and modern song. But not until now have high-tech brain-scanners captured the process by which psilocybin causes a sudden shift in human cognition. The secret to its mental magic? It appears to power down the brain's seat of reason and disconnect it from regions that process the way we see, hear and experience the world.

Those findings, gleaned by a group of British neuroscientists, were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Within a minute after subjects got an infusion of psilocybin, researchers said, scanners that plot blood flow within the brain detected a sudden drop in activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex, two areas of the brain that appear to be key in "grounding" us in reality. These areas also are key nodes of the brain's newly identified Default Mode Network, which springs to life when our minds wander.

Thus untethered, the brain's sensory regions are free to soar. Subjects reported unusual changes in their visual experiences, including geometric patterns, distortions of space and size, and dreamlike perceptions. They reported that their thoughts and imaginations wandered, their perceptions of time were changed, and sounds they heard brought on vivid images -- a mingling of sights, sounds and thoughts such as those experienced by people with the brain regions that showed the most consistent decline in activity under psilocybin's influence were the same brain regions that are most active in everyday cognition, said the study's authors, who come from a consortium of British universities and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Those regions function not only as "connective hubs" among brain regions with different functions; they are key in the kind of idle thinking in which we place ourselves at the center of our surroundings and experience.

The study's authors suggest that psilocybin's outsized effect on the brain's Default Mode Network may reveal a key function of the system. The findings suggest that a working Default Mode Network "is crucial for the maintenance of cognitive integration and constraint under normal conditions."

The study also may help suggest why psilocybin is increasingly seen as a promising treatment for a number of psychiatric conditions, including depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. By suppressing the intrusive and self-centered ruminations that are hallmarks of depression and allowing individuals to transcend themselves, drugs like psilocybin may be key to shifting perspectives and priorities, the authors wrote.

Complete Article: Neural Correlates of the Psychedelic State as Determined by fMRI Studies With Psilocybin

This article contains supporting information online at: www.pnas.org

By: Robin L. Carhart-Harrisa, David Erritzoea,Tim Williams, James M. Stone, Laurence J. Reed,  Alessandro Colasanti, Robin J. Tyacke, Robert Leech, Andrea L. Malizia, Kevin Murphy, Peter Hobden, John Evans, Amanda Feilding, Richard G. Wise, & David J. Nutt

www.GaianBotanicals.com

Peyote to LSD - A Psychedelic Odyssey

Peyote to Lsd: Psychedelic Odyssey

From: Wade Davis Blog

In this feature length documentary, renowned botanist, explorer, and author Wade Davis, follows in the footsteps of his mentor to experience for himself the mind bending discoveries that Professor Richard Evans Schultes brought to the western world. Get an insight into native ceremonies and learn the secrets of shamans and medicine men. Retrace the thrilling exploration that transferred ancient knowledge to the developed world. Finally, visit laboratories in Switzerland to explore the evolution of psychedelic substances from sacred plants to LSD. Legendary writers, musicians, and Beat poets offer insight into the counterculture and mainstream influence of botanical compounds.

www.EROCx1.com

Carl Ruck: Mushrooms, Myth & Mithras

From: gnosticmedia.com
Podcast Episode #122 – DOWNLOAD MP3
Mushrooms, Myth & Mithras: The Drug Cult that Civilized Europe
Professor Carl A.P. Ruck interviewed by Jan Irvin

This episode is an interview with Prof. Carl Ruck, titled “Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras: The Drug Cult that Civilized Europe” and is being released on Friday, Sept. 23, 2011. My interview with Carl was recorded on Sept. 22, 2011.

Today Carl Ruck is back for his 3rd interview with us to discuss his explosive new book, Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras, The Drug Cult that Civilized Europe.

Carl A.P. Ruck is Professor of Classics at Boston University, an authority on the ecstatic rituals of the god Dionysus. With the ethno-mycologist R. Gordon Wasson and Albert Hofmann, he identified the secret psychoactive ingredient in the visionary potion that was drunk by the initiates at the Eleusinian Mystery. In Persephone’s Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion, he proclaimed the centrality of psychoactive sacraments at the very beginnings of religion, employing the neologism “entheogen” to free the topic from the pejorative connotations for words like drug or hallucinogen.

Also included in this post is the video Heretical Visionary Sacraments Amongst the Ecclesiastical Elite" by Carl A. P. Ruck & Blaise Daniel Staples A talk presented to : The Italian Society for the Study of the States of Consciousness on August 30, 2003 at Perinaldo, Italy.

www.GaianBotanicals.com

Hurricane Irene Could Sprout Magic Mushrooms

Hurricane Irene Could Sprout Bumper Crop Of Magic Mushrooms
From: www.huffingtonpost.com
By: David Moye

Everyone knows the potential destructive power of hurricanes, but few people are aware that storms like Hurricane Irene encourage growth of psychedelic mushrooms.

Yes, it sounds trippy, but one of the strange aftermaths of a hurricane is an increased amount of mushrooms popping up -- especially the psilocybin -- or "magic" kind -- the ones that cause hallucinations.

According to Dr. Casey Simon, an addiction expert based in Orange County, Calif., hurricanes create the perfect climactic conditions for the mushrooms to grow.

"Mushrooms are spores and they multiply in moisture and are spread by wind," he told HuffPost Weird News.

Dr. Suneil Jain, a naturopathic physician in Scottsdale, Ariz., goes even further.

"The moisture, humidity, the wind and the temperature during hurricanes is the perfect climate for mushrooms," he told HuffPost Weird News. "Also, both hurricanes and mushroom growth are associated with new or full moons, so there may be a lunar element as well."

Jain says, generally, psychedelic mushrooms are noted by their bluish-gray stems, but stresses that many mushrooms can be toxic and ones picked in the wild should not be consumed unless they've been examined by an expert.

However, despite the hallucinogenic effects, he says that magic mushrooms are relatively safe.

"These substances have been used for centuries, with just a handful of cases of addiction, or long-term problems," he said. "Generally, they are fairly benign."

Recent studies by Johns Hopkins University suggest psilocybin mushrooms may have medical benefits, and Jain is one of those who believes the findings could have a positive impact on humanity.

"There is evidence that it can help in treating OCD, body dismorphia issues and even marital problems," he said.

Simon says the real danger of the mushrooms isn't the psilocybin.

"Some mushrooms can attract a fungus that makes them more toxic," he said. "It looks like a gray mold on the under side. Just a few differences in temperature can make a difference."

Jain says that's why experienced mushroom experts pick mushrooms when they are as fresh as possible.

"The optimal time to pick is right after the storm before the other elements can affect them," he said.

Still, the news that the whole East Coast of the U.S. could soon be awash in 'shrooms is bound to get every hippie worth his hemp sandals and hacky sack on the hunt for a new high.

Mushrooms are likely to pop up in locations where bark is used for decorative landscaping, like industrial parks and government offices, according to ethnobotanist Clark Heinrich

It's important to emphasize that wild mushrooms -- both mind-altering or not -- should not be consumed willy nilly, but Jain hopes to use the fact that so many potentially medicinal mushrooms will soon be popping up all over the East Coast as a way to raise a discussion about an aspect of the medical-pharmaceutical industry he doesn't like.

"There are a lot of medicinal plants that [have health benefits]," he said. "For instance, the main ingredient in statin drugs comes from red yeast rice. But instead of focusing on the plants that can heal, medical science tries to find the active ingredient, change it slightly and then market that so they can charge a lot."

"Besides that, singling out one ingredient in the plant, like psilocybin, doesn't take into account that everything in the plant, and that they all work together."

Aldous Huxley: Mp3 Interview

An Interview with Aldous Huxley
"Capital A, Capital R" Circa 1959
Transcribed by Plutonic / From EROWID
Originally published by British Library Sound Archive

DOWNLOAD MP3 BELOW (5:38 Min - 8MB)
Aldous Huxley Interview Right Click, Save Target As.

Q: How often have you taken mescaline yourself?

A: I've taken mescaline twice, and lysergic acid about 5 times I suppose. I would like to take it about once a year I think. When one [oh] doesn't ... most people that I know who take it have no desire to sort of fool with it, or take it constantly, I mean the thing take it too seriously to, to behave in this way towards it, you wouldn't want to wallow in it. I mean you needed a good enough time to digest this I think, I mean I don't know, most people I know that eat it don't have any special desires to go on taking it, I mean they would like to take it every six months or every year, something of that kind. But I still have to meet one who wants to take it constantly.

Q: But isn't it a condition that one would want to be in all the time?

A: You couldn't be in it all the time cause it's so to say beyond the level of biological efficiency. The world becomes so extraordinary and so absorbing that you couldn't cross the street without considerable risk of being run over. You wouldn't want to do anything else because just experiencing this thing is so extraordinary.

Q: Is the effect the same on everyone?

A: Statistically about 70 percent, 75 percent probably get a good and positive happy result from it, and a certain percentage get no results, a certain percentage get very unpleasant and ill-like results out of it, get very frightened. Mine were always positive, I didn't have what some people have which is a great elaborate visions with the eyes closed, some people have the most elaborate and circumstantial visionary experiences with the eyes closed. I merely see sort of living geometries but never any of these great landscapes and figures and architectures which some people see.

Q: Do you sit, or do you move about?

A: I've spent a lot of time sitting quietly looking at things, and getting these sort of strange metaphysical insights into the world.

Q: Is it a habit forming drug?

A: In most occasions it has no more hangover then two cocktails, some people feel actually much better the next day. It's being used to some extent in therapy, there's a man here called Sandison that uses it a lot, there are several people in America, in Canada several groups have had very very good results with alcoholism using LSD.

There's a new drug now, psilocybin, which is derived from the Mexican mushroom which has the same effect but doesn't last quite so long. And that it is being used in France therapeutically with some success. Mescaline you take a capsule of 400 milligrams and the lysergic acid you take this incredibly small dose of 100 gamma, which is 100 millionths of a gram, a ten thousandth of a gram, a 10th of a milligram which is a homeopathic dose, it's perfectly extraordinary it should have any effect and in fact it has an effect long after all traces of it have gone out of the body, it has an effect by triggering some... nobody knows exactly what, probably inhibits one of the 27 enzymes which control the functioning of the brain, either inhibits one or stimulates one and I don't think anyone quite knows what it does.

The intensity of the experience is entirely unlike any ordinary experience, but on the other hand it quite obviously resembles spontaneous experiences certain artists and religious people have unquestionably had. It's an immense intensification of the world, a transfiguration of the external world into incredible beauty and significance. It's also beyond this kind of aesthetic experience, there may be other experience, a sense of solidarity with the universe, solidarity with other people, understanding of such phrases as you get in the book of Job: "Yeah, Though He Slay Me, Yet Will I Trust In Him", it becomes quite comprehensible. This thing opens the door to these experiences which can be of immense value to people if they choose to make use of them. If they don't choose to, I mean this is what the Catholics call a gratuitous grace, it doesn't guarantee salvation or it's not sufficient and it's not necessary to salvation but if it can be collaborated with and used in an intelligent way it can be an immense help to people. This sense that in spite of everything which of course is the ultimate, I suppose, the ultimate mystical conviction in spite of pain, in spite of death, in spite of horror, the universe is in some mysterious sense is all right, capital A capital R.

How the Hippies Saved Physics

How the Hippies Saved Physics
David Kaiser Professor, science, technology & society, MIT

MIT Professor David Kaiser describes the field of physic's bumpy transition from New Age to cutting edge.

In recent years, the field of quantum information science has catapulted to the cutting edge of physics. Long before the big budgets and dedicated teams, however, the field smoldered on the scientific sidelines within the hazy, bong-filled excesses of the 1970s New Age movement. Many of the ideas that now occupy the core of quantum information science once found their home amid an anything-goes counterculture frenzy, a mishmash of spoon-bending psychics, Eastern mysticism, LSD trips, CIA spooks chasing mind-reading dreams, and comparable "Age of Aquarius" enthusiasts.

High Society: Drugs in History, Science & Culture

High Society: The Central Role of Mind-Altering Drugs in History, Science & Culture

By: Mike Jay

An illustrated cultural history of drug use from its roots in animal intoxication to its future in designer neurochemicals

• Featuring artwork from the upcoming High Society exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London, one of the world’s greatest medical history collections
• Explores the roles drugs play in different cultures as medicines, religious sacraments, status symbols, and coveted trade goods
• Reveals how drugs drove the global trade and cultural exchange that made the modern world
• Examines the causes of drug prohibitions a century ago and the current “war on drugs”

Every society is a high society. Every day people drink coffee on European terraces and kava in Pacific villages; chew betel nut in Indonesian markets and coca leaf on Andean mountainsides; swallow ecstasy tablets in the clubs of Amsterdam and opium pills in the deserts of Rajastan; smoke hashish in Himalayan temples and tobacco and marijuana in every nation on earth.

Exploring the spectrum of drug use throughout history--from its roots in animal intoxication to its future in designer neurochemicals--High Society paints vivid portraits of the roles drugs play in different cultures as medicines, religious sacraments, status symbols, and coveted trade goods. From the botanicals of the classical world through the mind-bending self-experiments of 18th- and 19th-century scientists to the synthetic molecules that have transformed our understanding of the brain, Mike Jay reveals how drugs such as tobacco, tea, and opium drove the global trade and cultural exchange that created the modern world and examines the forces that led to the prohibition of opium and cocaine a century ago and the “war on drugs” that rages today.

Table of Contents

A Universal Impulse
High Societies - The Evolution of Drugs - Animal Intoxication - Drugs and Shamanism - Drugs and Culture - The Culture of Kava - The Culture of Betel - Drug Prohibitions - Drug Subcultures - The Cultures of Ecstasy

From Apothecary to Laboratory
What Is a Drug? - Drugs in Antiquity - Renaissance Herbals - Witches and Flying Ointments - The Invention of Laudanum - Linnaeus and the Enlightenment - The First Synthetic Drugs - Opium and the Romantics - The Club des Haschischins - Freud and Cocaine - Addiction and Drug Control - Mescaline, LSD, and Beyond - Drugs of the Future

The Drugs Trade
Drugs of the New World - The Psychoactive Revolution - Tobacco in China, Tea in Europe - The Opium Wars - The Anti-Opium campaign - Temperance and Prohibition - The 'War on Drugs' - Epilogue: The Decline of Tobacco

Download pre-publication sample pages in PDF format

About the Author:
Mike Jay is a leading specialist in the study of drugs across history and cultures. The author of Artificial Paradises, Emperors of Dreams, and The Atmosphere of Heaven, his critical writing on drugs has appeared in many publications, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The International Journal of Drug Policy. He sits on the editorial board of the addiction journal Drugs and Alcohol Today and on the board of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation. He lives in England.

The Shamanic Origins of Christmas

Well its that time of the year again. So I would like to share Dana Larsen's wonderful essay "Modern Christmas traditions are based on ancient mushroom-using shamans" as I do every Christmas. Just to help spread a little clarity, history and truth about this special season, its rituals and meaning that was hijacked by the Judeo-Christian religions long ago. Who have consequently lost it to our cultures new religion, Consumerism.



Modern Christmas traditions are based on ancient mushroom-using shamans.

by: Dana Larsen

Although most people see Christmas as a Christian holiday, most of the symbols and icons we associate with Christmas celebrations are actually derived from the shamanistic traditions of the tribal peoples of pre-Christian Northern Europe. The sacred mushroom of these people was the red and white amanita muscaria mushroom, also known as "fly agaric." These mushrooms are now commonly seen in books of fairy tales, and are usually associated with magic and fairies. This is because they contain potent hallucinogenic compounds, and were used by ancient peoples for insight and transcendental experiences. Most of the major elements of the modern Christmas celebration, such as Santa Claus, Christmas trees, magical reindeer and the giving of gifts, are originally based upon the traditions surrounding the harvest and consumption of these most sacred mushrooms.
The world tree These ancient peoples, including the Lapps of modern-day Finland, and the Koyak tribes of the central Russian steppes, believed in the idea of a World Tree. The World Tree was seen as a kind of cosmic axis, onto which the planes of the universe are fixed. The roots of the World Tree stretch down into the underworld, its trunk is the "middle earth" of everyday existence, and its branches reach upwards into the heavenly realm. The amanita muscaria mushrooms grow only under certain types of trees, mostly firs and evergreens. The mushroom caps are the fruit of the larger mycelium beneath the soil which exists in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of the tree. To ancient people, these mushrooms were literally "the fruit of the tree." The North Star was also considered sacred, since all other stars in the sky revolved around its fixed point. They associated this "Pole Star" with the World Tree and the central axis of the universe. The top of the World Tree touched the North Star, and the spirit of the shaman would climb the metaphorical tree, thereby passing into the realm of the gods. This is the true meaning of the star on top of the modern Christmas tree, and also the reason that the super-shaman Santa makes his home at the North Pole. Ancient peoples were amazed at how these magical mushrooms sprang from the earth without any visible seed. They considered this "virgin birth" to have been the result of the morning dew, which was seen as the semen of the deity. The silver tinsel we drape onto our modern Christmas tree represents this divine fluid.
Reindeer games The active ingredients of the amanita mushrooms are not metabolized by the body, and so they remain active in the urine. In fact, it is safer to drink the urine of one who has consumed the mushrooms than to eat the mushrooms directly, as many of the toxic compounds are processed and eliminated on the first pass through the body. It was common practice among ancient people to recycle the potent effects of the mushroom by drinking each other's urine. The amanita's ingredients can remain potent even after six passes through the human body. Some scholars argue that this is the origin of the phrase "to get pissed," as this urine-drinking activity preceded alcohol by thousands of years. Reindeer were the sacred animals of these semi-nomadic people, as the reindeer provided food, shelter, clothing and other necessities. Reindeer are also fond of eating the amanita mushrooms; they will seek them out, then prance about while under their influence. Often the urine of tripped-out reindeer would be consumed for its psychedelic effects. This effect goes the other way too, as reindeer also enjoy the urine of a human, especially one who has consumed the mushrooms. In fact, reindeer will seek out human urine to drink, and some tribesmen carry sealskin containers of their own collected piss, which they use to attract stray reindeer back into the herd. The effects of the amanita mushroom usually include sensations of size distortion and flying. The feeling of flying could account for the legends of flying reindeer, and legends of shamanic journeys included stories of winged reindeer, transporting their riders up to the highest branches of the World Tree.
Santa Claus, super shaman Although the modern image of Santa Claus was created at least in part by the advertising department of Coca-Cola, in truth his appearance, clothing, mannerisms and companions all mark him as the reincarnation of these ancient mushroom-gathering shamans. One of the side effects of eating amanita mushrooms is that the skin and facial features take on a flushed, ruddy glow. This is why Santa is always shown with glowing red cheeks and nose. Even Santa's jolly "Ho, ho, ho!" is the euphoric laugh of one who has indulged in the magic fungus. Santa also dresses like a mushroom gatherer. When it was time to go out and harvest the magical mushrooms, the ancient shamans would dress much like Santa, wearing red and white fur-trimmed coats and long black boots. These peoples lived in dwellings made of birch and reindeer hide, called "yurts." Somewhat similar to a teepee, the yurt's central smokehole is often also used as an entrance. After gathering the mushrooms from under the sacred trees where they appeared, the shamans would fill their sacks and return home. Climbing down the chimney-entrances, they would share out the mushroom's gifts with those within. The amanita mushroom needs to be dried before being consumed; the drying process reduces the mushroom's toxicity while increasing its potency. The shaman would guide the group in stringing the mushrooms and hanging them around the hearth-fire to dry. This tradition is echoed in the modern stringing of popcorn and other items. The psychedelic journeys taken under the influence of the amanita were also symbolized by a stick reaching up through the smokehole in the top of the yurt. The smokehole was the portal where the spirit of the shaman exited the physical plane. Santa's famous magical journey, where his sleigh takes him around the whole planet in a single night, is developed from the "heavenly chariot," used by the gods from whom Santa and other shamanic figures are descended. The chariot of Odin, Thor and even the Egyptian god Osiris is now known as the Big Dipper, which circles around the North Star in a 24-hour period. In different versions of the ancient story, the chariot was pulled by reindeer or horses. As the animals grow exhausted, their mingled spit and blood falls to the ground, forming the amanita mushrooms.
St Nicholas and Old Nick Saint Nicholas is a legendary figure who supposedly lived during the fourth Century. His cult spread quickly and Nicholas became the patron saint of many varied groups, including judges, pawnbrokers, criminals, merchants, sailors, bakers, travelers, the poor, and children. Most religious historians agree that St Nicholas did not actually exist as a real person, and was instead a Christianized version of earlier Pagan gods. Nicholas' legends were mainly created out of stories about the Teutonic god called Hold Nickar, known as Poseidon to the Greeks. This powerful sea god was known to gallop through the sky during the winter solstice, granting boons to his worshippers below. When the Catholic Church created the character of St Nicholas, they took his name from "Nickar" and gave him Poseidon's title of "the Sailor." There are thousands of churches named in St Nicholas' honor, most of which were converted from temples to Poseidon and Hold Nickar. (As the ancient pagan deities were demonized by the Christian church, Hold Nickar's name also became associated with Satan, known as "Old Nick!") Local traditions were incorporated into the new Christian holidays to make them more acceptable to the new converts. To these early Christians, Saint Nicholas became a sort of "super-shaman" who was overlaid upon their own shamanic cultural practices. Many images of Saint Nicholas from these early times show him wearing red and white, or standing in front of a red background with white spots, the design of the amanita mushroom. St Nicholas also adopted some of the qualities of the legendary "Grandmother Befana" from Italy, who filled children's stockings with gifts. Her shrine at Bari, Italy, became a shrine to St Nicholas.
Modern world, ancient traditions Some psychologists have discussed the "cognitive dissonance" which occurs when children are encouraged to believe in the literal existence of Santa Claus, only to have their parents' lie revealed when they are older. By so deceiving our children we rob them of a richer heritage, for the actual origin of these ancient rituals is rooted deep in our history and our collective unconscious. By better understanding the truths within these popular celebrations, we can better understand the modern world, and our place in it. Many people in the modern world have rejected Christmas as being too commercial, claiming that this ritual of giving is actually a celebration of materialism and greed. Yet the true spirit of this winter festival lies not in the exchange of plastic toys, but in celebrating a gift from the earth: the fruiting top of a magical mushroom, and the revelatory experiences it can provide. Instead of perpetuating outdated and confusing holiday myths, it might be more fulfilling to return to the original source of these seasonal celebrations. How about getting back to basics and enjoying some magical mushrooms with your loved ones this solstice? What better gift can a family share than a little piece of love and enlightenment?

Best wishes for peace, happiness, good health and hopefully a little wealth this Winter Solstice, New Year and beyond!
-EROCx1

Dale Pendell: Magical Practice

 

Magical practice

A discussion with Dale Pendell

World Psychedelic Forum

Basel, Switzerland

March 23, 2008



Recording and transcription by Gyrus of Dreamflesh.com

Download: MP3 right click, save target as.

READ: complete transcript

This is a transcript of a small discussion with botanist-poet Dale Pendell, a long-time practitioner of Zen Buddhism and the occult, a student of the legendary intellectual Norman O. Brown, and—as they say—a graduate of Dr. Hofmann. It took place at the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, Switzerland, on 23rd March 2008 (read my review). A small group of people who’d just attended Dale’s talk on Zen and psychedelics gathered round a table in the busy foyer, and Dale created a focused bubble of attentiveness with his measured, colorful discourse.

MP3s of the formal talks that Dale delivered at the Forum can also be found on the web: ‘Plant Teachers and the Path of Eve‘ and ‘Psychedelics and Zen Buddhism‘.

Thanks Gyrus!

You may also enjoy:

Dale Pendell Bibliography

Dale Pendell Homepage

The Magic of Corporate Personhood

Terence McKenna: Evolving Times - Mp3

This is a rare recording of a Terence McKenna workshop recorded in California in the mid 90’s. I am friends with many McKenna scholars and this is the first time any of us have heard this gem. Its a great lecture that ties together many of the ideas he has shared in other talks. I especially enjoyed the raccoon story. Thanks Lorenzo & to the un-named Salon’er who provided him with this recording. It is very much appreciated =0) So with out further to do, please enjoy & share this great Mp3.

The Psychedelic Salon Podcast 221 – “Evolving Times ”

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Guest speaker: Terence McKenna

In this two hour Terence Day (April 3rd) podcast, we hear Terence McKenna waxing his poetic best. For example: "Sometime in the last 50,000 years, before 12,000 years ago, a kind of paradise came into existence, a situation in which men and women, parents and children, people and animals, human institutions and the land, all were in dynamic balance. And not in any primitive sense at all. Language was fully developed. Poetry may have been at its climax. Dance, magic, poetics, altruism, philosophy, there's no reason to think that these things were not practiced as adroitly as we practice them today. And it was under the boundary-dissolving influence of psilocybin." "So what needs to be done is to spread the idea that anxiety is inappropriate. It's sort of like we who are psychedelic have to function as sitters for society, because society is going to thrash, and resist, and think it's dying, and be deluded, and regurgitate unconscious material, and so forth and so on. And the role then, I think, for psychedelic people is to try and spread calm."

http://matrixmasters.net/archive/TerenceMcKenna/221-McKennaEvolvingTimes.mp3

www.psychedelicsalon.org

Michael Tsarion: The Trees of Knowledge

From: Gnostic Media Podcast #55
Michael Tsarion Interview
Download: FREE Mp3 [right click, save as]
Subscribe: HERE

What is the importance of trees in mythology? Is there a connection between ancient goddess worship and the tree of knowledge? How do sacred trees tie in with the Kabbalah? How do entheogens like mushrooms play into the ancient religions of Europe? How do you free the public mind from mass control? Tonight Jan’s guest is Michael Tsarion - Born in Ireland, Michael is an expert on the occult histories of Ireland and America. He has made the deepest researches into Atlantis, the Origins of Evil, and the Irish Origins of Civilization. Michael is author of the acclaimed books "Atlantis, Alien Visitation, and Genetic Manipulation," "The Irish Origins of Civilization, and "Astro-Theology and Sidereal Mythology." He is the producer and presenter of "Origins and Oracles," DVD Series, which explores ancient mysteries and forbidden knowledge. He is also the producer of the Architects of Control DVD Series, which deals with mankind's future and solutions to the humanity's current problems.

Links:
Michael Tsarion homepage
The Trees of Life
gnosticmedia.com

Flesh Cap Family

By Eddie D at FleshCap.com
Click on image to see higher resolution details.

This image symbolizes the knowledge of the allies being passed on from one generation to the next.

Fleshcap is a family of individuals who have united to spread
the sacred knowledge our spiritual “Allies”.

What is the FleshCap Movement?

FleshCap Media Gallery

Psychedelic Artists

Listen to FleshCap Interview with  Bob Larson
KUCI Orange County Radio Show: Download

 
Above: Depiction of an ancient Aztec man
holding the sacred mushroom in his hand.

Czech government defines rules of legal drug possession

The cabinet was today also expected to discuss artificial drugs and a permitted amount of these drugs in people's possession.

However, it postponed the debate for two weeks, the source said.

The new Penal Code, which will take effect on January 1 is designed to specify the government's directive. It contains a special provision on the growth of hemp and magic mushrooms.

The government today also approved a directive on the use of anabolics and the list of diseases that will be considered congenial, according to the criminal law.

The law distinguishes between the possession of marijuana and hashish for people's personal needs, for which they will face up to one year in prison, from the possession of other drugs for which they can receive up to two years in prison.

According to the Justice Ministry's proposal that the government did not approve today, the possession of over 15 grams of dried marijuana or over two grams of methamphetamine (pervitine), cocaine and heroin will be punishable.

The tolerated amount of drugs in people's possession is at present defined by police internal directives. No one thus knows precisely what amount is considered an amount "larger than a small amount of drug," the possession of which is punishable by the law.

If the government approves the ministry's proposal without changes in two weeks, people will be able to have four pills of ecstasy in their possession and up to five grams of hashish.

Prague - The Czech government today approved the list of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, including hemp, coca, mescaline cactus and magic mushrooms, and decided that people would be allowed to grow up to five pieces of such plants and keep 40 magic mushrooms at home, a CTK source said.

From ČTK

Dr. Timothy Leary on VH1 Aug 13th!

There is a VH1 series called “Lords of the Revolution” with episode #104 featuring Dr. Timothy Leary. Its scheduled to air on Vh1 August 13th @ 8PM.

Below is the summary:
[From the moment Harvard professor Timothy Leary ate magic mushrooms in 1960, his life would never be the same. Advocating the use of LSD and other mind altering drugs to expand consciousness, Leary transformed himself from an eccentric Harvard professor into the leader of the 1960s psychedelic counter-culture movement. Leary's influence helped shape the music, fashion and politics of a new generation. He defied authority and fought the government at every turn, earning the title, in President Nixon's words, as "the most dangerous man in America."]

Link: Lords of the Revolution » Ep. 104

This series also features Cheech & Chong

Terence McKenna: The Ethnobotany of Shamanism

  Ethnobotany of Shamanism, a 3 day weekend workshop at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco featuring Terence McKenna. Includes the introductory lecture on Friday. Originally recorded November 4th – 6th 1988.

From: The Psychedelic Salon [Subscribe]

FREE MP3' Downloads:
Podcast episode #187 Part 1 [40 MB]
Podcast episode #188 Part 2 [48 MB]
 Podcast episode #189 Part3 [46 MB]
Podcast episode #190 Part 4 [40 MB]
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Download the complete unedited Mp3 file: HERE
Courtesy of Miguel Fernandes

---

All quotations are by Terence McKenna

"Most software, I think, is written by freaks."

"What it [investigating psychedelics] really requires is a love of the peculiar, of the weird, the bizarre, the étrange, the freaky and unimaginable."

"Nature and the imagination seem to be the precursors to involvement in the psychedelic experience."

"DMT seems to argue, convincingly I might add, that the world is made entirely of something, for want of a better word, we would have to call magic."

"By manipulating queuing, by manipulating expectation, you can lead people to a fundamental confrontation, not only with themselves, but with the Other."

"What I’m talking about is actually is the Mystery of Being as existential fact. That there is something that haunts this world that can take apart and reduce every single one of us to a mixture of terror and ecstasy, fear and trembling. It is not an idea, that’s the primary thing to bear in mind. It’s an experience."

"Our theories are the weakest part of what we say. What we’re working from is the fact of an experience which we need to make sense of."

"What we call three dimensional space, and what we call the imagination actually have a contiguous and continuous transformation from one into the other, … and THIS is big news!"

"If you play the cultural game, it’s like playing only with clubs or something, or playing only with the red marked cards. You have to play with a full deck, and that includes this pre-linguistic surround in which we are embedded."

"Ultimately, I think, what the psychedelic experience may be is a higher topological manifold of temporality."

"The mind is the cutting edge of the evolving event system."

"I think the cybernetic matrix is a tremendous tool for feminizing, and radicalizing, and psychedelicizing the social matrix. I see computers as entirely feminine."

"The ‘person’ is not an interchangeable part. The ‘citizen’ is. … The person is harking back to a pre-print model. It’s what the hippies were."

"What people notice about [when they are on] LSD is either what’s right or wrong with themselves or how freaky the world is."

"It’s as important to be well informed in this area, if you’re going to do it, as it is to be well informed about procedures in skin diving and that sort of thing if you’re going to do that."

"One of the things that’s so striking about shamanism in the native context is the absence of mental illness."

"Every step into freedom contains within it the potential for greater bondage."

"This is what I talked about last night about the archaic revival as the notion of making a sharp left turn away from the momentum that the historical vehicle wants to follow."

"We now have no choice in the matter of business as usual. There will not, apparently, be business as usual."

"You either have a plan, or you are a part of somebody else’s plan."

"The psychedelic sets you at the beginning of the path, and then people do all kinds of things with it."

"We are reaping the fruits of ten thousand, fifty thousand years of sowing of the fields of mind. And it is being dropped into our laps for us to create human-machine interfacing, control of genetic material, redefinition of social reality, re engineering of languages, revisioning of the planetary ecology, all these things fall upon us."

"I’m fascinated by hallucinations. I mean, to me that is the sina qua non that you’re getting somewhere."

"If you actually look at the etymology of the word ‘hallucination’, what it’s come to mean in English is a delusion. But what it really means in the original language is to wander in the mind. That’s the meaning of ‘hallucination’, to wander in the mind."

"For unknown reasons, there is a tremendous concentration of psychoactive plants on the South American continent. The South American continent has more known hallucinogens than the rest of the planet combined."

"Patanjali specifically says that there are three paths to the goal of yoga. And they are, control of the breath, control of posture, and light-filled herbs. It says it right there. Stanza 6 of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali."

"Think about this for a moment, we grow so inured to these religious forms, think about the notion of instituting at the center of your religion a rite where you eat your god. ... [This] is probably a memory of a relationship to some kind of a psychedelic experience of some sort."

"I think institutions will inevitably substitute a rite or a ritual for the authentic, for the real McCoy, because then priests can control the pipeline to god, and the parishioner can approach with offerings. But if everybody can have a pipeline to deity, why then the whole priest scam is put out of business."

"Buddhism is a heresy on Hinduism."

"The whole of the Amazonian narcotic complex, as it’s called in the old literature, is based on activation of DMT by one strategy or another."

"I really think there is a very large distinction between synthetic and naturally occurring drugs. … I think that these plants ‘take people’ as much as people take the plants. … When you take one of these ancient, ancient hallucinogens you are locking in to the morphogenic fields of all the people who ever took it."

"All psychedelic explorers should be aware of the concept of what is called a cognitive hallucination. The is a much more insidious phenomenon. This is, quite simply, an out-and-out delusion."

"People are concrescences of ambiguity."

"I think the sitter should be there only if there’s a three dimensional emergency."

"I have never felt that the primary use of these things [psychedelic medicines] was to cure what is called in modern parlance neurosis, what I call unhappiness. It isn’t for that."

"Ayahuasca, in a way, is somehow more open to suggestion. These other things have their own agenda. Ayahuasca will work with you."

"The possibility seems to be that what we call styles, or what we call motifs, are actually categories in the unconscious." [Also see The Art of Steven Rooke.]

"Is there a necessary succession in style, or are these things pure chance?"

"Obviously, it’s some kind of freely commanded modality in the psyche with which we can have a relationship if we will but evolve a control language and a dialogue. And it remains mysterious."

"The psychedelic experience is the beginning of the spiritual path. That’s why it’s not important that yogas’ claim that they can deliver you the psychedelic experience, because it begins with the psychedelic experience, and then you go from there."

"Once you come face-to-face with these psychedelics, the trail ends. You have found the answer. … Now the question is, ‘What the hell do you do with it?’ "

"Once you have the psychedelic tool in hand then some real choices have to be made."

"It puts people who are into this psychedelic thing in an entirely different stance from all other spiritual seekers, because all other spiritual seekers are furiously seeking. Psychedelic people are holding it back with all their power, because they are IN the presence of the Mystery. And then the trick is to get a spigot on it so that it can be turned on and off rather than coming at you like a tidal wave a mile high and twenty miles wide."

"What the churches are peddling is high abstraction, and you really have to work yourself up into a lather to be able to accept that as worthy of that kind of attention. The psychedelic subset of society is into an experience, and it’s accessible."

"The race isn’t to the swift. It’s to the thoughtful."

"There will be difficult moments in a five-gram [mushroom] trip, but on the other hand certain questions will be solved forever for you, because you will validate the existence of this dimension. You will see what your relationship to it is."

"This is a general comment that you should take a committed dose of whatever it is you’re taking so that there is no ambiguity, because there’s nothing worse than a sub-threshold psychedelic experience."

"On ketemine you can get so out there that it is a major intellectual breakthrough to realize that you’re on a drug."

"At the interface of the sayable and the unsayable [in a psychedelic experience] is the novel, the new, the never before seen, said or done. And that’s what I think it’s important to try and bring out, ideas. Because I think we are the animals that bring back ideas."

"Human populations that do not have contact with the psychedelic tremendum are neurotic because they are male ego dominated."

"One way of assessing the toxicity of a drug is how do you feel the next day?"

"If you eat before you sleep after a trip, it won’t be nearly so hard a come-down."

"DMT is the most powerful hallucinogen there is. If it gets stronger than that I don’t want to know about it."

www.psychedelicsalon.org