Psychedelic Salon

Ian Benouis

Guest speaker: Ian Benouis

Date this lecture was recorded: May 2017

This week we talk with the veteran Ian Benouis who works to connect those who served with the plant medicines. He works with the Weed for Warriors project and the Veterans for Entheogenic Therapy.

You can see their project of taking 6 soldiers with PTSD to the Amazon for Ayahuasca in 'Soldiers of the Vine':

You can see him in the documentary 'From Shock to Awe' and on the Viceland episode 'Stoned Vets' and follow his blog, the Psychedelic Musalman.

"Ask the green plants of the earth & they'll teach you."

-Job 12:8

Here is the donations page link for Lorenzo.

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Lex Pelger on Psymposia's Blue Dot Tour

PROGRAM NOTES:

Date these stories were recorded: April 15, 2017

Today's podcast features the Psymposia Stories from Boulder, CO. A wide-range of people gathered under Naropa University to share their personal tales.

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Guest speaker: Dr. Rachel Harris

PROGRAM NOTES:

Date this lecture was recorded: May 2017

Today we feature the second of two interviews with Rachel Harris, author of Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety. In an earlier episode in the Salon2 series, we heard Rachel in her very professional mode, every bit the Ph.D. that she is. In this episode of the salon we get to experience another side of Rachel, the everyday human side. Not that we don't get the benefit of her extensive background, research, and practical experience, but in this enjoyable conversation between her and our own Shonagh Home that is more like an everyday conversation between two long time friends. Even if you think that you know all about Rachel's new book, you won't want to miss this podcast.

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Shonagh Home

Shonagh Home is a shamanic therapist, teacher, writer and poet. Her specialized private sessions and retreats are probing and revelatory, assisting clients to break chronic, self-defeating patterns, and move into empowered personal sovereignty. Shonagh is an international public speaker on the subject of visionary shamanic-spirit medicine, a voice for stewardship of the honeybees, and a teacher on the subject of Traditional Foods. She is author of the books, ‘Ix Chel Wisdom: 7 Teachings from the Mayan Sacred Feminine,’ ‘Love and Spirit Medicine,’ ‘Poetic Whispers from the Green Realms,’ and ‘Honeybee Wisdom: A Modern Melissa Speaks.’

Website: www.shonaghhome.com

Guest speaker: Stephen Gray

Stephen Gray

PROGRAM NOTES:

Date this lecture was recorded: April 2017

This week we talk with Stephen Gray, the editor & writer who pulled together the excellent collection of essays titled:

"Cannabis and Spirituality: An Explorer’s Guide to an Ancient Plant Spirit Ally"

In other vital news, if you've spent the last many years listening to Lorenzo on the Psychedelic Salon, go sign up for his Patreon site to support his work creating a postmodern form of autobiography.

And if you want a taste of what he can produce, I found his book of maxims titled 'Scattered Thoughts' to be one of the best of its kind I've ever enjoyed:

Here are three examples:

"Few activities give one such a complete sense of accomplishment and pride in a job well done than successfully completing a drug deal."

"Humans are Gaia's opposable thumbs."

"I'm a free-lance iconoclast who is just trying to make the world a little safer for anarchy."

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Guest speaker: Terence McKenna

Permutation City by Greg Egan

PROGRAM NOTES:

Date this lecture was recorded: August 11 &13, 1998

[NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna

"There is no closure. All ideology is now exposed as an adolescent response to being. If the 20th Century taught us anything, it taught us the toxic nature of ideology."

"There is a need to abandon ideology, which is really a postmodern position, and it's very uncomfortable. "The absence of closure is a post-juvenile stance toward being that few people in the past ever lived long enough to grow comfortable with."

"Culture, as a con game, lasts long enough to keep you entranced up until sometime in midlife. If you live beyond midlife and you still are fascinated and entranced by culture chances are you're an idiot of some sort."

"I was passionate about ideology in my youth. I had most of them."

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Permutation City: A Novel by Greg Egan

Guest speakers: Various

PROGRAM NOTES:

Date this lecture was recorded: April 13, 2017

Here's our next set of stories from the Blue-Dot tour's stop in a library of Austin, Texas.

Support Psymposia on Patreon to keep the events coming together and the podcast episodes flowing...

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Guest speaker: Terence McKenna

Esalen - Big Sur, California

PROGRAM NOTES:

Date this lecture was recorded: August 11, 1998

"Novelty theory has always said as the universe ages it becomes more and more complicated. Period." -Terence McKenna

In today's podcast Terence McKenna talks about one of his most abiding interests, the increase of novelty/complexity in the universe. Along the way he also touches on psychedelics, the Esalen Institute, dark matter, and modern physics.

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Guest speaker: Dr. Rachel Harris

Lorenzo, Bryan, Lex, Mateo, & Mike on the Blue Dot Tour stop in San Diego

PROGRAM NOTES:

We sit down with Dr. Rachel Harris who collected countless anecdotes of people's work with ayahuasca and condensed them into the excellent book:

Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety.

If you enjoy the work of Psymposia, come join the Blue Dot Tour or consider supporting our Patreon.

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Guest speaker: Terence McKenna

PROGRAM NOTES:

Date this lecture was recorded: August 10, 1998

[NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.]

"This always comes up in the discussion about are psychedelics spiritual. Or is it legitimate and coherent to talk about psychedelics as a part of a spiritual path, or a moral path, or a path to enlightenment. I've always said I wasn't ready to make that claim."

"The strange thing about the spiritual quest, or the quest for understanding whether it's spiritual or not, is how endangered it is by answers, as I said, by closure."

"The truth doesn't require your cooperation to exist, but illusion does."

"Bad trips make bad sex look like no problem, which is an amazing thing to achieve."

"It's very hard not to be a creature of your own time."

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Nick Sand on the Salon

Nick Sand Obituary

Lorenzo's Patreon Site

Guest speaker: Various

PROGRAM NOTES:

Date this lecture was recorded: April 11, 2017

Today's program features some stories that the Psymposia Team recorded in Athens, Georgia on their Blue Dot Tour.

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