Psychedelics Today

In this episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to explore psychedelic integration. They cover different frameworks, resources and benefits of integration and coaching services.

3 Key Points:

1. Integration is commonly confused as post-session only, but it includes pre-session, self care, and really begins at the point you decide to engage in self-work.
2. It is important to remember the GPA framework when determining where you are at in the integration process, G - grounding, P - processing, A - action.
3. Psychedelics Today offers many resources to assist with the integration process; Navigating Psychedelics Online Course (and Live Course), Coaching and Integration Calls, and books, Trip Journal and Integration Workbook.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes Updates

• Kyle will be attending the ACISTE Conference this November
  • He is speaking and doing a breakout session with Michelle Hobart
  • Kyle is going to present on using technology for support with spiritual emergence
• Kyle and Joe will not be offering any major workshops until spring.
• They will be attending a conference in Exeter UK - Psychedelics and Philosophy

Psychedelic Integration

• Kyle says his near death experience shows up in his life everyday
• Integration is not only post session, it is also pre-session
• Integration, at its root means bringing parts together into wholeness
• Joe says you don't need support to do integration, although it is helpful
• Kyle's analogy of a psychedelic experience as a big hallway with a lot of doors, and a ton of magical stuff, even scary monsters, are coming through the doors and wandering through the halls
  • The goal is to realize and say "this is a part of me" and learn to be okay with all of the stuff in the hall
• Self care works until it doesn't, and that is when integration comes in

Integration Framework

• Kyle uses a framework and asks, what is your GPA?
  • G - grounding, post session, how are we getting re-connected to ourselves?
  • P - processing, once energy feels stable and centered, how can we process the material? It could mean journaling, therapy, body or somatic work, breathwork, yoga, etc.
  • A - action, moving it forward, breaking the leanings down into goals of things to work on
  • Kyle says that these things do not need to be done in order necessarily, but its a good framework to check in after an experience and see where you're at
• Joe reminds listeners of 'pre-hab', that preparation can make a world of a difference and weigh a lot more than post work in a lot of cases
• "Life is integration, call your mom, pay your rent." - Joe
• Joe mentions the quote that "the opposite of addiction is connection"
• Climate change can bring up a lot of existential dread, the connection piece, and other topics can be addressed with psychedelic integration

Resources

• The Psychedelics Today, Navigating Psychedelics Course is a great way to learn more about integration
• We offer two books, the Trip Journal and the Integration Workbook
• We also offer Psychedelic Integration coaching calls and services
• You don't need an integration coach all the time, but for someone to just be there helps
• If you have a retreat planned, integration and coaching can really help mitigate the risks
• Integration within the psychedelic community is somewhat understood
  • Kyle says he gets tons of emails asking for medicine sessions
  • Psychedelic Integration and coaching services do not include medicine or guiding or providing of medicine, its simply pre and post session guidance
  • Psychedelics Today does not suggest underground or illegal psychedelic sessions/therapy and makes a significant effort to be ignorant of underground work, there are legal options to choose from

Links

Psychedelics Today

About Kyle

Kyle's interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle's life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, "Stanislav Grof's Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences," and the other one which he co-created, "The History of Psychedelics."

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle's clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

About Joe

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

In this episode, Joe and Kyle sit down to cover highlights from the Horizons Conference. In the show, they discuss the presentations and topics they heard at the conference.

3 Key Points:

1. Joe and Kyle attended Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics Conference in NYC, it is a forum that examines the role of psychedelic drugs and plant medicines in science, medicine, culture and spirituality.
2. Carl Hart gave a compelling talk; Dispelling the Lies that the Psychedelic Community believes about Drugs. Greater than 80% of the effects of drugs used are positive.
3. Another popular topic was on the economics around psychedelics, and discussion on companies trying to monopolize on psychedelics.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes Horizons

• Kyle mentions he loves to attend because it's a great social event to connect with others interested or involved in the psychedelic field
• Kyle says the videos of the talks from the conference will be released soon
• They presented neuro-imaging data

5-MEO-DMT

• Dr. Alan Davis did a talk on 5-MEO-DMT and its challenges
  • People have a hard time letting go into the experience because its so fast and overwhelming
• He talked about a term, reactivation, similar to flashbacks that happen between 1-2 weeks after the experience
  • People were reporting it as positive experiences, 80% of people enjoyed the reactivations
• He did say that there were some bad players in the 5-MEO-DMT space
  • There is no control in the dosing in underground facilitation
  • A lot of people eyeball their dosage in 5-MEO-DMT
  • Joe suggests to buy a milligram scale

Carl Hart

• Carl Hart did a talk; Dispelling the Lies that the Psychedelic Community believes about drugs
  • Greater than 80% of the effects of drugs used are positive
• PCP is a psychedelic drug, but the psychedelic community chooses not to own it
• Ketamine was derived from PCP
• Hamilton Morris said that no drug is bad, it comes down to the dose and how its being used
  • Poison can be a medicine, and medicine can be a poison, it all depends on dose
• No drug should be illegal, drug scheduling should just go away
• Some states are starting to ban private prisons
• Joe says the drug war is the war on race, the war on class, etc
  • Joe suggests looking up the Portugal drug law; less overdoses, less HIV, less incarceration, etc
• Kyle mentions that in some cultures they would drink alcohol to get into a trance state and dance around all night and then chill for 3 days afterward because they would all be recovering from the hangover

Talks and Topics

• Shelby and Madison, co founders from Doubleblind Magazine did a talk
• Fiona Misham did a talk on the use of psychedelics for festivals and fun
  • She talked about having on-site drug testing facilities and how they heighten safety
  • In 2018 in Europe the MDMA contents were tested at 168milligrams
  • 1 in 5 substances are mis-sold
  • 1 in 20 MDMA samples were long lasting N-ethylpentylone, a drug that keeps you up for 3 days straight
• There was also an Economics panel
  • Kyle says it was a heavy and hot debate
  • There was a lot of conversation on companies making money on psychedelics
  • There was worry from some on Compass Pathways monopolizing on psychedelics
  • Kyle says big and fast growth can be dangerous for mental health
  • It's possible that these companies will just push for results to pay off the investment than to really take the time to have slow meaningful sessions and include the therapeutic model
  • When therapists have more congruence with their client, they get better results

Links

Website

About Kyle

Kyle's interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle's life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, "Stanislav Grof's Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences," and the other one which he co-created, "The History of Psychedelics."

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle's clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

About Joe

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

In this episode, Joe interviews Cody Swift from the Riverstyx Foundation. In the show, they talk about Peyote and the troubles for Native Americans and their church not having access and preservation of Peyote.

3 Key Points:

1. RiverStyx is a small family foundation that funds projects that demonstrate the potential for healing and beauty. RiverStyx has funded the preservation of land to protect the sacred Peyote plant.
2. The Portugal Model shows that decriminalization works. Portugal faced unprecedented overdoses and drug abuse, typically with heroine, and when they turned to decriminalization and treatment, overdoses and incarceration dropped significantly to almost none.
3. The Native American churches have held onto their ceremonial practices very tightly, and they struggle to find legal and sustainable access to Peyote, their sacred plant medicine.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes About Cody and RiverStyx Foundation

• RiverStyx is a small family foundation
  • Cody's grandfather was the CEO of UPS, and before his grandmother passed, she put a large share of the stock into a small family foundation
  • Cody and his father took their quarter of the Foundation and created RiverStyx
  • "How do you use a million and a half dollars a year for remarkable good?" - Cody
• He fell into philanthropy along with the burden/blessing of making decisions to change the world with a lot of money
• He started LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion)
  • It is a program that aims to help those struggling with addiction rather than punishing them with prison time

The Portugal Model

• In the early 2000's, Eric Schlosser's book, Reefer Madness Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market eluded to Portugal having decriminalized all drugs
• Portugal faced unprecedented overdoses and drug abuse, typically with heroine
  • They realized that they couldn't arrest their country out of the drug addiction problem, so they turned to decriminalization and treatment
  • They de-stigmatized treatment and drug users didn't have to feel ashamed and use drugs in the shadows
  • This lowered HIV rates to almost nothing
  • It was highly successful
• "Not everyone needs drugs, but not everyone should be at risk to go to jail if they get caught with them." - Joe
  • Joe encourages psychedelically inclined folks to look deeper into harm reduction and drug decriminalization
  • "Let's provide these people safe access to a clean supply where they can stabilize again" - Cody
• Joe mentions a book by Jeremy Narby, Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge, Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
• The drug war is causing danger to the plants
  • Cody says, if cane syrup was made illegal because it is killing people, we wouldn't ban the growth of corn, because it is sacred and used for so many other things
• "Jail is one of the biggest problems for mushroom users" - Joe
  • Joe mentions that he was a little frustrated that Michael Pollan was able to take mushrooms and not go to jail, but the average person could go to jail
  • Cody says that he highly respects Michael Pollan and what he has done for the psychedelic revolution, and that he thinks that Pollan wouldn't want anyone to go to jail for this
  • People like Michael Pollan and Tim Ferriss have done a tremendous job securing funding for Psychedelic Research

Peyote

• Native American people had always been close to Cody's heart
• As a philanthropist, he didn't know where to begin
• There is a myriad of problems facing Native American communities
  • About 5 years ago, it just came into consciousness
  • He got connected to Sandor of the Native American church
  • He learned about ceremony and it became absolutely clear that he had to be a part of it
  • It was an unclear path on how to support the community in the beginning, there was no 501C-3, there were no other philanthropists, the community is so large
• "How to support them in the continuance and empowerment of their using of a highly potent and healing substance to treat communities that have suffered so much, that was the key question" - Cody
  • Looking at the threat and endangerment of the Peyote plant was the most important part of securing the preservation of this sacred plant
  • Synthetic Mescaline is difficult to access and expensive

Ceremony

• It's hard to track the ancient original threats to the traditions
• The Native American churches have held onto the ceremonial practices very tightly
• It's important that white people don't just come in and tweak the ceremony
• The average life expectancy for Native Americans is only in their 50s
• They have gone through so much suffering, and they are very awake, sensitive people that are holding this culture and practice close to them
• Alcoholism is one of the largest problems in Native American communities, and Peyote has shown to be a highly tangible benefit and cure for alcoholism

Preservation

• It has taken over 4 years to begin building these alliances
• Riverstyx and Bronners have been the only sources of funding, they need more
• Through this, they purchased 605 acres of land for peyote preservation in Texas
  • 600 acres may not solve the Peyote crisis, but it is a start and has opened the doors to connect with other farmers that has now led to 12,000 acres dedicated to peyote preservation
  • This is to return sovereignty and control to the Native
  • After the land was purchased, they had a pilgrimage with the Navajo
• Peyote is God to them, it's their connection to the spiritual realm
• Native Americans have resisted acculturation and stuck to their ways, that is their strength

Links

Email: [email protected]

Website

About RiverStyx

RiverStyx Foundation attempts to lessen human suffering caused by misguided social policy and stigma, while advocating enhanced opportunities for healing, growth, and transformation in such areas as drug policy, criminal justice, and end-of-life care. The Riverstyx Foundation believes in the human potential for healing, growth, and transformation. The Riverstyx Foundation works to provide a bridge to the relinquished parts of ourselves, our society, and our ecology, to ease those fears and prejudices by funding projects that demonstrate the potential for healing and beauty, when life is embraced in its fullest expression.

In this episode, Joe sits down with Jordan and Lou from Mycology Now, a company that makes and sells spore syringes for microscopy use. In the show, they talk about the start of Mycology Now, the culture change caused by psychedelics, and personal stories on how psychedelics changed their lives.

3 Key Points:

1. Mycology Now is a company that produces premium spores for microscopy use. The goal is to spread knowledge about mycology, one spore at a time.
2. We are living in an age of information that has never been experienced before, people have the tools to break the stigma on their own just by educating themselves.
3. Psychedelics are becoming a culture change agent, more and more people are becoming accepting of psychedelics, and psychedelics are helping people come together to create positive change.

Support the show

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes Mycology Now

• Jordan and Lou are co-owners and creators of Mycology Now
  • The company runs out of Florida
• Mycology Now is a company that sells spores for microscopy
• They have two locations in Denver
• The mission of the company is to spread spores and knowledge
• Lou shares how his interest in mycology began
  • He says it began with his struggle with depression and suicidal tendencies
  • Psilocybin had ended up being the only thing that helped with the struggle, the depression was completely erased
• Jordan shares his story
  • His mother was in a relationship when he was about 10 years old with an abusive man
  • This man abused narcotics, opioids
  • He was abusive mentally, physically and emotionally
  • He grew up being convinced that he wasn't worthy of love, and he blamed himself
  • About 2 years ago, he discovered mushrooms, and was able to go into the painful parts of his childhood and forgive himself and heal from his trauma
  • "Although negative things did happen to me, and to my family, I was not the cause of it, and I should not have to carry that around with me." - Jordan
  • He wants to do everything in his power to bring that to the rest of the world

Shattering the Stigma

• One thing that they have noticed about the younger generation is that they are way more open and have way more acceptance of psychedelics and an interest in self care and mental health
• "We are living in an age of information that has never been experienced before, people have the tools to break the stigma on their own just by educating themselves." - Jordan
• Joe mentions that in Colorado, psychedelics are a bit normalized to have conversation about
  • In Florida, the median age is 55, so there is more of a challenge because people that age grew up in the taboo time of psychedelics

The start of Mycology Now

• It organically grew into a website
  • Lou says it was an entity that grew on its own
• Joe predicts that in 2020, we are about to see the Psilocybin movement really take off
• Joe brings up the Paul Stamets Stack, which is Cubensis, Lions Mane and Niacin
  • There are testimonials about auditory changes that you can measure, you can increase your ability to hear frequencies
  • They bring up an example of a deaf man being able to hear the waves of the ocean for the first time after practicing the Stamet's stack

Psychedelics as a Culture Change agent

• Some people say its the worst time in history, and other people say this is the best time in history
• There is a hunger of more digestible ways of receiving information
• Psychedelics can help us understand the impermanence of things
• Lou brings up that Paul Staments and Dennis McKenna were the catalysts to his understanding of mycology
• Jordan says that his inspiration and influence came from people at music festivals
  • People are very open and authentic when on psychedelics
  • Meeting real people with real lives who had profound change in their lives because of psychedelics are his major sources of inspiration

Psilocybin for Cancer and Depression

• Lou's sister was diagnosed with Metastatic breast cancer with a double mastectomy and was diagnosed with depression afterward
• After talking about the health benefits, she took psilocybin, and laid down and disconnected with her body
  • Afterward, she was able to come out of it and talk about her ease with death
  • The experience felt like death itself, and having felt what death might feel like, she no longer experiences depression about her cancer

Final Fun Fact

• Johns Hopkins psilocybin study on smoking cessation
  • 80% of people were abstinent from smoking cigarettes on a 6 month followup
  • Those people smoked an average of 19 cigarettes per day for an average of 31 years of their life

Links

Website Instagram

About Mycology Now

Mycology Now is a humble small business dedicated to spreading awareness. They are a company that makes and sells spore syringes for microscopy use. Their Mushroom Spore prints and syringes speak for themselves; always having a heavy spore count.

In this episode, Kyle joins in conversation with Dr. Daniela Peluso, Cultural Anthropologist and Associate Director at Chacruna. In the show, they discuss guidelines for the awareness of against sexual abuse in Ayahuasca ceremony.

3 Key Points:

1. Ayahuasca settings bring together shamans and participants, and with the increasing occurrence of such encounters, there is an alarming rate of incidences where shamans make sexual advances toward participants during or following ceremonies.
2. Ayahuasca is a commonly used substance for seducing participants looking for healing, whom then return from their retreats needing additional healing from sexual abuse.
3. This guideline reviews some of the key behaviors to look out for and ways to prepare before attending an Ayahuasca retreat to avoid and protect oneself against sexual abuse.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes Daniela

• Daniela has a PhD in Anthropology
• She was living with Indinenous people in Amazonia
  • She conducted field work in the Amazonian regions of Peru over the last two decades, particularly Ese Eja
• She is on the board of Directors at Chacruna's Institute for sexual abuse
  • She wrote an article on Ayahuasca and was noticed

Guidelines

1. There was an initiative that made a guideline for doing Ayahuasca but it was held back because there are so many different ways ceremony can be performed and it wasn't accurate
2. Drinking with friends is wise
3. Drinking with experienced women or a couple is another wise move Abuse mainly happens to women but it does happen to men as well There is a higher chance for a person to speak up when they have someone they know and trust there with them Ayahuasca tourism is why sexual abuse is such a problem When someone doesn't know that touch is out of the norm in ceremony, they might accept it because they were never informed that it's wrong They may think that being touched sexually is just a part of the ceremony, and it's not AyaAdvisors and Tripadvisor are both decent resources for reviews on Ayahuasca centers/ceremonial retreats Unless something goes terribly wrong, you will usually get good reviews Places also change over time
4. It's not necessary for healers to touch intimate parts of your body or any area to which you do not consent There are forms of healing where the body is touched, so it's important for the person to make known what is okay and not okay from the start
5. Curaciones, Sopladas and Limpiezas do not require you to remove your clothes If a shaman removes clothing, that may be a warning sign because that is not a part of tradition
6. Look out for warning signs that a healers intentions with you might be sexual When healers start to talk about how they aren't married or that they can give you 'special treatment' or that sexual or 'love magic' is necessary for healing, that is a warning sign Use common sense and draw the line immediately if anything sexual comes up
7. Sexual Intercourse between healer and patient during ceremonies or directly after the ceremony is not acceptable in Ayahuasca tradition
8. Sexual intercourse with a healer does not give you special power or energy
9. Consider cultural differences and local behavioral norms when interacting with native healers, letting go of ethnocentrism Having an understanding of what is culturally normal is important
10. Consider cultural differences and local clothing customs
11. Protect your personal space, physically and spiritually Each person has a right to know their body and know what feels right and wrong to them No means no
12. Be wary if healers offer psychoactive substances other than those used during ceremonies
13. He is a Shaman, not a Saint! There is a lot more "I am a Shaman" these days, where it used to be more of "I am not a Shaman" Ayahuasca tourism definitely romanticized what being a Shaman really is
14. If violation occurs, get support People should speak up as quickly as they are able to, vocally or physically "There is no need to suffer in silence" - Daniela
15. Beware of what might appear to be consensual sex It has a lot to do with having the same form of communication, trust, and power dynamics
16. Beware of getting romantically involved
17. If you are aware of or witness sexual abuse, speak up

Final Thoughts

"Individuals have to accept that Ayahuasca has become a business and an industry as much as it is a spiritual practice, and that it includes the trappings of capitalism like exploitation and inequality." - Daniela

Links

Website

Chacruna.net

Email: [email protected]

About Daniela Peluso, PhD

Daniela Peluso is a cultural anthropologist whose current research focuses on indigenous Amazonian communities. She has worked over the last two decades in Lowland South America, mostly with communities in in the Peruvian and Bolivian Amazon. She is actively involved in various local efforts on issues relating to health, gender, indigenous urbanization and land-rights and works in close collaboration with indigenous and local organizations as reflected in her publications. She also specializes on the anthropology of finance. She received her PhD in 2003 from Columbia University and is a senior lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Kent. She is an Associate Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and on the board of the Society of Lowland South America (SALSA) and People and Plants International (PPI).

In this episode, Kyle interviews Laura Northrup, Marriage and Relationship Somatic Psychotherapist and creator of the podcast, Inside Eyes; an audio series about people using psychedelics to heal from sexual trauma.

www.psychedelicstoday.com

In this episode, Kyle and Joe interview Ben Sessa, a Consultant Psychiatrist. Ben comes on the show to talk about preliminary results from the first ever, MDMA assisted therapy for alcohol use disorder (AUD).

3 Key Points:

1. Ben Sessa plays a role in leading the current MDMA assisted therapy study for alcohol use disorder, and shares preliminary results.
2. In the current stage, out of the first 12 patients, 2 have turned back to drinking, 5 have stayed completely dry and another 5 who have had a drink or two but have not relapsed back to their typical levels of consumption.
3. Most people with a long term substance addiction have a history of trauma. MDMA can help people feel safe, in order to work through and heal trauma.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal Integration Workbook

Show Notes Preliminary Results

• They had 13 people in the study, and they took data on 4 people
• The first caveat in these results is that there was no blinding and no placebo in this study
  • There is no way to tell that it was solely the drug that resulted in the effects
• In terms of tolerability, everyone preferred it to other treatment, there were no bad reactions to the MDMA, there were no negative reactions, it was a total success in terms of tolerability
• In the current stage, out of the first 12 patients, 2 have turned back to drinking, 5 have stayed completely dry and another 5 who have had a drink or two but have not relapsed back to their typical levels of consumption
  • They did a similar study previous to this one except without the MDMA and they had 11 patients, 9 of them went back to their full level of consumption
• They chose alcohol use disorder because it's so difficult to treat
• All patients are recruits from local drug and alcohol services
  • Ben picks them up after they have detoxed, after they have been cured of the physical dependence, but when they have yet to be cured of the psychological dependence
• They receive 2 dosing days within their 8 week therapy (usually weeks 3 and 6)
  • They do 125mg and then half that size dose 2 hours later, which sustains the high
• Ben mentions that recruitment is difficult, a lot of people have a drinking problem, but they can't have patients that are depressed, suicidal, pregnant, epileptic, etc.

Future for the Study

• Up until next March, they are continuing to take in new patients for the study to have more data
• The next step is to have a randomized control study
• This current study is sponsored by Imperial College of London
  • It's not a MAPS sponsored study, it's the first non MAPS, MDMA study
• The main papers, with all the data are over a year and a half away from publishing

Addiction and Trauma

• "MDMA addiction is as rare as a hen with teeth." - Ben
• "Most people with a long term substance addiction have a history of trauma." - Ben
• Trauma and PTSD is highly treatment resistant
• There are certain drugs that inhibit fear response, such as alcohol, heroin, etc
  • They make you forget the pain but you can't work with them and do therapy with them, with MDMA you can
• MDMA can help people feel safe, in order to work through and heal trauma
• "We are all the products of our attachment relationships." - Ben

Breaking Convention

• This past year was the 5th one
• There were 1300 attendees from all over the world
• What's wonderful about Breaking Convention is how multidisciplinary it is
  • There's the guy in the gray suit in one room talking about high level neuroscience and a hippie with dreads in the other room talking about the spirits that live in the Salvia leaves
  • Ben says they work really hard to make that balance work
• There's a lot of debate and conflict in the psychedelic movement right now,
  • Breaking Convention is very important for creating space for this debate

Looking ahead

• Ben is looking into opening a clinic
• He mentions academia is not his area of study, he is a clinician, but this research is an excuse to treat patients

Links

Breaking Convention

About Ben Sessa

Ben Sessa is a consultant psychiatrist in adult addictions, working part-time at Addaction in Weston-Super-Mare and is senior research fellow at Bristol, Cardiff and Imperial College London Universities, where he is currently taking time off clinical medical practice to study towards a PhD in MDMA Psychotherapy. He has specialist training as a child and adolescent psychiatrist and is interested in the developmental trajectory from child maltreatment to adult mental health disorders. Dr Sessa's joint interests in psychotherapy, pharmacology and trauma have lead him towards researching the subject of drug-assisted psychotherapy using psychedelic adjuncts. He is the author of two books exploring psychedelic medicine; The Psychedelic Renaissance (2012) and To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic (2015) and is currently conducting research with Imperial College London and Cardiff universities studying the potential role for MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD and alcohol dependence syndrome. Dr Sessa is outspoken on lobbying for change in the current system by which drugs are classified in the UK, believing a more progressive policy of regulation would reduce the harms of recreational drug use. He is a co-founder and director of the UK's Breaking Convention conference.

In this episode, Joe and Kyle interview Rachel Anderson and James Franzo, founders of the EDELIC Center for Ethnobotanicals. In the show, they talk about the benefits of creating a healing practice using botanicals such as Kratom and the need to decriminalize all plants.

3 Key Points:

1. EDELIC is a non-profit in Eugene, Oregon that began as a public lending library that has grown to a community of information, events, and conservatory of psychoactive botanicals.
2. Kratom can sometimes get a bad rep, commonly thought of as an opioid. But Kratom is not an opioid, it just affects the opioid receptors in the brain, respiration never changes, and it's actually in the same category as the coffee family, so it gives a boost of energy.
3. There is not an economic incentive that puts the botanical research on the same level as synthetic research. At EDELIC, the goal is to create scientific evidence that validates citizen-led research, authentic scientific information, and create a scientifically valid, open science and praxis oriented, non-commodified access pathway, to and from the direct human & botanicals/fungi relationship while protecting the bounty emerging from therein.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes EDELIC

• EDELIC is a non-profit in Eugene Oregon that has been operating for 4 years
  • They started as a public lending library
  • They put on a weekly discussion group and host events
  • What started as a library, grew to a conservatory to protect plants, and now includes research

Conservatory

• They have 15-16 psychoactive species, such as Salvia, Kratom, San-Pedro, etc.
  • Volunteers are able to help out in the garden
• They are interested in growing the conservatory to have different climates that cater to each individual plant

Events

• They have done both a CBD event and Kratom event, and have brought the plants from the conservatory
• The events that they have been holding are based on community desire for more information on those plants

Kratom

• Kratom has the potential to prevent deaths in the opioid crisis with less initial stigma than ibogaine, psilocybin, etc
• The symptoms of withdrawal from Kratom are similar to withdrawal from coffee
• Kratom is a plant and the benefits can be harnessed along with a practice
  • when habits are formed, a person doesn't need to have a dependency on the Kratom
  • Kyle mentions that creating a practice is a foreign concept to some people, they think their healing comes solely from the substance and not the practice
• The best way to take it is in tea form, and let all the intelligence centers of the body take the medicine in
  • James says he hears news and TED Talks on Kratom tinctures and extracts, and he thinks that leans Kratom toward that abusive behavior again
  • Using it continuously and re-upping on the go makes it less of a practice
  • "In all cases, were encouraging folks to focus on the whole botanical, letting the intelligence of the body to form the relationship with the plant will keep you safer than going in the other direction" - James
• The goal is to use the Kratom to take away the pain to a point where the individual has more energy and to say, "what can I do to improve my health in this moment?"
  • That may look less like taking 100% of the pain away and taking it away just enough to have the energy to create a practice of healing without the reliance on another substance
• Its generally safe, it has a predictable response in individuals, and it is legal
• Kratom is not an opioid, it just effects the opioid receptors in the brain, respiration never changes, and its in the same category as the coffee family, so it gives a boost of energy
• "Botanicals, integration practice, and realizing our internal intelligence centers can really influence and inform our decision making process" - James
• Kratom can be tested, and there are industry standards similar to how cannabis is tested
  • Kratom is highly unregulated and you are taking a risk when not testing it for quality

Decriminalize Nature

• In 1994, the World Trade Organization introduced this piece of legislation that says in US Patent Law, minor scientific alterations to natural botanical plants can be patented
• Patent law protects scientific adaptations to botanicals, and therefore, the US claimed that third world countries owe us royalties for agricultural products
  • In Canada, they said to patent an indigenous plant is to steal from the third world country, and i n that case, the US owes other countries over 300 million and in pharmaceuticals, billions
  • That is why in the US, there is an urge to make money on synthetic versions of these plants
  • There is not an economic incentive that puts the botanical research on the same level as the synthetic research
• The WTO does not recognize technology or innovations by farmers, artisans or grassroots innovators that happen in a grassroots setup
• There are churches that are recognized at the federal level, they cant conduct research, but they have access to provide these plants
• "We are hoping to create scientific evidence that validates citizen-led research, authentic scientific information, and create a scientifically valid, open science and praxis oriented, non-commodified access pathway, to and from the direct human & botanicals/fungi relationship while protecting the bounty emerging from therein. – James
• Rachel notes that all funding so far has been from volunteers and donors
• "I am strongly for decriminalizing nature, it protects the indigenous, it protects nature, there is no reason someone should be criminalized for using plants" - Rachel
• There is a unique interplay between the laws at the local, state and federal level

Final Thoughts

• There is a need for people to come together, a need to not feel alone, a need to share
• If anyone is interested in starting a non-profit, Rachel and James are willing to help

Links

Website

Email: [email protected]

About Rachel Anderson

Rachel's focus is on somatic therapies and the healthy integration of plant practices. She has successfully fund-raised, planned and organized public events, hosted intentional integration practices with ethnobotanicals, created artwork, designed integration journals, met with the 4J school board to discuss drug awareness education in classrooms. Rachel brings power, stability, and genuine strength and determination to ECfES and acts as an original steward for the original ECfES vision.

About James Franzo

A 20-year journey of self-education (using what has now become a large part of the lending library we operate) inspired James to launch ECFES. Additionally, gaining experience working in the field of chemical dependency treatment and social services contributed further to his disenfranchisement with current policy and treatment modalities, and attracted him further to evidence-based approaches to drug policy reform and the mental health field in general. Specifically, potent ethnobotanical plants and mind/body methodologies for integrating them. James is also an honorably discharged military veteran, who served for six years. James has been the website content developer @ ECFES, library archivist, team builder, and steward of the original vision for ECFES, an ethnobotanical/psychedelic/entheogenic healing center under one roof.

In this episode, Joe interviews Tep, a chemical engineer and educated, psychedelic enthusiast. They dive into rich conversation regarding drug use education and creating a cohesive meaning among recreational, medical and therapeutic substance use.

3 Key Points:

1. There is a disconnect between drug education and drug use. There are a lot of people who use drugs, but not a lot of people who are educated on how to use them.
2. There is a huge advantage of isolating the property of the drug when using them for therapy. For example, using isolated psilocybin vs mushrooms.
3. Learning on site at festivals and music events may not be super successful, drug education and harm reduction may look more like preparation.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal Integration Workbook

Show Notes About Tep

• Tep listens to all sorts of music, whether that's rave style with lights, or jam bands, or a music festival with camping, or even rap and jazz
  • There is a whole spectrum of drug use in the music environment
• She points out that some people are very mindful of what and how much they are taking, and other people are just taking anything they can find, and sometimes a lot or too much
  • She started to talk to people at festivals and realized that people really didn't know about the benefits and power of psychedelics
  • There definitely is a place for harm reduction education at festivals

Drug Use Assistance Groups

• Joe brings up the Zendo project and other initiatives that help people who are having a difficult drug experience to walk them out of it
• Some festival 'families' go around and have missions to hydrate people or make sure people are having a good time
  • They aren't staff or paid to do it or anything but they do it for the good of the whole

Vision

• Learning on site may not be super successful, most festival goers have an agenda for adventure and music and not for learning at a booth or speaker
  • Drug education and harm reduction may look more like preparation
• Tep mentions Diplo doesn't allow any drug use at his shows, alcohol is the only allowed substance
  • Tep thinks that he probably doesn't know that alcohol is far worse than psychedelics and other drugs

Theraputic Use

• When someone goes and has a vacation, they have certain chemicals released in their mind, it is still therapeutic, even if it's not a psychedelic experience
• "Not only can psychedelics be fun, they can also be therapeutic." - Tep
• Tep started going to camping style festivals and started hanging out with a crowd of people 10 years older than her, where their drug use was mature and mindful and safe
  • Then when she would hang around her younger friend group again, she realized how unsafe and unmindful their drug use was
  • It led her to be more active in wanting to educate everyone on how to use drugs properly

Exotic Compounds

• Shulgin's magical half dozen includes 2CB, 2CT2, and others
• Tep mentions preference of truffles over mushrooms
• Her and Joe bring up the decrease in potency of most drugs with exposure to moisture and time and other variables

Compound Isolation

• There is a huge advantage of isolating the property of the drug when using them for therapy
  • For example, using isolated psilocybin vs mushrooms
• The therapy is just as important as the substance
• There is a way to find information in this community without getting a degree in it

About Tep

Tep is a chemical engineer who had an interest in modern psychedelic research. She is passionate about the EDM and music culture and finding new ways to educate drug users on harm reduction and drug use education.

In this unique episode, Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-H joins together in conversation with Dr. Andrew Gallimore, Author of Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game. In the show, these two Englishmen discuss Peter's critique of Dr. Gallimore's recent book.

3 Key Points:

1. Dr. Andrew Gallimore's recent book, Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game, explains how DMT provides the secret to the very structure of our reality.
2. Based on a recently published review of Andrew's book, Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-H sifts through and confronts Andrew's idea that DMT allows one access to, and existence in a hyperspatial world.
3. They discuss Peter's critique, covering topics on information, consciousness, dimensions, dreams and theory.

Support the show

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Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal Integration Workbook

Show Notes Peter's review on Alien Information Theory

• Peter mentions 3 'problems'
  • The first problem is a critique on what information is
  • The second point regards consciousness
  • The third point talks about dimensions and theories

Information

• The first problem Peter states says that the originality of the work pushes the ideas further toward art and further away from truth
  • Andrew says he is a fan of making things a work of art, and he says at the start of the book that it isn't something scientific
  • In philosophy it's called speculative metaphysics
  • "It's cliche isn't it, that science fiction eventually becomes science fact." - Peter
• Minkowski Space Time, the theory that Einstein supports, HG Wells wrote about a half a century before Minkowski wrote about it
• Peter says that a person could be defined by a set of numbers, weight, height, age, etc.
  • Andrew says that the information is the electron, and how it interacts with other information
• How do we know that there is not more to anything than that which we can know about it?
• How matter creates/is mind is a mystery

Consciousness

• Peter asks, 'does information at a high level produce subjectivity?'
  • Andrew says consciousness is fundamental
• Panpsychism holds a distinction between an aggregate and a hold-on
• Andrew says that integrated information is consciousness
  • Information doesn't emerge from consciousness, information actually is consciousness
• Andrew says that he is an idealist, he thinks that the world is structured
• Peter says that information always has to be about something
  • Andrew disagrees and says that information is substantiated
  • You could say, the fundamental digits of our reality are ran by an 'alien computer', the physics completely different than our understanding of reality
• Andrew says that the absolute self is not only aware of itself, its aware that it is aware of itself
• He also says that these ideas are all musings, all things he has thought about as possibilities
• Peter asks Andrew if he thinks brains are required for consciousness
  • Andrew says, consciousness is not a property of matter, it is an organization of things

Dimensions and Theories

• Andrew says we don't need senses to experience other worlds
  • The DMT experience is not mind dependent, it shows another reality
  • When you're dreaming, it's independent of the sensory experience, but its not entirely independent of the waking world
  • "The dream state is informed by the waking state." - Andrew
• Peter asks, 'If the brain creates dreams, why does the brain not create the DMT world?'
  • "We know how the brain learns to construct worlds, but we don't know how the brain learns to construct DMT worlds." - Andrew
• When looking at a machine elf, is he equally as able to deny his consciousness as we are able to?

Final Thoughts

• Peter concludes that Andrew is a Realist/Panthiest
• Peter and Andrew think that they don't disagree with each other, but Peter believes Andrew would have to go into extremely deep detail on all of his points in his book, and the book is thick enough as it is
• Peter agrees Andrew's book is a great narrative for mapping the DMT space
  • Andrew likes to think of it as computational idealism

Links

Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game

Peter's Review

About Dr. Andrew Gallimore

Dr. Andrew Gallimore is a computational neurobiologist, pharmacologist, chemist, and writer who has been interested in the neural basis of psychedelic drug action for many years and is the author of a number of articles and research papers on the powerful psychedelic drug, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), as well as the book Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game (April 2019). He recently collaborated with DMT pioneer Dr. Rick Strassman, author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule, to develop a pharmacokinetic model of DMT as the basis of a target-controlled intravenous infusion protocol for extended journeys in DMT space. His current interests focus on DMT as a tool for gating access to extradimensional realities and how this can be understood in terms of the neuroscience of information. He currently lives and works in Japan.

About Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-H

Dr Peter Sjöstedt-H is an Anglo-Scandinavian philosopher of mind and a metaphysician who specializes in the thought of Whitehead and Nietzsche, and in fields pertaining to panpsychism and altered states of sentience. Following his degree in Continental Philosophy at the University of Warwick, he became a Philosophy lecturer in London for six years and has now passed his PhD (on 'Pansentient Monism', examined by Galen Strawson and Joel Krueger) at the University of Exeter, where he also teaches philosophy modules and writing skills. He is now to become a postdoc fellow of the university. Peter is the author of Noumenautics , the TEDx Talker on 'psychedelics and consciousness', and he is inspiration to the inhuman philosopher Marvel Superhero, Karnak.