Psychedelics Today

Download

In this episode, Joe interviews Computational Neuro-Biologist, Dr. Andrew Gallimore, one of the world’s knowledgeable researchers on DMT. In the show they discuss DMT and the possibilities of being in an extended state of DMT, such as accessing higher dimensions and communicating with intelligent entities.

3 Key Points:

1. This reality that we are in is a lower dimensional slice of a higher dimensional structure. DMT is a technology or tool that allows us access to reach out to these higher dimensions.
2. Andrew has developed and written about the Intravenous Infusion Model, which allows a timed and steady release of DMT to induce an extended state DMT experience.
3. Extended state DMT hypothesizes that with enough time spent in the DMT space, the ‘map’ of the space would begin stabilize over time and you could develop a ‘life’ in the DMT space like we do in our waking life.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal                                              Integration Workbook

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show Notes About Andrew

• Since age 15, he was into psychedelic drugs and altered states of consciousness
  • He was at a friends house and was looking at a book called Alternative London and it had writings on different psychedelics but only a very short segment on DMT
  • His fascination grew from his yearning to learn more about DMT
• His interest turned into academic work, learning chemistry and pharmacology and he is now into learning more about the brain itself
• He is currently a Computational Neuro-Biologist

DMT

• DMT is a compound found almost everywhere in nature, highly illegal, yet highly interesting
  • Interaction with entities are common
  • All frames of reference are gone
• Andrew says that the first few times were very intense and he would come back with no way to comprehend or describe it
  • Then after a few more times he started to see the entities and have a more stable experience with more intent
• Andrew describes a very vivid experience of a man in a dark robe where he asked him “show me what you've got” and he opened his mouth and Andrew woke up a if he had seen God himself. He describes it as a shattering experience
  • These beings in the DMT experience, aren't just pointless beings in a dream, they are powerful and extremely intelligent
  • We don't have any way to comprehend the levels of intelligence in this dimensional space, we only are ever able to experience intelligence with our human capacity for what intelligence is
  • There is a sense that these beings are intelligent because they have been around for billions and billions of years or potentially infinitely

Communicating with Intelligent Entities

• He calls his book the ‘textbook of the future’
• “We are imprisoned in some kind of work of art” - Terence McKenna
• This reality is a construct or artifact of the alien intelligence or the ‘other’
• “This reality that we are in is a lower dimensional slice of a higher dimensional structure. DMT is a technology or tool that allows us access to reach out to these higher dimensions” - Andrew
• DMT is everywhere
  • “Nature is drenched in DMT, but it takes a high level of sophisticated intelligence to identify it, isolate it, and discover a means of using it as a tool” - Dennis McKenna
  • “In order to communicate with these beings, we need to bring the right tools to the table” - Andrew
• Target Controlled Intravenous Infusion Model - using the same model for DMT as the anesthesia model
  • It uses administration of a short acting drug using a mathematical model to control the release
  • “We are not just passive receivers of information but we are actively constructing our world from moment to moment.” - Andrew
• Continuity Hypothesis of Dreaming - it says that dreaming is continuous with our waking life, the brain constructs the world when you're asleep in the same way that it does when you're awake

Extended State DMT (DMTx)

• Our brains are constantly updating its model of reality, so if you put someone through the DMT space for months at a time, that person’s model of reality would completely shift
  • This idea has been completely unexplored
  • The hypothesis is that an extended time in the DMT space would begin to make that space more stable over time, the goal being to live in the DMT space as you would in this reality of waking life
• The measurement of DMT in the blood with Ayahuasca is 1/5th the level of DMT in the blood as a breakthrough DMT experience
• Andrew hasn't heard of anyone trying the Intravenous Infusion Model yet
• There is this space that exists one quantum away, and it is accessible by everyone (technologically, not necessarily legally)
  • Inter-dimensional citizenship is close at hand

Links

Book
Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game

Website

Instagram

Twitter 

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.

Download

In this episode, hosts Joe and Kyle interview music artist, East Forest. Influenced by psychedelic Psilocybin sessions, Trevor Oswalt, the mind behind the project, produces soundtracks for psychedelic journeywork sessions.

3 Key Points:

1. East Forest is a music artist and producer with a mission to create a playground of doors for listeners to open and to explore their inner space.
2. His recent project, 'Ram Dass', captures the words of wisdom of Ram Dass and pairs it with sound, a project with four chapters that will release throughout 2019.
3. Ayahuasca is connected to the Icaros, but psilocybin doesn't have a music ritual. His goal with his project, Music for Mushrooms: A soundtrack for the psychedelic practitioner, is to bring ritual to psilocybin journeywork.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal Integration Workbook

Show Notes About (Trevor Oswalt) East Forest

• East Forest is a 10 years and running music project that unfolded exploring into sharing and medicine circles and developed into a public interface
• Its based around introspection and tools for people to use
• Between retreats, podcasts and live performance, Trevor is inviting people in to assist with their journeys

Ram Dass

• Trevor is working on a 4 part record project with Ram Dass
  • He had the idea to do a record with spiritual teachers
• Ram Dass had a stroke 20 years ago, and he got Aphasia from it
  • It would take him 15-30 minutes to answer a question, so Trevor would put it to the music and put Ram's words on the pauses in the music
  • His wisdom and story would come alive in the songs
• The first time Ram Dass did psilocybin was with Timothy Leary and he said it changed his life
• Ram Dass talks about the 'witness consciousness' a viewpoint of things from the soul
  • It is a place where you can love everyone and tell your truth and accept your dark thoughts
  • You can't get rid of your dark thoughts, but you can learn to live with them

Journeywork Soundtrack

• Music for Mushrooms: A soundtrack for the psychedelic practitioner
  • Its a 5 hour playlist for journeywork that guides you and helps you do the work
  • He made it live during his own journeywork session over a weekend the previous summer
  • He says he is influenced by Keith Jarrett, who does long form pianist pieces
• Joe says trance in music is under explored
• Trevor describes a trip that he had where he took mushrooms and listened to his own (first) album that he made
  • "It was as if I created this album without knowing what I was creating. My soul had tricked my ego into doing it so I could use it as a tool in that moment to transform into something new." - Trevor
  • There is a lot of music, science, and arts that are inspired by psychedelics
  • He describes its a symbiotic relationship between psychedelics and music
  • That's the thing about art, you put it out there and everyone puts their own meaning to it
• His first experience with psychedelics was in college with mushrooms
  • He was outside at a festival and it was a very transcendent, blissful experience

Retreats

• He attends retreats where there is either yoga, wilderness hikes or mainly revolved around music
  • He does a retreat using music at Esalen with his partner, Marisa Radha Weppner
  • They are doing another retreat in June at Esalen during the summer solstice and he will also be releasing the third chapter of the Ram Dass Record
  • Next Esalen Retreat

Sound

• He went to Vassar college in New York and there were pianos all over the school, he learned how to play simple songs and was shocked of how great it sounded coming to life and that fed on itself and he was hooked
  • His first album was made in iMac with pro tools and his skills developed from there
• Sound quality is critical in journeywork
• Joe's friend has mentioned that it's hard to make a living as a music creator, she goes by Living Light
• Joe also mentions a festival he attended listening to Reed Mathis and the Electric Beethoven
  • They went on a 20-30 minute talk about how the music is a ritual
• Kyle used to lead some hikes, once was with Trevor Hall and it has gotten more common to collaborate these experiences with music

Live Music

• During Ayahuasca, the shamans sing the Icaros, and the song is a part of the ritual
  • No one uses Ayahuasca recreationally, the ceremony has never been detached from the drug
  • With psilocybin, in the western culture, it's almost always only been used recreationally
  • His goal was to create a new musical tradition that would speak to our western years and make sense to us without taking from another religion and putting it to our ritual

Links

Website

About East Forest

East Forest is an American Ambient/Electronic/Contemporary Classical/Indie Pop artist from Portland, Oregon, United States. The project was created by Trevor Oswalt who derived "East Forest" from the German translation of his last name. To date he has released eight full-length albums and six EPs. East Forest's newest release, "RAM DASS" is a full length album releasing in collaboration with the acclaimed spiritual teacher. Covering topics such as dark thoughts, nature, the soul and so much more, these songs are full of inspiration. The album will release in four "chapters" throughout 2019, culminating in a full length release on August 9, 2019.

Download

In this episode, hosts Joe and Kyle interview music artist, East Forest. Influenced by psychedelic Psilocybin sessions, Trevor Oswalt, the mind behind the project, produces soundtracks for psychedelic journeywork sessions.

3 Key Points:

1. East Forest is a music artist and producer with a mission to create a playground of doors for listeners to open and to explore their inner space.
2. His recent project, ‘Ram Dass’, captures the words of wisdom of Ram Dass and pairs it with sound, a project with four chapters that will release throughout 2019.
3. Ayahuasca is connected to the Icaros, but psilocybin doesn't have a music ritual. His goal with his project, Music for Mushrooms: A soundtrack for the psychedelic practitioner, is to bring ritual to psilocybin journeywork.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal                                               Integration Workbook

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show Notes About (Trevor Oswalt) East Forest

• East Forest is a 10 years and running music project that unfolded exploring into sharing and medicine circles and developed into a public interface
• Its based around introspection and tools for people to use
• Between retreats, podcasts and live performance, Trevor is inviting people in to assist with their journeys

Ram Dass

• Trevor is working on a 4 part record project with Ram Dass
  • He had the idea to do a record with spiritual teachers
• Ram Dass had a stroke 20 years ago, and he got Aphasia from it
  • It would take him 15-30 minutes to answer a question, so Trevor would put it to the music and put Ram's words on the pauses in the music
  • His wisdom and story would come alive in the songs
• The first time Ram Dass did psilocybin was with Timothy Leary and he said it changed his life
• Ram Dass talks about the ‘witness consciousness’ a viewpoint of things from the soul
  • It is a place where you can love everyone and tell your truth and accept your dark thoughts
  • You can't get rid of your dark thoughts, but you can learn to live with them

Journeywork Soundtrack

• Music for Mushrooms: A soundtrack for the psychedelic practitioner
  • Its a 5 hour playlist for journeywork that guides you and helps you do the work
  • He made it live during his own journeywork session over a weekend the previous summer
  • He says he is influenced by Keith Jarrett, who does long form pianist pieces
• Joe says trance in music is under explored
• Trevor describes a trip that he had where he took mushrooms and listened to his own (first) album that he made
  • “It was as if I created this album without knowing what I was creating. My soul had tricked my ego into doing it so I could use it as a tool in that moment to transform into something new.” - Trevor
  • There is a lot of music, science, and arts that are inspired by psychedelics
  • He describes its a symbiotic relationship between psychedelics and music
  • That's the thing about art, you put it out there and everyone puts their own meaning to it
• His first experience with psychedelics was in college with mushrooms
  • He was outside at a festival and it was a very transcendent, blissful experience

Retreats

• He attends retreats where there is either yoga, wilderness hikes or mainly revolved around music
  • He does a retreat using music at Esalen with his partner, Marisa Radha Weppner
  • They are doing another retreat in June at Esalen during the summer solstice and he will also be releasing the third chapter of the Ram Dass Record
  • Next Esalen Retreat

Sound

• He went to Vassar college in New York and there were pianos all over the school, he learned how to play simple songs and was shocked of how great it sounded coming to life and that fed on itself and he was hooked
  • His first album was made in iMac with pro tools and his skills developed from there
• Sound quality is critical in journeywork
• Joe’s friend has mentioned that it's hard to make a living as a music creator, she goes by Living Light
• Joe also mentions a festival he attended listening to Reed Mathis and the Electric Beethoven
  • They went on a 20-30 minute talk about how the music is a ritual
• Kyle used to lead some hikes, once was with Trevor Hall and it has gotten more common to collaborate these experiences with music

Live Music

• During Ayahuasca, the shamans sing the Icaros, and the song is a part of the ritual
  • No one uses Ayahuasca recreationally, the ceremony has never been detached from the drug
  • With psilocybin, in the western culture, it's almost always only been used recreationally
  • His goal was to create a new musical tradition that would speak to our western years and make sense to us without taking from another religion and putting it to our ritual

Links

Website

About East Forest

East Forest is an American Ambient/Electronic/Contemporary Classical/Indie Pop artist from Portland, Oregon, United States. The project was created by Trevor Oswalt who derived "East Forest" from the German translation of his last name. To date he has released eight full-length albums and six EPs. East Forest’s newest release, “RAM DASS” is a full length album releasing in collaboration with the acclaimed spiritual teacher. Covering topics such as dark thoughts, nature, the soul and so much more, these songs are full of inspiration. The album will release in four “chapters” throughout 2019, culminating in a full length release on August 9, 2019.

Download

In this Bonus episode The Teafaerie and Joe Moore get into lots of great topics. Enjoy! !

The Teafaerie micro-bio(me)

The Teafaerie is a writer, flow arts teacher, ruespieler, toy inventor, app designer, street performer, party promoter, and superhero. erowid.org/columns/teafaerie

Some links

Event in Ran Rafael, CA w Tam Integration

Tickets

Mapping the Source on Erowid Carrying the Light - Audio

Telepathetic - https://www.erowid.org/columns/teafaerie/2013/02/21/telepathetic/

The Teafaerie on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/flowfaerie/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ruespieler

Download

In this Bonus episode The Teafaerie and Joe Moore get into lots of great topics. Enjoy! !

The Teafaerie micro-bio(me)

The Teafaerie is a writer, flow arts teacher, ruespieler, toy inventor, app designer, street performer, party promoter, and superhero.
erowid.org/columns/teafaerie

Some links

Event in Ran Rafael, CA w Tam Integration

Tickets

Mapping the Source on Erowid
Carrying the Light - Audio 

Telepathetic - https://www.erowid.org/columns/teafaerie/2013/02/21/telepathetic/

The Teafaerie on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/flowfaerie/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ruespieler

Download

In this episode, Joe interviews Jesse Gould, founder of Heroic Hearts Project, a non-profit doing psychedelic work with veterans. They discuss the difficulties veterans face finding healing from their PTSD in the current landscape.

3 Key Points:

1. Heroic Hearts is a project geared toward raising funds and providing resources for veterans to receive healing through Ayahuasca and other psychedelics.
2. Our current landscape of social media and government make it extremely difficult to receive donations and get veterans the help that they need. Heroic Hearts is trying to bridge the gap between PTSD and access to healing.
3. Veterans tend to feel alone in their symptoms from their experiences, so creating community and an integration plan are both really important in the healing process.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal Integration Workbook

Show Notes About Jessie

• Founder of Heroic Hearts Project
  • He found the healing potential of Ayahuasca after a week long retreat after struggling with severe anxiety after combat deployments with the army
• He was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and grew up in Florida
• Jesse graduated with an Economics Degree from Cornell

Heroic Hearts

• Heroic Hearts is trying to be the voice of veterans in the psychedelic community
  • There are very few options through the department of veteran affairs
  • The organization helps raise money to provide opportunity for veterans to access treatment such as Ayahuasca retreats
• PTSD and Addiction affect the veteran community more than the general public
• Aligning the veteran voice with the psychedelic cause is a powerful force for change
• Integration is so important, both to understand what you're trying to achieve (beforehand) and stay on that path (afterward)
• Jessie says they work very hard to make sure vets are having true healing through their Ayahuasca experiences

PTSD

• People have a common misconception around PTSD that there are these constant traumatic outbreaks, and although that can happen, there are so many people living their day to day lives and you'd never know they have PTSD but they still suffer from it
  • PTSD doesn't always come from severely traumatic events like war, it can come from other things like childhood abuse or sexual assault
• SSRIs numb the pain but don't help with any actual healing

Donations

• It's really hard to get donations
• Heroic Hearts provided financial scholarships so far to about 15 people
  • They are doing a retreat in May for another 7 veterans
• The received a grant from Ubiome to study the effects of Ayahuasca on the gut microbiome
  • There is a strong link between the stomach biome and mood
• They are coming up with do it yourself marketing campaigns to help individuals raise their own money, setting people up for success
• In a place where it's easier to get money, it's also harder to get money because so many people are creating personal fundraisers for their dog, etc.
• There are more and more large organizations helping smaller companies like Heroic Hearts with research

Community

• Breathwork can be used as a helpful bridge between patients and their PTSD
• Veterans tend to trust veterans more
  • They tend to feel alone so creating community among vets is really important
  • Psychedelics and ceremony really help vets transition out of feeling alone
• Jesse says he plans on creating local meetups and groups for vets
• He tends to send vets on retreats with friends or other vets from the same community so when they return from their retreat they have a built-in community to come back to

Heroic Hearts Project

• There is an application for vets
• There are many options to donate, all funds raised go right to the vets
• "Why is there no government funding going to the biggest breakthrough in PTSD research through the MAPS MDMA therapy? Not one cent of government money has gone to that." - Jesse
• "Why are we having to send veterans to other countries to get the mental health that they deserve?" - Jesse

Links

Website

About Jesse Gould

Jesse founded Heroic Hearts Project after attending an Ayahuasca retreat in Iquitos, Peru on February 2017. During the week long retreat he instantly saw the healing potential of the drink and knew that it could be a powerful tool in healing the mental struggles of his fellow veterans. Jesse was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and grew up in New Smyrna Beach, FL. In 2009 he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Economics. After working in investment banking for a short time he enlisted in the Army and became an Airborne Ranger for four years and three combat deployments. Most recently, he worked in finance in Tampa, FL After struggling with severe anxiety for many years, he finally decided to go to an ayahuasca retreat which has had a profoundly positive effect on his anxiety and daily life.'I know what it is like to be at the mercy of uncontrollable elements in your own head. I also know the extreme relief of finally having these elements under control. Ayahuasca provided this. We have the ability to help thousands who are suffering but we let politics and ignorance get in the way. This is unacceptable. I started this foundation because the therapy works, I will risk what I have to ensure my fellow veterans get the treatment they deserve and a new chance at life.'

Download

In this episode, Joe interviews Jesse Gould, founder of Heroic Hearts Project, a non-profit doing psychedelic work with veterans. They discuss the difficulties veterans face finding healing from their PTSD in the current landscape.

3 Key Points:

1. Heroic Hearts is a project geared toward raising funds and providing resources for veterans to receive healing through Ayahuasca and other psychedelics.
2. Our current landscape of social media and government make it extremely difficult to receive donations and get veterans the help that they need. Heroic Hearts is trying to bridge the gap between PTSD and access to healing.
3. Veterans tend to feel alone in their symptoms from their experiences, so creating community and an integration plan are both really important in the healing process.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal                                                Integration Workbook

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show Notes About Jessie

• Founder of Heroic Hearts Project
  • He found the healing potential of Ayahuasca after a week long retreat after struggling with severe anxiety after combat deployments with the army
• He was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and grew up in Florida
• Jesse graduated with an Economics Degree from Cornell

Heroic Hearts

• Heroic Hearts is trying to be the voice of veterans in the psychedelic community
  • There are very few options through the department of veteran affairs
  • The organization helps raise money to provide opportunity for veterans to access treatment such as Ayahuasca retreats
• PTSD and Addiction affect the veteran community more than the general public
• Aligning the veteran voice with the psychedelic cause is a powerful force for change
• Integration is so important, both to understand what you're trying to achieve (beforehand) and stay on that path (afterward)
• Jessie says they work very hard to make sure vets are having true healing through their Ayahuasca experiences

PTSD

• People have a common misconception around PTSD that there are these constant traumatic outbreaks, and although that can happen, there are so many people living their day to day lives and you'd never know they have PTSD but they still suffer from it
  • PTSD doesn't always come from severely traumatic events like war, it can come from other things like childhood abuse or sexual assault
• SSRIs numb the pain but don't help with any actual healing

Donations

• It's really hard to get donations
• Heroic Hearts provided financial scholarships so far to about 15 people
  • They are doing a retreat in May for another 7 veterans
• The received a grant from Ubiome to study the effects of Ayahuasca on the gut microbiome
  • There is a strong link between the stomach biome and mood
• They are coming up with do it yourself marketing campaigns to help individuals raise their own money, setting people up for success
• In a place where it's easier to get money, it's also harder to get money because so many people are creating personal fundraisers for their dog, etc.
• There are more and more large organizations helping smaller companies like Heroic Hearts with research

Community

• Breathwork can be used as a helpful bridge between patients and their PTSD
• Veterans tend to trust veterans more
  • They tend to feel alone so creating community among vets is really important
  • Psychedelics and ceremony really help vets transition out of feeling alone
• Jesse says he plans on creating local meetups and groups for vets
• He tends to send vets on retreats with friends or other vets from the same community so when they return from their retreat they have a built-in community to come back to

Heroic Hearts Project

• There is an application for vets
• There are many options to donate, all funds raised go right to the vets
• “Why is there no government funding going to the biggest breakthrough in PTSD research through the MAPS MDMA therapy? Not one cent of government money has gone to that.” - Jesse
• “Why are we having to send veterans to other countries to get the mental health that they deserve?” - Jesse

Links

Website

About Jesse Gould

Jesse founded Heroic Hearts Project after attending an Ayahuasca retreat in Iquitos, Peru on February 2017. During the week long retreat he instantly saw the healing potential of the drink and knew that it could be a powerful tool in healing the mental struggles of his fellow veterans. Jesse was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and grew up in New Smyrna Beach, FL. In 2009 he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Economics. After working in investment banking for a short time he enlisted in the Army and became an Airborne Ranger for four years and three combat deployments. Most recently, he worked in finance in Tampa, FL After struggling with severe anxiety for many years, he finally decided to go to an ayahuasca retreat which has had a profoundly positive effect on his anxiety and daily life.'I know what it is like to be at the mercy of uncontrollable elements in your own head. I also know the extreme relief of finally having these elements under control. Ayahuasca provided this. We have the ability to help thousands who are suffering but we let politics and ignorance get in the way. This is unacceptable. I started this foundation because the therapy works, I will risk what I have to ensure my fellow veterans get the treatment they deserve and a new chance at life.'

Download

In this episode Kyle sits down with a close friend in the psychedelic space, Lucas Jackson. They have shared many experiences such as Near Death Experiences, leading breathwork workshops, and other similarities. They cover topics such as the Near Death Experience, Ayahuasca experience, Breathwork tools, and accepting death, finding meaning and integrating these exceptional experiences.

3 Key Points:

1. Exceptional experiences are not always euphoric and light, they can also be dark and cathartic and make it difficult to transition back into ‘real life’.
2. Lucas explains his Ayahuasca experience as his darkest and hardest. He felt alone with no help, no one to talk to to help understand it, he felt as if he actually died. But this gave him a realization and acceptance of death.
3. The key to making it through and putting understanding to the dark experiences is having the right tools, such as a community of understanding people, practices such as breathwork, yoga, meditation and just simply coming back to the breath.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal                                              Integration Workbook

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show Notes About Lucas

• Lucas' interest in psychedelics started in high school, the books that he read then were influential
• He had a near death experience at 19
  • He came down with a lung issue and was in the hospital for 2 months and in and out of different stages of consciousness
• After that experience his interest for psychedelics and breathwork grew
• Lucas describes it not totally as a single NDE but more as being so close to death for an extended period of time
  • He says it wasn't mystical and great, coming back to ‘real life’ had some dark qualities

Revisiting a Dark Past

• Lucas says he wrote stuff down when he was in the hospital with a breathing tube and couldn't talk and one day he went through it all and it was very dark and cathartic
• When he went through and read his past writings, he said that he felt sympathy for the ‘him’ that wrote it
• He says it is hard to remember the person he was before his experience and illness

Breathwork

• After he dropped out of school, he started up a farm in Vermont and then toward the end of that he started to feel restless and there were synchronicities that led him to breathwork
  • He heard that Stan Grof was going to be doing a talk at a local bookshop and he met Lenny and Elizabeth Gibson
  • He ended up doing breathwork training in New York
  • He explains the experience as more powerful than what he would have imagined
  • He said he wanted to tell everyone about it after the first breathwork experience
• Kyle says its common with any exceptional experience, people want to run and tell the world
• Lucas says the sitting was just as powerful as the breathing
  • It's not often that you have someone sit at your side for 2-3 hours giving you full attention
• Lucas says that his GTT training was supposed to take 2 years and he thought he was going to get through it in 2 years no problem and he is in his 5th year doing the program and he loves the pace
• Kyle says that part of the training in breathwork is doing your own work
  • Lucas says with this kind of work, you don't get through it and you're done, It's a continuous process
• Robert Anton Wilson’s ‘maybe’ logic helps Lucas with being okay with not knowing
• He had a few experiences where he went through a ‘death’ feeling, and then he would let go and blast through this ‘light’ and then feelings oneness and wholeness

Ayahuasca

• Lucas went through the ‘death’ experience and thought it was actually real, he felt complete void and nothingness
  • That experience haunted him for years
• His ayahuasca experience was really about the purge, letting go of absolutely everything
• James Fadiman
• The remoteness of the experience was what he was seeking, being so far removed from everything he had known, everything that made him comfortable
• The shaman was known for his potency of the brew
  • There is no consistency among the dosage
• He felt very alone during the experience, he had no help, but it was almost special because it taught him that he is alone always anyway so there was some comfortability with the realization
  • The shaman didn't speak English and the messages that he received through the translator didn't make him feel completely safe about his experience
• It took him over 3 years of chewing on the content and the questions before feeling somewhat okay
  • Lucas’ advice to anyone wanting to do this is ‘take off, make time for this, you'll need more time than you think’
• “I believe that there is a collective pool to tap into, where you're processing the suffering of all, and once you hit that, it's an abyss and you have to surrender. It can be so freeing.” - Lucas

Spiritual Emergence

• Lucas says there wasn't any day or event where he felt like he was going to have to go to the hospital or harm anybody, but it's because he has the correct tools and great community
• For him, the first experience was fun and exciting and then you want to do more and then you get into the work and the hard stuff
• "What is, waking up?" - Lucas
• There's the Ram Dass idea that the tool will fall away when its usefulness has been exhausted
  • Lucas says the tool is having a daily practice, and for him its a breathing practice
• Grof’s framework was a lifesaver for Lucas
• “What are you going to do with the reality you are presented with?” - a quote from The Truman Show movie
• “Even if this is all an illusion, why not make this the best illusion, the best dream?” - Lucas
  • How are we showing up to the world after something so exceptional?

Final Thoughts

• What is this world for?
  • Lucas mentions an Alan Watts video, it says life is like a dance, there is no goal, and then after the dance we sit down
• “What is the particular thing that we are trying to achieve? General improvement of all humanity sounds like a good goal. Hopefully psychedelics can be a huge tool in moving towards that.” -Lucas
• Lucas says that he isn't a therapist, but he is available to talk with someone if they may need it. Having an open and welcoming therapist is great, but if they've never had an exceptional experience, it's helpful to talk to someone who has, therapist or not.

About Lucas Jackson

Lucas has spent his life wandering through inner and outer landscapes, collecting experiences, and sharing those experiences with those closest to him. His outer wanderings have led him to working with earth and plants around the world, including starting a biodynamic/permaculture food forest in Central Vermont. Lucas has also spent time working with people who were experiencing extreme states of consciousness while at Soteria-Vermont and while volunteering with The Zendo Project. The galleries of his inner world are made up of psychedelic musings, astrological insights, and various constellations of esoteric traditions. Lucas holds degrees in Environmental Science and Psychology and is currently pursuing an MA in Religious Studies.

Lucas can be reached through his email address at [email protected] as well as on Instagram @biodellic. He is available for astrological readings and is happy to meet others interested in discussing the topics covered throughout this episode of the podcast.

Download

In this episode Kyle sits down with a close friend in the psychedelic space, Lucas Jackson. They have shared many experiences such as Near Death Experiences, leading breathwork workshops, and other similarities. They cover topics such as the Near Death Experience, Ayahuasca experience, Breathwork tools, and accepting death, finding meaning and integrating these exceptional experiences.

3 Key Points:

1. Exceptional experiences are not always euphoric and light, they can also be dark and cathartic and make it difficult to transition back into ‘real life’.
2. Lucas explains his Ayahuasca experience as his darkest and hardest. He felt alone with no help, no one to talk to to help understand it, he felt as if he actually died. But this gave him a realization and acceptance of death.
3. The key to making it through and putting understanding to the dark experiences is having the right tools, such as a community of understanding people, practices such as breathwork, yoga, meditation and just simply coming back to the breath.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal                                              Integration Workbook

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show Notes About Lucas

• Lucas' interest in psychedelics started in high school, the books that he read then were influential
• He had a near death experience at 19
  • He came down with a lung issue and was in the hospital for 2 months and in and out of different stages of consciousness
• After that experience his interest for psychedelics and breathwork grew
• Lucas describes it not totally as a single NDE but more as being so close to death for an extended period of time
  • He says it wasn't mystical and great, coming back to ‘real life’ had some dark qualities

Revisiting a Dark Past

• Lucas says he wrote stuff down when he was in the hospital with a breathing tube and couldn't talk and one day he went through it all and it was very dark and cathartic
• When he went through and read his past writings, he said that he felt sympathy for the ‘him’ that wrote it
• He says it is hard to remember the person he was before his experience and illness

Breathwork

• After he dropped out of school, he started up a farm in Vermont and then toward the end of that he started to feel restless and there were synchronicities that led him to breathwork
  • He heard that Stan Grof was going to be doing a talk at a local bookshop and he met Lenny and Elizabeth Gibson
  • He ended up doing breathwork training in New York
  • He explains the experience as more powerful than what he would have imagined
  • He said he wanted to tell everyone about it after the first breathwork experience
• Kyle says its common with any exceptional experience, people want to run and tell the world
• Lucas says the sitting was just as powerful as the breathing
  • It's not often that you have someone sit at your side for 2-3 hours giving you full attention
• Lucas says that his GTT training was supposed to take 2 years and he thought he was going to get through it in 2 years no problem and he is in his 5th year doing the program and he loves the pace
• Kyle says that part of the training in breathwork is doing your own work
  • Lucas says with this kind of work, you don't get through it and you're done, It's a continuous process
• Robert Anton Wilson’s ‘maybe’ logic helps Lucas with being okay with not knowing
• He had a few experiences where he went through a ‘death’ feeling, and then he would let go and blast through this ‘light’ and then feelings oneness and wholeness

Ayahuasca

• Lucas went through the ‘death’ experience and thought it was actually real, he felt complete void and nothingness
  • That experience haunted him for years
• His ayahuasca experience was really about the purge, letting go of absolutely everything
• James Fadiman
• The remoteness of the experience was what he was seeking, being so far removed from everything he had known, everything that made him comfortable
• The shaman was known for his potency of the brew
  • There is no consistency among the dosage
• He felt very alone during the experience, he had no help, but it was almost special because it taught him that he is alone always anyway so there was some comfortability with the realization
  • The shaman didn't speak English and the messages that he received through the translator didn't make him feel completely safe about his experience
• It took him over 3 years of chewing on the content and the questions before feeling somewhat okay
  • Lucas’ advice to anyone wanting to do this is ‘take off, make time for this, you'll need more time than you think’
• “I believe that there is a collective pool to tap into, where you're processing the suffering of all, and once you hit that, it's an abyss and you have to surrender. It can be so freeing.” - Lucas

Spiritual Emergence

• Lucas says there wasn't any day or event where he felt like he was going to have to go to the hospital or harm anybody, but it's because he has the correct tools and great community
• For him, the first experience was fun and exciting and then you want to do more and then you get into the work and the hard stuff
• "What is, waking up?" - Lucas
• There's the Ram Dass idea that the tool will fall away when its usefulness has been exhausted
  • Lucas says the tool is having a daily practice, and for him its a breathing practice
• Grof’s framework was a lifesaver for Lucas
• “What are you going to do with the reality you are presented with?” - a quote from The Truman Show movie
• “Even if this is all an illusion, why not make this the best illusion, the best dream?” - Lucas
  • How are we showing up to the world after something so exceptional?

Final Thoughts

• What is this world for?
  • Lucas mentions an Alan Watts video, it says life is like a dance, there is no goal, and then after the dance we sit down
• “What is the particular thing that we are trying to achieve? General improvement of all humanity sounds like a good goal. Hopefully psychedelics can be a huge tool in moving towards that.” -Lucas
• Lucas says that he isn't a therapist, but he is available to talk with someone if they may need it. Having an open and welcoming therapist is great, but if they've never had an exceptional experience, it's helpful to talk to someone who has, therapist or not.

About Lucas Jackson

Lucas has spent his life wandering through inner and outer landscapes, collecting experiences, and sharing those experiences with those closest to him. His outer wanderings have led him to working with earth and plants around the world, including starting a biodynamic/permaculture food forest in Central Vermont. Lucas has also spent time working with people who were experiencing extreme states of consciousness while at Soteria-Vermont and while volunteering with The Zendo Project. The galleries of his inner world are made up of psychedelic musings, astrological insights, and various constellations of esoteric traditions. Lucas holds degrees in Environmental Science and Psychology and is currently pursuing an MA in Religious Studies.

Lucas can be reached through his email address at [email protected] as well as on Instagram @biodellic. He is available for astrological readings and is happy to meet others interested in discussing the topics covered throughout this episode of the podcast.

Download

In this special interview, Joe and Kyle sit down with Theologian, John B. Cobb Jr., referred to as the Godfather of American Theology. They recorded with John at the conference they all attended in California, on how exceptional experience can help save the world. They cover a range of topics inspired from Alfred Whitehead's teachings and the promising applications of Whitehead's thoughts in the area of ecological civilization and environmental ethics pioneered by John Cobb Jr.

3 Key Points:

1. Process thinking argues that reality consists of processes rather than material objects, and that thinking this way is similar to the teachings of a psychedelic experience. It is hoped for and believed that exceptional experiences can help save the world.
2. Whitehead's process philosophy argues that there is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have consequences for the world around us.
3. Certain curriculum, education systems and Universities are not helping us to see the value of our world. A full systems change is needed and hopefully psychedelics, exceptional experiences and process thinking can help with that.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Trip Journal Integration Workbook

Show Notes Process Thought

• Alfred North Whitehead
• The senses heighten connection, but we shouldn't rely only senses for our experiences
• The label that can we give to the 'most fundamental relationship' is any 'happening'
• What's happening when we listen to music?
  • We aren't hearing one tone after another tone, we are hearing the music as a whole piece
• Whitehead calls the fundamental relationship of inclusion, a 'prehension'
  • How one moment leads into another moment
  • If the world is made up of prehensions, then in any given moment, what is prehended?
  • The boundary between conscious and unconscious experience is fuzzy.
• Whitehead calls the relatedness to the past, physical prehensions. But we also prehend, potentialities. It is being experienced as potential not as actual.
  • Whitehead thinks this is present in very elementary matters.
  • Whitehead says that waves of vibration are a very large part of the world we live in
• Whitehead believes that without some type of variation from moment to moment, that nothing really happens
• He wrote a lot on relativity and very little about quantum
• David Bohm
  • He was very process oriented
  • He wanted to change our language into using words that mean something is 'happening' versus using nouns that say that something 'is'
• "If you only have potentiality and too little grounded in actuality, you better be careful. If you don't have the potentiality, then you live in a deterministic universe" - John

"Does Whitehead relate the potentialities to his ideas about intuition?"

• Intuition can be of both pure potentials and about other people
• A lot of paranormal experiences are not supernatural
• Just because someone has seen something or done something, it doesn't mean that it's true. There is plenty of illusion.

[caption id="attachment_3637" align="alignleft" width="300"] T-shirts available on our store[/caption]

Complex Societies

• An important feature of Whitehead is to distinguish complex society
• Panexperientialism is 'the view that if evolution of humans goes all the way down to subatomic particles, then human 'experience' by deduction must have originated at the subatomic level, which implies that not just humans but individual cells, individual molecules, individual atoms, and even individual subatomic particles, such as photons or electrons, incorporate a capacity for 'feeling' or degree of subjective inferiority.'
• There might be in-deterministic qualities in individual entities
• From a Whiteheadian point of view, contemporary physics would be almost universally valid if the entire world were made up entirely of physical feelings, feelings of actual occasions, 'what is'.

"What would be opposed to physical feelings?"

• Conceptual feelings, feelings of potentials
• He thinks there are feelings of potential in every actual occasion
• "The attempt to make standard physics apply to the quantum world are a total failure." -John
• "The attempt to make standard physics apply to the human experience is the task of the Neuroscientists. They think that the subjective experience has a causal role to play in the world." -John
• It's more committed to metaphysics than it is to empirical study

"Do you think what's going on in the mind, say neurotransmitters or electrical activity firing, that is creating this reality, or the experience, is having an influence on the neurochemistry?"

• John says that the psyche plays a role
• Scientists who are busy engineering genetic change, tell us purpose plays no role in genetic change

"What do you mean by no purpose in genetic change?"

• Purpose cannot have a causal effect in the Cartesian world
  • They say 'I know that my purposes are completely the result of mechanical relations between my neurons'

"Could you elaborate on the definition of actual occasions?"

• The psyche is a consistent series of actual occasions
  • Its what kinds of things are in and of themselves, 'actual'
• It's in the distinction of things that can be divided up into other entities
  • An actual occasion cannot be divisible into other actual occasions
  • Like an atom, it is divisible, but dividing it does not keep it from actually existing
• For Whitehead, an actual occasion is the basic unit of actuality
  • Its an alternative to a 'substance' way of viewing
  • When we look at other living beings, animals with brains and such, we assume they have a psychic life
  • John thinks that plants have some kind of unified experience
  • Some people have a feeling about a tree, that it's not just a bunch of cells interacting
  • "It's hard for me to think that a stone is an experiencing entity, I think the molecules though are." - John
  • "I'm sure that cells are influenced by the emotions of people" -John
• Having a particular conceptuality does not define how things are going to map out

"This world view seems very psychedelic."

• Among quantum physicists, Whitehead's name is known and appreciated.
  • It may mean that physics as a whole might adopt an organic model than just mechanistic one
• The common sense in this is that our knowledge of each other is not just in visual and auditory clues, but people have been told so long that it is

"What else would it be informed by if not by visual and auditory cues?"

• Just by our immediate experience of each other
• If you go into a room, there is an immediate climate there. You can tell when you walk into a room full of angry people.
• Ivan Illich's Book on Deschooling Society (Open Forum S)

"What would be your vision of an education system if its not working right now?"

• The one that Matthew Segal teaches in CIIS are examples of a different education system
• The Great Books program needs revision. It's only been the great western books. John hopes they have incorporated great books from other parts of the world
• There are parts of different educational systems that are better than what we have
  • "If I had an opportunity to create a school, it would be a school that teaches ecological civilization because a healthy human survival is a goal that ought not to be regarded as an eccentric and marginal one, but regarded as what all we human beings ought to be getting behind collectively, together. And if you have a school for that, the curriculum would be quite varied, but the production and consumption and sharing of food should be a very central part of it." -John
  • Capitalism has ignored much of reality
  • John says creating a curriculum is not his role, his role is deconstruction because he thinks what is going on now is absurd
• "Enlightenment is the worst curse of humanity, we have been enlightened into not believing all kinds of things. The disappearance of subject from the world of actuality. If that's enlightenment, then I don't want to be enlightened." - John

Language

• John thinks we need a lot of reflection on the language we use
• The questions that are the most important are the ones rarely asked
• "One of my favorite parts of Whitehead is the reframing of language, our words carry inertia that we are not aware of" - Joe
• Whitehead Word Book: A Glossary with Alphabetical Index to Technical Terms in Process and Reality (Toward Ecological Civilzation) (Volume 8)
• The reason there are 36 universities for process studies and 0 in the United States, is because in the US, process isn't as fundamental as substance

Kyle Shares his Near Death Experience

• Kyle got in a snowboarding accident, ruptured his spleen and lost about 5 pints of blood
  • It became mystical when he was in the MRI machine and he was standing on one side of the room with the doctors and in his body at the same time
  • There was an orb of light, and an external voice or 'experience' that said "you're going home, back to the stars where you came from, this is just a transition, the more you relax into it, the easier it will be."
  • Kyle describes it as a blissful experience, but he had a hard time integrating it back into his life.
• Whitehead has done a remarkable job to describe process, and exceptional experience and putting a language to it
  • Joe says that Whitehead's work has helped put the psychedelic experience into words

"Do you recall the first time you heard something that made you interested in the impact of psychedelics?"

• Lenny Gibson was probably one of the first people that opened his eyes to the positive uses
• "Today, it would be remarkable if 10% of the world's population survived without civilization" -John
• He is confident that there are good things that come from psychedelics
• He says Whitehead has made him understand the changes that might make us behave in responsible ways, so he doesn't feel the necessity of having a psychedelic experiences

"What kind of changes?"

• We have to change from our substance thinking to process thinking
• We need to shift from thinking that every individual is self-contained, we are all products of our relationships with each other.
• In the Whiteheadian view, any individual is, the many becoming one. To be an individual is being a part of everything.

Links

Website Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition

Other books by John Cobb Jr.

A Christian Natural Theology, Second Edition: Based on the Thought of Alfred North Whitehead

Jesus' Abba: The God Who Has Not Failed

Grace & Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for Today

For Our Common Home: Process-Relational Responses to Laudato Si'

About John B. Cobb Jr.

John B. Cobb, Jr., Ph.D, is a founding co-director of the Center for Process Studies and Process & Faith. He has held many positions, such as Ingraham Professor of Theology at the School of Theology at Claremont, Avery Professor at the Claremont Graduate School, Fullbright Professor at the University of Mainz, Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt, Harvard Divinity, Chicago Divinity Schools. His writings include: Christ in a Pluralistic Age; God and the World; For the Common Good. Co-winner of Grawemeyer Award of Ideas Improving World Order.