When over the past several years states began to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes and then some of them for recreational use, many people from the Baby Boomer generation witnessed something they doubted they would ever see in their lifetimes. People who had long known or believed that marijuana was a far safer and beneficial alternative to alcohol had that conviction sanctioned by some state governments. Marijuana advocates finally had their hard-earned victory.
Yet if one now gazes out at the cultural horizon, there is a storm heading our way the impact of which would not only dwarf cannabis legalization, it may have a transformative effect on the entirety of our social fabric. As vividly detailed in Michael Pollans 2018 bestseller How to Change Your Mind (Penguin Books), momentum is building towards the legalization and mainstreaming, at least for medical use, of the class of substances known as psychedelics or entheogens. Yes, LSD, psilocybin (found in certain mushroom species), and mescaline (from the peyote cactus) are undergoing a resurgence being described as a renaissance.
Design by Jennifer Levesque
Unbeknownst to most people, research and clinical studies on psychedelics have been going on at universities and medical schools in the U.S. and Europe for much of the past two decades. Psilocybin has already been passed through Phase II clinical trials by the FDA, and if Phase III is successful it may be approved for psychiatric treatment early in the next decade. How psychedelics have returned from the abyss and reached this level of approval by the U.S. medical establishment is a story of how some scientists, believing that something of great value was lost when psychedelics were made illegal in the 1960s, made it a mission to regain and rehabilitate these substances for a new generation. But another surprising aspect of this renaissance is how this research has opened a window to the world of spirituality that most involved wouldnt have thought possible.
What makes psychedelics such a fascinating and important topic of interest is that their very existence, unlike anything else this writer can conceive of, has to be considered as being of deep philosophical significance. Here we have a naturally occurring molecule or chemical, that nature has placed in various plants and fungi, that users have insisted for centuries elevates their consciousness to an unmistakable level of spiritual awareness and realization. There is nothing else that allows for science and spirituality, those two supposedly irreconcilable realms of human endeavor, to be analyzed for their connectedness, not their distinctions and differences.
Encouraging news for legalization advocates occurred earlier this year, when Oakland, California, and Denver, Colorado, passed measures to decriminalize the possession of psilocybin mushrooms. Campaigns to place mushroom decriminalization referendum questions on 2020 election ballots have also begun in Oregon and California. But while these events represent progress for those hoping for legal sanction for personal use, the scope of these efforts are likely to be limited in size at least until there is widespread approval for medical use, much like what happened with cannabis. In fact, if there is an area of disagreement among advocates it is the types of usage psychedelics should be legalized for.
Peyote, ritual cactus with flower
Outright legalization for recreational use a la marijuana? While there are still those who hope for this level of social acceptance and government approval, the majority opinion is that might not be the best idea. While research has shown that psychedelics are remarkably safe, nontoxic, and completely nonaddictive, there is as with any substance the potential for misuse. They are not for drinking beer with and watching a Three Stooges marathon. Activists have a genuine reverence for psychedelics and dont want to see them being used frivolously.
Applications for psychedelics for which there is much more enthusiasm are in the medical/psychiatric and spiritual/religious fields the psychedelic movement has always been about more than just medical usage. The true believers from outside the medical profession have always envisioned broader applications for psychedelics, especially for their use in spiritual contexts. The phrase the betterment of well people is a mantra for those with this mindset. Activist Bob Jesse, founder of the Council on Spiritual Practices, would like to see trained and certified psychedelic guides administer entheogens (what psychedelics are more often called when describing their use in spiritual contexts) in contexts which to Pollan sounded a lot like churches. Others envision psychedelics being used in spa-like or religious retreat settings, again with trained guides present to take care of people having their experience and then helping them integrate it afterwards.
Before the 1960s there was no law restricting the use of entheogens and they have been in use for spiritual purposes by cultures around the world for centuries or millennia. In the Western Hemisphere evidence indicates widespread usage among indigenous cultures throughout the Americas, with usage in Latin and South America, and among Native Americans, continuing today.
Southern Oregon University Religious Studies Professor Martin W. Ball claimed that many of the worlds religious and spiritual traditions are rooted in ancient use of entheogens. In hunter-gatherer societies, the predominant form of spirituality was shamanism, and shamans have always made use of plants and fungi, including entheogens, that alter consciousness, he said.
The ancient Greeks used entheogens in their religions. So too did ancient Hindus, said Ball. Theres evidence for entheogen use in ancient Egyptian religion, Zoroastrianism, indigenous African and Native American traditions, to name just a few. Its important to understand that it was (and is) a global phenomenon and has not been limited to any particular time or place in the world.
Unfortunately, those centuries of prior spiritual or sacramental use became problematic when the U.S. started making all known entheogenic agents illegal in the 1960s, but in 2006 a slight legal opening for spiritual use appeared courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the UDV, a small religious sect founded in Brazil in 1961, could legally import ayahuasca, an entheogenic tea it uses as a sacrament, into the U.S. The Court based its decision on 1993s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which when enacted allowed the Native American Church to continue the peyote ceremonies that had been a part of the Churchs worship for decades. The UDV, which stands for Union of the Plants in English, expanded in the U.S. after the ruling, and had about 525 American members in nine church communities in 2018.
So, it seems as if a legal precedent has been established that sanctions entheogenic use in religious worship, but there are caveats. Part of the Courts decision included the recognition of the UDV as an already existing religion, so it remains to be seen how the government would respond if an American citizen wanted to establish a new church in which entheogens were part of its practice or worship.
Mark Hart of Deerfield was able to shed some light on why psychedelics have been used in spiritual practices or religious ceremonies for centuries. Hart has a psychotherapy practice in Amherst but also has a Ph.D. in theology from Boston College, so he is a person with a rare blend of psychological and religious knowledge and insight. In addition to his psychotherapy practice he is also a founder and leader of the Bodhisara Dharma Community in Amherst, which teaches insight meditation and other practices from the Buddhist tradition.
When asked about the spiritual experiences many people on entheogens report Hart said, People report insights on reality that are not unlike those of people in profound meditative states. I used to be somewhat of a Buddhist chauvinist, saying our way of meditation is the best but I would say in the last 10 years that has gone by the wayside. My suspicion is that people do have genuine spiritual experiences on these substances. And I think the proof is in the lasting effects of these experiences.
Martin Ball, the Oregon religious studies professor, has been an advocate for entheogenic spirituality for years and has written several books on the topic. Not all use of psychedelics results in a spiritual or mystical experience, but these experiences do show up quite unexpectedly and regularly and can also be intentionally sought after through conscious use of entheogens. Its very interesting that these kinds of experiences can happen whether one is seeking them out or not. In fact, one could make the argument that psychedelics and entheogens are the premier tool for having deep spiritual experiences simply because they are so reliably effective and potentially powerful.
The questions statements like this raise are as profound as they are obvious. What are we to make of the mushrooms, cactus, and other botanical forms of life that have this amazing power to profoundly alter our state of mind and raise our awareness from the physical to the spiritual realm of being?
What we do know is that the power of psychedelics to create or enable these shifts in consciousness is not a recent discovery. And what may be more impressive to some people is that it was not yogis, gurus or other New Agers first making these claims, but the scientists who have been researching psychedelics from when LSD was first synthesized in 1938 and continuing to the present day. Almost all of those who led psychedelic research programs from the 50s onward sampled psychedelics for themselves, and even those who were staunch atheists or materialists before their experience felt as if profound truths about the existence of a spiritual realm were being revealed to them. Most if not all of the research up until the 1966 prohibition led many of the scientists involved to feel strongly about the potential of psychedelics as a possible agent for human transformation and societal betterment.
Even in the pre-1960s much of the focus of psychedelic research changed from psychiatric treatment of the mentally ill to something much more encompassing: bringing peace, happiness, and spiritual understanding to all of humanity.
If one person stands out as the leading figure in the psychedelic renaissance, it is Roland Griffiths, who heads a team that restarted psychedelic research at Johns Hopkins in 1999. In fact, Pollan writes that if there is a date that the revival fully blossomed it was 2006, and the key event triggering it was the publication in the medical journal Psychopharmacology of Griffiths paper Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance. That the words spiritual and mystical could appear in a research papers title is remarkable enough, but even more so was the enthusiasm with which the paper was received by the scientific establishment. It was as if Griffiths had singlehandedly created a space allowing for the spiritual to be accepted as a subject of legitimate scientific inquiry.
Among the most recent and current psychedelic research programs is one at New York University. Here researchers are working to see if psychedelics can be helpful for people with very difficult to treat psychological conditions, most notably those who have been diagnosed with cancer and are facing a possible terminal prognosis. The NYU psilocybin cancer trial is trying to determine if psilocybin can help people facing the greatest personal crisis there is: the existential fear and dread that comes with knowing that you have only a short amount of time to live. And the results thus far have not only amazed researchers, theyve shown how spirituality has been thrust into the scientific paradigm.
Stephen Ross, part of the NYU research team, saw things in his patients he could hardly believe and said, People who had been palpably scared of death they lost their fear. The fact that a drug given once could have such an effect for so long is an unprecedented finding. We have never had anything like that in the psychiatric field.
One case study Pollan described is that of Patrick Mettes, a New York man with bile duct cancer who volunteered for the NYU program and had his initial psilocybin session in January 2011. Mr. Mettes was able to speak in great detail about his experience even as he was having it, at one point sitting up and saying to his doctors Everyone deserves to have this experience, that if everyone did, no one could ever do harm to another again wars would be impossible to wage. He eventually added, The sheer joy, the bliss, the nirvana, was indescribable. I know Ive had no earthly pleasure thats ever come close to this feeling. No sensation, no image of beauty, nothing during my time on earth has felt as pure and joyful and glorious as the height of this journey.
Mettes lived another 17 months after his experience, and loved ones say he seemed to carry that bliss with him the entire time. From his hospital bed in his final days he was the one consoling his wife and friends, not the other way around. It was like he was a yogi. He put out so much love, his wife Lisa said.
One thing I was struck by upon reading these accounts is how similar they seem to those Ive read of people having near-death experiences in the now abundant literature on that topic. This is probably not a coincidence or misjudgment. Johns Hopkins researcher Katherine MacLean said, A high-dose psychedelic experience is death practice, or almost like a dress rehearsal for dying. But people experience the blissful realization that there is something on the other side, so the spiritual implications of this are easy to see.
While researchers in the U.S. have focused more on the subjective experience of psychedelics and its possible therapeutic applications, in the U.K. the focus has been on how they interact with the brain itself and its neurological functioning. At Imperial College in London, researcher Robin Carhart-Harris has discovered is that it is not the drug that the experience derives from. Instead, they are entirely the creation of the mind/brain.
Many people have heard by now the medical maxim that humans only use about 10% of their brains capacity. Modern brain imaging and scanning technologies used in neurological research have more or less confirmed this. But in addition to that, a 2001 discovery showed that most of that 10% is located in an area known as the default mode network, DMN for short. The DMN can be defined as the area in the brain where the concept of self and ego consciousness is constructed. And by the time a person reaches adulthood, the DMNs neurotransmitter pathways become so worn in by overuse that directing brain activity outside of the DMN becomes almost impossible. Researchers liken it to a pathway that has been cleared through fallen snow that people habitually gravitate towards. That is what gives people the sense that they are trapped in captivity of their ego/self-identity. Psychic walls are built that confine the persons subjective experience and create the impression that the self is forever a separate entity from the world perceived by the senses. And an overactive DMN is linked to numerous mental health problems, most notably anxiety, depression, and existential distress.
Returning to the snow analogy, what psychedelics do is add a fresh layer of snow to the brain and cover the DMN, allowing mental activity to take place along neurotransmitter connections the person has likely never used before. Another way it has been described is that psychedelics reboot a persons neural activity into a state of consciousness where the usual distinctions between self and world, subject and object, dissolve. This further convinces those having the experience that consciousness continues after the self no longer exists, with the resulting effect being the perception that a transcendent spiritual realization has been achieved.
One more feature of the research that is of vital importance is how the brain scans of people having psychedelic experiences and those having mystical experiences through deep, advanced meditation are remarkably similar. Judson Brewer, now at the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School in Worcester, has reported that scans show in both instances brain activity in the DMN is significantly reduced.
An interesting paradox is at work here. Research involving psychedelics has been applied with the highest standards of the scientific method, yet the success of this research seems to depend on the prevalence of mystical experiences that take subjects into places science is unable to venture. It may have been the great religious scholar and theologian Huston Smith who expressed the situation best. In a letter to Bob Jesse after the publication of Roland Griffiths 2006 paper that got this Renaissance started, he wrote, The Johns Hopkins experiment shows proves that under controlled experimental conditions, psilocybin can occasion genuine mystical experiences. It uses science, which modernity trusts, to undermine modernitys secularism. In doing so it offers hope of nothing less than a re-sacralization of the natural and social world, a spiritual revival that is our best defense against not only soullessness, but against religious fanaticism. And it does so in the very teeth of the unscientific prejudices built into our current drug laws.
Science has taught us that all forms of life evolve and adapt over the course of eons, and that they naturally develop attributes to better ensure their long-term survival. But what would be the reason that certain plant species developed psilocybin and mescaline over the course of their evolution? Botanical research has shown psilocybin and mescaline provide little if any benefit to their host organisms, but they do astounding things for the people who use them. Its not a defense mechanism or something to strengthen an organisms long-term survival prospects if it makes it more likely that humans will want to consume it.
Something is going on here. A person doesnt have to be anti-science to believe that organisms that contain these incredible properties to enlighten minds to the spiritual realm of being couldnt possibly have evolved on this planet by accident. Is the natural world we share this planet with trying to share secrets with us about life that its known all along? Is the immanent and transcendent God, in which we live and breathe and share our being, trying to speak to us through these amazing plants?
Most importantly, are we listening?
One of the things I loved about Michael Pollans book were its numerous references to something very dear to me and that is William James masterpiece The Varieties of Religious Experience, which is still thought to be one of the greatest nonfiction books of the 20th century even though it was published in 1902. James study of mysticism led him to believe that our everyday waking consciousness is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.
Amen.
Peter Stilla is an editor at the Daily Hampshire Gazette and an ordained Christian Universalist minister. He lives in Deerfield with his wife and two daughters. Reach him at pstilla@gazettenet.com.
Related
Read the original post:
The Return Trip: Psychedelics may come back from the abyss of illegality - Valley Advocate
- Entheogens - Salvia Forum | Psychoactive Plants [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2016]
- Entheogens - Salvia Forum | Psychoactive Plants [Last Updated On: June 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 12th, 2016]
- Entheogens & Existential Intelligence: The Use of Plant ... [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- Entheogens & Existential Intelligence: The Use of Plant ... [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2016]
- Entheogens including Salvia, LSD, Peyote, and Mushrooms ... [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2016]
- Entheogen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2016]
- Entheogens: Whats in a Name? The Untold History of ... [Last Updated On: June 19th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 19th, 2016]
- Entheogens - The SpiritWiki [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2016]
- CSP: Entheogens - Council on Spiritual Practices [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2016]
- Entheogens: mescaline, LSD, LSA, ALD, psilocybin, DMT ... [Last Updated On: June 22nd, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 22nd, 2016]
- Watch: Entering Godmode How Entheogens Tap ... - Reset.me [Last Updated On: June 27th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 27th, 2016]
- Q&A: On David Icke, Expectations, Unconditional Love, Deja ... [Last Updated On: July 3rd, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 3rd, 2016]
- Q&A: On David Icke, Expectations, Unconditional Love, Deja ... [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2016]
- Entheogens - reddit [Last Updated On: July 29th, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 29th, 2016]
- Entheogens - Imprint [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2016] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2016]
- In A Perfect World | Free Podcasts | PodOmatic [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2016]
- Entheogen - New World Encyclopedia [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2016] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2016]
- Urban Dictionary: entheogen [Last Updated On: October 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: October 8th, 2016]
- Homepage of Martin W Ball [Last Updated On: November 30th, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 30th, 2016]
- What are endeogens entheogens? - 5-MeO- DMT [Last Updated On: November 30th, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 30th, 2016]
- Entheogens and Spirituality | Kava | Kratom | Teacher Plants [Last Updated On: December 25th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 25th, 2016]
- Entheogens - Reality Sandwich [Last Updated On: February 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 4th, 2017]
- Entheogen | Psychology Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [Last Updated On: February 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 4th, 2017]
- A conversation with Haroon Mirza - Ocula Magazine [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- So A Minister, A Rabbi And A Buddhist Took Drugs For Science... - Huffington Post [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- So A Minister, A Rabbi And A Buddhist Took Drugs For Science... - Huffington Post South Africa (blog) [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Pro-Marijuana Alabama Church Promotes Psychoactive Drugs as Medicine - MERRY JANE [Last Updated On: March 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 21st, 2017]
- In Alabama church, marijuana is part of spiritual journey - Tuscaloosa News [Last Updated On: March 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 23rd, 2017]
- Dank Magic: How Witches Use Weed in Their Craft - Broadly [Last Updated On: April 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 21st, 2017]
- Lamp & Labyrinth: Conceptualizing a Multitude of Spirits - Patheos (blog) [Last Updated On: May 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 2nd, 2017]
- 5 of the World's Most Mind-Bending Drug Cultures - National Geographic Australia [Last Updated On: May 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 6th, 2017]
- The Entheogenic Evolution | Free Podcasts | PodOmatic [Last Updated On: May 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 6th, 2017]
- OH to NY to AL: Claude Lawrence Cornett - Patheos (blog) [Last Updated On: May 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 8th, 2017]
- What is the Difference Between Entheogens and Drugs? [Last Updated On: May 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 14th, 2017]
- The Deep Mind in the Cave: Awakening Consciousness in the Spirit of AI - The Sociable [Last Updated On: May 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2017]
- Psychedelics touted as solution for society - Ashland Daily Tidings [Last Updated On: June 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 1st, 2017]
- Entheogens | Drug War Facts [Last Updated On: June 5th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 5th, 2017]
- Entheogen [Last Updated On: June 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 15th, 2017]
- Virtual Reality Takes Consciousness Research into Mystic Realms of the Divine Play - The Sociable [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2017]
- Entheogens : Al-Kemi : spagyrics and alchemy [Last Updated On: June 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 27th, 2017]
- The History and Possibilities of Putting Weed in Your Witchcraft - Seattle Weekly [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2017]
- Entheogen - PsychonautWiki [Last Updated On: July 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 1st, 2017]
- The Summer of Love was more than hippies and LSD it was the ... - The Conversation UK [Last Updated On: July 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 7th, 2017]
- The Summer of Love was more than hippies and LSD it was the start of modern individualism - Metro Newspaper UK [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2017]
- The Poisoner: Pharmakos and Veneficus-Poisoner's Apothecary - Patheos (blog) [Last Updated On: July 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 19th, 2017]
- How San Francisco's Summer of Love sparked today's religious movements - Religion News Service [Last Updated On: July 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 22nd, 2017]
- The Summer of Love was more than hippies and LSD it was the start of modern individualism - The Independent [Last Updated On: July 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 24th, 2017]
- 'Summer of Love' shaped American lives, spiritual expression - Houston Chronicle [Last Updated On: July 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 29th, 2017]
- Outside the Box - HuffPost [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2017]
- How San Francisco's Summer of Love sparked religious movements - The Oakland Press [Last Updated On: August 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 25th, 2017]
- Entheogen - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: May 4th, 2020] [Originally Added On: May 4th, 2020]
- Entheogens | Sacred Geometry [Last Updated On: June 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 15th, 2020]
- There's More to the CHOP Than What the Media Will Have You Believe - Study Breaks [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- The Only Obstacle To A Healthy World Is Government Secrecy And Propaganda - Scoop.co.nz [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2020]
- Oakland continues move to protect entheogen plants - The Leaf Online [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2020]
- The Potential (and Peril) of Legalizing Psychedelics - Progressive.org [Last Updated On: January 1st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 1st, 2021]
- Following Local Successes, Cambridge State Rep. Puts Forward Bills on Controlled Substance Reform | News - Harvard Crimson [Last Updated On: March 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: March 29th, 2021]
- Opinion | Is it time for Seattle to decriminalize shrooms and psychedelics? - Crosscut [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2021]
- Zide Door Oaklands Church of Entheogenic Plants [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2021]
- Psychedelic Experience launches new website to help navigate the world of psychedelics - PRNewswire [Last Updated On: April 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 25th, 2021]
- Jews, Christians, and Muslims Are Reclaiming Ancient Psychedelic Practices, And That Could Help With Legalization - Rolling Stone [Last Updated On: April 25th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 25th, 2021]
- Red Light Holland and Headland West Indies Lead #SVGStrong, a Relief Effort in St. Vincent and the Grenadines - InvestorIntel [Last Updated On: April 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 29th, 2021]
- Native Tribes Should Have More Say in the Psychedelic Movement - Green Entrepreneur [Last Updated On: April 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 29th, 2021]
- The psychedelic revolution is coming. Psychiatry may never be the same - bdnews24.com [Last Updated On: May 11th, 2021] [Originally Added On: May 11th, 2021]
- Biden said he'd cut down on unemployment benefits, but he really might reinstate a pre-pandemic job-seeking policy The Madison Leader Gazette - The... [Last Updated On: May 11th, 2021] [Originally Added On: May 11th, 2021]
- Winners of Columbia@Roundabout's 2021 New Play Reading Series Announced - Broadway World [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2021] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2021]
- Group Hopes to Decriminalize Entheogens (Psychoactive Plant Substances) Within Arcata City Limits Redheaded Blackbelt - Redheaded Blackbelt [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2021] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2021]
- With Push From New Nonprofit, Arcata City Council Will Soon Consider a Resolution That Would Decriminalize Psychedelic Plants and Fungi in Arcata -... [Last Updated On: July 7th, 2021] [Originally Added On: July 7th, 2021]
- Witch City Tarot & Divination Gathering | Coby Michael Ward - Patheos [Last Updated On: July 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: July 29th, 2021]
- Psychedelics Decriminalization Advancing In Three More Cities, Spanning From Coast To Coast - Marijuana Moment [Last Updated On: August 4th, 2021] [Originally Added On: August 4th, 2021]
- Two Years After Oakland's Psychedelic Decrim, What's Been the Impact? - Filter [Last Updated On: August 4th, 2021] [Originally Added On: August 4th, 2021]
- University of Michigan police say safety will be top priority at psychedelic shroom festival - MLive.com [Last Updated On: August 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: August 22nd, 2021]
- Psychedelic Drug Therapy: Tips and Support for the Experience - Greatist [Last Updated On: August 28th, 2021] [Originally Added On: August 28th, 2021]
- National Hemp Association Asks Congress To Budget $1 Billion To Support Industry Innovation - Marijuana Moment [Last Updated On: September 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: September 12th, 2021]
- Oregon Psilocybin Panel Teams Up With Harvard To Research Psychedelic History And Impacts Of Reform - Marijuana Moment [Last Updated On: September 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: September 12th, 2021]
- Jarvis Brookfield on his psychedelic paintings, dream-like states and what it means to be human - Creative Boom [Last Updated On: September 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: September 12th, 2021]
- From Cannabis MSO To Drug Development: Goodness Growth Wants To Understand Traditional Psychedelics Use - - Benzinga [Last Updated On: September 16th, 2021] [Originally Added On: September 16th, 2021]
- Congressman Says He'll Bring The Psychedelics Reform Movement To Capitol Hill 'This Year' - Marijuana Moment [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2021] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2021]
- An upcoming election, pay requirement, and holiday, this week - KUOW News and Information [Last Updated On: October 30th, 2021] [Originally Added On: October 30th, 2021]
- Guide to Entheogens: Plants, Therapy, Medicine [Last Updated On: October 30th, 2021] [Originally Added On: October 30th, 2021]