Category Archives: Entheogens

1.Entheogens

"'Entheogen' is a word coined by scholars proposing to replace the term 'psychedelic' (Ruck, Bigwood, Staples, Ott & Wasson, 1979), which was perceived to be too socioculturally loaded from its 1960s roots to appropriately denote the revered plants and substances used for traditional sacred rituals.What kinds of plants or chemicals fall into the category of entheogen is a matter of debate, as a large number of inebriants - from tobacco and marijuana to alcohol and opium - have been venerated as gifts from the gods (or God) in different cultures at different times (Fuller, 2000). For the purposes of this paper, however, I will focus on the class of drugs that Lewin (1924/1997) terms 'phantastica,' a name deriving from the Greek word for the faculty of the imagination (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1973). Later these substances became known as hallucinogens or psychedelics, a class whose members include lysergic acid derivatives, psilocybin, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine; these all shared physical, chemical, and, when ingested, phenomenological properties and, more importantly, have a history of ritual use as cultural tools to cure illness and/or to mediate cosmological insight (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1998; Rudgley, 1994, Schultes & Hofmann, 1992;)."

Tupper, Ken, "Entheogens & Education: Exploring the Potential of Psychoactives as Educational Tools," Journal of Drug Education and Awareness, Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 146. http://www.kentupper.com...

"Another peculiar effect of these drugs is a dramatic change in perception: it appears to the person as if the eyes (the 'doors of perception') have been cleansed and the person could see the world as new in all respects 'as Adam may have seen it on the day of creation' as Aldous Huxley (1954, p. 17) pointed out in his popular and influential book. This new reality is perceived and interpreted by some individuals as manifestation of the true nature of their mind; hence, the term 'psychedelic' was suggested by Osmond (1957). This interpretation has been embraced not only by professional therapists but also by some segments of the public, and gave rise to the 'Summer of Love' in San Francisco in 1967 with free distribution of LSD. This perception resulted in the formation of numerous cults, communes, and drug-oriented religious groups (Freedman 1968), permeated the lyrics and style of popular music (acid rock), and was viewed by some as one of the contributing sources of the occasional resurgence of popularity of illegal drug use (Cohen 1966, Szra 1968)."

Szra, Stephen, "Are Hallucinogens Psychoheuristic," National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph Series (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 1994) NIDA Research Monograph 146, p. 36. http://archives.drugabuse.gov/...

"The term 'hallucinogen' is widely used and understood in both professional and lay circles, in spite of the fact that hallucinations in the strict psychiatric sense of the word are a relatively rare effect of these drugs (Hollister 1962). What is probably the first reference to hallucinations as produced by peyote appears in Louis Lewins book published in 1924 in German and later translated into English with the nearly identical title Phantastica (Lewin 1924, 1964). In this book by the noted German toxicologist, the term 'hallucinatoria' appears as a synonym for phantastica to designate the class of drugs that can produce transitory visionary states 'without any physical inconvenience for a certain time in persons of perfectly normal mentality who are partly or fully conscious of the action of the drug' (Lewin 1964, p. 92). Lewin lists peyotl (also spelled 'peyote') (Anhalonium lewinii), Indian hemp (Cannabis indica), fly agaric (Agaricus muscarius), thornapple (Datura stramonium), and the South American yahe (also spelled 'yage') (Banisteria caapi) as representatives of this class."

Szra, Stephen, "Are Hallucinogens Psychoheuristic," National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph Series (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 1994) NIDA Research Monograph 146, p. 34. http://archives.drugabuse.gov/...

"Ayahuasca is a psychedelic decoction made from plants native to the Amazon Basinmost often Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridisand which contains harmala alkaloids and N,Ndimethyltryptamine (DMT), the latter being a controlled substance scheduled under the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances."

Anderson, B. T.; Labate, B. C.; Meyer, M.; Tupper, K. W.; Barbosa, P. C. R.; Grob, C. S.; Dawson, A. & McKenna, D., "Statement on ayahuasca,". International Journal of Drug Policy (London, United Kingdom: International Harm Reduction Association, March 2012) Vol. 23, No. 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...

"Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic tea originally from the Amazon Basin that is supposedly able to induce strikingly similar visions in people independent of their cultural background. Ayahuasca users commonly claim that this regularity across peoples visions is evidence that their visions are not simply the products of their own brains, but rather are representations of spiritual information learned from plant-spirits that one gains access to by drinking the tea."

Anderson, Brian, ""Entheogenic Visions: The Sacred Union of Word & Image," Undergraduate Humanities Forum, Mellon Research Fellows 2005-2006, Word & Image (Philadelphia, PA: May 5, 2006), pp. 2 and 30. http://repository.upenn.edu/cg...

"Cross-cultural vegetalismo refers to ayahuasca ceremonies based, to varying degrees, on vegetalismo or equivalent traditions from other regions of the Amazon, but conducted primarily for (and increasingly by) non-Amazonians. Urban centres in the region are presently witnessing a boom in what has been pejoratively characterized as 'ayahuasca tourism' (Dobkin de Rios, 1994; see also Davidov, 2010; Holman, 2011; Razam, 2009), but cross-cultural vegetalismo ceremonies are also increasingly common outside the Amazon (Labate, 2004). Canadians and other foreigners regularly invite indigenous or mestizo Amazonian ayahuasqueros to their home countries to conduct ceremonies for people in the circles and networks of the sponsors friends and acquaintances (Tupper, 2009asee Appendix). Some individuals are undertaking apprenticeships in the vegetalismo tradition to become neo-shamanic practitioners of ayahuasca healing, in a manner similar to how yoga, Buddhist monastic, ayurvedic, or Chinese medicine practices have been taken up by modern Western disciples exogenous to the respective cultures and traditions of origin."

Tupper, Kenneth William, "Ayahuasca, Entheogenic Education & Public Policy," University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC: April 2011), pp. 14-15. http://www.kentupper.com...

"Vegetalismo is a Peruvian Spanish term denoting the folk healing traditions of mestizo curanderos, or healers of mixed indigenous and non-indigenous ancestry who use ayahuasca and other 'master' plants for diagnosis and treatment of illnesses (Beyer, 2009; Dobkin de Rios, 1972; Luna, 1986). Known as ayahuasqueros, such folk healers undergo a rigorous process of initiation and training, requiring adherence to strict dietary and sexual abstinence protocols, and sometimes prolonged isolation in the jungle."

Tupper, Kenneth William, "Ayahuasca, Entheogenic Education & Public Policy," PhD Thesis, University of British Columbia Faculty of Graduate Studies (Educational Studies) (Vancouver, BC: April 2011), pp. 14-15. http://www.kentupper.com...

"On February 21 of this year, 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Centro Esprita Beneficente Unio do Vegetal (the UDV) in the case Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General, et al. Petitioners v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Unio do Vegetal et al. The UDV is now legally allowed to drink ayahuasca (which contains the controlled substance DMT) in their ceremonies here in the US."

Anderson, Brian, ""Entheogenic Visions: The Sacred Union of Word & Image," Undergraduate Humanities Forum, Mellon Research Fellows 2005-2006, Word & Image (Philadelphia, PA: May 5, 2006), pp. 2 and 30. http://repository.upenn.edu/cg...

"Aside from indicating a general lack of harm from the religious use of ayahuasca, biomedical and ethnographic studies have also generated preliminary evidence in support of the therapeutic potentials of ayahuasca or its constituents for alleviating substance dependence (Grob et al., 1996; Labate, Santos, Anderson, Mercante, & Barbosa, 2010) and mood and anxiety disorders (Fortunato et al., 2010; Santos, Landeira-Fernandez, Strassman, Motta, & Cruz, 2007). The study of ayahuasca could thus contribute to advances in ethnopharmacology and the cognitive sciences (Shanon, 2002), yet such studies are severely compromised when these traditions face the threat of legal sanction."

Anderson, B. T.; Labate, B. C.; Meyer, M.; Tupper, K. W.; Barbosa, P. C. R.; Grob, C. S.; Dawson, A. & McKenna, D., "Statement on ayahuasca,". International Journal of Drug Policy (London, United Kingdom: International Harm Reduction Association, March 2012) Vol. 23, No. 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...

"LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) is one of the most potent mood-changing chemicals. It was discovered in 1938 and is manufactured from lysergic acid, which is found in ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and other grains."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009). http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)also known as acid, blotter, doses, hits, microdots, sugar cubes, trips, tabs, or window panes is one of the most potent moodand perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. It is a clear or white, odorless, water-soluble material synthesized from lysergic acid, a compound derived from a rye fungus. LSD is initially produced in crystalline form, which can then be used to produce tablets known as 'microdots' or thin squares of gelatin called 'window panes.' It can also be diluted with water or alcohol and sold in liquid form. The most common form, however, is LSD-soaked paper punched into small individual squares, known as 'blotters.'"

"Hallucinogens and Dissociative Drugs, including LSD, PCP, Ketamine, Dextromethorphan," National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Report Series (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 2001), p. 3. http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"Sensations and feelings change much more dramatically than the physical signs in people under the influence of LSD. The user may feel several different emotions at once or swing rapidly from one emotion to another. If taken in large enough doses, the drug produces delusions and visual hallucinations. The users sense of time and self is altered. Experiences may seem to cross over different senses, giving the user the feeling of hearing colors and seeing sounds. These changes can be frightening and can cause panic. Some LSD users experience severe, terrifying thoughts and feelings of despair, fear of losing control, or fear of insanity and death while using LSD. "LSD users can also experience flashbacks, or recurrences of certain aspects of the drug experience. Flashbacks occur suddenly, often without warning, and may do so within a few days or more than a year after LSD use. In some individuals, the flashbacks can persist and cause significant distress or impairment in social or occupational functioning, a condition known as hallucinogen-induced persisting perceptual disorder (HPPD). "Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop its use over time. LSD is not considered an addictive drug since it does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior. However, LSD does produce tolerance, so some users who take the drug repeatedly must take progressively higher doses to achieve the state of intoxication that they had previously achieved. This is an extremely dangerous practice, given the unpredictability of the drug. In addition, cross-tolerance between LSD and other hallucinogens has been reported.

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009). https://d14rmgtrwzf5a.cloudfro...

"Past-year use of LSD, one of the major drugs in the hallucinogen class, has been hovering for about a decade at its lowest levels recorded by the study (Figure 5-4e). In 2015 the levels of use for students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grade were 0.9%, 2.0%, and 2.9%, respectively. Consistent with most other drugs, use increased during the 1990s relapse and peaked in the mid-1990s. It then subsequently declined to its lowest levels ever in the early 2000s, where it has since plateaued. "LSD was one of the first drugs to decline at the start of the 1980s, almost surely due to increased information about its potential dangers. The subsequent increase in its use during the mid-1980s may reflect the effects of generational forgettingthat is, replacement cohorts know less than their predecessors about the potential dangers of LSD because they have had less exposure to the negative consequences of using the drug.3 "We believe that the decline prior to 2002 might have resulted in part from a displacement of LSD by sharply rising ecstasy use. After 2001, when ecstasy use itself began to decline, the sharp further decline in LSD use likely resulted from a sudden drop in the availability of LSD, because attitudes generally have not moved in a way that could explain the fall in use, while perceived availability has."

Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., OMalley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2016). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 19752015: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, p. 161. Available at http://monitoringthefuture.org... http://monitoringthefuture.org...

"Our results indicate that this population of sexually active female adolescents and young adults have similar rates of lifetime use of LSD (13%) as reported in other surveys,1,30 and half of these young women report using LSD one or more times in the last year. Prior data suggests that the use of hallucinogens by African Americans is virtually nonexistent across all ages of adolescents and young adults.2,9 In fact, we found that none of our African American young women reported using LSD. However, the proportion of African Americans who reported using marijuana was much greater than either caucasian or Mexican American women."

Rickert, Vaughn I.; Siqueira, Lorena M.; Dale, Travis; and Wiemann, Constance M., "Prevalence and Risk Factors for LSD Use among Young Women," Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (Washington, DC: North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, April 2003) Volume 16, Issue 2, p. 72. http://www.beckleyfoundation.o...

"The physiological effects of this powerful drug have been well documented. These effects can be grouped into five general areas of action: LSD works on the sympathetic nervous system (which is involved in regulation of heart muscle, smooth muscle and glandular organs in a response to stressful situations); the motor system (which is involved in carrying out limb movements); the affective states; thought processes; and it has profound effects upon the sensory and perceptual experience.

"LSD is a semisynthetic preparation originally derived from ergot, an extract of the fungus Claviceps purpurea, which grows as a parasite on rye wheat. The dosage that is required to produce a moderate effect in most subjects is 1 to 3mcg per kilogram of body mass, and the effects can last from seven to 10 hours (Bowman & Rand 1980).

"Stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system following LSD ingestion can lead to effects such as hypothermia with piloerection (hairs standing on end, such as can be found in reports of religious ecstasy), sweating, increased heart rate with palpitations, and elevation of blood pressure and blood glucose levels. These reactions of the autonomic nervous system are not as significant as other effects upon the body: action on the motor system can lead to increased activity of monosynaptic reflexes (such as the knee-jerk response), an increase in muscle tension, tremors, and muscular incoordination. This latter effect of muscular incoordination is also a symptom of religious ecstasy in many cultures, where the worshipper has such a profound feeling of love of God that he is said to be 'intoxicated by God.'"

Goodman, Neil, "The Serotonergic System and Mysticism: Could LSD and the Nondrug-Induced Mystical Experience Share Common Neural Mechanisms?" Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (San Francisco, CA: Haight Ashbury Publications, July-September 2002), Vol. 34, No. 3, p. 266. http://www.cnsproductions.com/...

"Most users of LSD voluntarily decrease or stop its use over time. LSD is not considered an addictive drug since it does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior. However, LSD does produce tolerance, so some users who take the drug repeatedly must take progressively higher doses to achieve the state of intoxication that they had previously achieved. This is an extremely dangerous practice, given the unpredictability of the drug. In addition, cross-tolerance between LSD and other hallucinogens has been reported."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009). http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"The effects of LSD depend largely on the amount taken. LSD causes dilated pupils; can raise body temperature and increase heart rate and blood pressure; and can cause profuse sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009). https://d14rmgtrwzf5a.cloudfro...

"Chemist Albert Hofmann, working at the Sandoz Corporation pharmaceutical laboratory in Switzerland, first synthesized LSD in 1938. He was conducting research on possible medical applications of various lysergic acid compounds derived from ergot, a fungus that develops on rye grass. Searching for compounds with therapeutic value, Hofmann created more than two dozen ergot-derived synthetic molecules. The 25th was called, in German, Lyserg-Sure-Dithylamid 25, or LSD-25."

"Hallucinogens and Dissociative Drugs, including LSD, PCP, Ketamine, Dextromethorphan," National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Report Series (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, 2001), p. 3. http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"Peyote is a small, spineless cactus in which the principal active ingredient is mescaline. This plant has been used by natives in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States as a part of religious ceremonies. Mescaline can also be produced through chemical synthesis."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"The top of the peyote cactus, also referred to as the crown, consists of disc-shaped buttons that are cut from the roots and dried. These buttons are generally chewed or soaked in water to produce an intoxicating liquid. The hallucinogenic dose of mescaline is about 0.3 to 0.5 grams, and its effects last about 12 hours. Because the extract is so bitter, some individuals prefer to prepare a tea by boiling the cacti for several hours."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"The long-term residual psychological and cognitive effects of mescaline, peyotes principal active ingredient, remain poorly understood. A recent study found no evidence of psychological or cognitive deficits among Native Americans that use peyote regularly in a religious setting.2 It should be mentioned, however, that these findings may not generalize to those who repeatedly abuse the drug for recreational purposes. Peyote abusers may also experience flashbacks."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"Its effects can be similar to those of LSD, including increased body temperature and heart rate, uncoordinated movements (ataxia), profound sweating, and flushing. The active ingredient mescaline has also been associated, in at least one report, to fetal abnormalities."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is obtained from certain types of mushrooms that are indigenous to tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Mexico, and the United States. These mushrooms typically contain less than 0.5 percent psilocybin plus trace amounts of psilocin, another hallucinogenic substance."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"Mushrooms containing psilocybin are available fresh or dried and are typically taken orally. Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and its biologically active form, psilocin (4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine), cannot be inactivated by cooking or freezing preparations. Thus, they may also be brewed as a tea or added to other foods to mask their bitter flavor. The effects of psilocybin, which appear within 20 minutes of ingestion, last approximately 6 hours."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"The active compounds in psilocybin-containing 'magic' mushrooms have LSD-like properties and produce alterations of autonomic function, motor reflexes, behavior, and perception.3 The psychological consequences of psilocybin use include hallucinations, an altered perception of time, and an inability to discern fantasy from reality. Panic reactions and psychosis also may occur, particularly if a user ingests a large dose. Long-term effects such as flashbacks, risk of psychiatric illness, impaired memory, and tolerance have been described in case reports."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"[Psilocybin] can produce muscle relaxation or weakness, ataxia, excessive pupil dilation, nausea, vomiting, and drowsiness. Individuals who abuse psilocybin mushrooms also risk poisoning if one of many existing varieties of poisonous mushrooms is incorrectly identified as a psilocybin mushroom."

NIDA InfoFacts, "Hallucinogens: LSD, Peyote, Psilocybin, and PCP" National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, June 2009) http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites...

"Overall, the present study shows that psilocybin can dose-dependently occasion mystical-type experiences having persisting positive effects on attitudes, mood, and behavior. The observations that episodes of extreme fear, feeling trapped, or delusions occur at the highest dose in almost 40% of volunteers, that anxiety and fear have an unpredictable time course across the session, and that an ascending sequence of dose exposure may be associated with long-lasting positive changes have implications for the design of therapeutic trials with psilocybin. Considering the rarity of spontaneous mystical experiences in the general population, the finding that more than 70% of volunteers in the current study had 'complete' mystical experiences suggests that most people have the capacity for such experiences under appropriate conditions and, therefore, such experiences are biologically normal."

Griffiths, Roland R.; Johnson, Matthew W.; Richards, William A.; Richards, Brian D.; McCann, Una; and Jesse, Robert, "Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: immediate and persisting dose-related effects," Psychopharmacology (Heidelberg, Germany: May 2011), p. 16. http://link.springer.com/artic...

"An important finding of the present study is that, with careful volunteer screening and preparation and when sessions are conducted in a comfortable, well-supervised setting, a high dose of 30 mg/70 kg psilocybin can be administered safely. . It is also noteworthy that, despite meetings and prior sessions with monitors ranging from 8 h (when psilocybin was administered on the first session) up to 24 h (when psilocybin was administered on the third session) of contact time, 22% (8 of 36) of the volunteers experienced a period of notable anxiety/dysphoria during the session, sometimes including transient ideas of reference/paranoia. No volunteer required pharmacological intervention and the psychological effects were readily managed with reassurance. The primary monitor remained accessible via beeper/phone to each volunteer for 24 h after each session, but no volunteer called before the scheduled follow-up meeting on the next day. The 1-year follow-up is ongoing but has been completed by most volunteers (30 of 36). In that follow-up, an open-ended clinical interview reflecting on the study experiences and current life situation provides a clinical context conducive to the spontaneous reporting of study-associated adverse events. To date, there have been no reports of persisting perceptional phenomena sometimes attributed to hallucinogen use or of recreational abuse of hallucinogens, and all participants appear to continue to be high-functioning, productive members of society."

Griffiths, R. R.; Richards, W. A.; McCann, U.; Jesse, R., " Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance,"Psychopharmacology (Heidelberg, Germany: August 2006), Volume 187, Number 3, p. 281. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org...

"Our investigations provided no cause for concern that administration of PY [psilocybin] to healthy subjects is hazardous with respect to somatic health. However, as our data revealed tendencies of PY to temporarily increase blood pressure, we advise subjects suffering from cardiovascular conditions, especially untreated hypertension, to abstain from using PY or PY-containing mushrooms. Furthermore, our results indicate that PY-induced ASC [altered states of consciousness] are generally well tolerated and integrated by healthy subjects. However, a controlled clinical setting is needful, since also mentally stable personalities may, following ingestion of higher doses of PY, transiently experience anxiety as a consequence of loosening of ego-boundaries."

Hasler, Felix; Grimberg, Ulrike; Benz , Marco A.; Huber, Theo; and Vollenweider, Franz, "Acute psychological and physiological effects of psilocybin in healthy humans: a double-blind, placebo-controlled doseeffect study," Psychopharmacology (Heidelberg, Germany: March 2004) Volume 172, Number 2, p. 151. http://www.beckleyfoundation.o...

"Today, the medical value of hallucinogens is again being examined in formal psychiatric settings. One substance under investigation is psilocybin, 4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, which occurs in nature in various species of mushrooms. Psilocybin is rapidly metabolized to psilocin, which is a potent agonist at serotonin 5-HT1A/2A/2C receptors, with 5-HT2A receptor activation directly correlated with human hallucinogenic activity.16 Psilocybin was studied during the 1960s to establish its psychopharmacological profile; it was found to be active orally at around 10 mg, with stronger effects at higher doses, and to have a 4- to 6-hour duration of experience. Psychological effects were similar to those of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), with psilocybin considered to be more strongly visual, less emotionally intense, more euphoric, and with fewer panic reactions and less chance of paranoia than LSD."17,18

Grob, Charles S.; Danforth, Alicia L.; Chopra, Gurpreet S.; Hagerty, Marycie; McKay, Charles R.; Halberstadt, Adam L.; Greer, George R., "Pilot Study of Psilocybin Treatment for Anxiety in Patients With Advanced-Stage Cancer, "Archives of General Psychiatry," (Chicago, IL: American Medical Association, January 2011), Volume 68, Number 1, p. 71. http://www.scribd.com/doc/3703...

"Despite the limitations, this study demonstrates that the careful and controlled use of psilocybin may provide an alternative model for the treatment of conditions that are often minimally responsive to conventional therapies, including the profound existential anxiety and despair that often accompany advanced-stage cancers. A recent review from the psilocybin research group at Johns Hopkins University describes the critical components necessary for ensuring subject safety in hallucinogen research.36 Taking into account these essential provisions for optimizing safety as well as adhering to strict ethical standards of conduct for treatment facilitators, the results provided herein indicate the safety and promise of continued investigations into the range of medical effects of hallucinogenic compounds such as psilocybin."

Grob, Charles S.; Danforth, Alicia L.; Chopra, Gurpreet S.; Hagerty, Marycie; McKay, Charles R.; Halberstadt, Adam L.; Greer, George R., "Pilot Study of Psilocybin Treatment for Anxiety in Patients With Advanced-Stage Cancer, "Archives of General Psychiatry," (Chicago, IL: American Medical Association, January 2011), Volume 68, Number 1, p. 77. http://www.scribd.com/doc/3703...

"Salvia divinorum is a perennial herb in the mint family native to certain areas of the Sierra Mazateca region of Oaxaca, Mexico. The plant, which can grow to over three feet in height, has large green leaves, hollow square stems and white flowers with purple calyces, can also be grown successfully outside of this region. Salvia divinorum has been used by the Mazatec Indians for its ritual divination and healing. The active constituent of Salvia divinorum has been identified as salvinorin A. Currently, neither Salvia divinorum nor any of its constituents, including salvinorin A, are controlled under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA)."

Drug Enforcement Administration, Office of Diversion Control, "Salvia Divinorum and Salvinorin A," (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, October 2013). https://www.deadiversion.usdoj...

"The putative primary psychoactive agent in SD [Salvia divinorum] is a structurally novel KOR [kappa opioid receptor] agonist named salvinorin A (Ortega et al., 1982; Valds et al., 1984). Consistent with KOR agonist activity, users describe SD in lay literature as hallucinogenic: it produces perceptual distortions, pseudo-hallucinations, and a profoundly altered sense of self and environment, including out-of-body experiences (Aardvark, 1998; Erowid, 2008; Siebert, 1994b; Turner, 1996). SD therefore appears to have the potential to elucidate the role of the KOR receptor system in health and disease (Butelman et al., 2004; Chavkin et al., 2004; Roth et al., 2002)."

Baggott, Matthew J.; Earth Erowid; Fire Erowid; Galloway, Gantt P.; Mendelson, John, "Use patterns and self-reported effects of Salvia divinorum: An internet-based survey," Drug and Alcohol Dependence (Philadelphia, PA: College on Problems of Drug Dependence, October 2010), p. 2. http://www.maps.org/w3pb/new/2... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...

"Salvia divinorum is a psychoactive plant that can induce dissociative effects and is a potent producer of visual and other hallucinatory experiences. By mass, salvinorin A, the psychoactive substance in the plant, appears to be the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen. Its native habitat is the cloud forests in Mexico. It has been consumed for hundreds of years by local Mazatec shamans, who use it to facilitate visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions.57 It is also used in traditional medicine at lower doses as a diuretic to treat ailments including diarrhoea, anaemia, headaches and rheumatism. Effects include various psychedelic experiences, including past memories (e.g. revisiting places from childhood memory), merging with objects and overlapping realities (such as the perception of being in several locations at the same time).58 In contrast to other drugs, its use often prompts dysphoria, i.e. feelings of sadness and depression, as well as fear. In addition, it may prompt a decreased heart rate, slurred speech, lack of coordination and possibly loss of consciousness.59"

UNODC, World Drug Report 2013 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.13.XI.6), p. 66. https://www.unodc.org/unodc/se...

"Consistent with results from nonhuman animal research (Mowry et al.,2003), the present results suggest a safe physiological profile for salvinorin A at the studied doses, under controlled conditions, and in psychologically and physically healthy hallucinogen-experienced participants. Salvinorin A produced no significant changes in heart rate or blood pressure; no tremor was observed; and no adverse events were reported. Participants tolerated all doses. However, because of the small sample and the healthy, hallucinogen-experienced status of participants, conclusions regarding safety are limited."

Johnson, Matthew W.; MacLean, Katherine A.; Reissig, Chad R.; Prisinzano, Thomas E.; Griffiths, Roland R., "Human sychopharmacology and dose-effects of salvinorin A, a kappa opioid," Drug and Alcohol Dependence (Philadelphia, PA: The College on Problems of Drug Dependence, December 3, 2010), p. 4-5. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

"There was little evidence of dependence in our survey population. At some point, 0.6% (3 people) felt addicted to or dependent upon SD, while 1.2% (6) reported strong cravings for SD. The DSM-IV-R psychiatric diagnostic system in the United States classifies people as drug dependent based on seven criteria. Of the three who reported feelings of addiction or dependence on SD, only one endorsed any DSM-IV criteria (strong cravings and using more SD than planned). When asked about these signs and symptoms individually, 2 additional respondents (0.4%) reported three dependence criteria. None of these individuals reported more than 2 of 13 after-effects characteristic of mu-opioid withdrawal (such as increased sweating, gooseflesh, worsened mood, and diarrhea)."

Baggott, Matthew J.; Earth Erowid; Fire Erowid; Galloway, Gantt P.; Mendelson, John, "Use patterns and self-reported effects of Salvia divinorum: An internet-based survey," Drug and Alcohol Dependence (Philadelphia, PA: College on Problems of Drug Dependence, October 2010), p. 4. http://www.maps.org/w3pb/new/2...

"A tripwire question asks about use of salvia (or salvia divinorum) in the last 12 months. Salvia is an herb with hallucinogenic properties, common to southern Mexico and Central and South Americas. Although it currently is not a drug regulated by the Controlled Substances Act, several states have passed legislation to regulate its use, as have several countries. The Drug Enforcement Agency lists salvia as a drug of concern and has considered classifying it as a Schedule I drug, like LSD or marijuana. Annual prevalence of this drug has been in a steady decline, and in 2015 levels were only 0.7%, 1.2%, and 1.9% among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, respectively."

Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., OMalley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2016). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 19752015: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, p. 93. Available at http://monitoringthefuture.org... http://monitoringthefuture.org...

Read this article:

Entheogens | Drug War Facts

By John Darling for the Tidings

While psychedelic drugs rose to prominence in the 1960s, the attendees at an Ashland conference say the nation and world would be a better place if the non-addictive drugs regained their footing in society.

The peace and love message of the '60s inspired in part by psychedelic drugs hasnt changed over the last five decades, speakers told the approximately 300 attendees at the fourth annual Exploring Psychedelics conference, held May 25-26 at Southern Oregon University.

Pointing to a spiritual crisis in the west, conference organizer Martin Ball, an SOU adjunct faculty member, said mind-altering substances such as psilocybin mushrooms have been a positive part of culture since the beginning of history. But the federal government's War on Drugs over the last 50 years demonized the non-addictive entheogens (literally: generating god within) and pushed the movement to the periphery of society.

A psychedelic renaissance is underway as researchers and society learn of its benefits in health, healing and creativity in art, music, philosophy and a greater understanding of how to solve societys problems, says Ball. Were not talking about back-alley druggies and Grateful Dead concerts here. These are important members of our society.

Ball produces a podcast, the Entheogenic Revolution, with a motto, Just Say Know, a play on the Drug Wars just say no credo. Noting that psychedelics are not in the same category as meth or crack, he said they should stop being criminalized.

In the wake of the states legalization of marijuana, Tom and Sheri Eckert of Portland have organized the Oregon Psilocybin Society, which they said is promoting a ballot measure to legalize the mind-altering substance. The measure would set up a process for overseeing and training facilitators of trips, licensing, getting medical clearance for users who must be over 21 but would not legalize personal possession.

The psychedelic movement is rising to prominence and if humanity is to survive, we need to heal the culture, said Sheri Eckert. "Its bottoming out and forcing us to look at ourselves. We have to evolve and claim our higher consciousness or else. Psilocybin helps us reclaim our truth.

The plant offers relief for depression, end-of-life anxiety, addiction and PTSD, the Eckerts said.

When the history of this time is written in a thousand years, said Tom Eckert, a therapist, I bet they wont focus on our absurd politics but how we valued the inner dimension.

In a talk on marijuana, Michael Scott said psychoactive drugs are at the tipping point, with less and less suppression. More and more folks are talking about changing the world to a better place.

John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.

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Psychedelics touted as solution for society - Ashland Daily Tidings

Painting in caves thousands of years before the first civilization, human beings entered altered states that brought forth an awakening in our consciousness.

Archaeologists and anthropologist agree thatcave paintings at ancient sites like Lascaux, Chauvet, and El Castillowere inspired by visions from shamans in altered states of consciousness. These images of part-human, part-animal therianthropes, along with motifs of criss-crosses, dotted patterns, and impalement,mimic the same archetypes later reported by test subjectswhile on LSD.

Erect Birdman, a therianthrope from Lascaux Cave

The shift from the alert, problem-solving consciousness that kept our early ancestors alive from predators and the elements to the abstract state of mind signified our evolution into thoughts of the divine.

Artificial Intelligence, if itcan ever become truly conscience and not just a soulless, computational device, must take true hallucination into account if it ever wants to experience reality the way humans do. Our own evolution of consciousness, both spiritually and historically, is replete with tales of visions, dreams, and the supernatural.

Read More:AI and Spirituality: Toward the recreation of the mythical, soulless Golem

In his pursuit of getting to the bottom of the shamanistic approach to cave painting and altered states of consciousness, independent researcher and best-selling author Graham Hancock detailed in his book Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, how he would not take an ivory tower, arm-chaired approach, but rather personally dive head-first into the psychedelic realm to uncover the truth.

Encounters with supernatural beings are documented in the oldest representational art that has so far been found anywhere in the world art depicting therianthropes and dating back more than 30,000 years. The discovery that shamans in surviving hunter-gatherer cultures routinely experience encounters with virtually identical beings when they enter trance, and that I could and did encounter such beings myself under the influence of the same hallucinogens that the shamans use, convinced me that there was a real mystery to explore here.

What researchers like Hancock, anthropologist Jeremy Narby, and the late psychonaut Terence McKenna tell us, is that our genetic makeup functions as a vessel for receiving altered states of consciousness. Under altered states of consciousness, we can encounter entities from other realms that can bring to us valuable information, both on a personal and global level.

Read More:UW research into DNA storage backs up ancient shamanic knowledge

So, what does this have to do with Artificial Intelligence?

If the goal is to make machines as human as possible, there must be an element of the supernatural a Divine Spark if you will. For McKenna, Hancock, and Narby, that divine spark whichbrought forth an expanded consciousness in humanity was the discovery of altered states of consciousness, whether it be through plant or fungal entheogens, rhythmic dance, drumming, starvation, or purposeful intoxication through insect bites.

Read More:Terence McKennas cyberdelic evolution of consciousness as it relates to AI

In his book Beyond Zero and One: Machines, Psychedelics, and Consciousness, scientist and engineer Andrew Smart raises the question how smart can machines get without being conscious? He believes that the issue of consciousness invariably raises the issue of LSD and hallucinations.

Smart also stated that human perception and consciousness often hide the true complexity of the world. The author illustrates the difference between how cameras in intelligent machines do not see things the same way humans do.

Heres an example. Before reading further, watch this video whilekeeping a silent count of the number of passes made by the people in white shirts.

Did you see the gorilla?

This was aHarvard experiment dubbedthe Invisible Gorilla, and the studyconcluded that half the people who watched the above video did not notice the gorilla, despite its nine second presence on-screen.

The gorilla was physically there and captured on camera, so it should be detected by us, right? What the camera sees in plain sight, the human mind may not, and that is one example of the conscious differences between human beings and computers.

The gorilla was a blind spot created in the brain that did not allow the human to perceive it, and this blind spot can also be construed as a hallucination. For what is a hallucination if not a mind-construction that allows you to see things that you normally would not, or not see things that you normally would?

Commenting on the influence of psychedelics in the tech community, of which Steve Jobs was a big proponent, Smart asks, What if Silicon Valley got back to its psychedelic roots? Only this time, instead of company founders and spiritually inclined engineers dropping acid, Silicon Valley would try to figure out how to give LSD to conscious machines.

Read More:Terence McKennas cyberdelic predictions for Virtual Reality 25 years on

Smartconcludes in his book, I do not believe it would be crazy to begin to try to design computers with the purpose of giving them psychedelic experiences. Along the way, we might finally crack the mystery of human and machine consciousness and in the process save the human race.

Unlike Elon Musks latest endeavor to create AI-human cyborgs, Smart isnt sure if this is the right path for humanity.

However, an AI-human hybrid does get a lot more interesting if you consider a neural-laced human brain infused with AI nanobots that is tripping on acid, psilocybin mushrooms, DMT, or some other psychedelic. Digital entheogens, anyone?

Read More:AI human cyborgs are next on Elon Musks agenda with the launch of Neuralink

Artist Katt McKennas rendition of the ancient bee-faced mushroom shaman of Tassili Niger, Algeria.

What connections couldbe made ifhuman consciousness, fused with AI, could have a psychedelic experience? What brave new horizons could be forged? What doors of perception could be opened?

It wasnt until humans began having hallucinationsin the caves of our prehistoric past that we developed a sense of the divine, which later led to spirituality and religion, and a higher consciousness.

Perhaps the deep mind in the cave will emerge once machines (or hybrids) are able to have full-blown psychedelic experiences.

Original post:

The Deep Mind in the Cave: Awakening Consciousness in the Spirit of AI - The Sociable

James Oroc, Guest Waking Times

The word Entheogen means God contained within and in some other translations it means to awaken the divine within, which is closer to the word Entheogenesis, describing the process of doing away with all that which is transient and impermanent, while allowing the unchanging aspect of our being to awaken to itself. An Entheogen is a compound that induces a spiritual or mystical experience. There have been many kinds of Entheogens or plant based psychoactive substances used by humans. However, there isnt much known about these plant medicines commonly, as a result of which humanity has been for long exploited by psychological manipulation at the hands of the powers that be. Constant repetition of lies and negative propaganda seem to be working well on the sleeping masses, however with more information and awareness on these subjects things are quickly changing globally.

It is good to see great change manifesting when people join hands and come together against this regressive oppression and tyranny that act out through the various world governments, big greedy corporations and the Military Industrial Complex. One of the ways to beat the system is through creating more awareness by disseminating useful information, sharing knowledge speaking your truth and more importantly, living it ! We came across this brilliant source of information on various drugs and their effects on human consciousness and thought it must be shared here

In 2010 I was fortunate to be a presenter on the subject of entheogens at a fascinating conference in San Rafael, California, titled Beyond the I the end of the Seeker. The conference organizers had recruited a remarkable collection of physicists, neuroscientists, consciousness researchers, and spiritual teachers, all with a common interest in what turned out to be the rather hazy subject of Science and Non-Duality. (I say that I was fortunate to present because I was also able to attend workshops and lectures with some of my personal heroes including the physicist/authors Peter Russell, Amit Goswami, NASAs zero-point scientist Bernard Haisch, anesthesiologist Stuart Hammerhof on his and Roger Penroses theory of Quantum Consciousness, and a remarkable presentation by Nassim Haramein exclusively on his paper about the Schwarzschild Proton). The entheogen section of the conference titled Entheogens as a Portal was a panel comprising of Rick Doblin (MAPS), Dr. Martin Ball, James Fadimann, myself and a couple of other speakers (whose names I must confess I dont remember) all who received 20 minutes to speak about entheogens and (I presumed) non-duality.

So for this conference, rather than discussing my usual subject (the endogenous entheogens, DMT and 5-MeO-DMT), I decided to consider the broad spectrum of different mood-enhancing compounds available, and rather than considering how each particular drug affects our bodies or our mental well-being as most scientific studies would, I would instead rank each drug on how it affected our sense of Ego, our sense of I. Since the total loss of Ego and the sense of I is the core of the transpersonal mystical experience (and I am an experiential-mystic at heart) I decided that I would assign each drug its own Mystical Value, with the drugs that can induce the transpersonal state of total loss of Ego and Identity having the highest value (most value to an experiential mystic), while the drugs that reinforced or inflated the sense of the Ego would have the lowest. After having ranked the various compounds (according to experiential reports in literature, EROWID, etc), it was interesting to note that the scale naturally descended by the chemical class of the compoundtryptamine, phenethylamine, opiates, amphetamines, alcohol and that this corresponded to a noticeable increase in toxicity.

Here is how I ranked the various compounds, along with my personal commentary on the effects of the compound, its toxicity, and human history.

The endogenous entheogens/ Simple tryptamines:

1. 5-Methoxy-DMT: Regularly capable of inducing a classical mystical experience of transpersonal oneness with complete dissolution of Ego and Identity, even at dosages as low as 5 micrograms. Endogenous. Which means that it is naturally produced within our own bodies and thus 100% physically non-toxic. Also present in nature in the leaf, bark, and roots of trees, and in the venom of the Bufo Alvarius toad. 5-MeO-DMT has been used in South America in the forms of snuffs for an estimated 3000 years. 5-MeO-DMTs modern use, first in the form of smoking toad venom, and then as synthesized 5-Meo-DMT, is approx 35 years old.

2. DMT (dimethyltryptamine): Capable of inducing a classical mystical experience of transpersonal Oneness, with complete dissolution of Ego and Identity, mostly at high dosages, and in certain individuals. Endogenous. Found in the leaf, seeds, bark, and roots of plants, DMT has been used in South America as snuffs, and as the active alkaloid in ayahuasca, for more than 1500 years. These plant admixtures are regarded as sacred medicines amongst the Amazonian cultures from which they originate. After being discovered to be psychologically active by the Hungarian psychologist Stephan Szara in 1957, DMT was used by IM sporadically throughout the early 1960s (most notably by William S Burroughs and Timothy Leary) before experiencing a brief burst of popularity in the late 1960s (after the underground chemist Nick Sand discovered that the fumurate was smokable), before disappearing almost completely by the end of the 1970s. The writings of Terence McKenna subsequently rekindled interest in the compound and its natural analogue ayahuasca, which combined with the unsubstantiated theories of Dr Rick Strassman presented in the more recent book DMT: The Spirit Molecule, has resulted in a significant modern mythology amongst the current psychedelic counter-culture.

The Complex Tryptamines:

3. LSD-25. (lysergic acid) Also a tryptamine, LSD is capable of inducing a classical mystical experience of transpersonal Oneness, with complete dissolution of Ego and Identity, in high dosages, and in certain individuals. Synthetic, with close analogues found in nature. The Eleusinian mysterieswhich could only be attended once in a lifetimewere considered the high point of Greek Society and ran for more than 2000 years, tremendously influencing Greek Philosophy and thus Western Thought. Kykeon, the entheogen at the heart of these mysteries, was most likely an LSD analogue produced from an ergot (grain) fungus. (The Temple at Eleusis was dedicated to Demeter, the Goddess of Wheat). LSD-like compounds have also been isolated from the Aztec ololiuqui (morning glory) seeds. Lysergic Acid LSD 25, which captured the public imagination like no other entheogen in modern history during the late 1960s and early 70s when an estimated 75 million people tried the drug is the synthetic counterpart of these natural plant analogues. While the very high dosages (800+ micrograms) recommended by Leary, Metzner, and Alpert in The Varieties of the Psychedelic Experience (1963) to induce a transpersonal-mystical experience ultimately proved to be more than most people liked to handle psychologically, LSD is physiologically one of the safest compounds known to man, since it requires the smallest known amount (1/10,000th of a gram) to be psychologically active, and is thus has an incredibly low toxicity to dosage. (You can ingest the same amount of cyanide, or even plutonium, and it will pass through your body with affecting you). Wikipedia reports a suspected fatal overdose (Kentucky, 1975) medical literature on LSD, which involved the IV injection of a ridiculously large amount of LSD (1/3rd of a gram more than 3000 of todays hits!) but notes most sources report that there are no known human cases of such an overdose.

4. Psilocybin (4-OH-DMT). Can induce transpersonal-mystical experience in high dosage. Naturally occurring in some 200 mushroom species. The presumed entheogen in Terence McKennas Stoned Ape theory. The least powerful of the tryptamines, psilocybin is of low toxicity although overdoses are reputedly possible on synthetic psilocybin, such as in the death of John Griggs, the leader of the notorious LSD-and-hashish cartel, The Brotherhood of Love, although none are reported on EROWID.

Ketamine/PCP

5. Ketamine/PCP: Capable of inducing a classical mystical experience of transpersonal Oneness, with complete dissolution of Ego and Identity, mostly at high dosages, and in certain individuals. The only legal PCP analogue (estimated 5-10% the strength of PCP), Ketamine, which acts as a stimulant on the central nervous system, requires inclusion due to its impressive record for inducing mystical experiences in individuals (mostly by IM injection) and it could be argued that it deserves a higher ranking than the complex tryptamines. Since it is used as a medical anesthetic, it is considered physically very safe and overdoses are rare. While PCP was first synthesized in 1926, with an illegal street use that peaked in the mid-70s, Ketamines illegal use as an entheogen (and increasingly as a party drug in small doses) is a relatively recent human development.

The Psychedelic-Phenethylamines:

6. Mescaline: Can induce transpersonal-mystical experience in high-dosages. Naturally occurring in various cactus species, mescaline is one of the oldest psychedelics known to man. The San Pedro cactus cults of Northern Peru are the longest known continuous shamanic tradition having existed for at least 3000 years, while there is evidence of peyote use in Mexico and North America dating back 5700 years. In these cultures, the mescaline-containing cacti were considered sacred medicine. Although very rare today, synthetic mescaline was the main subject of Aldous Huxleys The Doors of Perception, which helped spark the 60s psychedelic revolution. (Mescaline, Psilocybin, LSD, and DMT would be the 4 compounds listed in the introduction to Leary, Messner, and Alperts The Psychedelic Experience in 1965.). Like most psychedelics, mescaline is physically non-toxic and non-addictive.

7. 2-CB, 2-CI: Structurally related to mescaline, both 2-CB and 2-CI can induce transpersonal-mystical experience in high-dosages. Synthetic phenethylamines, these are notoriously dose-sensitive and little is known about their toxicity, but due to the extremely low toxicity of mescaline and virtually all psychedelics, they can be assumed to be physically non-toxic and non-addictive. Both are creations of Alexander Shulgin (most famous for popularizing MDMA), which rose to popularity in the LSD drought of the early 21st century caused by the infamous Kansas Silo bust, proving once again that prohibition simply results in diversity.

FATAL OVERDOSE LINE

The Empathagenic-Phenethylamines:

8. MDA: (Sassafras). Empathogen. The original 1960s Love Drug. As with all the compounds in this class, empathogens can decrease the effect of Ego by inducing love and compassion to others, weakening the sense of I. Empathogens also differ from psychedelic/entheogens in their acute toxicity, with deaths caused by cardiac arrest/brain hemorrhaging at a fatality rate of approx 2 in 100,000 users, approximately the same as the more popular (though less toxic) MDMA.

9. MDMA (Ecstasy). See MDA. Rediscovered and popularized by chemist Alexander Shulgin in the 1980s, MDMA held great promise for psychiatry before becoming illegal in a wave of Federal paranoia. Currently being used in hospital trials in Israel, the organization MAPS (Multi-disciplinary Association of Psychedelic Sciences) wants to start clinical trials on returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress syndrome here in the USA.

Other Popular Illegal Compounds:

10. THC (Cannabis or marijuana). Decreases the effect of the Ego by shifting perspective, often towards the humorous side. Relatively low toxicity, no possibility of physical overdose. While cannabis related crimes are the number one reason for incarceration in the USA, with over a million people in jail for its sale, distribution, production, or possession, there has never been a single death related to THC consumption itself.

11. Opiates/Heroin: Nullifies the Ego by negating all desire although not the sense of I. Highly physically addictive with regular fatal overdoses, heroin was involved in 213,118 Emergency Room (ED) visits in 2009. Meanwhile Oxycodon fatalities (OxyContin is a semi-synthetic opiod pain reliever derived from opium) have increased 66.7% over the last five years due to this pain-medicines relatively high toxicity. (14,459 in 2007 82,724 people died from FDA approved drugs in 2010.) ED visits involving nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals (either alone or in combination with another drug) increased 98.4 percent between 2004 and 2009, from 627,291 visits to 1,244,679. OxyContin sales currently exceed $4 billion per year.

12. Cocaine: The ultimate Me drug. Physically and psychologically addictive. Highly toxic. A nervous-system stimulant, cocaine dependence (addiction) can result in cardiovascular and brain damage. The Greed Culture of the 1980s that came only 15 years after the Psychedelic Revolution can almost be epitomized by its reverence to cocaine, the most expensive drug that does the least for the shortest amount of time. In 2009 Cocaine and crack cocaine overdoses were responsible for over 400 000 ED room visits in US hospitals. While the first cocaine epidemic in the USA was in the 1880s, cocaine has greatly grown in popularity since the 1970s, with the estimated U.S. cocaine market exceeding $70 billion in street value in 2005 a greater revenue than a corporation such as Starbucks. The multi-billion dollar War against Cocaine has been waged at the military level in foreign countries since the 1980s with no noticeable affect on supply, while drug violence long the border of Mexico mostly over the cocaine and methamphetamine trade is killing more than 5000 people a year.

13. Methamphetamines. Physically and psychologically addictive. Highly toxic. The highly lucrative illegal underground market of the USAs most-popular legal drug (Ritalin and Adderall are legal methamphetamines the USA consumes 85% of the worlds prescription speed.) Sometimes called white-trash cocaine, methamphetamine abuse is reaching epidemic proportions at many levels of American society with over 93,000 ED room visits in 2009. Crack cocaine and methamphetamine addiction have long been associated with both forced and voluntary prostitution in every country that they appear in, while the violence associated with Mexican drug cartels fighting for control of a cocaine and methamphetamine market valued in excess of 50 billion dollars is currently responsible for over 15,000 fatalities a year.

(And finally, our Societys chosen legal inebrient)

14. Alcohol: Considered a psychoactive depressant. Highly toxic and physically addictive. The United States Center for Disease Control estimates that medium to high consumption of alcohol leads to the death of approx 75,000 people a year in the USA. While the last three compounds on this chart Cocaine, Methamphetamine, and Alcohol are the only three compounds most likely to reinforce the Ego to the point of physical violence, alcohol is the one your most likely to do yourself physical harm on due to self-loathing. Alcohol is the most common extenuating factor for homicides, rapes, beatings, and suicides, not to mention vehicular fatalities. Alcohol is arguably the least sophisticated drug in both its production and its crude inebriating effects. The first alcoholic beverages can be traced back 9000 years to Neolithic times, which is why I like to call it our stone-age drug. Paradoxically, (or perhaps because of its ancient origins) alcohol it is the only 100% legal drug on this list in the vast majority of countries around the world.

My conclusion from ranking these various compounds by their unique Mystical Value and comparing their relative toxicity can thus be expressed quite simply (as):

Orocs Law: The more a compound disrupts the Ego (the sense of I), the physically safer (less toxic) that compound will be, while the more a drug reinforces and inflates the sense of Ego, the more physically harmful (toxic) that compound will be.

After my presentation a number of the enthusiastic audience asked me if I had ever written anything about this Mystical Value Scale and I had to confess that I had not, but that some time in the future I would try to. But in all truth, I would probably have stored it away in the back drawers of my very messy mind had not the former Chief Advisor on Drugs to the British Government published a very interesting report in the respected Lancet medical journal that was released just a month later (Nov 2010) and made world-wide news. In this report by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, every common drug in British society was scored by a panel of social health experts on the harm it created including mental and physical damage, addiction, crime and costs to the economy and the community, thus basically ranking the public health effect of the various drugs. The maximum harm score was 100 and the minimum zero. When the results were tabulated, the most harmful drug was alcohol (72), then heroin (55), crack-cocaine (54), methamphetamines (33), cocaine (27), cannabis (20), ketamine (15), and MDMA (9), with LSD (7) and magic mushrooms (5) being ranked as the least harmful substances to British society! (Neither DMT or 5-MeO-DMT were on the list). The esteemed authors also wrote that our findings lend support to the previous work in the UK and the Netherlands, confirming that the present drug classification systems have little relation to the evidence of harm.

Based on this highly scientific report, my observation about the related toxicity of my Mystical Value scale would seem to have been validated, with those drugs that most eradicate the effect of the Ego being deemed (by public health experts) the safest. Non-addictive and of low toxicity, psychedelic drugs offer no threat to your physical health, and yet they are considered by our Society to be extremely dangerous and are amongst the most illegal substances on the planet.

The word drug incidentallywhich means (in this context, according to the Websters dictionary) a chemical substance which enhances physical or mental well-being is a ridiculously misleading and almost meaningless word if you think about it, since nearly everything we eat and drink can be considered a drug. Nitrous oxide, a gas, is a drug. Coffee, tea, sugar, and chocolate are all drugs. Even McDonalds french-fries under this broad definition could be considered a (highly addictive) drug. Now, as much as I love chocolate, coffee, and even I hate to admit it the occasional McDonalds French-fry, I see little purpose in comparing them in any way, shape, or form, to LSD, DMT, or 5-MeO-DMT, which are far more likely to completely change your consensual reality then they are enhance your physical or mental well-being. But the very use of a word/term as broad as drugs (drug law, drug war, illegal drugs, dangerous drugs etc) to describe and legally regulate (DEA) such a ridiculously broad range of compounds is in its self a verbal smokescreen designed to help limit the distinctly society-changing possibilities of psychedelic-entheogens.

If I may diverge for a moment, it is my personal opinion that the first psychedelic revolution in the United States (1963 Saturday 6th December 1969) failed ultimately due to the mass influx of a variety of distinctly non-psychedelic drugs into the chaotic and highly exploratory youth culture of that time. Psychedelics when used in high-dosages have proven to be safest when used in a thoughtful and controlled set-and-setting, but as the Youth revolution took hold many teenagers were exposed to super-powerful entheogens like LSD-25 and STP (DOM) in what can only be described as a cavalier and Dionysian manner. Considering the fact that an average hit of LSD in 1968 (400-500mg) was 5 times stronger than a hit of street acid (80 to 100mg) today, and that first-timers LSD users were frequently encouraged to take two hits if they wanted to see Tim Learys promised white light, with little thought to their set-and setting, then it is easy to see how a large number of young hippies feared acid as much as others revered it. (You still witness this same phenomena today many of the 20 somethings that I talk to at festivals seem to love DMT but are terrified of LSD having already experienced a trip too long and arduous for them and they probably ate a quarter of what their parents did for their first time in the 60s!). This tendency to push all experiences to the limit (the Prankster ethic) opened the backdoor for the more seductive and much easier rides of first heroin, and then cocaine. (Which when it was first introduced was not thought to be addictive.)

Disregarding the potential (and well-documented role) that the CIA played in the introduction and distribution of virtually all the illegal drugs that became available, by failing to recognize the essential difference of psychedelics/entheogensthat they are best used carefully in a sacred manner with trusted guides and not wildly in recreation amongst crowds of strangersand then by lumping the wide-variety of compounds that followed into a singular Drug Culture that fails to distinguish between the wide variety of experiences that this vast family of so-called drugs can produce, the Alternative culture that had been inspired by psychedelics and the chance for change, ended up settling for uppers-and-downers and the Status Quo, as heroin, cocaine, and amphetamines became the most popular illegal drugs of the last thirty years of the 20th century. (And the use and abuse of legal prescription drugs sky rocketed).

It is interesting now with more than 40 years perspective to realize the fact that our Societys so-called Drug Culture has increasingly turned away from the 60s psychedelic ethos of the mystical destruction of the Ego (and consequently the social structures that the Ego creates) towards a range of compounds that actually reinforce the concept of the Ego (and thus maintain the existing social structures that Ego has built). It could be argued that the last thirty years of the twentieth century that came after the failed psychedelic revolution of the 1960s were the most egocentric years in human history, as television and a global communication network have relentlessly promoted the cult of the Ego as the highest human ideal to the post Vietnam generations of techno-capitalists, with the constant accumulation of individual wealth and power seen as a Darwinian function inherited from our hunter-gatherer days. This obsession with the role of the Individual has resulted in 5% of the worlds population now controlling 50% of its wealth, as multi-national corporations controlled by a handful of families continue to strip the globe of its resources to line the pockets of shareholders and board members in those industrialized nations whose military are effectively the World Law, a treacherous and seemingly unstoppable situation that is threatening life on this planet as the military-industrial complex lurches increasingly erratically through the last of its days. The cult of the Individual Ego has now grown so predominant, we have a societal case of what I call extinction denial where the fate of the individual has become paramount, best expressed in the concept You better get yours while you can.

A radical reassessment of the effect of capitalism and consumerism on both the human condition and our planet is clearly required, but what can bring about a change in a viewpoint that has been steadily being programmed into us by the very technology whose reckless use we need to reassess? According to the Dalai Lama achieving genuine happiness may require bringing about a transformation in your outlook, in your way of thinking, and this is not a simple matter and I believe this applies to us as much as a Society as it does to each of us individually. But what can any of us really do other than reorganize deck chairs on the Titanic? What action can actually have a chance of bringing about a fundamental transformation in the way Humanity perceives and values Life on this planet?

In July of 2003 when first introduced to the super-entheogen 5-MeO-DMT, I underwent what I now believe to be a classical mystical experience of transpersonal unity with the Source of Being. This event had a profound effect upon my world-view since I found myself changed from an agnostic scientific-rationalist to believing in the existence of a God far greater than I could have ever imagined, all in the space of a single 40 minute drug-induced trip. The result for my subsequent search for answers on how such a radical transformation could have occurred is contained in my book Tryptamine Palace: 5-MeO-DMT and the Sonoran Desert Toad. (Park Street Press, 2009), and within the pages of that book I make the claim that this discovery of a spiritual element to the Universe, and the realization that God not only CAN exist but exists as the mystics have always insistedas a part of you, is the most exciting realization that a human being can make. More than eight years have now past since I myself made that unexpected discovery, and while I still agree that is ultimately the most exciting discovery possible, I must concede it is not always the most practical, a dilemma that mystics have known and have suffered for since the beginning of time. The personal discovery of Godany kind of God or Buddha-State, for they are all streams of the same Cosmic rivercan never be scientifically proven and inevitably any entheogenic realizations or enlightenment can only offer the same proofs as any other spiritual system the sticky dual-problem of personal testimony and faith.

I have however come to realize that while entheogens can never prove the existence of God (rather one can only experience God-Consciousness through the use of them and thus form your own opinion), true-entheogens can be used as the most powerful tools of exploration available for investigating some of the most perplexing philosophical questions that humanity has managed to conceive, especially those concerning the role and reality of Consciousness, and its human-shadow, the Ego. As our Society and technology begins to progress beyond the Newtonian-Darwinian paradigm, we are coming to scientifically realize that nothing in the Universe exists as an individual point in space-and-time, since the emerging quantum view of the Universe states that all things are linked and connected thru a matrix of fields of energy that far surpass the energy of physical matter, matter is merely the froth on the wave of reality if you like, while our consciousness, the vehicle of this discovery, far from being an accidental by-product of chemical reactions produced within the matter of the brain as purported by the old paradigm, increasingly seems to be a part of an infinite field of consciousness that both permeates, and creates, the Universe itself. I can also personally testify that thru the use of entheogens one can actually experience a moment outside of time and space as pure Consciousness, with no idea or memory of who you are or where you came from, and in that instant the realization arises of the interconnectedness of all things, that all is truly Onethe transpersonal experience as Stanislav Grof calls itand that this is quite possibly the most profound human experience available, a speculation that the recorded history of all varieties of mysticism would seem to support.

Which brings about the about the very interesting possibilityas suggested by the psychologist Julian Jaynes in his increasingly influential book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mindthat the modern highly-individualized human Ego that has been so venerated in the 19th and 20th centuries may be a comparatively recent development in both human history (and perhaps the history of the Universe), and that the voice in our head that we now all constantly hear, a few thousand years ago would only arise only in times of severe crisis and danger. (And was often thought to be the voice of the Gods). The non-denominational spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle in his modern classic A New Earth argues that our highly refined sense of I has come from the development of our technology-driven Society, since the narrowing of our mental focus away from the transpersonal has allowed us to develop our fantastic technology, but at the expense of disconnecting us with another deeper layer of consciousness that we share with all other things in the Universe. We can no longer see the woods for the trees so to speak, as we have become prisoners of our own inflated sense of self.

As our scientists start to discover the outer realms of Quantum Consciousness, and our psychologists and spiritual masters begin to return our attention to the idea of a Cosmic or Absolute Consciousness that both unites and transcends all religion, with the role that the Individual Ego plays in our Society coming under increasingly critical scrutiny, then it would seem clear the lesson that the careful use of entheogens can teach virtually any of us. It is a scientifically verifiable fact that entheogenic compounds can cause a human ego to be disrupted or even momentarily wiped away, and that when this happens, to paraphrase the poetic words of William Blake, the doors of perception are cleansed, and all things appear to man as they are, Infinite. Throughout the recorded history of Humanity there has been no experience considered more profound or more valuable then the singular realization that All is indeed One, and now as the scientists have begun to catch up with the mystics on realizing the simple undeniable fact that all systems are linked, and that the very idea of the sacredness of the individual is somewhat absurd, we now need to reform our governments, our religions, our financial institutions, our schools, and most importantly ourselves, to this fundamental Universal Truth.

In a world where we have been programmed by the constant sounds and flashy moving images of our rapidly developing modern technology since we have been born, the ancient schools of meditation and contemplation have had little chance to reform the Ego or the society that our love of technologythe human child of the Egohas built for us, since we have long since forgotten that the death of the Ego is a desirable goal. Deepak Chopra once wrote that synchronicity is the universe showing its intention, and therefore I do not find it strange that mescaline was first synthesized the year that Rntgen discovered radiation, or that Albert Hofmann had a strange dream to reinvestigate a compound that he had put on a shelf many years earlier, thereby instigating a chain of events that would cause him to discover LSD-25s remarkable psychoactive qualities while the Manhattan Project was months away from igniting the worlds first atomic bomb, arguably humanitys most egocentric invention. Lysergic Acid (LSD) is a remarkable 20th century invention in the fact that it is the only entheogen that a competent chemist can make a million hits of in an afternoon, and its mass-production qualities (for a mass-production society) should not be under-valued, since it has been responsible for reintroducing the mystical/shamanic concept of the death-and-rebirth of the Ego into our Society at a time when it is most desperately needed. An entheogenic moment outside of space of time can cause a lifetime of egocentric programming to come tumbling down like a house of cards, an illumination almost impossible to ignore, and it is for exactly this reason that our Governments so fear them. If we build the foundations of the Entheogenic Revolution the 2nd Psychedelic Revolution upon the basis of a constant awareness of the influence of the Ego, and seek out a deeper connection with the Mind of the Universe that we all share in a process of liberation theology, then we have a chance to rebuild our tribes into a true World Family that will find a way through the troubling times to come. For if there is one thing that is for sure, it is that none of us will make it alone.

James Oroc

References: DMT Site&Psychedelic Adventure

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What is the Difference Between Entheogens and Drugs?

Larry Cornett has worked tirelessly on and for the Craft for almost 40 years. The story of his work, spread over at least four states, stitches together many strands of the tapestry, yet he has never received nor, I think, wanted any great measure of public acclaim. Here is the beginning of the story he sent me on Nov. 15, 2009. Larry is rather ill right now. He deserves and needs your thoughts.

I was born on August 28, 1947, and raised as a Presbyterian. In the early 1960s, in high school in Chesterland, Ohio, I was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, through which I made contact with people with diverse religious philosophies. In 1962, in 10th grade, I became interested in the philosophy of world religions, especially those that did not claim to be the one and only true way and which were not into personality cults. I had rejected the Christian view of an all knowing, all powerful, omnipresent deity and the simultaneous existence of evil. Nevertheless, I sensed that something interconnected everything and loved Nature.

In 1965, I went to Purdue University to study physics and became active in the Peace Movement as well as the counter-culture. I discovered the mystical implications of quantum mechanics in the spring of 1968, noticing that the mathematics of quantum mechanics describes reality as waves that are interconnected everywhere and that change states everywhere all at once. This implied non-localized connections in reality, which fit into Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist Eastern philosophy, including the writings of Alan Watts and Swami Vivekananda. My main difference from most of the Eastern philosophies was my attitude that, if we are one with the universe, why not enjoy it and use the connection for healing and improving life on this planet? I also considered the concept of non-localized consciousness not centered in people or specific organisms to be plausible, and discovered that things happened when ancient Gods and Goddesses were invoked in ritual.

By the fall of 1968, I had experienced somepsychokinetic control of candle flames, knew the power of chants at changing consciousness, was hosting informal shamanic rituals in my apartment; and became active in the Reformed Druids of North America, by whom I was initiated.

After getting my B.S. in Physics in 1969, I went to the University of Chicago to go for a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics. However, in February 1970, I was arrested at my physical for passing out literature advocating a choice of draft resistance, desertion, joining the American Servicemens Union, etc., for getting other people taking their physical at the time to also pass out the literature, and for almost starting a riot. The day I was arrested, I dropped out of graduate school to work full time as the Indiana Regional Coordinator for the Vietnam Moratorium Committee. I decided that, even if I could prove mathematically a cosmological theory of physics describing how the universe operates and its relationship to consciousness, it would not stop the war in Vietnam or make the air safe to breathe. After the Vietnam Moratorium Committee went bankrupt, I went to the University of Cincinnati, starting in June 1971, and got an M.S. in Air Pollution Control Engineering in 1972.

I didnt pursue formal magical studies from 1971 until 1979 (although I did continue to follow developments in theoretical physics related to cosmology, consciousness, and the fundamental nature of the universe). I also continued to do informal rituals with friends with the objective of exploring consciousness, sometimes under the influence of entheogens (a practice I had been performing since 1967).

In 1978, Larry, Ian Corrigan, and C.C. Rosencomet (Jeff Rosenbaum) were among the founding member of the Chameleon Club at Case Western Reserve University. They organized the first Starwood on July 24 26, 1981. It began as a weekend festival and grew over the years to a six-day event. Attendance grew from 185 in the first year to peak at around 1800 people in 2002. In 1983 Chameleon Club members founded the Association for Consciousness Exploration (ACE), which took over the Starwood Festival, and began the Winterstar Festival as well, on February 9-12, 1984, at Burr Oak State Park in Glouster, OH. The Chameleon Club also considers itself an extended family in the style of the Merry Pranksters; its members can be found from Cleveland to New Orleans, from California to New York.

I got heavily involved with studying magic and organized Paganism again in 1980, when, on a hunch, I went to the Pan Pagan Festival, where I felt I had finally reconnected with the tribe I was part of in the late 1960s; and I learned I had been a Pagan for at least seventeen years without knowing it. I re-experienced some of the power of the Goddesses and Gods and Pagan magic. At a NROOGD circle, I found myself thrust, within minutes, into a state of mind that I had only achieved on very rare occasions while meditating on entheogens, and the results were clearer, more controlled, and without any entheogenic assistance.

Those experiences motivated me to start seriously studying magic again and to make conscious Paganism a major part of my lifestyle. I was living in Dayton, Ohio, at the time, and became an apprentice with Circle, from whom I received much useful guidance. At Samhain 1980, I performed my first full-scale, solitary, Wiccan-style ritual- invoking a God and a Goddess at each quarter. The next day, I led a successful Wiccan- style exorcism with friends (the house I lived in was haunted by a lost spirit, and we helped her find her way to the Summerland).

At Yule 1980, I connected with Amaranth Energies, a Dayton coven at the time, and found that six of the eight Gods and Goddesses that I had invoked at Samhain were also the ones invoked at the quarters by this coven. However, the High Priestess (Prudence Priest) and the High Priest of Amaranth Energies moved to California a few months later; I didnt know about her NROOGD connection until years later. The one other remaining member of the coven (Pasha) and I kept the Dayton Amaranth Energies coven going strong. We did many powerful workings, including Wiccan Shamanic work with the spirits of the land.

In 1981, I was about to be laid off in Dayton; so I worked a spell to find a job in a cosmopolitan area, as a cone of power launched at an extremely powerful bonfire drum/dance and chant circle Saturday night at the first Starwood Festival. When I returned from Starwood, I found a letter waiting for me, about a job interview in New York City. I went to the interview and got the job within three days.I worked solitary most of the time for the first three years in New York City, although I did attend classes and participate in rituals of the Circle of Naught in upstate New York, worked with a Cherokee medicine man, and traveled to Wisconsin a few times for Circle Apprenticeship training.

In 1982, I started to publish an International Calendar of Pagan Festivals that were two days or longer; it continued until 2000. I also published a local calendar of Pagan workshops and events in the New York City area, as an activity of the Atlantic Pagan Council.

Larrys Calendar of Events was one of the most important Pagan publications during the 1980s and 1990s; in those days before the Internet, it was a major resource for keeping track of what other Witches and Pagans were doing.

By 1984, I was active in the Coyote Medicine Society, and connected with Isaac Bonewits and his newly organized Ar nDraiocht Fein Druid Fellowship, as well as Coven Marasmius, a NROOGD coven led by Sally Eaton, in which Isaac was also involved. At last, I had found groups in New York City that performed rituals in the forest and actively worked with Nature Spirits. By August 1985, I had been initiated into Coven Marasmius by Sally Eaton, into ADF with Isaac Bonewits, and into Amaranth Energies by Prudence Priest (the original high priestess). By that time, the Atlantic Pagan Council was dead, but I continued to publish the International Calendar of Pagan Events and a local calendar on my own.

My job situation changed, and I found myself in living in Birmingham, Alabama, for almost a year. I had two Birmingham subscribers to the International Pagan Events Calendar when I moved there, and they introduced me to some of the local Pagan community. I called a party and ritual in Birmingham to celebrate the defeat of the Helms Amendment and to empower Pagan freedom; more than 20 Alabama Pagans came. Before long, I and several people who attended the party had organized a networking and ritual group called Pagan Web. Soon, we had a functioning coven and were often up in the hills of Alabama (weather permitting) working with the Goddess, Gods, nature spirits, etc., at full moons, new moons and Sabbats.

Larrys life in Virginia will be covered in Volume III.

Read more:

OH to NY to AL: Claude Lawrence Cornett - Patheos (blog)

May 04, 2017 10:41 AM PDT

Postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, Alan Kooi Davis, discusses his 5-MeO-DMT online survey and forthcoming human research at Johns Hopkins. You can find the survey here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/433388667010024/?hc_ref=SEARCH

May 01, 2017 09:57 AM PDT

Shuntsu comes clean to the Humanist public, and makes a stunning proposal regarding Hydar

April 24, 2017 09:46 AM PDT

Aryshta shares her thoughts on cannabis and spirituality from her talk at Peace Village Festival. Aryshta will also be joining us again for Exploring Psychedelics 2017 with a talk on Blue Lotus

April 10, 2017 09:53 AM PDT

We now move on to a few recorded talks from the Entheogenic Wisdom Forums at Peace Village Festival. To start us off, we have Ana Holub discussing entheogens and forgiveness

April 05, 2017 12:57 PM PDT

This is an announcement episode with full information about the line-up and schedule for the upcoming Exploring Psychedelics conference and continued fundraising

March 22, 2017 09:04 AM PDT

Tom shares more info on psychedelic European witchcraft, all while stunning the audience by going au natural - catch more of Tom (with clothes on, presumably) at the upcoming 2017 Exploring Psychedelic conference in a debate about mushroom use in Christianity

March 13, 2017 10:06 AM PDT

Matthew Targett discusses his ideas of "Purgatory and Atonement" in psychedelic experience, from the 2016 Inlakesh Festival in Ashland, Oregon

February 27, 2017 09:39 AM PST

Jaya shares information about Huachuma, the mescaline-containing cactus from Peru, at the 2016 Inlakesh Festival Entheogenic Wisdom Forums. Plus, donations for the 2017 Exploring Psychedelics conference are encouraged, as well as submissions for speakers: http://www.exploring-psychedelics.org

February 13, 2017 10:29 AM PST

We start off talks from the Entheogenic Wisdom Forums at the Inlakesh Festival with Tom & Sheri Eckert of the Oregon Psilocybin Society and legalizing psilocybin assisted therapy. Lots of great info on their website, http://www.opsbuzz.com.

January 30, 2017 10:32 AM PST

At long last we reach the final talk from the 2016 Exploring Psychedelics conference with Meriana Dinkova and "Navigating Altered States." Submissions for the 2017 conference begin on Feb 1st, and donations are now being accepted. Visit http://www.exploring-psychedelics.org for more info!

Read the rest here:

The Entheogenic Evolution | Free Podcasts | PodOmatic

A strong stigma in the West bullies our idea of drug culture, fueled by perceptions of mind-altering substances, man-made chemical compounds, and destroyed communities. But throughout the world, spiritual practitioners' use of entheogenspsychoactive substances applied in religious or shamanic contextsis nothing short of a learned art, unique to the people and regions whove studied it for centuries.

Their ultimate goal isnt a supreme high but a realisation of the supreme, wherein an individual ingests a plant with psychoactive properties in order to have a conversation with or listen to it. Its a captivating notion, to be one with nature, driven by the need to sustain a relationship with an ancient voice and to absorb its knowledge.

Outgrowths of corruption and violence are evidence of high human costs. But the draw to the substances is so powerful that its also compelled interested outsiders to become active partakers, creating a whirlwind of well-documented drug tourism, and, consequently, the commercialization and commodification of religion, threatening not only the practices themselves but also, in some cases, the plants central to them.

Its tricky to toe the line when travelinghow to experience a place without actually reaching out and swallowing it whole. We have the inclination to stay in neighbourhood apartments over chain hotels, to seek out street food in lieu of pricey restaurants, to do as the locals dowhatever it is that theyre doing. Somewhere therein, lines of responsible tourism blur. Some might say its the difference between sipping pisco sours in Cusco and cupping ayahuasca tea in Iquitos: Both give you a taste for the lands traditions, but only one has the potential to disrupt a delicate cultural ecosystem.

Here are five such ecosystems around the world, each imbued with its own tradition of entheogenic practices that have drawn curious eyes to peek through the mainstream veil. And while we cant endorse a next-level trip to Mexico to meet Mescalito in a cloud of peyote, we can say that the deserts sparkling mirages have captured our attention, too.

In Gabon, a country nearly Colorados size that straddles the equator on the west coast of Central Africa, theres a shrub that blossoms with white and pink flowers and tasteless orange fruit. It isnt particularly prettyits produce nutritionally unremarkableand yet, the iboga plant is sacred, worshipped by the Babongo tribe (among others) that discovered its uniquely powerful properties some thousand years ago, when a religion called Bwiti formed around its bark.

ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE DUTTON

Loosely translated, Bwiti means simply otherworldly tree medicine or the being who calls. Bwiti adherents eat the psychedelic bark for both individual spiritual growth and community fortificationbut first, its a rite of passage, an initiation into the plants spiritual wisdom and a connection to ancestral knowledge.

Revered and intense as it isthe closed-eye and waking-dream hallucinations, with effects lasting up to 48 hoursiboga requires a complex courtship. Once the root bark has been scraped off and crushed into chips or a fine powder, a ceremony unfolds under the stewardship of a Nganga, or shaman, with clapping, chanting, and complex music thats heavy on percussion. Its a communal event, with elders, healers, and even children sitting on the sidelines to pay witness to whatever message might surface as iboga reveals itself, the initiate unfolding into its guidance and recounting visions aloud in real time so that the Nganga can interpret and direct the proceedings in real time.

ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE DUTTON

Skin covered in a slippery film of sweaty heat, sitting in a platform hut deep in the Amazon rainforest, a shaman sings icaros, or ceremonial songs, as Pachamama, or Mother Earth, takes hold of your intestines and gives a good squeeze. And so begins the period of intense vomiting (and bouts of diarrhoea) found in most ayahuasca ceremonies, wherein physical and emotional bile is released to induce a mystifying haze of transcendental healing, characterised by wild visual and aural hallucinations that challenge limits of both love and fear for the next four to six hours.

The plant decoction is murky to the eye and not so pleasing to the tongue, made from mashed ayahuasca vine and chacruna leaves (often with jimson weed and pure jungle tobacco, called mapacho, added to incite the purge), boiled for 12 hours and blessed with sacred tobacco smoke blown over and into the cauldron by a shaman. The compound of two Quechua words (though with Spanish spelling), ayahuasca means vine of souls or rope of the dead, depending on interpretation. As the name suggests, its a powerful entity calling to Pachamama, a central figure to the indigenous and mestizo populations who have invited herin all her formsinto their bodies for centuries.

In the torrid deserts of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas, people dig the land for a small, thornless cactus said to have untold powers of sight that it shares with those brave and strong enough to greet it. You dont take peyoteit takes you.

ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE DUTTON

Mescalito, as the hallucinogenic cactus was later personified, has shown himself to Aztecs, Mexican Indians, and Native Americans for more than 5,000 years as a centrepiece in cultural and religious practices. While the ceremonies may vary, theyre often communal, with a shaman guiding a group through special peyote songs as together they ingest the dried cactus buttons. Over the course of 10 to 12 hours, hallucinations (and bouts of violent vomiting for novices) transport the user through both space and time and across a range of emotions, where challenging or fearful interactions might linger in the shadows. The reverence it commands borders on fearful, the promise of enlightenment and respect for peyotes power neither dramatised nor undersold.

ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE DUTTON

Arguably one of the most mellow entheogens, kava (also known as kava-kava or yaqona, nourishment of the gods) is the only substance in this article thats legal in the United States for use outside of religious contexts. Known for its peacemaking properties across the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, Vanuatu, and Fiji, kava is an intrinsic part of traditional Polynesian life, used in everything from the sacred to the social. It acts as a mediator or spiritual messenger between people and the Vu, or spirit forcewithout kava, its said, the Vu wont show up.

The leafy plants long, gnarled roots can be fresh or dried then pounded, chewed, or otherwise pulverised to make the opaque, milky drink. It purrs in the belly, stoking an odd mix of tranquility and euphoria while sustaining a sharp mind. Prolonged consumption, however, engulfs the kava drinker in a canopy of mental stillness, a sort of amiable waking sleep. But one needs to approach the kava stupor in the right mindsetlike asking it for directions or meditating on a questionto be guided purposely by its warmth.

In the 1950s, a centuries-old Mazatec tradition in Oaxaca trickled through its historic guard and into the mouths of two Americans, who brought word of their profound experiences back home in a now-famous Life photo essay. And thus began a widespread, tempestuous affair with psilocybin mushrooms, the psychedelic fungi that Timothy Leary so famously championed for its psychological and religious properties in the Harvard Psilocybin Project and beyond.

ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE DUTTON

In its unadulterated form, the Mazatec custom, which is shared by other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples, serves a medicinal purpose, healing physical, mental, and ethical maladies. Like ayahuasca and peyote, the mushrooms are honoured for their capacity to guide users beyond their prescribed realities, to break open convention and incite perspective, introducing novel conduits for compassion and empathy for both themselves and the world. The sacred ritual is communal in Mazatec practice, the mushrooms bathed in smoke from copal incense then eaten two at a time to represent the duality and power of the unified sexes. Together, participants share the darkness and silence of a hut, the shaman the groups designated voice, a channel through which the mushrooms issue their chatterand as it happens, they have a lot to say.

Read the original:

5 of the World's Most Mind-Bending Drug Cultures - National Geographic Australia

The word inspiration comes from the Latin word inspirio, which means to become inflamed, or to be blown upon. Spirio is seen by linguists to be from a word like the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word *(s)peys. Inspirio is also the root word of spiritus in Latin and spirit in English. If we consider the many literal and figurative meanings these words carry, we can safely reconstruct our theology using them.

Psyche Served by Invisible Spirits by Luca Giordano. From WikiMedia.

In this exploration we will no doubt be establishing parameters of our polytheism. Parameters vary wildly from tenets or doctrine. Parameters are variables which can change, and since Our Magic is an orthopraxic one where we have the machinery of practice, and the results rendered will yield a different output based on what youve plugged into the parameters. Here I simply state what data I plug into the parameters of my polytheism. One may even call these my Polytheistic Values. Within any system, some values are given while some remain immutable. Some of these should be obvious, but here they are in order of importance.

Given Values Useful to Theological Discovery

A person who puts blind faith in, and it need not be total trust, the things theyve seen in the Otherworld is an utter fool.

Regarding Given Value 3 above, like language allinformation has a certain signatureof entropy and complexity. Read entropy as Average Uncertainty coined by Claude Shannon, who shows that if fewer questions are needed to predict the next iteration in a pattern, then the system generating that pattern contains less information. So when thinking about our paganism and polytheism, if it can be told and studied quickly, if it is as round as a circle, and quartered like a clock, and is easy to guess the next principle based on a few common expressions, then it has less information. If it is asymmetrical, odd, and hard to predict, it must contain more information. These concepts from information theory apply, methinks, to folks resurrecting, recreating, and reconstructing religions from the past. The paganisms of iron aged Europe were wholly bound to the language, arts, laws, and cultures so these are the things we must look at and model our theology after if we wish it to become what it once was in a modern context. A whole tribesreligion would have to contain enough complexitythat it provided all varieties of minds with what they needed from it. If your paganism, modern or old, isnt all messy and hairy and instead resembles a puzzle, it has almost no entropy. It would be a religion of certainty and, therefore, has implied goals of satiating fear in my mind. The entirely critical mind faces oblivion and nihilism, in actual consideration, and pushes though into theism. Satiating fear, a healthy skeptic does not do.

A whole tribesreligion would have to contain enough complexitythat it provided all varieties of minds with what they needed from it.

So in answering what a spirit is, we will ignore everything we know from non-indo-european sources, such as popular fiction, modern mythology, and neopaganism. And we will look for answers which we can hardly predict as they speak to a more entropic, and thus more developed polytheism. Why is the quest for a more developed polytheism relevant?

As offensive to some as it may be, perfectly aligned geometrically sound religions seem the most made by man and the least made by natural process. We find that organic spirituality is better than artificed. Asymmetry, odd numbers, fractals, and self similarity from one order of magnitude to another are additional subterranean values which we hold, often unrecognized, which weve come to associate with deeper, longer flowing wells. That is to say, traditions and religions made by many minds, for many more moons speak to us in a way that matches the inner fulfillment of more people. These are the given assumptions with which we approach the problem.

The likelihood of respiration being required for a person to be classified as a spirit, is low. Figuratively something that breathed had life and in Latin we can see that in the etymology presented at the beginning of this article. However, we cannot see into the latin language deeper toward a proto-indo-european origin. The polytheist PIE Yamnayan herdsmen who indirectly invented nearly all the polytheisms of europe had animist roots. Their understanding of a spirit goes beyond some hypothesized shift from animism to holding gods close to their beliefs. In my personal theories, those folks didnt have much difference between spirits and gods, until they established nobilities of their own and that was reflected in their religion. But before that, I envision that the existence of spirits existed through the practice of ancestor worship. Out of the three Kindred of gods, ancestors, and spirits, the ancestors no doubt became the first to be honored. I think the evidence is there in the language too, and that the first spirits were ancestors, and their breathing or not breathing was big deal. Isee a ton of associations with spirits of the dead and the wind as well, as if their breath continues when the leave, arrive and altogether visit us. In the Fairy Faith, the Sidhe folk are sometimes the spirits of the dead.

The Souls of Acheron by Adolf Hirmy-Hirschl. From WikiMedia.

On the other hand, a spirit might be what we perceive when we do certain breathing practices. Holotropic breathing practices, though modern, scientifically generate entheogenic experiences. In my own breathwork, and even in entheogenic practices Ive done in the past affected, I experience other beings which communicate to me. Changing the breath affect sleep patterns and dreaming. Alan Watts says that the breath is interesting because of its involuntary and voluntary nature, he says about its uniqueness: On one hand you are doing it, and on the other, it is being done to you. And in the nature of that secret, you find the boundary between you and not you. In our mysticism, the psyche is filled with many other spirits and phenomenon other than your consciousness. Joseph campbell would say that this is the special world in which the hero of the monomyth descends. A polytheist Irish-style american druid like yours truly might say that this space is your own yard in the otherworld. That means that just beyond its edge youll find bounded, the otherworlds where the gods and spirits are.

Are the spirits things in the otherworld, this world, our mind, or archetypal things? Yes. 42.

Embracing paradoxes, our kind of paganism includes all the dualities that illumination brings. The gods exist, and they dont. The otherworld is your mind, and it isnt. Were all one isolated system of expression, we are dismembered and utterly alone and separate. These arent opposites which cannot coexist. When the File(Poet) or Draoi(Druid) reach Imbas, or put their thumbs in their mouths, they seek to dismantle the curtains of perception which filter our senses into this symbol structure we call a worldview. Sipping from that well, one cannot see North and South, Positive and Negative as separate things but rather, interlinked extremes in a system of complexity. Why is this relevant? Because asking certain questions framed in a way which prejudges the thing youre trying to discover is a problematic approach.

In my personal experience there is no difference between your mind and the otherworld, the things in it and the things outside it, and you. It is a landscape that contains all of these things. It is a real place made of spacetime of the realest sense. It simply doesnt have the same rules and has no doorway in the philosophically defined material world, which may not even exist. Material is a symbol, weve dug into matter and still we cant find anything but information which isnt solid, and instead floats in off/on/halfsies type states. I hardly call that material, and it is the least of what Matters.

If there were no respiring beings on earth, would there be a spirit? Sure, the spirits of other living things and the living earth which respires in a different way. It is important that respiration is how we recognized spirit first and how we see spirit.

The Multitude

My Otherworldly journeys are mostly induced by fasting, sleeplessness, ecstatic practice, and plants rather than guided imagination work. I really have a hard time imagining a scene, populating it with characters, and coming away from that not feeling like Ive spent an hour talking to myself. When I try this work, the gnosis I walk away with is what youd expect from talking to yourself. To me, spirit happens to you and youre learning the entire time. I can now use imagination work to a degree of worth, but only after I kicked the door open with entheogens.

When over there, beyond the veil, there are many places, many membranes you can penetrate, and certainly an infinite amount of layers to explore that are as real as this reality when youre there. In one place, a place I felt was the sacred center of all the worlds, was where the mead of wisdom was.

I partook of it and saw what I am calling the Multitude. It was a structure of all beings in a sphere and sometimes when I see it it is a ring. Like a place where all beings are seated, visit or return to. The ring or sphere was a spectrum of all possible dispositions of persons. It is my belief that when you create an egregore, it becomes a spirit house for one of the Multitude to inhabit. In that way, Jesus exists. In that way, the indigenous thought pattern of certain tendencies and impulses belonging to other spirits fits.

If the mind is a place in the otherworld, than when the ancestors approach you can feel it. And so there is a god behind every thought that occurs to you. It was clear to me in my state, that I was immortal, and that the thing that was imortal was an eternal witness, an observer to the things that I experience. The Multitude is simultaneously all the cosmic machinery that happens to you and the beings that inhabit said cosmos. Another word for the Multitude is the Kindred, to use an ADF specific term. A bit of information is a bit of consciousness, and that is a god. That is a spirit. Any enduring process with cycles is a spirit.

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Lamp & Labyrinth: Conceptualizing a Multitude of Spirits - Patheos (blog)

Happy 4/20! For millennia, witches have been getting high to access the spirit realm and/or have orgies with the devil.

For most people, the most quintessential image of a witch is a figure in silhouette, perched on a broomstick and flying in front of the moon. I don't know about you, but the closest I've ever come to feeling like I'm flying across the moon has been when I'm stoned out of my mind.

As it turns out, this may not be a total coincidence: The history of magic and witchcraft is full of orgies, drinking, and entheogens, all used as a way to achieve a magical, transitional state of mindone where your body may still be in the physical realm but your spirit is elsewhere, free to roam "between the worlds."

Read more: Witches Allegedly Stole Penises and Kept Them as Pets in the Middle Ages

One of the oldest, and most notable, examples of using altered states in magic is the Oracle of Delphi: For centuries, ancient priestesses of the Greek god Apollo, stationed at a temple built around a sacred spring at Delphi, would divine the future for visitors from all over the ancient world; so significant was their influence that kings would consult with them about whether they should go to war. It was generally understood that Apollo's spirit would enter each priestess, enabling her to see the future. According to Uses and Abuses of Plant Derived Smoke, an ethnobotanical compendium on the use of smoke throughout the world, the priestess would sit on a tripod above a hole through which vapors arose, and these vapors were thought to induce her visions.

Though many researchers believe the vapors contained "a variety of potentially toxic natural gases" emanating from the ground, some hypothesize that hallucinogenic plants were burned beneath the temple and vented up towards the smoke-shrouded seer, or that the priestesses would smoke or eat hallucinogens in addition to inhaling the fumes from the earth. While many scholars theorize the Oracle burned bay leaves, since they were sacred to Apollo, others have taken it a step farther. Dr. DCA Hillman, a bacteriologist and classicist who has written about drug use in the ancient world, argues that there is evidence cannabis was traditionally burned to induce the Oracle's trance state since bay leaves are not known to have psychoactive properties, and marijuana was already introduced to Greece from central Asian tribes who knew of the herb's potent psychotropic powers.

The Oracle of Delphi was far from the only ancient magic practitioner to utilize marijuana in her craft: As noted in Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke, "Members of the Gaddi tribe of India's Himachal Pradesh State in the western Himalayas, for example, smoked the resin of female [cannabis] plants, called sulpha, for the hallucinations it induced." Shamans and nobles from China to Russia have also been found buried with marijuana plants, denoting its sacred role.

The Oracle of Delphi. Image via Wikipedia Commons

There isn't much evidence that marijuana was used widely during the Middle Ages in Europeother than the fact that Pope Innocent VIII explicitly banned itbut European witches still found ways to get high. During this period, they would rub entheogens such as belladonna, henbane, datura, and mandrake on their bodies (some theorize they rubbed these substances on the broomsticks and inserted them vaginally) in order to loosen their spirits from their physical form. In the resulting hallucinations, witches were said to fly to The Sabbath, the supposed time each month when witches, demons, and even the devil himself would come together to share magical secrets, sign evil pacts, and have wild, orgiastic parties.

It's likely that the use of these herbs in a ritual context points back to ancient cults like the Oracle of Delphi, and are one of the clearest links to witchcraft's primordial past. As witch, historian, and teacher at Colorado State University Chas Clifton writes in the famous essay If Witches No Longer Fly, "I would argue that the danger of these recipes, combined with the centuries-long tradition of their use, is the best argument for any 'Old Religion' surviving from pre- Christian times. Without some sort of oral tradition of preparation and dosage, similar to that of the ayahuasca shamans of South America, the risks would be too great." The danger he cites is real: Modern witches and non-magical people alike have been sent to the hospitalor have even died, as in the case of the English witch Robert Cochranefrom taking too much belladonna and other witchcraft-related herbs.

So why is herbal magicthe use of weed, most notably, but also other hallucinogensless prevalent in modern witchcraft? After all, the occult revival of the 19th century revolved around absinthe and opium dens, and the second big occult revival happened during the drug-crazed days of the 1960s and 70s. It seems like magic and getting high go pretty hand in hand.

One obvious answer is because marijuana is still illegal, even for medical use, in many states and countries. This makes it nearly impossible for occult book publishers to let authors recommend using weed as a method to achieve trance states and soul flight, even if that is their preferred method. As Gordon White laments in The Chaos Protocols, "Magical publishing in the last thirty years has been significantly hamstrung by the way psychedelics have been used as geopolitical footballs. As an author, I cannot legally advocate a reader break any laws, and publishers can, in theory, be held liable for damages arising from actions taken as described in their books."

Still, modern witches are continuing to use marijuana in their practices, most often in solitary meditation or to help them access the spirit realm. Elizabeth DeCoursey, owner of Antidote Apothecary and Tea Bar in Brooklyn, says she typically uses weed as a meditative aid. "When I want to thin the veil and access ancient knowledge and the collective consciousness of water, the total, deep, and cellular calm I can achieve with an edible in deep trance is pretty profound," she tells Broadly. There's a reason weed has historical ties to magic: Having a safe, reliable way to enter altered states of consciousness can be an amazing tool in witchcraft.

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Melissa Madara, a witch and co-owner of Catland Books in Brooklyn, uses weed to help focus herself during meditation, and to stop "questioning what she sees" during spirit contact. She recommends using this simple visualization as a good place to start: "You should lie on your back, focus on your deep breathing, and push your mind's eye deep, deep into your body," she says. "Each new breath brings in fresh air, white light, and healing energy, and each exhale expels tension, old emotions, and stress from the body."

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Dank Magic: How Witches Use Weed in Their Craft - Broadly

By Greg GarrisonAL.com

BIRMINGHAM With a stained-glass window behind them, a lineup of speakers stepped to the front of the church and talked about the potential health benefits of legalizing plants that are currently outlawed in Alabama.

"I smoke cannabis on a daily basis for my pain," said Janice Rushing, president of the Oklevueha Native American Church of Inner Light in Alabama. "If I did not, I'd be on pain pills."

Her husband, Christopher Rushing, chief executive officer of Oklevueha Native American Church of Inner Light, says he also uses marijuana routinely.

The Rushings founded the Oklevueha Church in 2015 and claim that it has a legal exemption for its members to smoke marijuana and ingest hallucinogenic mushrooms and peyote cactus.

At a January forum with an audience of about 30 gathered at Unity Church in Birmingham, which allowed the use of its facilities, speakers discussed the potential benefits of marijuana and other substances for medicinal purposes.

"I had an ungodly facial rash," said Sherrie Saunders, a former U.S. Army medic who is now a member of Oklevueha Native American Church in Alabama.

"We made a cream that completely got rid of that rash," Mrs. Rushing said.

Someone in the audience discussed a heart problem and sleep apnea.

"That could be something that cannabis could help," Saunders said.

She also said marijuana can ease manic bipolar disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

"The medical establishment took away cannabis so they could sell us pills," Saunders said.

Before marijuana was stigmatized as an illegal drug, Native Americans valued it as a natural herbal treatment for more than 90 percent of sicknesses, she said. "A woman in Nicaragua showed me how to cure cancer with cannabis," Saunders said.

The woman had a son who was cured, she said. "I know why," Saunders said. "God and cannabis."

The National Cancer Institute, in its overview of cannabis in treatment of cancer, makes no claims for curative powers, but acknowledges that cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years and that it "may have benefits in the treatment of cancer-related side effects."

Chris Rushing stood in the pulpit and preached a sermon that mixed theology and a belief in natural, hallucinogenic plants. "That is God's way of turning our brain on," Rushing said.

"These entheogens work like tools to open up spaces and pathways of the mind," Rushing said. "Yet it's illegal. We all walk around producing natural chemicals that do the same."

Rushing said it does not make sense that pharmaceutical companies make large profits on harmful synthetic and dangerous drugs, while plant and herbal medicines are illegal.

Rushing said the health benefits of marijuana, mushrooms and cacti are enormous. They can combat depression and cure people of addictions, he said.

The Oklevueha Native American Church of Inner Light in Warrior has been licensed as a federally registered branch of the Oklevueha Lakota Sioux Nation Native American Church, Rushing said.

The church has a religious exemption to use psylocibin mushrooms and peyote cactus, both of which have properties that augment traditional Native American spiritual beliefs and experiences, Rushing said. He calls their use in religious ceremonies a sacrament.

All 120 members in the Alabama church carry photo identification, similar to a driver's license, that identifies them as members of a church that has a federal religious exemption to use natural drugs that are otherwise prohibited by law, he said.

He believes all natural plants should be legal for medicinal use, including marijuana, peyote cactus and psylocibin mushrooms.

Rushing carries around with him documentation of court rulings such as a unanimous ruling in United States v. Robert Boyll in the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that a non-Native American who was arrested for possession and intent to distribute peyote had the same constitutional protections as Native American members of the church.

Rushing said he was licensed in the church by James Warren "Flaming Eagle" Mooney of Utah, who won a court battle with the state of Utah. The Utah Supreme Court ruled in Mooney's favor in 2004, in State of Utah vs. Mooney's and Oklevueha Native American Church. The state had argued that Mooney was engaged in a criminal enterprise for distributing peyote and tried to seize the church property. The Supreme Court ruled that the Native American Church was entitled to the religious exemption.

After the Jan. 21 forum at Unity Church, some in attendance expressed hope Alabama might soon follow in the footsteps of other states that have legalized marijuana. More than half of the states have decriminalized marijuana for medical uses and eight states have decriminalized marijuana for recreational uses.

Some of them say the Oklevueha Native American Church of Inner Light in Alabama is helping raise awareness.

"I think Chris' work is vital," said Jonah Tobin, founder of the Alabama Mother Earth Sustenance Alliance, or MESA. "People like him are part of that movement."

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In Alabama church, marijuana is part of spiritual journey - Tuscaloosa News