This is tremendous. Hopefully it goes somewhere, a big fan of the possible therapeutic benefits of hallucinogens particularly LSD and Ayahuasca. Not a big fan of mushrooms, they just don't agree with me, but I hear they help some with depression.
Shit, give me 50 shares of mushrooms and I'll make a bunch of people laugh.
This is tremendous. Hopefully it goes somewhere, a big fan of the possible therapeutic benefits of hallucinogens particularly LSD and Ayahuasca. Not a big fan of mushrooms, they just don't agree with me, but I hear they help some with depression.
She is in a treatment room at the Imperial College Clinical Research Facility in London, taking part in a scientific study into the effects of illegal hallucinogen DMT. She's in a chair, eye mask on, cannula poking out of her forearm. The lights are dimmed and a specially commissioned ambient soundtrack plays in the background. Chris Timmermann, a psychologist and neuroscientist who researches psychedelic drugs, stands nearby.
He's really clear, and it's not controversial, that there are certain folks who absolutely shouldn't be trying them (schizophrenics, etc). But, all innovations have to start somewhere. There are plenty of treatments that started off as being non-mainstream, like penicillin.
I'm all for seeing if hallucinogenics work as therapeutics...in controlled settings. As haresfur points out, there are inevitably bad incidents where people who shouldn't do such drugs use them. Perhaps there are ways to screen such people out, as doctors do when they test for allergic reactions to antibiotics.
A friend of mine was an innocent young woman in DC during the 60s and early 70s. She and her friends ran an ad hoc, semi-organized health clinic. Linda had never tripped but she got assigned to manning the hotline for people who were in the middle of bad acid trips. Apparently she was rather good at it since she was a calm and centered person! I wonder whether America can move past that self-help/self-medicating habit to the establishment of trained, supportive medical staff capable of guiding patients through prescribed hallucinatory sessions...
He's really clear, and it's not controversial, that there are certain folks who absolutely shouldn't be trying them (schizophrenics, etc). But, all innovations have to start somewhere. There are plenty of treatments that started off as being non-mainstream, like penicillin.
The trouble is there are people who don't know they shouldn't do them until they do them.
I'm plowing through an NYT Magazine excerpt of the book. So far Pollan's trip on psilocybin mushrooms is interesting, but it seems like tripping as a form of psychotherapy is a long way off from being an accepted mainstream practice.
He's really clear, and it's not controversial, that there are certain folks who absolutely shouldn't be trying them (schizophrenics, etc). But, all innovations have to start somewhere. There are plenty of treatments that started off as being non-mainstream, like penicillin.
Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma) has a new book out about psychedelics - "How to Change Your Mind." I really enjoyed his interview on the Tim Ferris podcast.
I'm plowing through an NYT Magazine excerpt of the book. So far Pollan's trip on psilocybin mushrooms is interesting, but it seems like tripping as a form of psychotherapy is a long way off from being an accepted mainstream practice.
Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma) has a new book out about psychedelics - "How to Change Your Mind." I really enjoyed his interview on the Tim Ferris podcast.
I did that window pane the following October for my 63rd Bday. The wife had gone to a friend of hers for some reason I don't recall and I had a few days to myself. I think I made a couple of posts about it at the time, too. It was very nice actually. Smooth and still potent for being that old. I indulged in a 6 hour musical excursion through my digital library. It really does go very well with the proper music and the music part was infinitely easier with putting a playlist together on the fly instead of pulling out Lp's and trying to play them (without damaging them because you aren't the steadiest of hands).
I would like to do it again, just for how well it makes the music so pleasurable for those 6 hours or so. Maybe once a year, but by myself, even though the wife and I have done it together a couple of times. The mind just goes in places that I don't want to share or interrupt by trying to relate to another person's thoughts at the same time. I remember being very refreshed with a satisfying feeling that lasted a week or so afterwards. Wish I had a safe source for some more so I could do it a couple of more times as my library grows with all of the vinyl ripping I've been doing lately. I would even take an extended road trip to score some more just for those few hours of smiling. It is still all about the music after 50 years of tripping. And at my age, I'm not bothering anyone or being a burden to anyone should I choose to indulge.
Don't know why I ended up here..... Probably clicked on a Lazarus post.
Excellent post kurster. I sometimes think of doing hallucinogens again but when I start thinking about the minimum 24 hour recovery period, I lose interest. That is for younger people in good physical and mental shape with flexible schedules
I learned of ayahuasca in 1976 from a friend who had been travelling for a 1/2 decade. Later that year, my grandmother dropped me off at the US border and I hitch-hiked to Tierra del Fuego. I never consumed ayahuasca because I was simply not interested in taking a week out of my life to travel, find a Shaman, get high, recover, etc.
I did consume San Pedro cactus in La Paz, Bolivia and area several times and enjoyed that thoroughly. Not as hallucinogenic as LSD but far trippier. Especially in Andes at circa 4,400 metres above sea level.
If and when I return to South America, I will go back to flyfish for sea-trout and Dorado, hike around glaciers, climb a few hills, listen to music, drink a little bit of wine, visit people I know, maybe suck on a few coca leaves. But I will not return for ayahuasca or San Pedro.
I did that window pane the following October for my 63rd Bday. The wife had gone to a friend of hers for some reason I don't recall and I had a few days to myself. I think I made a couple of posts about it at the time, too. It was very nice actually. Smooth and still potent for being that old. I indulged in a 6 hour musical excursion through my digital library. It really does go very well with the proper music and the music part was infinitely easier with putting a playlist together on the fly instead of pulling out Lp's and trying to play them (without damaging them because you aren't the steadiest of hands).
I would like to do it again, just for how well it makes the music so pleasurable for those 6 hours or so. Maybe once a year, but by myself, even though the wife and I have done it together a couple of times. The mind just goes in places that I don't want to share or interrupt by trying to relate to another person's thoughts at the same time. I remember being very refreshed with a satisfying feeling that lasted a week or so afterwards. Wish I had a safe source for some more so I could do it a couple of more times as my library grows with all of the vinyl ripping I've been doing lately. I would even take an extended road trip to score some more just for those few hours of smiling. It is still all about the music after 50 years of tripping. And at my age, I'm not bothering anyone or being a burden to anyone should I choose to indulge.
which is basically DMT. I dunno if I'm up for this kinda thing at this stage of my life now. I used to love to trip, but it became such an ordeal of preparation and clearing the calendar for 48 hours (there is the recovery process) and creating the perfect (or optimal) situation to indulge. The willingness to expose oneself to the immense vulnerability while indulging is very heady stuff. Ironically, with all the chaos in the world right now, unhooking could be the best thing I could do to help me get past it and let it go, let it all go. It definitely does reset ones priorities in life. Its a shame that this is such a dangerous subject to speak openly of in such a public place. Wish it wasn't.
Funny, just within the past two weeks of going through stuff I found what must be a 15 yo piece of window pane.
Don't know why I ended up here..... Probably clicked on a Lazarus post.
Excellent post kurster. I sometimes think of doing hallucinogens again but when I start thinking about the minimum 24 hour recovery period, I lose interest. That is for younger people in good physical and mental shape with flexible schedules
I learned of ayahuasca in 1976 from a friend who had been travelling for a 1/2 decade. Later that year, my grandmother dropped me off at the US border and I hitch-hiked to Tierra del Fuego. I never consumed ayahuasca because I was simply not interested in taking a week out of my life to travel, find a Shaman, get high, recover, etc.
I did consume San Pedro cactus in La Paz, Bolivia and area several times and enjoyed that thoroughly. Not as hallucinogenic as LSD but far trippier. Especially in Andes at circa 4,400 metres above sea level.
If and when I return to South America, I will go back to flyfish for sea-trout and Dorado, hike around glaciers, climb a few hills, listen to music, drink a little bit of wine, visit people I know, maybe suck on a few coca leaves. But I will not return for ayahuasca or San Pedro.
This is very cool, have always wanted to try this, but am a little scared of what might happen!
which is basically DMT. I dunno if I'm up for this kinda thing at this stage of my life now. I used to love to trip, but it became such an ordeal of preparation and clearing the calendar for 48 hours (there is the recovery process) and creating the perfect (or optimal) situation to indulge. The willingness to expose oneself to the immense vulnerability while indulging is very heady stuff. Ironically, with all the chaos in the world right now, unhooking could be the best thing I could do to help me get past it and let it go, let it all go. It definitely does reset ones priorities in life. Its a shame that this is such a dangerous subject to speak openly of in such a public place. Wish it wasn't.
Funny, just within the past two weeks of going through stuff I found what must be a 15 yo piece of window pane.
