In short: a roundup of some of the psychedelic research that caught my eye over the past year or so. Preachy intro: Hope and optimism in the psychedelic ‘renaissance’ is starting to feel a bit hollow for me. I guess it’s nothing new – once the rosy glow of the initial revolution has subsided, the … Continue reading Psychedelic Research Roundup 2020/2021
Recent research shows that the main chemical component of Salvia divinorum can affect the DMN in a similar way to LSD and psilocybin.
This was originally published on EntheoNation. It’s been said in a number of different ways, perhaps for as long as psychedelics have been around: psychedelics make you more flexible. Flexibility can mean different things. It could mean the personality trait of openness– a behavioral flexibility to new experiences and concepts – which has been shown to be … Continue reading Psychological…
An important part of building a healthy psychedelic community is being fully aware of the risks of psychedelics. This includes both being educated about the risk of trauma and injury from challenging psychedelic experiences, but also the potential physiological harm they can do to us. It appears that occasional large doses of psychedelics don’t do … Continue reading Everyone Should Understand the…
Madison Margolin opens her recent piece on queerness and psychedelics with the provocative phrase “To have a psychedelic experience is to have a queer experience.” Her wonderfully engaging article dives into the expansive and revolutionary qualities shared between the psychedelic experience and the queering of sexuality. As Bett Williams is quoted as saying, “Being queer … Continue reading The…
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that there is anything substantial separating traditional shamanism from materialistic Western science. Although it’s tempting to believe that Western scientists are bastions of objectivity – mechanically-precise observers of nature – they’re really no different from the shamans of animist traditions who journey into astral realms to bring back knowledge ……
Hello! If you’ve come here from my Breaking Convention talk looking for references and sources, you can find them in the list below. The talk itself is right here, and after the sources you can find the full-length article based on this talk. Sources (in order of appearance): Wheel art: u/HorrorFrank and SalviaDroid Casselman (2016). … Continue reading Salvia and “The Wheel”
I don’t usually do personal updates on this blog, but since most of my writing is scattered elsewhere throughout the psychedelic community, it makes sense for this to be a bit of a hub for my informal thoughts, in addition to my favourite pieces of writing. The big news is that I’ll be presenting a … Continue reading July Updates!
This week, popular psychedelic website Chacruna.net decided it was time to open a frank and honest discussion about sexual misconduct in the psychedelic community. Unfortunately, Chacruna felt that the best person to lead that discussion was known psychedelic abuser, Daniel Pinchbeck. Pinchbeck’s abuses involved the use of substances as a “tool of seduction” (in his … Continue reading Why does the…
A version of this article was first written for the Synthesis retreat. I have re-worked it to remove the advertising – now, this is a brief overview of the way that plant medicines are viewed in the indigenous cultures that are still intertwined with them. The growing awareness of the medicinal benefits of psychedelics in the … Continue reading Plant medicines in indigenous cultures