Photo by LightFieldStudios Although a psychedelic experience is intensely private and individually felt, sharing it with others through integration can be instrumental in understanding it. Integration, the process of incorporating insights from a trip, can be done communally, adding a dimension that individuated integration lacks. These groups are called “integration … [Read more...] about Psychedelics Beyond the Individual: Group Integration Circles
The New Frontier of Psychedelics: Canada’s Mushroom Dispensaries
Photo by DmitrySteshenko At 17, I read Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience, which offers a blueprint for psychedelic trips. Leary argued that a high-dose trip could lead to a spiritual rebirth, completely dissolving the self-centered ego. Leary casts the egoless state as antithetical to the modern condition of competition and self-involvement. He calls this … [Read more...] about The New Frontier of Psychedelics: Canada’s Mushroom Dispensaries
Psychedelics For Sale: An Interview with the Owner of The ‘World’s Only’ Psychedelic Dispensary
Inside the Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary. Photos by Terry Duncan On Hastings Avenue, five blocks away from the Vancouver Police Museum in Vancouver, Canada, is a conspicuous shop with a day-glo yellow-and-pink sign, boldly announcing the sale of some of the most powerful psychoactive chemicals ever synthesized. Dana Larsen, the owner of the shop—the Coca Leaf Café and … [Read more...] about Psychedelics For Sale: An Interview with the Owner of The ‘World’s Only’ Psychedelic Dispensary
A Christian, A Buddhist, A Rabbi, and A Muslim Walk into a Psychedelic Research Study
Photo credit: Simol1407 In 1962, an experiment by Harvard graduate student Walter N. Pahnke, supervised by Timothy Leary (the influential ‘counter-cultural’ advocate of psychedelics), named the “Good Friday Experiment” took place. Inspired in part by Indigenous use of psychedelics, the study sought to determine if the ingestion of psilocybin mushrooms could induce a … [Read more...] about A Christian, A Buddhist, A Rabbi, and A Muslim Walk into a Psychedelic Research Study
Inside Hummingbird Church and the Sacrament of Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca, seen here being prepared in a pot, is a psychedelic brew made from the Psychotria viridis shrub and Banisteriopsis caapi vine. Photo by Terpsichore. America is sadder today than it has ever been: 75 million people, 29% of the adult population, have been diagnosed with depression. Despite advances leading to longevity and material comfort, sadness suffuses … [Read more...] about Inside Hummingbird Church and the Sacrament of Ayahuasca