One Step Beyond - The Sacred Mushroom. A 1961 episode of One Step Beyond investigates whether or not psilocybin mushrooms can give you extra-sensory perception. Part 2, Part 3. [Via Neurophilosophy]
posted on Jul 18, 2008 - View this thread

Albert Hofmann, the inventor/discoverer of LSD, has died at the age of 102. Wiki. The Albert Hofmann Foundation. Erowid entry on LSD. Hofmann's often-cited essay, "LSD, My Problem Child." Late in his life, he questioned his own invention. A conversation with Dr. Hoffman.
posted on Apr 29, 2008 - View this thread

Biblical Entheogens: a Speculative Hypothesis. Psychology Professor Benny Shannon speculates that Moses may have been tripping when he saw God on Mount Sinai. [Via Mind Hacks.]
posted on Mar 7, 2008 - View this thread

Ayahuasca: A Strange Brew. "Can a psychotropic jungle potion cure the existential angst of the McMansion set?" Previously.
posted on Feb 3, 2008 - View this thread

Visions From LSD Psychotherapy. Artwork created by patients undergoing LSD psychotherapy, from the book by Stanislav Grof. There are more resources on psychedelics at the Bibliographia Studiorum Psychedelicorum. [Via Mind Hacks.]
posted on Nov 6, 2007 - View this thread

Peter Stafford, psychedelics investigator and author of the Psychedelics Encyclopedia (PDF preview), has died. [Via BB.]
posted on Jul 21, 2007 - View this thread

Spiritual Highs and Legal Blows - the power and peril of religious exemptions from drug prohibition
posted on May 23, 2007 - View this thread

Entheogens and Psychotherapy. A 2001 paper by Canadian psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar on the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelics and his own experience with LSD. Now, because of this paper, he is no longer allowed to enter the U.S. [Via MindHacks.]
posted on Apr 24, 2007 - View this thread

The Bear's Pages - the 'Bear' being the legendary Augustus Owsley Stanley III, the 60s acid cook.
posted on Mar 23, 2007 - View this thread

A landmark rigorous study, 36 years after Walter Pahnke's Good Friday study ocuments the ability of psilocybin - the chemical in "magic mushrooms" - to trigger mystical experiences. 16 of 24 participants, who had no history of psychedelic use, rated the drug episode (after 2 months) to be among the 5 most meaningful experiences in their lifetime. A longer 40-year follow-up by MAPS on those who took LSD under the supervision of psychiatrist Oscar Janiger in the 1950s, found qualitatively the same result.
posted on Jul 10, 2006 - View this thread

Hell and Back: "Deep in the Amazon jungle, writer Kira Salak tests ayahuasca, a shamanistic medicinal ritual, and finds a terrifying—but enlightening—world within." Interesting tale found via this interview with Charles Grob on the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelics. The legal status of ayahuasca in the US was recently discussed here.
posted on May 26, 2006 - View this thread

In the Psychedelic Library you can find the likes of Aldous Huxley, The Acid Queen by Robert Hunter, LSD, My Problem Child from Albert Hoffman, The Private Sea: LSD and the Search for God by William Braden and Through The Lens Of Perception by Hal Zena Bennett is a fascinating account of a peyote experience in Mexico. The Psychedelic Library ultimately asks the question: can drugs, used in a positive and healthy way, truly guide us towards who we can become? No matter what you believe, it's an invaluable resource.
posted on Apr 5, 2004 - View this thread

"To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic" - Dr. Humphry Osmond, medical hallucinogenic pioneer and the man who gave Aldous Huxley the dose of LSD that inspired The Doors of Perception recently passed on. To place the man in his milieu, visit Acid Dreams to see an acid timeline and a who's who of the era, stop by the acid blotter art gallery, and if you have the bandwidth, check out the classic video clip of LSD being tested on British soldiers.
posted on Feb 23, 2004 - View this thread

Tripping on iboga: author Daniel Pinchbeck describes his experience with the psychedelic drug tabernanthe iboga, which is used in the rituals of the Bwiti in West Africa. Ironically, the active chemical in iboga, the indole alkaloid ibogaine, is said to be useful in the treatment of drug addiction (PDF.)
posted on Sep 18, 2003 - View this thread

Are psychedelic drugs good for you? Taken with proper caution, John Horgan, author of Rational Mysticism, believes they can be.
posted on May 8, 2003 - View this thread

Salvia Divinorum is a plant which is (currently) legal to grow, own, or smoke in the U.S. The effects of this plant, when smoked or eaten, take place over the course of only a few minutes, but supposedly are very similar to those of certain illegal chemicals, such as the late Terrence Mckenna's well-documented fave; DMT. The user briefly finds themself to be in a world where the laws of physics, and logic have been subtly or grossly changed - an experience as jarring as the witnessing of the non-euclidean angles described by Lovecraft... and then the real world reasserts itself.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who is curious about this question - are the results of the ingestion of halluciniogens a self-fulfilling prophecy - the user 'seeing' something beyond the pale that they expected or wanted to see - or is there something more meaningful to the experience?
posted on Apr 15, 2003 - View this thread

Monkeys use millipede juice as Ecstacy-style party drug They bite the millipedes, then reach behind their back and rub it on their fur...Their eyes glaze over...one monkey shared a millipede with four family members and the entire family turned into a 'writhing mass.' How cute is that? For context, here's a December report of wild primates ingesting plants with stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. Welcome to the new field of Zoopharmacognosy, which studies the spontaneous medicinal (and recreational) use of plants by non-human animals. An intro to the subject. Perhaps now you're ready to chew on Terrence McKenna's visionary notion that psychedelic mushrooms were the spark for the development of consciousness in apes.
posted on Aug 11, 2002 - View this thread