Benefits

033: Interview with Rick Doblin, Alex Grey & Allyson Grey at Burning Man 2016 by Joe

Thank you so much for listening to Entheogen and for supporting us on Patreon and by telling your friends.

At Burning Man in 2014, we were inspired to create Entheogen (after a talk with Meriana Dinkova). Since then, we’ve released about one-and-a-half episodes per month.

On this, our two-year anniversary since posting the first episode, we are beyond overjoyed to share with you our very first “on location” recording, and the first time we’ve all recorded in person together –

Burning Man 2016.

We had the great pleasure and honor to speak with not one, not just two, but three pioneers and key drivers in the movement to mainstream psychedelic medicine:

Alex Grey & Allyson Grey, co-founders of CoSM, the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM.org).

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS.org).

We thank deeply all three of our esteemed guests for their time and generosity of spirit.

We’d also like to thank Dr. Bronner’s ReFOAMation Village for their hospitality and Alex & Allyson for graciously hosting the recording in their RV.

Topics:

  • Alex & Allyson Grey’s take on the state of the movement to mainstream psychedelics

  • Has non-violence hamstrung our progress?

  • Alex & Allyson’s $2000 fine for cannabis possession upon entering Burning Man

  • Alex mentions Roland Griffiths’ reprisal of Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment at Johns Hopkins University: Hopkins Scientists Show Hallucinogen In Mushrooms Creates Universal “Mystical” Experience

  • Rick Doblin discusses the improved relationship with Law Enforcement and the Burning Man organization including better integration of the Zendo Project at Burning Man 2016

  • Rick quotes Einstein: “There’s no conflict between science and religion. There’s a conflict between bad science and bad religion.”

  • Rick talks about how he sees psychedelics being integrated into society in 25 years

  • Rick discusses the “beautiful breakup” he had while on MDA

  • Rick compares MDA to MDMA

  • Allyson discusses her personal experiences with MDA and MDMA

  • Alex, Allyson, and Rick discuss their milestones this year: 20 years since the founding of CoSM and 30 years since the founding of MAPS

  • Rick describes building a handball court at New College of Florida, overlooking the nudist colony where his girlfriend was lifeguarding

  • Rick discusses the first responders and veterans enrolled in the MDMA for PTSD study (“not just for hippies at Burning Man”)

  • Cannabis as a neuroprotective, anti-tumor agent (and it makes you feel better too)

  • Carl Sagan’s friendship with Lester Grinspoon

  • Carl Sagan’s secret use of cannabis for 40 years

  • Psychedelics and schizophrenia

  • Rick’s idea to create a “drug license” system

  • Time to “come out of the psychedelic closet”

  • MAPS organizes Global Psychedelic Dinners to encourage “coming out” about our psychedelic use

  • BuildEntheon.com

 

Update: this episode has been remastered since the original release.

031: Dr. Julie Holland by Joe

This is Entheogen. Talk about tools for generating the divine within.

Today is June 6, 2016, and we are talking with Dr. Julie Holland, psychopharmacologist, psychiatrist, and best-selling author of several books.

Find the notes and links for this and other episodes at EntheogenShow.com. Sign up to receive an email when we release a new episode. Follow us @EntheogenShow on Twitter and like EntheogenShow on FaceBook. Thanks for listening.

Topics:

  • Julie’s origin story: how did she get interested in this area of research

  • Julie took MDMA with Rick Doblin on the last day it was legal: June 30th, 1985

  • “Cancer of Yang” – Jeremy Wolff’s phrase (Julie’s husband)

  • Vaginal administration of cannabis to avoid the liver from edible ingestion, 11-OH-THC

  • Edibles: Julie emphasizes the need to wait two hours before re-evaluating dosage

  • Overmedication of society

    • “Do you ever overeat and then feel bad about it?” Big pharma’s answer: strong, long-lasting amphetamine daily.

  • Medical and Recreational Entheogens

    • “Recreation is therapeutic”

  • THC, CBD and Terpenes

  • Some people don’t want to get high from their medicine.

  • Munchies mitigation tip: don’t start eating.

  • Punishment doesn’t work with addiction

  • Pornography and the “new normal”: no pubic hair vs. “very bushy” 70’s

Julie’s Books:

030: The Neuroscience of Partying with Caitlin Thompson of Entheozen by Joe

This is Entheogen. Talk about tools for generating the divine within.

Today is April 24, 2016, and we are discussing the Neuroscience of Partying with Caitlin Thompson of Entheozen.

Find the notes and links for this and other episodes at EntheogenShow.com. Sign up to receive an email when we release a new episode. Follow us @EntheogenShow on Twitter and like EntheogenShow on FaceBook. Thanks for listening.

Topics:

  • Caitlin’s Burning Man talk, “The Neuroscience of Partying”
  • Nutrition
  • Leaky gut syndrome
  • Mood disorders
  • Neurotransmitters
  • Serotonin in the gut
  • Are entheogens a food? Some supplements turn into neurotransmitters downstream. Where’s the line?
  • 5-HTP, L-Tryptophan -> Serotonin/Melatonin/DMT
  • Importance of co-factors – vitamins, minerals, e.g. B vitamins
  • General function of entheogens in the body

028: Intro to Entheogenic Comedy with Matteson Perry by Joe

This is Entheogen. Talk about tools for generating the divine within.

Today is April 3rd, 2016 and we’re talking about Entheogenic Comedy.

Find the notes and links for this and other episodes at EntheogenShow.com. Sign up to receive an email when we release a new episode. Follow us @EntheogenShow on Twitter and like EntheogenShow on FaceBook. Thanks for listening.

We’re delighted to be talking with Matteson Perry, writer and performer based in Los Angeles.

We start with a quote from Bill Hicks.

Matteson has a humorous memoir coming out on May 24.

Topics:

  • Comedy as an Entheogen
  • Laughter is an involuntary response, requires no thought.
  • Some people are just funny. Even just adjusting a mic stand.
  • Andrew Dice Clay
  • Jerry Seinfeld’s theory of comedy: getting an audience to laugh at joke is like getting them to jump across a ditch
  • George Carlin
  • Steven Wright a.k.a. Bucky Goldstein
  • Mitch Hedberg: “I used to do drugs…. I still do, I used to too.”
  • Jon Stewart, carrier of Carlin’s torch
  • Missed satire: the Steven Colbert effect.
  • Comedy is tragedy avoided; or, comedy = tragedy + time
  • Storytelling as quasi therapy
  • Lincoln jokes vs. JFK jokes
  • When you laugh so hard you cry
  • The Psychedelic Yawn can yield entheogenic tears, discussed in episode 025: Psychedelic Medicine Trials with Participant Kirk Rutter.
  • “Kids” movies: entheogens for everyone!
  • In Living Color, Kevin’s “gateway drug” into Entheogenic Comedy.
  • Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

027: Sacred Plant Retreats with Maxwell Wieland of Munay Medicine in Peru, Part 2 by Joe

This is Entheogen. Talk about tools for generating the divine within.

Today is February 21, 2016, and we are discussing Sacred Plant Retreats with our guest, Maxwell Wieland of Munay Medicine in Peru.

Find the notes and links for this and other episodes at EntheogenShow.com. Sign up to receive an email when we release a new episode. Follow us @EntheogenShow on Twitter and like EntheogenShow on FaceBook. Thanks for listening.

Topics:

  • Munay Medicine – what’s the vision, how does a retreat work, what do they offer?
  • The 10-day Retreat
  • “La Dieta” – lifestyle more than diet.
  • Yoga as adjunct therapy to plant medicine.
  • Yoga class as track meet? Yoga more as philosophy than merely athleticism.
  • Reconsidering “traditional” use of ayahuasca in a long historical context.
  • Alchemist? E.g., extraction of alkaloids.
  • The duality of the ego. “I just sleighed my ego.”
  • “Avoid the dreaded underdose. Dose high. Dose healthy.”