Dr. Gabor Maté — New Paradigms, Ayahuasca, and Redefining Addiction
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“Trauma isn’t what happens to you, it’s what happens inside you.”
– Gabor Maté
Dr. Gabor Maté (@drmate) is a physician who specializes in neurology, psychiatry, and psychology. He’s well known for studying and treating addiction.
Dr. Maté has written several books, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction. His work has been published internationally in 20 languages, and he’s received the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize; an Honorary Degree (Law) from the University of Northern British Columbia; an Outstanding Alumnus Award from Simon Fraser University; and the 2012 Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award from Mothers Against Teen Violence. He is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Criminology, Simon Fraser University.
I’ve wanted to invite Dr. Maté to this podcast for a while because he is not only an expert in the pathologies of addiction, but he’s experimented with — and used successfully — tools that are perhaps outside the realm of traditional psychiatry. He is also a co-founder, along with Vicky Dulai, of Compassion for Addiction, a group that advocates for a new way to understand and treat addiction.
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Dr. Gabor Maté - New Paradigms, Ayahuasca, and Redefining Addiction
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Want to hear more about alternative medicine? Check out my conversations with James Fadiman, Ph.D. In the below episode, we discuss LSD and micro-dosing for creative problem solving, anxiety reduction, and more (stream below or right-click here to download):
Ep 66: The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide - Risks, Micro-Dosing, Ibogaine, and Morehttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/ae1b609a-106c-486e-a62b-2f4b410b33da.mp3Download
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Enjoy!
Selected Links from the Episode
Connect with Gabor Maté:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté
Compassion for Addiction
LZR
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Timothy Ferriss
The Scourge of the Swastika: A History of Nazi War Crimes During World War II by E.F.L. Russell
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
Goodbye Christopher Robin
The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self by Alice Miller
Psychoanalytic Theory
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Dhammapada by Anonymous
What Is Palliative Care?
American Society of Addiction Medicine
Ephedrine
An Integrated Scientific Framework for Child Survival and Early Childhood Development by Jack P. Shonkoff, Linda Richter, Jacques van der Gaag, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta
Temper Trap: The Genetics of Aggression and Self-Control by Tom Denson, The Conversation
Take the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Quiz — and Learn What It Does and Doesn’t Mean by Laura Starecheski, NPR
The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale (Ayahuasca) by Ariel Levy, The New Yorker
Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salzberg
Compassionate Inquiry with Dr. Gabor Maté
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter A. Levine and Ann Frederick
Peter Levine on Trauma Healing: A Somatic Approach by Victor Yalom and Marie-Helene Yalom
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Emotional Freedom Techniques
Sensory Integration Therapy
Yoga
Inner Engineering
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
Heffter Research Institute
Usona Institute
Alcoholics Anonymous
Kumare
The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker
Any Way You Want Me (That’s How I Will Be) by Elvis Presley
Vipassana Meditation
Date with Destiny
Spirit Rock — An Insight Meditation Center
Glossary of Spiritual Wisdom by A.H. Almaas
In Your Mind by Johnny Cash
Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It by Gabor Maté
Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté M.D.
Show Notes
Gabor shares his family history and how it motivated him to understand people as a medical doctor. [09:58]
On influential books and gaining, rather than losing, something in translation. [14:06]
The link between sensitivity, pain, and creativity. [21:33]
How does Gabor start helping someone who’s outwardly successful but inwardly tortured? [24:31]
When did Gabor’s interest in medicine begin? [29:58]
How did Gabor end up working in palliative care? [33:49]
How did Gabor start focusing on his work with addiction? [36:29]
What nontraditional methods did Gabor use that raised eyebrows and got him fired, which opened opportunities he couldn’t have foreseen? [37:10]
How does Gabor define addiction, and how is it at odds with other definitions? [39:16]
What prompted my high school drug addiction? [41:32]
How a coping mechanism becomes the root of addiction. [47:39]
Looking at the causes of addiction instead of the consequences. [52:10]
To what extent do genetics play a role in addiction? [1:01:56]
What do the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies tell us about the nature of addiction? [1:04:50]
How I’ve used loving kindness meditation to shed certain behaviors. [1:07:17]
Once Gabor identifies why an addiction exists, what’s the next step? [1:11:37]
Recommendations for someone looking to reconnect with themselves. [1:14:34]
After a lifetime of believing himself unaffected by the benefits of yoga, what kind of yoga has Gabor recently started practicing with great success? [1:18:42]
How did Gabor begin researching the therapeutic value of psychedelics? What was revealed by his first experience with ayahuasca? [1:20:56]
The right way and the wrong way to experience ayahuasca. [1:26:46]
Where can people learn more about current scientific studies into the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics? [1:30:40]
An important caveat about powerful tools and exploitative gurus. [1:35:05]
How I’ve been trying to reconnect with myself and my own gut feelings. [1:38:29]
Why we shut down our gut feelings. [1:41:14]
Elvis Presley’s lack of love song. [1:45:55]
Some powerful modalities aren’t for everyone. [1:47:26]
How did humans discover ayahuasca? How might it differ from place to place? [1:49:17]
Gabor’s pre- and post-ayahuasca practices. [1:53:14]
The importance of integrating by sharing our powerful experiences with others. [1:59:41]
The clear intention you set is not the same as an expectation. “The task which hinders your task is your task.” [2:01:20]
How can we view such a task as a gift? [2:05:07]
An exercise for understanding how we respond not to what happens but to our perception of what happens. [2:07:18]
Why blaming others for our problems turns us into victims, while identifying ourselves as the source of those problems is empowering. [2:14:01]
What Gabor’s books are about and where he and his work can be found. [2:19:25]
The problem with the way the United States deals with trauma. [2:24:47]
Parting thoughts. [2:27:05]
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Vicky Dulai
John Price
Christopher Robin Milne
A.A. Milne
Walt Disney
Alice Miller
Sigmund Freud
Prince
Elvis Presley
Marilyn Monroe
Gautama Buddha
Donald Trump
George Sarlo
Tony Robbins
Vincent Felitti
Chade-Meng Tan
Jack Kornfield
Peter Levine
Sadhguru
Rick Doblin
William Griffith Wilson
Joe Gebbia
Marc Benioff
A.H. Almaas
Robert Rodriguez
Johnny Cash
Ramana Maharshi
Bettina Goering
Hermann Goering
Gordon Neufeld
