Rick Doblin — Psychedelic Breakthroughs, $10M Bets, PTSD Promise, MDMA, MDA, and More (#440)
Photo courtesy of MAPSRick Doblin, PhD, (@rickdoblin) is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his master’s thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. Rick was also one of the early students under the legendary Dr. Stanislav Grof.
Please listen to this entire episode, as there is a $10M surprise at the end.
If you are interested in learning more about MAPS’s critical work and Phase 3 studies to make MDMA-assisted psychotherapy an approved treatment for PTSD, please visit maps.org/capstone
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#440: Rick Doblin — Psychedelic Breakthroughs, $10M Bets, PTSD Promise, MDMA, MDA, and More
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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
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Want to learn more about psychedelic therapy from another pioneer in this field? — Listen to my conversation with the legendary Stan Grof, in which we discuss the takeaways from guiding 4,500+ LSD sessions, the place and role of wounded healers, limitations and uses of traditional psychoanalysis and talk therapy, the similarities found between holotropic breathwork and MDMA, what humanity most needs to overcome, and much more.
You might also enjoy The Way of the Psychonaut: Stan Grof’s Journey of Consciousness, a documentary honoring Stan Grof. His new training program, Grof Legacy Training, is based on Stan’s research into psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork, transpersonal psychology, and spiritual emergencies.
#347: Stan Grof, Lessons from ~4,500 LSD Sessions and Beyondhttps://rss.art19.com/episodes/fb3ec3c9-138c-4d97-a371-062fa64b28b7.mp3Download
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
Connect with Rick Doblin:
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Connect with MAPS:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
MAPS Capstone Challenge — Help Make MDMA a Medicine
Earth Metabolic Design Laboratories | Enacademic
MDMA | Erowid Vault
US Will Ban ‘Ecstasy,’ a Hallucinogenic Drug | The New York Times
Drug Scheduling | DEA
MDMA Scientific Literature, Government Hearings, and Archive | MAPS
MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy | MAPS
Truth about Ecstacy’s Unlikely Trip from Lab to Dance Floor | The Guardian
Methamphetamine | Erowid Vault
Mescaline | Erowid Vault
Ego-Dissolution and Psychedelics: Validation of the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI) | Human Neuroscience
Treatment-Resistant PTSD | Psychiatric Times
The Secret Chief by Myron J. Stolaroff | MAPS
The Secret Chief Revealed by Myron J. Stolaroff
How the Starck Club Changed Dallas | D Magazine
The Two Faces of Oxytocin | American Psychological Association
PiHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved): A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin
TiHKAL (Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved): A Continuation by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin
DMT | Erowid Vault
Why is Switzerland a Neutral Country? | History
Ayahuasca | Erowid Vault
LSD | Erowid Vault
Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative (PSFC)
How MDMA Is Being Used to Treat PTSD | The Economist
How the War on Drugs Has Harmed Veterans with PTSD | Time
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-Assisted Psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Military Veterans, Firefighters, and Police Officers: A Randomised, Double-Blind, Dose-Response, Phase 2 Clinical Trial | The Lancet Psychiatry
Psilocybin & Psilocin | Erowid Vault
“Trip of Compassion” — The Most Compelling Movie I’ve Seen In The Last Year | tim.blog
Mood Drug MDMA Makes Antisocial Octopuses Almost Cuddly | Morning Edition, NPR
Oxytocin-Dependent Reopening of a Social Reward Learning Critical Period with MDMA | Nature
Psychedelic Therapy Offers Hope For Smoking Cessation | NPR
What is Internal Family Systems? | IFS Institute
Parts Psychology: A Trauma-Based Treatment Approach | SocialWork.Career
What Is Hypermnesia? | Psychology Dictionary
MDA | Erowid Vault
US Held Responsible for Death in Secret Army Drug Testing | AP News
Esalen Institute | Big Sur, CA
Spiritual Emergence Network
New College of Florida | Sarasota, FL
The Bastiaans Method of Drug-Assisted Therapy | MAPS
Neurotoxic Effect of MDMA on Brain Serotonin Neurons: Evidence From Neurochemical and Radioligand Binding Studies | Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Adult Neurogenesis | Scholarpedia
MDMA (At a Rave) Helps Heal Trauma from Sexual Assault | MAPS
Introduction to the Holocaust | The Holocaust Encyclopedia
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | CDC
Psychological Trauma Is the Next Crisis for Coronavirus Health Workers | Scientific American
RxBar
Bail Capital | Crunchbase
TOMS
Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research | Johns Hopkins
Centre for Psychedelic Research | Imperial College London
Automattic
The Random Show Threesome — Tim Ferriss, Kevin Rose, and Matt Mullenweg (#209) | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
Medline | NIH
MAPS Public Benefit Corporation
Update on Tonmya for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder | Tonix Pharmaceuticals
Disabled American Veterans Charity (DAV)
The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Pushing America Into a Mental Health Crisis | The Washington Post
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) | NIH
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
SSRI | Erowid Vault
SHOW NOTES
Note from the editor: Timestamps will be added soon.
What is MAPS, and how did MAPS come to be?
What is MDMA — where did it come from, and how did it find its way into the therapeutic context?
What was Sasha Shulgin’s role in the history of psychedelics, and how did he operate a lab to study them openly without suffering legal consequences?
Who is Jon Lubecky, and why did he come into Rick’s life?
Why does Rick believe psychedelic therapy not only allows sufferers of PTSD to tolerably revisit and come to terms with their traumatic experiences, but also enjoy the benefits for months or even years after the chemical components of this therapy have faded?
What are the biggest differences between MDMA and the less well-known MDA?
Rick talks about his first psychedelic therapy sessions with a PTSD patient back in 1984, their short- and long-term effects, and how that patient went on to become an important asset to the MAPS community.
For Rick and his colleagues, what has made the rewards of psychedelic therapy worth enduring its risks — especially in the not-so-distant past when it was legally dangerous and considered career suicide for its practitioners?
The suicide note that reached Rick when help came too late, and what it emphasized about the importance of his life’s work.
What the present and future look like for MDMA reclassification and its therapeutic use, and why matching grants make now the ideal time for prospective contributors to get the most mileage from their money.
Up until recently, anyone associated with psychedelic therapies could expect to suffer a blow to their reputation, but the times are changing, and my own experience has proven quite the opposite. How much would you pay for 100 percent reputational upside in making MDMA-assisted therapies available to the thousands in need?
Parting thoughts.
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Alise Agar
Debby Harlow
Buckminster Fuller
Roland Griffiths
Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin
Ann Shulgin
Leo Zeff
Jon Lubecky
Rand Paul
Mike Pence
Stephen Miller
Gul Dolen
Matt Johnson
Michael Mithoefer
Ann Mithoefer
Harold Blauer
Stan Grof
Christina Grof
Marcela Ot’alora
Jan Bastiaans
Richard M. Nixon
Joe Green
Peter Rahal
James Bailey
Blake Mycoskie
Steven Cohen
Alexandra Cohen
Graham Boyd
Matt Mullenweg
Genevieve Jurvetson
Steve Jurvetson
Austin Harris
Jeff Walker
Michael Pollan
Jared Diamond
Rebekah Mercer
Elizabeth Koch
The Rockefellers
George Soros
