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May 9 - June 4, 2018
What seems to happen is that the “flow” state described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and noted frequently in the sports arena is a lot easier to access and stay
And this occurs not in a distracted way, but in a marvelous, enlightening, synchronistic, divine way. The Truth of What Is is simply easier to spot, and that makes everything else easier. Even the next day—the day after—the hint of universal connectedness is still quite apparent.
I utilize a sub-dose about six days each month and sometimes more often if I am engrossed in a project requiring extraordinary focus. This has been my practice for more than ten years, and it has facilitated my success working in mainstream and independent media, staff-level positions in government, and publishing dozens of pieces of journalistic work.
I am not saying that I wouldn’t have done any of this without LSD, but I am saying that I wouldn’t have done all of this without it. The practice of sub-dosing transforms my work from being work to being creative play. I’m a naturally persuasive person, able to enlist others in my vision, but never more so than when I am enhanced by a sub-dose. Therefore, I find it essential to my work as a grant writer and coalition builder to open myself in this way.
I also expanded my role within my own family during this time, and became the one most often consulted. Following conversations with relatives and friends, they would report feeling truly seen. Within only a few months of discovering sub-doses, my skills as a listener and communicator had blossomed.
It’s well known to the experienced that medium to high doses of psilocybin mushrooms, given advantageous internal and external conditions— often called set and setting—can provoke experiences of stunning insight, visions of great beauty, an abundance of love, contact with spirit entities, and authentic mystical experiences completely beyond the boundaries of the separate ego. Much less frequently discussed are the benefits of very low-dose experiences with these mushrooms.
One of the results of this sharpness was that my guitar playing became more focused and agile. I don’t play guitar enough anymore to get through most songs flawlessly, but on those nights, my playing was definitely more on the mark. I also noticed that my ability to recollect lyrics was noticeably superior to my norm. In conjunction with the sharpness has been a softening of the heart, which helped me connect to the emotion of the songs. A lot of the songs I like to play have poetic lyrics that don’t necessarily reveal clear and simple meanings. The songs of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen can be
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Ingesting such small doses is something most people can do safely on their own. No particular ritual is necessary to elicit beneficial effects, although in my experience the spirit of the plant is always potentially present and is much more likely to bless and empower even these mild experiences if petitioned and treated with respect.
the Non-Dual Consciousness Conference
The Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century conference, held in San Jose, California, in April 2010 and hosted by the MAPS foundation,
My session was a classic psychedelic high-dose entheogenic journey. I discovered that my disinterest in spiritual things was as valid as a ten-year-old’s disinterest in sex, arising from a complete lack of awareness of what the universe was made of.
What I learned from my own research is that psychedelics take your life experience and compost it, so that something new can grow. If you don’t have much to compost, you may not get much out of it.
over one hundred not-yet-legal guides and those working in approved research studies met together—unofficially—at the San Jose conference. They agreed to pool information and approved the establishment of a wiki site, www.entheoguide.net/wiki, to be administered by the Guild of Guides. The first two chapters of this book and the checklist (chapter 19) are already part of that website. The guild is planning to have its first national conference in 2011.
This checklist is designed to help the voyager and guide create the best possible opportunity for a voyager having an intentional entheogenic session.
Vona spent two weeks in darkness at the Sierra Obscura Darkness Retreat Center. At its blog (go to www.sierraobscura.wordpress.com and click on “overview”), the center is described as “an optimal environment in which individuals enter into perpetual darkness, with all of their basic needs provided for, in support of self-realization.”
Both men (p < .01) and women (p = .01) reported more interest in household decoration,
The most widespread changes were increased appreciation for fine cooking (p < .01), increased interest in cooking (p = .05), and, to a lesser degree, an interest in unusual foods (p = .10). Individual reports included less interest in sweets and less compulsive eating.
Half the sample (48 percent) reported changes in their drinking pattern. Those drinking less said, “Quit entirely. Before, I would have three drinks or more before dinner,”
Well over two-thirds of the sample reported major changes in their work pattern. The job itself was easier (p < .01), more work was done (p < .01), with more energy (p < .01) and more initiative (p < .01). Interest in the job increased slightly overall (p = .10).
For most, cooperation increased (p < .01), as did decisiveness (p < .01), and confidence in one’s decisions (p < .01). Some subjects found it more difficult to make decisions (p < .01), and some procrastinated more (p < .01). Respect for coworkers (p < .01) and listening to them (p < .01) increased. Listening to superiors went up significantly (p < .01). As for interpersonal relations, 87 percent of the sample reported being closer to others (p < .01). Subjects reported having more friends at work (p < .01) and outside of work (p < .01), feeling closer and easier with them (p < .01), less
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More time was spent listening to music (p < .01). Subjects bought new, higher-quality audio equipment (p < .01), and listened more to classical music (p < .01). Over 70 percent of the subjects read more (p < .01), especially on religion (p < .01), ethics (p < .01), mysticism (p < .01), philosophy (p < .01), and psychology (p < .01). They watched television less (p <.01).
Since participants were encouraged to explore their spiritual orientation and religious background, considerable changes in related behaviors were expected. Many changes were highly significant, the most frequent—reported by more than two-thirds of the participants—being greater tolerance (p < .01) and more belief in a higher power (p < .01). There was little change in church attendance. However, more religious books were read (p < .01), there was greater interest in religious services (p < .01) and talking about religious subjects (p < .01). There was more feeling for religious music (p <
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While psychedelic use still causes ripples throughout the art world, the only significant change in creative activities was greater enjoyment of a musical instrument (p < .01). Some people reported less interest in prior creative pursuits. Comments included, “Taking less pictures now. I don’t feel it is as important to have things recorded,”
The most pervasive changes were heightened responsiveness (p < .01), a more loving expressiveness physically (p < .01) and verbally (p < .01), and greater friendliness (p < .01). Participants had greater confidence in their beliefs (p < .01), decisions (p < .01), and actions (p < .01).
less sarcastic (p < .01). Men were more willing to accept advice (p < .01). In arguments, both men and women were less dogmatic (p < .01), excitable (p < .01), and stubborn (p < .01) as well as more flexible (p < .01). There was more singing (p < .01) and whistling (p < .01), most probably brought on by feeling good more often. Self-confidence increased for almost everyone (p < .01).
While interest in sex both increased and diminished, most of the comments were about having less anxiety and more pleasure. While the number of women reporting more orgasms was not statistically significant, of the nine women who did report this, seven of their husbands had done psychedelic therapy. The temptation to speculate on this finding has been resisted.
men’s earnings actually increased (p = .05). There was significantly less concern among men over status (p < .01), respect from coworkers (p < .05),
Women’s ambition increased (p = .05), showing less interest in income, per se, but more in other job satisfaction. This population may be less interested in materialism, but more interested in productive and satisfying work.
The participants spent more time in introspection (p < .01), self-analysis (p < .01), and meditation (p < .01). Of those joining outside groups, men gravitated toward therapy (p = .01), while women joined religious groups (p = .10).
Overall, fears decreased more than they increased in every category.
In psychedelic therapy, individuals often experience their identity to be beyond their physical body. Perhaps this is why the fear of death was the fear most often cited as having decreased (p < .01).
When people become more introspective and more interested in their own inner processes, their actual dream life may become richer or they
In addition, dreams were more intense (p < .01), more meaningful (p < .01), remembered more often (p < .01), and enjoyed more (p < .01). For some, dreams were less disturbing.
Activities that did change, however, increased, including walking (p = .01), hiking (p = .05), participating in sports (p = .01), dancing (p = .10), bike riding (p = .10), and gardening (p < .01). Psychedelic therapy, when it affected physical activities, did so in a healthy direction. The only activity that decreased was hunting (p = .01), a change probably more philosophical than physical.
76 percent felt better after exercise (p < .01), and smaller percentages experience less fatigue in general (p < .01), fewer headaches (p < .01), and less boredom (p < .01). Participants reported improved vision (p < .01), hearing (p = 10), smell (p = .01), taste (p = .01), and touch (p = 01). Some slept less (p = .10), used fewer medications, (p = .05), and had fewer pains or complaints in general (p < .01). Comments included, “No more tranquilizers,” and “I had a pain in my leg. X-ray showed arthritis. When I was upset it became more painful. Since LSD the pain has been eliminated entirely.”
It can be seen, from this lengthy and somewhat exhaustive presentation of results, that changes in this group of sixty-seven people were numerous, extensive, positive, and lasting. It can be concluded that this therapeutic protocol of short duration, at least with this moderately healthy population, was beneficial.
The most commonly reported benefits include an increase in the ability to love (78 percent), to handle hostility (69 percent), to communicate (69 percent), and to understand self and others (88 percent); other changes included improved interpersonal relations (72 percent), decreased anxiety (66 percent), increased self-esteem (71 percent), and a new way of looking at the world (83 percent). Of particular interest is a high correlation of 0.91 between “greater awareness of a higher power, or ultimate reality” and “claimed permanent benefit.
Immediately after the LSD session, 24 percent found that daydreaming and introspection “interfere with getting things done”; that fell to 11 percent after one year.
There is, however, and has been for some time, a quiet underground of guides, each of them actively working with clients. If and when the barriers come down, this Guild of Guides is ready to move aboveground and continue their work. Clandestine out of necessity, recently they have started to form networks; this is a good sign.
A new project for me is team-teaching a class titled Psychedelics: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications with David Lukoff and Alicia Danforth at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, in Palo Alto, California. It is the first graduate-level clinical class like it in the country.
As a result of these experiences, individuals tend to develop feelings that they are planetary citizens and members of the human family before belonging to a particular country or a specific racial, social, ideological, political, or religious group.”
Many people in the sixties who became involved in self-discovery through psychedelics and other methods went through, to some degree, what the expert in understanding world mythologies Joseph Campbell calls “detribalization.”
Lay Catholics who practice birth control or Jews who marry outside their faith have both partly detribalized, as have individuals who drop out of professional careers to live in rural communes or join ashrams. People who have used psychedelics are more likely to detribalize and, after so doing, to create new institutions. The antiwar movement, the civil rights movement, women’s liberation, the ecology movement, communes, the sexual revolution, and even organic farming were all fueled and strengthened by those who had taken psychedelics.
An author usually ends personal remarks like these with “Buy my book.” But if you’re reading this, you or your library or your friend already has done that. My request, then, is that you share what you’ve learned with those around you. Let’s support legal research in every way we can and support one another as well. Keep in mind that even those most disturbed by and opposed to psychedelics want, as much as we do, a better world for us all.
The guild is an informal, largely invisible fellowship, international in scope. Its members include practitioners from major religions as well as the arts, health sciences, and mental health professions. The term guild refers to the practice of training by which a guide accepts apprentices. Only when a person’s level of work is close to that of his or her mentor is he or she encouraged to work independently. The guild does not maintain a public web presence under this name.
It is of critical importance that the voyager accepts whatever presents itself in his/her field of consciousness as a potential gift, even if it initially appears dark or threatening.”
A brief explanation for readers who have no idea how statistics are used in psychology: Any measurement is rated against how likely it is that the same result would happen by chance. The p means probability. The number following the p is how far from chance the actual result is. In psychology, if your data would happen by chance one out of ten times (written as p = .10), you can call it a trend or a tendency or an inclination. If it would happen by chance five times out of one hundred (p = .05), you can call it “significant.” That means it probably is really so. If it would happen by chance
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