Author Archive
Hella_Brad live-tweets his first acid trip
This is from a few months back, but is so full of innocent wonder that I have to post it! In September, @hella_brad took his first dose of acid and decided to live-tweet the trip. Considering the frequency and quality of the tweets, not to mention his ability to walk around and socialize, I imagine he took a low dose. Some have questioned the veracity of the tweets, but to me it seems real, and it would be a silly thing to fake. Hella_brad’s Twitter persona comes across as genuine and endearing, not just in these tweets but...
Radio interview with psychedelic pioneer Jim Fadiman
Public radio show “To the Best of Our Knowledge” interviewed psychedelic pioneer Jim Fadiman. The full 45 minute interview can be downloaded or streamed from their website. Jim Fadiman is one of the original psychonauts – a friend of Richard Alpert and Ken Kesey in the Sixties – who went on to do pioneering research on psychedelics and creativity, and helped found the transpersonal psychology movement. In this EXTENDED interview, Steve Paulson talks with Fadiman about a lifetime of unconventional thinking. The interview covers a variety of topics, from Fadiman’s days as a graduate student in the psychedelic...
DMT-esque animation: “1923 aka Heaven”
This short animation reminds me of a DMT voyage through some kind of cosmic power generator. From the Vimeo page: 1923 aka Heaven is one of two animation loops directed by Max Hattler, inspired by the work of French outsider artist Augustin Lesage. 1923 is based on Lesage’s painting ‘A Symbolic Composition of the Spiritual World’ from 1923. I recommend fullscreen mode. And turn up the volume, the soundtrack is great. The second animation mentioned is called ‘1925 aka Hell‘. The visuals aren’t as DMT-looking, but it’s still very trippy. If the video wasn’t enough to remind you of...
DMT Found in the Pineal Glands of Live Rats
Cottonwood Research, a foundation dedicated to studying consciousness and headed by Rick Strassman, is publishing a study that confirms the existence (and, they argue, production) of dimethyltryptamine in the pineal glands of rats. This paves the way for further research to determine whether endogenous DMT in humans also originates in the pineal gland, as has been speculated by Strassman and others. From their website: We’re excited to announce the acceptance for publication of a paper documenting the presence of DMT in the pineal glands of live rodents. The paper will appear in the journal Biomedical Chromatography and describes experiments that...
Song: “Parabol” by Tool, slowed to 1/8 speed
The original track was otherworldly to begin with. But Tool’s “Parabol” has a completely different feel when slowed down by a factor of eight. Ethereal and haunting, it’s more like a Gregorian chant than a single from a rock album. I recommend good headphones and your favorite consciousness-modifier (legal, of course). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5_eGEF5dGI In case you’re thinking, “This is missing something…binaural beats?” I have just the thing. Now strap on your headphones and meditate. And if you’re one of those strange people who listens to music at normal speed, here’s the original along with some slowly shifting Alex Grey...
Interview with Oliver Hockenhull, Director of “Neurons to Nirvana”
I am very excited to share with you my conversation with Oliver Hockenhull, director of the new documentary film Neurons to Nirvana: Understanding Psychedelic Medicines. About the film Neurons to Nirvana: Understanding Psychedelic Medicines is a richly-illustrated feature documentary about the resurgence of psychedelics as medicine. Through interviews with the world’s foremost researchers, writers, psychologists and pioneers in psychedelic psychotherapy, the film explores five powerful psychedelic substances (LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA, Ayahuasca and Cannabis) and their previously established medicinal and psychotherapeutic potential. The film is finished but needs funding for marketing and distribution. If you are interested in learning more about the project and bringing this...
How Psilocybin Works: Addition by Subtraction
Psychedelic Frontier gladly welcomes our first guest, Zizo! A big thanks to Zizo for today’s post about some surprising psilocybin research results. Psilocybin is the inactive precursor of psilocin, the chemical primarily responsible for the hallucinogenic effects of Psilocybe “magic mushrooms”. Though human cultures have used this entheogen for many centuries, we are only just beginning to understand the physiological mechanism by which it produces its psychedelic effects. This slow scientific progress is a result of harsh international drug policy, but I digress… The psychedelic trip is often described as profoundly mind-expanding, and the brain is popularly presumed to...
FDA Approves Lorcaserin, Diet Drug with Psychedelic Effects at High Doses
This is a landmark step towards sensible US drug policy. Since the Nixon Administration passed the Controlled Substance Act passed in 1970, nearly all psychedelic-style drugs have been automatically classified as Schedule I, which means absolute prohibition with no recognized medical potential. (LSA presents an exception as a Schedule III drug, and the case may be made for the “psychedelic” nature of dextromethorphan and ketamine.) Lorcaserin, a weight loss drug with euphoric, hallucinogenic, and dissociative effects at high doses, has been classified as a Schedule IV medicine. This marks the first time that the DEA has acknowledged the...
New Interactive Graphs Visualize Online Drug Talk
On his blog Virostatiq, Marko Plahuta has published a set of colorful interactive graphs depicting drug discussions on Bluelight.ru, the harm reduction forum. According to Marko: I analyzed around 1.2 million posts on bluelight.ru and constructed a simple diagram that tells a lot. It was constructed in such a way that drugs that are frequently mentioned together, appear together. Circle radii are proportional with frequency of appearance of the same drugs in the posts. A second graph maps the relationships between drugs and effects commonly reported in user posts. The source data covers a period from 2010 to 2013,...
Tripping as a Tool for Self-Realization
Psychedelics are the chameleons of the drug world — amenable to a variety of uses, dependent on the user’s attitude. The importance of set and setting cannot be overstated. If you use them as intoxicants, you will become intoxicated. If you want to see pretty shapes and colors and “trip out” to music, then they will act as sensory enhancers. If you just want a new mode of consciousness that leads you to experience life in a novel way, they will satisfy that urge. There’s nothing wrong with these approaches. “Getting fucked up” can be a completely legitimate...
How to Conjure Visions in Ribbons of Smoke
The image of smoke swirling through the air, catching the light as it dances upwards, can be absolutely breathtaking. In a dark room with a single stick of incense, you can follow the threads of smoke as they weave about, reacting to your every breath. Here’s the exercise. You will need: incense, a candle, and materials for getting high (not strictly necessary, but cannabis amplifies the imagination in my experience). This works best indoors. Turn off all the lights except for a single candle. I mean all of them — if you have so much as a dim...
Free Book: The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley became a pioneer in the (practically nonexistent) field of modern psychedelic literature in 1954 when he published The Doors of Perception, a short but detailed book about his experience with mescaline. Many people would hesitate to publish a book about such a controversial and personal topic even today, half a century later, but Huxley staked his claim smack dab in the middle of the 1950s. The term “psychedelic” hadn’t even been coined yet (though Huxley would contribute to its creation a few years later). This book represents one of the first and best-known “trip reports”, at...