tips
The 5 Best Books for Exploring Psychedelics (Without Actually Taking Any)
Recently I discovered Shepherd, a neat website where authors recommend their favorite books on a particular topic, theme, or mood. The Shepherd folks asked me to provide a list of psychedelic book recommendations — how could I say no to that? As an avid reader, it was difficult to pick just 5! I wanted to list books that I really loved, and which would appeal both to veteran trippers and stone-cold sober readers alike. Without further ado, here are my selections for your psychedelic bookshelf. If you’re interested in exploring more, check out Shepherd’s Best Psychedelic Books list,...
Orientation Before Preparation How Magical Thinking Can Open Us to Transformation
Preconception Psychedelics are not a traditional part of modern Western culture. As psychedelics move toward becoming mainstream, they are being presented using familiar lines of thought. Psychedelic states of mind, which are traditional parts of some cultures, are presented as if the Western World has just discovered them. It’s “Columbus discovers America” all over again. According to one line of thought, psychedelics distort reality and are perverse. According to another view, they are medicines that can treat disease and restore clear thinking. A Westernization of the indigenous view holds them to be sacraments that can enlighten us. Groups...
Carl Jung on Why You Should Be Wary of Psychedelics A Short Video from Voiceclub About "The Darkness of the Void"
Voiceclub is a Melbourne-based podcast on psychedelics and philosophy that’s worth digging into. In addition to regular audio podcasts, Voiceclub is now producing excellent video snippets on its Youtube channel. The latest video discusses the danger of psychedelics through the lens of Carl Jung. From the video: You really best beware of what it is you don’t understand about yourself. Because what you don’t understand about yourself — well, it has you, for good or ill. And so, wisdom of the kind that Jung puts forward is really not to be brushed aside. This is to say little...
Sitting, Not Guiding: The Power of Non-Directive Support
This post by Erica Zelfand, N.D. and Timothy Crespi, L.P.C., C.A.D.C was first published in the MAPS Bulletin and appears here with permission. An hour after eating psilocybin mushrooms at a festival, Olivia notices her left hand is shaking. She can stop it with effort, but prefers to just let it do its thing. She isn’t angry, yet it feels strangely good to shout fragmented thoughts and hum Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” The hand-shaking has progressed; now she’s flapping her whole left arm like a hemiplegic bird trying to take flight. The people around her have noticed and are keeping...
“Getting Higher”: A Conversation with Author and Occultist Julian Vayne
Julian Vayne is the author of Getting Higher: The Manual of Psychedelic Ceremony — a guide for exploring the use of psychedelic substances in the contexts of spirituality, self-transformation and magic. It’s out now, via the incredible independent publisher, Psychedelic Press UK. I caught up with Julian about why, exactly, psychedelic explorers would want to get even higher, and what it means to be a warlock in the information age. Hi Julian, thanks very much for joining me. I know I’m not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I have to say Getting Higher looks fascinating....
Hand in Hand: How Psychedelic Harm Reduction Is Making a Difference Now
This essay by Shannon Clare Petitt was originally published in the MAPS Bulletin, Winter 2016 edition. If you believe in MAPS’ mission of furthering psychedelic medicine while promoting harm reduction, please donate to their cause. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) continues to make huge strides towards the goal of establishing psychedelics as legal medicines. In advancing the cause of psychedelic therapy, the organization has also become a repository for experience and techniques essential for assisting people journeying through difficult psychedelic experiences. Psychedelic harm reduction is the practice of creating safe spaces in environments where the use...
Fantastic New Trip-Sitting Guide: The Manual of Psychedelic Support
Even the hardiest, most vocal psychedelic enthusiasts recognize that trip experiences can be intense and sometimes difficult. Especially when taken in unfamiliar surroundings — such as crowded music festivals or in the desert heat of Black Rock City — psychedelics can cause untimely emotional meltdowns. Now there’s an excellent guide for handling psychedelic crises, produced by some of foremost experts on harm reduction techniques. It’s called “The Manual of Psychedelic Support,” and its laundry list of contributors includes the Erowids, Rick Doblin, Jon Hanna (the founder of Mind States), Linnae Ponté (who runs MAPS’ excellent Zendo harm reduction tent), five members of Kosmicare UK, Dave...
Just a Wee Bit More About DMT, by Nick Sand
Nick Sand is one of the most prolific and well-known underground chemists in history. Along with Tim Scully, Nick Sand was responsible for producing over 3 million hits of Orange Sunshine, a brand of LSD that was renowned for its purity in the Sixties. Sand has a particular fondness for DMT. In fact, it was a DMT vision quest in the 60s that convinced Sand to dedicate his life to producing and distributing entheogens. He was the first underground chemist to synthesize DMT rather than extracting it from natural sources, and the first person to discover that the DMT...
8 Tips for Using Recreational Drugs Responsibly
This week’s guest post is by Aaron Moritz. Aaron is an independent writer, researcher, video editor, and co-host of the Srsly Wrong podcast. Find more of his articles at his blog and check out the Srsly Wrong website. The ‘War on Drugs’ and ‘Just Say No!’ campaigns have been colossal failures, and one of the main reasons — a reason people don’t like to talk about — is that taking drugs is fun, and not everybody who does it has a problem. We don’t like to admit that, but it’s true. I am not advocating that anybody use recreational drugs....
Moving Into the Sacred World of DMT, by Nick Sand
Nick Sand is one of the most prolific and well-known underground chemists in history. From 1966 to 1996, he produced huge amounts of LSD, as well as MDMA, synthetic mescaline, DMT, and other psychedelics that were distributed around the globe. Along with Tim Scully, Nick Sand was responsible for producing over 3 million hits of Orange Sunshine, a brand of LSD that was renowned for its quality and purity in the Sixties. Sand has a particular fondness for DMT. In fact, it was a DMT vision quest in the 60s that convinced Sand to dedicate his life to...
Are Entities and Plant Spirits Real? A Skeptic's Guide to Tripping
Trips are like dreams. A genuine insight may bubble up from deep in your subconscious, handily solving a problem that your sober mind found intractable. Or you might emerge with absolute nonsense, the product of synapses firing without the guidance of logic and consistency. You don’t take your dreams as absolute truth upon waking, and psychedelics should be no different. It’s crucial to think critically about which lessons to take back into consensus reality, and which to leave behind. Wisdom or Dogma? Many psychonauts spread their personal beliefs and speculations as though they were fact. Sometimes they take an...
How to Make Celestial Music with an Oven Rack
Want to enjoy a trippy concert of chimes and gongs that only you can hear? Great, because that’s what today’s post is about. As you may have noticed if you have ever removed your oven rack for cleaning, striking it causes it to vibrate, and the vibrations create a chiming sound. But the sound is very quiet, which is why strings are necessary for this activity. The strings act as crude amplifiers plugged directly into the ears, transmitting the sound to the listener. This activity is fascinating enough if you’re sober, but it’s ten times more effective when...