‘Remember’: A Mind-Blowing Series of Beautiful Illustrations
I recently discovered this incredible series of illustrations by Chops Wanderweird, called Remember. It’s as thought-provoking as it is beautiful, with a retro children’s-book vibe that I really love. Plus those intricate geometric lines, lovingly rendered in gorgeous colored pencil and ink, make me feel like I’m tripping! As you look through the pages you’ll catch snatches of ideas explored by Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary, and other psychonauts and philosophers. Yet there’s something utterly original about this project. Prepare to get your mind blown. (Click each image for full-size and use arrow keys to navigate.) Oh, and...
LSD, DMT, and ‘Aliens Made of Light’ — In a Country Song?
As a self-proclaimed fan of Terence McKenna’s lectures and Rick Strassman’s DMT studies, with interests ranging from modern physics to religion and cosmology, Sturgill Simpson is not your average country singer. The lyrics of the opening track to his latest album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, prove as much: There’s a gateway in our mind that leads somewhere out there beyond this plane Where reptile aliens made of light cut you open and pull out all your pain. Tell me how you make illegal something that we all make in our brain? Some say you might go crazy but then again it...
Psychedelic DJ Conjures a New Reality in ‘Plastic Flowers’ Video
This short video starts way, way out in the vast cosmos, then zooms in to a dreary hospital bed where a man lies comatose. But the patient’s mind is far from quiet. A DJ stands at a turntable, spinning up a new reality filled with colored bubbles and a giant four-armed sky god. A testament to the creative power of music and imagination, all in under 3 minutes. Is this what dreams are made of? Liked this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed to get much more! Or enter your email address for weekly updates:
Underwater Tripping 5 Hours at the Bottom of a Minnesotan Lake
Today’s guest post is by Alex Beyman, an author, diving enthusiast, and psychonaut. His story of tripping at the bottom of a Minnesota Lake was originally posted to Reddit’s /r/drugs forum. Note: This is not a how-to guide. I do not condone irresponsible diving. I urge readers not to try diving without scuba certification and an understanding of the risks diving entails, especially where DIY gear is concerned. If you’re not careful it’s easy to kill yourself, so don’t try anything similar until you’re certified to dive conventionally. A few years ago I developed an obsessive interest in...
A 1914 Trip Report of Psilocybin Mushrooms from Science Magazine
In the treasure troves of Erowid I found a very old experience report for psilocybin mushrooms — a ‘trip report’ from long before that term was coined. It predates mycologist R. Gordon Wasson’s groundbreaking article, Seeking the Magic Mushroom — which exposed psilocybin mushrooms to a much wider audience in 1957 — by over forty years. It is as funny as it is historically interesting, so I am taking the liberty of re-posting it. Erowid Note: The following report is from the September 18, 1914 issue of Science magazine, generously contributed to Erowid by archivist Michael Horowitz, as a silvered, heavily-aged copy...
Six Things the World Could Learn from Burning Man
Meditation instructor Emily Fletcher gives an excellent talk on the six things we can learn from Burning Man. From the video description: Most people think that Burning Man is a bunch of naked hippies doing drugs in the desert… and they are right. But Burning Man is also much, much more. It has become a giant social experiment. It has launched movements, shaped global organizations and brought creativity to a whole new level to those who are brave enough to face the heat and face themselves in the infamous dust. Check out the video. But I warn you...
All the Butterflies A Monumental Shrooms Trip from 'Thank Earth You'
Thank Earth You is a memoir by Armand Daigle about his transformation from cubicle slave to a free-spirited creative force. In last week’s chapter, he embarked on a camping trip with three good friends — his wolf pack — and downed a heady brew of psilocybin mushrooms. This week we share the next chapter, All the Butterflies, in which the mushrooms take effect! Armand calls it “the most important campfire in my twenty-eight years of existence.” If you like what you read, you can buy Thank Earth You here. On our late afternoon descent, a phalanx of purples, dreams, triangles, oranges, and jellyfish races above...
Power-up Pelt A Story of Campfire Tripping from 'Thank Earth You'
Thank Earth You is a terrific memoir by Armand Daigle about his transformation from cubicle slave to a free-spirited creative force. Central to the story are two profound psychedelic experiences, one with mushrooms on a camping trip, and the other a traditional ayahuasca ceremony. I interviewed Armand last week, and today we’re sharing a chapter of his memoir for free. In this chapter, Power-up Pelt, you get to know Armand’s wolf pack while witnessing the early stages of the mushroom trip that stretched his consciousness and changed his life. You can buy Thank Earth You here. The four of us are holding hands in a circle—one hand...
Interview: Armand Daigle, Author of Psychedelic Memoir ‘Thank Earth You’
Fed up with his 9-to-5 engineering job, Armand Daigle quit, joined a fledgling media production company, and wrote a memoir called Thank Earth You about his personal transformation. His story contains two incredible psychedelic experiences, one with mushrooms and one with ayahuasca, which propelled him to continue in his new direction. Armand has a way of revealing both the deeply personal and deeply psychedelic in a compelling, readable, and very funny way. Anyone who has questioned the rat race and the trappings of modern culture will relate. I’ll be publishing two full chapters from Thank Earth You in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here’s...
Incredibly Trippy Portraits of Famous Psychonauts by Nicolás Rosenfeld
Nicolás Rosenfeld has produced an incredible series of portraits of famous psychonauts, from Carlos Castañeda and John C Lilly to Syd Barrett and Nick Sand. His artworks are intricate, intensely colored, and overflowing with peyote buttons, ether vapors, and cubensis stalks. Check them out below, and see even more at his website! Carlos Castañeda became famous as the author of a series of books, starting with The Teachings of Don Juan in 1968, supposedly relating his training in shamanism by a Yaqui sorcerer. The books include experiences with several drugs, including peyote, jimsonweed, and mushrooms. Though they were considered true-to-life anthropological...
Veteran Explains How MDMA Therapy Helped Him Overcome PTSD
In a recent “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit, Iraq War veteran Tony Macie opened up about how he overcame his treatment-resistant PTSD through experimental MDMA-assisted therapy. Here’s his introduction: My name is Tony Macie, and I am a retired Sergeant of the U.S. Army. I spent 15 long months in Iraq during the surge in 2006 and 2007. When I returned home from the war, I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from a lot of issues ranging from what I experienced during combat and some of the disconnect with my brothers in arms when...
How a Banker Introduced ‘Magic Mushrooms’ to the West
In 1955, banker and amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson traveled to Mexico with a friend, where they became “the first white men in recorded history to eat the divine mushrooms.” Seeking the Magic Mushroom, published two years later in Life magazine, introduced psilocybin mushrooms to the West. Wasson wrote about his personal experience eating the mushrooms, and their ceremonial use by the Mazatec people as a healing agent. The essay came at a perfect time, exposing a whole generation of young people to a natural, non-toxic, and easily grown psychedelic agent that had long been overlooked in the West. Wasson’s...