Wine and wisdom Very few great works of philosophy are also great works of art. However, Plato's Symposium is both. It is a vivid invocation of the Athenian polis and its leading characters, including Alcibiades, Aristophanes and Socrates. And it is without compare as a philosophical treatment of sexual desire - a topic that philosophers down the ages have largely avoided, with only Schopenhauer and Sartre venturing the kind of comprehensive account of it that we find in Plato. Ostensibly, the work is merely a report of a drinking party, in which the characters stumble, in their cups, over ideas and emotions that lie hidden in their daily lives. In that lies its artfulness. Try publishing that in Cosmopolitan or Tatler, and see what laughs you'll get. We should recognise, however, that wine leads us to such surprising conclusions only when swallowed in the right way, and it is another great virtue of Plato's masterpiece that it tells us how to do it.
Orfeo: A Dialog between Robert Hunter and Terence McKenna This is Part OnePart TwoPart ThreePart FourPart Five (current) Terence, in reading your books I was struck with how closely your DMT experiments paralleled my own. I wasn't surprised by the confirmation, as you might guess. I considered myself a serious DMT explorer between 1967-69. Robert Hunter Greetings Bob-- I was interested in what you had to say about being an explorer of the DMT world until the management told you to stay away. I enjoy the idea of a slow moving dialog, I hope this can continue. Best, T Terence, I suppose the "facts" of DMT might as well be written in cunieform on our breastbones for all the good it does to know about it, as opposed to "dwelling in the know of it." My personal take on the "secret" of DMT: it was long, hard work making this world real. My take could be way off base but anything more Gnostic is off-putting. In saying any or all of this, it's only sane to assume I'm dead wrong since I'm speaking in polar terms. I don't want to sell this stuff, DMT. rh
Addict To Activist: How Elton John Found His 'Cure' hide captionSir Elton John speaks at an Elton John AIDS Foundation benefit in 2010. The organization, which John founded in 1992, provides grants to support HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programs. Evan Agostini/AP Sir Elton John is constantly remembering his life as a drug addict, whether he wants to or not. "I still dream, twice a week at least, that I've taken cocaine and I have it up my nose," John tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. In his new memoir, Love Is the Cure, the singer-songwriter explains how he stopped using cocaine — and abusing drugs and alcohol — after he came to know Ryan White. "It got me to realize how out of whack my life was, because I was just in and out of a drug-fueled haze in the '80s. After seeking treatment for his addictions, he started the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which now gives grants to AIDS and HIV prevention and treatment programs. Interview Highlights "I was so ignorant about drugs and so naive. On what drugs did for him, and where they led him
Study: Intelligence, cognition unaffected by heavy marijuana use By William J. Cromie Gazette Staff The new study of cognitive changes caused by heavy marijuana use has found no lasting effects 28 days after quitting. Following a month of abstinence, men and women who smoked pot at least 5,000 times in their lives performed just as well on psychological tests as people who used pot sparingly or not at all, according to a report in the latest edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry. That's the good news. The bad news, not included in the study, is that most heavy users admit that pot has had a negative effect on their physical and mental health as well their functioning on the job and socially. "If there's one thing I've learned from studying marijuana for more than a decade, it's that proponents and opponents of the drug will put opposite spins on these findings," says Harrison Pope, a Harvard professor of psychiatry and leader of the research. Withdrawal produces impairment Unsatisfied lives "It's a chicken and egg situation," Pope admits.
Doctors consider using street drugs to ease suffering of dying patients Recent studies at Harvard, U.C.L.A. and my alma mater John Hopkins have now made it plain that doctors should—as soon as proper safeguards can be put in place—be free to offer illicit drugs to patients who are terminally ill, in order to ease their emotional suffering and potentially offer them new perspectives—fueled by drug-induced insights—into issues like their own mortality. At Harvard, Dr. John Halpern (as reported in the New York Times) tested MDMA (the street drug Ecstasy) to determine if it would ease the anxieties in two patients with terminal cancer. The results are reportedly consistently good. The truth is that the likelihood of creating an MDMA or psilocybin addict out of a terminal cancer patient is exactly zero. Not long ago, I debated with former talk show host and motivational speaker Montel Williams. Terminal conditions and final days are, in fact, but one of the settings in which chemicals considered “street” drugs may be Godsends. Dr. Dr.
10 Scientific and Technological Visionaries Who Experimented With Drugs Same here. We evolved along with, and because of, our diet. There weren't any classifications of "illegal drugs" back then, and these things flourish in all sorts of conditions in the wild - it's hard not to imagine at least occasional consumption. Considering mankind's predilection to experimenting with consciousness, along with the unique effects of these substances (including euphoria), it was probably more than occasional. If these fungi were part of a diet over time, they'd likely have some effect on our development. At the very least, to assume that these type of natural and prolific plants/substances had no part in our evolution would seem foolish. I just love the idea of psychoactive botanicals spurring hominid consciousness to a higher quantum state — the booster shot needed to make that leap forward in intelligence. SExpand Exactly!
The Narco State - By Charles Kenny America's longest running war -- the one against drugs -- came in for abuse this weekend at the Summit of the Americas. The abuse is deserved. Forty years of increasingly violent efforts to stamp out the drug trade haven't worked. And the blood and treasure lost is on a scale with America's more conventional wars. On the upside, we know that an approach based around treating drugs as a public health issue reaps benefits to both users and the rest of us. President Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala opened the rhetorical offensive against the drug war last week when he wrote that "decades of big arrests and the seizure of tons of drugs" have not stopped "booming" production and consumption. But it isn't just in Latin America that the winds of change are blowing when it comes to drugs policy. As a domestic policy, a harsh enforcement approach has done little to control drug use, but has done a lot to lock up a growing portion of the U.S. population.
Should the U.S. legalize hard drugs? Consider current policy concerning the only addictive intoxicant currently available as a consumer good — alcohol. America’s alcohol industry, which is as dependent on the 20 percent of heavy drinkers as they are on alcohol, markets its products aggressively and effectively. Because marketing can drive consumption, America’s distillers, brewers and vintners spend $6 billion on advertising and promoting their products. Americans’ experience with marketing’s power inclines them to favor prohibition and enforcement over legalization and marketing of drugs. But this choice has consequences: More Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses or drug-related probation and parole violations than for property crimes. And although America spends five times more jailing drug dealers than it did 30 years ago, the prices of cocaine and heroin are 80 to 90 percent lower than 30 years ago. Dealers, a.k.a. Marijuana probably provides less than 25 percent of the cartels’ revenue. georgewill@washpost.com
Potopia Could Shutdown Haunt Burwell? by Ben Jacobs Larry Downing/Reuters Obama’s nominee to succeed Kathleen Sebelius played a key role in closing Washington’s monuments—a... The Doors of Perception The Doors of Perception is a short book by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1954, detailing his experiences when taking mescaline. The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon, and takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision".[1] He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion. Background[edit] Mescaline (Peyote and San Pedro Cactus)[edit] Mescaline is the principal agent of the psychedelic cactus peyote and San Pedro cactus, which has been used in Native American religious ceremonies for thousands of years.[2] A German pharmacologist, Arthur Heffter, isolated the alkaloids in the peyote cactus in 1891. Peyote as entheogen drug[edit] Research by Humphry Osmond[edit] Huxley's experience with mescaline[edit] Synopsis[edit]
Remee - The REM enhancing Lucid Dreaming Mask by Bitbanger Labs Like Bitbanger Labs on Facebook Remee has been selected as a finalist for the William McShane Fund, by Buckyballs & Brookstone! If you think Remee deserves to be available at Brookstone, vote here! Yes, really! To us, this is kind of a shame, sort of like being unaware of the existence of books or music. This is an easy one. There's a lot more to Lucid Dreaming than simply acknowledging that it's real and crossing your fingers. Boom. Here's some great info for people new to the concept: WNYC's Radiolab - We've been listening to Radiolab for ages, so we thought it was great when they recently released a short about someone using lucid dreaming to overcome a recurring nightmare. /r/LucidDreaming - Reddit's active, knowledgeable, helpful Lucid Dreaming community. 25,000 dreamers strong and growing! Lucidipedia - A veritable treasure trove of information about the practice of lucid dreaming. In default mode, Remee targets these long chunks of REM sleep towards the end of the sleep period.
Mind-altering drugs research call from Prof David Nutt 23 January 2012Last updated at 21:12 By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News Could mind-altering drugs have a medical role? Former government drugs adviser Prof David Nutt has said that regulations should be relaxed to enable researchers to experiment on mind-altering drugs. Prof Nutt told BBC News that magic mushrooms, LSD, ecstasy, cannabis and mephedrone all have potential therapeutic applications. However, he said they were not being studied because of the restrictions placed on researching illegal drugs. He said the regulations were "overwhelming". His comments followed the publication of new research by his group in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which suggests that the active ingredient in magic mushrooms could be used to treat depression. "I feel quite passionately that these drugs are profound drugs; they change the brain in a way that no other drugs do. Fired Continue reading the main story “Start Quote End QuoteProf David Nutt Medical role?
Wake Up and Dream In today's short, a man confronts a bully, and frees himself from a recurring nightmare that's terrorized him for more than 20 years. Matt Kielty introduces us to Steve Volk, a city reporter in Philadelphia who--for decades--was plagued by a recurring nightmare. It popped up whenever Steve was going through a stressful time, and it always played out exactly the same way. But no matter how self-aware Steve was about his most current set of anxieties, and no matter how hard he tried to rationalize and explain away the dream...he couldn't make it stop. Then one year, Steve started working on a book about topics at the edge of science, and along the way he stumbled into lucid dreaming. Read more: Fringe-ology, by Steve Volk Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, by Stephen LaBerge
Alcohol 'more harmful than heroin' says Prof David Nutt 1 November 2010Last updated at 14:11 Professor David Nutt: "In terms of the cost to society, alcohol causes the biggest harm" Alcohol is more harmful than heroin or crack when the overall dangers to the individual and society are considered, according to a study in the Lancet. The report is co-authored by Professor David Nutt, the former government chief drugs adviser who was sacked in 2009. It ranked 20 drugs on 16 measures of harm to users and to wider society. Heroin, crack and crystal meth were deemed worst for individuals, with alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine worst for society, and alcohol worst overall. Harm score Professor Nutt refused to leave the drugs debate when he was sacked from his official post by the former Labour Home Secretary, Alan Johnson. He went on to form the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, which says it aims to investigate the drug issue without any political interference. 'Valid and necessary' 'Extraordinary lengths' "We are talking about a minority.