“On this episode we talk with Douglas Rushkoff, author, teacher, and host of the Team Human podcast. Rushkoff’s work explores how different technological environments change our relationship to narrative, money, power, and each other. His latest book, also called Team Human, calls for the retrieval of human autonomy in a digital age. Rushkoff is also no stranger to the psychedelic scene having collaborated with Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Terence McKenna, Ralph Metzner, Mark Pesce, and Erik Davis. We discuss some of the parallels between digital and psychedelic mainstreaming, the mental health epidemic as an externality of capitalism, and placing our trust capitalist cures. Will COVID-19 be to psychedelics as 9/11 was to surveillance capitalism? September 11th became the excuse to implement a surveillance state and surrender digital technologies to corporations. Will we see psychedelic medicines become the go-to recovery option for COVID-related mental health fallout? We also explore what a true psychedelic renaissance might look like.”
Tag: Psychedelic Medicine
“Psychedelics are going mainstream. With landmark studies in the last decade showing their incredible potential in treating serious mental health conditions, 2020 saw a goldrush of investment. But what are the implications as psychedelics move from the counterculture to the boardroom? In this short documentary, Alexander Beiner speaks to leading experts in the field – from clinicians and CEO’s to shamans and philosophers – to ask what the rise of psychedelic capitalism means for the future of culture and medicine. Includes interviews with Dr. Rosalind Watts (clinical lead of Imperial College’s groundbreaking psilocybin for depression study), Erik Davis (author of Techgnosis and High Weirdness), Jamie Wheal (author of Stealing Fire), Kat Conour of the Auryn Project, Bill Linton (CEO of The Usona Institute) and Shipibo shaman Jose Lopez Sanchez among others. Are we seeing the birth of a new era in mental health care, or late capitalism’s sneakiest cash grab yet? Turn on and tune in to find out.”
“Carl Hart, Ph.D., is the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. His research focuses on the behavioral and neuropharmacological effects of psychoactive drugs. He is particularly interested in what social and psychological factors influence drug use and their effects, and using evidence-based research to formulate more humane drug policies.”
(the following is an excerpt from my book)
There is an absolutely brilliant 92Y interview that Hamilton Morris, one of the most prominent psychedelic advocates in America, did of Michael Pollan, the mainstream journalist who recently wrote a book on the current renaissance called How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. I think the book will probably ultimately be positive for the movement to mainstream psychedelics simply because he is such a square type of mainstream media figure, normies will be far more inclined to read him less antagonistically than they would read someone like me.
But he does problematically talk mad shit on Dr. Leary and the counterculture in that book, which is why Hamilton’s interview was so great. He pushed back on Pollan’s central thesis, which is that psychedelics seem like they could be great psychiatric medicines, but there is not enough science yet to fully prove their efficacy and they need to be used in strictly controlled clinical settings with guides to help people through their trips. As somebody who has tripped hundreds of times and never had a “guide,” I really object to the assertion that everybody needs a professional tripsitter in order to do these things safely and get great benefits out of them. Surely, it would be great if guides were available to folks who wanted one, especially on their first psychonautical expedition, but most people can get on just fine without one.
My favorite part of the interview was when Hamilton makes a profound analogy between the Prohibition on psychedelics and a hypothetical Prohibition on music. It’s perfect because both of those cultural phenomena are quite similarly foundational to the human experience:
“And of course I agree with all this, you know, I’m a believer. I want all of this to be true. I want them to be legal. I want them to be medicines. I want all this research to have tremendously promising results, but I’m also extremely worried because I think if we look at them exclusively as medicines and don’t emphasize just cognitive liberty—the freedom to do things regardless of whether or not they’re medicinal—it’d be like if somebody made music illegal, and instead of saying, “Well it should just be legal because why not? Just make it legal; it doesn’t hurt anyone,” everyone said, “Oh, no, we can prove that it’s a medicine. And then, if it’s a medicine, then then it’s okay for everyone to use it. And look, it actually helps people with neurodegenerative diseases and certain people with PTSD if they listen to a certain type of music under very controlled circumstances, it can actually be tremendously therapeutic. We need to make this legal.” But then it would cost money and the whole thing would be a mess, and you would sort of neglect the overarching issue, which is: Why is this even controlled in the first place?”
“Bestselling author Tim Ferriss (Tools of Titans, The 4-Hour Workweek, etc.) probes the science, mysteries, and future of psychedelics with Dr. Roland R. Griffiths, a clinical pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Griffiths has been researching mood-altering compounds for more than 40 years, has published more than 370 scientific papers, and started the psilocybin (think “magic mushrooms”) research program at Johns Hopkins nearly 20 years ago. Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues have been leaders in the re-initiation of research with classic psychedelic drugs, which was blocked for a period of several decades. This session offers details and stories that can help both novices and experienced psychonauts get a better understanding of the applications of these incredible compounds.”
Bruce Sewick
Treating Addictions Using Psychedelic Assisted Therapy
College of DuPage Seminar [2018]
Treating Addictions Using Psychedelic Assisted Therapy
College of DuPage Seminar [2018]
“Recorded as part of a seminar on Psychedelics: Therapy, Culture and Cluster Headaches. Bruce Sewick LCPC, RDDP, CADC discusses the clinical use of psychedelics particularly in the treatment of alcoholics and addicts. Bruce Sewick is an Adjunct instructor in COD’s Human Services and he teaches the Psychedelic Mindview class.”
“A clinical psychologist from Imperial College describes how Magic Mushrooms (Psilocybin), when used in a therapeutic setting, have been found to be a very effective treatment for depression. In this talk she draws on her experiences as working as a therapist on the groundbreaking Psilocybin for Depression study, and introduces us to some of the patients and their stories of transformation. Dr Rosalind Watts completed her clinical psychology training at University College London. After six years of practicing psychotherapy in the NHS, she joined a clinical trial at Imperial College, investigating psilocybin (magic mushrooms) as a treatment for depression. Her research explores patients’ positive views of this intriguing therapy.”
“Research into psychedelic drugs was interrupted in the 1960’s due to regulatory changes. Recently, these compounds are once again studied both as therapeutic agents in psychiatry and as experimental tools to further our understanding of the human brain. David Nutt stands at the forefront of these developments as principal investigator of a team including Robin Carhart-Harris and other researchers at Imperial College, London. Together, they are running clinical trials of psychedelic substances including psilocybin in the treatment of depression. They are also using brain imaging to investigate the effects of psychedelic drugs on activity and connectivity within the brain. At this lecture, he will cover the latest research findings and share his vision of the future of psychedelic science.”
“Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, the psychologist, neuroscientist and Head of the Psychedelic Research Centre at Imperial College London. Yours is the world’s first organisation dedicated to the research of mind-altering substances and focuses on three key areas of study: mental health, social science and neuroscience. He was the first in the world to investigate the effects of LSD using modern brain imaging, and the first to study psilocybin – the active compound in magic mushrooms – for treating severe depression.”
“Bestselling author Tim Ferriss (Tools of Titans, The 4-Hour Workweek, etc.) probes the science, mysteries, and future of psychedelics with Dr. Roland R. Griffiths, a clinical pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Griffiths has been researching mood-altering compounds for more than 40 years, has published more than 370 scientific papers, and started the psilocybin (think “magic mushrooms”) research program at Johns Hopkins nearly 20 years ago. Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues have been leaders in the re-initiation of research with classic psychedelic drugs, which was blocked for a period of several decades. This session offers details and stories that can help both novices and experienced psychonauts get a better understanding of the applications of these incredible compounds.”
“This TEDx talk explores the practice of MDMA Psychotherapy, illustrated with the life-story of a fictional typical patient. We owe it to this population of vulnerable, untreated patients with unremitting mental disorders due to psychological trauma, to explore MDMA Therapy as potential new treatment for the future of psychiatric medicine. Ben Sessa is a consultant psychiatrist in adult addictions, working part-time at Addaction in Weston-Super-Mare and is senior research fellow at Bristol, Cardiff and Imperial College London Universities, where he is currently taking part of his time away from clinical medical practice to study towards a PhD in MDMA Psychotherapy. He is the author of two books exploring psychedelic medicine; The Psychedelic Renaissance (2012) and To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic (2015) and is currently conducting research with Imperial College London and Cardiff universities studying the potential role for MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD and alcohol dependence syndrome. Dr Sessa is outspoken on lobbying for change in the current system by which drugs are classified in the UK, believing a more progressive policy of regulation would reduce the harms of recreational drug use. He is a co-founder and director of the UK’s premier international psychedelic conference, Breaking Convention.”