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Psychedelics and Human Destiny: Notes from the Horizons Conference
By Jedi Mind Traveler
Created 11/11/2010 - 08:06
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teaser:
The realization of a utopian paradise will come when the general populace starts to
embrace the psychedelic experience, which many of the researchers at the Horizons
Conference in New York help to promote and legitimize. They have found a great
proponent in the conference organizer and psychologist Neal Goldsmith, who points
the way forward to a neo-tribal society, where we will return to our underlying
wholeness and unity with nature and the kosmos.


„And Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,‰ were the words
etched in stone behind the speakers at the recent „Horizons: Perspectives on
Psychedelics‰ conference at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. And I will add
that Christ Consciousness is especially relevant at the end of the world, when
psychedelics dissolve the ordinarily stable confines of reality, and reveal one of
underlying transcendent glory and truth. Here I will review the most important
insights into the nature of the psychedelic experience that were expounded by some
very inspiring and peculiar researchers. Reality Sandwich was a media sponsor of this
event.

Mathew Johnson and Mary Cosimano reviewed a promising pilot study on smoking
cessation using psilocybin at Johns Hopkins University. Their methodology involved
three different psilocybin sessions - for someone of 70kg they would use 20mg for the
first experience, and 30mg for the second and third. They utilized Cognitive Behavior
Therapy and guided imagery exercises to help patients quit smoking. Other
techniques they mentioned were the use of scented oil to remind people of the
cessation study, and the creation of mantras from the list of reasons to quit and be a
non-smoker. The results were encouraging, but more trials with more patients are
needed for more conclusive evidence. I hope they can continue this work and release
the results and methods to other therapists for treating the public.

Claire Wilkins gave a wonderful talk on the results of 400 Ibogaine treatments for
chemical dependencies at her clinic in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico called Pangea
Biomedics. The addictions treated were numerous - Opiates, 76%; Stimulants, 32%;
Nicotine, 26%; and 23% of all patients were experiencing depression, while 19% had
PTSD. Ibogaine is a chemical extracted from the root of a shrub in Africa called
Tabernanthe Iboga, where it is used by the Bwitists in Gabon for initiation rites. It‚s a
very long and intense trip, as I‚ve been reading in the book Iboga: The Visionary
Root of African Shamanism. It tends to allow a meeting with ancestors, spirits, and a
review of not just one‚s current life, but of past lives and collective or ancestral karma
as well. Iboga‚s use for the initiates, as well as in treating addicts, seems to be its
property as a catalyst for recapitulating one‚s former life, experiencing its death, and
waking up to the possibilities of a new life in the ensuing rebirth. The visions, which
are described more as waking dreams than hallucinations, may be integral to its use
in stopping addiction; the rumor is that a synthetic derivative of Ibogaine, called 18-
MC, does not produce visions, so it will be interesting to see if it has the same effect
on addiction.

The one drug that has an astounding success rate at treating addictions, Ibogaine is
ironically also a Schedule 1 substance, and would therefore officially have a high
potential for abuse, with no medical value. Ibogaine‚s efficacy is born out in the data:
of the four hundred patients who left Pangea Biomedics, 92% were free from
dependencies of choice, 6% were in mid-detox, and only 2% were untreatable,
though it is not a magic bullet: 42% used their primary substance within 3 months,
and only 18% stay free from their primary substance for 6 months or more. In
conclusion, Ibogaine treatment is incredibly effective at interrupting serious
addictions, but long-term support and additional treatments may be necessary.
Above all, the most important factor is the patient‚s desire to end their addiction.
Whether used for chemical dependencies or spiritual growth, Ibogaine lets us do
something I think we can all appreciate - in Claire‚s words, it „helps us fall back in
love with ourselves.‰

One of the most anticipated researchers was Rick Strassman, who oversaw the
administration of 400 doses of Dimethyltryptamine to 60 volunteers in a study at the
University of New Mexico that finished in 1991. His recent research, however, was on
the prophecies in the Hebrew Bible and their relation to the psychedelic state. He
hypothesized that prophecy is the perception of „invisible worlds,‰ which are
experienced under a „prophetic state of consciousness,‰ no doubt involving the
endogenous release of DMT or its chemical relatives. DMT is, at least visually, the
most powerful hallucinogen known to man, and tends to make „invisible worlds‰
visible and immediate. It is also synthesized naturally in the lungs and red blood cells.
Strassman spoke of „history as fulfilled prophecy, end of days, and the messiah.‰ He
also mentioned a passage in the Hebrew Bible which was particularly psychedelic,
involving entities, which were frequently encountered by subjects in his DMT studies.

To my mind, Strassman‚s idea of a prophetic state of consciousness, is spot-on - if
linear time is an illusion, as the Buddhists say, and the only true reality is the eternal
now, then when people contact this singular, ever-present moment, especially
through psychedelics, both past and future are available to be seen, experienced,
and written about. Could psychedelics be vehicles to time travel and to experience
the „Christ Consciousness‰ in our future? I believe they are, because our future (from
the perspective of linear time) rests within the singularity, that constantly-creating
Omega Point, and source from which all space-time arises. To quote Peter Russell,
„Within a finite time, we could taste infinity.‰ The reveal-ation at the end of the age
(or end of time) is simply the uncovering of the true Self, the divine light of
consciousness, the eternal Spirit behind the fleeting mask of shadow, ego, and
matter. Many have foretold that such a revelation would come, and many more have
already experienced this truth, through both mystical contemplation and psychedelic
catalysts.

But do they all believe what their eyes have seen when back in ordinary reality?
Clearly the answer is no, as the next day‚s speaker JP Harpignies would say: „We
need to stop the silliness...utopia isn‚t going to happen.‰ The abstract of his talk said
he would „Explore one troubling aspect of psychedelic subcultures - a fairly
widespread tendency toward the uncritical acceptance of a number of extremely
naive utopian ideas....‰ I will admit that the psychedelic experience, when fully
embraced, is one of empowerment, hope, and the ultimate perfection of all things. If
utopian is the worst epithet one can call such an inspired subculture, then I see no
reason why we can‚t live up to the hype and create a spectacular world of dreams
and visions!

The realization of a utopian paradise will come in large part when the general
populace starts to embrace the psychedelic experience, which many of these
researchers are helping to promote and legitimize. Not all, however, believe these
particular catalysts should be given such a wide audience. Jeffrey Guss, Director of
Psychedelic Psychotherapy Training for the NYU Psilocybin and Cancer Anxiety
Research Project, took the hard line and said that they should not be „part of, or
available to the mainstream,‰ while Mathew Johnson of the smoking cessation study
added, „psychedelics are not for everyone.‰ To my pleasant surprise, Neal Goldsmith
on the other hand, „takes exception‰ and thinks that they should be, and will be
available, because of the widespread the fear of death (and I would add the basic
questions of reality and existence). Psychedelics have been found to be tremendously
helpful in reducing one‚s fear of death, because, I would argue, they allow one to
experience it and see that there is beauty, perfection, and eternal consciousness on
the other side. Neal thankfully presented the optimistic position that everyone has the
ability to recognize their divine nature and true Self by coming face to face with God.
The knowledge that the catalysts for such a powerful mystical experience are now
available should not be cloistered away in esoterica or academia, but should be
brought forth and exposed as the precious gifts to mankind that they truly are.

One individual who I think gave psychedelics the respect they deserve was the poet
and explorer of plant consciousness, Dale Pendell, author of the Pharmako trilogy.
When the subject inevitably came up of how Timothy Leary and the gurus in the 60s
had ruined psychedelic research by promoting it to the mainstream, Dale countered
by saying that it was really those that stayed quiet in their ivory towers that were the
irresponsible ones - society was sick and it needed strong vision (sound familiar?). He
also spoke about entities, giving them a status of somewhere between an I-Thou
relationship. They can have a „playful, irreverent attitude,‰ he said, „especially with
the tryptamines.‰ He even gave some instruction on channeling entities through
glossolalia or speaking in tongues: hold a space for them and let it come out! The
message from the entities was, „Blessings from the Universe, for all!‰ I can confirm
such heartfelt messages from hyperspace. Finally, Dale challenged the audience to
go further, by saying, „The earth is crying for a deeper and more radical cure [than
the conventional research path will allow],‰ so, „why not try to use psychedelics for
helping the transformation of people and helping the earth?‰

Erik Davis, prolific author and journalist of visionary culture, struck a similarly
irreverent note. He pointed out that the 2006 psilocybin study on mystical
experiences by Johns Hopkins was in a way a move toward secularizing and
materializing a profoundly spiritual experience. The study found that roughly two-
thirds of participants had a mystical experience, and yet, Erik said, „We already knew
that.‰ These experiments had already been done in the 60s and it was just going
over well-worn territory. „The research model is not sufficient,‰ he echoed Dale,
„Neurology is on a collision course with the full-on DMT experience.‰ A favorite
metaphor of his was the mobius strip, where one side always leads to the other,
culminating in his exhortation to the reserved researchers, „To take it seriously, you
have to take it!‰ I would have liked to hear a retort from the academics on that one!

Yet another mobius strip metaphor was the tension between the modern rediscovery
of psychedelics as both leading to the reduction of spiritual experiences as simply
chemical or material interactions in the brain, while also bringing back the power and
immediacy of direct experience to religion. Speaking of the basis for religion, he also
noted that many people, probably some in the audience, subscribe to the idea that
Jesus was really a mushroom, a view he would neither promote nor deny. While I
agree that seeing religion as simply a product of ecstatic or mystical experiences
induced by mushrooms leads to a subtle reductionism, there is a great deal of
evidence for the use of mushrooms in Christianity, contrary to JP Harpignies‚ quip
that there is „no evidence of cultural use of mushrooms,‰ citing Andy Letcher‚s much
discredited book, Shroom. The evidence I cite is simply Jan Irvin‚s exhaustive book on
the subject, The Holy Mushroom: Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity,
which has fresco after stone carving of mushrooms in 9th through 12th century
European cathedrals, mainly depicted by the red-capped Amanita mushroom as
either the fruit of the tree of knowledge, or the tree itself.

I think the evidence is clear of an esoteric current within Christianity that used
mushrooms, but what about the figure of Jesus? The most reasonable explanation
I‚ve found is that Jesus was a person deeply transformed by the mushroom, and thus
he tended to speak from the point of view of en-light-ened mushroom consciousness.
For example, in John 6:56 of the King James Bible, it says, „He that eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.‰ Christ consciousness dwells in
those who have eaten the flesh of the mushroom, or drank the Amanita wine, his
blood. Anyone familiar with the teachings of mushrooms, especially of the psilocybin
variety, will easily identify the teachings of Jesus as being one and the same.
According to saying 113 in the Gospel of Thomas, arguably the most accurate and
unadulterated of all transcripts, „His disciples said to him, ŒWhen will the kingdom
come?‚ It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, ŒLook , here it is,‚ or
ŒLook, there it is.‚ Rather, the Father‚s kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and
people do not see it.‰ In other words, mushrooms cleanse the doors of perception
and reveal the living beauty and perfection of the world as consciousness. There is
no need to follow dogma or ideology to find heaven; rather, the transcendent is also
the immanent, for those who have eyes to see. Saying 77: „Jesus said, ŒI am the light
that is over all things. I am all: from me all has come forth, and to me all has
reached. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me
there.‰ The divine nature of all things is revealed under Christ, or rather mushroom
consciousness. Finally, both of these teachers have much to say on the nature of
existence and time. For example, John 6:54 says, „Whoso eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.‰ When
you take mushrooms you experience the death of the ego, and re-awaken to the
reveal-ation of the underlying Christ consciousness, the spirit behind matter - you see
that what you truly are is eternal, and will always be resurrected at the last day, or
the end of time, or when you awaken in the eternal Now. To follow the metaphor of
Erik Davis‚ mobius strip, the evolution of matter will always return to the domain of
spirit, and psychedelics are leading the way.

They have found a great proponent in the conference organizer and psychologist
Neal Goldsmith, who points the way forward to a neo-tribal society, where we will
return to our underlying wholeness and unity with nature and the kosmos. His lucid
and inspiring vision can be found here: "Fusion of Spirit and Science [1]". Neal
believes that psychedelics, when used appropriately, will play a huge role in
transforming the „corrosive nature of the psyche.‰ Indeed, they have already been
instrumental in the psychospiritual development of millions around the world and
throughout history.

But it is now, as we step out of history and into the imagination, that we need them
the most. I believe it is no accident that the very tools we need for our transformation
are just now becoming available. Specifically, the transdimensional vehicle that is
DMT, and its methoxylated cousin, the sacrament 5-MeO-DMT, are the most powerful
entheogens the human race has ever known. They have been given to us by the
plants, but they are also produced endogenously inside the body of every living
human being. Their power to reveal the mysteries of the universe and the true
nature of reality is unparalleled. It is with these sacraments and catalysts that we will
find both the future of psychedelic research, and the final fulfillment of mankind‚s
kosmic destiny.

Resources:

Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics Conference [2]
http://www.horizonsnyc.org/site/ [2]

Rick Strassman [3]
www.rickstrassman.com [4]

Dale Pendell [5]
www.dalependell.com [6]

Erik Davis [7]
www.techgnosis.com [8]

Pangea Biomedics Ibogaine Treatment [9]
http://www.pangeabiomedics.com/ [9]

Johns Hopkins Psilocybin and Mystical Experience Study [10]
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html [10]

DMT: The Spirit Molecule Documentary [11]
http://thespiritmolecule.com/ [11]

Books:

DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of
Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Rick Strassman [12]

Iboga: The Visionary Root of African Shamanism by Vincent Ravalec, Mallendi, and
Agnes Paicheler [13]

The Holy Mushroom: Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity by J.R. Irvin [14]

The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred
Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume by Marvin Meyer and James M. Robinson [15]

Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy and Spiritual
Development by Neal M. Goldsmith Ph.D. [16]



Jedi Mind Traveler [17] is an explorer of the mysteries, seeking collaboration on
projectsthat create mind manifesting environments with immersive video, audio,and
tactile feedback. He is interested in the many ways of amplifying subtle
energy,entering the realms of the psyche, and peaking behind the wiring of reality.
He hopes to work on progressively larger events, where sacred space iscreated with
ritual, ceremony, technology, and where many novelintegrations of creative energy
and exploration can unfold. Check out his Evolver blog [18].

Horizons poster courtesy of Horizons NYC [2]. Photograph of Erik Davis courtesy of
Nese Senol.
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* Entheogens
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Source URL:
http://www.realitysandwich.com/psychedelics_and_human_destiny_notes_horizons_c
onference

Links:
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFlwGOt5WDA
[2] http://www.horizonsnyc.org/site/
[3] http://www.realitysandwich.com/www.rickstrassman.com
[4] http://www.rickstrassman.com
[5] http://www.realitysandwich.com/www.dalependell.com
[6] http://www.dalependell.com
[7] http://www.realitysandwich.com/www.techgnosis.com
[8] http://www.techgnosis.com
[9] http://www.pangeabiomedics.com/
[10] http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html
[11] http://thespiritmolecule.com/
[12]
http://www.amazon.com/DMT-Molecule-Revolutionary-Near-Death-Experiences/...
[13]
http://www.amazon.com/Iboga-Visionary-Root-African-Shamanism/dp/15947717...
[14]
http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Mushroom-Mushrooms-Judeo-Christianity-re-
evaluation/dp/0982556209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=
1287881525&sr=1-1
[15]
http://www.amazon.com/Nag-Hammadi-Scriptures-Translation-
Complete/dp/0061626007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=
1287881647&sr=1-1
[16]
http://www.amazon.com/Psychedelic-Healing-Entheogens-Psychotherapy-
Development/dp/1594772509/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=
1287881432&sr=1-1
[17] http://www.realitysandwich.com/user/mind_traveler
[18] http://www.evolver.net/user/jedi_mind_traveler/blog/neoshamanic_tuning_ritual

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