In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to talk about Grof Legacy Training, Peyote scarcity, a DMT survey on entities, and more.
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Navigating Psychedelics
Show Notes
Grof Legacy Training
- Its based on Stanislav Grof’s research into psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork, transpersonal psychology, and spiritual emergencies
- Dr. Stanislov Grof and his wife just launched this program
- It’s not just about breathwork
- His involvement in the Grof transpersonal training program dropped off in the last few years
- He wasn't allowed to teach breathwork in the GTT model, there wasn't any growth in the company, so a lot of people like Grof left and started their own thing
- Kyle says this is pretty common with trademarks and protocols
- Joe says he's very excited about it
- Kyle says Stan’s work is very important and a lot of the reason Psychedelics Today came to be
Peyote
- Native American Churches don't have as much access as they need to properly grow Peyote
- Perhaps, in countries where Peyote isn't illegal, there should be growing of Peyote
- Native American’s are in a bad spot due to colonialism
- As insiders, we need to talk about how to use less Peyote
- “Pick one, plant two” should be the mindset
- Kyle says, “how do we just respect these sacred medicines?”
DMT Survey
- Survey of entity encounter experiences occasioned by inhaled N,N-dimethyltryptamine: Phenomenology, interpretation, and enduring effects
- 2,561 individuals (mean age 32 years; 77% male) completed an online survey about their single most memorable entity encounter after taking N,N-dimethyltryptamine
- Senses involved were visual and extra-sensory
- The most common descriptive labels for the entity were being, guide, spirit, alien and helper
- 41% of respondents reported fear
- More than half of those who identify as Atheist before, no longer identified with Atheism after the experience
- Out of any other method, DMT seems to occasion the most entities
In this episode, Joe and Kyle interview Erik Davis, Author of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. In the show they cover topics on La Chorrera, uncertainty, synchronicities and more.
In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode, Kyle and Joe interview Dave McGaughey, Founding Partner of NorthStar. In the show, they talk about NorthStar, Ethics, and the story, “We Will Call It Pala”.
In today’s episode, Joe and Kyle sit down with Dr. Mike Hart. In the show they talk about Cannabis and Ketamine used as medicine.
3 Key Points:
- The main uses for Cannabis are for chronic pain and mental health. CBD is really good for people with inflammation.
- When it comes to any psychedelic/plant medicine therapy, it's all about agency. The power lies within the individual, the therapy and the drug are just tools to help the person obtain the power to heal themselves.
-
Ketamine is a useful treatment for depression. It's instant, a patient can take it and it's effective right away, where typical antidepressants may take 4-6 weeks to kick in.
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Navigating Psychedelics
Show Notes
About Dr. Mike Hart
- He attended Med school on Saba Island
- Then he came to Ontario where he did his residency
- 8 months after practicing he started prescribing cannabis
- He got into cannabis because it's a great alternative to opioids and pain pills, etc.
Cannabis
- The main uses for Cannabis are for chronic pain and mental health
- CBD is really good for people with inflammation
- CBD is good for anything with -itis like arthritis, etc
- THC is found to be much better than CBD for things like sciatica and nerve pain
- Kyle mentions that when he takes CBD he has flashbacks of ayahuasca dreams/experiences
- CBD is not psychoactive in that it doesn't get you high
- Kyle says that people can have spiritual experiences just by breathing, so the
- CBD is just another vehicle that helps
- Adding a small amount of THC to CBD isn't going to potentiate it, but there may be an entourage effect that can be a further benefit to a patient
- Don't use more than 2.5mg of THC with CBD if you don't want psychoactive effects
- Mike says that some people use CBD isolate, and that's great, but like an egg, it's best not to eat just the egg whites, it's best to eat the whole egg to get all of the benefits
- So just like eating the whole egg, the best way to get all the benefits of cannabis is to use/consume the whole plant
- There are definitely situations where using the whole plant is best, and other situations where isolation is best
Cannabis and Therapy
- Anxiety can be treated very well with exposure therapy
- Exposure therapy is exposing something you're afraid of, and exposing it over and over until its not an anxiety anymore
- CBD can decrease learned fear
- PTSD is a learned fear
- “The people who end up doing the most in life, are the people who have had the most trauma. We need to tell people that their trauma does not define them.” - Mike
- It's all about personal agency
- It's not about the drug, its you
- It's not about therapy, its you
- The power is in you, its just learning how to harness and use that power
- Mike says your relationships, your job, and your health are the three most important things to master
- Going without something makes you more grateful for that thing
Ketamine
- Mike has been prescribing Ketamine for just over a year now
- It is helpful for mental health and chronic pain
- Ketamine is really useful for treatment resistant depression
- He prescribes Ketamine orally
- He advises his patients to take it in the morning as soon as they wake up on an empty stomach
- If it is taken that way, they get a psychoactive effect, and he thinks that it is the most effective way
- Its instant, a patient can take it, and its effective right away, where typical antidepressants may take 4-6 weeks to kick in
Links
About Dr. Mike Hart
Michael Hart, MD is the medical director and founder at Readytogo Clinic in London, Ontario. Readytogo Clinic focuses on cannabinoid medicine, but also offers family medicine services, IV vitamin therapy and specialized hormone testing. Dr. Hart is a recognized speaker on the topic of cannabis. He has spoken at CME events throughout Ontario, multiple cannabis conferences and has been featured on a variety of cannabis websites. In March of 2017, Dr. Hart released a free Ebook with his co-author Jeremy Kossen. Dr. Hart has seen first hand how the opioid epidemic is affecting our population and wanted to take action by finding a solution. Dr. Hart believes that cannabis is an excellent alternative to opioids and has seen excellent results in his practice. Dr. Hart emphasizes lifestyle changes in his medical practice and follows a low carb diet himself. Dr. Hart actively trains MMA at Adrenaline Training center and follows a comprehensive strength and conditioning program.
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In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to talk about therapists being unprepared to talk to people taking psychedelics, the drug war and more.
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Navigating Psychedelics
Show Notes
MAPS Press Release
- PRESS RELEASE: Interim Analysis Shows At Least 90% Chance of Statistically Significant Difference in PTSD Symptoms after MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy
- MAPS hired a third party to work through their data set and they may be getting FDA approval
Therapists Are Unprepared to Talk to People About Taking Psychedelics
- Should there be some sort of body regulating therapist training in integration?
- Should there be a standardized training?
- There are going to be good therapists that care, and go out of their way and get the training, and there will be bad therapists, that do harm
- It's a long and difficult topic
- Should people be going to jail for being bad therapists?
- Looking at breathwork, there are training groups, but there isn't one large, overarching group that governs all trainings
- “Are we acting with integrity if we aren't bringing the utmost safety to the table?” - Joe
Group Setting Impact
- How is COVID going to impact psychedelic tourism?
- In breathwork, people are potentially coughing, crying, and in general just doing heavy breathing, COVID is super contagious
About Kyle
Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”
Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.
About Joe
Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.
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In this episode, Kyle and Joe interview Eamon Armstrong, host of the Podcast, Life is a Festival. In the show, they talk about Eamon’s Iboga experience, the festival culture, rites of passage, ethics and more.
3 Key Points:
- Eamon Armstrong is the host of Life is a Festival, a podcast promoting a lifestyle of adventure and personal development through the lens of festival culture.
- Maya is an intelligence platform for psychedelic therapists to manage their clients and their protocols.
-
Rites of Passage can look different for everybody, they can look like going to Africa to be initiated in an Ibogaine ceremony, to attending Burning Man.
Show Notes
About Eamon
- Eamon is the host of the Podcast, Life is a Festival
- It's not about festivals, it's about how to make life like a festival
- Eamon is very passionate about mental wellness
- After graduating college, he felt very lost
- He was throwing mushroom tea parties, making electronic music with his friends
- The key to throwing a mushroom tea party is to have people drink less mushrooms than they think that they're drinking, everyone just thinks they are tripping harder than they were
- He went to Burning Man in 2010
- He started working in social media for Burning Man’s off playa events
- Psychedelics and harm reduction became core to their editorial voice
- He worked closely with Psychedelic Peer Support, Zendo, Kosmicare, etc
Ibogaine Experience
- Eamon attended an Iboga retreat in Gabon, Africa, and he says it was more about the retreat than the Iboga
- He was in the chamber for 5 days, and he was alone in it
- This retreat was in the Bwiti religion
- He really went there for a full sledgehammer experience
- He felt he had some addicted aspects that were hindering his sexual experiences
- Iboga goes to the root of the trauma and shows you where the addictive pattern of behavior is
- Iboga has a long integration period
- Iboga is a root, and he consumed it in a form of a tangled nest
- He felt very blasted open from the experience
- Iboga took him directly to his anger
- “We have in our modern Western Culture, a lot of lost, young people” - Eamon
- “The value of a rite of passage, is that you are confronted with certain things that you can't get to on your own” - Eamon
- The fact that you can die in an Iboga experience, is part of the initiation
Rites of Passage
- Burning Man isn't a rite of passage, but it can be used as a rite of passage
- Burning Man is a temporary experience in civic living, it is not orchestrated by elders
- There is a growing topic on psychedelic parenting, and taking psychedelics with children
Maya
- Maya is designed in partnership with psychedelic practitioners & ceremony leaders
- Maya is an intelligence platform for psychedelic therapists to manage their clients and their protocols
- Ethics in psychedelics are so important right now
- This does not replace the therapist, it's everything the therapist needs to support their clients in healing
- “The ecosystem itself will thrive when we are all working in service to each other” - Eamon
- “If you want to be a part of the cool kids, and the cool kids are doing it ethically, then you have to do it ethically” - Eamon
Final Thoughts
- The soul is the most beautiful thing
- “Psychedelics as medicine, treat society, beyond individuals” - Eamon
Links
Life is a Festival Facebook Group
Psychedelic Therapy Podcast by Maya Facebook Group
About Eamon Armstrong
Eamon Armstrong is the creator and host of Life is a Festival, promoting a lifestyle of adventure and personal development through the lens of festival culture. He is the former Creative Director and public face of Chip Conley’s industry-leading online festival guide and community Fest300, where he was a global community builder. Eamon’s belief in the transformational power of psychedelics led him to take part in a traditional Bwiti initiation in Gabon, and to become a trained Sitter with MAP’s Zendo Project. Eamon is a passionate advocate for mature masculinity and offers public talks and workshops from mythopoetic men's work to stand-up comedy on integrating masculinity.
Headshot Photo Credit: GBK Photos
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Navigating Psychedelics
In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down with Brett Greene, who was the very first guest on Psychedelics Today four years ago. In response to last week’s episode on the Corporadelic topic, Brett comes on the show to talk about companies and drug discovery.
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Navigating Psychedelics
Show Notes
Brett Greene
- Brett Greene was the very first guest on Psychedelics Today four years ago
- Brett and Kyle originally met at the Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference in New York City in 2013.
- He works at The Center for Drug Discovery
Drug Development
- At his new company, they are making drugs from tryptamines that are more predictable
- His team has not only done this countless of times with the FDA, they have also done it with psychedelics
Ethics
- The psychedelic movement doesn't own psychedelics, they don't own molecules, but they do own their history
- “We should get away from the right and wrongness of the mechanics, and get into the right and wrongness of the ethics” - Brett
- “Patents are the language of invention” - Brett
- “An ethical charter is one that covers cognitive liberty, business ethics, and responsibility and accountability for patient safety” - Brett
- What are the minimal acceptable requirements when doing this work?
Final Thoughts
- We need to be kind with each other
- We need to balance truth with kindness and compassion
- For those interested in a work postiton email Brett@adeliatx.com
About Brett Greene
Brett works in research administration under Alexandros Makriyannis, one of the world's top cannabinoid researchers. His job consists of a multitude of functions, ranging from administrative support for a team of 15+ grant submitting scientists to lab equipment and lab management, and diverse recruitment for NIH grants.
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In this episode, Joe interviews Tom and Sheri Eckert, organizers of the Oregon Psilocybin Therapy Initiative. The IP 34 is the bill that would legalize psilocybin therapy.
3 Key Points:
- IP 34 asks the Oregon Health Authority to create a licensing system that will create a regulated program where Oregonians suffering from depression, anxiety, trauma and other challenges can see a licensed and trained facilitator to receive supervised psilocybin therapy.
- IP 34 was written by licensed therapists in Oregon along with the country’s leading advocates in the field. It is supported by healthcare professionals, treatment providers, veterans’ groups and community leaders across the state.
- There has been a multitude of studies from leading medical research institutions such as Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and NYU showing that psilocybin therapy works.
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Navigating Psychedelics
Show Notes
About
- Tom and Sheri began their interest in psilocybin research about 5 years ago when they read an article in The New Yorker by Michal Pollan
- They realized how powerful psilocybin was for clinical work
- They are both therapists, and were inspired to find out if there was a way to create a modality that allowed them to provide psilocybin therapy to help their clients
Psilocybin Assisted Psychotherapy
- Psychotherapy is supposed to be experiential, the breakthrough is where the change happens
- Sheri says that psilocybin therapy gets all parts of the brain in communication together
- “The more intense the mystical experience the more clinical outcomes that are achieved” - Tom
Ballot Initiative
- They started in 2015
- They wanted the breakthrough studies and the research proving low risks to work for them
- The psychedelic community was very helpful
- They went through rotations with the way the initiative was written
- They like the therapy model, its safe, careful and mindful
Clause
- Joe asks about a Supremacy Clause, where the state supersedes local districts
- This initiative does not get in the way of any other initiative
- There are angles on all different types of drug policy reform
- There is nothing in the IP34 that blocks any other initiative like decriminalization
- We are all a part of the big picture, we all need to work together
GMP Psilocybin
- They wanted to keep this in the frame of non-commercialization
- Their goal with this is not about money, it’s really about the healing
- “We are trying to move forward a healing modality to help people, we are trying to legalize psilocybin assisted psychotherapy” - Tom
- There is a part in the initiative that says measures will have to be taken to make sure the psilocybin is ‘food grade’ standard or in general just clean and safe
Oregonians to Sign the Petition
- Download the petition, sign it, and mail it in
Final Thoughts
- Sheri says that the team behind the initiative is inspired by what is happening globally around psilocybin and research
- They are right at the end of their signatures, but they need help to reach the goal
- “We've got to see the bigger picture here, and get behind it.” - Tom
Links
About Tom and Sheri Eckert
As husband-and-wife founders of the Oregon Psilocybin Society (OPS) and authors of the Psilocybin Service Initiative (PSI), Tom and Sheri Eckert have set in motion a historic campaign to legalize Psilocybin Services, also known as Psilocybin Assisted Therapy, in their home state of Oregon. A growing number of Oregonians are getting behind the idea, largely in response to the latest science. The Eckerts, with a growing army of volunteers, are spreading a truth held increasingly self-evident: that the psilocybin experience, when facilitated under safe and supportive conditions, can be a life-changing gift.In addition to their activism, the Eckert’s own and operate “Innerwork” – a private psychotherapy practice serving the Portland metro area. Included in their catalog of services is their groundbreaking “Better Man” program, which is shown to neutralize intimate partner and family violence. Sheri has been awarded a Cosmic Sister Women of the Psychedelic Renaissance in support of her presentation at the Spirit Plant Medicine conference.
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In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode with Kyle and Joe, they talk mostly about Corpora-delic, companies and wealthy individuals investing in the psychedelic industry.
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Navigating Psychedelics
Show Notes
Psychedelics Company Orthogonal Thinker Closes $6M Seed Round
- The company is valued at 111 million
- The CEO, Jason Hobson says, “The current health pandemic has resulted in a societal shift in the way we think about our health and the importance of access to treatment, both physical health and mental health. Ei.Ventures believes this is the right time to lean into mental health issues such as mood disorders and addiction, and eventual access to therapeutic treatments from innovations in botanical compounds that have been around for thousands of years.”
- Joe and Kyle say that there is so much money coming in, and it worries the psychedelic community because they aren't used to seeing capitalism
- Joe says that he hopes that some patents don't equate to ruining access
Thiel Backs Psychedelic-Drug Startup in Latest Funding Round
- “Are these companies going to bully the smaller organizations out of existence so that diversity doesn't really exist in the way we think it should?” - Joe
- Medical is a great model, but it should be reduced to that only
- Kyle says the sacred-ness feels like it may be taken away, and big companies just look at it as a commodity
Medical Researchers Worry Silicon Valley Could Screw Up Psychedelics
- "Not everyone sees this opportunity for entrepreneurship as a good thing. For researchers looking into the efficacy of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, these substances are far more than a market opportunity—they’re potentially life-saving medications. And after decades of prohibition, psychedelics are just barely gaining mainstream acceptance.’ - from the article
- People are bold enough to stand up to companies they don't agree with
It's no joke how much money was spent on making Tim Leary look bad
DARPA Wants Benefits of Psychedelics but Without Hallucinations
- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is launching a new drug program for treating soldiers with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and drug addiction, and it is drawing inspiration from psychedelic research.
- Kyle mentions that this is tricky, its both a biochemical and experiential thing
- Will eliminating the hallucinations ruin the experience?
- Joe says that there are some people that are so unstable that a psychedelic experience can be really a lot
- Joe also says that there arent alot of drugs that their use needs to be supervised (medically) and psychedelics are some of them
How Climate Justice Could End the Drug War
- Joe recorded with Erica Darragh from Sunrise Movement
- Their talk was about how climate justice could end the drug war
- They talked about more equitable ways of including people of less power, influence or privilege into the world of psychedelics
- The more ahead we are of the government, the more likely we are to influence policy, Joe says it's best to just stay informed
A North Star for the Emerging Psychedelics Industry
- If we aren't coming from psychedelic values when bringing these substances into the mainstream, then what are we doing?
- What are psychedelic values?
- Valuing the planet, valuing your place in the planet, a sense of connection, cooperation vs. competition, how do we honor a lineage or where these medicines come from? these could be some psychedelic values
- Following the permaculture principles and applying them to life is a great tool for systems thinking
About Kyle
Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”
Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.
About Joe
Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.
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