⚗️ alembic

Search

SearchSearch

384 - Sex, Aging, and Psychedelics

Jan 07, 2014, 61 min read

Program Notes

Guest speaker: Annie Oak

Today we feature a Palenque Norte Lecture given by Annie Oak at the 2013 Burning Man Festival. This ground breaking founder of the Woman’s Visionary Congress continues to push the envelope of psychedelic discussion into two of the most important issues of all to humans, sexuality and aging. Additionally, Annie issues several challenges to us all as we continue to expand our own consciousnesses.

Woman’s Visionary Congress
Consciousness, Healing, and Social Justice

The Psychological Dark Side of Gmail
Google is using its popular Gmail service to build profiles on the hundreds of millions of people who use it.

Occupy Madison builds first house in planned eco-village for the homeless

Daily Psychedelic Video

Previous Episode

383 - A Psychedelic Point of View

Next Episode

385 - Current Psychedelic Research

Similar Episodes

Transcript

00:00:00 ►

Greetings from Cyberdelic Space, this is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in the Psychedelic

00:00:23 ►

Salon.

00:00:24 ►

And if I could do a

00:00:26 ►

good impression of Mr. Rogers, I’d say something like, and how do you spell lazy, boys and girls?

00:00:32 ►

The answer is L-O-R-E-N-Z-O. And that’s why you haven’t heard from me for almost two weeks,

00:00:39 ►

because, well, I’ve just been plain old lazy. Hopefully you’re as well-rested right now as I am,

00:00:46 ►

so, hey, let’s get this new year in the salon rolling.

00:00:50 ►

To begin with, I’d like to thank some non-lazy people

00:00:53 ►

who sent in a donation to the salon to help offset some of our expenses.

00:00:58 ►

And these great salonners are Ryan C.,

00:01:02 ►

and, Ryan, today’s message is not so dire, at least most of it isn’t, and hopefully

00:01:07 ►

it’ll bring a few smiles to your face. Also, I’d like to thank Kelsey E., and thanks for the kind

00:01:14 ►

words about my novel, Kelsey. Also to Ryan W., who also made a generous donation to the salon,

00:01:20 ►

and Ryan, don’t worry about not finding the salon sooner we’re just glad that you’re

00:01:25 ►

here with us now

00:01:26 ►

additionally I’d like to thank the

00:01:29 ►

anonymous Bitcoin donor who became

00:01:32 ►

the last person to make a donation to the

00:01:34 ►

salon in 2013

00:01:35 ►

so thank you one and all for your support

00:01:38 ►

and that also goes to our

00:01:40 ►

fellow salonners who are linking to the

00:01:42 ►

salon’s program notes and

00:01:43 ►

who are telling their friends about the salon. It all helps us to find more of the others in our worthy cause of further

00:01:51 ►

expanding the consciousness of us poor humans. That’s pretty dramatic, isn’t it? Now, if you

00:01:58 ►

remember a few podcasts back, I played what I thought was the best goddamn dope story ever told, as told by Ron

00:02:06 ►

Schock. Well, while it’s not a funny story that’s coming, and it’s on a completely different level,

00:02:12 ►

in a few minutes we’re going to hear the best goddamn ayahuasca story that I’ve ever heard.

00:02:18 ►

And if you have as good an imagination as I do, you’ll see what I mean.

00:02:23 ►

Now, when I first began listening to this talk

00:02:25 ►

and editing out the parts where an audience question wasn’t picked up by a microphone,

00:02:30 ►

I at first thought that the title of this podcast would simply be Sex and Psychedelics.

00:02:36 ►

However, as you will soon hear, Andy went beyond that interesting topic and added some thoughts

00:02:41 ►

about how us old psychedelic heads might go about this

00:02:45 ►

business of getting even older. It’s not an easy task, but it sure beats the alternative.

00:02:51 ►

So sit back, relax, and get ready for some interesting conversation as we join Annie

00:02:57 ►

Oak and some friends in the big Palenque Norte tent at the 2013 Burning Man Festival.

00:03:04 ►

the big Palenque Norte tent at the 2013 Burning Man Festival.

00:03:06 ►

Hey everybody, welcome.

00:03:10 ►

Welcome back to the Palenque Norte Speaker Series.

00:03:13 ►

We’re super excited to have Annie here.

00:03:19 ►

Annie Oak is the founder of the Women’s Visionary Congress, which highlights the women who work within theogens and also hosts a beautiful conference.

00:03:23 ►

She’s also founder of the Full Circle Tea House,

00:03:26 ►

which is right next door. I believe

00:03:28 ►

Jay’s serving some tea over here.

00:03:32 ►

So without further ado, here’s Annie Oak.

00:03:36 ►

Thank you very much. Thanks for

00:03:38 ►

coming to the Palenque Norte Speaker Series

00:03:41 ►

and hopefully after this is done

00:03:44 ►

we can go next door to

00:03:45 ►

the Full Circle Tea House and have some tea.

00:03:48 ►

So this is my home camp, and I am serving tea next door with the Full Circle crew, which

00:03:56 ►

is a really beautiful group of people.

00:03:59 ►

And this evening, I wanted to talk a little bit about psychedelics and working with our shadow side, and also about sex.

00:04:11 ►

I’ve been wanting to talk about psychedelics and sex for a long time.

00:04:15 ►

Yeah.

00:04:16 ►

Yeah, I’m getting a little hand-waving in the background.

00:04:19 ►

All right.

00:04:20 ►

So this talk is called Future Pleasures in Feminine Entheogenic Spaces.

00:04:29 ►

And I wanted to talk about how we seek pleasure with psychedelics,

00:04:35 ►

both embodied and unembodied, and how we can do more of that

00:04:40 ►

and how it might benefit our lives.

00:04:43 ►

So I want to start by pointing out that generally,

00:04:46 ►

you know, we’re a society that has kind of a funny attitude towards pleasure. We sort

00:04:53 ►

of distrust pleasure, yet we’re pleasure-seeking creatures. And we take pretty extraordinary to feel pleasure in our lives. The two most prescribed pharmaceuticals

00:05:09 ►

ever in the world are, can you guess?

00:05:14 ►

SSRIs, antidepressants, and Viagra.

00:05:19 ►

That’s right.

00:05:20 ►

So a shockingly high number of people

00:05:24 ►

in the United States and other parts of the world take pharmaceuticals to ease their symptoms of depression, elevate their moods, and have sex.

00:05:38 ►

So let’s think about this for a second.

00:05:45 ►

a second. No, we have these pharmaceutical companies who are making a whole lot of money out of our seeking of pleasure through altered states of consciousness. And here we are as a

00:05:54 ►

psychedelic community who have other tools to seek these states of pleasure that are different from what the pharmaceutical companies are offering us.

00:06:09 ►

So I thought it’d be kind of fun to look at the

00:06:12 ►

potential for some of these substances. I’ll tell a couple

00:06:16 ►

of stories about my personal erotic encounters with psychedelics.

00:06:21 ►

And then we’ll figure out

00:06:23 ►

where we might go from here into our other future states of pleasure with substances that can really bring us to interesting and static spaces.

00:06:38 ►

So let’s talk about SSRIs for a second.

00:06:43 ►

A lot of people take antidepressants. SSRIs, heavily prescribed,

00:06:48 ►

especially for women. As it turns out, women take more SSRIs than men. Older women take

00:06:54 ►

more SSRIs than younger women. You know, when women get to be a little bit older, they’re encouraged to take estrogen, to prolong their estrogenic states, and prescribed

00:07:12 ►

a lot of mood-enhancing and antidepressant drugs. Now, the problem with SSRIs, of course,

00:07:19 ►

is they completely flatten your libido, right? So you’re going to elevate your mood, maybe feel a little less depressed,

00:07:29 ►

but your sexual life is just going to completely take a nosedive.

00:07:34 ►

It’s just going to flatten you right out.

00:07:36 ►

Now, when you think about that for a second, that’s very contradictory, right?

00:07:41 ►

So, okay, so you feel a little bit better, but your erotic life is just

00:07:47 ►

not happening. And I’ve had a lot of friends who have gone through this experience where they’ve

00:07:54 ►

stabilized on their mood, but they are just not connecting with their erotic selves. And so that

00:08:00 ►

makes them kind of depressed. And so they take more SSRIs.

00:08:06 ►

It’s like, hmm, this is really interesting.

00:08:10 ►

So I think that certain types of psychedelic substances

00:08:16 ►

can really enhance our sexual lives.

00:08:20 ►

So let’s do a quick inventory of some of these substances

00:08:24 ►

and what they can do for us as an alternative to antidepressants that are prescribed by doctors and offered by pharmaceutical companies.

00:08:44 ►

is a very interesting substance for really opening the heart,

00:08:47 ►

for making connections with people, for forgiveness,

00:08:56 ►

for really connecting deeply on a personal and spiritual and sexual level with people.

00:08:58 ►

It’s really great for couples therapy.

00:09:05 ►

It’s really interesting as a tool to resolve conflict between people.

00:09:13 ►

I just heard a really beautiful story today about a couple who just had a child together.

00:09:20 ►

And people who have children, often their sexual lives go through some real challenges because they’re pouring all their energy into this baby, this new being,

00:09:24 ►

and raising that child and taking care of that child, and they were able

00:09:46 ►

to really reconnect with each other

00:09:47 ►

in a really profound way

00:09:49 ►

and to their benefit

00:09:52 ►

and of course to the benefit of their

00:09:54 ►

entire family which

00:09:55 ►

is really important

00:09:58 ►

when you’re trying to raise a healthy family

00:10:00 ►

you want to have a strong connection

00:10:01 ►

between your mother and your father

00:10:04 ►

so I see this as an opportunity to not only enhance couples’ sexual lives,

00:10:11 ►

but to build healthy families, people who really care for each other

00:10:14 ►

and can really address conflict and work on their relationships.

00:10:19 ►

And I think there’s a lot of potential for MDMA-assisted therapy.

00:10:23 ►

Of course, there are now studies ongoing for MDMA-assisted therapy. Of course, there are now studies ongoing

00:10:26 ►

for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.

00:10:30 ►

And the early results are extremely promising

00:10:34 ►

for people with PTSD, many returning veterans,

00:10:39 ►

people who have been sexually assaulted,

00:10:42 ►

especially women who’ve been sexually assaulted.

00:10:44 ►

And I think that that research is going to bear a lot of fruit

00:10:48 ►

because it’s treatment-resistant PTSD

00:10:50 ►

that they’re really using MDMA for.

00:10:53 ►

So people who are disconnected from their erotic and sexual lives

00:10:57 ►

because of sexual trauma,

00:10:59 ►

because of PTSD of various sorts,

00:11:02 ►

it really allows them to access those places where they’re traumatized

00:11:07 ►

and be in that moment and then get past it.

00:11:12 ►

Get past it.

00:11:14 ►

And I think that that’s going to be a really helpful tool for a lot of people.

00:11:20 ►

I really look forward to the day when MDMA-assisted therapy

00:11:24 ►

is legal and accessible for everybody.

00:11:27 ►

And I think that day is coming, and that we’ll see that day,

00:11:34 ►

and it will really change the way that people work through their traumas and enhance their lives.

00:11:40 ►

I also think that other psychedelic substances can be really interesting on an erotic level,

00:11:50 ►

and in a way that’s not necessarily immediately obvious.

00:11:56 ►

A lot of people are discovering the world of ayahuasca.

00:12:03 ►

Many people are speaking here in this speaker series about their encounters with ayahuasca. Many people are speaking here

00:12:06 ►

in this speaker series about their

00:12:08 ►

encounters with ayahuasca and

00:12:10 ►

the growing number of people are

00:12:12 ►

journeying to

00:12:13 ►

Latin America,

00:12:16 ►

working with shamans,

00:12:18 ►

having intense ayahuasca experiences.

00:12:22 ►

And

00:12:22 ►

you know, most of the experiences that people relay with ayahuasca are very intensely

00:12:29 ►

personal. They often encounter entities, and mama ayahuasca is often perceived as a healing,

00:12:39 ►

feminine entity that allows people to, again, address trauma in their lives

00:12:45 ►

and really open themselves up to the full possibility of who they are

00:12:49 ►

and move into a fuller realization of their potential.

00:12:57 ►

I want to talk about my erotic experience with ayahuasca

00:13:00 ►

because I don’t hear much about that.

00:13:03 ►

with ayahuasca because I don’t hear much about that.

00:13:06 ►

The first time I took ayahuasca,

00:13:11 ►

I was in a very safe place. I was working with really beautiful guys

00:13:14 ►

who were lovely shamans.

00:13:18 ►

I trusted them.

00:13:20 ►

They did a beautiful ceremony.

00:13:22 ►

It was exquisite, and I felt really challenged by it because if you’ve done ayahuasca, it’s a purgative. It makes you throw up and you’re on your hands and knees and you’re like, okay, Vine, you’ve got my full attention. You’ve got my full attention. What’s the message here? So I was kind of in that place.

00:13:45 ►

I was sort of in a difficult place and doing a lot of purging.

00:13:49 ►

And I went outside to pee.

00:13:53 ►

And I just couldn’t bring myself to go back inside.

00:13:57 ►

I knew that I was supposed to because the Iowa Scaros were very clear that you needed to be inside the space, but honestly, I just wanted to

00:14:05 ►

crawl underneath a bush and put my belly on the ground and just connect with the earth and just

00:14:13 ►

hug the surface of the ground and ground myself out. I didn’t want to be inside. So right near the entrance to this structure that we were in I crawled underneath a bush

00:14:28 ►

and flattened myself against the ground

00:14:31 ►

and then I had this vision

00:14:34 ►

and suddenly I was cold because I was outdoors

00:14:38 ►

and I wasn’t really dressed properly

00:14:40 ►

and I wasn’t lying on a pad or anything

00:14:43 ►

I didn’t have my fluffy blanket that I had inside.

00:14:46 ►

So I tried to imagine a warm space, and I asked for help,

00:14:52 ►

and I think that this is a really important thing to remember

00:14:56 ►

when really immersed in a psychedelic journey.

00:15:00 ►

If you’re in a stuck place or having a really challenging experience

00:15:05 ►

ask for help

00:15:06 ►

ask your personal guardian angels, your personal entities

00:15:10 ►

the entities that surround you, the spirit of the plants to help you

00:15:15 ►

and so I did

00:15:17 ►

and I asked the ayahuasca spirits to help me. And suddenly, I found myself in this really cozy indoor space.

00:15:31 ►

And it was a beautiful room.

00:15:35 ►

It had low light.

00:15:36 ►

There was a fire burning.

00:15:39 ►

And I was sitting there, and in this room was this man.

00:15:47 ►

And he looked to be perhaps an indigenous man.

00:15:52 ►

He had black hair, and he was very welcoming.

00:15:58 ►

And he said, you look cold.

00:16:04 ►

And I’m like, yeah, I’m freezing.

00:16:07 ►

I’m shivering underneath this bush,

00:16:09 ►

and he said, I’ll, you know, I have some soup.

00:16:13 ►

I’ll be right back.

00:16:14 ►

So he goes, and he gets me this bowl of soup,

00:16:18 ►

and he hands it to me,

00:16:20 ►

and I start drinking the soup in my vision,

00:16:23 ►

and I’m thinking, wow, this is very cool, and I’m drinking the soup in my vision and I’m thinking wow

00:16:25 ►

this is very cool and I’m

00:16:27 ►

drinking the soup and

00:16:29 ►

I look up from my soup

00:16:31 ►

and the guy is gone and where the guy

00:16:33 ►

was sitting is suddenly this enormous

00:16:35 ►

black cat

00:16:37 ►

a black

00:16:40 ►

jaguar

00:16:41 ►

and I was like wow

00:16:42 ►

I’ve heard about jaguar visions on ayahuasca. This is pretty cool.

00:16:49 ►

And I was a little scared. The cat was very big. And so I sat very still, like you do with wild

00:16:59 ►

creatures, and waited for it to acknowledge me and the cat’s tails kind of going back and forth

00:17:08 ►

and back and forth.

00:17:10 ►

But the cat communicated, and it was welcoming,

00:17:15 ►

and it said, Welcome.

00:17:16 ►

It’s good.

00:17:17 ►

You’re safe here.

00:17:19 ►

This is my home.

00:17:21 ►

I hope you’re enjoying your soup.

00:17:23 ►

And I realized pretty quickly as I sat

00:17:27 ►

drinking my soup, looking at this cat, that the cat was playful. You know how you play with your

00:17:32 ►

house cat, where the cat will like reach out its paw and, and kind of, you can, you know, sort of

00:17:37 ►

play with it. And, and this cat was like that, except this cat was about three times my size.

00:17:46 ►

And I was a little scared and kind of blown away by this.

00:17:53 ►

So this cat and I started to play like you would play with a big house cat.

00:17:58 ►

And I suddenly had this desire to do the same thing that I do with my cat at home,

00:18:05 ►

which is kind of like snuggle up next to your cat.

00:18:08 ►

You know, if you’re cat owners or you have a dog,

00:18:10 ►

like just lie there next to your creature and listen to it purr.

00:18:15 ►

And I thought, well, I wonder if this giant cat purrs.

00:18:18 ►

And so I asked the cat, I said, well, would it be okay if I like snuggled up next to you?

00:18:24 ►

I, you know, not too long ago was lying under a bush in a freezing cold forest

00:18:29 ►

in the middle of the Sierras, and I’m feeling better, but would that be all right?

00:18:34 ►

And the cat’s like, sure, that’s okay.

00:18:36 ►

So before I knew it, I was snuggled up next to this big black cat.

00:18:42 ►

And, well, one thing kind of led to another. And before I knew it, this cat started

00:18:50 ►

licking me like a house cat would. Have you ever been licked by your house cat? It’s got this rough

00:18:57 ►

tongue, right? And it’s kind of this funny feeling. It’s like a sandpapery tongue. Except this cat’s tongue was like the size of

00:19:06 ►

that pillow over there. It was like big. And it was just a really erotic experience. And I felt

00:19:15 ►

like a baby kitten. And this cat was like my big mama cat. And it was just like licking me and clean like I was being cleansed by this cat

00:19:27 ►

like a little scruffy kitten would be and it was really erotic and this cat started licking me all

00:19:35 ►

over and before I knew it you know I was having this very erotic experience with this cat that was treating me like a little kitten.

00:19:49 ►

And I’ve got to tell you, it was pretty hot, you know,

00:19:52 ►

as an erotic experience and as a vision.

00:19:56 ►

And yet at the same time, I was quite aware that this cat was part of the ayahuasca spirit

00:19:59 ►

and that I needed to treat this cat with great respects.

00:20:03 ►

It was way more powerful than I was,

00:20:06 ►

and that this was a temporary experience,

00:20:10 ►

and that I was just going to kind of go with it.

00:20:13 ►

And it was delicious.

00:20:15 ►

It was playful, and it was warm, and it was a little scary,

00:20:19 ►

and I had never seen a cat that big,

00:20:22 ►

or that I had been really close to

00:20:26 ►

except in a zoo.

00:20:27 ►

And it was a really hot psychedelic experience

00:20:33 ►

and really kind of opened my eyes

00:20:37 ►

to the potential for being both embodied and disembodied

00:20:42 ►

because I was definitely disembodied.

00:20:47 ►

I was someplace else in my vision.

00:20:50 ►

And yet I was embodied within this vision,

00:20:53 ►

having an erotic experience with another species.

00:20:56 ►

And I thought, wow, this is great.

00:20:58 ►

If all my ayahuasca experiences are like this,

00:21:00 ►

I am so down, you know.

00:21:02 ►

I’m like, I’m there. I’ll go to Peru.

00:21:04 ►

I’ll, you know, do whatever.

00:21:08 ►

And I never had that experience again with ayahuasca it was a complete one-off but it was a hell of a welcome to that

00:21:13 ►

spirit ally and I’ve often felt that cat kind of with me you know in moments where I’ve I’m in some

00:21:21 ►

sort of distress or I’m confused or I need some sort of guardian spirit,

00:21:26 ►

somehow that cat is nearby.

00:21:30 ►

I feel like that cat is watching out for me.

00:21:32 ►

So that’s an example of a disembodied, embodied, erotic, psychedelic vision.

00:21:42 ►

And I think we’re all capable of having those.

00:21:45 ►

I think we can practice invoking them

00:21:48 ►

in a certain way.

00:21:50 ►

So I want to talk about another substance,

00:21:53 ►

and that’s psilocybin mushrooms.

00:21:56 ►

Now, the original person who was scheduled for this talk

00:21:59 ►

is Shona Holm.

00:22:01 ►

And Shona is a friend of mine.

00:22:04 ►

I’m honored to be her friend. She spoke recently at the

00:22:08 ►

Women’s Visionary Congress, an event that I founded. And we have an annual gathering

00:22:14 ►

of psychedelic women and men. And it happened in June in Northern California. And Shona

00:22:21 ►

came and she spoke. And she gave this extraordinary talk about her experiences with psilocybin mushrooms

00:22:29 ►

and about the entities that she has met in her deep mushroom journeys.

00:22:38 ►

And Shona, like myself, feel the greatest resonance with mushroom allies

00:22:45 ►

of all the psychedelic substances.

00:22:48 ►

I’ve always felt that when I go deep into the mushroom space,

00:22:55 ►

I encounter allies that are truly guardian allies

00:22:59 ►

and are there to teach me some really profound lessons.

00:23:03 ►

And I really try to have a question prepared,

00:23:07 ►

because inevitably I’m always there deep in the space,

00:23:10 ►

and the mushroom goddess is in front of me,

00:23:12 ►

and she’s pulsing, and she’s breathing,

00:23:15 ►

and she’s green and iridescent,

00:23:18 ►

and flowing and surging and erotic,

00:23:22 ►

and she always says,

00:23:24 ►

so you’re here, hi, nice to see you,

00:23:27 ►

hope the journey was okay,

00:23:29 ►

what’s your question?

00:23:32 ►

And I always try to have a question prepared

00:23:34 ►

for the mushroom goddess, a good one,

00:23:38 ►

because she’s always like, listen, I’m overscheduled, okay?

00:23:42 ►

Got a lot going on in the entity world,

00:23:45 ►

so cut to the chase, give me your question.

00:23:48 ►

And I try to have a question prepared.

00:23:52 ►

Now Shona, when she gave her talk

00:23:54 ►

at the Women’s Visionary Congress,

00:23:56 ►

and I’m just hoping that she’s okay with me saying this

00:23:58 ►

because she said it in a public place.

00:24:00 ►

When she gets to this place in her mushroom experience,

00:24:04 ►

in a deep place, she is able to have

00:24:08 ►

spontaneous orgasms within that mushroom space, like full-on lion-bear going,

00:24:17 ►

wow, full-on orgasm, like, like whoa without touching herself

00:24:25 ►

wow that’s pretty amazing

00:24:29 ►

like if a pharmaceutical company could make that drug

00:24:33 ►

and brand it and sell it

00:24:35 ►

you know that would make a lot of money for people

00:24:39 ►

now not everyone can do that

00:24:42 ►

right I myself have never had a spontaneous orgasm in a deep mushroom

00:24:49 ►

journey but i’m gonna work on it okay i think that’s like a worthy goal right you know when

00:24:55 ►

you get your bucket list for the year and you’re like okay what are my goals this year that’s one

00:25:00 ►

of my goals this year like how can you connect with those entities and those guardian spirits

00:25:05 ►

to be unembodied and embodied at the same time

00:25:10 ►

to be able to feel intense physical pleasure

00:25:13 ►

in that psychedelic journey space?

00:25:17 ►

Whatever Shona Home is doing to get there, I salute her.

00:25:21 ►

And I want to go there too.

00:25:23 ►

Like alone with groups of people, whatever, you know, I think it’s

00:25:27 ►

something to shoot for. And so because Shona was going to speak here

00:25:32 ►

we’re going to do a shout out to Shona girl.

00:25:35 ►

Keep on rocking those spontaneous orgasms Shona and teach

00:25:40 ►

us how to do it, okay? Because I think that’s something to shoot for.

00:25:43 ►

I think that’s awesome to shoot for. I think that’s awesome. And it’s

00:25:45 ►

possible.

00:25:48 ►

So I’m going to look at my notes here and

00:25:49 ►

see what else I wanted to talk about.

00:25:53 ►

Oh yeah.

00:25:54 ►

I want to talk about

00:25:55 ►

I want to talk about

00:25:58 ►

the aging process.

00:26:00 ►

Because, you know, none of us

00:26:02 ►

are getting any younger.

00:26:03 ►

I just turned 52.

00:26:08 ►

And I’m like really happy with it.

00:26:11 ►

I’m enjoying being that age a whole lot.

00:26:16 ►

I feel like I’m just beginning to come into my own power and really manifest a lot of things I’ve wanted to do in the world.

00:26:21 ►

But I really feel like at 52,

00:26:24 ►

you need a plan for successful aging, right,

00:26:29 ►

because in your 20s, you take it all for granted. In your 30s, you’re just raging it hard. Who cares,

00:26:36 ►

right? In your 40s, you start to, like, realize that you get sort of the body and the energy that

00:26:42 ►

you work for, right? You You know you have to work for it

00:26:46 ►

in your 50s you have to

00:26:47 ►

really work for it. You need to work

00:26:50 ►

hard. You need to be

00:26:51 ►

actively working

00:26:54 ►

out, eating well

00:26:56 ►

to keep your energy

00:26:57 ►

level to the place

00:26:59 ►

where you can gather enough

00:27:01 ►

energy to travel

00:27:03 ►

deeply in your psychedelic visions.

00:27:06 ►

Because if you don’t have that thing together energetically,

00:27:10 ►

you can’t go as far and you can’t go as deep

00:27:13 ►

and you can’t get the kind of insights and lessons

00:27:17 ►

that these plant allies can really give you.

00:27:21 ►

plant allies can really give you.

00:27:27 ►

So I put together kind of a process,

00:27:31 ►

a five-step plan for what I consider to be successful psychedelic aging.

00:27:36 ►

And it sort of goes like this.

00:27:39 ►

Number one is working out hard.

00:27:44 ►

You have to work hard. You have to work hard.

00:27:47 ►

You have to go to the gym.

00:27:49 ►

You need to do your yoga.

00:27:50 ►

You need to work your body, and you need to stay really strong.

00:27:54 ►

There’s no shortcuts.

00:27:56 ►

The older I get, the more I realize I have to work harder, work out harder, be strong,

00:28:04 ►

because you lose bone and muscle mass as you get older,

00:28:07 ►

and so you have to compensate for that.

00:28:10 ►

And get a trainer.

00:28:12 ►

Find the thing you love to do.

00:28:14 ►

You have to stay physically embodied and grounded

00:28:16 ►

in order to leave your body.

00:28:18 ►

And so you really need to find whatever exercise

00:28:23 ►

and workout plan works for you.

00:28:26 ►

And the second thing, and the obvious corollary to that,

00:28:28 ►

is eating well.

00:28:29 ►

You have to really keep a clean diet

00:28:31 ►

to keep your energy level going and strong.

00:28:36 ►

And you also need to just treat yourself well.

00:28:42 ►

You need to get enough sleep.

00:28:44 ►

You need to take your supplements. You need to take your

00:28:45 ►

supplements. Do whatever it is to make

00:28:48 ►

yourself physically strong because

00:28:49 ►

we all know the body and the mind are connected.

00:28:53 ►

You limit

00:28:54 ►

yourself to where you can go in your mind

00:28:56 ►

by the limitations of your body

00:28:58 ►

and there’s just no shortcut

00:29:00 ►

around that. The other things

00:29:02 ►

that I would recommend for a successful

00:29:03 ►

psychedelic aging is a sense of purpose, work that serves the community, something that you really love to do, that really serves you, that makes you feel connected, that enhances the lives of other people, and really makes you feel like your work and your life is meaningful,

00:29:28 ►

I think that that’s a really essential piece to that.

00:29:36 ►

And I also feel that you have to keep a really close connection to the natural world.

00:29:45 ►

You have to be able to find time to be outside, outdoors, in a natural environment, connect to the earth.

00:29:48 ►

And you also need to be in community.

00:29:51 ►

You need to have a strong sense of community.

00:29:54 ►

Build your own psychedelic community wherever you are.

00:29:57 ►

Build a community of people who support you.

00:30:01 ►

And this is part of successful psychedelic aging.

00:30:04 ►

And then, of course, there’s psychedelics.

00:30:10 ►

Now, my role model for successful psychedelic aging is, of course, Albert Hoffman, the creator of LSD.

00:30:15 ►

Because Albert Hoffman lived to be over 100 years old.

00:30:19 ►

Now, logic would dictate that Albert Hoffman

00:30:25 ►

almost certainly used LSD in his aging process

00:30:31 ►

to successfully, psychedelically age

00:30:36 ►

in a way that allowed him to be an old and yet vigorous man.

00:30:40 ►

I had the great pleasure to meet him

00:30:43 ►

and to attend a press conference. I, in 1996, went to

00:30:49 ►

Basel, Switzerland and attended his birthday party. And I was there with a group of other reporters.

00:30:56 ►

I was a reporter back then. And I got to ask the obvious question. The beautiful thing about being

00:31:03 ►

a reporter is that you get to ask the really obvious questions that nobody else wants to ask. And so, of course, you know,

00:31:09 ►

the obvious question for Dr. Hoffman on his birthday was, so, Dr. Hoffman,

00:31:17 ►

do you feel that LSD has contributed to your longevity, right?

00:31:28 ►

It’s the obvious question that no one kind of wants to ask.

00:31:30 ►

It’s the big elephant in the room.

00:31:32 ►

And he was so funny.

00:31:34 ►

He drew himself up and threw his interpreter.

00:31:37 ►

He said, no, absolutely not.

00:31:40 ►

It has nothing to do with LSD.

00:31:47 ►

It is the muesli and the raw eggs that he eats every morning in his muesli, in his Swiss cereal.

00:31:50 ►

And I’m sitting there going, yeah, right.

00:32:11 ►

You know, that’s what he said, and I respect what he says. using micro doses of LSD to take him to a non-ordinary state of consciousness,

00:32:14 ►

low-level micro dosing,

00:32:20 ►

and using that shift of consciousness in low-level micro doses of LSD

00:32:23 ►

to more deeply connect with the natural world.

00:32:29 ►

Because remember, Albert Hoffman always said that LSD helped him

00:32:34 ►

to deeply connect with the natural world.

00:32:39 ►

It was his way of finding out a path, a way into deeply comprehending the beauty and majesty of God

00:32:51 ►

and of nature. And he used LSD for this purpose. And I believe that this was a really important piece of his secret to longevity,

00:33:07 ►

and it could be ours.

00:33:09 ►

If we use small quantities of LSD

00:33:14 ►

in collaboration with a healthy lifestyle…

00:33:17 ►

Now, here’s a guy who went hiking in the Swiss Alps almost every day,

00:33:23 ►

was very active, was living in a beautiful, clean environment,

00:33:26 ►

was eating a clean diet, doing all the things that I’ve just suggested

00:33:30 ►

as a part of successful psychedelic aging.

00:33:34 ►

He also had an inversion table where he hung upside down

00:33:38 ►

and got a lot of blood into his brain,

00:33:41 ►

which could well have contributed to his intellectual and physical

00:33:45 ►

vigor as an old man. But this concept of microdosing, I think, is really, really rich

00:33:53 ►

territory, especially for older people. After you’ve done your heroic doses of whatever psychedelic you fancy, the really interesting place to explore

00:34:07 ►

is the microdose,

00:34:09 ►

the small enhancement to enhance your reality

00:34:14 ►

but allow you to function

00:34:15 ►

and as an adjunct to your creativity

00:34:17 ►

and your connection to the natural world

00:34:19 ►

and your spiritual evolution.

00:34:23 ►

So I think that there’s a lot of potential there,

00:34:26 ►

and I think that gerontology, the study of very old people,

00:34:31 ►

is a fascinating topic.

00:34:34 ►

I often ask doctors what my own lifespan might be.

00:34:43 ►

I’m 52, and I say,

00:34:46 ►

hey, given good medical care,

00:34:50 ►

healthy diet, exercise,

00:34:52 ►

how old do you think I could live?

00:34:56 ►

Assuming that medical technology keeps pace

00:34:59 ►

and I don’t get unlucky

00:35:01 ►

and get snuffed in a car accident or something,

00:35:04 ►

what do you think is my expected lifespan?

00:35:07 ►

And the number that I keep getting back for a healthy American female

00:35:11 ►

is about 120.

00:35:15 ►

So let’s think about that for a second.

00:35:18 ►

Wow.

00:35:19 ►

I mean, will my IRA, you know, last for 120?

00:35:23 ►

Will I be a poor old person, you know, last for 120? Will I be a poor old person?

00:35:25 ►

You know?

00:35:27 ►

If I’m a poor old person,

00:35:29 ►

my IRA runs out

00:35:31 ►

and, you know, there’s

00:35:33 ►

all sorts of conflict in the world

00:35:36 ►

and the environment is challenged,

00:35:38 ►

etc. I will definitely want to be

00:35:40 ►

microdosing. Definitely.

00:35:42 ►

I will want to use

00:35:43 ►

small,

00:35:46 ►

carefully administrated

00:35:48 ►

doses

00:35:49 ►

of LSD to enhance

00:35:51 ►

my aging process,

00:35:54 ►

to keep me engaged with the world,

00:35:56 ►

to keep my deep connection

00:35:58 ►

with the natural world, to keep my

00:35:59 ►

connection to my community,

00:36:02 ►

to love myself enough to take

00:36:04 ►

super extra good care of myself as an old person.

00:36:08 ►

Yeah, I think it’s a really interesting topic to explore. And I like to think that the elders in

00:36:15 ►

our psychedelic community, and I’m not quite there yet, only 52, junior elder, the elders in our

00:36:21 ►

community, the people in their late 50s, people in their 60s and 70s and 80s are really going to be on the cutting edge of this.

00:36:43 ►

old folks’ homes, assisted living facilities,

00:36:50 ►

have access to psychedelics to be able to push the envelope and do this, to use MDMA to address their trauma,

00:36:55 ►

to use LSD to enhance their lives and their aging process,

00:37:02 ►

their lives and their aging process and to use psilocybin

00:37:05 ►

to go deep into

00:37:08 ►

their journey space and seek out their allies

00:37:12 ►

that they will need for the next process, which is

00:37:14 ►

death, of course. I’ve always assumed that

00:37:17 ►

the traditional uses of psychedelics in traditional

00:37:21 ►

societies were preparation for death.

00:37:24 ►

And so old people should not only have access to psychedelic substances for healing,

00:37:30 ►

but they should be able to prepare for the dying process.

00:37:34 ►

And of course the Harbor UCLA study that was done with psilocybin

00:37:40 ►

with people with end-stage cancer and anxiety studied this very thing

00:37:45 ►

to see whether people approaching death with cancer

00:37:50 ►

who are experiencing anxiety at the end of their lives

00:37:53 ►

benefited from a spiritual experience with psilocybin.

00:37:58 ►

And of course the answer was yes.

00:38:00 ►

Big surprise.

00:38:02 ►

So I hope for all of us that we can envision a time

00:38:07 ►

when we can use these substances to grow old gracefully,

00:38:13 ►

to prepare for our dying process,

00:38:17 ►

to be strong both in our bodies and journeyers in the outside world,

00:38:25 ►

and to be able to be radiant human beings,

00:38:29 ►

fulfilling our full potential and our duties to the planet and other species,

00:38:36 ►

and eventually become disembodied in a graceful way

00:38:40 ►

as we approach the final threshold into death.

00:38:45 ►

So that’s what I’d like to leave you with

00:38:47 ►

and I’d be happy to take questions.

00:38:50 ►

Thank you.

00:38:55 ►

Fortunately we don’t have a wireless

00:38:56 ►

light so if you could just repeat the question.

00:39:00 ►

Yes.

00:39:01 ►

I do.

00:39:04 ►

You know, I come from a family of scientists,

00:39:08 ►

and there’s some really good data out there

00:39:11 ►

that’s being collected about the PTSD studies with MDMA,

00:39:17 ►

now the psilocybin studies.

00:39:19 ►

The data is pretty compelling.

00:39:22 ►

And for people who really respect and feel comforted by science,

00:39:31 ►

those studies, I think, are a good place to start,

00:39:35 ►

especially if they have certain conditions such as PTSD or cancer,

00:39:42 ►

where they can identify with the subjects of the studies and say,

00:39:46 ►

ah, aha, those studies really have demonstrated scientifically

00:39:52 ►

the beneficial aspects of those particular substances.

00:39:57 ►

Now, if that is not sufficient or they’re not particularly interested in studies

00:40:02 ►

because they have anxiety about a certain substance.

00:40:07 ►

You know, a lot of people are afraid of psychedelics

00:40:11 ►

because it’s the fear of going into the shadow world.

00:40:14 ►

It’s the fear of losing control.

00:40:16 ►

It’s the fear of death, you know.

00:40:18 ►

And I’ve always thought that women are a little bit better suited to psychedelics

00:40:23 ►

because we’re socialized to surrender

00:40:25 ►

and to letting go and to be receptive to intense experience

00:40:31 ►

because we give birth.

00:40:34 ►

So if somebody is afraid of that and yet they’re curious,

00:40:40 ►

starting with a very low dose,

00:40:43 ►

doing it with them as a sitter,

00:40:46 ►

or having another sitter and you doing it with them as a shared experience

00:40:51 ►

in a very carefully controlled and pleasant surroundings.

00:40:58 ►

It’s always about set and setting, of course, as we know.

00:41:01 ►

And getting them in a state of mind where they feel that they’re not coming into the experience

00:41:08 ►

with a great deal of anxiety or fear.

00:41:10 ►

Try to bring them into it in a place of acceptance

00:41:14 ►

and embrace at a very low dose

00:41:18 ►

in an environment where they feel really comfortable.

00:41:23 ►

Yes?

00:41:32 ►

Why should the pursuit of orgasm be a next step? Well, because it’s fun. Because I’m a pleasure activist. Because it brings us joy. Because as we age and we

00:41:43 ►

encounter sickness and illness and injury,

00:41:46 ►

it’s really good to experience one’s bodies as a joyous thing.

00:41:50 ►

Because sometimes you don’t have a partner.

00:41:53 ►

Because sometimes people are alone.

00:41:55 ►

Because we really have to learn how to pleasure ourselves first

00:41:59 ►

before we can really bring pleasure to other people.

00:42:02 ►

Do you believe that?

00:42:01 ►

really bring pleasure to other people.

00:42:04 ►

I do believe that.

00:42:12 ►

Because it’s another type of altered state of consciousness that we can seek and aim for.

00:42:18 ►

You know, and because it brings us into another kind of altered space

00:42:25 ►

that is an enhancement in the altered space we’re already in.

00:42:31 ►

And I wish Shona were here to answer that question too.

00:42:35 ►

But I think it’s a way for us to fully accept ourselves

00:42:42 ►

as erotic beings and to

00:42:46 ►

and to love ourselves

00:42:50 ►

and to forgive ourselves

00:42:51 ►

and to allow ourselves to

00:42:53 ►

experience real pleasure

00:42:55 ►

as a form of self love

00:42:57 ►

and if we really love ourselves

00:43:00 ►

then we’re better at loving other people

00:43:01 ►

we’re better at loving the planet

00:43:03 ►

I hope that answers your question.

00:43:07 ►

Okay, question.

00:43:10 ►

Can I say something about the erotic side of LSD?

00:43:13 ►

Mmm.

00:43:15 ►

Yeah.

00:43:16 ►

I find LSD pretty damn erotic.

00:43:19 ►

Of course, it depends on set and setting,

00:43:21 ►

who you’re with,

00:43:24 ►

how well slept and hydrated you are, the quality of the material.

00:43:28 ►

There are a lot of factors that play into that.

00:43:33 ►

I find it’s really playful.

00:43:36 ►

Sensation and touch is really enhanced.

00:43:39 ►

If you can see light trails, that’s pretty neat.

00:43:42 ►

If you’re playing with somebody else’s body, it can be very fluid.

00:43:46 ►

It can certainly lower inhibitions.

00:43:53 ►

I really kind of enjoy it at, again, like lower doses, what I call walking dose.

00:44:01 ►

Like, say, 200 mics as opposed to 300, because I feel more embodied at a dose like

00:44:10 ►

that and able to engage with another person.

00:44:16 ►

So yeah, I think that it has a lot of potential that needs

00:44:25 ►

to be explored erotically

00:44:27 ►

and

00:44:28 ►

I think it’s one of those substances

00:44:31 ►

for which set and setting is

00:44:33 ►

really key. You really

00:44:35 ►

have to set your nest.

00:44:38 ►

You need to have a warm, cozy

00:44:39 ►

place. You have to have

00:44:41 ►

your after food

00:44:43 ►

prepared in advance so that if you get hungry somewhere in that 12 hour journey, you have to have your after food prepared in advance so that if you get hungry

00:44:46 ►

somewhere in that 12 hour journey

00:44:48 ►

you have some warm food to keep you going

00:44:51 ►

to fuel your fire with

00:44:53 ►

you have to be well hydrated

00:44:57 ►

and you need a place where you feel completely safe

00:45:01 ►

you really need a safe

00:45:03 ►

and engaging nest to do that. Now, if you

00:45:08 ►

go out there on the playa and have an LSD experience, it’s cool. There are lots of

00:45:15 ►

blinky lights and fun things to interact with. But at a certain point, what do you want to do?

00:45:19 ►

You want to come home and you want to curl up someplace cozy and warm with a nice cozy warm

00:45:24 ►

person ideally and just get cozy and warm together.

00:45:27 ►

So you really need to have to make sure that you have that place to do it in

00:45:31 ►

and some food prepared in advance.

00:45:32 ►

And hydrate, of course, enhances the experience.

00:45:37 ►

Yeah.

00:45:39 ►

Yeah, I heard Rick Doblin talk today about how soon he expects MDMA to be made legal for doctors and therapists to use.

00:45:56 ►

We have over here a board member of MAPS.

00:45:59 ►

What’s the date that you guys predict?

00:46:03 ►

I think it’s like 2021, 2022, sometime like that.

00:46:08 ►

Right.

00:46:09 ►

Not too far from now.

00:46:11 ►

You know, it’ll take a while, but it’s coming.

00:46:13 ►

They see it.

00:46:14 ►

There are several steps that they need to get through in the research process,

00:46:20 ►

but they see it very clearly.

00:46:22 ►

We’ll see it in our lifetime.

00:46:24 ►

And what’s even better is we’ll see it as older people.

00:46:27 ►

We as older people will have the benefit of that research.

00:46:30 ►

And that’s a marvelous thing.

00:46:33 ►

Do you have your hand up?

00:46:36 ►

The questioner said,

00:46:39 ►

ketamine is being used in emergency rooms to treat acute depression.

00:46:43 ►

That’s interesting.

00:46:45 ►

Yes. Yes, Ibogaine therapy.

00:46:49 ►

This gentleman from Brazil was just saying

00:46:52 ►

that Ibogaine is being used

00:46:55 ►

to treat addictions, especially opiate addictions

00:46:58 ►

and that’s certainly true.

00:47:01 ►

I’m aware of several clinics in Mexico

00:47:03 ►

and also Canada

00:47:05 ►

where Ibogaine has been quite effective

00:47:09 ►

in helping people release themselves from addiction

00:47:12 ►

yes, true

00:47:14 ►

yes, over here, you had a question?

00:47:18 ►

so smoking cocaine, bazooka

00:47:20 ►

it’s called bazooka, and also using cannabis as a way to overcome addiction

00:47:24 ►

I see to opiates, interesting Bazooka. It’s called bazooka. And also using cannabis as a way to overcome addiction?

00:47:26 ►

Yes, to that section.

00:47:27 ►

I see.

00:47:27 ►

To opiates.

00:47:29 ►

Uh-huh, to opiates. Interesting.

00:47:36 ►

Well, you know, a lot of people get into trouble with addictions to various substances, and a lot of therapies have proven pretty ineffective,

00:47:39 ►

and so there’s a lot of investigation to be done with ibogaine,

00:47:42 ►

certainly in other substances as well.

00:47:45 ►

Think of the number of people who get hooked onto Vicodin, just for starters, wildly overprescribed. You go

00:47:51 ►

into the hospital for anything and you’ve got a full script for Vicodin before you know it.

00:47:56 ►

A ton of people get hooked on Vicodin. It’s a nasty substance. I had some surgery a few years

00:48:01 ►

ago and I weaned myself off that stuff as soon as I possibly could.

00:48:05 ►

Do you know how I did it?

00:48:06 ►

With cannabis.

00:48:08 ►

Because cannabis potentiates Vicodin.

00:48:12 ►

And if you can ramp down the Vicodin and use cannabis to stop the pain,

00:48:18 ►

you can cut your use of Vicodin really quickly and substitute it with cannabis.

00:48:23 ►

And that’s a fact.

00:48:25 ►

And I did it, and it was very effective.

00:48:28 ►

Cannabis in general I find to be, you know,

00:48:30 ►

it’s not strictly a psychedelic,

00:48:32 ►

but it’s a very useful ally.

00:48:35 ►

I find it, because I’m not particularly interested in alcohol,

00:48:39 ►

I like cannabis as a social drug.

00:48:42 ►

I like it as an erotic drug.

00:48:44 ►

I like it as an ally for meta-thinking.

00:48:48 ►

It’s a very good ally. Yes. The question is

00:48:52 ►

with entheogens and longevity, what do people think of Terence

00:48:56 ►

McKenna’s illness? He died of brain cancer.

00:49:01 ►

Myoblastoma? Correct? Did I get that right?

00:49:06 ►

Yeah.

00:49:08 ►

It looks like a mushroom in the brain and imagery that I’ve seen.

00:49:11 ►

It’s really, you know, very interesting.

00:49:18 ►

Well, people have been doing psilocybin mushrooms for a very long time.

00:49:23 ►

people have been doing psilocybin mushrooms for a very long time.

00:49:27 ►

There doesn’t appear to be any direct causal link between psilocybin mushroom use and brain cancer.

00:49:31 ►

And so I would deduce that that was a one-off experience.

00:49:36 ►

Unfortunate and sad, but people get unlucky with cancer all the time.

00:49:42 ►

So not unusual in that regard.

00:49:41 ►

with cancer all the time.

00:49:44 ►

So not unusual in that regard.

00:49:48 ►

I remember somebody saying,

00:49:54 ►

oh, well, do you think it was all your,

00:49:59 ►

do you think that cannabis might have a prophylactic effect on cancer?

00:50:03 ►

And he said, if that’s true,

00:50:04 ►

I wouldn’t have this condition or something like that,

00:50:08 ►

because he was a fan of cannabis as well.

00:50:11 ►

I think that’s unknowable.

00:50:14 ►

We just don’t know.

00:50:17 ►

He was a very interesting guy.

00:50:19 ►

He got unlucky.

00:50:20 ►

Happens to a lot of people.

00:50:22 ►

He was just better known than most.

00:50:24 ►

I hate to be so cut and dried about it,

00:50:25 ►

but that’s pretty much the truth of it.

00:50:28 ►

Yes.

00:50:30 ►

I agree with you.

00:50:32 ►

The questioner noted

00:50:33 ►

that I said

00:50:36 ►

that I didn’t consider cannabis a psychedelic,

00:50:37 ►

but it of course can have a powerful

00:50:39 ►

psychedelic effect done at the right

00:50:41 ►

dosage. And I think that’s definitely

00:50:43 ►

true, especially when people eat it. Right. Yeah, I think that’s true. I tend not to do cannabis in that way. And so I

00:50:52 ►

don’t personally consider it a psychedelic, but certainly it can have that effect. Absolutely.

00:50:57 ►

I agree. Yes. Wow. So the questioner said that Terrence said that the absence of smoking cannabis for 24 hours when he went back to it had a psychedelic effect for him.

00:51:09 ►

How interesting. Everyone’s brain chemistry is different.

00:51:13 ►

Isn’t that a beautiful, elegant piece of natural engineering?

00:51:18 ►

Thank you, Mother Nature. Yes.

00:51:21 ►

That’s an interesting question.

00:51:23 ►

Hmm. That’s an interesting question.

00:51:32 ►

You know, there is a new biography of Albert Hoffman that is out where it talks about the size of those dosages, I believe.

00:51:37 ►

As I understand it, you know, 200 mics,

00:51:43 ►

a pretty standard dose for people who want a full-on effect,

00:51:47 ►

that microdose might be considered, say, 40 mics or maybe even 20.

00:51:55 ►

Measuring it out, of course, tricky, tricky.

00:51:58 ►

But if you’re determined, you can do it.

00:52:02 ►

Determined, you can do it.

00:52:10 ►

And I would like to see somebody measuring out micro doses for that exact purpose.

00:52:12 ►

Yes, in the back.

00:52:14 ►

Absolutely.

00:52:17 ►

25 mics would be a nice micro dose.

00:52:18 ►

Yes, sirree.

00:52:20 ►

That would put a little twinkle in your day. I was once a house guest at a lovely, beautiful house.

00:52:24 ►

And the hostess looked

00:52:25 ►

over at me at breakfast in the morning.

00:52:28 ►

Lovely, elegant lady. Beautiful,

00:52:30 ►

grand house. And she said,

00:52:31 ►

will you be microdosing with us this morning?

00:52:35 ►

And I thought,

00:52:36 ►

I am definitely

00:52:37 ►

in the right house

00:52:40 ►

in the right place with the right people.

00:52:43 ►

Other

00:52:44 ►

questions?

00:52:46 ►

No more questions.

00:52:47 ►

I’ve got a question for you.

00:52:48 ►

How many people here have had an erotic experience

00:52:51 ►

on or with psychedelics?

00:52:53 ►

Woo, that’s two hands.

00:52:55 ►

Yes!

00:52:56 ►

We have a significant number of people here

00:52:59 ►

who have had an erotic experience on psychedelics.

00:53:01 ►

So I wish you all many more erotic experiences on psychedelics

00:53:07 ►

as you get older,

00:53:09 ►

and many, many more interesting investigations

00:53:12 ►

that you can add to the collective pool of knowledge that we share.

00:53:16 ►

Thank you very much.

00:53:17 ►

Thank you very much. You’re listening to The Psychedelic Salon,

00:53:25 ►

where people are changing their lives one thought at a time.

00:53:30 ►

Well, that was certainly a wide-ranging discussion

00:53:33 ►

and how I wish that I could have been there myself.

00:53:36 ►

I’ll bet that the ongoing conversations in camp that evening were quite interesting.

00:53:41 ►

Now, regarding Annie’s mention of Dr. Albert Hoffman and whether LSD

00:53:46 ►

may have played a role in his longevity, well I only have this little tidbit to add, but one time

00:53:53 ►

at an entheobotany conference in Palenque, Mexico, I heard Christian Rasch, who at the time was very

00:54:00 ►

close to Dr. Hoffman, say that the doctor was in fact using low-dose LSD.

00:54:06 ►

Now, I can no longer remember if he said that Dr. Hoffman was still doing that or had done so in the past.

00:54:11 ►

And I can’t remember the dose that he was mentioning at the time.

00:54:16 ►

But the truth is that none of us has a recollection that is clear enough to say for sure what was said.

00:54:22 ►

So I guess somebody could ask Christian about it,

00:54:25 ►

but my hunch is that since Dr. Hoffman was always very adamant

00:54:29 ►

about no longer using acid, or at least publicly not admitting it,

00:54:33 ►

well, out of respect for his memory,

00:54:34 ►

I suspect that probably his close friends

00:54:37 ►

aren’t going to be very likely to discuss it either.

00:54:40 ►

Now, if you want my personal opinion about low-dose LSD,

00:54:44 ►

well, I personally believe that a low dose of LSD-25, say somewhere between just 10 and 25 micrograms, that small a dose like that could actually be quite beneficial during the aging process.

00:55:04 ►

Another 10 years or so, I may have to consider a regime like that myself.

00:55:11 ►

But for now, watching my diet and getting some exercise every day seems to be working quite well.

00:55:14 ►

Well, that and a little medical marijuana, I should add.

00:55:17 ►

It’s the only medicine that I take. You know, I avoid prescription medicines like the plague that they are.

00:55:22 ►

But getting back to what Annie was saying about low

00:55:25 ►

dose LSD, what I can add to this is the fact that during the six month period when I was completing

00:55:32 ►

the final draft of my book, The Spirit of the Internet, I did daily doses, low doses of LSD

00:55:38 ►

the entire time. And I know a number of other people who have done something like that at

00:55:43 ►

different times in their lives as well.

00:55:46 ►

You know, the secret in being productive under the influence of low-dose LSD, I found,

00:55:51 ►

was that the first day of a regimen, not much gets done.

00:55:55 ►

But after that first day, you really won’t have any significant physical sensations of being an acid if it’s LSD-25.

00:56:03 ►

But your mind will be amazing.

00:56:06 ►

And used properly, I think it can truly be a catalyst for the imagination.

00:56:11 ►

And if you’re a programmer, well, what I found is that

00:56:14 ►

you can keep the intricacies of, oh, a half a dozen or so subroutines

00:56:18 ►

all in focus at the same time, and that can be quite useful.

00:56:23 ►

Now, there is one thing more, though, that I can’t let go by

00:56:27 ►

without making a comment of some kind about what Annie was saying about there being assisted living

00:56:33 ►

facilities, you know, old folks’ homes where psychedelics and cannabis are readily available.

00:56:39 ►

I can already tell you several anecdotal stories about the positive effects of cannabis among really old people,

00:56:47 ►

not young guys like me, but people in their late 80s and 90s who have experienced extremely positive transformations

00:56:53 ►

by gradually shifting away from their prescription medications and relying solely on cannabis.

00:57:00 ►

Now, what I’d like to see is an elderly assisted living facility that is psychedelic and cannabis friendly.

00:57:07 ►

For me, well, I’m afraid it’s not going to be all that much longer before I have to give some serious thought to where I’m going to be spending the last 10 years or so of my life.

00:57:16 ►

And I’m assuming to live close to 100, so you know I’ll be really old.

00:57:20 ►

Of course, the fact may be that I’m already in that time frame for all I know,

00:57:26 ►

but should I remain healthy and live for another 10 or 15 years or so,

00:57:30 ►

I’m going to be on a serious hunt for somewhere that I can spend my final days

00:57:36 ►

toking up and participating in mushroom and ayahuasca circles several times a year

00:57:41 ►

in preparation for my final big trip.

00:57:44 ►

So, how about it?

00:57:46 ►

Let’s get cracking on these psychedelic old folks’ homes

00:57:49 ►

so I can stop worrying about where I’m going to end my days.

00:57:53 ►

I know that there are quite a few cannabis-friendly B&Bs already,

00:57:57 ►

but what I’m looking for is a cannabis and psychedelic-friendly hospice.

00:58:03 ►

I hope that you’re not getting morbid or getting too bummed out with

00:58:06 ►

all the talk like this, but you know, eventually you’re going to be where I am, searching in vain

00:58:11 ►

for an old toker’s home if we don’t solve this problem pretty soon. Personally, I’m not concerned

00:58:18 ►

about my own death. I’m not worried about it at all. The way I see it is that it’s really the

00:58:23 ►

beginning of something new, and hopefully it’s

00:58:25 ►

going to be as much fun as this life has been. But as long as we are on the topic of dying,

00:58:30 ►

sorry about that, I want to pass along my thoughts about Terrence McKenna’s brain cancer and add to

00:58:37 ►

what Annie had to say about it. As Terrence’s close friends know, during the last few years

00:58:43 ►

of his life, he spent many hours each day talking on a cell phone.

00:58:46 ►

A cell phone with very old, as in 1990s, technology.

00:58:51 ►

Now, I see that as the most likely candidate to have accelerated the growth of his tumor.

00:58:57 ►

In addition, you know, he was also very proud of being completely off the grid.

00:59:00 ►

But to do so and still stay connected to the net, he had to use this huge

00:59:05 ►

old army surplus communications disk to get a line-of-sight communications to the net.

00:59:11 ►

In any event, this big dish, which most likely had a lot of stray radiation seeping out,

00:59:17 ►

was on the roof right over his bed. All in all, between the cell phone and the communications

00:59:23 ►

disk on the roof, well, my guess is that he fried his brain, much like if he’d placed it in a microwave oven.

00:59:30 ►

And yes, I’m well aware of the controversy about cell phones and brain cancer, but please keep in mind that the studies that are now taking place are using newer versions of cell phones, not those huge old clunkers like the one that Terrence lugged around.

00:59:46 ►

So that’s my two cents on it, but hey, I’m open to considering all other possibilities as well.

00:59:53 ►

Gosh, I don’t know how I’ve gotten into talking about all this negative stuff. So,

00:59:57 ►

Ryan, I hope that there’s still enough to smile about in this podcast.

01:00:01 ►

However, I can’t resist reminding everybody one more time what a horrible

01:00:06 ►

idea it is to be using Gmail. I’m going to put a link to a story about it in the program notes

01:00:13 ►

for this podcast, which as you know, you can get to via psychedelicsalon.us. The story is from

01:00:19 ►

Alternet and it’s titled The Psychological Dark Side of Gmail.

01:00:29 ►

You know, I feel like screaming at our fellow slaughters who are using Gmail to quit.

01:00:31 ►

Quit now. Quit today.

01:00:35 ►

If you’re using Gmail, the dossier that Google is keeping on you,

01:00:38 ►

as you know if you’ve been keeping up with the news,

01:00:43 ►

well, that file is also available to any asshole in the U.S. government bureaucracy who wants to see it.

01:00:49 ►

So every word of email, the title of every web page, blog, and story you’ve checked on or clicked on,

01:00:51 ►

it’s all in your file.

01:00:52 ►

And it’s being analyzed.

01:00:59 ►

Here’s what Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, said about the records that they keep on you.

01:01:00 ►

And this is a quote.

01:01:02 ►

We know where you are.

01:01:04 ►

We know where you’ve been.

01:01:07 ►

We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.

01:01:13 ►

Your digital identity will live forever because there’s no delete button.

01:01:18 ►

Now you might be laughing at me right now because you’re only 20 years old and I have nothing to hide.

01:01:21 ►

But 20 years from now, when you’re trying to get a loan to buy a house,

01:01:24 ►

well, maybe you won’t want get a loan to buy a house,

01:01:29 ►

well, maybe you won’t want the lending authorities to know that you’ve spent your youth reading about and talking about the beneficial uses of cannabis and psychedelic medicines. Sure, there’s always a

01:01:35 ►

chance that they may be legal by then, but I wouldn’t count on it. Now, while there may be two

01:01:40 ►

states that have made cannabis legal, there are significantly more states who have stepped up arrests for even simple possession. You know, until a treaty is signed in the war

01:01:50 ►

on people who use non-prescription drugs, until a treaty is signed, it isn’t over.

01:01:55 ►

There’s a reason why Obama and his gang call this a war, and never for a minute should you

01:02:01 ►

doubt the fact that he sees you as one of the enemies of the U.S. government. It’s a war. That’s what they’re calling it. I’m not making it up. Am I making

01:02:10 ►

an overly big deal about this? Maybe. We’ll see. But I don’t think so. In my opinion, you should

01:02:17 ►

drop Gmail, Google+, Google searches, and all other things Google, and start using Tor and

01:02:22 ►

DuckDuckGo or some other privacy software, so

01:02:25 ►

maintain at least the illusion of privacy. In other words, don’t make it so easy for the government

01:02:31 ►

cops and other screwheads to put you in a cage. Well, that’s enough bad news for today, so let’s

01:02:39 ►

close with a couple positive stories. First of all, I want to give a shout out to all of our

01:02:45 ►

fellow salonners who are still active in the Occupy movement. And while the activities of the movement

01:02:50 ►

aren’t always visible, at least to the mainstream media that is only looking for sensational stories,

01:02:56 ►

well, I think it’s pretty sensational that Occupy Madison, up in the totally frozen state of

01:03:01 ►

Wisconsin, has now built its first house in a planned eco-village for the homeless.

01:03:06 ►

So, well done, Madison occupiers!

01:03:10 ►

And on another positive note,

01:03:12 ►

I recently heard from my friend and longtime salonner, Ido,

01:03:16 ►

who joins us from Israel each week

01:03:19 ►

and who is getting very close to completing his Ph.D. work.

01:03:23 ►

And Ido, you may not know, is the publisher of

01:03:26 ►

what I suspect is the world’s only psychedelic print magazine that is in Hebrew. He published

01:03:33 ►

his first issue this past June, and the next one is about ready to go to print. And on top of that,

01:03:38 ►

Ido is the force behind the most excellent website, DailyPsychedelicVideo.com.

01:03:48 ►

All one word, DailyPsychedelicVideo.com.

01:03:51 ►

And on that site, which I’ll link to in the program notes,

01:03:55 ►

is the list of the top 20 videos of 2013.

01:03:57 ►

Out of over 400, I should add.

01:04:01 ►

So if you’re looking for some psychedelically inclined videos, you may want to surf on over to dailypsychedelicvideo.com for a little mind and eye candy.

01:04:26 ►

images. First of all, from the modern version of Alice in Wonderland, and then progressing with some visuals that, well, they actually greatly enhanced the words of the Bard McKenna. At least

01:04:31 ►

they did for me. In fact, I’m going to go watch that one again as soon as I sign off here and do

01:04:37 ►

the post-production processing that we have to do to get this show on the road. The digital road,

01:04:42 ►

I guess. But before I go, though, I do want to thank Revolution Love Evolve,

01:04:48 ►

who first posted that video on YouTube for giving the salon a plug in the credits.

01:04:53 ►

I really appreciate that.

01:04:55 ►

And for now, this is Lorenzo signing off from Cyberdelic Space.

01:04:59 ►

Be well, my friends.

Graph View

Backlinks