Manifesting Minds

244 Pages·2014·1.54 MB·English

Praise for Manifesting Minds
“As psychedelics move from taboo subject to trendy topic, and as mainstream media outlets excitedly
cover new psychedelic research, this collection of serious and highly readable articles is an especially
wonderful gift. This is a must-have anthology for its amazing diversity and valuable content.”
—James Fadiman, PhD, researcher and author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe,
Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys
“A deep, exciting collection of brilliant minds sharing research, cosmologies, humor, and imagination
centered on my favorite topics: psychedelics and consciousness. Fascinating reading!”
—Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Garcia, loyal member of the Merry Pranksters

Electronic Edition: ISBN 978-1-58394-727-2
Copyright © 2014 by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Copyright of
individual pieces by their respective author. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief
review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without written permission of the
publisher. For information contact Evolver Editions c/o North Atlantic Books.
The following contributors have generously given permission to use the works that appear in this
anthology: Erik Davis, David Jay Brown, Evan Mantri, James Oroc, Tom Robbins, Jonathan Dickinson, Ana
Elda Maqueda, Jessica L. Nielson, PhD, and Julie D. Megler, MSN, NP-BC, Michael Mithoefer, MD, Ellen
Watson, Jon Hanna, Vanja Palmers, Myron Stolaroff, Albert Hofmann, Daniel Pinchbeck, John Allen, David
Luke, PhD, Mark A. Schroll, PhD, Thomas B. Roberts, PhD, and Mark Pesce.
1960 interview with Aldous Huxley by The Paris Review. Copyright © 1960 by The Paris Review, used by
permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
The editors made every effort to obtain permission from the remaining contributors but were unable to get
in contact or received no response to their requests. If you have any information, please contact North
Atlantic Books.
Published by Evolver Editions, an imprint of North Atlantic Books
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Cover image: © iStockphoto.com/agsandrew
Cover design by Suzanne Albertson and Michael Robinson
Interior by Suzanne Albertson
Manifesting Minds: A Review of Psychedelics in Science, Medicine, Sex, and Spirituality is sponsored by the
Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to
develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields;
to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute
literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.
DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. The publisher
does not advocate illegal activities but does believe in the right of individuals to have free access to
information and ideas. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the reader’s
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Manifesting minds : a review of psychedelics in science, medicine, sex, and spirituality / edited by Rick
Doblin, PhD, and Brad Burge.
pages cm
Summary: “This anthology of essays and research on the physical, emotional, creative, and spiritual
benefits of psychedelics and marijuana will appeal to educated readers with personal experience and
interest in psychedelics, science, and empirical research, as well as professionals in the realms of
alternative therapies, neuroscience, pharmacology, spirituality, and art”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-58394-726-5
eBook ISBN: 978-1-58394-727-2
1. Hallucinogenic drugs. 2. Hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience. 3. Generative organs—Effect of
drugs on. 4. Altered states of consciousness I. Doblin, Rick. II.
Burge, Brad.
RM324.8.M36 2013
615.7’883—dc23
2013006156
v3.1
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Foreword by Rick Doblin, PhD
Arts and Creativity
Ayahuasca and James Cameron’s Avatar • Erik Davis
Electronic Music and Psychedelics: An Interview with Simon Posford of Shpongle • David Jay Brown
The Art of Reality: Psychedelic Experience in Cinema and Television • Evan Mantri
Huxley on Drugs and Creativity: An Interview • Aldous Huxley
Psychedelics and Extreme Sports • James Oroc
Robbins Rants • Tom Robbins
Coming of Age
Psychedelic Rites of Passage • Ram Dass
Mother and Child Bond with 2C-B Experience • Anonymous
Ayahuasca in the Amazon: A Father and Daughter Journey Together • Jack Lieberman
Parenting the Peyote Way • Reverend Anne Zapf
Psychedelic Family Values • R. Stuart
Stumbling on His Stash • Alice B.
Youths and Entheogen Use: A Modern Rite of Passage? • Andrei Foldes, with Amba, Eric Johnson, et
al.
Science and Medicine
Diary of an MDMA Subject • Anonymous
Dimethyltryptamine: Possible Endogenous Ligand of the Sigma-1 Receptor? • Adam L. Halberstadt,
PhD
Feeding the Hungry Ghosts: Ibogaine and the Psychospiritual Treatment of Addiction • Jonathan
Dickinson
Psychosomatic Medicine, Psychoneuroimmunology, and Psychedelics • Ana Elda Maqueda
Consideration of Ayahuasca for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder • Jessica L. Nielson,
PhD, and Julie D. Megler, MSN, NP-BC
Therapy
MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy: How Different Is It from Other Psychotherapy? • Michael Mithoefer,
MD
Ethical Caring in Psychedelic Work • Kylea Taylor, MS
Lessons from Psychedelic Therapy • Richard Yensen, PhD
Psychedelics and Bodywork • Ellen Watson
Sexuality
How Psychedelics Informed My Sex Life and Sex Work • Annie Sprinkle
2C-B, DMT, You and Me … • Seth
Astral Sex DreamGirl • Joseph Marti (a.k.a. Zoe7)
Pharmaka, Philtres, and Pheromones: Getting High and Getting Off • Jonathan Ott
Sex, Spirit, and Psychedelics: The Art of Ecstasy • Claudia Müller-Ebeling, PhD
Talking with Ann and Sasha Shulgin on the Existence of God and the Pleasures of Sex Drugs: An
Interview • Jon Hanna and Sylvia Thyssen
Spirituality
Meditation and Psychedelics • Vanja Palmers
Learning How to Learn • Myron Stolaroff
On Leary and Drugs at the End • Carol Rosin and Vicki Marshall
To Be Read at the Funeral • Albert Hofmann (translated from the German by Elisabeth Riccabona)
Ecology
Another Green World: Psychedelics and Ecology • Daniel Pinchbeck
Huichole Peyote Dance and the Inspiration for Biosphere 2 • John Allen
Psychedelics and Species Connectedness • Stanley Krippner, PhD, and David Luke, PhD
Psychedelics and the Deep Ecology Movement: A Conversation with Arne Naess • Mark A. Schroll, PhD,
and David Rothenberg, PhD
Technology
Surviving and Thriving with Psychotechnologies • Thomas B. Roberts, PhD
Technology Appreciated by the Psychedelic Mind • Brummbaer
Psychedelics and the Creation of Virtual Reality: A MAPS Interview • Mark Pesce
About the Editors
FOREWORD
In 1986, I founded the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS), a nonpro(cid:999)t research and educational organization with a mission
to develop medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to bene(cid:999)t from
the careful use of psychedelics, especially our top priority, MDMA (which
was criminalized in 1985). In essence, MAPS is a nonpro(cid:999)t pharmaceutical
company sponsoring research with psychedelics and marijuana, seeking to
develop them into legally approved prescription treatments. Despite the
potential of these substances, the pharmaceutical industry has abandoned
them since their patents have expired. Major foundations and government
agencies have not yet funded their development due to ongoing yet
diminishing controversy over how our society should deal with them. As a
result, MAPS has taken it as our responsibility to conduct careful scienti(cid:999)c
research and to educate the public honestly about the results of that
research.
Based on our current work and the forecast for the future, I estimate
we’re eight to ten years away from seeing the (cid:999)rst example of psychedelic-
assisted psychotherapy become a prescription treatment. Though our
primary focus is scienti(cid:999)c research, public education has also been an
essential part of our mission. It’s therefore deeply satisfying for me, and I
hope intriguing for readers of this book, to see the publication of this
compilation of selected articles from special theme editions of the MAPS
Bulletin.
In the early days of psychedelic research, it seemed to be important and
necessary to invest in creating a publication that people could be proud to
leave on their co(cid:1009)ee table and share with others, a credible and
professional resource that would bring the topic of psychedelics out from
the shadows and into the light. Much of what we published in these
original Bulletins was progress reports on our various research and
education projects that were more like newspaper articles than magazine
stories.
The (cid:999)rst theme edition of the MAPS Bulletin on “Creativity 2000” was
published in Autumn 2000, thanks to the vision, conception, and editing of
Sylvia Thyssen (our (cid:999)rst sta(cid:1009) person other than me), with the assistance of
co-editor Jon Hanna. The experiment was a much-appreciated success, and
Thyssen and Hanna went on to produce several additional special theme
editions, from “Sex, Spirit, and Psychedelics” (Spring 2002) to “Rites of
Passage: Kids and Psychedelics” (Autumn 2004).
In Autumn 2007, Sylvia and Jon passed the baton to Jag Davies for
“Psychedelics and Self Discovery.” Author and journalist David Jay Brown
then signed on as guest editor for several editions, including “Technology
and Psychedelics” (Spring 2008), “Psychedelics and Ecology” (Spring 2009),
“Psychedelics, Death, and Dying” (Spring 2010), “Psychedelics and the
Mind-Body Connection” (Spring 2011), and “Psychedelics and the Popular
Arts” (Spring 2012). It’s been a di(cid:1003)cult and pleasurable challenge to select
the articles in Manifesting Minds from the many outstanding articles in these
special editions, all donated by their authors as part of a community-wide
e(cid:1009)ort to highlight the many ways that psychedelic (“mind-manifesting”)
experiences have contributed to our society.
Ask a scientist, an artist, a bureaucrat, and an a(cid:999)cionado to de(cid:999)ne the word
psychedelic, and you’ll get four completely di(cid:1009)erent answers (though they
just might overlap in some interesting and unexpected ways). That’s
because, above all else, psychedelic describes what happens when the
contents of the mind and body are made more visible or more clear—in
other words, when the mind is manifested. This process by which hidden
memories and experiences are revealed is both feared and revered in our
society.
I have spent countless hours discussing this subject with people from all
walks of life, hearing their personal accounts of the profound ways drugs
like LSD, MDMA, psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT, and 2C-B have a(cid:1009)ected
them. One thing I’ve learned is that, whether created synthetically in a
laboratory or brewed from jungle vines by a shaman, each of these
substances o(cid:1009)ers its own unique set of quanti(cid:999)able attributes, and yet we
all react quite di(cid:1009)erently under their in(cid:1001)uence. Even two people ingesting
the same dosage of the same psychedelic in the same set and setting can
have highly divergent experiences—at least within the universes of their
own minds and bodies.
This is hardly a weakness of psychedelics as a tool for healing and
personal development—rather, it is one of their greatest strengths. As you’ll
discover in this anthology, careful and properly integrated psychedelic
experiences can o(cid:1009)er medicinal and spiritual bene(cid:999)ts, serve as an aid to
creativity, and help us better relate to friends, loved ones, the environment,