Psychedelic Salon

Guest speakers: Allen Ginsberg, Ram Das, Laura Huxley, Peter Gorman PROGRAM NOTES: As us Monty Python fans love to hear, “Now for something completely different.” Well, not really. But today's program is a little different in that instead of featuring just one speaker we have an audio collage that includes Allen Ginsberg, Ram Das, and Laura Huxley. A finer collection of psychedelic elders you would be hard-pressed to find. First of all is a rare recording of a telephone interview of Allen Ginsberg by then “High Times” editor, Peter Gorman. When Gorman asked for a story about Timothy Leary, Ginsberg tells of the time that Leary came to his New York apartment to meet Jack Kerouac and they took psilocybin together Next is a brief conversation that Peter has with Ram Das during which we learn some more of the background of the early days at Millbrook and the interesting series of events that led up to going there. The last segment is another Peter Gorman interview, this time with Laura Huxley in which she tel

Guest speakers: Oscar Janiger and Peter Gorman PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Oscar Janiger.] [In regards to the dangers of taking LSD] “Not everybody is committed to go to Everest. Not everybody is going to go to the Serengeti and shoot lions or whatever you want. These are risk-taking adventures. There are people courageous and adventuresome enough who are willing to do it, and when you do it you study your risks.” “You can die of over taking aspirin and drinking too much water, but [not] LSD, and by the way, there is no evidence of physical death from marijuana either.” “It's just the same as we go back to Everest, you can fall of the fuckin' mountain. That's all there is to it. I'm not going to make any apologies for that. You've got to be prepared. You know that old adage that LSD favors the prepared mind.” “[The Sixties was] a time when people began to see that what was laid down for them as obligatory reality was not obligatory.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs –

Guest speakers: Dennis McKenna and Peter Gorman ROBERT VENOSA January 21, 1936 - August 9, 2011 Dear Friends and Community, A great soul has completed his earthly journey and graduated to the next level. The great Venosa left his body on Tuesday August 9, 2011 at 6:56 PM. His transition was graceful and accomplished in the same composed and calm manner that he exuded throughout his life. I feel honored to have been able to accompany him to the gate, having walked 30 beautiful years together in this life. Robert had a long and brave healing journey with cancer and showed incredible strength on this path as well as tremendous courage in facing this great dragon. He believed in the natural healing ability of the human body and proved the doctors wrong time and again, who only gave him a few month’s to live upon his diagnosis over eight years ago. He was a powerful human being. Together he and I, held the piece of his physical struggle safely tucked away from the eyes of the world like a precious pearl. I

Guest speakers: Peter Gorman and Dennis McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Dennis McKenna.] "The idea that you could use these to actually explore other dimensions, real worlds that were outside the cognizance of our ordinary world, is really what I think fascinated me about psychedelics." "More than anything else, it [DMT] seemed to be not an experience, not a drug, but a place, an actual other dimension that you were plunged into." "In order to understand its limitations, I almost had to become the 'enemy'. I had to become a scientist in order to understand the limitations of science." Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Peter Gorman Writer, Explorer, Naturalist Web Site Blog Archive File Cleanup Test Thank you for all who worked on this project. ... A solution has been found and the files are being restored :-).

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] "It seemed probable to me that this phenomenon encountered in deep psychedelic experiences with psilocybin actually has a potential historical impact. It is a kind of human ability, which is at present submerged in the psyche, contactable only by the shamanic means of journeying into historical hyperspace. In other words, of going into that place where the adumbrations of the future are intense enough that you can have an intimation, at least, of what is to come.” “I think the gradual evolution of language is actually the gradual lifting of the veil that is imposed between ourselves and meaning by the planetary ecology. In other words, the forward thrust of history is actually regulated by the ecology, and it is regulated through control of the evolution of language. Because what you cannot think you cannot do, and where you cannot imagine you cannot steer your culture and go. So I'm proposing on one level that h

Guest speakers: Ann Shulgin and Dr. William Rowlandson PROGRAM NOTES: "If you are going to experiment with a psychedelic of any kind, make sure you are depranil-free for at least five days, probably seven would be safer.” -Ann Shulgin “You don't really need MDMA or a psychedelic to do [deep personal therapy]. … I think that until at least some of these materials become legal, don't dismiss the possibilities of hypnotherapy doing exactly what you need and want.” -Ann Shulgin “As far as I'm concerned, there is no substitute for MDMA, because it is the insight drug. And it does this magical combination of allowing you to see inside without fear and hostility toward yourself. It has a beautiful, beautiful effect, and no other drug that we know of so far manages to do that.” -Ann Shulgin “[Our] paradox is the ceaseless, constant drive to understand something that is inherently un-understandable. Now, of course, the paradox lies in the fact that we understand it is not to be understood, and yet we understand

Guest speaker: Kathleen "Kat" Harrison PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Kat Harrison.] "If a bird you're not used to seeing comes and sits on a tree outside your window and calls, and calls, and calls. It's not just a bird of a trip. It's a bird that has a message that it is sending you that may be positive, that may be a warning. It's something you pay attention to.” “You really need to, at least part of the time, speak [out loud] to the entity that you are invoking the presence of. That the whole idea with these medicines is to go into an active, right now, relationship between beings. It's inter-species communication.” “In order to do this kind of magical work, energy transforming work, you have to create a vulnerable oasis. You have to be willing to be open and be vulnerable, and in order to do that you have to set up protection around you, around the people you're working with, or even the place you're working. And one of the ways to set up protection is to plant plants that carry that k

Guest speaker: Timothy Leary PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Timothy Leary.] "I like the Pope. I think he's the finest mind of the 12th century.” “It really is an awesome epidemic of deliberate stupidity that is laid upon us by the media, by the press, by the magazines and so forth. They simply do not raise any of the issues that will challenge our interest or intelligence.” “There's simply no question that anyone who knows anything about how to use brain-activating drugs and is operating with a clear mind, with no desire to screw other people's minds up, whose willing to put in time and patience, and sensitivity, can help anyone wash their brain. There's no longer any excuse for having a mind that you don't like, or having a brain program that you're dissatisfied with.” “I've always hated the Second Law of Thermodynamics.” “It always comes down to individual choices of what chemicals you're going to use to stimulate your evolution.” “You use a drug intelligently when you know what effect

Guest speaker: Kathleen "Kat" Harrison Big Island, Little Planet March 17–28, 2012 A Travel Intensive in Polynesia on the Big Island of Hawaii Ethnobotanist Kathleen Harrison and Hawaiian cultural teacher Momi Subiono will lead this travel intensive, open to all who have a desire to immerse themselves in the story of plants, nature, and a deep cultural awareness of place. PODCAST PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Kat Harrison.] "The role of conscious, intentional behavior that is described by culture or subcultural rules of behavior with reflected meaning is sort of a way of describing ritual generally, and we draw these forms out of a number of traditions.” “I think when we go into thinking about how to do psychoactive medicines it's very valuable to look deeply, to look seriously, at the traditions that have attended these medicines through time.” “Repeated behavior in the same mode over a long time generates a kind of an etheric possibility of it recurring and being potentized by its ongoing

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna PROGRAM NOTES: This is Tape Number 003 of the Paul Herbert Collection. This talk was given in December 1982 [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] "The search for a radio signal from an extraterrestrial source is probably as culture-bound an assumption as to search the galaxy for a good Italian restaurant.” “It is no great accomplishment to hear a voice in the head. The accomplishment is to make sure it is telling you the truth.” “The demons are of many kinds. Some are made of ions, some of mind. The ones of ketamine, you'll find, stutter often and are blind.” “There is no dignity in the universe unless you meet these things [psychedelics] on your feet. And that means that you have an I/thou relationship, and you say … 'you're long on talk, but what can you show me?” “These things [psychedelic medicines] invoke the Logos, which means they work directly on the language centers. So that the important aspect of the experience is the dialogue.” “I think if someone

Guest speaker: Jonathan Ott PROGRAM NOTES: This is a talk that Jonathan Ott gave in September 2004 at the Mind States Conference in Oaxaca, Mexico. From the program for Mind States 2004: Jonathan Ott will give a talk titled “From Octli/Pulque and Xochioctli to Mezcal and Vino de Mezcal Tequila”. The ethnopharmacognosy of inebriating pre-Columbian potions based on octli or pulque, wine of various species of Agave, with special reference to numerous inebriating additives; traditional foods and beverages made from mezcal Agaves; and colonial development of distilled mezcal from fermented, cooked mezcal Agaves. Finally, more recent development of Vino de Mezcal Tequila or Tequila, a regional type of mezcal brandy, from cooked hearts of Agave tequillense or blue agave. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option More about: Agave and Mescal Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise by Dr. Havelock Ellis

Guest speakers: Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy This program is another selection from the Timothy Leary archive. It features an October 23, 1990 debate at Penn State University between Dr. Leary and his arch-enemy, the scandalous G. Gordon Liddy. One of my favorite segments in this debate, which wasn't all that polite at times, is when Leary pointed out the fact that he had spent more time in the U.S. Military service than Liddy had, but that Liddy had spent more time in prison than Leary had. PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Timothy Leary.] “My advice to you is: 1) don't rely on politicians to solve you problems; 2) work to the fullest of your power to decentralize and to take power away from the central government in Washington, bring it back to the villages, to the cities, to the neighborhoods.” "It politics, scum rises to the top. Let me say it again, in politics mediocrity rises to the top.” “As far as this election is concerned, I urge you, don't vote for either a Democrat or a Repub

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna Please Support Dennis McKenna’s Kickstarter Project: The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss! PROGRAM NOTES: This lecture was recorded in November 1982. A more complete version of this talk may be found in Podcast 317.] [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “My assumption whenever I am confronted with opposites is to try to unify them, to create a coincidentia oppositorum as was done in alchemy, to not force the system to closure but to try and leave the system open enough so that the differences can resonate and become complimentary rather than antithetical.” “Shamanism, on the other hand [as compared with science], is this world wide, since Paleolithic times, tradition which says that you must make your own experience the centerpiece of any model of the world that you build. No amount of readings from meters, whether they're metering cyclotrons or any other kind of instrument, are going to satisfy you.” “What psilocybin focuses as a problem that these other ha

Guest speakers: Dennis McKenna and David Ellenbogen Please Support Dennis McKenna’s Kickstarter Project: The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss! PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Dennis McKenna.]  "The brain is essentially a communications network … all this complex network of neurons that cross-talk to each other through these neurotransmitters.” “We think of ourselves as separate from the environment. We're kind of here, and our skin separates us from the environment, but we're not like that at all. We're semi-permeable membranes. Things are coming in all the time in the form of food, drugs, smoke, other things that we absorb, and we're putting out things all the time at the same time. So we're part of this chemical communication system.” “If it weren't for the linkage to symbols, or significance, which are abstractions, we wouldn't be conscious. That is the sine qua non of consciousness, is that we're immersed in this world of ideas and abstractions, and dreams. And this kind of experience i

We are saddened to report that Eric Hart suffered a heart attack and died quite suddenly on December 9, 2011. He will be deeply missed. Guest speakers: Eric Hart and Matthew Pallamary PROGRAM NOTES: “[If you are in police custody] Never say a word. Don't ever talk to the cops under any circumstance. If you're a suspect, or you're being arrested, nothing can be gained from it. They will twist whatever you say. It can only be used against you, just like the famous Miranda advisement. You have a right to remain silent. So remain silent. Even if they're yelling and screaming at you to talk, refuse to talk. That's a basic right that you have. It's one of the only effective rights we have left from the Bill of Rights. So exercise that right, or else whatever you say will be twisted around, and it will end up leading to your conviction.” -Eric Hart, Attorney ... Email: LawyersLie (at) ymail (dot) com ... Web site: www.EricDHart.com Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Program moderator: Timothy Leary PROGRAM NOTES: Today's podcast features a recording from the Timothy Leary archive. According to the label on the file, this is a recording of a television show that originated in Toronto, Canada. It was called Enterprise, or something like that, and this program took place sometime in 1983. The guest host that night was none other than Dr. Timothy Leary, and his topic for discussion that evening was Artificial Intelligence. … For me, one of the highlights was to hear a famous MIT professor predict that home computers would never catch on! Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST Fall & Winter (the movie)   The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era Vernor Vinge Department of Mathematical Sciences San Diego State University (c) 1993 by Vernor Vinge BB's Bungalow Number 44 Remembering the "Bear" (Note: There is no direct link to the above podcast. You will have to search for

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna and Erik Davis Please Support Dennis McKenna’s Kickstarter Project: The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss! PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] “The trick to making the shamanic virtual world compelling is to fairly and truly convey it. You can't cut corners. You can't fake it. . . . So that this stuff really does blow people's minds, so that people see, well, human imagination is large enough to accommodate the human soul. It doesn't leave you feeling like you're wearing too tight a pair of shoes.” “We have no idea how strange the world we can create in the near term will be.” “Given the circumstances as we find them, what rational momentum is there to think that life is unique and arose on this planet only?” “I think that's the question that remains unanswered, you know, that's the grail of the thing. What is the nature of the Other, is basically what you're asking. Is it a construct, a projection or a discovery? It's not clear to me what it is.

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna and Erik Davis PROGRAM NOTES: Please Support Dennis McKenna's Kickstarter Project: The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss! [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] "But I did [as a child] spend a lot of time grappling with shit like the nature of the soul, and the nature of sin, and all of these imponderables. And, of course, what you end up doing is you end up reading scholars of mysticism.” “To me it's the most psychedelic part of the psychedelic experience, it's when you get the logos coming out of the trees, the rocks, the berries, the water, everything.” “[Speaking about how to pursue a psychedelic culture.] Well, I'd say the wrongly-packaged version would be something like 'Castenadaism', a formulaic cult. Do these things, take these drugs, follow these instructions and moral obligation will flee from your kin. Nobody can be that foolish. If, on the other hand, you sincerely pursue this stuff, grow the plants, try to understand it, try to revivify the rituals a

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna Please Support Dennis McKenna's Kickstarter Project: The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss!   Books by Terence McKenna The Missing Chapters of The Invisible Landscape Chapter 20: The Oversoul as Saucer Chapter 21: Open Ending PROGRAM NOTES: This is Tape Number 004 of the Paul Herbert Collection. [NOTE: All quotations are by Terence McKenna.] "In psilocybin and the tryptamine hallucinogens generally we actually have a state of mind that is very similar to the state of mind reported to accompany the UFO contact, and that these things could somehow be co-mapped, one onto the other” “Involvement with these tryptamines as they accumulated in your system, you seem to acquire the ability to inhabit more than one world at once, as though superimposed over reality there was a super-reality, a hyper dimensional world where information was accessible in magical ways.” “History is just this froth of artifact production that has appeared in the last ten to fifteen thousand years.

Guest speaker: Bruce Damer PROGRAM NOTES: [NOTE: All quotations are by Bruce Damer.] “I would say it's no more than 500 people in the United States who cause a vast amount of the grief.” “A crescendo involves everyone. The singularity seems to be this nerd idea of reaching some kind of Omega Point. It's very much the Christian idea of the second coming. It's apocalyptic, etc., a bit of a downer because everything comes to an end, but it's incredibly unlikely.” “The crescendo will throw off all the old religions. It will throw off the conspiracy theories. It will throw off crusty old corporate jobs. And replace them with self-sufficiency, direct communication with nature, with other human beings, with media, and the creation of opinions directly. “So if you think of the computing, it's not really computing, but the computing nature is doing all the time, it outstrips all our largest supercomputing grids.” “So if we can't do even one neuron [computer simulation] how are we going to upload consciousness