This is a guest post from Rachel Nuwer (@RachelNuwer), an award-winning science journalist who regularly contributes to the New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, and many other publications. Her reporting for the New York Times broke the news globally about the MDMA Phase III clinical trial and was highlighted by me, Michael Pollan, and Ezra Klein, among others. In 2022, Nuwer was among the inaugural recipients of the Ferriss–UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship. She holds masters degrees in applied ecology and in science journalism. Her first book, Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking, took her to a dozen countries to investigate the multibillion-dollar illegal wildlife trade.

What follows is an excerpt from her new book, I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World.

Enter Rachel…

One group of people who are particularly at risk of missing out on social benefits—and who serve as a sort of canary in the coal mine for the insidious effects of increasing disconnection—are autistic individuals.

Autistic adults are more likely to experience high levels of loneliness than their neurotypical peers. While 7 percent of the general adult U.S. population meets the diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder, one in four autistic adults do. Autistic people are also four times more likely to suffer from depression and eleven times more likely to have suicidal thoughts—problems that frequently both stem from and exacerbate social isolation—and they are 2.5 times as likely to die early.

Despite the serious setbacks that many people on the spectrum face due to living in a society that discriminates against those who are different, social anxiety, loneliness, and lack of connection are not inevitable parts of being autistic. According to a 2022 meta-analysis of thirty-four scientific papers, autistic adults are less likely to be lonely if—somewhat obviously— they have relationships, experience fewer difficulties with social skills, and have positive views and acceptance of themselves. While there are many different ways to achieve these things, some autistics have gravitated toward a certain particularly potent molecular tool.

Aaron Paul Orsini grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and as a teenager he remembers oscillating between being on the periphery of social gatherings and being “overly performative and needing to take over a situation.” At parties or at professional conferences as a young adult, he’d often feel overwhelmed by the bombardment of incoming sensory information. 

When he was twenty-three, Aaron started seeing a psychologist for depression, anxiety, and what he described as “feeling that I would never ‘get it,’ and not really having any answers about how or why that might be.” During one session, the psychologist handed him a questionnaire to fill out without really explaining what it was for. After evaluating Aaron’s answers, the psychologist announced that Aaron was autistic.

In some ways, this news came as a relief. Knowing that he was autistic provided Aaron with a new way to conceive of his specific challenges and potential strengths. Yet even with this revelation—and to his distress—his lifelong habit of focusing on his deficits and limitations proved stubbornly resilient to change. “Even though I could tell myself, ‘Oh, I have superpowers,’ I was still feeling down and feeling a bit like, for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t be able to do things,” he said.

When Aaron was twenty-seven, he experienced something of a quarter-life crisis and wound up on a train from Chicago to the West Coast with only a backpack in hand. He befriended a group of free-spirited fellow travelers who gave him a tab of LSD—a chance encounter that changed his life. Sitting on a tree stump in a forest, Aaron felt his mind go still; his awareness widened, and his sensory issues suddenly seemed manageable. The LSD also bestowed him with an ability to better read between the lines of social interactions and emotions in ways “I quite literally could never have imagined,” he writes in Autism on Acid, a book he published in 2019.

Aaron discovered MDMA shortly after LSD, when he was invited to a gathering of artists, musicians, and other creative types. By this time, he was an old hand at classic psychedelics, but MDMA was unique, he found, in that the experience never strayed beyond the realm of his own narrative, “with my ego fully intact,” he said. “It was like taking a crystallized form of intuition.”

MDMA’s use as a tool for reducing social anxiety was also made clear to Aaron that night, when he sat down next to a stranger and unhesitatingly struck up a conversation. He felt comfortable, he found, not only chatting but also just being silent with the other person and enjoying the shared moment. “In that instance, I struggled to feel like I had a problem, and I struggled to feel like, if a problem came up, it would be bad,” Aaron recalled. “Everything seemed endurable, just because of how much love I felt for being alive. And for the other people with me as well.”

Aaron has taken MDMA around seven times since then, adhering to a general rule of giving himself at least three months in between sessions. “I’ve intentionally kept myself at a distance from something that can be so great,” he noted. But even the handful of times he’s tried it, he said, it “feels like a lot of learning,” especially with regard to social situations. As he explained, “I’ve been able to witness myself being social, rather than just contemplate why I am socially anxious.”

Aaron isn’t the only autistic person to have serendipitously discovered MDMA’s usefulness for overcoming social anxiety. “We’re a diverse bunch, but one of the traits that seems to be fairly universal for us is how curiosity-driven we are,” said Nick Walker, a professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. “A lot of autistic people do end up experimenting with psychedelics,” she added. “I’ve certainly encountered people in the autistic community who have said they’d gone to a party, done MDMA, and felt much more comfortable than usual.”

In 2012 Walker was presented with an opportunity to dig more deeply into these intriguing anecdotal accounts when Alicia Danforth—then a clinician at the Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and a colleague of [psychiatrist] Charles Grob—reached out to her about collaborating. Danforth was also in communication with MAPS [The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies], which had received some funds from a donor earmarked for research on MDMA and autism. Based on published data showing that MDMA could increase empathy in typically developing individuals, the MAPS team had originally thought about carrying out a study to test whether MDMA could also help autistic people feel more empathy. Both Danforth and Walker pointed out that for autistic people, however, this was misguided. As Walker said, “It’s starting from false premises that the autistic community has been pushing back against for a couple decades now.” Indeed, since autism became a diagnosis in 1943, mainstream psychology and academia have pathologized autism and cast autistic individuals as being emotionally deficient, including lacking in empathy. Those flawed assumptions spring in part from neurological and behavioral differences that can exist between autistic and nonautistic people, creating communication difficulties. Because neurotypical people are in the majority, though, misunderstandings have traditionally been blamed entirely on autistic people, Walker said, and autistics have also been expected to shoulder the full burden of trying to fit into a world not built by or for them. While a rising tide of autistic academics such as Walker are working to change this—as is the autistic community at large—for now the dominant discourse still treats autism as a disorder in need of curing.

Danforth is not autistic, but her PhD research includes an analysis of data she collected from autistic individuals who had used MDMA. The hundred accounts shared with her revealed a wide array of benefits people perceived from taking MDMA, such as increasing their courage, communication skills, and feelings of connection. Many people also reported lasting healing with regard to trauma and social anxiety. Given Danforth’s dissertation findings and Walker’s real-world experience, they proposed that MAPS pursue a study trying to address something that autistic people themselves tend to identify as a problem and that MDMA seemed to have a high likelihood of being able to help with: social anxiety. While social anxiety isn’t an intrinsic aspect of autism, Walker emphasized, it is “something a lot of autistic people have because they have a lifelong history of social rejection.”

The twelve autistic adults who wound up taking part in the MAPS-sponsored double-blind, placebo-controlled study all had very severe social anxiety, and most also had a history of trauma—a common occurrence for autistic people. Working in an autism-friendly space that Walker helped design, Danforth and Grob oversaw two eight-hour therapy sessions with participants who were given either a placebo or MDMA (75 to 125 milligrams, sourced from the original David Nichols batch). During the active sessions, Danforth and Grob guided participants through various methods for exploring and communicating their feelings, including art therapy and the use of a deck of around fifty cards that visually depicted emotions. After each active treatment session, participants received daily phone calls for a week and three in-person integration meetings.

As Danforth, Walker, Grob, and their colleagues reported in 2018 in Psychopharmacology, at the end of the trial, participants who had received therapy paired with MDMA had significantly greater reduction in their social anxiety symptoms compared to those who had received therapy and a placebo. In a six-month follow-up after the sessions, the social anxiety scores for people in the MDMA group had either remained at the same lowered level or improved slightly—results, Walker said, that “fit our most optimistic hypothesis.”

Berra Yazar-Klosinski, MAPS PBC’s chief scientific officer and a coauthor on the social anxiety study, said she was most heartened to hear personal stories from participants about how their lives had improved in the months and years after the trial. One individual who initially presented with obesity lost eighty pounds after treatment; another moved out from their parents’ house, got married, and had kids; and another joined a soccer club and finished their college degree. One participant even attended a scientific conference with Danforth and gave a presentation about their experience in the trial. “The fact that this person went from having severe social anxiety to talking onstage is amazing,” said Yazar-Klosinski, who has a brother on the autism spectrum. “It’s really those kinds of events that are the true measure of improvement.”

*

Aaron already credits MDMA and other psychedelics with dramatically changing and improving his life. After his book came out, and as he continued to post about his experiences online, he began receiving more and more emails from other autistic people looking to compare notes and share their own stories about psychedelics. In response, in 2020 Aaron cofounded the Autistic Psychedelic Community, an online group for people interested in the intersection of psychedelics and neurodivergence. The group sponsors weekly Sunday Zoom discussions that have attracted some eighteen hundred attendees, including people from as far away as Australia, Kenya, and Israel. Around four thousand people have participated on the group’s messaging forums, and Aaron also maintains an “Autistic Psychedelic Wiki” of peer-reviewed literature pertaining to psychedelics and autism. While education is important, Aaron’s main goal, he said, “is really bringing autistics together to accept one another and to demonstrate radical acceptance outwardly, because most of us are acclimated to radical rejection.”

Aaron is now collaborating as a coinvestigator with researchers at University College London to conduct a qualitative survey with autistic people about their use of psychedelics, and he is also working on an audio documentary on the same topic. Relatedly, in 2021 he published Autistic Psychedelic, a compilation of community essays and survey responses. Some of the stories people shared provided anecdotal support for the research findings about social anxiety and MDMA and mirrored Aaron’s own experiences. Shae, for example, described herself as a twenty-seven-year-old who thinks in colors, shapes, and sounds rather than words. When she tried MDMA, she said, she experienced “effortless and fluid verbal communication” for the first time in her life. Suzanne, a thirty-two-year-old who also has ADHD, wrote that MDMA made her feel “seen and understood by my neurotypical friends in a way that I hadn’t experienced previously and vice versa. I learned more about actively listening to other people and that at the end of the day, neurodivergent and neurotypical people both want to connect, to be understood, and to love and be loved.”

The valuable lessons MDMA can impart about communication, connection, and acceptance can apply just as well to people who are not on the spectrum, too. My neurotypical friend John Allison, for example, is the type of guy who isn’t afraid to go to a bar by himself on a Friday night, because he knows he can just start a conversation with whoever is sitting next to him. He wasn’t always like this, though. John described himself as being “not that well socially calibrated” growing up in Arkansas—a wallflower at parties and the quiet kid at school. “I wanted to be social and be able to make more friends, to have better connections and have a good time with other people,” he said. “But I didn’t really know how to get out of my shell.”

As he got older John pushed himself to be more outgoing, but he still frequently felt anxious and awkward, especially in groups. When he was thirty-four, however, he tried Molly [MDMA] for the first time at a warehouse somewhere in Brooklyn and “just exploded,” he said. “I could talk to anyone and express myself in ways I hadn’t been able to before, and I could empathize more openly with strangers. I was surprised at how many different conversations I had, and how well they went. It was something I’d been trying to do, but I didn’t know how to do it until Molly just brought it out of me.” After the Molly-induced “jolt” to John’s system, he started making a point of trying to access that version of himself in his sober life. When he did, he found that he got the same positive reactions from friends and strangers alike. As these experiences built, so too did John’s confidence. Today, his practiced friendliness comes across as effortless and natural.

MDMA seems to be an especially effective tool for facilitating communication and overcoming social anxiety, [UCLA social neuroscientist Matthew] Lieberman said, because it “resets your expectations about other people and the reaction you’re going to get from them.” The drug also changes how people express and respond to emotions, a feature that researchers think could help them identify the fundamental components of meaningful connection. “We can use MDMA as a tool to bottle that sense of deep, instant connection and study it in the lab, and also as a tool to directly improve people’s lives,” said Sonja Lyubomirsky, a social psychologist at UC Riverside who specializes in happiness. In 2022 Lyubomirsky published a paper proposing a new field of study, psychedelic social psychology, that would incorporate psychoactive substances like MDMA into research investigating topics varying from how to foster a connection to nature to how to reduce prejudice and intergroup conflict. This “exciting new frontier” is only in its infancy, Lyubomirsky wrote to her colleagues, and she fully expects “an avalanche of ideas for relevant research questions and paradigms to emerge.”

Studies have already shown, for example, that individuals on MDMA are slower to pick up on angry facial expressions, but that they react with extra enthusiasm to happy expressions. The drug also lowers fear of being judged or rejected, freeing people up to experiment with different modes of interacting. There are hints that these lab-based findings might translate for some MDMA users into real-life gains. According to a 2023 analysis of data collected from 214,505 U.S. adults for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, people who have taken MDMA at least once in their lives, compared to those who have never taken the drug, have lower odds of difficulty interacting with strangers; of difficulty engaging in social activities, such as visiting with friends or going to parties; and of being prevented from being social due to a mental health issue. “A lot of social anxiety is about the idea of, if I put myself out there, I will be shamed, humiliated, and judged, and that’s terrifying to think about,” Lieberman said. “MDMA can move the needle on that by allowing you to have different experiences than you typically do.”

In best cases, he added, the drug can help “transform your understanding of yourself, the world, and your relationship to it, and give you new beliefs moving forward.”

***

Excerpted from I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World. Used with the permission of the publisher, Bloomsbury. Copyright © 2023 by Rachel Nuwer. 

The post I Feel Love: MDMA for Autism and Social Anxiety appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

By popular request, I recorded the short video above to cover what I consider “psychedelics 101.” There is a sea of misinformation out there, and the video covers resources I consider well vetted. All links are listed below. Please be sure to see the important disclaimer at the bottom of this post. 

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The plants and compounds mentioned in this post are illegal in many countries, and even possession can carry severe criminal penalties. None of this post constitutes medical advice or should be construed as a recommendation to use psychedelics. There are serious legal, psychological, and physical risks. Psychedelics are not for everyone—they can exacerbate certain emotional problems, and there have been, in very rare cases, fatalities. 

BOOKS AND ARTICLES:

• The Microdose free newsletter, courtesy of the the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
• “The Trip Treatment” by Michael Pollan, The New Yorker
• The Healing Journey: Pioneering Approaches to Psychedelic Therapy by Claudio Naranjo 
• The Secret Chief Revealed by Myron J. Stolaroff
• Wizard of the Upper Amazon: The Story of Manuel Córdova-Rios by F. Bruce Lamb
• Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon by Stephan V. Beyer

DOCUMENTARIES/VIDEO SERIES: 

• Trip of Compassion
• From Shock to Awe
• DOSED
• Horizons Video Series | Horizons Vimeo | Horizons Conference YouTube

PODCAST EPISODES: 

• Overview of Psychedelic Fact vs. Fiction — Microdosing, Mind-Enhancing Methods, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #377
• Dr. Gabor Maté — New Paradigms, Ayahuasca, and Redefining Addiction | The Tim Ferriss Show #298
• Michael Pollan — Exploring The New Science of Psychedelics | The Tim Ferriss Show #313
• Michael Pollan — Exploring the Frontiers of Psychedelics | The Tim Ferriss Show #365
• Marcela Ot’alora — How to Become a Psychedelic Therapist | The Tim Ferriss Show #396
• Rick Doblin — The Psychedelic Domino That Tips All Others | The Tim Ferriss Show #440
• Are Psychedelic Drugs the Next Medical Breakthrough? #104 | The Tim Ferriss Show

RESEARCH CENTERS: 

• The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research | Johns Hopkins
• Centre for Psychedelic Research | Imperial College London
• Center for Psychedelic Medicine | NYU Langone Health
• Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics | UC Berkeley

PEOPLE:

• Roland Griffiths
• Matthew Johnson
• Robin Carhart-Harris
• David Nutt
• Michael Bogenschutz
• Stephen Ross

The post Psychedelics 101: Books, Documentaries, Podcasts, Science, and More appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

This week has been a fascinating firestorm for me. 

Part of the excitement came after a series of tweets I published about some of the concerns I have as psychedelic medicine makes the leap from research to for-profit startups and companies. Here is what I wrote:

“I am very concerned by the patent land grab warming up in the for-profit psychedelic world. Is anyone working on an IP Defense Fund—or coalition of pro-bono lawyers—of some type to file USPTO objections/comments, etc. when companies attempt to secure broad patents that could hinder scientific research, reasonable competition (i.e., for “scale” and wide accessibility, we need competition to help drive costs down), and so on? Who are the smartest people thinking about this?
cc @michaelpollan, @Drug_Researcher, @RickDoblin, @RCarhartHarris”

[If helpful, here is the link to the actual thread on Twitter.]

In this post, I’ll describe a few noteworthy tweets, then I’ll focus on one particular response I received, as it helps us unpack a lot.

First, Rick Doblin of The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) replied with the below, which offers great food for thought. It demonstrates how non-profits and drug development can coexist with innovative business models. It also demonstrates how a profit-first model is NOT always necessary for attracting excellent talent to work on tough problems:

Several responses endorsed the Usona Institute — a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to both research and production of psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT, and other psychedelic medicines — which has made commitments to Open Science. I have many friends who have supported Usona after due diligence.

And now to the tweet that will be our jumping-off point for many topics…

One response that got quite a bit of attention was from Christian Angermeyer, who has co-funded and co-founded two notable for-profit companies in the space, Compass Pathways and ATAI Life Sciences, respectively.

Before we go further, I want to note that I like Christian and have also moderated panels involving him (e.g., the psychedelic science panel at Milken Institute Global Conference 2019, which I think is the best 101 overview I’ve ever been a part of), where I’ve always found his perspectives valuable. 

He is sincere in his goal to help millions with access to psychedelics, and here is his response to my thread (in case easier, screenshot is here):

I planned on responding on Twitter, but it got long and Twitter wouldn’t let me. I also realized that the points, problems, and questions are relevant to nearly anyone starting or working for a for-profit company in the psychedelic space.

For those reasons and more, I decided to turn my response into a blog post.

Here it is…

###

Thank you for the response, Christian. I agree with nearly everything in your response and appreciate the dialogue.

That said, I don’t think it directly addresses my concerns. To further the conversation, please allow me to highlight and clarify a few things:

1. I’m not anti-profit. I’m an early investor or advisor in 50+ companies that have created hundreds of billions of dollars of market cap (e.g., Shopify, Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Alibaba) and raised tens of billions of dollars in funding. I understand how important intellectual property (IP) can be and how critical it is to have financially sustainable models for scaling. 100% agreed there. For-profit structures, and markets in general, are excellent mechanisms for innovation and solving challenging problems.

2. Regarding my donations of “a few million dollars,” which seemed to be considered trivial—I think it’s worth noting that I began funding studies in psychedelic science circa late 2015, and I was a founding funder of the first dedicated research center in the world (Imperial College) and the first in the US (Johns Hopkins). I believe these and other “seed investments” have had large compounding effects, including cultural and institutional domino effects on an international scale. I judge my investments and philanthropy based on outcomes, not the size of my inputs. Little amounts can do a lot when put in early. Of course, I completely agree that large amounts of capital are helpful for scaling access.

Related to science — would you be willing to allow scientists who have signed deals with Compass or ATAI to share their agreements publicly (i.e., waive confidentiality clauses)? I believe that would quell some of the concerns among psychedelic advocates. If not, why not?

Of course, I realize that this would be unusual and not without challenges, but it might be a creative example of how companies can reassure the public that they are, net-net, contributing to, and not detracting from or disabling, the ecosystem. 

 3. You wrote that I’m “wrong” and “incredibly misguided” on the topic of IP. Can you please help me understand how I’m wrong and misguided? I’m always game to learn, but I could use more specifics.

As I stated in my initial tweet thread, I think it’s worth examining—and possibly pushing back on—“broad patents that could hinder scientific research, reasonable competition (i.e., for ‘scale’ and wide accessibility, we need competition to help drive costs down), and so on.” This also applies to anything in the public domain that should remain in the public domain. Please note that I didn’t mention specific companies, but since you engaged…

Do you disagree? Do you think a monopoly/duopoly of any type (Compass or ATAI or otherwise), patents on basic elements of the psychedelic experience, or patents covering dozens of possible conditions that might be treatable (some of which are being treated/researched at universities) would be good for the ecosystem, for innovation, or for ensuring affordable pricing?

I ask these things AS A CHEERLEADER. I WANT Compass and ATAI to succeed in helping many millions of people! I’ve met you, as well as the founders of Compass, and I believe you all to be good people. I really mean it. I believe that you all want to change the world for the better, and this field needs well-capitalized teams who can execute.

Compass and other for-profit companies have the potential to do a ton of good in the world. I also think that the nature and incentives of capitalism can breed strategies that are very bad for innovation, and we need individuals, groups, and third-party organizations to watch for them and mitigate them. Even the best of intentions can warp when they collide with the harsh realities of business.

None of this is Compass- or ATAI-specific. It applies to every startup and company in the space. 

For-profit ventures have a critical role to play in the expansion of psychedelic medicine, but for-profit ventures don’t get a free pass. They can also cause harm, and they often do. There will be compelling temptations to make unethical decisions, pursue unfair anti-competitive practices (e.g., patenting “inventions” that aren’t inventions), generate revenue without adding value (e.g., IP trolling), charge as much as possible (e.g., NYT – “Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight“), and treat the psychedelic landscape as a winner-take-all or zero-sum game. “Disruption” can be white hat or black hat; “scaling” can be done with net-gain or net-loss to an ecosystem.

There are bad actors and mercenaries in every industry. But here’s the part that people forget: even if the founders of a company rival Mother Theresa in their moral character and strength, that isn’t enough. Leadership changes, incentives change, power dynamics change, and all situations change (Suggested reading: We Will Call It Pala). That’s why both internal guardrails and external watchdogs are important. Once again, even the purest of intentions can warp when they collide with the harsh realities of business. I’ve seen it.

In the end, the people who would most suffer as a result of the possible problems I’ve outlined are the millions of people who most need psychedelic medicine. That is why I’m taking the time to write and publish my concerns.

Once again, thank you for the dialogue, Christian. I greatly appreciate it, and I greatly appreciate your mission to help as many people as possible. I look forward to your thoughts.

Most sincerely,

Tim

[UPDATE: Christian posted his response here on LinkedIn, and VICE published a follow-up article discussing their evaluation of the exchange.]

The post Some Thoughts on For-Profit Psychedelic Startups and Companies appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

“Do as little as needed, not as much as possible.”

— Henk Kraaijenhof 
Coach of Merlene Joyce “Queen of the Track” Ottey, who won 23 combined medals at the Olympic games and world championships.

[This post can also be reached and shared via tim.blog/conservation.]

This is a blog post I wish I didn’t need to write.

I have personally invested years and millions of dollars into nonprofit psychedelic research around the world (one example in the UK, one in the US, and one in NZ) because (A) I believe it has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of mental health and addiction, which the results of studies seem to thus far confirm, and (B) I’m a case study. Psychedelics have saved my life several times over, including helping me to heal from childhood abuse.

So, it’s with a very heavy heart that I’ve come to accept several sad truths. 

Chief among them is this: Most natural sources of psychedelics simply cannot withstand ever-increasing global demand. Many plant and animal species are already endangered or near extinction.

To have a hope of stemming the tide, we need to revise our psychedelic “menu,” and that’s what this post is about. It aims to offer options that are eco-friendly instead of eco-destructive and ethical instead of inadvertently abusive. If enough people make a few simple switches, I believe we can mitigate and possibly reverse the trend of ecological damage.

Given the slope of popularity growth, if we don’t reconsider our sources, I’d wager that we extinguish at least a handful of critical species within the next 3–5 years. There are also questions of animal abuse, and while some practices are ethically justifiable for small indigenous populations, they are catastrophic if expanded to even tens of thousands of people. It is inviting disaster to copy and paste from a tribe in the Amazon—as just one example—to NYC, LA, London, Sydney, or any other large city. It’s very easy to go from taking one tree to taking a forest or to go from grabbing one toad to extirpating an entire species.

So let’s make some changes.

Over the last decade, I’ve acquired enough familiarity with these medicines, and spent enough time (i.e., many hundreds of hours, if not thousands) with both scientists and indigenous practitioners to feel that I can speak with decent confidence to their therapeutic applications and interchangeability (or lack thereof).

That said, I am by no means the world’s top expert. Even though drafts of this piece were proofread by biochemists, ethnobotanists, and guides/facilitators with hundreds of sessions with different compounds, this post will no doubt contain typos and mistakes. Those are mine alone, as I also made final edits after receiving revisions. I will aim to improve this post over time as I get feedback.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: These plants and compounds are illegal in many countries, and even possession can carry severe criminal penalties. None of this post constitutes medical advice or should be construed as a recommendation to use psychedelics. There are serious legal, psychological, and physical risks. Psychedelics are not for everyone—they can exacerbate certain emotional problems and there have been, in very rare cases, fatalities. This article is simply an attempt at harm-reduction through education, as I know many people will use psychedelics, regardless.

AND ONE MORE NOTE: Please don’t make the all-too-common mistake of assuming that “all-natural” means safer; the deadly poisons strychnine and hemlock are derived from plants, and some psychedelic plants (e.g., datura, brugmansia) and animals are well-respected among indigenous peoples for their ability to kill. Similarly, don’t assume that synthetic psychoactive agents are automatically less effective or therapeutic than natural products. Many of us—present company included—wouldn’t have survived childbirth or childhood without synthetics. There are pros and cons to both, places for both, and responsible and irresponsible ways to use both. 

Now, on to the list…

– Peyote. Instead of peyote, which is nearly extinct and can take decades to regrow, consider using huachuma/San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi), which is more easily regenerated, faster growing, and more widespread in distribution. In my opinion, unless you are a long-standing member of the Native American Church (NAC) or indigenous groups that have used peyote for generations, you shouldn’t consider peyote as an option. Leave the few remaining plants for the Native populations who revere and need it most.

To more fully understand the plight of the indigenous who treat this as a sacrament, please read this piece from the LA Times: “Why are some Native Americans fighting efforts to decriminalize peyote?”

Options like San Pedro largely avoid the ecological, ethical, and cultural challenges of peyote. Synthetic mescaline is also an outstanding substitute. It’s easy to forget that, in some respects, the psychedelic movement in the English-speaking world was catalyzed by The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley, who eloquently wrote about his experience of beauty on synthetic mescaline.

– Iboga/ibogaine. Unless you are an opiate addict, please consider other compounds and treatments. As is the case with peyote, wild-harvested and farmed iboga are both at the breaking point. For the chemically inclined, ibogaine can be extracted and semi-synthesized from the far less threatened Voacanga africana tree, as I learned in Hamilton Morris’ excellent episode on Iboga/Ibogaine in Season Three of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia.

Iboga/ibogaine is also one of the few psychedelics with real cardiac risk and associated fatalities, so you should always have a cardiac screening, a cardiac specialist, cardiac monitoring, and related meds on site. Iboga can be a life-saver, but I think of it as a last resort for those who are otherwise likely to die of overdose.

– 5-MeO-DMT (aka “Toad”). Request synthetic instead of animal-sourced. 5-MeO-DMT is commonly extracted from the venom glands of the Sonoran Desert toad, a species now under multiple threats. One solution is straightforward: synthetic 5-MeO-DMT, the chemistry of which is both affordable and scalable. Why put an at-risk species in the gristmill?

From the Wikipedia page for the Sonoran Desert toad (aka Colorado River toad): 

In California, I. alvarius has been designated as “endangered,” and possession of this toad is illegal. “It is unlawful to capture, collect, intentionally kill or injure, possess, purchase, propagate, sell, transport, import or export any native reptile or amphibian, or part thereof….”

In New Mexico, this toad is listed as “threatened” and taking I. alvarius is unlawful in that state.

For those who would like to more visually understand why toad-derived 5-MeO-DMT is a bad idea, I highly recommend watching A Brief History of 5-MeO-DMT by chemist and filmmaker Hamilton Morris, who has extensively studied the compound, its history, and its means of production. For me, the most important part of this presentation begins at 12:45 (click here to begin at 12:45). To get the gist in <5 minutes, I suggest watching 60 seconds here, then watching another three minutes starting around 17:00.

A few additional factors to consider:

– ~20–30% of people who inhale “toad” appear to be “thrashers” and thrash about uncontrollably. For video footage of one such person, see the first two minutes of this. It is not rare.

– For many people, I believe the 5-MeO-DMT experience of ~5–20 minutes provides less “workspace” for therapeutic exploration, and recall of insight, than other options like psilocybin (as found in psilocybe or “magic” mushrooms), LSD, etc. Granted, there are counterexamples, but that’s my general perspective, as well as my personal experience.

– I’ve seen experienced psychonauts (e.g., 50+ ayahuasca experiences) get knocked loose by 5-MeO-DMT, and it’s taken them significant time, in some cases weeks, to return to some semblance of baseline. Even if you choose synthetic, know that you cannot predict which card you’re going to pull from the deck.

– From a seasoned guide: “The vast majority of experienced practitioners (not that I can speak for them all) would say 5-MeO is actually contra-indicated for people struggling with anxiety and trauma…. In most cases, it is used more for spiritual growth and consciousness expansion, which is valuable but could be considered a luxury.”

– From Hamilton Morris via SMS on indigenous use: “There is absolutely no evidence of B. alvarius smoking before the publication of Ken Nelson’s pamphlet [in 1983], the evidence for any form of indigenous use of B. alvarius is highly speculative and I find none of it convincing. B. alvarius is the only species that has been found to contain 5-MeO-DMT. The smoking of B. alvarius venom among Seri people appears to be a modern practice that is almost universally attributed to outside influences.”

Now, to be clear: there are very interesting and valuable applications of 5-MeO-DMT, perhaps for another post. I know people who credit it for saving their lives. That said, I consider it required in close to zero cases. In the rare cases where it is required, synthetic would still be the ethical choice.

Postscript addition — Below is a note from a draft proofreader and friend, who is also a facilitator in Peru with vast experience across compounds and hundreds of people:

“THANK YOU, I feel the same way and advise against the experience 90% of the time. Little lasting value for most, high-risk. Many close friends who are more experienced than I have become unhinged for weeks or months. If you think you can assert your opinion even more strongly without sounding like a preacher, please do.”

– Kambo. Simply put, please don’t consider this.

Before we dive in, a quick note in response to comments on this post — I am well aware that kambo is *not* a psychedelic in any classical sense. Nonetheless, it is often incorrectly viewed that way, and it is frequently incorporated into the menu of people who do and administer psychedelics. There is a tremendous amount of overlap. Personally, I’ve never met a non-indigenous user or provider of kambo who isn’t also a user or provider of psychedelics (hence this post is “An Urgent Plea to Users of Psychedelics”). Furthermore, this post is more broadly about making ethical choices amongst psychoactives. For all of these reasons and more, I’m including it in this list.

I find it impossible to endorse kambo, given the most common methods used to gather the secretions from the giant leaf frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor), possible side effects (including associated fatalities), and more attractive alternatives. If you think the frogs are released unharmed, as I’ve seen written repeatedly, imagine doing the below to another animal, like a dog or a cat. Many practitioners will put the frogs over or near an open flame, as these methods are explicitly intended to induce stress and prompt release of the skin secretions. Yes, there are a few tribes with less aggressive methods, but the below photo is not an outlier. You can easily find dozens of similar photos online.

If we have other options, is this really what we want “expanded consciousness” or “evolved consciousness” to involve?

The Giant leaf frog population is currently stable, and while rapid increases in demand could easily change that status, my first concern here is animal abuse. Once again, I don’t object to indigenous peoples using this frog sparingly for their own use. Such groups are small and, in some respects, have fewer options available to them for certain conditions. If you’re reading this, you have more ethical alternatives easily within reach. Frogs are also probably the most at-risk group of animals threatened by both climate change and chytrid fungi, yet another reason not to stress or harm them.

For the ailments I’ve seen anecdotally relieved by kambo—depression, alcohol abuse, autoimmune disorders, and others—most Westerners have access to other compounds and approaches that may well provide relief without involving animal abuse.

Consider legal ketamine—even a single dose—for acute depression and suicidal ideation as well as chronic pain; read about psilocybin for depression and the impressive results coming out of Johns Hopkins; look at New York University’s compelling research related to psilocybin for alcohol use disorder (here, here, and here), and consider the following book for thoughts on ayahuasca and autoimmune disorders: The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine.

If you really want a purgative/emetic (i.e., something to make you vomit), there are dozens, hundreds, or thousands of plant options (e.g., yawar panga—use sparingly and under supervision), particularly those rich in saponins. But it need not sound exotic. I’ve experienced purges with various types of ginger in the Upper Amazon. And, yes, it is remarkable how great you feel after stopping the continual vomiting, which can last for hours. Is it therapeutic or simply relief after-the-fact? And is it worthwhile? For most, I would suggest not.

In this list, kambo is also the most prone to what I might call “Instagram porn,” since the process literally leaves burn marks on the skin. It makes for a great story, and people will often do it for the arm photo, the likes, the comments, and the follows. I understand the appeal, but I’d also like people to consider the consequences of perpetuating this practice on social media. Good stories sometimes = bad karma.

To that point, and this might be one of the more important paragraphs in this entire piece…

I encourage everyone to ask themselves an uncomfortable question, which I continually ask myself: If you couldn’t tell anyone about your experience or put it on Instagram or social, would you still do it? Are you really doing this for healing or expansion, or are you doing this for a story you can share later? If the latter, consider hitting pause or stop so you can reconsider your plans. 

Measure twice and cut once. And maybe, just maybe, consider keeping this part of your life private. In a world of vanishing privacy, keeping these experiences for you, your family, and your closest loved ones can foster a sense of sacredness that is increasingly rare.

MY CONCLUSIONS FOR NOW (PLUS ADDITIONAL NOTES)

These concluding notes, all a work in progress, are split into the following: Overall, On Plants, On Animals, On Synthetics, On Hybrid Approaches.

Overall:

Rather than asking some version of “How can I have the most powerful/helpful experience possible [without regard for environmental consequences]?,” I suggest we all first ask ourselves, “Is this an ethical tool that could really help me to improve?”

There are many excellent options that will give you a solid “yes” to the latter.

Even if the alternatives I propose are somehow, say, 80% as effective as the threatened all-natural options (I don’t think they are less effective), they are still easily effective and versatile enough for 99.999% of people. This includes “oldies” like psilocybe mushrooms or LSD, which are reliably powerful and—icing on the cake—have excellent safety data.

But excellent safety data doesn’t mean you should take anything lightly — even tried-and-true classics like LSD can knock you loose or untethered well beyond your session. In fact, in all my volunteering for the Zendo Project at various festivals, nearly 100% of the most completely disassembled cases I met in the crisis tents were there after high-dose LSD; not all were back-to-normal 24 or 48 hours later. It’s critical to have well-trained supervision and pre-scheduled post-care (e.g., a psychedelic-familiar therapist for integration) with any of these compounds. Put the safety nets in place beforehand, not when you’re in free-fall.

Now, perhaps not using toad-derived 5-MeO-DMT means three sessions of something else instead of two sessions, but… who cares? Perhaps not using kambo means taking a few weeks to find another modality. That’s fine if you’re playing the long game. Sometimes, slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Invest in sustainability and you will be rewarded; I’m confident in this. Conversely, beware of the new thing, the cool discovery. It’s a hard temptation to resist, but remember: good stories sometimes = bad karma.

Start small, start conservative, and ask more questions than you think necessary. If you are seeking to know thy self, ensure you first know thine medicine.

On Plants:

Choose species that grow well, grow widely, and grow quickly. Simply eliminate from your consideration any slow-growing or rare species like peyote. Focus instead on readily available and easily cultivated species like psilocybe mushrooms, San Pedro cactus, ayahuasca (both vine and shrub), etc.. Peyote can take decades to grow; mushrooms can take weeks to grow. Filter your options by environmental impact first.

Next, you can filter by psychological and physical safety. Of the above-mentioned three, mushrooms and San Pedro are generally better tolerated than, and also more sustainable than, ayahuasca. There are many cases of people losing sight of shore after ayahuasca and needing to get put back together over weeks and months. One of my close and experienced friends ended up living in a tent for more than a year after severe “ontological shock” in South America. The below excerpt from a review study will give you the gist:

“The operations of the paleo-mammalian brain are also directly relevant to explaining what Gallimore and Luke (2016) note as a a powerful shock of the DMT [or DMT-containing ayahuasca] experience caused by an unshakeable feeling of authenticity that makes it impossible for the individual to deny the reality of the experience, nor dismiss it as an hallucination, in spite of its bizarre nature. For many, there is an absolute certainty regarding the reality of the DMT experience that clashes so powerfully with people’s most basic assumptions regarding reality that it produces a state of ‘ontological shock’ (Mack, 1999) regarding the ultimate nature of reality.”

What happens when alternate realities become hyperreal compared to your normal waking reality? It’s a special breed of profound confusion. Becoming unmoored with ayahuasca happens, and it can take a while to “process.”

I say this as a true believer in the therapeutic value of ayahuasca, and I say this as someone with a fair number of repetitions, but I also say this as someone who has been destabilized for extended periods after a few of them. If you spend enough nights with the “vine of the dead” (literally one translation of ayahuasca from the Quechuan roots), you will sooner or later get strapped to the front of the ice-breaker. It could be your first outing, or it could be two years in, but everyone eventually gets tumbled and humbled. I do not consider it low-risk.

So, treat ayahuasca as a big gun. It’s safer to start — and perhaps continue — with other things.

Next, let’s discuss collection mentality. No single indigenous population uses all psychedelics under the sun, and we don’t need to, either. If you could only use psilocybe mushrooms for the rest of your life, you could continue to cultivate that relationship, develop deep skills, and unfurl profound layers of learning and meaning until your dying breath. The depth is there, if you commit to the exploration. There is no need to stamp the psychedelic passport with every plant or animal, and there are many reasons not to. Narrow and deep beats broad and shallow every time.

If you believe in plant spirits, and you want to connect with and learn from them, simply ensure the plants you choose aren’t threatened or endangered. That makes you a steward of these plants, which I wholeheartedly support. To choose threatened options makes you a willfully damaging consumer at best and a destroyer of these plants at worst. There are many unthreatened plants that indigenous populations consider powerful, including those that North American and South American traditions regard as master plants and teacher plants (e.g., tobacco). Do your homework and you can find them. Here is one excellent book to start with. If you’re unwilling to do the homework, I implore you to find your recreation outside of natural psychedelics. It’s simply too easy to do damage otherwise, both to nature and yourself.

On Animals:

Please don’t consider animals. Revisit the photo at the top of this post as well as Hamilton’s video. There are too many ethical and ecological reasons why this should be off the menu, and there are plenty of other powerful options.

Sure, it’s tempting to say “But the XYZ tribe harvest by hand and do this ethically,” and there might be such cases, but 1) this doesn’t scale for high demand, which 2) results in people using unethical methods who claim to use ethical methods, and 3) if you’re not personally watching the process and taking it from the hand of the person who harvested, you’re taking someone else’s word for it (and if you’re buying services in the US, Europe, etc., many people’s words for it). For me, these are instant disqualifiers.

If the vast majority of indigenous traditions could survive and develop deep spiritual practices without psychedelic toads, frogs, etc., you can too.

On Synthetics:

In the psychedelic communities, it’s common to hear people embrace plants and animals as “medicine” and dismiss anything synthesized as “chemicals.” I think this is largely an artificial distinction, and there are both terrible and great options for different purposes within each group. For instance, I have not found any compound better for treatment-resistant PTSD than MDMA-assisted psychotherapy (even though I don’t technically consider MDMA a psychedelic), and research supports this.

There is an argument to be made that synthetics are sometimes both safer and more effective than all-natural compounds for many therapeutic purposes. Some advantages include consistent potency, precise dosing, and (in many cases, like 5-MeO-DMT), scalability. The synthetic pantheon also offers an incredible spectrum of wonders. It’s sometimes said that two beings created psychedelics: God and Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin. Sasha co-wrote PiHKAL and TiHKAL, which are encyclopedias of chemical delights for every imaginable purpose, including synthesis steps and trip reports for nearly every compound. Sasha was a serious scientist deeply concerned with, and knowledgeable about, safety and effectiveness. Both of his books are treasures.

HOWEVER, SAFETY ALERT: Because these compounds are mostly illegal and unregulated, knowing your source and purity is paramount for safety. MDMA and MDA are often misrepresented or laced with other dangerous drugs, including things that don’t appear to make sense, such as fentanyl. Extremely high-risk drugs like 25i-NBOMe are often sold as LSD. I would strongly suggest that anyone venturing into psychedelics consider purchasing testing kits from DanceSafe, an outstanding 501(c)(3) public health organization.

It’s also worth noting that synthetics are not automatically environmentally friendly. Sources and process do matter, just as they would for natural psychedelics, and there are related environmental crises: deforestation in Cambodia by those seeking MDMA precursors; illegal dumping of solvents, acids, and so on by black-market chemists; and more.

The above issues are largely byproducts of the “war on drugs” and an unregulated illicit drug trade, which I believe is best addressed by responsible legalization, regulation, and taxation of these compounds. This is one of the many reasons for my strong support of Phase Three trials like this.

On Hybrid Approaches:

One of the weaknesses of synthetics isn’t that they’re synthetic; it’s that they’re often administered or taken without a meaningful container.

I believe much of the efficacy of natural compounds comes from the setup and setting of ritualized administration. This is true for ayahuasca circles with singing and “doctoring,” the shared experience and suffering of various purges, and dozens more. Speaking from personal experience, this “medicine” of bonding and belonging has been just as powerful as the plants I’ve come to know and love.

What if we incorporated some of the best practices—the most meaning-imbued aspects—of the traditional with the reliability of synthetics?

If you think that’s heresy and that you shouldn’t combine old practices with the new, first think back to the ceremonies you’ve seen. It’s likely they’re highly syncretic already, blending elements from multiple influences. Sage smudging and mushrooms, for instance? Those are not classically combined in the same room. There are a million examples. It’s even true for “traditional” ayahuasca ceremonies in the jungles of South America, where you might find a combination of animism, Christianity, and shamanic tools like the ubiquitous “Agua de Florida.” Guess what the last is? It is literally “Florida Water,” a unisex cologne first manufactured in… the US! So why not experiment with new combinations that are environmentally and ethically calibrated for the time and ecological reality in which we live? The mixing and matching and blending of psychedelics and formats has been constant for millennia, and there is no one right or fixed way to do things.  What is “right” can and does change over time. 

LAST WORDS

In the pursuit of healing or expanded consciousness, I would like to suggest that we all take the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm. 

Alas, causing no harm is nearly impossible, unless you grow your own materials. So let us consider a modern Psychonaut’s Oath: First, do the least harm possible.

In my mind, that is the only approach that isn’t hypocritical. If you’re contributing to (or condoning) unnecessary harm in order to facilitate your own spiritual journey, it is not highly evolved. It is mercenary.

If we truly care for Mother Nature, the best thing we can do is the least necessary, not the most possible. Perhaps we should seek the least exotic treatment that will do the job, not the most exotic treatment that nature can provide. There are plenty of great options.

I still think there is time to right the ship, but it requires us to start taking action now. Once plants or animals are gone, they are gone. This is time-sensitive.

So, to try and sum it up, here are the steps I’d advise for the vast majority of people entering this space:

1) First, filter your choices for minimal ecological impact. If there were a 100-fold or 1,000-fold increase in demand over the next 3-5 years for what you’ve chosen (very possible), could it still be ethically sourced? What might the unintended consequences be?
2) Filter for safety, both physical and psychological.
3) Work with a well-trained professional. Do they do a medical screening? Do they ask about medications? If not, I’d pass. I understand that will exclude most indigenous experiences, and I remain confident in this recommendation for novices and many intermediates. How have they handled redline cases where people have freaked out or had really bad responses? If they say it’s never happened, I’d pass. They are likely too inexperienced or being dishonest. Do they call themselves a “shaman”? That’s a pass for me. I’ll spend time with ayahuasqueros, curanderas, Roadmen, etc., but I’m very skeptical of “shamans,” and the best practitioners I know are equally skeptical. It is simply not a word I hear used by the best to describe themselves.
4) Ensure you have found, tested, and booked a therapist the days after your experience, someone prepared to help you integrate and put yourself back together, if needed. I encourage people to have a therapist in addition to a facilitator. This therapist should be someone willing to get calls at odd times. Why two? I dislike single points of failure. Even the best facilitators have emergencies and can be unavailable or need to fly out unexpectedly; this happens, and I’ve seen it happen.
5) If a synthetic, ensure you test it.
6) Start small. Take much less than you think you can handle. You can always take more, but you can’t unhit the golf ball once you smash it.

Sounds like a lot of work, right? It is. I think you should take this as seriously as choosing a neurosurgeon for a serious operation. That might seem ridiculous, but do 100 or 200 sessions and you’ll see a wide spectrum of things that can go partially or fully sideways. It’ll make most people real believers in pre-flight checklists.

Now, back to choosing a more ethical menu of plants and compounds…

There will always be powerful forces pulling us towards the wrong reasons, so it requires effort to ensure we’re doing things for the right reasons. I’m in there with you. These things require constant self-inquiry, ego-checks, and uncomfortable reminders.

The future of these healing tools is literally in our hands.  It’s up to each of us to do our part, and together, we can do a lot of good.

Thank you for reading.

Tim

###

AFTERWORD:

For those who would like to go further and support preservation, I am offering a $50,000 challenge grant to the nonprofit Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), which works in partnership with indigenous groups to protect ancestral rainforests, shamanic traditions, and tribal knowledge (botanical, linguistic, and otherwise). They have partnered with over 55 South American tribes to map and improve management of over 80 million acres of ancestral rainforests.

I will match up to $50,000 USD in donations made to ACT before 5 p.m. PT this Thursday, February 25, 2021. In other words, whatever you collectively donate by 5 p.m. PT this Thursday, up to a maximum of $50K, I will then match and donate. Even if you can only donate $5, every dollar matters and adds up! A few dollars can mean a lot when multiplied by a community of thousands or tens of thousands. This is also not all-or-nothing. If you all donate $20K, I’ll match $20K. $30K, $30K. I’d love to hit the maximum, if possible, and it would make a beautifully round $100K to ACT ($50K from you all, and $50K from me). 

Once the deadline has passed, I will work with the President of ACT, Mark Plotkin, to add up all donations to ACT between publication of this blog post and the deadline. That will be the number (up to a max of $50K) that I double by matching.

Just click here (Amazon Conservation Team homepage, direct donation page) to learn more and consider donating.

The post An Urgent Plea to Users of Psychedelics: Let’s Consider a More Ethical Menu of Plants and Compounds appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

– Actual patient featured in “Trip of Compassion”

This post is about the most compelling movie I’ve seen in the last year.

I first watched “Trip of Compassion” about six months ago, when I was sent a link to a private video. The film had been broadcast once on Israeli television, but it wasn’t distributed or available anywhere else. This documentary affected me so deeply (and immediately) that I flew to Tel Aviv, met the filmmakers, and offered to help launch the film digitally worldwide. Everything I am doing for this film is 100% pro bono, and all proceeds go to the filmmakers.

Why am I doing this, and why is this film so exciting to me?

Tens of millions of people worldwide suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Millions more have suffered from emotional and physical abuse but never get diagnosed. I would put myself in the latter category for reasons I’ll explain another time.

“Trip of Compassion” documents one unusual approach to healing trauma that might astonish you, an innovative treatment involving the psychoactive drug MDMA (commonly known as “ecstasy”). As you will see firsthand, if the therapy is well designed, true rebirth and transformation can happen in a matter of weeks and not years.

If you’ve ever felt held back, felt defective in some way, or felt that you’re not living up to your full potential, this film will give you hope.

This is also the first feature documentary to show actual therapy session footage (to our knowledge), to which the patients consented because of the incredible results they experienced.

Filmed at the Beer Yaakov Mental Health Center in Israel, “Trip of Compassion” provides a rare glimpse into a treatment process that can restore optimism and even the will to live.

Thank you for watching this film (just click here to stream) and, if you find it as powerful as I did, thank you for sharing it or this post.

***

In addition to helping launch this movie, I am supporting broader access to MDMA-assisted therapy in the USA and elsewhere by donating to MAPS.org, a non-profit dedicated to making this treatment available to those who need it (e.g., phase 3 trials, regulatory work, scholarships for low-income patients).

If you also decide that this work is important, please consider visiting MAPS.org to donate. NOTE: Be sure to specify the following in the donation form (there is a field for this, as they have many initiatives): “Funds are restricted to MDMA phase 3 trials.”

***

Thank you so much for reading this far. I couldn’t be more excited to share this film.

And remember as you watch: this is possible now. To quote William Gibson, “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”

Let’s help make this treatment more evenly distributed.

More to come,

Tim

The post "Trip of Compassion" — The Most Compelling Movie I've Seen In The Last Year appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

“I realized people were not having LSD experiences; they were having experiences of themselves. But they were coming from depths that psychoanalysis didn’t know anything about.” — Stanislav Grof

Stanislav Grof, M.D., (stanislavgrof.com) is a psychiatrist with more than 60 years of experience in research of “holotropic” states of consciousness, a large and important subgroup of non-ordinary states that have healing, transformative, and evolutionary potential.

Previously, he was Principal Investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA.

Currently, Stan is Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, CA, and conducts professional training programs in holotropic breathwork and transpersonal psychology, and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA).

His publications include more than 150 articles in professional journals and books like Psychology of the Future, The Cosmic Game, and Holotropic Breathwork, among many others.

In this wide-ranging interview, we cover many topics, including:

• Some of his main takeaways after supervising or guiding ~4,500 LSD sessions
• The place and role of “wounded healers”
• Limitations and uses of traditional psychoanalysis and talk therapy
• Holotropic breathwork and some similarities to MDMA
• Stories of odd synchronicities and the seemingly impossible
• Stan’s strangest personal experiences on psychedelics
• What Stan believes humanity most needs to overcome: division and destruction

I hope you’ll enjoy this in-depth conversation with Stan Grof!

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

• Listen onApple Podcasts
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• Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another episode that explores science and psychedelics? — Listen to my conversation with Paul Stamets, an intellectual and industry leader in the habitat, medicinal use, and production of fungi. Stream below or right-click here to download.

This episode is brought to you by Peloton, which has become a staple of my daily routine. I picked up this bike after seeing the success of my friend Kevin Rose, and I’ve been enjoying it more than I ever imagined. Peloton is an indoor cycling bike that brings live studio classes right to your home. No worrying about fitting classes into your busy schedule or making it to a studio with a crazy commute.

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Peloton is offering listeners to this show a special offer. Visit onepeloton.com and enter the code TIM at checkout to receive $100 off accessories with your Peloton bike purchase. This is a great way to get in your workouts or an incredible gift. Again, that’s onepeloton.com and enter the code TIM.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with Stanislav Grof:

Website | California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) | International Transpersonal Association (ITA)

• Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research by Stanislav Grof
• The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness by Stanislav Grof
• Holotropic Breathwork: A New Approach to Self-Exploration and Therapy by Stanislav Grof
• Other books by Stanislav Grof
• California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)
• International Transpersonal Association (ITA)
• What is LSD? by L. Anderson, PharmD, Drugs.com
• ‘Apparently Useless’: The Accidental Discovery of LSD by Tom Shroder, The Atlantic
• Dimethyltryptamine Experiments with Psychotics by Zoltan Boszormenyi and Stephen Szara, Journal of Mental Science
• DMT Research from 1956 to the Edge of Time by Andrew R. Gallimore and David P. Luke, Reality Sandwich
• 5-MeO-DMT: What You Need to Know by Seth Fitzgerald, The Drug Classroom
• Psychotomimetic Effects of PCP, LSD, and Ecstasy: Pharmacological Models of Schizophrenia? by Vibeke Sorensen Catts and Stanley V. Catts
• The Consciousness Research of Stanislav Grof: A Cosmic Portal Beyond Individuality by Donna A. Dryer andRichard Yensen, Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology
• Serotonin: Functions, Side Effects, and More by Annamarya Scaccia, Healthline
• Electroencephalogram (EEG), Johns Hopkins Medicine
• Hiroshima Atomic Bomb (1945): A Day That Shook the World, British Pathe
• What Does Dharmakaya Mean? by Barbara O’Brien, ThoughtCo.
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) by Padmasambhava
• Savikalpa, Nirvikalpa, and Sahaja Samadhi by Sri Chinmoy, Earth-Bound Journey and Heaven-Bound Journey
• Kensho, Wikipedia
• Satori, Wikipedia
• Maya, Wikipedia
• What is Reality?: The New Map of Cosmos, Consciousness, and Existence by Ervin Laszlo
• Holotropic States by Alex Paterson, Esolibris
• They Saw Earth From Space. Here’s How It Changed Them. by Nadia Drake, National Geographic
• The Rites of Passage by Arnold van Gennep
• The Eleusinian Mysteries: The Rites of Demeter by Joshua J. Mark, Ancient History Encyclopedia
• What Are the Differences Between the Teachings of Zen and Theravada Buddhism?, Quora
• Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, Wikipedia
• Hesychasm by Kevin Knight, New Advent
• Saying the Jesus Prayer by Dr. Albert S. Rossi, St. Vladimir’s Seminary
• What Are the Spiritual Exercises?, Ignatian Spirituality
• A Collection of Esoteric and Cabalistic Exercises for Self Protection by Marcia L. Pickands, The Psychic Self-Defence Personal Training Manual
• Psychoactive Plants Lecture Notes, Department of Plant Biology, University of Maryland
• Ibogaine and Iboga by Seth Fitzgerald, The Drug Classroom
• Psilocin and Psilocybin by Seth Fitzgerald, The Drug Classroom
• The Ayahuasca Boom in the U.S. by Ariel Levy, The New Yorker
• The Hazy History of Bufo Toad Venom Smoking, Tryptamine Palace
• The Toad and the Jaguar: A Field Report of Underground Research on a Visionary Medicine: Bufo Alvarius and 5-Methoxy-Dimethyltryptamine by Ralph Metzner
• When the Impossible Happens by Stanislav Grof
• Church of the Toad of Light on Facebook
• Esalen
• International Transpersonal Conference
• Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research by Stanislav Grof
• Michael Pollan — Exploring The New Science of Psychedelics, The Tim Ferris Show Episode 313
• Psycholytic and Psychedelic Therapy Research 1931-1995: A Complete International Bibliography compiled by Torsten Passie
• This Is My Attempt at Explaining Grof’s COEX Systems Theory, Presented in LSD: Doorway to the Numinous by JwJesso, Reddit
• LSD: Doorway to the Numinous: The Groundbreaking Psychedelic Research into Realms of the Human Unconscious by Stanislav Grof
• What is the Collective Unconscious? by Daryl Sharp, Jung Lexicon, via Frith Luton
• Spring Grove Experiment, Wikipedia
• Suicide Survivors: A Follow-up Study of Persons Who Survived Jumping from the Golden Gate and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridges by David H. Rosen, MD, Western Journal of Medicine
• Where Are They Now?: The Fate of Suicide Attempt Survivors by Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, Speaking of Suicide
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition: DSM-5
• Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia by Emil Kraepelin
• Neo-Kraepelinian Divergences from Kraepelin: What Are They and Why They Matter by Lindsay Hoeschen, Portland State University
• The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis by Otto Fenichel, M.D.
• Oedipus Complex: One of Freud’s Most Controversial Ideas by Kendra Cherry, Verywell Mind
• Personal Unconscious, Wikipedia
• Lessons Learned from Huston Smith’s Exploration of Religious Experience by Don Lattin, Religion News Service
• God in a Pill? Meher Baba on L.S.D. and The High Roads via Wikipedia
• Mysticism Sacred and Profane by Robert Charles Zaehner
• Makyo, Wikipedia
• 1962 Good Friday Experiment, MAPS
• Siddha Yoga
• Shaivite Hinduism, Patheos
• From Ganja to God by Geetanjali Joshi Mishra, Beatdom
• What Is Bhang and How Is It Made?, RQS
• Hashish vs. Marijuana, Sunrise House
• The Essential Guide to Datura, The Third Wave
• The Secret of the Soma Plant, American Institute of Vedic Studies
• The Rig Veda
• The Texts of Kashmir Shaivism, The Siddha Yoga Teachings
• Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta, Wikipedia
• The Dance of Synchronicity and Unexpected Meaning by Cynthia Cavalli, PhD, Fielding Graduate University
• The Way of the Animal Powers (The Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Vol. 1) by Joseph Campbell
• The Mantis and the San by Chrigi in Africa, Ranger of the San Clan
• The Lost World of the Kalahari by Laurens van der Post
• Ammonite from Mt. Everest Base Camp, The Fossil Forum
• 4 Bizarre Out-Of-Body Experiences That Turned Into Case Studies by Laura Martisiute, ATI
• 9 Things to Know About Ladino by Sarah Aroeste, My Jewish Learning
• Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN)
• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus
• Paradisia and Dominatia: Science and the Developing World by Michael J. Moravcsik and John M. Ziman, Foreign Affairs
• Atman and Brahman by Beverlee Jill Carroll, World Religions
• Zhangzi’s (Chuang-Tzu’s) Butterfly Dream Parable by Elizabeth Reninger, ThoughtCo.
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn
• The Chemical Revolution of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, National Historic Chemical Landmarks
• Seeking the Magic Mushroom by R. Gordon Wasson, LIFE Magazine
• The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries by R. Gordon Wasson and Albert Hofmann
• Kykeon by Joshua J. Mark, Ancient History Encyclopedia
• Peyote and the Native American Church by Catherine Beyer, ThoughtCo.

SHOW NOTES

• How did Stan first become interested in psychedelics, and what application was he hoping it could serve? [8:32]
• In how many LSD sessions does Stan estimate he’s been involved, and what accounts for his initial conclusion that it would change psychiatry and psychology? [13:18]
• When did Stan have his first personal experience with LSD, what were the conditions like, and how did it change his career path from that point forward? [18:45]
• Why we don’t always have the right words on hand to describe psychedelic experiences. [21:40]
• After more than six decades studying non-ordinary states of consciousness, how does Stan view consciousness today (in comparison to some other equally controversial views)? [25:22]
• Why does Stan prefer the term non-ordinary states of consciousness to altered states, what are holotropic states of consciousness, and how have human beings operated in these states over the course of history? [28:26]
• Stan’s thoughts on 5-MeO-DMT (methoxy DMT) and the psychedelic venom of the Bufo alvarius toad — which gave him “by far, the most powerful psychedelic experience” he’s ever had. [37:43]
• Stan elaborates on his famous statement that “Psychedelics, used responsibly and with proper caution, would be for psychiatry what the microscope is for biology and medicine or the telescope is for astronomy,” and how he feels about the relevance of traditional psychoanalysis or psychotherapy in combination with some of these psychedelic compounds. [44:42]
• What would Stan’s ideal experiential, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy look like? [56:10]
• Stan points out that there are non-pharmacological ways to achieve holotropic states — such as holotropic breathing, which I can confirm actually works. [56:57]
• What substances, dosages, and frequency would psychedelic assistance take under Stan’s guidance? [58:52]
• Exploring the neglect of etiology in modern psychology and how Stan would correct this problem. [1:03:30]
• What makes the difference between someone emerging from a psychedelic state profoundly transformed or just experiencing it as a casual tourist with no persistent change of perspective? [1:08:47]
• Stan talks about his experiences with Siddha Yoga founder Swami Muktananda. [1:18:07]
• The reasons Stan wrote When the Impossible Happens, the stories surrounding this time in his life, and an explanation of synchronocity. [1:25:17]
• On out of body experiences and a moving example of how unorthodox psychiatry helped someone overcome depression in a surprising way. [1:36:32]
• What psychedelic at what dose is most similar to the effects or the experience of holotropic breathwork? [1:44:34]
• Does the common psychedelic phenomenon of encountering entities seemingly separate from the person in such a state carry over to breathwork? Has Stan encountered these entities during his own experiences? [1:45:49]
• What are Stan’s thoughts on microdosing, and what has he experienced at the tail end of high-dosage sessions? [1:51:18]
• What constitutes a “spiritual emergency,” and are there any differences between a naturally occuring spiritual emergency like schizophrenia or one precipitated by psychedelics? Can any good come from a bad trip? [1:55:15]
• What might treatment for someone experiencing a psychotic break look like in a hypothetical alternate world where the collective unconscious is recognized by psychologists and psychiatrists? [1:59:25]
• From his first psychedelic experience to now, how has Stan’s concept of the inner world changed over the past 60 years? [2:04:36]
• Is there any particular synchronicity or experience in any of the holotropic states that Stan has experienced that he finds the hardest to explain or the most unusual/remarkable? [2:08:42]
• If Stan were a young scientist starting out today and all compounds could be legally studied, what would his focus be? [2:16:33]
• At age 87, how does Stan stay sharper and more energetic than a lot of people in their 20s? [2:23:34]
• What does Stan think humanity needs most of all right now? [2:27:46]
• One final story: a lesson in forgiveness. [2:31:16]
• Parting thoughts. [2:40:59]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

• Jack Kornfield
• Albert Hoffman
• George Roubicek
• Hanscarl Leuner
• Stephen Szara
• Zoltan Boszormenyi
• Ervin Laszlo
• Stuart Hameroff
• Kary B. Mullis
• Francis Crick
• Steve Jobs
• Charlie Tart
• Arnold van Gennep
• Isis
• Osiris
• Inanna
• Dumuzi
• Xibalba
• Gautama Buddha
• Jesus
• St. Ignatius of Loyola
• Ralph Metzner
• Michael Pollan
• Sigmund Freud
• Carl Gustav Jung
• Christina Grof
• Adolf Hitler
• David H. Rosen
• Emil Kraepelin
• Otto Fenichel
• Joseph Campbell
• Huston Smith
• Meher Baba
• Robert Charles Zaehner
• Walter N. Pahnke
• Swami Muktananda
• Ram Dass
• Werner Erhard
• Shiva
• Fritjof Capra
• Laurens van der Post
• Wolfgang Pauli
• Confucius
• Pachamama
• Joseph Stalin
• Nicolaus Copernicus
• Chuang-Tzu
• Doug Engelbart
• Thomas S. Kuhn
• John Dalton
• Antoine Lavoisier
• Isaac Newton
• Albert Einstein
• Gregory Bateson
• Alfred Korzybski
• Eleusis
• Plato
• Aristotle
• Cicero
• Pindaros
• R. Gordon Wasson
• Carl A.P. Ruck
• Ken Godfrey
• Robert Leihy
• Helen Bonny
• Walter Houston Clark

The post Stan Grof, Lessons from ~4,500 LSD Sessions and Beyond (#347) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

“The goal of meditation is to uncover a form of wellbeing that is inherent to the nature of our minds.” — Sam Harris

Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg) received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D in neuroscience from UCLA. Sam is the host of the Waking Up podcast, and he is the author of multiple books including The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz).

This experimental episode came about because a few months back Sam asked me to be a beta tester for his Waking Up meditation app that he was creating at the time. It was recently released, and I highly recommend it. I anticipated it would be good because Sam’s work is always good, and he’s one of those rare humans who seems to think and speak in finished prose, and he has a voice that can very easily lull you into a semi-psychedelic state while you are completely sober. You’ll hear what I mean soon.

Sam has a unique combination of experiences and areas of expertise, and his approach is that of a logical progression of layering on different types of training for learning the skill of meditation. In this episode, Sam will discuss his experiences with MDMA, his spiritual exploration, contact with so-called gurus, duality versus non-duality, and lots more. If you want to dive right into a beginner level guided meditation, skip to [52:32].

Make sure to check out the bonus episode (also found on this page) if you enjoy what you find here and want to jump straight to the guided meditations. The bonus episode also features additional content from Sam not found in the longer episode. Enjoy!

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

• Listen onApple Podcasts
• Listen onStitcher
• Listen onSpotify

• Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Here is the companion episode if you want to jump directly to the guided meditations from Sam:

This episode is brought to you by LegalZoom. I’ve used this service for many of my businesses, as have quite a few of the icons on this podcast including Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg of WordPress fame.

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This podcast is also brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could only use one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is, inevitably, Athletic Greens. It is my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body and did not get paid to do so. As a listener of The Tim Ferriss Show, you will receive a one-off supply of 20 free Athletic Greens Travel Packs, valued at $99.95. To order yours, visit AthleticGreens.com/Tim.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with Sam Harris:

Website | Waking Up (app) | Waking Up (podcast) | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

• Sam Harris, PhD on Spirituality, Neuroscience, Meditation, and More, The Tim Ferriss Show Episode 14
• Sam Harris on Daily Routines, The Trolley Scenario, and 5 Books Everyone Should Read, The Tim Ferriss Show Episode 87
• Books by Sam Harris
• Oak for Meditation and Breathing
• Calm: The #1 App for Meditation and Sleep
• Headspace: Meditation and Mindfulness Made Simple
• 10% Happier
• Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris
• Drugs and the Meaning of Life, Waking Up Episode 1
• Battle of Shiloh Facts & Summary, American Battlefield Trust
• A New View of the Battle of Gallipoli, One of the Bloodiest Conflicts of World War I by Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian
• MDMA: Effects, Hazards & Extent of Use by L. Anderson, PharmD, Drugs.com
• The Bible
• The Quran
• The Beatles in India: 16 Things You Didn’t Know by David Chiu, Rolling Stone
• Vipassana Meditation
• Dzogchen
• Advaita Vedanta, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Theravada Buddhism, BBC
• The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga by Acaeiya Buddhaghosa
• Nirvana (or Nibbana)
• Rigpa
• Who Are the Tibetan Lamas?, Slate
• The figure from Waking Up for finding your blind spot.
• Elon Musk Reveals Plan to Put 1 Million People on Mars by Laurie Vazquez, Big Think
• On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious by Douglas Harding
• “The unexamined life is not worth living.” -Socrates

SHOW NOTES

• What you can expect from this episode (and why you probably shouldn’t listen to it while you’re driving a car). [07:21]
• The Waking Up course app differs from other meditation apps. [08:39]
• Sam’s background, and the journey his first foray into psychedelics would set in motion. [09:22]
• Sam explains his views on religion and profound experiences some would call “spiritual” — which he set out to explore after that first experience with MDMA. [19:46]
• Gradual versus sudden notions of realization or awakening, enlightenment versus cessation, and the distinction between meditation and psychedelics as tools. [22:09]
• The meeting that led to a switch in Sam’s perspective on meditation after lengthy attempts for enlightenment proved unsuccessful. [31:05]
• The dangers of guru Poonjaji’s “all or nothing” approach, the main difference between Advaita and Dzogchen teachings, and what it took to unravel one fellow student’s apparently confirmed enlightenment. [37:12]
• Exploring Dzogchen and the context behind Sam’s current view of meditation. [42:32]
• Perceiving the optic blind spot: the difference between being utterly misled by false information, being nudged in the general direction, and being precisely guided by an expert. [45:42]
• One does not simply drop out of Stanford: Sam returns to college after 11 years away and finds himself uniquely qualified to unite his philosophical, scientific, and secular perspective with meditation. [50:24]
• Why Sam believes the Waking Up course app and its guided meditations will benefit beginning and veteran meditators alike. [51:38]
• Sam shares a 10-minute guided meditation from the course designed for a relative beginner to the practice of mindfulness. [52:32]
• Sam shares a lesson from the course on the topic of death. [1:03:24]
• Sam shares a lesson on the mystery of being. [1:10:33]
• A 12-minute guided meditation from a little later in the course. [1:19:54]
• Parting thoughts. [1:33:49]

BONUS EPISODE NOTES

• Day 2 guided meditation. [00:56]
• Day 17 guided meditation. [11:23]
• Day 31 guided meditation. [25:13]
• Why does Sam think you should meditate? [35:17]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

• Kevin Rose
• Peter Attia
• Dan Harris
• Joseph Goldstein
• Dionysus
• Jesus
• Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha)
• Lao-Tzu
• Sayadaw U Pandita
• Buddhaghosa
• Mahasi Sayadaw
• H.W.L. Poonja
• Ramana Maharshi
• Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
• Rip Van Winkle
• Socrates
• Bertrand Russell
• Winston Churchill
• Cleopatra
• Walter Benjamin
• Douglas Harding
• Eric Weinstein
• Will MacAskill
• Jocko Willink
• Plato

The post Sam Harris, Ph.D. — How to Master Your Mind (#342) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

“The war against nature is a war against your own biology.”

— Paul Stamets

Paul Stamets (@PaulStamets) is an intellectual and industry leader in the habitat, medicinal use, and production of fungi. Part of his mission is to deepen our understanding and respect for the organisms that literally exist under every footstep taken on this path of life. Paul is the author of a new study in Nature’s Scientific Reports, which details how mushroom extracts—specifically extracts from woodland polypore mushrooms—can greatly reduce viruses that contribute to bee colony collapse.

Paul is the author of six books, including Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, and Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide, and he has discovered and named numerous species of psilocybin mushrooms. Paul is also the founder and owner of Fungi Perfecti, makers of the Host Defense mushroom supplement line, and it is something I’ve been using since Samin Nosrat recommended it in my last book, Tribe of Mentors.

Paul has received numerous awards, including Invention Ambassador (2014-2015) for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Mycologist Award (2014) from the North American Mycological Association (NAMA), and the Gordon & Tina Wasson Award (2015) from the Mycological Society of America (MSA).

The implications, applications, and medicinal uses of what we discuss in this interview are truly mind-boggling, and we get into some of my favorite subjects, including psychedelics and other aspects of bending reality. If you’re interested in contributing to psychedelic science and research, you can do so at MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), or if you’ve got $100,000 or more to spare, visit me at tim.blog/science.

I hope you enjoy this entire interview, but if you only have time to listen to one part, I recommend checking in at the [56:24] mark to hear how Paul’s first experience with psilocybin mushrooms affected his lifelong stutter. Enjoy!

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

• Listen onApple Podcasts
• Listen onStitcher
• Listen onSpotify

• Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast that explores science and psychedelics? — Listen to my conversation with Hamilton Morris, host of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, in which we investigate the mythology of Alexander Shulgin and the difference between poison and a dose. Stream below or right-click here to download.

This podcast is brought to you by Peloton, which has become a staple of my daily routine. I picked up this bike after seeing the success of my friend Kevin Rose, and I’ve been enjoying it more than I ever imagined. Peloton is an indoor cycling bike that brings live studio classes right to your home. No worrying about fitting classes into your busy schedule or making it to a studio with a crazy commute.

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This podcast is brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years, and I love audiobooks. I have a few to recommend:

1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2. The Tao of Seneca by Seneca
3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

All you need to do to get your free 30-day Audible trial is visit Audible.com/Tim. Choose one of the above books, or choose any of the endless options they offer. That could be a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or even a class. It’s that easy. Go to Audible.com/Tim or text TIM to 500500 to get started today.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with Paul Stamets:

Fungi Perfecti | Host Defense | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

• Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduce Viruses in Honey Bees by Paul E. Stamets, et al., Scientific Reports — Nature
• Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World by Paul Stamets
• Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets
• Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide by Paul Stamets
• mushroomreferences.com
• MykoWeb: Mushrooms, Fungi, Mycology
• Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
• 6 Ways Mushrooms Can save the World by Paul Stamets, TED Talk
• Strange but True: The Largest Organism on Earth Is a Fungus by Anne Casselman, Scientific American
• Opisthokonta, NIES Collection
• Fungus-Like Mycelial Fossils in 2.4-Billion-Year-Old Vesicular Basalt by Stefan Bengtson et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution
• Wm. K. Stamets Co. of Columbiana, OH, Vintage Machinery
• The Evergreen State College
• Metarhizium Anisopliae Strain F52 (PC Code 029056), US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs
• MycoPesticide Update by Paul Stamets, Fungi Perfecti
• Cordyceps: Attack of the Killer Fungi, Planet Earth
• Patents by Inventor Paul Stamets, Justia Patents
• New Anti-Viral Compounds from Mushrooms by Paul Stamets, HerbalGram
• Project BioShield, Stimson Center
• Fort Detrick, MD
• Mycologist Promotes Agarikon as a Possibility to Counter Growing Antibiotic Resistance by Bob Yirka, Phys.org
• Smallpox Defense May Be Found in Mushrooms with Steve Inskeep and Tom Banse, Morning Edition, NPR
• Cidofovir (aka Vistide), RxList
• What is Bioguided Fractionation? by Frederick Williams, Google+
• Cortes Island, BC
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• BP’s Slick Greenwashing by James Ridgeway, Mother Jones
• Potential Health Effects of Pesticides by Eric S. Lorenz, Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences
• The King’s Speech
• Aircraft Carrier Intrepid
• Altered States of Consciousness by Charles T. Tart
• The Hero’s Journey: Mythic Structure of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth by Dan Bronzite, Movie Outline
• Thunderstorms & Lightning Safety, Ohio.gov
• Axis Mundi, New World Encyclopedia
• What Is Synesthesia and What’s It like to Have It? by Laura Moss, MNN
• The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi): A Novel by Hermann Hesse
• Matthew 4:1-11 (Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness)
• Psilocybe Mushrooms and Their Allies by Paul Stamets
• Ganoderma Lucidum (Lingzhi or Reishi): A Medicinal Mushroom by Sissi Wachtel-Galor, John Yuen, John A. Buswell, and Iris F. F. Benzie, Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects
• Hericium Erinaceus, an Amazing Medicinal Mushroom by Benjarong Thongbai, Sylvie Rapior, Kevin D. Hyde, Kathrin Wittstein, and Marc Stadler, Mycological Progress
• Niacin, RxList
• Michael Pollan — Exploring The New Science of Psychedelics, The Tim Ferriss Show #313
• Return of the Fungi by Andy Isaacson, Mother Jones
• Aspen Academy of Martial and Healing Arts
• Astromycology: The “Fungal” Frontier by Tristan Wang, Harvard Science Review
• How Mushrooms Can Save the World by Kenneth Miller, Discover
• An Amazing Letter From a Cultivator in Syria, Fungi Perfecti
• Wood Chip Fermentation at the Ranch by Paul Stamets, YouTube
• Fantastic Fungi by Louie Schwartzberg
• Colony Collapse Disorder, EPA
• Pesticides Are Harming Bees — But Not Everywhere, Major New Study Shows by Dan Charles, Morning Edition, NPR
• Varroa Mites Infesting Honey Bee Colonies by Ric Bessin, Entomology at the University of Kentucky
• Amitraz
• Companion Planting with the Garden Giant by Alex Taylor, Fungi Perfecti
• A Google Scholar search for “deformed wing virus” is concerning.
• p-Coumaric acid
• How the Mushroom Dream of a ‘Long-Haired Hippie’ Could Help save the World’s Bees by Evan Bush, The Seattle Times
• Will Humans Survive the Sixth Great Extinction? by Nadia Drake, National Geographic
• The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A.A. Milne
• Mycological Society of America
• WSU HONEY BEES + POLLINATORS | Washington State University
• North American Mycological Association

SHOW NOTES

• How do you pronounce and define fungi and mycelium? [10:05]
• What makes the immunological resilience of mycelium all the more impressive? [11:07]
• In what way is a mushroom like a fish? [13:13]
• From a genetic or an evolutionary perspective, how should people think about mycelium? Is mycology more closely related to botany or zoology? [14:48]
• Why do antifungal drugs have the potential to be extremely dangerous to humans? [18:14]
• Paul describes a Kafkaesque childhood in Columbiana, Ohio after his family’s business collapsed in the wake of WWII — bringing much of the town with it. [19:16]
• How living in a carpenter ant-infested house made from military surplus scraps combined with Paul’s affinity for vacuuming and curiosity about mycelium to create a natural pest remedy. [22:26]
• If proven so successful, why hasn’t this natural pest remedy been brought to market yet? [34:30]
• Fighting viruses with mycelium in a post-9/11 world. [35:47]
• At what point in the research cycle is agarikon being tested against viruses today? [41:47]
• What happened when top secret test results intended for other eyes only were misdelivered to Paul? [44:08]
• What’s the upside to the United States Department of Defense taking your patent for reasons of national security, or having naysayers argue against your patent’s effectiveness? [46:57]
• As Paul’s mycelium solution for fending off carpenter ants isn’t yet on the market, what does he suggest to people who want to try it today? [50:12]
• As a 10-year solution that only costs about 25 cents to produce, is Paul’s mycelium pest fix perhaps too effective for the liking of those who profit from current, toxic remedies? [51:49]
• When a sincere attempt at disrupting the status quo can’t make it past a boardroom only concerned with “greenwashing” its corporate image. [53:34]
• Paul takes us on the epic “superhero’s journey” that relieved him of his lifelong stutter as a teenager — with the assistance of “about 20 grams of” psilocybin cubensis. [56:24]
• Has Paul had any stuttering relapses since that day? [1:09:47]
• Paul relays a story about what psilocybin did for an aging friend with failing senses. [1:10:14]
• Why does Paul think his superhero’s journey was instrumental in helping him overcome his stutter, and what effects has he witnessed in others on similar journeys? [1:14:35]
• Paul touches on why profit-driven pharmaceutical companies might frown at the therapeutic efficacy of magic mushrooms — in parallel to chemical companies rejecting natural pesticides. [1:16:43]
• Mushrooms are just the tip of the mycelium. Paul elaborates on how fungal biomes operate and why it might be that humans often fear the ephemeral nature of mycelium. [1:18:10]
• Paul talks about the neuroregenerative benefits of lion’s mane and soul’s eye in mycelium over mushroom form. [1:21:40]
• At nearly 93 years of age, Paul’s mother can still beat his brothers at Scrabble — could it be thanks in part to her daily intake of lion’s mane? [1:22:54]
• Paul ponders the effects of stacking microdoses of psilocybin with lion’s mane and what might be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. [1:23:44]
• How might such microdosing be administered and supervised in a research setting? Paul explains why this question is timely and shares his reasons for a strategy of filing what he calls “blocking patents” under certain circumstances. [1:27:08]
• Is microdosing sexy — or at least more attractive to people who might otherwise be afraid to try a full dose of psilocybin? [1:29:48]
• What does Paul Stamets believe makes Paul Stamets Paul Stamets? [1:33:50]
• Paul tells us about that time he (politely) used his black belt prowess to change the life of an angry biker. [1:37:08]
• A reminder that kind acts, even in small increments, can move mountains. [1:40:54]
• You are beautiful. [1:42:10]
• In the network of everything, Paul is an astromycologist now. [1:42:59]
• A wide variety of ways in which fungi could help solve human problems — from environmental cleanup to famine relief to space travel. Bonus: the proper way to pronounce mycorrhizal. [1:44:24]
• How a Syrian refugee is teaching others to cultivate mushrooms for food — a skill set that can be passed along and lay the foundation for sustainable biosecurity. [1:47:42]
• Fantastic Fungi and the Wood Wide Web. [1:49:19]
• Why colony collapse disorder is really just a euphemism for a serious problem — though surprisingly the one issue that bridges liberals and conservatives. [1:50:20]
• “Failure is the price of the tuition I pay to learn a new lesson.” [1:56:51]
• Paul’s epiphany for how to save the bees came to him in a dream. Really! Why this might be good news in the midst of the sixth Great Extinction. [2:02:25]
• What can people listening who are not mycologists nor future mycologists do to help save the world? [2:09:51]
• Parting thoughts. [1:15:37]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

• Michael Pollan
• Samin Nosrat
• Patty Stamets
• John Stamets
• Bill Stamets
• North Stamets
• Andrew Weil
• Dusty Yao
• Dr. Jack Secrist
• Dr. Samir A. Ross
• Hermann Hesse
• Jesus
• Bill Webb
• Daniel Elliot Stuntz
• Henry Miller
• Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Ansel Adams
• Roland Griffiths
• Albert Einstein
• Charles Darwin
• Bashar al-Assad
• Louie Schwartzberg
• Lyn Davis Lear
• Norman Lear
• Suzanne Simard
• Jay Evans
• Hillary Clinton
• Donald Trump
• Lee Stein
• Steve Sheppard
• Winnie the Pooh
• Bill Gates
• Jeff Bezos

The post Paul Stamets — How Mushrooms Can Save You and (Perhaps) the World (#340) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

“It’s good to take things seriously. You don’t want to be afraid, but it’s a serious experience. I would say it’s no less serious than being reborn.”

— Hamilton Morris

Hamilton Morris (TW: @hamiltonmorris, IG: @hamiltonmorris) is a writer, documentarian, and scientific researcher who currently studies the chemistry and pharmacology of tryptamines at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

His writing has been featured in Harper’s Magazine, Playboy, and Vice, and he is the creator of the television series Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, which recently completed its second season, and it is absolutely one of my favorite series of the last five years.

Hamilton is exceptionally good at explaining complex subjects simply and making science sexy, as you’ll discover in this episode.

Enjoy!

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

• Listen onApple Podcasts
• Listen onStitcher
• Listen onSpotify

• Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast discussing psychedelics?— Listen to my conversation with Michael Pollan, author of How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Stream below or right-click here to download.

This episode is brought to you by Inktel. Ever since I wrote The 4-Hour Workweek, I’ve been frequently asked about how I choose to delegate tasks. At the root of many of my decisions is a simple question: “How can I invest money to improve my quality of life?” Or “how can I spend moderate money to save significant time?”

Inktel is one of those investments. They are a turnkey solution for all of your customer care needs. Their team answers more than 1 million customer service requests each year. They can also interact with your customers across all platforms, including email, phone, social media, text, and chat.

Inktel removes the logistics and headache of customer communication, allowing you to grow your business by focusing on your strengths. And as a listener of this podcast, you can get up to $10,000 off your start-up fees and costs waived by visiting inktel.com/tim.

This episode is also brought to you by Leadership: In Turbulent Times by the ever-amazing, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin — who you may have heard on this podcast recently (if not, I recommend checking out our conversation at tim.blog/doris).

Leadership: In Turbulent Times is a culmination of five decades of acclaimed studies in presidential history, which offers an illuminating exploration of the early development, growth, and exercise of leadership drawing from the experiences of four presidents — Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ. Goodwin asks and answers questions like: Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the leader make the times, or do the times make the leader? This seminal work provides an accessible and essential roadmap for aspiring and established leaders in every field. I highly recommend Leadership: In Turbulent Times, and you can find out more about it at doriskearnsgoodwin.com.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with Hamilton Morris:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

• Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia
• The Last Interview With Alexander Shulgin by Hamilton Morris and Ash Smith, Vice
• PiHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved): A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin
• TiHKAL (Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved): A Continuation by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin
• The Healing Journey: Pioneering Approaches to Psychedelic Therapy by Claudio Naranjo
• Alexander Shulgin Research Institute
• Mexacarbate (Zectran), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Shulgin Notebooks and Lab Books, Erowid
• This Genius Chemist Spent 50 Years Creating Psychedelic Drugs in His Home Lab…for a Good Cause by Ahmed Kabil, Timeline
• MDMA (Ecstacy), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Dimoxamine (Ariadne), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Methylone, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Dr. Ecstasy by Drake Bennett, The New York Times Magazine
• Goethe on the Psychology of Color and Emotion by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
• Does Cannabis Use Lower Your IQ? by Jeremy Kossen, Leafly
• A Protocol for the Evaluation of New Psychoactive Drugs in Man by Alexander T. Shulgin, L. Ann Shulgin and Peyton Jacob, III, Methods & Findings in Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology (PDF download here)
• Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Victorian Era Medicine: Strychnine by V.L. McBeath
• Organic Chemistry As a Second Language: First Semester Topics by David R. Klein
• Organic Chemistry As a Second Language: Second Semester Topics by David R. Klein
• Khan Academy Chemistry Courses
• Learn How to Make Your Own Essential Oils by Debra Maslowski, DIY Natural
• Piperine, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Buzzed: The Straight Facts About the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy by Cynthia Kuhn Ph.D. and Scott Swartzwelder Ph.D.
• The Garage in Harvard Square
• Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• LSD Now: How the Psychedelic Renaissance Changed Acid by Jesse Jarnow, Rolling Stone
• Salvia: What Are the Effects? by Kathleen Davis, Medical News Today
• YouTube Videos about Salvia
• Erowid Experience Vaults
• Dipropyltryptamine (DPT), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• “The Dose Makes the Poison” Infographics Gallery, Chemical Safety Facts
• Adderall (Amphetamine, Dextroamphetamine Mixed Salts), RX List
• The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale: How Ayahuasca, an Ancient Amazonian Hallucinogenic Brew, Became the Latest Trend in Brooklyn and Silicon Valley by Ariel Levy, The New Yorker
• Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs), The Mayo Clinic
• Psilocybine, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Magic Mushrooms Around the World: A Scientific Journey Across Cultures and Time — The Case for Challenging Research and Value Systems by Jochen Gartz
• Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain by Nicolas Langlitz
• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
• Shamanism and the Sacred Cactus: Ethnoarchaeological Evidence for San Pedro Use in Northern Peru by Douglas Sharon
• The Psychedelic Journey of Marlene Dobkin de Rios: 45 Years with Shamans, Ayahuasqueros, and Ethnobotanists by Marlene Dobkin de Rios
• Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History by Jonathan Ott
• A Clandestine Chemist’s Tale, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S2 EP6
• Methaqualone (Quaalude), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Gaboxadol by Hamilton Morris, Harper’s Magazine
• Magic Mushrooms In Mexico, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S1 EP4
• The Lazy Lizard’s School of Hedonism, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S1 EP6
• Shepherdess: The Story of Salvia Divinorum, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S1 EP3
• The Cactus Apprentice, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S2 EP8
• Murray and Lanman Florida Water
• Wizards of DMT, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S2 EP4
• Marinol (Dronabinol), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• What Is THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and What Does It Do? by Adam Drury, High Times
• 5-MeO-DMT, The Drug Classroom
• UR-144, The Drug Classroom
• What is Crohn’s Disease?, The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation
• The Psychedelic Toad, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S2 EP1
• Teen’s Quest for Amazon ‘Medicine’ Ends in Tragedy by Tricia Escobedo, CNN
• Is Ayahuasca Tea Legal in the USA? Answered by Grant Eaton, Quora
• ‘Hello, Newman’ Compilation, Seinfeld
• Moclobemide, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic by Wade David
• The Serpent and the Rainbow (film)
• Scopolamine, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Tetrodotoxin (TTX), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Overview: Lichen (Dictyonema huaorani) in Ecuador Might Produce Psychedelic Drugs, The Drug Classroom
• Ibogaine, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Howard Lotsof Dies at 66; Saw Drug Cure in a Plant by Dennis Hevesi, The New York Times
• Methadone, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Buprenorphine, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Glial Cell Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms and Causes, The Mayo Clinic
• Levodopa (L-dopa), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• In the News: Kratom (Mitragyna Speciosa), National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
• Mescaline (Peyote), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Alkaloids: An Overview, ScienceDirect
• Terpenoid, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Case Histories of 2CD Smart Pill Usage by Darrell Lemaire, Erowid
• The Dunning-Kruger Effect Shows Why Some People Think They’re Great Even When Their Work Is Terrible by Mark Murphy, Forbes
• Omberacetam (Noopept), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• PRL-8-53, Wikipedia
• Fonturacetam (Phenylpiracetam), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Are You a Synesthete? by Darya L. Zabelina, Psychology Today
• The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory by A.R. Luria
• The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide — Risks, Micro-Dosing, Ibogaine, and More (with James Fadiman), The Tim Ferriss Show
• Nicotine, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Caffeine, U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Methylphenidate (Ritalin), U.S. National Library of Medicine
• Adam Gazzaley — The Maverick of Brain Optimization, The Tim Ferriss Show
• Neuroracer
• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
• Ketamine: Realms and Realities, Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia S2 EP5

SHOW NOTES

• Alexander Shulgin: man or myth? Hamilton gives us a brief synopsis of the amazing life of the late “godfather of ecstasy” and his contributions to science. [07:05]
• What chemists and non-chemists can get out of reading Shulgin’s books. [14:20]
• Like Goethe, it was Shulgin’s unique perspective that made him nearly peerless. [16:10]
• Examining how Shulgin mitigated the risk of testing his newly synthesized compounds prompts another question: how much do we really know about the long-term effects of substances already in wide use? [19:37]
• Resources Hamilton suggests for anyone who seeks basic literacy in chemistry. [23:28]
• Where did Hamilton’s interest in psychedelics originate? [27:10]
• The 12-year-old Hamilton was a discerning consumer of street psychedelics. [27:45]
• What was Hamilton’s first experience with salvia like? [29:55]
• Why are consciousness-altering substances so culturally misunderstood, and how might this change in the future? [30:40]
• Does Hamilton consider himself a spiritual person? What’s the value in substance-induced spiritual experiences for those who don’t consider themselves spiritual? [33:18]
• Weighing the experimental approach of a scientist toward psychedelics versus the traditional, “shamanistic” approach within a cultural framework. [35:06]
• The difference between a medicine and a poison is the dose, and the method for finding the right dose varies from person to person. [39:21]
• One hitch in pinpointing an ideal dose: not all substances (particularly those deemed illegal) are measured consistently, and there can be a variation of potency even between two specimens of the same species of mushroom grown in the same substrate — or between the cap and stem of the very same mushroom. [41:53]
• Recommended reading on psychedelics. [43:35]
• What inspires the journalism behind Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia? [46:02]
• Which episode of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia would Hamilton recommend to a scientist? [50:02]
• Which episode of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia would Hamilton recommend to a non-scientist with an interest — and maybe a fear — of psychedelics? [52:26]
• Which episodes seem to have the most popular appeal — and why does Hamilton think this is the case? [54:00]
• Which episode would Hamilton recommend to someone who doesn’t have a healthy respect for the potential dangers of psychedelic substances? [57:56]
• The attitude Hamilton finds most effective for covering his subject matter with journalistic integrity. [59:07]
• The seed of most negative experiences Hamilton has had under the influence of substances — and how he’s talked himself out of them. [1:01:02]
• A cautionary tale for anyone wondering “What’s the worst thing that could happen under the influence of 5-MeO-DMT without lucid supervision?” [1:05:23]
• Should a documentary show things the way they are — even when they’re potentially unsafe — or should it strive to set an example for people who don’t otherwise know any better? [1:07:31]
• Why hasn’t there been an episode of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia about ayahuasca? Hamilton addresses elitist attitudes, manufactured traditions, and media frenzy surrounding this tea — and why you don’t have to go all the way to the Amazon to experience it. [1:08:55]
• Why do people cling to interpretive, conceptual frameworks for psychedelic experiences, and are these experiences enhanced or diminished by the presence of a guide (such as a shaman)? [1:14:02]
• What self-talk helps Hamilton keep his experiences from being negative or overwhelming? [1:16:13]
• Is watching Seinfeld really the best way to cap off a profound session of reconceptualizations? [1:17:09]
• How has Hamilton found ayahuasca “almost cartoonishly” practical for finding internal motivation, and in what way do such experiences have an anti-addictive effect? [1:18:33]
• Who is Wade Davis, and did he prove that zombies are real? [1:21:44]
• What is ibogaine, and how might it be useful for recovering addicts and Parkinson’s disease sufferers? [1:25:32]
• How sustainable is the harvesting of natural compounds, when is synthesis a reasonable alternative, and what might we be missing in the long run? [1:31:25]
• What is (and isn’t) an alkaloid? [1:37:26]
• Hamilton’s take on nootropics, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and the difficulty with self-assessing and defining intelligence. [1:38:58]
• Pondering 2CD and the induction of synesthesia-like effects for memory retention. [1:42:41]
• Sometimes solving a problem just takes seeing things from a different — not necessarily better or smarter — perspective. [1:44:33]
• If nicotine gum is in Hamilton’s pole position, what are in second and third place when he needs to get his brain in motion? [1:45:05]
• Assessing before and after effects on cognition and parting thoughts. [1:46:32]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

• Alexander Shulgin
• Paul Karrer
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Ed Cooke
• Navdeep Chandel
• Peter Attia
• Paracelsus
• Jochen Gartz
• Nicolas Langlitz
• Michael Pollan
• Douglas Sharon
• Marlene Dobkin de Rios
• Jonathan Ott
• Casey Hardison
• Kyle Nolan
• Maestro Mancoluto
• Wade Davis
• Richard Evans Schultes
• Wes Craven
• Howard Lotsof
• Darrell Lemaire
• David Dunning
• Justin Kruger
• James Fadiman
• Daniel Kahneman
• Adam Gazzaley
• Jason Wallach
• Oliver Sacks
• Claudio Naranjo

The post Hamilton Morris on Better Living Through Chemistry: Psychedelics, Smart Drugs, and More (#337) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.

“Psychedelics, used responsibly and with proper caution, would be for psychiatry what the microscope is for biology and medicine or the telescope is for astronomy.” – Stanislav Grof

This might be the most important podcast episode I’ve put out in the last two years. Please trust me and give it a full listen. It will surprise you, perhaps shock you, and definitely make you think differently.

Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley where he is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Science Journalism. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

His most recent book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, might be my favorite yet. This is the first podcast interview Michael has done about the book, the science and applications of psychedelics, his exploration, and his own experiences. It is a wild ride.

In fact, partially due to this book, I am committing a million dollars over the next few years to support the scientific study of psychedelic compounds. This is by far the largest commitment to research and nonprofits I’ve ever made, and if you’d like to join me in supporting this research, please check out tim.blog/science.

In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including:

• The fundamentals of “psychedelics,” what the term means, and what compounds like psilocybin, mescaline, and others have in common.
• New insights related to treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, alcohol/nicotine dependence, OCD, PTSD, and more.
• Recent scientific and clinical discussions of a “grand unified theory of mental illness.”
• Potential applications and risks of psychedelics.
• Michael’s own experiences — which he did not initially intend on having — and what he’s learned from them.
• The “entropic brain,” and why there might be a therapeutic sweet spot between mental order and chaos.
• Why researchers at Johns Hopkins, NYU, Yale, and elsewhere are dedicating resources to understanding these compounds.
• And much, much more…

The molecules discussed in this episode — and some incredible clinical results from well-designed studies — have absolutely captured my attention over the last two years. After wading in and supporting smaller studies, I’ve decided to go all-in on scientists exploring this area. It seems to be an Archimedes lever for potentially solving a wide range of root-cause problems, instead of playing whack-a-mole with symptoms one by one.

This episode will explain why I’m so excited.

Now, all of my preamble out of the way, grab a cup of coffee and settle in!

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

• Listen onApple Podcasts
• Listen onStitcher

• Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast discussing psychedelics? — Listen to my conversation with James Fadiman, who has been called “America’s wisest and most respected authority on psychedelics and their use.” Stream below or right-click here to download.

This episode is brought to you by Teeter. Inversion therapy, which uses gravity and your own body weight to decompress the spine or relieve pressure on the discs and surrounding nerves, seems to help with a whole slew of conditions. And just as a general maintenance program, it’s one of my favorite things to do.

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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

• Connect with Michael Pollan:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
• The New Science of Psychedelics by Michael Pollan, The Wall Street Journal
• Express Your Interest in Supporting Psychedelic Scientific Research and Development
• The Intelligent Plant by Michael Pollan, The New Yorker
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
• Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan
• Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan
• Grist
• Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan
• The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
• Memento
• The Trip Treatment by Michael Pollan, The New Yorker
• Do Psychedelics Expand the Mind by Reducing Brain Activity? by Adam Halberstadt and Mark Geyer, Scientific American
• The Life-Changing Magic of Mushrooms by Olga Khazan, The Atlantic
• I Took a Psychedelic Drug for My Cancer Anxiety. It Changed My Life by Dinah Bazer, Time
• Psycholytic and Psychedelic Therapy Research 1931-1995: A Complete International Bibliography compiled by Torsten Passie
• Psychotomimetic Effects of PCP, LSD, and Ecstasy: Pharmacological Models of Schizophrenia? by Vibeke Sorensen Catts and Stanley V. Catts
• Psychedelics: Lifting the Veil by Robin Carhart-Harris, TEDxWarwick
• Marcus Raichle on the Default Mode Network, VPRO Labyrint TV
• fMRI Brain Imaging: Classic Hallucinogens vs. Mindfulness Meditation by Gary Weber, Science and Nonduality Conference 2012
• Connectome-Harmonic Decomposition of Human Brain Activity Reveals Dynamical Repertoire Re-organization under LSD by Selen Atasoy et al., Scientific Reports
• Magic Mushrooms Transform Brain Into New Hyperconnected State by Stephen Morgan, Digital Journal (contains image discussed)
• Human Connectome Project
• Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance by R.R. Griffiths et al., Psychopharmacology
• The Big Five Personality Traits and What They Mean to Psychologists by Robby Berman, Big Think
• Long-Term Follow-Up of Psilocybin-Facilitated Smoking Cessation by Matthew W. Johnson et al., The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
• Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), The Mayo Clinic
• Ibogaine Therapy for Drug Addiction, MAPS
• A Double-Blind Trial of Psilocybin-Assisted Treatment of Alcohol Dependence, New York University School of Medicine
• Psilocybin with Psychological Support for Treatment-Resistant Depression: Six-Month Follow-Up by R.L. Carhart-Harris et al., Psychopharmacology
• FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation for MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD, MAPS
• LSD and Bill Wilson, the Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
• LSD Could Help Alcoholics Stop Drinking, AA Founder Believed by Amelia Hill, The Guardian
• How Ken Kesey’s LSD-Fuelled Bus Trip Created the Psychedelic ’60s by Edward Helmore, The Guardian
• The Time and Life Acid Trip: How Henry R. Luce and Clare Boothe Luce Helped Turn America On to LSD by Jack Shafer, Slate
• Seeking the Magic Mushroom by R. Gordon Wasson, Life
• Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
• Can Psychedelic Trips Cure PTSD and Other Maladies? by Tom Shroder, The Washington Post
• The Entropic Brain: A Theory of Conscious States Informed by Neuroimaging Research with Psychedelic Drugs by Robin L. Carhart-Harris et al., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
• What Is the Difference between 5-MeO DMT and DMT? Choosing a DMT Therapy by Roger R., Psychedelic Times
• Do Psychedelics Trigger Neurogenesis? Here’s What We Know. by Thomas Varley, Psymposia
• The Cuyahoga River Fire of 1969 by Michael Rotman, Cleveland Historical
• Eleusinian Mysteries, Encyclopaedia Britannica

SHOW NOTES

• Dispelling the misconception of Michael Pollan as a “food” writer and understanding how the new book fits into the larger narrative of his work. [08:33]
• There’s not a culture on earth that doesn’t use some plant or fungi to change consciousness — with one noticeable exception. [11:14]
• What prompted Michael’s first foray into understanding psychedelics? [12:28]
• What are psychedelics, and how do they differ from psychotomimetics and psycholytics? [17:12]
• Why did Michael dedicate his latest book to his father? [20:47]
• How Michael’s own psychedelic experiences helped him care for his terminally ill father and prepare for his eventual death. [22:40]
• As a journalist, what was Michael most skeptical of when he first started researching psychedelics? [25:12]
• What we currently know (or suspect) about the neuroscience behind the effects of psychedelic compounds. [30:57]
• Examining the Default Mode Network. [35:06]
• Meditation, psychedelics, and fasting as alternate modalities for shutting off or quieting the Default Mode Network. [40:01]
• Mapping connectomes and the unexpected detours the brain creates in the absence of the Default Mode Network’s control. [40:55]
• Mystical experiences, changing personalities, and smoking cessation: what psychedelics studies have been most memorable or surprising for Michael? [43:33]
• Cementing profound convictions from otherwise obvious banalities (aka “duh” moments). [50:10]
• Psychedelic applications Michael finds most promising. [52:25]
• Is treating addiction with psychedelics just trading out one fixation for another? [57:21]
• Why have psychedelic compounds been unavailable for medical trials for so long? [1:00:51]
• Is it too simple to blame Timothy Leary? The psychedelic researcher’s occupational hazard of irrational exuberance. [1:01:25]
• A searing rite of passage: the unique generation gap created by LSD in the ’60s. [1:03:36]
• Could we see a cultural backlash remove psychedelics from academics once again? [1:08:36]
• Does Michael think certain politicians trying to ban psychedelic research — especially when it helps veterans with PTSD — would suffer political repurcussions in the current climate? [1:10:59]
• What are the risks of these psychedelic compounds? [1:13:58]
• How Dr. Andrew Weil successfully rescued patients from their bad acid trips at the Haight-Ashbury free clinic in 1968. [1:16:40]
• An appeal to lawmakers to consider the benefits of psychedelics that outweigh the risks — especially when compared to many of the dangerous drugs that are FDA approved. [1:18:48]
• Are we close to a grand unified theory of mental illness? [1:24:00]
• The entropic brain. [1:27:09]
• Why do some of these compounds seem to have a long-term effect that far exceeds its presence in the body? [1:30:22]
• How guidance can help someone make better sense of their experience — and reinforce progress that might be made. [1:33:44]
• Themes, images, and insights: Michael’s most meaningful experience. [1:35:03]
• Having a bad time? Remember your flight instructions. [1:40:06]
• A cameo appearance by Maria Sabina. [1:41:49]
• Losing sense of self (ego dissolution). [1:42:57]
• Music you like makes the world better no matter what reality you’re experiencing. [1:45:11]
• A powerful lesson in the role of ego. [1:46:24]
• How does Michael think psychedelics might help us solve what he believes to be society’s biggest problems? [1:51:41]
• How might we gently caution overenthusiastic psychedelic proponents away from messing things up for the rest of us (again)? [1:54:31]
• The betterment of well people. [1:59:14]
• The cultural container for psychedelics that worked for the ancient Greeks. [1:59:50]
• Remaining cautiously optimistic. [2:02:12]
• Just one example of criminalization impeding valid therapy. [2:02:34]
• Michael’s book covers a critical subject at a critical time — do yourself a favor and read it even if you have zero interest in consuming psychedelics yourself. [2:03:54]
• Michael’s parting thoughts. [2:05:39]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

• Stanislav Grof
• Matt Mullenweg
• Tony Conrad
• Henry David Thoreau
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• John Muir
• Aldous Huxley
• Dinah Bazer
• Humphry Osmond
• Stephen M. Pollan
• Robin Carhart-Harris
• Marcus Raichle
• Roland Griffiths
• Walt Whitman
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• Matthew W. Johnson
• Bill Wilson
• Timothy Leary
• Richard Nixon
• Ken Kesey
• Haruki Murakami
• Henry Luce
• Clare Boothe Luce
• R. Gordon Wasson
• Rick Doblin
• Paul Summergrad
• Jeffrey Lieberman
• Jeff Sessions
• Rebekah Mercer
• Steve Bannon
• Peter Thiel
• Donald Trump
• Andrew Weil
• David Nutt
• Tom Insel
• Maria Sabina
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Yo-Yo Ma
• Rachel Carson
• Robert Jesse

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