V O L U M E X V I N U M B E R 2 V O L U M E X V I N U M B E R 2

MULTIDISCIPLINARYMULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATIONASSOCIATION FORFOR PSYCHEDELICPSYCHEDELIC STUDIESSTUDIES MULTIDISCIPLINARYMULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATIONASSOCIATION FORFOR PSYCHEDELICPSYCHEDELIC STUDIESSTUDIES

”…Because I am a woman

who lightnings

I am a woman who thunders

I am a woman who shouts

I am a woman who whistles

I am a woman who

looks into

the insides

of things“

–Marina Sabina

Read about the work of The Women’s Entheogen Fund, pages 34-46 5 4

MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for 2 Letter from Rick Doblin, MAPS President Psychedelic Studies) is a membership-based organization working to assist researchers 3 Waiting But Not Idly: An Update on Progress Toward Prof. Lyle worldwide to design, fund, conduct, obtain Craker’s MAPS-Sponsored Medical Marijuana Production Facility governmental approval for, and report on Kelly Burns psychedelic research in humans. Founded in 1986, MAPS is an IRS approved 501 (c)(3) non- 6 MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy in the Treatment profit corporation funded by tax deductible of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): donations. MAPS is focused primarily on assisting scientists to conduct human studies to Eighth Update on Study Progress generate essential information about the risks and Michael Mithoefer, M.D. psychotherapeutic benefits of MDMA, other psychedelics, and marijuana, with the goal of 8 MAPS Prepares to Launch MDMA-PTSD Study in Israel eventually gaining government approval for Valerie Mojeiko their medical uses. Interested parties wishing to copy any portion of this publication are encour- 9 MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Pilot Study in Switerland aged to do so and are kindly requested to credit Peter Oehen, M.D. MAPS and include our address. The MAPS Bulletin 10 Planning LSD Research in Switzerland is produced by a small group of dedicated staff and volunteers. Your participation, financial or Peter Gasser, M.D. otherwise, is welcome. 11 Seeing in the Dying Light: A Ketamine Case Study

©2006 Multidisciplinary Association Carl A. Hammerschlag, M.D. for Psychedelic Studies, Inc. (MAPS) 15 MAPS-Sponsored Ibogaine Observational Case Study Approved 10424 Love Creek Rd., Ben Lomond, CA 95005 Phone: 831-336-4325 Philippe Lucas Fax: 831-336-3665 16 2006 NYC Ibogaine Conference E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.maps.org John Harrison 18 A Groundbreaking Study on Music, Spirituality, Religion, and the Human Brain Robin Sylvan 20 So You Want to be a Psychedelic Researcher? Andrew Sewell, M.D. 26 Buddhahuasca: A Personal Narrative This edition edited by Jag Davies David Ledeboer Design & layout by Noah Juan Juneau ISSN 1080-8981 29 Toward Light in the Darkness: A Review of the SheShamans- Printed on recycled paper MagicMamas & 2nd Amazonian Shamanism Conferences Julia Onnie-Hay (facing page) 34 A History of the Women’s Entheogen Fund (WEF) Ram Dass This Limited Edition Print of Ram Dass (aka Richard Annie Harrison Alpert) is the fourth print by Dean Chamberlain in 35 WEF Recipient: Sylvia Thyssen a special signed and numbered limited edition 36 WEF Recipient: Fire Erowid selected from Dean Chamberlain’s Psychedelic Pioneers Series. Fifty percent of the profits from 37 From Arcturus to Love Creek the sale of these prints will go toward MAPS- Sarah Hufford sponsored LSD research (see page 10). 39 Entheon Village Burning Man Fundraiser in Asheville, North Carolina There are only 50 of these beautiful archival pigment prints. The image is 11"x14" and is 40 St. Albert and the LSD Revelation Revolution printed on archival quality matte paper. Prints Alex Grey numbered 1-10 are $1000, prints numbered 11-40 43 Who We Are: MAPS’ Staff are $1500, and prints numbered 41-50 are $2000. Visit www.maps.org/catalog for additional purchase 44 Membership page information. Covers by Robert Venosa. “Seconaphim” front, “Queen Mother” back 2 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

he vital importance of with end-of-life issues. By demonstrating the value of research into technologies of psychedelics for a use that almost everyone is concerned T healing and peace is never more about, to help ease the emotional and physical pain of painfully apparent than in the midst of war. On August 3, dying, MAPS hopes to show that psychedelic psycho- 2006, on the same day that more than 230 rockets rained therapy offers potential benefits to people who would into northern Israel over the Lebanese border in one of otherwise never consider taking such drugs. the heaviest barrages of Hezbollah rocket fire in the recent war, a small package from Switzerland, ordered MAPS is working with Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gasser, and paid for by MAPS, arrived safely and legally in Tel M.D., on the design and approval process for a MAPS- Aviv, Israel. Inside the package was close to five grams sponsored study exploring the use of LSD-assisted of pharmaceutical-grade MDMA. With the arrival of this psychotherapy in people with anxiety dealing with end- MDMA, the final piece of the puzzle was put into place of-life issues from cancer as well as other causes (page for our MAPS-sponsored Israeli pilot study investigating 10). Once approved, this study will become the first the safety and efficacy of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy government-approved LSD psychotherapy research in in subjects with war- and terrorism-related posttrau- over 35 years. This study will complement research by matic stress disorder (PTSD). This study is now set to John Halpern, M.D., investigating MDMA-assisted begin, just as a tragically large number of Israelis and psychotherapy in advanced-stage cancer patients (for Lebanese have been freshly traumatized by yet another which MAPS coordinated the design and approval war. The technologies of war continue to advance, yet, process and which Peter Lewis is personally sponsoring) more slowly and quietly, technologies of healing and as well as Dr. Charles Grob’s ongoing Heffter Research peace are also progressing. Institute-sponsored study of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in advanced-stage cancer patients. Dr. Carl At a recent conference in Tel-Aviv, sponsored by Hammerschlag’s case report describing the use of the Israeli Anti-Drug Authority, one of the speakers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy with a terminally ill noted that about 20 million doses of MDMA are smuggled patient (page 11) lends further support to the potential into Israel each year, and “every one is a hand grenade.” of psychedelics as tools to assist in the dying process, and The emotionally inflamed rhetoric of the War on Drugs, suggests yet another promising area of research. As part so often used to generate the fear required to justify the of our educational mission, MAPS is proud to have just harshness of prohibition, is so clearly hollow when published Dr. Stanislav Grof’s new book, The Ultimate viewed through the lens of actual war. Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death, based in part on his LSD research with cancer patients. The potential of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to become an accepted and widely-used technology MAPS’ efforts to develop marijuana into an FDA- of healing is becoming more realistic, as evidenced approved prescription medicine are also moving forward. by Dr. Michael Mithoefer’s latest update on his US Our lawsuit against the DEA for refusing to issue a license MDMA/ PTSD study (page 6), Dr. Peter Oehen’s report for a MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility is on the imminent initiation of his Swiss MDMA/PTSD approaching its climactic moment: the recommendation study (page 9), and MAPS Clinical Research Associate of the Administrative Law Judge to the Administrator of Valerie Mojeiko’s report on the Israeli MDMA/PTSD the DEA (page 3). We’re re preparing for the possibility study (page 8). Furthermore, the recent donation to that the recommendation will be favorable. MAPS of $250,000 by philanthropist Peter Lewis for these three pilot studies guarantees their implementation, At twenty years old, MAPS is going through an which we expect will take the next two years. Then we exciting yet challenging growth phase. At this time will be in a position to review data and decide whether of celebration and reflection, culminating in our 20th it makes scientific and financial sense to initiate the anniversary gathering at Burning Man, I’m deeply multi-site Phase 3 studies required to obtain permission grateful for the partnership of MAPS members and staff, from the FDA and the European Medicines Agency for which has made this all possible. Working together, we the prescription use of MDMA. can accomplish even the seemingly impossible–the end of the Drug War and the legalization of psychedelic MAPS’ overall strategy to develop psychedelics into technologies of peace and healing. prescription medicines also involves studies exploring the use of psychedelics in treating anxiety associated – Rick Doblin, Ph.D., MAPS President ® m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 3

Waiting But Not Idly: An Update on Progress Toward Prof. Lyle Craker’s

MAPS-Sponsored Medical Marijuana Production Facility

Kelly Burns are now starting the sixth year of MAPS’ [email protected] efforts to sponsor a privately-funded facility to produce marijuana for FDA and DEA-approved research. When we wrote about University of Massachusetts-Amherst Prof. Lyle Craker’s lawsuit against the DEA in the Spring MAPS has 2006 MAPS Bulletin*, lawyers for both sides were working joined forces on the final legal briefings for this case. Both MAPS and the with MMPAP, DEA filed final briefs to DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) a coalition of Mary Ellen Bittner on May 8, 2006. medical marijuana advocates Prof. Craker, Director the Medicinal Prof. Mahmoud El Sohly of the University Plant Program in the Dept. of Plant, Soil of Mississippi, NIDA’s producer of mari- who are working and Insect Sciences at UMass-Amherst, juana, has a personal financial interest MAPS staff, and medical marijuana that conflicts with smoked marijuana toward getting advocates and patients throughout the becoming a prescription medicine. Prof. El country are now eagerly awaiting a Sohly personally has patents on a mari- support from the decision that will tell us a lot about the juana suppository delivery system, and he course of medical marijuana reforms over has a DEA license to grow marijuana for American Medical the next few years. Waiting and prepar- his own private gain in order to supply ing, that is, because even if Prof. Craker THC extract under contract to a pharma- Association receives a favorable recommendation, ceutical company that produces generic there’s much more work to be done to Marinol. Both of these products would face for more reasonable ensure that Prof. Craker’s facility becomes direct competition from prescription a reality, since DEA Administrator Karen marijuana, either smoked or vaporized. medical marijuana Tandy can either accept or reject ALJ The results of these several levels of Bittner’s recommendation. conflict of interest are as one might policy. For researchers seeking to perform imagine: NIDA’s marijuana supply is of FDA-approved clinical studies with most the low quality that befits NIDA’s agenda Schedule I substances, it is a relatively to research the harms of mariiuana, and, simple matter to obtain a license from the more importantly, NIDA’s lack of competi- DEA to possess the actual research mate- tion produces arbitrary and total control rial, once the security of their laboratories over the supply. As a result, NIDA has has been demonstrated. Not so with been able to halt MAPS’ medical mari- marijuana. Marijuana alone is subject to juana research program for the last decade a monopoly controlled by the National by refusing to sell marijuana to several of Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a MAPS’ FDA-approved studies. NIDA has government agency whose mission is even refused to sell 10 grams of marijuana certainly not to examine the beneficial for a MAPS-sponsored laboratory study of uses of controlled substances. Further, the chemical composition of marijuana 4 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

vapors produced by the Volcano vaporizer, Law Reform Project), and Emanuel a non-smoking delivery system that Jacobowitz (Steptoe & Johnson, LLP) successfully addresses FDA concerns about highlighted these and other arguments, the inhalation of marijuana smoke. and can be found with other information A private facility MAPS and Prof. Craker are seeking to related the case at http://www.maps.org/ break this monopoly by opening a MAPS- mmj/DEAlawsuit.html. The DEA’s reply would create funded production facility run by Prof. brief, also filed on May 8, was rather Craker. This facility would provide empty of analysis and legal arguments and the possibility marijuana for all of MAPS’ FDA-approved was padded, like a weak high school term protocols and would spur additional new paper, with a long reiteration of the for MAPS research, as the threat of a years-long contents of the testimony of each witness. bureaucratic nightmare is removed from Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, DEA to initiate its MAPS’ research-planning picture. More lawyers resorted to ad hominem attacks on importantly, a private facility would create Rick Doblin for his personal marijuana medical marijuana the possibility for MAPS to initiate its use, despite the fact that he would never medical marijuana drug development have access to any of the marijuana in drug development clinical trials to evaluate whether mari- Prof. Craker’s facility. Since Rick had juana can become an FDA-approved never sampled NIDA’s supply of mari- clinical trials medicine. Clinical trials of a plant-based juana he had therefore not “diverted” medicine must take place using the same legal marijuana to non-medical purposes. to evaluate strain of plant material that a drug developer The DEA’s brief can also be viewed on plans to market, since the effects and side the MAPS website. whether marijuana effects of another strain with different The final recommendation from ALJ chemical concentrations could vary. No Bittner is expected approximately four to can become rational drug developer would invest six months after the brief filing date, millions of dollars in researching a low- which would be sometime between an FDA-approved potency, low-quality strain that is controlled September and November. We’ve been by NIDA, a government body that could spending these months preparing actively medicine. withdraw or refuse permission to use the for the recommendation, because–unlike a strain at will, and that in any event is not decision in state or federal court–the DEA permitted to be the supplier of marijuana for is not obligated to follow a recommenda- prescription medicine distribution, leaving tion from its own administrative law the sponsor with the need to negotiate with court. For comparison, some of you may Prof. El Sohly despite his major conflicts of be surprised to learn that DEA ALJs have interest. As one of our fellow medical already recommended rescheduling both cannabis advocates recently noted, this is marijuana and MDMA, and it is obvious like Pfizer spending millions of dollars how far that did not go! researching a new pill that Merck owns the With this historical trend in mind, the rights to, which would clearly be a foolish MAPS staff has been working hard to investment. gather support from a broad range of MAPS’ final brief to the court, pre- individuals and organizations to put pared by lawyers Julie Carpenter (Jenner political pressure on the DEA to issue the & Block, LLP), Allen Hopper (ACLU Drug license should Judge Bittner recommend m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 5

that course of action. Our supporters state medical associations, so if you have include 38 members of Congress, Senators or know of good connections with any Kennedy and Kerry of Massachusetts, the state medical associations, particularly in state medical associations of California states that have medical marijuana laws, and Texas, the state nurses associations of please contact me at [email protected]. Since Rick had New Mexico, North Carolina, and Wis- We are hopeful that Judge Bittner will consin, the Lymphoma Foundation of issue a favorable recommendation, and never sampled America, the National Association for that the broad base of support that we Public Health Policy, the United Method- have collected will convince the DEA to NIDA’s supply ist Church, the Drugs and the Law Com- follow that recommendation. If the DEA mittee of the Association of the Bar of the does not follow a favorable recommenda- of marijuana, City of New York, Grover Norquist, tion, we can still pursue the case in federal president of the conservative organization court, arguing that the DEA’s reasons for he had Americans for Tax Reform, and several not following the recommendation are other notable organizations. Efforts are ﬂawed. More litigation would delay Prof. therefore not continuing to get support letters from Craker’s facility from opening for many other organizations such as the American more years, so this is certainly not our “diverted” Nurses Association and the American desired outcome. However, if the DEA Cancer Society. does fail to follow a favorable recommen- legal marijuana MAPS has also just joined forces with dation, or for that matter if the recommen- the Medical Marijuana Policy Advocacy dation is unfavorable, it will only boost to non-medical Project (MMPAP), a coalition of medical the efforts to pass state medical marijuana marijuana advocates who are working initiatives by providing even stronger purposes. toward getting support from the American evidence that the federal process for Medical Association (AMA) for more making marijuana into a medicine is reasonable medical marijuana policy. The blocked. What happens over the next few AMA House of Delegates already has a months in Prof. Craker’s case will be a very positive resolution calling for further decisive factor in what sorts of medical research into the use of marijuana as marijuana reform efforts we see in the medicine**. MMPAP is working to ﬁnd future, nationwide. We hope we’ll have state delegations of the AMA who will some good news for you on this front in help us propose a new resolution at the an upcoming monthly email update and November House of Delegates meeting, in the next MAPS Bulletin! • calling for support for private production facilities like Prof. Craker’s. The proposed resolution also supports protecting patients in medical marijuana states from * See Spring 2006 article at criminal prosecution, in hopes that AMA http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v15n4-html/dea_case.html support will assist the passage in Congress ** See http://www.amaassn.org/apps/pf_new pf_online?f_n=browse&doc=policyfiles/HnE/H-95.952.HTM of the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which aims to codify such patient protection into federal law. The passage of our AMA resolution depends on support from 6 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Eighth Update on Study Progress Charleston, SC; USA

Since my last update both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and our Institutional Review Board (IRB) have given us approval to make two significant protocol changes: 1) To add a supplemental dose of 62.5 mg of MDMA (or placebo) two to two- and-a-half hours after the initial dose of 125 mg. 2) To add a third MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session both for subjects who receive MDMA in the first two experimental sessions and for subjects who initially receive placebo and then go on to participate in Michael Mithoefer, M.D. the open-label MDMA portion of the protocol. [email protected] Thus far three subjects have received the supplemental dose of MDMA or placebo on a total of 6 occasions and one subject has had a third MDMA-assisted “experimental session” in the open label stage. Our preliminary clinical impression is that the supplemental dose is Our preliminary useful. It does not appear to change the intensity of the experience, but it does extend the period during which the most intense emotional clinical impression processing occurs. There have been no problems associated with the is that the supplemental dose. In one case the blood pressure and pulse did go higher than they had before the supplemental dose, but did not reach supplemental dose dangerous levels or require treatment. It is also our impression that the third MDMA session may provide additional benefit, though we do not extends the period yet have formal outcome data following this session. during which The overall progress of the study is as • We have completed telephone the most intense follows: screening on 99 potential subjects. • Fifteen subjects have been enrolled, • One potential new subject has emotional one has dropped out, twelve have com- passed formal screening and two others pleted the original double blind protocol are scheduled to have it. processing and two are currently enrolled. Recruitment has still been somewhat • After receiving placebo in the first slow and our recent limited newspaper occurs. stage, four subjects have gone on to the advertising was not effective in changing open-label stage (which includes two or that. Nevertheless, we are slowly continu- three MDMA-assisted psychotherapy ing to recruit people with crime-related sessions along with additional non-drug PTSD, and anticipate being able to find the follow-up psychotherapy sessions). Three remaining five subjects we need within have completed this stage and the third the next six months. However, we would recently underwent the third experimen- like to recruit some veterans with war- tal session but has not yet completed the related PTSD of less than five years follow-up sessions and final symptom duration. We are pursuing some possible measures. referral sources at VA hospitals and we m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 7

now have permission from the IRB to post an advertisement on websites that serve veterans. We are currently working on a request to the IRB to conduct long-term follow up of our subjects. We plan to repeat symptom measures as well as a more general questionnaire six months or more after completion of the present protocol. In the case of our earliest subjects the follow-up will occur more than two years from the study sessions. Along with this added protocol request we will seek to clarify the IRB’s media policy regarding our study. Another important event since my last update was a visit from Drs. Rael Strous and Rakefet Rodrigez, two of the Israeli psychiatrists who have permission for and are on the verge of starting a MAPS-sponsored study very similar to ours investigating MDMA-assisted therapy for war- and terrorism-related PTSD. Annie and I really enjoyed the …we would like to recruit some veterans chance to show them our approach to with war-related PTSD of less than working with subjects and to learn from their insights and ideas. Now, of course, ﬁve years duration. the sad reality is that their work to ﬁnd better treatments for PTSD is even more Illustration: James Montgomery Flagg. Lithograph, 1917. American Treasures of the Library Congress. urgently needed in Israel and the whole region. • 8 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

MAPS Prepares to Launch MDMA/PTSD Study in Israel

On Thursday, August 3rd, in the midst of war, about 5 grams of MDMA arrived in Israel for MAPS’ MDMA/PTSD study, imported into Israel from Switzerland. The MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD pilot study is being directed by Moshe Kotler, M.D., with Rael Strous, M.D., and Rakefet Rodrigez, M.D., working as the male/female co-therapist team. This study has full government approval and will be initiated this fall. At the time of this writing, Dr. Rodrigez is planning to take a break from the therapy work she is doing in the north of Israel with traumatized civilians and soldiers to join MAPS at Burning Man this August. Valerie Mojeiko Clinical Research Associate, MAPS While joining us to celebrate MAPS’ 20th sessions, and will use an active placebo of anniversary, she will work at Sanctuary, low-dose MDMA. This will make it more where we assist the Rangers to care for difficult for the therapist and subject to be people going through difficult emotional able to tell whether the subject received an experiences, some psychedelic-related and active dose of MDMA or not, increasing some not. The Sanctuary project at the success of the double-blind measure. This visit Burning Man serves as a training program In this study, the researchers will also for MAPS’ psychedelic therapists, a rare collect long-term follow-up data for one helped MAPS opportunity for researchers to spend time year after the second experimental session. working alongside each other with people The study in Israel also tests the efficacy of clarify and develop who are in a psychedelic-induced state. using slightly less staff time, since only Last May, both Israeli co-therapists one therapist is present during some of the a standardized traveled to the U.S. to observe a treatment non-drug therapy sessions, rather than session and receive training from Michael both therapists. Both therapists are protocol Mithoefer, M.D., and his wife Annie in present during all of the experimental Charleston, South Carolina. This visit not sessions where MDMA is administered, as as we prepare only informed the Israeli doctors about well as during some of the non-drug MAPS’ therapeutic protocol, but also therapy sessions. for larger helped MAPS clarify and develop a This study, although conducted in standardized protocol as we prepare for Israel, will be submitted to FDA under multi-site studies larger multi-site studies with MDMA. As MAPS’ Investigational New Drug (IND) MAPS research liaison, I also had the application for MDMA in the treatment of with MDMA. pleasure of attending this very important PTSD and therefore fits into MAPS’ meeting and I must say that Dr. Strous and mission of developing MDMA as a pre- Dr. Rodrigez make a very dynamic co- scription medicine approved by both the therapist team. FDA and the European Medicines Agency. The Israeli study will feature supple- With government-approved research mental dosing halfway through each of projects on three continents, MAPS is the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy truly becoming a global organization!• m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 9

MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Pilot Study in Switzerland: On the Verge of Initiation

On June 14, 2006, the Swiss MAPS-sponsored MDMA/PTSD pilot study passed its final major regulatory hurdle: licensing from BAG (Bundesamt für Gesundheit, the Swiss equivalent to DEA). The license is necessary for myself, the Principal Investigator, to administer MDMA, a Schedule I drug. It is also required for the manufacturer to be able to handle the substance, conduct quality analysis, and encapsulate and randomize the MDMA. Furthermore, the license was necessary to export MDMA from the same batch for the MAPS-sponsored Israeli MDMA/PTSD study in Tel Aviv. In early August, the MDMA was successfully exported to Israel after the Swiss export permit and the Israeli import permit were approved. Peter Oehen, M.D. [email protected] In a recent development, we are now precisely than was possible before. We also planning to collaborate with the also hope that this additional neurophysi- Psychiatric University Hospital in Zürich. ologic data will document the efficacy of Prospective subjects will be asked to MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. The participate in the ongoing study "Psycho- amendment of our protocol is currently physiology of PTSD: A Comprehensive awaiting approval from an Ethics Com- We hope that Parameter Study," conducted by Franz mittee, the Swiss IRB equivalent. Vollenweider, M.D., a renowned MDMA Since the protocol is being amended, this additional researcher. Prevailing evidence suggests recruitment of the first patient–who is that PTSD patients suffer from deficits in already waiting to enter the screening neurophysiologic early information processing, such as process–will be delayed for several weeks. deficits in "gating," or filtering, internal At the time of this writing, we are planning data will document and external sensory stimuli. Two experi- to initiate the study in September 2006. mental paradigms designed to assess From the moment my wife Verena the efficacy of gating are pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) of Widmer and I first met with Rick Doblin, the acoustic startle response and suppres- Ph.D., and Michael Mithoefer, M.D., in MDMA-assisted sion of the P50 event-related potential. April 2005 to discuss the possibility of a The neurophysiological correlates of PPI Swiss MDMA study, it has taken less than psychotherapy. and P50 suppression, as well as the a year and a half to develop the protocol interdependency of these gating measures, and guide it through the scientific and will be explored using electroencephalo- governmental approval process. Consider- graphic (EEG) measures in combination ing the controversial nature of MDMA- with ERP (evoked response potential) assisted psychotherapy research, this technique. These neurophysiologic relatively rapid pace has only been parameters will be measured in a novel possible with MAPS’ know-how, and the combination before and after the MDMA- support and advice I have received from assisted psychotherapy. This will allow the medical and scientific community the researchers to locate and map the here in Switzerland.• corresponding areas of the brain more 10 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

Planning LSD Research in Switzerland

few days before the wonderful psychotherapy, in addition to eight international symposium on the conventional non-drug psychotherapy A occasion of Albert Hofmann’s sessions for preparation and integration of 100th birthday, “LSD: Problem Child and the experiences. After their final follow-up Wonder Drug,” I had the opportunity to evaluation, subjects who receive placebo go on a walk in the snowy Jura mountains will have the opportunity to participate in with MAPS President Rick Doblin, Ph.D. an open-label Stage 2 in which they would As we walked and talked, we discussed receive two LSD-assisted psychotherapy the possibility of re-starting LSD-assisted sessions and associated non-drug psycho- psychotherapy research, and decided therapy sessions for preparation and that this year is the right time. integration. A few months later, we are now in the There has been no legal LSD psycho- protocol design stage for a double-blind therapy in Switzerland in over a dozen Peter Gasser, M.D. placebo-controlled pilot study with 12 years. Suddenly, it seems that the ice age is [email protected] subjects. Along the same lines as Charles over, now that Peter Oehen, M.D., has Grob’s, M.D., psyilocybin/cancer anxiety received full government approval for a study and John Halpern’s, M.D., MDMA/ MAPS-sponsored study in Switzerland cancer anxiety study, this study will investigating MDMA-assisted psycho- investigate LSD-assisted psychotherapy as therapy as a treatment for subjects suffer- Research from a potential treatment for subjects who ing from chronic posttraumatic stress suffer from anxiety related to advanced disorder (PTSD). Following the LSD the 1950s and 60s stage cancer and other life-threatening symposium in Basel, the organizers of the illnesses. Research from the 1950s and 60s event sent an appeal–signed by all of the provides encouraging provides encouraging evidence that the speakers from the conference–to the spiritual experiences and deep insights political authorities in Europe and the US, evidence that the that LSD facilitates can be great help when urging them to facilitate scientific investi- one is confronted with one’s own immi- gation into the medicinal and therapeutic spiritual experiences nent death. For this study, we seek to potentials of LSD and other psychedelic empirically examine the potential of LSD- drugs. The Secretary of the Swiss Health and deep insights that assisted psychotherapy to relieve anxiety Department replied to this appeal by and improve the quality of life for these writing that the Swiss authorities will give LSD facilitates subjects. We also want to evaluate permission for LSD research if ethical and whether LSD-assisted psychotherapy is a scientific requirements are fulfilled. can be great help safe and reliable treatment, so that if the MAPS has pledged to donate $50,000 results are promising, the data from this for this study, which MAPS has already when one is study can be used to develop LSD into a raised from the sale of art and books legal prescription medicine. signed by Albert Hofmann. MAPS is also confronted with The tentative plan is for a double- in the process of seeking to raise an blind, placebo-controlled pilot study, in additional $100,000 for this study; please one’s own which the experimental group of eight contact MAPS if you are interested in subjects will be administered 250mcg. LSD donating. Rick Doblin was enthusiastic imminent death. and the control group of four subjects will enough to state that we will have govern- receive a low dose/placebo of 25mcg. LSD. ment approval for this study by Albert The tentative plan is for an open-label, Hofmann’s 101st birthday in January double-blind study, in which one control 2007. I am happy to be infected by his group will be administered 200mcg. LSD enthusiasm. Once approved, this study and the other will receive a placebo of will be the first LSD psychotherapy 25mcg. LSD. The subjects will undergo research to take place in about 35 years!• two or three sessions of LSD-assisted m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 11

Seeing in the Dying Light: A Ketamine Case Study

etamine is a pre-anesthetic adjunct K first manufactured in 1965. A Schedule Carl A. Hammerschlag, M.D. III drug, ketamine has accepted medical uses and can be prescribed by [email protected] physicians, dentists and veterinarians. It is a short-acting dissociative with some psychedelic-like characteristics. Ketamine poses minimal risk of cardiac and respiratory complications, although, unlike other psychedelics, it can lead to physical dependency if used regularly. Ketamine induces a dissociative state that causes subjects to lose track of time and place, and to detach from awareness of external stimuli, Editor‘s note: Just before this including pain. Professionals in the treatment of alcoholism, anxiety Bulletin went to print, National disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have effectively Institute of Mental Health- sponsored researchers published used ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to treat patients. Before treating a study in the Archives of General Steve, the patient described in this case report, I had never used Psychiatry finding that ketamine ketamine-assisted therapy in my practice. shows breakthrough potential as a treatment for major refractory depression. In this upcoming Steve was 64 years old when I first to consider alternatives because peyote is article, Dr. Hammerschlag met him in October, 2004. Ten years irritating to the G.I. tract, and not dose- describes a case study in which earlier, he had been diagnosed with non- specific. Peyote use often causes vomiting, he utilized ketamine-assisted alcohol related cirrhosis. In early 2000 he and if Steve vomited, he could bleed psychotherapy to help a patient was diagnosed with liver cancer, and two internally, which had already happened to work through difficult psychologi- years later he learned that he had meta- him once. Steve and I talked and discussed cal material associated with static disease to the bone. At that point, his alternatives that might be helpful, like advanced-stage cancer. MAPS doctors told him that he had about 6-9 hypnotherapy and past-life regression. will be exploring options for a months to live. He had been treated by Steve and I had quite a bit in common ketamine/end-of-life pilot study, chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, but and resonated with one another. We were similar in design to three other his cancer continued to progress. By the both originally from New York City and studies in patients with anxiety time I saw him, he was no longer eligible had graduated from city high schools and associated with end-of-life issues: for a liver transplant. colleges. Steve went on to law school, and Dr. Peter Gasser’s MAPS- However, Steve was unwilling to give became a distinguished attorney and later sponsored study evaluating LSD- up the idea that he could heal himself. He a federal judge. He had been married and assisted psychotherapy, Dr. John was searching for healing methods and divorced, with two grown children to Halpern’s MAPS-initiated study not preparing for death. Steve believed whom he was close. Angry with doctors, evaluating MDMA-assisted that he had been a shaman in a previous he held them responsible for failing to psychotherapy, and Dr. Charles life, and wanted to regress back in time to diagnose sooner the extent of his meta- Grob’s Heffter-sponsored research speak with his previous incarnation. Steve static disease. If they had found it earlier, investigating psilocybin-assisted believed that, by accessing this ancient he would have been eligible for a trans- psychotherapy. All this research knowledge, he could learn to heal himself. plant. Despite his limited options, though, may eventually lead to FDA To this end, he wanted to take peyote in a Steve was not ready to die. approval of psychedelic psycho- Native American healing ceremony, Steve was rational, without evidence therapy in general for anxiety hoping that it would facilitate his vision. of thought disorder; moreover, he was an associated with end-of-life issues, Steve first contacted me at the recom- intelligent critical thinker with a quick with therapists and patients able mendation of a friend, since I have wit. He described his spiritual life as to choose between different experience in the sacramental use of ethnically Jewish, by which he meant he substances at different stages of peyote in Native American ceremonies. liked pastrami on rye and matzoh ball the psychotherapeutic process. During this initial meeting I advised Steve soup, but that he had no personal relation- 12 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

ship with God, or any interest in develop- Mayan sites in the Yucatán. I told him to ing one. place them wherever he wanted, and lit After our initial visit, Steve decided to the oil-lamp on my coffee table and some explore hypnotherapy. During his second fragrant sage. I explained to him that we visit, he proved to be an easily inducible were preparing the space to receive the subject and was able to regress in time to healing energy that will flow once the Neanderthal days. At one point, Steve ketamine is administered. described seeing cavemen from afar, but Once these preparations were com- felt reluctant to join them. I told him to pleted, I gave him a small dose (25 mg.) open his hands, put them in front of intramuscularly, to test his tolerance. himself, and approach them. He did so, Within three minutes, he described a and they made room around the fire. He warm tingling in his ears, which then sat down cross-legged in the circle but spread to his face and lips. He appeared When I asked him understood nothing they were saying. He very comfortable and then described a did not speak to a shaman and was unable sense of overwhelming peace and well- what the tears to go back any further in time. being. “It’s like an endless orgasm,” he When we talked about it later, he said exclaimed. were saying he would love to go deeper into trance and During guided visualization, Stevc asked if I could intensify the hypnotic returned to the same Neanderthal cave. he said, experience. That’s when I told him about This time, when he approached the group, ketamine-assisted therapy, and explained they recognized him and made room for “These are that ketamine could be legally prescribed him around the fire. He could not under- and had been used clinically in the stand a word. Looking around he saw that tears of joy, treatment of posttraumatic stress disorders the cave walls were covered with beautiful (PTSD) and chronic alcoholism. Used in artwork. He saw handprints on the wall I have never controlled conditions, there is strong and got up to touch them. Watching him, supporting evidence that it can be helpful a Neanderthal came over and put his hand felt so in tune in making healthful changes, since it on the wall and showed Steve how to activates a portion of the brain that makes make his hand print by spitting a chalky with the whole it possible to move beyond ordinary liquid over his hand. Steve put his hand on conceptions of time and space. I told Steve the cave wall and did the same. When he universe…” that I had not yet used it in my clinical removed his hand he said, “Only this piece practice but was willing to try, if he of me stays here.” wanted. I told him to review the literature Later, when I asked Steve what he and talk about it with his children. By the meant, he said he’d left the handprint next visit, he had done his homework and behind, but he was “flying out of here ... had decided to try it. people leave their mark in the cave but Steve had experimented with their spirit moves beyond those walls.” He psychedelics in the 1960s and wasn’t marveled that primitive man had time to frightened at the prospect of working with spend on art and not just survival issues. them in a controlled setting. He only Then, he commented that although they wanted to be sure that I would stay with were gone, and the animals they drew him during the experience, and I told him were gone, their spiritual power was still that I wouldn’t leave him and would be here for all to see and feel. He thought he totally involved. I wanted to speak to his had spent far too much time exploring the children, so I met with his son, who rational world, and far too little exploring happened to be a local physician, and he this peaceful spiritual world. Steve noted told me that both he and his sister were with a smile that his natural tendency was fine with whatever their father wanted to always toward skepticism. do. He added that it didn’t surprise him at When we talked about it later, I was all, and that he would provide the syringes interested in whether his cave vision and and needles to cut his father’s expenses. flying away might have something to do Ketamine session 1: with the direction in which he felt himself October 21, 2004 moving. I was hoping that he might see For the first session, Steve brought comfort in something other than his along some crystals and stones from sacred frantic pursuit of a cure. He said, “I know m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 13

you want me to talk about my soul with could take a break from ketamine-assisted God, but that’s not me. I’m just happy that therapy. Steve felt strong enough at this I am moving in a direction that feels so point to take a vacation with his girlfriend peaceful.” before beginning the new treatment. Ketamine session 2: From April through October, Steve November 18, 2004 returned to Pittsburgh monthly. On his I injected 50 mg. and within 3 min- last visit, though, the research doctors told utes Steve felt the same enveloping him that they must stop the treatment warmth and peace. He described himself because his tumor markers were continu- floating in the cosmos– “I feel light, I am ing to worsen. He returned to Phoenix light, there is a light inside me, I feel like feeling quite depressed, seeing only I’m floating with the angels.” He began darkness. He hoped that another ket- humming and I joined him. He moved his amine-assisted therapy session would help hands over his body, asking his shamanic him find some light and peace. I think self to make itself visible so that he could Ketamine session 4: heal himself. Then I followed his hands October 18, 2005 the ketamine-assisted over his body, and together we spread this For this session, I raised the dose to divine light all over. I pressed my fingers 100 mg. Like last time, when Steve heard therapy deep into the right upper quadrant of his the “cosmic chorus”, I hummed along with abdomen to direct the energy into his him. It happened to be the Jewish holiday allowed Steve liver. The intensity of the experience and of Yom Kippur and, unconsciously, my the energy coursing through his body hum became a tune from that day’s liturgy. to hang on to made my fingertips tingle. Steve recognized the melody and hummed After this session, Steve began going along with me. The Torah portion for that the idea that regularly to his health club and said he felt day was the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of stronger. Isaac. While we were humming Steve had he could be healed, Ketamine session 3: a vision of Abraham, dressed in flowing December 14, 2004 white garb. When he got closer, though, and, indeed, Using 75 mg., Steve again entered a he saw that the flowing robe was actually state of peaceful bliss, and he described a doctor’s white coat. In front of Dr. I believe he was. sensing a harmonic chorus of celestial Abraham was an altar on which Steve saw angels. Following Steve’s wishes, I tried to himself stretched out and bound. He saw But there is guide him to a place where he could Dr. Abraham with the dagger in his raised communicate with his shamanic soul. hand, and, just as he was ready to plunge a difference Enveloped in a sense of heavenly peace, I it, God called out to Abraham and he noticed tears rolling down his cheek. stopped. Steve looked up at the knife, and between healing When I asked him what the tears were it had been replaced by a beam of light. saying he said, “These are tears of joy, I Steve felt the presence of an overwhelm- and curing, have never felt so in tune with the whole ing sense of peace. universe. If this is God, I believe, but I When we talked about the experience and you can don’t want to talk to him.” later, he said, “The knife is less scary,” and By January, 2005, Steve was feeling then asked, “Do you think the light is my be healed stronger but his tumor markers were shaman talking to me?” rising and his alphaphetoprotein (AFP ) Over the next two months, Steve was even if level was astronomically high. That month hospitalized twice after fainting, leaving he learned of an experimental program at him with several bad bruises. He told me you're not the University of Pittsburgh where that he knew his health would continue to researchers were injecting drugs directly worsen but that he wanted to “bathe in cured. into the liver. Desperate for a cure, he flew the light one more time.” I found myself to Pittsburgh and they accepted him into wondering if he had finally come to peace the program on the condition that he with the imminence of his death. discontinue his ketamine therapy. Steve Ketamine session 5: wanted to participate in this research December 13, 2005 program, even though he knew it would At Steve’s request, I gave him 125 mg cause weakness and nausea. I told him that of ketamine. Like before, he felt im- I would support his choice, and that he mensely peaceful, heard celestial angels 14 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

singing, and soon we were humming I think the ketamine-assisted therapy together. I asked him if he could see the allowed Steve to hang on to the idea that light at the end of the tunnel and he said, he could be healed, and, indeed, I believe “There is no tunnel, there is only light. I he was. But there is a difference between am surrounded by light, I feel love and healing and curing, and you can be healed peace.” He wondered if this was the even if you’re not cured. Healing is about healing conversation he had been looking making connections to something other for with his shamanic self. than yourself, something that reminds you After this session, Steve continued to that you’re not alone on the journey. At grow weaker and soon he was unable to the end of life, the connection to others get up without feeling wobbly and dizzy. I who love us is priceless. Those connec- referred Steve to hospice, an option he had tions are imprinted in the hearts of others previously resisted. I explained that the and on the cave walls of the mind that hospice community is a place where one is endure, even once we are separated from surrounded by caretakers of light, and our physical bodies. • shortly after this discussion he moved into Through the use hospice treatment. The week before Steve died, he told of ketamine, me this story. “I thanked my hospice nurse when she left the other day. I told her Steve realized that what a great job she was doing. She thanked me and said no matter how much the shaman he sought money she was making (ha, ha, ha), that she loved this work and that to be with me was not in inspired her to live her life with joy. There were tears in her eyes when she spoke to the lost continent me and I had tears in mine.” Then Steve said, “It’s all about ﬂying into the light and of Atlantis, seeing your imprint on the cave wall.” He thanked me for helping him see that light, but within. and I told him I felt pretty much as his hospice nurse did, appreciative for having been with him on this journey. Steve died on March 14, 2006, 10 Dr. Hammerschlag is an internationally years after his original diagnosis and ﬁve recognized psychiatrist, who for 16 years was times longer than any of the doctors had Chief of Psychiatry, at the Phoenix Indian estimated. At his funeral service his son Medical Center. He is a faculty member at the said, “We all called my father the Ener- Univ. of Arizona Medical School, speaker, gizer Bunny. His attitude inspires me.” author and healer. His journey from doctor Steve believed that if he could com- to healer has been chronicled in three critically municate with his ancient shamanic self, acclaimed books, The Dancing Healers he might learn how to heal himself. The (Harper-Collins, 1988), The Theft of the shaman he sought turned out to be a tribal Spirit (Simon & Schuster, 1993), and ancestral messenger who turned the Healing Ceremonies (Putnam/Perigee, dagger of impending death into a beam of 1998). He can be reached at light. Through the use of ketamine, Steve www.healingdoc.com. realized that the shaman he sought was not in the lost continent of Atlantis, but Bibliography within. When granted the opportunity to Jansen, K. Ketamine: Dreams and Realities. MAPS, Sarasota, 2001 suspend ourselves from ordinary con- Krupitsky, E. “Ketamine Psychedelic Therapy: A Review of the Results of Ten Years of Research,” Journal of Psychoative Drugs, sciousness, we can make connections that 29 (2):165-183, 1997. may have previously eluded us. Steve was Jansen, K., and Darracot-Cankovic, R. “The Non-Medical use of able to go to a place beyond our everyday Ketamine,” J. of Psychoactive Drugs, 33 (2): 151-158, 2001 conceptions of time and space, allowing him to make peace with himself and the cosmos. m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 15

MAPS-Sponsored Ibogaine Observational Case Study Approved

ince February 12, 2005, a MAPS-sponsored research team s working on what is now entitled “Observational Case Series Study of the Long-Term Efficacy of Ibogaine-Assisted Therapy and Associated Interventions in Participants with Opiate Addiction Treated at the Iboga Therapy House”–have exchanged over 200 emails and literally dozens of versions of this novel research protocol, all with the goal of getting this study peer-reviewed and approved by a research ethics board.

Philippe Lucas Way back in February 2005, MAPS And so it now gives me great pleasure [email protected] President Rick Doblin contacted me to ask to announce that after months of work if I would help steer an ibogaine and and a number of significant changes to the addiction outcome study through the original protocol, MAPS has just received always-complicated Institutional Review ﬁnal approval from the IRB to proceed Board (IRB) process. Since this study was with this study, which will examine not associated with a university or changes in substance use in 20 consecu- hospital-based researcher, MAPS had to tive people seeking ibogaine-based …MAPS use a private IRB. Considering that I had addiction treatment for opiate dependence just received approval for a smoked at Iboga Therapy House. While originally will soon be able cannabis and chronic pain double-blind designed as an “outcome study,” the clinical study from an independent protocol was later changed to an observa- to announce that Canadian review board, Rick asked if I tional case-study when the IRB expressed could help MAPS gain approval for the concerns that the initial design was too an investigation ibogaine outcome study taking place at close to a clinical trial (which has a much Iboga Therapy House, located in stricter approval process, and was never on the potential Vancouver, British Columbia. Rick had the intention of the research team any- suggested this IRB to me in the first place how). The Principal Investigator is none of a novel treatment since he had become aware of it during his other than Rick Doblin, Ph.D., and he’ll be search for an IRB that would review aided by Dr. Ken Alper and Leah Martin, for opiate MAPS’ MDMA/PTSD study, which was with data analysis to be conducted by finally reviewed and approved by a US MAPS Research Associate Ilsa Jerome. dependence is IRB. Now that all of the IRB’s concerns As a long-time supporter of MAPS, have been successfully addressed, MAPS underway in I jumped at the chance to work with this will soon be able to announce that an cutting-edge organization. “Sure,” I investigation on the potential of a novel Canada… answered, “I’ve got a few hours to spare treatment for opiate dependence is over the next couple of weeks.” Honestly, underway in Canada, and I can ﬁnally get if I had known that 18 months and four some well-deserved rest … at least until IRB submissions later I would still be the next time Rick calls me up! • working on this protocol, I undoubtedly would have answered differently. How- Philippe Lucas is Founder/Director of ever, if I’ve learned anything in the many the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, years that I’ve been active in drug policy- Research Fellow at the Center for Addiction related research and activism, it is patience Research of British Columbia, and the Director and persistence. of Communications for DrugSense. 16 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

2006 NYC Ibogaine Conference

he skies were a slippery gray and the air was wintry cold on the tFebruary weekend of the 2006 NYC Ibogaine Conference. The chilly weather, though, did not in any way inhibit the fervent and passionate panel discussions and genuine warm vibes that permeated the gathering. I am currently preparing a program evaluation protocol for ibogaine treatment clinics in Canada (Iboga Therapy House) and Mexico (Villa Serena) for my dissertation at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS). As a witness to the healing potential of ibogaine, I have sought to work with providers to help them better analyze the variables that affect the long-term outcome of ibogaine treatment. John Harrison, Psy.D. (candidate) [email protected] Thus, I was delighted to be immersed profound balance to Dr. Kamlet’s clinical in the diverse and colorful assembly of knowledge. Truly a formidable tandem of journalists, researchers, street providers, truth from two who have been in “the neurologists, psychologists, physicians, belly of the beast!” activists, artists and successful veterans of Medical journalist Brian Vastag ibogaine treatment that joined me at the discussed the circuitous route of ibogaine’s conference. The positive energy was “forty years of ﬂirtation with legitimacy” palpable and as the conference unfolded, as a viable treatment protocol for heroin Though the opinions the various presenters articulated the addiction. breadth of interest in this little root from Kenneth Alper, M.D., (NYU Associate shared were the Tabernather iboga plant from West Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology) Africa. MAPS members and Bulletin presented a sweeping discourse on hardly monolithic, readers are most likely familiar with the ibogaine’s mechanisms of action on the potential of ibogaine to reduce drug human brain. Dr. Alper presented a the occasionally sharp craving and its concomitant symptoms, sampling of his scientific research while and the political and financial obstacles making the case for clinical trials in the ontological hindering its accessibility. U.S. Ken managed to convey challenging, Jeffrey Kamlet, M.D., (ibogaine complex, and important data in straight- deliberations treatment provider) and Patrick Kroupa forward language that both the novices (ibogaine activist and founder of and the experts in the audience could seemed to foment Mindvox) opened the proceedings with a comprehend. crash course in Ibogaine 101. Dr. Kamlet, Introduced as special visitors to the camaraderie. who is currently President of the Florida conference were physicians and treatment Society for Addiction Medicine, impressed providers Drs. Alberto Sola and Adolfo mightily with his unimpeachable medical Martinez from Villa Serena, an ibogaine expertise. Jeff spoke in depth about safety, treatment center in Cancun, Mexico. As particularly emphasizing medical pre- activist Dana Beal opined, “supporting and screening prior to ibogaine administra- legitimizing clinics in Canada and Mexico tion. Patrick Kroupa captivated the crowd will have the effect of embarrassing the with his unfaltering integrity and honest United States by saying ‘why everywhere self-disclosure regarding his own tortuous else but not here?’” process through addiction. Declaring Howard Lotsof, the sagacious and “ibogaine is a gift,” Kroupa also reiterated insightful ‘Grandfather of ibogaine’ gave a that “ibogaine is more than detox; it’s a comprehensive slide presentation on the catalyst, not a cure.” Patrick’s street history, politics, policy, profit, prejudice, credibility and his insight into the human and science of ibogaine. Lotsof, who first toll of addiction was a poignant and discovered ibogaine as a viable treatment m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 17

John Harrison and Howard Lotsof, who first discovered ibogaine as a viable treatment for heroin addiction in 1962, at the NYC Ibogaine Conference

for heroin addiction in 1962, reflected the Though the opinions shared and tone of the gathering by emphasizing discussed in NYC were hardly mono- inclusiveness, and by celebrating the lithic, the enthusiastic debate around the common goal of making this valuable interface of health and politics and the medicine available to the people who occasionally sharp ontological delibera- would most benefit from safe and unen- tions seemed to foment what was cumbered access. already an unmistakable esprit de corps The opening day session culminated and camaraderie amongst the highly in an extraordinary and spirited political energized attendees. panel which included Dmitri Mugianis As for myself, the weekend left me (ibogaine treatment provider and former feeling honored and inspired to meet so patient), Lotsof, Douglas Greene and the many learned, sensitive, and committed peripatetic Dana Beal (Cures Not Wars). people who, though the work they do is Saturday evenings reception featured the often solitary, found hope and encourage- powerful documentary Ibogaine: Rite of ment in this encounter with so many like- Passage, by ﬁlm-maker Ben de Loenen. minded and like-hearted individuals. Then, on Sunday the conference As Lee Albert said so eloquently as the shifted to the wonderful and inspiring conference came to a close, “we grow in environment of Alex Grey’s Chapel of the spirit or die in the body.” • Sacred Mirrors (COSM) on W. 27th Street. Grey’s vivid colors and breathtak- ing images provided appropriate and stimulating surroundings for topics and presentations that included “Ibogaine as a Source of Revelation” (an exploration of the spiritual dimension of ibogaine), and Beal opined, “supporting and legitimizing clinics “Ibogaine for Self-Development,” featuring authors Lee Albert and Daniel Pinchbeck. in Canada and Mexico will have the effect of Others included, “Ibogaine and the Ritual of the Bwiti,” “Iboga Visions,” (including embarrassing the United States by saying a discussion of the Œoneirophrenic or dreamlike phase of an iboga session), and ’why everywhere else but not here?’” a fantastic “Unexplanation of Ibogaine and Sacred Art,” featuring the stunning and visionary work of artists , David Hunter, and of course the inimi- table Alex Grey. 18 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

A Groundbreaking Study on Music, Spirituality, Religion, and the Human Brain

hroughout my career in both mainstream Tacademia and alternative education, and in my own personal explorations, my primary interest and area of expertise has been the unique capacity of music to induce powerful altered states of consciousness (ASCs) that allow access to spiritual dimensions. However, as many of us are aware, such states are highly subjective and ephemeral, and it is often difficult for skeptics to accept the validity of these states, take them seriously, and recognize them as an important part of the human experience. So when a friend forwarded an e-mail to me a couple of years ago on a study of musically-induced chills using state-of-the-art brain scanning equipment, I was excited because these subjective states were now being objectively verified by scientific methods. When I investigated further, I was even more excited to discover that there was a growing body of this kind of research using brain-scanning Robin Sylvan technology to investigate musical experience, and other kinds of spiritual [email protected] and religious experiences as well.

A few months later, while I was Institute and the Templeton Advanced organizing a conference on music and Research Program soliciting proposals for spirituality through my non-profit $1,000,000 grants in science and spiritual- educational organization, the Sacred ity. I called Petr to suggest we collaborate Center, I decided to find a brain scientist on a proposal for a three-year study on the to do a presentation on this kind of work. brain science of musically induced spiri- At the time, I was doing some adjunct tual experiences and he agreed. After teaching at UC Davis, and to my surprise, I much effort over several months, we discovered that UC Davis has one of the crafted a proposal and sent it off. To my top facilities for brain science in the utter amazement, we just recently found country, the Center for Mind and Brain, out that, out of over 130 applicants, our and that one of the leading researchers in proposal is one of two that has been the brain science of music, Dr. Petr Janata, approved for funding, and we are now had just taken a position there. So I hard at work getting things going. The contacted Petr and met with him and we synchronistic way these events have made a good connection, particularly unfolded confirms my sense that this view because it was clear that we both shared a of music as a consciousness-shifting strong interest in musically-induced peak spiritual technology is not only gaining experiences. When he presented at the wider acceptance, but that it is also part of conference, I began to get a sense that he a larger paradigm shift away from a view and I might collaborate on some important of science and spirituality as mortal research somewhere down the line. The enemies to one in which they actually opportunity presented itself sooner than I work together as allies. imagined a couple of months later when I Since this is the MAPS Bulletin, you received a postcard from the Metanexus may be wondering how all this relates to m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 19

psychedelics. In the first part of the study, about drug use tainting the rave and jam we will be conducting interviews and band data, I still think it is a positive surveys with people from six test groups: development that this project was ulti- two mainstream Western religions (a mately approved with these two test Christian church and a Jewish synagogue); groups, despite their association with two non-Western religions (a Hindu drugs, and that it validates them as temple and a Yoruba/West African legitimate spiritual communities worthy group); and two non-religious but spiritu- of serious research. Second, I think that ally-oriented musical scenes (the rave/ separating the effects of music from the electronic dance music scene and the jam effects of drugs actually furthers research band scene). These last two on both fronts. When I groups have an obvious spoke with MAPS Presi- association with the use of This study dent Rick Doblin, Ph.D., specific drugs–primarily and told him we had won MDMA with the rave scene is part of a this grant, he was amazed and LSD with the jam band larger paradigm shift because MAPS had applied scene (although, as we several times for grants know, people in these away from a view from Metanexus and scenes use many other Templeton and never drugs)–and this association of science and succeeded. I can’t help but is one of the reasons I was think that psychedelics so surprised we got the spirituality as probably had something to grant. However, before our mortal enemies do with this track record proposal was cleared for and that the absence of final approval, we did have to one in which this issue probably con- to address a number of tributed to our proposal’s concerns raised by review- they actually success. Of course, I am ers, and the use of drugs in happy to see that, despite these scenes was definitely work together its record with Metanexus one of them. Specifically, as allies. and Templeton, MAPS has they wanted us to establish received funding for an experimental control for numerous scientific drug use among the studies from other sources. participants, so that we could be certain In my view, all of it is important research the altered brain states were induced by that scientifically verifies ASCs and their music, rather than by drugs. This was beneficial effects, and it all contributes to certainly a legitimate concern from a the paradigm shift of science and spiritual- scientific perspective and one we were ity becoming allies. Finally, I hope that our able to address to their satisfaction, study will open the way for further studies primarily by assuring them that, for the on the effects of music on the brain, and interviews and surveys, we would rely as that these might someday include the much as possible on people whose experi- central and almost universal role of music ences were drug-free, and that drug use in the use of psychedelics in both Western would be strictly prohibited in the labora- and non-Western cultures. • tory experiments of the later stages of the study. Robin Sylvan is author of Trance Formation: Nevertheless, these concerns raise The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of larger issues that I think are of interest to Global Rave Culture. For more information Bulletin readers. First, even though there about this study, please see: http:// was some trepidation by the reviewers atonal.ucdavis.edu/projects/tarp/ 20 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

So You Want to be a Psychedelic Researcher?

ith the current renaissance in psychedelic research, after a forty-year moratorium, undergraduates interested in the topic are increasingly starting to ask: How can I get involved? Unfortunately, psychedelics are still heavily stigma- tized, and there is as yet no obvious infrastructure into which enthusiasts can channel their energy. There are no psychedelic research graduate programs, no psychedelic student groups, no psychedelic scholarships, and few professors willing to provide mentorship or funding agencies willing to sponsor such research. This leaves undergraduates inspired by psychedelics frustrated and uncertain about what they should be doing in order to most help the cause. Here are some suggestions and guidance for those so perplexed.

Perhaps you appreciate First, examine your motives for wish instead to change society for the entering psychedelic research? Is it better? You do not need to be a scientific that scientists such as because psychedelics are novel and cool? researcher in order to be an activist. If so, you are apt to find psychedelic Ultimately, scientific research is only Ralph Abraham, research disappointing. While Dr. Timothy useful as a tool in the hands of the activist, Leary, perhaps the most famous of the for it is the activist who compels society to Stephen Jay Gould, psychedelic researchers, found it a route improve. to enduring fame and hot sex with large Or is it because you are motivated by Carl Sagan, numbers of young women, he did this a genuine curiosity about these peculiar primarily though his showmanship rather substances, and wish to apply the tools of Andrew Weil, and than his scientiﬁc research. If such a modern inquiry toward understanding Nobel Prize winners lifestyle is appealing to you, there are their properties? Perhaps you appreciate shorter routes to this goal than decades that scientists such as Ralph Abraham, such as Francis Crick, of scholarly study. Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Sagan, Andrew Or is it because you have had a Weil, and Nobel Prize winners such as Richard Feynman, mystical or life-changing experience Francis Crick, Richard Feynman, and Kary on a psychedelic? You do not need to Mullis have found psychedelics valuable and Kary Mullis become a psychedelic researcher in tools in formulating their great discover- order to continue your self-exploration; ies, and wonder how this can be so? have found you do not even need to continue to take Maybe you know that the discovery of psychedelics, as there are many other LSD was what sparked interest in the psychedelics methods of changing one’s own con- serotonin system and prompted the sciousness, from yoga to meditation to explosive growth of modern psychophar- valuable tools Holotropic Breathwork. Such a path may macology that continues today? Possibly prove profoundly self-altering; however, you contemplate what other wonders may in formulating it is unlikely to change society. lie hidden in the closed box of psychedelic Or is it because you are frustrated science? their great discoveries, living in a culture that tramples individual And are you willing to accept that freedoms, discourages introspection and your unconventional interests may lead to and wonder how insight, substitutes lies and half-truths for professional isolation or even ostracism, this can be so? genuine science, encourages people to self- and that the time-consuming navigation censor and conform to that which they of the layers of red tape endemic to know is harmful and wrong, and that you psychedelic research will inevitably slow m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 21

your publication rate and consequently Entheogens–Sacramentals or promotions compared with your peers? Sacrilege? to students (graduate or And are you aware that the total lack of undergraduate), it might be possible government or corporate support for such for me to travel every now and then endeavors means that you will never be and meet with a class, say over long rich, and you may in fact eventually land weekends or for a day or two every in jail on trumped up charges of one sort couple of weeks. The rest we can do or another? If such considerations do not by Internet. trouble you, then read on. Alternately, design your own inde- AS AN UNDERGRADUATE pendent study course (or courses) for Get Your Degree! Lie Low and credit in psychedelics. This is the approach Infiltrate the System MAPS President Rick Doblin took for his The undergraduate years are a undergraduate education at New College difficult time for the nascent psychedelic of Florida. Use Dr. Robert’s syllabus as a researcher because of the stigma that these basis. Paul Goodwin is starting a web site drugs still hold. Many undergraduates aimed at interested students offering links come to realize that broadcasting their and short descriptions of courses relevant unconventional views at this time could to psychedelic studies. This should be on- potentially harm their future careers, and line by the fall of 2006 (www.psycomp.org.uk). R. Andrew Sewell, M.D. thus indirectly harm psychedelic research. Keep current with the literature in your [email protected] Sometimes we have to conform to others’ area of interest, and start thinking about expectations in order to establish a solid ideas for your own research project. base of credibility, and wait for a time Another graduate student when we can be more independent in our writes: pursuits. The book Why Shrooms Are Good I completed an honors thesis as With contributions from: by Joe Schmoe is likely to be ignored; an undergraduate, which basically Nicholas V. Cozzi, Ph.D. Therapeutic Benefits of Psilocybin by Dr. Joe was a literature review, and it ended Rick Doblin, Ph.D. Schmoe considerably less so, even if both up resulting in my first publication a Robert Forte books say exactly the same thing. Inciden- few years later. It also led up to my tally, this was the path I followed; I didn’t masters thesis (a quasi-experimental Marc Franklin breathe a word of my interests until I was study) and a few other papers in Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. already on the faculty of Harvard Medical press. The best thing undergraduates Paul Goodwin, Ph.D. School. Be warned, however–conformity can do to help is to prepare them- Casey Guillot, Ph.D.* for too long can corrode the soul. And in selves, I believe. Be persistent about Jon Hanna retrospect, you are freer as an undergradu- being a part of psychedelic research, if Jordan Holmes ate than you may think you are. that is truly where your heart lies. I Ilsa Jerome, Ph.D. Educate Yourself About Psychedelics may not be able to do exactly what I Sameet Kumar, Ph.D. Read what scientific literature does want right now, but I still can keep it exist regarding psychedelics, not just the in mind for the future. Christopher D. Lovett, Ph.D.* material that draws popular attention. Dan Merkur, Ph.D. If possible, take a course in psychedelics. “The Implications of Psychedelic Julia Onnie-Hay Dr. Stacy B. Schaefer teaches a class on Research for XXX” often makes a good Erik Peden, Ph.D. Indigenous People of Latin America at term paper topic. Rephrasing a title as a Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. California State University, Chico, dealing question is one tactic to use when encoun- Michael Allan Ruderman in part with the peyote-using Huichol tering skeptical professors: “Do Psyche- Kevin Sachs, Ph.D. Indians. Dr. Constantino Manuel Torres delics Have Implications for XXX?” or Tobias C. van Veen, Ph.D. teaches an Art and Shamanism course at “How Should We Evaluate Psychedelic Florida International University, explor- Claims of XXX?” Also, consider requesting *(candidate) ing traditional cultures that use that your local and school libraries acquire psychedelics. Northern Illinois University psychedelic books. Not only does this help offers regular courses by Dr. Thomas spread knowledge, it also helps authors Roberts. Invite him to be a guest lecturer and encourages publishers to accept more at your own school! Dr. Roberts writes: psychedelic titles. If your department or another In the meantime, attend a convention! would like to offer either course– There’s quite a bit of psychedelic research Foundations of Psychedelic Studies or presented at the yearly Society for Litera- 22 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

ture, Science, and the Arts conferences delic Education Society. We met at (http://slsa.press.jhu.edu). Similarly, the the spot that marked the beginning of Toward a Science of Consciousness the Atomic Age, a Henry Moore conferences held in Tucson, Arizona every sculpture called The Nuclear Egg. other year also always have some presen- About a hundred people showed up. tations dealing with psychedelic research We shared stories, brought speakers (www.consciousness.arizona.edu). And to town, dreamed of a saner world, more specifically focused on psychedelics and labored to manifest one. and altered states are the yearly Mind At Harvard, where I work, there is no States conventions, where aboveground recognized undergraduate student organi- researchers and underground psychonauts zation focused on psychedelic research. congregate to discuss their latest discover- The procedure for creating such an ies. The Mind States e-mailing list pro- organization can be found on-line at: Read what vides updates on similar events that www.college.harvard.edu/student/ happen worldwide (www.mindstates.org). handbook.pdf. The advantages of forming scientific literature Underground publications often a recognized student organization are present cutting-edge discoveries in the many. Not only can recognized groups get does exist regarding arenas of psychedelic chemistry, botany, permission to use campus facilities and and pharmacology. The Entheogen Review, assembly halls for events and symposia, psychedelics, for example, was the first place to discuss they are also eligible to apply for funding the extraction of tryptamines from from the student government. A student not just the material Phalaris grasses for ayahuasca analogues organization focused on psychedelic and the first to confirm the psychoactivity research could engage in outreach with that draws of Mimosa tenuiﬂora (= M. hostilis) without other student groups and academic coadministration of a monoamine oxidase departments encompassing most of the popular attention. inhibitor. These days, countless web sites physical, biological, and social sciences, and discussion forums carry first-person as well as those pertaining to the arts, reports of the latest synthetic psychedelics humanities, and civil liberties. Events and botanical preparations. Amateur could be held on campus to educate and science flourishes in our current legal inform, and university funds could be used situation, in which professional science is to bring in speakers and arrange confer- so difficult to perform that most discoveries ences. Such events could draw participants have to be made underground. Remember, from all over the world. While these though, that the rigorous controls present activities do not necessarily amount to in aboveground science are usually lacking actual psychedelic research, they could in underground efforts, rendering many be fashioned in a manner to do so, if–for results questionable at best. example–a faculty member were enlisted Start a Psychedelic Student Group to supervise a survey-based study. More While one undergraduate is easy to importantly, student organizations spread intimidate, large groups of them have a awareness, generate understanding, and history of occupying administration de-stigmatize psychedelics, thereby buildings to facilitate societal change. helping to set the stage for actual research Fish travel in schools for a reason! An- when the time and place are right. other strategy, therefore, is to start a SSDP and the student ACLU student group. One possibility would be to group helped sponsor the ethno- form a chapter of a national organization pharmacology society’s seminar on such as the Marijuana Policy Project the co-evolution of plants and (MPP) or Students for Sensible Drug humans. We also were awarded a Policy (SSDP). This approach would be grant from the student organization similar to student chapters of Greenpeace, office–raising more than a thousand Amnesty International, or Students for a bucks!–and were able to bring in Free Tibet. Dennis McKenna as the outside One notorious troublemaker writes: speaker. It was a splendid event, with I took out an ad in the school’s Dennis giving a great talk examining newspaper, Come to the ﬁrst meeting plant chemical communication signals of the University of Chicago Psyche- that may be driving the interesting m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 23

side of human evolution. It was methodology and techniques, gain as followed by a panel discussion that much knowledge as you can, hone your included some of University of analytic skills–while keeping sight of the Washington’s botany professors, a big picture–and then apply all these classics scholar, and an Incan resources to psychedelic research when medicine man. the time comes. The more rigorous and Volunteer stringent your research and its interpreta- Numerous organizations exist that tion, the harder it will be for people to appreciate people who offer to do volun- argue with it, reject it, or not take it teer work. MAPS needs help with their seriously–and that can make all the on-line psychedelic bibliography, creating difference. If you try to get as much as you abstracts for many of the articles that are can out of graduate or medical school, listed. The Erowid web site also sometimes you’ll always have those tools, analytical uses volunteers (see www.erowid.org/ skills, and knowledge of sound techniques Write letters general/about/about_volunteers.shtml). available to do excellent research in Find an organization with which you whatever field you choose. In addition, it and share how resonate and contact them to see what sort is important to have proficiency and of help they need. credibility in a field other than psyche- you feel! Write Letters delic research, to serve as a fallback Without government approval, position when changing political winds Nobody psychedelic research will stagnate as it has make times tough. for the last forty or so years. Government My own path was one of going to can arrest politicians, agencies, and organizations medical school and becoming a medical need to understand that people interested doctor, which I figured was a necessity if I you for in psychedelics are not thoughtlessly ever wanted to actually give these drugs promoting drug use, but are sincerely to people, which I do. Furthermore, I an opinion searching for personal and scientific believe that an M.D. sometimes has more truths. Write letters and share how you credibility than a Ph.D. or politician –yet. feel! Nobody can arrest you for an opin- when it comes to telling people what’s ion–yet. good and bad for them. My grant propos- Donate Money to Psychedelic als can afford to be a little more daring Organizations because if they’re all turned down, I This is by far the easiest way to get won’t be living on the street–seeing involved. With no support from govern- patients for money is always an option. ment or industry, that means that funding One disadvantage, of course, is the length for psychedelic research is going to come of training–which in my case (neurol- from one place only–you! ogy/psychiatry) was ten years after AS A GRADUATE STUDENT college. Another disadvantage is the large Your first stop should be the Heffter loans and consequent temptation to Research Institute’s Scientific Advisory specialize in something more profitable Panel, which is a list of psychedelic allies than psychedelics (and ample opportuni- in the international academic world. The ties to do so). But I have no regrets about locations where these individuals work the path I have chosen to follow. are areas where there is possible support If you wish to follow the Ph.D. route, for psychedelic research. however, pure neuroscience or neurophar- Failing this, Dr. Alexander Shulgin’s macology is extremely valuable, as it is recommendation is to get as strong a much easier politically to give foundation in graduate school as possible. psychedelics to animals or tissue cultures Work in a highly-respected institution than it is to humans, and there is a large with good people doing solid, reputable amount of funding available in areas research, pick up as many skills as you can indirectly applicable to the study of along the way (for you never know which psychedelics, such as the pharmacology will ultimately be useful) then pursue and physiology of serotonin. This sort of what it is that you genuinely want to do, research builds the credibility necessary to which you might not even know until apply for funding to study psychedelics after graduate school anyway. Learn solid directly. Unfortunately, much of the 24 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

research done in these ﬁelds is on animals which is not just for M.D.s anymore– and never directly examines higher-order learning to navigate the subconscious is a thought and cognition–the levels at which valuable skill for anyone doing psyche- psychedelics engage human consciousness delic psychotherapy! A dream is not so in the most fascinating way. And sadly, different from a trip, and dream analysis there are few academics in these fields skills translate directly. But if you’re willing to serve as mentors for students interested in research, make sure that you interested in psychedelics. get a Ph.D. rather than a Psy.D. Experimental psychology, the study of Cognitive science is a pure science of the human mind, is also valuable, but the mind, drawing from a variety of psychonaut psychologists have given disciplines, including computer science. graduate-level psychology study mixed (Cognitive science was largely founded as reviews. Today’s experimental psychology an attempt to model and imitate the … consider Ph.D. programs reportedly involve work- human mind on a computer system.) ing in very restricted domains, performing There are far fewer such programs than requesting that tightly controlled experiments that rarely comparable psychology programs, which resemble real-world conditions, focus are ubiquitous, yet cognitive science your local and school primarily on outward behavior (as op- differs from experimental psychology in posed to studying mind), and interpreting that it relies strongly on theoretical and libraries acquire data in ways that are inevitably con- empirical work done in other fields (such strained by how well they fit with cur- as ethnographic research), especially psychedelic books. rently accepted theories. philosophy, neuroscience, and linguistics, Clinical psychology will allow you to but also sociology, anthropology, and Not only does this build the skills necessary in any multidisci- cultural studies. These data are then used plinary team researching the psychothera- in an integrative way to better understand help spread peutic value of psychedelics. When and modify theoretical foundations, rather psychedelics are ultimately approved as a than looked at as orthogonal data from a knowledge, treatment modality, a clinical psychologist different field. The boundaries between will undoubtedly be part of any such disciplines often dissolve, resulting in it also helps treatment team. And as a clinical psycholo- integration that is necessary in order to gist, you’ll be able to design clinical trials understand the psychedelic experience authors sensitive to set and setting, which are and consciousness in general. largely ignored in contemporary psyche- Cognitive science, as the science of and encourages delic research. A focus on psychedelic higher order conceptual structure and psychotherapy outcome research would be thought, will permit you to broadly study publishers to an especially useful degree, and could lead the mind itself, its cognitive components, to a job at MAPS. Clinical psychology how it is manifested in neural tissue, and accept more graduate students report that the most how meaning is created, organized, prominent psychological perspective today modified, and communicated by humans psychedelic titles. is cognitive-behavioral, an approach more in the real ecological, social, and cultural balanced between observable behavior and environment that we inhabit. Many cognition. Less mainstream, transpersonal cognitive science programs emphasize graduate schools such as the California computational modeling, which is unfor- Institute of Integral Studies, the Institute tunately still in its infancy. One cognitive of Transpersonal Psychology, or the scientist writes: Saybrook Institute provide an alternative Here, in a cognitive science to the prevailing cognitive-behavioral program, I am able to work in labs paradigm. Collectively, these institutes are doing both brain-imaging (fMRI) as the central hubs of clinical psychology well as electrophysiological (EEG/ wisdom, knowledge, and experience from ERP) brainwave research, but at the the sixties, largely due to the influx of same time study in rigorous detail faculty such as Ralph Metzner, Stanislav theories from philosophy and Grof, Richard Tarnas, Stanley Krippner, linguistics while attempting to form and other veterans of the psychedelic a coherent picture of how the mind science community. works, what thought is, and how we Also consider psychoanalytic training, comprehend reality. m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 25

Ultimately, when deciding on a Author Contact Information graduate program that will nurture your All authors have agreed to serve growth and refine your skills, your as resources for aspiring psychedelic decision should be based on the professors researchers. under whom you will be working, the type Nicholas V. Cozzi, Ph.D., Pharmacology of research that is carried out in their labs, [email protected] the resources available to you, and the fit of your questions and ideas with those of Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Public Policy your advisor. Whatever route you follow, [email protected] learn as much as you can and keep your Robert Forte, Master of Arts, Religious mind, eyes, and ears wide open. Absorb Studies (AMRS) and integrate what you are studying with [email protected] your own interests and ideas, but never Marc Franklin, Photographer shy away from something because it seems [email protected] too rigid or intuitively wrong or en- trenched within illusory modes of Paul Goodwin, Neuroscience thought. Decide what you think is accu- and Pharmacology rate and what is not, know why what you [email protected] think is wrong is wrong, then envision a Casey Guillot, Ph.D. candidate, better way to understand and explain the Clinical Psychology phenomenon. [email protected] There are many paths to becoming a Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D., psychedelic researcher. Like the Internet, Social/Environmental Psychology science views censorship as a system failure [email protected] and routes around it; psychedelic research, which has long lain fallow, is slowly Jon Hanna, Roustabout, Neer-do-well germinating once again. You may end up [email protected] studying the biochemical and neural basis Ilsa Jerome, Ph.D., Social Psychology for the psychedelic experience, psychedelic [email protected] psychotherapy, religious and contemplative Sameet Kumar, Ph.D., Clinical Psychology approaches to the ecstatic experience, the [email protected] nature of consciousness, law reform and public policy, going on ethnographic and Christopher D. Lovett, B.S. Biochemistry anthropological expeditions, or designing and Molecular Biology, M.S. Cognitive and running clinical trials. You may Science, Ph.D. candidate, Cognitive become a strong voice in the media. But Science what matters most in the end is that you [email protected] attain success and satisfaction on a per- Dan Merkur, Ph.D., Comparative Religion sonal, professional, and spiritual level, [email protected] while at the same time remaining true to Julia Onnie-Hay yourself and your beliefs. • [email protected] Read “Recommended resources for Erik M. Peden, Ph.D., Molecular self-education,” adapted from Thomas and Cellular Pharmacology Robert’s Foundations of Psychedelic [email protected] Studies course on the MAPS website at: Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. http://www.maps.org/sys/ [email protected] nq.pl?id=951&fmt=page Michael Allan Ruderman [email protected] This article also appears in the Summer 2006 issue of The Entheogen Kevin Sachs, Ph.D., Accounting Review [email protected] R. Andrew Sewell, M.D. [email protected] 26 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 27

the West, we have therapy, but somehow I Over the years I have experienced a A famous scholar was never a believer in the talking cure. I coming together, like two rivers ﬂowing tried other things: bio-energetic therapy, together. The shamanic path has healed once said that the hypnosis, acupuncture, holotropic me deep in my heart reconstituted and breathwork. The last led me to someone reseated my soul in a way that allows me great cultural work who practiced LSD psychotherapy, which to rest far deeper in the essence of aware- went deeper, but that black dog kept ness both on the cushion and off. And the of our time following me. dharma helps me to sit in ceremony with A friend told me about the healing more awareness and openness and percep- would be plants of the Amazon, and sat for me one tion. The teachings on shunyata (empti- night as I took an extract of one. It was ness) also help me to see the visions that the meeting dark and powerful and the mother of are central to experiences with plant death came to me shaking her rattle. Then teachers in both their relative and absolute of Buddhism I went to a ceremony led by a group of aspects. On the one hand, powerful healers from the Amazon. And my body healing messages from the world of spirit, from the East told me this is good medicine for me. And and, on the other, nyam, a meditative my heart says, “yes.” There followed ten experience. and Christianity years where ayahuasca ceremonies have One evening the spirit of ayahuasca alternated with meditation retreats and came to me, and just like my dharma from the West. daily practice. Dharma chants met the teachers have done so many times, she icaros (ayahuasca healing songs) and hinos gave me a job. I should connect my Not being a Christian, (hymns) of Amazonia. And the spirit of Buddhist path and sangha (Buddhist the plants became a teacher both like and community) with the shamanic path and I don’t really have unlike my Zen Master and Vajra Master its community. Not just haphazardly but had been. Alike in the pointing out of the formally and not just for myself but for much of a part Truth and my path to follow; unlike in others as well. It’s not really a message that I drink her and she comes to teach I wanted to hear. For years I’ve been in that work. and be inside of me. studiously underachieving and it had

Interwoven tree limbs hold the steeply angled roof of the maloca, where ayahuasca ceremonies take place near Iquitos, Peru. 28 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

become a comfortable little nest. But she more easily. Using the witness conscious- was quite insistent as I sat there in the ness I’ve been more available for whatever dark and so I agreed. I could see her point. type of healing or spiritual experience The times Despite their different origins and ener- arises in ceremony, even when they’ve gies these two currents support and been difficult or painful. My yoga and chi- are certainly complement each other beautifully, in my gung practices have helped my energy experience. So here I am meditating and body be ready to receive the sometimes calling us to doing yoga in the maloca getting ready to overwhelming amounts of energy that drink ayahuasca tonight. ayahuasca can bring. And of course both find new ways I finish my session, dedicate the merit the meditative and yogic practices help to and lie down on the wide wooden planks unpack and tease out the threads of what is to heal ourselves of the floor, looking up and contemplating a very compact burst of healing and insight the view from here. that arrives in one night of ayahuasca. They and wake up... I’m at the Blue Morpho Shamanic bring it from the realm of “I had this Center in the Peruvian Amazon. I’ve come amazing experience” to a living part of my Besides, trading here to apprentice with two maestros, daily life. Countless times I’ve called on my Alberto Torres Davila and Hamilton teachers and lineage, my heart Bodhi- medicine Souther. I’ll be here for two months of sattavas and Yidam, to aid and guide me training and then head home for a month when the medicine is working strongly. should be fun. and a half before coming back to the The rivers of love that have sometimes jungle and beginning the cycle again. flowed through me in the night have been And it will be While I’m up north I’ll be attending well met by a heart that has cultivated retreat with one of my Tibetan Buddhist metta (“loving kindness”) and tonglen (“give quite an adventure teachers and my yoga teacher, weaving and take”) practice, however incompletely. this cross-cultural tapestry on the loom of And the Dharma teachings on cause and to see just what my own experience. I don’t know for sure effect, the Bodhisattva way and the essence what the results of all this effort will be of mind, have been first and last the best comes of it all. but I do know the benefits of the cross- container I could want from which to drink fertilizations that I’ve experienced so far the healing gift of the forest. on this path. A famous scholar once said that the I know that the deep emotional great cultural work of our time would be healing I’ve received in ayahuasca ceremo- the meeting of Buddhism from the East nies has allowed me to deepen my dharma and Christianity from the West. Not being practice and has helped me to apply a Christian, I don’t really have much of a Buddhist meditative practice in my daily part in that work. For me, as a person born life in a way that has led to greater in the Americas, the work is much more happiness and effectiveness. The medicine about the meeting of the dharma with the spirits have given my body powerful “native way” of these lands. I feel that only energetic cleansings in my channels and through a humble and sincere apprentice- chakras and even released Reichian-style ship with the first people can we evolve a There will be a workshop body armoring in my chest and abdomen. truly native practice of Buddha’s teach- to explore this topic called Ayahuasca has manifested my ordinary ings. They have a lot of healing and a lot Meeting at the River deluded mind for me, showing clearly how to teach. And we as dharma practitioners it creates my own personal Samsara with don’t come empty handed. There is much next Feb 12–20 at the all the attendant sufferings. Visionary we too have to share as we sit in circle Blue Morpho Shamanic Center experiences as other people, beings, or together. The times are certainly calling us near Iquitos, Peru. even animals have opened me to more to find new ways to heal ourselves and For more information see empathy and compassion for others. And wake up. Not just for ourselves, but for our often at the end of a ceremony, after the societies and for earth herself. Perhaps we www.tworiverssangha.org/ healing and purging have resolved all need each other. Besides, trading workshop.html themselves I’ve entered into deep states of medicine should be fun. And it will be still, limpid, luminescent awareness. Just quite an adventure to see just what comes clear, open panoramic space. of it all. And I also know that the dharma As my Zen Master used to say, practice, with its wide, clear awareness, “Why not?” • has helped me navigate shamanic space m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 29

Toward Light in the Darkness: A Review of the SheShamans- MagicMamas and 2nd Amazonian Shamanism Conferences

“We are at the beginning of a worldwide spiritual movement: one in which women and men trained in various shamanic traditions insist on their right to openly practice ancient religious rituals as well as complementary and alternative medicine to restore themselves to a healthy balance with the world around them.” – Barbara Tedlock, Ph.D., anthropologist and shaman, in The Woman in the Shaman’s Body (2005)

“Healers are the white blood cells of the global body and our white blood cell count is dangerously low.” – Carlos, apprentice of Don Juan Tangoa Paima, Peruvian curandero, at the 2nd Amazonian Shamanism Conference

I slowly write this article, midwifing it the original psychedelic therapist. Most into existence, from an internet cafe off a shamans I have met seem to agree that the busy, life-filled street in the Amazonian medicines themselves are the true teach- city of Iquitos, Peru. I am saturated with ers. Yet, these gifted individuals have fresh memories of dozens of presentations administered and facilitated these power- by a diverse variety of healers and experts ful medicines for millennia, creating safe who work with psychedelic medicines, and sacred spaces to navigate the dark, as well as many illuminating discussions uncharted territory of spirit and psyche. with spiritual seekers and scientific Fortunately, in spite of thousands of years investigators. These individuals have of persecution, a small number of contem- been courageous enough in their life- porary shamans and underground psyche- Julia Onnie-Hay journeys to venture out of the mainstream delic therapists continue to practice the [email protected] onto the taboo, yet well-beaten, path of science and art of shamanistic healing psychedelic healing. traditions. This article is a report on two confer- A History Shrouded in Darkness ences where I had the honor of represent- Humans have been using psychedelic ing MAPS during the first two weeks of medicines, or “plant-spirit medicines,” for summer: the SheShamans and Magic- at least several millennia, probably longer, Mamas Conference in Geyserville, Califor- often in conjunction with shamanistic nia, and the 2nd Amazonian Shamanism healing traditions–widely acknowledged Conference in Iquitos, Peru. Both events as the common heritage of both religion were intimate, drawing around one and medicine. Unfortunately, psychedelic hundred participants and a dozen present- medicines and those who facilitate their ers, and because of the strong administration have been persecuted by synchronicity of their messages, this political and religious powers for hun- article will review both conferences and dreds of years. The witch burnings of the situate them within an overview of the European Inquisition and the colonization history of global shamanistic healing of the world by the US and Europe are just traditions. two of the series of genocides aimed at The shaman, called by many cultur- discrediting and destroying indigenous ally-specific names including “curandero,” cultures that honored and used psyche- “witch,” and “lightworker,” is, I believe, delic medicines. Still, people in several 30 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

corners of the globe continued to use the informed about psychedelic plants medicines, often by adapting to new and substances, in spite of mainstream circumstances and traditions. As western society’s ban on these powerful medicines. allopathic medicine developed, chemical The conference opened and closed with derivatives synthesized from these plants group rituals honoring the spirits of the gained higher trust, prestige and credibil- visionary plants that fuel the group’s ity from the legal, profit-driven medical healing and exploratory work. With establishment. nearly all conference participants standing Over the past two centuries, the in a circle, arms woven together, with industrial revolution and process of hands clasped to their neighbors’ hearts, colonization has accelerated the pace of a strong feeling of unity circulated the destruction of our natural environ- through the group that was carried ment on Earth and the devaluation of beyond the ritual into daily activities. The question non-western cultures. The new medical Although participants had a wide variety establishment did not acknowledge the of spiritual, religious and cultural back- is not if legitimacy of shamanism or psychedelics, grounds, they appeared enthusiastic and yet many people all over the world open-minded about the rituals. The psychedelic medicines continued using psychedelic medicines, closing ritual was facilitated by pagan quietly. As the international War on priestess and witch Macha Nightmare will ever be legal, Drugs heightened over the past half- with the help of MAPS volunteers Vanessa century, psychedelic medicines that our Vaudo and Corinna Loomis, an elderly but when and how ancestors used for healing and spiritual woman named Mickey from Monterey, guidance continued to be taboo in main- and myself. A closing spiral dance gave they will become stream U.S. society as well as in others that participants the opportunity to gaze into have been politically, economically and the eyes of each participant, further legally culturally influenced by the U.S. However, solidifying the connections formed at the with the relatively recent successes in conference. Those connections were the accessible. revitalizing legal scientific research on the highlight of the gathering. healing potential of psychedelic medi- One common theme of the presenta- cines, more and more people are able to tions was that women have been working envision a global society in which psyche- with psychedelic plants since the begin- delic medicines are culturally and legally ning of modern human history and were, reintegrated, in which psychedelic in many cultures, the first shamans and psychotherapists and other contemporary healers. As elder Cynthia Palmer said in shamans are respected rather than perse- her presentation, “If we look at women cuted, and in which the medicines are priestesses and healers of prehistory, they affordable, safe and accessible. all worked with psychoactive plants, they SheShamans-MagicMamas were all gardeners, and they knew if you Around eighty women and fifteen ate, smoked or drank certain plants, you male allies gathered at the eclectic Isis would get in touch with the divine. We Oasis Sanctuary in Geyserville, California have to get at the root of why we behave for a gathering in celebration of women the way we do, and plant medicines are who work with entheogens. The confer- the great tool to do that.” Another com- ence participants came from all over mon theme was the shared love and California and even from overseas for respect for psychedelics as healers and three days of presentations and workshops teachers with their own intelligence. As led by Adele Getty, Cynthia Palmer, Karen Katherine Harrison explained, “Plants and Vogel, Valerie Corral, Anne Zapf, Sandra mushrooms are as eager for relationships Karpetas, Katherine Harrison (former wife with us as we are for them.” of the late Terence McKenna), and Jane Conference producer Diane Darling Straight. Artistic performances by Lou advertised the event as a beneﬁt for the Montgomery and others provided festive Womens Entheogen Fund (WEF), a fund entertainment, healers offered massage managed by MAPS to offer resources for and energy work, and artistic wares and exceptional women who help in a variety crafts were on display. It was remarkable of different ways to foster the cultural re- to see so many women passionate and integration of psychedelic experiences. m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 31

Although there was a successful silent healers and presenters. Of the eight auction that raised about $1,000 for the curanderos represented at the conference, WEF and SheShamans contributed only one was a curandera, a female shaman. another $1,000, the WEF donated $1,300 When I asked conference organizer Alan towards the event and thus realized only Shoemaker about this, he noted that the $700 from SheShamans. All of the confer- common South American taboo against ence participants that I spoke with the use of ayahuasca by menstruating expressed a desire for a gathering of wise women, and the cumbersome responsibili- women to become an annual event and ties of raising a large family from an early also expressed interest in forming smaller age dissuade many women from undergo- groups that meet regularly to continue ing the demanding training necessary to generating the supportive environment become a curandera. The other nations for women to do their work. The urgent represented at the conference (Australia, need for a real fundraiser for the WEF New Zealand, Canada, England, Holland, In contrast to came to light based on numerous projects Sweden, Lapland, Lithuania, France, envisioned by presenters and participants. Mexico, the United States) apparently are the western In spite of the legal and socio-economic also not immune to cultural traditions that hurdles faced by women, “the forces are prevent women from pursuing psyche- investment too profound, the need is too profound to delic healing research and work. The only disappear. We need to be strong, wise and two female presenters on the schedule in the power of prolific in what we do,” said conference were myself and Paula C.M. Harbrink presenter Karen Vogel. Numan, the apprentice of curandera the ayahuasca Hopefully, in the future, events such as Norma Paduro and Vice President of SheShamans-MagicMamas that empower Estrella Ayahuasca. Still, in terms of medicine itself, women who work with psychedelics will participants, the conference was quite continue to be held, in addition to new balanced between men and women, and it became clear that events that convey a clear, active intention the conference obviously could not have to culturally and legally reintegrate happened without translator Yasmeen the power, skill, psychedelic medicines into society. Grant, the friendly Peruvian staff of young “The peyote spirit walk is frequently women and men, and Mariella, Alan and intention like a night of hell for a morning of Shoemaker’s wife. heaven,” explained Anne Zapf, spiritual This year’s conference was smaller of the curandero counselor at the Peyote Way Church in than last year, but greatly improved Arizona. Likewise, psychedelic healing because ample time was allotted for play a crucial role work is not all fun and games. While it is curanderos to give their own presentations. important and great for women to gather Since the majority of conference partici- in the healing and together in celebration of our steadfast call pants came to Peru to attend the conference to work with psychedelics, there is much with the intention of participating in one visionary work hard work to be done for the protection and or more ayahuasca ceremonies with one or survival of the sacred, ancient science of more curanderos, being able to listen to that takes place healing work with psychedelics, especially each curandero’s philosophy was an by women, perhaps the original shamans. appropriate balance to the presentations in a ceremony. 2nd Amazonian Shamanism by European and American researchers, Conference scientists and notables such as Dennis To help facilitate this conference, McKenna, Frank Echenhoffer, Benny MAPS served as a ﬁscal agent, processing Shanon, Richard Grossman, and Peter credit card orders on behalf of conference Gorman. While all of the presenters made organizer Soga del Alma. In exchange, significant contributions to the eclectic Soga del Alma offered MAPS a free discussion of ayahuasca and Amazonian registration for the conference, where I shamanism, the curanderos were better gave a presentation about MAPS and ran a able to explain the crucial role that the MAPS information table. curandero plays in shamanic healing. In contrast to the conference that “A curandero is a person of learning happened the preceding week in Califor- and wisdom who has developed a clair- nia, the 2nd Amazonian Shamanism voyance to see the source of a person’s Conference was dominated by male illness as well as to read their thoughts 32 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

and emotions,” said Peruvian curandero the person’s health could be harmed by Don Juan Tangoa Paima. In contrast to the drinking ayahuasca without proper western investment in the power of the guidance. Like last year’s conference, ayahuasca medicine itself, it became clear participants exhibited a strong display of that the power, skill, and intention of the faith in the mysterious operations of the curandero play a crucial role in the healing universe, and the complementary recogni- and visionary work that takes place in a tion that science has thus far contributed ceremony. “A curandero is neither guru very little to understanding the healing nor sage but an individual you can trust and visionary power of psychedelics and going on the path of an ayahuasca session. shamanism. “There are plants very sacred, Ayahuasca is the teacher itself,” stated very capable of doing things that science Benny Shanon in his presentation. says are impossible,” said Elias Mamallacta, Without the curandero, he emphasized, an Ecuadorian curandero. Applause, laughs that path could lead to dark dead-ends. Many conference participants instead After six afternoons and evenings chose to pursue a mystical understanding and cheers erupted ﬁlled with presentations containing an of what ayahuasca is and how curanderismo enormous variety of often contradictory works through direct experience. Some when Norma Paduro information, it is obvious that humanity had powerful, life-changing experiences in is only beginning to comprehend the which they were blessed with powerful finished her powerful nature of ayahuasca as a medi- visions and messages, while other people cine and therapeutic tool. One curandero, became violently ill, purging negative presentation by saying, Guillermo Arevalo, stated, “Right now in energies and toxins from their bodies, the Amazon, we can´t say that theres any while still others perceived very little “Many blessings to pure tradition. It’s mixed. Even the during the ayahuasca ceremonies. indigenous are fusing together different “Some people consider ayahuasca a President Bush and cultural beliefs. This is not a bad thing, hallucinogen or drug but for me, it’s a it’s natural. When it comes out of positive medicine that cures mind, body and spirit. I pray that he may intention, it’s good. When one learns to I had friends who drank and were disap- balance out these different types of pointed because they didn’t receive the one day come knowledge, it’s good.” visions of DMT. They did not appreciate Because of this “mixing,” there was a the healing that comes with ayahuasca,” to drink ayahuasca. lot of confusion about some of the basic said Percy Garcia, Peruvian curandero, aspects of Amazonian shamanism, such as describing the Western focus on seeing Bush, with all his the diet followed before, after, or on a visions. The curanderos collectively agreed continuous basis while working with that ayahuasca uniquely tailors its effects to defects, is one of us, ayahuasca. For example, most of the each individual through a spiritual intelli- curanderos agreed that the diet includes gence that operates outside of the scientific one of our brothers, abstaining from salt, sugar, spices, and sex, understanding of chemical processes. but Norma Paduro clearly stated (to the According to Don Juan Tangoa Paima, and I wish him vocal delight of some of the conference “A lot of foreigners talk about curan- participants) that sex is acceptable during derismo without knowing what it really is. happiness.” the diet. Conference participants with They think it’s just drinking ayahuasca. I little experience or previous educational see a lot of people drinking ayahuasca work with ayahuasca and Amazonian without recognizing the spirituality of the shamanism expressed frustration about medicine.” Many scientists, Benny Shanon not knowing which curandero’s diet to in particular, expressed doubt as to the follow. Such multivocality in concepts as existence of spirits and the spirit realm, important as diet could be dangerous for but most conference participants I talked those without close guidance. One to acknowledged having personal experi- curandero stated, “To receive knowledge ences that confirm the existence of spirits. from ayahuasca, you must be cleansed Dennis McKenna stated in his presenta- little by little, the way one cleans a tion, “Spiritual evolution is something we computer of a virus.” Not only can a need a lot of. Spiritual experience is person fail to have a powerful experience difficult to quantify even though many of with ayahuasca because of disregard or us are coming from a scientific perspective. confusion about diet, it is also possible that Drugs have souls, chemicals have souls, m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 33

even if synthesized in a lab. Don´t dis the traditions. The role of MAPS in this chemicals. Everything has spirit.” revitalization is to generate the scientific A concept that united the conference data and spread the information that will participants, diverse as we were in our protect the medicines and shamans from thoughts and feelings about ayahuasca legal persecution. Just as the Inquisition and shamanism, was that the medicine can and colonization could not destroy be a valuable tool in human survival and psychedelic medicines and shamanism evolution. Applause, laughs and cheers completely, the U.S. Drug War is failing erupted when Peruvian curandera Norma to accomplish its mission and its end is Paduro finished her presentation by inevitable. The question is not if psyche- saying, “Many blessings to President Bush delic medicines will ever be legal, but and I pray that he may one day come to when and how they will become legally drink ayahuasca...Bush, with all his accessible. MAPS exists to provide the defects, is one of us, one of our brothers, structure for these medicines to become and I wish him happiness.” The lessons available in legal, safe and affordable imparted by ayahuasca and curanderos clinics and administered by trained, were not all taken light-heartedly, though. trustworthy, licensed, and above all, well- Visionary filmmaker Jan Kounen elo- intentioned therapists: contemporary quently explained that, “Drinking ayahua- shamans. sca for fun or just to see visions is like As more and more folks surgeons using heart transplants just for learn from psychedelic medi- fun. If you don’t do it carefully, with the cines and use them for healing, dieta and a good healer, you can touch and as ancient and contempo- realms causing difficult psychological rary shamanistic modalities of situations.” In other words, the decision to healing from all over the world drink ayahuasca should not be made continue to fuse together in a lightly–one should patiently seek out a cultural rejuvenation, the re- good curandera and respect the tradition integration of shamanism and that she follows. In such work I have seen psychedelic medicine is that divine clarity, healing and light can already underway here, now. be found where there was once confusion, In this time of great suffering, Courtesy: Jelena Cvetkova illness and darkness. social injustice, war, illness, imbalance, Toward the Light spiritual emergency, and environmental Both of the conferences were excellent degradation, the participants of the forums for networking with spiritual SheShamans-MagicMamas and 2nd seekers, scientific researchers, students, Amazonian Shamanism Conferences have practitioners, and shamanic healers, and a shown their willingness to assist in the tremendous amount of information was healing and evolution of humanity. There relayed through dozens of comprehensive is healing work currently going on and presentations and countless productive those with courage and vision must work informal discussions. Still, some partici- to protect the shamans and underground pants at both gatherings expressed psychedelic therapists facilitating the concern about a lack of clear intention and work. It is time for those of us who direction. One young woman who at- attended the two conferences and all tended both conferences lamented, others who are able to use psychedelic “energies and resources were gathered at medicines under the care and protection of both conferences, but how are we going to shamans and underground psychedelic move forward? We (advocates of shaman- therapists to help our brothers and sisters istic healing with psychedelic medicines) have the same opportunities for healing. It seem stuck.” is time for humanity to collectively move As environmental and social problems out of the dark ages of persecution of have grown more dire, and as more people shamanism and psychedelic medicines, have studied alternatives to western and toward the light the medicines so allopathic medicine, more people are mercifully, so patiently, so lovingly offer turning to the root of all medicine and us when we approach them with respect. • religion: global shamanistic healing 34 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

A Brief History of The Women’s Entheogen Fund

The Women’s Entheogen Fund (WEF) nated women for funding. When Carla was created in 2002 to support the work passed away earlier this year, another Annie Harrison of women who spend a significant portion woman made a generous grant in Carla’s memory, thus expanding the pool of [email protected] of their professional lives researching psychoactive plants and chemicals. donors to the fund. Other women have While women have historically now stepped forward to make donations played a central role in investigating the in Carla’s honor and create more aware- use of entheogens, their work has been ness of the WEF. funded less frequently and has been I am very pleased to see the WEF consistently underrepresented in the community continue to grow and ac- scientific and popular entheogenic knowledge the contributions of its literature. members. I would like to thank WEF It has been especially distressing to recipients Sylvia Thyssen and Fire Erowid see relatively few female entheogenic for taking the time to document their researchers presenting their work at valuable research here in the MAPS relevant conferences over the years. This Bulletin. These women form the center of continuing disparity was illustrated once a community that I hope will continue to more at the International Symposium on support the work of female entheogenic the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of investigators–a proud and sacred tradition …as I began Albert Hofmann that took place in Basel, that stretches forward from the first wise Switzerland earlier this year. Of the women healers of prehistory to our to keep track of seventy-three confirmed speakers at the modern day woman healers, researchers event, only eight were women. and writers. funding for Some women who investigate entheo- I plan to continue supporting the gens have good reasons to pursue a lower WEF and I have set aside a portion of the entheogenic research, profile than their male colleagues. Women money in my will to continue this funding are often more vulnerable to retaliatory after my death. I invite others who value it became clear action and frequently have less money to this work to donate financially or simply defend themselves within the judicial take time to honor and acknowledge the to me that system. But as I began to keep track of important work of our contemporary wise funding for entheogenic research, it women. more support became clear to me that more support was I would like to close with a passage needed for women who chose to be public from the chants of María Sabina, a Mazatec was needed about their work. curandera and a woman of great moral and A conversation with then-MAPS staff spiritual power who spent a lifetime for women member Carla Higdon in the fall of 2002 working with healing plants. was the catalyst for the creation of the who chose to be WEF. Carla was wondering aloud why She is a woman of the day there wasn’t more support for women like She is a clean woman public about her who wanted to incorporate entheo- She is a well-prepared woman genic studies into an academic program. In She is a woman of light their work. response to this conversation, I created the She is a woman of the day WEF and gave Carla the first grant to Because I am a woman who lightnings pursue her education. I am a woman who thunders Since 2003, I have provided the funds I am a woman who shouts for five other women to receive grants of I am a woman who whistles at least $5,000 from the WEF. Women who receive the grants make recommen- I am a woman who looks dations for future recipients. MAPS, which into the insides of things has sponsored the WEF, has also nomi- m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 35

WEF Recipient: Sylvia Thyssen

was grateful to receive the By 2003, I was working collabor- Women’s Entheogen Fund award atively with Fire, Earth and crew on i in 2003 and again in 2006. The field document editing, site updates, member- of progressive drug education is not well ship development and volunteer manage- funded, and grants to individuals who ment. I helped beta-test new tools that facilitate important grassroots could support a growing number of efforts are exceedingly rare. donors, volunteers and submissions, and Since my tenure at MAPS, my also helped identify new areas of content, editing and administrative work has such as Families & Psychoactives, continued to focus on drug-related topics. Psychoactives & Sex, Death & Dying, and In 2000, I briefly joined the DanceSafe character vaults about little-known elders national office. The most rewarding like Betty Eisner and Nina Graboi. As I project I coordinated during that time was continued to acquaint myself with the bringing a group of DanceSafe chapter site’s demands, following the parallel Sylvia Thyssen leaders to a harm reduction conference in paths of information architecture and [email protected] Miami, Florida. In 2001, I began assisting content, I joked to friends about having Joel H. Brown and the Center for Educa- become a psychedelic librarian. Embracing tion Research + Development (CERD)– this curious role, I continue to nourish the perhaps best known for their pioneering knowledge systems that further the cause work in resilience education as applied to of research, and that bring people and Clearly, drug education–with grant writing. CERD information together. was producing an important drug refer- My current focus is on raising the appreciation of ence manual for teachers to use in the awareness of how specific language used classroom. I had the opportunity to guide to describe psychoactive drugs and reliable information the editing of this publication, relying on experiences can deeply imprint on the my deepening understanding of the thoughts and actions of others, with a about human disparate voices in drug information. significant impact on not only individual, In 2001, I also had the great opportu- but societal understandings of psychoac- experiences with nity to begin contributing to the Erowid tive drugs. To this end, I authored “Rumor Project. At that time, Erowid had some and Ethic: Careful Communication as a psychoactive substances specific similarities to MAPS’ status when Harm Reduction Measure,” adapted from I began working there in 1993–a staff of my presentation at the 2005 Mind States and the one-to-two people and a growing mem- conference. bership base requiring increasing adminis- Today, Erowid is better equipped states of mind they trative oversight. As an information hub than ever to respond to the waves of data for a constantly shifting and growing flooding the site from all sides, even as engender world of drug research, both legally new challenges to its balance of resources approved and illicit, Erowid faced other arise. To test new waters, I am coordinat- is not limited to challenges as well. Large numbers of ing Erowid’s presence at the November people were contacting the site daily with 2006 American Public Health Association the proverbial questions and submissions, the site’s Expo in Boston. Clearly, the appreciation complex structure required constant of reliable information about human psychonaut. updating and maintenance, and new experiences with psychoactive substances projects needed attention. For example, at and the states of mind they engender is that time, Erowid was asked to manage not limited to the proverbial psychonaut. DanceSafe’s Ecstasy testing program, Everyone benefits from collecting and restructured as EcstasyData.org, a collabo- sharing knowledge, and I look forward to rative project between Erowid, MAPS and continuing to cultivate an atmosphere of DanceSafe. Erowid also took on the multi- inquiry among Erowid visitors and year digitization of the Hofmann Collec- volunteers. • tion of LSD & Psilocybin References, a joint project with MAPS and the Albert Hofmann Foundation. 36 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

WEF Recipient: Fire Erowid

received the Women’s Entheogen My work on Erowid is supported entirely by dona- iFund (WEF) award in both 2004 and tions and grants such as the WEF award. In 2004, this 2006. I am pleased to have received these awards, which work included the redesign of Erowid to implement a new supported my continuing work at Erowid as a psychedelic style and format with better navigation and improved librarian–writing, collecting, sorting, archiving, and search functionality. Another large project undertaken publishing information about psychoactive plants and that year involved significant expansion of the law vaults. chemicals as a contribution to the public record on these Nearly 100 new law pages were added, making compre- powerful materials. hensive legal information about a wide variety of psycho- I was raised with the deep active materials more available expectation that I could accom- and consistent. The Erowid plish anything and compete or library and book list also saw contribute with the best in any Despite the fact significant expansion with the ﬁeld, whether male or female. My addition of information about mother has a Ph.D. in statistics, an that I have been more than 100 titles. My hope is accomplishment that was quite that cataloging information rare for a woman in the mid- the Director of about these books will help pull 1960s. My B.A. in humanities and together some of the important, my undergraduate thesis were the Erowid project yet more difficult-to-find, pre- both related to women’s studies internet knowledge about (in a historical context) and I’ve since its inception, psychoactives, both by creating continued to incorporate this part a reference library for use in our of my history into my work by many people work as well as advertising the asserting gender equality and existence of these printed source balance in everything that I do. automatically assume materials. This can be an interesting The WEF award also challenge in the world of psycho- that Earth (my partner) supported work on a broad array active studies, which is no more of articles and information immune to assumptions about is the authority published on Erowid. This gender than are other fields. includes the tracking and Erowid often receives letters because he addition of information about addressed simply to Dear Gentle- new substances such as 3C-P, men, highlighting the common is male. 5-MeO-DALT, TMA-2, 4-HO- assumption that men must be in DIPT, 2C-T-21, Arundo donax charge. Despite the fact that I have and many more. Though they been the Director of the Erowid are too numerous to name here, project since its inception, many new articles include a “U.S. Drug people automatically assume that Control Timeline” and “The Earth (my partner) is the authority because he is male. Spirits of Maguey,” both published in Erowid Extracts. For example, he is more often asked to speak at confer- As has been the goal of the Erowid project from the ences or to the media than I. We have responded to this beginning, we will continue to balance the information particular bias by always presenting together at confer- we present, between technical and artistic, scientific and ences, revealing how we work as a team. We also politely spiritual, objective and subjective, in an attempt to draw attention to and correct other types of gender provide equal voice to a wide variety of viewpoints, biases whenever they appear. values, beliefs, and thoughts. • m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 37

From Arcturus to Love Creek: MAPS Moves Acr o s s t h e C o n t i n e n t

the maps office staff has As MAPS celebrates its 20th anniver- accomplished an intricate and exhilarating sary this year, it is burgeoning from adoles- feat, moving our headquarters thousands cence into adulthood, both literally and of miles cross-country. From 1998 to May metaphorically. We’re experiencing a time 2006, the office was located in Arcturus, a of transition on many levels, as our successes house that MAPS President Rick Doblin demand that we expand to accommodate built in Sarasota in the 1970s while our achievements and prepare for the new studying psychedelic therapy and laying challenges that lie ahead. With transition the groundwork for his drug policy reform comes growing pains, and we were indeed efforts. Arcturus is a psychedelic, hand- feeling the restrictions imposed upon MAPS made art house, practically a living by our previous location. Our 400 sq. ft. organism, with walls of cedar and granite ofﬁce space was bursting at the seams, and, Sarah Hufford that soar to skylights and rainbow-colored though Sarasota had served us well, the lack [email protected] stained glass depicting a cosmic Eden on a of a supportive atmosphere was limiting. turtle’s back. Arcturus seemed a fitting Last winter we began searching for a base for MAPS, and, with New College of new home for MAPS that would provide Florida nearby, the location provided a new opportunities for educational out- small but steady flow of recent college reach, community-building, and a more graduates and students to run operations desirable location for our staff and future and drive the mission forward. staff. Our short list included Chicago,

After three months of dedicated Craigslist hunting, I found a listing titled “Magical Sanctuary by a Babbling Brook”…

MAPS‘ new two-story office at Love Creek has a “shipping facility” on ground level with a spacious office and meeting room upstairs. 38 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

Boston, Asheville NC, and, of course, the we had all visited, there was no doubt We’re experiencing San Francisco Bay Area, which eventually about the suitability of the spot, and the emerged as the front-runner. The Bay move was on. a time of transition Area has a rich history of scientific, Despite a plethora of logistical cultural, and political innovation, and is concerns, we managed to organize, pack, on many levels, already home to a substantial proportion and then deliver the entirety of the MAPS of MAPS’ members and supporters. office safely to the opposite shore. Upon as our successes Once we settled on a general vicinity our arrival, we were amazed at the wel- for the new MAPS office, we kept our come we received, as many local MAPS demand options open, looking for homes, offices, members and supporters came to offer and live/work spaces everywhere in the their support and assistance. When our that we expand area, particularly in Oakland, Berkeley, moving truck met us at Love Creek, a and Santa Cruz. After three months of dozen volunteers helped us unload, easing to accommodate dedicated Craigslist hunting, I found a our transition. Others brought us meals, listing titled “Magical Sanctuary by a helped set up our computer network, and our achievements Babbling Brook,” for a property in Ben assembled furniture. We’ve settled in Lomond, a small town nestled in the San quite nicely, thankful for the beautiful and prepare for Lorenzo Valley, 10 miles north of Santa spot we’ve found and eager to engage our Cruz. To our amazement, everything about new surroundings. The new MAPS the new challenges it ﬁt our needs–affordability, accessibility headquarters at Love Creek is thriving to the larger communities of the Bay Area, with activity, as we work together in the that lie ahead. a professional ofﬁce space on the property name of social justice and scientific separate from the living space, and plenty freedom, with the intention to change of nature to replenish our energies. Once the world! •

MAPS staffer Julia Onnie-Hay showing MAPS’ new Love Creek office some love. m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 39

in preparation for MAPS’ 20th anniversary celebra- a dinner and art show in Asheville, North Carolina, tion at Burning Man 2006, members of the MAPS Burning captured in the following photo montage. MAPS would Man camp hosted gatherings around the country to raise like to thank all of the people who helped out at these funds, practice working together on event coordination, events. If you are interested in coordinating a MAPS and raise awareness of MAPS and our Burning Man fundraising event in your community, please let us know project. These events ranged from thumping all-night by contacting the MAPS office. raves in Chicago to more intimate affairs such as Entheon Village Burning Man Fundraiser in Asheville, North Carolina

A B C

D E F

A Forty-five psychedelic enthusiasts dine in the Flood Gallery while D Event co-organizer and local glass artist Logan MacSporran (sporting a listening to a keynote speech by MAPS President Rick Doblin, Ph.D. colander), Yugoslavian artist Jelena Cvetkova, MAPS videographer Daniel (upper left). The fundraising event drew a crowd of local MAPS members Potthast, and former MAPS staffer Brandy Doyle pose after a hard night and supporters as well as some who were visiting from out of town for of work. Transformus, the North Carolina regional burn or for the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Design Science Lab, which both ended earlier in the day. E Psychedelic abstract expressionist paintings and chimerical centerpieces by Jelena Cvetkova transformed the industrial warehouse space into a B MAPS Program Director Valerie Mojeiko emcees between courses, surrealist dining hall. Local glass artist Logan MacSporran and Flood welcoming a wide variety of speakers. gallery President Sean Pace aka “Jinx” also exhibited art at the event.

C Chef Josh Sonstroem samples the dessert–Rose Cornbread Cake served F MAPS Resident Chef, Josh Sonstroem of Sirius Catering, oversees with cashew-fruit sorbet with North Carolina moonshine, peach-balsamic preparation of his Indian-inspired entrée in the makeshift kitchen. demi, rosehips, rose petals, roasted jalapeno, and pepita brittle.

Photos A, B, F, Jelena Cvetkova, photos C, D, E, Harlan Schmidt 40 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

St. Albert and the LSD Revelation Revolution

Alex Grey

n January 11th, 2006, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD, Dr. Albert Hofmann, turned 100 years old. The birthday celebration was an elegant gathering of family, friends and colleagues held in Basel, Switzerland at the Museum of Cultures. My wife Allyson and I were invited because of our association with psychedelic culture and participation in a Symposium later that week. Distinguished guests at the birthday gathering spoke in German, but even monolinguistic Americans could understand the reverence and enthusiasm shown in speeches prais- ing Dr. Hofmann as a scientist and a sage. A reception followed where These were invited guests mingled and toasted. Allyson and I greeted many old friends and made some new ones. I was intrigued to learn that none of the mem- dark days bers of Dr. Hofmann’s large family or any of his relatives, except for his in 1943, wife, had ever tried LSD. The good doctor has always steered away from advocacy, yet has come to feel that some kind of divine intervention I imagine or destiny did play a role in his discovery. the smoke I was especially glad to see Stanislav the development of their own style. That of the ovens Grof, M.D., and H.R. Giger because they is the way Allyson and I feel regarding our could not be in attendance at the Sympo- own work. The next day we and some of Auschwitz sium. Stan Grof is the leading psychiatric good friends visited the Giger Museum, researcher, having led over 4,000 LSD which is an astonishing, in-depth immer- psychically psychotherapeutic sessions, and premier sion into the artist’s unique visionary cartographer of the spectrum of conscious- shadow realm. You have to be a bit wafting over ness that LSD gives a person access to. determined to find Giger’s castle in the Grof has commented that LSD is a tool for small and beautifully Swiss alpine town of Switzerland. exploring the mind in the same way that Gruyere. We enjoyed seeing the biggest the telescope gives one access to the collection of his work ever on display. The celestial realms and the microscope gives dark galleries felt filled with the demons one access to the world of the cellular, of modern life, a festering biomechanical molecular and atomic. He has also in- psychosexual orgy of predators and cluded in all his research some amazing victims. On an upper floor Giger exhibits drawings and paintings by LSD patients some of his collaborative works with and fine artists that help describe the several artists and then has several various altered states of awareness. galleries filled with his own art collection, Grof has used Giger’s work in many of which includes Joe Coleman’s amazing his books, such as Realms of the Human Charles Manson portrait and a few Unconscious and Beyond the Brain. When beautiful originals by Ernst Fuchs. No one I asked the obvious question to Giger as to leaves without getting a drink at the Giger whether LSD had made a difference in his Bar. Gaudi meets Gunter Von Hagen. own work, he would only say, “Oh no, no, To honor Dr. Hofmann’s centennial, a it is against the law, it is forbidden!” three-day LSD symposium was held I guess you’ve got to respect a man’s January 14, 15, 16 in Basel, Switzerland. privacy. Though I do admire artists like Leading scientific, psychiatric, pharmaceu- R. Crumb and Keith Haring who admitted tical, legal, artistic, mystical voices spoke they used LSD and that it was critical in on the various physiological, personal, m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 41

social and spiritual impacts of LSD. Dr. Albert Hofmann In my portrait of Dr. Hofmann, the eye of transcen- spoke the first and last evening and was showered with dental spirit in the upper left hand corner of the painting praise and applause by over two thousand attendees (we releases spiralic streams of primordial rainbow spheres of also sang, “Happy Birthday to you”). Hofmann was potential, one of which becomes a compassionate alchemi- swarmed with fans wherever he went, and one of the cal angel, whose tears drip down to anoint or “create” the Symposium announcers said, Dr. Hofmann apologizes that LSD molecule that the doctor holds in his hands, and a he will not be able to sign everyone’s book, because he demon, here identified with Nazi power, tugs or pushes at explained, “I’m no longer 90.” it. LSD opens a visionary gateway to the heart, as shown Dr. Hofmann first synthesized the compound in 1938, by the spiral of fractally infinitizing eyes resembling the while researching stripey eye-spheres ergot derivatives as a of the molecule, chemist for Sandoz swirling into the Pharmaceuticals in center of the chest. Basel. The substance On St. Albert’s was tested on lab shoulderblade is a animals with no portrait of interesting results, so Paracelsus, the like hundreds of Alchemist of Basel, similar test com- 500 years ago, who pounds, investigation is credited with of this drug was founding modern abandoned. Chemistry, yet his Yet, in 1943, at alchemical goal was the horrific height of to discover the WWII and shortly Philosopher’s Stone. after Fermi made his Alchemy was the art discovery that led to and science of the the atomic bomb, transmutation of the Hofmann had a elements, like “peculiar presenti- turning lead into ment” to re-synthe- gold and the identifi- size LSD. These were cation of the soul of dark days in 1943, I the alchemist with imagine the smoke of the chemical trans- the ovens of formations as a Auschwitz psychi- metaphor of their cally wafting over journey to enlight- Switzerland. enment. Modern Hofmann said that Chemistry took the never before or since psyche and mystery had he any similar out of the material “presentiment.” His weighed and remix of LSD-25 in measured world, April of 1943 was reducing the world when he discovered to a heap of atoms. the psychological LSD brought psyche vortex of acid. He experienced overwhelming fear of dying back front and center to the chemical material world, that and feelings of having left his body and later, heavenly is partly why I believe that LSD is the Philosopher’s Stone, kaleidoscopic visions. The first LSD trip, April 19, 1943, is the discovery of which, also in the town of Basel, is the also widely known as “Bicycle Day” because of Hofmann’s result of an alchemical process put in motion by the great wild bike ride from his lab to his home through the streets Paracelsus. of Basel, full of perceptual distortions, not knowing I put a lot of LSD personalities and symbolism in whether he would ever return from his madness. The last the aura of Dr. Hofmann. Some of these people were Dr. element I painted on the portrait was a little bike riding Hofmann’s friends, like Aldous Huxley, Gordon Wasson, Hofmann, and in honor of the good doctor, I was on LSD Maria Sabina, and Richard Evans Schultes, each of whom as I painted it. had a special connection to psychedelics. Huxley wrote 42 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

fearlessly about the psychedelic experi- The LSD Symposium could be a ence in The Doors of Perception and Heaven turning point in the story of this amazing and Hell, which also talks about visionary molecule, as the subtitle of the conference, states and works of art. His dying wish “From Problem Child to Wonder Drug” was to be injected with 100 mcg. of LSD suggests. Thousands of people from all and this was noted by his wife Laura to over the world came together to discuss assist his transition. Gordon Wasson the proven possibilities of LSD in psycho- brought the magic psilocybin mushrooms therapy, spirituality, the arts, for creative to the world by attending the Mexican problem-solving in all fields, and how LSD curandera, Maria Sabina’s sacred mush- was misused and abused by the CIA, and room healing ceremony, then writing also by many people seeking a recreational about it in Life magazine. Hofmann later high who catalyzed their own latent analyzed the mushroom and distilled the psychoses. I tried previously unclassified psychedelic, Yet, as has been proven in the Good psilocybin. Friday Experiment and in follow-up to put in I put the classic folks in like Timothy studies, psychedelics can evoke a mystical Leary, Ram Das, Ralph Metzner, Grof, Ott experience and bring a person closer to a few lesser known and McKenna. I tried to put in a few lesser God. Even if only a glimpse of the infinite, known psychedelic stories, like the a person never forgets that encounter. The psychedelic stories, Pittsburgh Pirate, Dock Ellis, who pitched hope is that such a vision of unity can help a “no-hitter” on acid and said there were bring people to care more for themselves, like the comet trails on every ball. An article each other, and our world. I believe that originally appeared in The Daily Mail taken in the proper set and setting, LSD Pittsburgh Pirate, (London) on Sunday, August 8, 2004, can be the right medicine for humanity’s with the headline, “Crick was high on LSD ailing and alienated soul. God help that it Dock Ellis, when he discovered the secret of life!”, find a more fair legal and spiritual status explained how Francis Crick used it for around the world in the 21st century. One who pitched a creative thinking, in this way unraveling of the most intensely beautiful moments the structure of DNA, the discovery that from the trip to Basel came when Dr. “no-hitter” on acid won him the Nobel Prize. Directly under Hofmann generously signed the back of Crick is Kary Mullis, who won the Nobel my portrait of him, adding also the date of and said there were Prize for Chemistry in 1993 for his his birthday and the LSD formula. He invention of PCR, a method for detecting wagged his finger at me and in Germanic- comet trails even the smallest amount of DNA in sounding English said, “You’ve got the ancient materials. “Would I have invented eye!” He agreed to sign an edition of 50 on every ball. PCR if I hadn’t taken LSD? I seriously prints to help fund scientific psychedelic doubt it,” he says. “I could sit on a DNA research through MAPS, and to assist our molecule and watch the polymers go by. I cultural center in New York City, the learnt that partly on psychedelic drugs.” Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (www.cosm.org). One of the best summaries of the Forty-nine of the portraits have been sold, mystical impact of acid was George and print 1/50 will be auctioned online in Harrison’s Rolling Stone interview from October 2006. St. Albert and the LSD 1987. In it he says, “For me, 1966 was the Revelation Revolution will be on display time when the whole world opened up in the Chapel. Please come visit. • and had a greater meaning. But that was a direct result of LSD. It was like opening This article previously appeared in the door, really, and before, you didn’t Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine, even know there was a door there. I had www.juxtapoz.com/ such an overwhelming feeling of well- being, that there was a God, and I could see him in every blade of grass. It was like gaining hundreds of years of experience within twelve hours. It changed me, and there was no way back to what I was before.” m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6 43

Rick Doblin, MAPS founder and President, earned his Ph.D. in MAPS: Who We Are Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard MAPS IS A MEMBERSHIP-BASED ORGANIZATION University. Doblin was also in Stan working to assist researchers worldwide to design, fund, and Christina Grof’s first training conduct, obtain governmental approval for, and report on group to receive certification as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. psychedelic research in humans. Founded in 1986, MAPS is an IRS approved 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation funded by tax- Valerie Mojeiko, Program deductible donations from members. Rick Doblin Director and Clinical Research MAPS has previously funded basic scientific research Associate, studied psychology with an emphasis on drug in both humans and animals into the safety of MDMA (3,4- addiction and psychedelic therapy methylene-dioxymethamphetamine, Ecstasy) and has opened a for four years at New College of Drug Master File for MDMA at the U.S. Food and Drug Adminis- Florida. Currently, she provides tration. MAPS is now primarily focused on assisting scientists to data monitoring services for MAPS-sponsored research, and conduct human studies to generate essential information about coordinates other projects. the risks and therapeutic benefits of MDMA, other psychedelics, and marijuana, with the goal of eventually gaining governmen- Julia Onnie-Hay, Director of tal approval for their medical uses. Valerie Mojeiko Educational Outreach, started working at MAPS after five years of volunteering while earning her Albert Einstein Wrote: B.A. in cultural anthropology from New College of Florida. She is a “Imagination is more important student of ancient shamanistic and contemporary mystical than knowledge.” healing methods, and desires to cultivate r/evolutionary sustain- If you can even faintly imagine a cultural reintegra- able cultures through grassroots tion of the use of psychedelics and the states of mind they activism. Julia Onnie-Hay engender, please join MAPS in supporting the expansion Jag Davies, Director of Commu- of scientific knowledge in this area. Progress is possible nications, has a B.A. in cultural with the support of those who care enough to take anthropolgy and enjoys examin- individual and collective action. ing the intersections of drug policy, media, culture and THE MAPS BULLETIN consciousness. He has been Each Bulletin reports on MAPS research in progress. working at MAPS since 2003, In addition to reporting on research both in the United where he coordinates outreach States and abroad, the Bulletin may include feature projects, research advocacy, and articles, reports on conferences, book reviews, Heffter educational materials, including Research Institute updates, and the Hofmann Report. Jag Davies the MAPS Bulletin, monthly email news, and website content. Issues raised in letters, calls, and e-mail from MAPS members may also be addressed, as may political develop- Sarah Hufford, Membership ments that affect psychedelic research and use. and Sales Manager, joined the

MAPS staff in the Fall of 2005, ©2006 Multidisciplinary Association after receiving her bachelor’s for Psychedelic Studies, Inc. (MAPS) degree in psychology from New 10424 Love Creek Rd., Ben Lomond, CA 95005 College of Florida. She values Phone: 831-336-4325 psychedelics and marijuana as Fax: 831-336-3665 powerful medicines, and hopes E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.maps.org Sarah to help integrate their safe and Hufford conscientious use into our society. 44 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i n u m b e r 2 • a u t u m n 2 o o 6

MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association YES, I would like to join MAPS and receive the quarterly Bulletin! for Psychedelic Studies, Inc.) 10424 Love Creek Rd., Ben Lomond, CA 95005 Phone: 831-336-4325 Fax: 831-336-3665 ❏ Student/Low-income $20 – $34* E-mail: [email protected] JOIN VIA THE WEB! Student/Low Income members will receive the quarterly MAPS Bulletin. www.maps.org ❏ Basic Member $35 – $49* (secure web site transactions) Basic members will receive the quarterly MAPS Bulletin. ❏ Basic-Plus Member $50 – $99* Basic-Plus members will receive the quarterly MAPS Bulletin and their choice of one of the books MAPS has published. ❏ Supporting Member $100 – $249* Supporting members will receive the MAPS Bulletin plus their choice of one of the new! books MAPS has published. ❏ Patron Member $250 or more* Patron members will receive the MAPS Bulletin plus their choice of two books MAPS has published. Patrons may also request copies of back issues and research updates on matters of personal interest. * Outside the U.S. please add $15 to cover additional postage.

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1. The Ultimate Journey:Consciousness and the Mystery of Death by Stanislav Gof, M.D. 356 pgs, $19.95 2. TRIPPING An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures, Edited by Charles Hayes, 486 pgs, $22.00 3. LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann, Ph.D. 232 pgs, $12.95 4. The Secret Chief Revealed: Conversations with a Pioneer of the Underground Psychedelic Therapy Movement by Myron Stolaroff; 176 pgs, $12.95 5. Ketamine: Dreams and Realities by Karl Jansen, MD, PhD • 355 pgs, $14.95 6. LSD Psychotherapy by Stanislav Grof, MD • 352 pgs, $12.95 7. Drawing It Out: Befriending the Unconscious (A Contemporary Woman’s Psychedelic Journey) by Sherana Harriette Frances • 128 pgs, $19.95 8. Ecstasy: The Complete Guide by Julie Holland, MD • 281 pgs, $15.00 9. Shivitti: A Vision by Ka-Tzetnik 135633 • 144 pgs, $15.95 10. Ibogaine: Rite of Passage DVD $20 11. Higher Wisdom edited by Roger Walsh and Charles Grob 267 pgs, $24.95

SHIPPING FOR BOOKS: U.S. and Canada – Priority mail (3–7 days): $4.00, add $1.50 per additional book. Overseas airmail rates (7–10 days): $12.00, add $10.00 per additional book. Overseas surface mail rates (4–6 weeks): $5.00 per book. “St. Albert” ©2006 Alex Grey MULTIDISCIPLINARYMULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATIONASSOCIATION FORFOR PSYCHEDELICPSYCHEDELIC STUDIESSTUDIES MULTIDISCIPLINARYMULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATIONASSOCIATION FORFOR PSYCHEDELICPSYCHEDELIC STUDIESSTUDIES