Tech | September 26, 2008 | 22 comments

What happens when you put 300 experts on psychedelics in the same room?

source: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/100381/what_happens_when_you_put_300_experts_on_psyched...

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The Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference in New York presented an older and wiser psychedelic movement.

The waves of mass psychedelic utopianism have come and gone, but the hippie movement of the late '60s echoes in the rave scene of the '90s. And there's a small but devoted community of scientists, spiritual seekers, artists and grown-up hedonists exploring the value of these drugs.

The "Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics" conference, held in New York Sept. 19-21, sought to present an older and wiser psychedelic movement, focusing on medicine, art, spirituality and culture. It drew around 300 people, a mix of academic and hippie types, with the white button-down shirts slightly outnumbering the dreadlocks and the NASA T-shirts.

Psychedelics are "the most powerful psychiatric medicine ever devised," said psychotherapist Neal Goldsmith, who curated the speakers. But because the way they work as medicine -- when used in the proper setting -- is by generating mystical experiences, "science has to expand." Solid research, he added, could change government policy, which classifies psychedelics as dangerous drugs with no accepted medical use.

The most promising current medical research, said Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, is in coupling MDMA (Ecstasy) with intensive psychotherapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Preliminary studies, he said, have had "very encouraging results" with patients who did not respond to talk therapy and conventional medications.

The group hopes to win FDA approval within 10 years. But pharmaceutical companies aren't interested -- the MDMA molecule is in the public domain, the number of pills used in the therapy is unprofitably low, and the drug is controversial. So the model for developing it, Doblin said, will probably be along the lines of Planned Parenthood's support for RU486.

The lines between disciplines were often blurred at the conference. Purdue University pharmacologist John Nichols called himself a "reductionist scientist" but said it's fantastic that one-tenth of a milligram of a drug can stay in the brain for four hours and permanently change someone's worldview. Artist Alex Grey showed slides of his tripping-inspired paintings and videos of iridescent, morphing eyes, fish and worms, presenting them as signals from a "visionary culture" that seeks to redeem the world, with a "group soul" supplanting a culture that spends $38 billion a second on war. Artists, said animator Isaiah Saxon, can fill the role of the shaman in an industrial society that has no other space for it.
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22 comments // What happens when you put 300 experts on psychedelics in the same room?

  • Bwittany
  • rickm8
    • 0
      rickm8  

    • Alex Grey is an inspiration to me his work strikes chords in the soul that all should encounter to deepen their enlightenment.

    • 4 years ago
  • GeoffNI
  • starr111
    • 0
      starr111  

    • Psychedelics are great and can do many great things just like opium.... people tend to either be for or against drugs. Me I see shades of gray... I wonder if that could be the... well, nevermind.

    • 4 years ago
  • SDLN
    • 0
      SDLN  

    • I tried LSD once, but it was bunk. When I expressed exactly how disappointed I was to my dealer, he gave me some mushrooms as compensation. What followed was one of the most important nights of my life.

      Psychedelics are great. I'm not a big drug guy. Aside from psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana, I haven't had much experience. I found what worked for me and I settled down. But, as with all things, moderation is the key. You don't want to get all burned out, all fried, from excess.

    • 4 years ago
  • Ichi
    • 0
      Ichi  

    • As with anything, too much of something good is bad. If psychedelics are used the correct way, they have the potential to develop a human being's consciousness and help people deal with personal issues by seeing them, and the world, in a new light.

      P.S. Alex Grey kicks ass.

    • 4 years ago
  • hippisteve
  • krazykaren
  • rexmundi
  • VegaNerDiva
    • 0
      VegaNerDiva  

    • It would've been 301 if Terence Mckenna were still around =(
      I wonder if Dr. Stanley Krippner was dere.
      His Ayahuasca & Secrets of the Amazon DVD's are very informative.

      Personally I head over to http://www.shroomery.org/
      when I'm seeking advice on ethnogenz.

    • 4 years ago
  • rainbowryan420
  • Kharon
    • 0
      Kharon  

    • There are some experiments being conducted on medical uses for psychedelics. There is a book called DMT: the spirit molecule that details a very interesting study and discusses many of the topics that everyone has been bringing up.

    • 4 years ago
  • smice
  • homunculus_14
    • 0
      homunculus_14  

    • In the 1950s, Alcoholics Anonymous declared LSD to be its official cure for alcoholism, with tests having proven it far more effective than any other method hence discovered.

      Even if the government refuses to legalize psychedelic drugs, at the very least they ought to open them up to scientific and psychological (and religious) experimentation; it makes no sense not to, given the amazing and wholly unexplained things they do to our brains.

    • 4 years ago
  • regjoeschmo
    • 0
      regjoeschmo  

    • funny thing is how all these drugs were first implemented as medically viable........ I guess theres more money to be made by fining and jailing the public.

    • 4 years ago
  • torybart
    • 0
      torybart  

    • I thought this was a really well written article. I also happen to agree with mostly everything they are saying so you judge my bias.

      Also I agree that hallucinogenics are wildly misunderstood and our government for illogical and clearly self motivated reasons have made these drugs out of reach to the medical community.

      The biggest danger is not the drugs, but the lack of education and information that our society provides on these "substances."

      The internet generation is extremely lucky to have an information resource so large that you can get pretty much all the information you want on anything, including psychedelics.

      But nothing can teach you what that experience is going to be like.

    • 4 years ago
  • anikhanj
  • Nephwrack
  • Vierotchka
  • deeblackangel
    • 0
      deeblackangel  

    • Orange Juice, LSD, some Paints, an open night sky.
      Maybe some good music. throw in some smart and creative people, jesus christ....
      Wait, don't all you answer at once....

    • 4 years ago
  • gnossos
  • gnossos
    • 0
      gnossos  
    • Image

    • I always love seeing stories like this. I firmly believe that psychedelics can be used for good, when used responsibly and especially in a medical setting. Psychedelics are widely misunderstood, I think we can take a step closer to public acceptance by educating people about the positive effects and sharing our personal experiences. Of course it's kind of hard when most are illegal, but there's always hope that maybe some day we can go back to the days when LSD was prescribed for use with psychotherapy.

      - - - - - -
      Also, Alex Grey is awesome!

    • 4 years ago
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