Psychedelica Blues (1969) - full transcript
Four days in Lissy's life where she gets to live out her opposition after years of generating up energy, and enters a completely unknown world.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
>> The mind, it's our link to
consciousness, our thoughts,
and as a byproduct, the
expression of our soul--
that free and unfettered aspect
of being human that no one else
has jurisdiction over.
But as easily as the mind
expresses the depths within,
it remains easily lured into
a false reality where thoughts
become the object of
attention, and the source
becomes forgotten.
It is here where some scientists
and philosophers believe
we have lost the true
reality and, in turn,
become products of our
environment and culture.
And it wasn't until
scientific study partnered
with ancient rituals
that they discovered
that there might be a way to
reconnect the soul and the mind
more quickly and intimately.
But are these just
escapist tools?
Or could they actually be a
cure for the common human issue
on this planet--
the sleeping mind?
>> I don't know which half is
trying to get into the other
half.
But somehow or other, I
seem to be going like that.
>> Certainly you notice that
there aren't these separations,
that we are not on a separate
island shouting across
to somebody else and trying
to hear what they're saying
and misunderstanding them.
Well, I mean that
there are the colors
and the beauties-- the
designs, the beautiful way
things appear.
[STATIC]
>> When it comes
to drugs, please--
for yourselves,
for your families,
for your future
and your country--
just say no.
[APPLAUSE]
>> But what are these substances
that have such a negative
social view, and how did
they come into the limelight?
One specific drug that
captured the hearts and minds
of scientists and
young adults started
a particular investigation of
the inner workings of the mind.
As World War II was ending,
Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman
was investigating
a migraine medicine
and pulled an old vial
off his shelf of LSD 25.
His accidental dosage opened
his eyes to a new experience
that he wanted to
share with the world,
as he believed that
this substance elicited
a form of psychic
loosening or opening.
Czech psychiatrist
Stanislav Grof
believed that the psychic
opening allowed experiences
to resurface that go all
the way back to birth
and even pre-birth trauma.
So he was willingly among the
first to experiment with LSD
to investigate what
it does to the mind.
>> Then I met Robert
Hoffman quite a few times.
He loved nature.
He was taking small dosages
of LSD in his garden
until his death.
And he said, I see
the hand of God there.
And if anybody thinks
that the atoms can do it
all by themselves,
they just don't know
what they are talking about.
I was trained in Czechoslovakia
when we had a Marxist regime.
So I got the purest mentalistic
doctrine you can imagine.
And it was clear for me during
graduation that, you know,
the consciousness is the product
of the neurophysiological
processes in the brain.
And when the body
goes, the brain goes,
and there goes
the consciousness.
And it was as simple as that.
Now, I see it very differently.
I realize we have absolutely
no proof that consciousness
is generated in the brain.
Very few people realize
this, including scientists.
So those are tremendous
contributions
that psychedelics can bring.
>> But the psychedelic
experience wasn't something new
when LSD hit the scene.
Since the late
1800s, experiments
were already being conducted
on the psychedelic plants
containing mescaline
and psilocybin.
Mescaline comes from the
peyote and Wachuma cactus
and is used in many
Native American rituals.
The Huichol mothers
of Jalisco, Mexico
would introduce peyote
through breast milk
and by chewing off bits and
feeding them to their children.
Even the Spanish chronicler Fray
Bernardino de Sahagun reports
that among the Chichimeca
and Toltec peyote
was being used at
least 2,000 years
before the European
explorers arrived.
Archaeological
artifacts were found
in a cave near the lower
Pecos River region in Texas
dating back to 3700 BC.
In South America, in
prehistory, the Chavin
were using the Wachuma cactus in
their own religious ceremonies.
Wachuma has many different
psychoactive compounds
than peyote.
So the experience is said
to be slightly different.
But the sacramental use
of each were both used
to connect with the Divine.
These cacti species are
native to the Americas.
Psilocybin is from
a class of mushrooms
and used by indigenous from
nearly every continent.
In Central and North America,
we see mushroom imagery
in many indigenous artifacts,
such as the mushroom stones
found in Highland
Guatemala, which
were used to grind
mushrooms before their use.
Some images refer to the
Amanita muscaria mushroom,
which isn't a
classical psychedelic--
as it works on different
neurotransmitter pathways--
but still is a psychoactive.
The Olmec, Toltec,
and Aztec imagery
shows that the Americas once
had a rich history of mushroom
appreciation before the European
settlers and missionaries
resisted their use.
Imagery in Siberia
among the Chukotka
appears in rock carvings.
In Hindu imagery-- such
as Lakshmi holding what
appears to be mushrooms--
some have debated these images
as misidentified
everyday objects.
But believers of the deep
psychedelic and shamanic roots
of almost every ancient
culture and religion
say that you'll even find
references in the Bible.
The King James Version
of Exodus 16:14
gives a description
of manna that
seems very similar to
mushrooms in shape and location
and even the time of
day that they appear.
Even a modern look
at the witch hunts
and trials shows a
deep appreciation
for psychedelic and
psychoactive plants
that account for their tales
of flying on broomsticks
and shapeshifting into animals.
There are too many to deny that
psychedelic mushroom and cactus
use were integral to
many cultures worldwide.
Whatever the conquistadors of
the New World were so afraid of
seems to still be present
as we fast forward
to the end of the 1960s.
The revival of psychedelic
appreciation among young adults
began affecting the
national narrative,
and anti-drug
propaganda was beginning
to lose its effectiveness.
How would the world deal
with this new problem--
people attempting to
dissolve the reality
constructs of culture?
What would this mean
for the rest of society?
>> Psychedelics are the antidote
to propaganda in some ways.
They help you develop a mindset
that sees through all that.
That's the real reason they're
considered dangerous, you know.
As Terence said, psychedelics
make you have funny ideas.
But funny ideas are
dangerous ideas, you know.
So that's the
reason psychedelics
are prohibited,
because they encourage
you to think for yourself.
>> You know, so the nation
states act as though it's kind
of normal to have wars.
You know, go drop bombs on
people, send in the troops--
it's kind of a
normal thing to do.
It's not a normal
thing to do at all.
It's a completely abnormal,
aberrant, psychopathic thing
to do.
We shouldn't be going out
there and killing other people
for some sort of
weird national goal.
It's a terrible, terrible
mistake that we're making.
And now, the toys of war have
become so big and so huge
that they actually pose a
threat to the whole future of--
to the whole future of humanity.
>> The power of psychedelic
plants for perceiving higher
patterns and seeing through
rhetoric led to a desperate
reaction by superpowers,
shutting down the collective
memory of traditional indigenous
practices and cutting off
the public from legal use.
Quickly, independent
chemists were
making slightly
altered compounds which
were technically not illegal.
To combat this
backdoor approach,
the Analogue Act was
passed, and the DEA
was granted emergency
scheduling power in which they
could declare any
substance illegal
and may take up to
a year to decide
what schedule to class it as.
Psychedelic plants and
synthesized versions
were put into Schedule I.
This category proclaims
the substance is
highly addictive
and has no medicinal value.
Was there any evidence for this
claim, or was it a fear move?
>> The classic psychedelics have
been used for millennia really,
if you think of
mushrooms and peyote--
no evidence of toxicity.
If you took heroic
doses, I suppose you'd
see increased blood pressure.
But in the normal
doses in the studies,
you really don't
see that happening.
>> There is no
craving to take them.
As a matter of fact,
they're anti-addictive,
you know, in the
sense that you often
have to kind of screw your
courage up to take them.
>> The addictive qualities of
psychedelics are non-existent.
In fact, many of the
psychedelic plants
are used to quit highly
addictive drugs like opiates.
Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder
Bill Wilson reportedly
used LSD to quit
drinking in the 1950s
at the Veterans Administration
Hospital in Los Angeles.
>> Classic psychedelics-- like
psilocybin, LSD, mescaline--
they're not addictive.
Because they don't
activate-- actually,
the reward pathways in the
brain involve dopamine.
>> Psychedelic plants mimic
the neurotransmitter serotonin,
and tolerance builds quickly
at these receptor sites.
Even those plants that
don't build tolerance still
eliminate themselves
quickly and leave
behind virtually no toxicity.
They're also being shown to
treat addiction rather than add
to them.
There are so many
benefits coming
to light from these
substances that groups
such as MAPS, Heffter,
Beckley, and many others
are organizing a science-based
campaign to reverse
the prohibition.
Because the evidence is clear--
they are not addictive, and
they have remarkable medicinal
and therapeutic value.
So the question remains--
why are highly addictive and
toxic substances in Schedule II
with widespread medicinal use,
while these age-old plants--
with a safe and
ceremonial history
going back many thousands
of years and no evidence
to prove physiological harm--
are in Schedule I lockdown?
Is it a war on drugs
or a war on the mind?
Why haven't the
institutions that
make these suggestions
turned back
to the original use of
psychedelics, a return
to Mother Earth for answers?
>> The position that
modern societies have taken
on psychedelics-- we've
demonized these substances.
We've made them illegal.
We've subjected
people to harsh prison
sentences if they are found and
in possession of psychedelics.
This is a terrible
error that is being
made in modern Western society.
We are losing contact
with our fundamental roots
by doing that.
>> Indigenous people
have been their stewards.
They've preserved the plants.
They've preserved the
practices in a certain way.
But now all of a sudden
psychedelics are going global,
you know.
And you get a phenomenon
where ayahuasca is like taking
over the world, you know.
And a few years ago, mushrooms
did something very similar.
>> With all psychedelic plants,
the traditional shamanic use
of them nearly always includes
a community and ritual setting.
[SINGING]
>> Shamanism is essentially
a living tradition of alchemy
that is not seeking the stone
but has found the stone.
>> A ritual simply means an
arrangement of the certain
setting for certain intentions.
This would also be
true, for example,
of a Native American
church peyote ceremony.
They have the same
kind of thing.
It's a group of people.
They know each other.
Some of them are friends.
Some of them are neighbors.
Some of them may be invited.
And they share the intentions.
And then they have
the traditional songs
and invocations.
They invoke the spirits.
And that's completely different
than the scientific study.
There's no psychological
discussion.
It's not a modern
Western system.
>> The shamanic cultures
were very clear about this.
They viewed the
psychedelics as instruments
that opened up the brain--
the mind-- to telepathy, to
clairvoyance, to precognition,
pre-sentience.
And that ultimately it
may be necessary to view
the perceptions that occur
under psychedelics as our brain
basically tuning into
a different channel
and receiving information
that we really don't know
how to define at this point.
>> For roughly 20 years, across
the world the prohibition held
firm--
no public use, no
medicinal use, not even
research to back up the claims
that placed these plants
in the strictest category.
The sleeping mind of the
people seemingly fell deeper
into consensus trance.
It was as if the innate
pattern recognition
and problem-solving faculties
of human consciousness
were missing a
critical ally, one
that had been with us since the
dawn of modern intelligence.
It seemed that the propaganda
campaign had worked.
Then in 1990, Rick Strassmann a
medical researcher specialized
in psychiatry, applied
for a federal grant
to give dimethyltryptamine
to volunteers to simply see
what the effects might be.
>> Well, so there was
a group in Germany--
which got started
around the same time
or sooner than I did--
studying mescaline.
But my DMT study was
the first in the US
and the first that used, you
know, DMT in quite a while.
It was pretty frustrating.
I never really
expected to succeed.
And you know, I don't
think many people did.
>> Public opinion of any
mind-altering substance tends
to evoke the belief that the
experience is simply what
happens when the brain
fails to function properly,
as if the default state most of
us spend time in is the proper
state to operate from.
However, even if this were true,
when someone's brain becomes
dysfunctional and then hours
later returns to normal,
how would that individual
explain the experience?
>> Well, I think the most
striking part of the research--
and what I really
wasn't expecting--
was the sense of reality
that people returned with.
They felt the experiences
were more real than real.
The importance of the
feeling of more real
than real is we make
our decisions based
on what we believe is real.
You know, the outside world
we're assuming is real.
Our inner world is real.
And we make decisions
based on reality--
inner and outer.
So if there's a state that
feels more real than real,
then do we make decisions
based on the information there?
>> What really is the
bedrock of reality?
Is the consensus
world we typically
operate from the more real one?
Is this where we'll find
the universal truths
we seek to make
life decisions from?
Is it the psychedelic
realm that some
believe is more real than real?
Perhaps it's neither, and
they're both merely reference
points, implying and pointing
to the underlying universal
truths, encouraging us to engage
with our own truth-seeking
impulse, our innate
memory, and inner sense
of our integral place within
the fabric of reality,
that we are all aspects of a
singular phenomenon appearing
as independent things.
Even Taoists and
Buddhists believe
that the outer visible
manifestations of life
are the illusion of
temporary garments cloaking
universal and unchanging
principles that inform,
instruct, guide, and
breathe life into all
that we experience around us.
So why do we experience
the illusion at all?
What mechanisms cause
us to collectively share
such a misleading perception
of life and living?
Perhaps we should
take a deeper look
at the physiological effects
of the chemical compounds
in these plants that the
government feared so much.
>> Classical psychedelics
activate a type of brain
serotonin receptor called
the 5-HT2A receptor.
And what that
means in real terms
is the cells become
more sensitive.
So what you're
doing is really sort
of ramping up the ability
of these cortical cells
to process information
quickly and more effectively.
There is an area in the
brain stem called the locus
coeruleus, the LC.
It sends projections
up to the cortex
that release norepinephrine.
And the locus coeruleus
has been referred to
as a novelty detector.
So normally if you look at
firing in the locus coeruleus,
it fires in bursts.
So it won't do anything, and
then you'll see-- dzzz, dzzz--
bursts of firing.
So what happens is psychedelics
increase those bursts.
So we can imagine if
those bursts correspond
to the locus coeruleus
detecting some novelty,
then maybe it
looks more novelty.
And I've used the analogy
when people take a psychedelic
and they look at,
say, a flower it's
as if they're seeing
it for the first time.
So it increases the
sense of novelty.
>> What would be the biological
purpose of these plants causing
humans to see the world
as if it's new again?
It is a well-known phenomena
to be looking for something
like your keys while they're
in your hand or right
in front of you, but
you don't see them.
Your eyes have
even spotted them,
but you don't acknowledge
that you've seen them yet.
Our perception works
in pattern recognition,
and this allows the world
to become predictable
so we can find a rhythm
to operate within.
These plants and their
effect on the detection
of new information
from old patterns
may be the direct
cause of neurogenesis
and neuroplasticity.
It has been shown that these
serotonergic plants initiate
the growth of new
brain cells, as well
as new neural connections
and patterns to emerge.
Let's think of this less
as a causation and more
of a correlation.
Neurogenesis and
neuroplasticity could
be occurring when
authentic childlike
learning is happening.
The neural growth
seems to happen
most in the hippocampus, which
regulates emotions and is
involved in memory.
are showing that neurogenesis
and the hippocampus activated
by psychedelics might be
a part of the acquisition
of new behaviors and
new pattern recognition.
With proper set,
setting, and skill
these changes in
the brain may likely
be why psychedelics have
been so effective in treating
post-traumatic stress disorder,
anxiety, and depression
where other treatments
have failed.
Imagine for a moment that
you were just born again
or that all your memory
has been put on hold,
and you're seeing the
world free and clear
of cultural conditioning.
Imagine all the explanations
for what this world is
and why it is the way it
appears have been erased.
Imagine you take a look at the
people in your neighborhood,
the animals in
homes and in nature,
the health of the oceans,
forests, and communities.
What questions would
you begin formulating?
And what role do you
play in all of this?
These are the
questions one starts
asking when introduced to
the world of psychedelica.
The mind begins asking broader,
deeper, and more timeless
questions.
And perhaps this is what
makes them so difficult
to properly name.
They allow new patterns to be
recognized and new behaviors
to be adopted, where most of
what the Western world calls
medicine tends to disengage or
mask the symptoms while leaving
the root cause untouched.
>> And we even have another
term, which is entheogens,
for usually for the weaker,
the amphetamine-related
and so on, or something
that awakens the God within.
I myself prefer to call them
like sacred psychedelics
or sacred medicines.
Because that's what they are.
That's how the native
cultures saw them,
and I think it's accurate.
>> It seems that these ancestral
tribes understood the many
healing qualities
of these plants.
The most profound
effects seem to be
the self-reflection people go
through under their influence,
the ability for these
plants to confront you
with your regrets and worries.
Psychedelics help deconstruct
old behavior patterns
and build newer
and healthier ones
as seen from the creation
of new neural pathways
and the birth of
new nerve cells,
a quality long thought
to be impossible shortly
after childbirth.
>> Very, very often, what the
psychedelic experience will
show you is the mistakes
and errors that you've made
in your life, where you have
chosen the dark side rather
than the side of light.
Where you have chosen
evil-- it may be very small,
may be very large--
where you have
chosen evil rather than good.
>> Psychedelics can give
you insights into how to be
a better person.
It won't make you
a better person.
And if you're a bad person,
you may still be a bad person.
>> Some of the most skeptical
and evidence-dependent
researchers speak very lucidly
about a very tangible spectrum
of benefits they have personally
experienced from using these
substances responsibly.
>> One of the fundamental
effects of psychedelics is
to integrate material that
is normally not accessible
to consciousness.
And the fundamental way in
which psychedelics make this
information available is by a
destabilizing of what's called
the default-mode network--
this part of the brain that
integrates our sense of self,
our autobiographical
memories, and our reflection
upon our lives.
So basically, what's
happening under psychedelics
is a liberation of the
parts of the brain--
that 80% or 90% of the brain
that they say we don't use.
I mean, we use it, but we're
just not able to access it.
Psychedelics give us
access to that unconscious.
>> The language facility in the
brain is destabilized as well.
So the combination of our
self-identity and our language
being put off-balance by
simply ingesting a plant
gives rise to the ineffability
of the experience.
Just as we see with any mystical
or spiritual experience,
words are not enough to
communicate the magnitude
of the experience.
>> But the possibility has
to be considered that what
the psychedelics are doing is
retuning the receiver wavelike
of the brain and actually
allowing us to gain access
to the radical
alternative realities--
parallel dimensions.
>> We have the same
situation in the television.
We would laugh if somebody
would study that set
and go down to molecular
level of the transistors
and the wires and would
believe that this gives you
an explanation why you get
a Mickey Mouse cartoon,
you know, at 7 o'clock
in the evening.
>> If Stan and many researchers
are correct in positing that
consciousness is not generated
by the brain but tuned
into, what then are these
psychedelic plants trying
to show us?
>> Across the range
of the psychedelics,
you can definitely say
that there is a broad range
of imagery that is common.
Not everybody will have all
those images all the time.
Not everybody will agree on
every single aspect of it.
But it starts off with
what I refer to as entoptic
phenomena-- because they're
considered as originating
in the ocular system--
where you start seeing
zigzag lines, and cross
hatches, and
geometrical patterns.
Sometimes fantastically
complex and elaborated mandalas
appear in the geometry.
Then there tends to be
the sense of passing
through a vortex of some
kind into a seamlessly
convincing parallel universe.
>> Is this the same phenomena
that humans have been
experiencing since the time
our ancestors were painting
their visions in caves
some 40,000 years ago?
Were those entoptic
images engrams and portals
depicting a dimension that we
are still tapping into today?
What is this
vision, and could it
be some kind of collective
consciousness of the human soul
experience?
>> It's important
to keep in mind--
I'm not saying that
this is the perception
of alien transdimensional thing.
It might just be a
psychological construct.
It might be the result of
brain activity in certain areas
in relationship to each other.
In which case, they would
still be as interesting
as if they were anything else.
>> If five or six artists, you
know, were to walk around--
I don't know, New York
or Boulder, Colorado--
and make some paintings,
you could clearly
see that the paintings--
each of the paintings might
be slightly different.
But you could see that they
were of the same place.
>> The botanist, author, and
psychedelic psychonaut Terence
McKenna relates the plant
intelligence to that of Mother
Earth.
The ancient Greeks
called it Gaia.
>> The whole thing is an
enzyme-driven process.
We are like an organ of Gaia.
We are the organ which
binds and releases energy.
I mean, a liver
cell doesn't need
to understand why it binds and
releases enzymes of the liver.
We bind and release energy
for reasons perhaps never
to be clear to us,
but which place us
firmly within the context
of the Gaian mind.
Suddenly, we come with
an epigenetic capability.
We write books, tell stories,
dance, sing, carve, paint.
These are not genetic processes.
These are epigenetic processes.
And they bind information
and express the Gaian mind.
>> The Gaian mind--
to many this idea doesn't
fit within the context
we've been given
by Western culture.
How could the rocks
be considered alive?
How could the bones in our
body be considered the same?
What does alive really mean?
>> The Gaian mind
is a real mind.
Its messages are real messages.
And our task-- through
discipline, psychedelics,
attention to detail,
whatever we have going--
is to try and
extract this message
and eliminate ourselves
from the message
so that we then can see
the face of the other.
>> The other in this case would
be the identity of that which
is sending the message.
Because we scarcely
understand who and what
we are, why we're even
alive, and what we're
meant to do with our time here,
asking what the Gaian mind
truly is might be premature.
Could it be possible--
just like a human organism--
that plants communicate not only
among themselves and to humans,
but among all other species?
Is this the collective
consciousness of the planet?
And is it possible the
war on the mind is not
limited to human minds but to
the mind of the entire planet--
the plants, animals,
humans, and more?
>> Their message, or
their interaction with us,
might be very different than
their interaction with a fungus
or a bacterium.
But they are in conversations
with those things as well,
you know.
So the message varies.
In other words,
these are multi--
sort of multi-purpose molecules.
>> Terence and Dennis McKenna
are possibly the most notable
pair of scientists and theorists
on why these plants are here
and what their greater
purpose might be.
Both have firm beliefs backed
by a lifetime of investigation
that these plants
are here to serve
the planet by those willing to
listen to their place in it.
>> I like to call them
ambassadors from Gaia.
You know, they happen to make
these messenger molecules that
are useful for communicating
with the complex brains
of these problematic apes
that evolution has spawned.
That would be us, you know?
And we're the most dangerous
thing to show up on the planet
in--
who knows, depends
on when you want
to start counting-- but at least
the last 100 million years.
You know, because we
have the potential
to completely upset the apple
cart by the technologies
that we can manipulate.
>> I mean, when you look what we
have done to the Pacific Ocean,
you know, what we are
doing to the atmosphere,
what we have done to water--
you know, things like the
Mexican Gulf or the reactor,
you know, from Chernobyl
to the Japanese one--
we cannot do this
for a very long time.
We might not make
it as a species.
>> One of the other things we
know about the world today is
that we are living in the midst
of a major ecological crisis.
Some people talk about
the fifth major extinction
here on the planet being
promoted by human activity.
We don't have a
compassionate relationship
with our environment
as a global society.
>> If the ecological threat
that we face is truly upon us,
could the psychedelic plants be
intervening on behalf of Gaia?
>> So the Earth, I think, senses
that we're-- it's in danger
and is trying to get a message
to us that we have to wake up.
>> Are psychedelic plants here
to introduce us to ourselves,
to the shadow of our psyche
and the ills that come from
the sleeping mind?
What if the greatest
threat we face
is not out there in the world
of symptoms, but in here--
in the dark corners of
individual psychology
and its rippling
effect into the masses?
Since the dawn of time,
psychedelic plants
have been there.
They've seen the horrors of the
past and have always produced
the medicine most needed
by these dangerous minds,
a class of compounds that--
when all is said and done--
offer us an honest
look at ourselves.
And from this new perspective,
humility, compassion,
and community bonding
naturally emerge.
Perhaps they confront
us and give us
the only medicine that may help
us out of these dark times--
love.
And how far back can we
trace the human psychedelic
relationship?
>> There is really an enormous
wealth of evidence to suggest--
I would go beyond
saying to suggest--
to prove that our ancestors,
deep into prehistory,
were using the
kind of substances
that we call psychedelics today.
And these would be the
natural psychedelics
that are available from plants.
These plants have played
a fundamental role
in the human story.
>> But how have these plants
shaped our human story?
What evidence can be found
that suggests at one time
psychedelics were an accepted
practice on the understanding
of the universe?
Mysteriously, in 1976, a
Soviet archaeologist uncovered
a 4,000-year-old temple complex
in present day Turkmenistan.
This complex has many rooms with
stone vats coated with residue
of cannabis, as well as
poppy used to make opium,
and ephedra used to
make amphetamines.
This must mean it was a
facility to mass produce
a hallucinogenic cocktail.
Historians have suggested
that this region was home
to goat farmers that comingled
with a nomadic horseback tribe
and for the most part
stayed quiet of conflict.
Could this discovery
hold the key
to the ancient mystery of the
fabled beverage of the gods?
Has the evidence and
long-lost ingredients
of what the oldest Indian
text, the Rigveda, called soma
and the Persians called
haoma finally come to light?
Is this evidence of an
ancient psychedelic society?
And if so, where did
they disappear to?
Why has memory of this
culture been erased?
And could this be an
ancient representation
of humans going
beyond the veil to see
the collective consciousness?
Up next, we will explore
the shamanic route
of humankind's relationship with
psychedelic plants and altered
states of consciousness.
---
[MUSIC PLAYING]
>> The mind, it's our link to
consciousness, our thoughts,
and as a byproduct, the
expression of our soul--
that free and unfettered aspect
of being human that no one else
has jurisdiction over.
But as easily as the mind
expresses the depths within,
it remains easily lured into
a false reality where thoughts
become the object of
attention, and the source
becomes forgotten.
It is here where some scientists
and philosophers believe
we have lost the true
reality and, in turn,
become products of our
environment and culture.
And it wasn't until
scientific study partnered
with ancient rituals
that they discovered
that there might be a way to
reconnect the soul and the mind
more quickly and intimately.
But are these just
escapist tools?
Or could they actually be a
cure for the common human issue
on this planet--
the sleeping mind?
>> I don't know which half is
trying to get into the other
half.
But somehow or other, I
seem to be going like that.
>> Certainly you notice that
there aren't these separations,
that we are not on a separate
island shouting across
to somebody else and trying
to hear what they're saying
and misunderstanding them.
Well, I mean that
there are the colors
and the beauties-- the
designs, the beautiful way
things appear.
[STATIC]
>> When it comes
to drugs, please--
for yourselves,
for your families,
for your future
and your country--
just say no.
[APPLAUSE]
>> But what are these substances
that have such a negative
social view, and how did
they come into the limelight?
One specific drug that
captured the hearts and minds
of scientists and
young adults started
a particular investigation of
the inner workings of the mind.
As World War II was ending,
Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman
was investigating
a migraine medicine
and pulled an old vial
off his shelf of LSD 25.
His accidental dosage opened
his eyes to a new experience
that he wanted to
share with the world,
as he believed that
this substance elicited
a form of psychic
loosening or opening.
Czech psychiatrist
Stanislav Grof
believed that the psychic
opening allowed experiences
to resurface that go all
the way back to birth
and even pre-birth trauma.
So he was willingly among the
first to experiment with LSD
to investigate what
it does to the mind.
>> Then I met Robert
Hoffman quite a few times.
He loved nature.
He was taking small dosages
of LSD in his garden
until his death.
And he said, I see
the hand of God there.
And if anybody thinks
that the atoms can do it
all by themselves,
they just don't know
what they are talking about.
I was trained in Czechoslovakia
when we had a Marxist regime.
So I got the purest mentalistic
doctrine you can imagine.
And it was clear for me during
graduation that, you know,
the consciousness is the product
of the neurophysiological
processes in the brain.
And when the body
goes, the brain goes,
and there goes
the consciousness.
And it was as simple as that.
Now, I see it very differently.
I realize we have absolutely
no proof that consciousness
is generated in the brain.
Very few people realize
this, including scientists.
So those are tremendous
contributions
that psychedelics can bring.
>> But the psychedelic
experience wasn't something new
when LSD hit the scene.
Since the late
1800s, experiments
were already being conducted
on the psychedelic plants
containing mescaline
and psilocybin.
Mescaline comes from the
peyote and Wachuma cactus
and is used in many
Native American rituals.
The Huichol mothers
of Jalisco, Mexico
would introduce peyote
through breast milk
and by chewing off bits and
feeding them to their children.
Even the Spanish chronicler Fray
Bernardino de Sahagun reports
that among the Chichimeca
and Toltec peyote
was being used at
least 2,000 years
before the European
explorers arrived.
Archaeological
artifacts were found
in a cave near the lower
Pecos River region in Texas
dating back to 3700 BC.
In South America, in
prehistory, the Chavin
were using the Wachuma cactus in
their own religious ceremonies.
Wachuma has many different
psychoactive compounds
than peyote.
So the experience is said
to be slightly different.
But the sacramental use
of each were both used
to connect with the Divine.
These cacti species are
native to the Americas.
Psilocybin is from
a class of mushrooms
and used by indigenous from
nearly every continent.
In Central and North America,
we see mushroom imagery
in many indigenous artifacts,
such as the mushroom stones
found in Highland
Guatemala, which
were used to grind
mushrooms before their use.
Some images refer to the
Amanita muscaria mushroom,
which isn't a
classical psychedelic--
as it works on different
neurotransmitter pathways--
but still is a psychoactive.
The Olmec, Toltec,
and Aztec imagery
shows that the Americas once
had a rich history of mushroom
appreciation before the European
settlers and missionaries
resisted their use.
Imagery in Siberia
among the Chukotka
appears in rock carvings.
In Hindu imagery-- such
as Lakshmi holding what
appears to be mushrooms--
some have debated these images
as misidentified
everyday objects.
But believers of the deep
psychedelic and shamanic roots
of almost every ancient
culture and religion
say that you'll even find
references in the Bible.
The King James Version
of Exodus 16:14
gives a description
of manna that
seems very similar to
mushrooms in shape and location
and even the time of
day that they appear.
Even a modern look
at the witch hunts
and trials shows a
deep appreciation
for psychedelic and
psychoactive plants
that account for their tales
of flying on broomsticks
and shapeshifting into animals.
There are too many to deny that
psychedelic mushroom and cactus
use were integral to
many cultures worldwide.
Whatever the conquistadors of
the New World were so afraid of
seems to still be present
as we fast forward
to the end of the 1960s.
The revival of psychedelic
appreciation among young adults
began affecting the
national narrative,
and anti-drug
propaganda was beginning
to lose its effectiveness.
How would the world deal
with this new problem--
people attempting to
dissolve the reality
constructs of culture?
What would this mean
for the rest of society?
>> Psychedelics are the antidote
to propaganda in some ways.
They help you develop a mindset
that sees through all that.
That's the real reason they're
considered dangerous, you know.
As Terence said, psychedelics
make you have funny ideas.
But funny ideas are
dangerous ideas, you know.
So that's the
reason psychedelics
are prohibited,
because they encourage
you to think for yourself.
>> You know, so the nation
states act as though it's kind
of normal to have wars.
You know, go drop bombs on
people, send in the troops--
it's kind of a
normal thing to do.
It's not a normal
thing to do at all.
It's a completely abnormal,
aberrant, psychopathic thing
to do.
We shouldn't be going out
there and killing other people
for some sort of
weird national goal.
It's a terrible, terrible
mistake that we're making.
And now, the toys of war have
become so big and so huge
that they actually pose a
threat to the whole future of--
to the whole future of humanity.
>> The power of psychedelic
plants for perceiving higher
patterns and seeing through
rhetoric led to a desperate
reaction by superpowers,
shutting down the collective
memory of traditional indigenous
practices and cutting off
the public from legal use.
Quickly, independent
chemists were
making slightly
altered compounds which
were technically not illegal.
To combat this
backdoor approach,
the Analogue Act was
passed, and the DEA
was granted emergency
scheduling power in which they
could declare any
substance illegal
and may take up to
a year to decide
what schedule to class it as.
Psychedelic plants and
synthesized versions
were put into Schedule I.
This category proclaims
the substance is
highly addictive
and has no medicinal value.
Was there any evidence for this
claim, or was it a fear move?
>> The classic psychedelics have
been used for millennia really,
if you think of
mushrooms and peyote--
no evidence of toxicity.
If you took heroic
doses, I suppose you'd
see increased blood pressure.
But in the normal
doses in the studies,
you really don't
see that happening.
>> There is no
craving to take them.
As a matter of fact,
they're anti-addictive,
you know, in the
sense that you often
have to kind of screw your
courage up to take them.
>> The addictive qualities of
psychedelics are non-existent.
In fact, many of the
psychedelic plants
are used to quit highly
addictive drugs like opiates.
Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder
Bill Wilson reportedly
used LSD to quit
drinking in the 1950s
at the Veterans Administration
Hospital in Los Angeles.
>> Classic psychedelics-- like
psilocybin, LSD, mescaline--
they're not addictive.
Because they don't
activate-- actually,
the reward pathways in the
brain involve dopamine.
>> Psychedelic plants mimic
the neurotransmitter serotonin,
and tolerance builds quickly
at these receptor sites.
Even those plants that
don't build tolerance still
eliminate themselves
quickly and leave
behind virtually no toxicity.
They're also being shown to
treat addiction rather than add
to them.
There are so many
benefits coming
to light from these
substances that groups
such as MAPS, Heffter,
Beckley, and many others
are organizing a science-based
campaign to reverse
the prohibition.
Because the evidence is clear--
they are not addictive, and
they have remarkable medicinal
and therapeutic value.
So the question remains--
why are highly addictive and
toxic substances in Schedule II
with widespread medicinal use,
while these age-old plants--
with a safe and
ceremonial history
going back many thousands
of years and no evidence
to prove physiological harm--
are in Schedule I lockdown?
Is it a war on drugs
or a war on the mind?
Why haven't the
institutions that
make these suggestions
turned back
to the original use of
psychedelics, a return
to Mother Earth for answers?
>> The position that
modern societies have taken
on psychedelics-- we've
demonized these substances.
We've made them illegal.
We've subjected
people to harsh prison
sentences if they are found and
in possession of psychedelics.
This is a terrible
error that is being
made in modern Western society.
We are losing contact
with our fundamental roots
by doing that.
>> Indigenous people
have been their stewards.
They've preserved the plants.
They've preserved the
practices in a certain way.
But now all of a sudden
psychedelics are going global,
you know.
And you get a phenomenon
where ayahuasca is like taking
over the world, you know.
And a few years ago, mushrooms
did something very similar.
>> With all psychedelic plants,
the traditional shamanic use
of them nearly always includes
a community and ritual setting.
[SINGING]
>> Shamanism is essentially
a living tradition of alchemy
that is not seeking the stone
but has found the stone.
>> A ritual simply means an
arrangement of the certain
setting for certain intentions.
This would also be
true, for example,
of a Native American
church peyote ceremony.
They have the same
kind of thing.
It's a group of people.
They know each other.
Some of them are friends.
Some of them are neighbors.
Some of them may be invited.
And they share the intentions.
And then they have
the traditional songs
and invocations.
They invoke the spirits.
And that's completely different
than the scientific study.
There's no psychological
discussion.
It's not a modern
Western system.
>> The shamanic cultures
were very clear about this.
They viewed the
psychedelics as instruments
that opened up the brain--
the mind-- to telepathy, to
clairvoyance, to precognition,
pre-sentience.
And that ultimately it
may be necessary to view
the perceptions that occur
under psychedelics as our brain
basically tuning into
a different channel
and receiving information
that we really don't know
how to define at this point.
>> For roughly 20 years, across
the world the prohibition held
firm--
no public use, no
medicinal use, not even
research to back up the claims
that placed these plants
in the strictest category.
The sleeping mind of the
people seemingly fell deeper
into consensus trance.
It was as if the innate
pattern recognition
and problem-solving faculties
of human consciousness
were missing a
critical ally, one
that had been with us since the
dawn of modern intelligence.
It seemed that the propaganda
campaign had worked.
Then in 1990, Rick Strassmann a
medical researcher specialized
in psychiatry, applied
for a federal grant
to give dimethyltryptamine
to volunteers to simply see
what the effects might be.
>> Well, so there was
a group in Germany--
which got started
around the same time
or sooner than I did--
studying mescaline.
But my DMT study was
the first in the US
and the first that used, you
know, DMT in quite a while.
It was pretty frustrating.
I never really
expected to succeed.
And you know, I don't
think many people did.
>> Public opinion of any
mind-altering substance tends
to evoke the belief that the
experience is simply what
happens when the brain
fails to function properly,
as if the default state most of
us spend time in is the proper
state to operate from.
However, even if this were true,
when someone's brain becomes
dysfunctional and then hours
later returns to normal,
how would that individual
explain the experience?
>> Well, I think the most
striking part of the research--
and what I really
wasn't expecting--
was the sense of reality
that people returned with.
They felt the experiences
were more real than real.
The importance of the
feeling of more real
than real is we make
our decisions based
on what we believe is real.
You know, the outside world
we're assuming is real.
Our inner world is real.
And we make decisions
based on reality--
inner and outer.
So if there's a state that
feels more real than real,
then do we make decisions
based on the information there?
>> What really is the
bedrock of reality?
Is the consensus
world we typically
operate from the more real one?
Is this where we'll find
the universal truths
we seek to make
life decisions from?
Is it the psychedelic
realm that some
believe is more real than real?
Perhaps it's neither, and
they're both merely reference
points, implying and pointing
to the underlying universal
truths, encouraging us to engage
with our own truth-seeking
impulse, our innate
memory, and inner sense
of our integral place within
the fabric of reality,
that we are all aspects of a
singular phenomenon appearing
as independent things.
Even Taoists and
Buddhists believe
that the outer visible
manifestations of life
are the illusion of
temporary garments cloaking
universal and unchanging
principles that inform,
instruct, guide, and
breathe life into all
that we experience around us.
So why do we experience
the illusion at all?
What mechanisms cause
us to collectively share
such a misleading perception
of life and living?
Perhaps we should
take a deeper look
at the physiological effects
of the chemical compounds
in these plants that the
government feared so much.
>> Classical psychedelics
activate a type of brain
serotonin receptor called
the 5-HT2A receptor.
And what that
means in real terms
is the cells become
more sensitive.
So what you're
doing is really sort
of ramping up the ability
of these cortical cells
to process information
quickly and more effectively.
There is an area in the
brain stem called the locus
coeruleus, the LC.
It sends projections
up to the cortex
that release norepinephrine.
And the locus coeruleus
has been referred to
as a novelty detector.
So normally if you look at
firing in the locus coeruleus,
it fires in bursts.
So it won't do anything, and
then you'll see-- dzzz, dzzz--
bursts of firing.
So what happens is psychedelics
increase those bursts.
So we can imagine if
those bursts correspond
to the locus coeruleus
detecting some novelty,
then maybe it
looks more novelty.
And I've used the analogy
when people take a psychedelic
and they look at,
say, a flower it's
as if they're seeing
it for the first time.
So it increases the
sense of novelty.
>> What would be the biological
purpose of these plants causing
humans to see the world
as if it's new again?
It is a well-known phenomena
to be looking for something
like your keys while they're
in your hand or right
in front of you, but
you don't see them.
Your eyes have
even spotted them,
but you don't acknowledge
that you've seen them yet.
Our perception works
in pattern recognition,
and this allows the world
to become predictable
so we can find a rhythm
to operate within.
These plants and their
effect on the detection
of new information
from old patterns
may be the direct
cause of neurogenesis
and neuroplasticity.
It has been shown that these
serotonergic plants initiate
the growth of new
brain cells, as well
as new neural connections
and patterns to emerge.
Let's think of this less
as a causation and more
of a correlation.
Neurogenesis and
neuroplasticity could
be occurring when
authentic childlike
learning is happening.
The neural growth
seems to happen
most in the hippocampus, which
regulates emotions and is
involved in memory.
are showing that neurogenesis
and the hippocampus activated
by psychedelics might be
a part of the acquisition
of new behaviors and
new pattern recognition.
With proper set,
setting, and skill
these changes in
the brain may likely
be why psychedelics have
been so effective in treating
post-traumatic stress disorder,
anxiety, and depression
where other treatments
have failed.
Imagine for a moment that
you were just born again
or that all your memory
has been put on hold,
and you're seeing the
world free and clear
of cultural conditioning.
Imagine all the explanations
for what this world is
and why it is the way it
appears have been erased.
Imagine you take a look at the
people in your neighborhood,
the animals in
homes and in nature,
the health of the oceans,
forests, and communities.
What questions would
you begin formulating?
And what role do you
play in all of this?
These are the
questions one starts
asking when introduced to
the world of psychedelica.
The mind begins asking broader,
deeper, and more timeless
questions.
And perhaps this is what
makes them so difficult
to properly name.
They allow new patterns to be
recognized and new behaviors
to be adopted, where most of
what the Western world calls
medicine tends to disengage or
mask the symptoms while leaving
the root cause untouched.
>> And we even have another
term, which is entheogens,
for usually for the weaker,
the amphetamine-related
and so on, or something
that awakens the God within.
I myself prefer to call them
like sacred psychedelics
or sacred medicines.
Because that's what they are.
That's how the native
cultures saw them,
and I think it's accurate.
>> It seems that these ancestral
tribes understood the many
healing qualities
of these plants.
The most profound
effects seem to be
the self-reflection people go
through under their influence,
the ability for these
plants to confront you
with your regrets and worries.
Psychedelics help deconstruct
old behavior patterns
and build newer
and healthier ones
as seen from the creation
of new neural pathways
and the birth of
new nerve cells,
a quality long thought
to be impossible shortly
after childbirth.
>> Very, very often, what the
psychedelic experience will
show you is the mistakes
and errors that you've made
in your life, where you have
chosen the dark side rather
than the side of light.
Where you have chosen
evil-- it may be very small,
may be very large--
where you have
chosen evil rather than good.
>> Psychedelics can give
you insights into how to be
a better person.
It won't make you
a better person.
And if you're a bad person,
you may still be a bad person.
>> Some of the most skeptical
and evidence-dependent
researchers speak very lucidly
about a very tangible spectrum
of benefits they have personally
experienced from using these
substances responsibly.
>> One of the fundamental
effects of psychedelics is
to integrate material that
is normally not accessible
to consciousness.
And the fundamental way in
which psychedelics make this
information available is by a
destabilizing of what's called
the default-mode network--
this part of the brain that
integrates our sense of self,
our autobiographical
memories, and our reflection
upon our lives.
So basically, what's
happening under psychedelics
is a liberation of the
parts of the brain--
that 80% or 90% of the brain
that they say we don't use.
I mean, we use it, but we're
just not able to access it.
Psychedelics give us
access to that unconscious.
>> The language facility in the
brain is destabilized as well.
So the combination of our
self-identity and our language
being put off-balance by
simply ingesting a plant
gives rise to the ineffability
of the experience.
Just as we see with any mystical
or spiritual experience,
words are not enough to
communicate the magnitude
of the experience.
>> But the possibility has
to be considered that what
the psychedelics are doing is
retuning the receiver wavelike
of the brain and actually
allowing us to gain access
to the radical
alternative realities--
parallel dimensions.
>> We have the same
situation in the television.
We would laugh if somebody
would study that set
and go down to molecular
level of the transistors
and the wires and would
believe that this gives you
an explanation why you get
a Mickey Mouse cartoon,
you know, at 7 o'clock
in the evening.
>> If Stan and many researchers
are correct in positing that
consciousness is not generated
by the brain but tuned
into, what then are these
psychedelic plants trying
to show us?
>> Across the range
of the psychedelics,
you can definitely say
that there is a broad range
of imagery that is common.
Not everybody will have all
those images all the time.
Not everybody will agree on
every single aspect of it.
But it starts off with
what I refer to as entoptic
phenomena-- because they're
considered as originating
in the ocular system--
where you start seeing
zigzag lines, and cross
hatches, and
geometrical patterns.
Sometimes fantastically
complex and elaborated mandalas
appear in the geometry.
Then there tends to be
the sense of passing
through a vortex of some
kind into a seamlessly
convincing parallel universe.
>> Is this the same phenomena
that humans have been
experiencing since the time
our ancestors were painting
their visions in caves
some 40,000 years ago?
Were those entoptic
images engrams and portals
depicting a dimension that we
are still tapping into today?
What is this
vision, and could it
be some kind of collective
consciousness of the human soul
experience?
>> It's important
to keep in mind--
I'm not saying that
this is the perception
of alien transdimensional thing.
It might just be a
psychological construct.
It might be the result of
brain activity in certain areas
in relationship to each other.
In which case, they would
still be as interesting
as if they were anything else.
>> If five or six artists, you
know, were to walk around--
I don't know, New York
or Boulder, Colorado--
and make some paintings,
you could clearly
see that the paintings--
each of the paintings might
be slightly different.
But you could see that they
were of the same place.
>> The botanist, author, and
psychedelic psychonaut Terence
McKenna relates the plant
intelligence to that of Mother
Earth.
The ancient Greeks
called it Gaia.
>> The whole thing is an
enzyme-driven process.
We are like an organ of Gaia.
We are the organ which
binds and releases energy.
I mean, a liver
cell doesn't need
to understand why it binds and
releases enzymes of the liver.
We bind and release energy
for reasons perhaps never
to be clear to us,
but which place us
firmly within the context
of the Gaian mind.
Suddenly, we come with
an epigenetic capability.
We write books, tell stories,
dance, sing, carve, paint.
These are not genetic processes.
These are epigenetic processes.
And they bind information
and express the Gaian mind.
>> The Gaian mind--
to many this idea doesn't
fit within the context
we've been given
by Western culture.
How could the rocks
be considered alive?
How could the bones in our
body be considered the same?
What does alive really mean?
>> The Gaian mind
is a real mind.
Its messages are real messages.
And our task-- through
discipline, psychedelics,
attention to detail,
whatever we have going--
is to try and
extract this message
and eliminate ourselves
from the message
so that we then can see
the face of the other.
>> The other in this case would
be the identity of that which
is sending the message.
Because we scarcely
understand who and what
we are, why we're even
alive, and what we're
meant to do with our time here,
asking what the Gaian mind
truly is might be premature.
Could it be possible--
just like a human organism--
that plants communicate not only
among themselves and to humans,
but among all other species?
Is this the collective
consciousness of the planet?
And is it possible the
war on the mind is not
limited to human minds but to
the mind of the entire planet--
the plants, animals,
humans, and more?
>> Their message, or
their interaction with us,
might be very different than
their interaction with a fungus
or a bacterium.
But they are in conversations
with those things as well,
you know.
So the message varies.
In other words,
these are multi--
sort of multi-purpose molecules.
>> Terence and Dennis McKenna
are possibly the most notable
pair of scientists and theorists
on why these plants are here
and what their greater
purpose might be.
Both have firm beliefs backed
by a lifetime of investigation
that these plants
are here to serve
the planet by those willing to
listen to their place in it.
>> I like to call them
ambassadors from Gaia.
You know, they happen to make
these messenger molecules that
are useful for communicating
with the complex brains
of these problematic apes
that evolution has spawned.
That would be us, you know?
And we're the most dangerous
thing to show up on the planet
in--
who knows, depends
on when you want
to start counting-- but at least
the last 100 million years.
You know, because we
have the potential
to completely upset the apple
cart by the technologies
that we can manipulate.
>> I mean, when you look what we
have done to the Pacific Ocean,
you know, what we are
doing to the atmosphere,
what we have done to water--
you know, things like the
Mexican Gulf or the reactor,
you know, from Chernobyl
to the Japanese one--
we cannot do this
for a very long time.
We might not make
it as a species.
>> One of the other things we
know about the world today is
that we are living in the midst
of a major ecological crisis.
Some people talk about
the fifth major extinction
here on the planet being
promoted by human activity.
We don't have a
compassionate relationship
with our environment
as a global society.
>> If the ecological threat
that we face is truly upon us,
could the psychedelic plants be
intervening on behalf of Gaia?
>> So the Earth, I think, senses
that we're-- it's in danger
and is trying to get a message
to us that we have to wake up.
>> Are psychedelic plants here
to introduce us to ourselves,
to the shadow of our psyche
and the ills that come from
the sleeping mind?
What if the greatest
threat we face
is not out there in the world
of symptoms, but in here--
in the dark corners of
individual psychology
and its rippling
effect into the masses?
Since the dawn of time,
psychedelic plants
have been there.
They've seen the horrors of the
past and have always produced
the medicine most needed
by these dangerous minds,
a class of compounds that--
when all is said and done--
offer us an honest
look at ourselves.
And from this new perspective,
humility, compassion,
and community bonding
naturally emerge.
Perhaps they confront
us and give us
the only medicine that may help
us out of these dark times--
love.
And how far back can we
trace the human psychedelic
relationship?
>> There is really an enormous
wealth of evidence to suggest--
I would go beyond
saying to suggest--
to prove that our ancestors,
deep into prehistory,
were using the
kind of substances
that we call psychedelics today.
And these would be the
natural psychedelics
that are available from plants.
These plants have played
a fundamental role
in the human story.
>> But how have these plants
shaped our human story?
What evidence can be found
that suggests at one time
psychedelics were an accepted
practice on the understanding
of the universe?
Mysteriously, in 1976, a
Soviet archaeologist uncovered
a 4,000-year-old temple complex
in present day Turkmenistan.
This complex has many rooms with
stone vats coated with residue
of cannabis, as well as
poppy used to make opium,
and ephedra used to
make amphetamines.
This must mean it was a
facility to mass produce
a hallucinogenic cocktail.
Historians have suggested
that this region was home
to goat farmers that comingled
with a nomadic horseback tribe
and for the most part
stayed quiet of conflict.
Could this discovery
hold the key
to the ancient mystery of the
fabled beverage of the gods?
Has the evidence and
long-lost ingredients
of what the oldest Indian
text, the Rigveda, called soma
and the Persians called
haoma finally come to light?
Is this evidence of an
ancient psychedelic society?
And if so, where did
they disappear to?
Why has memory of this
culture been erased?
And could this be an
ancient representation
of humans going
beyond the veil to see
the collective consciousness?
Up next, we will explore
the shamanic route
of humankind's relationship with
psychedelic plants and altered
states of consciousness.