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James, have you read the new book "Proof of Heaven" by neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, MD? I'd be curious to know what you think about it. He apparently was in a coma for seven days, his whole cerebral cortex completely shut down, and nonetheless had extensive experiences in "hyperspace." Quick easy read...fascinating, especially in regards to the whole discussion of whether consciousness is limited to the brain, or whether it is more fundamental then matter. Love to know your thoughts....

I found the discussion on psychedelics quite limited. Here are some points why I think psychedelics are not only relevant, but VERY important at this point in history.
1) given the long discussion on how fucked-up the world is right now, we can all agree that most if not all issues of our current world situation stem from a fragmented, ignorant, dysfunctional, violent, and greedy human consciousness.
2) there is no other known tool that can change consciousness in such a rapid, consistent way as do psychedelics. With the right set and setting, these tools can dramatically aid healing, therapy, expanded awareness, and integration.
3) these tools are the most reliable mystical catalysts known to humanity; no need to give your life to a hierarchy of men enclosed in their cozy religious constructs to be saved, enlightened, or liberated.
4) as tools, they allow the MATURE explorers of consciousness access to their minds- unconscious like no other known method.
5) for the study of neuroscience, they are indispensable if we aspire to get to the bottom of the mechanics of perception, language, and cognition. They are, hands down, the ultimate reprogramming/ re-imprinting tool a conscious species can have at their disposal.
6) by reshuffling the programmed, imprinted, neurotic neural pathways, these catalysts maximize our brain's neuroplastic nature, thereby giving creativity, problem-solving, spirituality, healing, and understanding a whole new level of possibility.
7) and finally, they expand our notions of what is real, what is possible, and therefore being an essential tool for those interested in exploring the ontological foundations of our universe.
Like many in this thread, I am a 40 y.o. father of two, with career, etc... definitely no time to trip at thumping raves every weekend (ahh, those were the days). But a couple of times a year I make time to check in, and ALWAYS come out with an insight, higher integration, more love in my heart, feel more connected, or just rest in the bliss of the formless Void. Of course I prepare for these sessions with diet, yoga, meditation, intention, etc, therefore minimizing any potential negative effect. I still find them incredibly useful, powerful, and enlightening, and still believe that their vast potential has barely been tapped.

We so enjoyed last">[link] nthigs' Crushpad dinner! The Ivy Wild selections were delicious and so were all the wines you had for us to try! For our glass of wine, four of us chose 4 different wines and then chose the syrah for dinner! Excellent! The music was soft and nice for dinner conversations, but the real entertainment was watching Maria and her helicopter service to you and the cherries! That was amazing to watch. We used helicopters for our Christmas tree harvest years ago and the name of the game for that was speed! For cherry tree operations, it is just the opposite! Do hope that worked for you last night! Thank you for a great evening, and we look forward to joining you again for another Crushpad dinner event!

OurMethodIsScience: I'm sorry you're unhappy with the title. I didn't really put much thought into it, just had to come up with a name on the spot so that's what I came up with. Wasn't intentionally disingenuous, just remember that I ranted about Evangelicals and James talked about about psychedelic chemists, so I just threw that up. Sorry if you took it the wrong way.

Dk Wilson: Glad you found us! Thanks for tuning in, hope we'll see you here again. As for the conspiracies, something is going on that is for sure. I have my opinions on that, but I'll save them for the show, maybe this weeks. Interesting about your father, Naval intelligence is interesting, I'd be curious to hear what period he served.

Davey: Very glad you enjoyed everything! Happy to have you here, as we are with everyone. Thanks for continuing to listen. I'm glad you like the mixture of subjects. I agree, it seems to be a trend that everyone should be forcefully turned on, at least for some, though that view needs to be deeply discussed and debated. People can choose their own journeys and paths, who am I to get in their way? That experience sounds rather unpleasant, especially the poisoning you mentioned. Lots of substances are marked as things they're not, intentionally, so that people will buy them. Unfortunate but true.

Thanks everyone for commenting, be well, see you all again soon.

BTW: thanks for indulging this listeners idle curiosity. Also, I appreciate the broad spectrum platform that goes well beyond matters of a strictly 'dosed' nature.

I do participate in some other discussion groups (but not much really). Although the ability to comment here carries less of the cultural construct of a commons or discussion type situation, I some how feel like it suits me better, that I fit in here better. hope I'm not mis-using the comment area...

With due respect to Nowhere Girl, I really like the audio format. I feel part of a conversation. Thanks for that!

I hope we all discover greater depths of self actualization this week (why not!).

And a big thank you to James and Jake. As Sir Toppam Hat might say, "You are truly useful engines!" sorry, Thomas the Train was just on TV...

Just found you guys in a search for a related subject. I do understand ceasing ingesting psychedelics. I began my quest at 13 and stopped 14 years later (yes, at the time of stoppage I'd spent over half my life tripping!). I am proud to say that I never ingested hallucinogens in any other way than that of a ritualistic environment conducive to listening to the universe spinning in and outside of my being.

However, after another 13 years of not "dreaming while awake" and growing a family and all the associated movement that go with that wonderful activity, I am preparing to head off again - this time as an adult, and not in nearly as intensely as before.

On "conspiracy theories:" please either know, or remember, that the phrase was first coined for use by the CIA - espoused through various news mediums - to deter people from researching the JFK assassination.

Also, you're absolutely correct about gun theory. BUT. You also must understand that, in part, this heightened "take away our guns" craze is a side-manifestation of the overreaching racist reaction toward President Obama.

Conspiracies by "the powers that be" to control the populace do exist, though most often not for the reasons popularly espoused. Having been a member of the media I know with certainty that newspaper editors and television producers will urge their writers/reporters to push the craziest of theories in order to marginalize those who have very real insight(s) into the workings that go on behind the veil.

Ahhh, hell, I could go on forever (my deceased father was deep ONI, so I do have some first-hand knowledge of the training involved in that line of work as well as knowledge of some of dark research performed by "the agencies").

Anyway, great podcast. Keep up the work!

Hi all, I was expecting a different subject matter when I read "evangelical psychedelic chemists". I've wondered at times why a mass dosing has never occurred. Definitely there are people who go through a period of believing we all need to be forcibly turned on. But this, like most conspiracy theories belies an overly simplified view of life. I think it was called imminatizing the eschaton (sic) in the illuminatus trillogy. A fundamentalist Christian faction pursue it with red cow breeding programs and God knows what other forms of. wackiness. Still the chemistry behind such a weapon of mass deprogramming is readily available. Its almost surprising its. never been attempted. I certainly would never endorse this. I'd say the moral compass that deep contact with ones own. mind would tend to protect society from this kind of psychic terrorism, but then I have had a wild eyed head spray me w a bottle claiming it contained LSD and Dsmo. Nothing happened, but I did make clear to him that his actions were motivated by anger not compassion. Like the notion of mk-ultra but in reverse... On another note: I basically agree w Jake and James. Middle age family man has little time for this kind of experimentation. I partnered recently w a fungal species only to conclude that I could achieve a more relevant, whole, and creative integration through my practice of mindfulness. It had been nearly 20 years since id gone whole hog. In fact, it was kinda fun to revisit the goey visuals, but I felt slightly poisoned at a somatic level for much of the evening. Lesson learned.

This is a very misleading title for this podcast, and it seems to have been intentionally disingenuous since the discussion itself highlights that the most popular episodes are the one that spotlight psychedelia. Other topics clearly predominate.

Unfortunately we don't have the time or man power to maintain a daily news blog. DoseNation is moving more towards podcasting and radio, but will continue to blog when we have the availability, and the staffing. Sorry that we can't publish as much.

Why do you publish exclusively podcasts now? I strongly prefer reading to listening and I regret there's absolutely nothing new to read here...

Wack as fuck.. Nd his sister is a complete slut.. 3 kids 3 dad's... A true white trash family

Scientific theory is, after all, theory. If an idea challenges your belief you are obligated to objectively review it. Your prejudice should be the suspension of prejudice. Belief is the parasite that undermines the evolution of thought. Ultimately we don't know; and that is where the scary fun exists

both of my boys are in the ICU tonight because of this shit. I haven't seen it, they were at their uncle's house when they took it. But I am very worried, I rode with my youngest to the hospital, his brother needed to be taken by ambulance, with police.

I've been on a Paul Stamets bender on youtube. I can't recommend him highly enough! An amazing mycologist and a truly fungi. He discusses gofibious Glutinoisus (I'm sure I butchered that) species of mycorhyzal fungi that was discovered in Chernobyl and is being used in Fukushimu. It hyper accumulates cessium 137 and removes it from the soil ecology. Just amazing stuff. He says it's called the 'hideous gofibious. Also mentions a type of lichen discovered growing on the concrete walls of a highly radioactive area in Chernobyl. It apparently uses gamma radiation in a manner analogous to that of photosynthesis in plants, algae and bacteria. He speculates that astronauts on long trips could dine on tempeh grown from ambient gamma radiation of deep space. This guy is brilliant, so many other things he's done. Plus he's probably the world expert on the genus psilocybe, (or is that the taxa of family... anyway). Please check this guy out everyone. He says mushrooms can solve many of our societal problems, not just far out space migration ideas, but many down to earth issues. I find myself believing him! Also, he lives not far from James. Down in the Olympia area on Skukuum bay near Evergreen College I think.

This wasn't a hallucination, me and mom were talking about it yesterday, he's working on a motorbike, the camera zooms in, and in a delivery only Messer Lydon can give, says "Drugs killed my best friend. They almost killed me. Drugs SUCK.' One place you are wrong: whilst many rockers were forced to do this sort of thing after drug busts, he chooses to do his, which made it far more sincere than a do this or get jail time form of thing.

I be sentence to hold this ankle bracelet for next court order so l have this bracelet for 6 months and l have do 1month in jail so if when they relize me they put me back the bracelet l think will be better if l pay with jail time, because this bracelet broke my life and also my family because l coant

Katie, Wow, you covered a lot of info in this podcast. I loved hearing your listeners voices.I wanted to give you some insight on the Pfaff machines. I have the quilt expression 4.0. I can be quite persnickety about thread and needles. It has problems with free motion quilting; you can’t go too fast and a single hole needle plate is a must (for everything you use a straight stitch for). You can buy a free-motion/darning foot that does help. Regarding the IDT: It is great for piecing but falls short to substitute for a walking foot for quilting. If you look at it you see that it has only a very small area of “teeth” right behind the needle. A walking foot has “teeth” on both sides of the needle. There is not a separate walking foot to add. I just wanted to let you know what I’ve learned by using this machine. Overall it is a good machine.The day that someone makes a sewing machine that has everything I want and nothing I don’t want is the day I’ll spend some real money on a machine.Also, my dealer has been very helpful in solving my issues; tips, tricks, free single hole plate….. I highly recommend going through a reputable dealer.Thanks again for the podcast and I hope you make it back to Denver someday. Thanks for the compliments about our drivers! [link]

I completely agree that my story is not anyone else’s. My experience is not anyone else’s. I also agree that skinny does not, in fact, correlate to fit. There is plenty of evidence that many skinny folk are not healthy (e.g., many smokers are skinny). So can we perhaps change the vector of the discussion a little bit? Can we agree that there are certain things everyone can do to be [fit/healthy] irrespective of their body type? Can we agree that this discussion is not about getting skinny, but about getting [fit/healthy]? Can we agree that it is worthwhile sharing the knowledge that all of us have gained through trial and error and research and put into practice in our own lives with people who may not have taken the time to learn it independently and who may not have thought about putting it into practice in their own lives?And so I propose that we stop talking about weight loss and perhaps start talking about how to make good food choices and what one means when one says “make good food choices.” That we talk about the importance of cardio vascular health that can only come from actually going out and walking or running or biking for a minimum of 30 minutes 3 times a week. That is a discussion worth having and one worth sharing. Can we talk about the fact that we lose 30% of our flexibility in our 30s unless we do something about it (e.g. yoga, pilates, stretching 15 min a day) and that loss of flexibility can lead to injuries that can make it harder and harder to stay [fit/healthy]? [link]

Thanks for all of the great comments and support. Davey - that sounds like an interesting idea, we'll see if we can make it happen! Thanks for all the love, support, and good associations. I appreciate it and so does James.

Cathie May 28, 2011 - Sam, I love how certain swear words appear to carry more weight that others.. really no problem with me, I’m an adult (well, by age, I suppose). But, what’s really amusing is that iTunes appears to think you are Howard Stern or something (“explicit”). Anyway, enjoying these as well as the tv show (I’m lucky, I’m local). I’m never going to catch you live unless you change the time, unfortunately, so glad the show is available after. Now, if you can get Donovans to kick in some freebies for poor viewers like me to win.. of course, when they read my comment, they will know I always watch you anyway (happy that my dvr picks up shows on at other-than-usual times), new show or one I’ve seen a dozen times. “Sam dogs” are such a favorite in this house too! [link]