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I think one of thr biggest problems I have with following a religious practice as a discipline is that most religious ideology, if taken literally, conflicts with science. If taken metaphorically, I could get behind certain methods for finding "contentment" or enlightenment or whatever. I also have a huge problem with the long history of injustice and oppression that has been done in the name of religion.

That's my big beef with following specific religious wisdom traditiona. There's definitely some wisdom in their but that wisdom needs to be extracted from its historical context. New Age mish mash can be useful but you need to be extremely critical of everything.

Another fun podcast. I have a question. How do you think meditation relate to the psychedelic experience neurologicaly?

Buzz, though I do agree with you, the people that I was referring to were men like St. Anthony the Great, Evagrius Ponticus, Origen, Marcarius, St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Bruno (Founder of the Carthusian Order), Fr. Lazarus el Anthony (who is still alive today), Pantenjali, and so on. These people are mystics who spent their entire lives attempting to understand greater truths in the universe, and greater truths about human nature and so on. I think it's an unfair comparison to say that their body of work has less value than someone who has smoked DMT on their couch for 15 minutes, and that the retention and the usage of cosmologies as a way to find some sort of spiritual or mental balance is better than using the New Age method because it gives someone a base. It also helps prevent massive ego trips on the part of the seeker, which in my opinion is one of the biggest issues in this journey, the egotism, which in my understanding of these systems, is something that one seeks to move away from.

Greg thanks for the comments as always. If people aren't putting in the practice then they are not going to find results. Even if that practice is simply understanding and reading, and attempting to find some kind of message illuminated in the texts that you're reading, you are still practicing something (specifically Lectio Divina). I would still argue that staying with one Cosmology, or one grouping of them (let's say Eastern, or Western, in practice not in research I mean) is beneficial so that you can make your way through the waters so to speak with some sort of framework and history behind you so you're not lost at sea for lack of a better way of putting it.

Thanks again for the great comments!

Good job with stalking the ego in this episode.

And yet there's something to be said about the complacency of the psychedelic community or in general, endless hand-wringing tendencies of the left.

There was a comment made by Jake in this episode about how people who have a 15 minutes experience on the couch cannot claim to know more than the people who have been at it in one way or another for 40 years. While I tend to agree with your sentiment on that, I immediately thought of a counterexample. Compare for example the person who has had the 15 minute couch experience with DMT, and a mainstream psychiatrist, who has not ever tried DMT, but who has been practicing for 40 years. Not all of them, but many psychiatrists have not experimented with mind-altering drugs, and yet they often claim to know what's going on with mental patients or patients with mood disorders, even at the chemical level. Can these psychiatrist claim any more right to understanding psychosis than the guy who has had a 15 minute experience on the couch? I think more often than not, the guy who has had the experience has more understanding than the guy who has been observing, for 40 years, others have the experience. At the very least, he would understand that its not cool to insist that someone else take a drug he has not tried himself, which is very often what many psychiatrists do.

I think Jake's point was mainly to say that people who have a couple of drug experiences cannot claim to be ascended masters, and yet, this population does have something on those who are just keen on psychology.

Last night my 16 yr old son and friend 16 smoked this stuff. The friend was hallucinating, vomiting, and etc. My son was hallucinating and unable to even talk about it yet. This is no joke. I remember when I was young, like 15, I would smoke or use anything because I was just that dumb/uninformed. Getting high was just what we did. I smoked some bad stuff back then (1970's) so I know that it is common for some people to just smoke anything without thinking about it. Think a little more, look a little harder at what you are doing. Life is hard at times but smoking basically anything only makes it 100x harder.

Quote - "it just means you have finally opened your eyes to the way the world works. Welcome to the club, brother."

...Inferring that James Kent has opened his eyes to 'the way the world works'.

Well, we are all waiting to be struck by your noetic lightning James. Don't be shy with the blinding truth that you have obviously inculcated from your encounter with the the world 'as it works'.

Or are you simply another bullshit blogadelic, chancing his luck against a weakened field. Enjoy your day in the sun.

READ ABOVE COMMENTS. "Scram"
Stands for "something continuous something alcohol monitoring"

It's not gonna show up if you're doing drugs. Only getting intoxicated. Get your lives together some of you have probably got intoxication manslaughter charges and your worries are about pot and alcoholic beverages showing up

Gimme a fucking break. Get yourselves together.
The penal system is our modern day slavery.

Also exhaust fumes. Gasoline. And sone house hold cleaners such as Windex will set it off. If u get accused ask for a special hearing at court n request documents and readings and have a good excuse. They read like little graphs on u n when u drink it makes little hills on the graph

But I don't have scram I have tad.

I smoke on it. Depends what kind u get. Mines just for alcohol. U can pass a u.an by getting a glass full of water n putting a teaspoon of bleach n it n drinking it two days before ur u.a. works for me. My ankle thing will go off even if u use a lotion w alcohol n it check the lables ppl. Check lables on all skin products. Shaving cream n such. Watch out for cold medicines n mouthwashes too.

Howdy folks,

Thanks for answering my question on air! That was nice of you, I enjoyed your responses.

I agree that it's really frustrating to hear someone inexperienced with spirituality speaking as though they have stumbled across some great universal truth that only they really understand. I actually quit a job once because too many of my co-workers wouldn't stop going on about the Secret and the "law" of attraction.

I think you both really hit on the core of the issue, which is whether or not a person is actually putting in the time with a daily practice to make a spiritual development that manifests itself in personal satisfaction and positive community involvement. That said, I still feel that if a person's spiritual path takes them through fifteen years of Catholicism, a decade in Santo Daime, five years in a yoga ashram in Pune, and another fifteen years of Dzogchen meditation in a Tibetan monastery that it wasn't wasted time because it wasn't all in one place. I feel it's the devotion and the daily practice that really matters. Even that kid on the couch with his DMT pipe will figure something out if he keeps at it for forty years (and gets over the proselytizing).

Thanks again,

Greg

there has got to be a legit way to fool this damn bracelet. it seems no one has a concrete yes or no answer if it can be done. it seems logical that a thin, durable piece of meat, warmed by body heat, could mimic human skin, and secrete no alcohol.

AgrEe, I took DMT yesterday and I die. The "near death sensations" part about DMT is nothing, because I die and I am here to tell you humans that you WILL die if you take it. The truth is, you don't need drug like theses, all you ned is GOD, GOD help me help you!

What you give is what you get, Jamesk gives DMT BS so all he gets is BS. Thanks and have a nice and stony day (^.^)

You guys mused about what might make some moments more infused with magic, other times more mundane... mckenna's interest in the fluctuating ingress of novelty... well it seems not to have been predicted by timewave zero! But, from what I've heard 13:30 sidereal time (in the northern hemisphere has a statistically significant effect in a metaanalysis of psychic ability studies. This time apparently corresponds to a relatively brief time when the galactic enter is below the horizon. If this is,so, I'd think that the galactic core must be obscured most
the time in the southern hemisphere. Is that why the nazi's built their UFO catacombs in Antarctica? ;) I don't know of any way
to explain this, it seems to be the emperical fact though. Your discussion reminded me of this. I looked it up. The psychic maxima will be about 6:45 am where I live tomorrow. I'll send you all a special good morning message!

Check out the work of Dr. Hans J. Eysenck, who worked for both MK/ULTRA and The Pioneer Fund of Wickliffe Draper. This is how mind control techniques leaked into the private sector of Anastase Vonsiatsky who was named by Richard Condon in The Manchurian Candidate as "THE Manchurian Candidate" himself. Vonsiatsky was deMohrenschildt's immediate superior according to Charles Higham in American Swastika. Draper was a Eugenicist and a Fascist while Vonsiatsky was a pro-Nazi wearing Swastikas. Read "The Russian Fascists" by John J. Stephan.

I have had the scram on less than a month. Haven't touched alcohol or had any around me, today I get a call from Sentinel Offender saying the machine "detected alcohol between 4-9pm yesterday." Can I remember what I did during that time the lady asks.... Umm yea treated my blisters and torn skin from the damn scram!... Now they want me to come in and bring my "products"... Ok, so now I have to go on 4 buses, 3 hour excursion to show my leg to them to prove that whatever they " detected" was not me drinking alcohol!! Wow.... I guess ppl do try getting around it but the LAST thing I want is more problems w the law!!

Howdy Y'all,

I've got some questions bouncing around my head after this podcast, and I'm just dying to know what your views are.

1) What are your thoughts on MAPS' Zendo project of psychedelic harm reduction and their philosophy that bad trips can be steered into a positive and productive direction?

2) I feel it was implied in the discussion that psychotic breaks during psilocybin or other psychedelic experiences are random and unpredictable events, which runs counter to the more optimistic credo of set and setting that implies that there are predictive factors. Reality, of course, isn't black and white, but do you feel there are certain personality traits, particular settings, or even particular dosages of particular drugs that might indicate a greater likelihood of psychotic break or a difficult trip? By the same token, are there personality traits that might indicate a more positive experience with psychedelics? And would you ever recommend a psychedelic trip to someone?

3) "Set and setting" is an extremely vague phrase that most people assume they understand when they hear it; although to some degree, I think many do understand in an intuitive way, or else we'd hear about a lot more bad trips. That said, the majority of discussions I've heard about what qualities actually constitute a bad set and setting revolve around theories based on anecdotes. Do you feel this is something that can be studied and better understood, or are there too many variables (not that too many variables ever stopped economists or sociologists)?

4) As discussed in the podcast, many people feel that integration is just as important as set and setting in terms of long term positive or negative effect of a psychedelic experience. Jake mentioned various religions as means for creating context, but neo-Jungian and transpersonal psychologists and the holotropic breathwork crowd talk about creating a space for the individual to interpret their experiences in their own way rather than relying on an available framework. Given the nature of people's minds, this is likely to involve a hodge podge of different images, metaphors, ideas, and symbols drawn from the full spectrum of a person's experience. But it seems that you both associate that What is your take on this approach to psychological integration, psychedelic or otherwise? Although I think I already have an idea, which leads me to...

5) You both implied that the hodge podge approach leads to some kind of misguided new age ego trip, but did not explain how and I was unable to make the causal leap from one to the other. I've certainly encountered far too many irritating new agers attempting to patent a cosmology and sell healing trinkets to saps, but I've also encountered individuals with strong stable minds who use elements of religions, myths, stories, and philosophies from all over the world to explain and integrate their experiences. I do not see how narrowing one's scope is automatically superior to taking in data from broad sources. They seem to me like two different approaches useful depending on the individual and their situation. Can you explain to me what is so unappealing to you about the hodge podge approach?

6) The drug war climate pushes a lot of people to speak in extremes about drugs, one way or the other. I think in many ways the discussion gets downright silly, with people feeling the need to claim that psychedelics are safe (for example), as though personal safety is the deciding factor in the scheduling of the drug. That said, I'm curious what James in particular feels are the benefits of psychedelics and where they would best be used. After all, the name of the site and the podcast is Dosenation.

And that looks like a fucking high school exam. Ugh. But I'm still very interested in any responses you feel like giving.

I petered out on intention to comment as I listened in on discussion. One last comment, now a few weeks later and show pretty much erased from working memory... I will say strategy of offering limited nonchoices as a way of placating people and getting them to do what you want is the oldest trick in the parenting book. Classroom teachers get lots of mileage out of this trick too. Its not only a nefarious secretive mind control program run on the general public by a powerful elite... its also one of the main ways we manipulate eachother in the daily course of things...
Happy new year all

why do any drugs at all. GOD IS ALL YOU NEED HE IS MY EVERLASTING HIGH.

If you get a stoner to do this experiment of course they're not going to want to drink or if they do, they're not as prone to binge drink. Why replace a good drug with a crappier one that does damage to the body?