Originally published in 1963 'The Discovery of Love: A Psychedelic Experience with LSD-25' written by Malden Grange Bishop, is typical, though with its own idiosyncrasies, of the LSD psychotherapy literature that was published in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As the title suggests, the context of Bishop's single experience was in Psychedelic Therapy and was administered at the Institute of Psychedelic Studies, in San Francisco. The premise of the single, high dose LSD session in Psychedelic Therapy was to induce a mystical, or religious experience and, in this, Bishop was not disappointed.

On the Institute's board of directors was Dr. Humphry Osmond, the individual who coined the term 'psychedelic' and who helped pioneer Psychedelic Therapy; he also wrote the foreword to The Discovery of Love. While Osmond's approach was different from the psycholytic school of thought, they both retain the psychodynamic function of the personal unconscious, and this ensuing biographical detail is necessarily translated into texts. He wrote: "The background here is the whole of the author's life and unless we know what manner of man he is, we cannot hope to follow, let alone understand, his account of the mind manifesting experience" (Bishop 8). Thus the first third of the book is autobiographical and was initially written for the pre-session research.

Imagine my surprise when I picked up the latest issue of Skateboarder magazine only to find an article entitled, "The Amazon: Ayahuasca made me do it," featuring skaters hitting up skate spots in the Amazon (what?) and participating in a shamanic ayahuasca ceremony. Well, its official, ayahuasca tourism is played out. As they say in the skate world, already been done son.

See photos from the adventure and read the trip report in the magazine, and check out the video at their site, new segments every Monday. The trip includes one of my favorite skateboarders, Kenny Anderson, who represents a town I know well, Redlands, CA. If you don't know him, then watch Kenny Anderson's 'Hot Chocolate' video part and learn something.

DUEL OF THE LINGUIST MAGES is a dark new sci-fi comedy about two researchers who learn to hack the very structure of language at a deeper level than ever before. Their discovery of “power morphemes” – tiny particles of meaning that mean much more than they should – turns out to be unexpectedly dangerous, and shockingly easy to weaponize. As the two researchers gain unprecedented linguistic power, they turn against each other in a struggle to control their new technology. A hapless computer programmer is unexpectedly caught in the crossfire – can he stop the spread of “power morphemes” before all of human civilization is brought to its knees? Who will survive the DUEL OF THE LINGUIST MAGES? Join us at Annex Theatre in Seattle to find out!

The show runs Fridays & Saturdays, Jan 21 - Feb 19. We're sold out for opening night, but if you make it for any other night in the run, please track me down and say hi!

'Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research' by Stanislav Grof has recently (2010) been republished by Souvenir Press, having originally been published in 1975. Stanislav Grof spent 17 years researching LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs between 1955 and 1972 in a psychotherapy context. He began his research in Czechoslovakia but later moved to the United States in 1967. From his research he developed a mode of the unconscious, according to the LSD experience, and which he published in this book.

Having already covered the basic information in a review of Stanislav Grof's LSD: Doorway to the Numinous this particular literary review will take a slightly different tact. Firstly, I will examine how Grof perceived the various schools of LSD Psychotherapy before it fell from legal grace and, in order to begin to create a cartography of psychedelic literature from the same period, I'll connect the literary texts to the various psychotherapy approaches. Secondly, I'll give a synopsis of Grof's model of the unconscious and how it demonstrates a synthesis of ideas from other conceptual arenas, most of which Grof also touched upon in his own vast research experience.

An owl that had evidently drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles was so inebriated that it got picked up by police. The bird will be released once it has sobered up.

German police said on Tuesday they had discovered a paralytic owl that appeared to have drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles.

"A woman walking her dog alerted the police after seeing the bird sitting by the side of the road oblivious to passing traffic," Frank Otruba, spokesman for the police in the southwestern city of Pforzheim, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

The Brown Owl didn't appear to be injured and officers quickly concluded that it had had one too many. One of its eyelids was drooping, adding to the general impression of inebriation.

"It wasn't staggering around and we didn't breathalyze it but there were two little bottles of Schapps in the immediate vicinity," said Otruba. "We took it to a local bird expert who has treated alcoholized birds before and she has been giving it lots of water."

The bird will be released once it has sobered up, police said.

[Thanks Barnaby!]

No one has suggested that his use of a hallucinogenic herb or any other drugs contributed to Jared L. Loughner’s apparent mental unraveling that culminated with his being charged in a devastating outburst of violence here.

Yet it is striking how closely the typical effects of smoking the herb, Salvia divinorum -- which federal drug officials warn can closely mimic psychosis -- matched Mr. Loughner’s own comments about how he saw the world, like his often-repeated assertion that he spent most of his waking hours in a dream world that he had learned to control.

Salvia is a potent but legal drug marketed with promises of producing a transcendental spiritual journey: out-of-body experiences, existence in multiple realities, the revelation of secret knowledge and, according to one online seller, "permanent mind-altering change in perception."

Mr. Loughner, 22, was at one point a frequent user of the plant, also known as diviner’s sage, which he began smoking while in high school during a time in which he was also experimenting with marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and other drugs, according to friends. Mental health professionals warn that drug use can both aggravate and mask the onset of mental illness.

"He always had it on him," said George Osler IV, whose son, Zach, was good friends with Mr. Loughner in high school. It is unclear when Mr. Loughner last used the drug.

[Thanks Barnaby!]

From Don Lattin at HuffPo:

Here's some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that I came across doing research for my next book, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's from a television program, circa 1956, about mental health issues.

The researcher, Dr. Sidney Cohen, was dosing volunteers at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Los Angeles. Aldous Huxley, who first tried mescaline in 1953 and wrote about it in his seminal book, The Doors of Perception, got Gerald Heard interested in the spiritual potential of psychedelic drugs.

[Thanks Mason and The Dropper!]

A myriad of details in an evolving fractal landscape.

According to their press release the Wellcome Collection’s latest exhibition High Society "explores the role of mind-altering drugs in history and culture" and challenges "the perception that drugs are a disease of modern life". Indeed, it was my impression that the exhibition did more than just challenge false historical assumption, it challenged the very notion of applying the word disease to drug use as some sort of catch-all understanding; one that fails time and again to notice the subtle, but often extraordinary, nuances of the human-drug relationship.