Psychedelic Shaman Podcast #1

Psychedelic Shaman Podcast #1 is now online!!! Take a listen and then post a comment here to tell me what you think. Its a little rough but its my first attempt. I this podcast I talk a little about why I use psychedelics, and some of my ideas about what modern shamanism and how modern shamans differ from shamans in tribal societies. Anyway I hope you like it. And if you have any suggestions for future shows, just leave a comment.

Soon to be a Minor Motion Picture! and more musings

The adventures of The Psychedelic Shaman is going to be making its way into the world of film...sort of. I have been toying with the idea of podcasting for a few months now and I have decided to go ahead and start a podcast. In fact it should be posted within the next week or so, just in time for the new year. Anyway, I was looking around for some suitable tools to use for the podcast when I happened to come across a review of activisions new game The Movies. Apparently this game allows you to create 3d animated movies as a part of the game play. These movies can be saved and posted online. So, being a wannabe director, I thought why not use it to make my own little subversive movies about psychedelics, magick, reality hacking, etc. And post them on the web. In this way I can get some of my ideas across without worries of revealing my Secret Identity.

On to other topics...

I am currently ordering more mimosa hostillis and some Salvia divinorum for further experiments with cultural deprogramming. I have come to realize thru such experimentation that where psychedelics excel is in the realm of deprogramming the mind. Allowing the mind to suspend cultural programming, at least temporarily. I have had less consistent results with attemps at using psychedelics to create new programs. I feel that this is most likely because psychedelics inject a chaotic element into the otherwise stable reality construct that have been programmed into our psyche's. This chaos allows us to glimpse a larger reality, one free of culturally programmed interpretations. By contrast, creation of new programs requires fairly specific kinds of sensory information and while some psychoactive compounds may be beneficial to this end, psychedelics may not be the best ones for the job. While they do seem to increase the bandwidth of sensory information and can be used for metaprogramming, doing so is akin to painting a portrait with paint roller. In other words, though psychedelics can and have been used for programming the mind, to do so requires careful planning and strict attention to set, setting and dosage. Even with such careful preparations it is impossible to say with any certainty what kind of experience the subject will have. For this reason I have begun exploring the use of less intense substances for the reprogramming phase of my experiments. Plants such as cannabis, Kava, low dosages of mushrooms as well as Calea Zecatachichi have the effect of allowing for very intense visualizations without the sometimes overwhelming psychological effects of more powerful substances. Details of my experiments are to follow both in print and as part of my podcasts.

Ancient Knowledge Conference

Graham Hancock - Robert Schoch - John Major Jenkins
Martin Gray - Walter Cruttenden


Also Featuring Geoff Patino, Uwe Homann, and John Dering Cpak Conference
The Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge is an academic conference bringing together some of the greatest thinkers in Archaeo-Astronomy and Esoteric Archaeology to discuss the topic of precession, both from a modern and ancient perspective, hear arguments supporting a cyclical theory of civilization (tied to precession) and its possible causes, and highlight potential archaeological, mythological or astronomical evidence surrounding these theories. The mission of the conference is to develop a true dialog among experts in a wide range of fields to illuminate the ties between ancient cultures, mythology, and our ancestral knowledge of the stars.

For the first time in the conference's history, CPAK 2005 will include a day of public programs to share these collaborations with the public, in addition to private round table discussions and presentations among the experts that have been the hallmark of the conference in the past. Come join us on Novermber 11th and 12th to hear from the experts themselves.

From Atlantis to Ayahuasca - Graham Handcock's Supernatural

Graham Hancock who's books like Fingerprints of the Gods have long challenged the statis quo in reference to man's origins and alternative theories about ancient civilizations. Now he turns his attention to ancient knowledge of a diffent kind. Here is an excerpt from his website:

Supernatural

By Graham Hancock

‘Supernatural: of or relating to things that cannot be explained according to natural laws.’

Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as ‘the greatest riddle in human history’, all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers.

In Supernatural Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious ‘before-and-after moment’ and to discover the truth about the influences that shaped the modern human mind.

His quest takes him on a journey of adventure and detection from the stunningly beautiful painted caves of prehistoric France, Spain and Italy to remote rock shelters in the mountains of South Africa where he finds a treasure trove of extraordinary Stone Age art.

He uncovers clues that lead him to travel to the depths of the Amazon rainforest to drink the powerful plant hallucinogen Ayahuasca with Indian shamans, whose paintings contain images of ‘supernatural beings’ identical to the animal-human hybrids depicted in prehistoric caves and rock shelters. And Western laboratory volunteers placed experimentally under the influence of hallucinogens such as mescaline also report visionary encounters with exactly the same beings. Scientists at the cutting edge of consciousness research have begun to consider the possibility that such hallucinations may be real perceptions of other ‘dimensions’.

Ayahuasca article in Reason Magazine

Just read a great article on rational drug policy in relation to religious use of psychedelics. Click on over to Reason Magazine and take a look.

New Book!! Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants

Just found out about a new book by the co-author of Plants of the Gods. Its Called The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants by Christian Ratsch. I haven't had an opportunity to look at the book as of yet and at $125 it seems like a pretty hefty price tag for a book. However considering the lack of quality scientific and scholarly information on psychoactive plants this book may be worth the money. At over 900 pages it lists every known plant that contains psychoactive chemicals. The first half of the book is a listing of over 700 pages worth of data on these plants. The second part is on the chemistry and cultural uses of said plants. I am hoping to get a copy of this book sometime in the near future, when I do I will be posting an extended review.

My New Experiment

I am embarking on a new series of experiments in invocational magick. This series of invocations will last for 30 days. Beginning on October 31st I will be doing a series of invocations to fully open myself to the creative energies of the universe embodied by the concept of the Dream Art Scientist. In so doing I will be invoking an entity of my own creation, an egregore to fuel my creative endevors. I will be utilizing the following entheogens. Calea Zacatechichi Dream Herb
which helps facilitate lucid dreams, Mimosa hostilis (Jurema) and Syrian Rue which combined make a formulation of ayahuasca and Yohimbe which is an african herb that acts as a sexual stimulant. These herbs will be used at different times during the ritual cycle and I will be detailing how I will be using them. A WARNING to others who may be interested in these plants, do NOT use yohimbe when you are using syrian rue or any MAOI as it can cause extreme hypertension and could lead to stroke and other nasty complications. End of public service warning

Welcome to my new site

Well I got screwed over by my hosting service 1and1.com and they are holding my website and my domains hostage. So I decieded to go with blogger until I can get stuff straightened out. Anyway here is where you will find info on sacred plants, magick, ritual, art and shamanism.