Psychedelics: The Heroic Dose Psychedelic research is enjoying a renaissance. Recent studies have shown that psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin seem to be a safe and effective method for treating conditions like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. And unlike common antidepressants, some people report long-lasting improvements in their mental health conditions after taking just one dose of psychedelics. What makes these substances so unique and powerful? That’s one of the driving questions behind the research of Matthew W. Johnson, who has conducted numerous studies on the nature of addiction, psychedelics, and other psychoactive substances. Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-t... 0:00 Effing up the ineffable 1:56 Pioneers of psychedelic therapy 2:35 Psychedelics go underground 3:26 The psychedelic renaissance 4:50 Taking a ‘heroic dose’ at Johns Hopkins 8:44 The challenges of psychedelic therapy 9:46 The mental health revolution

Bufotenin (5-HO-DMT, bufotenine) is a tryptamine derivative more specifically DMT derivative related to the neurotransmitter serotonin. It is an alkaloid found in some species of toads (especially the skin), mushrooms and plants. The name bufotenin originates from the toad genus Bufo, which includes several species of psychoactive toads, most notably Incilius alvarius, that secrete bufotoxins from their parotoid glands. Bufotenin is similar in chemical structure to the psychedelics psilocin (4-HO-DMT), 5-MeO-DMT, and DMT, chemicals which also occur in some of the same fungus, plant, and animal species as bufotenin. Bufotenin is found in the poison and eggs of several species of toads belonging to the genus Bufo, but is most concentrated in the Colorado River toad (formerly Bufo alvarius, now Incilius alvarius), the only toad species with enough bufotenin for a psychoactive effect. Extracts of toad venom, containing bufotenin and other bioactive compounds, have been used in some traditional medicines such as ch’an su (probably derived from Bufo gargarizans), which has been used medicinally for centuries in China. Reports in the mid-1990s indicated that bufotenin-containing toad venom had appeared as a street drug, supposedly but in fact not an aphrodisiac, ingested orally in the form of ch’an su, or as a psychedelic, by smoking or orally ingesting Bufo toad venom or dried Bufo skins. The use of chan'su and love stone (a related toad venom preparation used as an aphrodisiac in the West Indies) has resulted in several cases of poisoning and at least one death. The practice of orally ingesting toad venom has been referred to in popular culture and in the scientific literature as toad licking and has drawn media attention. Albert Most, founder of the defunct Church of the Toad of Light and a proponent of spiritual use of Bufo alvarius venom, published a booklet in 1983 titled Bufo alvarius: The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert which explained how to extract and smoke the secretions.

In an all new episode of Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, he explores magic mushrooms with the help of shamans, clandestine growers, and ethnomycologists. He travels everywhere from the aztec empire to an underground laboratory on his quest to learn more about this mystical drug. Psilocybin mushrooms; commonly known as magic mushrooms, mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include Copelandia, Gymnopilus, Inocybe, Panaeolus, Pholiotina, Pluteus, and Psilocybe. Psilocybin mushrooms have been and continue to be used in indigenous New World cultures in religious, divinatory, or spiritual contexts. Psilocybin mushrooms are also used as recreational drugs. They may be depicted in Stone Age rock art in Africa and Europe, but are most famously represented in the Pre-Columbian sculptures and glyphs seen throughout North, Central and South America. https://theaquariusbus.com

The peyote is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. Peyote is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl peyōtl, meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root peyōni, "to glisten". Peyote is native to Mexico and southwestern Texas. It is found primarily in the Sierra Madre Occidental, the Chihuahuan Desert and in the states of Nayarit, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, and San Luis Potosí among scrub. It flowers from March to May, and sometimes as late as September. The flowers are pink, with thigmotactic anthers. - When used for its psychoactive properties, common doses for pure mescaline range from roughly 200 to 400 mg. This translates to a dose of roughly 10 to 20 g of dried peyote buttons of average potency; however, potency varies considerably between samples, making it difficult to measure doses accurately without first extracting the mescaline. The effects last about 10 to 12 hours. Peyote is reported to trigger rich visual or auditory effects and spiritual or philosophical insights. - In addition to psychoactive use, some Native American tribes use the plant in the belief it may have curative properties. They employ peyote for such varied ailments as toothache, pain in childbirth, fever, breast pain, skin diseases, rheumatism, diabetes, colds, and blindness.

An Original Word Porn Production of Graham Hancock. - :Transcript: - Our society is absolutely designed to shut down 90% of the potential of the human creature. Why should it be the case that society is afraid of realizing human potential and what it comes down to is special interests, that there are those who run things in society and that there are those who are there to kind of serve them and serve their ends and serve their needs. - And so, what our society has created is a realm of unquestioning meat robots who will perform their daily tasks without complaining and without causing any trouble, and that may be very useful to certain small interest groups but it's extremely damaging to the rest of humanity, - Once we realize our potential we don't need elites anymore, who needs elites - who needs to be led. This is another revelation that comes from working with psychedelics is that we do not need leaders, they are not over us telling us what to do, they may imagine that that's what they're doing but they have no right to do that. - And the moment we begin to wake up and start asking really profound questions about the nature of reality and about the society that we live in, their power is instantly diminished and I think that's why we've seen such vigor and real nasty unpleasantness put into this horrible wicked thing called the war on drugs which is being used as an excuse to enter the inner sanctum of peoples lives. - See, if i'm not sovereign over my own consciousness, if I can't make free choices about my own consciousness, if I can't make those free choices while doing no harm to others then I am not free, in any useful or meaningful sense. - And, the moment that I free myself then I become a danger to those who run things in the world, anybody who has seen led to question the nature of things profoundly as a result of psychedelics is a danger to the status QUO. - We risk being thrown in prison, we risk having our reputations destroyed - if the powers that be enter our home and find that we're using psychedelics, I mean this is really Orwellian World that we've created, - how dare some guy in a suit sitting in government tell me to what to do with my consciousnesses - while at the same time, they're allowing the glorification and glamorization of alcohol which is one of the most dangerous drugs on the planet. - I mean alcohol is a seriously dangerous drug, whether you're talking about cirrhosis of the liver, or whether you're talking about traffic accidents or whether you're talking about violence - a-alcohol, there's no doubt about it nobody can dispute, is an extremely dangerous drug. - So a society that says alcohol's okay and you can even advertise it, but psilocybin or DMT are not okay and if you use them you'll be sent to prison, that society is just riddled through and through with unbelievable hypocrisy. - And we have to bring that out, we have to show people this is the case because what's going on here is a fundamental abuse of human rights, we must be free to make decisions over our own consciousness always with the proviso that we do no harm to others and any government any state agency that attempts to limit our freedom over our own consciousness - is itself an agency of darkness and control. - :Speaker: Graham Hancock