Medicine/Healing

Psychedelics in addiction recovery: taking a deep look at sober communities that use psychedelics

Although taking psilocybin in a clinical trial context is a bit different than taking mushrooms at home or out in nature, the insight psychedelic experiences provide, including the lasting motivation to prevent relapse, is a major reason folks in recovery are turning to psychedelics.  The recovery community is huge and diverse, but the thing most…

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Science

Psilocybin receives [Non-Profit] ‘breakthrough therapy’ designation from the FDA

“What is truly groundbreaking is FDA’s rightful acknowledgement that MDD (Major Depressive Disorder], not just the much smaller treatment-resistant depression population, represents an unmet medical need and that the available data suggest that psilocybin may offer a substantial clinical improvement over existing therapies.” -Dr. Charles Raison, MD Compass Pathways, a pharmaceutical research firm, received the…

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Modern Culture

…it is time to normalize drug counterculture in society

When we hear the phrase “dropping acid,” we immediately think of the counterculture essentials: flower print, Volkswagen buses and religiously-doled-out peace signs. In light of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, anti-establishment culture promoted several progressive ideologies, including environmentalism, feminism, gay liberation and even psychoactive drug experimentation.  Considered forms of radicalism at the…

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Biography/Memoir

Challenges to a company’s psilocybin patent…

In addition to highlighting ideological differences between licensing a product and providing it at cost or free of charge, the Compass patent has raised questions about efforts by companies to own forms of psychoactive substances, and the role IP claims play in promising returns to investors. Matthew Baggott, the former Director of Data Science and…

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Modern Culture

Psychedelics in your neighborhood

How may we legitimize our curiosity and excitement? I believe the power to do so is in the hands of the people. May we remain leery and methodological regarding the process of legalization, then, to the extent that it does not inhibit personal growth, freedom of expression, cognitive liberty, and the propagation of love. While…

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Politics

…capitalism and the collective unconscious…

I can totally see somebody in Silicon Valley doing ayahuasca in order to come up with the next algorithm that’s going to make them a billionaire. But there’s something that feels concerning to me about this nonspecific amplifier conversation… about the co-opting of psychedelics by capitalism. So, if psychedelics are non-specific amplifiers, I’m concerned that people…

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