DMT: The Spirit Molecule




	in alphabetical order ABRAHAM PHD, RALPH BAKST, JOEL DAVID BARKER PHD, STEVEN BLUMENTHAL, SUSAN DAVIS, ERIK DOBKIN DE RIOS PHD, MARLENE DOMINGUEZ, PATRICIO FRECKSA MD PHD, EDE GABLE, ROBERT GEIST, CYNTHIA GOLDSMITH, NEAL GREY, ALEX GREY, ALLYSON GRIFFITHS, ROLAND GROB MD, CHARLES GROF MD, STANISLAV HANCOCK, GRAHAM HARRISON PHD, KATHLEEN KENT, JAMES LABATE, BIA LEEMAN, LARRY LORENZ, MATHIAS MCKENNA PHD, DENNIS METZNER PHD, RALPH MEULI, CHRISTIAN NEWBERG, ANDREW NICHOLS PHD, DAVID PENDELL, DALE PINCHBECK, DANIEL PRESTI, DAVID RIBA PHD, JORDI RODRIGUEZ PHD, MARKO A. ROGAN, JOE RUSHKOFF, DOUGLAS SCHREI, BOB SHANON PHD, BENNY SMITH PHD, HUSTON SPIROS, ANTONOPOULOS STANDISH ND PD, LEANNA STONE, ANDREW STRASSMAN, RICK WEISZ, ROBERT WOJTOWICZ MD, SLAWEK WRIGHT, DON ABRAHAM PHD, RALPH website RALPH H. ABRAHAM has been Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz since 1968. He received the Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1960, and taught at Berkeley, Columbia, and Princeton before moving to Santa Cruz. He has held visiting positions in Amsterdam, Paris, Warwick, Barcelona, Basel, and Florence, and is the author of more than 20 texts, including eight books currently in print. He has been active on the research frontier of dynamics -- in mathematics since 1960, and in applications and experiments since 1973. He has been a consultant on chaos theory and its applications in numerous fields (medical physiology, ecology, mathematical economics, psychotherapy, etc.) and is an active editor for the technical journals World Futures, and the International Journal of Bifurcations and Chaos. In 1975, he founded the Visual Mathematics Project at the University of California at Santa Cruz, which became the Visual Math Institute in 1990, with its popular World Wide Web site since early 1994. He has performed works of visual and aural mathematics and music (with Ami Radunskaya and Peter Broadwell) since 1992. top BAKST, JOEL DAVID website Joel David Bakst is a teaching rabbi & scholar of Talmud, Kabbalah and Biblical Hebrew who for 20 years, while living in Jerusalem, studied and taught in Orthodox yeshivot. He has lectured & given workshops in Israel, the United States & India. He has written extensively about the confluence of Kabbalah and science with a special interest in the Biblical and kabbalistic references to the pineal body and the role of DMT in higher consciousness and global evolution. He is the author of the groundbreaking work, The Secret Doctrine of the Gaon of Vilna - Global Transformation and the Messianic Role of Torah, Kabbalah and Science. He lives and teaches in Southern Colorado and he is currently a member of the instructional staff on Noahide Nations.com and Virtual Yeshiva.com. His DMT research and related writings are available at cityofluz.com top BARKER PHD, STEVEN website Dr. Barker received his BS, MS, and PhD in Chemistry/Neurochemistry from the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) where he conducted research on endogenous hallucinogens and schizophrenia. He is currently the Everett D. Besch Distinguished Professor in the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine and also serves as Director of the Analytical Systems Laboratories. Dr. Barker has continued to conduct research on endogenous hallucinogens and their relationship to the regulation of perception. He has more recently been investigating their possible role in religious experiences and hallucinatory phenomena in general and in the development of the field of neurotheology. top BLUMENTHAL, SUSAN website Susan Blumenthal is an award-winning writer, freelance investigative journalist, photographer, traveler, entrepreneur, storyteller and explorer of life’s mysteries. Her documentary scientific videos have won 30 awards, including most recently a New York International Film Festival and Video Gold World award. Other awards include International Cinema in Industry, Telly and Absolute Excellence in Electronic Media. She is the author of two books, numerous essays and magazine articles and has two books in progress, Santa Fe Ghosts, (due out in Spring 2009) and Forbidden Frontiers of Consciousness. top DAVIS, ERIK website Erik Davis is a San Franciso-based writer, culture critic, and independent scholar. His book TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information was released by Harmony Books in the fall of 1998. It has been translated into five languages, and has achieved, in certain circles, the vaguely enviable status of a "cult classic." Davis is a contributing writer for Wired magazines, and wrote "The Posthuman Condition" column for the sadly departed online magazine Feed. His essays have appeared in over half a dozen books, including Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (Chronicle), The Disinformation Book of Lies (Disinfo), Prefiguring Cyberculture (MIT Press) and Paul "DJ Spooky" Miller's Sound Unbound (MIT). He has contributed articles and essays to a wide variety of publications, including Bookforum, The Wire, ArtByte, the LA Weekly, Gnosis, and the Village Voice. His articles have been translated for publication in countries ranging from Japan to Brazil to Hungary. Davis has taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies, the New York Open Center, and Esalen, and was one of the organizers of Planetwork, a conference on information technology and global ecology held in San Francisco in 2000. He has been interviewed by CNN, has popped up on radio shows internationally, and appeared prominently in Craig Baldwin's underground film, the SciFi media critique Specters of the Spectrum. His in-depth studies of the science fiction author Philip K. Dick have been acknowledged by the New Yorker. Davis has also lectured internationally on topics relating to media arts, contemporary electronic music, and spirituality in the postmodern world. Davis is a fifth-generation Californian, and is currently working with the photographer Michael Rauner on California Visions, a photo-essay travelogue through the Golden State's landscape of alternative spirituality. He is also at work on a short book about Led Zeppelin, and various fragments of bardo fiction. top DOBKIN DE RIOS PHD, MARLENE website MARLENE DOBKIN DE RIOS, Ph. D. is a medical anthropologist and licensed marriage, family therapist in California. Additionally, she is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine where she lectures to psychiatric residents and fellows. She is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton, where she taught cultural anthropology from l969-2000. Dr. de Rios conducted anthropological fieldwork on traditional folk healing in the Peruvian Amazon and coast, studying the plant hallucinogen, ayahuasca, in the treatment of emotional and psychological disorders. From l999 to 2005, she directed the qualitative dimension of research in Brazil on the use of ayahuasca among adolescents in the União do Vegetal Church. A recent U. S. Supreme Court decision has allowed the plant hallucinogen to be used as a sacrament in U.S. religious rituals of this church. A noted public speaker and writer, de Rios is the author of seven books and several hundred professional articles and book chapters. Her latest book, “LSD, Spirituality and the Creative Process” examines the work of Oscar Janiger, M.D. who gave almost l,000 men and women LSD from l954-l962, and the resultant artwork and poetry that resulted from this study. A recent article of hers appears in the Skeptic Magazine December 2006 issue and describes her work as a fortune-telling anthropologist during her early fieldwork in Peru. top DOMINGUEZ, PATRICIO website Patricio was born in the Southwest United States into the Pueblo de Las Cruces tribe in the summer of 1949, and given the name Patricio, Dominguez being his family name. His youth was spent in a small traditional community accumulating the spiritual knowledge that necessary for life and I was cultured by the contact of not only my parents and Grandparents that lived in the community but I was fortunate enough to have a great grandmother’s influence until I was 13. My great grandmother’s specialty was healing with herbs and my grandmother healed by the power of touch now called Reki, Joray, etc. At the age of five I was presented in a public ceremony to the medicine men to be blessed as a man of spiritual knowledge. Like most of the Native Americans my age I learned two worldviews, the philosophy and religion of the western man and the traditional metaphysical occult ways of the indigenous people. In the spring of my life I married in the Native Tradition to a nice Navajo Lady. We have been blessed with two children and one grandson. I now live in Albuquerque and am on the advisory committee of the International Indigenous Coalition, the board of directors of NIME, a delegate to Elders Council, and have served on the Board of Directors of the Confederation of Indigenous Elders and Priests of America as secretary. Additionally, I am also an active member of the Shamanic Lodge of New Mexico, and still return to Las Cruces four times a year to dance with the tribe at four major feasts. top FRECKSA MD PHD, EDE website Ede Frecska, M.D., Ph.D. is Chief of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Budapest, Hungary. He received his medical degree in 1977 from the Semmelweis University in Hungary. He has also earned qualifications as certified psychologist from the Department of Psychology at Lorand Eotvos University in Budapest. Dr. Frecska completed his residency training in Psychiatry both in Hungary (1986) and in the United States (1992). He is a qualified psychopharmacologist (1987) of international merit with 15 years of clinical and research experience in the United States (Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York; State University of New York at Stony Brook, University of Florida at Gainesville), where he reached the rank of Associate Professorship. Dr. Frecska published more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters as invited contributor in research on schizophrenia and affective illness. In his recent experimental work he is engaged in studies on psychedelic drugs and psychointegrative techniques. His theoretical work focuses on the topological geometrodynamics of consciousness, and on the neurobiological interface between cognitive neuroscience and quantum brain dynamics. He is particularly interested in the neurobiological mechanism of initiation ceremonies and healing rituals using ayahuasca preparation. top GABLE, ROBERTwebsite Robert S. Gable is Professor of Psychology (Emeritus) at the Claremont Graduate University in California. He received an EdD in counseling psychology from Harvard and a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Brandeis University. In 2007, he published a comprehensive review of the acute lethal toxicity and dependence potential of the ritual use of oral DMT. He organized an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme court in Gonzales vs O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal. Gable presently lives in Berkeley, California, where he pursues an interest in amateur audio and radio electronics. top GEIST, CYNTHIA Coming Soon... top GOLDSMITH, NEAL website Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist specializing in psychospiritual development and resistance to change. Seeing “neurosis” as the natural unfolding of human maturation, he views psychology as the science of personal emergence and spiritual maturity. With the exception of biologically-based diseases, such as schizophrenia, psychology is not about “mental illness” and so Dr. Goldsmith treats “neurosis” as spiritual immaturity, not pathology. In fact, he believes the “sick” label itself tightens and distorts, actually slowing healthy realignment. Dr. Goldsmith applies innovative techniques drawn from many schools of thought and traditional practices, such as Psychosynthesis, Imago Relationship Therapy, regressive psychotherapies, Rogerian client-centered counseling, yoga psychology, and other humanistic, transpersonal and eastern traditions. He facilitates deep life review, awakening to personal history, and life planning, with a special focus on existential and midlife crisis and with young adults suffering from lack of direction or substance abuse. Dr. Goldsmith is particularly helpful with couples – many feeling “in-love” again after years of vicious cycles. Dr. Goldsmith has a master’s degree in counseling from New York University and a Ph.D. in psychology from Claremont Graduate University, with an orientation toward “action science” in the tradition of Kurt Lewin. Dr. Goldsmith conducted his dissertation research, on the factors that facilitate or inhibit the successful utilization of mental health policy research, as a federally-funded doctoral research assistant at Princeton University. He was also deputy principal investigator of this four-year, nation-wide study of mental health policy research utilization. Author of dozens of popular and scholarly articles, Dr. Goldsmith is a frequent speaker on spiritual emergence, resistance to change, transpersonal psychology, drug policy reform and the post-modern future of society. He has worked to improve the innovation process and facilitate the management of change, for companies such as American Express, AT&T and Gartner top GREY, ALEX website Alex Grey was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 29, 1953 (Sagittarius), the middle child of a gentle middle-class couple. His father was a graphic designer and encouraged his son's drawing ability. Young Alex would collect insects and dead animals from the suburban neighborhood and bury them in the back yard. The themes of death and transcendence weave throughout his artworks, from the earliest drawings to later performances, paintings and sculpture. He went to the Columbus College of Art and Design for two years (1971-73), then dropped out and painted billboards in Ohio for a year (73-74). Grey then attended the Boston Museum School for one year, to study with the conceptual artist, Jay Jaroslav. At the Boston Museum School he met his wife, the artist, Allyson Rymland Grey. During this period he had a series of entheogenically induced mystical experiences that transformed his agnostic existentialism to a radical transcendentalism. The Grey couple would trip together on LSD. Alex then spent five years at Harvard Medical School working in the Anatomy department studying the body and preparing cadavers for dissection. He also worked at Harvard's department of Mind/Body Medicine with Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko conducting scientific experiments to investigate subtle healing energies. Alex's anatomical training prepared him for painting the Sacred Mirrors (explained below) and for doing medical illustration. When doctors saw his Sacred Mirrors, they asked him to do illustration work. Grey was an instructor in Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture for ten years at New York University, and now teaches courses in Visionary Art with Allyson at The Open Center in New York City, Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the California Institute of Integral Studies and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. In 1972 Grey began a series of art actions that bear resemblance to rites of passage, in that they present stages of a developing psyche. The approximately fifty performance rites, conducted over the last thirty years move through transformations from an egocentric to more sociocentric and increasingly worldcentric and theocentric identity. The most recent performance was WorldSpirit, a spoken word and musical collaboration with Kenji Williams which was released in 2004 as a DVD. top GREY, ALLYSON website In 1976 during an LSD trip with my husband, Alex, I experienced my body turning into infinite strands of light that were both a fountain and a drain. As I lay meditating next to Alex, I could see that he too had been revealed as a fountain and drain, individual and distinct but connected to my "energy unit". I realized that all beings and things were "blowing off" and "sucking in" pure energy in an infinite field of confluent effluences. The energy was love, the unifying force. This changed both of our artwork as we felt that we had witnessed to the most important thing: a revelation of the grid upon which the fabric of our material reality is draped. Sometime thereafter, I read a quote describing the Jewel Net of Indra. In the abode of Indra, the Hindu God of Space, there is a net that stretches infinitely in all directions. At every intersection of the net there is a jewel so highly polished and perfect that it reflects every other jewel in the net. This description related powerfully to the revelation that we had received while in our altered state. It has been my continuing intention to point to this experience in my artwork. Intending to create spiritual art, I feel naturally attracted to abstraction and to a written sacred language. Every known religion reveres its holy writing. Sacred writing of all faiths, however, come into conflict through human interpretation as the written word defines the differences of philosophy and traditions, when truely the basis of all religion is unity and infinite love. In 1975 I began writing automatically in an invented or transmitted language. I do not give meaning to the symbols in my art as it is meaning that separates experience from expression. The alphabet that I use points to the notion of a sacred language beyond meaning. Some of the works call to mind the experience of seeing an illuminated text in a foreign language and religion. In recent work, I combine the icons of perfection (the Jewel Net) with the secret language, and images of chaos. Chaos in my art is the entropy of the units of spectrally arranged squares using a system of "planned randomness", allowing every spectral unit to fall apart in a variety of ways -- squares falling off of a corner or the spectral unit exploding from the center, etc. The three elements used in my work, Chaos, Order and Secret Writing, are non-literal representations of the sacred. Born in 1952, I have been married to Alex Grey for 25 years. We met at the Boston Museum School where I received a Bachelors and a Masters Degree in Fine Arts. I've had one person shows at Stux Gallery and O.K. Harris Gallery in NYC, among others. Commissions of permanent public works include a 24 foot mural at the First Bank of Lowell, Massachusetts and my paintings have been collected by many corporations and individuals. I paint and collaborate with my very busy husband and adorable (and also very busy) actress daughter, Zena Lotus, in Brooklyn, New York.top GRIFFITHS, ROLAND website Roland R. Griffiths Ph.D., is Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His principal research focus in both clinical and preclinical laboratories has been on the behavioral and subjective effects of mood-altering drugs. His research has been largely supported by grants from the National Institute on Health and he is author of over 300 journal articles and book chapters. He has been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, and to numerous pharmaceutical companies in the development of new psychotropic drugs. He is also currently a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence for the World Health Organization. He has an interest in meditation and is Principal Investigator of the States of Consciousness Research Project at Johns Hopkins. That project is characterizing the ability of psilocybin to occasion mystical-type experiences having sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. A newly initiated study is also exploring whether psilocybin administration can have psychologically advantageous effects in cancer patients suffering from anxiety or depression secondary to their cancer diagnosis. top GROB MD, CHARLES website 01 website 02 Charles S. Grob, M.D. is Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine. He did his undergraduate work at Oberlin College and Columbia University, and obtained a B.S. from Columbia in 1975. He received his M.D. from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center in 1979. Prior to his appointment at UCLA, Grob held teaching and clinical positions at the University of California at Irvine, College of Medicine, and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics. He conducted the first U.S. government approved psychobiological research study of MDMA, and was the principal investigator of an international research project in the Brazilian Amazon studying the visionary plant brew, ayahuasca. He is currently conducting an approved research investigation on the safety and efficacy of psilocybin treatment in terminally ill patients with anxiety. He is the editor of Hallucinogens: A Reader, published by Tarcher/Putnam in 2002, and the co-editor (with Roger Walsh) of Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore The Continuing Impact Of Psychedelics, published by SUNY Press (State University of New York Press) in 2005, and he has published numerous articles on psychedelics in medical and psychiatric journals and collected volumes. He is a founding member of the Heffter Research Institute, which is devoted to fostering and funding research on psychedelics. top GROF MD, STANISLAV website Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist with over forty years experience of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness (induced by psychedelic substances and various non-drug techniques) and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology. .He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he also received his scientific training - an M.D. degree from the Charles University School of Medicine and a Ph.D. from the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Grof 's early research in the clinical uses of psychedelic substances was conducted at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, where he was Principal Investigator of a program systematically exploring the heuristic and therapeutic potential of LSD and other psychedelic substances. In 1967, he was invited as Clinical and Research Fellow to the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. After completion of this two-year fellowship, he stayed in the US and continued his research as Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Henry Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he lived until 1987 as Scholar-in-Residence writing, giving seminars, lecturing and developing Holotropic Breathwork with his wife Christina Grof. He also served onthe Board of Trustees of the Esalen Institute. He is the founder of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA) and its past and current president. In this role, he has organized large international conferences in the United States, the former Czechoslovakia, India, Australia, and Brazil. At present, he lives in Mill Valley, California, conducting training seminars for professionals in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology and writing books. He is also Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco and at the Pacifica Graduate School in Santa Barbara and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. In 1993, he received an Honorary Award from the Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) for major contributions to and development of the field of transpersonal psychology given at the occasion of the 25th Anniversary Convocation held at Asilomar, California. top HANCOCK, GRAHAM website GRAHAM HANCOCK is the author of the major international bestsellers The Sign and The Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods and Heaven's Mirror. His books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into 27 languages. His public lectures and TV appearances, including the threehour series Quest For The Lost Civilization, have put his ideas before audiences of tens of millions. He has become recognized as an unconventional thinker who raises legitimate questions about humanity's history and prehistory and offers an increasingly popular challenge to the entrenched views of orthodox scholars. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Hancock's early years were spent in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. Later he went to school and university in the northern English city of Durham and graduated from Durham University in 1973 with First Class Honours in Sociology. He went on to pursue a career in quality journalism, writing for many of Britain's leading newspapers including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was co-editor of New Internationalist magazine from 1976-1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981-1983. In the early 1980's Hancock's writing began to move consistently in the direction of books. His first book (Journey Through Pakistan, with photographers Mohamed Amin and Duncan Willetts) was published in 1981. It was followed by Under Ethiopian Skies (1983), Ethiopia: The Challenge of Hunger (1984), and AIDS: The Deadly Epidemic (1986). In 1987 Hancock began work on his widely-acclaimed critique of foreign aid, Lords of Poverty, which was published in 1989. African Ark (with photographers Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith) was published in 1990. Hancock's breakthrough to bestseller status came in 1992 with the publication of The Sign and The Seal, his epic investigation into the mystique and whereabouts today of the lost Ark of the Covenant. 'Hancock has invented a new genre,' commented The Guardian, 'an intellectual whodunit by a do-it-yourself sleuth.' Fingerprints of the Gods, published in 1995 confirmed Hancock's growing reputation. Described as 'one of the intellectual landmarks of the decade' by the Literary Review, this book has now sold more than three million copies and continues to be in demand all around the world. Subsequent works such as Keeper Of Genesis (The Message of the Sphinx in the US) with co-author Robert Bauval, and Heaven's Mirror, with photographer Santha Faiia, have also been Number 1 bestsellers, the latter accompanied by Hancock's three-part television series Quest For the Lost Civilization. Most recently, in 2002 Hancock published Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age to great critical acclaim, and hosted the accompanying major TV series. This was the culmination of years of research and on-hand dives at ancient underwater ruins. Arguing that many of the clues to the origin of civilization lay underwater, on coastal regions once above water but flooded at the end of the last Ice age, Underworld offered tangible archaeological evidence that myths and legends of ancient floods were not to be dismissed out of hand. Graham's next venture Talisman - The Sacred Cities and The Secret Faith, co-authored by Robert Bauval, is to be released in May 2004. This work, a decade in preparation, returns to the themes last dealt with in Keeper Of Genesis, seeking further evidence for the continuation of a secret astronomical cult into modern times. It is a roller-coaster intellectual journey through the back streets and rat runs of history to uncover the traces in architecture and monuments of a secret religion that has shaped the world. top HARRISON PHD, KATHLEEN Kathleen (Kat) Harrison is an ethnobotanist, artist, and photographer who researches the relationship between plants and people, with a particular focus on art, myth, ritual, and spirituality. Harrison teaches at the California School of Herbal Studies, Sonoma State University, University of Minnesota (Hawaii fieldcourse), and at various symposia. She has done fieldwork in Latin America for 30 years, and is the director of Botanical Dimensions, a nonprofit foundation devoted to preserving medicinal and shamanic plant knowledge from the Amazonian rainforest and tropics around the world. Harrison co-founded the organization in 1985 with former husband Terence McKenna. In her work with Botanical Dimensions, she has done fieldwork and supported indigenous projects in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Costa Rica. She continues to document the many faces of ethnobotany with photographs, which she combines with stories in her slide presentations. Kat is a widely-published illustrator, and enjoys teaching people how to see and draw the plant world. She is based in Northern California, where she is active in local watershed restoration. She reports that she is lucky to be the mother of two wonderful grown children, who make her life even richer. top KENT, JAMES website James Kent is the former publisher of Trip Magazine (tripzine.com) and current editor of DoseNation (dosenation.com). Sample chapters from his forthcoming book, Psychedelic Information Theory, can be found at tripzine.com/pit. top LABATE, BIA website Beatriz Caiuby Labate or Bia Labate was born in São Paulo in 1971. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Social Science from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 1996. In 2000, she obtained a master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the same university, receiving the Prize for Best Master’s Thesis from the National Association for Graduate Studies in Social Science (ANPOCS). Her doctoral research in Social Anthropology at UNICAMP focuses on the internationalization of Peruvian ayahuasca 'vegetalismo.' She is co-editor of the books O Uso Ritual da Ayahuasca (The Ritual Use of Ayahuasca, Mercado de Letras 2002) and O Uso Ritual das Plantas de Poder (The Ritual Use of "Power Plants", Mercado de Letras, 2005), Drogas e Cultura: Novas Perspectivas (Drugs and Culture: New Perspectives, EDUFBA, in press) and co-organizer of a special edition of the Journal Fieldwork in Religion named Brazilian Ayahuasca Religions; author of the book A Reinvenção do Uso da Ayahuasca nos Centros Urbanos (The Reinvention of the use of Ayahuasca in Urban Centers, Mercado de Letras, 2004) and co-author of the book Religiões Ayahuasqueiras: um Balanço Bibliográfico (Brazilian Ayahuasca Religions: a bibliographical exploration, Mercado de Letras, 2008). She is a researcher with the Nucleus for Interdisciplinary Studies of Psychoactives (NEIP, www.neip.info) and the editor of its site. In February 2005 she founded Alto das Estrelas, a private institute located in Pedra Branca (http://alto-das-estrelas.blogspot.com), Caldas (Minas Gerais state), which promotes anthropological research, scholarly exchange, lectures, congresses and other events, in addition to researching the cultivation and preparation of vegetal species. The institute is opposed to prohibitionist drug policies. On special occasions, Alto das Estrelas organizes sessions among various groups, which utilize sacred plants, conducted by experienced leaders, seeking to stimulate dialogue between science and spirituality. top LEEMAN, LARRY Coming Soon... top LORENZ, MATHIAS Coming Soon... top MCKENNA PHD, DENNIS website For the last twenty-five years, Dennis McKenna has pursued the interdisciplinary study of ethnopharmacology and plant hallucinogens. He is co-author, with his brother Terence, of The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching (Seabury Press, 1975; Citadel Press, 1991), a philosophical and metaphysical exploration of the ontological implications of psychedelic drugs which resulted from the two brothers' early investigations of Amazonian hallucinogens in 1971. He received his doctorate in 1984 from the University of British Columbia. His doctoral research focused on ethnopharmacological investigations of the botany, chemistry, and pharmacology of ayahuasca and oo-koohe, two orally-active tryptamine-based hallucinogens used by indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. Following the completion of his doctorate, Dr. McKenna received post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health, and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine. In 1990, he joined Shaman Pharmaceuticals as Director of Ethnopharmacology. He relocated to Minnesota in 1993 to join the Aveda Corporation, a manufacturer of natural cosmetic products, as Senior Research Pharmacognosist. After working for several years as an independent scientific consultant in the natural products industry, he joined the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota in 2001 as a Senior Lecturer and Research Associate. In 2007, Dr. McKenna accepted a position as Senior Research Scientist in the Natural Health Products Research Group at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Burnaby, B.C. Dr. Mckenna serves on the Advisory Board of the American Botanical Council, and on the Editorial Board of Phytomedicine, International Journal of Phytotherapy and Phytopharmacology. He is a co-author and editor with two colleagues of Botanical Medicines: the Desk Reference for Major Herbal Supplements (Haworth Herbal Press, 2002). He is a founding board member and Vice-President of the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit scientific organization dedicated to the investigation of therapeutic applications for psychedelic plants and compounds. He was a primary organizer and key scientific collaborator for the Hoasca Project, an international biomedical study of Hoasca; a psychoactive drink used in ritual contexts by indigenous peoples and syncretic religious groups in Brasil. He has conducted extensive ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brasilian Amazon. He has served as invited speaker at numerous scientific congresses, seminars, and symposia. Dr. McKenna is author or co-author of over 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, European Journal of Pharmacology, Brain Research, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Neurochemistry, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Economic Botany, and elsewhere. top METZNER PHD, RALPH website Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. has a B.A. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Harvard University. He worked with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) on the Harvard University Psilocybin Projects. He co-wrote The Psychedelic Experience, and was editor of The Psychedelic Review. He taught at the California Institute of Asian (later Integral) Studies, for over 30 years, and was also Academic Dean for ten years; he is now Professor Emeritus. His books include The Well of Remembrance; The Unfolding Self; and Green Psychology. Ralph is also the editor of two collections on the science and the phenomenology of shamanic entheogens: Sacred Mushroom of Visions - Teonanácatl and Sacred Vine of Spirits – Ayahuasca. He is founder and president of the Green Earth Foundation, an educational organization dedicated to “harmonizing humanity with Earth and with Spirit”. He has developed a training program in Alchemical Divination practices – methods for tuning in to inner sources of knowledge and healing. top MEULI MD, CHRISTIAN Christian Meuli, M.D. was born and raised in New Mexico. He received a B.A. in History of Religions from Pomona College and an M.D. from the University of New Mexico. He is Board Certified in Family Medicine. He has experimented with permaculture principles in the mountains east of Albuquerque for three decades. He has published articles on pattern literacy, windbreak design, rainwater collection, and integrated design systems. Christian had several out of body experiences as a child, which led him to an intense study of religion. Dissatisfaction with traditional religions led him to experiment extensively with LSD. In the early 1990’s he participated in all phases of Dr. Strassman’s DMT and psilocybin experiments. His mystical encounters during these experiments confirmed that indeed there is a God, leading him to the Light and Sound Teachings of the MasterPath. He is grateful for the mystical experiences catalyzed by DMT and believes that appropriately screened spiritual seekers should have the opportunity to experience the realms of The Spirit Molecule, DMT. top NEWBERG, ANDREW website Andrew Newberg, MD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Religious Studies. Upon graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1993, Dr. Newberg trained in Internal Medicine at the Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia serving as Chief Resident in his final year and subsequently completed a Fellowship in Nuclear Medicine in the Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, at the University of Pennsylvania. He is Board-certified in Internal Medicine, Nuclear Medicine, and Nuclear Cardiology. In collaboration with the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, Dr. Newberg has actively pursued neuroimaging research projects, including the study of aging and dementia, epilepsy, and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. Additionally, he has researched the neurophysiological correlates of acupuncture, meditation, and other types of complementary therapies. Moving beyond the study of specific disorders, Dr. Newberg’s research now largely focuses on how brain function is associated with various mental states, in particular, the relationship between brain function and mystical or religious experiences. The results and implications of this research are delineated in Dr. Newberg’s best selling book Why God Wont Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief (Ballantine/Random House). He is co-author, along with Eugene G. d’Aquili, MD, of the book The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience (Fortress Press), which one the award for Outstanding Books in Theology and the Natural Sciences for 1999 for sponsored by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Dr. Newberg has presented his research at national and international scientific and religious meetings; his numerous published articles and chapters cover the topics of brain function, brain imaging, and the study of religious and mystical experiences. In addition to the extensive press he has received, he has appeared on ABCs World News Tonight. Education is a vital component of Dr. Newberg’s career. In addition to training medical students, internal medicine residents, radiology residents, and nuclear medicine fellows, Dr. Newberg has participated in education and curriculum committees at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Graduate Hospital. He currently teaches two undergraduate courses at the University of Pennsylvania entitled: Science and the Sacred: Neurotheology, in the Department of Religious Studies; and Imaging the Human Mind, in the Biological Basis of Behavior program. top NICHOLS PHD, DAVID website Dr. David E. Nichols received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1969 from the University of Cincinnati, and the Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry in 1973 from University of Iowa. In 1974, after postdoctoral training in Pharmacology at Iowa with J.P. Long, he joined the faculty in Medicinal Chemistry at Purdue University. He became Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology in 1984. Dr. Nichols has been an ad hoc member of numerous NIH, NIMH and NIDA vadvisory groups, and is currently serving on the NIMH Neuropharmacology and Neurochemistry Study Section. He has written more than 140 full-length papers, and has had a distinguished record of NIMH and NIDA extramural funding for his work on centrally-active drugs. He is a Fellow in the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Dr. Nichols' training encompasses both synthetic medicinal chemistry and pharmacology, and he has been actively involved in drug design for nearly twenty-five years. In addition to directing a medicinal chemistry group totaling eight people, he holds a joint appointment in Purdue's Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and directs a small pharmacology group with expertise in behavioral pharmacology, radioligand binding, and in vivo microdialysis assays. Dr. Nichols focuses on centrally-active drugs, including dopamine and serotonin agonists, as well as monoamine uptake inhibitors and releasing agents. He has successfully designed and used rigid monoamine analogs to define active conformations of neurotransmitter molecules. Many molecules designed in his laboratory may now find utility as probes of the functional topography of monoamine G protein-coupled receptors; as a result, these molecules are generating excitement as potential therapeutic agents for Parkinson's disease and certain dementias. Other research directions in Dr. Nichols' lab have given rise to promising lead compounds in other neurotransmitter systems. In the area of dopamine research, Dr. Nichols was the first (in 1976) to identify correctly the dopaminergic pharmacophore of the ergolines. This idea became a backbone for work resulting in a 1982 receptor model that provided the foundation for the design and synthesis of dihydrexidine, the first high affinity bioavailable full dopamine DI agonist. Dihydrexidine is now entering clinical trials for Parkinson's disease. Discoveries of additional molecules with selective affinity for other dopamine receptor subtypes have followed, including a recent breakthrough--a novel class of dopamine DI-selective full- efficacy agonists. top PENDELL, DALE website Dale Pendell is a poet, software engineer, and longtime student of ethnobotany. His poetry has appeared in many journals, and he was the founding editor of KUKSU: Journal of Backcountry Writing. He has led workshops on ethnobotany and ethnopoetics for the Naropa Institute and the Botanical Preservation Corps, and has presented at the Mind States conference. He is perhaps best known for his books of epic entheogenic poetry. top PINCHBECK, DANIEL website Daniel Pinchbeck has written features for The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Wired, Harper's Bazaar, The Village Voice, Salon, and many other publications. He is one of the founders of Open City, an art and literary journal, and an independent book publisher. He was a 1999 - 2000 Fellow of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. He has also been a columnist for The Art Newspaper of London, and an editor at Connoisseur Magazine. Born in 1966, he grew up in New York City, where his father, Peter Pinchbeck, was an abstract painter. His mother, Joyce Johnson, was part of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. She is the author of several books, including Minor Characters, a memoir. He went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, then worked as a magazine editor and journalist, In the late 1990s, after years of working in the media, Pinchbeck fell into the classic existential or spiritual crisis. Life seemed to have no point or transcendent meaning. He began to feel as if he was already dead, a ghost walking around the streets of Manhattan. At some point he recalled his fascination with psychedelic mushrooms and LSD in college. He experimented again, and his experiences inspired him to travel to Nepal and India, where he visited Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and the sacred Hindu festival Kumbh Mehla. Back in New York, he began to study shamanism and the magical plants used in rituals. On assignment, he went to Gabon, in West Africa, and took iboga, a long-lasting psychedelic rootbark, in an initiation ceremony. He visited a shaman in Oaxaca, the son of the famous shamaness Maria Sabina. He attended a conference on "Visionary Entheobotany" in Palenque, Mexico and visited Burning Man. He went down to the Ecuadorean Amazon to visit the Secoya tribe and take ayahuasca, a visionary medicine. Breaking Open the Head describes his own process of discovery, and a profound paradigm shift. He admits to still being surprised - even extremely astonished - at what he has found. Through direct experience, Pinchbeck learned that shamanism was a real phenomenon, that direct access to the spiritual world is available to anybody who is willing to explore for themselves and escape the prevailing orthodoxies, the "irrational rationality" of the current system. He supports the perspective of Christ in the Gnostic "Gospel of Thomas," who said: "Open the door for yourself, so you will know what is." top PRESTI, DAVID website David E. Presti is a neuroscientist and clinical psychologist who has taught in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California in Berkeley for 17 years. For many years he also worked in the treatment of addiction and of post-traumatic-stress disorder at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, where he treated thousands of individuals for these conditions. His areas of expertise include the chemistry of the human nervous system and the effects of drugs on the brain and the mind. He has doctorates in molecular biology and biophysics from the California Institute of Technology and in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. He teaches large undergraduate courses at UC Berkeley on the subjects of "Brain, Mind, and Behavior", "Drugs and the Brain", and "Molecular Neurobiology and Neurochemistry,” as well as small seminar classes on “Music and the Mind” (for freshmen) and “From Synaptic Pharmacology to Consciousness” (for molecular-biology and neuroscience graduate students). For the past several years, he has taught neuroscience to a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks in India who have been studying science. His primary research interest is the relation between mental experience and brain physiology, the so-called mind-body problem. top RIBA PHD, JORDI website Jordi Riba was born in 1968 in Barcelona. He obtained a degree in Pharmacy in 1993 and received his PhD in Pharmacology in 2003, at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with a thesis on the human pharmacology of ayahuasca. He is currently Associate Researcher at the Drug Research Center of the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, where he has conducted a series of clinical studies involving the administration of ayahuasca to experienced psychedelic/entheogen users. These studies have assessed the phamacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of ayahuasca, including alkaloid disposition, and electroencephalography and neuroimaging measures of acute ayahuasca effects.The results of these studies have been published in various scientific journals. top RODRIGUEZ PHD, MARKO A. website Marko Rodriguez has been interested in psychoactives and their effects on the human mind since before he can remember. This fascination led him to study cognitive science at the University of California at San Diego. While in San Diego, Marko came to realize that much could be understood about artificial intelligence through the study of hallucinogenic psychoactives such as N,N-dimethyltryptamine. Marko completed his doctoral work at the University of California at Santa Cruz studying computer science with special interests in neural-based computing. His current research focuses on the analysis of in vitro natural neural networks at the Center for Non-Liner Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. As a side project, Marko collaborates with Dr. Rick Strassman on quantifying the subjective experiences of inebriated human subjects. top ROGAN, JOE top Coming soon... RUSHKOFF, DOUGLAS website Douglas Rushkoff is the author of ten books on culture, media, technology, and values. He was the first to link psychedelics culture to software development, in his book Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace. His other books include Media Virus, Coercion, Playing the Future, and Get Back in the Box, as well as several novels and graphic novels. He teaches media studies at New York University. top SCHREI, BOB Coming Soon... top SHANON PHD, BENNY Benny Shanon. Professor of cognitive psychology and ex-chairman of the Department of Psychology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). After studying philosophy and linguistics in Israel, he completed his doctorate in experimental psychology at Stanford University in 1974. His areas of research include cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, the semantics and pragmatics of natural language and the philosophy of psychology. Nowadays, his work concerns primarily the phenomenology of human consciousness, dealing with both ordinary and non-ordinary states of mind. In particular, he has been investigating the special state of mind induced by psychoactive brew ayahuasca, conducting the most comprehensive investigation of its effects from a cognitive psychological perspective. This research is based both on extensive firsthand experiences with ayahuasca and on the interviewing of a large number of individuals from different locales and socio-cultural contexts. Monographs he has published are "The Representational and the Presentational" (Prentice Hall, 1993), a critique of the representational-computational paradigm in contemporary cognitive science, and "The Antipodes of the Mind" (Oxford University Press, 2002), which summarizes his work with ayahuasca. The latter received the Polonsky prize for originality and creativity in 2006. Currently, he is working on book devoted to a new psychological theory of human consciousness. top SMITH PHD, HUSTON website Huston Smith is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Syracuse University. For fifteen years he was Professor of Philosophy at M.I.T. and for a decade before that he taught at Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently he has served as Visiting Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Holder of twelve honorary degrees, Smith’s fourteen books include The World’s Religions which has sold over 2 ½ million copies, and Why Religion Matters which won the Wilbur Award for the best book on religion published in 2001. In 1996 Bill Moyers devoted a 5-part PBS Special, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith, to his life and work. His film documentaries on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won International. awards, and The Journal of Ethnomusicology lauded his discovery of Tibetan multiphonic chanting* as “an important landmark in the study of music." top SPIROS, ANTONOPOULOS website Spiros Antonopoulos studies yoga in New York City with Eddie Stern at Ashtanga Yoga New York & Sri Ganesha Temple, where he is founding Chai Walla at the Sri Ganesha Tea & Book Stall, Editor-in- Chief at Souljerky.com, and Creative Director at Souljerky LLC, a yoga media and lifestyle company.top STANDISH ND PD, LEANNA website Dr. Standish was formerly the director of the Bastyr University Research Institute from 1987-2001, and AIDS Research Center Principal Investigator from 1994 to present. She is a licensed naturopathic physician with a 25-year career as a research scientist in experimental neuroscience, with numerous publications to her credit. Her clinical practice specializes in cancer, AIDS, hepatitis C and neurological diseases. Trained at the Downstate Medical Center in New York and the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Standish received her doctoral degree in 1978. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychopharmacology at the Yerkes Primate Center Research Center at Emory University in 1979-1980. Prior to her work in natural medicine research and naturopathic medical practice, she served for two years as visiting scientist and senior fellow at the University of Washington's Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Dr. Standish also directs the Breast Cancer Research Program at Bastyr University, was appointed as a member of the advisory council for NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine 1999-2001, and serves on the NCI Cancer Advisory Panel for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In addition to her work in AIDS, cancer and hepatitis C, Dr. Standish is also studying neural energy transfer between human brains using EEG and fMRI technology. She teaches a course within the spirituality, health and medicine program that focuses on scientific evidence from physicians and biology that addresses some of the propositions emerging out of modern spiritual disciples. top STONE, ANDREW website Andrew Stone has been actively researching mystical states and consciousness for over 37 years. He is founder and chief computer scientist at Stone Design, a software firm that develops innovative software such as Videator that can emulate and stimulate altered states of consciousness. top STRASSMAN, RICK website Dr. Strassman took his internship and general psychiatry residency at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento, and received the Sandoz Award for outstanding graduating resident in 1981. At UNM, Dr. Strassman performed clinical research investigating the function of the pineal hormone melatonin in which his research group documented the first known role of melatonin in humans. He also began the first new US government approved and funded clinical research with psychedelic drugs in over twenty years. Before leaving the University in 1995, he attained the rank of tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and received the UNM General Clinical Research Center's Research Scientist Award. top WEISZ PHD, ROBERT website Robert Weisz is a psychologist, consultant, educator, and life coach in private practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Born in Lima, Peru, in 1944. Parents were German refugees who fled the Holocaust. Lived in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile before immigrating to the USA in 1957 at the age of thirteen. After graduating from high school, attended the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology for three years before graduating in psychology and philosophy at the University of South Dakota. Earned MA in psychology, Ph.D. in clinical/community psychology from the University of Wyoming. During graduate school years, conducted research and authored a number of articles in scientific journals in the field of sleep and dreams. After graduate work at the University of Wyoming, completed a 1-year clinical internship in Wichita, Kansas, then served with the US Army Medical Service Corps. Licensed as a psychologist in 1972. Managed comprehensive community mental health center in Gillette, Wyo. from 1972 to 1979. Authored two chapters in books about mental health in boom towns. Moved to New Mexico in 1979, took a year’s sabbatical, began private practice and a 26-year involvement in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy as a trainer and practitioner. Co-founder of the Milton Erickson Institute of Clinical Hypnosis and Behavioral Sciences of New Mexico. Interest in the healing potential of altered states of consciousness led to 22 years of healing work and study with South American shamans and healers in Peru, Ecuador, the USA, and Brazil. Co-author with Deuter (1991) of tape series of eight hypnotherapeutic healing journeys. Deeply interested in the spiritual/philosophical path of Nonduality. Favorite activities include hiking, kayaking, snowshoeing, SCUBA, poetry, photography, and the investigation of consciousness. In private practice since 1980, now in Santa Fe, feel very fortunate to be engaged in work which I love and which brings me into deep, authentic connection with my clients. In process of becoming an expert practitioner and trainer in Brainspotting, a new treatment modality for conditions arising from trauma. Currently living near Glorieta, New Mexico, about 25 miles Northeast of Santa Fe, with partner Diane Haug three dogs, and many tree friends in a country home on ten acres of beautiful mountain land. top WOJTOWICZ MD, SLAWEK website Slawek Wojtowicz, MD: a well-known science – fiction artist, with many book covers, illustrations, posters, and CD covers to his credit and a medical oncologist developing new cancer drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. Slawek is an author of “Daydreaming, the art of Slawek Wojtowicz”, and “Inner paths to outer space” (in collaboration with Rick Strassman, Ede Frecska and Luis Eduardo Luna). The latter book investigates encounters with Alien beings described by subjects using psychedelics and other spiritual technologies (such as hypnosis, rebirthing and meditation). Authors explain how these encounters are possible in the light of a new quantum brain theory and attempt to put these experiences in a broader spiritual perspective. His work with suffering and dying cancer patients and personal spiritual experiences put him on a path to exploration of Christian Gnostic, Buddhist and other spiritual traditions. He is sharing with others his insights into original teachings of Jesus and the nature of God and reality. top WRIGHT,DON website Born September 20, 1939. Formal education includes an M.A. in Mental Health Counseling, University of New Mexico, May 1988 & B.A. Psychology & Theology, Boston College, May 1980. He took an apprenticeship in 1980 reproducing psycho-acoustical Peruvian whistling vessels in Cundiyo, New Mexico. Professionally, from 1986-1994 he was a Clinical Associate, Milton Erickson Institute of New Mexico, specializing in PTSD & anxiety disorders. Don enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1956, was commissioned a U.S. Army Engineer Officer in 1965 and retired from Corps of Engineers with a Bronze Star Award in 1977. Military service performed in Germany, France, Thailand, Vietnam (Combat Platoon Leader), and the United States. He produces Peruvian Whistling Vessels, studies spiritual and esoteric aspects of consciousness, and practices Aikido. top