On October 13, 2023, a team of researchers created the most extensive atlas of the human brain thus far, revealing more than 3,000 cell types, including many new to the scientific world. In the atlas, we can observe snapshots of the most complex organ known to man, the brain.
But what does this atlas mean to psychedelic research?
The heartbreaking news of Dr.Roland Griffiths’s passing was given to the world yesterday, October 17th. Griffiths was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic colon cancer at 76.
Despite his diagnosis to be terminal, he remained optimistic about existence. In an interview with the New York Times, he reminded us that we all are mortal quoting. “We all know that we’re terminal.”
Dr.Griffiths was an illustrious psychopharmacology professor at Johns Hopkins and spent decades studying the mechanism of mood-altering drugs. During his research, he published over 400 scientific papers on opiates and cocaine, sedatives and alcohol, and nicotine and caffeine.
Remembering Roland Griffiths Read More »
Biotechnology has been a recurrent theme in the research of psychedelics. However, we don’t hear much about its importance. To find out the impacts of Biotechnology not only in psychedelics but in the world, we spoke or Arthur Dempsey (chavin_herbalists), covering themes such as propagation of species, genetic banks of species, improvement of genetics, how he became the first seed producer of Argyreia in Brazil, the creation of his Rare plant and Trichocereus Seed Bank, how can we save the Amazon Rainforest and ancient teachings by the Brazilian indigenous communities.
A Biotecnologia tem sido um tema recorrente na pesquisa dos psicodélicos. No entanto, não ouvimos muito sobre a sua importância. Para descobrir os impactos da Biotecnologia não apenas nos psicodélicos, mas no mundo, conversamos com Arthur Dempsey (chavin_herbalists), abordando temas como a propagação de espécies, bancos genéticos de espécies, melhoria genética, como ele se tornou o primeiro produtor de sementes de Argyreia no Brasil, a criação do seu Banco de Sementes de Plantas Raras e Trichocereus, como podemos salvar a Floresta Amazônica e os ensinamentos ancestrais das comunidades indígenas brasileiras.
Importance of Biotechnology in psychedelics with Huan Shuma Read More »
In this interview, we speak to the iconic Donna Torres. Donna is the artist responsible for the illustrations of Shulgin’s latest book The Nature of Drugs, Dennis Mckenna’s Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs, and Jonathan Ott’s The Age of Entheogens & The Angel’s Dictionary, and Pharmacophilia or the Natural Paradises.
We spoke about her experience as an artist, meeting the Shulgins and Jonathan Ott, how we can benefit from psychedelics, and tips for people who wish to start their psychedelic illustration careers.
Psychedelic Illustrations with Donna Torres Read More »
Have you ever wondered how music influences our mood and our brain? Who invented music? Would modulating our perception of sound change the way we hear our favorite musicians? And most importantly, how can someone change their perception of sound?
Millions of people listen to music daily, utilizing terminology from the classical media, we are in a “music epidemic”. Despite not being fairly noticed, music does modulate our feelings and has an impact on our neural networks, reasoning why you will listen to sad songs when you are feeling melancholic, and happy songs when you are in a state of bliss. All those feelings are caused by a change in our brain chemistry.
Now let us hypothesize that one would be able to change how we perceive sound, would that change how we feel about a certain song? Absolutely! Raising the question how would someone do that? To answer that, we dive into Alexander Shulgin’s magnum opus TiHKAL, to a compound under the name DiPT, a compound known for its auditory hallucinations and distortion of sound.
DiPT, the symphonia of emotion Read More »
This harm-reduction series will be sharing tips on how to have safe trips. Covering subjects such as psychedelic therapy, and psychedelic retreats, the importance of testing your compounds, set and setting, and the importance of having a plan and using a trip sitter.
In this chapter, we will be focusing on the importance of testing your substances and when to use each reagent, what is set and setting and their importance, the importance of tripsitters (buddy-system), and how to create a safety plan when using psychedelics.
Harm reduction 101: The harm reduction guide Read More »
This harm-reduction series will be sharing tips on how to have safe trips. Covering subjects such as psychedelic therapy, and psychedelic retreats, the importance of testing your compounds, set and setting, and the importance of having a plan and using a trip sitter.
In this chapter, we will be covering the misconception of psychedelics alone being able to heal mental illnesses, and the processes behind psychedelic therapy, including what is integration, types of integration, and how to be safe in international retreats.
Harm reduction 101: Psychedelic therapy and psychedelic retreats Read More »
From Daquince’s use of opium to the modern era, many stories of opioid users have been lost. For that reason, we cover the stories of two opioid- users Benzzzy and Calvin, from what led them to their addiction, their difficulties during this period, their advice for people who might be going through addiction, and their current status.
In addition, we discuss the pharmacology student Anthony Furrule (@science_and_anonymous) about opioid prescription, opioid alternatives, the use of Ibogaine or its analogs for the treatment of addiction, and Narcan-resistant Fentanyl.
Stories of a modern opioid eater Read More »
Aspirin, Digoxin, and Morphine aren’t the first thing that comes to our minds once we hear the word Plant Medicine. Regardless of their seemingly distant origin, all those compounds once had a plant origin. To this, we name ethnopharmacology. Using the word of Juerg Gertsch: “Ethnopharmacology tries to understand the pharmacological basis of culturally important plants.”
Today, ethnopharmacology has an equally important role, as we are using plants that have been used for centuries by natives. Plants such as Peyote, Ayahuasca, Iboga, Kava Kava, and Psilocybe aid us with the current mental illness epidemic. Thus, Indigenous communities are once again furnishing us and aiding us with their ancient knowledge, this being said it would only be unfair not to feature such communities in Psychedelic and Ethnobotanical conferences, giving them their due credit, and teaching us about how much these plants mean to their culture, and most importantly how we should respect and protect indigenous rights.
Origins of Ethnopharmacology Read More »
The new internet-breaking tryptamine Psilomethoxin has generated various discussions on threads. Following breadcrumbs left by Alexander Shulgin, the owners of the Psilomethoxin church claimed to have successfully made the compound and report several experiences using it.
However, the discussion continues, from being a 4-hydroxylated orally active form of 5-MeO-DMT to a potential neurotoxin for its similarities to 4,5-dihydroxytryptamine it’s yet incognito whether the compound could have any neurotoxicity.
The new religion of Psilomethoxin Read More »
