This is one of the most fun and wide-ranging conversations I’ve had on Furthure in a while — and one of the weirder ones. Dr. David Luke, author of Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience, investigates everything from how psychedelics may increase the odds of ESP-like experiences and paranormal beliefs to how people cope with existential distress after challenging psychedelic experiences. He has also been his own “guinea pig” for science, let’s just say, and isn’t afraid to tell us the tale.

Even though studying the ESP phenomenon with psychedelics might seem a bit out there — maybe unicorn-dimension-level weird — there’s no denying that there are strong roots in the history of the field for studying this, with everyone from serious scientists in the 1950s to indigenous traditions entwined with it.

We also get into the Challenging Experiences Project, which studies what can go wrong after psychedelic use. I loved this part of the conversation — we get into the nuances of how little is really known about what can go wrong after challenging psychedelic experiences. A little hint: it’s a lot more diverse than just psychosis or even run-of-the-mill depression. Understanding what can go wrong with psychedelics, and what people can do to help themselves afterward, is essential to the future of psychedelics integrating well (whatever that means) into society.

I would also consider this a companion episode to Dr. Willoughby Britton’s episode on meditation-related side effects. If you enjoy this, be sure to check that out as well.

Dan Grossman takes us on a tour of a very uncharted—but important—aspect of psychedelics’ effects: somatic experiences. We discuss the role that weird and wacky, “energy-like” experiences might play in the effects of psychedelics, and how, despite sounding a little out-there, these experiences are grounded in rich psychological and somatic traditions in both the East and West. If you’re wondering how The Body Keeps the Score might relate to psychedelics, this episode is for you.

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Ria Xi is taking running further than many people could even conceive of as possible. She is planning a 20,000-km (~12,427-mile) run from the edge of Russia to Portugal. She has already pushed running to its limits—setting the fastest known time on the Camino trail in Spain and becoming the first person to ultrarun the Sinai Trail in Egypt.

In our conversation, we talk about what she is running toward, what endurance really means, and the power of focusing on your “why.” We also get into the practicalities of ultrarunning and who might be ready to take the first steps toward training.

Still, this conversation is inspiring for more than just the athletes out there. Ria basically asks us to dream big, bolder, and to just go for things—and to remember, “It’s only delusional until it’s not.”

Stick around to the end of the episode for a little surprise goal I will be pursuing

Follow Ria's Journey here on instagram @whereisriax

Photo credit: Jack Lawes @jack.lawes

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Lastly, I’d like to do a little shout-out for the Patreon! If you like the Furthure project, check out the Furthure page

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How often do you feel amazed—or experience a sense of wonder? When was the last time you looked up at a tree, even in an ordinary park, and felt awe?

Sean Goldy, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Psychedelics and Consciousness Research, takes us on a tour through his work on awe. We discuss the role it plays in psychedelic experiences—but also move beyond psychedelics to explore something even more fundamental to being human, and far more easily accessible.

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Interested in the furthure book club? Join us for The Electric Acid Kool Aid Book will be meeting on November 23rd over Discord. Join us!

Lastly, I’d like to do a little shout-out for the Patreon! If you like the Furthure project, check out the Furthure page

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Psychedelics have long been a hot topic. But in the early days of psychedelics, back in the 1950s, even mainstream media outlets were enthusiastically covering research on a bizarre new drug that was active in minuscule doses.

On this episode of Furthure, Dr. Steve Siff, a journalism professor at Miami University and author of Acid Hype, discusses media coverage surrounding psychedelics. We talk about the rise and fall of the psychedelic hype and whether today’s media is bound to make similar mistakes to those of the 1960s. I think this conversation is especially relevant, as in some circles there's mounting backlash against the hype.

Also, I highly recommend checking out Steve’s book for more details on some of the media stories, which are just wild. The way people wrote about psychedelics in the 1950s is so campy and sensational that it’s a joy to read. Plus, there’s a lot in there about how psychosis and psychedelics were framed to the public in the ’50s that I haven’t heard discussed anywhere else.

This was a far-ranging conversation, and we bounced back and forth between eras a bit. Because of that, there are a few small corrections to make. The pilot with the mental health episode had actually used psilocybin-containing mushrooms recently. Also, to clarify, the Good Friday adverse effects we discussed didn’t involve anyone running out of the church naked, but it did involve Thorazine being administered. Some early LSD therapy manuals did recommend that therapist use psychedelics with their patients, and some did develop sexual relationships and were charged with SA.

✨If you’re enjoying these episodes, consider joining the Furthure Patreon. These episodes take a while to craft, and your support shows that you find this work valuable and interesting. ✨

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Relevant sources 👩‍🔬

Rick Doblin’s 1991 Critique of the Good Friday Experiment:

https://www.atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-23-91-01-001.pdf

Note: one person received Thorazine. This was not reported in Pahnke data.

Pilot with Psilocybin-Related Mental Health Episode: https://www.opb.org/article/2023/10/24/alaska-airlines-pilot-psychedelic-mushrooms-psilocybin/#:~:text=Joseph%20Emerson%20faces%2083%20charges,%2C%E2%80%9D%20according%20to%20the%20affidavit.

Experiential side of MDMA-therapy training:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hast.1602

Therapist using psychedelics with patients & SA:

Accessible link here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HPtFF-dM5efTooFTvfCA1tVNz8--juWd/view?usp=sharing

Coverstory : https://open.spotify.com/show/7dj2XnCMxGpK8W3tGWjiqw?si=323ff8c7a7a5455e

Psychedelic Syndrome:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/15563656908990915

Dr. Willoughby Britton tells her journey from a meditation evangelical to a meditation skeptic. She discusses how stumbling into cases of people getting worse from meditation catalyzed her research examining meditators in distress, and also led her to create the non-profit Cheetah House, which provides evidence-based support for meditators in distress. She talks about the Varieties of Contemplative Experience study, which crafted an extremely thorough catalogue of the kinds of negative effects people can have from meditation—ranging from altered self-experience to energy-like somatic experiences. Aside from research, we also discuss some more practical, action-based advice for both preventing meditation-related adverse effects and what is helpful (and not helpful) if you happen to be experiencing negative effects. We also get into the intersection between psychedelic-related adverse effects and meditation-related adverse effects, and how a lot of psychedelic enthusiasts end up on Cheetah House’s doorstep.

Participate in psychedelic or meditation-related research:

👉 https://www.meditationchallenges.org/

👉 https://www.psychedelicchallenges.org/

Lastly, I’d like to do a little shout-out for the Patreon! If you like the Furthure project, check out the Furthure page

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If you find these shows at all valuable, that’s a great way to show your support—at as little as $3.00 a month (aka less than most cups of coffee). These shows take effort to put out, and if you wanna keep ‘em coming, that’s a great way to make that possible.

Manoj Doss, PhD, has been known as a force of skepticism in psychedelic science and a critic of psychedelic neuroimaging. But he is also an expert on one often overlooked—but potentially very important—aspect of how psychedelics and other drugs impact people: how they affect memory. We also learn how Manoj became interested in memory research through a rollerblading mishap.

We talk about how psychedelics might increase our sense of familiarity, how this might play a role in people developing odd beliefs, but also how it could be part of their therapeutic mechanism. How might drugs create a sense of “downloads” from the universe, perhaps due to changes in memory processing? We also explore how other drugs impact various memory systems.

For example, we discuss a common non-psychedelic substance that can help you remember what you recently learned better—maybe you can guess what this mysterious drug is.

We also hear more about directions in psychedelic science that Manoj is more optimistic about.

Little announcement: Book Club

Furthure is starting an online book club! The book club will meet every other month over Zoom. I realized I was basically going through withdrawals from not having an English-language book club around me, haha.

We’ll meet at a time that works for both U.S. and European time zones. The first meeting will be on October 26th at 7:30 pm Central European Time / 1:30 pm Eastern / 10:30 am Pacific.

For the first book, we’re going to learn a little bit about Furthure’s namesake by reading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. This book tells the tale of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters running around the U.S. from coast to coast on a bus called Furthur—which has the same intentional misspelling as the Furthure podcast, minus the extra “e”! The book is a bit of a time capsule, but it also reminds us how different psychedelic culture is today compared to the late 1960s. One event in the book, the Acid Graduation, even took place on Halloween in the 1960s, making it a fitting choice for October.

Look for details on Furthure’s social media!

• Instagram: @furthure707
• X (Twitter): @Furthure707

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Lisa Gezon, an anthropologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, joins Furthure to share her experience investigating what many may consider an unlikely cultural group – a psychedelic integration group in America’s Deep South. We discuss how the religious landscape of the region intersects with the kinds of experiences people face during their journeys. Additionally, we explore how psychedelic research has influenced the way people make sense of their psychedelic experiences in the wild. Finally, we touch on some of the potential side effects of psychedelics – from adopting new belief systems to becoming a psychedelic evangelical.

Relevant Papers: https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/anoc.70010 https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/9/1/article-p8.xml

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