5 Questions for Historian of the Strange Robert Damon Schneck
Robert Damon Schneck is, in my view, today’s most literate and discriminating historian of Fortean phenomena.
Buddhism and the Psychedelic Society: An Interview with Terence McKenna
Allan Badiner conducted this following interview with Terence McKenna at Big Sur’s Esalen Institute in the Spring of 2001.
Ode to the Psychedelic Revolution: An Interview with Killing Joke’s Martin Glover
Working with Paul McCartney and Lee Scratch Perry has taught me that you are only creatively contained by your own perception of who you are. As an artist you can go anywhere you like…
Music Is Medicine: Ben Lee, Ayahuasca and the Gnostic Pop Movement
Gnostic-pop musician Ben Lee has found God–or maybe the Goddess–and to the consternation of many cultural guardians, he’s found her at the bottom of a cup of ayahuasca.
Feeling at Home on the Path: An Interview with Ethan Nichtern
As Buddhist practices and philosophy attract renewed interest in these quickening postmodern times, where’s the curious explorer of consciousness to start? Ethan Nichtern has written a guide that contextualizes ancient teachings while making them accessible to a contemporary audience.
Ex Machina: Are Homo Sapiens Failing the Turing Test? A Dialogue with Alex Garland
This dialogue with writer/director Alex Garland is meant for people who have already seen Ex Machina (plot spoilers abound). The conversation ranges from looking at the film as a Turing Test directed at the human species to a discussion of psychopathy, evolution, and the illusory nature of perception.
The Importance of Seed Diversity: An Interview with Sean Kaminsky
Many people decry GMO seeds and corporations’ patent games, but few realize the full importance of seed diversity. Sean Kaminsky has made a film about the importance of seeds.
Timothy Leary: Twentieth-Century Neuronaut
Leary was tanned to the point of sunburn and wore, as always, a thousand-watt smile and a pair of white, high-top tennis shoes. Between quick, nervous puffs on his Benson & Hedges, he discussed the new face of electronic stimulation and the novel as an archaic art form.
The Spirit of the Stratocaster: Talking Wolves and Ayahuasca with John Sheldon
After ayahuasca taught him to connect with divine energy, guitarist John Sheldon found a scintillating focus for his life’s work, writing songs that tell a new story about wolves in North America—and how we can save them from extinction.
Transcendence: R.U. Sirius and Jay Cornell Talk Singularity, Psychedelics and Technoculture
If you go deep enough into transhumanism, this jumbled rorschach of psychedelia, D.I.Y. culture, personal computers, Silicon Valley and A.I. actually starts to make sense.
