Nature Loves to Hide: An Interview with Paul S. McDonald

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Nature Loves to Hide: An Alternative History of Philosophy by Paul S. McDonald is neither a history of the occult in the western tradition nor a collection of enlightening quotations, yet it provides both. The biographies of worthies from Agrippa to Zosimos, based on recent scholarship, are among the best short introductions to each that I’ve read.
While it does not overtly make the argument, Nature Loves to Hide all but denies the New Age its claims to Hermetic heritage. While the use of astrology, kabbala, and the related arts by New Agers rehashes the old concepts, in the hands of most modern practitioners these fine arts have become folk craft, if you will.
The astrology that Christian monks used to ponder the wisdom of the Creator is not quite the same astrology used to find a soul mate or the best possible career. The Kybalion is not quite the Zohar. However the heterodox alternative stream of philosophy Prof. McDonald examines continues to evolve in unexpected places, especially in the works of avant garde writers and artists
New Age enthusiasts should not be frightened away by Prof. McDonald’s stance. For example, fans of The Secret Teachings of All Ages will find in Nature Loves to Hide an essential companion volume, providing new research and essential quotes from many of the same rogue scholars Manly P. Hall surveyed.
But there’s more. McDonald looks at the Arabian Hermetic tradition and brings us all the way up to Pesseo, who cast astrological charts for his fictional characters, and whose writing personas were virtual homunculi. Also Phillip K. Dick, a self described Orphic and hermetic receives illuminating attention. Professor McDonald adopts a neutral stance, he isn’t advocating the existence of a Perennial Philosophy, he’s documenting an alternative history of the concept of self.
In this interview for Reality Sandwich Prof. McDonald reflects on the differences between the concepts of daimons and.demons, including how and why demons replaced daimons in the popular imagination, the importance of Jung to historians of alchemy, prehistoric stone circles, Hegel as a Hermeticist, Stephanos of Alexandria, and much more. I highly recommend Nature Loves to Hide to anyone interested in alternative concepts of the self, which happen to have inspired a great deal of western culture.
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Professor McDonald
Ronnie Pontiac: You’ve written important books such as Descartes and Husserl, the History of the Concept of Mind in two volumes, and Languages of Intentionality. What drew you to document this alternative history of philosophy?

Paul McDonald: My PhD dissertation (1996) was revised and partly rewritten to become my first book, Descartes and Husserl (2000): even at the very start of my research career I alternated between analyses of an early 17th C. and an early 20th C. philosopher; the cross-fertilization and cross-illumination between the two thinkers’ main concerns was remarkable. When I was offered the chance to devise and teach a new course in Theory of Mind devoted to the history of these theories I wanted to provide a background text for students, but there wasn’t one. At this point my mentor and former supervisor at Durham, Prof. David E. Cooper said, “Well, there you go! You write it.” That research took three years and resulted in History of the Concept of Mind: Speculations about Mind, Soul and Spirit from Homer to Hume (2003).

But along the way a lot of very interesting thinkers and their unusual, sometimes fantastic theories were left out. I first came to the study of Esotericism or Heterodoxy (as I prefer to call it) during the writing of the next book, History of the Concept of Mind vol. 2: The Heterodox and Occult Traditions (2007). It is a long book, crammed with many figures and themes, but there were (again) a lot of notes, summaries and quotes left over. My reading in the areas of Alchemy, Magic, Astrology and Kabbalah was surprising – some of the writers I’d barely heard about; and also stimulating – there were so many neglected theories about the nature of mind, soul and spirit! At roughly the same time, I offered each year for three years a Special Topics Seminar (at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia) on Hermetic, Occult and Magical Ideas (HOMI). Each year it had about 15 students (I called them my “homies”), who had a great deal of enthusiasm and worked very hard; that course entailed putting together a whole series of lecture notes and readings.
I took a few years’ break from this theme to examine one of the central topics in Contemporary Theories of Mind, intentionality; even here there were two alternative discourses, the analytic-empirical and the phenomenological, and there was (and still is) very little “cross-border” communication. My book Languages of Intentionality (2012) is the first work to examine both alternative traditions side by side. After this I returned to everything left behind from the HCM vol.2 “spill-over” and the HOMI lecture notes which formed the basis for the book I started working on five years ago, Nature Loves to Hide: An Alternative History of Philosophy (2018). It now seems that there has been a lot left out of that book, though I’ve got no plans to do volume 2.

Is there a book of important and inspiring quotations hidden in Nature Loves to Hide? Because you provide a treasury of quotes worthy of meditation.

If only there had been such a book! No, I had to read literally hundreds of books and articles on individual thinkers, usually by devouring most (if not all) the primary sources, less often by making use of expert secondary sources. On many occasions, these sources were themselves in obscure, out-of-the-way academic journals or in foreign languages. There are several very good, well-informed surveys of esoteric ideas, as well as compendia or anthologies devoted to Esoterica or Alchemy or Magic, but, of course, my book is not a history of esoteric theories, but an alternative history of philosophy, and there is nothing like an anthology of texts from these thinkers.

In choosing the main characters of your survey of the alternative stream of philosophy you provide some of the best introductions I’ve read to the work of people like Ficino, Agrippa, Paracelsus, Böhme, Fludd but also Fernando Pessoa and Phillip K. Dick. Obviously to keep each section within length limitations you had to focus on key issues. What guided you in choosing who to present, and how to distill their work?

Some of the thinkers you mention (and others) have had very good introductions written by scholars who specialize in them; usually in those cases I made skilful use of these secondary sources. However, quite a few of the characters I bring into the story, e.g. Rabelais, Coleridge, E. A. Poe, de Quincey, Pessoa, Bloch, and P. K. Dick, have never (or rarely) been considered as philosophers or as having a distinctively philosophical orientation. It was an extra task, a challenging one, to show how each of these figures thematised and carried forward some of the alternative themes identified in the first chapter and then synopsized in the last chapter. My choice of who to include was based on several convergent factors: did so-and-so explicitly discuss (in at least one work) some of these alternative themes; were they routinely relegated to the side-lines or even ignored in standard histories; was their use of overtly esoteric doctrines or disciplines (Alchemy-Magic-Kabbalah) tangential or incidental to other over-riding philosophical principles? Even when the answers to these (and subsidiary) questions was “yes” there definitely was still a residue of personal preference: Pessoa, Bloch and Dick deserve much more attention.

You write “to adumbrate such an alternative history is not an endorsement of any kind of perennial philosophy or pristine wisdom tradition.” Would it be fair to say, however, that you are revealing how deeply influential this alternative stream has been?

First, it’s important to distinguish between perennial philosophy and pristine wisdom, a distinction emphasized by several contemporary scholars. Those who advocate perennial philosophy hold that there is one original, ancient form of wisdom which appears again and again in every age, though dressed up under different guises. The historian Charles Schmitt said that this perennial idea “puts emphasis on the continuity of valid knowledge through all periods of history. It does not believe that knowledge has ever been lost for centuries, but believes that it can surely be found in each period, albeit sometimes in attenuated form.” The tradition of pristine wisdom (or philosophy) also holds that there is one original, ancient form of wisdom but that it has been hidden from public view, lost and buried or kept secret for various reasons; the seekers’ quest is to find this cache of knowledge, decode it if necessary, and then share it with one’s fellows. The standard history of philosophy began with and developed questions about the relation between how things appear to us and how they really are; then the question how it is that the real world came to be the way it appears, who or what made it that way; and then further, how it is that we can know about the way things really are. In contrast, an alternative history of philosophy has always been more concerned with questions about the nature and powers of the human soul, how to train and discipline this inner power, how to manipulate ‘secret’ words and objects to assist in this quest, and methods to achieve higher stages of knowledge in order for the soul to return to its source. Alt-thinkers’ metaphysics made constant reference to the hidden correspondences between the great world and the small world, the visible and the invisible, an inner nature and its “signature”; their theory of language is one centred on decoding these sacred signs; their theory of mind is one centred on training the human soul to ascend to higher states.

You discuss Augustine’s redefinition of the ancient Greek and Hermetic daemon to demon, the more familiar term today, with its much more negative connotation. Was this a propaganda coup, in your estimation, or a refinement of terms?

The ancient Greek idea of daimon was common in the Fifth C. BC and was referred to many times by Plato and other writers: it denoted an intermediate entity, halfway between humans and the gods, with great though limited power and knowledge, neither good not evil; as supernatural beings they could be invoked by spells and rituals performed by magicians (not priests). Later Neoplatonists, Gnostics, and theurgists expanded the character and scope of these beings, bringing them into their explanation of the cosmic hierarchy and the composition of the human body-soul union. Early Christian writers could not and did not countenance any supernatural entities or forces with their own domain, aside from God the Creator. However, the New Testament committed these theologians to the existence of beneficent angels and maleficent demons, splitting the ancient idea of daimon in two. Christian theurgists believed that genuine “well-shaped” prayers could intercede with angels, and magicians were thought to accomplish super-natural effects through the intervention of evil demons; and since demons were evil in their nature, magicians were themselves malevolent. One could say that this redefinition invested priests with the authority to praise the former actions and condemn the latter, thus diminishing the individual practitioner’s agency. But this only just scratches the surface of the long complex history of daimons and demons in the thousand years from the early medieval to the early modern period.

You describe the antipathy toward Carl Jung among many of today’s scholars of the history of alchemy in academia. Could you share an insight that Jung had in this area that is an example of why he deserves greater respect?

It’s important to point out that my use of Jung’s analyses of Zosimus’ visions in the chapter on the Graeco-Egyptian Origins of Alchemy does not mean that I subscribe to or advocate Jung’s own “depth” psychology, with its collective unconscious, universal archetypes, process of individuation, and so forth. Rather, it’s his historical investigations that I consider important and worth attending to. Jung was a very careful and erudite reader of complex, little-studied medieval texts; his meticulous unpacking of and commentary on Zosimus’ visions, for example, are highly illuminating in their own right, irrespective of his theoretical interpretation. He contributed significant early analyses of the following, amongst others: the 15th C. treatise Aurora Consurgens, attributed to Thomas Aquinas, the 16th C. Rosarium Philosophorum, the 16th C. Codex Vossianus, the medieval Chinese Secret of the Golden Flower (earliest text, 17th C.), and the vast collection of texts in his last great work Mysterium Coniunctionis. Jung compiled an important lexicon of alchemical technical terms, as well as an extensive examination of the Paracelsian-inspired medical chemistry of Gerhard Dorn (also 16th C.). His alchemical discoveries were first presented to the public during the 1935 Eranos Conference in Switzerland.

What intrigues current students of the history of alchemy is the growing evidence that alchemists seem to have performed legitimate experiments, manipulated and analyzed the material world in interesting ways and reported genuine results. And many of the great names in the canon of modern science paid attention to these investigations, says William Newman, if they did not themselves actually attempt these same experiments. For example, Robert Boyle, one of the 17th-century founders of modern chemistry, “basically pillaged” the work of the German physician and alchemist Daniel Sennert. When Boyle’s French counterpart, A.-L. Lavoisier, substituted a modern list of elements (oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and others) for the ancient four elements (earth, air, fire and water), he built on an idea that was “actually widespread in earlier alchemical sources.” The concept that matter was composed of several distinctive elements, in turn, inspired Sir Isaac Newton’s work on optics—notably, his demonstration that the multiple colours produced by a prism could be reconstituted into white light.
In sum, historical research in the development of alchemy has moved on from the late 19th/early 20th C. view that these laboratory efforts were clumsy, half-baked attempts in the early stages of chemistry, a sort of pseudo-scientific proto-chemistry, little more than mistaken historical curiosities. Carl Jung’s studies changed the direction of research by “going inward”, so to speak, interpreting the language, imagery and techniques as an amazingly detailed symbolic narrative about the processes of an inner, spiritual alchemy, transforming the operator’s own psyche. In the last 20 or 30 years, scholars with a physical science background have been re-examining alchemical records for clues about what really transpired in those overheated, fume-filled labs – the results so far have been surprising.

You perform a service in this book by providing translations from the neglected works of alchemist Stephanos of Alexandria. How do we explain his relative obscurity?

Stephanos of Alexandria was a scholar in Constantinople in the early 7th century; he wrote commentaries on Plato, Aristotle, mathematics, astronomy, and music. Due to the unusual scarcity of his works in English, my chapter 3 provides extensive extracts from the only English translation, published eighty years ago. The British scholar F. S. Taylor published full translations with extensive commentary of Stephanos’ treatise on the Art of Making Gold in the first volume of the journal Ambix (1937). The skimpy five pages of text in Stanton Linden’s Alchemy Reader (2003) are reprints of extracts from Taylor’s translation, shorn of any commentary, and without any further explanation. It’s possible that Stephanos has been overlooked in the various histories of alchemy because of confusion over his identity, authorship and originality; another alchemist-astrologer also named Stephanos confuses the whole picture. His works were not included in the ground-breaking collection by Berthelot and Ruelle (1888), who dismissed the author as derivative and unoriginal. One scholar was dubious about Stephanos’ alchemical reputation, and interpreted it as “the posthumous medieval afterglow of his Late Antique stardom, the brilliance of which became tarnished already during his lifetime.” But Paul Magdalino remarks that his treatise shows “wide rhetorical prowess, extensive learning, and a significant breadth of philosophical understanding.” In addition to Wanda Wolska-Conus’ several substantive treatises, Stephanos’ works have been championed by the Byzantine scholar Maria Papathanassiou in many academic articles. Stephanos deserves to better represented today by translators and historians of alchemy.

Your section on Hermes in Arabian history is an excellent introduction to a subject too long neglected in the West. Do you find any salient difference between the European and Arabian Hermetic traditions?

The principal differences between Greek (and later Latin) Hermeticism and Arabic Hermeticism were that the latter incorporated Hermes’ doctrines with Koranic doctrines, assimilating Hermes with the prophet Idrīs, and integrated some of these ideas with the Ismā’īlī version of Islam. Kevin van Bladel, author of The Arabic Hermes, said that the Arabic myth of Hermes as an ancient teacher and a prophet of science resulted from the combination of the legends of the Biblical Enoch, the role of Hermes as teacher of astrological sciences, the teaching of the early Ismā’īlī mission about Hermes, and the wisdom literature ascribed to Hermes. The Biblical figure of Enoch, taken away by Jehovah to heaven, was identified with the Quranic prophet Idrīs whom “God raised to a high place”; in claiming this, Hermes became the subject of stories similar to the heavenly ascent stories of Enoch. Further, “the early Ismā’īlīs seem to be the first organized group with an official doctrine about Hermes. This group maintained that their leader was the hidden Imām, who would return one day and initiate all Muslims into a higher, better realm, through salvific grades of understanding.” They insisted that “the principles of philosophy and the sciences are part of divine revelation, and that human reason can tinker with these revelations but never really surpass them. In both cases Hermes is their special example of a prophet of science.” Islamic (and Persian) scholars also contributed important Hermetic-inspired texts to this tradition, texts unknown in the Latin West: the 10th C. treatise The Book of the Apple, the 13th C. The Rebuke of the Soul (long ignored, but discussed at length in my chapter 5), and Suhrawardī’s Philosophy of Illumination which revived the ancient tradition of Persian wisdom.

You report that astrology was once considered an appropriate activity to occupy the minds of monks with evidence of divine harmony. And, of course, Christian alchemists were not uncommon. What caused the eventual rejection of these practices by the authorities?

This is a very complex situation which evolved at different paces in different cultures and involved many disparate factors. (1) In the 17th C. the concept of dynamic reality was superseded by a mechanical model of matter in motion; on this view nature is not shaped by divine intelligence, nor is it shapeable by human intelligence, it is insensate and dumb. (2) The magical doctrine of innate ideas, allied in many ways with rationalist metaphysics, was confronted by the empiricists’ attack on such ideas; everything one can claim to know is learned from experience. (3) This is connected with the empiricists’ view of language; its rules are conventional, its components arbitrary, and its acquisition is by imitation; there is no primal language, no pristine wisdom hidden in a special code, and the very idea of magical words of power is bankrupt. (4) The empiricist view of knowledge is coupled with the materialist view of the human mind; it is not a separate entity, not immortal, and hence there is no chance of the soul’s ascent. (5) The mechanization of the world picture shatters the microcosm-macrocosm connection; the small world of humans is not a replica of the great world; the many levels of similitude and correspondence are broken, and this is disastrous for the astrological assumption that the stars influence individual human natures and destinies.

Although the basic scientific approach was conceived and worked out by an intellectual elite, its results began to be disseminated to the general public through popular texts and practical manuals. For example, in 1704 John Harris, in his Universal Dictionary, dismissed astrology as “a ridiculous piece of foolery”, and alchemy as “an art which begins with lying, is continued with toil and labour, and at last ends in beggary.” In the 18th C. people grew less vulnerable to certain kinds of disaster, new kinds of knowledge superseded magical explanations of misfortune by recourse to the actions of witches and ghosts. Foremost among these news kinds of knowledge were what we would now describe as social-economic theories. Slowly it began to be understood and accepted that impersonal causes could contribute to various kinds of hardship, prevalence of illness, poverty and so forth. Underlying this view, and providing more exact ways of expressing these impersonal, anonymous causes, was the gradual development and implementation of statistics. It was a startling new idea to think that what was taken as a chance occurrence (for good or ill) was an event whose causes were not fully known, but where it was possible to calculate the probability of its taking one form rather than another. It is not so much that authorities of any kind “rejected” these practices as that a better educated, more sceptical public for the most part was no longer inclined to accept magical or occult explanations.

You discuss the influence of alchemy and Plotinus on Berkeley, the influence of Swedenborg on Kant, and the influence of The Chemical Wedding and Vaughan’s Anthroposophy on Goethe. What made this alternative current, long neglected, nevertheless a powerful artistic and cultural catalyst?

One of the most basic presuppositions of the alternative view is that reality is dynamic, the cosmos is an animate organism, guided by divine intelligence, a spark of which humans participate in. This is in stark contrast with view that reality consists of material bodies in motion, under the sway of mechanical laws. Further, Hermetic-alchemical thinking is deeply, inextricably visual, lending itself to many types of illustration, in charts, diagrams, talismans, etc.; intense visual imagery is tied up with their espousal of the creative imagination, something which, of course, appeals to writers, artist and creatives. Between the physical and intelligible is the imaginal domain which can be accessed in night-dreams, daylight-visions, hypnagogic states; it is an altered mentality cultivated by artists and writers and seers.

Alternative thinkers such as Böhme, Swedenborg, Pessoa, and P. K. Dick report that they received visions in a “flash” or stroke of light, the blink of an eye; ecstasy, rapture and other altered states, though not actually pursued, are often thematic elements of their approach. Alt- thinkers assumed an operative concept of language that treats words and names as bound to the things they signify; on their view nothing is arbitrary, nothing is relative, nothing is conventional; knowledge of the names of things confers power over those things; there are deep and abiding connections between the sound (or shape) of words and what they refer to. Again, amongst the basic tenets of the Hermetic worldview is an ineradicable commitment to the immortality of the human soul; physical death in the flesh is not an end but a portal to another existence, an alternate state which one has to be prepare for. An individual does not have to consider his/her life as a role assigned by birth or fate; it can be the product of self-fashioning, it can be treated as an artistic endeavour, and that is something that artists and creatives already believe in.

You point out that Hegel’s library included Agrippa, Böhme, Bruno, and Paracelsus, and that “Hegel aligned himself, informally, with Hermetic societies such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians.” You describe his classic The Phenomenology of Spirit as “Hegel’s initiatory experience. It is Hegel’s Eleusis, it is his Bacchanalian revel.” And you remind us “Eric Voegelin claims that Hegel’s thought belongs to the continuous history of modern Hermeticism, and refers to the Phenomenology of Spirit as “a grimoire.” How did Hegel escape the dismissal other Hermetic authors suffered?

Despite the strong presence of Hermetic ideas in some of Hegel’s works, his speculations exploded into areas rarely considered by Hermeticists before: ontology, ethics, politics, aesthetics, and history. Hegel remains important and relevant to contemporary concerns for several reasons: his concept of Geist (usually translated as Spirit) refers to a complex system of mutually interlinked agents, a virtual organism or living entity, which moved through various stages on its progress towards realization. He thought that he had gone beyond the traditional opposition of subject and object to a fully integrated aggregate of agents, with their history, culture and values. In doing so he brought into consideration, for philosophical and psychological purposes, distinct patterns of social interaction and reciprocal recognition. Hegel is the last great system-builder whose principles encompass every aspect of philosophical theory. His fundamental model of the dialectical structure of Reason means that there is constant movement in the appearance of thesis-antithesis-synthesis: something holds in place, brings about its own negation, and then yields a resolution of the conflicted states. Many features of Hegel’s thought had a profound influence on subsequent philosophers: Marx’s political economy, the late Sartre’s dialectical reason, French post-modernism, as well as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche – though the latter are mainly dismissive and sarcastic. Hegel bequeathed to all these thinkers (and others) the central concept of human alienation: people often feel discontent with their circumstances, as well as within themsleves, divorced from their own basic desires and labour, and this can lead to over-turning, trying to replace that-which-is in order to create a new solution. His concept of ethics rejects absolute principles, timeless moral codes, in favour of a social consensus appropriate to a given society’s historical development. There are several notions more-or-less invented by Hegel which became key themes for the Existentialists: alienation, authenticity, historicity, the master-slave relation, and the collective struggle for a better community. An insightful article on some of Hegel’s lasting ideas, by Chris Christensen, was published in Philosophy Now magazine in Issue 129 (Dec. 2018-Jan. 2019) – it’s highly recommended.

On the one hand, the New Age movement popularized and repackaged much of this historical stream but no progress was made toward advancing the ideas. On the other hand, in literature and the arts great minds found new approaches and nuances, furthering the stream in significant ways. Would it be accurate to say that, on your view, the progression of the Neoplatonic-Gnostic-Hermetic alternative stream split in the 20th Century? Also does Crowley, for example, mark this split, or was it already happening in organizations like the Golden Dawn?

The 19th century traditions or movements of theosophy, ritual magic, secret societies, and so forth does not reappear in nor show any development in the 20th century in the form of New Age Beliefs. In other words, the principal philosophical themes spelled out in the first chapter and synopsized in the last, become separated from various embellishments, paraphernalia, and accoutrements with which some of these themes were associated. These accoutrements become the very stuff around which New Age ideas coagulate and propagate in the last hundred years; in contrast, alternative philosophical approaches are taken up by novelists and other creative artists. The former group are better called New Religious Movements; they fall under various ideologies, such as self-realization, personal transformation, spiritual healing, non-religious religion, and others. New Age Beliefs are a hodge-podge of spurious ideas, a magpie’s nest of images, slogans and exercises; they are an eclectic farrago of things such as healing crystals, the I-Ch’ing, unicorns and dolphins, tarot cards, palm-reading, chakra alignment, Reiki massage, Buddhist chanting, Native American sweat lodges, UFO-sightings, crop-circles, past-life retrieval, secret Biblical codes, Holy Grail legends, Templar pseudo-history, Atlantis-seekers, weekend Druids, Neo-pagan Wicca, etc. All of these may indeed be manifestations of contemporary esotericism and as such legitimate subjects of religious study, but they are not expressions of an alternative tradition in philosophy in the 20th or 21st century. My research did not attempt to trace the fortunes of theosophy, anthroposophy, and High Magic in the works of Alice Bailey, Annie Besant, H. P. Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner or Aleister Crowley – all these writers (and others) have been the subject of serious books on 20th C. esotericism. Instead, my attention was focused on the philosophical undercurrent of the modernist novel and other avant-garde forms of fiction, as they express the central features of an alternative philosophical history.

You quote Phillip K. Dick: “I am an Orphic, a Neoplatonist, a Christian, a hermetic—all these statements are true; and also I have to some extent formulated my own system (as Bruno did). I have seen God but it was not God; it was more (and I have a cybernetics-biological model). I am with Böhme perhaps most of all—and with his teacher, Paracelsus, most of all.” What is a way that Dick has furthered the alternative philosophy?

Philip K. Dick. brought a unique sensibility to his stories, the result of a concatenation of psychic forces perhaps never seen before. His deeply disturbing visions were the product of a full-blown paranoid schizophrenia, the ingestion of huge amounts of psychotropic drugs, and his voracious reading of philosophic, religious and scientific material. Dick progressively elaborated a Manichean picture of the cosmos: two worlds, one of light and one of darkness, one of good, one of evil, two realms of power in perpetual conflict over the fate of human souls. What permitted him to “advance” the alternative stream was his blending of all these ideas with technology: brain implants, memory removal and storage, expansion of consciousness, holographic simulation, magical language (in digital code), artificial intelligence, animated replicants, and so forth. When he wrote about the Black Iron Prison and the Palm Tree Garden he was expressing what he thought was happening now. But for his audience these scenarios become visions of possible futures; what we read or watch are projections of our deepest fears and desires, some we never conceived before he described them. His intense visual imagination, coupled with his intricate, thriller-like plots, are the reason why so many of his stories have been made into successful films. For example, there are dozens of explicitly philosophical essays on Bladerunner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and others, and rightfully so: they touch on many of these alternative themes.

What can you tell us about your days as a purveyor of antiquarian books?
I seem to have lived a good part of my life back-to-front, so to speak. I’ve heard about academics who become book-dealers when they retire, it’s something “they always wanted to do.” I was a book-dealer first and then I became an academic. From the age of 15 or 16 I could not stop buying books, right through university and into graduate school. My initial steps in academia ran into a cul-de-sac, so I was glad to accept work at a busy new & used bookshop in Northampton, Mass. The owner and I often went to estate auctions, library discard sales, and private houses to buy 100s (or even 1000s) of books; it was in the first few months that I had a “light-bulb” moment. If I became a second-hand book-dealer then I could buy anything I could get for a good price and turn around for a profit. This is what most attracted me to book-dealing – the fact that I didn’t need to be confined, in my obsession with books, to what personally interested me; I could allow my knowledge of a wide range of subjects to outstrip what I liked.
After about four years in the Northampton area I moved to Burlington, Vermont where I opened my own second-hand, out-of-print and rare bookshop in the late 1980s. In addition to a good-sized general inventory my specialty was Early Printed Books (before 1700); I loved the great early printers’ superb type-fonts and layouts, each book’s binding (where original), its owners’ provenance, even its very smell. I sold my book business in June 1989 and moved to England “on spec”; as it turned out, I worked for three years as curator of a medieval castle in Cumbria, on the Scottish borders, before it closed to the public. It was then, at the mature age of 42 (just the right age according to Plato) that I enrolled in postgrad studies in philosophy at Durham University, where I received my PhD in 1996.
DrombegStoneCircle 2004
Drombeg Stone Circle
What have you learned from your explorations of local stone circles? Will you ever publish on the subject?
Not far from where I live in West Cork is Drombeg Stone Circle, a fascinating complex of prehistoric monuments; it is well preserved, signposted on the access roads, with several information boards, and a small car park. I first saw it maybe 10 years ago, but when my wife and I moved here in July 2015, I began to take a more serious interest in these ancient Irish sites.
The vast majority of Stone Circles in Ireland, dating from the 2nd and 1st millennium BC, are in Counties Cork and Kerry, within a two-hour drive of where we live, though there are many other types of prehistoric sites across Ireland. Only a few of these are well preserved and laid out for public access, most of them are hard to find, not signposted, and only marked on small-scale OS maps. They are often in the middle of farmers’ fields, over stone walls and barbed wire, or part way up a hillside amidst jumbles of rock and boggy soil. So that became my new challenge: armed with a catalogue of these sites, OS maps, a flask of coffee and sandwiches, I’d spend hours tracking down one after the other. If my itinerary was well planned and I had some luck, I might find three in one day. I can’t say I had any specific scholarly goal; the value of these trips lay in solving the puzzle of where these silent stones were and what they looked like.
My ongoing interest in Stone Circles will not lead to any scholarly publications; after all, I’m only an amateur. The Stone Circles give me a guide for wandering around, as well as a focus for my reflections. Maybe I will write a novel, a piece of auto-fiction, about a retired academic who becomes absorbed in the mystery of the Stone Circles, visiting every site he can find, looking for “clues” about their original meaning.

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Paul Stamets Profile: Mushroom Guru, Filmmaker, Nutritionist, Scientist
Learn about Paul Stamets, read his thoughts on psilocybin mircodosing, the future of psilocybin, and his recent film “Fantastic Fungi”.

Microdosing Psilocybin & Common Dosage Explained
Microdosing, though imperceivably, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing psilocybin.

Psilocybin Nasal Spray: Relief for Anxiety, PTSD, and Depression
Microdosing nasal spray with psilocybin, is that possible?! Oregan a start-up Silo Wellness believes so and has created this new option for PTSD treatment.

Mazatec Mushroom Usage: Notes on Approach, Setting and Species for Curious Psilonauts
A look at traditional Mazatec psilocybin mushroom usage, and a comparison to the cliniical therapeutic approach, with an examination of the Mazatec setting and species used in veladas.

María Sabina: The Mazatec Magic Mushroom Woman
Magic mushrooms are incredibly popular today. How they became introduced to into American culture isn’t usually a topic discussed while tripping on psilocybin fungi. We all may have María Sabina to thank for exposing the Western world to the healing properties of the psilocybin mushroom.

Guide to Magic Mushroom Strains
Are there different types of psilocybin? Read our guide to learn about the different magic mushroom strains and their individual effects.

Kilindi Iyi: Mycologist, Traveler, Teacher
Learn about traveler and mycologist Kilindi Iyi known in the psychedelic community for his research and exploration of psilocybin.

How to Store Shrooms: Best Practices
How do you store shrooms for optimal shelf life? Learn how and why the proper storage method is so important.

Shroom Chocolate Recipes: How to Make Magic Mushroom Chocolates
This recipe provides step by step directions on how you can make mushroom chocolates with the necessary ingredients. Read to learn more!

Why Do People Use Psilocybin? New Johns Hopkins Study
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicines has just published a new study on psychoactive effects of psilocybin. Read here to learn more.

How-To Lemon Tek: Ultimate Guide and Recipe
This master guide will teach you how to lemon tek, preventing the onset of negative effects after consuming psilocybin. Read to learn more!

How to Intensify a Mushroom Trip
Learn about techniques like Lemon tekking, or discover the right time to consume cannabis if you are looking to intensify a mushroom trip.

How to Grow Magic Mushrooms: Step-by-Step
This step-by-step guide will show you how to grow magic mushrooms at home. Read this guide before trying it on your own.

How to Dry Magic Mushrooms: Best Practices
Read to learn more about specifics for the best practices on how to dry magic mushrooms after harvesting season.

How to Buy Psilocybin Spores
Interested in psilocybin mushrooms? We’ll walk you through all you need to know to obtain mushroom spores. Nosh on this delish How To guide.

Hippie Flipping: When Shrooms and Molly Meet
What is it, what does it feel like, and how long does it last? Explore the mechanics of hippie flipping and how to safely experiment.

Having Sex on Shrooms: Good or Bad Idea?
Is having sex on shrooms a good idea or an accident waiting to happen? Find out in our guide to sex on magic mushrooms.

Gold Cap Shrooms Guide: Spores, Effects, Identification
Read this guide to learn more about the different characteristics of gold cap mushrooms, and how they differ from other psilocybin species.

Guide to Cooking with Magic Mushrooms
From cookies to smoothies and sandwiches, we cover various methods of cooking with magic mushrooms for the ultimate snack.

2020 Election: The Decriminalize Psilocybin Movement
Are you curious if mushrooms will follow in marijuana’s footsteps? Read to learn about how the U.S. is moving to decriminalize psilocybin.

Oregon’s Initiative to Legalize Mushrooms | Initiative Petition 34
Oregon continues to push ahead with their initiative to legalize Psilocybin in 2020. The measure received its official title and now needs signatures.

Canada Approves Psilocybin Treatment for Terminally-Ill Cancer Patients
Canada’s Minister of Health, Patty Hajdu approved the use of psilocybin to help ease anxiety and depression of four terminal cancer patients.

Mapping the DMT Experience
With only firsthand experiences to share, how can we fully map the DMT experience? Let’s explore what we know about this powerful psychedelic.

Guide to Machine Elves and Other DMT Entities
This guide discusses machine elves, clockwork elves, and other common DMT entities that people experience during a DMT trip.

Is the DMT Experience a Hallucination? 
What if the DMT realm was the real world, and our everyday lives were merely a game we had chosen to play?

How to Store DMT
Not sure how to store DMT? Read this piece to learn the best practices and elements of advice to keep your stuff fresh.

What Does 5-MeO-DMT Show Us About Consciousness?
How does our brain differentiate between what’s real and what’s not? Read to learn what can 5-MeO-DMT show us about consciousness.

How to Smoke DMT: Processes Explained
There are many ways to smoke DMT and we’ve outlined some of the best processes to consider before embarking on your journey.

How to Ground After DMT
Knowing what to expect from a DMT comedown can help you integrate the experience to gain as much value as possible from your journey.

How To Get DMT
What kind of plants contain DMT? Are there other ways to access this psychedelic? Read on to learn more about how to get DMT.

How DMT is Made: Everything You Need to Know
Ever wonder how to make DMT? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how DMT is made.

Having Sex on DMT: What You Need to Know
Have you ever wondered about sex on DMT? Learn how the God Molecule can influence your intimate experiences.

Does the Human Brain Make DMT? 
With scientific evidence showing us DMT in the brain, what can we conclude it is there for? Read on to learn more.

How to Use DMT Vape Pens
Read to learn all about DMT vape pens including: what to know when vaping, what to expect when purchasing a DMT cartridge, and vaping safely.

DMT Resources
This article is a comprehensive DMT resource providing extensive information from studies, books, documentaries, and more. Check it out!

Differentiating DMT and Near-Death Experiences
Some say there are similarities between a DMT trip and death. Read our guide on differentiating DMT and near-death experiences to find out.

DMT Research from 1956 to the Edge of Time
From a representative sample of a suitably psychedelic crowd, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who couldn’t tell you all about Albert Hofmann’s enchanted bicycle ride after swallowing what turned out to be a massive dose of LSD. Far fewer, however, could tell you much about the world’s first DMT trip.

The Ultimate Guide to DMT Pricing
Check out our ultimate guide on DMT pricing to learn what to expect when purchasing DMT for your first time.

DMT Milking | Reality Sandwich
Indigenous cultures have used 5-MeO-DMT for centuries. With the surge in demand for psychedelic toad milk, is DMT Milking harming the frogs?

Why Does DMT Pervade Nature?
With the presence of DMT in nature everywhere – including human brains – why does it continue to baffle science?

DMT Substance Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
Our ultimate guide to DMT has everything you want to know about this powerful psychedelic referred to as “the spirit molecule”.

DMT for Depression: Paving the Way for New Medicine
We’ve been waiting for an effective depression treatment. Studies show DMT for depression works even for treatment resistant patients.

Beating Addiction with DMT
Psychedelics have been studied for their help overcoming addiction. Read how DMT is helping addicts beat their substance abuse issues.

DMT Extraction: Behind the Scientific Process
Take a look at DMT extraction and the scientific process involved. Learn all you need to know including procedures and safety.

Microdosing DMT & Common Dosages Explained
Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing DMT.

DMT Art: A Look Behind Visionary Creations
An entire genre of artwork is inspired by psychedelic trips with DMT. Read to learn about the entities and visions behind DMT art.

Changa vs. DMT: What You Need to Know
While similar (changa contains DMT), each drug has its own unique effect and feeling. Let’s compare and contrast changa vs DMT.

5-MeO-DMT Guide: Effects, Benefits, Safety, and Legality
5-Meo-DMT comes from the Sonora Desert toad. Here is everything you want to know about 5-Meo-DMT and how it compares to 4-AcO-DMT.

4-AcO-DMT Guide: Benefits, Effects, Safety, and Legality
This guide tells you everything about 4 AcO DMT & 5 MeO DMT, that belong to the tryptamine class, and are similar but slightly different to DMT.

How Much Does LSD Cost? When shopping around for that magical psychedelic substance, there can be many uncertainties when new to buying LSD. You may be wondering how much does LSD cost? In this article, we will discuss what to expect when purchasing LSD on the black market, what forms LSD is sold in, and the standard breakdown of buying LSD in quantity.   Navy Use of LSD on the Dark Web The dark web is increasingly popular for purchasing illegal substances. The US Navy has now noticed this trend with their staff. Read to learn more.   Having Sex on LSD: What You Need to Know Can you have sex on LSD? Read our guide to learn everything about sex on acid, from lowered inhibitions to LSD users quotes on sex while tripping.   A Drug That Switches off an LSD Trip A pharmaceutical company is developing an “off-switch” drug for an LSD trip, in the case that a bad trip can happen. Some would say there is no such thing.   Queen of Hearts: An Interview with Liz Elliot on Tim Leary and LSD The history of psychedelia, particularly the British experience, has been almost totally written by men. Of the women involved, especially those who were in the thick of it, little has been written either by or about them. A notable exception is Liz Elliot.   LSD Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety LSD, Lysergic acid diethylamide, or just acid is one of the most important psychedelics ever discovered. What did history teach us?   Microdosing LSD & Common Dosage Explained Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing LSD.   LSD Resources Curious to learn more about LSD? This guide includes comprehensive LSD resources containing books, studies and more.   LSD as a Spiritual Aid There is common consent that the evolution of mankind is paralleled by the increase and expansion of consciousness. From the described process of how consciousness originates and develops, it becomes evident that its growth depends on its faculty of perception. Therefore every means of improving this faculty should be used.   Legendary LSD Blotter Art: A Hidden Craftsmanship Have you ever heard of LSD blotter art? Explore the trippy world of LSD art and some of the top artists of LSD blotter art.   LSD and Exercise: Does it Work? LSD and exercise? Learn why high-performing athletes are taking hits of LSD to improve their overall potential.   Jan Bastiaans Treated Holocaust Survivors with LSD Dutch psychiatrist, Jan Bastiaans administered LSD-assisted therapy to survivors of the Holocaust. A true war hero and pioneer of psychedelic-therapy.   LSD and Spiritual Awakening I give thanks for LSD, which provided the opening that led me to India in 1971 and brought me to Neem Karoli Baba, known as Maharajji. Maharajji is described by the Indians as a “knower of hearts.”   How LSD is Made: Everything You Need to Know Ever wonder how to make LSD? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how LSD is made.   How to Store LSD: Best Practices Learn the best way to store LSD, including the proper temperature and conditions to maximize how long LSD lasts when stored.   Bicycle Day: The Discovery of LSD Every year on April 19th, psychonauts join forces to celebrate Bicycle Day. Learn about the famous day when Albert Hoffman first discovered the effects of LSD.   Cary Grant: A Hollywood Legend On LSD Cary Grant was a famous actor during the 1930’s-60’s But did you know Grant experimented with LSD? Read our guide to learn more.   Albert Hofmann: LSD — My Problem Child Learn about Albert Hofmann and his discovery of LSD, along with the story of Bicycle Day and why it marks a historic milestone.   Babies are High: What Does LSD Do To Your Brain What do LSD and babies have in common? Researchers at the Imperial College in London discover that an adult’s brain on LSD looks like a baby’s brain.   1P LSD: Effects, Benefits, Safety Explained 1P LSD is an analogue of LSD and homologue of ALD-25. Here is everything you want to know about 1P LSD and how it compares to LSD.   Francis Crick, DNA & LSD Type ‘Francis Crick LSD’ into Google, and the result will be 30,000 links. Many sites claim that Crick (one of the two men responsible for discovering the structure of DNA), was either under the influence of LSD at the time of his revelation or used the drug to help with his thought processes during his research. Is this true?   What Happens If You Overdose on LSD? A recent article presented three individuals who overdosed on LSD. Though the experience was unpleasant, the outcomes were remarkably positive.

The Ayahuasca Experience
Ayahuasca is both a medicine and a visionary aid. You can employ ayahuasca for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual repair, and you can engage with the power of ayahuasca for deeper insight and realization. If you consider attainment of knowledge in the broadest perspective, you can say that at all times, ayahuasca heals.

 

Trippy Talk: Meet Ayahuasca with Sitaramaya Sita and PlantTeachers
Sitaramaya Sita is a spiritual herbalist, pusangera, and plant wisdom practitioner formally trained in the Shipibo ayahuasca tradition.

 

The Therapeutic Value of Ayahuasca
My best description of the impact of ayahuasca is that it’s a rocket boost to psychospiritual growth and unfolding, my professional specialty during my thirty-five years of private practice.

 

Microdosing Ayahuasca: Common Dosage Explained
What is ayahuasca made of and what is considered a microdose? Explore insights with an experienced Peruvian brewmaster and learn more about this practice.

 

Ayahuasca Makes Neuron Babies in Your Brain
Researchers from Beckley/Sant Pau Research Program have shared the latest findings in their study on the effects of ayahuasca on neurogenesis.

 

The Fatimiya Sufi Order and Ayahuasca
In this interview, the founder of the Fatimiya Sufi Order,  N. Wahid Azal, discusses the history and uses of plant medicines in Islamic and pre-Islamic mystery schools.

 

Consideration Ayahuasca for Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Research indicates that ayahuasca mimics mechanisms of currently accepted treatments for PTSD. In order to understand the implications of ayahuasca treatment, we need to understand how PTSD develops.

 

Brainwaves on Ayahuasca: A Waking Dream State
In a study researchers shared discoveries showing ingredients found in Ayahuasca impact the brainwaves causing a “waking dream” state.

 

Cannabis and Ayahuasca: Mixing Entheogenic Plants
Cannabis and Ayahuasca: most people believe they shouldn’t be mixed. Read this personal experience peppered with thoughts from a pro cannabis Peruvian Shaman.

 

Ayahuasca Retreat 101: Everything You Need to Know to Brave the Brew
Ayahuasca has been known to be a powerful medicinal substance for millennia. However, until recently, it was only found in the jungle. Word of its deeply healing and cleansing properties has begun to spread across the world as many modern, Western individuals are seeking spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being. More ayahuasca retreat centers are emerging in the Amazon and worldwide to meet the demand.

 

Ayahuasca Helps with Grief
A new study published in psychopharmacology found that ayahuasca helped those suffering from the loss of a loved one up to a year after treatment.

 

Ayahuasca Benefits: Clinical Improvements for Six Months
Ayahuasca benefits can last six months according to studies. Read here to learn about the clinical improvements from drinking the brew.

 

Ayahuasca Culture: Indigenous, Western, And The Future
Ayahuasca has been use for generations in the Amazon. With the rise of retreats and the brew leaving the rainforest how is ayahuasca culture changing?

 

Ayahuasca Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
The Amazonian brew, Ayahuasca has a long history and wide use. Read our guide to learn all about the tea from its beginnings up to modern-day interest.

 

Ayahuasca and the Godhead: An Interview with Wahid Azal of the Fatimiya Sufi Order
Wahid Azal, a Sufi mystic of The Fatimiya Sufi Order and an Islamic scholar, talks about entheogens, Sufism, mythology, and metaphysics.

 

Ayahuasca and the Feminine: Women’s Roles, Healing, Retreats, and More
Ayahuasca is lovingly called “grandmother” or “mother” by many. Just how feminine is the brew? Read to learn all about women and ayahuasca.

What Is the Standard of Care for Ketamine Treatments?
Ketamine therapy is on the rise in light of its powerful results for treatment-resistant depression. But, what is the current standard of care for ketamine? Read to find out.

What Is Dissociation and How Does Ketamine Create It?
Dissociation can take on multiple forms. So, what is dissociation like and how does ketamine create it? Read to find out.

Having Sex on Ketamine: Getting Physical on a Dissociative
Curious about what it could feel like to have sex on a dissociate? Find out all the answers in our guide to sex on ketamine.

Special K: The Party Drug
Special K refers to Ketamine when used recreationally. Learn the trends as well as safety information around this substance.

Kitty Flipping: When Ketamine and Molly Meet
What is it, what does it feel like, and how long does it last? Read to explore the mechanics of kitty flipping.

Ketamine vs. Esketamine: 3 Important Differences Explained
Ketamine and esketamine are used to treat depression. But what’s the difference between them? Read to learn which one is right for you: ketamine vs. esketamine.

Guide to Ketamine Treatments: Understanding the New Approach
Ketamine is becoming more popular as more people are seeing its benefits. Is ketamine a fit? Read our guide for all you need to know about ketamine treatments.

Ketamine Treatment for Eating Disorders
Ketamine is becoming a promising treatment for various mental health conditions. Read to learn how individuals can use ketamine treatment for eating disorders.

Ketamine Resources, Studies, and Trusted Information
Curious to learn more about ketamine? This guide includes comprehensive ketamine resources containing books, studies and more.

Ketamine Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
Our ultimate guide to ketamine has everything you need to know about this “dissociative anesthetic” and how it is being studied for depression treatment.

Ketamine for Depression: A Mental Health Breakthrough
While antidepressants work for some, many others find no relief. Read to learn about the therapeutic uses of ketamine for depression.

Ketamine for Addiction: Treatments Offering Hope
New treatments are offering hope to individuals suffering from addiction diseases. Read to learn how ketamine for addiction is providing breakthrough results.

Microdosing Ketamine & Common Dosages Explained
Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing ketamine.

How to Ease a Ketamine Comedown
Knowing what to expect when you come down from ketamine can help integrate the experience to gain as much value as possible.

How to Store Ketamine: Best Practices
Learn the best ways how to store ketamine, including the proper temperature and conditions to maximize how long ketamine lasts when stored.

How To Buy Ketamine: Is There Legal Ketamine Online?
Learn exactly where it’s legal to buy ketamine, and if it’s possible to purchase legal ketamine on the internet.

How Long Does Ketamine Stay in Your System?
How long does ketamine stay in your system? Are there lasting effects on your body? Read to discover the answers!

How Ketamine is Made: Everything You Need to Know
Ever wonder how to make Ketamine? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how Ketamine is made.

Colorado on Ketamine: First Responders Waiver Programs
Fallout continues after Elijah McClain. Despite opposing recommendations from some city council, Colorado State Health panel recommends the continued use of ketamine by medics for those demonstrating “excited delirium” or “extreme agitation”.

Types of Ketamine: Learn the Differences & Uses for Each
Learn about the different types of ketamine and what they are used for—and what type might be right for you. Read now to find out!

Kitty Flipping: When Ketamine and Molly Meet
What is it, what does it feel like, and how long does it last? Read to explore the mechanics of kitty flipping.

MDMA & Ecstasy Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
Our ultimate guide to MDMA has everything you want to know about Ecstasy from how it was developed in 1912 to why it’s being studied today.

How To Get the Most out of Taking MDMA as a Couple
Taking MDMA as a couple can lead to exciting experiences. Read here to learn how to get the most of of this love drug in your relationship.

Common MDMA Dosage & Microdosing Explained
Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing MDMA.

Having Sex on MDMA: What You Need to Know
MDMA is known as the love drug… Read our guide to learn all about sex on MDMA and why it is beginning to makes its way into couple’s therapy.

How MDMA is Made: Common Procedures Explained
Ever wonder how to make MDMA? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how MDMA is made.

Hippie Flipping: When Shrooms and Molly Meet
What is it, what does it feel like, and how long does it last? Explore the mechanics of hippie flipping and how to safely experiment.

How Cocaine is Made: Common Procedures Explained
Ever wonder how to make cocaine? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how cocaine is made.

A Christmas Sweater with Santa and Cocaine
This week, Walmart came under fire for a “Let it Snow” Christmas sweater depicting Santa with lines of cocaine. Columbia is not merry about it.

Ultimate Cocaine Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
This guide covers what you need to know about Cocaine, including common effects and uses, legality, safety precautions and top trends today.

NEWS: An FDA-Approved Cocaine Nasal Spray
The FDA approved a cocaine nasal spray called Numbrino, which has raised suspicions that the pharmaceutical company, Lannett Company Inc., paid off the FDA..

The Ultimate Guide to Cannabis Bioavailability
What is bioavailability and how can it affect the overall efficacy of a psychedelic substance? Read to learn more.

Cannabis Research Explains Sociability Behaviors
New research by Dr. Giovanni Marsicano shows social behavioral changes occur as a result of less energy available to the neurons. Read here to learn more.

The Cannabis Shaman
If recreational and medical use of marijuana is becoming accepted, can the spiritual use as well? Experiential journalist Rak Razam interviews Hamilton Souther, founder of the 420 Cannabis Shamanism movement…

Cannabis Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
Our ultimate guide to Cannabis has everything you want to know about this popular substances that has psychedelic properties.

Cannabis and Ayahuasca: Mixing Entheogenic Plants
Cannabis and Ayahuasca: most people believe they shouldn’t be mixed. Read this personal experience peppered with thoughts from a procannabis Peruvian Shaman.

CBD-Rich Cannabis Versus Single-Molecule CBD
A ground-breaking study has documented the superior therapeutic properties of whole plant Cannabis extract as compared to synthetic cannabidiol (CBD), challenging the medical-industrial complex’s notion that “crude” botanical preparations are less effective than single-molecule compounds.

Cannabis Has Always Been a Medicine
Modern science has already confirmed the efficacy of cannabis for most uses described in the ancient medical texts, but prohibitionists still claim that medical cannabis is “just a ruse.”

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