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…

Mysticism: Contemplative and Chemical

Some drugs can indeed induce genuine mystical experiences in some people on some occasions. However, they seem more likely to do so and more likely to produce enduring benefits in prepared minds.

Comes Spake the Cuckoo: An Interview with Ken Kesey

It was just another Saturday on Ken Kesey’s farm, but it felt like Shangri-La. The Cuckoo strode around his own eight acres, miles away, in a striped referee’s shirt, signing autographs and posing reticently for the cameras–an icon who, in the words of Hunter Thompson, “has found out a way to live out there where the real winds blow.

Masonic Templary III: The Contents of the Cup

Soma’s identification has eluded scholars for centuries. It is spoken of in the Vedas as a plant, a libation, a drug, a bull, and even a deity. Soma is not unlike the fruit of the tree of life in Judeo-Christian lore or the legendary amrita or food of the Greek gods.

The Use of DMT in Early Masonic Ritual

The psychoactive nature of acacia was fairly widely known in certain Masonic circles at least up until the late 1700s. However, some time between the mid to late 18th century and the 19th century occult revival, the secrets of acacia, like the true word of a Master Mason, appear to have been lost.

Creativity, Madness and Drugs – disinformation

Would we have Poe’s Raven today if the tormented author had taken lithium to suppress his bipolar illness? Not likely, considering the high frequency of psychiatric illnesses among writers and artists, concluded psychiatrist Kay Jamison of Johns Hopkins Medical School speaking last week at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

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.

Reflections on ESC & the Psychedelic Renaissance

ESC is a nonprofit launched in late 2013 and dedicated to “assuring the sustainability and safe use of traditional plants,” of which ayahuasca has been the clear priority thus far. All in all, ESC seems well-intentioned. So what are 17 experts (now 62) from Canada, Brazil, the UK, Australia, Costa Rica, Mexico, the US, and Colombia up in arms about?

Rainbow Wizard Science

Colin Bowring is a real life rainbow wizard. Smoke rings, lasers and mirrors oh my! Check out these shots from his recent gallery show.

Why Leary Matters Now

Leary’s self-critique illustrated the ways in which our identity is an egotistical game that we relentlessly play. Psychedelics offered release from the game: a way of disentangling ourselves from the social roles that seemed to envelope our being.