First, an apology! I haven’t posted much writing for a couple reasons. Between moving and working on a new project (which I’ll be announcing shortly), I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to polish my writing. I’ve got a few posts that I’ll be posting in the upcoming month hopefully. I’ve also been laying out and doing a bunch of reading for these Salons that I am hosting!
Starting this Saturday, July 17th, I will be hosting a series of Interintellect Salons on psychedelics. These are conversations that are centered around a specific topic and are meant to function in a similar way to living room gatherings. Tickets are $20.
The Salons I will be hosting are as follows:
July 17 – The Culture and History of Psychedelics
- We’ll talk about what exactly are psychedelic substances, we’ll explore the use of psychoactive substances in ancient times and modern times.
- We’ll also look at the psychedelic culture of the 60s and 70s — the good and the bad, exploring the cultural ramifications of this period of psychedelic usage.
- We’ll examine the reasons for their subsequent outlaw and the cultural shift that has brought them back into the public mind and what that means for us.
- In this Salon we will explore topics such as: What exactly are psychedelics? We will look at the usage of psychedelic substances in ancient cultures. We’ll tour the rise of the psychedelic culture in the 60s and the subsequent prohibition of their usage in the United States. What brought them back into the public’s eye today? Will they be sticking around? How should we think about the role psychedelics play in culture?
July 24 – Psychedelic Therapy and Psychedelics as Medicine
- In this Salon we’ll look at the current clinical trials exploring psychedelics as medicine. Psychedelic psychotherapy is being studied to help those with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and PTSD. How does this therapy work and why is it so effective? Are these substances simply working on the neurological level? How does the experience factor into the efficacy of psychedelics as medicines?
July 31 – The Philosophy of Psychedelics
- Here we will examine what, if anything, psychedelics tell us about the nature of reality, the mind, and what it means to be human. A frequent claim by psychonauts is that everything is connected and we are all one. Another is that love is everything. These are quite the metaphysical claims. Do those who take these substances gain access to the “true” nature of reality?
- Do psychedelics provide veridical (truth-tracking) experiences? What is the nature of these experiences? Do they provide epistemic knowledge or simply reveal things the user already knows unconsciously? What about the experience itself provides existential relief for people, and does the sense of love or connection provide the key?
- Another popular association with psychedelics is the concept of ego-dissolution or ego-death. What implications do psychedelics have on the concept of the self? What does it tell us about the consciousness?
August 7 – The Mystical, Religious, and Spiritual Dimensions of Psychedelics
- In this Salon we will look at what psychedelic experiences mean for individual spirituality, religions, and the mystical.
- A significant portion of psychedelic users cite their experience as being one of the top five most profound moments of their life, on par with their marriage or the birth of a child. What is it about these experiences that makes them so profound?
- Studies cite the mystical aspect of the experience as being the key to their importance. What about the experience makes them so mystical? Users sometimes describe the experience as being spiritual or religious in nature, including calling beings they encounter God, gods, angels, or just the Divine. In this Salon we’ll try to make sense of those experiences