Psychedelic Shaman

Psychedelics, Shamanism and 2012

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:58:00 -0800

Ok, so far on here I have specifically NOT mentioned the whole 2012 meme and what it means. I have kept my opinions to myself for the most part. Today I end my silence. So what is going to happen in a little over 11 months?

Well as you may know, depending on who you ask, it means either the destruction of this world or the coming of a new golden age. As you might guess I subscribe to neither assertion. If the astronomical data is correct around the time of December 21st of this year the earth will be near a point in space that aligns with the center of the galaxy on the plane of the ecliptic. If that data is accurate then there is a possibility that some kind of energy change will happen in our solar system. The sun is a giant electromagnetic fusion reactor and it is possible that this event, which last happened about 26,000 years ago, could trigger some kind of solar reaction. That in turn could have a direct effect on the earth.

I am not necessarily talking about a coronal mass ejection, nor giant solar flares. However, such things could happen. My gut instinct as well as divination tell me that the effects will be subtle. The change in solar radiation will cause a change in human behavior. Some evidence exists that cycles of high solar activity many times result in times of violence and crisis in human populations. What is different this time is the position of our solar system in relation to the galactic center. Will this alignment cause a fundamental change in the kind of solar radiation hitting the planet? I suspect it will.

Those of you who are familiar with the webbot project at www.halfpasthuman.com will notice that the head time monk Clif High has suggested that around March of this year we will be experiencing what he calls "release language" What that means, without getting too technical is that humans are going to be in a state of releasing pent up tension on a grand scale. This has happened before according to Clif, an example would be 9/11. The same kind of release was experienced, however tensions started building again within days of the event. With this event coming in March the tensions don't start to appreciably build until June if I am reading his interpretations correctly.

So what does this mean? And how does it relate to the 2012 end times date?

Well first I would say that March is the beginning of spring, so astronomically there will be differences in how the earth is positioned in relation to the sun and by extension, the galactic center. My guides have let me know that this will not be a time of great disaster, at least not for those living in the NW of the USA instead we will be seeing a series of events that will totally blow our collective mind. One of my guides told me that it will be for many people like they woke up and found out that they were living in a Sci Fi movie. In other words some strange shit is going to go down. This high weirdness will be experienced on such a grand scale that people will be talking about it for months. What kind of weirdness? Hard to say exactly. My guides were being cryptic on this point but I would gather that we are going to all be experiencing things that will make many of us think we are going crazy. Except that it will be happening to enough other people that collectively we are all going to know that something weird is happening. Think missing time, time slips, mass UFO sightings, massive paranormal experiences, etc.

Now this leads me up to Dec 21. By that time I think that a large percentage of humans, maybe not the majority but a large percentage will ready for some kind of reality shifting event. There will be gatherings on a massive scale. Hundreds of thousands of people will gather together to pray for peace, understanding and global awakening. I believe that this gathering of humanity will have such a profound effect that it will cause our world to experience an awakening on a species wide level. It will be like the whole world took a dose of Yage! This will cause a death to the old world and a birth to a new one.

Those of you who can, I suggest making shamanic journeys to communicate with your guides as often as possible between now and March to acclimate yourself to the new meme that will be spreading through humanity. Furthermore if you can find a qualified ayahuascero to lead you in a ceremony. I have written on this blog before of my personal experiments and while I feel they have done me no harm physically or psychically. I must concede that I am not typical. If you have never done powerful psychedelics before in ritual then I would suggest finding someone experienced in doing so. Ideally an experienced shaman but living in North America you find it hard to find one. As an alternative I suggest using a lighter mind altering substance such as marijuana or perhaps a small dose of mushrooms. Combine that with a shamanic drumming tape or binaural beats. I have such a ritual that I will be posting in the next couple of days to help those who may want to get in contact with their spirit guides to help them handle this time of transition.

Please note that I am not saying it is necessary to take a psychoactive, it may be you will not need such help. This may especially be true if you use binaural tapes with invocational scripts. If you are uncomfortable or inexperience in the use of mild altering substances in general then please do NOT use them. These states can be experienced without mind altering drugs. This blog is called Psychedelic Shamanism so it is from that perspective that I report my experiments and experiences but I do not suggest anyone copy what I am doing unless they are experienced or unless they wish to risk their sanity.

Symbiosis Gathering 2012 - Solar Eclipse

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:34:00 -0800

Pyramid Lake Nevada, May 17th - 22nd Symbiosis Gathering featuring a solar eclipse on May 20th.

I live within driving distance to this event and I am going to be attending. Any of you who want to meet up there, just leave me a comment and we can make arrangements. For ticket info go to http://www.pyramideclipse.com

Looks like this is going to be a really cool gathering and the fact that an eclipse is taking place makes it a once in a lifetime event for those of use in the North American west.

See ya there

Being a Psychedelic Shaman or Hallucinogenic Magick in Theory and Practice

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:30:00 -0800

Here is an excerpt from a something I posted over at Evolver.net called: Being a Psychedelic Shaman or Hallucinogenic Magick in Theory and Practice. You can read the rest of it by clicking on the link at the bottom of the excerpt.

Being a Psychedelic Shaman or Hallucinogenic Magick in Theory and Practice

I have been using mind altering drugs for spiritual exploration for most of my adult life. I am 41 now and I feel like I am just beginning to understand how these amazing substances can really change the world. I have also been studying magick, shamanism and mysticism for most of my adult life. When I started combining the two over 20 years ago, there wasn't much published on the subject. Yes there were books on using psychedelics for spirituality, however these books usually followed the eastern mysticism path. While there is nothing wrong with eastern mysticism, I just wasn't interested in just passively observing. I wanted a more active form of spiritual attainment. Although I did meditate, my real interests focused on western magick and hermeticism. I had read books on witchcraft or wicca, I even joined a coven for a while. I also read books on shamanism and hermetic magick. The books that heavily influenced me at the time were; Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner, The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda, and Magick in theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley. Each book gave me a piece to the puzzle but I was still lacking a good method of integrating these powerful substances into a context of magical ritual.

At this same time most people in the magical/spiritual community were rabidly anti-drug. No smoking pot before circle! Drugs and ritual don't mix! You can go insane by trying to mix drugs and ritual! Whenever I pointed out that hallucinogens have been used by primitive cultures going back thousands of year, I was met with skepticism and suspicion. Even those who were sympathetic told me that, while it may be true shamans of old used psychedelic plants, they had teachers experienced in such practices and we don't, so don't do them. That was that.

Read the Rest Here

Plant alchemy and Gnosis

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:54:00 -0800

Part of the nature of the human animal is a need to transcend its normal conscious awareness. This need for humans to alter perception and awareness has led us to experiment with everything from fasting and self flagellation to the consumption of exotic plants and animals. All in an effort to change our perceptions. Why? That question has many different answers and perhaps has as many answers as there are people. My suspicion is that expanded awareness and our quest as a species to transcend normal waking awareness function as a kind of instinctual internal compass meant to direct us towards a more evolutionary adaptive method of perceiving the world.

This line of thinking leads me to contemplate the role of plants in human diet. It is widely believed that our earliest human ancestors were primarily vegetarian, but were opportunistically omnivorous, meaning that we would occasionally scavenge kills from predictors to supplement our diet with the much more calorie dense meat. I for one find this hard to believe. Personally I think that the earliest humans were most likely like chimps in that we ate bugs for protein and fruits and vegetables when we could find them and would hunt small animals occasionally. I know this sounds like I am going off on a tangent here but bare with me. So you see, as far as plants go, humans would go for fruits and vegetables, roots, tubers etc. However, how ever did we develop some of the sophisticated forms of plant medicines that ancient peoples had access to?

This is where magic and altered states go hand and hand. Dreams are the one altered state that can be said to be common to all humans. The dream state has for all of mankind's history been seen as a direct path to communication with gods, spirits, ghosts and all the other denizens of the spirit world. Theses spirits in many times are helpful and act as teachers to those who seek out knowledge and guidance. In cultures that view the world as pantheistic (spirit exists in everything) plants are seen as conscious beings that humans can communicate with. In fact in many shamanic traditions, psychoactive plants are called Teacher Plants. Shamans in these traditions report that they are taught how to use the plants in different ways by the plants themselves, or rather the spirits of the plants. These communications may start as rituals of communion months or years before the plants themselves are consumed. By building a relationship with the plant spirit, the shaman learns all he needs to know about how to use the plant and how to navigate the altered states that the plants produce.

In this way, modern shamans differ greatly with those of generations past. Today, you can buy all the ingredients for Ayahuasca by mail, mix it up in your kitchen and be tripping and barfing by that evening. There is no perceived need to commune with the plant. I think this is a mistake and a missed opportunity for modern psychedelic shamans. By personifying the plant spirits and by addressing them, we can build relationships with these plants and maybe develop new techniques and new practices based on knowledge given by the plants themselves. This is the approach that our ancestors took and it seemed to work pretty damn good, considering that they were about to discover plant combinations that would take millions of years to happen upon by mere chance.

Coming Soon!
A full modern ayahuasca ritual to invoke the spirit of yage and begin the process of making yage your spirit ally.

Can Psychedelics Ever Become Mainstream

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:37:00 -0800

As an entheogen enthusiest as well as an activist for personal freedom I sometimes pause to examine some of my beliefs about how I would like the world to be. For example I would be overjoyed if this country and indeed the rest of the world would abandon the tyranical and wastfull war on drugs. I long for the time when the majority of people will recognize that people have the right to alter their consciousness any way they see fit and that they should be able to do that by consuming whatever substance they choose.

Even though I work every day twards realizing that goal, I can't help but wonder if we can ever have a world like that. I notice that behaviors and lifestyles that are out of the mainstream sometimes take generations to gain the tolerance let alone acceptance of the majority. Just look at the homosexual community in the US. A generation ago being gay was seen as antisocial, immoral, sinfull, illegal and dangerous. Today, while there are still those who still believe those things about Gays, those attitudes are starting to fade. However gays still do not enjoy complete acceptance by the mainstream and it may take another 30 year before being gay is seen as just another lifestyle. Drug use is even more problematic when it comes to gaining acceptance. We are still living at a time when drug use and drug users are seen as antisocial, immoral, sinful, illegal and dangerous. Homosexuality is for the most part now seen as being something that you are born with and not a choice (why this should make a difference I do not know) which has helped the general public sympathize with the plight of homosexuals. Drug use is seen as a choice and indeed it IS a choice but it is a viable choice for those who wish to alter their perceptions. Will the Just Say No attitude ever change? There are some signs that such attitudes are changing, but as long as the consumption of drugs to alter our minds is seen as ESCAPIST and somehow a sign of weakness we will always face a certain stigma from the public.

Take for instance the medical marijuana legal rollercoaster of the past 4 years. First, President Obama campaigned on a platform that you shouldn't keep sick people away from their medicine. Further he suggested that medical marijuana was a low priority and that dispensaries and patients would not be harassed. Now, 4 years later with his 2nd term in jeopardy, President Obama is allowing his Justice Department to use threats and intimidation to cow state and local authorities. States like California that had a thriving medical marijuana industry are now facing threats of closure form local authorities. I actually feel sorry for these local officials. In many cases the US Attorney General has suggested that by granting business licences to these California LEGAL businesses, that they are somehow committing a Federal offense. So local officials are caught between carrying out the will of California voters or facing Federal drug prosecution.

Poles show again and again that most Americans favor legal medical marijuana. However this doesn't matter to the president. Drug prohibition is big business and the Obama administration has never met a government program it wanted to cut, so naturally they need to ramp up spending again for the drug war. Its all an endless cycle. Peoples attitudes have obviously changed but the government doesn't know or care about this. Government has to enforce control over people.

Until such a time that psychoactive drugs become legally available for all Americans, the only way that we can exercise our human right to consume what we want, is be outlaws. The suburban shamans mixing up ayahuasca or yage in their kitchen to share with his friends. The covert mushroom growers who are looking to grow just enough for their own use and maybe a bit more for friends. The medical marijuana patient that has to grow his own in order to secure a supply of his medicine. All of us in the psychedelic underground, we must stay the coarse. Our time will come. It may take decades but I have no doubt that legal access and use will be available in our lifetime. Until then, keep up the fight. Keep up the research. Keep the drums beating.

Calif. counties lose bid to overturn marijuana law

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Sat, 2 Aug 2008 21:05:00 -0700

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal law does not pre-empt state law in a court battle over the licensing of medical marijuana, an appeals court has ruled.

San Diego and San Bernardino counties had argued that issuing identification cards to eligible users, as required by the 1996 state law, would violate federal law, which does not recognize the state measure.

But the appeals court concluded Thursday that ID card laws "do not pose a significant impediment" to the federal Controlled Substances Act because that law is designed to "combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state's medical practices."

San Diego supervisors had sued to overturn the state law after it was passed by voters in 1996, but a Superior Court judge ruled against them in 2006. The county appealed last year and was joined by San Bernardino.

The counties have 40 days to either appeal Thursday's ruling to the California Supreme Court or implement an ID card program.

"The court didn't really get to the key issue," said Thomas D. Bunton, senior deputy county counsel in San Diego. "(Federal law) clearly regulates medical practices. It says marijuana has no currently accepted medical use."

Neuroscientists find God in mushrooms

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Wed, 9 Aug 2006 00:06:00 -0700

Neuroscientists find God in mushrooms

Wednesday July 12, 2006
By Jeremy Laurance

LONDON - A universal mystical experience with life-changing effects
can be produced by the hallucinogen contained in magic mushrooms,
scientists claimed yesterday.

Forty years after Timothy Leary, the apostle of drug-induced
mysticism, urged his 1960s hippie followers to "tune in, turn on, and
drop out", researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the US have for
the first time demonstrated that mystical experiences can be produced
safely in the laboratory.

They say that there is no difference between drug-induced mystical
experiences and the spontaneous religious ones that believers have
reported for centuries. They are "descriptively identical".

And they argue that the potential of the hallucinogenic drugs, ignored
for decades because of their links with illicit drug use in the 1960s,
must be explored to develop new treatments for depression, drug
addiction and the treatment of intolerable pain.

Anticipating criticism from church leaders, they say they are not
interested in the "Does God exist?" debate. "This work can't and won't
go there."

Interest in the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs is growing around
the world. In the UK, the Royal College of Psychiatrists debated their
use at a conference in March for the first time for 30 years. A
conference held in Basel, Switzerland, last January, reviewed the
growing psychedelic psychiatry movement.

The drug psilocybin is the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, which
grow wild in Wales and were openly sold in London markets until a
change in the law last year.

For the Johns Hopkins study, 30 middle-aged volunteers who had
religious or spiritual interests attended two eight-hour drug
sessions, two months apart, receiving psilocybin in one session and a
non-hallucinogenic stimulant - Ritalin - in the other. They were not
told which drug was which.

One-third described the experience with psilocybin as the most
spiritually significant of their lifetime and two-thirds rated it
among their five most meaningful experiences.

In more than 60 per cent of cases the experience qualified as a "full
mystical experience" based on established psychological scales, the
researchers say. Some likened it to the importance of the birth of
their first child or the death of a parent.

The effects lasted for at least two months. Eight out of 10 of the
volunteers reported moderately or greatly increased wellbeing or life
satisfaction. Relatives, friends and colleagues confirmed the changes.

The study is one of the first in the new discipline of "neurotheology"
-the neurology of religious experience. The researchers, who report
their findings in the online journal Psychopharmacology, say that,
though unorthodox, their aim is to explore the possible benefits of
drugs like psilocybin.

Professor Roland Griffiths, of the department of neuroscience and
psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, said: "As a reaction to the excesses of
the 1960s, human research with hallucinogens has been basically frozen
in time. I had a healthy scepticism going into this. [But] under
defined conditions, with careful preparation, you can safely and
fairly reliably occasion what's called a primary mystical experience
that may lead to positive changes in a person.

"It is an early step in what we hope will be a large body of
scientific work that will ultimately help people."

A third of the volunteers became frightened during the drug sessions
with some reporting feelings of paranoia.

The researchers say psilocybin is not toxic or addictive, unlike
alcohol and cocaine, but that volunteers must be accompanied
throughout the experience by people who can help them through it.

The study is hailed as a landmark by former director of the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, Charles Schuster, in a commentary published
alongside the research.

In a second commentary, Huston Smith, America's leading authority on
comparative religion, writes that mystical experience "is as old as
humankind" and attempts to induce it using psychoactive plants were
made in some ancient cultures, such as classical Greece, and in some
contemporary small-scale cultures.

"But this is the first scientific demonstration in 40 years, and the
most rigorous ever, that profound mystical states can be produced
safely in the laboratory. The potential is great."

Enthogens, DNA, and Technology

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 26 May 2006 20:50:00 -0700

I have recently begun reading the book The Cosmic Serpent - DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby. This is a fascinating book about an anthropoligist sent to study the traditional use of plants by native peoples in the amazon rainforest.

I had passed over this books many times in the passed not realizing that it was a detailed account of one man's attempt to understand the enthogen ayahuasca and how the knowledge aquired through its use is just as valid as how western science aquires knowledge. Indeed in its own way it is superior to western science in that the plants are the teachers of how to use them. There is no guessing involved. Here is a brief synopsis of the book.

Originally sent to try to prove the economic efficacy of how the natives of the region use the plants, he was initially fustrated by how the shamans described how they went about finding out the medicinal uses of these plants. While no one would argue with the effectivness of these plants at curing, it was the shamans' claim that they were shown how to use the plants by ayahuasca. Ayahuasca being a hallucinagen, this was initially very fustrating to Mr Narby, how could he prove that these indians were using the plants in an econmicly efficient way if they claimed that they got the knowledge from the plants themselves. This conundrum leads the author to eventually experience the power of ayahuasca for himself. This becomes a totally transformational moment for the author. His experience leads him to the Radical idea that perhaps anthropoligists have been wrong in assuming that the discriptions of the spirits seen after taking ayahuasca were mere hallucinatory imaginings. Instead perhaps these visions should be taken literally!

This radical notion leads the author to consider that perhaps the serpents, vines and other serpentine motifs of the ayahuasca visions were actually DNA communicating with the mind of the shaman!

This book is absolutly fascinating and I cannot recommend it enough! It presents an idea of how our knowledge of the universe can be augmented by expanding our concepts of how the universe works and that by combining western science with the knowledge of tribal cultures can give us knowledge greater than what can be understood by either worldview alone.

Ayahuasca in National Geographic Adventure Magazine

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 26 May 2006 20:36:00 -0700

The following excerpt is from National Geographic Adventure Magazine's website. Click the link above to read the entire story.

For centuries, Amazonian shamans have used ayahuasca as a window into the soul. The sacrament, they claim, can cure any illness. The author joins in this ancient ritual and finds the worlds within more terrifying—and enlightening—than ever imagined.

I will never forget what it was like. The overwhelming misery. The certainty of never-ending suffering. No one to help you, no way to escape. Everywhere I looked: darkness so thick that the idea of light seemed inconceivable.

Suddenly, I swirled down a tunnel of fire, wailing figures calling out to me in agony, begging me to save them. Others tried to terrorize me. "You will never leave here," they said. "Never. Never."

I found myself laughing at them. "I'm not scared of you," I said. But the darkness became even thicker; the emotional charge of suffering nearly unbearable. I felt as if I would burst from heartbreak—everywhere, I felt the agony of humankind, its tragedies, its hatreds, its sorrows. I reached the bottom of the tunnel and saw three thrones in a black chamber. Three shadowy figures sat in the chairs; in the middle was what I took to be the devil himself.

"The darkness will never end," he said. "It will never end. You can never escape this place."

"I can," I replied.

All at once, I willed myself to rise. I sailed up through the tunnel of fire, higher and higher until I broke through to a white light. All darkness immediately vanished. My body felt light, at peace. I floated among a beautiful spread of colors and patterns. Slowly my ayahuasca vision faded. I returned to my body, to where I lay in the hut, insects calling from the jungle.

"Welcome back," the shaman said.

The next morning, I discovered the impossible: The severe depression that had ruled my life since childhood had miraculously vanished.

Giant blue butterflies flutter clumsily past our canoe. Parrots flee higher into treetops. The deeper we go into the Amazon jungle, the more I realize I can't turn back. It has been a year since my last visit, and I'm here again in Peru traveling down the Río Aucayacu for more shamanistic healing. The truth is, I'm petrified to do it a second time around. But with shamanism—and with the drinking of ayahuasca in particular—I've learned that, for me, the worse the experience, the better the payoff. There is only one requirement for this work: You must be brave. You'll be learning how to save yourself.

The jungle camp where our shamanistic treatment will take place is some 200 miles (322 kilometers) from the nearest town, Iquitos, deep in the Peruvian Amazon. Beside me are the other four members of my tour. There is Winston, the biggest person I've ever met. Nearly seven feet tall (two meters), surely over 400 pounds (181 kilograms), he has a powerful body that could easily rip someone apart. I expect him to be a bodyguard or a bouncer; turns out he's a security guard. But there is something else about him. Something less tangible. It seems to rest in the black circles beneath his eyes, the face that never smiles, the glances that immediately dismiss all they survey. Winston does not seem like a happy man.

Then the others: Lisa, who has a master's degree from Stanford and is now pursuing her doctorate in political theory at Duke University; Christy, who just quit her job counseling at-risk teens to travel around South America; and Katherine, Christy's British friend. By all appearances, our group seems to be composed of ordinary citizens. No New Age energy healers. No pan flute makers. No hippies or Rastafarians or nouveau Druids. Christy betrays only a passing interest in becoming a yoga instructor.

And then there is me, who a year ago came to Peru on a lark to take the "sacred spirit medicine," ayahuasca, and get worked over by shamans. Little suspecting that I'd emerge from it feeling as if a waterlogged wool coat had been removed from my shoulders—literally feeling the burden of depression lifted—and thinking that there must be something to this crazy shamanism after all.

And so I am back again.

Story continues

Watch a video clip of an ayahuasca ceremony here

Binaural Beats, Ayahuasca and Sorcery

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Wed, 24 May 2006 16:21:00 -0700

I only now have the presence of mind to relate to you all my latest experiment with ayahuasca. First let me start of by saying that I have a copy of a very interesting program call BrainWave sychronizer. With this software you can create special audio signals call binaural beats which are made by pumping sound of 2 differing frequencies in to each side of your headphones. The 2 sounds produce a harmonic wave that creates and audible beat. These beats create a phenomenon called brainwave entrainment. By utilizing these sounds one can literally program your mind to produce different brainwaves in the alpha, theta and even delta bandwith. I have used the software by itself for some time and I have always intended to try using it with either a psychedelic or during ritual. Well last night I decieded to do both.

I designed a 60 min audio program to entrain my brain to go from alph for 20 min. to theta for 20 min. finally finishing with 20 minutes of delta waves. I also recorded myself doing the ritual in its entirety from banishing, to invocation and final closing. I timed it so that the ritual would finish after 40 min. Allowing the last 20 min. to be left for activation of the ritual intent. I exported the program to an mp3 and loaded it on my pocket pc so I could listen to it with headphones and not have to be at my computer. I had started about 2 hours before this time by ingesting a 15 gram combination of Syrian Rue and Mimosa Hostilis. I was just starting to get some of the preliminary effects of the huasca when I donned my headphones and started the program. I then went into my room which I had prepared by dimming the lights and lighting some pleasent incense, and layed down on my bed. The combination of the brainwave entraining beats, my own voice doing the ritual and the ayahuasca gave me the most intense closed eyed visuals that I have ever had. I fully visualized myself doing the ritual as I was listening to it. I had a vision of myself dressed in cerimonial garb projecting energy and tracing flaming blue pentagrams in the air. I could feel the names of power vibrating in my body as I listened and visualized the ritual progress. During the invocational portion of the ritual I had the distinct feeling of being 'inhabited' by the entity that I was trying to invoke. I felt like I was filled up, that somehow my body had expanded to 10 times it's normal size! In the final 20 min. of the program I had a very detailed visionary experience that is a bit too personal for me to write about at this time but sifice it to say, I felt like I was being shown these things by this entity. I was told that this entity was working in conjunction with the ayahuasca to show me these things and that I should do more invocations if I wanted to strengthen my ablity to bring back knowledge from this state.

There is a lot more to the experience, but I still need time to process it. I will be writting more about it as I am able to intigrate more of the experience into my conscious memory.

Longer Clip of Terence Mckenna's Last Public Lecture

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 12 May 2006 23:35:00 -0700

Here is a longer clip from Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines by Terence Mckenna. This one is 13 min. long and is found on google video. By the way if you have bittorrent I understand that the entire 86 min video is available for download. I don't have a link but if you are a regular user of bittorrent then you know where to look to find a link. Anyway, enjoy!

Non Drug Altered States from Viking Youth Power Hour

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 12 May 2006 23:23:00 -0700

As a student of magick and shamanism, altered states and how to attain them are an ongoing area of intense study and interest of mine. Though it may seem that I have a preference from drug induced altered states, I would love to be able to quickly and realiably achieve similar results without the need of chemical assistance. To that end I have made a life long study of the technologies of hypnosis and NLP which I have found to be THE most effective ways to achieve novel states of consciousness at will. If you are interested in hearing a discussion of such topics, tune in to the latest podcast from The Viking Youth Power Hour in which they discuss trance induction using NLP and other subjects of interest.

Daniel Pinchbeck, 2012 and the Return of Quetzalcoatl

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 12 May 2006 22:57:00 -0700

Well I just started reading Daniel Pinchbeck's new book 2012
and I have to say that so far I am very impressed. Pinchbeck may indeed be Terence Mckenna's successor as the literary voice of the psychedelic community. Drawing from topics as varied as mayan and toltec myth, crop circles, alien abductions, amazonian shamanism and transpersonal psychology Mr. Pinchbeck has created in his words a though provoking "thought experiment" that resonated deeply with some of my deepest intuitions about the striking transformations that are taking place on this planet. If you would like to read an excerpt of the first two chapters you can find them at disinfo.com:

Chapter One

Chapter two

If you are interested in hearing Daniel talk about some of the themes found in 2012
you can tune into a podcast of a talk he gave at last years burningman festival entitled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dimensional Shift." This is just one of many interesting Podcasts From The Psychedelic Salon which include recordings of Terence Mckenna, Shasha and Ann Shulgin, Alex Grey and others of interest. Check them out!

Drug Sanity South of the Border

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Tue, 9 May 2006 16:46:00 -0700

By Margaret Dooley, AlterNet
Posted on May 8, 2006, Printed on May 9, 2006

"Appallingly stupid" is how San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders jumped to describe the Mexican Senate's recent overwhelming approval of legislation that would, in a limited way, decriminalize the possession of small amounts of some drugs. Our city officials' knee-jerk condemnation of the bill, which District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said would send "addicts pouring onto our streets," was as predictable as it was disappointing.

Worse still was that Mexico's President Vicente Fox bowed to U.S. pressure and vetoed the legislation, which would have removed incentives for corruption and allowed law enforcement to focus their limited resources on organized and violent crime. When Mexico's legislature takes up the issue again in the fall, it should have the courage to continue drafting drug policies that are far more practical than our own.

Certainly, American and Mexican residents alike would be very concerned if, by some change of law, drugs suddenly became much more available to youth on either side of the border. But the Mexican legislation in question, which proposes to reduce (but not remove) criminal penalties for low-level drug possession, would not do that -- just as similar policies have not increased the availability of drugs in Western Europe and Canada.

Indeed, our own policies have proved much worse in this regard. Despite a $40-billion-a-year drug war, "controlled substances" are more available and cheaper than they have ever been -- in San Diego and around the United States. And, unlike alcohol, these drugs are as available to kids as to adults.

Because we enforce a drinking age on this side of the border, there is clear incentive for our youth to head south in search of alcohol (where the age limit of 18 is poorly enforced). No such incentives exist for marijuana or methamphetamine, nor would they had President Fox signed the bill this week. Why drive south and wait in line to cross the border, when you can already buy it at school or from a neighbor?

San Diego officials know how pervasive drugs are in this city, so it is disingenuous for them to oppose Mexico's legislation based on concerns about increased availability of drugs.

And yet no one is surprised that our mayor and district attorney, among others, rushed to condemn the Mexican bill last week. This is because Mexico's decision flies in the face of our national government's 30-year-old crusade to eradicate illegal drugs -- and does so very close to home. Drug war advocates say that reducing criminal penalties for possession of controlled substances is akin to admitting defeat. It sends the wrong message, they say.

But isn't it the right thing to do?

In the name of sending the right message, we have incarcerated millions of Americans over the last three decades. More people are in prison for drug charges in the United States than are incarcerated for all crimes in Western Europe, which has a larger total population. In California alone, the number of people incarcerated for drug possession quadrupled in the 12 years between 1988 and 2000, peaking at 20,116. And yet drug use remains stable.

Our fear of sending the wrong message is stopping us from implementing policies that would keep drugs away from youth and would better prevent and treat addiction. We must not be afraid to admit that drugs and drug addiction will never be eradicated. Instead, we must work toward reducing the harm that drugs cause. That means being more practical and perhaps being a little more like our neighbors to the south.

Margaret Dooley, who is based in San Diego, is the outreach coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance.
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/35891/

Terence Mckenna on YouTube.com

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Tue, 9 May 2006 01:16:00 -0700

Here is a clip I found of Terence giving what ended up being his last recorded lecture. The video is called Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines. If you can get a copy of the video I highly recommend it.

Transcending Fear and the Shamanic experience

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 3 Feb 2006 23:12:00 -0800

Practicing my own personal form of neo-shamanism has been a transformational experience for me. Looking over some of my old journal entries I find that I have changed much in my world view and my expectiation about life. Primarily I have found that the most rewarding aspect of my practice has been that it has forced my time and again to confront fear. It is the confrontation and transcending of fear that I believe it THE most important factor in attainment of shamanic knowledge. I believe that this experience is similar to that of "Stalking Power" which has been described by other authors of books on indigenous shamanism. Only by transcending our fears can we have access to true power. We modern humans living in the so called First World nation states are constantly bombarded with images and symbols of fear. The evening news if filled with terrorizing images. Irronically however, our society is suprisingly safe. We have fairly long lifespans especially compared with those living in the so called Third World. Few of us have to fear that our children will be drafted into a revolutionary army or kidnapped and held for ransom. This illustrates the disconnect from reality that the western news media has succesfully created for the viewing public. Magick, shamanism and psychedelics as well as other technologies of de-conditioning are vital to those who wish to wake up from the socio-cultural mediasphere.

Fear is the control mechanism that is used by the elite to control you. It has been this way since the beginning of culture (i.e. the beginnings of cities and governments) If we are to fully awaken to our potential as human beings it is essential to learn to overcome the culturally enforced irrational fears that are use to contol us. I have found that by using the techniques of hermetic magick, shamanism and the selective use of plant based psychoactives that it is possible to see thru the illusion of culture. To in effect see thru the Matrix and become aware. Aware of what you may ask? Well I will not say aware of reality because after all, each of us percieves reality in our own way. What I will say is that by deconditioning yourself you learn to sense the world in a more primal way, as a reaction to your sensory input unfiltered by culturaly installed mental programs. Hopefully, one day enough people will become aware of how we are controlled and free themselves enough to effect change on this planet on a much wider scale. Until that time comes I encourage everyone to question, explore and push the boundaries of thier experience, only by doing so can you arrive at some understanding of the nature of awareness and hopefully help others to become more aware.

NeoHuasca Taking The Red Pill

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:11:00 -0800

NeoHuasca - A Mimosa hostillis extract with a dark red coloring that can be gel capped and taking in conjunction with an MAOI such as syrian rue. Such a combination results in a powerful entheogenic experience. I call it NeoHuasca both as a nod to the Matrix films and the Red Pill that Neo swallows to make his escape, and to differentiate it from traditional Ayahuasca or Yaje. Having tryed traditional formulations of Yaje I can tell you that the effects are markedly different. NeoHuasca is just as powerful of a hallucinagen but without the purging and crapping that goes along with the traditional methods. Having experienced both I find I prefer NeoHuasca for convenience sake. There is something to be said however for the traditional method of brewing and consumption. The purging that comes with it can have a powerful healing effect but there is a definate recovery period, at least for me, and the Red Pills are far better suited to the magickal operations with which I am currently involved. The following is a short discription of how to prepare NeoHuasca:

How to Create Red Pills
------------------------

Ingredients and Equipment
Mimosa Hostilis

Syrian Rue

Lemon juice concentrate
A pyrex baking dish
A Crockpot and/or 2 large pots (dutch oven style work best)
Blender or coffee grinder
Coffee filters and/or pantyhoes (filter and strain)

Using scissors or shears cut the M. Hostilis bark into pieces small enough to fit in your blender or grinder and then pulverize it. Dump your now pulverized root bark into a crockpot or large dutch oven style pot, I don't have a working crockpot so I use a pot. Pour in just enough water to cover your root bark, then turn on the heat and bring to a boil. Now begin adding your lemon juice about a tablespoon at a time, until the water starts forming a frothy bubbles this is a sign that we have acidified the water in the right amount. Now, cover the pot and simmer at a low boil for about 3 hours. Pour the mixture through your filter into another pot and put aside, take the pulp that you strained out and return it to your boiling pot and again cover it with water and add lemon juice, boiling for another 3 hours. Repeat the filtering process adding this liquid to the first batch, discarding the pulp. Boil until there is about an inch of liquid left in the pot. Pour this now dark red liquid into your Pyrex baking dish and put it over low heat. It will start to bubble, when these bubbles start to grow bigger instead of popping and/or the liquid starts getting thick and viscous turn off the heat and cover the pan and put it aside to cure. The resulting residue will by a sticky tarlike substance that is a dark red to maroon color that you will have to scrape off the dish. You can gel cap it and take it along with gel capped ground Rue. The tar is very sticky and can be a bit fustrating to cap, If you leave the tar out in the air it will eventually (after many days) turn into a hard resin like compound. This resin can be powdered and used in the gel caps as well. I am not sure if there is a loss of potency when you let it dry out that much, I only discovered this after I only had a little left of the substance and the effect seemed a bit weaker but that could have been because I had to make due with a smaller dose. Here is some guidelines on dosage:
6-10 grams of the M. Hostilis extract
3-4 grams Syrian Rue

I have found that taking the gel caps in 3 doses every 20 min. eliminates nausea and makes for a smooth trip.

Have fun exploring and as always be careful!

A Review of Yaje - The New Purgatory

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:30:00 -0800

A Review of Yaje: The New Purgatory By Jimmy Weiskopf

In the past few years there has been many books written by western authors on the subject of the use of Ayahuasca or Yaje by native shamans of South America and although such books have served a vital role in reporting on the phenomenon of Yaje, few have captured the distinct experience of Yaje use in the context of a rapidly changing Latin America. In Yaje: The New Purgatory, Jimmy Weiskopf has successfully captured the mood that reflects the ancient practices of the amazon shamans against the backdrop of Columbia, a country that is a portrait of contrasts. In the book Jimmy recounts his repeated visits to Columbia to take Yaje and learn about its spiritual and physical healing power.

When reading any book on modern accounts of shamanism and psychedelics one cannot avoid comparisons with the works of Carlos Castenada and the enigmatic Don Juan Matus. In Yaje, Mr. Weiskopf has drawn a compelling picture of a modern shaman every bit as wise and wierd as Don Juan. In the personage of Taita Pacho Peaguaje we find such a character, with the added bonus of actual pictures which leave little doubt of his existance. The story details the authors stay with Pacho and his family as well as his experiences drinking Yaje repeatedly over the course of his stay.

Yaje is more than just a personal account of one mans experience with the sacred brew. Yaje also details the principals of the indigenous traditions of Columbia as well as the latest anthropological and botanical research. Yaje - The new Purgatory is first and foremost a literary work and as such it is both an entertaining and engrossing read. The author however has gone above and beyond the call by including the results of painstaking research on every aspect of Yaje use. At over 600 pages, including a glossery of terms, Yaje - The new Purgatory is not a light read but if you want to get some deep insight into the use of vision plants by indigenous cultures there are few books that can compare.

Psychedelic Shaman Podcast #1

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 14:46:00 -0800

Psychedelic Shaman Podcast #1 is now online!!! Take a listen and then post a comment here to tell me what you think. Its a little rough but its my first attempt. I this podcast I talk a little about why I use psychedelics, and some of my ideas about what modern shamanism and how modern shamans differ from shamans in tribal societies. Anyway I hope you like it. And if you have any suggestions for future shows, just leave a comment.

Soon to be a Minor Motion Picture! and more musings

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 02:09:00 -0800

The adventures of The Psychedelic Shaman is going to be making its way into the world of film...sort of. I have been toying with the idea of podcasting for a few months now and I have decided to go ahead and start a podcast. In fact it should be posted within the next week or so, just in time for the new year. Anyway, I was looking around for some suitable tools to use for the podcast when I happened to come across a review of activisions new game The Movies. Apparently this game allows you to create 3d animated movies as a part of the game play. These movies can be saved and posted online. So, being a wannabe director, I thought why not use it to make my own little subversive movies about psychedelics, magick, reality hacking, etc. And post them on the web. In this way I can get some of my ideas across without worries of revealing my Secret Identity.

On to other topics...

I am currently ordering more mimosa hostillis and some Salvia divinorum for further experiments with cultural deprogramming. I have come to realize thru such experimentation that where psychedelics excel is in the realm of deprogramming the mind. Allowing the mind to suspend cultural programming, at least temporarily. I have had less consistent results with attemps at using psychedelics to create new programs. I feel that this is most likely because psychedelics inject a chaotic element into the otherwise stable reality construct that have been programmed into our psyche's. This chaos allows us to glimpse a larger reality, one free of culturally programmed interpretations. By contrast, creation of new programs requires fairly specific kinds of sensory information and while some psychoactive compounds may be beneficial to this end, psychedelics may not be the best ones for the job. While they do seem to increase the bandwidth of sensory information and can be used for metaprogramming, doing so is akin to painting a portrait with paint roller. In other words, though psychedelics can and have been used for programming the mind, to do so requires careful planning and strict attention to set, setting and dosage. Even with such careful preparations it is impossible to say with any certainty what kind of experience the subject will have. For this reason I have begun exploring the use of less intense substances for the reprogramming phase of my experiments. Plants such as cannabis, Kava, low dosages of mushrooms as well as Calea Zecatachichi have the effect of allowing for very intense visualizations without the sometimes overwhelming psychological effects of more powerful substances. Details of my experiments are to follow both in print and as part of my podcasts.

Ancient Knowledge Conference

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 20:42:00 -0700

Graham Hancock - Robert Schoch - John Major Jenkins
Martin Gray - Walter Cruttenden

Also Featuring Geoff Patino, Uwe Homann, and John Dering Cpak Conference
The Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge is an academic conference bringing together some of the greatest thinkers in Archaeo-Astronomy and Esoteric Archaeology to discuss the topic of precession, both from a modern and ancient perspective, hear arguments supporting a cyclical theory of civilization (tied to precession) and its possible causes, and highlight potential archaeological, mythological or astronomical evidence surrounding these theories. The mission of the conference is to develop a true dialog among experts in a wide range of fields to illuminate the ties between ancient cultures, mythology, and our ancestral knowledge of the stars.

For the first time in the conference's history, CPAK 2005 will include a day of public programs to share these collaborations with the public, in addition to private round table discussions and presentations among the experts that have been the hallmark of the conference in the past. Come join us on Novermber 11th and 12th to hear from the experts themselves.

From Atlantis to Ayahuasca - Graham Handcock's Supernatural

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 20:08:00 -0700

Graham Hancock who's books like Fingerprints of the Gods have long challenged the statis quo in reference to man's origins and alternative theories about ancient civilizations. Now he turns his attention to ancient knowledge of a diffent kind. Here is an excerpt from his website:

Supernatural

By Graham Hancock

‘Supernatural: of or relating to things that cannot be explained according to natural laws.’

Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as ‘the greatest riddle in human history’, all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers.

In Supernatural Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious ‘before-and-after moment’ and to discover the truth about the influences that shaped the modern human mind.

His quest takes him on a journey of adventure and detection from the stunningly beautiful painted caves of prehistoric France, Spain and Italy to remote rock shelters in the mountains of South Africa where he finds a treasure trove of extraordinary Stone Age art.

He uncovers clues that lead him to travel to the depths of the Amazon rainforest to drink the powerful plant hallucinogen Ayahuasca with Indian shamans, whose paintings contain images of ‘supernatural beings’ identical to the animal-human hybrids depicted in prehistoric caves and rock shelters. And Western laboratory volunteers placed experimentally under the influence of hallucinogens such as mescaline also report visionary encounters with exactly the same beings. Scientists at the cutting edge of consciousness research have begun to consider the possibility that such hallucinations may be real perceptions of other ‘dimensions’.

Ayahuasca article in Reason Magazine

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 20:06:00 -0700

Just read a great article on rational drug policy in relation to religious use of psychedelics. Click on over to Reason Magazine and take a look.

New Book!! Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 19:38:00 -0700

Just found out about a new book by the co-author of Plants of the Gods. Its Called The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants by Christian Ratsch. I haven't had an opportunity to look at the book as of yet and at $125 it seems like a pretty hefty price tag for a book. However considering the lack of quality scientific and scholarly information on psychoactive plants this book may be worth the money. At over 900 pages it lists every known plant that contains psychoactive chemicals. The first half of the book is a listing of over 700 pages worth of data on these plants. The second part is on the chemistry and cultural uses of said plants. I am hoping to get a copy of this book sometime in the near future, when I do I will be posting an extended review.

My New Experiment

michael_ellis70@yahoo.com (Michael Ellis) — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 17:35:00 -0700

I am embarking on a new series of experiments in invocational magick. This series of invocations will last for 30 days. Beginning on October 31st I will be doing a series of invocations to fully open myself to the creative energies of the universe embodied by the concept of the Dream Art Scientist. In so doing I will be invoking an entity of my own creation, an egregore to fuel my creative endevors. I will be utilizing the following entheogens. Calea Zacatechichi Dream Herb
which helps facilitate lucid dreams, Mimosa hostilis (Jurema) and Syrian Rue which combined make a formulation of ayahuasca and Yohimbe which is an african herb that acts as a sexual stimulant. These herbs will be used at different times during the ritual cycle and I will be detailing how I will be using them. A WARNING to others who may be interested in these plants, do NOT use yohimbe when you are using syrian rue or any MAOI as it can cause extreme hypertension and could lead to stroke and other nasty complications. End of public service warning