Dr. Kim Hewitt talks about her research into the history of psychedelics and their current manifestations. Her most recent academic paper is on psychedelic feminism.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features a talk that Lorenzo gave at the recent Imagine Orcas Island Music and Arts festival. The title of this talk is "Psychedelics in the Age of AI", and it is followed by a question and answer session. At the end of the podcast Lorenzo plays a song from the newly emerging psychedelic/country/rock band The Burned. Lorenzo als ...…

Today's podcast features the talk that Graham Hancock gave at the 2016 Glastonbury Festival. He begins by talking about how he first became involved in psychedelics and how, after a 30 year hiatus, he became reconnected with the psychedelic community and is now a leading proponent of ending the War on Drugs. As he says, "Our governments are so ...…

At the 2016 Glastonbury Festival, Dr. David Nutt, formerly the Chairman of the UK's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, gave a presentation in which he illustrated the safety of psychedelic drugs, particularly when compared with alcohol. He also points out that religion has led directly to today's alcohol businesses and says, "The drinks i ...…

Today's podcast features a conversation between Zoe Helene and Lorenzo. After successful careers in the arts as well as in the corporate world, Zoe has transitioned herself into an advocate for the use of psychedelics, ayahuasca in particular, to help us all accept women as equals in our currently male-dominated societies.…

In this last episode of stories from the Blue Dot tour, you get to hear stories from the barn at Lex Pelger's parents' place in Lancaster, PA. Tales from Tipper and friends as well as a contest to see if you can find Lex's story in the back catalog.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features a talk that Myron Stolaroff gave at the 1997 Mind States Conference. It features his thoughts about ways in which psychedelics can become an aid in the practice of Buddhist meditation. The formal title of this talk is "The Trained User: Deepening Meditation Practice and Forestalling Aging", but I've abbreviated it a bit ...…

Adam Strauss is a stand up comedian and the writer and performer of 'The Mushroom Cure' (www dot themushroomcure dot com), the true story of how he tried to cure his severe OCD with psychedelics, currently running in NYC through September 7th.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features two recordings of Aldous Huxley. The first is an interview conducted by Mike Wallace, and the second part of today's program features a lecture of Huxley's that speculates about the possibilities of some sort of existence after the death of our bodies.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Daniel Greig studies cognitive science and philosophy. His lectures on psychedelics incorporate magic and mysticism. He uses the language of psychology and neuroscience. It makes for a fascinating mix. In this episode we will be hearing about his unique views on how these drugs are illuminated by the mystical systems of the past.…

Today we conclude the Terence McKenna workshop that was held in March of 1996. Among other little tidbits, Terence had what I thought was a new twist on why the DMT experience is ineffable. A couple of my favorite quotes from this program include: "I'll tell you straight out, I'm an anarchist. I am an absolute anarchist. I believe in people mor ...…

Thank you to the Philadelphia Psychedelic Society and to Psychedelic Seminars in Baltimore for two beautiful locations to hear these stories. As two of my favorite stops on the Blue-Dot tour, I'm glad to be sharing these stories about the power of psychedelics. -Lex PelgerBy hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

This podcast features Terence McKenna in a March 1996 workshop where he goes into great detail about his Timewave idea. Although I haven't been including his Timewave talks in recent podcasts, since this series hasn't been posted elsewhere on the Net I've decided to keep the entire weekend's workshop intact. Baring any unexpected new recordings ...…

Leia Friedman hosts "The Psychedologist" podcast, she co-founded the Boston Entheogenic Network, and is a writer and community organizer. She tells Lex about her work and her psychedelic journey.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

One of his more interesting observations in this talk was when he was wondering if the cool stuff that we see during a smoked NN-DMT experience is nothing more than something like those plastic mobiles we hang over a baby's crib. He ends this particular rap making a DMT trip sound like an alien abduction but then goes on to say that he has no p ...…

This week we go back to the very beginning of the Blue Dot Tour where Rick Doblin kicked off our event in Boston. Thanks to Northeastern's Student's for Sensible Drug Policy for making the event happen and to all the storytellers who came out to share.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

One of the topics that he touches on is that he sees artificiality as a passing phase as we begin to learn more deep secrets from nature. He also tells the harrowing tale of a monumentally bad trip when he combined mushrooms and ayahuasca. He also answers the question about how much government harassment has he received, and that Prozac makes h ...…

Dr. Casey Paleos is one of the few psychiatrists to have worked with the Big Three: MDMA, ketamine and the psilocybin of magic mushrooms. In this interview, a day after his MDMA experience in Boulder, he shares what he's learned from his years of psychedelic research.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features the first of a series of unedited participant tapes from a March 1996 Terence McKenna workshop at Esalen. As is usual, while the topic was ostensibly about the increase of complexity, he also touched on shamanism, time, being attracted to weirdness. One of my favorite quotes from this program is: "Radical human freedom ...…

From the May 23, 2017 stop on the Blue-Dot tour, a storytelling session in Charleston, South Carolina that served as the launch event for our friends at the Society for the Exploration of Altered States.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features a tribute to Larry Harvey, founder of the Burning Man Festival.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

A lawyer specializing in psychedelic law and a New Yorker who witnessed the heyday of Yippie activism in Sin City, Noah Potter shares his thoughts on the past and the future of the movement.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today we hear one more attempt by Terence McKenna to describe what takes place during a DMT trip. This time he says that it is a composite of about 40 such trips. He also touches on capitalism and virtual reality. A couple of my favorite quotes from this talk are: "Capitalism is as anti-human a philosophy as you can possibly conceive, because a ...…

Today's Salon2 podcast features a few psychedelic stories from a wonderful hot night in Atlanta. Thanks to Moshe Jacobson for making the night happen.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

In today's podcast we hear the final installment of a Terence McKenna course that he gave in April of 1995. This is only three years after the Web came to be, and already he sees it as the perfect environment to bring Timothy Leary's find the others idea to fruition. He also has a little rap about becoming engaged with the political struggle to ...…

Today's Salon2 podcast features an interview with Dr. Ingmar Gorman about his work at the intersection of MDMA and PTSD.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today we pick up on the next to last installment of the 1995 course that Terence McKenna taught at CIIS in San Francisco. Here he picks up on his supposition that deep in the past there were human cultures in which psychedelics played a major role, but which vanished without leaving a very detailed record of their use. He also discusses his con ...…

In this continuation of a 1995 course that he taught at CIIS, Terence McKenna begins with his interesting rap about the possibility that magic mushrooms have an extraterrestrial origin, which he ends by saying, "The trick is going to be to recognize the extraterrestrials." Two other interesting quotes from this lecture are: "It's very clear to ...…

Today's podcast presents a powerful round of story telling that took place in a Columbus, Ohio bike hangar. The event was hosted by the wonderful community of Mind Manifest West.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

When we pick up on the April 1993 course that Terence McKenna taught at CIIS a question leads him into a detailed scientific account of what his brother, Dennis, was investigating during their famous days in the jungle near La Chorrera, Colombia. It is also interesting to listen to some of the questions from those in attendance regarding their ...…

Today's Salon2 podcast features the return of Lex Pelger who interviews Julian Vayne, an author and oculist. They about the history of drugs and magick - especially in the underground London scene. Vayne also highlights some of the important ideas from his new book on creating psychedelic ceremonies.…

Today we pick up with the third installment of a course that Terence McKenna taught in April of 1993 at the California Institute of Integral Studies. It is a wide-ranging discussion that was shaped by questions from the attendees. Here are two of his thoughts from this session: "The crisis we're in, as a planetary society, is a culture of consc ...…

Today we return to the Salon2 track and another podcasts-in-a-podcast, this time with Alexa and Kat Lakey. Their first program here in the salon features an interview with Scott Olsen, the organizer of one of the largest exhibits of Amazonian art to be held in the U.S. The exhibit was titled ‘The Mysteries of the Amazon’ and featured the work o ...…

Today we pay tribute to the late John Perry Barlow, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and an important leader in the struggle to keep the Internet free. In addition to John Perry's remarks, we will also hear John Gilmore, another of the co-founders of EFF.org. One of the most important essays writ ...…

Today's podcast feature the second installment of Terence McKenna's "Plants and Mind" course that he gave in April of 1993. It features an interesting line of questions from the participants in the class about the role of gender in the psychedelic community. Two of my favorite quotes from this talk are: "I think the modern family is, first of a ...…

Today's podcast features the beginning of a course that Terence McKenna taught in which he detailed his thoughts about the ways in which human consciousness came to be. A few interesting quotes from this talk include: "What seems to me to be one of the most centrally interesting questions to be asked of this world, and that is: What is human co ...…

Today's podcast features Terence McKenna at his best. While this is another of his talks in praise of DMT, he manages to take it to yet another level. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from this talk: "A long, long time ago I took an oath to tell all secrets that came my way. Don't tell me a secret. I won't keep it. I'm against secrets. I'm ...…

Today's podcast features what may have been Terence McKenna's last talks before he experienced the medical episode that led to his death less than one year later. For anyone who is up-to-date about the current state of the development of artificial intelligence algorithms Terence's insights from almost 20 years ago will be very fascinating. Her ...…

In today's podcast Terence McKenna waxes eloquent about the writing of Marshall McLuhan, whose work in the 1960 was considered a revolutionary break with traditional ways of thinking about media. As Wikipedia says about McLuhan, he "was a Canadian professor, philosopher, and public intellectual. His work is one of the cornerstones of the study ...…

Today's podcast features a March 1996 talk by Terence McKenna during which he was wrapping up a weekend workshop. He begins by telling of one of his early LSD trips, which was significantly different from any other LSD experience he had ever had. He also talks about his view that the visual part of a DMT experience carries meaning, but that thi ...…

Today's podcast features the last talk that Terence McKenna gave during his August of 1993 Scholar-in-Residence program at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. His topic for the evening was the way in which artists like Bosch and poets like Yeats imagined a trans-historical future in their work. Along the way, Terence inserts his views ...…

Today's podcast features Dr. George Greer, one of the co-founders of the Hefter Research Institute. In this Palenque Norte Lecture that he delivered at the 2017 Burning Man Festival, Dr. Greer not only covers the current state of psychedelic research, he also provides several interesting anecdotes about ways in which research participants have ...…

Today's podcast features Grover Norquist's 2017 Palenque Norte Lecture, which he gave during the Burning Man Festival. This is the fourth year in which Mr. Norquist has spoken at Palenque Norte, and, as always, his remarks were well received. Two of my favorite quotes from this talk are: "The best coalitions come from the hard right and hard le ...…

Today's podcast features the lengthy Q and A session led by John Gilmore (MPP, MAPS, and EFF) that was featured as a Palenque Norte Lecture at the 2017 Burning Man Festival. In this conversation with burners in the audience, John explains the difficulties and successes various organizations have had in their efforts to encourage more sensible d ...…

Today's podcast features the author Daniel Pinchbeck and some friends at the 2017 Palenque Norte Lectures that were held during the Burning Man Festival. Besides discussing his books, ibogaine, and ecology, they also give us their thoughts about evolution and culture.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features the 2017 Palenque Norte Lecture by Dr. Bruce Damer. As he describes the life-long journey that has led him to search for the origin of life on Earth, you may be surprised at how forthcoming he is about the ways in which he thought about this problem.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

After a Veterans' Day story by Lorenzo, today's podcast features some stories from Nashville. Thanks to everyone at the Nashville Psychedelic Society for your help making a perfect last stop of the Blue Dot Tour.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features a talk given by Shonagh Home in October 2017 for the Women and Entheogens Conference, which pushed the envelope into new and novel ideas. This year's theme was "Psychedelics in Birth and Pregnancy from Conception through Life". Topics explored included the concept of utilizing entheogens for fertility, pregnancy and bre ...…

In today's podcast Benjamin De Loenen, the founder of ICEERS (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education Research and Service), talks about things that led him to start this organization, which comes to the defense of plants and is dedicated to sharing the science and best practices around their use.…

Today's podcast features a panel of distinguished women, all of whom are participating in various ways in the burgeoning new world of legal cannabis growing, distribution, and education. The panel assembled on the last evening in August at the 2017 Burning Man Festival, where they spoke in the Palenque Norte Lecture tent. You don't have to be a ...…