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 ...…

As the founding president of the Heffter Research Institute, a chemist who crafted some of the most important research molecules of this generation and a leader in the psychedelic community, we're pleased to present an interview with Dr. David Nichols. He talks about the impetus for his interest in these molecules, the potential dangers of micr ...…

Today we feature the 2017 Palenque Norte Lecture delivered by the founder of the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, Rick Doblin. In this wide ranging talk, besides an update about the recent FDA approval for MAPS' major Phase 3 study of MDMA, we are treated to the fascinating story of how Rick was able to convince his conserv ...…

The wonderful Keeper Trout shares with us today includes his experiences archiving the files of Dr. Alexander Shulgin, working to collect the chemistry of psychedelic plants and medicines (particularly mescaline containing plants), and the cultural and legal history of the Native use of peyote and cactus as well as its suppression by the United ...…

Today's podcast features the Palenque Norte Lecture given by visionary artist Android Jones at the 2017 Burning Man Festival. Rather than give a structured lecture, Jones answers questions from the audience about the process he uses, including the use of entheogens, to create the fantastical images that we have seen on album covers, festival po ...…

The filmmaker Ben Stewart sits down in Lex Pelger's living room to share his story about the journey that led him to making films and how the psychedelics helped shape his path.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features the 2017 Palenque Norte Lecture by Cory Doctorow. In this talk, which was given during the Burning Man Festival, Cory walks us through some of the current issues having an impact on our ability to have our thoughts and words exchanged between ourselves without the threat of Big Brother listening in. As he explains, this ...…

Today we hear from Neal Goldsmith about the speakers at the upcoming Horizons psychedelics conference in New York City.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

The path to peyote for a Russian seeker named Sergey Baranov. Throughout communities spanning the Americas, Sergey explored plant medicines and even faced a near-death experience before finally settling in Peru and founding the 'Cactus House' where he now leads ceremonies.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features an interview with John Dolan, who is well known as the "War Nerd". Additionally, he has another alter ego as the writer Gary Brecher. The War Nerd podcast covers a wild amount about the history along with speculations about the future of human warfare. In this interview, John explains the long history of drugs and war.…

Today's podcast features an interview with Michael and Annie Mithoefer who have been working for years to bring MDMA into the forefront as a treatment for PTSD. As a couple who works together holding space for these sessions, they share about what they learned of the promise and pitfalls of this medicine.…

Today's podcast features a lecture by Gore Vidal about the true history of the U.S. presidency. Also included is a brief bit by George Carlin where he explains why America is always at war. And Lorenzo explains in detail why he believes that the USA is already a failed state.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast features a great storytelling night from the Blue-Dot tour. Hosted by the Chicago Psychedelic Club, you can hear why we loved our stop in the Windy City.By hagerty@matrixmasters.com (Lorenzo).

Today's podcast from Salon2 features an interview with Dr. Bruce Damer in which, among other things, he discusses his work to uncover the ways in which life may have originated on Earth. Dr. Damer is associate researcher in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California at Santa Cruz where he collaborated with Prof. ...…

Kevin Liebrock and Michael Harinen from Bluebird Botanicals tell us about their work producing high quality CBD oil that can be shipped to all fifty U.S. states. They answer some of the most commonly asked questions that people have about CBD. They also explain the process of producing whole plant extracts from Colorado hemp and discuss the ong ...…