Terence McKenna

La adicción a las drogas es una problemática que afecta a gran
cantidad de personas en el mundo y que acarrea múltiples
dificultades para el individuo que la padece y las personas que
lo rodean. Existen diversidad de tratamientos que, si bien pueden
conllevar a una disminución del consumo por algún tiempo, no
logran solucionar el problema de raíz, pues las recaídas son
bastante frecuentes durante el proceso. La psicoterapia asistida
con enteógenos se perfila como un modelo de tratamiento
prometedor, pues los resultados de diversas investigaciones
psicofarmacológicas, clínicas y etnopsicológicas muestran su
efectividad no solo a nivel bioquímico para disminuir los síntomas
asociados al síndrome de abstinencia, sino también a la hora de
generar cesación del consumo de manera definitiva, propiciando
una perspectiva integral y reparadora en la persona adicta que
puede ayudarle a recuperar su bienestar a nivel físico, psicológico
y afectivo.

El uso de los denominados enteógenos, en tanto herramientas de utilización milenaria por parte del ser humano, en conjunto con el desarrollo científico moderno en éstas áreas, pueden resultar una propuesta no sólo novedosa, sino también efectiva para tratar las toxicomanías. Existen una gran cantidad de estudios científicos que aportan valiosa información sobre los potenciales terapéuticos de los mismos, de acuerdo tanto a la acción de sus alcaloides a nivel cerebral, como a las posibilidades psicoterapéuticas en contextos definidos (fueran de medicina tradicional americana o de protocolos occidentales). El presente trabajo busca, además, realizar un análisis psicoanalítico respecto al carácter místico de los complejos fenómenos de la conciencia que se suceden en las experiencias con psicodélicos naturales en pos de orientar prácticas dentro del marco de la salud mental.

This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon.

Visual alterations under classic psychedelics can include rich phenomenological accounts of eyes-closed imagery. Bottom-up connectivity of the visual pathway underpins sensory perception, with top-down connectivity enhanced during intentional imagery. Preclinical evidence suggests agonism of the 5-HT2A receptor may reduce synaptic gain to produce psychedelic induced-imagery. However, this has not been investigated in humans. To infer the directed connectivity changes to visual sensory connectivity underlying psychedelic visual imagery, we applied dynamic causal modelling to the resting state eyesclosed functional MRI scans of healthy adults after administration of psilocybin or placebo. The model included early visual regions, fusiform gyrus, intraparietal sulcus, and inferior frontal gyrus. We observed a pattern of increased self-inhibition of both early visual and higher visual-associative regions under psilocybin. The increased self-inhibition was associated with behavioural measures of complex and elementary imagery, and a pattern of reduced excitation and inhibition from visual-associative regions to earlier visual areas. The results are consistent with preclinical findings and inform our understanding of clinical hallucinations and perception, and suggest deprivation of sensory activity may amplify endogenous associative neural activity. The findings inform the neurobiology of psychedelic-induced changes to sensory connectivity and the neural mechanisms associated with closed-eyes visual imagery. .

Is there a world of mathematics above and beyond ordinary reality, as Plato proposed? Or is mathematics a cultural construct? In this short article we speculate on the place of mathematical reality from the perspective of the mystical cosmologies of the ancient traditions of meditation, psychedelics, and divination.

Taking Jorge Luis Borges's short story "The Circular Ruins" as a starting point, the current article assesses the presence of gnostic ideas in the work of the Argentinian author. After pondering the context and sources for Borges's knowledge of gnosticism, and providing an overview of different Borgesian short stories that include gnostic motifs, it focuses on an analysis of several central notions in "The Circular Ruins." A comparison between ancient and modern interpretations serves to evaluate the new meaning that gnostic motifs acquire in the literary framework created by the Argentinian writer. It concludes that Borges's reception and re-elaboration of gnostic thought helps him both to express some of his central philosophical preoccupations and to update these ancient myths, making them accessible for modern readers.

Objetivo. Analizar los estados alterados de conciencia a traves de un dialogo interdisciplinario entre la antropologia, la psicologia y las neurociencias. Metodologia. En primer lugar se analizara a grandes rasgos las definiciones de consciencia y estados alterados de conciencia, por medio de las disciplinas enunciadas, describiendo sus convergencias y divergencias. Posteriormente se realizara un recorrido por las distintas concepciones antropologicas sobre las practicas de trance y los debates suscitados por las tensiones relacionadas entre las dicotomias: etic y emic, cognicion y cultura. Resultados y conclusiones. Finalmente se describiran los distintos modelos antropologicos que realizan una sintesis actualizada del tema; integrando biologia, cognicion y cultura desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria que permita superar reduccionismos tanto biologicos como culturales

The case load of a music therapist may contain much work with young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) and autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) as they transition to adulthood. There is however, no extant body of work exploring the anthropological theories of liminality and rites of passage in this context. It is considered that these theories offer a potential model of working in an educational setting as these young people move into the next phase of their lives. Discussion of the above theories and a description of the setting and the connection between the two is used to propose a potential music therapy model for work with this population at this point during the clients' lifespan.

Estamos asistiendo a un renacimiento de la ciencia psicodélica en la investigación clínica. En Argentina, los desafíos relacionados con el estudio y el desarrollo de nuevos tratamientos con estas sustancias en el ámbito de la psiquiatría se encuentran sujetos a cómo se adopten ciertas políticas de regulación. La evolución acerca del conocimiento sobre de los efectos, mecanismos de acción y el potencial terapéutico de los psicodélicos serotoninérgicos ameritan un cambio en el marco normativo de su uso para la investigación clínica. En un mundo que demanda rápida flexibilidad y adaptación, deberíamos evitar quedarnos a la espera de los avances por parte de los países desarrollados. Resulta evidente que los progresos psicofarmacológicos en los últimos treinta años no han estado a la altura de lo anticipado en la llamada “década del cerebro”. Conscientes de dichas limitaciones, en el presente trabajo se realiza una revisión histórica y etnofarmacológica de los psicodélicos clásicos, que...

Objetivo: recopilar y analizar el conjunto de datos etnográficos sobre el uso tradicional entre las poblaciones americanas del hongo embriagante Amanita muscaria. Metodología: durante la adquisición de los datos se realiza una cuidadosa evaluación, realizando críticas y correcciones donde se considera que los datos estaban presentados de manera inadecuada desde el punto de vista metodológico. Otro tipo de datos que se tienen en cuenta son los nombres populares que recibe este hongo y sus etimologías. También se analizan las causas que han provocado un proceso cultural de “mortalización” del A. muscaria, de modo que entre muchos grupos étnicos, tanto americanos como del Viejo Mundo, este hongo ahora se considera mortalmente venenoso. Resultados. El uso tradicional de A. muscaria como fuente embriagante se ha conservado hoy entre algunos grupos étnicos de América del Norte (Ahnishinaubeg, Ajumawi, Wixaritari), y los fines de uso son principalmente religiosos y chamánico-terapéuticos. Las etimologías de los nombres populares revelan una gama de asociaciones semánticas similares a las encontradas en el Viejo Mundo, y dan testimonio de un conocimiento de las propiedades embriagantes de este hongo que se conservó hasta épocas muy recientes en algunos grupos nativos de Mesoamérica. La presencia de este hongo en América del Sur parece deberse a la reciente actividad de reforestación antrópica, y esto explicaría la falta de documentos arqueológicos, históricos y etnográficos para esta región. Conclusión: los datos aquí recogidos hacen sospechar una mayor difusión del conocimiento de las propiedades embriagantes del A. muscaria entre los nativos norteamericanos y mesoamericanos en épocas pasadas; conocimientos olvidados o transmitidos en secreto aún hoy, tras la centenaria represión colonial contra los cultos nativos, incluido el uso de fuentes embriagantes.

Los psicodélicos tradicionales, como el LSD, la psilocibina, o el DMT, son compuestos psicoactivos que ejercen sus efectos, principalmente, a través del agonismo sobre receptores serotoninérgicos. En dosis y contextos adecuados, se caracterizan por producir cambios profundos en la experiencia subjetiva, configurando estados alterados de consciencia que al alcanzar un punto crítico implican la aparición de fenómenos que se agrupan dentro de la categoría de experiencia mística, trascendental o de disolución yoica. Estos eventos se asocian a diversos efectos terapéuticos en una variedad de padecimientos mentales. Los psicodélicos son drogas seguras, con mínimo riesgo de efectos adversos graves o duraderos y sin potencial adictivo. Por el momento, contamos con revisiones sistemáticas y metaanálisis basados en estudios clínicos de fase II, con grupos pequeños de personas, criterios de exclusión estrictos y marcada dificultad para aplicar metodología de doble ciego. Actualmente, existen e...

Se identifican las fechas más antiguas que se conozcan de la relación humana con las principales plantas embriagantes del mundo. Los datos han sido extraídos de la literatura arqueológica especializada, excluyendo los dudosos o erróneos. Las fechas más antiguas, en su conjunto, evidencian de manera general la utilización de las drogas vegetales a partir de los períodos pre Formativos (para las Américas) y Neolíticos (para los otros continentes) de las culturas humanas.

Los psicodélicos tradicionales, como el LSD, la psilocibina, o el DMT, son compuestos psicoactivos que ejercen sus efectos, principalmente, a través del agonismo sobre receptores serotoninérgicos. En dosis y contextos adecuados, se caracterizan por producir cambios profundos en la experiencia subjetiva, configurando estados alterados de consciencia que al alcanzar un punto crítico implican la aparición de fenómenos que se agrupan dentro de la categoría de experiencia mística, trascendental o de disolución yoica. Estos eventos se asocian a diversos efectos terapéuticos en una variedad de padecimientos mentales. Los psicodélicos son drogas seguras, con mínimo riesgo de efectos adversos graves o duraderos y sin potencial adictivo. Por el momento, contamos con revisiones sistemáticas y metaanálisis basados en estudios clínicos de fase II, con grupos pequeños de personas, criterios de exclusión estrictos y marcada dificultad para aplicar metodología de doble ciego. Actualmente, existen e...

This essay explores the relationship between language, alchemy, and the symbolic universe through a discussion of the fractal nature of language and the role of mercury as a metaphor for the soul. Drawing from Sufism, mysticism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and the tradition of alchemy, we examine how language reflects and shapes our understanding of reality, and how the symbolic universe is a mirror that re ects back our own innermost selves. By tracing the connections between various concepts and symbols, including the letter ‫,ج‬ the breath of ‫,ھﻤﺰه‬ and the mirror of ‫,آﯾﻨﮫ‬ we aim to demonstrate the interconnectivity of the alchemic journey of the soul. The Citation above is fictional as a nod to creativity as the fire.

Il XX secolo è stato segnato da un’architettura funzionalista di matrice meccanica e industriale che ha ridisegnato il volto delle città dal dopoguerra a oggi. Un secolo in cui l’esperienza dello spazio vissuto e l’esperienza psichedelica ponendosi su binari paralleli sembrano non essersi mai incontrate. Eppure l’esperienza psichedelica ci dice qualcosa di inaudito sul mondo, o meglio qualcosa che sappiamo fin dall’alba dell’umanità ma che abbiamo dimenticato; riscoprire questa antica sapienza ci permette di cambiare la nostra mente e il nostro mondo che quotidianamente abitiamo. Negli anni sessanta del secolo scorso Herbert Marcuse parlò di civiltà bloccata e unidimensionale capace di far apparire razionale la sua irrazionalità, di trasformare lo spreco in bisogno, e la distruzione in costruzione. Ma forse non tutto è perduto: in questa alterazione di senso fra il razionale e l’irrazionale possono trovare ancora posto idee capaci di promuovere l’arte di vivere. In tale contesto l’architettura psichedelica si pone come recupero di un certo modo di intendere gli spazi secondo coordinate che esulano dalle tipologie consolidate da anni di architettura funzionalista. Il paradigma psichedelico è ancora oggi una possibilità per uscire dal disagio provocato dalla ragione dominante aprendo a quelle ulteriori dimensioni dell’umano che ne renderebbero completa l’esistenza, oltre quella unica dimensione descritta da Marcuse già negli anni sessanta del secolo scorso.

PurposeThis paper seeks to replicate a study done in 1992 on the bibliographic availability of 55 popular culture periodicals sold by a Kroger supermarket in Royal Oak, Michigan. The earlier study asked the question whether time might be a relevant variable for the number of holding libraries.Design/methodology/approachThe authors searched WorldCat for the number of reported library holdings for the same 55 popular culture periodicals and analyzed the results.FindingsDuring both periods, 34 periodicals with holdings had a median increase of 58.4 percent; but, when the 83.5 percent increase in OCLC governing members during the same period was taken into account, holdings had a median decrease of 13.7 percent. For the 19 cases with no library holdings in 1992, eight (42.1 percent) now had library holdings, including several high circulation periodicals such as Star and Soap Opera Weekly.Practical implicationsPopular culture materials read by many Americans are still not widely availab...

Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, and Terence McKenna are three of the most influential figures of the late-twentieth century psychedelic counterculture. Their liberal use of terminology derived from magic, alchemy, occultism, and other esoteric traditions to describe the transcendence of psychedelic experiences situates them squarely in the category Hanegraaff has defined as "entheogenic esotericism".

A key influence on all three was the Irish writer James Joyce (1882 - 1941), widely regarded as one of the most important figures in twentieth century literature. Leary asserts in his autobiography Flashbacks, that it was "in part the long training with Joycean relativity that prepared me for the psychedelic experience".

Wilson wrote analyses of Finnegans Wake that employed the mystical terminology of Taoism, Zen Buddhism, and Qabalah to illustrate Joyce's "relativistic" perspective. He considered the work, published in 1939, rich with examples of Jungian synchronicity, including apparently precognitive references to the psychedelic counterculture.

McKenna described the "unique feeling" of reading Finnegans Wake as "psychedelic" and "about as close to LSD on the page as you can get". He considered Joyce "one of the true pioneers in the mapping of hyperspace".

For all three, Joyce's prose contained an esoteric, apocalyptic, and prophetic dimension that foreshadowed the psychedelic states of consciousness they would spend decades of their lives exploring.

This presentation will examine the influence of Joyce on their thought, their work, and their psychedelic experiences.

* Presented at the 8th Biannual Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)

Recent years have seen a resurgence of scientific and scholarly interest in psychedelic drugs, leading some to proclaim the advent of a “psychedelic renaissance”. Since the controversial introduction of psychedelic use in the West during the countercultural days of the sixties’
hippie generation, psychedelic substances have been associated both with spiritual enlightenment and emotional healing, as well as being seen as psychologically destructive and destabilizing.

Reflecting on the history of psychedelic culture, we can observe a particular set of associations that continue to influence both expert and non-expert interpretations of these phenomena. For instance, within the American counter-culture the appetite for novel ideas, radical reform, and the deconstruction of established norms could very well be linked with the boundary dissolution that occur on psychedelic chemicals. In popular culture psychedelics are presented in the context of rich galleries of craziness and surrealism, of artistic descent into the liminal – often colourfully communicated in movies. But what are the more essential characteristics of psychedelics?

In this study I intend to explore the ambiguity that results from asking a question of essentials to a such an opaque subject. I will highlight certain themes, that, although expressed in many different forms and domains, carry enough family resemblance to be seen as distinct patterns. These patterns play out in many different dimensions, historically expressed in attitudes, ideas, and behaviors. They are also seen in the realm of psychodynamics, in subjective experiences which are highly non-linear, but nonetheless formally coherent in a deep way. It can even be observed neuroscientifically through the shifts in brain function that occur in the psychedelic state. These patterns could be called first transgression, or boundary dissolution, and secondly, derivatively, of connectivity, or integration. I will argue that the whole range of psychedelic effects distributed across all these domains are concrete instances of an abstract pattern of entropy, a concept which I develop and explore as symbolic of themes of both chaos and creativity, disorder and integration.

Academia offers us many theoretical lenses through which we may find alternative perspectives to prevailing social narratives, but the ones established are not the only ones used outside of academic circles. To the French philosopher Michel Foucault, madness serves as a lens through which we can look at the culture and provide a critique. To society, what more terrifying notion might there be than to entertain the thought that a madman may know something deeper and truer than you; something you are too terrified to even try to know? The psychedelic experience in many ways fits the same template of madness as described by Michel Foucault, but to confirm this possibility I look to the literature of lecturer, author and psychedelic drug advocate, Terence McKenna. The madness Foucault describes is not, for instance, a direct comparison from specific forms of schizophrenia, or other well-known classifications to a state induced by the use of LSD, but rather the state that is understood a...

Twenty minutes in, like clockwork , the visions begin. They are strong but I was expecting them this time . Norma, the vegetalista who so astonished me with her care, skill and knowledge during my first ceremony two nights prior, had packed a big bowl with a knot of the local Nicotina Rustica and had blown curling, whistling smoke over a plastic liter bottle filled with an opaque orangish liquid I knew to be ayahuasca, the potent brew of tryptamines and MAO inhibitors that has been prepared in the Upper Amazon for perhaps sixteen thousand years. I knew it to be ayahuasca, since I had, after all, helped mix it the day before, pounding a kilo of the soft woody vine of fresh B. Caapi liana and tossing about fifty green glossy leaves of P. Viridis, a DMT-containing relative of coffee, into the black cauldron simmering over a wood fire on the shores of the Yanayacu River, one of the eleven hundred tributaries of the Amazon. Back home this could be a felony. Here, I now understood, it&#39...

In my essay I will outline a brief history of the runes, the mythological and occult origins, how they are viewed as tools for self-improvement, How the people that practice them online view themselves. How they are represented online in the broader sense, what technology has done and will do to the future of these practices and why my thoughts on it as a positive step in tactile self-improvement are justified.

Este trabajo tiene el objetivo de presentar elementos para una reflexión filosófica sobre el consumo de Ayahuasca, tomando en cuenta los conceptos de salud y enfermedad, la eficacia simbólica del ritual, así como las consideraciones epistemológicas que se derivan de una aproximación analítica a la fenomenología de la experiencia psicodélica. En este proceso se dialoga con perspectivas provenientes de los estudios culturales, la sociología de la religión, la sociología cultural y la antropología. Esta aproximación interdisciplinar, busca abrir diálogos con las revisiones filosóficas sobre las plantas visionarias, para conocer su importancia en la exploración de la conciencia ordinaria y no ordinaria.

Reservados todos los derechos. El contenido de esta obra está protegido por la Ley, que establece penas de prisión y/o multas, además de las correspondientes indemnizaciones por daños y perjuicios, para quienes reprodujeren, plagiaren, distribuyeren o comunicaren públicamente, en todo o en parte, una obra literaria, artística o científica, o su transformación, interpretación o ejecución artística fijada en cualquier tipo de soporte o comunicada a través de cualquier medio, sin la preceptiva autorización.

In this paper I will argue that Argentinian short story novelist Jorge Luis Borges best exemplifies some issues covered in the structuralist and post-structuralist narratology of Gérard Genette and Roland Barthes, namely nestling narrative levels, shifts in narrator person and focalisation, the subversion of the concept of author, independence of the diegesis-extradiegesis relationship from the reality-fiction distinction. I will then argue that Borges successfully established a genre of anti-realist fiction that employs metacritics, or critics discussed within a narration, and pseudocritics, or a narration passed off as a work of literary criticism, as a mean of forging a fictional story that closely resembles reality and therefore is able to enstrange the reader with a growing feeling of paranoia towards the blurred distinction between reality and fiction.

El desarrollo del movimiento neochamánico en Améric a y el resto del mundo ha permitido que personas provenientes de distintos contextos culturales se a cerquen a prácticas ancestrales de sanación y búsqueda de visión. Entre estas prácticas se encuen tra la inducción de estados no-ordinarios de conciencia por medio de la ingesta ceremonial de su stancias enteógenas. El estudio de dichos estados h sido abordado por la psicología y la psiquiatría cl ási as desde distintas perspectivas, de las cuales la más aceptada ha sido el paradigma “fenomenológico-psico logista”. En este artículo se pasa revista a dicho enfoque, para luego proponer un segundo modelo a pa rtir del cual desarrollar un estudio más comprehensivo sobre el fenómeno. Este segundo marco “transpersonal-integral” aporta una nueva visión que integra las variables cultural y ceremon ial de la ingesta alucinógena en el contexto neochamánico.

The fact that both Jim Jones' movement and Heaven's Gate ended in mass murder-suicides demonstrates the level of fear and desperation evoked by doomsday prophecies, as well as the power held by their promoters. This phenomenon provides many areas for research. What is more, thanks to the Internet and various forms of social media, these once local apocalypses are quickly shared across the international community, thereby eliciting, if not outright demanding, a response. In this paper, we focus on how Polish-speaking people cope with this heightened state of uncertainty through the creation and propagation of internet memes. Specifically, we look at Polish image macros and demotivators as

Produtos naturais alucinógenos constituem um importante e interessante grupo de substâncias, em especial os alcaloides, classe de substâncias para as quais são observadas inúmeras atividades biológicas e farmacológicas, incluindo as propriedades alucinógenas apresentadas por várias espécies vegetais que contêm tais metabólitos. Reconhecendo-se a importância histórica, química e farmacológica dos alucinógenos alcaloidais, este estudo teve por objetivo abordar e discutir, com base na literatura específica, aspectos relevantes sobre a história, a química e a farmacologia de alucinógenos naturais alcaloidais clássicos, como: DMT, escopolamina, harmina, hiosciamina, ibogaína, LSA, mescalina, psilocibina e psilocina.

Garry Trompf 's work has explored the creative forms Christianity has assumed in Melanesia, and the various ways Christianity has been localised. He studied popular forms of Christianity as emerging Melanesian theologies of sin, punishment and redemption, and as part of the development of independent Melanesian churches. Using ethnography on the Pomio Kivung, I analyse the inadequacies of recent cognitive science characterisations of repetition in cargo cult rituals. Focusing on local ontologies of oratory, ritual and mimesis, I analyse the contradictions faced by cult movements seeking mainstream acceptance whilst still experimenting with the millenarian mimetic promise of myths and rituals.

Our hominin ancestors inevitably encountered and likely ingested psychedelic mushrooms throughout their evolutionary history. This assertion is supported by current understanding of: early hominins’ paleodiet and paleoecology; primate phylogeny of mycophagical and self-medicative behaviors; and the biogeography of psilocybin-containing fungi. These lines of evidence indicate mushrooms (including bioactive species) have been a relevant resource since the Pliocene, when hominins intensified exploitation of forest floor foods. Psilocybin and similar psychedelics that primarily target the serotonin 2A receptor subtype stimulate an active coping strategy response that may provide an enhanced capacity for adaptive changes through a flexible and associative mode of cognition. Such psychedelics also alter emotional processing, self-regulation, and social behavior, often having enduring effects on individual and group well-being and sociality. A homeostatic and drug instrumentalization perspective suggests that incidental inclusion of psychedelics in the diet of hominins, and their eventual addition to rituals and institutions of early humans could have conferred selective advantages. Hominin evolution occurred in an ever-changing, and at times quickly changing, environmental landscape and entailed advancement into a socio-cognitive niche, i.e., the development of a socially interdependent lifeway based on reasoning, cooperative communication, and social learning. In this context, psychedelics’ effects in enhancing sociality, imagination, eloquence, and suggestibility may have increased adaptability and fitness. We present interdisciplinary evidence for a model of psychedelic instrumentalization focused on four interrelated instrumentalization goals: management of psychological distress and treatment of health problems; enhanced social interaction and interpersonal relations; facilitation of collective ritual and religious activities; and enhanced group decision-making. The socio-cognitive niche was simultaneously a selection pressure and an adaptive response, and was partially constructed by hominins through their activities and their choices. Therefore, the evolutionary scenario put forward suggests that integration of psilocybin into ancient diet, communal practice, and proto-religious activity may have enhanced hominin response to the socio-cognitive niche, while also aiding in its creation. In particular, the interpersonal and prosocial effects of psilocybin may have mediated the expansion of social bonding mechanisms such as laughter, music, storytelling, and religion, imposing a systematic bias on the selective environment that favored selection for prosociality in our lineage.

Las sustancias enteógenas comprenden una gran variedad de psicotrópicos, con propiedades alucinógenas y curativas, han sido utilizadas en ceremonias o rituales desde los primeros asentamientos de poblaciones y fueron elemento clave para la formación de culturas y creencias. Su finalidad principal es la de la sanación tanto del espíritu como del cuerpo terrenal. Bajo una investigación cualitativa con enfoque etnográfico, se describen las propiedades de las diferentes sustancias enteógenas que aún prevalecen en uso por grupos que siguen las líneas de las medicinas ancestrales, así mismo se destaca el potencial investigativo que estas poseen debido a sus abundantes propiedades medicinales. Palabras clave: Enteógeno, psicoactivo, alcaloides, psicotrópico, ceremonias.

A philosophical and biographical engagement with the long standing ideal of a post-ideological psychedelic society as it appears in the writing of psychedelic pioneers Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and Terence McKenna.
The paper originally appeared in the journal Psychedelic Press. Hartogsohn, Ido. “Psychedelic Society Revisited: On Reducing Valves, Reality Tunnels and The Question of Psychedelic Culture.” Edited by Robert Dickins and Andy Roberts. Psychdelic Press 2015, no. IV (August 2015): 83–99.

The Department of Studies in Religion has maintained steady progress this year.  We were especially pleased that the appointments of  Dr Christopher Hartney and Dr Jay Johnston were made permanent at the start of 2010.  At the same time, all offerings in Buddhist Studies were consolidated in the Department of Indian Subcontinental Studies, and our colleagues Dr Edward Crangle and Dr Paul Fuller were re-located there.  We were sorry to see them go (all the way downstairs in the Woolley Building), but maintain close contact on many academic and social matters.  In general, the Faculty of Arts is in a period of transition, and it will be interesting to see what changes 2011 will bring.

Introducción Bingen Amadoz ha culminando un libro sobre memoria histórica. Rebosan las interpelaciones y la inquietud por confrontarlas desde la antropología social. Se pregunta Bingen Amadoz por las respuestas que, potencial o even-tualmente, esta disciplina declararía ante los interrogantes formulados. Se pregunta por los modelos de comportamiento humano, intra e inter comunitario, precisamente en esas situaciones en que alguien siente la llamada de levantarse en armas y guerrear contra su vecino. La cerilla que prende el fuego en el que arde un conciudadano ¿es de instinto emocional primario?, ¿es de envidia?, ¿es de venganza?, ¿es de ambición socio-económica?, ¿es un canto celeste?

A creative essay on gender violence and on the murder of an Irish female child care worker in 2012. The title of the essay translates as 'I will not tell you who I am', which draws on a famous song in Irish, 'Ar Éirinn, ní neosfainn cé hí'. This means 'For all of Ireland, I will not tell you who she is'. Inspired by Irish American philosopher and pharmacologist Terence McKenna's idea that 'culture is not your friend' and by the notorious murder trial in 2015, the essay examines how civilization, education and culture can be a shield behind which the most violent and damaging individuals in society may hide. The essay explores how our shallow notions of culture afford a perfect foil for wolves in sheep's clothing.

The book, Fractal Time: The Secret of 2012 and A New World Age by Gregg Braden has as its theme the issue of time-cycles which it explained in an extremely absorbing manner.

The author records 3114B.C as the beginning of the present world age destined to end in A.D 2012 and also states that we are living in the end of time defined by a 5,125 year cycle referred to in ancient traditions as the great cycle.

Our solar system and the earth completes one cycle through the heavens every 5,125 years. Reduced natural resources, rising sea levels as well as alterations in global climate and magnetic fields have characterized at least four of such cycles.

Moreover, in the last 26,000 years five generations have gone through shifts of world ages with ours being the sixth.

This paper will try outline the role and reverberation that Terence McKenna has had in the
Psychedelic community from the Cultural Revolution of the late Sixties to the ongoing
Psychedelic Renaissance. Moreover, it will discuss his unquestionable influence not only on
the investigations pursued by the leading figures of scientific world, but also on the collective
perception of such a controversial and misunderstood topic.

DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a powerful tryptamine that has experienced growing appeal in the last decade, independent from ayahuasca, the Amazonian visionary brew in which it is an integral ingredient. Investigating user reports available from literary and online sources, this chapter focuses on the gnosis potency associated with the DMT "breakthrough" experience. I explore the parameters of the tryptaminal state and, in particular, the extraordinary paragnosis associated with the DMT event, perceived contact with "entities," and the transmission of visual language. As the reports discussed illustrate, for milieus of the disenchanted, among other entheogens, DMT is venerated as a gift that enables connection to a reality (nature, the universe, divinity) from which modern humanity is imagined to have grown alienated. Through an exploration of the legacy of principal actors, including Terence McKenna, Jonathan Ott, Jim DeKorne, and Nick Sand, the chapter navigates the significance of DMT in modern Western esotericism.

Por muchas décadas, los alucinógenos han sido considerados como sustancias psicogénicas. Este trabajo busca des-demonizar el tema y exponer objetivamente la historia, la antropología, la  química  y  la  farmacología  de  dichas  sustancias.  Es  posible  que  las  plantas  alucinatorias fuesen las primeras utilizadas por los seres humanos. La antropología del chamanismo indica que  en  los  tiempos  más  antiguos  se  utilizaban  como  medios  de  adivinación,  meteorología, contacto con los mundos de espíritus y mundos ancestrales. Asimismo, el trabajo entra en materia científica química, al indicar las distintas estructuras que poseen características aluci-natorias, en particular, con el LSD-25. La farmacología de los alucinatorios es muy vasta y el trabajo se ha limitado a indicar algunos de dichos compuestos. Se menciona en forma somera la clasificación de tres fases de la experiencia alucinatoria.

Ayahuasca, um ser divino, uma planta mestra, enteógeno, alucinógeno, remédio, terapia, droga, ferramenta cognitiva, commodity, chá. As definições associadas à ayahuasca são quase tão diversas quanto seus usos. De fato, o uso da ayahuasca em todo o mundo  composto de diversas práticas - xamanismo indígena, grupos religiosos, uso terapêutico,
grupos neoxamânicos associados ao movimento da nova era, formas particulares de turismo e empreendedorismo, etc. Tal variedade de práticas, usos e grupos, fazem parte do que os autores intitularam de “diáspora mundial da ayahuasca”, ou o boom da ayahuasca. Assim, este volume apresenta uma tarefa importante: tentar compreender as
complexidades das formas de consumo da ayahuasca, à medida que seu uso se expande em todo o mundo, dando margem à reinvenções e controvérsias. Questões como tradição, identidade, legitimidade, estigmatização, disputas entre grupos, processos judiciais,
políticas de drogas, ganham uma nova perspectiva através da lente da diáspora da ayahuasca. À luz da complexidade destas questões, um tema chama particularmente a atenção dos leitores: as controvérsias. Sejam as
controvérsias internas do meio ayahuasqueiro, que surgem na medida que seu uso se dissemina pelo mundo, se diversificando e criando novas práticas em torno da bebida. Sejam as controvérsias legais que alguns grupos e praticantes enfrentam quando se tornam o foco de repressão ou
regulamentação governamental.

Emerging into physical form this October was The Gnostic World (Routledge). This hefty tome - of sixty-seven chapters - was artfully and bravely developed by Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Professor Garry Trompf, with the assistance of section editors Gunner Mikkelsen, Macquarie University (Ancient World) and Jay Johnston (Modern). Many chapters were authored by Studies in Religion and SLAM staff, honoraries, research associates and former graduate students, ensuring a strong Sydney presence in what is a major international reference work. University contributors (past and present) included Iain Gardner, Carole Cusack, William Christie, Majella Franzmann, Al Boag, David W. Kim, Brikha H.S. Nasoraia, Doru Costache and Milad Milani.

INFORM (Information Network on Religious Movements) recently moved from its long- term base at the London School of Economics to King’s College London. The November day-long seminar on the theme “Health and Healing in Minority Religions” had an audience of 70 and featured eight papers, including: INFORM founder Professor Eileen Barker on “Religious Attitudes to the Body, Health and Healing.”

For the Ammerman Center’s Biennial Symposium on Arts and Technology, Creator/Director Mallory Catlett, Sound-artist/Performer G Lucas Crane, and Dramaturg/Scholar Alex Wermer-Colan will present their ongoing project, Decoder 2017, a three-part concert series exploring the language and prophecies of William S. Burroughs on the merging of body, media, and machine. In the early 60’s and 70’s, William Burroughs wrote an elaborate set of instructions, encoded in novels and essays for how to use technology to escape control - societal, political and self-imposed. What emerged was a prophecy and a biological language for the technological takeover of the human nervous system. 
Decoder 2017 is first and foremost a cut-up machine that follows his instructions to confront the physical sensation of living today. This machine is turning out concerts one for each book of the “Nova Trilogy” (Soft Machine, Ticket That Exploded & Nova Express). It is played by cassette-tape DJ and sound artist G Lucas Crane and performer Jim Findlay, who act as both fictional characters and real-time systems operators cutting internet debris into kaleidoscopic dreamscapes, prophetic pronouncements and obscene routines that expose our complicity in the systems that control us. At the heart of the machine is an interface that connects the DJ via sensors on his tape decks to an array of technology that allow the analog body to control digital imagery.  
In each concert there is an augmentation in the machine to mirror Burroughs’ evolving literary techniques. Where as Soft Machine experiments with more rudimentary cut-ups, a violent barrage of visual and auditory juxtapositions, Ticket That Exploded deploys the fold-in method, creating kaleidoscopic images, folded down the middle and triangulated. As we craft the final part of the series, Nova Express, we are experimenting with new feedback systems, as well as immersing the audience with 360-degree video. All these techniques are designed to induce visual hallucinations and a sense of enclosure within the system we are creating.

Systems thinking as a modern approach for problem solving was revived after WWII even though it had been an ancient philosophy. We can track systems thinking back to antiquity. Making a distinction from Western rationalist traditions of philosophy, C. West Churchman often identified with the I Ching as a systems approach sharing a frame of reference similar to pre-Socratic philosophy and Heraclitus. In this paper, we will compare the evolutionary system of consciousness, which was presented in the Tun calendar of Mayan Indians and contemporary systems theory and systems thinking, which is nothing else but highly evolved human consciousness in society. We will present Mayan calendar systems to contemporary systems thinking principles and explain the answer to the Ackoff's judgment on four hundred years of analytical thinking as the dominant mode of society. We will use the methods of historical comparison and a method of a systems approach. We will point out the big picture and Mayan divine plan as main systems principles. The Mayan numerical system and long count units has been proven as one of the most accurate systems for describing the present and future of the civilization in which we have all evolved. We will also explain the Mayan nine-level pyramids system that represents the evolutionary system, i.e. the consciousness, which in our time shows the actual level of human consciousness. Deriving from all described, we will show the main systems principles, discussed by contemporary systems authors and Mayan systems principles, which differ only in one expression -they named "the big picture" as "the divine plan." The final results can be perfectly applied to the society we live in. Seeing the world from the big picture point of view is reaching a level of awareness, in which linear thinking is replaced by systems thinking. The Mayans explained that the civilization would achieve the system of conscious co-creation. We can claim that linear thinking guides us to a limited consciousness, whereas systems thinking opens the possibilities of conscious co-creation for the benefits of sustainable society and future of the planet.