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In preparing for this presentation, I found myself asking
what I could contribute to this promising frontier of knowledge
whether innovative and unique, or simply supportive of the content
being presented by so many of my colleagues.
And I realize that there's a responsibility that goes with having had
the privilege of doing this legally for 25 years of my life
and I must have something to say to you
so we'll see what unfolds here. I'm very thankful to Rick
for the invitation to be here, and for the opportunity to simply interact with you today.
I entered this field back in 1963, believe it or not,
when I was a graduate student at the University of Göttingen in Germany
first as a research subject, then as a research assistant
This fortuitous, literally mind-expanding opportunity, which gave focus to my entire career trajectory,
occurred in the psycho-therapeutic clinic of Hanscarl Leuner
who at the time was pursuing research with Psilocybin and its short-acting derivitives,
and LSD. Then in Boston a few years later, I had the opportunity to help
recruit some theological students for a small study with Psilocybin,
with Walter Pahnke - there's Hanscarl Leuner, there's Walter Pahnke,
Carl Salzman, Richard Katz, and also deepened relationships with some of my mentors,
notably Abe Maslow, Houston Smith, and Walter Houston Clark.
I also wandered out to Millbrook, New York, and participated in dialogues
with the remnants of the staff that had been doing research at Harvard.
(laughter from audience)
Then in 1967 (with all due respects to Ralph - he was there)
in 1967 I moved to Baltimore, where I was privileged to contribute to a decade of psychedelic research
initially at the Spring Grove State Hospital, and then at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.
And there was excitement in the air then - a feeling of being on the verge
of a whole new frontier in psychiatry - new approaches to psycho-therapeutic treatment,
a feeling of profound relevance of our work to the study of consciousness itself,
profound implications for both science and religion -
we spent faculty meetings there wondering about How will you - how will we train all the hordes
of therapists in 5 years, that are gonna need training?
Colleagues there were Charles Savage, Al Kurland, Sandy Junger, Walter Pahnke,
Stan Grof, Rich Jensen?, Don Reed, and others, and we did a number of
fascinating studies looking at psychotherapy assisted by LSD, by DPT, by Psilocybin, by MDA
investigating promise in the treatment of people suffering from alcoholism,
narcotic addiction, and personality disorders,
in decreasing the psychological distress of cancer patients, and in the education
of mental health and religious professionals.
This research trajectory in Baltimore actually continued for seven years after the passage
of the Controlled Substances Act, but finally became dormant in 1977.
Interestingly, due to administrative decisions on the state level -
not, as many have assumed, due to prohibition by the Federal Government.
And I had the dubious honor of being last to leave the sinking ship,
as all legal research with psychedelics ceased in the United States.
At that poignant point in my career, it seemed wise to apply the mantram we provided our research volunteers:
You got it - Trust, let go, be open.
I turned my attention to teaching and private practice, and hoped that the research with psychedelics
might come alive again during my lifetime (talk about Death-Rebirth experiences)
(audience laughter)
Man!
Then, in 1977 - no, I'm sorry, then after a 22-year hiatus,
in collaboration with Rolland Griffiths and Bob Jessie,
I found myself contributing to its rebirth at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
In the now 13 years of Research at Hopkins, we've published a series of papers
that have begun to explore the nature and therapeutic promise of various alternate states
in studies with mentally healthy volunteers, in reference to personal and spiritual development
I think most of you know our papers on that. If not, they're easily found on the web.
We also have reactivated the earlier studies with cancer patients, and with persons suffering from addictions
Matt Johnson's work with nicotine-dependents right now.
Besides Roland Griffiths, who will be presenting data tomorrow morning,
our current - my current colleagues are Matt Johnson, Mary Cosimano, Brian Richards, Katherine Maclean,
Fred Reinholdt - about the only one of our staff who isn't here, Matt Bradstreet, Albert Garcia-Romeu
and we have a wonderful network of support personnel as well.
(Laughs) I think this is the third time you've seen this slide today, but it's a good one
That's actually Brian and me and Mary
When I reflect back on the hundreds of persons with whom I have served as therapist or guide,
many of whom received multiple sessions over time, I experience a profound sense of gratitude
for the privilege of being with all these human beings in the depths of existence.
Almost all of these people had no prior experience with psychedelics
and would not have agreed to receive them outside of a research context
that provided a pure drug in known dosage, with maximum support and safety.
With each of them, I usually spent about eight hours developing a therapeutic relationship
before administering the psychedelic, and also hours in the days and weeks following each session,
to facilitate integration.
A rapid slideshow in my memory of the faces of these persons
includes men and women of all races, educational levels, and an incredible variety of vocational identities,
varying in age from the early twenties to close to eighty.
Religious orientation has varied from dedicated atheism to deep commitment
within the structure of one or another of the great world religions. Some have been in robust physical health,
others have been in both physical and psychological pain
in close proximity to physical death.
The experience I have accumulated usually has come from administering psychedelics to individual people,
one person at a time, with a volunteer reclining on the couch with closed eyes and headphones,
engaged in an introspective journey during most of the period of drug action.
We often have noted that it is indeed amazing how much you can see with your eyes closed.
So, I bring to you observations from many diverse case histories,
however, I must acknowledge that I also bring to you my own life,
and the experiential insights I have encountered in alternate states,
whether facilitated by psychedelics, by meditation, or other technologies.
And my perceptions and interpretations of what I have observed undoubtedly are colored
by my own cognitive structures and linguistic preferences.
At the outset: I want to try to communicate to you (and some of you know this better than others)
but I want to communicate to you the utter vastness of the realms of alternative states of consciousness,
their promise in advancing both scientific and religious knowledge,
and their potential implications for personal and spiritual evolution.
Psychedelics, wisely and responsibly employed, which you've heard many times, indeed,
really are valuable tools in the exploration of consciousness,
akin to the telescope in astronomy, or the microscope in biology.
Sometimes I have felt like Columbus, having just landed in the West Indies with his primitive maps
and then having somehow been placed in a supersonic jet and shown the vistas of the entire new world,
stretching far beyond the wildest fantasies of his imagination, and leaving him almost
speechless, with a profound sense of awe. Sometimes,
when sitting silently beside research volunteers, when their everyday consciousness has been transcended,
and mystical experiences are occurring, it is no exaggeration to say that
I humbly feel as though I am sitting beside the Buddha, under the Bodhi tree as enlightenment is dawning,
or sitting beside...
St. Paul, on the road to Damascus, or beside Isaiah during his temple vision.
What we are beginning to study here on this frontier
where science and the sacred are meeting
truly is profound
in its magnitude, its vivid intensity,
and its potential relevance.
With the best experimental designs we can devise, as we begin to probe this multifaceted field,
we are at best novices with very limited conceptual tools and linguistic frameworks.
I think of Alan Watts' suggestion: that one reason we have tended to avoid this field of inquiry arises
out of the taboo of knowing who you are.
That we tend to fear too much knowledge about the mysteries of our own being.
As I know many of you appreciate, it is common for volunteers, under the action of psychedelics in relatively high dosage,
to report phenomena that do not appear to arise from their personal life histories,
and that entail different perspectives on time and space.
Experiences that call into question some of the most basic assumptions that undergird our normative consensual definition of reality,
and the manner in which we customarily define ourselves, and orient ourselves in the world.
As expressed by Thomas Kuhn, whether as scientists or philosophers, we really are
in the midst of a major paradigm shift at this point in history.
It is clear that there indeed is a multidimensional cartography of inner space, with many discrete alternate forms of consciousness,
and they seem to form a continuum that is influenced by dosage, by personality structure, and the capacity to relinquish ego control,
and by the growing edge of a person's unique personal and spiritual development.
Simply expressed, the continuum begins with mild alterations of perception,
may deepen to unravel the psychodynamics of personal life, may deepen further to invite participation
in visionary or archetypal dramas - the realm of mythology, as presented by Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung,
and may deepen even further, into transcendental realms of awareness, in which the everyday self or ego
is encompassed into unitive mystical dimensions of mind that usually are experienced as profoundly sacred and eternal.
In addition to these stages, there are many unique states of consciousness, about which we know very, very little.
Although we like to think spatially, and attempt to speak a language that may correlate to phenomena encountered in consciousness,
with neuronal structures and biochemical activity, to some extent, it continues to make sense, at least to me,
to stress that the experiential content of a particular foray into the world of alternative states
is to be found not within the drug, but within the human mind itself.
What the human mind is continues to remain a tantalizing mystery, especially as there is good reason
to question the reductionistic philosophical assumptions that have tended to prevail in the community of Western scientists,
in spite of quantum physics. It is time to take a fresh look at the writings of philosophers such as Henry Bergson,
who viewed the human brain more like a television set that receives processes, limits, works with information
than as the primary source of mental phenomena. Perhaps psychedelic drugs still may be understood simply as skeleton keys
that provide access to other realms of human consciousness. The experiences reported, therefore, are not "in the drug,"
but rather in and through the mind of the person who is experiencing.
Now there's a lot of ignorance and lore here, even among those who possess a reasonable personal cache of psychedelic experience.
All too often, a person has taken a particular dose of a particular substance, had a particular experience,
and then concluded that whatever occurred is "what that substance does"
It is highly probably that even if the person took the same dose of the same substance at another time, there would be a different experience to report,
even if it further revealed and extended the themes encountered earlier
The major substances with which I have worked appear to differ from one another not in terms of the experiential content they reveal,
but in terms of factors such as required dosage, rapidity of onset and termination, and duration of action.
If any particular molecule has a higher probability of facilitating a particular state of consciousness,
that only will be established in time, as well-designed, double-blind research projects are implemented.
Does Mescaline produce more vivid colors? Does the DMT in Ayahuasca really produce more images of anacondas?
(Laughter)
Is the onset of Psilocybin more gentle than LSD? Only patient research will provide the answers we seek.
It is now understood that the promise of psychedelic substances in accelerating psychotherapy and spiritual growth
is not a simple biochemical response, independent of set and setting.
One does not ingest a psychedelic as a simple medication, such as when you take Aspirin to relieve a headache.
Rather, it appears to be the unique phenomenology encountered during the period of drug action that determines
whether the substance will prove helpful, harmful, or neutral.
Experiences of personal psychodynamic resolution, of archetypal visions, and of mystical consciousness,
may well contribute to life-enhancing results.
Experiences of panic, paranoia, and confusion, rendered more probable when one is inadequately prepared,
or insufficient skilled guidance is available, may well prove harmful,
especially if such experiences remain unresolved.
Mild experiences of changes in sensory perception, perhaps accompanied by intriguing, though generally meaningless mental imagery,
may well prove neutral.
The potential therapeutic significance of psychodynamic phenomena in the context of the so-called Jungian Personal Unconscious
including themes such as grief and attachment, guilt and forgiveness, anger, love - all this is theoretically congruent with
many well-established systems of psychotherapy. The therapeutic potency of transcendental states of consciousness
may prove harder for some to comprehend, as it goes beyond the didactic content of most mental health education programs.
By transcendental, I mean both alternative states characterized by archetypal visions of gods and goddesses, of
sacred architecture and art, often resplendent with gemstones and sacred metals,
of vast inner panoramas and landscapes, and also of mystical consciousness.
For research purposes, as you've heard in more than one lecture, I think,
we define mystical consciousness as a state of awareness that includes the six categories of unity,
transcendence of time and space, intuitive knowledge, sacredness, deeply felt positive mood,
and ineffability and paradoxicality.
These transcendental states are similar, if not identical, with states of consciousness described in the world's great religions,
such as Samadhi, Nirvana, ???, the Beatific Vision, ??? or Wu Wei.
Mystics of the world seem to get along really well together, regardless of what tradition they come from.
Now it is difficult to speak or write about these profound transcendental states, as when they occur,
there often is no observing ego, and the content is felt to surpass the limits of language, and the structures of cognition.
I've always been fond of this verse from the Tao Te Ching: "Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know."
Makes it hard to give a lecture! (audience laughter)
Nonetheless, these profound experiences usually do remain in memory
and the reborn ego is able to recall them as sacred touchstones that radiate spiritual knowledge,
and a feeling of ultimate security.
Among the intuitive insights that remain for many persons are:
A conviction of the reality of an eternal structure or principle greater than our individual egos,
for which people have many names. The most popular has been God. Some prefer "the Ground of Being" or "the Nothingness that contains all Reality"
or, ah, I've always liked Edmund Sinnott, the biologist at Yale, who liked to talk about
the purpose of properties of protoplasm.
Well you can choose your term, but there is something incredibly magnificent; greater than our everyday egos.
So that's one. Two: in these states, there is a sense of the indestructibility of consciousness, that many would call Immortality or Infinity.
Three: an interrelatedness within the great unity called the Brotherhood of Man or the Neta Vindra???
Four: an appreciation of Love as an ontological power, an energy, beyond the limits of human emotion.
Five: a sense of awe at the intrinsic magnificence - the beauty - of what has been experienced, both the imagery and the unfolding themes of the content.
Now the presence of a memory of this magnitude appears to constitute a powerful therapeutic resource
for the cancer patient approaching death, the memory provides a feeling that, ultimately, somehow, all is well,
which makes it possible to live the time that remains more fully, with less anxiety, depression, isolation, pain.
For the alcoholic, the narcotic or nicotine addict, or for any person struggling with depression or anxiety,
the memory may testify to inner resources waiting to be more fully tapped, enhanced self-worth,
and an awareness of interpersonal connectedness that can decrease feelings of alienation and estrangement.
In summary, there is knowledge to be had in archetypal and mystical states of consciousness.
The term "getting high" is simply irrelevant here, unless one wants to understand it in the context of glory to God in the highest.
In preparing volunteers for psychedelic sessions, as you've heard from Brian and Mary and others,
we emphasize the decision to trust one's own mind
as unconditionally as possible, the intent to be open and receptive
and the courage to approach and confront content
that initially may appear frightening.
We rarely suggest specific content, such as regressing to a particular age,
or exploring a particular area of personal conflict.
That is because we have learned that there is a remarkable wisdom
in the minds of most, if not all, persons
Usually, the content of a session proves to be much more skillful
and artistically choreographed than any agenda we could have planned in advance.
This supports the belief that there indeed are wise, healing,
intentional forces within human consciousness, beyond the limits of the everyday personality.
It is common, after a session, for a volunteer to say:
"You know, I didn't experience what I wanted,
but I experienced what I needed." We hear that a lot.
The philosophical term "entelechy" well reflects this process
of a meaningful unfolding of content, which of course appears to work best
when the volunteer feels grounded in a respectful and secure relationship
with a therapist or guide.
On the day prior to a psychedelic session, when I am finishing up the preparatory work with a volunteer,
I often imagine that the person's own creative unconscious has composed a three-act opera
and can't wait for it to be experienced, and when the lights dim and the curtain rises on the following day,
the volunteer not only will observe the drama, but will discover himself or herself
in stage center, as his or her unique drama unfolds.
In the history of research with psychedelics, the term "psycholytic" sometimes has been employed
to focus on personal psychodynamic forms of experience, in contrast to the term "psychedelic"
that may include more transcendental forms of experience.
More probable with relatively low dosages, psycholytic experiences may entail:
abreaction, catharsis, and meaningful suffering, that often leads to positive feelings of resolution,
forgiveness, and rebirth.
Most would not consider such experiences spiritual, or as having religious import,
unless it is in the context of a belief that the resolution of psychodynamic conflicts for many
is an important phase in the journey of spiritual development.
But the actual content does not include awareness of the sacred,
visions of deities, or mystical insights.
Conversely, as is more probable with higher dosage in a supportive setting,
profound visionary, archetypal, and mystical forms of experiences may occur
that at least initially appear to have little connection
with the everyday, historical life of the ego, who may behold the vision, or become encompassed within it.
When this form of experience occurs, the therapeutic impact appears to derive from the death
and rebirth of the ego, quite without regard for details of childhood development,
and current interpersonal struggles, at home and work.
Some persons who experience a series of psychotherapy sessions facilitated by psychedelics,
gradually work through content of a personal, psychodynamic nature,
and then finally break through into transcendental forms of awareness.
Others encounter profound trascendental content in their first forays into alternate states
and subsequently, in the light of the noetic, intuitive knowledge, attained in archetypal and mystical realms,
return to Earth to address issues of traditional psychodynamic import.
I wish to stress that both trajectories work well - it doesn't have to be one or the other.
It appears probable that if the person who is gradually progressing through psychodynamic content
continues to pursue quality therapy, with or without psychedelics,
eventually they will arrive at transcendence.
For persons who experience transcendental content in an initial session,
it would be an error to assume that such a blessed experience has confirmed his or her sainthood
and that there is no psychodynamic work to be done.
Actually, especially in the case of alcoholics and narcotic addicts treated with psychedelic psychotherapy,
this trajectory works especially well, because with the enhancement and strengthening of their self-concepts,
nurtured by memories of transcendental forms of consciousness,
it becomes easier for them to explore areas of personal failure, without undue loss of self-worth.
It therefore appears that if one seeks to facilitate optimal personal growth with the aid of psychedelics,
sessions in both low and high dosages would prove useful.
The Dutch psychiatrist G. W. Arendsen Hein supported this approach in what he called "psychedelytic therapy"
Typically, he gave his patients a series of low-dose sessions in small rooms
in the clinic he designed, in Ederveen, Holland, suburb of Amsterdam,
until he judged that sufficient resolution had occurred in the area of personal psychodynamics.
Then he would lead his patients into this large, beautifully appointed room -
swans on the lake outside it, a Buddha above the fireplace, you know, just beautiful space -
and there he would give people a high dosage, in hopes of facilitating a transcendental experience.
And in his view that the mystical and archetypal experiences were thus rewards -
almost a way of celebrating or culminating the difficult process of personal psychodynamic exploration.
There's a point I wish to underscore here - I hope this doesn't sound preachy -
that focuses on the importance of the everyday self or ego,
that part of each of us that moves through the world from birth til death with our proper names.
Even though mystical forms of consciousness, however eternal and vivid they may be,
are incredibly meaningful, especially as they often leave in their wake a sense of being at home in the universe,
I have become convinced that our everyday, personal lives in time also have their significance and reason for being.
This is well reflected in spiritual teachings and traditions -
in Zen, the enlightened man chops wood and carries water;
the Boddhisatva - even the apprentice Boddhisatva - leaves the mountaintop and descends into the marketplace
to manifest compassion.
In Isaiah, the person closest to the divine moves in the world as a servant who vicariously suffers.
Meditative disciplines that intend to kill off the ego, in my judgement,
may well generate more depression than enlightenment.
The ego is perhaps best transcended through acceptance, forgiveness when appropriate, and unconditional love.
Huston Smith, highly respected scholar of comparative religions, one of our esteemed colleagues,
first articulated the important distinction between religious experiences and religious lives
or between states of consciousness and traits of behavior.
This also appears to be true of insights in more conventional forms of psychotherapy.
A revelatory experience may provide an initial impetus towards behavior change,
apparently more strongly for some than others, however once one returns to the ordinary, everyday consciousness,
there's integrative work to be done, if the knowledge acquired is going to result in enduring spiritual or personal growth,
and not just remain a memory of an interesting experience that happened one day,
or perhaps a comforting awareness to recall if you find yourself on your deathbed.
I recall working with a person who believed herself to be trapped in the womb,
what Stan Grof has labeled the "2nd Basic Perinatal Matrix"
in spite of the caution Stan has well articulated, she believed that if she took psychedelics enough times,
she would work her way out of the birth canal and experience freedom and rebirth.
Unfortunately, she also was trapped in a job she strongly disliked, and a marriage she described as "dead,"
but she was unwilling to look at either of those problem areas -
she just wanted to take psychedelics until she became free.
Clearly, it's not hard to understand that until she did some work in drug-free sessions,
addressing issues of vocation and marriage, it is improbable that any breakthrough would occur during the action of a psychedelic drug.
Sometimes it appears that the lever that opens the door to transcendental forms of consciousness
is to be found in very mundane details of ordinary livng.
Most persons require a minimum of eight hours of shared time with a therapist or guide,
usually spread over two weeks, in preparation for productive psychedelic session,
while sharing the joys and struggles of your particular life, the frontiers of personal development,
not only is trust established with a guide, but an atmosphere of honesty and openness is clarified within the mind
of the research volunteer. Then, should interpersonal grounding or reassurance be needed
during the period of drug action, the simple warmth of the guide's hand, or a few brief words often will suffice
to circumvent potential panic and paranoia, and maximize the probability
that the content of the session will prove beneficial.
Drug-free sessions, then, of course continue to be of importance during the weeks following the psychedelic experience.
Over and over one moves one's awareness back and forth, from the memory of the experience, to the decisions and strategies
required in daily living, gradually progressing towards integration.
In addition to psychotherapy-style appointments, disciplined meditative procedures may be of significant assistance
to many people during this phase of personal and spiritual development.
In the words of Alan Watts, "When you get the message, you hang up the phone."
Now a few thoughts on the roles of expectation:
In my experience, faith is the capacity to trust some structure, concept, or entity greater or more fundamental
than one's everyday personality, constitutes an important variable in increasing the probability that
transcendental forms of consciousness will occur.
Even more sharply defined, the important factor appears to be the conscious choice (underline choice)
of the healthy, mature ego to trust in an unconditional manner.
The Harvard theologian Paul Tillich, who at the end of his life was working on a systematic theology of world religions,
called this type of faith "the courage to be."
In this framework, one must have a self to lose a self,
which may be why persons with a mature sense of personal and vocational identity may be more likely to experience
profoundly mystical states than persons in the midst of adolescence.
I've often felt the target audience, or the ideal research volunteers would be people from their mid-twenties to mid-fifties, sort of.
And the attitudes of the culture are really skewed by the use of drugs by very young people,
who have often gotten into great difficulties with them
and we don't have the data from... the Aldous Huxleys and Houston Smiths of the past don't have legal access to drugs anymore,
and responsible university professors aren't likely to take illegal drugs - and if you do, you can't talk about it, you know?
So the cultural attitudes have really been skewed by the abuse or misuse or premature use of the drugs by many people.
My strong impression is that it is not the content of religious faith, in terms of the acceptance of the tenets of a creed,
or system of belief that matters, so much as the act of faith that is unconditional trust.
Persons who have grown up in a tradition that includes devotion and dialogue with the deity,
through prayer or meditative disciplines, may well find it easier to entrust themselves to deeper levels
of consciousness, during the action of a psychedelic.
Expectation, however, appears to have little import in determining what experiences will occur.
I have worked with Roman Catholic priests, who hope to glimpse the Beatific Vision,
but instead have spent their sessions wrestling with traumatic *** experiences in their childhoods.
Similarly, I recall an Australian physician, who thought he was essentially "uncontaminated" (his word) by Christian teachings,
and hoped for insights into his Aboriginal roots, who found himself vividly experiencing the death and the resurrection of the Christ.
He was very embarrassed (audience laughter)
I recall a culturally-deprived narcotic addict from the inner city of Baltimore, with a junior high school education,
who found himself experiencing what he called "strange, partially naked people dancing with strange hats on their heads,"
A few days after his session, having found a book of Hindu art, with pictures of Vishnu and the dancing Shiva in the waiting room,
he rushed breathlessly into my office, saying "This is what I saw! This is what I saw!"
I suspect that rigid, fundamentalistic belief systems, whether atheistic, theistic, or otherwise,
can make it hard for one to navigate well in the depths of human consciousness, especially if one wants to prove a point.
If, however, one is open and capable of trust and honest curiosity, the phenomenon religious scholars call "revelation"
can and does take place. Honest agnosticism, especially if coupled with courage and curiosity,
in the context of a well-grounded human relationship, often has proved to facilitate the constructive exploration
of alternate states of consciousness.
I gotta get a few words in here on music:
Especially in high dose psychedelic sessions, carefully selected music reliably has been found
to increase the probability of potentially constructive outcomes, and decrease the probability of unproductive anxiety states.
Although the choice of music itself constitutes an important research frontier, at this point, some guidelines have become clear,
especially if the intention is to facilitate the occurrence of transcendental states.
In this regard, music choices during drug onset, the ascent to peak activity and peak activity itself,
appears of maximal importance.
In the latter hours of a session, most any forms of music can be explored and appreciated.
In these early hours, music appears to provide a non-verbal support structure, akin to the net for a trapeze artist.
It is there when needed, and does not interfere when not needed - strong, flowing, reliable structure appears most helpful,
without unexpected changes in rhythm, or words that would engage intellectual functions.
So it is that any fine collection of psychedelic music should include some well-chosen selections from Bach and Brahms
and more recent composers such as Barber and Górecki.
The music that proves most facilitative often is not music that the volunteer ordinarily would select or describe as a preference.
In the wake of transcendental forms of awareness, it is not uncommon to encounter claims of having been drawn in and through
states of mind similar to what the composer may well have experienced, and immersion in the non-verbal content the composer
may have been trying to express.
I could say much more about that, but it would take another hour.
In closing here, we now know there are many psychedelic substances that can facilitate the occurrence
of fascinating and meaningful states of human consciousness,
and also that many of them can be administered safely, when adequate screening of volunteer subjects is conducted,
and when the substances are administered in accordance with the knowledge we have acquired
about responsible structuring of set and setting.
We have a published article on that by Matt Johnson that, if you need to make a good case for the safety of these drugs,
it's out there in the literature.
As discussed in other presentations at this conference, there are many frontiers awaiting exploration
in the field of medicine, examining how psychedelics may accelerate psychotherapy for different populations,
initially focusing on addictive and mood disorders.
The promise of finding an effective intervention for post-traumatic stress disorders and depressive disorders
is especially hopeful.
One area yet basically untouched relates to the use of psychedelics in the treatment of personalities with strong sociopathic traits.
The promise of these substances, however, extends beyond medical applications.
They have promise in education, with applications in the training of both religious and mental health professionals
and even in fields such as philosophy, literature, music, biology, and physics
but above all, these substances have promise in helping us progress in deciphering and honoring the mysteries
of our own being. Of progressing in our understanding of what we are
of what the nature of consciousness might be.
It is at this point that the growing edge of science and the realms of knowledge traditionally owned and managed
by the world's religions meet, and interact.
It is my hope that the dialogue that is beginning to open up will be mutually enriching.
Before inviting discussion, I offer you three minutes of non-verbal content, courtesy of Samuel Barber.
Adagio for Strings - Samuel Barber