1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:27,620 >> I felt this connection with everything, 4 00:00:27,620 --> 00:00:28,675 especially with nature. 5 00:00:31,340 --> 00:00:33,830 >> I have understood for a long time that change is part 6 00:00:33,830 --> 00:00:36,830 of the essential nature of the universe and that I've always 7 00:00:36,830 --> 00:00:39,640 been afraid of change. 8 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,820 But today, I felt deeply that change is a gift. 9 00:00:45,480 --> 00:00:47,820 >> I wish I could put it into words. 10 00:00:47,820 --> 00:00:53,880 It was a sense of connectedness that runs through all of us 11 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:58,770 and also a sense of the strength of it and the power of it. 12 00:00:58,770 --> 00:01:01,155 [MUSIC PLAYING] 13 00:01:08,790 --> 00:01:11,530 >> Mystical experience has been a part of human nature as far 14 00:01:11,530 --> 00:01:12,330 as we know. 15 00:01:12,330 --> 00:01:15,300 And most major religions and religion traditions, 16 00:01:15,300 --> 00:01:19,260 at the core, were about a mystical experience. 17 00:01:19,260 --> 00:01:25,080 Mysticism is unlike a belief in something or knowledge 18 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:26,520 based on what someone tells you. 19 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:29,460 It's the direct experience of that thing, 20 00:01:29,460 --> 00:01:32,610 what's been called the ground of being, to quote, Paul Tillich, 21 00:01:32,610 --> 00:01:37,300 or all that is, [NON-ENGLISH] in Hinduism, or in Christianity, 22 00:01:37,300 --> 00:01:38,630 Christ-consciousness. 23 00:01:38,630 --> 00:01:40,720 It's a direct experience with all 24 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:43,180 that is with nature, with God, as some would call it. 25 00:01:52,950 --> 00:01:55,860 >> The word psychedelic means "mind manifesting," 26 00:01:55,860 --> 00:01:58,050 and it came from a poem. 27 00:01:58,050 --> 00:02:01,140 "To fathom hell or sorrow angelic, 28 00:02:01,140 --> 00:02:03,320 just take a pinch of psychedelic." 29 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:10,630 >> The word psychedelic was coined by a psychiatric 30 00:02:10,630 --> 00:02:14,410 researcher named Humphry Osmond in a letter to author Aldous 31 00:02:14,410 --> 00:02:19,300 Huxley in 1956, before Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey, 32 00:02:19,300 --> 00:02:20,890 or the hippie movement. 33 00:02:20,890 --> 00:02:23,650 And yet the use of psychedelics goes back long 34 00:02:23,650 --> 00:02:25,840 before the 20th century. 35 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,300 For as long as humans have been roaming the Earth, 36 00:02:28,300 --> 00:02:31,075 they've ingested and worshipped these mysterious plants. 37 00:02:40,270 --> 00:02:42,720 [MUSIC PLAYING] 38 00:02:46,670 --> 00:02:49,010 >> In the 16th and 17th centuries, 39 00:02:49,010 --> 00:02:51,710 when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the New World, 40 00:02:51,710 --> 00:02:55,100 they were horrified by what they observed. 41 00:02:55,100 --> 00:02:58,610 They saw the native people using a vast pharmacopeia 42 00:02:58,610 --> 00:03:03,020 of native plants for purposes of healing and divination. 43 00:03:03,020 --> 00:03:05,960 And this was entirely in conflict 44 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:08,810 with the orthodox, rigid belief system 45 00:03:08,810 --> 00:03:11,510 that conquistadors brought with them. 46 00:03:11,510 --> 00:03:14,240 >> The mushroom ceremonies happened at night. 47 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:18,140 They involved invoking spirits, divining the future, 48 00:03:18,140 --> 00:03:19,730 looking for lost things. 49 00:03:19,730 --> 00:03:22,275 And there were women who were doing the ceremonies as well 50 00:03:22,275 --> 00:03:23,075 as men. 51 00:03:23,075 --> 00:03:25,760 So so many things, probably, about that culture 52 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:27,410 was shocking. 53 00:03:27,410 --> 00:03:30,020 And certainly, in Christianity, the power 54 00:03:30,020 --> 00:03:34,250 is given to priests who speak on behalf of God. 55 00:03:34,250 --> 00:03:36,595 And so the thing that is scary about psychedelics 56 00:03:36,595 --> 00:03:38,345 is that it gives power directly to people. 57 00:03:40,970 --> 00:03:43,940 >> The inquisition, in the year 1616, 58 00:03:43,940 --> 00:03:47,360 formally condemned the use of hallucinogenic plants 59 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:50,870 and stated that the punishment for anyone who would use such 60 00:03:50,870 --> 00:03:55,130 plants, whether they be natives or immigrant Spaniards, 61 00:03:55,130 --> 00:03:58,430 was death by the cruelest methods available. 62 00:04:01,990 --> 00:04:02,950 >> 1938. 63 00:04:02,950 --> 00:04:04,885 [ENGINES WHINING] 64 00:04:10,230 --> 00:04:14,100 >> In 1938, as Europe stood on the brink of world war, 65 00:04:14,100 --> 00:04:16,500 a chemist working for a pharmaceutical company 66 00:04:16,500 --> 00:04:19,709 in Switzerland made a most unusual discovery, 67 00:04:19,709 --> 00:04:23,640 one that would alter the course of human events to come. 68 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:25,650 >> Albert Hofmann was, from a young person, 69 00:04:25,650 --> 00:04:29,790 very focused on nature, kind of a nature mystic almost. 70 00:04:29,790 --> 00:04:32,640 And he worked at Sandoz Pharmaceutical Companies. 71 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:36,540 And they were looking-- in 1938 is when he invented LSD. 72 00:04:36,540 --> 00:04:39,210 It was also from ergot, which is a fungus that 73 00:04:39,210 --> 00:04:40,860 grows on wheat and barley. 74 00:04:40,860 --> 00:04:42,960 He was looking at various compounds 75 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,300 where he could start with what was in ergot 76 00:04:45,300 --> 00:04:47,010 and manipulate them in different ways. 77 00:04:47,010 --> 00:04:50,160 And LSD-25 was the 25th variation. 78 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:52,710 And in 1943, five years later, he 79 00:04:52,710 --> 00:04:55,980 had what he called a peculiar presentiment that there was 80 00:04:55,980 --> 00:05:00,870 something worthwhile in LSD-25. 81 00:05:00,870 --> 00:05:02,640 >> He accidentally ingested some, 82 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:07,660 because you don't need that much LSD to get into your system. 83 00:05:07,660 --> 00:05:13,110 And he had a really unexpected experience. 84 00:05:13,110 --> 00:05:16,050 It wasn't anything that blew his mind, 85 00:05:16,050 --> 00:05:18,090 but it was enough that he paid attention. 86 00:05:18,090 --> 00:05:19,420 >> It was on a Friday. 87 00:05:19,420 --> 00:05:22,140 And so he went home over the weekend. 88 00:05:22,140 --> 00:05:25,410 And on Monday, April 19, 1943, he 89 00:05:25,410 --> 00:05:28,110 decided that he would do a planned experiment, 90 00:05:28,110 --> 00:05:30,540 and he would take an amount that he 91 00:05:30,540 --> 00:05:33,480 said was so small that he thought nothing would happen. 92 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:35,280 But he wanted to be extra cautious. 93 00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:38,190 And that turned out to be 250 micrograms, 94 00:05:38,190 --> 00:05:40,270 250 millionths of a gram. 95 00:05:40,270 --> 00:05:42,900 >> Which 100 micrograms is usually enough for someone 96 00:05:42,900 --> 00:05:49,105 who's naive to LSD to have a full-blown experience. 97 00:05:49,105 --> 00:05:52,800 >> Some of the symptoms occurred immediately, 98 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:57,270 and very soon to become very, very strong, very intense. 99 00:05:57,270 --> 00:06:04,320 And I became anxious, and I asked my laboratory assistant 100 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:07,030 to accompany me home. 101 00:06:07,030 --> 00:06:13,490 And then, we went home by bicycle because it was wartime, 102 00:06:13,490 --> 00:06:16,140 and of course, I had no car. 103 00:06:16,140 --> 00:06:19,560 And I reported about this bicycle ride 104 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:25,290 because I had the feeling that time would stand still. 105 00:06:25,290 --> 00:06:27,170 [MUSIC PLAYING] 106 00:06:32,820 --> 00:06:35,650 >> It's quite an extraordinary property of LSD, 107 00:06:35,650 --> 00:06:39,520 and yet that's a very, very deep meaning. 108 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:42,460 If you have such a deep affect of your whole body, 109 00:06:42,460 --> 00:06:45,370 of your consciousness, of your senses, 110 00:06:45,370 --> 00:06:50,895 LSD must attack the very center of our psychic existence. 111 00:06:55,450 --> 00:06:59,240 >> Hofmann feared that his nightmare would never end, 112 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:01,760 that he had permanently damaged his mind, 113 00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:04,490 and wondered what his wife and children would think when they 114 00:07:04,490 --> 00:07:08,450 returned home to find a madman in the living room. 115 00:07:08,450 --> 00:07:10,460 Slowly, the effects wore off. 116 00:07:10,460 --> 00:07:13,220 And after a night's rest, he entered his garden, 117 00:07:13,220 --> 00:07:16,310 where everything was teeming with life. 118 00:07:16,310 --> 00:07:19,970 >> Woke up the next day and felt refreshed, rejuvenated. 119 00:07:19,970 --> 00:07:21,980 He found things to be novel and interesting. 120 00:07:21,980 --> 00:07:24,980 He went back to the lab to figure out what had happened. 121 00:07:24,980 --> 00:07:28,580 Nobody had thought that anything in terms of the microgram range 122 00:07:28,580 --> 00:07:30,420 could create an effect. 123 00:07:30,420 --> 00:07:33,170 But in fact, he discovered this very potent compound. 124 00:07:33,170 --> 00:07:36,290 And then, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals tested it in animals 125 00:07:36,290 --> 00:07:38,248 for safety and toxicity, then tested it 126 00:07:38,248 --> 00:07:40,290 in some of the members of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals. 127 00:07:40,290 --> 00:07:44,810 >> But in 1943, Hofmann became temporarily psychotic through 128 00:07:44,810 --> 00:07:47,120 accidental ingestion of the drug. 129 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:49,490 The door swung wide open for research 130 00:07:49,490 --> 00:07:52,160 into the nature of the schizophrenic process, 131 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:56,060 and in a larger sense, into the biochemistry of psychosis. 132 00:07:56,060 --> 00:08:01,730 >> They believed that it might be a tool to help psychiatrists 133 00:08:01,730 --> 00:08:05,510 understand the inner experience of their psychotic 134 00:08:05,510 --> 00:08:07,010 or schizophrenic patients. 135 00:08:07,010 --> 00:08:11,210 So they packaged samples of LSD and shipped them out 136 00:08:11,210 --> 00:08:14,940 to the leading psychiatric researchers around the world. 137 00:08:14,940 --> 00:08:19,130 >> I'm going to give you this cup that contains lysergic 138 00:08:19,130 --> 00:08:21,770 acid, 100 microgram. 139 00:08:21,770 --> 00:08:25,040 >> --suggesting that they try this compound themselves, 140 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,950 that it was a psychotomimetic drug, 141 00:08:27,950 --> 00:08:31,700 that it would induce the kind of psychotic experience that 142 00:08:31,700 --> 00:08:35,690 their patients were going through and would better help 143 00:08:35,690 --> 00:08:39,260 them understand and so better help them treat. 144 00:08:39,260 --> 00:08:40,429 >> How you feel? 145 00:08:40,429 --> 00:08:43,130 >> Well, I feel very fine. 146 00:08:43,130 --> 00:08:45,620 I feel very buoyant and light and resilient. 147 00:08:45,620 --> 00:08:49,380 I feel as though this chair is not solid. 148 00:08:49,380 --> 00:08:50,660 It seems to be-- 149 00:08:50,660 --> 00:08:55,610 I have a feeling that my hands are not 150 00:08:55,610 --> 00:08:58,260 resting against this chair. 151 00:08:58,260 --> 00:09:00,510 And I see flashes of color quite a bit. 152 00:09:00,510 --> 00:09:03,600 I see this rug, for example, seems 153 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:05,820 to have an awful lot of complements 154 00:09:05,820 --> 00:09:08,550 of violet and yellow. 155 00:09:08,550 --> 00:09:12,240 It seems to feel that I'm going to watch it. 156 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:16,080 >> Now, as it turned out, the experience is not at all like 157 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:18,750 what the inner experience of a schizophrenic is. 158 00:09:18,750 --> 00:09:21,960 >> Now, when you look at your hands, do as I do. 159 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,300 Close your eyes, and just concentrate on your hands. 160 00:09:25,300 --> 00:09:26,100 >> There it is. 161 00:09:26,100 --> 00:09:29,070 I feel these lovely colors vibrating all over me. 162 00:09:29,070 --> 00:09:30,060 Oh, it's lovely. 163 00:09:30,060 --> 00:09:31,000 >> Any lines? 164 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:31,800 >> Oh. 165 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:33,390 >> Any forms? 166 00:09:33,390 --> 00:09:36,480 >> Just like the shimmering water, you know? 167 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:38,530 >> You can put your hand down now. 168 00:09:38,530 --> 00:09:39,330 Come on. 169 00:09:39,330 --> 00:09:42,210 Describe it. 170 00:09:42,210 --> 00:09:43,598 >> Oh, I don't know. 171 00:09:43,598 --> 00:09:44,534 >> Hmm? 172 00:09:48,750 --> 00:09:50,270 >> It's just giving, and-- 173 00:09:59,650 --> 00:10:01,876 you don't know. 174 00:10:01,876 --> 00:10:05,660 You want to give yourself-- 175 00:10:05,660 --> 00:10:08,008 you want to give yourself as much as you can. 176 00:10:08,008 --> 00:10:10,550 >> There's all sorts of things happening during a psychedelic 177 00:10:10,550 --> 00:10:11,350 experience. 178 00:10:11,350 --> 00:10:14,510 One thing is that the 5-HT2A receptor, which 179 00:10:14,510 --> 00:10:17,910 is the psychedelic receptor, is being stimulated quite a bit. 180 00:10:17,910 --> 00:10:19,170 And that's mostly serotonin. 181 00:10:19,170 --> 00:10:21,290 But then it turns out that if you stimulate 182 00:10:21,290 --> 00:10:24,710 the 5-HT2A receptor enough, it actually 183 00:10:24,710 --> 00:10:28,730 creates a receptor couple with a whole other transmitter 184 00:10:28,730 --> 00:10:30,380 system, which is oxytocin. 185 00:10:30,380 --> 00:10:32,240 They form what's called a dimer. 186 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:35,050 They dimerize, and they create a receptor complex. 187 00:10:35,050 --> 00:10:37,050 In a couple, when you fall in love with someone, 188 00:10:37,050 --> 00:10:39,260 there's a lot of oxytocin, and you're open to them, 189 00:10:39,260 --> 00:10:40,670 and you're bonding with them. 190 00:10:40,670 --> 00:10:42,680 With a mother who's nursing a baby, 191 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:45,320 and there's like maternal infant bonding, 192 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:46,850 oxytocin is there for that. 193 00:10:46,850 --> 00:10:49,040 >> I feel very benevolent. 194 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:53,600 I mean, I feel as though I have no enemies in the world. 195 00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:58,220 And this is very lovely. 196 00:10:58,220 --> 00:11:01,070 >> And that sense of oneness and unity and connection signifies 197 00:11:01,070 --> 00:11:03,480 sort of the peak of a psychedelic experience. 198 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:06,695 And when you come away from that, you come away changed. 199 00:11:06,695 --> 00:11:08,930 [MUSIC PLAYING] 200 00:11:08,930 --> 00:11:11,780 >> The insight that I was getting from traditional 201 00:11:11,780 --> 00:11:16,040 and classic Buddhist meditation was similar to the insight that 202 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:19,430 I'd finally arrived at under the acid. 203 00:11:19,430 --> 00:11:23,360 The lesson was form is emptiness. 204 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:26,150 There's a sense of emptiness and transitoriness 205 00:11:26,150 --> 00:11:28,970 in all perceived phenomena. 206 00:11:28,970 --> 00:11:31,670 And there's no need to get hysterically 207 00:11:31,670 --> 00:11:34,820 hung up on any thought form, no need to grab. 208 00:11:34,820 --> 00:11:39,350 And there is no enlightenment, no wisdom, no illumination, 209 00:11:39,350 --> 00:11:43,700 no god, no identity, no self, no reference point, 210 00:11:43,700 --> 00:11:47,263 that any grabbing for a reference point is vain. 211 00:11:47,263 --> 00:11:48,680 And that's one of the first things 212 00:11:48,680 --> 00:11:50,138 you think when you get high anyway, 213 00:11:50,138 --> 00:11:51,650 that even if you didn't get high, 214 00:11:51,650 --> 00:11:54,110 you'd be seeing the same reality, that in a sense, 215 00:11:54,110 --> 00:11:55,850 acid is not necessary. 216 00:11:55,850 --> 00:11:58,481 And that's why it's OK. 217 00:11:58,481 --> 00:12:01,820 [HORN HONKS] 218 00:12:01,820 --> 00:12:05,990 >> In the early 1950s, as LSD research was in its infancy, 219 00:12:05,990 --> 00:12:08,810 little was known in the West about naturally-occurring 220 00:12:08,810 --> 00:12:10,760 psychedelics. 221 00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:13,730 In 1953, author Aldous Huxley was 222 00:12:13,730 --> 00:12:16,580 given mescaline, the active ingredient in the peyote 223 00:12:16,580 --> 00:12:21,080 cactus, under the supervision of psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. 224 00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,470 Huxley later wrote about this experience in the seminal book 225 00:12:24,470 --> 00:12:26,660 "The Doors of Perception." 226 00:12:26,660 --> 00:12:29,960 And in New York City, a very unlikely character 227 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:32,960 helped bridge the gap between the ancient traditions 228 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:35,735 and modern America. 229 00:12:35,735 --> 00:12:39,960 >> R. Gordon Wasson was a very successful businessman 230 00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:40,760 and banker. 231 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:43,910 He was a vice president of JP Morgan. 232 00:12:43,910 --> 00:12:47,510 As a young man, he met his future wife, Valentina, 233 00:12:47,510 --> 00:12:48,680 who was Russian. 234 00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:53,540 And she had a great interest and enthusiasm for the collection 235 00:12:53,540 --> 00:12:55,970 of edible mushrooms. 236 00:12:55,970 --> 00:12:58,700 >> While on their honeymoon in the Catskill Mountains, 237 00:12:58,700 --> 00:13:02,510 Valentina leaped with excitement after spying a cluster of wild 238 00:13:02,510 --> 00:13:05,480 mushrooms growing in the forest. 239 00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:07,730 She sounded off the species name in Russian 240 00:13:07,730 --> 00:13:11,390 and insisted that they prepare them for dinner that night. 241 00:13:11,390 --> 00:13:14,780 Wasson, of Anglo-Saxon heritage, was brought up 242 00:13:14,780 --> 00:13:17,660 to believe mushrooms were poison and was horrified 243 00:13:17,660 --> 00:13:19,880 at his wife's enthusiasm. 244 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:21,710 This difference in cultural attitudes 245 00:13:21,710 --> 00:13:25,610 became the catalyst for Wasson's lifelong interest in mycology, 246 00:13:25,610 --> 00:13:27,530 or the study of fungi. 247 00:13:27,530 --> 00:13:30,860 >> And then, in the early '50s, a friend of his wrote him 248 00:13:30,860 --> 00:13:35,450 a letter suggesting he look into an extant mushroom cult 249 00:13:35,450 --> 00:13:37,830 in the central highlands of Mexico, 250 00:13:37,830 --> 00:13:41,885 where he had heard that there was use of hallucinogenic 251 00:13:41,885 --> 00:13:42,685 mushrooms. 252 00:13:42,685 --> 00:13:45,290 Now, this came as quite a surprise to Wasson 253 00:13:45,290 --> 00:13:47,300 because at this time, the early '50s, 254 00:13:47,300 --> 00:13:49,940 it was not believed that there were such things 255 00:13:49,940 --> 00:13:53,710 as hallucinogenic mushrooms. 256 00:13:53,710 --> 00:13:59,410 >> We went into the Mazatec area far from the highways, 257 00:13:59,410 --> 00:14:01,570 remote from Mexico City. 258 00:14:01,570 --> 00:14:04,120 There we found that rotten bagasse, 259 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:07,520 as it's called, bagasso, covered with mushrooms. 260 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:10,870 These mushrooms I didn't know, had never seen. 261 00:14:10,870 --> 00:14:13,450 They were the sacred mushrooms. 262 00:14:13,450 --> 00:14:15,940 >> After much difficulty, and by some accounts, 263 00:14:15,940 --> 00:14:18,460 manipulation on the part of Wasson, 264 00:14:18,460 --> 00:14:23,110 he eventually found entry into a velada, or mushroom ceremony. 265 00:14:23,110 --> 00:14:25,630 The curandera, or healer, was a woman 266 00:14:25,630 --> 00:14:28,030 named Maria Sabina, who represented 267 00:14:28,030 --> 00:14:30,250 a long line of underground healers 268 00:14:30,250 --> 00:14:33,400 left intact since the days of Spanish conquest. 269 00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:35,950 [MUSICAL CHANTING] 270 00:14:35,950 --> 00:14:40,000 >> And we were seeing incredible sights. 271 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:42,670 All your senses are rendered acute. 272 00:14:42,670 --> 00:14:44,890 We say that you see visions. 273 00:14:44,890 --> 00:14:46,630 You see hallucinations. 274 00:14:46,630 --> 00:14:49,450 But that doesn't begin to tell the story. 275 00:14:49,450 --> 00:14:51,520 The hallucinations are only part of it. 276 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:52,870 You hear sounds. 277 00:14:52,870 --> 00:14:54,190 You smell things. 278 00:14:54,190 --> 00:14:58,171 The night was thrilling. 279 00:14:58,171 --> 00:15:00,606 [MUSIC PLAYING] 280 00:15:04,510 --> 00:15:07,960 >> The visions were not blurred or uncertain. 281 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:10,960 I felt that I was now seeing plain, 282 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:15,820 whereas ordinary vision gives us an imperfect view. 283 00:15:15,820 --> 00:15:19,450 I was seeing the archetypes, the Platonic ideas 284 00:15:19,450 --> 00:15:25,210 that underlie the imperfect images of everyday life. 285 00:15:25,210 --> 00:15:27,430 The thought crossed my mind. 286 00:15:27,430 --> 00:15:29,560 Could the divine mushrooms be the secret 287 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:31,660 that lay behind the ancient mysteries? 288 00:15:35,660 --> 00:15:37,880 Could the miraculous mobility that I was now 289 00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:41,300 enjoying be the explanation for the flying witches that 290 00:15:41,300 --> 00:15:44,060 played so important a part in the folklore and fairy 291 00:15:44,060 --> 00:15:46,950 tales of northern Europe? 292 00:15:46,950 --> 00:15:50,160 These reflections passed through my mind at the very same time 293 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:52,050 that I was seeing the visions. 294 00:15:52,050 --> 00:15:54,060 For the effect of the mushrooms is 295 00:15:54,060 --> 00:15:58,050 to bring about a vision of the spirit, a split in the person, 296 00:15:58,050 --> 00:16:01,510 a kind of schizophrenia. 297 00:16:01,510 --> 00:16:04,300 >> Unbeknownst to Wasson, his trips to Mexico were 298 00:16:04,300 --> 00:16:07,450 infiltrated by a group with more nefarious interests 299 00:16:07,450 --> 00:16:10,150 in the mind-altering effects of psychedelics. 300 00:16:10,150 --> 00:16:12,430 >> In their neverending search for the miracle weapon, 301 00:16:12,430 --> 00:16:15,730 CIA operatives searched here in the remote mountain areas 302 00:16:15,730 --> 00:16:18,910 of southern Mexico for what up to then had been considered 303 00:16:18,910 --> 00:16:21,010 a myth, magic mushrooms. 304 00:16:21,010 --> 00:16:25,240 >> And so Gordon Wasson was unwittingly participating 305 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:29,830 in this sort of military use of psychedelics. 306 00:16:29,830 --> 00:16:33,430 >> They used this man, a part-time chemist with the CIA, 307 00:16:33,430 --> 00:16:36,160 to dupe this man, a vice president of a bank 308 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:38,980 and an amateur mycologist, or mushroom expert, 309 00:16:38,980 --> 00:16:41,320 to try to get to the magic mushrooms and turn them 310 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:42,183 into a drug. 311 00:16:42,183 --> 00:16:44,350 >> They gave it to several different chemists to try 312 00:16:44,350 --> 00:16:48,470 to figure out what was in it, and nobody could figure it out. 313 00:16:48,470 --> 00:16:50,440 And so they called on Albert Hofmann, 314 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:52,540 since he had invented LSD. 315 00:16:52,540 --> 00:16:54,220 And they asked him could he figure out 316 00:16:54,220 --> 00:16:57,610 what was in the mushroom that made it so psychedelic. 317 00:16:57,610 --> 00:17:00,190 >> It would be the amateur, R. Gordon Wasson and his 318 00:17:00,190 --> 00:17:03,250 colleagues, who would win the race and develop the drug 319 00:17:03,250 --> 00:17:07,869 psilocybin from the magic mushrooms. 320 00:17:07,869 --> 00:17:12,130 >> I think that is very strange that LSD is not just 321 00:17:12,130 --> 00:17:13,810 a laboratory product. 322 00:17:13,810 --> 00:17:19,420 It is closely related with this old Indian magic drug. 323 00:17:19,420 --> 00:17:24,250 That means that LSD belongs pharmacologically, chemically, 324 00:17:24,250 --> 00:17:28,280 to the group of the sacred magic plants of Mexico. 325 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,750 It's a very important finding. 326 00:17:31,750 --> 00:17:34,780 >> Wasson was friends with Henry Boothe Luce, 327 00:17:34,780 --> 00:17:37,090 who was the publisher of "Life Magazine." 328 00:17:37,090 --> 00:17:40,030 He told his friend Luce about his experience, 329 00:17:40,030 --> 00:17:43,180 and Luce encouraged him to write up his account. 330 00:17:43,180 --> 00:17:47,350 That was really the first word out to Western civilization 331 00:17:47,350 --> 00:17:50,680 that psychedelic mushrooms indeed existed at all. 332 00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:53,950 And it really stimulated growing interest 333 00:17:53,950 --> 00:17:57,910 and led to the psychedelic explosion of the '60s. 334 00:17:57,910 --> 00:18:01,900 >> Wasson's influence became due in large part to an enigmatic 335 00:18:01,900 --> 00:18:05,050 Harvard psychologist named Timothy Leary. 336 00:18:05,050 --> 00:18:08,680 Though he became known as the most dangerous man in America, 337 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:12,100 he might have been described by others in the year 1960 338 00:18:12,100 --> 00:18:15,700 as a New England square, a hard-drinking Irishman, 339 00:18:15,700 --> 00:18:19,240 or by himself, an atheist psychologist in the midst 340 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:20,980 of a midlife crisis. 341 00:18:20,980 --> 00:18:23,840 >> Timothy Leary was a very prominent researcher 342 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:24,640 at Harvard. 343 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,460 His California Personality Inventory 344 00:18:27,460 --> 00:18:29,510 is still being used today. 345 00:18:29,510 --> 00:18:32,370 He was sort of a pied piper. 346 00:18:32,370 --> 00:18:34,410 >> During his early years at Harvard, 347 00:18:34,410 --> 00:18:37,830 Leary was in the throes of personal crisis. 348 00:18:37,830 --> 00:18:41,520 His first wife had committed suicide on his 35th birthday, 349 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:45,870 reportedly after a strained open marriage. 350 00:18:45,870 --> 00:18:48,140 It was during this time that he described himself 351 00:18:48,140 --> 00:18:51,410 as an anonymous institutional employee who 352 00:18:51,410 --> 00:18:55,130 drove to work each morning in a long line of commuter cars 353 00:18:55,130 --> 00:18:58,010 and drove home each night and drank Martinis, 354 00:18:58,010 --> 00:19:00,140 like several million middle-class, 355 00:19:00,140 --> 00:19:02,660 liberal, intellectual robots. 356 00:19:02,660 --> 00:19:04,512 [MUSIC PLAYING] 357 00:19:06,830 --> 00:19:10,760 Inspired by Wasson's article, Leary traveled down to Mexico 358 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,400 with a colleague in 1960 who had found 359 00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:17,140 some mushrooms from a curandero in the mountains. 360 00:19:17,140 --> 00:19:19,030 Leary later said that he learned more 361 00:19:19,030 --> 00:19:21,190 about the brain and its possibilities, 362 00:19:21,190 --> 00:19:24,130 and more about psychology, in the five hours 363 00:19:24,130 --> 00:19:27,670 after taking the mushrooms than he had in the preceding 15 364 00:19:27,670 --> 00:19:31,870 years of studying and doing research in psychology. 365 00:19:31,870 --> 00:19:36,040 >> When he got back to Harvard, he got permission to do 366 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:38,080 research with psilocybin. 367 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:40,850 >> And that was the beginning of the Harvard Psilocybin Research 368 00:19:40,850 --> 00:19:41,650 Project. 369 00:19:41,650 --> 00:19:43,210 And that was really the beginning 370 00:19:43,210 --> 00:19:46,210 of formal research, attempted clinical research, 371 00:19:46,210 --> 00:19:48,527 of psychedelic agents in the United States. 372 00:19:48,527 --> 00:19:50,860 >> Timothy Leary had two research products that could go 373 00:19:50,860 --> 00:19:53,520 to the Harvard Psilocybin Research Program. 374 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,490 It was a Good Friday study with Walter Pahnke. 375 00:19:55,490 --> 00:19:59,320 It was a remarkable study and groundbreaking. 376 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,080 They had given psilocybin and a placebo 377 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:04,600 to 20 graduate students in theology, 378 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:08,110 comparing their experiences to genuine mystical experiences 379 00:20:08,110 --> 00:20:10,630 found throughout millennia, through mystics and saints. 380 00:20:10,630 --> 00:20:13,930 >> They arranged to have access to the Marsh Chapel. 381 00:20:13,930 --> 00:20:15,760 It was Good Friday. 382 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:18,520 They were in a basement chapel. 383 00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:22,360 And the service from upstairs in the main chapel 384 00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:23,575 was being piped through. 385 00:20:23,575 --> 00:20:25,375 [ORGAN PLAYING] 386 00:20:29,340 --> 00:20:31,860 >> The Reverend Howard Thurman was the minister, 387 00:20:31,860 --> 00:20:34,050 who was Martin Luther King's mentor-- 388 00:20:34,050 --> 00:20:38,730 this incredible dynamic speaker, orator. 389 00:20:38,730 --> 00:20:45,660 >> You, Pilate, standing for Rome, are the universal coward. 390 00:20:45,660 --> 00:20:51,120 I, standing for the kingdom of God, have braved everything, 391 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:59,460 lost everything, and won an eternal crown. 392 00:20:59,460 --> 00:21:01,950 >> They developed a scale of mystical experience. 393 00:21:01,950 --> 00:21:04,890 Some of the items are a noetic quality, intuitive quality 394 00:21:04,890 --> 00:21:08,160 of understanding things, transcendence of time and space 395 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:10,930 as we know it, a sense of unity with all living things 396 00:21:10,930 --> 00:21:14,290 internally as well. 397 00:21:14,290 --> 00:21:15,130 >> I shall die. 398 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:22,245 But that is all that I shall do for death. 399 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:30,320 >> Of the 20 experimental students, 400 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:33,230 nine out of the 20 people had a mystical experience. 401 00:21:33,230 --> 00:21:36,140 And eight out of those nine had the psilocybin. 402 00:21:36,140 --> 00:21:38,600 >> It was the first study showing that these agents, 403 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:40,310 these medicines, these sacraments, 404 00:21:40,310 --> 00:21:43,670 can produce an experience that was found throughout millennia 405 00:21:43,670 --> 00:21:46,160 in various religious traditions. 406 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:49,058 >> One young man had a kind of nervous-- 407 00:21:49,058 --> 00:21:50,600 I was going to say nervous breakdown, 408 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:52,520 but it was actually positive for him. 409 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:55,850 So he was so blown away by this spiritual experience 410 00:21:55,850 --> 00:21:58,190 he was having that he kind of ran out of the chapel. 411 00:21:58,190 --> 00:21:59,898 And he was trying to run to the, I think, 412 00:21:59,898 --> 00:22:02,780 the dean or the president's office to proclaim everything 413 00:22:02,780 --> 00:22:03,950 that he had learned. 414 00:22:03,950 --> 00:22:08,660 >> And behaved rather bizarrely out in public until the sitters 415 00:22:08,660 --> 00:22:11,510 found him and retrieved him and brought him back. 416 00:22:11,510 --> 00:22:15,440 >> And he actually had to be sedated with a tranquilizer. 417 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:17,900 So that's kind of an interesting piece of history 418 00:22:17,900 --> 00:22:19,040 that didn't get reported. 419 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:20,904 [MUSIC PLAYING] 420 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:28,540 >> The object of this presentation is to demonstrate 421 00:22:28,540 --> 00:22:33,250 the effect of MER-17, a new blocking agent, 422 00:22:33,250 --> 00:22:37,900 against the development of LSD-25 psychosis. 423 00:22:37,900 --> 00:22:41,680 We have used two healthy graduate students in psychology 424 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:42,820 as subjects. 425 00:22:42,820 --> 00:22:46,750 >> When Sandoz discovered the psychoactive effects of LSD, 426 00:22:46,750 --> 00:22:50,620 they also observed that it deepens sort of introspective 427 00:22:50,620 --> 00:22:53,140 insight and can be used in psychotherapy. 428 00:22:53,140 --> 00:22:56,890 >> So it's a really unique history in the area of drug 429 00:22:56,890 --> 00:23:00,940 research in that there was a heyday of psychedelic research 430 00:23:00,940 --> 00:23:05,500 extending from the 1950s through the early '70s. 431 00:23:05,500 --> 00:23:08,200 >> Back then, any psychiatric researcher or clinician could 432 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:12,230 write Sandoz to get a sample of LSD to test it or to use it 433 00:23:12,230 --> 00:23:13,030 clinically. 434 00:23:13,030 --> 00:23:14,860 It was legal and available. 435 00:23:14,860 --> 00:23:17,500 And that really began the big experiment 436 00:23:17,500 --> 00:23:21,430 with LSD that lasted close to 30 years. 437 00:23:21,430 --> 00:23:23,860 >> In carefully controlled experiments, 438 00:23:23,860 --> 00:23:26,980 interesting results have been reported on the therapeutic use 439 00:23:26,980 --> 00:23:31,270 of LSD with the mentally ill, the drug addict, 440 00:23:31,270 --> 00:23:35,440 the terminal cancer patient, and in the VA hospital in Topeka, 441 00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:40,120 Kansas, a special research program for alcoholics. 442 00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:41,830 >> We bring them in on one Monday, 443 00:23:41,830 --> 00:23:45,760 and they spend one week of getting acquainted and having 444 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:48,820 all the tests and examinations done. 445 00:23:48,820 --> 00:23:52,570 The second Monday, we give them a small dose 446 00:23:52,570 --> 00:23:56,320 of LSD in the five-man ward, together. 447 00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:00,190 Then, the third Monday, we give them a larger dose 448 00:24:00,190 --> 00:24:03,940 individually and have each one of them cared 449 00:24:03,940 --> 00:24:06,940 for by one of these teams. 450 00:24:06,940 --> 00:24:10,330 And this is where we aim for the so-called psychedelic 451 00:24:10,330 --> 00:24:11,980 experience. 452 00:24:11,980 --> 00:24:14,770 >> The best clinical outcomes are with subjects who, 453 00:24:14,770 --> 00:24:18,040 during the course of what was often just a one-session 454 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:22,510 treatment, during that session, had a psychospiritual epiphany, 455 00:24:22,510 --> 00:24:24,460 a mystical-level experience. 456 00:24:24,460 --> 00:24:27,830 >> I know I kept fighting the religious music. 457 00:24:27,830 --> 00:24:31,090 I didn't know why then, but Dr. Koren 458 00:24:31,090 --> 00:24:36,040 kept urging me to find out why I was fighting this. 459 00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,755 And I remember I was just really scared to death. 460 00:24:38,755 --> 00:24:40,459 [MUSIC PLAYING] 461 00:24:43,770 --> 00:24:46,800 And I just reached up, and it was like somebody 462 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:48,930 grabbed me and brought me up. 463 00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:58,290 And I interpret this as for the first time in my life, 464 00:24:58,290 --> 00:25:00,120 I wanted love. 465 00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:03,710 And I think this is the thing that was probably my biggest 466 00:25:03,710 --> 00:25:06,348 problem is that I thought everybody was forcing it on me, 467 00:25:06,348 --> 00:25:07,640 and I wasn't going to let them. 468 00:25:10,530 --> 00:25:15,120 >> The amazing thing about LSD is very much its evolutionary 469 00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:18,480 nature, is that it seems to concentrate in areas 470 00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:22,740 of the brain that relate to mammalian and reptilian stages 471 00:25:22,740 --> 00:25:25,380 of evolutionary development which are then experienced 472 00:25:25,380 --> 00:25:29,160 by the person, the fact also that people become aware 473 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:33,000 of the fact that man is not just a single-dimensional being 474 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,730 in a physical body but exists as a being over many, 475 00:25:36,730 --> 00:25:39,570 many lifetimes at many levels of consciousness beyond 476 00:25:39,570 --> 00:25:41,070 the physical. 477 00:25:41,070 --> 00:25:43,500 And I do feel that, in the future, 478 00:25:43,500 --> 00:25:45,270 there will be centers where people 479 00:25:45,270 --> 00:25:48,570 will be able to go to prepare people for any kind of turning 480 00:25:48,570 --> 00:25:51,150 point or crisis in their life, such as along the lines 481 00:25:51,150 --> 00:25:53,550 of the incredible powerful research 482 00:25:53,550 --> 00:25:56,740 that Stan Grof and Walter Pahnke did at Spring Grove Hospital 483 00:25:56,740 --> 00:25:57,990 with terminal cancer patients. 484 00:26:01,030 --> 00:26:03,960 >> This is a mental institution, Spring Grove State Hospital 485 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:05,190 in Baltimore. 486 00:26:05,190 --> 00:26:07,260 It is one of four places in the country where 487 00:26:07,260 --> 00:26:09,480 research on LSD treatment continues 488 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,280 under federal sponsorship. 489 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:15,330 The tablets in Ott's hand each contain a microscopic trace 490 00:26:15,330 --> 00:26:16,950 of LSD. 491 00:26:16,950 --> 00:26:20,280 To an observer, the atmosphere seems closer to faith healing 492 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:21,390 than medicine. 493 00:26:21,390 --> 00:26:24,690 >> So the way in which they really refined the approach is 494 00:26:24,690 --> 00:26:28,440 that they used a two-person team, often a male-female. 495 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:31,470 They pioneered eight-hour therapy sessions, sometimes 496 00:26:31,470 --> 00:26:33,100 even longer. 497 00:26:33,100 --> 00:26:37,050 It was this very expressive, supportive environment. 498 00:26:37,050 --> 00:26:40,440 >> It isn't so much the drug as the drug in the context 499 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,410 in which it's used, the expectations, 500 00:26:43,410 --> 00:26:46,020 how the person is held safely while they're under 501 00:26:46,020 --> 00:26:48,480 the influence of it, and the interpretation that's made 502 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:49,830 afterwards. 503 00:26:49,830 --> 00:26:51,840 >> I was here under LSD. 504 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:55,680 This went on for a million miles on both sides, 505 00:26:55,680 --> 00:27:00,000 an endless deep and eternity onto. 506 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:03,360 And it was just one of the fears I had buried, 507 00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:06,030 and it was a fear of being left alone. 508 00:27:06,030 --> 00:27:08,220 >> We get very stuck in our ways and sort of rigid 509 00:27:08,220 --> 00:27:09,150 in our thinking. 510 00:27:09,150 --> 00:27:10,692 One of the things the psychedelics do 511 00:27:10,692 --> 00:27:13,860 is they increase cognitive flexibility. 512 00:27:13,860 --> 00:27:16,620 You become less rigid in how you think they quiet 513 00:27:16,620 --> 00:27:19,140 down the default mode network, which 514 00:27:19,140 --> 00:27:23,390 is sort of the self-obsessed, self-serving, how am I doing? 515 00:27:23,390 --> 00:27:24,190 Who am I? 516 00:27:24,190 --> 00:27:25,730 Am I liked? 517 00:27:25,730 --> 00:27:26,730 What did I do yesterday? 518 00:27:26,730 --> 00:27:28,022 What am I going to do tomorrow? 519 00:27:28,022 --> 00:27:31,050 And the psychedelics sort of quiet this narcissism 520 00:27:31,050 --> 00:27:34,440 and neuroticism and allow other parts of the brain 521 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,320 to get more active or to connect with each other. 522 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:38,820 >> I feel beautiful. 523 00:27:38,820 --> 00:27:40,170 >> All right. 524 00:27:40,170 --> 00:27:43,020 >> I feel squashed with beautiful. 525 00:27:46,290 --> 00:27:50,940 >> That's a really powerful, useful experience to have. 526 00:27:50,940 --> 00:27:53,550 And it can help people out of a dark place. 527 00:27:53,550 --> 00:27:55,440 >> If you hadn't been prepared for it, 528 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:59,160 if you hadn't gone through those weeks of preparation, 529 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,070 would LSD have meant as much? 530 00:28:02,070 --> 00:28:06,420 >> If I was ill before, I would have been ill, it seems to me, 531 00:28:06,420 --> 00:28:08,160 beyond repair. 532 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:12,540 I would have been so frightened without the guidance 533 00:28:12,540 --> 00:28:14,640 and the trust and the preparation. 534 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:16,665 It would have been a tragedy, horrible. 535 00:28:24,140 --> 00:28:28,580 >> I got interested in LSD therapy when I was in two-year 536 00:28:28,580 --> 00:28:32,240 public health service at the public health prison hospital 537 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,590 in Lexington, Kentucky. 538 00:28:34,590 --> 00:28:37,170 At that time, there was really no good treatment 539 00:28:37,170 --> 00:28:39,090 for narcotic addiction. 540 00:28:39,090 --> 00:28:41,550 Recidivism rate was extraordinarily high. 541 00:28:41,550 --> 00:28:45,900 I think people leaving Lexington had a 90% relapse rate. 542 00:28:45,900 --> 00:28:49,960 And I had read about the studies with alcoholism. 543 00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:52,890 And I thought perhaps LSD might be 544 00:28:52,890 --> 00:28:57,660 useful to provide some lasting change for narcotic addiction. 545 00:28:57,660 --> 00:29:00,720 In looking at the literature at that time, 546 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:02,940 it looked like that therapists who 547 00:29:02,940 --> 00:29:09,030 had used LSD themselves got much better results than therapists 548 00:29:09,030 --> 00:29:11,200 who had not used LSD themselves. 549 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,370 So I decided to do a controlled study. 550 00:29:14,370 --> 00:29:19,140 I would give LSD to a group of narcotic addicts at Lexington 551 00:29:19,140 --> 00:29:22,650 who volunteered for the study, without having ever taken LSD 552 00:29:22,650 --> 00:29:27,600 myself, to see what impact that the experience might have 553 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,270 on their relation with other prisoners, 554 00:29:30,270 --> 00:29:34,900 with authority figures, with insight about themselves. 555 00:29:34,900 --> 00:29:38,850 And then, my plan was to then take the LSD myself 556 00:29:38,850 --> 00:29:42,720 under supervision from staff at the Addiction Research Center 557 00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,540 there who were experienced with the agent 558 00:29:45,540 --> 00:29:48,690 and do a second group. 559 00:29:48,690 --> 00:29:51,920 But unfortunately, when I was getting ready to do that, 560 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:56,930 the company that made LSD, Sandoz, decided to recall it. 561 00:29:56,930 --> 00:30:02,270 This was around 1965, 1966, because LSD 562 00:30:02,270 --> 00:30:04,004 had become a street drug. 563 00:30:04,004 --> 00:30:06,374 [HORNS BLARING] 564 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,570 >> And on streets like this, transactions involving me take 565 00:30:14,570 --> 00:30:16,720 place all the time-- 566 00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:20,450 illegal, of course, but my tabs and caps and sugar 567 00:30:20,450 --> 00:30:23,840 cubes that dissolve in your mind as well as your mouth 568 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:26,180 are selling every day. 569 00:30:26,180 --> 00:30:31,280 Drop a cap on me, man, and drop out. 570 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:36,080 But watch it, because the trip can be a trap, too. 571 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,680 You never know where a ticket with me will take you. 572 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:41,900 >> Just as pioneers of psychedelic research were 573 00:30:41,900 --> 00:30:44,720 beginning to understand its therapeutic potential, 574 00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:48,320 LSD began to leak out of the laboratory. 575 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,080 The two figures most responsible for its expansion 576 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,890 into the American culture lived on opposite ends of the country 577 00:30:54,890 --> 00:30:57,740 and were from equally different backgrounds. 578 00:30:57,740 --> 00:31:00,980 On the West Coast, Ken Kesey was introduced to LSD 579 00:31:00,980 --> 00:31:06,260 in the late 1950s as part of the CIA's MK-Ultra program. 580 00:31:06,260 --> 00:31:08,370 >> At the time, I was training for the Olympics. 581 00:31:08,370 --> 00:31:09,990 I made it to be an alternate. 582 00:31:09,990 --> 00:31:10,790 >> As a wrestler? 583 00:31:10,790 --> 00:31:11,780 >> Yeah, as a wrestler. 584 00:31:11,780 --> 00:31:15,020 I'd never been drunk on beer, let alone done any drugs. 585 00:31:15,020 --> 00:31:17,030 But this is the American government. 586 00:31:17,030 --> 00:31:18,990 I had a neighbor who was a psychologist. 587 00:31:18,990 --> 00:31:21,390 He was booked to do the experiments that Tuesday. 588 00:31:21,390 --> 00:31:22,190 He chickened out. 589 00:31:22,190 --> 00:31:23,570 He says, you want to do them? $20. 590 00:31:23,570 --> 00:31:24,110 Show up. 591 00:31:24,110 --> 00:31:25,020 They gave them to me. 592 00:31:25,020 --> 00:31:28,963 I did them on every Tuesday for six or eight months. 593 00:31:28,963 --> 00:31:31,130 The government wanted somebody to look in that room. 594 00:31:31,130 --> 00:31:32,270 They said, hey, we got a great room. 595 00:31:32,270 --> 00:31:33,830 We discovered this nice room. 596 00:31:33,830 --> 00:31:36,320 Let's get somebody to go in there and look it over. 597 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,480 >> Kesey would go on to write "One Flew over 598 00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:41,930 the Cuckoo's Nest" partly based on these experiences, 599 00:31:41,930 --> 00:31:45,380 and later, to host the so-called acid tests with the Merry 600 00:31:45,380 --> 00:31:46,250 Pranksters. 601 00:31:46,250 --> 00:31:49,370 >> And by that time, the government had said, OK, 602 00:31:49,370 --> 00:31:50,303 stop that experiment. 603 00:31:50,303 --> 00:31:52,970 All these guinea pigs that we've sent up there into outer space, 604 00:31:52,970 --> 00:31:54,410 bring them back down, and don't ever 605 00:31:54,410 --> 00:31:56,452 let them go back up there again, because we don't 606 00:31:56,452 --> 00:31:57,840 like the look in their eyes. 607 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:02,630 >> I give the CIA total credit for sponsoring and initiating 608 00:32:02,630 --> 00:32:06,830 the entire consciousness movement counterculture events 609 00:32:06,830 --> 00:32:08,330 of the 1960s. 610 00:32:08,330 --> 00:32:10,580 >> And on the East Coast was Timothy Leary, 611 00:32:10,580 --> 00:32:13,340 the now-former Harvard psychologist. 612 00:32:13,340 --> 00:32:16,620 >> He began to distribute the drug beyond his research 613 00:32:16,620 --> 00:32:17,420 subjects. 614 00:32:17,420 --> 00:32:20,090 He began to speak quite openly to the press. 615 00:32:20,090 --> 00:32:23,810 >> He signed an agreement promising that he would not 616 00:32:23,810 --> 00:32:27,770 give it to any undergraduate students but only to graduate 617 00:32:27,770 --> 00:32:32,570 students who were using it for some appropriate academic 618 00:32:32,570 --> 00:32:33,440 purpose. 619 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:35,040 >> And Tim Leary honestly-- 620 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,040 I don't think he ever met a rule he didn't like. 621 00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,230 And that rule quickly was broken. 622 00:32:39,230 --> 00:32:41,270 The Harvard Administration found out 623 00:32:41,270 --> 00:32:43,190 and summarily dismissed him. 624 00:32:43,190 --> 00:32:49,490 >> And he became the apostle preaching the religion 625 00:32:49,490 --> 00:32:52,310 of psychedelic drugs. 626 00:32:52,310 --> 00:32:56,570 >> We teach the science and art of ecstasy. 627 00:32:56,570 --> 00:32:59,180 We teach people how to turn on or how 628 00:32:59,180 --> 00:33:01,430 to go out of their minds. 629 00:33:01,430 --> 00:33:04,580 By turn on, we mean tune in to get 630 00:33:04,580 --> 00:33:08,960 beyond your routine ways of thinking 631 00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:10,700 and acting and experiencing. 632 00:33:10,700 --> 00:33:14,060 We often say that we're teaching people how to use their head. 633 00:33:14,060 --> 00:33:17,377 The point is that in order to use your head, 634 00:33:17,377 --> 00:33:18,710 you have to go out of your mind. 635 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,090 >> What were your feelings when people like Timothy Leary 636 00:33:25,090 --> 00:33:26,290 and Ken Kesey-- 637 00:33:26,290 --> 00:33:30,340 Ken Kesey with his pranksters and Timothy Leary, obviously, 638 00:33:30,340 --> 00:33:32,380 with tune in, turn on, drop out, what 639 00:33:32,380 --> 00:33:35,435 were your feelings, as the chemist who had created this? 640 00:33:35,435 --> 00:33:39,050 >> I was quite astonished, because when I had discovered 641 00:33:39,050 --> 00:33:43,900 these very deep effects of LSD, never would I have believed 642 00:33:43,900 --> 00:33:46,657 that it would be a pleasure drug on the street-- 643 00:33:46,657 --> 00:33:47,740 never would have believed. 644 00:33:47,740 --> 00:33:51,010 The indians believe that you should take the mushrooms 645 00:33:51,010 --> 00:33:53,740 only if you are prepared. 646 00:33:53,740 --> 00:33:56,770 And then only do the mushrooms bring you 647 00:33:56,770 --> 00:33:58,690 in contact with the gods. 648 00:33:58,690 --> 00:34:02,770 If you are not prepared, then it makes you crazy, 649 00:34:02,770 --> 00:34:05,170 or you may even die. 650 00:34:05,170 --> 00:34:08,425 That is a belief of the Indians based on thousands 651 00:34:08,425 --> 00:34:10,179 of years of experience. 652 00:34:13,230 --> 00:34:17,429 >> Drugs are subversive, and psychedelics are the most 653 00:34:17,429 --> 00:34:19,350 subversive of all the drugs. 654 00:34:19,350 --> 00:34:21,570 And he was labeled most dangerous man 655 00:34:21,570 --> 00:34:26,550 in America because of these very powerful and very subversive 656 00:34:26,550 --> 00:34:28,409 drugs and ideas. 657 00:34:28,409 --> 00:34:31,570 >> Many of my colleagues have maintained a rather harsh view 658 00:34:31,570 --> 00:34:32,370 of Leary. 659 00:34:32,370 --> 00:34:34,679 They blame him for the repression 660 00:34:34,679 --> 00:34:37,572 of psychedelic research in the '60s. 661 00:34:37,572 --> 00:34:39,030 We shouldn't lose sight of the fact 662 00:34:39,030 --> 00:34:41,580 of the degree to which psychedelics in the culture 663 00:34:41,580 --> 00:34:45,870 were associated with a very vigorous antiwar movement. 664 00:34:45,870 --> 00:34:47,850 >> The kind of turn on, tune in, drop out, 665 00:34:47,850 --> 00:34:49,517 that phrase gets a bad rap. 666 00:34:49,517 --> 00:34:51,600 But if you look at what was happening at the time, 667 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:53,969 I think the call was for young people 668 00:34:53,969 --> 00:34:56,265 to not buy into the status quo. 669 00:34:56,265 --> 00:34:58,353 [MUSIC PLAYING] 670 00:34:58,353 --> 00:35:00,770 >> Some people talk about the counterculture as being this 671 00:35:00,770 --> 00:35:03,530 romantic, even religious movement, 672 00:35:03,530 --> 00:35:06,410 that you're talking about using these means to free yourself up 673 00:35:06,410 --> 00:35:09,350 from the distractions of the world so that you can transcend 674 00:35:09,350 --> 00:35:12,320 it and think about ultimate questions about human 675 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:13,280 existence. 676 00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:16,550 And that's really what Leary was totally talking about. 677 00:35:18,807 --> 00:35:20,890 >> What we're thinking about is a peaceful planet. 678 00:35:20,890 --> 00:35:22,245 We're not thinking about any kind of power. 679 00:35:22,245 --> 00:35:24,570 We're not thinking about revolution or war or any 680 00:35:24,570 --> 00:35:25,980 of that. 681 00:35:25,980 --> 00:35:27,630 We would all like to be able to live 682 00:35:27,630 --> 00:35:31,080 an uncluttered life, a simple life, a good life, 683 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:35,041 and think about moving the whole human race ahead a step. 684 00:35:35,041 --> 00:35:36,845 [MUSIC PLAYING] 685 00:35:38,650 --> 00:35:40,300 >> They're taking it in sugar cubes. 686 00:35:40,300 --> 00:35:41,920 It's being dropped into their punch. 687 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:43,420 They're going to institutions. 688 00:35:43,420 --> 00:35:46,921 They're swell for the rest of their life. 689 00:35:46,921 --> 00:35:47,855 [GASP] 690 00:35:47,855 --> 00:35:50,660 [SCREAM] 691 00:35:50,660 --> 00:35:55,730 >> God, no, no, no, no! 692 00:35:55,730 --> 00:35:58,170 >> Authorities felt they had a public health crisis 693 00:35:58,170 --> 00:35:58,970 on their hands. 694 00:35:58,970 --> 00:36:01,250 And these were also catalysts for change. 695 00:36:01,250 --> 00:36:02,990 And the changes they were inducing 696 00:36:02,990 --> 00:36:05,600 were often perceived in a very threatening manner 697 00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:06,980 by those in authority. 698 00:36:06,980 --> 00:36:12,200 >> This moral decay weakens our resistance to the onslaught 699 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:15,110 of the communist masters of deceit. 700 00:36:15,110 --> 00:36:16,940 >> We've got to do something about this. 701 00:36:16,940 --> 00:36:17,750 Don't you think so? 702 00:36:21,250 --> 00:36:25,870 >> The drug war is based on demonizing drugs and demonizing 703 00:36:25,870 --> 00:36:27,190 drug users. 704 00:36:27,190 --> 00:36:29,620 Nixon said that the two main enemies that he had 705 00:36:29,620 --> 00:36:32,710 were the Civil Rights Movement and the hippies. 706 00:36:32,710 --> 00:36:36,280 And so while you couldn't criminalize the ideas 707 00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:37,810 that they were struggling for, you 708 00:36:37,810 --> 00:36:40,210 could criminalize the drugs that they were using. 709 00:36:40,210 --> 00:36:43,720 >> We must wage what I have called total war against public 710 00:36:43,720 --> 00:36:46,420 enemy number one in the United States, 711 00:36:46,420 --> 00:36:47,740 the problem of dangerous drugs. 712 00:36:50,770 --> 00:36:54,580 >> Richard Nixon declared war on drugs, and Congress, in 1970, 713 00:36:54,580 --> 00:36:56,260 passed the Controlled Substance Act, 714 00:36:56,260 --> 00:36:58,840 which essentially put all serotonergic hallucinogens, 715 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:02,170 like LSD and psilocybin, into this very restrictive category 716 00:37:02,170 --> 00:37:06,400 of Schedule I, which means highest addictive liability, 717 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:08,650 no therapeutic utility. 718 00:37:08,650 --> 00:37:11,440 And that was really the beginning of the war on drugs 719 00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:13,870 that we now have for the last 40 years, which 720 00:37:13,870 --> 00:37:17,360 has created a real problem. 721 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:19,910 >> At the time, something like 123 million prescriptions were 722 00:37:19,910 --> 00:37:23,180 written by psychiatrists and doctors for tranquilizers. 723 00:37:23,180 --> 00:37:25,370 And more people are killed in car crashes 724 00:37:25,370 --> 00:37:29,420 because they're drunk then die because of LSD. 725 00:37:29,420 --> 00:37:33,050 What kind of drugs are OK and what aren't is a very political 726 00:37:33,050 --> 00:37:34,250 question. 727 00:37:34,250 --> 00:37:37,970 >> Abuse of hard drugs began to replace mind-expanding agents, 728 00:37:37,970 --> 00:37:41,690 and LSD faded from the culture almost as quickly as it had 729 00:37:41,690 --> 00:37:42,800 exploded into it. 730 00:37:48,060 --> 00:37:51,630 By the 1970s, all remaining psychedelic studies 731 00:37:51,630 --> 00:37:54,160 had been shut down. 732 00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:57,490 >> In 1972, '73, I had left school, 733 00:37:57,490 --> 00:38:02,170 and I got a job as a research assistant in a dream research 734 00:38:02,170 --> 00:38:05,390 study at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. 735 00:38:05,390 --> 00:38:10,480 And my job was to stay up all night and monitor sleep EEGs. 736 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,480 And every time our subject went into a dream, 737 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:16,010 I would wake them up over an intercom system, 738 00:38:16,010 --> 00:38:17,960 ask them what was going through their mind, 739 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:19,840 and tape record the dreams. 740 00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:22,990 But this also meant I had a lot of time during the night, 741 00:38:22,990 --> 00:38:25,030 and I love to read. 742 00:38:25,030 --> 00:38:28,600 And one of the researchers in his office, he 743 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:30,970 had a tremendous collection of books and articles 744 00:38:30,970 --> 00:38:32,440 on psychedelics. 745 00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:34,840 And I read voraciously. 746 00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,180 Now, at that time, my father was very 747 00:38:37,180 --> 00:38:39,850 concerned about what he thought was my lack of direction. 748 00:38:39,850 --> 00:38:42,130 And he had told me that when I figure out 749 00:38:42,130 --> 00:38:44,830 what I wanted to do with my life, I should call him. 750 00:38:44,830 --> 00:38:47,080 It didn't matter what time of the day or night it was. 751 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:48,700 He wanted me to call him. 752 00:38:48,700 --> 00:38:52,060 So there I was, at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, 753 00:38:52,060 --> 00:38:55,190 just so impressed by what they had done. 754 00:38:55,190 --> 00:38:56,980 I felt I wanted to do this also. 755 00:38:56,980 --> 00:39:00,220 I woke him up from a deep sleep, and I said, Dad, 756 00:39:00,220 --> 00:39:01,820 I figured out what I want to do. 757 00:39:01,820 --> 00:39:03,550 And he said, well, what's that, son? 758 00:39:03,550 --> 00:39:06,230 I said, I want to study psychedelics. 759 00:39:06,230 --> 00:39:07,060 Well, why is that? 760 00:39:07,060 --> 00:39:08,690 Well, they're fascinating. 761 00:39:08,690 --> 00:39:12,580 There's so much we could learn about the brain, about 762 00:39:12,580 --> 00:39:15,040 the mind-brain interface, about mental illness. 763 00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:17,830 And there are these extraordinary treatment models. 764 00:39:17,830 --> 00:39:21,310 And people who conventional treatments cannot help or help 765 00:39:21,310 --> 00:39:22,390 with this model. 766 00:39:22,390 --> 00:39:25,030 And he said, well, son, there might 767 00:39:25,030 --> 00:39:26,950 be something to what you say. 768 00:39:26,950 --> 00:39:29,860 But no one will listen to you unless you 769 00:39:29,860 --> 00:39:31,300 get your credentials. 770 00:39:42,820 --> 00:39:44,860 My personal background really has a lot 771 00:39:44,860 --> 00:39:49,910 to do with Timothy Leary and the use of psychedelics in society. 772 00:39:49,910 --> 00:39:53,270 I had been born Jewish in 1953. 773 00:39:53,270 --> 00:39:55,430 I was raised on stories of the Holocaust. 774 00:39:55,430 --> 00:39:57,620 And then, as a young boy, I was involved 775 00:39:57,620 --> 00:40:02,080 in going to school during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 776 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:04,090 This idea that there could be nuclear war 777 00:40:04,090 --> 00:40:09,340 and wipe out civilization was also very traumatizing. 778 00:40:09,340 --> 00:40:11,170 The final step for me was Vietnam, 779 00:40:11,170 --> 00:40:13,660 and I was in the last years of the lottery. 780 00:40:13,660 --> 00:40:17,440 And I was a Vietnam War protester, a draft resister. 781 00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,740 And so I first tried LSD in '71, but I 782 00:40:20,740 --> 00:40:22,340 had a very difficult time. 783 00:40:22,340 --> 00:40:25,682 And I couldn't really handle my psychedelic experiences. 784 00:40:25,682 --> 00:40:27,640 I went to the guidance counselor at my college, 785 00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:29,170 and I was so lucky. 786 00:40:29,170 --> 00:40:31,030 The guidance counselor took me seriously. 787 00:40:31,030 --> 00:40:34,550 And then, he said that this was an important exploration 788 00:40:34,550 --> 00:40:35,350 that I was doing. 789 00:40:35,350 --> 00:40:37,270 And he gave me a book to read, which 790 00:40:37,270 --> 00:40:39,850 was a manuscript copy of "Realms of the Human 791 00:40:39,850 --> 00:40:44,050 Unconscious, Observations from LSD Research," by Stan Grof. 792 00:40:44,050 --> 00:40:46,610 When I read this book, everything fell into place 793 00:40:46,610 --> 00:40:47,410 for me. 794 00:40:47,410 --> 00:40:50,500 I saw this therapeutic use and also 795 00:40:50,500 --> 00:40:52,250 the spiritual aspects of it. 796 00:40:52,250 --> 00:40:54,580 And I felt, OK, this is a response 797 00:40:54,580 --> 00:40:58,010 to the craziness of the world. 798 00:40:58,010 --> 00:41:01,840 >> It seems to me that since the French Revolution 799 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,080 and the Enlightenment, man was put at the center 800 00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:06,670 of the universe. 801 00:41:06,670 --> 00:41:10,540 And certain difficult notions of God, 802 00:41:10,540 --> 00:41:13,540 on which one was dependent, were put aside. 803 00:41:13,540 --> 00:41:17,110 And that notion of man being at the center of the universe 804 00:41:17,110 --> 00:41:20,020 led to the industrial society that we have around us, led 805 00:41:20,020 --> 00:41:22,240 to a great deal of energy. 806 00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:24,130 And the LSD experience and what we've 807 00:41:24,130 --> 00:41:27,100 been through in the '60s has brought us 808 00:41:27,100 --> 00:41:30,010 to a whole new philosophy, that man 809 00:41:30,010 --> 00:41:31,810 is not the center of the universe, 810 00:41:31,810 --> 00:41:34,735 that we're simply the transformative energies, 811 00:41:34,735 --> 00:41:37,150 and that we live in a sort of cosmic ecology 812 00:41:37,150 --> 00:41:39,880 for which we're responsible. 813 00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:43,750 And this is, to my mind, the great challenge that's 814 00:41:43,750 --> 00:41:47,800 in front of us, to take the consciousness 815 00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,010 and the individual headspace that we've all 816 00:41:51,010 --> 00:41:54,950 managed to develop and now begin asking ourselves, 817 00:41:54,950 --> 00:41:57,280 what is it all for, and how can we use it? 818 00:42:04,380 --> 00:42:07,400 >> We're now in what you can consider a second renaissance 819 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:08,960 of psychedelic research. 820 00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:12,500 There are a handful of centers in the US, universities 821 00:42:12,500 --> 00:42:14,360 that are conducting research studies. 822 00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:18,170 Probably the reinitiation of psychedelic research, 823 00:42:18,170 --> 00:42:20,360 I would really credit Rick Strassmann. 824 00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:23,180 >> Rick Strassmann had been one of the doctors that I'd worked 825 00:42:23,180 --> 00:42:23,980 with. 826 00:42:23,980 --> 00:42:27,710 And he decided that he would submit a protocol for DMT, 827 00:42:27,710 --> 00:42:31,370 looking at it as potential cause of schizophrenia. 828 00:42:31,370 --> 00:42:35,870 >> A psychotomimetic model, so it means mimicking psychosis. 829 00:42:35,870 --> 00:42:38,210 And so it's a way for a government agency 830 00:42:38,210 --> 00:42:41,970 to feel OK about funding psychedelic research. 831 00:42:41,970 --> 00:42:45,320 >> So the Pilot Drug Evaluation Staff approved this study 832 00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:46,250 in 1990-- 833 00:42:46,250 --> 00:42:49,010 >> --and really kind of reinitiated the field, 834 00:42:49,010 --> 00:42:49,880 I would say. 835 00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:52,430 And then our work here, Roland Griffiths 836 00:42:52,430 --> 00:42:54,920 got it started not long after. 837 00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:59,000 >> In 2006, the Hopkins team set the standard for scientific 838 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,630 rigor by publishing their landmark study "A followup 839 00:43:02,630 --> 00:43:05,600 to Walter Pahnke's and Timothy Leary's Good Friday 840 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:08,990 experiment," concluding that under the right setting, 841 00:43:08,990 --> 00:43:12,950 psilocybin can reliably induce a mystical experience. 842 00:43:12,950 --> 00:43:15,530 >> I knew nothing about Johns Hopkins. 843 00:43:15,530 --> 00:43:17,328 I didn't know anything about Baltimore. 844 00:43:17,328 --> 00:43:18,620 I didn't know Roland Griffiths. 845 00:43:18,620 --> 00:43:20,210 I didn't know any of these characters. 846 00:43:20,210 --> 00:43:23,060 And I ended up going to grad school out in California where 847 00:43:23,060 --> 00:43:25,490 we were doing a study with meditators when 848 00:43:25,490 --> 00:43:28,970 Roland's paper was published on mystical experiences promoted 849 00:43:28,970 --> 00:43:30,110 by psilocybin. 850 00:43:30,110 --> 00:43:31,910 And I just remember saying to my advisor, 851 00:43:31,910 --> 00:43:33,577 I was like, that's where I'm going next. 852 00:43:33,577 --> 00:43:35,690 Katherine MacLean's research on openness, 853 00:43:35,690 --> 00:43:39,170 that was a really big deal, that study, because it was always 854 00:43:39,170 --> 00:43:42,290 thought that your personality is your personality. 855 00:43:42,290 --> 00:43:44,690 How novelty-seeking you are and how open you are, 856 00:43:44,690 --> 00:43:46,940 that's just who you are, and those things don't really 857 00:43:46,940 --> 00:43:47,740 change. 858 00:43:47,740 --> 00:43:50,330 But what the Hopkins trials showed 859 00:43:50,330 --> 00:43:51,980 was that people do become more open, 860 00:43:51,980 --> 00:43:54,230 and you can actually measure it on a personality test. 861 00:43:54,230 --> 00:43:55,310 And that's a big deal. 862 00:43:55,310 --> 00:43:59,690 >> 70% of people were saying, this is among the five most 863 00:43:59,690 --> 00:44:03,090 personally meaningful experiences of my life. 864 00:44:03,090 --> 00:44:05,450 I would ask people, what does that mean? 865 00:44:05,450 --> 00:44:08,090 And someone might say, well, gee, 866 00:44:08,090 --> 00:44:11,600 when my first child was born, my daughter, that 867 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:14,280 changed my life forever. 868 00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:17,600 And recently, my father passed away. 869 00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:19,420 That was big. 870 00:44:19,420 --> 00:44:20,495 It's kind of like that. 871 00:44:25,790 --> 00:44:29,470 >> It was around 2006, and I had just taken over as the head 872 00:44:29,470 --> 00:44:31,845 of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at Bellevue. 873 00:44:31,845 --> 00:44:33,980 As an addiction psychiatrist, I'd 874 00:44:33,980 --> 00:44:36,020 always been interested in these compounds 875 00:44:36,020 --> 00:44:38,990 because they just seem different from other drugs of abuse. 876 00:44:38,990 --> 00:44:41,965 They didn't behave like cocaine or amphetamine or tobacco. 877 00:44:41,965 --> 00:44:43,340 They seemed completely different, 878 00:44:43,340 --> 00:44:45,680 yet they were labeled as the most addictive drug. 879 00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:47,360 So I always thought that there was 880 00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:49,370 something interesting and different about them. 881 00:44:49,370 --> 00:44:51,050 At the time, one of my supervisors 882 00:44:51,050 --> 00:44:52,640 was Dr. Jeffrey Guss. 883 00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:57,050 >> I saw that Albert Hofmann's 100th birthday was being 884 00:44:57,050 --> 00:45:00,170 celebrated in Basel, Switzerland. 885 00:45:00,170 --> 00:45:04,040 >> I must do what Huxley wrote me in a letter. 886 00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:06,540 What you take in by vision experience 887 00:45:06,540 --> 00:45:09,470 you must give out in daily life. 888 00:45:09,470 --> 00:45:13,060 And that is now the task which I try, 889 00:45:13,060 --> 00:45:17,840 the feeling to be a part of the universe, which 890 00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:20,580 I got by LSD experience. 891 00:45:20,580 --> 00:45:25,158 This feeling is always present in my life. 892 00:45:25,158 --> 00:45:27,200 >> When you think about what people thought about 893 00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:30,380 in the '60s, that LSD is going to make you drop out 894 00:45:30,380 --> 00:45:32,930 of society, Albert Hofmann, who discovered LSD, 895 00:45:32,930 --> 00:45:36,620 was married for 79 years, had a career at the same company 896 00:45:36,620 --> 00:45:41,540 for almost his entire life, and was an inspiration to quite 897 00:45:41,540 --> 00:45:43,160 a few of us. 898 00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:46,610 >> Sort of on a lark, I went to this conference because I 899 00:45:46,610 --> 00:45:49,100 wanted to meet and see the people that were doing 900 00:45:49,100 --> 00:45:50,300 psychedelic research. 901 00:45:50,300 --> 00:45:53,690 And it was there that I first met Charles Grob. 902 00:45:53,690 --> 00:45:58,400 >> Administering a psychedelic to cancer patient with anxiety 903 00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:02,000 had not occurred since the early 1970s. 904 00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:04,820 And I felt this was an ideal patient population 905 00:46:04,820 --> 00:46:08,000 to really start off with because the early literature was 906 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:09,180 so impressive. 907 00:46:09,180 --> 00:46:12,230 And all of this, from FDA through the hospital 908 00:46:12,230 --> 00:46:14,480 committees, took several years. 909 00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:17,600 But I was patient, and I was persistent, 910 00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:21,590 and I felt this was really a worthy effort to make. 911 00:46:21,590 --> 00:46:24,980 And in the end, we got the approvals we had requested. 912 00:46:24,980 --> 00:46:27,710 >> When I was at NYU, I was working at Bellevue for nine 913 00:46:27,710 --> 00:46:30,140 years, running the psychiatric emergency room. 914 00:46:30,140 --> 00:46:32,780 I met with the chairman at the time, a guy named Robert 915 00:46:32,780 --> 00:46:35,240 Cancro, And I talked to him a lot 916 00:46:35,240 --> 00:46:38,750 about what was going on at UCLA or at Hopkins 917 00:46:38,750 --> 00:46:41,150 and saying that there was really enough people at NYU who 918 00:46:41,150 --> 00:46:43,850 are interested that we should try to do something in NYU. 919 00:46:43,850 --> 00:46:47,120 >> In the 1970s, I came across the literature on psychedelics 920 00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:49,662 and entheogens, and I also have a long interest in palliative 921 00:46:49,662 --> 00:46:50,462 care-- 922 00:46:50,462 --> 00:46:52,010 I'm a palliative care psychologist-- 923 00:46:52,010 --> 00:46:55,550 and how we die in this country and the death anxiety. 924 00:46:55,550 --> 00:46:57,785 And it felt the perfect match. 925 00:46:57,785 --> 00:46:59,660 >> At first, we were just an education group. 926 00:46:59,660 --> 00:47:03,180 But after meeting Charlie Grob at UCLA, I asked him, 927 00:47:03,180 --> 00:47:05,480 so this is really possible to do this, 928 00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:08,010 and you can make a career out of this? 929 00:47:08,010 --> 00:47:10,220 And he said, yes, and it's all about doing it 930 00:47:10,220 --> 00:47:12,290 correctly and carefully and avoiding 931 00:47:12,290 --> 00:47:14,160 mistakes made in the past. 932 00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:15,920 So we decided to do it. 933 00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,790 >> My name is Estalyn Walcoff, and I work 934 00:47:26,790 --> 00:47:28,050 as a psychotherapist. 935 00:47:28,050 --> 00:47:29,910 >> My name is Dinah Bazer. 936 00:47:29,910 --> 00:47:31,590 I teach figure skating. 937 00:47:31,590 --> 00:47:35,250 >> My name is Nick Fernandez, and I work as a clinical 938 00:47:35,250 --> 00:47:37,650 research coordinator in a psychiatry department 939 00:47:37,650 --> 00:47:39,340 at a hospital here in New York. 940 00:47:39,340 --> 00:47:42,510 >> I'm an adult literacy teacher, 941 00:47:42,510 --> 00:47:44,950 part-time at the public library. 942 00:47:44,950 --> 00:47:51,210 >> I was diagnosed five years ago with a type of lymphoma 943 00:47:51,210 --> 00:47:52,800 that was untreatable. 944 00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:56,820 And not only was it untreatable, but everybody who had had it 945 00:47:56,820 --> 00:47:58,110 had died from it. 946 00:47:58,110 --> 00:47:59,620 It was aggressive. 947 00:47:59,620 --> 00:48:03,660 >> I was diagnosed with leukemia when I was 17 in 2004. 948 00:48:03,660 --> 00:48:06,420 And it was during my senior year of high school 949 00:48:06,420 --> 00:48:08,880 when I was just getting ready to go to college. 950 00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:12,840 >> I received the official diagnosis in December of last 951 00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:15,270 year, so just about a year ago. 952 00:48:15,270 --> 00:48:18,120 >> And it changed the course of my life, 953 00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:23,220 because I went from being a physically active 17-year-old 954 00:48:23,220 --> 00:48:25,050 to a cancer patient. 955 00:48:25,050 --> 00:48:28,470 >> When the chemo was over, I thought, oh, let's celebrate. 956 00:48:28,470 --> 00:48:29,970 I thought I would want to celebrate. 957 00:48:29,970 --> 00:48:32,303 And when the chemo was over, I didn't want to celebrate, 958 00:48:32,303 --> 00:48:35,970 because that's when the fear set in. 959 00:48:35,970 --> 00:48:39,120 That's when you start thinking, when will the other shoe drop? 960 00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:41,460 When will this come back? 961 00:48:41,460 --> 00:48:44,190 >> Always in my life, I've been an anxious person. 962 00:48:44,190 --> 00:48:47,790 And naturally, when I was given that diagnosis 963 00:48:47,790 --> 00:48:49,140 my anxiety shot up. 964 00:48:49,140 --> 00:48:53,640 And even though years and years and years keep going by 965 00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:56,940 and I'm still OK, I know very well 966 00:48:56,940 --> 00:49:00,640 that this could return at any moment. 967 00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:04,390 >> I really went to work on myself because I thought that 968 00:49:04,390 --> 00:49:07,780 if I were going to die much sooner than I had planned, 969 00:49:07,780 --> 00:49:10,990 then I wanted to understand myself better. 970 00:49:10,990 --> 00:49:13,630 I wanted to understand spirituality better. 971 00:49:13,630 --> 00:49:17,170 I wanted not to have a bitter heart. 972 00:49:17,170 --> 00:49:20,150 And I wanted to be open. 973 00:49:20,150 --> 00:49:24,550 So I did what I could for the past five years. 974 00:49:24,550 --> 00:49:27,970 >> And I came across a post about this study. 975 00:49:27,970 --> 00:49:29,680 >> I read it once, and then I closed it. 976 00:49:29,680 --> 00:49:32,515 And then I read it again, and I said, I qualify for that. 977 00:49:35,060 --> 00:49:39,730 So I traveled down to New York City for an initial screening 978 00:49:39,730 --> 00:49:40,630 interview. 979 00:49:40,630 --> 00:49:43,330 I traveled down to New York City several times 980 00:49:43,330 --> 00:49:47,350 for psychotherapy sessions with my two psychiatrists. 981 00:49:47,350 --> 00:49:49,840 >> After several sessions of therapy and careful 982 00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:52,840 preparation, participants are given psilocybin 983 00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:55,600 in a comfortable living room setting under the guidance 984 00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:57,800 of their therapist team. 985 00:49:57,800 --> 00:50:00,080 After a brief ritual, they are encouraged 986 00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:03,290 to lie down on the couch, wear eye shades, 987 00:50:03,290 --> 00:50:05,600 and listen to classical music in order 988 00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:07,940 to create an inward experience. 989 00:50:07,940 --> 00:50:12,590 >> Having mentioned that I had taken psychedelics in my 20s, 990 00:50:12,590 --> 00:50:15,470 the whole object was to see how beautiful nature was, 991 00:50:15,470 --> 00:50:19,228 to hear how wonderful music was, to see what could be seen, 992 00:50:19,228 --> 00:50:20,520 to touch what could be touched. 993 00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:23,540 So this was very, very different because the whole thing 994 00:50:23,540 --> 00:50:25,850 that I was going to be experiencing was my own mind. 995 00:50:36,690 --> 00:50:40,050 >> There was an immersion into complete chaos, 996 00:50:40,050 --> 00:50:45,330 360-degree chaos, where I had no idea of up, down, left, right. 997 00:50:45,330 --> 00:50:48,810 >> Initially, it was absolutely terrifying. 998 00:50:48,810 --> 00:50:50,370 I think I could compare it to being 999 00:50:50,370 --> 00:50:54,075 in the hold of a ship that's in a storm-tossed sea. 1000 00:50:56,640 --> 00:51:01,750 >> I also began experiencing great emotional pain, 1001 00:51:01,750 --> 00:51:06,360 in particular because I had been listening to a Black spiritual. 1002 00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:10,958 I felt I could hear the pain in that woman's voice 1003 00:51:10,958 --> 00:51:12,000 who was singing the song. 1004 00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:16,050 And it brought to me the whole gestalt of slavery 1005 00:51:16,050 --> 00:51:19,410 and what that is to pull people out of their homes 1006 00:51:19,410 --> 00:51:20,850 and treat them like animals. 1007 00:51:20,850 --> 00:51:26,595 And I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed because of that. 1008 00:51:26,595 --> 00:51:28,323 [MUSIC PLAYING] 1009 00:51:32,570 --> 00:51:37,340 And the ability to just be held by my mentors 1010 00:51:37,340 --> 00:51:41,580 and do that greatly, greatly relieved me. 1011 00:51:41,580 --> 00:51:45,410 >> And I believe it was Tony who took my hand and said, 1012 00:51:45,410 --> 00:51:46,640 it's all right. 1013 00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:47,450 It's all right. 1014 00:51:47,450 --> 00:51:49,050 Just go with it. 1015 00:51:49,050 --> 00:51:51,990 >> And the further I went into it, 1016 00:51:51,990 --> 00:51:57,200 the more it became evident to me that the chaos could not 1017 00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:07,020 maintain its magnetic draw on me nor its strength when I stayed 1018 00:52:07,020 --> 00:52:07,820 focused. 1019 00:52:13,330 --> 00:52:17,260 >> The worst pain and the worst fear and the worst anxiety 1020 00:52:17,260 --> 00:52:21,110 turned into something that has opened, 1021 00:52:21,110 --> 00:52:25,600 which is the most precious thing I've ever known. 1022 00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:31,990 It was a sense of connectedness that runs through all of us 1023 00:52:31,990 --> 00:52:37,150 that I never knew, and also a sense of the strength of it 1024 00:52:37,150 --> 00:52:38,440 and the power of it. 1025 00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:45,770 >> It looked like very dense and beautiful clouds that were 1026 00:52:45,770 --> 00:52:50,060 almost like in the jigsaw puzzle fashion that were backlit 1027 00:52:50,060 --> 00:52:51,830 by a moon that I could not see. 1028 00:52:51,830 --> 00:52:55,640 So they were crevices of faint light through it. 1029 00:52:55,640 --> 00:52:59,820 And these eyes were searching me out. 1030 00:52:59,820 --> 00:53:06,510 I felt it was a manifestation of an alienation I had long 1031 00:53:06,510 --> 00:53:08,550 carried through my whole life that was just 1032 00:53:08,550 --> 00:53:10,350 trying to lay claim to me. 1033 00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:21,100 I felt very profoundly that there was no one 1034 00:53:21,100 --> 00:53:24,410 that they could find. 1035 00:53:24,410 --> 00:53:25,540 >> I saw my fear. 1036 00:53:29,670 --> 00:53:31,050 I pictured it. 1037 00:53:31,050 --> 00:53:35,140 I don't think this was a hallucination. 1038 00:53:35,140 --> 00:53:38,710 I pictured it as a dark mass there. 1039 00:53:38,710 --> 00:53:42,370 I, like, screamed, "Get the fuck out!" 1040 00:53:42,370 --> 00:53:45,760 I will not be eaten alive by this fear. 1041 00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:49,990 And once that happened, it was just gone. 1042 00:53:49,990 --> 00:53:55,290 The fear was gone and didn't come back. 1043 00:53:55,290 --> 00:53:57,390 And it still hasn't. 1044 00:53:57,390 --> 00:54:01,410 >> I had this feeling coming over me, 1045 00:54:01,410 --> 00:54:05,880 and the thought was of compassion for myself. 1046 00:54:10,790 --> 00:54:12,205 It touches me the most. 1047 00:54:14,710 --> 00:54:17,770 That's such a gift. 1048 00:54:17,770 --> 00:54:26,870 >> I needed to stop talking and look inside and find that I was 1049 00:54:26,870 --> 00:54:27,670 part of it. 1050 00:54:27,670 --> 00:54:28,712 I was part of everything. 1051 00:54:28,712 --> 00:54:33,270 I was part of God, that you are, too. 1052 00:54:33,270 --> 00:54:34,290 Everything is. 1053 00:54:34,290 --> 00:54:36,360 And you can call it whatever you want to. 1054 00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:37,830 I don't usually call it God. 1055 00:54:37,830 --> 00:54:38,925 I just call it the one. 1056 00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:47,420 And that's the best thing that can ever happen to you, ever. 1057 00:54:51,730 --> 00:54:56,230 >> We co-evolved on the planet with cannabis and with poppy 1058 00:54:56,230 --> 00:54:58,390 and psilocybin mushrooms. 1059 00:54:58,390 --> 00:55:00,940 These things have been on the planet since we have, 1060 00:55:00,940 --> 00:55:02,410 as far as I can tell, which means 1061 00:55:02,410 --> 00:55:04,600 we've co-evolved with them. 1062 00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:06,160 And psychiatry is kind of failing. 1063 00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:08,380 Many, many people are taking sleeping pills 1064 00:55:08,380 --> 00:55:10,630 and anti-anxiety meds and antidepressants 1065 00:55:10,630 --> 00:55:13,760 and for a really long time. 1066 00:55:13,760 --> 00:55:16,330 I really think there's a better way to treat addiction 1067 00:55:16,330 --> 00:55:21,910 or to treat the sort of despair and anxiety and malaise 1068 00:55:21,910 --> 00:55:24,145 that many of us are feeling more and more. 1069 00:55:27,070 --> 00:55:28,990 We need a different perspective, and we 1070 00:55:28,990 --> 00:55:31,120 need that sort of overview effect 1071 00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:35,110 that the astronauts get when they see that every one of us 1072 00:55:35,110 --> 00:55:38,110 is just on this blue ball hurtling through space. 1073 00:55:41,110 --> 00:55:43,490 I think that psychedelics give you that perspective. 1074 00:55:43,490 --> 00:55:47,140 And so I hope that they can engender more cooperation, 1075 00:55:47,140 --> 00:55:50,890 more us versus them, more of this idea 1076 00:55:50,890 --> 00:55:54,540 that separation is an illusion, and that we all sort of 1077 00:55:54,540 --> 00:55:57,300 have the answers for our own growth 1078 00:55:57,300 --> 00:55:59,325 and for the healing of the planet. 1079 00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:06,930 If people could know how connected they really are, 1080 00:56:06,930 --> 00:56:09,690 connected to spirit and connected to each other 1081 00:56:09,690 --> 00:56:13,590 and connected to nature, so much of their fear would dissipate. 1082 00:56:13,590 --> 00:56:15,810 So much of their anxiety would dissipate. 1083 00:56:15,810 --> 00:56:19,170 And I just know that if, in the future, 1084 00:56:19,170 --> 00:56:24,360 this could be used with all patients, 1085 00:56:24,360 --> 00:56:28,920 under the direction of mentors, shamans, psychotherapists, 1086 00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:31,965 it would make for a much happier world. 1087 00:56:40,776 --> 00:56:44,516 [MUSIC PLAYING]