[MUSIC PLAYING]
>> As we look at the world, at society's impact on the planet,
many ideas abound regarding what kind of species cannot seem
to help but destroy its own habitat.
Is this just human behavior, or is humanity sick?
According to interpretations of cave and rock art,
shamanism begin as early as humanity's great leap forward
in human consciousness, almost as if the shamanic impulse
emerged because the planet knew that the spiritual practices
and listening to the Earth would be
needed to balance the behavior of future generations.
The use of psychedelic plants have
been associated with shamanism since the beginning,
and many believe that the shamanic use of psychedelics
could be one key to creating a sustainable future,
not simply by living in the past but by bringing
the wisdom of the past with us and building
a psychedelic friendly society and a holistic world,
one where the face of religion, pharmacology, architecture,
and city planning are in line with the morality
and conscience that the plant sacraments tend to evoke.
But over the centuries, modern society
has slowly replaced the practice of shamanism
and shunned the use of psychedelic plants.
So what are the consequences of a species divorcing itself
from its true nature and from its past?
>> I think one of the problems that we face as humans today is
that we've lost touch with human nature.
We've become so enculturated, socialized, technolized
that we no longer recognize what's really truly
important to human beings.
And what I've hoped to be able to do through my work
is to help people understand that there's
something about spirituality that's part of human nature,
that humans evolved through spiritual practices.
The supernatural is a natural part of human experience
and it's been a very important part of human evolution.
Shamanism is part of our human nature.
We need to engage in shamanic practices
in order to give expression to aspects of our human nature.
And I think that there is increasing evidence
that part of our human nature was shaped
by these environmental influences
that we call psychedelics, that in essence are neurotransmitter
systems were selected for our ancestor species that were best
capable of taking these substances
and using them constructively.
>> In several shamanic traditions,
as well as modern spiritual disciplines,
the human organism is seen as a microcosm of the planet,
and one integral way of influencing the planet is
by living differently from within.
One of the biggest shifts that can occur within a human body
is through neurochemical and hormonal transformations.
Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers
of the nervous system.
They signal biological processes to initiate inside the body.
So why is it that psychedelic plants mimic the messenger
molecules to our neurotransmitter systems?
There are several forms of plant mimicry
that we currently know of.
Some weeds mimic the scent of flowers
and attract animals for pollination.
A few of them mimic the look of domesticated plants.
Some mimic the look of insects and still others
mimic the leaf structure of neighboring plants.
These are theorized to be survival mechanisms
for those particular plant species.
However, psychedelic and psychoactive fungi, leaves,
seeds, flowers, roots, bark, and even animal species
mimic neurotransmitter molecules that affect the way we think,
feel, and even construct our belief systems.
>> Nature communicates in chemical signatures through
the species.
And the plant entheogens, which are
secreted by nature, when we take them,
they plug into our consciousness and our, you know,
where-- and they expand our awareness.
And it's like Gaia is communicating
through these chemical messengers in the same way
that she mediates other species with chemicals in nature.
These plant sacraments and the entheogens
may be interspecies messengers for us.
>> If nature mediates a species through chemical messengers,
it stands to reason that there is a mechanism meant
for humanity as well.
But is it possible that human consciousness has been limited
and shut off to the full spectrum of nature around us?
If the purpose of psychedelic plants
is to cause humanity to wake up, how
does this truly differ from the spiritual messages
and religions?
Why are experts now claiming that these plants
can offer genuine insights into the nature of our reality?
>> That's the beautiful thing about psychedelics.
It's a thing that happens on a personal level.
You can use your own mind to interpret
it, make of it what you will.
So this is not encouraged in our society.
What's encouraged in society through most
of our institutions-- religion, academia, all of those things,
social media, all of this--
we are encouraged to give up our ability to think for ourselves.
>> And that's the big difference is religion is something
you're told and taught.
Psychedelics is a direct experience that you have,
and so it brings an element in that is more real than what
you've been told.
Your own experiences is much more real.
Psychedelics definitely can break long-held patterns,
and beliefs systems are nothing but patterns.
And so I think it's a re-envisioning, a renovation
of these world religions, the reintroduction of the sacrament
that we need at this time.
>> The shamanic perspective of the sacrament differs from
culture to culture, but from a historical perspective,
psychedelic plant sacraments for religious purposes have been
used for tens of thousands of years.
Since there are so many psychedelic plant species that
mimic the same neurotransmitters,
can this still be considered a survival mechanism
of these particular plants or is the survival mechanism
more broadly associated with human behavior's effects
on the Earth at large?
>> I think that it's really important to mention that with
all this psychedelic insight that people are gaining with
all of the mystical experiences, with all the skills that are
being improved, and all these different things that come out
of it, it's most important to remember that ecological
awareness is probably first and foremost what the psychedelics
are trying to impart on us.
>> Is it possible that just like plant mimicry used
by individual plant species for their own survival that
psychedelic plants anticipated the rapid growth of the human
neocortex and the complicated behavior that this evolutionary
leap would cause for this planet?
And if so, how exactly are psychedelics
changing humanity's relationship with nature?
>> One of the interesting things that has emerged out of the use
of psychedelics is that many of the people who have these kinds
of experiences develop a very different perception of nature.
Here in the Western world, we're told
that it's just a bunch of physical stuff,
it's just material world.
But when you take the psychedelics and all
of these filters are stripped away
and we start to have this more direct perception of nature,
nature appears alive.
It's dynamic, it's animated and the trees move
and the trees emit energy and plants move
and they have messages for us.
And of course, what we see in the shamanic
cultures is the continued use of these kinds
of substances in healing.
So we know that there's a variety of important influences
that come in terms of human social bonding, altruism,
concern for others.
I think it's very fair to say that in important ways,
psychedelics influenced human evolution for the better.
>> The major problem in the world now is alienation.
We are disconnected from our own bodies,
we are disconnected from each other,
we are disconnected from nature, we
are disconnected from the cosmos, from the divine.
So we need spirituality that you can get only
from personal experience.
>> If these specific plants provide a way for humanity
to reestablish our connection with the natural world,
as well as supernatural realms, what is the next step that
our modern society needs to take in order to establish a healthy
and lasting relationship with the planet?
>> A medicine-friendly society I think would be very,
very beneficial.
I think a medicine-friendly society is what we need.
I think the fact that we have banned these medicines
and replaced them with pharmaceuticals
is what has led to so many problems.
I think if we were taught these traditions early
and we were allowed to use these medicines,
we would not have this dysfunctional society.
We wouldn't have this massive amount of sickness.
These aren't drugs, they're medicines
like any other medicines that you
get from any other plant that can heal yourself
in different ways.
Only these can heal you in psychological ways
and spiritual ways.
People that have gone through 30, 40 years of psychotherapy
can go and drink ayahuasca once and get more benefit
than 30 or 40 years of psychotherapy.
>> As these plants seem to bring the users awareness directly
into the heart of the issue, to face it head on, the current
drugs on the market within psychiatry--
while useful and effective on some levels--
only dull or reduce the symptoms,
which brings the patient even farther away from actively
engaging with the root of what they're attempting to resolve.
>> Psychiatry as a field of medicine is really--
and even psychiatrists in the field will tell you,
I can't do anything, the drugs are not that good,
we don't have anything new.
And so the psychedelics come in and they sort of just blow
that all up.
I think it will sort of resurrect psychiatry.
>> Were it to be approved --and that occur anytime from two
to 10 years--
were it to be approved, I would envision it initially
to be approved under very restricted conditions, where
psilocybin perhaps would be held by a single central pharmacy
and would be dispensed to specialized therapeutic centers
with people who are trained in psychedelic psychotherapy.
>> I think they will have their therapeutic uses,
but I think the idea to just have places where you can go
and have the experience in a safe environment and focus
on the experience with people there who can help you
facilitate it, whether you call them shamans
or psychotherapists or some combination of that,
it doesn't really matter.
The point is they are facilitators more than anything
else, but they enable you to have a rich experience.
>> These seemingly new approaches to psychiatry
and pharmacology are actually throwbacks to a more ancestral
method of mental health.
In a historical context, modern psychiatry and medicine
has taken over in the blink of an eye
with brand new drugs, brand new methods, and a form
of historical amnesia.
It is this conventional mindset that
has caused for groups like MAPS to increase awareness
of the potential benefits of psychedelics
through the scientific method.
Many other groups are also spreading this awareness,
but few of them are willing to interface with federal agencies
in order to move this research forward.
Founder of MAPS, Rick Doblin, has
waded through the laundry list of gripes
about the current pharmaceutical paradigm
in order to increase transparency,
circumvent conflicts of interest, and more.
>> The key thing about the Benefit Corporation is that
it's not about maximizing profits,
it's about maximizing social benefit.
The only investor in the for-profit Benefit Corporation
is the nonprofit MAPS.
So that's our structure.
So we're going to be focusing just on donations.
There is no private gain here.
It's all about trying to really improve
the health of our society and help us all survive.
Here's the psychedelic clinics of the future, one day.
This is a beautiful one.
One day you'll go to Google Maps and you'll
say, where is a psychedelic clinic, and you'll get this.
>> With a new approach to keeping future pharma ethical
and efficient, what might we see for the future of medical
and therapeutic industries?
>> I think what you may see not too far in the future is
something like spas or places you can go and have these
experiences highly structured, appropriately structured
to optimize people's experiences.
>> I see a future where they're fully integrated
into our society, or at least in some societies of the world,
that there are psychedelic facilitators that are
supporting people in big healing and awakening experiences.
But I also see them being used in scientific inquiry
and technical advancements, advanced creative problem
solving, and that sort of thing.
So I like to see them as being instrumental in moving
our future forward in a positive direction.
>> Psychedelics in society might change the nature of how
business interfaces with the public,
not only through client engagement and technical
approaches, but also might be seen in the look and function
of architecture.
Even tribes that lived embedded in the natural world
placed different values on living and working spaces
that the modern world rarely understands.
The Oneida Indian Nation in upstate New York
even build their casinos to flow with the landscape,
rather than squaring them off.
This is based on their philosophy that boxed off
spaces cause energy to flow improperly and even the mind
to operate unnaturally within the visual aesthetic.
An observation that some people make
after a psychedelic experience is
how alien or industrial modern urban sprawl tends to look.
Housing developments without plant life around them
seem to stand out, rather than integrate into the landscape.
If these plants are agents of Mother Earth placed here
to enhance our relationship with nature,
industry might lean in the same direction and even
the cultural norms that our youth commonly
grow up with might change into something closer
to what our shamanic ancestors used to employ.
>> One of the important uses of psychedelics in shamanic
societies were to develop you into an adult.
You went on a vision quest and the plant substances were
supposed to enhance your ability to encounter the spiritual
entities that were going to guide you in your life.
So at 18, instead of saying, yeah, I can go out and get
drunk, we'd have a retreat.
We'd send our 18-year-olds off for a week or two
and they'd use psilocybin or LSD or ayahuasca two or three, four
times.
They'd have a purpose to try to figure out
how they want to sort through their life, what
they want to do next.
And we'd go through life this way.
When we'd reach major milestones or major difficulties,
we'd return to these substances and try
to find out what it is that we can learn about ourselves,
our goals, our desires in order to be happier about what we do.
I think there's also important social implications.
I think it would be really useful to take
the leaders of conflicting societies and cultures
and make them spend a weekend together doing ayahuasca
or psilocybin talking to each other,
starting to see each other's points of view.
>> The amount of ways that our world might change due
to the adoption of psychedelics into the fabric of society
seems to be all pervasive, as these plants cover a wide range
of applications from religious sacraments to psychotherapy
to rites of passage for our youth and all the roadblocks
on the way to the final moments of one's life.
The only thing slowing our societal adoption
of these plants as viable medicines
is the approval of their scientific research.
If the cultural stigma and legal restrictions were loosened,
what could these plants teach us about who we are as a species
and what our place is on this Earth?
>> Psychedelics represent unique opportunities for modulating
and understanding the nature of consciousness,
the nature of awareness, the nature of perceptual process,
how we understand ourselves and others within the world.
And so there's a lot that we can do in terms
of scientific understanding.
So that needs to move forward, and move forward aggressively,
because they're uniquely powerful tools.
I actually sometimes feel when I reflect back on the fact
that these compounds were removed from the research
laboratory for decades, literally
I feel kind of like Rip Van Winkle,
awakening to the opportunity now to reinvestigate
these compounds and the world.
The scientific field has moved on.
I mean, we have all these imaging methodologies,
we have much better psychometric measures
for measuring subjective states, we have different receptor
models for looking at interactions of these compounds
and brain processes.
We understand spirituality and some of these subtle states
of consciousness much better.
And all of these tools of science now are available,
and now we have this very powerful intervention.
So there are literally thousands of different questions
to be addressed.
>> Entertaining thoughts of the future are always loaded with
what ifs--
how far can the envelope be pushed,
how safe is the approach, how can external technology
liberate us from internal illness,
and how do technologies undermine our body and mind's
natural abilities?
In a psychedelic society, the emphasis of life
likely wouldn't revolve purely around the use of these plants,
but what new ideas for the future they can conjure.
One highly debated topic in the information age
is the future of mankind's integration with technology
and where it may lead us.
As new discoveries of neurophysiology come to light,
what advancements might we see in the near future?
>> We may end up understanding the brain mechanisms that
underlie some of these alterations of moods,
attitudes, behavior, consciousness that would
ultimately make psychedelic drugs unnecessary.
So it could be that there will be ways to stimulate brain, be
it electronically or with lasers or whatever,
and manipulate history and context to also induce
these kinds of states of consciousness.
And then the future of that is really unknown.
>> If psychedelic states could be evoked by technologies
in any amount at any time, could this reduce our capacity
to appreciate nature, not just the flora and fauna,
but the nature of foraging or growing psychedelic plants
or even the necessity of ceremony?
If an otherworldly experience were
possible at the push of a button,
would this be counter-intuitive to these plants speaking
messages of Mother Earth to our species?
Another unknown for the future of technology and psychedelia
is in regards to the DMT synthesizing gene in humans.
We asked the author of "DMT: The Spirit Molecule," Rick
Strassman, about this possibility.
>> Well, there is an interplay between genetic medicine
and the psychedelics.
And I think in one case, it would
be with respect to the psychedelics
that the body makes on its own.
And I think we're just beginning to learn
about the genetic regulation of DMT synthesis, which I
think will be very important--
what conditions turn it on, what turn it off, are there
variants, are there other influences which
would modify the synthesis of endogenous
or naturally occurring DMT?
For example, if you get an infection,
certain genes get turned on to make antibodies
and activate the T-cells and whatnot.
So that's called the genetic regulation
of antibodies or antibody synthesis at the gene level.
>> Causing the human organism to produce different amounts
of DMT naturally within the body sounds intriguing,
but does the knowledge and technology exist to be able
to alter our genetics to self-produce psychedelic
compounds in the body?
>> There is a technology called CRISPR,
which is kind of going down into the gene level.
They've characterized the gene that
makes the enzymes that are responsible for the formation
of DMT.
You could engineer a rodent, let's say, to not
have any DMT synthesized.
Or you can modify a rodent, perhaps--
it's not known yet--
to overproduce DMT.
So, if that's established to be feasible in lower animals,
I think as we advance in our understanding of how
to insert genes into higher species,
there's going to be an interest in that.
>> Could using technology such as CRISPR-Cas9 genetically
alter the natural DMT synthesizing gene already
present in our bodies?
Would it be possible to control the amounts
of endogenous or self-produced DMT in the body?
As many technologies are becoming consumer-friendly
and price and the knowledge and skill
sets to perform these medical miracles are becoming more
accessible through information sharing,
what would happen if our neighbors and community members
began engineering themselves to bring about the DMT state
on demand?
One of the greatest divides happening
in the field of psychedelica is how
to get in touch with that space.
Many psychonauts, such as Terence McKenna,
spoke about the debate of whether we should be training
ourselves through meditation and movement practices
to achieve the same state as when
taking a psychedelic substance.
He asked why one has to spend years in meditation,
isolated in the mountains, before catching
a glimpse of the same experience that a plant can give anyone
within one hour of ingestion, while others
believe that avoiding the inner path to those expanded states
and always relying on external sources
is the very essence of why we are a species that
is dependent upon externalities in order to feel
validated and meaningful.
The concern seems to be growing.
New advancements of psychedelic substances and technology
are emerging at an unbelievable rate.
Well after the DMT trials that Dr.
Rick Strassman conducted in the early to mid-'90s, a new
evolution of psychedelic theory emerged.
If the DMT trip is so short yet gives so many
different insights than do other psychedelics,
such as superintelligent entities and a predictable type
of landscape, then extending the experience
is the next frontier.
Neurobiologist Andrew Gallimore began
seeing how possible this process is and began
developing the formula and protocol in order
to establish a reliable process for communication
with this other world and the beings therein.
>> If we are to look to the future--
I mean, if we--
I can imagine a society where the idea
of extradimensional intelligence is accepted,
a society where it is normal for someone
to enter a psychedelic state and to receive information
from beings from another reality.
I mean, this is radical stuff.
For modern, rational kind of human,
the idea that there are intelligences beyond
this reality is extraordinary.
It occurred to me that the time that people spent in this space
was often frustrating.
People would enter this space and then
they would be dragged back out, often just
as they had established some sort of communication.
They said, I have to go, I have to go,
and they're dragged back, often against their will,
into the consensus world.
DMT has a number of properties, a number
of its unique properties, that are not shared
by other classic psychedelics.
Now, the main one, the characteristic feature of DMT,
is it's very short-acting.
The second feature is this lack of subjective tolerance.
So you can inject someone with DMT.
This is something Rick Strassman did.
he showed that you inject someone with DMT,
let them have the experience and come down, and then inject them
again maybe 30 minutes later.
And you can do that repeatedly and the experience
reaches the same level every time.
So these two qualities, this very rapid but short-acting
effect and the lack of tolerance,
means that DMT is amenable to a continuous infusion.
This would allow you to induce someone into the DMT state
and hold them there not just for a few minutes,
but perhaps for a few hours.
>> Though the idea of keeping people in an extended DMT state
is new in this manner, longer DMT trips have been going
on for thousands of years in the Amazon with the admixture
of the banisteriopsis caapi vine.
In the ayahuasca brew, the DMT state
lasts roughly four to six hours.
Most people's first impression of the extended state DMT
journey is that it should be no different than an ayahuasca
journey.
>> Yeah.
But at the same time on ayahuasca, if it goes on
you can work with it.
And with DMT, you're down and you
aren't able to work with it.
And so that's one of the advantages of an extended state
is it might allow more psychological work than occurs
with just peak up and down.
>> There is interest in that state and it will turn out
to be an interesting state, no matter what.
>> If the interest in using this fusion of technology
and biology is directed at understanding the world it
sends you to and the beings that reside there,
the question becomes, what truly are these seemingly intelligent
creatures?
>> I decided to call them beings just because that was how they
seemed, they were being.
They were apprehensible, the volunteer
was able to see them and interact with them.
And like everything else in this state,
they were made of light, quite bright light.
And there's an interaction between the volunteer
and the being.
And the nature of that interaction
is like any other types of interactions we encounter--
fear, love, arguing, bargaining, storytelling.
>> Because this seems to be uncharted territory
for humanity, the hope is that explorers of DMT X or extended
state DMT would be able to gain useful insight from the beings
about how to navigate the turbulent ecological and social
issues we face.
But what are the potential dangers?
>> The main danger, I guess, would be in how people would
manage that kind of experience.
And you would need very well trained individuals
to enter the space and stay there.
It's still uncharted territory, to some extent.
Having this level of DMT in the brain
over a long period of time, we don't know what
the effects are going to be.
We don't know what the effect on an individual's psychology
is going to be, how they're going
to manage that experience.
>> It's fascinating to entertain the thought of what the future
of technology might bring us.
However, some caution that in order
to responsibly move into the future
to create a psychedelic society, we
must honor sustainable practices and truly
listen to the messages that we receive from the plants
themselves in order to move deeper
into the ever evolving world.
>> We live in a very interesting time.
This is probably the first time when
almost the entire human population of the Earth
has the opportunity to communicate and interact
with one another, whether it's through travel
or whether it's through the mass media.
We're aware that we're part of a large human family,
and it's a troubled human family, full of pain
and full of anger and hatred and war is a prevalent feature
in the world today.
It's our state of consciousness as the human race as a whole
that is the problem here.
I mean, this is a really messed up state
of consciousness, the global state of consciousness.
And we need consciousness change.
That's where the work has to be done,
at the level of consciousness.
Nature has provided us with the vehicles
to change our consciousness, to make
that shift into a sustainable world where we act with love,
rather than with hate; where we act with trust, rather
than with suspicion; where we want to make things grow,
rather than to destroy them.
A shift of consciousness is needed,
and I believe strongly that the psychedelics can
play a key role in that, just as they took our ancestors out
of a state of sleep 40,000 years ago.
It does alter your thinking about everything
that you look at, and that's precisely what's needed now.
That's precisely what's needed now.
We need desperately a change of consciousness
as the human species if we are to have any future.
>> Whatever the future may bring,
however it may transform the face of religion, pharmacology,
architecture, technology, and more,
perhaps the main importance of all of our advancements is that
we move forward as a team, that we acknowledge we are a species
made of many desires, fears, values,
and ways of moving along the path of life.
The idea of a psychedelic-friendly society
is not to encourage more use of this peculiar variety
of plants, but to encourage those
who intend to use them anyway to do so responsibly.
And for those with concern for the future of our species,
may we come to understand or truest connection with nature
and use the tools we have to truly know ourselves,
realize our potential, and guide one another to a brighter
future here on Earth.
Up next, join us as we explore the ancestral and modern use
of sonic in musical tools to reach psychedelic-type states
of consciousness.