Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics Conference

Source: beckleyfoundation.org via Aaron on Pinterest

http://www.horizonsnyc.org/site/

2012 Speakers

Alphabetical by last name:

• MATTHEW BAGGOTT, PH.D., “Beyond Fear: The Effects of MDMA in Humans”
• ALEXANDER BELSER, “The Rule of Three from NYU: (1) A patient speaks, (2) A proposed narrative study of patient experiences, and (3) Recent findings from the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study”
• AMY EMERSON, “MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD Research: Bridging Biology and Psychology”
• KEVIN FEENEY, J.D., “Ayahuasca & Law: International Perspective”
• CHARLES S. GROB, M.D., “Why Psychedelics Matter”
• ROMAN HANIS, “Amazonian Grass Roots Research on Entheogen-based healing of Physical Pathologies”
• JAMES KENT, “Psychedelic Information Theory: Mapping the Limits of Human Perception and Imagination”
• MARIAVITTORIA MANGINI, Ph.D., FNP, “Gender and Psychedelics: Exploring Women’s Experience”
• RALPH METZNER, PH.D., “Psychoactive Substances in Shamanism and Psychotherapy”
• SIDARTA RIBEIRO, PH.D., “Seeing with the Eyes Shut: Neural Basis of Enhanced Visual Imagery following Ayahuasca Ingestion”

Mind Medicine - Does fear have an off switch?

“We’ve learned a fair amount of the circuitry that’s involved in generating the initial fear response. We really know relatively little about the circuitry that’s involved in turning it off”   (Richard Davidson, Neuroscientist). 

Is there a reason why this has been neglected? 

Protesters caught on newsprint at Occupy

"Using cannabinoids to overcome fear in the brain"
by Christie Wilcox
Scientific American

" ...in a study published this week in Molecular Psychiatry, researchers from Duke university have found that marijuana-like compounds and the enzyme that degrades them may be the key to understanding fear’s off switch."


http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/2012/06/12/overcoming-fear-in-the-brain/



Why it's illegal to take drugs? Psychedelics might open the soul and motivate it against the greed machine? Marijuana might block out fear so that revolution becomes a possibility. We live in fear; of war, of hunger, of our own anxiety. Some drugs could propel us into a society of equality and compassion.


"You may say that I'm a dreamer..." 

MANdala

This is what music does to our brain! Communion with the collective is never far away.

Bob Marley Interview on Marijuana

Bob Marley Interview on Marijuana

Poppy-cocked

     Experiments on neurons show the ability to control the dopamine response.  This seems quite the breakthrough seeing that the dopamine receptors themselves were only discovered in 1958 by Arvid carlsson.

Artwork by Shirley Novak

Study Shines Light on Brain Mechanism that Controls Reward Enjoyment
Science Daily
by

     "GABA neurons located in the VTA are just microns away from dopamine and are negative regulators of dopamine funtion," Stuber proposes. "When they become active, their basic job is to suppress dopamine release. A dysfunction in these GABA neurons might potentially underlie different aspects of neuropsychiatric illness, such as depression. Thus, we could think of them as a new physiological target for various aspects of neuropsychiatric diseases."

UNC study coauthors include Ruud van Zessen and Jana L. Phillips. 

Coauthor Evgeny A. Budygin is at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. 

Hippie Chip Flower Children

Kids are so easily bought. This "hippie chip" cookie is $15 and kids are buying it to relax. It's just 5-HTP and Valerian Root and I'm sure not very much. I buy whole bottles of 5-HTP for the same price and it lasts me for months. I got a bottle of Valerian Root for free from my roomie workin at whole foods. Who buys a $15 cookie and doesn't look at the ingredients. Also - this silly cookie doesn't even list the mg of the vitamins and I can't find the ingredient stats anywhere online. Do yourself a favor kids. Read.

Found this cookie in my kitchen drawer this morning. My teenage brother gave it to my dad.

Solar Storm

Is something building up or falling apart? These times - are they changing or is history just an illusion for change? Lots to read about how this effects us physically, externally... perhaps give a thought to how the cosmos shares energy with us internally, universally. 

NASA

BBC NEWS Solar Storm: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17295337

NASA Solar Flare News & Updates: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News012312-M8.7.html

NASA Earth Sun Mission Updates: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News030712-X5-4.html

Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Jan. 23 Solar Flare Credit: NASA/SDO NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed the M9-class solar flare that sparked the strongest radiation storm since 2005

.http://www.space.com/14331-photos-strongest-solar-storm-sun-radiation.html