Money: A New Beginning

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This essay is the first in a two-part series.

 

An irremediable structural flaw lies at the base of our
civilization. I call it Separation, and it has generated all the converging
crises — economic, health, ecological, and political — of our day. It
manifests as separation from each other in the dissolution of community,
separation from nature in the destruction of the environment, separation within
our selves in the deterioration of health. Science is its deep ideology,
technology is its accomplice, and money is its agent.

Money as we know it today is intimately related to our
identity as discrete and separate selves, as well as to the destruction that
our separation has wrought. A saying goes, "Money is the root of all
evil." But why should it be? After all, the purpose of money is, at its
most basic, simply to facilitate exchange; in other words, to connect human
gifts with human needs. What power, what monstrous perversion, has turned money
into the opposite: an agent of scarcity?

For indeed, we live in a world of fundamental abundance, a
world where vast quantities of food, energy, and materials go to waste. Half
the world starves while the other half wastes enough to feed the first half. In
the Third World and our own ghettos, people lack food,
shelter, and other basic necessities, but cannot afford to buy them. Other
people would love to supply these necessities and do other meaningful work, but
cannot because there is no money in it.

Money utterly fails to connect gifts
and needs. We pour vast resources into wars, plastic junk, and innumerable
other products that do not serve human needs or human happiness. Why? It is not
difficult to trace it back to greed, to the love of money. Ultimately though,
greed is a red herring, itself a symptom and not a cause of a deeper problem.
To blame greed and to fight it by intensifying the program of self-control is
to intensify the war against the self, which is just another expression of the
war against nature and the war against the other that lies at the base of our
civilization.

Amidst superabundance, even we in rich countries live in an
omnipresent anxiety, craving "financial security" as we try to keep
scarcity at bay. We make choices (even those having nothing to do with money)
according to what we can "afford," and we commonly associate freedom
with wealth. But when we pursue it, we find that the paradise of financial
freedom is a mirage, receding as we approach it, and that the chase itself
enslaves. The anxiety is always there, the scarcity always just one disaster
away. Greed is simply a response to the perception of scarcity. Money, which
has turned abundance into scarcity, precedes greed. But not money per se, only
the kind of money we use today, the kind of money that is evaporating as we
speak, money with a very special characteristic that ensures its eventual
demise.

This characteristic appears, in different forms, in the
other substructures of our civilization as well. By understanding it, we can
clarify the "irremediable structural flaw" of our civilization
itself; more importantly, we can design new systems of money to supplant the
old and that bear the opposite characteristic. The results will be the opposite
as well: abundance, not scarcity; generosity, not greed; and sustainability,
not ruin.

The defining characteristic of money today is usury, better
known as interest. It is usury that both generates today's endemic anxiety and
drives the world-devouring engine of perpetual growth. To explain how, I will
quote Bernard Leitaer's now-famous parable The Eleventh Round, from his book The
Future of Money
.

Once upon a time, in a small village in the Outback,
people used barter for all their transactions. On every market day, people
walked around with chickens, eggs, hams, and breads, and engaged in prolonged
negotiations among themselves to exchange what they needed. At key periods of
the year, like harvests or whenever someone's barn needed big repairs after a
storm, people recalled the tradition of helping each other out that they had
brought from the old country. They knew that if they had a problem someday,
others would aid them in return.

One market day, a stranger with shiny black shoes and an
elegant white hat came by and observed the whole process with a sardonic smile.
When he saw one farmer running around to corral the six chickens he wanted to
exchange for a big ham, he could not refrain from laughing. "Poor
people," he said, "so primitive." The farmer's wife overheard him and
challenged the stranger, "Do you think you can do a better job handling
chickens?" "Chickens, no," responded the stranger, "But
there is a much better way to eliminate all that hassle." "Oh yes, how
so?" asked the woman. "See that tree there?" the stranger
replied. " Well, I will go wait there for one of you to bring me one large
cowhide. Then have every family visit me. I'll explain the better way."

And so it happened. He took the cowhide, and cut perfect
leather rounds in it, and put an elaborate and graceful little stamp on each
round. Then he gave to each family 10 rounds, and explained that each
represented the value of one chicken. "Now you can trade and bargain with
the rounds instead of the unwieldy chickens," he explained.

It made sense. Everybody was impressed with the man with
the shiny shoes and inspiring hat.

"Oh, by the way," he added after every family
had received their 10 rounds, "in a year's time, I will come back and sit
under that same tree. I want you to each bring me back 11 rounds. That 11th
round is a token of appreciation for the technological improvement I just made
possible in your lives." "But where will the 11th round come
from?" asked the farmer with the six chickens. "You'll see,"
said the man with a reassuring smile.

Assuming that the population and its annual production
remain exactly the same during that next year, what do you think had to happen?
Remember, that 11th round was never created. Therefore, bottom line, one of
each 11 families will have to lose all its rounds, even if everybody managed
their affairs well, in order to provide the 11th round to 10 others.

So when a storm threatened the crop of one of the
families, people became less generous with their time to help bring it in
before disaster struck. While it was much more convenient to exchange the
rounds instead of the chickens on market days, the new game also had the
unintended side effect of actively discouraging the spontaneous cooperation
that was traditional in the village. Instead, the new money game was generating
a systemic undertow of competition among all the participants.

There are really only three ways this story can end:
inflation, bankruptcy, or growth. The same choices face any economy based on
usury. The villagers could procure another cowhide and make more currency; or
one of each 11 families could go bankrupt, as Lietaer observes; or they could
increase the number of chickens so that new "rounds" would have the
same value as before. In a real economy, all three pressures operate
simultaneously. The bankruptcy pressure drives a built-in insecurity, which in
turn drives people and institutions to "make" more money through
inflationary or productive means. Of these two choices, inflation is only a
temporary solution (as we are discovering today). It can only push the
grow-or-die imperative slightly into the future.

In other words, because of the money system,
competition, insecurity, and greed are an inseparable part of our economy. They
can never be eliminated as long as the necessities of life are denominated in
usury-money. But this is only one reason why money destroys community. The
other is related to the third pressure: perpetual growth.

As Lietaer's parable explains, because of interest, at any
given time the amount of money owed is greater than the amount of money already
existing. To make non-inflationary new money to keep the whole system going, we
have to breed more chickens — in other words, we have to create more
"goods and services." The principal way of doing so is to begin
selling something that was once free. It is to convert forests into timber,
music into product, ideas into intellectual property, social reciprocity into
paid services.

Would you like to get rich? Here is a business idea that, in
one form or another, has worked spectacularly for thousands of years. Very simply,
find anything that people do for themselves or each other for free. Then take
it away from them: make it illegal, inconvenient, or otherwise unavailable.
Then sell back to them what you have taken. Granted, usually no one does this
consciously, but that has been the net effect of culture and technology over
the last several thousand years.

Your 13th-century peasant
ancestors rarely paid money for food, shelter, clothing, or entertainment (much
less in a hunter-gatherer tribe). People were self-sufficient in all these
things or, more likely, depended on elaborate gift networks, sharing, and
reciprocity. Of these things is community built. Today, we pay strangers to
meet most of our physical and cultural needs. You probably don't know the
person who grew your food, wove your shirt, built your house, or sang the songs
on your iPod. Abetted by technology, the commodification of formerly
non-monetary goods and services has accelerated over the last few centuries, to
the point today where very little is left outside the money realm. The vast
commons, whether of land or of culture, has been cordoned off and sold — all
to keep pace with the exponential growth of money. This is the deep reason why
we convert forests to timber, songs to intellectual property, and so on. It is
why two-thirds of all American meals are now prepared outside the home. It is
why herbal folk remedies have given way to pharmaceutical medicines, why child
care has become a paid service, why
drinking water is now the number one beverage sales growth category.

The imperative of perpetual growth
implicit in interest is what drives the relentless conversion of life, world,
and spirit into money. Completing the vicious circle, the more of life we
convert into money, the more we need money to live. Usury, not money, is the
proverbial root of all evil. Inducing competition and replacing personal
relationships with paid services, it rends the fabric of community.

Community is closely linked to
gift-giving; when anthropologists seek to understand a culture, they trace the
flow of gifts. Unlike money transactions, in which no obligations linger after
the transaction is completed, the giving
of a gift creates a tie (which is the literal meaning of "obligation").
When gifts circulate, the community bonds. Lending money at interest is utterly
contrary to the spirit of the gift. For one thing, a cardinal feature of an
authentic gift is that we give it unconditionally. We may expect to be gifted
in return, whether by the recipient or another member of the community, but we
do not impose conditions on a true gift, or it is not really a gift.

More importantly, a universal
characteristic of a gift is that it naturally increases as it circulates within
a community, and that this increase must not be kept for oneself, but allowed
to circulate with the gift. Interest amounts to keeping the increase on the
gift for oneself, thereby withholding it from circulation in the community,
weakening community for the benefit of the individual. It is no accident that many
societies prohibited usury among themselves but allowed it in transactions with
outsiders, who could not be trusted to recirculate a true gift back into the
community. Hence the prohibition in Deuteronomy 23:20: "Unto a stranger
you may lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon
usury."

The ramifications of this
injunction when combined with Jesus' teaching that all men are brothers are
obvious: interest is forbidden entirely. This was the position of the Catholic
Church throughout the Middle Ages, and is still the rule in Islam today.
However, starting with the merger of Church and state and accelerating with the
rise of mercantilism in the late Middle Ages, pressure mounted to resolve the
fundamental tension between Christian teaching and the requirements of
commerce. The solution provided by Martin Luther and John Calvin was to
separate moral and civil law, maintaining that the ways of Christ are not the
ways of the world. Thus spirit became further separated from matter, and religion
retreated another step toward worldly irrelevancy.

Abandoning the prohibition on
interest was a key step in religion's complicity in the desacralizing of the
world. After all, it is interest that drives the conversion of all that is
sacred about the world — its beauty, uniqueness, and living relationships —
into something profane. Why do we intuitively know money is profane? Because it
is the one great exception to the irreducible uniqueness of all beings.

In my
last Reality Sandwich essay, I described how each drop of water, even each
electron, is unique and sacred. But not so each dollar. Money is by design
standard, generic. Your dollar is the same as my dollar. Money today lacks even
a unique serial number: It is bits in a computer, an abstraction of an
abstraction of an abstraction. A forest is unique and sacred; not so the money
from its clearcutting. Convert two distinct forests into money and they become
the same. Applied to cultures, the same principle is fast creating a global
monoculture where every service is a paid service.

When money mediates all our
relationships, we too lose our uniqueness to become a standardized consumer of
standardized goods and services, and a standardized functionary performing
other services. No personal economic relationships are important, because we
can always pay someone else to do it. No wonder, strive as we might, we find it
so hard to create community. No wonder we feel so insecure, so replaceable. It
is all because of the conversion, driven by usury, of the unique and sacred
into the monetized and generic.

Because money is identified with
Benthamite "utility" — that is, the good — this entire process is
considered rational in traditional (neoclassical) economic theory. Quite
simply, whenever anything is monetized, the world's "goodness" level
rises. The same assumption appears in the euphemism "goods" to
describe the products of industry. The very definition of a "good" is
anything exchanged for money. In other words, Money = Good. Got that?

By definition, when we buy bottled
water instead of tap water too polluted to drink, that is good. When we pay for
day care instead of caring for our babies at home, that is good. When we buy a
video game instead of playing outdoors, that is good.

In terms of conventional economics, it may actually be in an
individual's rational self-interest to engage in activities that render the
earth uninhabitable. This is potentially true even on the collective level:
given the exponential nature of future cash flow discounting, it may be more in
our "rational self-interest" to liquidate all natural capital right
now — cash in the earth — than to preserve it for future generations. After
all, the net present value of an eternal annual cash flow of one trillion
dollars is only some twenty trillion dollars (at a 5% discount rate).
Economically speaking, it would be more rational to destroy the planet in ten
years while generating income of $100 trillion, than to settle for a
sustainable level of $3 trillion a year forever.

If this seems like an outlandish fantasy, consider that it
is exactly what we are doing today! According to the parameters we have
established, we are making the insane but rational choice to incinerate our
natural, social, cultural, and spiritual capital for financial profit.
Amazingly, this end was foreseen thousands of years ago by the originator of
the story of King Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold. Delighted at
first with his gift, soon he had turned all his food, flowers, even his loved
ones into cold, hard metal. Just like King Midas, we too are converting natural
beauty, human relationships, and the basis of our very survival into money.

Yet
despite this ancient warning, we continue to behave as if we could eat our
money: David Korten once spoke of an East Asian minister who said his country's
forests would be more valuable clearcut, with the money put in the bank to earn
interest. Apparently, the effects of destroying the planet are of little
concern to economists. William Nordhaus of Yale proclaims, "Agriculture,
the part of the economy that is sensitive to climate change, accounts for just
three percent of national output. That means there is no way to get a very
large effect on the US
economy." Oxford economist
Wilfred Beckerman echoes him: "Even if net output of agriculture fell by
50 percent by the end of the next century, this is only a 1.5 per cent cut in
GNP."

Must we, like King Midas, find ourselves marooned in a cold,
comfortless, ugly, inhospitable world before we realize we cannot eat our
money?

Because it builds exponentially, interest feeds a linearity
that puts humankind outside of nature, which is bound by cycles. Subtly but
inexorably, it drives the assumption that human beings exist apart from natural
law. As well, interest drives a relentless anxiety by demanding always more,
more, more, propelling the endless conversion of all wealth into financial
capital. Part of this anxiety is encoded in the very word,
"interest," which implies that self-interest too is bound up in
ever-lasting increase.

Interest is a necessary counterpart to the mentality of
externalization. Like interest, externalization involves a denial of nature's
cyclicity by treating it as an infinite reservoir of resources and an infinite
dumping ground for waste. Interest is also akin to fire, the foundation of
modern technology. To keep it going requires the addition of ever more fuel,
until the whole world is consumed, leaving but a pile of dollars or ash.

Money is a most peculiar kind of property, for unlike physical
inventories of goods, "rust doth not corrode nor moths corrupt" it.
Cash does not depreciate in value; on the contrary, in its modern, abstracted
form of bits in a bank's computer, it grows in value as it earns interest. Thus
it appears to violate a fundamental natural law: impermanence. Money does not
require maintenance like a plot of farmland to maintain its productivity. It
does not require constant rotation of stock like a store of grain to keep it
fresh. No accident, then, was money's early and enduring association with gold,
the metal most famously impervious to oxidation. Money perpetuates the
fundamental illusion of independence from nature; financial wealth endures
without constant interaction with the environment. Other forms of wealth are bothersome,
because they require a continuing relationship with other people and the
environment. But not money, which is now wholly abstract from physical
commodities and thus abstract as well from natural laws of decay and change.
Money as we know it is thus an integral component of the discrete and separate
self.

It is a curious fact that most people are extremely
unwilling to share their money. Even among relatives, sharing money is bound by
strong taboos: I know countless poor families whose brothers, cousins, or
uncles' families are very wealthy. And how many friendships have disintegrated,
how many family members have shunned each other for years, over issues of
money? Money, it seems, is inextricably wrapped up in the very essence of
selfishness — a clue to its deep association with self. Hence the intense
sense of violation we feel upon getting "ripped off" (as if a part of
our bodies were being removed) when from another perspective all that has
happened is pieces of paper changing hands or bits turning on and off in a bank
computer.

We do not usually share our money because we see it almost
as part of our selves and the foundation of our biological security. Money is
self. Meanwhile, conditioned by science and the origins of separation
underlying it, we see other people as essentially just that, "other."
Mixing these two realms invites confusion and conflict. The problem is, the
more of life we convert to money, the more territory falls into one of these
dichotomous realms, mine or yours, and the less common ground there is to share
life and develop unguarded relationships. The conversion of life to money
reduces everything to an economic transaction, leaving us the loneliest people
ever to inhabit the planet. The propertization of the whole world means that
everything is either mine, or someone else's. No longer is anything in common.

The violation we feel at being ripped off is much akin to
the violation an indigenous hunter-gatherer must feel at witnessing the
destruction of nature. When "I" is defined not as a discrete
individual but through a web of relationships with people, earth, animals, and
plants, then any harm to them violates ourselves as well. Even we moderns
sometimes feel an echo of this violation when we see the bulldozers knocking down
the trees to build a new shopping center. That is because our separation from
the trees is illusory. The buried connectedness can be resisted through
ideology, narcotized through distractions, or intimidated through the
invocation of survival anxiety, but it can never die because it is germane to
who we really are. The love of life that Edwin Wilson has named biophilia, and
our natural empathy toward other human beings, is ultimately irrepressible
because we are life and life is us.

The regime of separation has deadened us to the
self-violation inherent in the despoliation of the planet and the degradation
of its inhabitants. In an attempt to compensate for our lost sense of
beingness, we transfer it to possessions and particularly to money, setting the
stage for disaster. How? Because money (bearing interest) is an outright lie,
encoding a false promise of imperishability and eternal growth. Identified with
self, money and its associated "assets" suggest that if we stay in
control of it, the self might be maintained forever, impervious to the rest of
the cycle that follows growth: decay, death, and rebirth.

Obviously, there is a problem when something that does not
decay but only grows, forever, exponentially, is linked to commodities which do
not share this property. The only possible result is that these other
commodities — social, cultural, natural, and spiritual capital — will
eventually be exhausted in the frantic, hopeless attempt to redeem the
ultimately fraudulent promise inherent in money with interest.

They are almost exhausted already. What more of community or
of nature can we still commoditize, before the very basis of life and sanity
crumbles? All of today's crises originate in the conversion of natural, social,
cultural, and spiritual capital into money. Yet even usury is not the deepest
root. It is not an accidental feature of our system that, if only someone
had made a wiser choice, could be different. It is implicit in our
Newtonian-Cartesian cosmology in which, by definition, more for me is less for
you. As this cosmology rapidly becomes obsolete, we can glimpse an emerging new
money system embodying a very different conception of self and world. Until we
transition to it, there is no hope that the current conversion of social,
cultural, natural, and spiritual capital into money will ever abate. Under an
interest-based money system, it is inevitable that we will cash in the earth.

In Part 2 of this essay, I will describe what the currency
of Reunion will look like. When it reflects the new
human identity and relationship to nature that is emerging from the present
convergence of crises, money will have the opposite effects it has today. It
will be a force for sharing, not competition; for generosity, not greed; for
community, not division; for conservation, not liquidation. Can you imagine a
world where money is the ally of all our best impulses? That is the promise of
the new money I will describe in Part 2.

Photo by TW Collins courtesy of Creative Commons License

 

 

 

 

 

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Psychedelics have been studied for their help overcoming addiction. Read how DMT is helping addicts beat their substance abuse issues.

DMT Extraction: Behind the Scientific Process
Take a look at DMT extraction and the scientific process involved. Learn all you need to know including procedures and safety.

Microdosing DMT & Common Dosages Explained
Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing DMT.

DMT Art: A Look Behind Visionary Creations
An entire genre of artwork is inspired by psychedelic trips with DMT. Read to learn about the entities and visions behind DMT art.

Changa vs. DMT: What You Need to Know
While similar (changa contains DMT), each drug has its own unique effect and feeling. Let’s compare and contrast changa vs DMT.

5-MeO-DMT Guide: Effects, Benefits, Safety, and Legality
5-Meo-DMT comes from the Sonora Desert toad. Here is everything you want to know about 5-Meo-DMT and how it compares to 4-AcO-DMT.

4-AcO-DMT Guide: Benefits, Effects, Safety, and Legality
This guide tells you everything about 4 AcO DMT & 5 MeO DMT, that belong to the tryptamine class, and are similar but slightly different to DMT.

How Much Does LSD Cost? When shopping around for that magical psychedelic substance, there can be many uncertainties when new to buying LSD. You may be wondering how much does LSD cost? In this article, we will discuss what to expect when purchasing LSD on the black market, what forms LSD is sold in, and the standard breakdown of buying LSD in quantity.   Navy Use of LSD on the Dark Web The dark web is increasingly popular for purchasing illegal substances. The US Navy has now noticed this trend with their staff. Read to learn more.   Having Sex on LSD: What You Need to Know Can you have sex on LSD? Read our guide to learn everything about sex on acid, from lowered inhibitions to LSD users quotes on sex while tripping.   A Drug That Switches off an LSD Trip A pharmaceutical company is developing an “off-switch” drug for an LSD trip, in the case that a bad trip can happen. Some would say there is no such thing.   Queen of Hearts: An Interview with Liz Elliot on Tim Leary and LSD The history of psychedelia, particularly the British experience, has been almost totally written by men. Of the women involved, especially those who were in the thick of it, little has been written either by or about them. A notable exception is Liz Elliot.   LSD Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety LSD, Lysergic acid diethylamide, or just acid is one of the most important psychedelics ever discovered. What did history teach us?   Microdosing LSD & Common Dosage Explained Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing LSD.   LSD Resources Curious to learn more about LSD? This guide includes comprehensive LSD resources containing books, studies and more.   LSD as a Spiritual Aid There is common consent that the evolution of mankind is paralleled by the increase and expansion of consciousness. From the described process of how consciousness originates and develops, it becomes evident that its growth depends on its faculty of perception. Therefore every means of improving this faculty should be used.   Legendary LSD Blotter Art: A Hidden Craftsmanship Have you ever heard of LSD blotter art? Explore the trippy world of LSD art and some of the top artists of LSD blotter art.   LSD and Exercise: Does it Work? LSD and exercise? Learn why high-performing athletes are taking hits of LSD to improve their overall potential.   Jan Bastiaans Treated Holocaust Survivors with LSD Dutch psychiatrist, Jan Bastiaans administered LSD-assisted therapy to survivors of the Holocaust. A true war hero and pioneer of psychedelic-therapy.   LSD and Spiritual Awakening I give thanks for LSD, which provided the opening that led me to India in 1971 and brought me to Neem Karoli Baba, known as Maharajji. Maharajji is described by the Indians as a “knower of hearts.”   How LSD is Made: Everything You Need to Know Ever wonder how to make LSD? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how LSD is made.   How to Store LSD: Best Practices Learn the best way to store LSD, including the proper temperature and conditions to maximize how long LSD lasts when stored.   Bicycle Day: The Discovery of LSD Every year on April 19th, psychonauts join forces to celebrate Bicycle Day. Learn about the famous day when Albert Hoffman first discovered the effects of LSD.   Cary Grant: A Hollywood Legend On LSD Cary Grant was a famous actor during the 1930’s-60’s But did you know Grant experimented with LSD? Read our guide to learn more.   Albert Hofmann: LSD — My Problem Child Learn about Albert Hofmann and his discovery of LSD, along with the story of Bicycle Day and why it marks a historic milestone.   Babies are High: What Does LSD Do To Your Brain What do LSD and babies have in common? Researchers at the Imperial College in London discover that an adult’s brain on LSD looks like a baby’s brain.   1P LSD: Effects, Benefits, Safety Explained 1P LSD is an analogue of LSD and homologue of ALD-25. Here is everything you want to know about 1P LSD and how it compares to LSD.   Francis Crick, DNA & LSD Type ‘Francis Crick LSD’ into Google, and the result will be 30,000 links. Many sites claim that Crick (one of the two men responsible for discovering the structure of DNA), was either under the influence of LSD at the time of his revelation or used the drug to help with his thought processes during his research. Is this true?   What Happens If You Overdose on LSD? A recent article presented three individuals who overdosed on LSD. Though the experience was unpleasant, the outcomes were remarkably positive.

The Ayahuasca Experience
Ayahuasca is both a medicine and a visionary aid. You can employ ayahuasca for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual repair, and you can engage with the power of ayahuasca for deeper insight and realization. If you consider attainment of knowledge in the broadest perspective, you can say that at all times, ayahuasca heals.

 

Trippy Talk: Meet Ayahuasca with Sitaramaya Sita and PlantTeachers
Sitaramaya Sita is a spiritual herbalist, pusangera, and plant wisdom practitioner formally trained in the Shipibo ayahuasca tradition.

 

The Therapeutic Value of Ayahuasca
My best description of the impact of ayahuasca is that it’s a rocket boost to psychospiritual growth and unfolding, my professional specialty during my thirty-five years of private practice.

 

Microdosing Ayahuasca: Common Dosage Explained
What is ayahuasca made of and what is considered a microdose? Explore insights with an experienced Peruvian brewmaster and learn more about this practice.

 

Ayahuasca Makes Neuron Babies in Your Brain
Researchers from Beckley/Sant Pau Research Program have shared the latest findings in their study on the effects of ayahuasca on neurogenesis.

 

The Fatimiya Sufi Order and Ayahuasca
In this interview, the founder of the Fatimiya Sufi Order,  N. Wahid Azal, discusses the history and uses of plant medicines in Islamic and pre-Islamic mystery schools.

 

Consideration Ayahuasca for Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Research indicates that ayahuasca mimics mechanisms of currently accepted treatments for PTSD. In order to understand the implications of ayahuasca treatment, we need to understand how PTSD develops.

 

Brainwaves on Ayahuasca: A Waking Dream State
In a study researchers shared discoveries showing ingredients found in Ayahuasca impact the brainwaves causing a “waking dream” state.

 

Cannabis and Ayahuasca: Mixing Entheogenic Plants
Cannabis and Ayahuasca: most people believe they shouldn’t be mixed. Read this personal experience peppered with thoughts from a pro cannabis Peruvian Shaman.

 

Ayahuasca Retreat 101: Everything You Need to Know to Brave the Brew
Ayahuasca has been known to be a powerful medicinal substance for millennia. However, until recently, it was only found in the jungle. Word of its deeply healing and cleansing properties has begun to spread across the world as many modern, Western individuals are seeking spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being. More ayahuasca retreat centers are emerging in the Amazon and worldwide to meet the demand.

 

Ayahuasca Helps with Grief
A new study published in psychopharmacology found that ayahuasca helped those suffering from the loss of a loved one up to a year after treatment.

 

Ayahuasca Benefits: Clinical Improvements for Six Months
Ayahuasca benefits can last six months according to studies. Read here to learn about the clinical improvements from drinking the brew.

 

Ayahuasca Culture: Indigenous, Western, And The Future
Ayahuasca has been use for generations in the Amazon. With the rise of retreats and the brew leaving the rainforest how is ayahuasca culture changing?

 

Ayahuasca Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
The Amazonian brew, Ayahuasca has a long history and wide use. Read our guide to learn all about the tea from its beginnings up to modern-day interest.

 

Ayahuasca and the Godhead: An Interview with Wahid Azal of the Fatimiya Sufi Order
Wahid Azal, a Sufi mystic of The Fatimiya Sufi Order and an Islamic scholar, talks about entheogens, Sufism, mythology, and metaphysics.

 

Ayahuasca and the Feminine: Women’s Roles, Healing, Retreats, and More
Ayahuasca is lovingly called “grandmother” or “mother” by many. Just how feminine is the brew? Read to learn all about women and ayahuasca.

What Is the Standard of Care for Ketamine Treatments?
Ketamine therapy is on the rise in light of its powerful results for treatment-resistant depression. But, what is the current standard of care for ketamine? Read to find out.

What Is Dissociation and How Does Ketamine Create It?
Dissociation can take on multiple forms. So, what is dissociation like and how does ketamine create it? Read to find out.

Having Sex on Ketamine: Getting Physical on a Dissociative
Curious about what it could feel like to have sex on a dissociate? Find out all the answers in our guide to sex on ketamine.

Special K: The Party Drug
Special K refers to Ketamine when used recreationally. Learn the trends as well as safety information around this substance.

Kitty Flipping: When Ketamine and Molly Meet
What is it, what does it feel like, and how long does it last? Read to explore the mechanics of kitty flipping.

Ketamine vs. Esketamine: 3 Important Differences Explained
Ketamine and esketamine are used to treat depression. But what’s the difference between them? Read to learn which one is right for you: ketamine vs. esketamine.

Guide to Ketamine Treatments: Understanding the New Approach
Ketamine is becoming more popular as more people are seeing its benefits. Is ketamine a fit? Read our guide for all you need to know about ketamine treatments.

Ketamine Treatment for Eating Disorders
Ketamine is becoming a promising treatment for various mental health conditions. Read to learn how individuals can use ketamine treatment for eating disorders.

Ketamine Resources, Studies, and Trusted Information
Curious to learn more about ketamine? This guide includes comprehensive ketamine resources containing books, studies and more.

Ketamine Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
Our ultimate guide to ketamine has everything you need to know about this “dissociative anesthetic” and how it is being studied for depression treatment.

Ketamine for Depression: A Mental Health Breakthrough
While antidepressants work for some, many others find no relief. Read to learn about the therapeutic uses of ketamine for depression.

Ketamine for Addiction: Treatments Offering Hope
New treatments are offering hope to individuals suffering from addiction diseases. Read to learn how ketamine for addiction is providing breakthrough results.

Microdosing Ketamine & Common Dosages Explained
Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing ketamine.

How to Ease a Ketamine Comedown
Knowing what to expect when you come down from ketamine can help integrate the experience to gain as much value as possible.

How to Store Ketamine: Best Practices
Learn the best ways how to store ketamine, including the proper temperature and conditions to maximize how long ketamine lasts when stored.

How To Buy Ketamine: Is There Legal Ketamine Online?
Learn exactly where it’s legal to buy ketamine, and if it’s possible to purchase legal ketamine on the internet.

How Long Does Ketamine Stay in Your System?
How long does ketamine stay in your system? Are there lasting effects on your body? Read to discover the answers!

How Ketamine is Made: Everything You Need to Know
Ever wonder how to make Ketamine? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how Ketamine is made.

Colorado on Ketamine: First Responders Waiver Programs
Fallout continues after Elijah McClain. Despite opposing recommendations from some city council, Colorado State Health panel recommends the continued use of ketamine by medics for those demonstrating “excited delirium” or “extreme agitation”.

Types of Ketamine: Learn the Differences & Uses for Each
Learn about the different types of ketamine and what they are used for—and what type might be right for you. Read now to find out!

Kitty Flipping: When Ketamine and Molly Meet
What is it, what does it feel like, and how long does it last? Read to explore the mechanics of kitty flipping.

MDMA & Ecstasy Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
Our ultimate guide to MDMA has everything you want to know about Ecstasy from how it was developed in 1912 to why it’s being studied today.

How To Get the Most out of Taking MDMA as a Couple
Taking MDMA as a couple can lead to exciting experiences. Read here to learn how to get the most of of this love drug in your relationship.

Common MDMA Dosage & Microdosing Explained
Microdosing, though imperceivable, is showing to have many health benefits–here is everything you want to know about microdosing MDMA.

Having Sex on MDMA: What You Need to Know
MDMA is known as the love drug… Read our guide to learn all about sex on MDMA and why it is beginning to makes its way into couple’s therapy.

How MDMA is Made: Common Procedures Explained
Ever wonder how to make MDMA? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how MDMA is made.

Hippie Flipping: When Shrooms and Molly Meet
What is it, what does it feel like, and how long does it last? Explore the mechanics of hippie flipping and how to safely experiment.

How Cocaine is Made: Common Procedures Explained
Ever wonder how to make cocaine? Read our guide to learn everything you need to know about the procedures of how cocaine is made.

A Christmas Sweater with Santa and Cocaine
This week, Walmart came under fire for a “Let it Snow” Christmas sweater depicting Santa with lines of cocaine. Columbia is not merry about it.

Ultimate Cocaine Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
This guide covers what you need to know about Cocaine, including common effects and uses, legality, safety precautions and top trends today.

NEWS: An FDA-Approved Cocaine Nasal Spray
The FDA approved a cocaine nasal spray called Numbrino, which has raised suspicions that the pharmaceutical company, Lannett Company Inc., paid off the FDA..

The Ultimate Guide to Cannabis Bioavailability
What is bioavailability and how can it affect the overall efficacy of a psychedelic substance? Read to learn more.

Cannabis Research Explains Sociability Behaviors
New research by Dr. Giovanni Marsicano shows social behavioral changes occur as a result of less energy available to the neurons. Read here to learn more.

The Cannabis Shaman
If recreational and medical use of marijuana is becoming accepted, can the spiritual use as well? Experiential journalist Rak Razam interviews Hamilton Souther, founder of the 420 Cannabis Shamanism movement…

Cannabis Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety
Our ultimate guide to Cannabis has everything you want to know about this popular substances that has psychedelic properties.

Cannabis and Ayahuasca: Mixing Entheogenic Plants
Cannabis and Ayahuasca: most people believe they shouldn’t be mixed. Read this personal experience peppered with thoughts from a procannabis Peruvian Shaman.

CBD-Rich Cannabis Versus Single-Molecule CBD
A ground-breaking study has documented the superior therapeutic properties of whole plant Cannabis extract as compared to synthetic cannabidiol (CBD), challenging the medical-industrial complex’s notion that “crude” botanical preparations are less effective than single-molecule compounds.

Cannabis Has Always Been a Medicine
Modern science has already confirmed the efficacy of cannabis for most uses described in the ancient medical texts, but prohibitionists still claim that medical cannabis is “just a ruse.”

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