New Maps of Hyperspace: Ralph Metzner

In this interview with director Rak Razam at last year's MAPS conference, Ralph Metzner recalls the beginning of psychedelic research at Harvard in the early 1960s: “We were babes in the woods”, he says of the years with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert. Back then, academics in the Western world would not deal with Eastern religions, shamanism or alchemical divination. “They didn’t even read Jung”, Metzner points out.

Fifty years later, Metzner is a psychotherapist and an established luminary in the field of consciousness expansion. With Rak Razam, he talks about the renaissance of psychedelic studies, the growing understanding of a holistic worldview in our society, and the need to use substances like MDMA as a regulated medical treatment against PTSD and various forms of addiction and anxiety. Also, Metzner discusses the positive effects psychedelics hold for people who are preparing to die.  With MDMA, “they have a really good chance of going into that final transition with a peaceful attitude, which is a blessing.”

Ralph Metzner is a guest of Dennis McKenna on the upcoming Evolver Intensives live interactive video course, "Psychedelic Adventures at the Edge of the Abyss: The Ideas of Terence and Dennis McKenna."

Rak Razam's book:

www.ayathebook.com