In-depth and well-researched interviews with the leading minds in psychedelic science and culture

• A curated collection of interviews with 15 accomplished scientists, artists, and thinkers, including Albert Hofmann, Stanislav Grof, Rick Strassman, and Charles Tart

• Explores their profound reflections on the intersections between psychedelics and a wide range of topics, including psychology, creativity, music, the near-death experience, DNA, and the future of psychedelic drug medical research

After many dark years of zealous repression, there are now more than a dozen government-approved clinical studies with psychedelics taking place around the globe. But what does the future hold for psychedelic research and the expansion of consciousness?

In this curated collection of interviews with pioneers in psychedelic thought, David Jay Brown explores the future of mind-altering drugs, hallucinogenic plants, and the evolution of human consciousness. The accomplished scientists, artists, and thinkers interviewed in the book include LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann, psychologist Stanislav Grof, DMT researcher Rick Strassman, anthropologist Jeremy Narby, MAPS founder Rick Doblin, ethnobotanist Dennis McKenna, psychologist Charles Tart, and musician Simon Posford from Shpongle, as well as many others.

Demonstrating deep knowledge of his interviewees’ work, Brown elicits profound reflections from them as well as their considered opinions on the future of psychedelic drug medical research, God and the afterlife, LSD and mysticism, DMT research and non-human entity contact, problem-solving and psychedelics, ayahuasca and DNA, psilocybin and the religious experience, MDMA and PTSD, releasing the fear of death, the tryptamine dimension, the therapeutic potential of salvia, and the intersections between psychedelics and creativity, ecology, paranormal phenomena, and alternate realities.

In each interview we discover how these influential minds were inspired by their use of entheogens. We see how psychedelics have the potential to help us survive as a species, not only by their therapeutic benefits but also by revealing our sacred connection to the biosphere and by prompting people to begin on the path of spiritual evolution.

David Jay Brown holds a master’s degree in psychobiology from New York University. A former neuroscience researcher at the University of Southern California, he has written for Wired, Discover, and Scientific American, and his news stories have appeared on the Huffington Post and CBS News. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The New Science of Psychedelics. He lives in Ben Lomond, California.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1    LSD, Science, Consciousness, and Mysticism
An Interview with Albert Hofmann

2    The Nonordinary Mind, Psychedelics, and Psychology
An Interview with Stanislav Grof

3    Creativity, Problem Solving, and Psychedelics
An Interview with James Fadiman

4    Exploring Anomalous Experiences
An Interview with Stanley Krippner

5    Alchemy, Ecology, and Psychedelics
An Interview with Ralph Metzner

6    Exploring the Tryptamine Dimension
An Interview with Dennis McKenna

7    Ayahuasca, DNA, and Decoding the Cosmic Serpent
An Interview with Jeremy Narby

8    DMT Research and Nonhuman-Entity Contact
An Interview with Rick Strassman

9    Psychedelic Warfare?
Exploring the Potential of Psychoactive Weapons
An Interview with James Ketchum

10    Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in
the Presence of Death
An Interview with Roshi Joan Halifax

11    The Near-Death Experience, Parapsychology,
and Psychedelics
An Interview with Charles Tart

12    The Sacred Secrets of Salvia divinorum
An Interview with Daniel Siebert

13    The Future of Psychedelic Drug Medical Research
An Interview with Rick Doblin

14    Psilocybin Studies and the Religious Experience
An Interview with Roland Griffiths

15    Music, Creativity, Shpongle, and Psychedelics
An Interview with Simon Posford

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