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Entertainment & Learning

Thanks to the many artists, authors, psychonauts and content creators, the psychedelic space is full of rich sources of both educational content and recreational spaces where you can enjoy the wonderfully colourful world of psychedelics. Whether its books, discussions, movies or first hand accounts you're looking for, you'll find them here. Click on a heading to navigate to that space.

Books

Books

Films & Documentaries

Films
Fantastic Fungi, Official Film Trailer | Moving Art by Louie Schwartzberg
02:02

Fantastic Fungi, Official Film Trailer | Moving Art by Louie Schwartzberg

When so many are struggling for connection, inspiration and hope, Fantastic Fungi brings us together as interconnected creators of our world. Fantastic Fungi, directed by Louie Schwartzberg, is a consciousness-shifting film that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions the fungi kingdom offers us in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges. Official Website: https://fantasticfungi.com Showtimes & Tickets: https://fantasticfungi.com/screenings Take Action: https://fantasticfungi.com/action Help Spread the Word: https://fantasticfungi.com/participate Saw the film? Leave a Review: https://fantasticfungi.com/reviews Join the Conversation Instagram: @fantasticfungi Facebook: @FungiFilm Twitter: @FantasticFungi Saw the film? Tell us about it! Text “FUNGI” to #38470 to record a video review now Take action now and get ready to feel hope, resilience and connection. Mycelium is a life preserver not only for our species but for so many species on this Earth that we love. We're asking you to start this revolution in the ecology of consciousness. Please help us. We can save this planet with your help and the help of Mycelium. How can you help? Watch the film. Grab as many people as you can and watch the film together. Discuss the subject matter with each other. Tell others to do the same. Follow the mycelium network’s guidance and example. Spread the word and pass it forward. https://fantasticfungi.com
Revealing the Mind: The Promise of Psychedelics
01:24:39

Revealing the Mind: The Promise of Psychedelics

Nearly every culture throughout history has used chemicals that alter consciousness for spiritual exploration. In the 20th century these drugs caught the attention of scientists. Psychedelics, as they were named, proved effective at treating intractable illnesses like depression and addiction. And they became a tool for studying the mind, opening “the doors of perception,” as Aldous Huxley wrote. But those doors slammed shut when President Nixon declared psychedelics dangerous and medically useless. Join scientists and “psychonauts” who are now picking up where research left off 50 years ago, experimenting with LSD, psilocybin, DMT and other psychedelics to heal—and reveal—the mind. The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation. PARTICIPANTS: Alison Gopnik, Eduardo Kohn, Stephen Ross, Anil Seth MODERATOR: Emily Senay MORE INFO ABOUT THE PROGRAM AND PARTICIPANTS: https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/programs/revealing-the-mind-the-promise-of-psychedelics/ TOPICS 0:00 - Introduction 6:05 - Panelist introductions 7:27 - What are psychedelics? 11:00 - Phenomenological effects of psychedelics 14:31 - Brain development and plasticity 17:15 - Psychedelic usage in the Amazon 19:43 - Amazonian ayahuasca ceremony 20:51 - Dissolution of the ego 22:46 - Default mode network 25:17 - Psilocybin testing on religious professionals 27:59 - The shaman’s message from the rain-forest 31:04 - Rain-forest soundscape 33:03 - Mind altering experiences without drugs 37:03 - Philosophical questions about psychedelics 42:37 - Can psychedelics restore brain plasticity? 45:16 - Measuring randomness of brain activity 51:58 - Psychedelic drugs as medicine 58:38 - Psilocybin cancer study participants film and Q&A 1:04:43 - Treating psychiatric disorders with psychedelics 1:09:23 - Micro-dosing and “freelancing” psychedelics 1:13:50 - Medical complications and medication interactions 1:18:14 - The future of psychedelics in science PROGRAM CREDITS - Produced by Nils Kongshaug - Associate Produced by Emmalina Glinskis - Short films produced / edited by Vin Liota - Music provided by APM - Additional images and footage provided by: Getty Images, Shutterstock, Videoblocks - Recorded at NYU Skirball Center This program is part of the BIG IDEAS SERIES, made possible with support from the JOHN TEMPLETON FOUNDATION. - SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel and "ring the bell" for all the latest videos from WSF - VISIT our Website: http://www.worldsciencefestival.com - LIKE us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worldsciencefestival - FOLLOW us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WorldSciFest
Terence McKenna's True Hallucinations (Full Movie) HD
02:48:44

Terence McKenna's True Hallucinations (Full Movie) HD

Terence McKenna's True Hallucinations is an experimental documentary about the chaos at La Chorrera, the imagination, time, the Logos, belief, hope, madness, and doubt. Created by Peter Bergmann, this project is an expansion of ideas first presented in "The Transcendental Object At The End Of Time". In 1971, Terence McKenna, along with his brother Dennis and three other companions, ventured by plane, boat, and foot to the paradisical Colombian mission town of La Chorrera, where they hoped to encounter the elusive psychedelic oo-koo-hé. Fate would have it otherwise. Their attention soon turned to the large numbers of Stropharia Cubensis that they lucked upon, and before long, Terence and especially Dennis were formulating the psychopharmacological "experiment at La Chorrera" which would eventually give rise to Terence's expanded Jungian notion of the UFO as human oversoul, and his I Ching based TimeWave Theory which holds, among other things, that history as we know it is accelerating and, in fact, will come to a major concrescence. Based on the underground classic book and talking book 'True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise', this tale of alchemical understanding is a deep dive into the young minds of the McKenna brothers, and an effort to provide some kind of visual aid and emotional center to a much larger story, with details scattered through hundreds of talks. Featuring unearthed photos and notebook pages which have never been seen by the public since generated in 1971. Special Thanks to Dennis McKenna, Klea McKenna, Kathleen Harrison and Stephanie Schmitz, since their contributions of documents, and approval were crucial in making this film a reality. I've spent a lot of effort, time, and money on these projects, please consider supporting the movies: Through iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/artist/we-plants-are-happy-plants/id354075906 (purchase any song or album) On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BqIQsFQz40YNkLMb8578S Thank You! Stream the soundtrack for the movie on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/wpahp/playlist/1Lf75ZTHx9bHFHn2RKguzp VISUALS BY Hakan Hisim, Titan, hArDyTRSi, XX, Epoch, Cabbibo, Nuance, Kyklop, SQNY, Calcifer, cocoon, quite, Coronoid, Traction, Ovnimoon, TAS, PharaOM, Luke Brown, Myztico Campo, Schizo (to be updated soon) Please like/comment/share/subscribe Thanks for watching! Peter Bergmann / We Plants Are Happy Plants Terence McKenna's True Hallucinations Opening Titles 10:09 The Experiment at La Chorrera 30:52 5DGISD 1:00:20 The Stone 1:06:33 The TimeWave 1:09:26 Lisbon Interlude 1:38:30 The Iridule 1:47:48 The Mushroom Speaks 1:56:38 Terence and The Howling Tao 2:11:50 UFOs 2:19:55 No Conclusions 2:30:20 Keep The Faith 2:38:14 Butterflies 2:44:40 Terence McKenna on Facebook: https://facebook.com/LanguageEvolution
Psychedelics: The scientific renaissance of mind-altering drugs | Sam Harris, Michael Pollan & more
20:04

Psychedelics: The scientific renaissance of mind-altering drugs | Sam Harris, Michael Pollan & more

Psychedelics: The scientific renaissance of mind-altering drugs Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Learn skills from the world's top minds at Big Think Edge: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Having been repressed in the 1960s for their ties to the counterculture, psychedelics are currently experiencing a scientific resurgence. In this video, Michael Pollan, Sam Harris, Jason Silva and Ben Goertzel discuss the history of psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin, acknowledge key figures including Timothy Leary and Albert Hoffman, share what the experience of therapeutic tripping can entail, and explain why these substances are important to the future of mental health. There is a stigma surrounding psychedelic drugs that some scientists and researchers argue is undeserved. Several experiments over the past decades have shown that, when used correctly, drugs like psilocybin and LSD can have positive effects on the lives of those take them. How they work is not completely understood, but the empirical evidence shows promise in the fields of curbing depression, anxiety, obsession, and even addiction to other substances. "There's a tremendous amount of insight that can be plumbed using these various substances. There's also a lot of risks there, as with most valuable things," says artificial intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel. He and others believe that by making psychedelics illegal, modern governments are getting in the way of meaningful research and the development of "cultural institutions to guide people in really productive use of these substances." Read Michael Pollen's book "How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence" at https://amzn.to/2IBvjS6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: MICHAEL POLLAN: How do these psychedelics work? Well, the honest answer is we don't entirely know, but we know a few things. One is they fit a certain receptor site: the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor. And they look a lot like serotonin if you look at the molecular models of them and, in fact, LSD fits that receptor site even better than serotonin does and it stays there longer. And that's why the LSD trip can last 12 hours. What happens after that we don't really know. It's an agonist to that receptor. So it increases its activity. And this, you know the neuroscientists say lead to a cascade of effects which is shorthand for don't really know what happens next. But one thing we do know, or we think we know, is that it appears that one particular brain network is deactivated or quieted. And that is the default mode network. This was discovered not very long ago by a researcher in England named Robin Carhart-Harris who was dosing people with psilocybin and LSD and then sliding them into an MRI machine, to take an FMRI a functional magnetic resonance image. The expectation I think was that people would see an excitation of many different networks in the brain. You know, that's what the kind of mental fireworks sort of foretold, but he was very surprised to discover that one particular network was down-regulated and that was this default mode network. So what is that? Well, it's a tightly linked set of structures connecting the prefrontal cortex to the posterior cingulate cortex, to the deeper older centers of emotion and memory. It appears to be involved in things like self-reflection, theory of mind, the ability to impute mental states to others, mental time travel, the ability to project forward in time and back, which is central to creating an identity, right? You don't have an identity without a memory and the so-called autobiographical memory, the function by which we construct the story of who we are by taking the things that happened to us and folding them into that narrative. And that appears to take place in the posterior cingulate cortex. So, you know, to the extent the ego can be said to have a location in the brain it appears to be this, the default mode network. It's active when you're doing nothing. When your mind is wandering. It can be very self-critical, it's where self-talk takes place. And that goes quiet. And when that goes quiet, the brain is sort of as one of the neuroscientists put it, let off the leash, because those ego functions, that self idea is a regulator of all mental activity and kind of, you know, the brain is a hierarchical system and the default mode network appears to be at the top. It's kind of the orchestra conductor or corporate executive. And you take that out of the picture, and suddenly you have this uprising from other parts of the brain and you have networks that don't ordinarily communicate with one another suddenly striking up... To read the full transcript, please go to https://bigthink.com/videos/how-do-psychedelics-work
The Rise and Rise of Psychedelics | High Society
20:16

The Rise and Rise of Psychedelics | High Society

The UK is experiencing a psychedelic renaissance. Young people in England and Wales are taking three times more LSD than they did five years ago, scientists at top universities are claiming hallucinogens can revolutionise how we treat mental illness and the use of magic mushrooms has been increasing by around 40 percent year on year. Music festivals are awash with recreational trippers, but we also see how psychedelics have become a new health craze by attending a shamanic magic mushroom ceremony in which 50 people trip out in a London warehouse. Despite studies showing that psychedelics are some of the safest drugs you can take, we meet one person who spilled a bottle of acid on himself and never stopped hallucinating. What is making this new generation of drug takers so interested in self-transformation? And as the self-help trend grows, what happens when thousands of people start trying to solve their mental health problems themselves by taking powerful hallucinogens in unregulated settings? The language and content in this episode has been modified to meet YouTube's community guidelines. View the original version over on VICE: https://video.vice.com/en_uk/video/vice-the-british-psychedelic-revolution/5dcbd91f994e957879787d33 Watch more from High Society on YouTube, including a report on dance music's alarming GHB trend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgwPxIHYP-I&list=PLDbSvEZka6GEBROx-QQyDGRi7KmCeyGyj&index=9&t=9s Click here to subscribe to VICE: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE About VICE: The Definitive Guide To Enlightening Information. From every corner of the planet, our immersive, caustic, ground-breaking and often bizarre stories have changed the way people think about culture, crime, art, parties, fashion, protest, the internet and other subjects that don't even have names yet. Browse the growing library and discover corners of the world you never knew existed. Welcome to VICE. Connect with VICE: Check out our full video catalog: http://bit.ly/VICE-Videos Videos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.com More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideo Click here to get the best of VICE daily: http://bit.ly/1SquZ6v Like VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/vice Follow VICE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vice Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vice The VICE YouTube Network: VICE: https://www.youtube.com/VICE MUNCHIES: https://www.youtube.com/MUNCHIES VICE News: https://www.youtube.com/VICENews VICELAND: https://www.youtube.com/VICELANDTV Broadly: https://www.youtube.com/Broadly Noisey: https://www.youtube.com/Noisey Motherboard: https://www.youtube.com/MotherboardTV VICE Sports: https://www.youtube.com/NOC i-D: http://www.youtube.com/iDmagazine Waypoint: https://www.youtube.com/WaypointVICE The British Psychedelic Revolution | High Society
Have A Good Trip | Official Trailer | Netflix
02:17

Have A Good Trip | Official Trailer | Netflix

The true stories you don't know. From the people you do. Only on Netflix May 11. SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/29qBUt7 About Netflix: Netflix is the world's leading streaming entertainment service with 183 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments. Have A Good Trip | Official Trailer | Netflix https://youtube.com/Netflix HAVE A GOOD TRIP: ADVENTURES IN PSYCHEDELICS is a documentary featuring comedic tripping stories from A-list actors, comedians, and musicians. Star-studded reenactments and trippy animations bring their surreal hallucinations to life. Mixing comedy with a thorough investigation of psychedelics, HAVE A GOOD TRIP explores the pros, cons, science, history, future, pop cultural impact, and cosmic possibilities of hallucinogens. The film tackles the big questions: Can psychedelics have a powerful role in treating depression, addiction, and helping us confront our own mortality? Are we all made of the same stuff? Is love really all we need? Can trees talk? Cast members include Adam Scott, Nick Offerman, Sarah Silverman, Ad-Rock, Rosie Perez, A$AP Rocky, Paul Scheer, Nick Kroll, and Rob Corddry to name a few. Written and directed by Donick Cary. Produced by Mike Rosenstein, Sunset Rose Pictures, and Sugarshack 2000.
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Podcasts

Podcasts

Trip reports

Trip Reports