welcome to the human experience podcast
the only podcast designed to fuse your
left and right brain hemispheres and
feed it the most entertaining and
mentally engaging topics on the planet
as we approach our ascent please make
sure your frontal temporal and occipital
lobes are in their full upright position
as you take your seat of consciousness
relax your senses and allow us to take
you on a journey we are be intimate
strangers thank you for listening the
human experience podcast is plunging
back through the world of transpersonal
psychology mystical experiences and the
use of psychedelics as healing tools my
guest tonight is dr. James Fadiman who
is the author of the book psychedelic
explorers guide he also helped found the
Institute of transpersonal psychology
Jim welcome to the program thank you
very much it’s a great pleasure to be
here so let’s just start this with a big
disclaimer that we don’t advocate the
use of drugs or illegal behavior and the
use of these compounds should be
regarded as highly sacred for that
disclaimer so Jim you’re highly educated
if you could just detail that for our
listening audience to begin this
conversation I think that would be
helpful to credential what we’re
discussing here sure my my credentials
are that I was the Harvard undergraduate
and my favorite professor turned out to
be someone named Richard Alpert who
later became around us and I was after
college I was actually living in Europe
and trying to stay there as long as
possible
and my draft board wrote and said would
you like to join us in Vietnam or have
you considered graduate schools so I
went to graduate school at Stanford and
did a dissertation about the
effectiveness of psychedelic therapy
then I have had a very checkered career
since then since I was told that if I
did a dissertation on psychedelic
therapy I would never have a normal
academic
and so far so good yeah so you know your
book was very intriguing and there’s a
part in it and the year is 1961 you’re
in the city of Paris and you’re sitting
next to Richard Alpert aka ROM das the
highly revered Ram Dass and you’re under
the influence of mushrooms yeah so how
did how did that take place and what was
happening well I was living in Paris and
I was completing a remarkably bad novel
which I thought was a remarkably good
novel and my professor Richard Alford
passed through Paris on his way to
Copenhagen where he would meet with
Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley and they
would be presenting for the first time
some of the harvard research at an
international psychological conference
and so richard who releases had become
really a good friend said to me the
greatest thing in the world has happened
to me and i want to share it with you
that sounded pretty good then he reached
into his jacket pocket and came out with
a little vial of pills and I was taken
aback because I didn’t drink coffee I
mean I was really beyond straight yeah
and I looked at the pills and I thought
words that we can’t say on radio and and
he then I took them and we sat on a
little cafe on the sidewalk in Paris and
gradually things began to feel very
bright and very colorful and the noise
was a little loud and in fact I could
much more easily hear the conversations
of the people behind me and understand
what they were saying and I realized my
French wasn’t that good that I could
actually do this so I said to Richard
this is too much for me and he said it’s
actually too much for me too he had not
taken anything he said because this is
the first time I’ve been in Paris so we
were treated to my fifth floor walk-up
and I had
a series of kind of revelations about
the way the world was put together and
who I was and what relationships were
like that was very meaningful then a
week later I followed Rahm das to
Copenhagen and had another experience
now this in retrospect would be a
moderate dose of psilocybin and it was
in those days they were looking at what
they would call profound human closeness
nothing really mystical and so life went
on and I ended up at Stanford and met
with a group who were working with LSD
there and took a much deeper plunge into
psychedelic expansion of reality yeah
that’s that’s very interesting so that
would you say that that was how your
interest in psychedelics began yeah I
had zero interest zero knowledge zero
experience and the whole world of
altered states really didn’t exist
certainly for people like me so you are
a strange turn around hmm you were
straightedge you were as I was I was a
kind of neurotic intellectual such as
Harvard could very easily produce and I
was very aware that being intelligent
was probably the only really interesting
value so how would you say how would you
say that that experience changed you
well everything I just said I think is
not a sense about the way human beings
are which is it alerted me to the first
level I found that being that other
people really mattered and that my being
kind of smart and arrogant mainly kept
me away from people and then when I
later had LSD I became aware that I was
part of a much larger reality of which
Jim Fadiman was a very
small part and of which the personality
of Jim Fadiman was in even a smaller
part so that my entire world view was
not changed it was simply expanded yeah
so that I now lived in a much larger
world in which the natural world that I
was part of it I was not separate from
it and that intellect was a tool nothing
more than that
and there was a great deal that I now
was open to that I had no had no
awareness of before and no understanding
was there was there one particular
vision or experience that stands out in
your own mind that kind of affected your
view on reality specifically you know
what comes to mind is a moment during
that first LSD experience which was much
higher dose and I was in a different
setting in a safe what we now would call
a safe setting with eyeshades and music
and I had in the great darkness of the
universe there was a tiny light and I
found myself flying towards that light
and that light seemed to the incredibly
loving and then in front of me was Jesus
and I was probably a disinterested
agnostic with no religious particular
religious experience and I found that
kind of strange but I was clearly in a
strange universe and then I flew past it
and I looked back and I could see that
the Jesus was like a stage setting where
you know where you build a stage set
from the back and you can see the
framing in the back and and then I
turned back towards this light and flew
towards it in his head
it had no dimension and it had no
theology and in retrospect I can see
that the great religious saints of all
the traditions in a sense are standing
in front of the lights so the light
seems to come from them but it’s really
coming through them and that was a major
shift for me
even though the the next day I was still
a graduate student in psychology at
Stanford and no one else in the
department had much interest my
worldview one way or another in your
book you talk about this first second
and third wave I mean are we are we
still within this third wave of
explorers and researchers well if I’m a
member of the third wave probably
there’s a fourth and fifth wave Marine
as I’m now finding that there’s a
there’s a list a graduate student list
that you have to be a graduate student
in some sort and an overtly have been
exploring psychedelics through courses
through research and you can join that
list and there’s maybe 800 people on
that list and they’re from all over the
world and from a dozen disciplines and
so we’re really seeing the the kind of
expansion of all that it’s okay to be
deeply interested in these substances
and what they do and still be part of
the dominant scientific cultures so this
is very much not kind of hippies in New
Mexico in a commune which I’ve already
which I also did but really that the
culture is now loosening up enough to
accept that there is a proliferation of
people with psychedelic interests of
which your podcast is just another
example I mean the 60s must have been
such an interesting time even now I mean
if you as you look at this shift and the
people who are kind of waking up to how
therapeutic this can be and how these
compounds can really affect and change
your lives for the better it really
makes you wonder where we will be in ten
years twenty years
well the sixties had one major
difference which is we saw that since we
represented truth life goodness
love health food etc that it was only a
matter of time before the world
immediately caught on to
what we were doing and stopped doing
things that were bad for the world now
it’s very hard to be optimistic about
the future in the large sense and the
psychedelics are more like trying to
save us from the overwhelming kind of
forces of you know inequality and
climate change so there’s a braver kind
of new generation coming up but
fortunately there’s a lot of them and
when they hold hands they form a big
group the heart of the Occupy movement
there were lots and lots of people with
serious psychedelic experience for
example I really feel like your book is
kind of the first of its its kind in
that I mean outside of groups like
erowid I mean you don’t really see
people writing about and at the sake of
their careers they’re afraid to really
talk about this and and your book writes
down how to prepare yourself and how to
guide someone who is in the midst of
this bending experience I mean it don’t
really change you well the thing that
people forget in the research world is
everybody else and so if I’m talking to
a group of four or five hundred people
and I’ll say how many of you are gonna
be in a research study with a
psychedelic next year maybe one hand
will go up and I say how many of you are
going to use the psychedelic next year
and you know 400 hands go up so my book
is written for the 400 which says if
you’re going to use psychedelics
probably given how powerful they are and
how valuable and how important you’d
probably like to do it with maximum
benefit and minimum risk and so the
first few chapters of the book are
entirely that and that was really the my
impetus for the whole thing which was
what would be helpful if we’re going to
do it anyway you know it’s it’s funny
because and going back to the risk of
you know your career by talking about
this aisle and as as I’m running this
podcast and I’m inviting people to be on
the show and if you look at my previous
guests and you know some people will
reply and they’re just like no thank you
and you know the vibe that I get is well
you know I just I don’t want to at the
risk of my career being on your podcast
also in a kinder way a number of the
people who are doing research who you’ve
probably asked they are being they need
federal approval and in-state approval
they need university approval they need
Department approval there’s something
called an IRB an institutional review
board that universities have to look at
all research so there’s an awful lot of
people that are giving them permission
who are a little nervous so they don’t
want to go on to a show like yours and
talk much beyond what their research is
because they don’t want their research
to be stopped brain by by one frightened
alumnus you know who phones the
university and says I gave you half a
football stadium now you’re gonna use
these dreadful drugs I don’t want to
give you any more money
you can definitely so in a real sense
they’re not frightened but they are
still dealing with a bureaucracy that
has not caught up with the culture I
think that you can see it’s so easily
with marijuana research which is it’s
obvious that marijuana has a lot of
benefits but it’s very hard for the
government to say well if that’s true we
have to reschedule it and if we
reschedule it we have to admit we’ve
been wrong for you know decades yeah and
that’s hard yeah I’m not affiliated you
know in a formal way I am part of the
University I helped found but at the
moment I’m not teaching there and my own
research while I couldn’t get it
approved in a universe because I’m not
actually giving anyone any drugs I’m
asking a lot of people how they’re using
them and
specific ways but I understand very much
people being a little nervous to be on
wide open shows like yours yeah I mean
well it’s it’s the human experience I’d
like to cover a range of subjects and
you know we’ve had a scientist from CERN
on so and I and I really feel like these
these medicines I’d like to call them
that can really open doors to your
psyche and help you help people with
their traumas but moving on here is
there is there a hero for you in the
field of psychedelics oh I think I look
up to some of my younger friends I think
I probably my main here would be like
Alicia Danforth who is doing the
breakthrough research with Charlie Grove
and they’re working with people with
high-functioning autistic which was
Asperger’s and it turns out that using
psychedelics or MDMA MDA in particular
in this case they can much more easily
learn to be more sociable and basically
have a much richer personal life and
Alicia is my hero because she worked at
the edge of the field decided that he
wanted to be a clinician working with
people went back to school got a PhD and
a brilliant one and then basically with
Charlie said to the government we want
to do a research project for people who
are not mentally ill and that’s a whole
breakthrough roland griffiths is that
John Hopkins is another hero he’s a very
very distinguished full professor long
background in the addiction field and he
again took the the risk of both his
career his reputation and his his job to
set up a series of research projects
that have really opened psychedelics
once again to
to researchers and to physicians and to
potential patients and the other thing
that Rowland did is he also did a study
on do these substances encourage
spiritual experience now that may seem
like a no-brainer to your audience but
what he was doing was making a critical
breakthrough for the federal government
which is the federal government says and
I think they’re correct we should
regulate stuff that goes into your body
that should be one of the functions of
government and we don’t want poisons
food we don’t want you know medications
that don’t hold the medication etc so we
really do want a Food and Drug
Administration on the other hand we also
want the government to stay out of our
spiritual life and the Constitution
really does say Church and the state are
separate so what do you do when you have
a substance which goes into your body
but it’s for spiritual purposes the
government really you know they’d rather
that would just go away but Roland
really works it through so that the
government said okay you can do it and
the fact that it works wonderfully and
people have beautiful experiences again
opens opened it back up again
to a whole generation of people that
anything about it I like that your
heroes are all living and alive but I
think it was I think it was Rick Doblin
who said that the most important thing
that we can do is talk openly about
these experiences and I I agree
yeah well that’s see that’s the nice
thing is I’m able to do that
again because I’m not involved in any
institution that would be upset at my
doing it so getting back to your book
here why is it so important that we have
a guide while we’re going through these
sacred journeys well basically a guide
and it’s a little too strong a word but
I don’t have a weaker when a guide is
there if you need help and also a
is there so that you can go as far as
you wish
knowing that you will be safe it’s a
little bit like a safari guide where a
safari guide doesn’t interfere with your
experience but he may say I would walk
to the to the left of that path because
that little clear patch ahead is
something in our language translators
mix and or why don’t you stand behind
the tree because this animal running
towards us actually doesn’t like us and
if you have no experience you you could
make some serious mistakes and so a
guide allows you to go farther and go
deeper knowing that if you get in
trouble you just like wag your finger or
say can I talk to you and they will they
will help so for instance a very common
experience for people having a mystical
experience a feeling of total unity
before they get that they often have an
experience which which seems to be like
dying and if they look at the guide and
they say I feel undying and obviously
they’re saying this frightened and the
guide says oh that’s great go with it
suddenly you realize well the guide
seems to know something you don’t you
trust the guide he cares for you
it’s going to work out so a guide can be
very very helpful when you basically get
into areas where you don’t know what
you’re doing yeah I would have to agree
completely I don’t I don’t think that I
mean but it’s hard because I mean you
when you look at a person who is
inclined to use these substances they’re
not thinking about that I mean they’re
not thinking about kind of calling one
of their friends and inviting them over
or while you know they trip on acid so
I’m you know I know I come on as some
kind of right-wingers in this way but
it’s certain things are better with a
guide certain things are better with
another person you know I know people
who do sex alone but honestly it’s
really better with someone else
yeah and I’m not trivializing it’s that
that if you’re serious then you want to
do it well if you’re simply wanted to
move out and watch the ceiling
undulate and hear fantastic music take
less and probably you won’t get into
trouble and if you do I hope there’s
somebody nearby but sometimes very very
very sophisticated of Psychonauts can
suddenly get in trouble why do I do that
if you if you can possibly avoid it and
again a guide isn’t a heavy thing they
they’re around they don’t have to be
with you the next rule is fine that
might be that might be a new employment
opportunity is hiring there are people
who can’t wait for these drugs to be
legal to help people who have mental
difficulties and so there are
underground guides it does exist and I
know one group where the training takes
three years know they’re taking it very
seriously and of course they’re also
risking all kinds of things by offering
this kind of help yeah Wow and do you
think that this idea of having a guide
is a sort of remedy for our own cultures
lack of context for the use of
psychedelics as compared to maybe the
ceremonies of these indigenous tribes or
yeah well as we look at the rituals that
have come for everywhere from ancient
Greece to you know to Peru they’re not
nobodies alone and they have a guide
they may call him at your and Darrow and
us you know a veget is to a shame and a
priest even in meditation people talk
about meditation teachers or you know
going to the vendo where you’re
meditating and there’s somebody there
it doesn’t mean you can’t meditate on
your own but there seems to be an
inherent advantage on having somebody
who is who knows more
and I don’t I don’t you know it seems to
me pretty obvious I’m not saying that
people can’t do things alone but I do
know you know I do know the advantages
of somebody else yeah I agree
so I mean I you get into in your book
you get into the various kind of dos
frequencies or the dose levels and how
some doses can be sort of mystical
experiences and low dosages can sort of
aid cognitive functions what what
benefits do you think these low doses of
psychedelics can bring and what have you
noticed on your research well let me go
count it down the doses fairly quickly
and I’ll use LSD as a model because
that’s probably best known which is
around 400 micrograms is the area in
which mystical experience is most likely
to happen we the guys if you go into 200
that’s what kind of psycho therapeutic
benefit where you can save yourself an
awful lot of hours therapy and do very
intense personal work but you’re not
losing you’re not going beyond your
personality as you would in the higher
dose when you get down to around 100
micrograms you can use that for highly
technical personal you know professional
problem-solving of a of a very ordinary
nature in physics architect and then
around 50 micrograms is what we would
now call a concert though it says
something about the culture changed it
used to be called by the way a museum
dose and that’s where you are having a
wonderful time tripping which you’re not
going you’re not going to have much
insight or difficulty and you should
have it’s not a guide at least a
designated driver to get people home
from say a concert at 10 micrograms
which is a micro dose that’s a that’s a
whole new area that we’re just exploring
where things that you just seem to
function a little better you’re a little
healthier a little kinder you can
recreate it a little longer and so
that’s like improved functioning without
any of the without any of the visual
excite
so that’s that’s a quick run-through the
doses now that I do I get your question
along the line yeah a bit but I’d like
to get into it a bit more I mean I think
it was I think it was Francis Crick who
discovered the double helix in DNA and
he later admitted that he was low dosing
LSD with him and his friends at
Cambridge right I mean how can we how
can we use this to help us every day
well he was dosing with his friends in
Cambridge actually after that time in
his life and although my book gives him
gives psychedelics credit for the double
helix
I’ve been chastised by some of my other
research friends who say that only
appeared in one newspaper article and it
was never verified and best friends say
he didn’t take LSD until later so let’s
look however the question of how can you
use it and and when they were taking LSD
in Cambridge that was definitely not a
daily event and they weren’t working on
science I don’t think much during that
time for daily use and again you can’t
take psychedelics daily and they’re what
though at albert hofmann the developer
of elysee said they have anti addicting
properties there a cure class of
substances where if you take a hundred
Mike’s on Monday you’ll have a certain
effect if you take 100 Mike’s on Tuesday
you’ll have much less effect and if you
take it on Wednesday nothing happens now
that isn’t necessarily physiological but
it’s as if your system says I don’t need
any more or whatever that is for a while
and I and I will not I will not make use
of it if you put it in my system so even
with micro doses taking them once every
third day is more effective than taking
them every second day or every day and
you mentioned that psychedelics like any
other drug may not be for everyone and I
mean definitely there are variations in
body chemistry how how do we acknowledge
that and how do
reference that well one way is when
people say to me and they often do you
know I’d really like to take LSD but and
then I say don’t take it they say well I
haven’t told you my reason I said any
reason is a good reason from my point of
view if it feels like it’s not a good
idea don’t do it that’s one group then
people who again the reason why you have
a guide is people who have a very
fragile ego structure may get in trouble
if they take a psychedelic it’s not for
them so this is this is it’s a little
bit like flying a private plane anyone
can learn to do it but for some people
they’ll always be anxious and nervous
and it’ll be uncomfortable and it’s no
fun and why should they do that so I’m
very much not let’s put it in the
drinking water I am saying and I think
Shogun says it is know what you’re
taking and know who you are and that
will be the best information you can get
so if it feels like this is not a good
idea don’t do it and when I’ve asked
hundreds of people have you ever taken
psychedelics for social pressure the
answer is almost never so people do seem
to have a fairly good idea that it’s
when it’s not a good idea and if they
have it once and they have a very bad
experience that’s probably a hint that
it’s either the wrong substance for them
or it’s the wrong time in their life
it’s like an internal compass you kind
of point and when you’re not meant to do
it it can just go the other way and it’s
wrong and sometimes people you know
people if it’s possible for people that
screw up somebody will and the thing
that’s amazing is given the twenty-five
million people have taken LSD just LSD
since it became illegal incredibly few
of them have had really serious problems
and some have had very serious problems
I’m just talking with some people now
and a friend of his took six hits of LSD
probably LSD and have a tear
we’ll experience and no no guys nobody
knew anything and it’s now about six or
seven weeks later and he’s still very
paranoid and very unhappy his parents
tried to hospitalized him but the
hospital terrified not only the young
man but his parents and they pulled him
out so there are problems people can get
into trouble
yeah and they mainly get into trouble by
taking too much taking something they
don’t know what it is and again not
having anyone around to help I mean
let’s let’s dig into that a little bit
more have you personally ever had a
negative experience bad experience yeah
I’d say I’ve had a negative experience
but I was aware that it was a negative
experience meaning I didn’t get caught
in it
can you share what was it well
you know I don’t remember much of it but
it wasn’t very interesting and I was
kind of suffering whatever I was
suffering and my wife who had also taken
a psychedelic came over to me and I said
don’t worry I’ll be better just take
care of yourself and she went out and
had a wonderful wonderful experience and
came back a few hours later and it’s
like when you’ve eaten something and
then you have food poisoning if you know
it’s food poisoning awful but it’s not
scary if you don’t know you know if you
didn’t know that you ate anything he had
no idea what’s going on and you didn’t
know whether it was something much more
serious then and there was no one to
talk to that’s very different so again
how the people at Burning Man are very
good about this because they work with
people that have all unbelievably awful
trips but when they get into the hands
of the Burning Man helper staff what
people say is we don’t ever bring anyone
down we bring them through which is we
take where they are in the bad trip and
we begin to guide them back towards
their own Center and everyone the center
is is intrinsically healthy
including if you’re very very mentally
disturbed your Center is still healthy I
remember a friend of mine once who
phoned me and she was very frightened
she was very against going to physicians
and she was hemorrhaging very badly and
she was very frightened and then in the
middle of it as she was kind of weeping
and screaming um she came in a little
different voice and said don’t worry
I’ll be alright and I realized that was
a different part of her who understood
that she was hemorrhaging but it wasn’t
really that dangerous and so forth and
there was a part of her that was totally
calm totally clear and totally able to
function if necessary you know I think
if we moved more into this
decriminalization it this wouldn’t let
be less common I think it would be just
the paranoia around acquiring these
substances and and doing them because
they’re illegal that alone is scary
enough to not want to do them and I
think part of it is being illegal is a
bad part of certain setting and being
unsure of what you’ve gotten is a bad
part of sudden setting and there’s some
really bad stuff out there that’s sold
as other stuff there’s a whole
collection of things called n-bombs
which are often sold as LSD but the the
the the dose that will get you in
serious trouble is only two or three
times the dose that people like with LSD
let’s say for most people this if you
take a big amount usually you’ll just
have you’ll be knocked out you might
he’ll be fine so the young man I spoke
of earlier I don’t know that he took LSD
he might have taken something one of the
involved was Ben got in trouble so
obviously it’s like in prohibition
prohibition there was it was called
there was you know you could get very
good well distilled spirits that were
good for you
or had nothing else in them but you know
but alcohol and flavoring or you could
get things that were very bad for you in
dangerous
would kill you yeah because that which
is illegal cannot be regulated cannot be
measured cannot be you know doled out
it’s like if you go to a marijuana
dispensary you pretty well know what
you’re being given these days because we
are regulating it it’s interesting that
these substances affect not only the
mind but the spirit as well and a big
thread through your writings is the
concept of how humans are connected and
woven into this sort of existence of
everything around them how do you think
that plays into all this well to me it’s
the fundamental realization that that
you cannot be separate and once you have
it it’s pretty obvious I mean here I’m
standing on a rug that’s on some wood
that connects to the earth through a
foundation I don’t think that way but
but I that’s true I’m actually being
held up by a whole lot of things that
I’ve had nothing to do with but they’re
part of my system so that there’s the
the implication of using effectiveness
and what I’ve seen is if people are just
take on cert doses what they tell me is
eventually eventually you know I realize
I’m just not as neurotic I’m not as
frightened of people I’m easier to be
with and I really am liking nature more
and so I’m seeing this as a kind of
natural progression just as the notion
is that if you go to a university and
you’re taking a liberal arts degree you
know you develop a certain awareness of
other parts of the world and other parts
of your culture so that psychedelics
seem to be a very useful tool for
reconnecting us to the natural world
which we obviously have to be a part of
I think it was Albert Hofmann who said
his last piece of advice was you know
take take Alice T in nature if you’re
gonna take it
exactly and that’s because he always
last two decades of his life whenever he
took a micro dose he said I’d usually do
it he is walking in trees that works for
him
approaching the end what I mean what do
you think needs to be done within
society that can improve you know how we
perceive these compounds and and so
we’re not putting people’s careers at
risk by discussing them well what’s
happening is the culture is moving in
the direction of allowing people to
explore their own inner nature again we
had this strange legislative clamp on
everybody’s mind but it didn’t work you
know when I say 25 million people have
taken LSD since it became illegal if I
throw in marijuana the figure goes up to
140 million that’s just in the u.s. so
that we’ve been comfortable with with
with working illegally actually for a
very long time and I now meet people
who’ve you know grown up or entire
lifetime their psychedelic use has been
illegal and they just say that’s the way
it is and the other thing we’re getting
is generational psychedelic use I was
talking to a group of about 300 students
at UC Santa Cruz and I often do kind of
research by saying you know raise your
hands and I all of a sudden wondered how
many of them had parents who had used
psychedelics and so I asked that
question about 85% of them had parents
who use psychedelics so we’re talking
about the real culture is quite riddled
with people with psychedelic experiences
and that percentage gets smaller when
you go regulators and then the group of
the least psychedelic experience as a
group or probably legislators and I’m
sure there’s some wonderful reasons for
that but I don’t know what it reminds me
of a funny story I was a cooking some
marijuana brownies and had them out on
the table didn’t expect anyone to come
over and my mom stopped by and she she
saw them and she she she decided to
sample some
and needless to say that was an
interesting day well CNET’s you know
those are the new problems we have and
of course one of things we’re learning
was marijuana is that eating marijuana
is not the same as smoking marijuana
yeah and so people are overdosing on
edibles let alone their mothers because
again because it’s a little hard to get
the rules of the road out there yeah
unless you’re in Colorado and and but if
you here’s the thing that blew me away I
got a note on my email it said Wow
Time magazine so Time magazine on the
cover has the cover article is about
marijuana science and I’m I’m fairly
blown away and then National Geographic
comes in and on the cover of National
Geographic is there feature article is
about what they call weed science mhm
and then I also get science news which
is a digestive hard science and in a
dozen fields kind of popularized but but
it’s a not a big magazine like twenty
thirty pages and its cover is about
designer drugs about the various kinds
of offshoots or turn off kind of
variations on psychedelics and I think
the culture is really moving fast here
we’ve really better get the legislators
on board before they really you know are
left behind in the acceptance of these
substances in the healthy ways one of
the healthy ways of course is called
pleasure and there was an editorial in
the Stanford daily that says it should
not be a crime to enjoy pleasure
yeah well Jim it’s it’s been a pleasure
man you are a really interesting person
I really appreciate your time where can
people find your work and buy your book
well I can buy my book anyplace
you know online or in bookstores but
probably better online and I know you
know Amazon and Barnes and Noble and so
forth and reaching me if you want to if
you want to hear a lot more my carrying
on about various things James Adam and
calm has a whole stack of both videos
and audios and I’m a Jane I’m a Jay
Fadiman at gmail if people want to reach
me and I generally answer things
eventually who putting your email out
there okay I respect well if I do that
mainly because people who are interested
in micro dosing sometimes write and say
do you have a view recommend or way of
doing it sometimes people write me and
say hi I’d like to do micro dosing
please send the illegal drugs in the
mail and I write back I don’t say your
legal drugs they just say and I say you
know in a sense it’s sweet because
they’re they’re growing up and they’re
not worrying about it and I write them
back to say I actually particularly
since I’ve written the book I really
don’t do anything illegal
especially that and it is one of the the
pains one has when we when we come as a
somewhat public figure is that I’m
really you know straighter than so many
of my straighter is a drug user than my
friends these days but but we all make
sacrifices yeah I want to know if your
mom eventually felt that that was okay
oh yeah she loved it and my dad was not
happy but he didn’t that’s probably why
I was thank you so much sir this is the
human experience we’re gonna get out of
here with my guests it was a pleasure
having you on sir thank you so much and
we will see you guys next week okay
thanks a lot