Reality Sandwich V2.2 is Now Online!

Reality Sandwich's About page describes it as "a magazine of ideas for the transformational community. We cover subjects like shamanism, non-local consciousness, visionary art, alternative economics, psychedelics, permaculture, transformational festivals, meditation, democratic engagement, near death experiences, and tantra, to name but a few."

I have been a fan of the web magazine Reality Sandwich for many years, after learning about it by reading Daniel Pinchbeck's book Breaking Open The Head and following Pinchbeck's work online. I began volunteering at the magazine as a news writer and interview transcriber in September 2012, and have continued as a Contributing Editor for the site since then. Having met Co-founder, Publisher, and Editorial Director Ken Jordan and Associate Editor Faye Sakellaridis at the 2013 Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference, I can say that the magazine is truly a labor of love led by two amazing people.

A brand-new 2.2 version of the website has launched recently, which includes some upgrades to the browsing experience and community section.

To cut down on spam content, contributors have been temporarily disabled from posting to the Community section, however readers can still create a free user account to keep a collection of favorite posts, save posts to read later, and comment, as well as participate in the social aspects of the site (which include comment and share karma points).

New features include:

• A selection of related articles that appear when reading single posts.
• Clicking on the thumbnail image of a post in a feed will launch a modal window for quick reading. Readers can press the left and right arrows on their keyboards to easily switch between posts.
• An updated, easier-to-read font for post content.
• Commenting is now integrated with Facebook Comments, allowing readers to tag Facebook friends directly from Reality Sandwich.
• The site's servers have been relocated to New York City (thanks to Digital Ocean).
• Various bug fixes.

Forthcoming updates within the next month will include:

• An enhanced mobile browsing experience, which I am greatly looking forward to!
• "Leaked information about what a Reality Sandwich might actually taste like."
• And more!

If you haven't already checked out Reality Sandwich, I urge you to do so now. I have gotten so much out of the site, ranging from amazing post content to a sense of community to friends that I now connect with in "meatspace".

Book Review - Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal by Tom Shroder

I originally discovered this (then-unpublished) book in an email from MAPS (the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) that was requesting support for the Legalizing Psychedelic Therapy campaign on Indiegogo. Being a supporter of MAPS' efforts and intrigued by the book's premise, I jumped on the opportunity to donate right away.

The book came in the mail just before I had the opportunity to see author Tom Shroder and one of the main characters in the book, Nicholas Blackston, speak at the 2014 Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference in New York City. I was moved by their presentation and looked forward to reading the book, although I wasn't able to make time to read it until this month.

Shroder is an editor at The Washington Post Magazine, an acclaimed journalist, and the author of Old Souls. As a fellow writer, I look up to him although I was previously unfamiliar with his work prior to this book. Acid Test weaves several non-fiction narratives together into a page-turner tale that includes a fairly in-depth history of psychedelic research, explores some of the various characters in the psychedelic community, and describes the current state of psychedelic research with a focus on MDMA-(also known by its street name "Ecstasy") assisted psychotherapeutic treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

I was familiar with many of the characters in the book. These include (but are not limited to) Rick Doblin, the founder of MAPS, Michael Mithoefer, a former emergency room physician-turned psychiatrist at the forefront of modern psychedelic therapy, Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who first synthesized LSD in 1938, and Stanislav Grof, the creator of Holotropic Breathwork therapy. However, I wasn't familiar with the story of former Marine Nicholas Blackston.

Before I began the book, I thought I would be more interested in the descriptions of psychedelic research and its various characters, but as I continued to read on and on, the story that really pulled me in and kept me coming back was Blackston's. As a former Marine, Blackston witnessed horrors in war that most of us cannot fathom, and when he returned stateside he was tortured from the inside-out by reoccurring nightmares, uncontrollable flashback hallucinations, a temper with an increasingly short fuse, and physical pain from shrapnel wounds acquired during his combat missions.

Blackston ended up being one of the lucky ones, however. Compared to the majority of our returned military personnel who are currently suffering tremendously from PTSD, he was fortunate enough to seek and receive help from MDMA-assisted psychotherapy and has experienced many positive results from his treatment. Although his PTSD is not completely gone, it is greatly diminished due to the healing power of MDMA and the wisdom of his experienced therapeutic guides. Acid Test argues that our veterans deserve the right to receive reliable and effective treatment, rather than the typical, dangerous, and fruitless hodgepodge of pharmaceutical drugs that they receive from traditional sources of help like the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

MAPS is on track to reach its goal of legalizing MDMA by 2021, and books like Acid Test go a long way toward supporting that effort. As a person who is well-educated on the psychedelic research side of the book, I can vouch that it is well-researched and presented in an easy-to-understand manner. The personal stories that make up the book make for a fascinating and personal reading experience, and I hope that the message continues to reach as many people as possible.

5/5 stars. 426 pages.

Weekend Thoughts - 4.25.15

Image by Elizabeth Haslam, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday, y'all! I didn't collect too many links this week before I left for an out-of-town wedding, but I scheduled this edition of Weekend Thoughts to automatically publish at the usual Saturday morning time. Without any further ado, let's get to thinking.

1. The New York Times brings us Simple Rules for Healthy Eating by Aaron E. Carroll. It's a good review of healthy eating practices. Not too much detail here, but who couldn't use a refresher?!

2. The Washington Post's Spencer S. Hsu reports that the FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades. Hsu breaks it down quite well in his lede: 

"The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000."

3. Monsanto Knew of Glyphosate/Cancer Link 35 Years Ago via Global Research. Yet another article showing that the corporation Monsanto is not the most ethical corporation around.

I hope you enjoyed this week's links and I look forward to bringing you more of the same next weekend! Until then, keep thinking wilder!

Weekend Thoughts - 4.18.15

Image by Mutiara Karina, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday, y'all! I have a great selection of links this week to share, so let's get started.

1. Cops have killed way more Americans in America than terrorists have via Boing Boing.
Were you aware that US police have killed at least 5,600 people since the year 2000? The actual figure is likely much higher because citizens killed by police are not consistently reported, but either way the tally is many more than the amount of people who have died from terrorist attacks.

2. US Govt Agency Admits That Marijuana Extracts Can Kill Cancer Cells via Reset.me.
Although the United States Government classifies cannabis as a Schedule I substance with a high risk for abuse and no medical benefits, the National Institute of Drug Abuse published the following paragraph on its website this week:

"Recent animal studies have shown that marijuana extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others. Evidence from one cell culture study suggests that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumors. Research in mice showed that treatment with purified extracts of [tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)], when used with radiation, increased the cancer-killing effects of the radiation."

This should come as no surprise to someone familiar with the medical benefits of cannabis, but it highlights one aspect of the government's utter hypocrisy regarding the plant.

3. Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of American's Telephone Records via Electronic Frontier Foundation.
It's good to see that there will at least be a fight regarding the DEA's illegal domestic spying tactics that the organization used for the past few decades. I'm not all that optimistic that justice will be served in this case, but I support the effort to punish the DEA for its illegal activity.

4. DEA: Bad Boys Sexing Up Colombian Prostitutes Supplied by Drug Cartels via Ladybud.
This certainly hasn't been a good week for the DEA's public image. In addition to the unveiling of a longstanding illegal surveillance practice, it turns out that DEA Special Agents have allegedly been having sex parties with Colombian prostitutes that were hired by drug cartels. The agents were also allegedly given money, gifts, and weapons by the cartel members. And the response from DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart? None of the misbehaving agents were fired, and seven of them were simply punished with suspensions ranging between one to 10 days.

5. White America's Silence on Police Brutality is Consent via Gawker.
This article discusses white America's perception that the nation's police are doing a good job despite the disparities between how various races of people are treated. The situation may change for the better once more influential white folks step up and speak up in favor of reforming how we handle policing in this country, but until then we will most likely see racist policing continue.

6. Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It's time for a medical marijuana revolution via CNN. It's always nice to see such a reputable and powerful voice as Dr. Gupta's recommending that we legalize medical cannabis right now. His article explains the reasons behind his declaration and discusses his new documentary called Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution. I'm excited to see him coming out so firmly in favor of medical cannabis and am inspired by his courage.

That's all for this week. I realize that the links were heavy on cannabis, police, and the DEA, and I hope to bring more variety to Weekend Thoughts next week. Have a good rest of your weekend and I hope you'll return next Saturday.

Weekend Thoughts - 4.11.15

Image by Larry, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! I have a lot of links for you to enjoy this weekend, so let's get started.

1. Rare and Unseen Color Photographs of America’s Hippie Communes from the 1970s—via The Vintage News. This is a nice collection of unseen photographs of American hippie communes from the 1970s. The people in these communes look so free-spirited and quirky. Although there are a lot of well-known issues with communes, this does make me wish I could live off the grid for the rest of my life.

2. Psychoactive Plants in the Bible—via Philosopher's Page. I found this account of psychoactive plants found in the Bible to be fascinating. It's quite obvious that there were consciousness-altering plants that inspired the stories in the Bible, and this article gives a good overview of what the plants were, how they were used, and the psychoactive effects they generated.

3. 7 Things You Should Know About Matcha—via Health.com. Matcha is a special form of green tea that was used traditionally in Japanese meditation practices. I find it to be quite enjoyable and this article is a good introduction to this type of tea.

4. Is the Internet Killing Middle-Class Jobs?—via The Week. "The robopocalypse for workers may be inevitable. In this vision of the future, super-smart machines will best humans in pretty much every task. A few of us will own the machines, a few will work a bit — perhaps providing "Made by Man" artisanal goods — while the rest will live off a government-provided income. Silicon-based superintelligence and robots will dramatically alter labor markets — to name but one example, the most common job in most U.S. states probably will no longer be truck driver. But what about right now? If you're unemployed or working part-time instead of full-time, or haven't seen a raise in years, should you blame technology?"

5. Obama Steps Up Commutations, Feeding Drug War Prisoners’ Hopes—via Forbes. This is a step in the right direction, but there are still a lot of people in prison for non-violent "crimes". Hopefully the commutations will continue, with more prisoners of the drug war being released.

6. Vegan Diet Best for Planet—via The Hill. "The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a federally appointed panel of nutritionists created in 1983, decided for the first time this year to factor in environmental sustainability in its recommendations." Naturally, the meat and dairy industries are pissed off about this information being incorporated into dietary recommendations, but that doesn't take away from the truth that a vegan diet is best for environmental sustainability.

7. U.S. Directs Agents to Cover Up Program Used to Investigate Americans—via Reuters. This shouldn't be surprising at all, but the Drug Enforcement Administration was collecting data on Americans long before the National Security Agency. Now on top of that, the U.S. government wants information regarding the DEA's domestic spying covered up and kept away from American citizens.

8. American Cops Just Killed More People in March than the UK Did in the Entire 20th Century—via The Free Thought Project. There is something incredibly wrong with the way that policing is done in our country. This is a mind-blowing headline, and the article backs up the claim with statistics.

Enjoy the reads for this weekend and I'll see you next week!