Elevate and Evolve | Cannabis & Psychedelic Culture Blog
Like Ol’ Dirty Bastard, there was no father to Mitch Hedberg’s stoner comedic style. Hedberg lulls the crowd with his mellow pacing and then hits them with a punchline.
Third Monk favorite Hannibal Buress is often compared to Hedberg and credits Hedberg for helping him get a break in Chicago’s comedy scene.
Psychedelic agents, when properly understood, are probably one of the most valuable, useful, and powerful tools available to humanity. Yet, their use is extremely complex, which means that they are widely misunderstood and often abused.
It is not psychedelics that are complex. In their most useful application, they play a rather straightforward role. In my observation one of the outstanding actions of psychedelics is permitting the dissolving of minds sets. One of the most powerful mind set humans employ is the hiding of undesirable material from consciousness. Thus, a very important function of psychedelic substances is to permit access to the unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is enormously complex and possesses an extremely wide range of attributes, from repressed, painful material to the sublime realization of universal love. With such variance in experience, learning more about psychedelics is essential for safe, sustained benefit.
These 4 books about psychedelics are an amazing foundational base for Psychedelic Knowledge.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern. – William Blake from the poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Beyond essential reading, Huxley’s recount of his afternoon trip with mescaline tops many psychonauts list for psychedelic themed reading. Aldous is well known for his love of psychedelics, and his narrative ability is undeniable.
To pierce the veil and gain insight into reality and ourselves, yet still bring back a semblance of those insights once rigid mind sets again solidify is the hope of many psychedelic users.
That within sameness there is difference, although that difference is not different from sameness. – Aldous Huxley
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test PDF
What do you mean, blindly? That baby is a very sentient creature… That baby sees the world with a completeness that you and I will never know again. His doors of perception have not yet been closed. He still experiences the moment he lives in. – Tom Wolfe
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is known as the quintessential book that first documented the rise and growth of the burgeoning hippie movement.
Wolfe’s account of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters brought psychedelic use to the mainstream. This was a time before it was perverted by hedonistic tendencies, but more importantly, before both sides of the coin knew the other even existed.
The world was simply and sheerly divided into ‘the aware’, those who had the experience of being vessels of the divine, and a great mass of ‘the unaware’, ‘the unmusical’, the unattuned. – Tom Wolfe
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid PDF
A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll.
On the surface Hofstadter’s book may seem like it is about mathematics, art, and music, but it is actually about how cognition, thinking, and meaning itself arise from well-hidden neurological mechanisms.
Through analogies between mathematics (Godel), art (Escher), and music (Bach), Hofstadter explains how self-referential loops – ‘strange loops‘ – are the foundation for all meaning. Basically how meaning actually comes about from complex interactions between parts which when taken individually, possess none.
It is a wonderful book that will have you reevaluating the way you perceive and interact with your reality.
Meaning lies as much
in the mind of the reader
as in the Haiku.
– Douglas R. Hofstadter
PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story PDF (2nd Part only)
How long will this last, this delicious feeling of being alive, of having penetrated the veil which hides beauty and the wonders of celestial vistas? It doesn’t matter, as there can be nothing but gratitude for even a glimpse of what exists for those who can become open to it. – Alexander Shulgin
PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story is a book by Dr. Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin. The main title is an acronym that stands for Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved.
Arranged in two parts, the book is considered the Bible of Phenethylamines (a class of chemicals known for their psychoactive and stimulant effects):
1st Part: A fictionalized autobiography of the couple.
2nd Part: Detailed synthesis instructions for 179 different psychedelic compounds, including bioassays, dosages, and commentary.
How he could be a good user of LSD,” I asked, “And know about the spiritual dimension – all that sort of thing – and still be a crook? I don’t understand.”
“Then it’s time you did. Psychedelic drugs don’t change you – they don’t change you character – unless you want to be changed. They enable change; they can’t impose it… – Alexander Shulgin
What other psychedelic books have you enjoyed reading?
> Are Psychedelics Useful in Buddhist Practice? | College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University
The tiny, pea sized pineal gland located in the center of the human brain has for ages been thought to be the seat of the soul. Prone to calcification from fluoridated water and other toxins in our food supply, many people are actively interested in detoxifying and de-calcifying their pineal gland. The rush of cosmic energy that is available when the mind’s eye is wide open, there is no other spiritual experience that compares to it.
What happens to a person who loses this gland to disease or some kind of accident?
Shawn Thorton, who, while studying art in school developed an illuminated painting style that baffles the rational mind. Experiencing severe illness, and often having manic and visionary episodes which revealed the contents of his extraordinary paintings, Shawn was learning to paint while, yet unbeknownst to him, he was suffering from brain cancer and had a tumor forming right where his pineal gland sits.
The over-arching style is reminiscent of an alien technology, laden with intricacies, schematics, and winding connections, a sort of motherboard of madness. Much like the human brain, his paintings show a complexity that is not easily understood.
Was his pineal gland releasing DMT, the spirit molecule in elevated levels while battling cancer?
I suffered from a slow growing cancer in my pineal gland while I attended art school and during subsequent years while my paintings developed with an underlined mythology that alluded directly to the pineal years before I even know of its existence.
I think I’d work myself into a frenzy for a while and yes, when I would fall lie down in bed I’d have something like a manic episode that was very lucid and visionary. That still applies to this day, but I try to control it better so I don’t get sick again.
I’ve had a lot of truly mystical and otherworldly experiences as a result of my history and battle with brain cancer and I’m really drawn to things that resonate with a certain powerful energy, and I’m always honing in on that more and more. whether consciously or subconsciously.
I treat depression with mushrooms. Haven’t done DMT ‘intentionally’. Man made chemicals are a thing of the past for me, as I’m really sensitive. –Reddit
Semiotics of the Alchemical Forest
Black Pyramid Meditation
Mother Brain Decoding the Psychonautical Device
Deaths Head Seals
The Beast in the Solar Disc
The Serpent’s Egg in the Seat of Consciousness
Click here for more of Shawn’s amazing art.
Painting, for me, is largely an attempt to decrypt the mechanisms of illness through a disciplined medium. I feel, on some deep internal level, that through my painting practice I’m engaged in a psychic process to illuminate the intricate vessels and cogs of an insidious physic current that stems, in part, from having had a serious illness, and all the subtle and profound ways I was altered by this experience.
All throughout my early adulthood, I struggled from the mental and physical effects of a slow growing tumor in my brain, the symptoms of which were repeatedly misdiagnosed by my doctors as purely psychological in origin, and it ultimately took over half a decade to get a proper diagnosis and treatment to shrink the tumor. I suffered immeasurably during this period from having repeatedly undergone a host of treatments meant to treat the symptoms of mental illness, and paradoxically, from a mental illness that ultimately could not be contained. The tumor was in the very center of my brain, in a small, mysterious organ at the top of the spinal column, the pineal gland. I didn’t have any prior reason to consider the actual material existence of the pineal before this.
As for its spiritually ominous and physically precarious location at epicenter of my being, my ability to conceptualize these facts seemed utterly unreal, ethereal, like nothing short of a sordid space exploration, as it had been making its presence known to me for so long and now there were surgeons probing into my head – into my consciousness. As I further researched my illness directly after being released from the hospital, and after having had undergone emergency brain surgery a few days earlier, I quickly became very quizzical by what I was finding. What had been developing in my art, half unconsciously, over the previous several years in which I had been very ill and labored to keep painting, all of a sudden became very clear. Elements in the paintings seemed to correlate directly to the pineal gland and to many of its mystical and biological functions that have puzzled humankind for centuries.
All throughout the history of human sciences, religions, and philosophies, of different civilizations and cultures all over the world, people have contemplated and researched the pineal because of its mysterious location at the center of our brain. For me, most notable, was its purposed role in the production of endogenous DMT in humans, and its proximity in our brains to the Ajna chakra, or third eye. I also found it intriguing that the pineal gland regulates biorhythms in humans through the production of the hormone melatonin. This brought to mind images of medical charts; of archetypal schematics and universal symbols.-Shawn Thornton
> Strange Story Artist Pineal Cancer | Waking Times
‘You’re Dead!’ is a shamanic pilgrimage into the psychedelic unknown of the infinite afterlife.
A sonic, visual and metaphysical fusion of technological innovation and technical virtuosity that amounts to a transcendent, mind-expanding plasm that could only exist between our world and another.
The enduring universe of Lotus’ supporting cast has expanded and evolved to feature in order of appearance, Herbie Hancock, Kendrick Lamar, Captain Murphy, Snoop Dogg, Angel Deradoorian, Thundercat, Niki Randa, alongside mindblowing original artwork by Japanese comic book artist Shintaro Kago.
The album isn’t about the end, it’s really the beginning.
It’s a celebration of the next experience.
It’s the transition and the confusion.
It’s not ‘hey you’re dead.’ It’s ‘hey you’re dead!
– Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus’ new album You’re Dead will be released on Oct 6, 2014. Preorder at iTunes or Google Play
The Golden Turtle includes various creative competitions aimed at identifying the best works and projects demonstrating the beauty and harmony of nature.
The first Golden Turtle wildlife photo contest was held in 2006, and in 2010 officially became an international photo contest.
The 2014 Golden Turtle Contest was attended by photographers from over 80 countries, where a jury selected the best shots from 15,000 submissions.
Doja Cat’s playful stoner flow and silky voice is enough to seduce proven venues like the underground hip hop collective Project Blowed in Los Angeles.
So High produced by Evil Needle is Doja Cat’s psychedelic bid for her place in a growing genre of stoner RnB that highlights chill drums, neo soul synthesizers, and dirty honest lyrics.
Then we’ll roll up
A hunnit fuckin’ blunts
All up in my mouth
Now Im all up in yo…
When you put it on me
You relieve my stress
You got me so high
Takin’ deep, deep breathsYou get me so high
You get me so high
I know you ain’t a drug
But you get me so high
Listen to Doja Cat’s debut EP on SoundCloud and follow her on Twitter @DojaCat
Vinchen’s street art offers simple insights into supposed complex social issues. It causes us to question the notion of their complexity altogether, leaving you to wonder why we are plagued by social inequities at all.
Asking questions incidently leads to answers, and Vinchen’s street art places the onus back on those looking back.
The Takao Trick Art Museum is located at the foot of Mt. Takao west of Tokyo, Japan. Trick Art challenges visitors to interact with 3D paintings to make funny and creative photo ops. The game is a of tug of war between the artist and the observer.
It’s never too late to change directions in life and fulfill your dreams instead of just your obligations.
Estonian Photographer Kylli Sparre is a perfect example – she discovered she wanted to be a photographer only after completing professional ballet school.
When the studies were over, I realized it wasn’t the path for me. I have been searching for an outlet for my creativity ever since. [A few] years ago I found it in photography and never looked back. – Kylli Sparre
Her ballet background seems to influence her surreal photography, as the models in her dream-like pictures are filled with grace, poise, and elegance.
Hopefully, her passion and courage will inspire others to follow their dreams.
I had no idea what it is that I should or could be doing. I had this very strong feeling that I need to go and find what it is that I love. – Kylli Sparre
It took me years to finally find what truly inspires me. The feeling I get, when a picture turns out the way I imagine… I get so much energy and I love to be alive! – Kylli Sparre
> Surreal Photography by Kylli Sparre | Bored Panda
Cosmic Flower Unfolding is a psychedelic animation on the constant flow of emerging and dissolving oceanic, futuristic, and mandala forms. It is a tribute to abstraction, its connection to the inner space we inhabit and how it can be externalized.
My abstract animations investigate the metaphysical features of reality. They are designed to stimulate archetypal associations and invite the viewer to make personal connections to the visual and auditory experience without any reliance on narrative or spoken language.
My work is abstract by nature and uses non narrative film making techniques. The undercurrents of my work point to themes centered around time, cycles, the concept of infinity, and the similarities between artificial and natural systems. In a world where technology and artificial systems are becoming more prevalent, my films are a reminder that they are both a product of nature. – Ben Ridgway, Animator
To celebrate marijuana legalization in Colorado, Munchies columnist David Bienenstock traveled to Aspen, to attend a legal seminar hosted by the NORML —America’s largest group dedicated to legalizing cannabis.
And since the late Hunter S. Thompson was one of NORML’s earliest and most consistent supporters, what better way to embrace the sweet smell of herbal liberation in the Colorado than by throwing a small victory party at Owl Farm—the author and advocate’s home and “fortified compound” in Woody Creek—featuring an appropriately over-the-top pairing of fully legal cannabis and high-end cuisine?
To handle the culinary and scientific feat of preparing a multi-course marijuana-infused meal of the highest order, Munchies partnered Chef Chris Lanter of Cache Cache with cannabis-infusion expert Tamar Wise, former head of science at the world’s largest marijuana edibles company.
In all, the dinner infused four different oils, using four different ganja strains, for use in four different preparations (three savory and one dessert), with a joint of each strain set aside for smoking.
Dietmar Voorwold, a German artist based in Scotland, creates beautiful and temporary works of natural land art by arranging rocks, leaves and other natural materials into simple, but beautiful geometric shapes and patterns.
Most of his art is created with materials found on-site, so almost anyone can try their hand at land art.
Voorwold leaves his geometric artworks behind, so all that’s eventually left of them are photographs and his memories.
It is just for the moment. This is a very therapeutic aspect of my way of creating art. – Voorwold
A strong believer in the therapeutic value of art, Voorwold also holds art therapy classes for people, teaching them to create their own land art.
> Artist Arranges Rocks and Leaves into Beautiful Natural Geometry | Bored Panda
