Largest Ayahuasca Research Study Confirms Mental Healing Benefits

Ayahuasca has gotten the attention of researchers by demonstrating its critical healing potential for individuals living with psychological issues.

In a study published by the Scientific Reports Journal, specialists at University of Exeter and University College London confirmed results showing that the 527 ayahuasca consumers out of 96,000 surveyed individuals reported higher general well-being, along with less problematic alcohol and drug use, over the previous 12 months than other respondents in the survey.

These findings lend some support to the notion that ayahuasca could be an important and powerful tool in treating depression and alcohol use disorders – Will Lawn, Ph.D., of University College London, Lead Researcher

Biggest Scientific Ayahausca Study Ever Shows Psychological Benefits | Ayahausca Today

Ayahuasca, The Psychedelic Reset Button (Documentary)

Ayahuasca, The Psychedelic Reset Button (Documentary) | Third Monk

Lisa Ling goes inside an ayahuasca ceremony in Peru and talks to people who are drinking this potent brew in hopes that it will alleviate their mental and emotional traumas.

Former Marine Ryan LeCompte organizes trips to Peru for war veterans, like himself, who are seeking ayahuasca as a possible treatment for PTSD and other emotional and mental trauma suffered after multiple combat deployments.

Ayahuasca is a way to give relief to those who are suffering, Many veterans are not satisfied with the PTSD treatment they receive when they return from combat.

It’s just, ‘Here’s a pill, here’s a Band-Aid.’ The ayahuasca medicine is a way to, instead of sweeping your dirt under the rug, you know, these medicines force you to take the rug outside and beat it with a stick until it’s clean, And that’s how I prefer to clean my house. – Ryan LeCompte, VETEntheogenic

Safe Use of Ayahuasca

141020135903-ayahuasca-yage-drug-story-top

Through IndieGogo.com, the Ethnobotanical Stewardship Council is raising money to create a health guide for ayahuasca centers in the Amazon, so tourists know which centers are safe and harvesting the plants in a sustainable manner that supports the local communities.

The idea would be to put the ESC’s logo outside ayahuasca ceremony sites to signify those centers that meet the council’s criteria for safety and sustainability.

In addition, there are efforts to study the medicinal benefits of ayahuasca so that it can be regulated and legalized in the United States, explains Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies.

Could this be the next medicinal marijuana? | CNN Health

Artist Draws Psychedelic Self-Portraits While On Different Drugs (Gallery)

Artist Draws Psychedelic Self-Portraits While On Different Drugs (Gallery) | Third Monk image 17

Bryan Lewis Saunders likes to take drugs, both legal and illegal, and then draw pictures of himself. The results are strikingly different from drug to drug, and they vary from beautiful to grotesque, abstract and just plain bizarre.

[I’m most interested in] things that are still a mystery to us all. – Bryan Lewis Saunders

Bryan devised an experiment in which every day he took a different drug and drew himself under the influence. These psychedelic self-portraits are a window into Bryan’s different states of mind.

For more of Bryan’s self-portraits make sure to check out his website. Enjoy!

Psychedelic Self-Portraits

Abilify/Xanax/Ativan (dosage unknown in hospital)

f76d5cbe-6b41-41c1-abec-257881f39c40

Psilocybin mushrooms (2 caps onset)

mushrooms__

1 sm glass of “real” absinthe (not the fake crap)

absinth

10mg Adderall

adderall

10mg Ambien

ambien

Bath Salts

BathSalts

15mg Buspar (snorted)

buspar

Butane honey oil (cannabis)

ButaneHoneyOil

1/2 gram cocaine

cocaine_

1 “bump” of crystal meth

crystalmeth

1 shot of Dilaudid/3 shots of morphine (in the ER with kidney stones)

dilaudid

DMT (during and after)

DMT

Hash (cannabis)

Hash

Heroin (snorted)

3db6eebc-cac3-46f7-b48c-e6d0ae8a619f (1)

7.5mg Hydrocodone/7.5mgOxycodone/3mg Xanax

A_lot

Marijuana

g13

Morphine IV (dosage unknown)

drug

Nicotine gum (after quitting smoking for two months)

2mgNicotineGum

20mg Valium

Valium

Salvia Divinorum

salvia

Nitrous Oxide / Valium I.V. (doseage unknown in hospital)

morphine

 

After experiencing drastic changes in my environment, I looked for other experiences that might profoundly affect my perception of self. – Bryan Lewis Saunders

30 Self-Portraits Drawn While the Artist Was Under the Influence of 30 Drugs | Alter Net

DMT – Hallucinogenic Fuel Produced By Our Brains

DMT - Hallucinogenic Fuel Produced By Our Brains | Third Monk

dmt-pineal-gland

DMT is an illegal, psychedelic compound found in the human body and at least 60 species of plants worldwide. Terence McKenna (who has raised awareness of DMT to its present level) called DMT “the most powerful hallucinogen known to man and science” in his 1994 lecture Rap Dancing Into the Third Millennium

McKenna first smoked DMT as an undergraduate at Berkeley in early 1967. He had experience with LSD—ingesting it “once a month or so”—and other psychedelics, but said in an interview:

It was really the DMT that empowered my commitment to the psychedelic experience.

DMT was so much more powerful, so much more alien, raising all kinds of issues about what is reality, what is language, what is the self, what is three-dimensional space and time, all the questions I became involved with over the next twenty years or so. – Terence McKenna, The Archaic Revival (1992)

Third Eye Perception

From 1990 to 1995, Dr. Rick Strassman administered 400 intravenous doses of DMT to 60 heavily pre-screened volunteers with extensive experience with psychedelics. He documented the results—in fascinating detail, because it “was important that other people knew how to wind their way through this maze,” the two-year process was published in DMT: The Spirit Molecule (Dec 2000), nine months after Terence McKenna died.

The pineal gland of older life forms, like lizards, is called “the ‘third’ eye” and has a lens, cornea, and retina. As life evolved, the pineal moved deeper into the brain. The human pineal gland is not actually part of the brain. Rather, it develops from specialized tissues in the roof of the fetal mouth. From there it migrates to the center of the brain, where it seems to have the best seat in the house.

Twenty-five years ago, Japanese scientists discovered that the brain actively transports DMT across the blood-brain barrier into its tissues. I know of no other psychedelic drug that the brain treats with such eagerness.

This is a startling fact that we should keep in mind when we recall how readily biological psychiatrists dismissed a vital role for DMT in our lives.

If DMT were only an insignificant, irrelevant by-product of our metabolism, why does the brain go out of its way to draw it into its confines? – Dr. Rick Strassman, DMT Researcher

DMT: You cannot imagine a stranger drug or experience  | VICE

An Index of Psychedelic Medicines and the Disorders They Cure (Video)

An Index of Psychedelic Medicines and the Disorders They Cure (Video) | Third Monk


This video produced by Reset.me highlights how psychedelic medicines are saving lives worldwide.

Numerous studies show these substances are non-neurotoxic, non-addictive and are having profound medicinal effects curing some of the most stubborn mental health disorders by helping people purge bottled up trauma:

MDMA is curing debilitating PTSD in veterans.

Psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in shrooms, is alleviating anxiety and depression.

LSD was used successfully for decades to combat alcohol addictions and anxiety.

Ayahuasca is helping people purge traumatic memories while increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances which made Psychedelics Illegal worldwide
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/convention_1…

Study: Alcohol is Most Dangerous drug
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeve…

Alternet: The Hardest Drugs to Kick
http://www.alternet.org/10-hardest-dr…

Ranking of Drug Harm
http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/vi…

CDC: Tobacco Mortality Rate
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stati…

Psychedelics Don’t Cause Mental Health Problems—And They Might Keep You Sane
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/psyched…

MAPS.org MDMA PTSD Research:
http://mdmaptsd.org/research-category…

Veterans Suicide Data Report:
http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/Suicide-Da…

Magic Mushroom Toxicity
http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushroom…

Caffeine or cannabis — which drug is more dangerous?http://www.cannabisculture.com/node/1…

Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of Psilocybin in 9 Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,http://article.psychiatrist.com/dao_1…

TEDx: Roland Griffiths on Psilocybin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPLim…

Magic mushrooms’ psychedelic ingredient could help treat people with severe depression
http://www.theguardian.com/science/20…

“Magic Mushrooms” Show Signs of Helping in Addiction, Cancer Anxiety
http://reason.com/blog/2012/12/07/mag…

‘Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health Long Term,http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/16…

‘Magic Mushroom’ Drug Shows Promise in Treating Addictions and Cancer Anxiety, http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/07…

Psilocybin and neurogenesis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRNSE…

LSD vs. Alcoholism, Neurons to Nirvana
http://www.mangu.tv/node/1945

LSD could help alcoholics stop drinking, AA founder believed
http://www.theguardian.com/science/20…

Peyote: Psychological and cognitive effects of long-term peyote use among Native Americans
http://nierika.info/castellano/wp-con…

DMT The Spirit Molecule Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiqzH…

Maps Ibogaine Research
http://www.maps.org/research/ibogaine/

A New Ayahuasca Study
http://www.singingtotheplants.com/201…

Personality, Psychopathology, Life Attitudes, and Neuropsychological Performance among Ritual Users of Ayahuasca: A Longitudinal Study
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:d…

Human Psychopharmacology of Hoasca, A Plant Hallucinogen Used in Ritual Context in Brazil
http://www.udv.org.br/arquivos/Human_…

Potent Jungle Vine Brew Has Potential to Treat Addiction
http://www.voanews.com/content/potent…

How Psychedelics unlock traumatic memories, Ayahuasca vs. PTSD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYYqf…

Integrating the Modern Practice of Traditional Ayahuasca Shamanism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzVN…

Lost in the Dream

Dogs Hallucinate After Licking Cane Toads (Video)

Dogs Hallucinate After Licking Cane Toads (Video) | Third Monk

Dogs in Australia lick the hallucinogenic sweat off cane toads to get high in this clip from Cane Toads: The Conquest.

Some dogs are so desperate for a fix they deliberately hunt down the frogs to stimulate the excretion of the psychedelic sweat, then lick their prey.

To say a dog or a cat is having an hallucination is impossible, but some do star gaze or track something across the room that isn’t there and others just stare out of the cage while we’re monitoring them – Jonathon Cochrane, University of Queensland’s School of Veterinary Science

Unfortunately, there is only a small amount of the psychoactive chemical Bufotenin secreted compared to the dangerous toxins in the sweat. Most dogs are able to overcome the poison by instinctively limiting the amount they lick.

A psychedelic toad trip has to be more intense than a catnip trip, add dogs to the list of animals that love to get high.

QLD_CM_LIFESTYLE_TOADS_10DEC13(3)

6 Amazing Things Scientists Have Discovered About Psychedelics

6 Amazing Things Scientists Have Discovered About Psychedelics | Third Monk image 5

Psychedelics - Mushroom

Despite the fact that the U.S. government deems many hallucinogenic or psychedelic substances to be dangerous, classifying them as Schedule I drugs with “no currently accepted medical use,” various scientists have dared to study their effects.

What they’ve found over the years paints a startling, promising and powerful picture of potentially game-changing medicines.

LSD Mitigates End-of-Life Anxiety

Life and Death - Psychedelics

The results of the first clinical study of the therapeutic use of LSD in humans in more than 40 years were published. They show that LSD can promote statistically significant reductions in anxiety for people coming to terms with their own impending demise.

Aldous Huxley famously made use of LSD as a way to ease his own passing.

Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gasser and his colleagues conducted the double-blind, placebo-controlled study, sponsored by the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). They tracked 12 people who were near the end of life as they attended LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions. In his report, Gasser concluded that the study subjects’ anxiety “went down and stayed down.”

Psilocybin – Magic Mushrooms Actually Calms Certain Brain Functions

Diversity of the Mind - Psychedelics

The common conception is that psychedelics do something extra to cause their effects – like increase activity, add hallucinations, promote awareness, etc.

study that examined brain scans of people under the influence of psilocybin found that it reduces activity in certain areas of the brain. That reduction of activity leads to the drug’s effect on cognition and memory.

Psychedelics, and psilocybin in particular, might actually be eliminating what could be called the extra “noise” in the brain.

MDMA Promotes the Release of Oxytocin – Helping to Treat PTSD and Severe Social Anxiety

Love = Psychedelics

Before being classified as a Schedule I substance, therapists experimented with MDMA beginning in the 1970s to help reduce moderate depression and anxiety among their adult patients.  Recent research primarily supported by the MAPS has continued to turn up positive results for the drug’s potential therapeutic use.

Various clinical trials and statistical research have confirmed that MDMA can successfully treat post-traumatic stress in military veterans and others.

A 2009 study offers a plausible explanation for MDMA’s effectiveness in treating PTSD. The double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of 15 healthy individuals confirmed that MDMA causes the brain to release oxytocin, which is the human hormone linked to feelings of love and compassion.

MAPS recently received government approval to launch a new study examining MDMA’s potential for treating social anxiety in autistic adults. Based on the known effects of MDMA, as well as individual reports, this exploratory study will focus on enhancing functional skills and quality of life in autistic adults with social anxiety.

Psilocybin Can Help You Quit Smoking

Smoking - Psychedelics

Psychiatry Professor Matthew Johnson, who works at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, presented the preliminary results of a pilot feasibility study looking at the ability of psilocybin to treat smoking addiction.

For the study, five cigarette-addicted participants underwent placebo-controlled psilocybin treatment with a psychiatrist. All five completely quit smoking after their first psilocybin session. At all followup visits, which occurred up to one year later for the first four participants, it was biologically confirmed that the participants had abstained from cigarettes.

Ayahuasca Can Treat Drug Addiction

Ayahuasca - Psychedelics

Ayahuasca is a brew prepared with the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, originally used for spiritual and healing purposes in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. The vine is usually mixed with leaves containing the psychedelic compound DMT.

Gabor Mate, a medical doctor from Vancouver who is a prominent Ayahuasca researcher, contends that therapy assisted by psychedelics, and ayahuasca in particular, can untangle complex, unconscious psychological stresses. He claims these stresses underlie and contribute to all chronic medical conditions, from cancer and addiction to depression and multiple sclerosis.

The results of the first North American observational study on the safety and long-term effectiveness of Ayahuasca treatment for addiction and dependence were published in June 2013 in the journal Current Drug Abuse Reviews.

All of the participants in the study reported positive and lasting changes, and the study found statistically significant improvements “for scales assessing hopefulness, empowerment, mindfulness, and quality of life meaning and outlook subscales. Self-reported alcohol, tobacco and cocaine use declined, although cannabis and opiate use did not.”

The reported reductions in problematic cocaine use were also statistically significant.

Taking DMT Can Naturally Simulate Death

DMT - Psychedelics

DMT causes hallucinogenic experiences and is conveniently made up of a chemical compound that already occurs within the human body (as well as in a number of plants). This means our brains are naturally set up to process the drug, because it has receptors that exist specifically to do so. Cannabis is another illegal drug that occurs endogenously.

Some research based on near-death experiences points to the fact that the brain releases DMT during death. Some researchers have also conjectured that DMT is released during other intense experiences, including orgasm.

> 5 Things Scientists Have Discovered About Mind-Altering Drugs | Alter Net

Music and Psychedelic Visions, Tokio Aoyama Art Gallery

Music and Psychedelic Visions, Tokio Aoyama Art Gallery | Third Monk image 2

Tokio Aoyama and Painting

An artist who paints with a combination of metaphysical, spiritual, and music themes, Tokio Aoyama hails from a tiny town in the north of Japan.

Tokio has painted murals and has done commission work for clients all over the world. He has designed art for record labels Epistrophik Peach Sound, Mello Music, Moamoo, and Jazzy Sport.

Tokio has done many private commissions for domestic and international clients. He has also done many live paintings at Music events such as Appi Jazzy Sport, Japan.

Tokio Aoyama’s trippy art has a hip hop feel with psychedelic undertones. Enjoy this collection of his fine work.

Trippy art

trippy world

tokio-painting

tokio goggles

tokio aoyama blue-mitchell

tokio aoyama - DJ

tokio 1

th_can-a-sista-rock-a-mic.-big1

Self Cello

sea world

Psychedelic skateboards

Pick Fros not Fights

Mural

chiefing

peyote-woman

Einstien - Canvas Painting

Official Website | Tokio Aoyama

Psychedelic Spirit Paintings, Alex Grey Art Gallery

Psychedelic Spirit Paintings, Alex Grey Art Gallery | Third Monk image 15

Alex Grey’s paintings can be described as a blend of sacred, visionary art and psychedelic art.

He is best known for his paintings of glowing anatomical human bodies, images that “x-ray” the multiple layers of reality. His art is a complex integration of body, mind, and spirit.

Origin of Language – Alex Grey

Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Origin-of-Language

Albert Hoffman, LSD – Alex Grey

Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Albert-Hoffman-LSD

Union of Human and Divine Consciousness – Alex Grey

Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Union-Human-Divine-Consciousness

Arist Hand – Alex Grey

Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Arist-Hand

Cannabacchus – Alex Grey

Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Cannabacchus

Cannabia – Alex Grey

Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Cannabia

Collective Consciousness – Alex Grey

Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Collective-Consciousness

Cosmic Christ – Alex Grey

Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Cosmic-Christ

Kissing – Alex Grey

Alex-Grey-Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Kissing

DMT – Alex Grey

Alex-Grey-Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-DMT

LSD Bicycle Day – Alex Grey, Mars 1

Alex-Grey-Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Mars-1-LSD-Bicycle-Day

Ayahuasca – Alex Grey

Alex-Grey-Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Ayahuasca

Gaia – Alex Grey

Alex-Grey-Psychedelic-Painting-Art-Gallery-Gaia

Exploring Consciousness with Psychedelics – Graham Hancock Ted Talk (Video)

Exploring Consciousness with Psychedelics - Graham Hancock Ted Talk (Video) | Third Monk

Graham Hancock explores the shamanistic use of psychedelics that create a state of being which brings us a greater understanding of our true nature and the nature of consciousness; in order to harmoniously balance our Earthly existence within the universe.

The War on Consciousness – Graham Hancock Notable Excerpts

Another universal experience of Ayahuasca is the encounter with seemingly intelligent entities which communicate with us telepathically, now I’m making no claim one way or another as to the reality status of these entities we encounter. Simply that phenomenologically in the Ayahuasca experience they are encountered by people all over the world and most frequently of all, the spirit of Ayahuasca herself; Mother Ayahuasca, who is a healer. And although she’s kinda the mother goddess of the planet. She seems to take a direct personal interest in us as individuals. To heal our ills, to want us to be the best we can possibly be, to correct errors and mistakes in our behaviors that may be leading us down the wrong path.

Ayahuasca has been fantastically successful at getting people off harmful addictions to hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Jacques Mabbit at the Takiwasi Clinic a in Peru brings heroin and cocaine addicts out there for a month. Gives them 12 Ayahuasca sessions and they have encounters with Mother Ayahuasca during those sessions that lead them not to wish to take heroin up again anymore and more than half of them leave completely free of their addiction never return to it and don’t even have withdrawal symptoms. And the same incredible healing work was being done in Canada by Dr. Gabor Maté until the Canadian government stopped and intervened his healing practice on the grounds that Ayahuasca itself was an illegal drug.

What is death? Our materialist science reduces everything to matter. Materialist science in the West says that we are just meat. We’re just our bodies. When the brain is dead that’s the end of consciousness there is no life after death, there is no soul, we just rot and are gone. But actually many honest scientists should admit that consciousness is the greatest mystery of science.

This is the paradigm of all spiritual traditions; that we are immortal souls, temporarily incarnated in these physical forms to learn and to grow and to develop.

Let’s not forget that Ayahuasca is not alone. That it’s part of an ancient worldwide system of the targeted, careful, responsible alteration of consciousness. It’s recently been shown by scholars that the Kykeon used in the Eleusian Mysteries in Ancient Greece was almost certainly a psychedelic brew. The Soma of the Vedas may have been a brew based off of the amanita muscaria mushroom. We have the DMT in The ancient Egyptian Tree of Life. We have the whole global cultures of surviving shamanism and what it’s all about is a state of consciousness that’s designed to help us find balance harmony, the Ancient Egyptians would have called it Ma’at, with the universe and to remain mindful that what we’re here to undertake on Earth while immersed in matter is fundamentally a spiritual journey aimed at the growth and perfection of the soul. A journey that may go back to the very origin to what made us human in the first place.

If we as adults are not allowed to make sovereign decisions about what to experience with our own consciousness, while doing no harm to others. Including the decision to use, responsibly, ancient and sacred visionary plants then we cannot claim to be free in any way.

Graham-Hancock-Reconnect-With-Spirit

Eye of the Needle: An Ayahuasca Journey, Short Film (Video)

Eye of the Needle: An Ayahuasca Journey, Short Film (Video) | Third Monk

Uncover an ancient South American ritualized medicine and mysterious hallucinogenic substance known as ayahuasca. Director, Daniel LeMunyan leads the viewer through a visually striking exploration into the Peruvian Amazon rainforest and the hidden depths of human consciousness in this short documentary.

Ayahuasca’s active ingredient is DMT or Dimethyltryptamine which causes intense hallucinations lasting for up to 8 hours. Blended and cooked slowly, this brew is a mixture of 2 plants found only in the Amazon and is used by locals to enter a deep trance that is said to heal the body and unlock the subconscious mind. Guided by shamans, a person enters the eye of the needle and must face his own truths and deepest fears.

eye-of-the-needle-ayahuasca

Joe Rogan – How Hemp Became Illegal, DMT Reset Button (Video)

Joe Rogan - How Hemp Became Illegal, DMT Reset Button (Video) | Third Monk

Cannabis is illegal because of the economical effects it would have on cigarette sales, alcohol sales and as a viable alternative for many pharmaceutical drugs. Hemp is also useful for paper production and in the textile industry. Joe Rogan also explains the purpose of DMT, “the spirit molecule” that acts as a gateway to other realms of reality.

Hemp Became an Economic Threat to Various Industries

William Randolph Hearst who owned all these newspapers and paper mills, it was going to cost him millions of dollars to convert over to hemp. So instead he started printing stories in his paper about some new drug called “marijuana”. Marijuana wasn’t even a slang term for cannabis yet, it was used to describe a Mexican wild tobacco, completely unrelated. They got it illegal by saying people are smoking it, blacks and Mexicans are raping white women. Congress outlawed this new drug “Marijuana”, with no idea that they were outlawing hemp, which had been in use for thousands of years.

DMT, Psychedelics Isolates the Mind From Cultural Conditioning

It’s not about something that kills you. You won’t be able to absorb propaganda the way you do now. You won’t be able to look at the news the way you do now. You won’t be able to look at common cultural conditioning and predetermined patterns of behavior. None of that no longer makes sense after you’ve gone through a psychedelic experience. Any psychedelic experience is like pressing CTRL ALT DELETE on your brain.