{"id":4746,"date":"2012-11-28T22:02:14","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T05:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4746"},"modified":"2012-11-28T22:02:14","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T05:02:14","slug":"entheogens-for-good-and-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4746","title":{"rendered":"Entheogens for Good and Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Probably most people who have taken MDMA (Ecstasy, Adam) have felt that it can be a very “psychological” entheogen, enabling you to look at your thoughts in a dispassionate and sort of therapeutic way. Now a new study shows that it can be useful in treating war veterans with post-traumatic stress syndrome for that very reason.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling I got was nothing at all for 45 minutes, then really bad anxiety, and I was fighting it at first,\u201d said Anthony, the Iraq veteran, who patrolled southwest of Baghdad in 2006 and 2007 amid relentless insurgent harassment and attacks with improvised explosive devices. \u201cAnd then \u2014 I don\u2019t know how to put it, exactly \u2014 I felt O.K. and messed up at the same time. Clear. It was almost like I could go into any thought I wanted and fix it.\u201dFor instance, he could think and talk about an attack that occurred in a town near Baghdad, in which Iraqis posing as allies \u2014 and who had been armed by the American military \u2014 turned their guns on American troops, killing several. The unit could not quickly evacuate its wounded because of weather conditions. Anthony\u2019s rage and grief were so overwhelming that he had to suppress them and did so for years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other hand, entheogens administered to unsuspecting people can be destructive, something the Central Intelligence Agency learned in 1953. That death, of a government researcher, is news again because his family is suing the CIA for causing it, claiming that it was murder, not drug-induced suicide.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

For more on the Cold War use of LSD as a “secret weapon,” read Jay Stevens’ Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Probably most people who have taken MDMA (Ecstasy, Adam) have felt that it can be a very “psychological” entheogen, enabling you to look at your thoughts in a dispassionate and sort of therapeutic way. Now a new study shows that it can be useful in treating war veterans with post-traumatic stress syndrome for that very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-4746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-entheogens"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1ey","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9","url_meta":{"origin":4746,"position":0},"title":"Pokemon the Pagan","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 7, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a scholarly controversy that I had been unware of: whether there is a conflict between the teachings of Wicca and of Pokemon. That assumes that Pokemon has \"teachings,\" of course.Meanwhile, getting ready for a workshop on traditional European entheogens next summer, I'm enjoying revisting Eliot Cowan's Plant Spirit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7166,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7166","url_meta":{"origin":4746,"position":1},"title":"Ancient Precedents for a Norwegian’s Pro-Psychedelic Campaign","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A campaign to legalize LSD, MDMA, and other psychedelics in Norway reaches for ancient precedents. Didn't the Sami (Lapp) shamans maybe use entheogens? What about those Viking who allegedly chewed on Amanita muscaria? (Via law-blogger Ann Althouse)","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"berserkers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/berserkers.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/berserkers.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/berserkers.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1207,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1207","url_meta":{"origin":4746,"position":2},"title":"Go Ask Alice","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"(\"We had Psychedelia,\" M. says. \"And what do they have now? Tweeting!\")","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=331","url_meta":{"origin":4746,"position":3},"title":"Supremes back UDV The Uniao\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Supremes back UDV The Uniao do Vegetal, a Brazilian-based church that uses entheogens in a way similar to the Native American Church, has won an important battle in the Supreme Court.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=75","url_meta":{"origin":4746,"position":4},"title":"Time for Poppy Tea","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 3, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Constant sobriety is not a natural or pleasant condition, and intoxicants are an essential part of life and literature\" -- another story on artists, writers, and drugs. (Thanks to Butterflies and Wheels.)","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":639,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=639","url_meta":{"origin":4746,"position":5},"title":"A conference for female psychonautsFor\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A conference for female psychonautsFor women who want to discuss the shamanic use of entheogens, SheShamans is a gathering planned for June in Geyserville, California. (Via Susie Bright, who had a wittier title.)","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4747,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4746\/revisions\/4747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}