Sam Gandy, Guest Waking Times The human brain contains around 86 billion neurons, and 86 trillion connections between these neurons. That is more connections than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy, or galaxies in the known universe. The human brain is one of the most complex and wondrous things we know of, and …
Dylan Charles Waking Times Of all the pursuits of human kind, the understanding and exploration of consciousness offers the most likely opportunity for us to realize a civilization oriented towards cooperation, compassion, sustainability, and respect for life. Awakening to higher states of consciousness is the process by which a person, or a collective, can re-organize …
David Nickles, Guest Waking Times The Boom festival is a shining example of the thriving psychedelic resurgence. The very notion of coming together in an autonomous space specifically designed to facilitate transformative experiences reflects a contemporary psychedelic ethos that is spreading worldwide and taking shape in exciting ways. A rich modern history—as well as deep …
Stephan Beyer, Singing to the Plants Waking Times There are a number of human experiences — I am thinking of such things as hallucinations, lucid dreams, visions, apparitions, false awakenings, out-of-body experiences, DMT journeys, eidetic visualization, hypnagogia, waking dreams, and active imagination — that are characterized by presentness, detail, externality, and three-dimensional explorable spacefulness. We …
April M. Short, AlterNet Waking Times A recent online course unraveled psychedelic science, medicine, art and spirituality. The problem with banning anything out of a fear of the unknown is that many unknowns will remain. Such is the story of many psychedelic drugs in the U.S. While the government has experimented with various psychedelic compounds …
Rak Razam, Guest Waking Times What IS ayahuasca, and why is it peaking in Western use now? Is ayahuasca being commoditized by the tourist industry and people making money off this sacred indigenous medicine? Are the plants grooming us for a return to energetic balance (health) within ourselves and with the planet? Can this spiritual …
Terence Newton, Staff Writer Waking Times The recent interest in psychoactive plants as medicines has changed the dynamic of how the Western world views ‘drugs,’ and Cannabis is finally being legalized and appreciated for its legitimate healing properties. New research is pointing out the psychological benefits of psilocybin containing mushrooms, as the psychedelic mushroom experience …
Dennis McKenna, Reality Sandwich Waking Times **The following is excerpted from The Ayahuasca Experience, edited by Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., recently released in a new edition by Park Street Press.** Join Dennis McKenna for the live, interactive video course, “What Plants Can Teach You: Consciousness and Intelligence in Nature.” A new paradigm is emerging that recasts how we …
Jefferey Jaxen, Contributor Waking Times Many of the plants we pass in the background of our day are hard at work. They are employed by the planet as construction workers, teachers, security guards, and doctors. Arguably the top performers in each profession and certainly the hardest workers, never wanting or taking a day off in …
April M. Short, AlterNet Waking Times Psychedelics have the potential to treat cancers, addiction and psychological traumas. 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 …
Christina Sarich & Dylan Charles, Staff Waking Times As though to confirm the hunch many of us had that our ‘junk’ DNA was anything but disposable, researchers from the Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program at Sydney’s Centenary Institute have proven that 97 percent of human DNA programs or encodes proteins in our bodies. One of the …
John Summerly, Prevent Disease Waking Times Banisteriopsis caapi, also known as ayahuasca, caapi or yaje, is a South American jungle vine used to prepare a decoction with a long history of entheogenic uses as a medicine and “plant teacher” among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Rainforest. It has unique properties found to treat Parkinson’s …
Dylan Charles, Editor Waking Times “The history of Western culture in the last two thousand years could be seen as the “Empire of the Mind conquering the exterior world and extinguishing the interior one, with the result that we have atrophied our spiritual connection.” –Rak Razam The world is deeply out of balance in these …
Cassius Methyl, Guest Waking Times Eduardo Schenberg, of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, recently published a piece in Sage Journals, detailing his belief that Ayahuasca has cancer-fighting abilities, essentially encouraging the legalization of research in the field. He says, “There is enough available evidence that Ayahuasca’s active principles, especially DMT and harmine, have positive effects …
Dylan Charles, Staff Waking Times The pineal gland has been at the core of spiritual traditions dating back thousands of years, spanning all inhabited continents. Prominently carved onto Buddhist statues, ceremoniously painted onto tribal faces, and deceptively displayed in the Vatican square, the pineal gland, known as the Third Eye, or Seat of the Soul, …
Terra Celeste Waking Times Editor’s Note: Jonathon Miller-Weisberger is the author of Rainforest Medicine. He offers sacred plant medicine retreats at his remote eco-lodge in the jungles of Costa Rica guided by elder master-shaman of the Secoya tribe from Ecuador. You can find out more about his upcoming transformational events, here. The Secoya elders, legendary …
Jonathon Miller-Weisberger, Guest Waking Times The awakening offered by ayahuasca, an alternative medicine practiced by the native tribes of the Amazon rainforest, requires deep reflection, and carries the risk of misinterpretation. Excerpted and reprinted with permission from Rainforest Medicine (North Atlantic Books, 2013) by Jonathon Miller Weisberger, which chronicles the practices, legends, and wisdom of the quickly …
Dylan Charles, Editor Waking Times “Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.” –Max Planck, ‘Where Is Science Going?’ There are some mysteries in life so common that nearly …
Michael Wiese, Guest Waking Times It was my search for a cure for Parkinson’s that led me to the Amazon and Ayahuasca. I got a whole lot more than I had bargained for! In searching the Internet I found that Banisteriopsis caapi was used in the 1920’s as a cure for Parkinson’s Disease but never …
Ida Lawrence, Contributor Waking Times Before he left for Ecuador, I asked my godson, Steve, if he would check in with me now and then. He said he would if he could. He was traveling there to participate in an Ayahuasca retreat. The first time he messaged I asked him, “What have you learned?” “Respect… …
