Kickstarter

Hello my friends, backers, and all,  

Time to post another update! I see from the little crawling graph that we have crossed the 50 K marker a few days ago and are now at $54,000! This is rather astonishing and really encouraging! Please keep spreading the word, we are going to do this thing. 

I will have an important update in a few days. Coming down the pike will be some major changes in the incentive structure, to give backers even more reasons to back the project. Also, to be announced shortly, will be a mechanism for 'substantial backers' to make their pledges tax-deductible, by donating through a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization.  Of course, you are all 'substantial' backers; no disrespect meant to those pledging $35, $70, $100 and in that range; in fact this is where the bulk of the funds are coming from. But in this context substantial backers are those who may wish to pledge $1000 or more, but also want to take a tax deduction if such is possible. It is possible, and I'll be posting details by the weekend. 

In the meantime I have some more entertaining tidbits to share with you. I was in New York City in December to give a talk to the National Arts Club. Stayed with my friend Alex Tannous (a wonderful man of great learning and erudition, not to mention kindness and generosity) and while there, he arranged for me to interview with a friend of his, David Ellenbogen who hosts an evening radio show, Studio A, on WKCR (89.9 FM - NY and on the web at http://www.wkcr.org). For those who may not know it, WKCR is Columbia University's student run, non-commercial radio station. We had a free-wheeling conversation and you can now download the podcast or listen online at the Psychedelic Salon: http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/

If you don't find it on the homepage, search for Podcast #266.  My thanks to Lorenzo Haggerty for making this available and to David for the interview and the good publicity. 

I've been in Hawaii for the last few days, attending and presenting at the 2nd annual Alchemeyez Visionary Arts Congress, held at the Hilton Waikaloa on the Big Island. It was a great event, very sweet, and sadly not as well attended as it deserved http://alchemeyez.com/ However, organizer and chief visionary Rio Gordon did a great job, and deserves our recognition and gratitude. Everyone who did make it seemed to have a great time! I know I did; and thanks Rio to you and all your team for pulling this off. You may not have made a profit but you created a lot of goodwill and made many folks happy.  May the next one be even more awesome and beautiful, and hopefully, profitable.  Thanks for inviting me, I was treated well and am a happy camper (if that word can be applied to such an opulent venue as the Hilton Waikaloa! Which, by the way, is worth visiting if only to view the amazing art collection on display there). 

Among the highlights of that event for me was the chance to reconnect and hang out for a little while with my friend George Douvris, his wife Stephanie, and their son John and daughter Nicolet.  George is known to many in our community as he is an inveterate (some would say obsessional) networker, blogger, and connector, and he keeps us appraised of what's going on in the global tribe, and what's going on in the world in general (sometimes whether we want to be or not! but we love you anyway, George). His semi-nomadic lifestyle, his migrations, immigrations, and peregrinations in countries that most of us only wish we could see, and the travel and adventures of his amazing family that he has shared openly with the community, have kept a lot of us entertained.  George got to know my brother Terence in the mid-90's and occasionally spent time with him in various venues. We had a few minutes to share a beer and memories at the conference, and he was kind enough to let me video part of our conversation.  I've posted some segments below for your enjoyment. Subsequent segments are posted in updates #13 & 14 respectively. 

Hello,

Joanna Harcourt-Smith whose name is probably familiar to most of your in our community, hosts a podcast site at futureprimitive.org, which is loaded with interesting and relevant materials. (If you don't know who Joanna Harcourt-Smith is, I'll leave it as a Google exercise!) 

She was kind enough to provide the space/time nexus for my latest podcast offering, which you can find here: 

http://tinyurl.com/myfppodcast

The web master at futerprimitive.org emailed to say there was a problem with the links I published earlier. The URL above should fix that. Thanks Sanjiv for helping get this right.

One of the great pleasures of participating in this collective, creative effort is that it provides more than an opportunity for shameless self-promotion; it is also a chance to highlight the work of other creative people whose work I admire.  In case you haven't noticed there are a lot of excellent films being made on the subject of psychedelics, ayahuasca, the coming ontological transformation, and related topics. So that said I'd like to point to a few video clips that may interest many who visit this site. The clip below is an out take from MIke Kawitzski's (Headspace Studios) movie, Cognition Factor. It's a kind of like  "What the Bleep" but IMO much better. We had fun making this in 2004 when I visited Mike at his rented villa on the Costa del Sol, Spain. You can visit his home page to look at more clips and maybe buy his movie: http://youtu.be/JsZdBLHWjSM

Some excellent documentaries are coming out or about to come out about ayahuasca, psychedelic research, and related topics.  Most of you are already familiar with Mitch Schultz' just released docu, DMT: the Spirit Molecule. It's a great, worthy and successful effort. Here is a link to a segment of my interview & on the same page there are viewable clips from the many people that Mitch interviewed for this movie. Mitch has also been a great and steady supporter of my Kickstarter project, so here is small gesture to return the favor. Thanks Mitch for everything.

http://www.thespiritmolecule.com/html/media.php?media=Interviews&id=16

For a while, it seemed like documentaries about ayahuasca were coming out every week or so.  One of the best to emerge out of that ferment, outstanding in my opinion, is from Canadian film maker Richard Meech. Entitled Vine of the Soul: Encounters with Ayahuasa, it was originally broadcast on a Canadian TV channel, VisionTV in November 2010.  Oh those Canadians! Can you even imagine that a TV channel called VisionTV would be tolerated in this country? But that's another story. Richard's documentary includes interviews with yours truly but also brings other unique perspectives to the conversation, including psychiatrist Gabor Maté and drug policy scholar Kenneth Tupper.  Here's a link to some of those clips on Youtube including the entire 2.5 hour full version:

http://www.youtube.com/vineofthesoulfilm

The DVD, which can be ordered from the film's web site, features even more interviews and supplemental materials. Well worth the cost for anyone with a serious interest in this curious brew. 

http://www.vineofthesoul.com/

Speaking of Canadians, another whose work I admire is Oliver Hockenhull, who has been working furiously to complete his docu, entitled From Neurons to Nirvana: Psychedelic Medicine in the 21st Century.  This film, which is still seeking funders to complete, presents the current 'state of the art' in psychedelic research in an entertaining and easily understood way. We need more like this one! Here is a clip from the first of my interviews with Oliver:

http://vimeo.com/channels/neuronirvana#19713119

Another great segment from this film is Dr. David Nichols explaining how psychedelics work in the brain. It's the best thumbnail sketch of this topic I've seen. You can look at it here:

http://vimeo.com/19038120

Well, there's more where those came from of course but that should be enough to keep you entertained for now!

Please help spread the word and if you friends you think would like to see these clips, send them the link to this site.  Thanks again to all for your support for this project. 

Greetings once again, friends, backers & the idly curious! In this update I'm extraordinarily pleased to announce that in collaboration with Evolver Intensives, we are launching a four part webinar series that will interest many in our community.  Entitled Psychedelic Adventures at the Edge of the Abyss, we are announcing it now in part to promote this KIckstarter project and to give people yet another reason to visit this site and chose to back the project (as if one were needed!).  Apart from its linkage to my Kickstarter book project, this Evolver Intensive stands on its own; thanks to the kindness and generosity of old and new friends, we are able to offer a series of lively conversations with some of the most insightful and thoughtful people in the contemporary pantheon of cutting edge thought, including Daniel Pinchbeck, Luis Eduardo Luna, Ralph Abraham, Erik Davis, Mark Pesce, and Ralph Metzner.  These individuals are leading luminaries in their fields and very well recognized for their role in both creating and articulating the contemporary meme around our current existential dilemmas. I extend my sincere thanks to each of them for lending their talents and voices to these seminars.  For anyone with an interest in these issues, they are certain to be thought-provoking! For details on the program and a link to the Evolver Intensive web site, click the link below: 

http://evolverintensives.com/upcoming/psychedelic-adventures-at-the-edge-of-the-abyss.html

I wanted to post links to some podcasts that I have been doing recently to drum up interest for the project, as well as a couple of older ones that may have been missed.  This podcast thing is becoming a cottage industry!  I've probably made 4 in the last week, with more to come as they get online. I'll be sure to post updates here and on the BSA group page on Facebook.  There are also some links to various video clips, excerpts from documentaries that have been made over the last few years in which I've had some part. All this is just FYI and another excuse to get 'eyes' on to the project page! Please tell all your friends. 

Folks seemed to like the podcast I did last week for Paratopia.com. This site is devoted to UFOs, paranormal, and other 'fringe' phenomena, so of course it's the perfect place to discuss the mushroom alien connection other such apocrypha.  Jeff and Jeremy are great hosts, fun to talk to and we did some major raving on this one! 

http://paratopia.org/?p=491

Those lovely boys at extraenvironmentalist.com just posted my two part podcast which we did last week here:

http://www.extraenvironmentalist.com/

The one below is an interview with the Australian radical journalist Rak Razam that we did last May at Chimbre in Southern Peru.  Topics covered were the globalization of ayahuasca and the coming emergence of post-historical tribalism. It seemed to resonate with a lot of people. 

http://www.dosenation.com/listing.php?smlid=7432

A few more podcasts will be made over the next week or so and I'll post them here and on the FB page as soon as they come up.