Psychedelic conferences

As one observer at the Bridge Conference commented, "These days, it s hard to have a psychedelics conference that doesn t turn into a virtual reality conference." Indeed, the event was pervaded by an enthusiasm for high technology, computers, and particularly virtual reality. This atmosphere was generated in part by the presence of several prominent speakers with a strong current interest in this new form of human-computer... 

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Due to the interest and generosity of Mrs. Eileen Garrett, President of the Parapsychology Foundation, several of us have taken part in two international conferences about psychedelics. One was held in New York in November 1958... 

Unger, S., Kurland, A., Shaffer, I., Savage, C, Wolf, S., Leihy, R., McCabe, O., and Shock, H. Psychedelic Therapy, Third Conference on Research in Psychotherapy, Chicago, In., 1966. 

During the 1960s, the Tavistock Clinic fostered the notion that no criteria for sanity exist and that psychedelic "mindexpanding" drags are valuable tools of psychoanalysis. In 1967, Tavistock sponsored a Conference on the Dialectics of Liberation, chaired by Tavistock psychoanalyst Dr. R. D. Laing,... 

In February 1991, many prominent contributors to the movement convened at Stanford University to discuss the results of recent research, possible future directions, and other aspects of psychedelic history and culture at an event called the Bridge Conference, the most noteworthy gathering of its kind in recent times. A brief report of the Bridge Conference is included in this Introduction and used as a springboard for discussing prevalent trends and themes in psychedelia. 

Linking the past, present, and future of psychedelics" was the agenda of the Bridge Conference, held on February 2 and 3,1991, on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. This gathering was serious and academic in tone, and so programming-intensive that many of the 550 attendees complained of difficulty choosing between the many simultaneously presented seminars, symposia, and panel discussions. 

Peter Stafford, author of Psychedelics Encyclopedia, at the Bridge Conference... 

Although the affinity between psychedelics and consciousnesschanging "brain machines" is fairly obvious, the factors driving so many psychedelic enthusiasts fascination with virtual reality may be less easily discerned. When asked to speculate on why developments in virtual-reality technology so consistently rivet the attention of psychedelically oriented people, several prominent figures present at the Bridge Conference suggested a resonance between the "multiple realties" experienced in psychedelic states and the "multiple realities" that are expected to become available to the skilled pilot of virtual-reality equipment sometime in the near future. 

UC Santa Cruz professor and Bridge Conference guest Ralph Abraham, Ph.D., perhaps the foremost pioneer of chaos mathematics, has publicly acknowledged LSD as a major tool and source of inspiration in his work. Perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that many experienced psychedelic voyagers attest to the fact that fractal graphics bear an uncanny resemblance to the visual imagery observed under high doses of LSD and other psychedelics. 

The visual resonance between fractal and psychedelic imagery may be contributing to the psychedelic culture s embrace of the paradigm of chaos in very subtle ways. One Bridge Conference attendee offered the following suggestion ... 

Founded by MDMA-advocate Rick Doblin, MAPS actively funds MDMA research, serves as an information center, and seeks to assist "the gradual medicalization and legalization of psychedelics and the states of mind they engender." MAPS has sponsored two major events a conference entitled "Psychedelics in the 1990s Regulation or Prohibition" in Berkeley, California, in February of 1990, and an international conference in Bern, Switzerland, on pharmacologically assisted psychotherapy in November and December of the same year. MAPS publishes a newsletter and offers copies of hard-to-obtain research papers and theses. 

Many benefits are conferred upon humanity by these extraordinary substances that affect thinking and feeling illustrations abound for nearly every psychedelic. 

In December 1976, Psychology Today published "The War Over Marijuana, a review by Dr. Norman Zinberg of the preceding seven years of marijuana research. At a conference in San Francisco in late 1978, Zinberg, associated with the earliest "scientific investigation of marijuana and from the Harvard Medical School, described further developments regarding "Cannabis and Health" (a transcript of his remarks appears in the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, January-June 1979) ... 

In 1978, Wasson presented a "surprising new discovery at a mushroom conference in San Francisco, where he and an associate discussed recent evidence that the Fly Agaric mushroom had been used extensively by Indian tribes around the Great Lakes and eastward. He also introduced a current practitioner—Keewaydinoquay, a lively Ojibway woman, then in her sixties, who has been ingesting these mushrooms three to five times a year since the age of fourteen. (See the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, January-June 1979, for these proceedings.)... 

In 1962, scientifically legitimate explorations with psychedelic drugs were a small but growing innovation in Europe and America. Associations were formed that h ld conferences on the topic papers were published internationally reporting breathtaking results with particularly difficult kinds of psychiatric patients. During these heady days... 

To be fair, there do exist a few journals, and some excellent books that have been published during the thirty years of inquisition, and even a few conferences have brought together luminaries in the field of psychedelic research, since the late 1980 s, a very few limited research... 

The great importance of shamans and psychedelic drugs to so many early societies can now be seen much more in terms of the temporary yet cumulative cognitive advantages that psychedelic experience would have conferred. The success of shamans in curing some of the diseases of tribal members... 

Unless you re into caffeine, nicotine or alcohol, the phrase legal high is a contradiction in terms." (Remark overheard at psychedelic plant conference.)... 

Plowman, T.C. 1979. Botanical perspectives on cocaL Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 11(1-2) 103-117. Conference Hallucinogens in Native American Shamanism and Modern Life, 28 September-i October 1978, San Francisco, ca, usa. 

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