As you know, when I'm not pondering the heady world of psychedelics and culture, I play in folkedelic band, Telling the Bees.
I'm delighted to announce that our new Telling the Bees album, An English Arcanum, has been nominated for Best Folk Album of the Year 2010 in the prestigious Spiral Earth Awards!
The winner will be decided by public vote and as we're up against the likes of Jon Boden and Show of Hands we're urging our fans to take a minute to vote for us here:
Vote for Telling the Bees!
The deadline is 12th February 2010.
You can help in other ways too, by:
*telling your friends
*spreading the word on email lists, forums and blogs
*using facebook, twitter and myspace to create a buzz
We're naturally chuffed to bits to have been nominated and very grateful to our fans, for your help and support. Thanking you muchly in advance!!
Monday, 14 December 2009
Monday, 30 November 2009
Gong - the verdict
Ah, what a gig! Legendary. I'm still bouncing around. It was all a bit of a rush to get there (what kind of gig starts at 7.00pm prompt?) and Steve Hillage was already half-way through 'Palm Trees' when we arrived. Managed to push our way through phallanxes of grey men in leather blouson jackets (chaps - what happened? The ravages of mortagages and middle age?) to secure a place up at the front. Hillage is looking increasingly like a geeky Frank Spencer, that is until he starts to play. He worked his way through much of 'Fish Rising' and before long his head was tipped backwards, face gripped in that strange rictus grin, fingers dancing across the fretboard, fully entranced by the music that descends through him.
After a short break the mothership landed. With the band launched into 'Control Escape Delete' (my favourite song from the new album, dealing with the imminence of death in a moving but light hearted manner) Daevid Allen slipped through the intersticial lattices of time and space to dematerialise on stage, dressed as he is, the uber-Pixie, the Octave Doctor, the Wizard of the Keys. With pointy hat, silver cape and pixie grin, he performed his mudras and invocations. At a youthful 71, he's lithe and athletic, and yet there's an insubstantial quality to him. He leaped about the stage as if he's made of air. Gilli Smyth, it must be said, is looking pretty frail, but still sends shivers with her space whisper cackles.
And they rocked. For a full hour and forty five, working their way through Camembert Electric, the trilogy and 2032. The light show was exquisite and my only sadness was that Bloomdido wasn't there to complete the line up. I missed his gnomic presence, his witty lines and cheeky riffs.
High point? Allen, dressed in a silver insectoid suit, with a single curling tentacle sprouting from his head, asking 'would you like some tea?'. 'Would you like some infinitea? Would you like some mushroom tea? Would you like some ayahuasca tea?' And to each, the grey men, suddenly remembering the hopes and possibilities of their long-forgotten psychedelic youth, punching the air with a resounding 'Yes!'
Onwards.
After a short break the mothership landed. With the band launched into 'Control Escape Delete' (my favourite song from the new album, dealing with the imminence of death in a moving but light hearted manner) Daevid Allen slipped through the intersticial lattices of time and space to dematerialise on stage, dressed as he is, the uber-Pixie, the Octave Doctor, the Wizard of the Keys. With pointy hat, silver cape and pixie grin, he performed his mudras and invocations. At a youthful 71, he's lithe and athletic, and yet there's an insubstantial quality to him. He leaped about the stage as if he's made of air. Gilli Smyth, it must be said, is looking pretty frail, but still sends shivers with her space whisper cackles.
And they rocked. For a full hour and forty five, working their way through Camembert Electric, the trilogy and 2032. The light show was exquisite and my only sadness was that Bloomdido wasn't there to complete the line up. I missed his gnomic presence, his witty lines and cheeky riffs.
High point? Allen, dressed in a silver insectoid suit, with a single curling tentacle sprouting from his head, asking 'would you like some tea?'. 'Would you like some infinitea? Would you like some mushroom tea? Would you like some ayahuasca tea?' And to each, the grey men, suddenly remembering the hopes and possibilities of their long-forgotten psychedelic youth, punching the air with a resounding 'Yes!'
Onwards.
Saturday, 28 November 2009
Gong
I've been getting increasingly excited about seeing Steve Hillage reunited with Gong, currently on tour and playing tonight at the O2, Oxford. There's a new album, 2032 (2012 heads take note - here is your get-out), overseen by Hillage with his trademark guitar but in the last few weeks I've been pretty much listening to nothing but the classic Gong albums: Camembert Electric, and the Flying Teapot triology.
It's hard to overestimate the influence Gong have had on me. I first heard them at school when a group of sixth formers performed an avant-garde dance piece to 'Flying Teapot.' I was immediately gripped, not by the dancing which was as toe-curling as it sounds, but by the music. The strangest thing I'd heard, at once it evoked a spiritual yearning and a Dionysian terror, the illicit thrill of dissolution. Yet to encounter anything more mind-altering than cheap bottles of cider, Gong were genuinely psychedelic - they blew my mind.
I've read that they never made any appreciable impact in America, their blend of Eastern scales, jazz-inflected rock and spiritual-dadaism proving baffling across the pond. Why sing about the spiritual quest, only to lampoon it at the same time? But it was exactly this mix, of serious (almost militant) hippy philosophising (Bertrand Russell's flying teapot filled with a heady brew of mysticism and theosophy), together with a trickster's refusal to take anything too seriously that I found so appealing.
Take this, from You's 'A PHP's advice':
'If you're a believer, what do you believe? Why do you believe it? Doncha ever wonder if it's really true?' Pretty much my mission statement.
Add to this, Hillage's heaven-bound glissando guitar, Didier Malherbe's gnomic sax and flute solos, Tim Blake's VCS3 warblings, Gilli Smyth's space whisper, and Daevid Allen's impish invocations and you have the perfect infusion. Allen is now in his 70s but I hear that Gong not only still cut it, but knock the stuffing out of bands half their age.
I shall be up the front, praising the Pot Head Pixies, sliding and gliding down the Oily Way and doing my damnedest to Blow my Trip forever.
It's hard to overestimate the influence Gong have had on me. I first heard them at school when a group of sixth formers performed an avant-garde dance piece to 'Flying Teapot.' I was immediately gripped, not by the dancing which was as toe-curling as it sounds, but by the music. The strangest thing I'd heard, at once it evoked a spiritual yearning and a Dionysian terror, the illicit thrill of dissolution. Yet to encounter anything more mind-altering than cheap bottles of cider, Gong were genuinely psychedelic - they blew my mind.
I've read that they never made any appreciable impact in America, their blend of Eastern scales, jazz-inflected rock and spiritual-dadaism proving baffling across the pond. Why sing about the spiritual quest, only to lampoon it at the same time? But it was exactly this mix, of serious (almost militant) hippy philosophising (Bertrand Russell's flying teapot filled with a heady brew of mysticism and theosophy), together with a trickster's refusal to take anything too seriously that I found so appealing.
Take this, from You's 'A PHP's advice':
'If you're a believer, what do you believe? Why do you believe it? Doncha ever wonder if it's really true?' Pretty much my mission statement.
Add to this, Hillage's heaven-bound glissando guitar, Didier Malherbe's gnomic sax and flute solos, Tim Blake's VCS3 warblings, Gilli Smyth's space whisper, and Daevid Allen's impish invocations and you have the perfect infusion. Allen is now in his 70s but I hear that Gong not only still cut it, but knock the stuffing out of bands half their age.
I shall be up the front, praising the Pot Head Pixies, sliding and gliding down the Oily Way and doing my damnedest to Blow my Trip forever.
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Staffordshire Hoard
I was in London yesterday and with an hour to kill, popped into the British Museum to see the Staffordshire Hoard, the stash of Anglo-Saxon gold artefacts discovered by a metal-detectorist earlier this year.
How disappointing! Though the largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, there are only about ten items on display. They haven't been cleaned properly yet and so much of the detail on the hilts and pommels is obscured by mud. The photos on the website are much better, so save yourself a trip.
However, an hour at the British Museum is never wasted. I've yet to be drawn into graphic novels, though an exhibition of Hoshino Yukinobu's manga character, Professor Munakata, had me tempted. The Rosetta Stone is always thrilling, as much for what it is as what it has come to represent. It hangs there in its case like one of Kubrick's monoliths, a totemic presence.
And then I was delighted to stumble upon some famous Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions: the Franks Casket, carved from whale bone; the Seax sword retrieved from the Thames. I'm interested in Anglo-Saxon culture and religion for a number of reasons, but mostly because I find its animistic pagan worldview rather thrilling, in a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck kind of way. The English runes or futhorc come from a time when the boundary between the prosaic act of writing and the magical exertion of will upon the world was thin. Words were magic. Peering at these objects, suspended behind glass as if for our protection as much as theirs, you can almost sense the magic force with which the makers thought them imbued. I experience it as a sense of loss.
How disappointing! Though the largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, there are only about ten items on display. They haven't been cleaned properly yet and so much of the detail on the hilts and pommels is obscured by mud. The photos on the website are much better, so save yourself a trip.
However, an hour at the British Museum is never wasted. I've yet to be drawn into graphic novels, though an exhibition of Hoshino Yukinobu's manga character, Professor Munakata, had me tempted. The Rosetta Stone is always thrilling, as much for what it is as what it has come to represent. It hangs there in its case like one of Kubrick's monoliths, a totemic presence.
And then I was delighted to stumble upon some famous Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions: the Franks Casket, carved from whale bone; the Seax sword retrieved from the Thames. I'm interested in Anglo-Saxon culture and religion for a number of reasons, but mostly because I find its animistic pagan worldview rather thrilling, in a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck kind of way. The English runes or futhorc come from a time when the boundary between the prosaic act of writing and the magical exertion of will upon the world was thin. Words were magic. Peering at these objects, suspended behind glass as if for our protection as much as theirs, you can almost sense the magic force with which the makers thought them imbued. I experience it as a sense of loss.
Yage Letters
Last week I finally made time to pop into the Albion Beatnik Bookshop, in Oxford's Jericho district. There's some great stuff in there, and even though the 'Drugs' section (unhappily labelled 'Addiction') is a bit thin (and, ahem, could almost certainly include the occasional book about magic mushrooms) I managed to pick up a copy of The Yage Letters by William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
More travel writing than trip-lit (though increasingly I'm hard put to tell the difference), the book nonetheless describes Burroughs and Ginsberg's journeys through South America in search of ayahuasca, told through letters dispatched between the two during the 50s and 60s. Burroughs fucks and drinks and injects and curses his way through Bogota and Peru, and while his bleak misanthropy is refreshingly savage , invigorating almost - 'the most inveterate drunk, liar and loafer in the village is invariably the medicine man' - he is a hard man to like.
Ginsberg comes across as altogether more human, playful and concerned, and the angsty way he wrestles with life, death and what the fuck it's all about, while wretching his guts out into the Amazonian night, is all too familiar. Burroughs, ever the junkie, ever the liar, squirms and wriggles away from honest self-examination. When the yage kicks in, he reaches for the sedatives. By contrast, Ginsberg's warm humility and willingness to go there is infectious.
'I am only a busybody meddling in human affairs vainly trying to assert the Supremacy of the Soul - which can take care of itself without me & my egoistic assumption of the Divine, my presumption that the Eternal needs my assistance to exist and preserve itself in the world.'
'There's no need to communicate the News of God. Those who seek, find...All's taken care of in Perfection.'
Gurus and religionists take note.
More travel writing than trip-lit (though increasingly I'm hard put to tell the difference), the book nonetheless describes Burroughs and Ginsberg's journeys through South America in search of ayahuasca, told through letters dispatched between the two during the 50s and 60s. Burroughs fucks and drinks and injects and curses his way through Bogota and Peru, and while his bleak misanthropy is refreshingly savage , invigorating almost - 'the most inveterate drunk, liar and loafer in the village is invariably the medicine man' - he is a hard man to like.
Ginsberg comes across as altogether more human, playful and concerned, and the angsty way he wrestles with life, death and what the fuck it's all about, while wretching his guts out into the Amazonian night, is all too familiar. Burroughs, ever the junkie, ever the liar, squirms and wriggles away from honest self-examination. When the yage kicks in, he reaches for the sedatives. By contrast, Ginsberg's warm humility and willingness to go there is infectious.
'I am only a busybody meddling in human affairs vainly trying to assert the Supremacy of the Soul - which can take care of itself without me & my egoistic assumption of the Divine, my presumption that the Eternal needs my assistance to exist and preserve itself in the world.'
'There's no need to communicate the News of God. Those who seek, find...All's taken care of in Perfection.'
Gurus and religionists take note.
Friday, 20 November 2009
Andy and Cliff
As some of you know, aside from Telling the Bees I play pipes with hurdy-gurdy maestro, Cliff Stapleton. Our music is a kind of organic trance, simple, looping but elegaic tunes played over and over, against the backdrop of a drone. There's dances that go with the tunes, though you can appreciate the music on it's own (photos here).
We have a gig coming up, in Bath, so do come along and check it out.
It's looking increasingly likely that next year we are going to be joined by concertina wizard, Jim Penny, of Red Dog Green Dog fame. The three of us had a splendid rehearsal last weekend. On the way home, Jim and I stopped for a walk up a prominent iron-age hillfort, along the 303. Not only was the view stunning - the Somerset levels disappearing into hazy autumn sunlight - but there was an unexpected treat, the fruits of the season poking up from the sward. Back ache ensued.
We have a gig coming up, in Bath, so do come along and check it out.
It's looking increasingly likely that next year we are going to be joined by concertina wizard, Jim Penny, of Red Dog Green Dog fame. The three of us had a splendid rehearsal last weekend. On the way home, Jim and I stopped for a walk up a prominent iron-age hillfort, along the 303. Not only was the view stunning - the Somerset levels disappearing into hazy autumn sunlight - but there was an unexpected treat, the fruits of the season poking up from the sward. Back ache ensued.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Glastonbury tonight
Just about to head off to Glastonbury, where I'm playing tonight at the Assembly Rooms with Telling the Bees. Always a great place to play. I'm pre-gig excited.
Back late tonight cos I'm lecturing on drugs and religion tomorrow - no rest for the wicked, eh?
Back late tonight cos I'm lecturing on drugs and religion tomorrow - no rest for the wicked, eh?
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Bright Star
Sobbed my way through Jane Campion's latest, Bright Star, about the tragic love affair of John Keats and Fanny Braun. Every bit as brilliant as you'd expect. So good to see a movie that doesn't rely on histrionics, emotional manipulation or CG-fucking-I to bludgeon you into submission. Good old-fashioned acting, film as art, cinematography - remember that? Oscars please.
Horizons
Things have been silly busy since I got back from NYC. I've been gigging with Cliff, promoting the new Telling the Bees album, teaching in Oxford and Bath and then piping as part of a major dance piece, Common Ground, in Greenwich. All of which means I haven't had a chance to say what a fantastic time I had at the Horizons conference in New York.
Debate about psychedelics seems much more advanced in the US than here. When I mention 'Shroom' to people in the UK I'm typically met with sniggers and titters, nods and winks. How refreshing then to have the subject taken seriously for a change. Maybe it's the proximity to NY University, but I found people to be friendly, open and, most importantly, critically informed, which made for some fascinating conversations. Hard to pick one or two talks as favourites, but Earth & Fire Erowid were as engaging as ever, and it was great to here how psilocybin research is finding its way back into the academy both in Switzerland and the US. Dan Pinchbeck was a no-show, which was a shame as I'd have relished the opportunity to debate with him again.
I also got a glimpse into the possibilities of the New York beatnik art boho scene (every bit as cool as you'd imagine) - there's some great stuff happening there (not least the robot-gamelan). It's a dreadful cliche, but the American can-do attitude was infectious and intoxicating, a tonic for a jaded old-world soul like myself. And get this - the event was declared a Goan-trance-free zone. There is a God!
So, if you want to hang out with cool psych-types who like to think as much as they like to get experienced, then head to Horizons. I know I'll be back.
Debate about psychedelics seems much more advanced in the US than here. When I mention 'Shroom' to people in the UK I'm typically met with sniggers and titters, nods and winks. How refreshing then to have the subject taken seriously for a change. Maybe it's the proximity to NY University, but I found people to be friendly, open and, most importantly, critically informed, which made for some fascinating conversations. Hard to pick one or two talks as favourites, but Earth & Fire Erowid were as engaging as ever, and it was great to here how psilocybin research is finding its way back into the academy both in Switzerland and the US. Dan Pinchbeck was a no-show, which was a shame as I'd have relished the opportunity to debate with him again.
I also got a glimpse into the possibilities of the New York beatnik art boho scene (every bit as cool as you'd imagine) - there's some great stuff happening there (not least the robot-gamelan). It's a dreadful cliche, but the American can-do attitude was infectious and intoxicating, a tonic for a jaded old-world soul like myself. And get this - the event was declared a Goan-trance-free zone. There is a God!
So, if you want to hang out with cool psych-types who like to think as much as they like to get experienced, then head to Horizons. I know I'll be back.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Making Sense of Magic Mushrooms
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifI shall be speaking at the October Gallery on tuesday 24th November, as part of the Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness series, details here.
Entry £7 /£5 Concessions, Arrive 6pm for a 6:30pm Start - Wine available
Please reserve your place as space is limited.
Email rentals@octobergallery.co.uk or call 44 (0)20 7831 1618
Making Sense of Magic Mushrooms
For those who have encountered magic mushrooms, the psilocybin experience is like an ancient codex whose glyphs are at once baffling and clear. To make sense of it, each person must perform an act of translation or interpretation by which the strange is rendered familiar. But how should this be done? In the post-war period alone an original psychological framework has given way to that of mysticism, itself replaced in turn by the language of shamanism.
In this talk, Andy Letcher will encourage us to move away from the mushroom experience itself the usual province of trip-lit , to a consideration of how it has been interpreted throughout history. For, contrary to received wisdom, very few cultures have decoded the mushroom as we do. Along the way he will ask whether magic mushrooms bring genuine transcendence, or if the experiences they occasion forever bound by culture.
Entry £7 /£5 Concessions, Arrive 6pm for a 6:30pm Start - Wine available
Please reserve your place as space is limited.
Email rentals@octobergallery.co.uk or call 44 (0)20 7831 1618
Making Sense of Magic Mushrooms
For those who have encountered magic mushrooms, the psilocybin experience is like an ancient codex whose glyphs are at once baffling and clear. To make sense of it, each person must perform an act of translation or interpretation by which the strange is rendered familiar. But how should this be done? In the post-war period alone an original psychological framework has given way to that of mysticism, itself replaced in turn by the language of shamanism.
In this talk, Andy Letcher will encourage us to move away from the mushroom experience itself the usual province of trip-lit , to a consideration of how it has been interpreted throughout history. For, contrary to received wisdom, very few cultures have decoded the mushroom as we do. Along the way he will ask whether magic mushrooms bring genuine transcendence, or if the experiences they occasion forever bound by culture.
Monday, 14 September 2009
Abbots Bromley
Made my annual pilgrimage to see the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. As ever, fortune rewards those prepared to wait all day for the final dance, which is when the wooji strikes, and the dancers are carried as if it is the horns dancing them.
The finest English Voodoo.
The finest English Voodoo.
Horizons Conference, NYC
Not long now till I fly to NYC to speak at the Horizons Conference - getting excited now.
For those that don't know, here's the blurb - be great to see you there.
A x
== ABOUT HORIZONS ==
Horizons is an annual forum for learning about psychedelics, hosted by Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Its goal is to open a fresh dialogue about psychedelics and rethink their role in medicine, culture, history, spirituality and art.
Psychedelics are a unique class of psychoactive drugs that have been used by humans for thousands of years. In the 1950s and early 1960s, academic research with psychedelics yielded important discoveries in psychology and neuroscience. Just a few years later, they entered popular culture across North America, Europe and the world.
Questions about their safety, medical value, history and implications in politics and culture were unfortunately answered with numerous myths spread by both their users and the media. The millennial rave fever brought a similar wave of popularity and hysteria.
Recently, a renaissance in psychedelic research and dialogue has taken shape. Horizons brings together the brightest minds and boldest voices of this movement to share their insights and dreams for the future.
== SPEAKERS ==
Saturday, September 26, 2009
10:00 - 10:30 Welcome
10:30 - 11:15 William Richards, Ph.D.
11:20 - 12:05 Franz X. Vollenweider, M.D.
12:05 - 1:00 Lunch
1:15 - 2:00 Alicia Danforth
2:05 - 2:50 Bob Wold
2:50 - 3:20 Break
3:20 - 4:05 Valerie Mojeiko
4:10 - 4:55 Earth & Fire Erowid
5:00 - 5:45 Panel Discussion
5:45 - 6:00 Adjourn
Sunday, September 27, 2009
2:00 - 2:15 Welcome
2:15 - 3:00 Andy Lechter
3:05 - 3:50 Bob Jesse
3:50 - 4:20 Break
4:20 - 5:05 Stephen Ross, M.D.
5:10 - 5:55 Panel Discussion
5:55 - 6:00 Adjourn
BIOGRAPHIES
* Alicia Danforth is a clinical psychedelic researcher and writer working on Dr. Charles Grob's Harbor-UCLA cancer anxiety trial with psilocybin.
* Earth Erowid and Fire Erowid are the co-founders of Erowid Center, an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Their primary project is the Erowid.org website established in 1995 as an independent public library of information about psychoactive plants, drugs, technologies, and practices.
* Robert Jesse is organizer of the Council on Spiritual Practices, which aims to shift modernity's awareness and practices with respect to primary religious experience.
* Andy Letcher is a freelance writer, academic lecturer and folk-musician living in Oxford, UK and the author of the critically acclaimed Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom.
* Valerie Mojeiko has worked with MAPS--the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies since 2000, facilitating research of the healing potentials of MDMA (Ecstasy), LSD, Ibogaine and other psychedelic medicines.
* William Richards, Ph.D. is a psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry, Bayview Medical Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
* Stephen Ross, M.D. is assistant professor of psychiatry and director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at Bellevue Hospital, and associate director for education at New York University School of Medicine in New York City.
* Franz X. Vollenweider, M.D. is head of the Psychopharmacology and Brain Imaging Unit at the University Hospital of Psychiatry (Burghölzli) and lecturer in the School of Medicine, University of Zurich.
* Bob Wold is founder and President of Clusterbusters, Inc., a non-profit organization that supports research on the use of psilocybin to treat cluster headaches.
== RECEPTION ==
The Road to Eleusis: A Reception for Horizons 2009
Friday, September 25, 8pm - midnight
at Judson Memorial Church
Free for Horizons ticket holders, $10 cash otherwise.
An evening of celebration, art, music and performance featuring:
* Larger-than-life imaginative inflatable sculpture by AKAirways.
* The Bike Trip, a monologue about the inner explorer in all of us by master storyteller Martin Dockery.
* A visual history of the faces behind the psychedelic movement from photographer Marc Franklin.
* Electroacoustic soundscapes from The Gamelatron, the world's first and only fully robotic Gamelan orchestra.
* Immersive interactive light art by ImageNode.
== VOLUNTEER ==
We are seeking helping hands to make sure the event runs smoothly, and to leave Judson Memorial Church in better condition than we found it in. If you are available to help with setup, breakdown, the box office, catering, ushering, etc., please fill out this form:
http://tinyurl.com/horizons09volunteer
Volunteers receive a single comp ticket to the entire event for every six hours worked. Also, it's a great chance to meet new friends and do something nice for the community.
== DONATE ==
Horizons is a non-profit event run on a shoestring budget. We are currently in the process of obtaining 501c3 status from the IRS. All funding comes out of the event producer's pocket, and its only source of revenue is ticket sales. Principal expenses are venue rental, speaker transportation, insurance, equipment rental, technical labor and printing. We run a very tight ship.
If you are in a position to be generous, please consider making a donation to Horizons. Your donation will ensure that ticket prices remain affordable, and that the event can continue as an annual institution. In years to come, we are hoping to include more international speakers and expand our programming. Please write to us (info@horizonsnyc.org) if you are interested in becoming a Horizons supporter.
For those that don't know, here's the blurb - be great to see you there.
A x
== ABOUT HORIZONS ==
Horizons is an annual forum for learning about psychedelics, hosted by Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Its goal is to open a fresh dialogue about psychedelics and rethink their role in medicine, culture, history, spirituality and art.
Psychedelics are a unique class of psychoactive drugs that have been used by humans for thousands of years. In the 1950s and early 1960s, academic research with psychedelics yielded important discoveries in psychology and neuroscience. Just a few years later, they entered popular culture across North America, Europe and the world.
Questions about their safety, medical value, history and implications in politics and culture were unfortunately answered with numerous myths spread by both their users and the media. The millennial rave fever brought a similar wave of popularity and hysteria.
Recently, a renaissance in psychedelic research and dialogue has taken shape. Horizons brings together the brightest minds and boldest voices of this movement to share their insights and dreams for the future.
== SPEAKERS ==
Saturday, September 26, 2009
10:00 - 10:30 Welcome
10:30 - 11:15 William Richards, Ph.D.
11:20 - 12:05 Franz X. Vollenweider, M.D.
12:05 - 1:00 Lunch
1:15 - 2:00 Alicia Danforth
2:05 - 2:50 Bob Wold
2:50 - 3:20 Break
3:20 - 4:05 Valerie Mojeiko
4:10 - 4:55 Earth & Fire Erowid
5:00 - 5:45 Panel Discussion
5:45 - 6:00 Adjourn
Sunday, September 27, 2009
2:00 - 2:15 Welcome
2:15 - 3:00 Andy Lechter
3:05 - 3:50 Bob Jesse
3:50 - 4:20 Break
4:20 - 5:05 Stephen Ross, M.D.
5:10 - 5:55 Panel Discussion
5:55 - 6:00 Adjourn
BIOGRAPHIES
* Alicia Danforth is a clinical psychedelic researcher and writer working on Dr. Charles Grob's Harbor-UCLA cancer anxiety trial with psilocybin.
* Earth Erowid and Fire Erowid are the co-founders of Erowid Center, an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Their primary project is the Erowid.org website established in 1995 as an independent public library of information about psychoactive plants, drugs, technologies, and practices.
* Robert Jesse is organizer of the Council on Spiritual Practices, which aims to shift modernity's awareness and practices with respect to primary religious experience.
* Andy Letcher is a freelance writer, academic lecturer and folk-musician living in Oxford, UK and the author of the critically acclaimed Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom.
* Valerie Mojeiko has worked with MAPS--the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies since 2000, facilitating research of the healing potentials of MDMA (Ecstasy), LSD, Ibogaine and other psychedelic medicines.
* William Richards, Ph.D. is a psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry, Bayview Medical Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
* Stephen Ross, M.D. is assistant professor of psychiatry and director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at Bellevue Hospital, and associate director for education at New York University School of Medicine in New York City.
* Franz X. Vollenweider, M.D. is head of the Psychopharmacology and Brain Imaging Unit at the University Hospital of Psychiatry (Burghölzli) and lecturer in the School of Medicine, University of Zurich.
* Bob Wold is founder and President of Clusterbusters, Inc., a non-profit organization that supports research on the use of psilocybin to treat cluster headaches.
== RECEPTION ==
The Road to Eleusis: A Reception for Horizons 2009
Friday, September 25, 8pm - midnight
at Judson Memorial Church
Free for Horizons ticket holders, $10 cash otherwise.
An evening of celebration, art, music and performance featuring:
* Larger-than-life imaginative inflatable sculpture by AKAirways.
* The Bike Trip, a monologue about the inner explorer in all of us by master storyteller Martin Dockery.
* A visual history of the faces behind the psychedelic movement from photographer Marc Franklin.
* Electroacoustic soundscapes from The Gamelatron, the world's first and only fully robotic Gamelan orchestra.
* Immersive interactive light art by ImageNode.
== VOLUNTEER ==
We are seeking helping hands to make sure the event runs smoothly, and to leave Judson Memorial Church in better condition than we found it in. If you are available to help with setup, breakdown, the box office, catering, ushering, etc., please fill out this form:
http://tinyurl.com/horizons09volunteer
Volunteers receive a single comp ticket to the entire event for every six hours worked. Also, it's a great chance to meet new friends and do something nice for the community.
== DONATE ==
Horizons is a non-profit event run on a shoestring budget. We are currently in the process of obtaining 501c3 status from the IRS. All funding comes out of the event producer's pocket, and its only source of revenue is ticket sales. Principal expenses are venue rental, speaker transportation, insurance, equipment rental, technical labor and printing. We run a very tight ship.
If you are in a position to be generous, please consider making a donation to Horizons. Your donation will ensure that ticket prices remain affordable, and that the event can continue as an annual institution. In years to come, we are hoping to include more international speakers and expand our programming. Please write to us (info@horizonsnyc.org) if you are interested in becoming a Horizons supporter.
Friday, 21 August 2009
San Francisco Guardian Review
This review just in from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Drugs Issue. Nice.
The elephant in the shroom
THE DRUG ISSUE: It's time to start being realistic about magic mushrooms
By Ari Messer
DRUG LIT The psychedelic experience is perfectly, if unintentionally, expressed in a poetry collection: Too long I took clockwork as a model instead of following the angle my inclinations make with the ground. So writes Rosmarie Waldrop in A Key into the Language of America (New Directions, 1994), a book based on Rhode Island founder Roger Williams's 1643 guide of the same name. The most "meditative" poets, from Milton and Blake to James Merrill and Denise Levertov, are often those who have reworked historical texts. The same could be said about scholars of psychedelics. Forget about Aldous Huxley's exaggerated diatribes and everything by Carlos Castenada. The "doors of perception" aren't opened by self-indulgent rambles of the "I'm a spiritual person" variety.
In 2007, sick of the ingrained pop mythologies surrounding psychedelics (and realizing, it seems, that such pseudoscience isn't helping make the case for legalization), British scholar Andy Letcher published Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom (Harper Perennial, 384 pages, $14.99). Though he spends quite a bit of time debunking myco-myths that I'd imagine are only actually believed by people while tripping — Santa Claus is a giant, speckled variety of the Amanita genus; Stonehenge was like a Dead show without the music — the double-PHD Letcher gives a solid sense of magic mushrooms as they moved through history, and we moved with or tripped over them. Letcher uncovers how little we can possibly know.
Because mushrooms can "simply be picked and eaten," Letcher explains, there is "not a single instance of a magic mushroom being preserved in the archaeological record anywhere." Drugs and apparent representations of magic mushrooms that have been found have had other, nonintoxicating uses, from food to insulation, or have been doctored up to appear trippy, as with one example of Neolithic rock art widely distributed through self-declared visionary Terence McKenna's books — McKenna's then-wife, Kat Harrison, actually made the drawing from a photo, adding her own interpretation.
I once heard prankster Paul Krassner relate the tale of his first psychedelic escapade. After his mind returned, he said, it seemed like a good idea to call his mother and express his elation (the rational part of his mind must have still been distracted). Her hilarious response was perhaps culled from the jumbled logic of the war on drugs: "Watch out," she pined into the phone. "I've heard that LSD can be a gateway drug to ... marijuana!"
Letcher shares this realistic sense of humor about the life of drugs. Before picking apart proponents of the otherworldly "ancient mushrooming thesis," he offers them room to breathe. He is ultimately interested in the cultural evolution of the West's "yearning for enchantment" in response to changes that have occurred since the industrial revolution. "That we in the West have found value in those remarkable mushroom experiences, where almost all others before us have regarded them as worthless," he notes, "means that in a very real sense we could claim to be living in the Mushroom Age." He explores how McKenna's death in 2000 left the psychedelic movement without an "obvious figurehead" and how the need to paste our modern sensibilities onto "a pre-historic religion or tabu" (as shroom-popularizer Gordon Wasson wrote in a letter to Robert Graves in 1950), is just an urge.
Post-McKenna, what is the destination of the psychedelic movement's next trip? A new book, Mushroom Magick (Abrams, 144 pages, $19.95), is respectable for its clear motivations and gorgeous, thorough design. It's a little too much fun, consisting of over 100 lush, full-page watercolors by Arik Roper, whose shrooms "grow from the tip of my pen without much effort." Incomplete but clear field notes by Gary H. Lincoff and an essay by Erik Davis offer tasty morsels, and the short bibliography points to useful resources such as Paul Stamets' field guides. But Daniel Pinchbeck's foreword follows the same trajectory that Letcher so carefully deconstructs. I'm afraid that Mushroom Magick ultimately presents as recreational something that, with or without New Age revisionism, clearly has a deeper, revelatory role to play in human affairs. And that's not furthering the discussion, that's a little irresponsible.
Wednesday August 19, 2009
Kit Williams and the Golden Hare
Like many people of my generation, I've been a long-term fan of the artist Kit Williams, ever since his treasure hunt, Masquerade. I've spent many happy hours gazing at his pictures (published in The Bee on the Comb, Out of One Eye and Engines of Ingenuity). His work is delightfully English, pastoral but with a dark puckish streak running through it. Always there is the sense of a riddle or a secret, just out of reach, that, if only one had the key, would unravel marvellously.
Well, last summer I was lucky enough to meet Kit Williams and to view his current collection. To cut a long story short, my partner ended up modelling for him, and we were both invited to take part in the forthcoming BBC 4 documentary, The Man Behind Masquerade. Here are some photos to give you an idea of what to expect!
We were also lucky enough to have been invited to the preview of his retrospective in London, which, in true Kit Williams style, lasted just one day. I must confess that it was rather full of London arty types - not grubby folkies at all - and we were just on the point of leaving when, lo and behold, a plinth was wheeled in, on top of which was a perspex box, covered in a cloth.
Surely, no? We looked at each other in amazement, hardly daring to speak.
And then, yes! There it was! The Masquerade Golden Hare! It's whereabouts have been unknown for the last twenty years since it was bought by an anomymous buyer. Quite quite extraordinary to see it, something I've dreamed about since I was a child. And, quite possibly, the only time it will be put on public view. I feel very blessed.
And, here's a coincidence, the opening track of the forthcoming Bees album is called, Saddle the Hare, which is partly inspired by one of the pictures in Masquerade. Nice how things turn out.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Baphomet takes a stand
As Britain reels from a summer of Plinth mania, you might like to know that in the interests of psych-occultists everywhere, writer and chaosopher Julian Vayne will be taking to the People's Plinth in Trafalgar Square on Monday 24th August, from 10am-11am, dressed as Baphomet.
Baphomet, as I'm sure you know, is the enflamed hermaphrodite, bat-winged, demon god, alleged to have been worshipped by the Knights Templar, brought to widespread attention by the French occultist Eliphas Levi, and now championed by any self-respecting Chaos Magician intent on a bit of quiet afternoon's boundary dissolution.
But fear not, it's all in a good cause. Julian will be championing Boscastle's Witchcraft Museum, which, having nearly been washed away in the flash floods a few years back, needs a new roof.
Anyone who wants to come along and support Julian/Baphomet with a bit of drumming, chanting, or nepharious ritualising will be most welcome.
Genius.
Baphomet, as I'm sure you know, is the enflamed hermaphrodite, bat-winged, demon god, alleged to have been worshipped by the Knights Templar, brought to widespread attention by the French occultist Eliphas Levi, and now championed by any self-respecting Chaos Magician intent on a bit of quiet afternoon's boundary dissolution.
But fear not, it's all in a good cause. Julian will be championing Boscastle's Witchcraft Museum, which, having nearly been washed away in the flash floods a few years back, needs a new roof.
Anyone who wants to come along and support Julian/Baphomet with a bit of drumming, chanting, or nepharious ritualising will be most welcome.
Genius.
Ahoy there!
Anyone who has visited my website recently will have noticed that I've been a bit slack in updating it. I know, I know. I've been busy, OK?
But owing to the fact that my laptop is four hundred years old and that I'm not, ahem, in a position to replace it, I'm now unable to update the old website anyhow. The software tides have moved on, leaving me marooned on my island of OX10.3.9, with nothing on the horizon but the prospect of further technological decrepitude.
So, I've set this new blog up and right now am positively brimming with good intentions to keep it up to date with thoughts, musings, the occasional witty anecdote and wry aside (I will, I promise, let you know what I've been up to). Think of it as my 'message in a bottle' hurled into the waves in the hope that someone out there will go, "Oh yeah, I remember him..."
Here goes. Splash.
But owing to the fact that my laptop is four hundred years old and that I'm not, ahem, in a position to replace it, I'm now unable to update the old website anyhow. The software tides have moved on, leaving me marooned on my island of OX10.3.9, with nothing on the horizon but the prospect of further technological decrepitude.
So, I've set this new blog up and right now am positively brimming with good intentions to keep it up to date with thoughts, musings, the occasional witty anecdote and wry aside (I will, I promise, let you know what I've been up to). Think of it as my 'message in a bottle' hurled into the waves in the hope that someone out there will go, "Oh yeah, I remember him..."
Here goes. Splash.