Saturday Afternoon:

"Ketamine: Dreams and Realities" — Karl Jansen

[From the Mind States II brochure]
This is a wide ranging talk about the remarkable effects of this drug, including the induction of near-death and spiritual experiences, the possible meaning of those experiences, and the nature of psychological dependence on ketamine.

[Sound bites, but not exact quotes]
Ketamine pulls aside the veil and lets you see the plumbing of the Universe.

Whether ketimine is cold or warm has more to do with the people taking it than with the molecule itself.

Psychedelics and science are blending now that quantum physicists have begun writing about the inner nature of mind.

The space inside you is an infinite space, which allows you to go anywhere that is within the parameters of your belief.

The language physicists use is very similar to the language used by persons describing a ketimine experience.

"Blood and Consciousness: The Search for Expanded Consciousness from Palaeolithic to Modern Man" — Amanda Feilding (Lady Neidpath)

[From the Mind States II brochure]
Traditional and modern societies have used entheogens and trepanation (drilling a hole in the skull) as a means to enhance cognitive functioning and improve health. The hypothesis exists that one's level of consciousness depends on the blood supply to the brain, and that the upright position caused a loss of brain blood, due to gravity (in mythology the Fall of Mankind). To compensate for this loss man evolved an internal system of control: the ego, a conditioned reflex mechanism based on word recognition. This presentation will examine the effects of the shortage of blood in the brain on the evolution of man and his society, and his struggle to overcome this disadvantage.

[Sound bites, but not exact quotes]
Expanded consciousness lies at the core of our cultural development.

It is not just a one message but a state of consciousness we are searching for. So don’t hang up the line.

Apart from the brain’s development there is the matter of its irrigation – the relationship of blood and consciousness and how the possibility of improving the blood supply can enhance the consciousness.

In many cultures, the knowledge of how to heighten consciousness became hidden, esoteric.

I suggest that trepanation lifts the psychic level in the same direction as entheogens, but to a much lesser degree.

Just as the oxydation of carbon in a fire produces light, so too does the oxydation of glucose in a brain produce consciousness — psychic light.

"Hidden in Plain Sight: The Fly Mushroom in Alchemical Art" (a slide presentation) — Clark Heinrich

[From the Mind States II brochure]
The only thing more obscure and bizarre than the writings of the alchemists was their artwork, a type of visual riddle called a rebus. They claimed that alchemy's most closely guarded secrets were openly displayed in these drawings and paintings, yet the riddles posed by the pictures have remained unsolved for hundreds of years--until now. Clark Heinrich has discovered the key that unlocks these "open secrets," and will reveal all in this colorful and unusual presentation. You may never look at artwork in the same way again.

[Sound bites, but not exact quotes]
It isn’t easy to predict the results from a given amount of Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric) like it is with other varieties.

There is an exceptionally strong case for Amanita being the soma of Vedic legend.

Many religious mysteries may possibly be explained by keeping Amanita in mind when reading stories of Moses, Adam and Eve, Jesus, and much of Hindu literature.

What if the stories of Jesus weren’t about a man but were about Amanita? Imagine the possibilities.

"Plant Spirit Suite” — Dale Pendell and the Oracular Madness Choir

[From the Mind States II brochure]
Dale Pendell and friends of the Oracular Madness Choir--Laura McCarthy, Jacob Nasim, Crystal Awareness, Neil Redding, Scott Bodarky, Gary Bravo, and David Presti--will present a sound-art series of reveries, innovations, and invocations of various plant allies.

[Sound bites, but not exact quotes]
Wow!

Wonderful

Incredible

When is your music video coming out?