ecstasy | THE CONVERSATION

Sasha Shulgin, one of the lights of our time, has had a stroke and needs financial help. He’s a lovely man, known to many of us since the 80s when he gave us MDMA, popularly known as ecstasy, and went on to systematically synthesize and publish a vast catalog of entheogenic substances. I’ve thought that if you put ecstasy in the drinking water, even a one-time exposure to the pure stuff (not what they use at raves where they adulterate it), everyone would get a revelation about how we can keep our hearts open, which is the doorway to happiness. On my blog, column left, in Outside the Box Ideas, I have this entry: ” 7. Give ecstasy to people we want info from — turn evil people into heart-connected ones.”

This is a communication that was sent to me that i am passing along:

PLEASE HELP, SASHA NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

MDMA, popularly known as ecstasy, is a chemical substance that engenders emotional openness, trust and often deep psychological healing. It is one of the few drugs that has been phenomenally effective as a therapeutic agent in psychotherapy, but was also adopted by rave dance culture and demonized by the drug control establishment, and listed as a controlled substance. However, recently approved new studies using it with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) have shown that it can be tremendously effective, in some cases apparently offering a cure after only one or a few sessions. Ironically, many believe that if Sasha had not altruistically put it in the public domain, but had instead allowed it to be patented by a major pharmaceutical company, it would still be legal.

Yesterday, on the way to the hospital for a scheduled test, Sasha had a stroke. He has been struggling for six months with an ulcer on his left foot that won’t heal, hoping to avoid amputation. Sasha & Ann have been in serious financial trouble for some years, and the coming medical bills will be a burden they can’t bear alone. Please, express your gratitude for all the work that Sasha has done, for everything he has given to the world, and give something back. Think of all the ways that your life, and the lives of others, have been healed, transformed, and bettered by this wonderful man. He needs your help now. No amount is too small or too large. Please give until it feels good…not until it hurts.

For non-tax-deductible contributions: Paypal $ to annandsashashulgin@comcast.net
Or snailmail: Sasha Shulgin, c/o Transform Press, PO Box 13675, Berkeley CA 94712.

For tax-deductible online donations to support the completion of Shulgin publishing projects that are underway: http://bit.ly/crNrgl

Please spread this information.

Blessings on Rick Ingrasci for sending out some of the best material the world delivers. One of the tracks that I wish I could have gotten into my movie would have involved psychedelics, which provide a path to discover that there is more to reality than surface observation reveals. Opening our minds to what’s beyond our materialistic world is the vital step we need to take so it’s not fingers in the dike to fix all the problems that challenge us, but we get a more enlightened perspective on our oneness in which we would become a compassionate species where we take care of one another instead of combat one another. On my blog http://www.TheConversation.org, column left, in Outside the Box Ideas, this is #7: “Give ecstacy to people we want info from — turn evil people into heart-connected ones.”

Vets Get Ecstasy to Treat Their PTSD

By Katie Drummond
September 2, 2010

A pair of psychiatric experts think they’ve got the answer to the soaring number of troops coming back from war with PTSD: have them undergo intensive psychotherapy — while they’re rolling on ecstasy.

Dr. Michael Mithoefer and Anne Mithoefer, a psychiatric nurse, are the South Carolina pair who’ve been spearheading research into ecstasy, known clinically as MDMA, since 2000. After one successful study on 21 PTSD patients between 2004 and 2008, they’ve now received the final okay from FDA and DEA officials to start a study entirely devoted to former military service members.

“My sense is that, especially after we published the results of the first study, these institutions are more open to the idea,” Dr. Michael Mithoefer tells Danger Room. “Obviously, this is still new and experimental, and it can take time to get through to big institutions.”

With $500,000 in funding from MAPS (the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), the two are recruiting 16 veterans — they’re hoping for a 50-50 split between men and women, and want most of the participants to have been diagnosed within the last 10 years.

“These will mostly be veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan, because longer duration of PTSD means more complicating factors,” Dr. Mithoefer says, adding that he does anticipate enrolling 4 vets from earlier wars and is still accepting applications.

Participants will undergo a preliminary screening process, and then partake in three solitary, 8-hour therapy sessions with both doctors. While tripping out, they’ll be asked to revisit the traumatic experiences that triggered their disorder. Dr. Mithoefer thinks MDMA acts as a catalyst for “an optimal zone of arousal” that prevents patients from becoming overwhelmed or, on the flipside, shutting down and detaching altogether.

Of course, the Pentagon’s still struggling to better diagnose and address PTSD, most recently with a cutting edge 72,000 square foot research facility. But despite the military’s gradual thaw on alternative methods to treat the disorder — already, they’ve funded everything from yoga and acupuncture to “Warrior Mind Training” — top brass have yet to endorse MDMA.

“We’re had several conversations with people at Veterans Affairs hospitals and officers at the Department of Defense, but so far haven’t convinced them to participate,” Mithoefer says. “That said, we’re moving forward and still making every effort to get them involved.”

In the meantime, the Mithoefers anticipate finishing this latest study within three years. Teams in Switzerland, Israel, Jordan, Spain and Canada are in various stages of similar research.

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/new-trial-gives-vets-ecstasy-to-treat-their-ptsd/#ixzz0ylcKvDbc