Richard Louis Miller - Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

PSYCHEDELIC
MEDICINE

Imagine that you could ask almost every noteworthy psychedelic researcher not only to discuss their work in depth outside of the jargon of heavy journal descriptions but also to discuss the implications of their work and where it will be going in the future. Imagine an interviewer that knows the research backward and forward and presses each person to think in new directions. Its all there in Psychedelic Medicine. I have been hoping for some years that there would be a book that I could point to that includes almost everything thats going on. This is as close as were likely going to get. Im in the book as well which is why I can attest to Millers knowledgeable and invaluable questioning.

JAMES FADIMAN, PHD, MICRODOSE RESEARCHER AND AUTHOR OF THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPLORERS GUIDE: SAFE, THERAPEUTIC, AND SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS

We love Dr. Richard Millers perceptive, up-close-and-personal interviews with the courageous pioneers of the psychedelic renaissance. Psychedelic Medicine is a treasure trove of insights into psychedelic-assisted psychotherapys well-documented ability to facilitate lasting healing and life-changing mystical experience.

JERRY AND JULIE BROWN, COAUTHORS OF THE PSYCHEDELIC GOSPELS: THE SECRET HISTORY OF HALLUCINOGENS IN CHRISTIANITY

Lively, in-depth, and insightful interviews with both pioneering and contemporary members of the psychedelic research community. An excellent introduction to many of the themes and figures involved in the recent resurgence of clinical studies with these drugs.

RICK STRASSMAN, MD, AUTHOR OF DMT: THE SPIRIT MOLECULE AND DMT AND THE SOUL OF PROPHECY

Fascinating conversations between a veteran explorer of altered states of consciousness and many of the leading lights in a new wave of research into psychedelic-assisted therapy. Brings together the science and spirituality of the entheogenic revival.

DON LATTIN, AUTHOR OF CHANGING OUR MINDS: PSYCHEDELIC SACRAMENTS AND THE NEW PSYCHOTHERAPY

An amazing and inspiring read. Dr. Miller has cultivated provocative conversations with luminaries in the field of psychedelic research as well as some solid criticism of modern psychiatry.

JULIE HOLLAND, MD, EDITOR OF THE POT BOOK AND ECSTASY: THE COMPLETE GUIDE AND AUTHOR OF MOODY BITCHES AND WEEKENDS AT BELLEVUE

Acknowledgments

Between age fifty-five and seventy-five I studied government with particular emphasis on American history 17431812. It was during this period that I came to see myself as a proud member of the American Revolution. In my heart I was with Franklin when he was humiliated before the court of King George. I sat proudly with Jefferson when he, Franklin, and Adams wrote the Declaration of Independence. I stood tall with the signers of the Declaration, in Philadelphia, and I clearly remember the smell of the butcher across the street. I rowed with Washington when he crossed the Delaware and attacked the German mercenaries hired by King George to kill us. I marched with Hamilton when he organized a regiment in Manhattan. I burned the midnight oil with Hamilton when he wrote the Federalist papers, and again with Madison when he wrote our Constitution.

I am eternally grateful to our Founding Fathers for leading us out submission to the king and into being citizens equal under the law. My heart sings appreciation for how they led us out of religious influence on government and into the separation of church and state.

As a patriotic American I am deeply saddened that for the last fifty years our government has not had the wisdom to proactively support, to the utmost, scientific research into psychedelic medicine. Psychedelic medicines have the most potential for unlocking the innermost workings of our consciousness and directing the epigenetic expression of the building blocks of our material being: deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

As a patriotic American I am also saddened that our government has yet to realize the right of Americans to ingest anything they choose, in the privacy of their homes, so long as they do not do harm to any another human being who may be in their home. To deny this right turns honest citizens into breakers of the law but never prevents massive experimentation.

I wish to thank the following people for their work and their collaborative efforts in making Psychedelic Medicine possible; they have made a significant contribution to us all. First, we are indebted to the scientists whose work is documented in this book. Their perseverance in the face of challenges and obstacles, as well as potential threats to their careers, has provided our world with important scientific information having monumental potential for healing and creativity. It has been my distinct privilege to interview each of them.

I thank my friend Mike DellAra, who played a key role in the creation of this volume. Mike has served as my trusted confidante and dedicated radio engineer. His clarity of friendship is inspiring. My friend Charlie Diest is the sina qua non of this book. He built a web-site, Psychepedia.org, that contains the interviews in this book. He supervised the transcription of the interviews and much more. Mike and Charlie, thank you!

I also thank my editor, Jennie Marx, and the staff of Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. They provided essential support.

INTRODUCTION

Whats Happening in America?

This book offers the reader interviews with leading scientists in America who are investigating the effects on humans of the psychedelic medicines LSD, MDMA, psilocybin, and ayahuasca. Psychedelic Medicine is an expression of fifty years of my professional and personal interest in the medicinal and transformational benefits of psychedelics substances.

I received my first license to practice clinical psychology in 1966 while teaching psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. One evening a colleague invited me to his home where he offered me the opportunity to experience DMT (dimethyltriptamine). I took one puff of the normal appearing cigarette, immediately closed my eyes, lay back, and explored the very deepest core of my consciousness and the very borders of the universe.

I had a clear sense that within the infinite universes I was smaller than what I see while using an electron microscope. I experienced being and nothingness. The experience lasted about twelve minutes. I sat up and asked for another puff. Once again I embarked on inner-space travel. I became a dematerialized inner-space traveler transcending time. I soared through the universe in search of the Source. I had a clear sense that I was a part of, an expression of, the whole of it all. My journey had begun.

I began to research what science had to say about these medicines, and why the United States government declared them non grata to an extent that profoundly obstructed scientific research into them.

In the years following I had the good fortune to participate in experimental sessions with LSD, MDMA, mescaline, psilocybin, ketamine, and marijuana. These introspective experiences were exciting, educational, enhancing, frightening, spiritual, captivating, and healing.