We kicked off the start of our ongoing livestreams with the announcement of Psymposia's 501(c)(3) non-profit status, discussions of corporadelic dynamics, fond memories of helping people learn how to extract psychedelic drugs during an Ivy League University's psychedelic conference, and a whole bunch of back and forth with the audience about the current state (and future) of psychedelia.

Neşe Devenot shares William Leonard Pickard's description of his side of the Silo bust in "The Rose of Paracelsus."

William Leonard Pickard, alleged to have created 90% of the world's supply of LSD, was just granted compassionate release from a double life sentence.

Neşe Devenot, PhD of Psymposia’s Plus Three podcast ventures into the psychedelic “arm” of the Intellectual Dark Web in this first episode of Chemical Poetics.

Christian Angermayer's story flip flops, depending on where you hear him tell it. Though, he always points out that it was somewhere “legal” and, most importantly, not because of any struggle with depression.

David Nickles runs through his critique of a dominant narrative within the psychedelic culture, the narrative of "mainstreaming" psychedelics, and his concerns on the political and economic landscape that surrounds the "mainstreaming" of psychedelics.

Psychedelics are becoming increasingly mainstream, as a host of other dire sociopolitical issues are reaching a global fever pitch. Much of the public discourse within the 'Psychedelic Community', as well as the cursory findings addressed to the 'Straight Community', tend to fall somewhere on the spectrum between outright psychedelic cheerleading and glowing exaltations of the therapeutic/medical merits of these compounds.

The role of psychedelics within global society appears to be up for grabs. Tech executives, entrepreneurs, and investors are exploring psychedelics as tools for increasing productivity and profits while the military industrial complex appears poised to deploy psychedelic therapies as they see fit. Considering the crises we're currently facing from capitalism and industrial civilisation, the catalysing potential of psychedelic experiences seems too important to allow these compounds to become recuperated by consumerist and imperialist actors.

As new developments in sanctioned psychedelic research continue to drive increasingly positive mainstream publicity about psychedelic plants and compounds, governmental restrictions have relegated significant research efforts to the shadows of the criminalised underground.

Poetry (i.e. experimental uses of language) represents crucial data about the content of psychedelic experiences within the context of scientific research. Neşe calls for the need to develop psychedelic studies in the humanities since the discourse of science is essential but insufficient for exploring these liminal realms of consciousness.

Linguistic theory and poetic interpretation are as crucial as chemical analysis for analyzing data within psychedelic science, highlighting the importance of scholarly collaboration across traditional disciplinary boundaries.

The psychedelic resurgence has crafted and perpetuated a number of memes that have subsequently become embedded in the fabric of public psychedelic discourse. These ideas are frequently treated as truisms with little to no discussion about their validity or legitimacy. Despite a lack of structural analysis, notions of utilizing psychedelics to effect “paradigm shifts” are a dime a dozen, while direct action appears largely absent.

Nick Sand's talk at the 2016 Ozora Festival.

Petter Addy, PhD, shares insights on the research he conducted at Yale University exploring the effects of Salvia divinorum and its relationship to body cognition and understandings of the human condition.

Twig Harper talks about his experience as a participant in the Johns Hopkins psychedelic studies and reflects on the influence of the placebo effect.

Filmed at Breaking Convention: 3rd International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness, 10-12th July, 2015

Despite numerous published scientific papers and anecdotal reports indicating the presence of DMT in a wide variety of plants, there is much ambiguity, contradiction, and speculation regarding the actual chemical composition of many of these plants.

Mark McCloud calls out John Halpern at the International Symposium on the Occassion of the 100th Birthday of Albert Hofmann. January 13, 2006. Convention Center Basel, Switzerland