One of the things I've mentioned here is that I want to meet some of the people I've only read about or listened to on this journey. As I hopped from one website to another one day, I read about an event that will help me accomplish this goal.

With almost no question in my mind that I must attend, I purchased a ticket to the World Psychedelic Forum, to be held next March in Basel, Switzerland.

In an email to a friend, I described the reasons why I was induced to attend. It is because of these speakers:

First, of course, is the father of the psychedelic era: Albert Hoffman, whom I’m sure you know first synthesized LSD-25 and accidentally absorbed some through his skin back in the 40’s, I believe. Apparently his bike ride home from work that day is quite an adventurous story.

Then there’s Jeremy Narby, who wrote the book, The Cosmic Serpent, which was suggested to me by my daughter. This is the book that started me on my incredible journey. If you haven’t read it yet, this book is a remarkable exploration of DNA and the magical worlds of the shamans—as well as this extraordinary molecule’s connection to many of humanity’s creation myths over the ages. It’s a wonderful book.

Daniel Pinchbeck, who wrote “Breaking Open the Head”, is another person I want to hear. This book is about his personal journey involving a number of psychedelics plants, shamanism, mysticism and many other “ways of knowing”. It’s a very literate book that references many great thinkers and philosophers. His recent book, 2012, The Return of Quetzlcoatl, is an intriguing examination of the Mayan prediction of the end of history occurring on December 23^rd, 2012. What we find out is that it isn’t the world will end on that date, but that this phase of man’s evolution will end and that we will move into the next stage of consciousness. It’s a wild and somewhat wacky ride, but very interesting.

Then there is Stanislav Grof, the transpersonal psychologist who, in his long career, has used both psychedelic and non-psychedelic methods to achieve extraordinary and highly effective states of consciousness in his therapy. His current method for achieving altered states is what he calls holographic breathing. He is a very important person in this whole area.

Rick Doblin is head of the organization, MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), which has been promoting research into the medical and psychological benefits of psychoactive drugs (Marijuana, MDMA, etc.) as well as hallucinogenics for many years. They submit research quite often to the FDA. The list of this research is interesting if not just for the fact that it is being considered.

Carolyn (Mountain Girl) Garcia, Jerry’s wife and former Merry Prankster will be there. The book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, was one of those seminal books in my life as a young wanna-be hippie freak.

Alex Grey, who creates amazing visionary art, will be there. One of his paintings is on the cover of DMT, The Spirit Molecule, which I own. This fascinating book is about the only FDA-authorized study of the powerful hallucinogen, DMT, in the past 40 years. The bureaucratic hoops the author had to go through to start this research would make any scientist cringe. DMT is the active ingredient in plants such as the psilocybin mushroom and the shamanic brew, ayahuasca. Interestingly, DMT is also produced in the brain’s pineal gland and in cerebrospinal fluid, and apparently is produced in abundance at two important times: at birth and at death.

Kat Harrison (formerly Kat Harrison McKenna), is the widow of the intrepid psychedelic explorer, Terrence McKenna, who sadly is no longer with us. His passing leaves a great hole in the discussion of the outer limits of knowledge that he shared so often. Incidentally, if you’re interested in getting a taste of McKenna’s other-worldview, visit McKennaland. There are a number of videos and mp3 audios of this amazing man. His talks were adventures, both in the language he uses and in the indredible ideas he proposes.

Anyway, Kat runs Botanical Dimensions, a botanical reserve on the slopes of a volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii that is attempting to retrieve and preserve psychoactive flora from around the world before rampant capitalistic fervor destroy their habitats. She and Terrence began this venture many years ago. I’m glad to hear that it’s still in existence. Incidentally, Terrence’s brother, Dennis, an acclaimed ethnopharamacologist and psychedelic adventurer, will also speak at the conference. The book about his and Terrence’s first excursion into the shamanic worlds of the Amazon, True Hallucinations, is a strange, strange tale indeed. I own that one also.

In the 60’s, Ralph Metzner (along with Tim Leary and Richard Alpert, now Ram Dass) wrote what would become the most significant book about the psychedelic experience. It is called “The Psychedelic Experience”, so I don’t think they were necessarily tripping when they came up with the title.

One day on YouTube, I watched a video with Christian Rätsch, an anthropologist and researcher about his experiences and was very impressed by him. He will also speak.

Alexander and Ann Shulgin are two amazing scientists. As a chemist you’d appreciate their two books, Pihkal – A Chemical Love Story and Tihkal – The Continuation. Incidentally, Pihkal stands for Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved and Tihkal stands for Triptamines I Have Known and Loved. These two books describe not only Alexander’s and Ann’s lives separately and together, but are also about the fascinating research they have conducted with these two molecular families.

The Shulgins are from the old school of pharmacological researchers in that they feel that they should be the guinea pigs of their research. So in these two books, they meticulously describe creating, for example, DMO from DMT by replacing an atom or two, then taking different dosages of this new molecule and describing the experiential affects of it as a function of time. And believe me, he had both good and very bad trips with his many many experiments! Alexander was also the person who first synthesized MDMA (Ecstacy) while at Dow Chemical and describes what an amazing molecule it is, as well as its potential therapeutic benefits. Ironically, Dow, the inventors of Napalm, that most wonderful of death technologies, didn’t know what the hell to do with MDMA, so Schulgin did the preliminary studies before allowing friends and psychologists to use it both recreationally and therapeutically.

These are the few speakers at the conference I know of, but since there are many more I don’t know, I’m anxious to hear these others as well.

So I guess you can see why, when I read about this conference, I felt compelled to attend. For me it will be like meeting the great minds of physics or the great holy men of the Himalayas.

The reason I began this journey was because of a strong desire to understand "reality". What I've found is that there are many levels of reality, with many of them being false or superficial or just a mirror of the truth of reality. But it is now obvious to me that humanity has evolved with the assistance of Nature in the form of plants that shared some of their molecules with us; molecules that helped us see beyond the artifice back to the unfiltered world all life comes from.

Between Christianity and Western Science, through fear and rationalism, much of this has become unknown to us, although there are still many places in the world where these filters do not yet exist.

As a "child in the 60's" if not "of the 60's", I was exposed to the knowledge that there was something else "out there"; even if it was only brain activity induced by drugs". And that was the way it remained for me until recent years when my interest in scientific truth unexpectedly led full circle to the truths that could be found using entheogenic plants.

Sadly, it seems, much of what could have been discovered by my generation was not pursued. Instead, most in my (and subsequent) generations pursued only the immediate excitement and gratification found in these plant and synthetic substances. This to me points to the utter lack of cultural direction we have in this country. We live only for the enjoyment of today and the accumulation of ego-enhancing material crap, which can never bring true happiness.

But there has been an important subculture that has survived since the 60's. Many psychotherapists, scientists, physicians and thinkers have not ceased to regain the knowledge that was known for thousands of generations; only to be lost by the "history-makers" in the last 2,000 years.

Once I became aware of this subculture, I was thrilled to see how robust it is even in the face of great social and political efforts to suppress it.

So while I have yet to try any of these substances in my own life, I wholeheartedly support the efforts to allow the human mind to seek its own level of reality. God knows, the level that predominates today is a long way from the lofty heights that could be experiences if we were allowed--no, encouraged--to experience them.

And so this is my primary reason for flying to Switzerland next March.

Another reason is that...It's Freaking Switzerland!