Sunday was the last day for the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, Switzerland. The weather had been cold and rainy, but inside the Congress Center, the people and organizations with an eye on humanity's psychic and spiritual future continued their presentations.
It was said by the organizers that 2000 people attended the Forum. What I noticed was that on Friday, the modern day version of hippies seemed to predominate. By modern day, I mean that there was a lot of Rasta-style hair generally put up into pony tails and lots of loose hemp clothing and accessories. Less tie-dye and fringe than what I recall from the olden days. And oddly enough, I didn't smell the odor of reefer the entire weekend.
On Saturday and Sunday, however, I noticed a lot more older people, some looking like old hippies (tie-dyed and fringed), but many looking like professionals and "just regular folks". This was encouraging to me, because--not to put down the young people--it seems like the older ones are the people who have the power to make changes within a group or community. My feeling is that they have been to where the kids are today culturally as well as emotionally, and now have the wisdom to have assimilated their own experiences with a more sober eye.
This is just my gut feeling. I'm not trying to say that the young people who attended the WPF can't or won't make a contribution to the goals of the Forum. But I think many of them are still too far into their own experiential states to think a great deal about how all of this can contribute to our species' psychic and spiritual evolution.
Sunday's morning Panorama included Dale Pendell, Ralph Metzner, Vanja Palmers, Allyson Grey and Michael Winkelman.
I wasn't familiar with Dale Pendell and saw him for the first time the previous night on the panel talking about the safe use of psychedelics. With eyebrows that reach ever upward from his brows, he displays a somewhat gnomish face and a definite twinkle in his eye. He speaks like the poet he is and uses dramatic pauses to emphasize his words. His talk was titled, "Psychedelics and Zen Buddhism: The Search for a Path".
Ralph Metzner has been one of the best known proponents of psychedelics since he was at Harvard and worked with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (now Ram Das). Together the three wrote the definitive cultural tome of the psychedelic 60's called "The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead" in 1964.
At age 72, he is a senior statesman of the psychedelic movement and was a frequent sight at the Forum walking around with his briefcase and wearing a decorative brimless cap. His talk for the morning was called "Entheogenesis - Toward an Expanded Worldview for Our Time".
Vanja Palmers is a Zen Priest whose talk was titled "Mystical Experiences, Psychedelics and Religion".
Allyson Grey is a visionary artist, who along with her husband Alex Grey--who was also in attendance--founded the amazing "Chapel of Sacred Mirrors".
Alex Grey's art is quite popular these days and can be found adorning book covers, calendars, websites, etc. Below is an example of his visionary art:
More about his work and the "Chapel of Sacred Mirrors" can be found here.The final person on the dais that morning was the man we decided to hear talk: Dr. Michael Winkelman. As on Saturday, the first part of his talk was given by Thomas Roberts, Winkelman's co-editor on the book "Psychedelic Medicine".
His topic was "New Horizons: Potential Benefits of Psychedelics for Humanity". Whereas his previous ideas about psychedelic service corporations seemed premature at best, this talk involved some very intriguing ideas and offered real talking points for how the world should come to terms with not only the usage of psychedelics, but also the benefits that are being proven by past and current research.
Dr. Roberts' talk lead smoothly into Dr. Winkelman's specialties, the anthropology of shamanism and the medical components that create the psychedelic experience. While many scientists stop at the measurable neurological effects of psychedelics, Dr. Winkelman touched on the controversial idea that psychedelics assisted man in developing his cognitive capabilities. This was also one of Terence McKenna's most provocative ideas and his exposition of this hypothesis is still one of the most intriguing I've ever heard about consciousness.
The final talk we attended at the Forum was the afternoon presentation by the man who along with Jeremy Narby, introduced me to this journey nearly two years ago.
I've written about Daniel Pinchbeck a number of times here. His first book, "Breaking Open the Head", was a superbly written book that melded many disparate ideas and philosophies into an integral whole. But along with these ideas, he told of his own experimentation with the African shamanic plant, Iboga, the South American Sacred Vine, Ayahuasca, the powerful molecule DMT and a chemically related molecule to DPT. His vastly different experiences with these substances define him as an authentic psychonaut. His DPT experience, in particular, was one which could have sent a lesser man into a dark psychological oblivion from which he might not have returned.
But Pinchbeck did return and went on to write an even more controversial--yet just as well researched--book called "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl". This book begins with the Mayan prediction that man will arrive at the end of an historical cycle, the 5122 year Long Count, on December 21st, 2012. As for what else Pinchbeck writes about in this book, I like Graham Hancock's capsule review:
"A daring and intriguing, sometimes deeply disturbing, very well researched and extremely readable book that puts an entirely new slant on 2012. From quantum physics to aliens, from crop circles to reincarnation, from shamanic hallucinogens to Rudolf Steiner, from the Amazon jungle to Stonehenge, from fragments of jaundiced autobiography to the ending of worlds, Pinchbeck takes us on a mind-bending, paradigm-rattling ride."Daniel's Sunday afternoon talk touched on some of these subjects, but his focus was on the future of psychedelics. To this end, he discussed the interesting syncretic Brazilian religion called Santo Daime. He spoke of its use of Ayahuasca as a sacrament and how this church can be seen as a laboratory and a model for the responsible and serious use of psychedelics in society. From the size of his audience, it was apparent that Pinchbeck's books have been read enthusiastically by many attendees of the World Psychedelic Forum.
[I need to update Daniel Pinchbeck' story because, he too, became part of the #metoo movement outings in recent years.This article relates some of it:]
The only thing left for the Forum was the Closing Ceremony, which recapped many of the points made during the weekend by the eclectic list of speakers. Unfortunately, Scott and I were scheduled to leave for Frankfurt very early the next morning and opted out of this. There was also an "External Closing Ceremony" called “Can You Pass The Bardo-Test” party that took place on a boat that sounded like it would have been quite an experience in its own right.
Here is an interesting and whimsical video produced by psychonaut.com that shows some of the people and events that made this weekend such a "trip" for me.
The only thing left for the Forum was the Closing Ceremony, which recapped many of the points made during the weekend by the eclectic list of speakers. Unfortunately, Scott and I were scheduled to leave for Frankfurt very early the next morning and opted out of this. There was also an "External Closing Ceremony" called “Can You Pass The Bardo-Test” party that took place on a boat that sounded like it would have been quite an experience in its own right.
Here is an interesting and whimsical video produced by psychonaut.com that shows some of the people and events that made this weekend such a "trip" for me.