Nick and Ash discuss the week in drug news, with a special focus on a Channel 7 News report, seriously over-stating the potential danger of nitrous oxide (nangs) when used recreationally. We're pretty sure that Channel 7 News claims that "experts" warn of "possible brain damage" for every single drug they report on, whether the drug is even real or not. We guess it's on the drug story template form in the book of lazy journalism.
Check out the full write-up of this story at the Enpsychedelia website.
Rap News - IMMIGRANTS! Feat. Donald Trump & Tony Abbott
Events
Tom Cosm - Tipsy Gitz
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Entheogenesis Australis Conference piece:
Beatriz Labate - Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond
This presentation will offer an overview of the book “Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond”, co-edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Clancy Cavnar, and published through Oxford University Press in 2014. The book discusses how Amerindian epistemology and ontology related to certain indigenous shamanic rituals of the Amazon spread to Western societies, and how indigenous, mestizo, and cosmopolitan cultures have dialogued with and transformed these forest traditions. The collection also focuses on how shamanic rituals have been spreading and developing in post-traditional urban contexts throughout the world. Special attention is given to ayahuasca, a psychoactive drink usually composed of two plants, the vine Banisteriopsis caapi and leaves of the Psychotria viridis bush. Ayahuasca use has spread beyond its Amazonian origin and instigated a variety of legal and cultural responses in the countries it has spread to. The chapters address some of the ways these responses have influenced ritual design and performance in traditional and non-traditional contexts. The book analyzes how displaced indigenous people and rubber tappers are engaged in creative reinvention of rituals, and how these rituals help build ethnic alliances and cultural and political strategies for their marginalized position. It also explores modernity’s fascination with “tradition” and the “other.” This phenomenon is directly tied to important classic and contemporary issues in anthropology. One of them is the relationship between the expansion of ecotourism and ethnic tourism, recent indigenous cultural revivals, and the emergence of new ethnic identities. Another focus of this book is on trends in the commodification of indigenous cultures in post-colonial contexts, and the combination of shamanism with a network of health and spiritually related services. Finally, the book addresses the topic of identity hybridization in global societies. The previously unpublished ethnographies and analysis collected in these chapters add to the understanding of the role of ritual in mediating the encounter between indigenous traditions and modern societies.
Rak Razam - In A Perfect World Podcast snippet. Rak speaks with Martin Ball in Episode 97 of his podcast.
Join experiential journalist Rak Razam and author, visionary artist, musician, podcaster and entheogenic explorer Martin Ball, Ph.D., as they engage in a far-reaching discussion about entheogens, DMT, “radical nonduality” and the Mind of GOD.
