High-dose protocol

Now that we have the world's collection of music available, we can contour our sessions with that music, which deepens it even further. I made a choice very early on not to work therapeutically or with other people, not to introduce people into this—a different set of responsibilities. I always worked solo and was...

This book tells the story of where I went over 20 years of working with LSD. I followed a protocol established by Stan Grof, working in psychedelic therapy, which involved a completely isolated environment. I used headphones, eyeshades, and music, and worked with very high doses. I had 73 sessions over 20 years, working...

Well, I'm actually the last person you would have thought from the beginning of my life to end up writing a book on describing what happens on the long series of high-dose LSD sessions. I was raised in the Deep South, in Mississippi. I was a seminarian in the early days, studying to be...

So I began the therapeutic, psychedelic-oriented work that I knew would be required for me to have access to the kinds of experiences that would allow me to hopefully make some kind of contribution to my discipline, which is philosophy of religion. I started a psychedelic practice, which, after three medium-dose sessions, led me...

Absolutely. There's a large percentage of the population who shouldn't do psychedelics at all. These are very powerful amplifiers of consciousness with tremendous evocative potential, and certain people should not venture into these waters. No one should venture in without high-quality, professional guides to keep you safe as you enter this territory. Now, the...

Well, we've just gone through an election in our country, which was, for the liberal side of the continent like me, very disappointing and very upsetting. What's happening in politics, in my country and in many countries around the world, this whole movement to the conservative right is very much of concern, especially since...

Yep.

It's a pleasure to be here with you today.

I'm an unusual person in that I've been a university professor all my life, a professor of religious studies, teaching in a small state college in Northeast Ohio. And I've also done one of the longest regimens of high-dose LSD work that I'm aware of in the background. I couldn't talk about it until...

I am. I think Stan's work is critically important to the emerging paradigm in transpersonal psychology. I came upon this book right after I was out of graduate school, just beginning my teaching career, just beginning to look around for where to take my research next. I came upon this first book by Stan...

It's a pleasure to be here with you today.

Well, Stan was very clear in his early books and in LSD Psychotherapy, published in 1980, the protocol differences between psycholytic and low-dose therapy versus psychedelic high-dose therapy. Psycholytic running doses anywhere from 50 to 150 micrograms and high-dose psychedelic therapy between 350 to 500. At that time, high-dose psychedelic therapy was being used...

Well, Stan was very clear in his early books and in LSD Psychotherapy, which was published in 1980, about the protocol differences between psychedelic and low-dose therapy versus psychedelic high-dose therapy. Psychelytic therapy runs doses anywhere from 50 to 150 micrograms, and high-dose psychedelic therapy ranges from 350 to 500. At that time, high-dose...

Well, I had just finished graduate school. I got my PhD from Brown University in philosophy of religion. I had published my dissertation in a series of articles and was looking for where to take my work next. At that point in my life, I met the work of Ian Stevenson in reincarnation research...

Yeah. I wouldn't recommend that. I wouldn't do it the same way again myself, and I strongly recommend people don't do it that way. I would be much gentler with myself and have a more modulated approach. But that's what I did. I started with three sessions of medium doses, about 250 mics, and...

The starting point of serious psychedelic work is taking complete responsibility for one's own shadow. You go into a room, close the door, lock it, and you're inside by yourself. Nothing there but you and your mind, and you explore the parts of your being that are daunting, intimidating, frightening—those parts we'd least like...

It's a pleasure to be here, Bas and everyone. Thanks for the invitation. My voice is rough due to a cold, but this material is too important to pass up, especially an opportunity to talk with Duane, a friend for over 25 years. Our research and writing brought us together; now it's a deep,...

It all began right after I finished graduate school in 1978. I started my career as a professor of religious studies at Youngstown State University in Ohio, and I read Stan Grof's first book, Realms of the Human Unconscious, and I knew immediately that this was critically important work to my discipline, which was...

And all of a sudden, my visual field pivoted 90 degrees, and I saw reality far, far in the distance. Again, it looked kind of like galaxies. And out of that reality, a beam of light came and hit me, and it absolutely shattered me. It was a more powerful light than even the...

In LSD and the Mind of the Universe, I try to describe as clearly and carefully as I can experiences that opened in 73 high-dose LSD sessions conducted over 20 years when I was a young man between 30 and 50 years old. This was from 1979 to 1999. I spent another 20 years...

I followed a very strict protocol, which I think made my work a little unusual. In a therapeutic protocol, you are totally isolated from the world. You don't take psychedelics and go for a walk, or to a concert, or even stay up talking with friends. You're protected by a sitter, handling logistics, with...

Here we go. My work derives from Stan Grof's work, and these two books changed the course of my life. I finished graduate school in 1978 and read Realms of the Human Unconscious at that time, and my life pivoted. I did my work as a philosopher, not a psychologist or therapist. I was...

Well, I know it's a radical book, and I think we are at a pivot point in history, and I think that psychedelics represent a major transition point, a true historical before-and-after point with respect to philosophy, not just psychology. It generates not only a new therapeutic protocol for healing the personal psyche, but...

I worked systematically — over 20 years — with 73 high-dose LSD sessions. Initially, I began this work within the framework of an individual healing model. LSD can hyper-amplify consciousness, pushing it both deep and wide. But this model of personal transformation quickly gave way to a larger context, as the unfolding experiences revealed...

I'm glad to be here.

I kept detailed, careful notes of all my sessions, writing up every session within 24 hours, tracked the dates of my sessions, and even looked at the astrological variables of my sessions, exploring correlations that Stan and Richard Tarnas have proposed. Now, a few more introductory comments before we jump into the book itself....

Well, I'm a philosopher of religion. I came to this work with an interest in the potential of psychedelics to explore the deeper reaches of consciousness and, by pushing through our personal unconscious, entering into what I eventually came to understand as the mind of the universe itself. I did 20 years of this...

The starting point of serious psychedelic work is taking complete responsibility for one's own shadow. You go into a room, close the door, lock the door. You're inside by yourself, nothing there but you and your mind. You go into the parts of your being which are initially the most daunting, the most intimidating,...

Okay? Looks like it's just as a winner. Okay. This is my psychedelic lineage. My psychedelic lineage basically grounds in the work of Stanislav Grof. When I was 29 years old, fresh out of graduate school, just beginning my academic career in Ohio, I met Stan Grof's work, Realms of the Human Unconscious, and...

My pleasure, Luisa. It's nice to be with you.

Over the next 20 years, as I progressed through the academic world, I did 73 high-dose LSD sessions—completely internalized, completely protected, with a sitter using traditional formats, privately, safely protected from the world with the assistance of a sitter who kept me safe and secure. I found that it engaged me systematically into an...

What I chose to do in my work was to engage with very high doses. I saw that if this could be done safely a few times, it could be done safely more than a few times. As Janet mentioned, I conducted 73 high-dose LSD sessions over 20 years, between 1979 and 1999. At...

Hi, Ryan. It's a pleasure to be here with you today.

It was quite an adventure, quite a long and interesting journey.

What happened was, fresh out of graduate school, 29 years old, in the middle of my Saturn return. Didn't know that yet at the time, had finished my dissertation. Was looking for where to take my research. I was a brand-new professor of religious studies at Youngstown State University, and I read Stanislav Grof's...

No, I think it's pretty much conventional in that respect. You're always working in complete isolation with a sitter and a very carefully curated playlist of music. The difference is that after three medium-dose LSD sessions, I shifted to very high levels of LSD, working at 500 to 600 micrograms. At first, I did...

No, it was quite conventional. I was always working in complete isolation, with a sitter, and a carefully curated music playlist. The difference was that I shifted to high doses of LSD, between 500 to 600 micrograms. Initially, it was for efficiency, but it became a more profound project. I carefully documented everything, knowing...

Actually, it was 79 over a 20-year period. I did 73 high-dose sessions, and 3 medium-dose, but for convenience, we'll say 73 high-dose.

Hi, everyone. Thank you, Jessica and Travis. Thank you for this opportunity to share my work with the participants in Trust Psyche. It's truly an honor to do so. It's also an overwhelming task because this book covers so many dimensions of consciousness. It covers so many years of work, and when I talk...

Well, I knew that silence was going to be the prerequisite that would allow me to do this work, so I took that responsibility when I did the work. Over the long term, I did not appreciate that, first of all, the loneliness would become the issue that it became—the inability to share your...