Detailed Program
Detailed Program
Friday, 13 January 2006
From the Plants of God to LSD
07.30 Opening of the Registration Desk
08.15 – 08.45 Tune-in
Akasha Project
From the Sound of the Earthly Year to the Vibration of the LSD-25
Molecule
The Akasha Project presents a meditative electronic sound trip.
Starting from the primeval sound of the earthly year, a C sharp with
136.10 hertz, we glide into the LSD-25 molecule's octave analoguous
field of frequency.
09.00 – 11.00 Panorama
From the Plants of the Gods to LSD (1)
Simultaneous translation Ger/Eng and Eng/Ger
Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller
Dieter A. Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller: Welcome and Opening of the Symposium
Lucius Werthmüller interviews Albert Hofmann: The Discovery of LSD-25
Felix Hasler, Ph.D.: What is Lysergic Acid Diethylamide?
Rolf Verres, M.D.: Appraisal of Albert Hofmann’s Lifework
Rudolf Bauer, M.D.: Welcome speech of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research
Reynold Nicole: LSD, Albert Hofmann and the Quality of Time
Thomas Klett, Ph.D.: Albert Hofmann - Ernst Jünger: Notes on a Long Friendship
Jochen Gartz, Ph.D.: Teonanacatl: The
Discovery of Psilocybin by Albert Hofmann
Carl P. Ruck, Ph.D.: Eleusis: Retracing the Sacred Road
11.00 – 11.30 Break
11.30 – 13.00
Seminars/Workshops/Panels
Seminar
Ralph Metzner
Albert Hofmann, LSD and the Quest for the Alchemical Philosopher’s
Stone
(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
Originally, alchemy was a holistic system
of methods for the physical, psychological and mental transformation,
which is related to Indian yoga, among other things. Under pressure of
the church esoteric methods of self-transformation were hidden in an
obscure secret language. In modern age disapproved-of as superstition
by natural science, alchemy’s symbolism was being revived in Carl
Jung’s analytical psychology. The discovery of highly effective
substances by Albert Hofmann and others, suitable for triggering
physical, psychological and mental transformations, carries on smoothly
where this western tradition of wisdom broke off.
Joint Seminar
Meaning and Implications of LSD for Science, Society, and
Culture
With Günter Amendt, Rick Doblin, Felix Hasler, Martin A. Lee, Claudia
Müller-Ebeling, Jeremy Narby, Juraj Styk
(German, English, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng, Eng/Ger)
About sixty years after its discovery, the
significance of LSD in all spheres of life and knowledge becomes more
and more evident. A high-calibre international team of experts
discusses the manifold, and often unrecognized influences of LSD on
their respective fields.
Seminar
Carl P. Ruck, Peter Webster
The Mythology and Chemistry of the Eleusinian Mysteries
(English, without translation)
A case pending before the United States
Supreme Court presented by an appeal by the New Mexico chapter of the
Uniao do Vegetal (UDV) Christian church cites the Eleusinian Mystery as
precedent for a psychoactive Eucharist within a well-ordered religious
ceremony. For approximately two millennia, beginning about 1500 BCE and
ending with the conversion of the Greco-Roman world to Christianity,
people gathered at the village of Eleusis outside ancient Athens to
experience something that would change them and their expectations
about the meaning of life and death forever.
Seminar
Wolf-Dieter Storl
Albert Hofmann and the Inspiration through Plant Devas
(German, without translation)
Mid-Twentieth Century: «Wasteland»,
Nuclear Fear and Desert of Materialism, and how the wise Alberich found
the Nano-Flower which granted the Devas the access again and liberated
the Flower Power Children from their exile.
Seminar
Society for Medicinal Plant Research (GA)
With Rudolf Brenneisen, Matthias Hamburger, Wolfgang Kubelka
Drug Discovery from Nature
Wolfgang Kubelka
"Pharmakon": From Poison to Medicine - the Chemical Improvement of
Nature?
The Greek term "Pharmakon" was used for
poison, at the same time for antidote and medicine. During centuries,
poisonous and healing plants have been detected by trial and error; it
was not before 1800, however, that natural science became successful in
isolating and identifying active substances from plants. With the
development of chemistry the number of known structures increased
enormously, and in many cases their mode of action became explainable.
Albert Hofmann in his work, sometimes led by serendipity, gives us
excellent examples for classical natural products chemistry. To which
extent is it possible to find and improve natural compounds for their
use in medicine?
Rudolf Brenneisen
Cannabis - From Phytocannabinoids to Endocannabinoids
The Cannabis plant has been an essential
element of traditional medicine for thousands of years. Today, its
medicinal use is becoming again popular mainly within self-medication.
However, the discrepancy between empirical and evidence-based data is
obvious and therefore implies intensive pharmacological and clinical
research. On the other hand, the recently discovered Cannabis receptors
and their endogenous ligands are potential targets for new therapeutic
tools.
Matthias Hamburger
Contemporary Natural Product Drug Discovery
Natural products have been the
historically most prolific source for drugs and inspiration for
designing synthetic drug substances. Recently, their role in drug
discovery has been challenged by the advent of combinatorial synthesis
and high-throughput screening. Contemporary opportunities for natural
products will be discussed in the larger context of methodological
advances and new paradigms in the life sciences. Selected examples will
highlight the continued importance of natural products in target
discovery and as source for new drug templates with unique
properties.
13.00 – 14.00 Break
14.00 – 16.00 Panorama
From the Plants of the Gods to LSD
(2)
Simultaneous translation Ger/Eng and Eng/Ger
Moderation: Martin Frischknecht
Christian Rätsch Ph.D.: Plants of the Gods: From the Jungle to the Laboratories of Pharmacologists
Ulrich Holbein: Writers and Drugs: From Charles Baudelaire to Aldous Huxley
Jonathan Ott: The Relatives of LSD: Ololiuqui und Ayahuasca
Ralph Metzner Ph.D.: The Beginning of LSD-Research: Canada, Harvard and Good Friday
David E. Nichols Ph.D.: The Heffter Research Institute USA and the Heffter Research Center Zurich: Centers for Hallucinogenic Research
Franz X. Vollenweider M.D.: The Effects of LSD: The State of Research Today
Nicolas Langlitz M.D.: Special Case Switzerland: LSD-Research and Therapy
Rick Doblin Ph.D.: The Worldwide Use of
LSD in Therapy and Medicine
16.00 – 16.30 Break
16.30 – 18.00
Seminars/Workshops/Panels
Seminar
Christian Rätsch
From the Plants of the Gods to LSD
(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
Chemically, and as to its mental effects,
LSD belongs to the group of ancient Mexican sacred drugs, and probably
also to the Eleusinian drink of initiation. Albert Hofmann’s
phytochemical research enabled a special ethnopharmacological study of
Mexican magic plants and mushrooms. In his seminar, the famous German
ethnopharmacologist and author of the Encyclopedia of Psychoactive
Plants goes into the complex significance of Albert Hofmann’s
research for ethno(pharmaco)logy.
Seminar
Alexander T. and Ann Shulgin
«Ask the Shulgins»
(English, consecutive summary in German)
Sasha and Ann will answer everything you
wanted to know about psychoactive substances. Alexander "Sasha" T.
Shulgin, is a pharmacologist and chemist known for his creation of
new psychoactive chemicals. In 1967, he was introduced to the
possibilities of MDMA by an undergrad at San Francisco State University
at a time when very few people had tried MDMA. Though Shulgin did not
invent the chemical, he did create a new synthesis process in 1976.
Since that time, Shulgin has synthesized and bioassayed (self-tested)
hundreds of psychoactive chemicals, recording his work in four books
and in more than two hundred papers. He is a figure in the psychedelic
community, speaking at conferences, granting frequent interviews, and
instilling a sense of rational scientific thought into the world of
self-experimentation and psychoactive ingestion Sasha's partner, Ann
Shulgin also conducted psychedelic therapy sessions with MDMA before it
was scheduled in 1985.
Seminar
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS)
With Rick Doblin, Charles S. Grob, John H. Halpern, Michael Mithoefer, Valerie Mojeiko,
Andrew Sewell,
In the Midst of Darkness - Light:
US Government approved Psychedelic Therapy Research
(English, without translation)
Presentation by the principle
investigators of all three FDA-approved psychedelic psychotherapy
research projects in the US: Psilocybin in cancer patients with
anxiety, MDMA in cancer patients with anxiety, and MDMA in subjects
with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Further, MAPS presents
information about the case report study of LSD/Psilocybin in cluster
headache and plans for the study of Ibogaine in treating substance
abusers, as well as information on building a non-profit psychedelic and medical
marijuana pharmaceutical company.
2 Seminars
16.30 – 17.10
Wolf-Dieter Storl
"The Spirit of Basel"
(German, without translation)
Basel has a long humanist tradition, be it
the spirit of Desiderius Erasmus, the activities of Paracelsus, or the
discoveries of Albert Hofmann. Wolf-Dieter Storl takes a look at
mysterious facts and backgrounds: Basel’s sacred geography since
megalithic times; the Rhine as a sacred river, which embodies the
triple-shaped pre-Indo-European goddess as a snake or a dragon; Basel
as a centre of the cult of Celtic sun god Belenos; city of basilisks
and sphinxes, city of alchemy and, today, city of chemistry.
17.10 – 17.20 Break
17.20 – 18.00
John Beresford
Psychedelic Agents and the Structure of Consciousness: Stages in a
Session Using LSD and DMT
(English, without translation)
Experimental work with psychedelic agents
permits a theoretical conception of consciousness unlike any posed by
academic philosophy, analytic or existential. The sequence of stages
revealed in a session adapts to the view that consciousness, at any
rate human consciousness, possesses an inherent structure. What are the
metaphysical consequences of this fact? In particular, how does the
sequence of stages relate to activity in the brain? There is tension
between the reality of the "LSD experience" – for example, karmic
reaching-back to a significant past life event – and the reality of
brain cells and their synapses. Speculation here may goad philosophy to
explore the new paradigm we hear about.
18.00 – 18.30 Break
18.30 – 20.00
Seminars/Workshops/Panels
Film
Jon Hanna
Psychopticon Animatris: A Visual Tour of Hallucinatory Imagery in
Animation
(English, without translation)
This collection of diverse clips showcases
hallucinatory content and inspiration in pop-culture animation from the
1920s until today. Whether induced by alcohol, psychedelics or other
drugs, dreams, music or meditation, the depiction of crossing liminal
boundaries is frequently beautiful, often humorous, and always
entertaining.
Panel
LSD and the Counterculture of the Sixties in Europe
With Brummbaer, Sergius Golowin, Urban Gwerder, Werner Pieper, Ronald Steckel,
Simon Vinkenoog, Moderation: Günter Amendt
(German, without translation)
Contemporary witnesses share memories of
the Sixties. They inform us about the specific movements of their
country of origin and analyze the impact of LSD on the varied streams
of the political and social counterculture.
2 Seminars
18.30 – 19.10
The Beckley Foundation / Amanda Feilding
LSD, Precious Key of Neuroscience
(English, without translation)
The Beckley Foundation Scientific Program
conducts cutting edge research with LSD in human subjects, explores
neurophysiological similarities between LSD and the mystical experience
through observing modulations in the blood supply, brainwaves and a
broad spectrum of cognitive changes. The Beckley Foundation Drug Policy
Program advises governments and international agencies such as the UN.
It produces reports and organises seminars at the House of Lords, which
evaluate global drug policy and its impact on scientific and medical
research.
19.10 – 19.20 Break
19.20 – 20.00
Stephen Abrams
Moving Sideways in Time: Miracles that Leave no Traces
(English, without translation)
This talk looks at synchronicity and the
problem of coincidence in psychedelic experience. It brings together
the views of Carl Jung and Alfred North Whitehead and considers the
possibility that human fate can be understood in terms of a sideways
motion in time between parallel worlds. The discussion may help to
resolve the contradiction between the ubiquity of meaningful
coincidence and the paucity of experimental evidence for so-called
"psychic" phenomena. The speaker describes top-secret US government
funded research at Oxford University.
2 Seminars
18.30 – 19.10
Jochen Gartz
From the Demystification of Teonanacatl to the Global Research on
Psychoactive Mushroom Species
(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
Early in 1958, Albert Hofmann and
collaborators succeeded in isolating psilocybin and psilocin from
Mexican magic mushrooms for the first time. A new type of cultivation
methods and a subsequent synthesis made it possible to analyze the
structure of these agents and to produce them rationally. Since then
many mushroom species, developing these alkaloids, have been found all
over the world and have been chemically analyzed. Apart from these
results of the research also the structure of a so far unknown
derivative of psilocybin is being presented for the first time, which
– as far as is known – only occurs in a single psychoactive kind of
the inocybe species (a psilocybin mushroom).
19.10 – 19.20 Break
19.20 – 20.00
Ulrich Holbein
The Indescribable Doesn’t Mind who Describes it!
Three Thousand Years of LSD between Literary Artistry and
Drivel
(German, without translation)
Ancient, medieval, romantic and other
minds and reporters never took LSD, maybe only beer or nothing at all;
but in their reports based on personal experiences they describe
unmistakable typical LSD visions. Then, when LSD became available, the
ability to describe of those concerned seems to diminish. German writer
Ulrich Holbein documents his astounding thesis with many mostly unknown
citational finds from all times and territories.
2 Seminars
18.30 – 19.10
Michael Horowitz
"Kissing the Sky": Writers on LSD
(English, without translation)
Psychedelic drugs and literature both tap
into the realm of Creative Intelligence. Writers have used different
literary genres and stylistic approaches to describe the LSD experience
to readers and listeners. This lecture presents a survey of texts from
Hofmann and Huxley to Leary and Lennon.
19.10 – 19.20 Break
19.20 – 20.00
Jonathan Ott
Albert Hofmann's Contributions to Chemical and Pharmaceutical
Research
(English, with consecutive translation Eng/Ger)
A survey of the major contributions of
Albert Hofmann to the research of complex chemical and pharmacological
properties of several natural substances and their derivatives, with
special reference to the derivatives of ergot.
•
Saturday, 14 January 2006
The Ecstatic Adventure
07.30 Opening of the Registration Desk
08.15 – 08.45 Tune-in
Star Sounds Orchestra
Mercury – Meditation
Resonance frequency is the "patron saint" of each successful
communication so to speak; traditionally known as "Mercury", "Hermes"
and "Toth". On this basis the Star Sounds Orchestra will get you into
the right mood for the day’s events with a musical "Tune-in", and
turn your nervous system into a state of expectancy and bless you with
a pleasant day.
09.00 – 11.00 Panorama
The Ecstatic Adventure (1)
Simultaneous Translation Ger/Eng and Eng/Ger
Moderation: Martin Frischknecht
Carlo Zumstein M.D.: Transcendence and
Back – In Favor of a Culture of Netherworld Journey
Juraj Styk M.D.: Psycholytic and Psychedelic Therapies
Mathias Bröckers: The Right to get High
Martin A. Lee: LSD and CIA and KGB
Ralph Metzner Ph.D.: The Meaning of Set and Setting
Micky Remann: Baptism, Wellness and Back:
Water as an initiate Psychedelic of Nature
Alex Grey: Psychedelic Art in the 20th and 21st Century
11.00 – 11.30 Break
11.30 – 13.00
Seminars/Workshops/Panels
Seminar
Alex Grey
Impact and Influence of LSD on Art and Culture
(English, consecutive translation Eng/Ger)
Artist Alex Grey will trace the emergence
of psychedelic imagery in 20th and 21st century graphics and fine art,
including film and music. Grey will focus primarily on the art of
painting and the current relevance of consciousness expansion on the
ecstatic aesthetic in contemporary art. A Psychedelic or Entheo-Art
that was born in the crucible of the Sixties has matured to the deeper
and more spiritually compelling expressions of today.
Panel
Psychedelic Therapy: Chances and Risks
With: Rick Doblin, Charles S. Grob, Michael Schlichting, Manuel Schoch, Juraj Styk; Moderation: Martin Frischknecht
(German, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
It probably was Italian psychoanalyst
Baroni who, in his "Confessions High on Mescaline" in 1931, first
published on the use of psychedelics in psychotherapy. But it wasn’t
before clinical experiments with LSD (discovered in 1943) that the
therapeutic potential of altered states of consciousness was brought to
light. During the sixties, psycholysis was being practiced in 18
European treatment centers on a regular basis. Through continuous
further development and optimization, today we can refer to a fully
developed, therapeutically valid and secure method. A high-calibre team
of experts informs about the present-day level of knowledge as well as
about chances and risks, using hallucinogenic substances in
psychotherapy.
Seminar
Alexander T. and Ann Shulgin
Pihkal and Tihkal: A Chemical Love Story
(English, consecutive translation Eng/Ger)
"We met, married and formed a research
team about twenty five years ago. This called upon a background of
psychedelic drug invention and exploration of the previous twenty
years, but it added a new dimension to this area of exploration.
Besides the definition of a new material in synthetic and analytical
terms, there is now a social and psychological aspect that can be
explored. The increasing reluctance of the scientific research
community to accept these new discoveries led to the writing and
publication of the books Pihkal and Tihkal."
Seminar
Martin A. Lee
LSD and CIA – Demonizing of LSD & the Suppression of
Research
(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
The CIA and the US military were both
actively involved in anti-LSD propaganda (chromosome damage scare,
etc.). The CIA and the army funded scientists favoring the
psychosis-producing view of LSD as opposed to researchers exploring
therapeutic applications. Martin A. Lee analyses how the CIA ties with
the US Food & Drug Administration and how the National Institute of
Mental Health, and the Public Health Service influenced U.S. policy
decisions regarding LSD research and prohibition in the Sixties.
2 Seminars
Felix Hasler, Franz X. Vollenweider
Requirements for the Work with Hallucinogens (60’)
(German, without translation)
With practical examples the clinical,
scientific, therapeutic as well as legal and ethical general conditions
allowing the work with hallucinogens in Switzerland will be explained
and discussed.
Rael Cahn
Psychedelic States and Meditation (30’)
(English, without translation)
Rael Cahn presents results of EEG studies
with Tibetan monks in order to measure brain activities during
meditation compared with studies with students under the influence of
psilocybin. Among other things, with these studies research was made on
how visual and auditory stimuli occuring during these altered states of
consciousness were being assimilated. Similarities between these two
kinds of experience suggest to take a closer look at connections and
differences between meditative and psychedelic states. The increased
switching-rate during binocular rivalry stimulation, as has been
observed during both meditation and under the influence of psilocybin,
is being treated exemplarily.
13.00 – 14.00 Break
14.00 – 16.00 Panorama
The Ecstatic Adventure (2)
Simultaneous translation Ger/Eng and Eng/Ger
Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller
Michael Horowitz: LSD: The Antidote to Everything
Sue Hall: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – The Sixties
Martin A. Lee: Summer of Love and Woodstock – LSD and Counterculture
Simon Vinkenoog: From Amsterdam to Zurich – The Sixties in Europe
Günter Amendt Ph.D.: The Empire Strikes Back: The Demonization of LSD
Barry Miles: LSD and its Impact on Art, Design and Music
Hans Cousto: The Psychedelic Revival of
the Nineties: The Global Techno, Rave and Trance Rituals
16.00 – 16.30 Break
16.30 – 18.00
Seminars/Workshops/Panels
Seminar
Hans Cousto
The Psychedelic Revival of the Nineties: The Global Techno, Rave and
Trance Rituals
(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
Well-known drug expert and musicologist
Hans Cousto demonstrates how different preferences in the use of
psychoactive substances within the techno and party culture evolved,
and the way these have influenced the cultural development as a whole.
He especially explains the differences between entheogenically acting
psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin, emphatically acting entactogenes
like MDMA and stimuli like amphetamine and cocaine as well as different
kinds and dangers of mixed consumption.
Panel
Natural and Pharmacological Paths to Expanded States of
Consciousness
With Ralph Metzner, Bea Rubli, Manuel Schoch, Franz X. Vollenweider,
Carlo Zumstein, Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller
(German, without translation)
Many spiritual traditions disapprove of
the use of drugs in order to produce altered or expanded states of
consciousness as inadmissible short cuts of a natural spiritual
development. They refer to pharmacologically induced states as
"artificial paradises" and claim that these states differ basically
from states, which appear spontaneously or are being induced through
persistent spiritual practicing. A group of consciousness researchers
experienced in travelling inner worlds discusses the legitimacy of
using psychoactive substances as well as common grounds and differences
of these states and their long-term implications as to personality
development.
Seminar
Earth Erowid and Fire Erowid
Current Views of Acid: What do LSD Users Say?
(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
2 Seminars
16.30 – 17.10
John Dunbar, John "Hoppy" Hopkins, Barry Miles
LSD and its Visual Impact
(English, without translation)
Three contemporary witnesses uncover the
historic roots of 1960’s psychedelic art explosion, giving us
impressions on the climate of experimentation across all art forms,
cross-fertilization of ideas, life styles and drugs. They will take
some significant examples from this very wide field: Influences on the
Beatles, with anecdotes and sketches by Lennon under LSD; recordings of
Mark Boyle’s early lightshows for UFO, the legendary nightclub;
poster art of the London psychedelic school 1966-68 compared with its
U.S. counterpart and present-day trance/dance wall hangings.
17.10 – 17.20 Break
17.20 – 18.00
Robert Forte
Lets Save Democracy: Timothy Leary and the Popularization of
LSD
(English, without translation)
More than any other single individual,
Timothy Leary is to thank, or blame, for the popularization of LSD.
Here we honor the merits and madness of Timothy’s exuberant ministry
within the social, political, and environmental context of the
1960s.
2 Seminars
16.30 – 17.10
Torsten Passie
Thinking, Remembering, Guessing: LSD in Cognition Research, from 1950
to this Day
(German, without translation)
With changes of model conceptions to
cognitive functions – from simple psychological and biological models
to more complex neuropsychological and brainphysiological models –
LSD has temporarily played an important role. Thus one wanted to find
out through which neurotransmitters cognitive functions are being
passed on. A number of experiments were carried out with which the
implications of LSD on cognitive functions like thinking, remembering,
associating, the guessing of time and so forth were analyzed. This
widely scattered and little known research will be systematically
presented and looked at within its historical and actual
framework.
17.10 – 17.20 Break
17.20 – 18.00
Torsten Passie
Lasting Change of Personality as After-effect of Controlled Taking LSD:
What Do We Know?
(German, without translation)
Already early on, the systematic use of
LSD in research and therapy speaks against the assumption that LSD
would trigger a "model psychosis." After taking LSD many test persons
showed positive, sometimes personality-changing after-effects. The
results of these experiments were the beginning of psychedelic (as
distinct from psycholytic) therapy with single and very intense
sessions with large doses. Systematic research was also done on this
kind of (after) effects in a number of especially designed experiments.
Both the experiments and the personality changing effects after
psychedelic treatments will be presented and closely analyzed in this
lecture.
18.00 – 18.30 Break
18.30 – 20.00
Seminars/Workshops/Panels
2 Seminars
18.30 – 19.10
Ralph Metzner
Expanding Consciousness - Seven Phases of Socio-Cultural
Transformation
(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
The Discovery of the
consciousness-expanding substance LSD at the height of WWII
synchronistically coincided with the invention of nuclear weaponry. As
the world geopolitical order attempted to come to terms with the
existence of these horrendous weapons of mass destruction, the next few
decades saw the birth and growth of a multifaceted movement of
consciousness expansion in all areas of society and culture. We can
identify a series of profound social-cultural transformations
proceeding in seven stages, like the octave pattern described by
Gurdjieff. These transformative movements represent a creative response
of the collective human psyche to the evolutionary survival challenge
posed by nuclear weaponry, world-wide environmental devastation and
runaway population growth.
19.10 – 19.20 Break
19.20 – 20.00
Rolf Verres
LSD, Meditation and Music
(German, without translation)
Psychedelic music of the 1970s does not
conform to present-day Zeitgeist any more. Albert Hofmann’s
preferences are with certain kinds of classical music. Why? This
seminar will present examples of music which Albert Hofmann
loves.
Panel
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds: LSD and the Counterculture of the
Sixties
With John Dunbar, John "Hoppy" Hopkins, Michael Horowitz, Martin A.
Lee, Barry Miles , Moderation: Stephen Abrams
(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
Without a doubt the legendary sixties were
the peak of the "ecstatic adventure". LSD's rapid dissemination and the
upcoming counterculture of hippies and students were fervently
discussed topics of this period of new departures and general renewal.
Several decades later, witnesses of the times remember the wild years
in England and the USA. The turned-on Beatles and their trippy songs,
Flower Power, Be-ins and Sit-ins in San Francisco, Woodstock in the
acid fever and much more will be exchanged and remembered in this
English-American panel.
Seminar
Heffter Research Center / University Hospital of Psychiatry
Zurich
With Mark Geyer, Charles S. Grob, David E. Nichols, Franz X.
Vollenweider
From Molecule to Mind: Recent Advances of Psychedelic
Research
(English, without translation)
Widely known researchers of the HRC will present following topics:
David E. Nichols: Neurochemistry and Molecular Action of LSD
Mark Geyer: Behavioral Pharmacology of Hallucinogens: A System Approach
Franz X. Vollenweider: Psilocybin and it’s Brain: A Neuroscience Perspective
Charles S. Grob: Hallucinogens in Clinical
Practise: Basic Principles and Results
2 Seminars
18.30 – 19.10
Mathias Bröckers
From "Open Mind" to "Open Source": how the Counterculture of the
Sixties led to the Personal Computer and to Unlimited
Information
(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
Albert Hofmann’s discovery has not only
significantly marked 20th century culture it also influenced
technology. Personal computer, Internet and "Open Source" software
would not have been developed the way the were without LSD-induced
inspirations. "Acid heads" laid the foundation for what we nowadays
call computer revolution and information age.
19.10 – 19.20 Break
19.20 – 20.00
Mark McCloud
Bring the Fire! A Pictorial History of LSD Blotter Art
(English, without translation)
A colorful presentation of forty years of
art history on LSD impregnated blotting paper. Over one hundred images
of "The Greatest Hits" of the past four decades from the world’s
biggest collection will be shown.
2 Seminars
18.30 – 19.10
Wolfgang Sterneck
LSD and Sexuality
(German, without translation)
Filled with the psychedelic movement’s
euphoria, Timothy Leary described LSD as "the most potent aphrodisiac
ever found by man". Meanwhile this view has given way to a more
realistic approach, which describes both potentials and dangers in an
appropriate way. LSD can, also in the erotic context, open up new and
so far unknown spaces, but it also can totally close them. The
“cosmic orgasm” is as much part of the spectrum of perception as is
a total distance between partners who are captivated in their own
worlds.
19.10 – 19.20 Break
19.20 – 20.00
Fred Weidmann
Albert Hofmann’s, Fred Weidmann’s and Gaia’s "Romantic
Principle"
(German, without translation)
Since the inside equals the outside, small
things may equal big things. Pictures turn into means of knowledge, if
small-scale creation gives an idea of the allover creation. The
"Romantic principle" reads: while creating beauty in miniature, you
help to improve the whole. Through interaction of doing and looking the
painter becomes Gaia’s lover. This lecture is based on a
correspondence with Albert Hofmann.
20.00 – 20.15 Break
20.15 – approx. 22.15
Concert
Introduction by Hans Cousto
Akasha Project
Barnim Schulze
The substance's frequencies, measured in
the infrared spectrum, are being transposed to octave analogous sounds.
By logically using data thus obtained to all musical parameters like
sound modulations, tempi and frequencies, a sometimes strangely
meditative sound originates: quantum music which Barnim Schulze calls
"Klangwirkstoff", active sound substance. While you tune in to these
molecular fields of sound and rhythm, you may state for yourself in
which way the experiencing of substance analogous effects via
perceiving octave ananologous sounds is possible.
Star Sounds Orchestra
Steve Schroyder, Jens Zygar
The Star Sounds Orchestra will musically
interpret harmonical occurences at the moment of the discovery of LSD.
This psychedelic symphony in five movements describes significant
astronomical positions of our solar system's planets at the time of
this moment of birth of a new door of awareness, so important for
psychedelic history. Musical citations from the history of psychedelics
in connection with the sounds of planets are the starting point for a
spherical trip of the cosmic kind.
•
Sunday, 15 January 2006
New Dimensions of Consciousness
07.30 Opening of the Registration
Desk
08.15 – 08.45 Tune-in
Banco de Gaia
Toby Marks
With his sensitive electronic style mix of
Techno, House, Ambient-Trance, and musical influences from Arabian,
Indian and Far East areas, English composer and musician Toby Marks
helps us tune into the last day of the Symposium, opening our mind and
our senses to a variety of new dimensions of consciousness.
09.00 – 11.00 Panorama
New Dimensions of Consciousness
(1)
Simultaneous translation Ger/Eng and Eng/Ger
Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller
Ralph Metzner Ph.D.: The Meaning of Psychedelic Experience
Rick Doblin: The Revival of Psychedelic Medicine
Günter Amendt Ph.D.: No Drugs – No Future: Sketches of an Adequate Drug Policy
Christian Rätsch Ph.D.: The New Rituals: LSD as a Sacred Substance
Ronald Steckel: Freedom and Hedonism: The Way of the West
Claudia Müller-Ebeling Ph.D.: LSD and Creativity
Rolf Verres M.D.: LSD, Meditation and
Music
11.00 – 11.30 Break
11.30 – 13.00
Seminars/Workshops/Panels
Seminar
Stanley Krippner
LSD and Psychic Phenomena: Attempting to Grasp the Unpredictable and
the Intangible
(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
LSD-type drugs have often been used to
facilitate so-called "psychic phenomena", in other words, those
experiences that seem to defy mainstream science's concepts of time,
space, and energy. An Italian investigation met with meager results,
and few formal studies have been attempted since. Such hypothetical
phenomena as telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis
appear to be intangible, and people’s laboratory reactions to LSD
often are unpredictable. However, there are several anecdotal reports
that could serve as the basis for continued exploration, especially
those coming from shamans' usage of such substances as ayahuasca and
their contemporary use as religious sacraments.
Panel
Towards an Adequate Drug Policy
With Günter Amendt, Mathias Bröckers, Roger Liggenstorfer, Luc
Saner, Moderation: Thomas Kessler
(German, simultaneous translation, Ger/Eng)
The American "War on Drugs" is but the
visible peak of an international drug policy which measures everything
with a different yardstick and is strongly defined by economic
interests and irrational motives. A drug policy in keeping with the
times should be oriented towards the risks of drugs, not towards their
being legal or illegal.
Switzerland – and above all the city of Basel – has taken on a role
as trailblazer as far as a pragmatically oriented drug policy is
concerned; even though the National Council wasted the chance, last
year, to discuss new, already completed forward-looking bills. A group
of drug experts, politicians, journalists and activists outlines ways
out of a hopeless situation towards an adequate drug policy in keeping
with the times.
11.30 - 12.10
Seminar
Sue Hall
LSD - A Tool for Life
(English, without translation)
LSD may be more versatile than generally
believed. This seminar will explore the use of different dosages.
12.10 – 12.20 Break
12.20 – 13.00
Jeremy Narby
The Future of Biology
(English, without translation)
The idea of a kind of intelligence active
throughout nature is gaining support within the scientific community,
affirming a view long held by indigenous people and shamans. Shamanic
use of such plants as ayahuasca and tobacco deals centrally with
contact with other beings including plants and animals. Ayahuasca and
LSD enhance people’s concern with the natural world. Hallucinogens
are tools for exploring little-known facets of the human mind, for
thinking ourselves as animals, and as predators, and for rethinking our
place in nature and our relationship with other species. Biology has a
date with shamanism and with altered states of consciousness.
2 Seminars
11.30 - 12.10
Micky Remann
Water as a Medium and the Muse of Consciousness
(German, without translation)
It's in the nature of nature that it opens
its artistic realities preferably to the consciousness, which dives
under the surface. An entry into this world is offered by a stay in
water where nobody can avoid experiencing an altered functioning of
senses first-hand. The way eye, ear, consciousness and feeling are
being touched in water, depends on which sensory stimuli are being
transported there. What happens when water becomes the medium for
multisensory, multimedia stagings, is to be demonstrated with pictures,
sounds and tales.
12.10 – 12.20 Break
12.20 – 13.00
Peter Webster
Psychoactive Plants and Human Evolution
(English, without translation)
Psychoactive plants have been omnipresent
during all the stages of hominid evolution - but is there any evidence
that they may have had an important influence or been the evolutionary
catalyst for the emergence of modern humans? Mythological tales of a
"forbidden fruit" acting to awaken humankind from their “natural”
or protohuman state are not uncommon, but some recent findings of
science now seem to give new meaning to such stories.
13.00 – 14.00 Break
14.00 – 16.00 Panorama
New Dimensions of Consciousness (2)
Simultaneous translation Ger/Eng and Eng/Ger
Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller
Stanley Krippner Ph.D.: The Future of Religion: Dogma or Transcendental Experience?
Jeremy Narby Ph.D.: The Future of Human Consciousness
Ulrich Holbein: Future Society: "Brave New World" or "Island"
Ralph Metzner Ph.D.: Psychedelics and a
new Paradigm: Personal Responsibility and Self-Reliance
Alexander T. Shulgin Ph.D.: New
Psychedelics and their Specific Effects
Mathias Bröckers: Handling Hallucinogens:
Visions and Initiatives
Carlo Zumstein M.D.: Neo-Schamanism for a
Neo-Consciousness
Albert Hofmann Ph.D., h.c.: The Meaning of
LSD from the Discoverers Point of View
16.00 – 16.30 Break
16.30 – 18.00
Seminars/Workshops/Panels
Seminar
Claudia Müller-Ebeling
LSD and Creativity
(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
The well-known art historian and
ethnologist gives a comprehensive summary of creativity research in the
sixties and seventies. Furthermore, she allows an insight into the work
of artists who implemented, in their work, personal LSD experiences, or
who have met Albert Hofmann personally.
Panel
Consciousness and Future Society
With Mathias Bröckers, Stanley Krippner, Ralph Metzner, Jeremy Narby,
Micky Remann, Moderation: Martin Frischknecht
(English, consecutive summarization in German)
"The evolution of mankind is in the
alteration of consciousness," states Albert Hofmann. Having a close
look at different developments on our planet, we soon realize how
urgently a new consciousness is needed, in order to do justice to the
requirements of a future existence worth living. Representatives and
experts from different spheres of life and fields of knowledge discuss
the major challenges, which we only can meet with an altered or
expanded consciousness.
2 Seminars
16.30 – 17.10
Manuel Schoch
Meditation and Mind-expanding Drugs: complementary or
irritating?
(German, without translation)
The focal points of this lecture are: the
power of silence in a state of mind-expansion; the understanding of the
emotional chain and its effects in meditation; drugs as mystic
experience of timelessness; consciousness-expanding drugs as
therapeutic means without the "detour" via the past.
17.10 – 17.20 Break
17.20 – 18.00
Seminar
Ronald Steckel
The Way of the West, or the Rise of the Occident
(German, without translation)
This lecture deals with aspects of the
present-day consciousness-mutation: with the new (cosmic) view of man
as a new paradigm; with the significance of the "individual" with the
"all"; with "initiations" and "paths"; with the "Occident" as a
spiritual Fort Knox.
Workshop
Carlo Zumstein
Everybody his own Shaman
(German, without translation)
Everybody needs his own myth of life. In
ancient cultures shamans were not solely healers. Above all they were
visionaries: creators and organizers of their community’s self-image
and view of the world. For centuries we have left this to the church,
to the government and to schools. In this workshop Carlo Zumstein
demonstrates how a present-day shamanism opens one’s own doors
towards dreams and visionary powers - for a fulfilled self-creation
within new communities.
2 Seminars
16.30 – 17.10
Bruce Eisner
LSD, Its Past and Potential
(English, without translation)
Bruce Eisner explores LSD's past,
including its ancient lineage, uses in research, significance to the
counterculture of the Sixties and the consequences of its suppression.
Within this context, he will bring his own experiences and the
development of the Island Project, named after the work of Aldous
Huxley. Bruce Eisner covers the host of potential future roles for LSD
including psychotherapy, spiritual/religious awareness, creativity and
problem solving, in the experimental production of new cultural memes
and the evolution of a neo-Eleusinian mystery.
17.10 – 17.20 Break
17.20 – 18.00
Myron Stolaroff
The Future of Consciousness
(English, without translation)
The average person today is far below the
level of ultimate consciousness. With Albert Hofmann's creation of LSD,
and with competent support and guidance, vast new areas of discovery
and understanding can be explored. Maintaining these findings require
intention and discipline, as new learned values may slip away.
Attention will be given on how to best retain these fresh discoveries,
and keep them active in our life. Also covered will be examining
sources of difficulties and how they can be avoided.
18.00 – 18.30 Break
18.30 – 19.30
Closing Ceremony
For three days we have obtained a variety of suggestions and information on all aspects of LSD or discussed, in the words of its discoverer: Insights and Outlooks in connection with this highly potent substance. In this closing ceremony with musical framework famous speakers will draw balance, pay tribute to Albert Hofmann and take a hopeful look at the future of the human consciousness.
•
November 2005 • subject to alteration