Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

>> Every night when we lay down our day and exit the familiar

world of waking consciousness, we set sail for the other

shore.

The dream world comes alive.

How did our ancient ancestors view this space?

Considered to be the oldest continuous culture

on the planet, the Aboriginals of what is now

called Australia believed that all creation was birthed

from what the West termed as the Dreaming, the creation

of the world, the origins of knowledge.

The indigenous tribes of Australia

would use shamanic ceremonies and miming

dances to enter this space, in which

all ancestors and all information was attainable.

The Westerners, who attempted to translate

the meaning of this space, called it Dream Time.

Even in the Americas, accessing the dreaming realm

was a known phenomenon among the indigenous.

>> Indigenous people of this continent are all from the same

DNA lineage.

It varies, of course.

But there is a common DNA thread of all the indigenous people.

Basically, they're all related.

And all of them had access to what we call Dream Time.

Now, Dream Time is where the humans

have access to information that exists

in interdimensional spheres.

And the way this was utilized in pre-American times

and pre-Hispanic times, before the colonization,

and the Christianization, and all

this, where they viewed this as diabolical or useless,

was that they would find individuals

that had this ability to remember their dreams

and to be aware in their dreams.

And they would group them into dreamer societies.

And they would forge a physical unity through certain dances,

through certain songs, through drumming practices.

And then they would go into the Dream Time, where

they could access visions of the future, visions of the past,

visions of other places.

>> One anomaly of the dream world is the ability

of the dreamer to engage with their own subconscious mind.

The indigenous didn't use psychological terminology.

So, they spoke not of the subconscious,

but of ancestors, animal guides, and spirits.

Psychedelic plants have been known

in shamanic cultures for thousands of years

to elicit the same effect.

However, these effects happen not within times of slumber.

Rather, the dream state enters this world of waking life.

Yet, in both methods, a great deal of therapeutic healing

may occur, if the journeyer understands

how to engage the dream, like the world

of the psychedelic trip.

Out of 30 million psychedelic-using Americans,

how many truly understand that not only can one

actively guide their own experience,

but speak with their own subconscious,

ask questions directly to it, and begin

a process of self-discovery that is

at the core of all psychological wellness?

Our dreams are known to be easily influenced

by the events that happen just beforehand, just

like psychedelic journeys.

This led to the conversation of set and setting to emerge.

In the pre-prohibition psychedelic studies,

the unpredictable nature of their effects on each person

baffled them.

[LAUGH]

>> What's happening?

>> What-- I couldn't.

I couldn't possibly tell you.

It's here.

Can't you feel it?

This whole room, it's-- it's--

everything is in color.

And-- and I can feel the air.

>> Anthropologist and psychedelic researcher Michael

Winkelman has studied the peculiar ability

of psychedelics to amplify the expectations of not only

the volunteer, but also the researcher.

>> One of the interesting things that emerged in the early

psychiatric research on psychedelics was that very

different kinds of effects could be elicited depending upon

the orientation of the researcher.

So, in the beginning, it looked like psychedelics

produced various kinds of psychotic breakdowns.

And researchers, who looked at psychotics

with this point of view, got their participants

to have psychotic breakdowns.

Later, people started to recognize

that some people had these transcendent experiences,

mystical experiences.

And the researchers that used these substances

with that point of view had many of their participants

have various kinds of mystical unfoldings.

So, what this led to is a recognition

that there were very important set and setting

influences in the unfolding of the biological or

pharmacological effects.

>> How could set and setting influence the outcome

of scientific studies to this extent?

The phrase "set and setting" was created by Timothy Leary

during the pre-prohibition studies.

He noticed the stark contrast between psychedelic sessions

in sterile or clinical environments

and compared the results to those done in safe surroundings

with the right people.

This accounts for the setting.

The other component is the set or mindset of the individual

about to have the experience.

Those in safer and warmer feeling environments

reflected that quality in the unfolding of their journey.

Others, that were without that comfort,

typically in interrogation-style rooms,

across from analytical witnesses writing notes and remaining

emotionally detached, experienced more anxiety

and overall difficulty.

As these plants are far older than the '60s, and their use

can be traced back to 40,000-year-old cave paintings,

how were our shamanic ancestors dealing with set and setting

in their psychedelic experiences?

>> When you're dealing with a powerful psychedelic,

there are a number of elements at play.

One of them is your own internal state,

your own mental state at the time you take the psychedelic.

Another is the psychedelic itself

and how it acts on your brain.

But much more important, in a way,

is your intention when you go into that ceremony

and the setting that surrounds you, that context.

And what shamanism done properly does,

is it pays great attention to the setting in which

the psychedelic experience unfolds, to make sure

that that setting is one that will allow the experience

to emerge freely and of itself, rather than being

purely a result of the setting.

And as to set, it's very important

with shamanistic work.

And I believe it's very important--

I mean, I suppose I've drunk ayahuasca approaching 70--

60 or 70 times over the last dozen years or so.

It's very important, as well, what your own intention is

when you go into that ceremony.

It's not a good idea to just go into it as a blank slate

and say, throw me whatever you've got to throw at me.

It's a good idea to have an intention.

So, that is part of the set that you have.

Now, it doesn't mean that you'll get what you intended.

It's rightly said that what the psychedelics ultimately

give you is what you need, not what you want.

But it's a good idea to start out

with a clear plan, that I'm undertaking a journey,

and this is my purpose in this journey.

>> Just like entering the unpredictable landscape

of a dream, the psychedelic state is a journey

into the unknown.

And purpose or intention may guide or direct

what could be an extremely intense experience.

Astronauts, enduring the physical and mental training

before journeying into worlds unknown,

were also clear about why they were

going into such unpredictable territory.

Having such an intention makes the intensity of the unknown

seem purposeful and worth the risk.

However, ethnobotanist Dennis McKenna

adds a caveat to having an intention.

>> People say you should have an intent.

You should have an intent when you take psychedelics.

I think that you can have one.

If there's a specific reason why you are doing it,

then an intention is good.

But it's also perfectly legitimate

to say my intention is open.

My intention is to let the medicine teach me

what it wants me to see.

That's an intent too.

There is no right way to do it.

The right way to do it is develop

a system that works for you, that optimizes the experience

and doesn't get in the way of it, I would say.

>> The value of an intention is to give a guiding force

and a vessel for consciousness to perform within.

Not having an intention on the surface

doesn't mean that the ingestion of a psychedelic plant,

and the initiation of a mind-bending journey,

isn't directed by some inner question or purpose.

Just the decision to venture into the unknown

comes from a place deeper than the level

we make day-to-day decisions from.

It is likely that the quickest and most reliable way

to know what those drivers are is to take the leap

and enter into the mystery of our own mind.

Whether through psychedelics, shamanic rituals, or dreams,

the experiences can range from brilliant and beautiful,

to dark and frightening.

>> When many people enter into a psychedelic experience,

it's not just pretty colors and exciting feelings.

It can also be at times very difficult.

And I think that this is in large part due to the fact

that the psychedelics release the unconscious.

And they seem to force us towards an engagement

with the conflicts that we have in our life

and the repressed memories that we have about trauma.

And so, psychedelics can often bring up

a variety of different kinds of material

that's very difficult for people to accept and to figure out

how to move forward with.

But that's also the gift of the psychedelics,

is that they force us to deal with these issues

that we were otherwise able to bury into our unconscious.

>> As the psychedelic plant begins shifting

the neurochemicals in the brain and influencing the hormonal

balance of the body, transforming the perspective

of the mind and entering you into a realm of unknowns

and unpredictability, it becomes increasingly important to know

how to intelligently navigate these spaces.

>> We have grown a lot in the last 50, 60 years.

And I realize that set and setting had an almost dogmatic

energy to it.

That was all there is.

And set and setting is not enough.

That we have to incorporate skillful use of these medicines

to really achieve what we want to do with them.

And so, I like to think of set and setting

as, like, somebody has a strong intention and desire

to be an artist.

They have a beautiful canvas, perfect brushes, and paints.

But they don't know how to paint.

And so, something is missing.

And certain skill sets, like the ability to focus,

the ability to allow and surrender,

the ability to perceive inner states,

the ability to navigate these inner states,

the ability to heal from particular traumas

or explore particular concepts or problems,

these are all things that aren't static.

That they can be developed over time, using mindfulness,

using psychological skill sets.

And then also, in the experience themselves,

when you know how to use them.

In the psychedelic community, it's one of the one communities

that doesn't acknowledge this need for skill explicitly.

So, what happens is people take a passive role

in the experience.

>> A passive role is typically what most people take towards

their initial psychedelic journeys.

And the same is seen for the set and setting

that most have before sleep.

So even our dreams are guided by our passive mindset

and environmental settings.

Those new to psychedelic experiences

typically must acclimate to the new environment

and deal with their own fears and desires first.

However, once this space is not so new and overwhelming,

it must be navigated actively and intentionally.

Otherwise, the visions and the entities

encountered therein begin to steer the experience

in their own direction.

The implications of how deep these experiences can go,

how endless the psychedelic universe is,

and how intense it can be to relive forgotten moments,

are mindboggling and not quite accepted

by conventional science or medicine.

Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof

discovered that volunteers using psychedelics, or even breathing

exercises, were entering memories that go as far

back as the womb and beyond.

>> And I don't understand why, for example,

the fact that birth is such a significant trauma,

cycle trauma, doesn't get through.

I read it the other day that it was 50 years ago

when I first talked about it in an LSD conference in Amsterdam.

And I created the four stages, the four Perinatal Matrices,

as I call it, the experiences that people have

when they relive these consecutive stages of birth.

And it didn't make a dent in the official thinking.

I now have the feeling that science,

current materialistic science, no matter how sophisticated,

is naive if it does not include these hidden dimensions

of reality.

The psyche is much, much larger than the model,

the current model, of mainstream psychiatry,

which is limited to post-natal biography.

There's no recognition that the hours of birth

are a psychotrauma.

It's bizarre thinking, if you imagine.

Because we now have a lot of research

showing that prenatal experiences are very important.

So, actually we have many people who

have done psychedelics, reliving birth, having

prenatal experiences, past life experiences,

archetypal experiences.

And I became very fascinated by how much you

can do with such simple means.

>> Trauma is defined as injury or stress to someone's physical

tissues or psychological balance.

PTSD in veterans is one example of a drastic rise

in reported psychological trauma,

that psychedelic plants, with proper set and setting,

can help with.

Imagine how many cases go unreported

in people who will never know that one of the latest

treatment discoveries in science is also

one of the oldest psychological medicines known to culture.

>> I never really understood why I suffered from PTSD.

And it's only been discovered the past year or two.

Prior to that, I'd gone the Western medicine route,

and gone to psychotherapists, and done a Western medicine

model of taking a lot of synthetic drugs.

And I was on opiates for pain for about five years.

And it's really controversial.

And I don't condone this for anybody.

But it was my way to quit cold turkey.

I started with mushrooms.

The cannabis use helped.

I think that psychedelics are going

to help with all these issues going forward.

My heart just goes out to all these veterans.

That some of them, their only resource is to go to the VA.

And these doctors are just prescribing them,

like big bottles of pills.

And it used to be 32 guys a day killing themselves.

Now, it's like 52.

And, like, it kills my soul because these are my brothers.

There is a better way.

And you don't have to use synthetic drugs.

And if it helps just five guys out of those 52 not

kill themselves, please consider that.

Because you're talking to a guy who--

I lived it.

And, I mean, I did everything they said to the letter.

And it drove me in a negative feedback cycle,

where I'm lucky to be sitting here with my life.

>> Psychedelics allow us to stay with those memories,

with the physical sensations, without being fully overwhelmed

by them.

And it allows us to process deep traumas

that we wouldn't otherwise have access

to because we wouldn't be able to remember them

in a normal waking state.

>> Like remembering a dream, the insights of psychedelic

journeys can be fleeting.

And the moments when traumas resurface

are opportunities to heal and process the unique gift

and lesson that every hardship has inherent within it.

If there is no room for engagement,

the whole event would be more like a dream,

in which any decisions that are made are subconsciously driven.

Actively engaging with a psychedelic experience

is turning the dreamlike state into a lucid dream,

in which an aspect of the awakened mind

gets to make decisions and play with the new rules

in this flexible territory.

Psychedelic researcher and author David Jay Brown

wrote the book, "Dreaming Wide Awake,"

where he compares and unites the psychedelic experience

with lucid dreams.

>> Lucid dreaming is very much associated with psychedelics

because people often have lucid dreams spontaneously,

right after doing a psychedelic.

And there's a lot of similarity between lucid dreaming states

and psychedelics.

I think that I started having the lucid dreams because

of my experience with ayahuasca.

What was probably most interesting about doing

the ayahuasca and doing the lucid dreaming

was the ability to communicate with this higher intelligence

or higher part of myself.

>> Ayahuasca isn't the only plant medicine acclaimed

for its abilities to induce lucid dreaming.

Psychedelic researcher and author Chris Bennett

has found particular methods for inducing lucid dreams

using cannabis.

>> You know, one of the things that a lot of regular smokers

of cannabis, what they call chronic smokers,

report is they don't dream very much.

They have a real-- and this is, like, widely known.

And scientists trying to explain this phenomena

have suggested that this may be due to a spike in melatonin,

which is suggested by some reports

to spike as much as 4,000 times the amount of normal waking

melatonin levels.

Now, using the imperial method, just

testing substances on yourself, I've

noticed, if I wake up at about 4:00 in the morning

and smoke some cannabis and go back to bed,

I have the most intense dreams.

They're super vivid, lucid dreams.

And I attribute this to this same spike in melatonin.

I'm already into that deeper levels of sleep.

Because I've been asleep for a few hours

and just getting up for a few minutes.

Go back to sleep.

And bam, I have the most intense lucid dreams.

The type of dreams where you wake up and then

go back to sleep.

And you go back into the same dream, continuous, very vivid.

>> Most people don't realize that in a lucid dream,

you could ignore all the characters in the dream,

ignore the environment, and simply talk to the dream

itself.

You just raise your head to the sky, ask the dream questions.

And it will respond to you.

It responds to you in English.

Or it'll change the environment in some kind of way

or show you some kind of answer to your question.

And remarkably, it knows you better than you know yourself.

It really shows you amazing things.

So, that was one of the major similarities

I saw in working with these two spirits, the ayahuasca

spirit and the lucid dream spirit,

is these two spirits knew me better than I knew myself.

And I can ask them any question I want.

And they would have answers.

It was like dealing with an oracle.

>> An oracle, from antiquity, is typically a person to whom

the commoners would travel, in order to ask questions about

their future.

Just like ancient shamans, the oracle

would do the work for the commoners.

Shamans would imbibe the psychedelic plant and journey

into the next world, seeking remedies and answers

for the tribe.

Similarly, the oracle would often

inhale vapor that would alter their perception,

or throw tea leaves, or stare into a polished crystal

in order to see the coming events.

Nowadays, the trend is turning towards interdependence,

in which the commoners are taking

the shamanic quest themselves.

They imbibe their own plant medicine.

They use their own oracle decks or scrying bowls

and translate the messages themselves.

And this fits well with the similarities of psychedelics

and lucid dreams.

If you can ask your own subconscious

mind questions in the midst of a deep sleep,

who or what is the one responding?

Is it possible that psychedelics, oracles,

meditation, and all other modalities of self-development

are merely tools to engage the self that we do know of,

with the parts of ourselves we've never

been able to imagine?

>> So, the subconscious mind, when it trusts and it feels

safe, can open up big.

It can open up childhood trauma because this is

the place where it can happen.

This whole psychedelic structure that you may see,

and the colors, it seems like the neurons of the universe,

they are outside, the same as inside.

And you feel it.

You feel connected.

It's allowing.

And it's opening up.

And that's what makes it so deep.

And then at a certain moment you realize, this is all me.

It's just myself.

So, in this connection of reality that is universe,

it's me.

It's you.

It's there.

There's no judgment.

So, you're confronted with what you're doing,

with what you didn't do, with what you could have done.

And you come more and more to yourself.

>> What exactly is the self?

How would it show itself in psychedelic journeys or dreams?

And how does it communicate?

Religious, philosophical, and even scientific circles

have been attempting to explain this concept

since time immemorial.

Many of them seem convinced that their way is the one and only.

But is it possible to catch a glimpse of the self

through each of these methods, and realize

that all roads lead not to Rome, but home,

the home of the true self?

One of the benefits of psychedelic experiences

is in how they cause, for moments of humility,

a re-evaluation of the choices and actions that

led us to our traumas or illness in the first place.

But a look into our past is not the only thing that comes about

from these mind-bending plants.

There are accounts from the Old World of psychedelic journeys,

rendering people comatose or perceivably dead.

And upon returning, visions of hellish or heavenly dimensions

were recounted, even visions of the future.

>> And a large amount of the ancient world references are

involved in ingested amounts of cannabis,

which were potent enough to knock over a couple of days.

So, you would appear comatose to anybody that observed you.

But at the same time, there's obviously

a lot of mental stimulation going on from the substance

as well because the people that returned

after such experiences gave their reports of where they'd

been.

And in the Zoroastrian religion, a large part

of the religious cosmology is derived

from people ingesting bonga, a potent cannabis extract,

infused into wine.

And we see this in the stories of both Arda Wiraz

and a king known as Vishtaspa.

In Arda Wiraz's case, he drinks the seven cups

of the cannabis-infused wine.

And then he lies down.

And he comes back.

And he said that he had been to see both heaven and hell.

And Arda Wiraz's visions, these Zoroastrian visions

of heaven and hell, that's where we get the concepts of heaven

and hell from.

There was no heaven and hell in Judaism.

In the Old Testament, Samuel is raised by the Witch of Endor

from the pit of Sheol.

It's kind of a land of shadows.

So, this is like a direct experience this guy had,

ingesting the substances, went to see

the lands of the dead, where the evil were persecuted

and the righteous were rewarded.

In Vishtaspa's experience, he saw the end of time.

And the Oracle of Hystaspes, which

is a Greek version of the name Vishtaspa,

was the prototype of what became the Book of Revelation, written

along the same sort of lines, predicting

the downfall of Rome, and these types of things.

So, here we see people using very, very potent cannabis

things, with lasting visions that effected history

from ever since they happened.

>> The expanded states of consciousness brought

on by these few plants might seem exciting when the focus

remains on the visionary, creative,

and maybe even the prophetic qualities that they produce.

But it should be remembered that to reach

these states, large amounts of these substances are consumed,

which increase the intensity and unpredictability

of the journey.

Few seekers are equipped to take on such experiences

without trauma.

In fact, many psychonauts express their reservations on

whether or not just anyone should

be using these substances.

>> There's also a lot of people that these psychedelic things

were probably not appropriate for them.

And even Terence McKenna said, most people

are better off just leaving all this alone.

It's not for everybody.

People need to work on themselves.

It's not a substitute for therapy,

or family counseling, or Feng Shuiing your house,

or finding a right livelihood.

All those things are important too.

>> And this isn't for everyone.

These experiences are very powerful, very transformative.

And they stretch your consciousness.

And they're an initiation.

But without the cultural container

of how we hold people before, during,

and after these experiences, people

aren't getting the most from it.

And they've not having a long-term transformational

change.

>> The cultural container is more than just

the environmental setting, more than the mindset going

into the experience.

It's even more than having the skill sets to navigate

these deeply unfamiliar spaces.

At the heart of community-based healing,

through generations of plant medicine work, is the shaman.

This role is dedicated to those who

have had significant amount of experience with the medicine

and is familiar with how to handle crises.

Similar roles to the shaman are now

being identified for various purposes, as the guide, sitter,

or facilitator.

In the Johns Hopkins psilocybin studies,

Mary Cosimano holds specific guidelines for her role

in facilitating other people's psychedelic therapy sessions.

>> The guide's responsibility is to have a relationship with

the participant, with a volunteer.

It's really about them feeling safe, and comfortable,

and not judged.

And just being able to allow whatever experiences,

whatever comes up, whatever feelings, to express them

and to allow them.

>> This type of role responsibility is not new.

From shamans, to guides, to facilitators,

the overarching theme is that unnecessary interference

in the psychedelic journey of another

may complicate the intelligent nature

of the psychedelic experience.

The guide must keep quiet.

And only interject for safety or logistical reasons,

to allow for the journeyer to listen

to the message of the subconscious mind.

>> And it seems to be a better approach,

from both learning from studying shamans and from

the psychotherapy approach that people have been studying,

to just let the person kind of have their own experience.

And be there with them, be there in case they need you.

Be there for support, if they want to hold your hand,

if they have an experience they want to share with you.

But don't try to guide the trip.

Don't try to navigate for them.

Let them navigate themselves has been the more common wisdom

that's emerged from MAPS, and from some

of the other psychedelic schools of thought.

>> The emergence of new psychedelic research groups,

like MAPS, ICEERS, Heffter, Beckley, and more,

are focused on the approach of empowering the individual

having the experience with the skills and tools and knowledge

of how to use them in order to have a meaningful and safe

journey.

This empowerment is leading many aspirants

to realize that psychedelic plants, lucid dreaming,

meditation, dance, and many other modalities

are merely tools to access the deeper layers of reality that

lie beyond form and appearance, and contain

all the events in the past, present, and even future.

This is considered to be possible in the same way

the Aboriginals of Australia believe

the realm of the dreaming to exist beyond time and space.

So, no event, whether in the distant past or far-off future,

is truly inaccessible.

The Aboriginals believed in continuity, rather than

progress.

They believed in the way that relationships integrate

into a greater whole, rather than

isolated roles and functions.

They also believed that the land is not

to be owned because the land is what connects us all.

It is the reason we are all able to travel and explore,

to nest and find shelter, and to enjoy life's gifts.

This very land is also home to the numerous creatures

we live amongst, as well as the abundance of plant life.

And among these plants live a specific variety

that usher in visions of animal guides, ancestors,

other worldly beings, and a glimpse at the future

we are creating right now on this planet.

What can we learn from these visions that

emerge from the subconscious mind,

from the space beyond space and the time beyond time?

What can we learn from the shamanic traditions

of antiquity, and their modern revisions today?

What skills can we learn by entering

these deep layers of the self and navigating with intention?

And what lessons can we bring back to this world,

to balance the unsustainable changes happening here?

Perhaps with the support of highly informed communities,

with the highest intentions, we can

empower the masses to take responsibility

for their own healing, their own transformation, and once

and for all engage the dream.

Up next, join us as we explore the importance

and art of integrating psychedelic experiences.

[MUSIC PLAYING]