Are You Sleepwalking Now?

In a dense piece, neuro-philosopher Thomas Metzinger explores fundamental questions of the self, and the need for mindfulness to achieve "mental autonomy".

There can be no politically mature citizens without a sufficient degree of mental autonomy

The Transpersonal Revolution

The Transpersonal (beyond ego) Revolution through meditation and psychedelics, and the need for society to adapt to people having spiritual crises along the way.

Benefits to Psilocybin Plus Meditation

Another piece of research from Johns Hopkins showing that high dose psychedelics with proper set and setting, combined with high support for meditative practice, cause enduring positive changes.

The study showed robust interactive positive effects of psilocybin dose and added support for spiritual practices on a wide range of longitudinal measures at 6 months including interpersonal closeness, gratitude, life meaning/purpose, forgiveness, death transcendence, daily spiritual experiences, religious faith and coping, and rating of participants by community observers. Analyses suggest that the determinants of these effects were the intensity of the psilocybin-occasioned mystical experience and the rates of engagement with meditation and other spiritual practices.

Music Playlists from various Psilocybin Studies

Haven't checked these out, but they are listed on Spotify as:

• Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Study
• Psilocybin Research, Johns Hopkins, Sacred Knowledge, William A. Richards
• NYU's Psilocybin Trial Playlist

And:

• William Richards playlist on YouTube

Meditation and PTSD

TM meditation, which is simply meditation using a repeated mantra like "Om", reduced PTSD symptoms significantly.  I'm not excited that the research is, unsurprisingly, from the TM Mahariji foundation, but this is a result that makes sense.  Participants didn't re-experience trauma, but I would expect that at some point this might come up.

Psychedelics and No-Self

Model Hallucinations, a slightly heavy piece on the self as a cognitive model and the fact that psychedelics can help bring this into awareness.

Ketamine Intranasal Spray

Ketamine has passed phase III trials for treatment resistant depression, apparently based on injection.  But a derivative (isomer) of ketamine has passed phase II trials based on an intranasal spray which would be much more practical for people to use.

Pragmatic Dharma Podcasts

Deconstructing Yourself has a soundcloud podcast with some interesting pragmatic dharma type folks such as Kenneth Folk, Shinzen Young, Vincent Horn, David Chapman, Daniel Ingram, Culadasa, Judson Brewer, Almaas, and Thomas Metzinger.  I'll be listening for weeks.

The fast talking Daniel Ingram was also recently interviewed at spiritualteachers.org.

Also Vincent Horn at Warrior Radio.