R E F L E C T I O N S O N AYAH UA S C A,

P S Y C H E D E L I C S, M AR I J UA NA AND A
C R I T I C A L L O O K AT T H E
P S Y C H E D EL I C M O VE M E N T

Our curandero with his wife and daughter in the Peruvian Amazon.
By Bernhard Guenther, April 23rd, 2014
In December of 2013 I visited the Peruvian jungle with two of my best friends. Spending time away
from modern civilization deep in the rainforest has been healing and beautiful on one hand but also
eye-opening and disturbing on the other hand. Its the fourth time Ive been to Peru. The last time was
in 2007. The ponerization of society has reached even the most remote corners where the virus of
modern progress has also infected that part of the world. Many people have this romantic view of
exotic places like the Amazon and the natives who live there. The issue is not only the pathology of
the modern world with its globalization, greed, and capitalism, but that many natives themselves
actually want that life style in so many ways. Its a bit ironic, some of us are trying to escape the
modern world and the people living in what we see as paradise yearn for what we are trying to get
away from. But its a clash and doesnt fit.
Its not black and white and there is much we can learn from these cultures and their traditions. Ive
certainly learned a lot and the insights I gained from working with ayahuasca, the grandmother,
have been revealing and healing in many ways, but we need to get over this romanticizing. I see this
a lot as well in the yoga community with people drawn to Eastern practices and philosophies which
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also have become very distorted over time, romanticizing India and that whole guru culture. Many
people dont question any of that.
Luckily we were prepared with right intentions and lots of self-work under our belt already, working
with an experienced curandero (shaman) who lives deep in the jungle with his family. We traveled for
8 hours on a banana boat south of Pucallpa on the Rio Ucayali to get to the village. Thanks to my
long-time Peruvian friend who came with us and who is very discerning and careful who to work with
based on his own experiences, this trip was very well planned. However, the fact that ayahuasca has
become so popular over the years with thousands of people traveling to Peru to have the
experience has taken a toll on the culture and the people living there. We saw that as well.
Ayahuasca tourism has risen exponentially and along with it many pseudo shamans who have
become greedy for the almighty dollar.
There are even more disturbing things happening, some of it relating to sorcery and wars between
curanderos who are greedy and envious. All of this is well-known in the jungle and ayahuasca has
been used for black magic for a long time. Our curandero told us how ayahuasca is being used by
some shamans for mind control to have power over others by making them ill and psychotic. Even
when we were there, he was under a psychic attack from a curandero of a neighboring village (about
20 miles away) who was envious of him because of his success as a shamanic healer with many
people seeking him out. He was able to fight it off with the help of another shaman during one of the
ceremonies. Its like hyperdimensional warfare. Luckily we werent subjected to these attacks and he
held a safe space for us during the sessions. In the modern world ayahuasca is mostly being seen as
this beautiful spiritual magic drink that, other than some purging and emotional/physical discomfort,
has only positive effects. This is far from true. There have been cases of sexual abuse and people
have died during ceremonies as well.
Not only in Peru, but here in the west coast it has become a lucrative business. I know of some
shamans who charge $250 per person with 50-70 people in a ceremony.(you do the math)
without ever having gone through the long and tedious training and initiation to become an
ayahuascero. Ayahuasca has become more and more popular. Nowadays you can even order it on
amazon (virtual amazon). 12 years ago I remember hardly anyone who knew about it, Now I get
invitations to participate in ceremonies on a regular basis, right here in Topangabut I never
accepted one.something doesnt feel right about it with too many red flags. Jolane Abrams lays it
out really well what is off in her talk below.
Unfortunately there are many people who desperately want to try this brew because of the hype, so
their critical thinking goes out the window and their intuition. Then the projections and expectations
kick in and the curanderos are looked at like gurus, being put on a pedestal with all the transference
issues that come along with that. Some shamans take advantage of this naivet, similar to the Indian
Guru pathology and the abuses based on that. Same story different culture.
Jolane Abrams is giving a powerful presentation of the shadow side of ayahuasca tourism:
I dont have the romanticism anymore as I had when I first went there eight years ago. Much of what
Jolane said I can see down there now and its not a pretty picture. Its gotten worse over the years.
However, I dont want to throw out the baby with the bath water. There is much beauty down there
with amazing healers who live in the jungle or the Andes with incredible knowledge. We experienced
an amazing time with healing and insightful ceremonies in a small intimate setting. But its not easy
work by far and certainly not for everyone. Its also not a magic drink, as Joane said, and the work
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never stops, with or without ayahuasca. Its just another tool and like any tool it can be used for good
or to harm and most harm happens out of ignorance and wishful thinking.
Dark Shamanism is a topic that is virtually unacknowledged in the neo-shamanism revival in Western
culture. Many spiritual teachings have been corrupted and watered-down into sellable, easy-toswallow pop-spirituality these days. Shamanism has also become greatly distorted, omitting many
issues most people are not aware of. Prof. Neil Whitehead, who was the victim of a Kanaima, or dark
shaman attack in Guyana, South America, addresses the dark side of Shamanism in this interview:
[Added: a reader just sent me this article: British tourist, 19, found dead on remote Colombian road
after tribal drug ritual went wrong They found him dead on Wednesday when I published this article.
The youngster took the drug (yage/ayahuasca) twice with a local tribe, and collapsed on the second
occasion. Hours later Henrys body was dumped on a lonely dirt road. His corpse was later found
there on Wednesday, and photographed for a grim image on a local news website.]
HERE is a good example of irresponsibly promoting ayahuasca as very safe, by a Dr. non the less.
My personal experience with psychedelics in general (I have worked with ayahuasca, san pedro,
psilocybin mushrooms, DMT) is two-fold. On one hand they have provided incredible insight into
myself and reality, but on the other hand it has also been very confusing and disturbing at times. My
introduction to psychedelics happened with psilocybin mushrooms in 1996 which I used for a number
of years in my mid twenties on the path of self-exploration and healing. These experiences have also
led me to bodywork, yoga, and qi gong, which Ive been practicing ever since. However, many young
kids use these drugs at parties without any proper preparation or intentions. Thats how I got
introduced to them as well, but I stopped taking these substances recreationally after a couple of
disturbing experiences and then only worked with them on my own or with close friends with the
intention of confronting issues within me, not just to trip out and enjoy some visual fireworks.
These were also emotional heavy times of confronting the shadow with periods of depression,
despair, and anger as my shadow was coming to light. Most of it was suppressed emotional states
from past experiences, mostly childhood, confronting my shame and sadness from childhood
wounding. However, looking back, I also didnt have the context and knowledge to integrate these
experiences, especially from a psychological perspective. I stopped doing any psychedelics for many
years and focused more on integrating what had come up through deeper self-work, learning about
psychology, integrating psychotherapy and using bodywork, yoga, dance, breath work and qi gong
to get in touch with my emotional body through these body-mind modalities. Having said that,
ayahuasca and other medicine plants can help some people (especially with regards to addiction and
trauma) but it is important to combine it with psychotherapeutic work.
Dr. Gabor Mat, author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, talks
about his view of the healing potential of ayahuasca:
At the same time, these substances can open up doors in the psyche, bringing suppressed trauma to
consciousness, which can make things even worse and is too much for the individual to handle. It can
be very detrimental for some people. Thats why psychological education and healing should be part
of it. Many times that alone is often enough for creating deep and lasting transformation without
having to take any substance if one is sincere and sticks to the psychological healing process.
Healing deep trauma, addiction, and childhood wounds, which we ALL have and are dealing with to
varying degrees, takes its own time and trying to speed it up with psychedelic substances can often
times make things worse than better. Its also symptom of our fast-food and instant gratification
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culture wanting to be fixed as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort and work, and for
many people this is what attracts them to psychedelics and ayahuasca.
Often times, using these substances becomes another buffer and avoidance. Looking back at my
experiences, I had to acknowledge that I was over-estimating myself and lying to myself about my
healing process on some level. Just like many other people I got hooked on the peak experience
and avoided deeper psychotherapeutic and sincere self-work without the use of these substances.
This also ties into spiritual bypassing as I wrote about in Spiritual Bypassing, Relationships and the
Shadow.

Marijuana
One of the revealing things the curandero I worked with in the jungle told me after the second
ayahuasca ceremony is that I have an energy block/cyst in the area of my solar plexus due to residue
of long-time marijuana use. He mentioned that its related to something long time ago that is still
stuck. In my twenties I certainly have smoked a lot and its interesting that he saw this because in the
past years I hardly smoked, even staying off of it completely for a year, but I also have smoked it here
and then again as well. He said he worked on it during one of the ceremonies and helped release
it and I did feel a shift in me. I had to admit that I was lying to myself about my cannabis use, telling
myself that I use it responsibly for medicinal purposes. For example, Id smoke a little before doing
yoga or getting bodywork since it helped me to get into my body more, but I also felt that something
wasnt right about it and used it more as a crutch. Also, when I felt depressed or just off, Id smoke
at times to elevate my mood. At times it helped me to work through what came up, however, truth to
be told, I had more emotional breakthroughs when I stayed with an emotional discomfort instead of
buffering it up with marijuana, especially this past year when old childhood wounds came to the
surface again.
What the curandero said certainly didnt come as a surprise but was a much-needed reminder of what
I have been thinking about for a while, how marijuana can be abused and has negative
consequences, especially to the energy body. With all the focus on the positive aspects of this plant
and its healing properties, the other side of how it can be abused and be damaging is hardly
addressed. Most research also relates to the physical benefits indicating that there are supposedly no
physical dangers as opposed to alcohol, for example. Based on that, there is a big focus on legalizing
marijuana with all the pharmacies popping up, where you just have to pay a little amount to get a
medical marijuana card and you can buy and smoke all the pot you want legally.
I never got a medical marijuana card because I knew Id abuse it even more. And thats something
to think about. Who really uses cannabis medicinally for serious conditions in a conscious manner?
How do we lie to ourselves about it, and are actually addicted to it? I think the addictive aspect of
cannabis is also ignored in many ways, in particular psychological addiction and how much harm it
does to the energy body. There are few studies about the negative side of marijuana, but none of
them address these deeper issues from what Ive seen. Of course energetic effects are hard to
prove through conventional science.

When does medicine become abuse?

To be clear, Im all for decriminalization and legalizing marijuana. Its about personal freedom and
choice, but this whole idea of medicinal use seems a bit convoluted. Most doctors with a marijuana
license basically prescribe cannabis to anyone who wants it. But considering it is supposedly a
prescription medicine, no one really tells you what, how much, and when to use it. You just get a
card which is basically a free ticket to the candy store. Help yourself; smoke or eat as much you want
whenever you want it. It seems a bit irresponsible to me.
Im also not throwing out the baby with the bath water. I think the positive aspects of marijuana are well established and
proven, and we all can cite many cases where this is the case, in our own lives and the lives of others. Many people on
facebook post hundreds of articles regarding that with, so the baby is well secure and wont be thrown out. My intention,
however, is to take a critical look at the other side which seems to be so ignored and denied in our personal lives or in the
lives of others, relating to how we tend to lie to ourselves about marijuana use.

Seeing some of my friends who are daily pot smokers for years and even decades have also shown
some red flags, especially energetically. Marijuana is more potent than ever before which actually has
made me smoke it less. I simply couldnt handle the intensity. I remember 15 years ago when Id
smoke a whole joint, got high, and was basically sober again after two hours. Nowadays you take two
puffs from some Frankenstein OG and it stays with you for hours and hours, basically the whole day
(even waking up with a pot hangover) to the point of feeling uncomfortable, at least for me, since Ive
become very sensitive to it. Some people smoke a lot of it since they have built up a tolerance and
are more high than sober on a daily basis, not being able to function without it. Extreme pot heads
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seem to have this energetic bubble that is hard to get through and many of them seem emotionally
retarded, meaning emotional depth and regulation in a healthy way seems to be missing.
I know of some people who have been diagnosed with PTSD and use pot to cope with their illness,
claiming that it helps them to function. While it certainly can aid individuals with that condition under
certain circumstances, some of them literally smoke it all day, every day, and it shows in their
behavior that it is not helping them, but is in fact numbing them in an unhealthy way and keeps them
from healing the Trauma.
Another interesting thing the curandero said is about medicinal plants in general. Hes a botanist and
works with many different plants in the jungle, not only psychoactive ones. Every plant has a positive
and negative side, just like anything and its all about context and application. He mentioned that it is
important to truly honor the spirit of each plant and their intelligence, using them responsibly, so you
are still the master and you use it instead of the plant becoming the master and using you. He said
that there is a reversal in the modern world regarding marijuana and that this plant has negative
effects on many people, resulting in all kinds of energy attachments and blockages. What he has
seen in me he also saw in many other gringos who came to work with him. He said that medicine is
not food and should never be used recreationally which makes sense and should be common sense,
but somehow we have forgotten this, especially with marijuana.

There are many articles about the benefits of marijuana and its good to look at that and bring it to
awareness, but I have seen virtually nothing from marijuana proponents who looks at the shadow
side of this plant in a more objective manner. This also relates to other medicine plants and
psychedelics in general where there is so much focus on the positive sides and how it has helped
people (which is important to point out), but there are many cases where these drugs have done a lot
of harm. There seems a lot of romanticizing going on about these plants. Its somewhat
understandable because many of them are illegal in most countries for reasons that are ridiculous, so
everyone is focused on the positive aspects to help the decriminalization process. But that can also
create a tunnel vision of wishful thinking and distortion regarding some other issues. The tricky thing
is that the harm is for the most part not a physical symptom, but an energetic one. One can damage
the energy body with psychedelics, taking on all kinds of spirit attachments that can always leach on
to anybody who force-opens ones consciousness to the higher realms. The same goes for smoking
pot. It opens up the energy body which can result in ruptures in ones aura that can be detrimental in
the long run.
Dr. William J. Baldwin wrote about spirit attachments in his seminal work Spirit Releasement
Therapy: A Technique Manual:
The condition of spirit possession, (that is, full or partial takeover of a living human by a
discarnate being) has been recognized or at least theorized in every era and every culture. In
90% of societies worldwide there are records of possession-like phenomena. Extensive
contemporary clinical evidence suggests that discarnate beings, the spirits of deceased humans,
can influence living people by forming a physical or mental connection or attachment, and
subsequently imposing detrimental physical and/or emotional conditions and symptoms. This
condition has been called the possession state, possession disorder, spirit possession, or
spirit attachment.
Earthbound spirits, the surviving consciousness of deceased humans, are the most prevalent
possessing, obsessing or attaching entities to be found. The disembodied consciousness
seems to attach itself and merge fully or partially with the subconscious mind of a living
person, exerting some degree of influence on thought processes, emotions, behavior and
the physical body. The entity becomes a parasite in the mind of the host.[]
Severe stress may cause susceptibility to the influence of an intrusive spirit. Altering the
consciousness with alcohol or drugs, especially the hallucinogens, loosens ones
external ego boundaries and opens the subconscious mind to infestation by discarnate
beings.[]
Spirit attachment does not require the permission of the host. This seems to be a violation
of free will. It also appears to refute the popular notion that each person is totally responsible for
creating his or her reality and that there are no victims. The apparent conflict here stems from the
definitions of permission and free will choice. Ignorance and denial of the possibility of spirit
interference is no defense against spirit attachment. Belief or lack of belief regarding the
existence of intrusive entities has no bearing on the reality of these beings and their
behavior.
In denial and ignorance, most people do not refuse permission to these nonphysical intruders.
Individual sovereign beings have the right to deny any violation or intrusion by another
being. With limited, if any, knowledge and distorted perceptions of the nature of the spirit
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world, the nonphysical reality, many people leave themselves open and create their own
vulnerability as part of creating their own reality.
It is fashionable today among many new Age enthusiasts to attempt to channel some higher
power, a spirit teacher or master who will use the voice mechanism of any willing person to
speak words of wisdom. Some use the terminology for my highest good when calling for a
spirit to channel through. This activity constitutes permission and welcome for a discarnate
spirit. The identifiers such as master and teacher and qualifiers such as for my highest good
will be claimed by the entities as personally valid identifications, qualities or attributes.
The host is usually unaware of the presence of attached spirits. The thoughts, desires and
behaviors of an attached entity are experienced as the persons own thoughts, desires
and behaviors. The thoughts, feelings, habits and desires do not seem foreign if they have been
present for a long time, even from childhood. This is a major factor in the widespread denial of
the concept and lack of acceptance of the phenomena of discarnate interference and spirit
attachment, obsession or possession. The symptoms of spirit attachment can be very subtle.
An attached spirit may be present without producing any noticeable symptoms.[]
A living person can have dozens, even hundreds of attached spirits, as they occupy no physical
space. They can attach to the aura or float within the aura outside the body. If any part of the
body of the host has a physical weakness the earthbound can attach to that area because of a
corresponding weakness or injury to the physical body of the spirit prior to death. A spirit can
lodge in any of the chakras of the host, drawn by the particular energy of the chakra or by
the physical structures of that level of the body. Many areas of a persons life can be
influenced by one or more attached entities. In short, spirit attachment can interfere with any
aspect of the life of the unsuspecting host.
The curanderos and shamans who work responsibly with these plants know all about that. They are
also aware of the hyperdimensional aspect of reality with all kinds of non-physical entities and
critters that just look for an opening to feed off of us. There are many dangers energetically,
psychically, and esoterically when forcing oneself to enter a higher state of consciousness through
these drugs. The trap is that many people look for peak experiences without doing the proper
grounded work to prepare the body-mind for it with spiritual practices and sincere self-work, including
psychotherapy. If you take these drugs and have not done the necessary deeper self-work to raise
your being without any substances, its like shooting 1000 volts through a cable that can only take 10
volts. Youre gonna damage it and may take on spirit attachments.
Jonathan Zap wrote about the danger of using mind expanding drugs in party settings in his
article Alex Grey and the Mind Parasites:
Socially dense environments of strangers and substances mixing together are likely to default to
lowest-common-denominator factors of social parasitism/sexual predation/chaotic acting out of
fragmented personalities-what I sometimes call a carnival of lost souls. Everything depends on
who are the particular people in a group that is having a boundary-dissolving experience or ritual.
Nave people frequently forget this. Such people think the ritual is what matters and take all
comers, but this can be a disaster! Generally, I think it unwise to have boundary- dissolving
experiences (such as sex and/or hallucinogenic trips) with people you dont know and wouldnt
trust with your life, because you are trusting your life with them.[]

I caution people about doing things such as going to a rave with a sketchy vibe redolent of
prowling sexual agendas (in other words, almost any rave) and opening themselves to the toxic
energy by taking a boundary-dissolving substance. Unless you want to internalize a carnival of
lost souls it is probably unwise to blow yourself wide open in an setting of trance-inducing
music/lighting and stoned people, many of them on the prowl for parasitic sexual encounters.
It reminds me what William Chittick, translator of the works of the great Sufi Shaykh, Ibn al-Arabi,
wrote:
Nowadays most people interested in the spirituality of the East desire the experience, though
they may call what they are after intimate communion with God. Those familiar with the
standards and norms of spiritual experience set down by disciplined paths like Sufism are usually
appalled at the way Westerners seize upon any apparition from the domain outside of normal
consciousness as a manifestation of the spiritual. In fact, there are innumerable realms in
the unseen world, some of them far more dangerous than the worst jungles of the visible
world. Al-Arabi himself said:
So preserve yourselves, my brothers, from the calamities of this place, for distinguishing it is
extremely difficult! Souls find it sweet, and then within it they are duped, since they become
completely enamored of it.
Visionary artist Alex Grey also hinted at the topic of all topics and hyperdimensional control
system based on some experiences he had on LSD:
At one point I did feel that this entire thing has been orchestrated by these beings, that our
coming together was not an accident When we feel influenced to do certain things, or
intuitively guided to do certain things many times we may seek guidance from a higher realm
In the same way one can be vulnerable to the influence from beings from a lower realm.
I remember one time being on one of the most harrowing LSD adventures I ever had. I felt like I
was a flapper in the wheel of fortune and every realm of being and dimension was one of these
slots that the little flapper was open to. And in one such dimension that was flying by I saw this
really strange insect-like creature lunge out at me. After I came back from this trip, and for days
afterward, I was really feeling out of sorts and very energetically drained. And I realized that this
thing had jumped out and was probably still embedded in my aura. So I did a whole
cleansing to draw all the energy back into the heart and then expand it out from the heart to
banish this being.
Interestingly, while the curandero cautioned me to smoke marijuana, he highly recommended that I
should smoke more tobacco. He said it helps the healing process and serves as a protection
from psychic attacks from hyperdimensional forces. He knew very well that humanity is not on top of
the food chain. Of course he was talking about pure natural tobacco, not commercial cigarettes with
all the chemicals and additives. Native Americans have used tobacco for thousands of years as
medicine and for protection without any cases of cancer relating to it. The over-the-top anti-smoking
propaganda in the modern world is a topic on its own. However, most people dont question any of
that.
There may be a completely different reason to discourage people from smoking tobacco through fear,
guilt tactics, and corrupted science that has nothing to do with caring for our health, especially in
light of the topic of all topics. Most people fall into the fallacy believing that smoking causes
cancer. Nope. The question is: WHAT is one smoking? Pure organic additive free tobacco or
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commercial cigarettes, for example? A careful study of this topic shows that the whole anti-smoking
campaign is indeed based on lies, propaganda, and corrupted science. Its also interesting to see
how marijuana is being promoted as completely harmless for the most part and tobacco is more and
more demonized. What is really going on?
If anything, the so-called New Age movement has been so heavily inculcated with the idea that
one must not ever think about negative things, that they, above all other people, are most subject
to its predations of higher realms. If you dont know about something, you cannot defend yourself
against it. The consistent deflection from the truth of the state of so-called higher realms by
masses of published material over the many years, suggests almost a program of disinformation.
It was beginning to look as though there was something or someone out there who didnt want
us to know something.
Laura Knight-Jadczyk

COINTELPRO and the Psychedelic Movement

This is another big topic most people are not aware of. Various researchers have uncovered how
certain CIA operations (such as MK Ultra) have supplied the youth with LSD and other mind
expanding drugs in the 60s to vector people away from the rising anti-war movement for the purpose
of creating a controlled opposition. Some people are aware that the CIA has used LSD for mind
control experiments and believe that it back-fired for the powers that be, resulting in the psychedelic
revolution led by Timothy Leary and the Pranksters around Ken Kesey. Later on the torch was
taken over, so to speak, by Terence McKenna and nowadays there is Daniel Pinchbeck and others
promoting the use of psychedelics. However, more data has surfaced in the last couple of years that
shows a different picture of what actually happened and is still going on nowadays. This ties
into COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Programs).
These discoveries have triggered many people in the psychedelic movement, as well as the Burning
Man community and the related counter/sub culture. I have come to similar conclusions in my own
research, showing that the psychedelic movement and hippie movement has indeed been created for
the purpose of mind control, vectoring people away from truth, and it still carries over into todays
counter-culture and New Age Movement. Some of it I already shared in my article 2012 Collective
Awakening or The End of the World.
A lot of people have emotional attachments to their heroes such as Timothy Leary, Gordon Wasson,
Albert Hoffman, and Terence McKenna, and so most the research is rejected without looking at it in
more depth, resulting in cognitive dissonance. Considering my personal experiences with some of the
key figureheads in the Burning Man/psychedelic/subculture movement which exposed their lack
of critical thinking and also resulted in vile personal attacks against me, it actually proves that
COINTELPRO is still well and alive. However, as mentioned in previous articles, not everyone is a
conscious COINTELPRO agent. Good disinformation is truth mixed with lies and so many
impressionable people who are not discerning can become useful idiots and patsies for
COINTELPRO.

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Timothy Leary COINTELPRO agent or useful idiot?

I have been duped by it as well many years ago when I was infatuated with McKennas work and
what I thought I had experienced on psychedelics. Looking back I have to admit how I was overly
emotionally driven, lacking critical thinking, buying into much New Age and pop-spirituality nonsense,
and also projected all kinds of illusions into my psychedelic experiences based on wishful thinking.
These substances, while they do have the potential to aid in psychological healing as mentioned
before, can be very harmful and misleading. Little did I know back then and Im glad that didnt get
fully enamored of it. Knowing what I know now I certainly wouldnt have done much of the things I
did back them. But hindsight is 20/20 and all there is are lessons. The devil appears at times as
angles of light indeed. I also had to work through my own cognitive dissonance regarding this topic
and work through my bias, emotional attachment and wishful thinking.
Jan Irvin has revealed how the psychedelic revolution was launched by the CFR, CIA, and the elite,
and how R. Gordon Wasson, the so-called discoverer of magic mushrooms, and the founder of the
field of ethnomycology, was himself a government asset, a friend of Edward Bernays the father of
propaganda, and is one of the key figures for launching one of the largest mind control operations in
history.
Irvin writes in R. Gordon Wasson: The Man, the Legend, the Myth Beginning a New History of
Magic Mushrooms, Ethnomycology, and the Psychedelic Revolution:
There are several reasons why the psychedelic movement may have been launched, including
attempts to distract people from government policy failure; extracting information from people
under the influence, such as with MKULTRA; making money from the drugs through the
pharmaceutical industry; and even pacifying people with a Huxleyanlike soma or with
positivist spirituality so that they could be more easily controlled.
In Manufacturing the Deadhead: A product of social engineering Jan Irvin and Joe Atwill write:

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[]All of this leaves us asking Was the field of ethnomycology founded not, necessarily, to
study the myths and legends of cultures that utilized these substances, but rather to study how
they used them for control the noble lie? Was it also founded to promote this neo-feudalist,
archaic revival? Were MK-ULTRA Subproject 58, the psychedelic revolution, and the Deadhead
an expression of that control? Are these systems of control being continued today through the
rave culture and Burning Man?
So it appears.
Just as the ancient Greek hierophants created the mysteries of Eleusis, just as Emperor Titus
created the story of Jesus and Christianity, just as the Levitical priests created Judaism and the
chosen ideology; today the elites have spun a new religion, the New Dark Age, a.k.a. the
Archaic Revival and they call this reverse direction into history evolution. Wasson, McKenna,
Leary, and Hoffman are but the hierophants of this New Dark Age, and its new mystery religion,
which is nothing but mind control in disguise.
Though it seems incredible, Esalen, and Huxley, McKenna, Bernays, Wasson and Dulles appear
to have been part of a secret agenda within the U.S. government that intends to usher in a postmodernist, neo-feudalism Dark Age and slavery in America. What makes this particularly difficult
to believe is the unanswered question of the organizations motivation. What would motivate such
a group? Racism? Classism? Religious fervor? Power? All of the above? And how would it be
able to maintain such secrecy, involving certainly hundreds, if not thousands of individuals over
such a long time?
One thing is clear. Whatever is the basis for this organization, it resides within identifiable secret
societies. The number of individuals that can be demonstrated to have taken part in creating the
Deadhead who are also members of Skull and Bones, the Century Club and the Bohemian Club
is simply too large to have been circumstantial.
Moreover, Dr. Colin Ross has shown that high level Freemasonry was responsible for funding the
original LSD research and this group should also be inspected closely. We appeal to scholars
and to the public to help us find the truth behind MK-ULTRA and the creation of the Deadhead
and the post-modernist, neo-feudalism movement.
The authors are not looking to bring anyone out of one cave and into yet another, but to free
humanity from this insanity. And only the truth is capable of that. Esalen, Aldous Huxley, Gordon
Wasson, Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, and the peddlers of this agenda: The spell is now
undone and the true secrets of Eleusis, of the CIA and the psychedelic revolution, are now
revealed for the entire world to see. []
Referring to Irvins and Atwills work, Jay writes in Masculine Wisdom/Feminine Matter: the DrugFractured Psyche:
[]From my own observations and research concerning those who have had intense
hallucinogenic drug experiences, definite patterns emerge. One of the most prominent patterns is
the sense of the psyche being fragmented, disintegrating and becoming one with the all. The
hallucinogen causes a kind of inner journey which shamans of primitive religions have embarked
upon for millennia, but the result tends towards the same conclusion: monism. Yet oddly the
philosophical monism adopted invariably leads many of the drugged to feel that their own psyche
has fractured, divided, or split.
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The so-called revelations most experience on the drug trips end up being very monotonous. It
rarely occurs to the drugged that their narcissistic insights are one and the same as ancient
pagan and eastern religions. Reality is thus viewed as an illusion, a trick, a product of
their own mind (solipsism), and who they were/are as a person was annihilated or
dismembered. The drug trip thus tends to result in the unwitting conversion of the drugged to
some form of pantheism or animism. BBC reporter Bruce Parry, for example, logged several
hallucinogenic rites and journeys that brought him to similar conclusions.
Modern mans lack of spiritual connection has allowed the return of ancient shamanism and
paganism to reemerge with the 60s revolution. Unfortunately, the 60s culture revolution
was something engineered by elites in the pharmaceutical, banking and intelligence
communities. Researchers Joe Atwill and Jan Irvin have done excellent work in demonstrating
that claim here. The social engineering of revolution was in harmony with the Marxist plan of
Theodore Adorno to, along with drugs, promote this very depersonalization and fragmentation
through pop music. []
The entire west and modernity in general has experienced a fracturing of the psyche and the
forces of chaos and disintegration have taken the ascendant. Ancient societies, as Schneider
notes in the interview below, were holistic and integrated. In nature, the part mirrors the whole.
When societies model nature, harmony and progress truly take place. When human psyches and
social orders give way to fracturing, they collapse, lacking the masculine order of form, instead
being ruled by chaotic, uncontrolled forces of base nature.
Powerful entities are aware of these ideas and have attempted to re-engineer the entire social
order around a philosophy of materialistic techno utopia. Until we cease the mass drugging
and shamanic trance the public have been placed under, and come to reject the complete
inversion of all order and hierarchy through true philosophy and wisdom will we see
things truly progress and experience freedom. Otherwise, equalitarianism and feminism
are inverted philosophies that fragment and depersonalize.
Here are some other eye-opening excerpts from researchers relating to COINTELPRO, the corruption
of the Human Potential Movement and the creation/infiltration of the Hippie, Psychedelic and New
Age Movement:
[]Aldous Huxley also made an early connection between the effects experienced by those
partaking of psychedelic drugs and the experiences of Eastern Mysticism and this set the
consciousness-raising bomb off with a BANG! Along came Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert AKA
Baba Ram Dass with their LSD and other modes of mind marvels, leading the parade of those
who were turned on, tuned in. Abraham Maslow became a father figure to the new wave of
those desiring to fill the gaping hole of their reality with peak experiences.
Maslow cited psychedelic drugs as one of the means in which even ordinary people could have a
little of what the Eastern Mystics worked many years to develop. Now, it could be had for a
weekend seminar at Big Sur, or a study by mail course at only $29.95 per lesson! What a deal!
Peak Experiencesexperience, experience, and experiencebecame the pot of gold at the end
of the rainbow of the 1960s. No one needed to live in Existential Despair any longer!
Everyone could become a spiritual voyager and achieve extended periods in realms of
consciousness they had only heard about in veiled, mysterious allusions down through the ages.
Encounter groups, radical therapies, old and new combinations of theories and practice came
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rolling off the conveyor belt of techno-spirituality. The intangibles of spirit had been harnessed!
Anyone could evoke some desirable experience by manipulating awareness at the basic physical
and psychological levels.
Never mind that all of this bypassed the vital processes of reason and conscious decisionmaking. By its very nature, the whole techno-spiritual machine operated completely without
critical thinking; it tapped the bottomless pit of feeling-emotionprimal being. Never mind that
much of this emotion was negative, confusing, anxious and fearful! Lets just get it all out here in
the open and have a party with it! Each of the many techniques developed during this time was
fully capable of producing an emotional high of one sort or another. There were endless peak
experiences, and dramatic personal breakthroughs.
The mixtures of Zen, yoga, meditation, and drugs along with strict mechanical technology, were a
veritable adventure in awareness! The only problem was: in the midst of all this peaking,
mind-blowing, turning on and tuning in, ecstasy and encountering, many people
encountered things that, perhaps, ought not have been awakened. Boundaries were
breached into unseeable and terrifying realms of consciousness.[]
By the end of the decade of the 60s, the human potential movement had become a veritable
potpourri of religion, science, mysticism, magick and the occult. The drug use got out of hand,
the techniques began to show serious flaws with a number of tragedies resulting in crime or
madness, and the whole idea of human beings becoming psychic supermen hit the skids. The
promise of the 60s decayed into an aimless lethargyold hippies living in communes, braiding
their gray locks and lusting after the sweet young teeny boppers while they fired up another bong
and reminisced about the good old days at Esalen.
But wait! Something else happened here! Remember, this is America! The home of the Free
Market that is. Many people suggest that the subsequent proliferation of the New Age
consciousness raising movement was the result of big business seeing a pile of money to be
made in the development of slick, newly packaged psychoanalysis and psychodrama. There
was, indeed, mass distribution and Madison Avenue marketing of things like Mind Dynamics,
Arica, Silva Mind Control, Transcendental Meditation, and on and on. Individual entrepreneurs
knew a good thing when they saw it. However, there is more to this than meets the eye. This is
important to our subject, so bear with me. []
from Aliens and Cosmic COINTELPRO by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Hippies came out of no where and sort of co opted it, I think it was quite deliberatethey
wanted to give the anti-war movement a face that would be completely unacceptable to
mainstream AmericaI mean everything about them was offensive to mainstream America, to
middle America, the hairstyles, the clothing styles, the open drug use, the music, everything
about them was designed to repel mainstream America and prevent the anti-war movement from
gaining any additional speed by putting this face on it
I think the whole hippy flower child thing was a creation of the Intelligence community to take the
steam out of the anti-war movements and various other movements.The battle cry of the
hippy movement was turn on, tune in, drop outtelling people dont worry about it, get
high.

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 from Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the
Hippy Dream by Dave McGowan

Burning Man

We can see the same thread in many conscious movements these days. Its as if history is
repeating itself with a different appearance, more tech, more potent drugs, new gadgets, and hip
clothes but the same attitude with even more pseudo New Age spiritual techniques to activate your
third eye, DNA, or speed up your ascension process as well as practices where sexual pathologies
are often buffered up as sexual healing. Hedonism is mistaken for spirituality. There is the usual
just focus on yourself, focus on we are all one and our oneness. Dont look at the negative
things happening in the world, but connect to earth, meditate on the Shift to activate your light
body, send love and light to the world and its leaders, etc.. As long as you feel good and focus on
love everything will be ok. Everything is as it is supposed to be, etc. It is proclaimed that there is no
objectivity, just your own subjective reality and you create your own reality by your thoughts and what
you focus on.
But as various ancient esoteric teachings and mystery schools have transmitted , even the children
of light shall be deceived by false prophets and false teachings. And we see exactly that happening
now:
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It is possible to obtain so-called esoteric results that are impure, but they are false and thus
transitory. Here we refer to the vast realm of occultism, where the children of this century, more
capable than the children of light, seek to apply their abilities beyond the visible world. This
occurs in what we call mysticism of phenomena.
It is curious to see how much these false prophets, magicians and christs impressed themselves
on the imagination of the men and even more of the women of the past. It is the same today. For
there is a type of human being who declines all moral responsibility for himself or for those to
whom he is in duty bound. One comes across this type quite often, always trying to find someone
else to shoulder his responsibilities as long as this someone else possesses some kind of
authority, earned or otherwise. These people are open to any form of hypnotic suggestion
and practically ask to be hypnotized. They are of good faith, but they search for the
marvelous because they are too weak or too lazy to undertake esoteric work
successfully.
And the wolves devour them finding justification in the fact that they are only the scourings of
humanity. But this is not true; for scourings who are converted can become key figures on the
esoteric chess-board. Mental apathy and emotional inertia are responsible for tipping man down
the slope of least resistance even when armed with the best intentions, especially if he justifies
himself for his human frailties by finding them normal, particularly on the sexual plane.
Boris Mouravieff, Gnosis
In light of the research presented above (and I encourage the reader to go to the resources and study
them in-depth before coming to conclusions or dismissing the information hastily) and looking at the
so-called psychedelic and counter-culture movement of today, one can see that the intended effect of
the agenda has been successful in many ways. What I have observed in many people who are part of
said conscious movements and relating festival culture (such as Burning Man and Lightening in a
Bottle) is that they shy away from looking at the world as it is with a distorted idea of what positivity
and negativity means. Many of them insist that there is no objective reality and truth, but all is
subjective; there is only my or your truth, reflecting the ideology of Solipsism:
Solipsism is the most dangerous ideology that exists and is the biggest lie ever told. This mindvirus is so prevalent and insidious that it has infected the consciousness of many people.
Solipsism is the primary deception manipulators use. They want people to unknowingly accept
the tenants of solipsism, even if it is in the back of their minds at a non-conscious level. In its
extreme form, one becomes unwilling to accept anything else no matter how much contradictory
evidence is brought to ones attention. Some people are adherents to solipsistic forms of
thinking without realizing it.
In general and at its core derivation, solipsism is the notion that ones own mind is all that really
exists. Ones mind and perceptions are equated with truth and reality. The most common
worldview that develops from solipsistic-based consciousness can be summarized as there is no
truth, or there is no such thing as truth. This is a manufactured ideology brilliantly placed in
the information flow to dissuade people from ever really awakening and embarking on the
spiritual journey towards truth. Even if we began the spiritual journey on the path of truth at
some point, when we have come to accept solipsism we have halted that journey.
The spiritual journey is about seeking truth. Solipsism is accepting as truth what you perceive,
believe, think or feel to be true regardless of whether it is actually true or not. Someone in this
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modality of consciousness can progress into various ways of being. The truth isnt something to
be discovered but something to be made up based on my own personal preferences, what Im
comfortable with, whether I like it or not, how I feel about it, or what information I have at a given
moment. Nothing exists independently of the individual who is observing. There is no external
reality. There is no truth. Whatever I decide is the truth is essentially what Im going to live my life
according to. There is no objective truth out there, only the subjective truth in me. What I believe,
is what is true. You become an arbiter of truth.
They dictate truth from the fantasy of whatever they want to believe to be true. They tell the
universe screw you, Im god, I decide what truth is, reality doesnt exist, things dont actually
occur outside of my belief in them, I create reality. To be convinced that there is no truth it
is all relative and based on ones own perception no matter how contrary and oppositional
that may be from what is, reality, truth, Natural Law principles is a modality of
consciousness and conditioning where you are open to have your sense of reality
manipulated.
from The Concept of the Biggest Lie: Solipsism The Anti-Truth
It is very interesting to see how many psychonauts and people who use these substances often buy
into greatly distorted spirituality and pop-psychology, engaging in spiritual bypassing, and do not
speak out about the atrocities and injustices in our world. A good example of that was my interaction
with Daniel Pinchbeck as I wrote about here, where he attacked me personally, calling me an antiSemite, stating that I have a psychological disposition because of my German background for
speaking out against Zionism and questioning official history. Ive received numerous ad hominem
attacks from people of the so-called counter-culture and psychedelic movement for simply
presenting certain facts and information. The result is cognitive dissonance and one wonders how
much the use of psychedelics plays part in that.
Clearly just taking entheogens does not result automatically in cultural de-programming as
McKenna claimed. On the contrary, most people I know who are big McKenna fans or part of the
Burning Man community and counter-culture buy into much disinformation and the lies we have been
told and taught. Political awareness is almost non-existent because its all just illusion anyway, as if
turning a blind eye on it will not affect them.
For example, there is a well known healer who works with ayahuasca in my area. Hes also an
outspoken Democrat and constantly posts on facebook supporting Obama, buying into the illusion of
choice through voting in this two-party set-up. A shamanic healer who not only believes in but
supports the political circus side-show that is clearly used for social/cultural control, and he even
identifies himself with a country and political party? What an oxymoron! It shows that these mind
expanding drugs are no magic pill that automatically pierce through the cultural conditioning and the
lies we believe in. Their use for so-called accessing of higher realities can distract people easily
from what deeper spiritual and esoteric work is about, even giving one the illusion that one has
awoken.
Anyone who looks into the information presented here sincerely in more depth and unbiased can
clearly see the COINTELPRO and Mind Control aspect throughout the history of the psychedelic
movement. Some people dismiss this as paranoia or conspiracy theory but that view, based on
lack of critical thinking, works in favor of certain forces who do not wish humanity to awaken for their
own interests. And that is exactly their intention in this Stockholm Syndrome set-up.
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There are a thousand things which prevent a man from awakening, which keep him in the power
of his dreams. In order to act consciously with the intention of awakening, it is necessary to know
the nature of the forces which keep man in a state of sleep. First of all it must be realized that the
sleep in which man exists is not normal but hypnotic sleep. Man is hypnotized and this hypnotic
state is continually maintained and strengthened in him. One would think that there are forces for
whom it is useful and profitable to keep man in a hypnotic state and prevent him from seeing the
truth and understanding his position.
G. I. Gurdjieff
I have written about COINTELPRO, the corruption of spirituality and the fallacies of popular New
Age ideas before. Most of it has been summarized in these two films I made with Humberto Braga.
Considering the what has been revealed here about the psychedelic revolution it all fits together quite
well:
Whats next is the manipulation of spiritual values and tendencies. It is no accident that in the
last few years weve seen a new religious thought. The religion of acquiescence and passivity:
trusting in the process; whatever happens is what needs to happen; everyone is right where they
need to be; you dont resist; you acquiesce; to resist is to be negative, is to be fearful, is to be
unconscious. A great prescription for convincing the natives to give over the keys to the kingdom,
a very good, clever form of manipulation.
M.V. Summers
Truth is mixed with lies, so Im not throwing out the baby with the bath water as I have mentioned
before. However, the best way to swallow a lie is to sandwich it between some truth, and that is the
how COINTELPRO works. Psychedelics and marijuana may help certain people in certain
circumstances at one point in their lives, but they can also be detrimental and steer people away from
truth and healing. I have seen it in myself. Its all about context and depends on the individual.
However, I certainly do not promote the use of them. In fact, I feel it is better to engage in sincere selfwork without any substances and if one is drawn to use them, one should be aware of the dangers,
especially from an energetic perspective which seems not to be acknowledged by many people who
promote the use of them.
There is still much more to be said about this topic. I hope this article encourages people to be more
discerning and that they question the official history of the psychedelic movement and how it has
been created and infiltrated via COINTELPRO. It would be very naive to simply dismiss it. We need to
be aware of our emotional attachment and bias around this topic without falling into black and white
thinking. In this day and age it becomes ever more apparent that nothing is as it seems and never
has been.
We also need to remember that we all are screwed up in our own ways. Everyone is a bit whacky.
No one is perfect. We all make mistakes, and have our blind spots and lessons to learn. Thats when
all our theoretical memorized spiritual and psychological understanding is being put to the test, not
when things are going well, but when shit is going down. Everyone has a shadow. And some of us
dont even know how wounded and unconscious we really are, escaping it through drugs,
distractions, food, sex, work, partying, or even relationships because being alone simply brings up too
much. The endless pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

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There is no coming to consciousness without painPeople will do anything, no matter how

absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.
Carl G. Jung
As I wrote before, there is a spiritual war going on a physical and nonphysical level and this war is
being fought through us. Spiritual evolution is not always a fun ride. The work required to wake up is
not an easy path by far. There are many traps, distractions and temptations steering us away from
ourselves. There are tests and lessons everywhere. But as long as we align ourselves with truth and
are sincere in our work, even if we fail at times, screw up and take a step backwards, we are also
being supported by the universe, guiding us to new opportunities and lessons, connecting us with
others who we can learn from as they too can learn from us as we help each other and help make
this world a better place. However, as we all know, truth is a tricky thing, and aligning ourselves with
truth also entails facing the lies we are telling ourselves about why we do or have done certain
things, all along justifying our own blindness.
The moment of true initiation. It seems that, as the great masters teach us, it is not a moment of
great enlightenment. It is not someone who comes to show us reality. It is not a seeing all the
world as a oneness. It is seeing the self as a liar and a feeder on others. It is measuring the self
with TRUTH. It is seeing that the predator has been feeding on the self, that the self has been
feeding on others and propagating the infection on to all those who one claims to love and wish
to help. Initiation is not a glorious inpouring of life and love and tears for the beauty and oneness
of the world.
It is sheer terror.
It is a descent into Hell. It is the Shamanic descent into the underworld to do battle with demons.
It is the dismemberment of the body, the flaying of the flesh from the bones, and the subsequent
rebuilding of the self on a different foundation a foundation of spiritual verity.
And if I could convey to you that Hell, that sensation, that solitary test in which the soul is
weighed, BY THE SELF, finally and completely and seen for what it has truly done, you would
see how little truth there is because of all the beliefs of the Matrix that have been inculcated and
promulgate and tended so carefully by our emotions and by the deceptions of the predator within
who convinces us that we are good and pure and there is oneness. Indeed, one sees that
there is oneness, but one sees that the aspect of God that is experienced at this level is the
black, sucking, feeding maw of STS (Service to Self).
One sees how little true Love is actually manifested at this level of being. One sees that all of our
illusions about goodness and truth and beauty are LIES. They are masks for more feeding. And
that is so horrifying an initiation that few survive. That is paying everything.
Now, re-read what Gurdjieff had to say about the matter; how he pointed out that a person has to
pay in advance, that the key is to accept the idea that one is not what one thinks, that there is a
different reality from which our own is projected, and that developing this idea in the realm of
pure thought, and then using it as the platform by which one can observe and analyze, is the key
to being able to see for a moment, and then again.
One must be able to see the interactions of the Petty Tyrants in our lives, the Predators who prey
on us in the Theological Reality. And then, one must be willing to act. It is only after action that
19

the true nature of the Predator reveals itself just as the Vampire reacts with violence to being
exposed by the presence of a mirror. Because, it must be kept always in mind that there ARE
predators who are predators by choice even if that choice is made at some level, in some part
of themselves that is not available to even their own conscious awareness. They, too, are part of
the Matrix, and they wouldnt be able to play their roles if they were not consciously convinced
that they are right, that they are good, that they are righteous and long-suffering.
Laura Knight-Jadczyk, Petty Tyrants and Facing the Unknown

On a closing note: Over the past year I have seen more and more people look through much New
Age disinformation. More people see also through the ever more apparent corruption of government
and institutions. There is also an increasing awareness of the topic of psychopaths in power. Some of
it may be related to the fact that 2012 has not brought the collective awakening or UFO disclosure
many New Age influenced people have hoped for. Because of this they were forced to question it all
and what they believed around the 2012 hype. Well, at least some of them. We still have a long way
to go.
Many people have opened up themselves to me over the past years who were and are going through
much disillusionment regarding much of what they believed in. Thank you to those for your humility,
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courage, and vulnerability. It gives me hope on so many levels and I have learned from you as well.
These are not easy times for any of us. We are literally being forced to start looking at the world as it
is and confront the lies weve been told and we tell ourselves. Also thank you to all the renegades
who are not afraid to speak out and challenge peoples beliefs and world views. Renegades who use
social media not for their own narcissistic tendencies but share vital information, spreading seeds of
awareness to help make this world a better place by making the darkness conscious, even if its a
thorn in the eye of others who get triggered and disturbed by what you have to say. Dont ever
become silent. Keep speaking out.
This is the hardest time to live, but it is also the greatest honor to be alive now, and to be
allowed to see this time. There is no other time like now. We should be thankful, for creation did
not make weak spirits to live during this time. The old ones say this is the time when the
strongest spirits will live through and those who are empty shells, those who have lost the
connection will not survive. We have become masters of survival -we will survive- it is our
prophecy to do so.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse

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