On the 70th anniversary of the first intentional LSD trip, a compelling new documentary film about the academic study of psychedelic drugs is released.

“Psychedemia” was the first academic conference funded by an American university to explicitly focus on the risks and benefits of psychedelic experience. Ph.D’s, M.D.’s, M.A’s, graduate students and lay folk from all walks of life convened at the University of Pennsylvania over the 27th-30th of September 2012 to present new research addressing the historical and potential influences of psychedelics on knowledge production, health, and creativity. The four day event brought together scientists, artists, journalists, historians and philosophers from more than 10 countries for an Ivy League convocation unprecedented not only in view of its controversial subject matter, but in its unparalleled inter-disciplinary scope.

Psychedemia, the film, concisely presents the varied complexity of the emerging field of Psychedelic Studies in a way that is accessible, informative and inspiring. This date of release has been chosen to coincide with another Psychedelics Conference happening this weekend, (April 18th-23rd) in Oakland, California. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is hosting scientists and researchers from around the world to focus on empirical neuro-scientific research.

Neşe Devenot, M.A., co-founder of Psychedemia, will be presenting her work as a UPenn graduate student at the MAPS conference on April 19th.

This same weekend, the other co-founder of Psychedemia, Matt Young, will be presenting his work on Psychedelic Medicine as a UPenn Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate at the Philadelphia Science Festival.

Appropriately, these three psychedelic happenings are taking place exactly seven decades after Albert Hoffman, the inventor of LSD, first dosed himself and had an unforgettable bicycle ride home. Since then, April 19th, 1943 has been known as Bicycle Day.

Psychedemia advisor, Jonathan D. Moreno, Ph.D is a Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at UPenn who served as a member of President Barack Obama’s 2008-09 transition team. He wrote about this conference in Psychology Today… “Organized by a group of imaginative Penn graduate students, … the timing of Psychedemia couldn’t be more perspicuous. It’s high time to destigmatize psychedelics as objects of legitimate research for the good they can do.”

Directed and Edited by two-time Emmy Award winner Vann K. Weller and Drew Knight, the documentary is being dedicated to the Public Domain to be freely used for any purpose as an intellectual and cultural artifact – broadcast directly through YouTube.

Jonathan’s Blog on Reality Sandwich

The Electric Jesus: The Healing Journey of a Contemporary Gnostic

Other Podcasts by Sitaram Das

As a sign of appreciation for your support, we’re pleased to offer the following perks:

• Psychedemia bumper sticker
• Limited edition Psychedemia blotter art, numbered
• Limited edition Psychedemia blotter art, numbered and signed by the artist and conference speakers
• 11″ x 17″ limited edition conference poster
• Psychedemia T-shirt
• Psychedemia tote bag
• “The Epiphany of Sophia” poster by visionary artist Adam Scott Miller
• A 1st-edition copy of the Journal of Interdimensional Poetry, which will be released at the conference, signed by the editors
• A full DVD set of the Psychedemia conference

Other Ways You Can Help

This conference is fundamentally a grassroots collaboration. We recently passed the one-year mark since planning began with a small group of students, and since then we have grown to incorporate community members and professionals in Philadelphia and beyond. Psychedemia is a labor of love, and we encourage anyone who is excited by this movement to reach out and get involved. We have booths and sponsorship opportunities for businesses, organizations, and vendors. Artists, decorators, scholars, musicians, scientists and philosophers are invited to contribute their talents, creativity, and curiosity.

Join us in manifesting this important convergence!

Grateful Dead Archive Online

Reading the Grateful Dead: A Critical Survey

Other Podcasts by Sitaram Das

Sitaram Das interviews Author, Anthropologist, and Healer Steve Beyer. They talk about the difference between shamans and sorcerers, magical pathogens, the ubiquitious nature of spirits, petulance and humility, talking sticks, and restorative justice. Listen to learn why the spirits like songs and tobacco.

Right Click Here To Download

Visit Steve Beyer’s Website Here

Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon

Conference Blotter Presale

Our limited edition conference blotter was created by the visionary Steve Marcus. Steve has been creating hand drawn works or art in the shadows of popular culture for over 20 years in his manhattan studio. He has created works for MTV, Cartoon Network, Rolling Stone Magazine, High Time’s Cannabis Cup, and The Tibetan Freedom Concert. We are honored that Steve has offered his talents to Psychedemia.

Click here to read Steve Marcus’s Full Bio

Your Pre-purchasing helps make psychedemia possible. We really appreciate your pre-order. We expect pre-order blotter to ship in Mid August.

This Limited Edition Conference Blotter is limited to 500, and will be numbered.

Blotter is shown here with two diagonal Psychedemia logo watermarks. Your Blotter will not have these watermarks.
Blotter is 7.5 x 7.5 inches, and is perforated into 900 1/4 inch squares.

Presale Blotter, $25 + $5 Shipping and Handling
Buy three or more sheets and get free shipping.

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Other Work By Steve Marcus

Sitaram Das interviews Author and Journalist Don Lattin about the early history of LSD experimentation, Gerald Heard, Bill Wilson, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert.

Right Click Here To Download

Visit Don Lattin’s Website Here

The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin

What is interdimensional poetry? It is many things, multidimensionally speaking, perhaps including:

+ a sense of humor.
+ attention to the power of ritual and performance.
+ a laboratory for new symbolic frames wherein personal and collective identities are consciously shaped and refashioned.
+ the way words mean many things at once and elsewise, forming constellations.
+ an alternative to postmodern irony.
+ investigations into consciousness and worlds beyond the measurable.
+ interest in a sustainable, aesthetically-inspired worldview.
+ creative exploration of potential–possible worlds, ways of knowing, states of being, forms of communication and communion–without a final resting point.
+ creative decisions as probes for further possibilities.

What does interdimensional poetry mean to you?

“The world is made of words, and if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.” – Terence McKenna

“A noumenal world, a world of hyperspace, of higher dimensions, awaits discovery by all the sciences, which it will unite and unify–awaits discovery under its first aspect of a realm of patterned relations, inconceivably manifold, yet bearing a recognizable affinity to the rich and systematic organization of language, including au fond mathematics and music, which are ultimately of the same kind.” – Benjamin Lee Whorf

interdimensionalpoetry@gmail.com

Image by Adam Scott Miller, http://www.corpuscallosum.cc/

Read and Enjoy, Here!