TSC 2010 Pre-Conference Workshop

Session 1 Monday Morning, April 12 (9:00am-1:00pm) -  Part 1  -  TCC GREENLEE

Session 2 Monday Afternoon, April 12 (2:00pm-6:00pm)- Part 2

Full Day, $125

Research on Psychedelics Moves into the Mainstream — The Lancet

James Fadiman, Thomas B. Roberts

Emerging and reemerging research on psychedelics point to three major uses:  1) psychotherapeutic, 2)  creative problem solving, enhanced cognition, and boosting intelligence, and 3) entheogenic  (spiritual).  We will review research on these three, their possible future ramifications for developing the human mind, and how, with proper precautions, psychedelics can be used with considerable safety and beneficial, even profound, results. These include facilitating scientific and technical solutions in biology, biochemistry, engineering, neuroscience, physics, architecture and other fields that are less well known but have had considerable cultural impact, including two Noble Prizes.  They also point to experimental religious studies, experimental humanities, and assembling a full, multistate map of the human mind.  This workshop will review the different settings and ways of facilitation for each kind of use. With psychedelics, one needs to be aware of seven variables: Mental set, physical setting, the skills of the guide or sitter, the substance and the amount taken, the session itself and the situation or life-space of the person afterwards. Most important is the intention of the person using the substance- their goals and capacities. A variety of effective psychotherapeutic models will be reviewed as well. Special attention will be paid to the significantly different skill sets that guides should have for each kind of experience with individuals or with groups.   The workshop will help each participant become a more knowledgeable manager of their own consciousness as well as a more prudent and helpful advisor to others. A copy of The Lancet article used as a title for this workshop and detailed manuals for entheogenic and scientific sessions with be distributed to each participant.      

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James Fadiman, Ph.D. has been researching the effects of psychedelic substances for many years; his work was recently featured on the National Geographic Program, Explorer: Inside LSD. He is the author and editor of Shattering Certainty: Using Psychedelics Wisely and Well.(in press).He been on the faculty of San Francisco State, Brandeis and Stanford, was  a co-founder of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and has taught in Europe and Asia. 

Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at Northern Illinois University. Among his publications are: Psychedelic Medicine, Psychoactive Sacramentals, Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments. In Psychedelic Horizons, he presents Multistate Theory. He has taught Foundations of Psychedelic Studies since 1981, the world’s first cataloged psychedelic course at a university and originated the celebration of Bicycle Day.