How a dose of MDMA transformed a white supremacist

 Brendan was once a leader in the US white nationalist movement. But when he took the drug MDMA in a scientific study, it would radically change his extremist beliefs – to the surprise of everyone involved.

In February 2020, Harriet de Wit, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural science at the University of Chicago, was running an experiment on whether the drug MDMA increased the pleasantness of social touch in healthy volunteers. The day was proceeding like any other Tuesday when Mike Bremmer, de Wit's research assistant, appeared at her office door with a concerned look on his face.

The latest participant in the double-blind trial, a man named Brendan, had filled out a standard questionnaire at the end. Strangely, at the very bottom of the form, Brendan had written in bold letters: "This experience has helped me sort out a debilitating personal issue. Google my name. I now know what I need to do…"

    How a dose of MDMA transformed a white supremacist

See also:

Can MDMA Make You A Better Person? With Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ben Rein

The promise of a shaman

The promise of a shaman

If you come to me as a victim I will not support you.

But I will have the courage to walk with you through the pain that you are suffering. 

I will put you in the fire, I will undress you, and I will sit you on the earth.

I will bathe you with herbs, I will purge you, and you will vomit the rage and the darkness inside you.

I'll bang your body with good herbs, and I'll put you to lay in the grass, face up to the sky.

Then I will blow your crown to clean the old memories that make you repeat the same behavior. 

I will blow your forehead to scare away the thoughts that cloud your vision. 

I will blow your throat to release the knot that won't let you talk.

I will blow your heart to scare fear, so that it goes far away where it cannot find you.

I will blow your solar plexus to extinguish the fire of the hell you carry inside, and you will know peace.

I will blow with fire your belly to burn the attachments, and the love that was not.

I will blow away the lovers that left you, the children that never came.

I will blow your heart to make you warm, to rekindle your desire to feel, create and start again.

I will blow with force your vagina or your penis, to clean the sexual door to your soul.

I will blow away the garbage that you collected trying to love what did not wanted to be loved.

I will use the broom, and the sponge, and the rag, and safely clean all the bitterness inside you.

I will blow your hands to destroy the ties that prevent you from creating.

I will blow your feet to dust and erase the footprints memories, so you can never return to that bad place. 

I will turn your body, so your face will kiss the earth.

I'll blow your spine from the root to the neck to increase your strength and help you walk upright.

And I will let you rest.

After this you will cry, and after crying you will sleep, 

And you will dream beautiful and meaningful dreams, 

and when you wake up I'll be waiting for you.

I will smile at you, and you will smile back

I will offer you food that you will eat with pleasure, tasting life, and I will thank you.

Because what I’m offering today, was offered to me before when darkness lived within me.

And after I was healed, I felt the darkness leaving, and I cried.

Then we will walk together, and I will show you my garden, and my plants, and I will take you to the fire again.

And will talk together in a single voice with the blessing of the earth.

And we will shout to the forest the desires of your heart.

And the fire will listen and whisper the echo, and we will create hope together.

And the mountains will listen and whisper the echo, and we will create hope together.

And the rivers will listen and whisper the echo, and we will create hope together.

And the wind will listen and whisper the echo, and we will create hope together.

And then we will bow before the fire, and we will call upon all the visible and invisible guardians.

And you will say thank you to all of them.

And you will say thank you to yourself.

And you will say thank you to yourself.

And you will say thank you to yourself.

~ author unknown

"Why Do We Love Music? Tales of Music and the Brain" plus: "The Oceans of the Past" | KPFA

 Dr. Michio Kaku interviews Dr. Oliver Sachs – why do we love music? – talks on his book "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain" (2nd half of the show) 

ALSO ::: This show begins with an interview of Dr. Callum Roberts – "OCEANS ARE NOT THEY WAY THEY WERE" – only our ancestors would know. Book is "The Unnatural History of the Seas"

PODCAST – Why Do We Love Music? And The Oceans of the Past | KPFA

Musicophilia

Tales of Music and the Brain

Publication date: 2007 (Revised & expanded 2008)

In this book — now revised and expanded for the paperback edition — Dr. Sacks investigates the power of music to move us, to heal and to haunt us.

Musicophilia, a New York Times bestseller, has been named one of the Best Books of 2007 by the Washington Post and the editors of Amazon.com

Buy this book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powells

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