Although it looks quite psychedelic thanks to false colors, it is only a microscopic image of the trichomes of cannabis – the real trip is still far away.
Image: Science Photo Library
Two books address, in very different ways, techniques for cultivating other than just normal states of consciousness.
HGetting in and out of oneself is a deep-seated desire, known in all societies at all times. The means and techniques that were and are used for this are correspondingly diverse: forms of exertion, attunement to rhythms, breathing techniques, mental and physical exercises of focusing, plus the means that directly intervene in the chemistry of the brain, the psychotropic substances.
A few years ago, Paul-Philipp Hanske and Benedikt Sarreiter dealt with the rediscovery of some of these substances in an instructive book. These psychedelics – such as LSD, psilocybin and mescaline – were rediscovered because they fell victim to the US-led “War on Drugs” beginning in the 1960s. Not only was their private use criminalized, although it did not result in any physiological addiction or direct physical damage, but all research projects linked to them, which not least involved therapeutic applications, had to be discontinued.
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