Exploring psychedelics as sacramental medicine, Mindrolling comrades David Silver and Raghu Markus discuss William Richards' book, Sacred Knowledge.

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This week on Mindrolling, Raghu and David ponder through:

• The relationship between psychedelics and religious experiences
• The tale of Ram Dass, Neem Karoli Baba, and LSD
• Responsible use of psychedelics for reliability and potency
• David’s experience with peyote shamans in South Dakota
• Finding out the ground of our own beings
• Viewing everything as God and everything as equally remarkable
• How spiritual awakenings are often initially nurtured through a psychedelic substance
• Considering set, setting, and our intentions before ingesting any entheogen
• Complete unity as Raghu’s first memory of a psychedelic experience

Check out the book referenced throughout this episode: Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences

About David Silver:

David Silver is the former co-host of the Mindrolling podcast. He is a filmmaker and director, most recently coming out with Brilliant Disguise. Brilliant Disguise tells the unique story of a group of inspired Western spiritual seekers from the 60s, who in meeting the great American teacher, Ram Dass, followed him to India to meet his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, familiarly known as Maharaj-ji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaj-ji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997. Silver’s #1 charting MGM/UA/Warners film, “The Compleat Beatles” is the critically acclaimed biopic movie about history’s most famous band. The term ‘rockumentary’ was first applied to this two-hour movie. Rolling Stone recently described the film as a “masterwork.” Silver’s Warner Brothers’ feature film, “No Nukes” also started the whole trend of music/activism feature documentaries.

“When you take these substances, you must have the right atmosphere, the right people with you, the right reason for doing it. These things have to be thought very carefully about.” – David Silver

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Author and meditation teacher Kimberly Brown explains how we can transform our relationships through Buddhist practices and principles.

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This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Kimberly discuss:

• How Kimberly was led to the dharma after experiencing panic attacks
• Kimberly’s journey leaving therapy practice and delving deeper into mindfulness
• How relationships can become stale and predictable when we solidify our partner
• Opening up to who our partner is in the moment rather than our idea of them
• The difference between love and a yearning to possess or cling
• Love as a deep intimacy with all things
• Accepting rupture and miscommunication as a normal part of relationships
• Being able to repair after a conflict arises within a relationship
• Approaching all things with grace and openness
• Loving-kindness and looking at the intention behind all of our actions
• Not skipping over the relational to get to the ultimate

Grab your copy of Kimberly’s book, Happy Relationships, to learn more.

"To solidify and harden another person and another person's reactions and voice, there's no more freshness and the relationship can get very stale and predictable. That's oftentimes when resentment comes up. Part of not knowing is being able to open to what's really there, who the person really is right in this moment." – Kimberly Brown

About Kimberly Brown:

Kimberly Brown is a popular Buddhist meditation teacher and Certified Mindfulness Instructor and since 2011 she has led thousands of classes, retreats, and workshops with individuals and groups merging self-compassion, emotional resilience, mindfulness, and Buddhism. As a leading voice in the contemporary meditation community, she teaches public classes regularly at the Rubin Museum, Mindful Astoria, Shantideva Meditation Center, and All Souls Church. She works in private practice both one-on-one and with companies and non-profit groups. She is a faculty member and Senior Instructor in The Interdependence Project’s esteemed Mindfulness Teacher Training program. She is an accredited teacher and member of the Mindful Directory and the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. She balances her two decades of traditional Buddhist training and study with Western therapeutic modalities. Her background includes psychoanalytic training at Washington Square Institute, a master’s degree from City College of New York, and undergraduate study at Hunter College. She has extensive formal meditation retreat experience at Insight Meditation Society, Palypung Thubten Choling, and the Garrison Institute, and has received in-depth teachings from meditation masters Ponlop Rinpoche, Lama Norlha Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sharon Salzberg, and Venerable Pannavati.

Keep up with Kimberly on her website.

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Visionary Artist, Amanda Sage, joins Raghu to talk about using art as a tool for transformation and awakening.

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This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Amanda discuss:

• How Amanda ended up in the midst of the psychedelic art world
• Visionary experiences from meditation and community
• Combining visionary art with techniques from the old masters
• Art as a tool for transformation rather than just a commodity
• The technology of sacred art and artists as small blooms of awakening
• How LSD helps Amanda see the finer layers of reality
• The flow state of creation and being guided through the artistic medium
• The Telepathy Tapes, a documentary podcast about telepathic communication
• Meditation as an active meditation and opportunity for transmission
• The value of togetherness and tuning into the same creative channel
• Large-scale longing for a connection to spirit
• Amanda’s work, The Great Wave of Trainsformation

Check out Vision Train, Amanda’s co-creative space.

About Amanda Sage:

Amanda Sage is an artist driven to contribute to the development of regenerative culture by using painting as a tool for transformation within the individual and collective. Her paintings represent multidimensional aspects of humanness in harmonious balance, inspiring a re-membering of an energetic inter-connectedness that is present and shared with all things. Learn more about Amanda on her website.

“Painting, you transmit a story. There’s a transmission that happens beyond words. It’s an interesting technology and tool that has been used by humans through the ages. What is the broader opportunity, especially now in this world that we live in, for art to be a tool for transformation.” – Amanda Sage

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Recognizing the beauty in being human, Raghu and John Tarrant discuss incorporating the qualities of both soul and spirit into our lives.

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This week on Mindrolling, Raghu and John discuss:

• John’s work with protecting Aboriginal land rights
• How taking a Tibetan retreat changed the course of John’s life and directed him to Zen
• Emptiness and love as the same principle
• How each piece of the universe contains the entire thing
• Reaching a crystalline view of reality through Buddhist practice
• The importance of spiritual clarity and the mistake of rejecting our inner life
• Qualities of soul/spirit and the beauty of being human
• The parts of life we may miss with an over-focus on spirituality
• Not disapproving of what our hearts bring up in meditation
• Jungian psychology, shadow work, and dream work
• Stories that go into the psyche in a non-rational way
• Bringing the imagination into Buddhism
• The peace of the Buddha found inside our daily lives
• The necessity of working with the inner life
• A short, guided practice from John

About John Tarrant:

John Tarrant is a Western Zen teacher and director of the Pacific Zen Institute, which has centers in California, Arizona, and Canada. He teaches and writes about the transformation of consciousness through the use of the Zen koan and trains koan meditation teachers. Tarrant is from Australia, he came from an old Tasmanian family and grew up in the City of Launceston on Bass Strait. His early influences included English literature, especially poetry, the Latin Mass, the Tasmanian bush, and Australian Aboriginal culture. Tarrant worked at many jobs, ranging from working as a laborer in an open-pit mine, to commercial fishing the Great Barrier Reef. Eventually, he also worked as a lobbyist for the Aboriginal land rights movement. Check out Tarrant’s book, The Story of the Buddha, or learn more about his work and events on his website.

“Being at peace is to be at peace with the whole of you, with your soul, your frustration, your anger. They can appear, but you’re not fighting with it. In some way they fertilize your practice like rain on the earth.” – John Tarrant

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Getting down to earth and into the heart, Rebecca Bradshaw joins Raghu to discuss balancing masculine and feminine energy in the dharma.

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This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Rebecca chat about:

• Rebecca’s journey of waking up and finding her path
• Earth-based religions and getting down to earth
• Rebecca’s 5-month stint in silent meditation
• Approaching practice from the heart rather than the mind
• Discovering the feminine archetype within the dharma
• The masculine energy often found within Buddhist communities and early scriptures
• Going deep down within the receptive heart space
• Cultivating intimacy with all things and focusing on relationship
• Dissolving the three roots of suffering (greed hatred and delusion)
• The practice of useless gazing and surrendering to the moment without an agenda
• Acclimating to the truth of impermanence and letting go of the need to control
• The acquired taste of being open and working at it over time

Snag a copy of Rebecca’s book, Down to Earth Dharma: Insight Meditation to Awaken the Hear, HERE

About Rebecca Bradshaw:

Rebecca is Guiding Teacher Emeritus of the Insight Meditation Society and the Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley in Easthampton, Massachusetts. She has been practicing Buddhist Vipassana meditation since 1983 in the United States and Myanmar (Burma) and teaching since 1993. She completed her dharma teacher training at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where she is part of the three-month retreat teacher team and leads retreats for young adults. Rebecca has a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and has worked as a bi-lingual (Spanish/English) psychotherapist. Her upcoming book, Down to Earth Dharma, was published by Shambhala Publications in November 2024. Check out Rebecca’s website, HERE.

“There’s this emphasis on transcendence, energetic striving, independence, and all these things that are in the masculine archetype. They felt like some balance was missing, that’s how it felt to me, and that a lot of it had to do with dropping into the heart, dropping into the body, feeling.” – Rebecca Bradshaw

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Raghu Markus and Norman Ohler explore the history of drugs in the Third Reich and how this ultimately lead to the psychedelic age in America.

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In this riveting and historical episode, Raghu and Norman talk about:

• Norman’s research into the history of psychedelics in Germany
• ‘Truth drugs’ and using psychedelics for interrogation tactics
• Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist known for his work with LSD
• America’s early interest in psychedelics for military use
• MK-Ultra, mind control, and how the CIA took over the quest for truth drugs.
• Norman Ohler’s meeting with Leonard Pickard, a major player in the LSD underground
• How the CIA saw psychedelics as a potential weapon to manipulate people
• Truth that can be discovered on psychedelic journeys
• How psychedelics can help heal relationships with ourselves and others

Get a copy of Norman’s 2024 book, Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age

About Norman Ohler:

Norman Ohler is a German journalist and New York Times bestselling author, novelist and screenwriter, best known for his book Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany, which has been published in over 30 languages. Most recently, Norman furthered his research into drug use in the Third Reich and it’s connection to the CIA and the age of psychedelics in the United States. This produced his 2024 book, Tripped.

Learn more about Tripped and Norman’s other works on his website, HERE.

“Basically what happened in the US was a continuation of the unethical human experiments that the Nazi’s did, obviously not in a concentration camp, but at American universities, at American and Canadian clinics.” – Norman Ohler

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Raghu welcomes Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche for a conversation on being diligent and consistent in our practice.

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In this episode of Mindrolling, Raghu and Dzigar have a discourse on:

• Dzigar’s upbringing in a Tibetan refugee camp in India
• The magic of the great Buddhist masters
• Using discriminating wisdom and blending Bhakti & Buddhism
• Practical ways to have a balanced life
• Being a non-judgmental witness to ourselves, others, and the world
• Meeting our intention with action rather than getting lost in the mundane
• Remedying the three forms of laziness through consistent effort
• The fruits of being diligent in our practice
• Shantideva, an 8th-century Indian philosopher, monk, and scholar
• Motivation and understanding how our actions serve us
• Knowing when to take a break in order to reenergize ourselves for full engagement
• The joy in seeing through our intentions to the end

About Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche:

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche was born in the Northern Indian province of Himachal Pradesh to Tibetan refugee parents. Rinpoche grew up in a monastic environment. He was trained in the Longchen Nyingtik lineage of the Nyingma school as well as the Khyen-Kong Chok-Sum lineages. He moved to the United States in 1989 with his family and began a five-year tenure as a professor of Buddhist philosophy at Naropa University (then Institute) in 1990. Not long after arriving in the United States, Rinpoche founded Mangala Shri Bhuti, an organization established to further the practice of the Longchen Nyingtik and Khyen-Kong Chok-sum lineages. He established a mountain retreat center, Longchen Jigme Samten Ling, in southern Colorado, where he spends much of his time in retreat and guides students in long-term retreat practice. When not in retreat, Rinpoche travels widely throughout the world teaching and furthering his own education. Keep up with Rinpoche’s happenings HERE.

Pick up your own copy of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche’s book, Diligence: The Joyful Endeavor of the Buddhist Path.

“We need to succeed in our field to be able to meet our intention with action, to have concrete outcomes. Whether that is in the spiritual path, sports, business, or creating a balanced life with health and well-being for oneself and one’s family, in all of this, the effort is essential. Effort in a way that is not sporadic, but consistent effort.“ – Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

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