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Speakers from the first annual Entheogenesis Conference
Entheogenesis 2 Conference: Michael HorowitzThe Feminine Experience in Drug History 21 Sep 2005 1 hr 9 min From Plant Goddesses of Myth and Antiquity to the Emergence of the Post-Modern Shaman WomanA slide show with running commentary. Michael Horowitz and Cynthia Palmer are drug historians and writers. They edited two classic anthologies: Moksha: Aldous Huxley's Writings on Psychedelics & Visionary Experience, and Sisters of the Extreme: Women Writing on the Drug Experience. Michael also co-wrote The High Times Encyclopedia of Recreational Drugs and An Annotated Bibliography of Timothy Leary. For many years they were directors of the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library, and Michael currently operates Flashback Books (flashbackbooks.com) in San Francisco. 
Entheogenesis 2: Alan Piper, The Lote Tree of the furthest BoundaryPsychoactive Sacraments in Islamic Gnosis 29 Jul 2005 1 hr 6 min Alan Piper, born in 1953, had an interest in religious ideas from an early age. As a teenager in the sixties he came into contact with mind-altering drugs and the counter-culture. Like many others who experimented with psychedelics in the sixties, he moved into a phase of ‘getting there without drugs' and explored various spiritual disciplines. Concerns about the potential for spiritual fascism in the new religious movements led first to an interest in the occult roots of Nazism and finally to graduating in the History of Ideas in 1986. His interest in mind-altering plants was renewed when he became aware of the new entheogenic eco-psychedelia inspired by the likes of Terence McKenna. Alan now seeks to apply the methodological disciplines he learned as an undergraduate to exploring the role played by mind-altering plants in the history of religious ideas. He will be speaking on the role of plant drugs in Islamic Gnosis as well as considering the role of scholarship in psychedelic explorations.
Entheogenesis 2: Dr. Michael Aldrich (a.k.a. Dr. Dope)Religious and Medical uses of Cannabis in the Ancient World 18 Jul 2005 1 hr 7 min This presentation will focus on the confluence of religious and medical uses of cannabis in ancient India, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The use of cannabis to heal both body and soul goes back to the oldest religious texts in the world and was pursued deeply in Tantric practices in medieval India. It continues steadily up to modern times in a variety of cultural contexts. Historical examples of religious/magical/medical cannabis spirituality will be cited to show that this powerful stream has survived despite often being persecuted by government authorities.Michael R. Aldrich, Ph.D., is the author of the first doctoral dissertation on cannabis in the United States, "Marijuana Myths & Folklore," 1970; editor of the first pot'zine, The Marijuana Review, 1968-1973; co-founder, Amorphia, The Cannabis Cooperative, 1969-1973; organizer, California Marijuana Initiative, 1972; curator, Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library, 1974-2002 and The Aldrich Archives, 1974-present; program coordinator, Institute for Community Health Outreach (California statewide AIDS outreach worker training program), 1989-2001; executive director, CHAMP medical marijuana community center, San Francisco, 2001-2002. 
Entheogenesis Conference: Phil Lucas, Forbidden KnowledgeThe Renaissance of Medicinal Cannabis in the 21st Century 12 Jul 2005 45 min The Dark Ages were not only charactersized by a loss of knowledge and undersanding of the physical and theoretical world, but also by a wholesale rejection of ideas, information and beliefs based on ideological principles, fear and misunderstanding. The prohibition on entheogenic substances which dominated Western drug policy in the 20th century follows the same misguided rejection of historical knowledge and cumulative experience, and has resulted in the loss of many therapeutic substances with wide and varied applications. Cannabis, which was a mainstay of Western medicine at the end of the 19th century prior to its prohibition, is currently undergoing a Renaissance of research and understanding. This presentation will focus on knowledge lost and regained by the medical profession, modern researchers and compassion clubs despite the Dark Ages of cannabis prohibition that have dominated the last century.
Entheogenesis Conference: Roman VillagranaEntheogens, Art and Cultural Development 05 Jul 2005 1 hr 10 min "Roman represents a harmonious universe portrayed by dancing beings, galactic councils, sychromystics and other enlightened perspectives symbolizing the ever-changing moment he calls the eternal party. Roman loves to make art but ultimately he believes it's a duty to his community and our existence as a visual representation of the world we want or have. He invites everyone to participate in a conscious movement declaring interdependence through the act of creating it."This segment also includes an open mic session hosted by Chris Bennett and Marc Emery. 
Entheogenesis Conference: GregThe Importance Of Drugs In Literature 30 Jun 2005 28 min Greg will give a short talk on the importance of drugs in literature and to literary studies. Beginning with Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel , the discussion will concentrate on the importance of drug use in the writing of the following luminaries: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Thomas De Quincey, Charles Baudelaire, Fritz Hugh Ludlow, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Phillip K. Dick, and Hunter S. Thompson. A brief examination of the importance of the study of drug use in contemporary literary studies (especially in the work of Jacques Derrida and Avital Ronnell) will conclude the talk.Greg was born in England and has lived in Vancouver since 1990. He received a First Class Honors B.A. from Simon Fraser University in 1994 and a Master of Arts (English) from SFU in 2004. He is the interested in researching the "rhetoric of drugs" and the author of Crystal Children . |
