Hope to check in with my close "cyber" friends personally, but thought I should also post here to keep continuity and let people know what's up with us. Between hyperemesis in early pregnancy and throughout, a late undiagnosed breech and immense pressure for a cesarean (which I declined, babe flipped, all's well- follow your body's wisdom and intuition and things really do fall into place) and a two month morphine taper for my little guy due to neonatal abstinence syndrome, the first month and a half in the NICU, things have been a journey, quite rough at times.

We are now settling in, my son is healthy and strong and the love of my life, and for now am single parenting,...

Haven't been around much lately but just wanted everyone to know that I am okay, as is the little one. Had the nuchal test for Downs and other chromosomal abnormalities and the measurements were all in the normal/healthy range. I started classes this week as well, and am hoping to be around a bit more this fall.. Hope everyone is well!!

Just wanted to update everyone on what is happening with me.. apologies for not having been around too much this summer, I am doing my best to help out here and there but have been unable to do as much as I would like.

I found out in mid-June that I am expecting. This will be my first child. The pregnancy was unplanned but is welcomed as a blessing and celebration of life. I consider it an honor to have the experience of helping to create a new life.

I have been very physically ill due to the pregnancy, and have had to be hospitalized a few times due to excessive vomiting and dehydration (hyperemesis gravidarum). I am on an anti-emetic (ondansetron, or Zofran) which...

Communicating the Unspeakable? Linguistic Phenomena in the Psychedelic Sphere Diana Reed Slattery

-Psilocybin, DMT have been shown to have effects on the language centers of the brain (will look into more info on this, either no sources were listed or I didn't get the chance to write them down in my notes as she had 12 minutes to go through her presentation and it was a bit rushed)
-Idea of "the Other." Psychedelic sphere is densely populated by entities or other presences of some sort- this is consistently reported throughout multiple cultural contexts and experiences
-Idea of an inner signal transmitted and one has the choice as to whether to enter in to...

Hallucinogens vs. Lucidogens: The Debate is Open
Juan C. Gonzalez, PhD www.categorizacion.org (Spanish)
http://hallucinations.risc.cnrs.fr (French, short section is English if you click English content)
"Rising Researchers" March 23, 2008 Basel

What issues are at stake?
Conceptual issues (not only terminology)
Epistemological issues
Mental health issues
Socio-political issues
Religious/spiritual issues
Legal issues

"Hallucinogen" as a standard term
Contextualized in cognitive science and philosophy

Overview:
1. Analysis of "hallucinogen" (negative and positive...

A fairly brief overview of some of these issues throughout the history of Brazil. Interesting to see the racial aspect of cannabis prohibition discussed in this context, as I've really only learned much about this aspect of its history in the U.S. Sounds like it is a shared history and a big issue across many cultures, although it is often not acknowledged that this is the true history of the current laws.

Cannabis and the Afro-Brazilian Tradition
Henrique S. Carneiro
"Rising Researchers" March 23, 2008 Basel

Drug research groups in contemporary Brazil:
ABRAMO- open to medical use, harm reduction
ABEAD- conservative stance
NEIP-...

This was an interesting lecture as well, although I don't know much about such studies of plants, it seemed to be thoroughly done and had some interesting and important conclusions for research on Salvia Divinorum and other ethnobotanical study. They discovered that salvia divinorum had been incorrectly classified in several big ways, and that many assumptions about the behavior and history of the plant were in fact incorrect. An interesting aspect was the discovery of Salvia Venulosa, considered to be a match as a sister species to Sal. D. edit: The presenter/researcher for this presentation was Aaron A. Jenks.

This quote was used to start off the presentation which I really liked:...

Thought this was a fascinating topic presented by Kevin Feeney at the WPF conference- some may be familiar with these issues already, but I was not. It is a great introduction to the unique issue of conservation of the peyote cacti, and legal precedents for such issues with regard to freedom of religion. It is a pretty comprehensive overview of these issues as they relate, and he also discussed a pretty thorough list of the options for proceeding and possible outcomes- although I would have liked to hear more about the possible solutions and have gone into a bit more detail there, it was necessary to get understand the basic background information. Also, since the Rising Researchers were given...

Alex and Allyson Grey's Psychedelic Families lecture
March 23, 2008 Congress Center of Basel, Switzerland

Idea of "Father Knows Best" ideal American family from early-mid 1900s
-Personal history- No discussion of drugs with parents, but often surrounded by alcohol, tobacco, legal/prescription drug use, although problem use is veiled or not discussed, it is in the background

Images- Ozzy and Harriet (ideal of mom/dad/teens, happy together) vs. Ozzy Osbourne and family- both are "together" families that have caring/loving but appear very different

Consistent mischaracterization of the marijuana issue often at the root of the...

Lots of discussion and thoughts on syncronicity (sp?) and won't get into it all, but thought I'd share a few experiences..

Meeting some fellow DFers, chances to meet with and talk to Rick Doblin and many MAPS staff and volunteers, etc. worked in perfectly with what was needed, mind states and thoughts and energy begetting energy in a perfectly aligned journey forward, coming full circle..

At the airport, rounding out the journey, I ran into another WPF attendee, someone I didn't end up getting to meet at the conference, but the meeting occurred spontaneously at the airport instead.

I also found myself sitting next to a girl on the plane. I was a bit tired,...

The boat was reeeeally crazy, what a wild concept.. I'd never been on a boat party, nor to an electronic music party/rave.. Things were a bit hazy as well, due to sleep deprivation.. for real.. even though everyone laughed at me and accused me of being on lots of drugs.. it was so bizarre.. because I was sober.. and yet not really.. of course we talk about non-ordinary states that are not exclusive to drugs and that is a huge reality and a part of it, but this was pretty intense..

So we (I- I take full responsibility haha) lost my purse but nothing too important in there so it's all good.. about 80 francs and my room key and internet card.. but luckily no credit cards or ids. Then...

Also, a more general report- finally met RXBandit and his travel companion, and MatthijsV and his travel companion.. today's lectures were great, saw the first Panorama and then we divided up the lectures as we wanted to see many of the speakers.. I went to the Rising Researchers, it was absolutely fascinating and am so glad I went.. am also interested in the novel kappa agonist research mentioned if anyone saw it or took notes.. research included peyote and religious rights/conservation, xenolinguistics and language phenomenon in psychedelic use, enacive cognitive science/psychology, classification and relatives of Salvia Divinorum, cannabis in the Afro-Brazilian tradition (and racial roots...

Summary of SheShamans first lecture, Cynthia Palmer

Discussed symbolism, history, and used many images related to women and psychedelics.

Legend in one peyote culture of its history- woman was walking and nursing child, got lost and became exhausted and malnourished, thought she would die and unable to feed child.. voice told her to eat the cactus near her- peyote- and it restored her strength so she could nurse her child and found her way home- told to bring to her people as a giver of life and energy

Helen of Troy- took opium based drug

Isis- Egyptian goddess of motherhood, fertility, and herbs- linked these three- cycle of life,...

Moda00 was sleeping and missed first lecture, very sad as she wanted to see Mueller-Ebeling (sp?) or Pinchbeck.. man...busy schedule planned for the day here on out though..

1st more ladies' stuff.. SheShamans haha..
Then tracking down the elusive RXBandit (the name fits as far as I know lol)
Then the Panorama, maybe.. I can't focus too good in the panorama discussions, too much happens and the language keeps switching. lol.
Then Rising Researchers.. I wanted to make at least on RR segment and this looks to be the one for me- I'm psyched.. If anyone does PLants thru Native Eyes please fill me in, sad to miss that..
Then likely to What about Erowid? w/ Jon...

For further updates, not related to the lecture notes above, I also saw SheShamans, a summary of women in shamanism and psychedelic tradition; Dennis McKenna; and Alex Grey, and will share those as well. My pics are shitty.. either I can't hold my camera right, or my camera is a $400 piece of sh!t. Lol. No, about half of the pics were really blurry, but some are great- got some good ones of the displays in the foyer, posters, letters, history, blotter, art, etc. but the power points during lectures and the speakers themselves were dificult to photograph. I will upload soon if I can do so on my laptop, otherwise will do it when i get home. Also I think my cam can record several minute video segments,...

The rest of Grof's first lecture- wouldn't all fit in one blog post..

Nature of the transformation? How to pursue?
*Cannot reach INNER peace or happiness through EXTERNAL pursuits.
Also abolish the thinking "we're ok, but some bad apples spoil it" etc. (ex. as Bush's "people of God" vs. "axis of evil" and "solution" is to eradicate.) This only divides.
Difficult to understand war, Holocaust, genocide, etc. without understanding that there is some of this in all humanity (-but can be addressed productively-)

Depth Psychology and Culture:
The pioneers of depth psych motivated by clinical concerns- treating...

Oi, day one fucking stressful flight all night half asleep and delirious, passed out, woke up, passed out, jet lag, heavy bags, getting lost..fast forward... then on to the fun

I am going to have to spend hours typing this all up, but here is Stan Grof's first lecture:

Consciousness Evolution and Human Survival: Psychospiritual Roots of the Current Global Crisis
Stanislov Grof, Friday March 21st, Basel

Starting Question:
Have you experienced non-ordinary states of consciousness?? Examples: Shamanic rituals, psychedelics, spontaneous experiences, illness, near-death, psychotherapy, meditation, etc.
-States that for more general audiences...

I am so excited about this conference. It was lurking in the back of my mind over the past few months, but between finances and school and methadone and all that jazz I never thought it'd happen. Then the thread came up, and things sorta fell into place (with some focused effort, of course). As of today I have a hotel room at the Swissotel, entrance to the Grey's visionary art seminar that Monday, and a plane ticket out of Chi-town. So it seems this thing is happening- how inspirational (I'm not being sarcastic either, lol, it really is inspirational!!)

The hardest part is going to be choosing between the discussions and talks given during the same time slots- I wanna hear them...