Psychedelics of course have powerful consciousness-altering effects on individuals, but their use is also a socio-cultural phenomenon that impacts the larger society, helping spawn cultural trends and aesthetic movements and influencing political ideas. These phenomena have not been studied in any depth because these drugs are proscribed and demonized in our culture, so serious mainstream sociologists and cultural observers have largely ignored their larger social impacts. In this session, J.P. Harpignies will explore one troubling aspect of psychedelic subcultures - a fairly widespread tendency toward the uncritical acceptance of a number of extremely naive utopian ideas and conversely of some very paranoid conspiratorial ones, as well as toward certain strains of spiritual megalomania - seeking to understand the reasons for these tendencies and how perhaps to mitigate some of the negative consequences these uncentered expressions can have.

http://vimeo.com/16756741

(one of the great talks from the Horizons 2010 conference)

Here are the rest of them: http://www.horizonsnyc.org/site/video/

Great stuff cellux, thanks! I agree with this guy, very good and important points.

Good talk. But I think the points made in that talk would be perfectly suited for the general population, not just psychedelic users. It seemed every point he brought up applies to many segments of the population, both conservative and liberal and fringe and other. Everyone could stand to hear talks about living a balanced life, not getting too full of yourself, not believing weird stuff that has zero practical application. I think the talk was a good call towards reason, and common sense.