Lately I have been meeting more and people who have recently developed an interest in psychedelic drugs, and I'm always taken aback by the scope of misinformation out there that is so widely regarded as fact. It took me a while to come to grips with the fact that not everyone is as much of a nerd as I am, and most people don't spend hours of their time on forums such as the nexus; which is an exceptional resource for quality psychedelic information.

This got me thinking that it could be useful to have a packet of some kind that contains basic information pertaining to psychedelic drugs and harm reduction. I figured this could be a simple way to get the kind of information that is exclusive to places like the Nexus out into the world in a more accessible and convenient way. Zines are inexpensive to make and can be distributed pretty much anywhere.

My original goal was to have it finished by early Fall of last year--a goal I fell pretty far short of, as it is now February and the project is still not complete. But at long last I finally feel that this endeavor has come far enough along that I can share it here for feedback, input, and participation from the Nexus community.

A quick overview of the Zine:

The final version will be a .pdf file that contains basic instructions on how to print the Zine and assemble it (which is as simple as folding and stapling the pages together). It will be free to copy, share, and distribute by anyone.

It is intended to be distributed to folks who might be curious about trying a psychedelic drug for the first time, and also to concerned, skeptical, or unapproving friends and family of engaged psychonauts. The Zine is also geared towards the "activist" scene by considering different ways that psychedelics might help inform radical analysis and community engagement, while offering a critique of the current psychedelic paradigm in popular culture.

This is a very rough draft. As you read through the Zine every now and then you may see an empty section, a note to myself, missing annotations, etc...

I'm sharing this here to get feedback on what has been done thus far, and to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to help with the process. Most of the groundwork has already been done, and the remaining work is relatively straightforward.

What still needs to be done:

The Zine needs a title! If you have any creative suggestions please feel free to share!

The historical overview needs more examples of historical psychedelic practices

Applications of microdosing

Spiritual applications (I believe DeDao is working on this)

The section on mental health and self-care needs more mention of the studies done surrounding psychedelics and addiction

In the section on harm reduction, the sub-sections on risks/dangers and myths/urban legends need to be completed. The "myths" part I was thinking could be like an FAQ. For example: Q: Is it true that LSD accumulates in your spine and contributes to flashbacks? A: No, because...

The entire "Next Steps" section needs to be written. Includes the social and ecological impacts of drug use including drug tourism, the necessity for funded psychedelic research (and why it's important that we have oversight over this process), home cultivation and sustainable extraction, and drug policy reform.

Substance profile sheets. Essentially simple fact sheets containing basic information pertaining to specific drugs. Info would consist of chemical info, brief history, subjective experience (eg LSD feels more speedy than mushrooms and lasts longer), dosage, FAQ's, dangers, substance interactions, etc...

Additional resources, which could include books, websites, movies, journals, etc... I would also like for there to be a small sub-section that briefly profiles people and groups who have used psychedelics in community contexts throughout history (eg Maria Sabina, UMIYAC, etc..)

I need to add citations for any claim that is made, whether it be historical, scientific, or political.

It needs more imagery. If you are an artist, you like looking at art, or you're good at formatting, this could be the perfect task for you

Quotes! I love quotes and I thought it would be cool to have them scattered throughout the zine in relevant sections. If you know of, or stumble across, any quotes (nexus quotes are fine, encouraged actually) please share! Funny quotes are great for transitioning and lightening the mood, but heady quotes are also welcome.

I will be chipping away at these tasks in my spare time, but if you feel compelled to help in any way at all please don't hesitate to reach out! I think it would be great if this could be a community-oriented project, since the zine really emphasizes community-based approaches to psychedelic engagement.

Some things I wanted to ask all of you:

I'm worried that it's way too long. What do you think? I would like for the tone to be objective and thorough for the skeptics and academics, but I'm worried the language is inaccessible and many people will be turned off by the wordiness/dryness. Do you think this could be made more compact and simplistic, and if so what are your suggestions?

Does the layout/order work? Does it flow well from beginning to end, or does it seem like the content jumps around?

Does the point seem clear? Is it relevant and useful or is it just a collection of fluffy words and pictures about drugs?

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Thank you in advance for any feedback or contributions that you might have. I am hoping this will be a fun project and I've tried to make it as easy as possible for folks to plug in.

I would also like to give a very special thanks to Nathanial.Dread, who wrote the entire section on psychedelic pharmacology. Without their work this project probably would have crashed and burned early on. So again, thank you!

I'd also like to thank Pandora for offering me some advice on the harm reduction section, which was really helpful for providing a framework for understanding harm reduction as a tactic and not just a philosophy.

And to DeDao, thank you for agreeing to help out with the piece on spirituality and psychedelics. I believe that is still in the works but I'm excited to see what manifests!

And thank you Nexus community for being there every step along the way of my journey with psychedelics. I have grown in leaps and bounds from the day I first registered, and I'm not sure who I would be today without this community. This project, which has given me a lot of focus and direction in other areas of my life, would not be possible without the DMT-Nexus. So thank you Trav, mod crew, and community-at-large for making this such a special place.

Also please note that there are a small handful of very minor formatting issues that occurred as a result of exporting the document into a pdf file. Nothing serious, but if you notice that an image seems partially cut-off or anything like that, this is why.

So enough rambling! Without any further ado...

I've only had to chance to scan it, but it looks excellent! Very well done to all involved. I'll read it in-depth before making any other suggestions, other than to say perhaps Fadiman's "Safe Explorer's Guide" would be a worthy entry under "Additional Resources" [currently blank]? And maybe a link to MAPS too?

The one 'safety' thing I didn't see, and which might be worth mentioning, would be a short list of common foods/supplements which can adversely affect MAO/CYP450 function? There's currently a 'grapefruit' casualty on another thread, largely because of Rollsafe's crappy 'advice'.

Sane, rational, informative...be careful you don't make some powerful enemies

Obviously the title needs to draw people in and not scare them away, without being sensational...how about "The Steve Jobs Guide To Success"

Perhaps a note somewhere about 'famous' psychonauts could reassure some readers? I mean household names, who are on the record, like Cary Grant, Jobs, Gates, Lennon etc rather than 'our' celebrities, like McKenna etc.

Sorry I haven't had the chance to fully look through all of this, but what overlap does this have with the OHT Handbook one of the Nexus projects? I mean your description strikes me as being very similar to something already done. If it's similar enough, maybe combine efforts for a more throrough collaboration.

Absolutely, thanks for bringing this up. I'll be sure to include something that covers food and supplement interactions specifically.



There is a lot of overlap. The OHT Handbook played a large part in shaping the idea for this project. The OHT is extremely long though, and my hope was to essentially synthesize all of the most basic harm reduction info into something more compact. There is a LOT of content in the OHT and it's all absolutely fantastic, but for someone who is new to psychedelics it's quite a lot of information to sort through if you're just curious about the basics. With this said, I know that this is also getting pretty lengthy--so I'm curious in what ways I might shorten it without cutting out too much content.

That makes more sense. If I get some spare time, I'll look it over. An abridged handout on psychedelic safety would be quite useful.

Personally for me, if you are looking at cutting this and setting up a form that will aid in harm reduction for the readers, I would suggest shortening the "brief history" of psychedelics at the beginning, I think it can distract from the overall purpose you are striving for, and maybe a just brief description of psychedelics in history and modern use could be covered in one or two paragraphs.

Likewise I think the in depth explaination of psychedelic pharmacology can be shortened. While I personally love reading about neurochemistry, I think it distracts from the main purpose, which you stated would be harm reduction. It's rather detailed and I think a more brief description would better serve the purpose, as your average person who takes drugs could care less about the specifics of pharmacology, they just want to know the basics. Duration, effects, and side effects etc.

Also you section at the end on the political side of psychedelics shows a lot of bias to me. I think the whole notion of dissolving political models is better left for the person to experience, not as a long diatribe for a guide whose ultimate goal is harm reduction.

There are a few other minor nitpicks I had personally but I decided to leave them alone. These are the main topics that distracted me personally. Just to make this clear, this is just my opinion, and I know that being the writer, you have your own view how everything should look. But as a reader, this is what stuck out as what might could be in line for the chopping block.

Either way, I hope that helps.

Peace.

That's awesome feedback, thank you

I agree about the "brief" history being not-so-brief, distracting, and unnecessary. I'll definitely shorten it significantly.

The pharmacology section could also be shortened for sure. Part of the reason I wanted it to be relatively in depth was to try and cater to people who may approach the whole idea of psychedelic drug use with skepticism--folks who need to see hard evidence. This said, I think you're right that it does distract from the primary focus. I'll shorten it, try to boil it down to a few key points.

I understand where you're coming from with the political stuff, and I knew that including it would probably turn a lot of people off. Being honest, exploring community engagement through a psychedelic lens is the other large part of what drove me to start this. I understand that many people here may not agree or identify with my politics, which is fine, but in that regard I am hoping for constructive critique from people who do. I just want to be clear in saying that I am still learning and growing, and I don't want to come off as if I'm trying to present some kind of politically-correct psychedelic doctrine or anything like that. I do want to share something that encourages people to consider what psychedelic healing might look like in an accessible, sustainable, and community-based framework; but I know that in some places I may be far reaching, lacking analysis, problematic, or otherwise.

I do hear you there though, I also think it makes sense to cut back on the politically-charged content; but I would really like to keep those themes present and I think that's doable without having an entire section that seems politically motivated.

While I'd prefer to keep those themes in addition to that of harm reduction, if all the Nexus wants and needs right now are some chemical fact sheets I am happy to finish them up and compile it as a separate project. It could be like a 10-15pg little booklet with cute pictures. To be real though I think a lot of other members have already done that work and the information is readily available here, so I can't help but wonder if that would just be redundant?

I've only skimmed it, although I did read full sections here and there. One thing I would suggest is using slightly less rigid language around the presentation of a "singular" psychedelic experience. Imo, it's not "the psychedelic experience" but "psychedelic experiences", it's not that these "experiences do xyz" but these "experiences may facilitate xyz". Personally, I tend to shy away from discussing "fundamental characteristics" in favor of "common themes" or "frequently encountered" components/experiences/ideas/etc. I find that small linguistic difference to function in a similar manner to e-prime and not only allow for a broader/more enveloping characterization, but also to negate people intent on listening to your words for "errors" or "flaws" rather than listening critically.

As to the politics...I'll just say this. There's more than enough "apolitical" psychedelic work. If we understand "politics" as power relationships, psychedelic experiences are, or can be, (imo, anyways) intensely political experiences. There is a dearth of legitimate political discussion taking place around these compounds and the experiences they facilitate. Instead we get slapdash BS thrown together by people like Pinchbeck who appear more interested in listening to the sound of their own voice than actually advancing a political critique vis a vis psychedelics.

If you were to cut anything from the political section, I'm not really sure what it would be. It reads to me as a brief overview of some ideas...it's more gestalt than anything, certainly not a "diatribe". I think it presents a good overview and food for thought. Something that's both accessible and informative enough that people can go find more info elsewhere and you don't run on for pages and pages going into detailed political discussion. As to the notion of "bias"...this isn't an academic paper and I think it's great for you to put your personal opinions in there. Better to give it some personality than have another sterile "this is what psychedelics are" pamphlet. There are plenty of those, as you point out, and while they serve a great purpose, I don't see a need to replicate them over and over.

Snozzleberry my whole point on the political side of the psychedelic experience, at least my main critique was that when it comes to the effect of dissolving arbitrary political models, ideals that I've heard in numerous speeches from Terrence McKenna and rants from Bill Hicks, my thought was that it could be toned down, not dissolved completely. The reason being that I think such ideas are better experienced and to approach the topic more subtly as not to risk dissuading people who are curious yet intimidated by psychedelics. I have many of my friends who are personally afraid to touch DMT and psychedelics even though they are quite curious and capable of handling the experience because they are afraid of this very thing. They are afraid that their view of things like religion, politics and society in general will be shattered and they are not sure if they can handle it, so they stay away from psychedelics. So personally the idea I was expressing was to approach that subject subtly, as a more aggressive view I have known from personal experience to actually scare people away, even from light doses. Which I think does more harm than good.

I hope this does a better job of clarifying what I meant. I certainly wouldn't want such a passionate peice to be sterilized into just a basics pamphlet, so if it came across as that that was not my intention. The personality and passion behind this made it an enjoyable read.

Either way, just clarifying. Ultimately regardless I think it's a good read and could help people. I was just looking for ideas to help trim the work down which is what was asked for.

However I will say this, if you wanted to refocus this idea into a more politically motivated stance on psychedelics, I'd be all for that. I was critiquing it from the total perspective of harm reduction. If you wanted to shift towards a political outlook on psychedelics and set up a well informed essay on that, then by all means keep that perspective in. Snozz makes a good point. There are a lot of basics information out there. A political perspective would be refreshing.

"The Politics of Psychedelics"

The POP has a nice ring to it lol.

This is a really good point, I hadn't considered the language I was using to describe these kinds of experiences. I'll be sure to go through and change that up.

As for the rest of your post, thank you for the affirmation. I've been anxious about the kind of reception this project would receive here because of the political content but everything you've said is really encouraging.



I understand and can appreciate where you're coming from. My only push back is to say that when I think of harm reduction I am also considering the wider implications that psychedelic drug use has, beyond that of the individual who is using said substances. How do we reduce the amount of harm that occurs via industrial sourcing and economic imperialism as a result of increasingly widespread use of plant-based psychedelics? As psychedelics are gradually assimilated into the accepted mainstream, how do we ensure that they are employed in pro-active models that are both accessible and sustainable? I don't see these issues as separate from that of harm reduction and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with an "either-or" approach.

And if people don't feel comfortable taking a powerful mind-altering drug because they are concerned that their boundaries will be pushed too far, that's totally cool with me. Reading books, talking to your neighbors...these are also great ways to break down barriers and build new connections in their place. I'm not trying to convince people to take psychedelic drugs or to become activists. My goal is to connect with people who are already predisposed to, or curious about, either camp; and to uplift the potential for dialogue between them. The psychedelic perspective(s) have something to offer social movements, but conversely I think that psychedelic experiences have much more immediate and useful implications when supplemented with grounded social and political analyses.

Granted, I think it's necessary to change the language around and you're absolutely right in suggesting to cut back significantly on a couple of other sections to make the whole thing more direct and relevant. And of course I will continue to tweak the "political" sections as I go, as there is definitely room for improvement there as well.

Thanks for all of the input so far everyone. It's very helpful and greatly appreciated. Aside from the last few additions I made just to make it presentable here, this project has been pretty stagnant for a while and all of the suggestions and other perspectives are quite refreshing and giving me new directions to go. So again, thank you!

Fantastic. I think I now have a better understanding of what you are trying to accomplish. I agree that this approach would be useful. And I'll be happy to add it to my library of Nexus generated literature once it's completed. Looking forward to your updates. Keep up the good work. Godspeed.