Hello! How is your week so far? We are heading towards a new phase in the life of The New Health Club and are ready to tell you soon…
On the Podcast this week!
As promised this week we are coming back with our first episode of the new podcast season! My guest is Zac Kamenetz, the rabbi, community leader, and aspiring psychedelic chaplain based in Berkeley, CA, I told you about last time.
The first Jewish psychedelic summit is starting to take off and it’s so worth joining! I would even say it is a game-changer.
I did not expect the conversation and the podcast with Zac would turn into a psychedelic integration session. For me. The German and Jewish history is something that has been on my mind forever. I grew up, learned about the holocaust and how the Germans were dealing (or not dealing) with that part of their history. Also, my grandfather was in the war.
Fast forward, last year February. In my (guided) psilocybin experience aka trip, I wandered with a Rabbi through Auschwitz and we were discussing all kinds of things, actually, I had the same experience in my first guided LSD trip. This was one of the most life-changing experiences so far. I talked to my integration therapist, but I knew, I need to talk to a ...Jewish psychedelic rabbi about this. And here I am, talking to Zac and the future of psychedelic therapy.
Zac and I talk
what happens in a trip, when you see your “history” or trauma in a trip
We address the work of Jan Bastiaans, the dutch therapist working with LSD sessions for Holocaust survivors in the sixties.
We talk Yehiel Dinur, Ka-Tzetnik: Shivitti, who wrote “Trip Reports” from his LSD treatment dealing with his time in Auschwitz.
He is a very important author who wrote about his experience of two years in Auschwitz and his subsequent attempts at recovery. The text recounts his time in captivity, years of torment, and how finally the author sought help from a psychiatrist who recognized “Concentration Camp Syndrome”.
Zac and I talk about how non-Jewish people, like me, should start talking to other non- Jewish people about the Holocaust, and how psychedelic insight can contribute to this: the recognition and the embracing of pain, guilt, and responsibility.
Three things I want you to know about this week
1) Psilocybin vs the Anti-depressant Escitalopram study is out!
Robin Carhart Harris and the Imperial College released the long-awaited results of the “Psilocybin vs Escitalopram” study just last night and here it is for you!
Very quick result: We are not there yet, it takes more science. “Larger and longer trials are required to compare psilocybin with established antidepressants” So we need research, research, research to manifest the meaning and power of psilocybin even more.
BUT the study showed that psilocybin “is at least as effective as leading SSRIs” as Forbes writes.
We had Robin on the show in April last year and he was already talking about the study, check-in, and listen again.
And FYI, the Imperial College will start “The 5-MeO-DMT Survey Study” and you can apply here...
2) There is still a lot of research necessary in terms of psilocybin….which is also confirmed by the University of Maryland.
Psychedelic Experience May Not be Required for Psilocybin’s Antidepressant-like Benefits, UM School of Medicine Study Shows, says the University of Maryland.
“We do not understand the mechanisms that underlie the antidepressant actions of psilocybin and the role that the profound psychedelic experience during these sessions plays in the therapeutic benefits,” says Scott Thompson, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology at UMSOM and senior author of the study. “The psychedelic experience is incredibly powerful and can be life-changing, but that could be too much for some people or not appropriate.”
3) Carl Hart is helping to redefine the old ideas of “drugs”
If you haven’t read Carl Hart’s book “Drug use for grown-ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear,” about the new meaning of the word “drug”, do it now. Hart is an Ivy League Professor and Neuro-Scientist, an important voice in the emerging discourse on psychedelics, drugs, and mental health. He says. "Science should be driving our drug policies, even if it makes us uncomfortable."
More info!
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/nyregion/Carl-Hart-drugs.html
See you next week…
Anne
🍄 #60 - --Breaking--! Robin Carhart Harris' brand new study on psilocybin vs. anti-depressant. Plus: Rabbi Zac Kamenetz integrates my psilocybin experience in just one podcast.