Psychonautica073

Jun 26, 2009

In this episode of psychonautica, Max Freakout interviews author, anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist Christian Rätsch, they talk about mythology, religion and altered state experiences, myth as a tool for understanding reality, the role of belief and the literal interpretation of Christian scripture, India as a spiritual centre, the growing popularity of ayahuasca ceremonies, the financial crisis and erosion of western values, money as a pathological collective hallucination, the difference between money and value, possible alternatives to the money system, equality and tolerance, unconditional love and freedom, the utter failure of politics and capitalism, the fallacy of dualism, the inevitable failure of hierarchical power structures, the problem of overpopulation, the measures used to deal with overpopulation in rainforest tribal societies, the role of entheogens for spreading awareness, the absence of meaning and message in the psychedelic experience, the mutual co-dependance of matter and mind, the function of shamanism, shamanism as a technology, the potential value of shamanism for western culture, western hierarchical attitudes towards shamanism, the fallacy of organised religious approaches to entheogens such as those of Santo Daime and the UDV, the difference between dualism and polarity, the polarity of mythology and philosophy, the philosophy of Nietzsche, Dionysos and Apollo, reconciling the duality of subjective and objective within science, the abuse of science as a substitute for religion, the illusion of objectivity, the ultimate goal of scientific enquiry, eschatology and 2012, linear and cyclical models of time, the end and beginning of time, innacuracies of calenders and the shamanic role of visionary art literature and music. Email [e-mail] and hang out with the friendly psychonauts at www.thegrowreport.com.

Playlist: Markomen - Babylon blues

Web links:
http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/ratsch_christian/ratsch_christian.shtml
http://www.matrixmasters.com/pn/speakers/Ratsch-bio.html
http://www.christian-raetsch.de/