MAPS founder Rick Doblin returns to Mindrolling for a reality-altering conversation about the psychedelics renaissance happening around his work with MDMA and trauma.
Rick Doblin is one of the leaders of the psychedelics renaissance that is currently underway. Please check out his work with MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and don’t miss his recent interview with Forbes.
Fear Extinction and Memory Consolidation
Raghu and Rick discuss some of the psychedelic research work from Ram Dass and Timothy Leary, including the Good Friday Experiment and the Concord Prison Experiment. Rick talks about how psychedelics can help people heal from trauma, and how MDMA specifically addresses fear extinction and memory consolidation in PTSD patients.
“You end up getting in these patterns of emotional response that are difficult for people to get out of. And psychedelics have this incredible ability to break these kinds of patterns and bring new emotions.” – Rick Doblin
The Awakened Heart Blog examines Ram Dass’s connection to psychedelics
The Psychedelics Renaissance (25:43)
Raghu asks what makes MDMA the ideal research candidate. Rick, leading the way for the psychedelics renaissance that is taking place, talks about how MAPS has secured a Phase III FDA study for using MDMA in the treatment of PTSD. In a world filled with trauma, more and more people are in need of the connection to the mystical experience provided by psychedelics.
“We need millions and millions of people to be grounded in this mystical experience. And I think you can get it in mediation, you can get it in sex, you can get it in nature, you can have what they call gratuitous grace – it just comes over you – but for thousands of years, people have used psychedelics reliably to generate it.” – Rick Doblin
Meditators and Psychedelics (45:06)
Rick talks about the process of bringing MDMA to FDA approval and having it be available for prescription in the coming years. He and Raghu discuss the future of psychedelics research, and also honor the contributions of Ram Dass, Timothy Leary, and Ralph Metzner to the scene.
“This coming together of lifelong meditators and psychedelics… that’s really the kind of reunion, in a sense, that we need.” – Rick Doblin
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