Breaking Convention

"Presents essays and articles exploring the history, use, and benefits of psychedelics from the international conference of the same name"--

A dazzling work of personal travelogue and cultural criticism that ranges from the primitive to the postmodern in a quest for the promise and meaning of the psychedelic experience. While psychedelics of all sorts are demonized in America today, the visionary compounds found in plants are the spiritual sacraments of tribal cultures around the world. From the iboga of the Bwiti in Gabon, to the Mazatecs of Mexico, these plants are sacred because they awaken the mind to other levels of awareness--to a holographic vision of the universe. Breaking Open the Head is a passionate, multilayered, and sometimes rashly personal inquiry into this deep division. On one level, Daniel Pinchbeck tells the story of the encounters between the modern consciousness of the West and these sacramental substances, including such thinkers as Allen Ginsberg, Antonin Artaud, Walter Benjamin, and Terence McKenna, and a new underground of present-day ethnobotanists, chemists, psychonauts, and philosophers. It is also a scrupulous recording of the author's wide-ranging investigation with these outlaw compounds, including a thirty-hour tribal initiation in West Africa; an all-night encounter with the master shamans of the South American rain forest; and a report from a psychedelic utopia in the Black Rock Desert that is the Burning Man Festival. Breaking Open the Head is brave participatory journalism at its best, a vivid account of psychic and intellectual experiences that opened doors in the wall of Western rationalism and completed Daniel Pinchbeck's personal transformation from a jaded Manhattan journalist to shamanic initiate and grateful citizen of the cosmos.

The Roman Catholic tradition: christian lifestyle and behaviour (GCSE Religious studies for AQA)

Essays from the cutting edge of psychedelic research, from Breaking Convention 2017.

Christopher Walker has employed Eastern arts tools for years, embracing the impermanence of life and helping people learn to naturally heal themselves from the stress and emotional turmoil experienced at the end of an intimate, personal relationship. Founder of Innerwealth Consulting, Walker has coached thousands of individuals to evolve and grow, using the universal laws of nature. The ancient laws of nature tap the deepest core of an individual's humanity dealing with emotional attachments, heartbreak and complex human dynamics. The laws recognize three levels of human mind: the lower mind, which is guided by material attachments; the middle mind, which is guided by emotions; and the higher mind, which is guided by the experience of the journey and cares nothing of the outcome. The ancient laws provide guidance regarding how to work with all three levels of mind to achieve harmony. Breaking Up: Using the Laws of Nature to Learn How to Let Go applies ancient wisdom to modern times to help one manage the end of a relationship: to let go through the challenge of emotional and physical separation, to move forward in life with love and passion and to maintain respect for everyone involved.

Can psychedelic drugs help us tackle the biggest problems we face globally? Can they heal the cultural, spiritual, and political wounds we’re wrestling with? Psychedelics have hit the mainstream as powerful new mental health treatments. But as clinicians explore what these molecules can do for our individual minds, The Bigger Picture goes further to illuminate how psychedelics can help us find new ways to make sense of and come through the crises we face around the world. Drawing on the latest research, as well as his unique experience as a participant in a ground-breaking clinical trial investigating the potent psychedelic DMT, Alexander Beiner reveals: the role of psychedelics in addressing global issues such as global warming, geopolitical instability, and political polarization the dark side of the ‘psychedelic renaissance’ and ‘psychedelic capitalism’ what it takes to elicit huge personal and cultural transformation through psychedelics Embark on a journey into The Bigger Picture – a new era of science and spirituality with the potential to radically transform our perceptions of ourselves, one another, and our life on this planet.

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EATING THE BIG FISH : How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded The second edition of the international bestseller, now revised and updated for 2009, just in time for the business challenges ahead. It contains over 25 new interviews and case histories, two completely new chapters, introduces a new typology of 12 different kinds of Challengers, has extensive updates of the main chapters, a range of new exercises, supplies weblinks to view interviews online and offers supplementary downloadable information.