Ayahuasca News

People in creative professions are treated more often for mental illness than the general population, there being a particularly salient connection between writing and schizophrenia, according to researchers whose large-scale Swedish registry study...The study tracked almost 1.2 million patients and their relatives, identified down to second-cousin level. Since all were matched with healthy controls, the study incorporated much of the Swedish population from the most recent decades.

Cease Wyss, our "Indigenous Plant Diva", is a hip, urban Aboriginal single mother, video artist and community leader. She shares her traditional knowledge of plants that can be found throughout the streets and everyday spaces of Vancouver, reminding us that the medicines are all around us in our urbanized environments. Whether it's the secret curl of a fiddlehead, the gentleness of comfrey, or the blood-red streaks of frog leaf, plants carry with them millennia of wisdom, communicated through color, texture and form. Cease Wyss has been listening to this unspoken language, and is now passing this ancient and intimate sense of connection to her own daughter, Senaqwila. The plant spirits are the Grandmothers, and they have good things to share with us to help us (re)connect to the land, if we listen.

A team of scientists from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has been working on a new approach to drug development involving chemistry, biotechnology, mathematics, computer power and 5000-year ancient practices in Chinese medicine. The groundbreaking regime for herbal study and testing called quantitative-pattern-activity-relationship (“QPAR” in short) verifies the quality and health benefits of traditional herbs. While Western pharmacology focuses on purified chemical compounds such as Vitamin C, Prof. Chau Foo Tim from the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology and Dr Daniel Sze from the Department of Health Technology and Informatics studied the impact from a mix of compounds, a unique property in herbs.

Les indiens Yanomami vivent dans la forêt amazonienne entre le nord du Brésil et le sud du Vénézuela. Dans cette scène du documentaire qui leur est consacré, on voit les hommes se parer et se maquiller avant de fumer la drogue.

As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon. I followed my father’s path and became an academic neurosurgeon, teaching at Harvard Medical School and other universities. I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death.

There’s something about the inherent tolerance of Buddhism that is inherently attractive. It's totally non-judgmental.

New research shows a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity. By studying receptors in the brain, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that seen in people with schizophrenia.

Juan Carlos Usó Arnal (Nules, Castellón 1959) es licenciado en Geografia e Historia Contemporánea y Doctor en Sociología..   Autor de los libros Drogas y Cultura de Masas (España 1855-1995) y Spanish Trip (La Aventura Psiquedélica en España).

Seated in a big leather armchair with popcorn and a Stella Artois beer on a Friday night in Los Angeles, Brad Pitt was ready to talk about drugs.