When it comes to plant based medicine, my guest on today's podcast is widely considered to be a groudbreaking pioneer. His name is Dennis McKenna. Dennis's research - spanning back to the 1970's - has focused on the interdisciplinary study of Amazonian ethnopharmacology and plant hallucinogens. During the early 1970's, he developed a technique for cultivating psilocybin mushrooms with his brother Terence McKenna and they later published what they had learned in a book entitled . Dennis has conducted extensive ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brasilian Amazon. His doctoral research (University of British Columbia, 1984) focused on the ethnopharmacology of ayahuasca and oo-koo-he, two tryptamine-based hallucinogens used by indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, and was a key organizer and participant in the Hoasca Project, the first biomedical investigation of ayahuasca used by the UDV, a Brazilian religious group. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. During our discussion, you'll discover: -The strange magazine, still published, that Dennis's father used to read - a magazine that first got Dennis interested in the "paranormal" and psychedelics... -How DMT works, and ways that you can induce the same psychedelic sensation that DMT induces without actually using something like ayahuasca... -Ways that you can induce deep sleep without relying upon compounds such as valium or ambien... -Why one common spice that you can find on the counter at Starbucks can send you on a hallucinogenic trip... -The difference between an ayahuasca experience in rural South America vs. an urban New York loft... -Why Silicone Valley is obsessed with LSD microdosing as a creativity-enhancing "smart drug"... -How psilocybin works to enhance your connection with nature and how you may be able to activate this via other mechanisms... -How one can safely "source" these kind of plant-based medicines in their local community... -And much more... Resources from this episode: - - - - - - - - - and - - - - - - - - Do you have questions, comments or feedback for Dennis McKenna or me? Leave your thoughts at and one of us will reply!