MAPS will host a reception for the Catalysts Conference at Temple of Visions Gallery in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 10 from 6-11PM. This event is free, open to the public, and will feature an auction of prints and original visionary artworks from Martina Hoffmann, Amanda Sage, Michael Divine, Alex Grey, Pablo Amaringo, Simon Haiduk, Android Jones, Carey Thompson, Robert Ross, Darren Minke, Dean Chamberlain, S.G. Shmee, Actual Contact, and several others. Many of these artists will be in attendance to speak about their art, so come down to the gallery and say hello!

MAPS will host two days of single-track programming at the Catalysts Conference in downtown Los Angeles over the weekend of Dec 11-12. Day one of the mini-conference, Catalysts: The Impact of Psychedelics from Consciousness to the Clinic, will feature presentations and panel discussions on psychedelic science, the current state of psychedelic research, and clinical applications for the their therapeutic use. This event will take place at The Downtown Independent Theatre in Los Angeles, California from 9AM-6PM.

Speakers to include:

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director of MAPS

Stanislav Grof, M.D./Ph.D., Co-Founder of Transpersonal Psychology and Holotropic Breathwork

Larry Hagman, Television Star of the Series Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie, to discuss his own LSD therapy

Charles Grob, M.D. (Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine; Director, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center)

Alicia Danforth, Ph.D. Candidate (Research Associate, LA Biomedical Research Institute/Harbor-UCLA Medical Center)

Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Ph.D., Clinical Research Associate at MAPS

Dana Blu Cohen M.A. (Doctoral Candidate, California Institute of Integral Studies)

Julie Holland, M.D. (Clinical Asst. Professor of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine)

Tania Manning (Archivist, Alexander Shulgin Research Institute)

Jon Hanna, D.G. (Senior Editor, Erowid Center)

Martin W. Ball, Ph.D. (Independent Author, Entheogenic Researcher, and Publisher)

James Fadiman, Ph.D. - Psychedelics as Entheogens: How to Create and Guide Successful Sessions

Clare Wilkins (Director, Pangea Biomedics Ibogaine Clinic, Playas de Tijuana, Mexico)

Thomas Kingsley Brown, Ph.D. (Co-Investigator, MAPS Outcomes Study of Ibogaine-Assisted Treatment for Opiate Addiction)

Brian Wallace, Director of Field Development at MAPS

…and several others to be confirmed over the following weeks!

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director of MAPS

Rick founded MAPS in 1986. His dissertation (Public Policy, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government) was on "The Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and Marijuana," and his master’s thesis (Harvard) focused on the attitudes and experiences of oncologists concerning the medical use of marijuana. His undergraduate thesis (New College of Florida) was a twenty-five year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He has also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Tim Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment.

Rick studied with Stan Grof, M.D., and was in the first group to become certified as holotropic breathwork practitioners. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise "healthy" people, and to also become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He resides in Boston with his wife and three children.

Stanislav Grof, M.D./Ph.D., Co-Founder of Transpersonal Psychology and Holotropic Breathwork

Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Ph.D., Clinical Research Associate at MAPS

Berra earned her Ph.D. in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology from University of California at Santa Cruz, where she served as treasurer and president of the Graduate Student Association. After attending Stanford University for a B.S. in Biology, she worked as a Research Associate with Geron Corporation on telomerase activation and with Millennium Pharmaceuticals on Phase I clinical trials for Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Berra enjoys working with researchers and the clinical operations team at MAPS to design and facilitate clinical research studies.

Dana Blu Cohen M.A. (Doctoral Candidate, California Institute of Integral Studies)

Blu is currently completing her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her clinical background includes providing psychotherapy at a methadone clinic, hospice care, as well as leading expressive arts and chronic pain support groups. Her clinical specialty is in trauma and chronic post traumatic stress disorder, harm reduction, substance abuse and psychospiritual issues. Blu's dissertation research is a qualitative analysis of the MAPS-sponsored MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD study conducted by Michael Mithoefer, M.D. and Annie Mithoefer, B.S.N in Charleston, South Carolina. Her passion and involvement with MAPS lies in studying the clinical applications and therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicines.

Charles Grob, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine; Director, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Dr. Grob has conducted psychiatric research studies with a variety of psychedelics and related compounds, including MDMA, ayahusca and psilocybin. He will present an overview of his investigations with these compounds as well as discuss the implications of psychedelic research to psychiatry.

Alicia Danforth, Ph.D. Candidate (Research Associate, LA Biomedical Research Institute/Harbor-UCLA Medical Center)

Alicia Danforth coordinated and co-facilitated treatment sessions for the Harbor-UCLA cancer anxiety trial with psilocybin. She is a Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, where she co-teaches a graduate-level course entitled, "Psychedelics: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications." Her dissertation research focuses on the potential of psychedelics as supplements to treatment for high-functioning autism and Asperger's Syndrome. In additional to her academic and clinical work, Alicia has volunteered as a crisis support provider with Kosmicare at the Boom festival in Portugal and as a Green Dot Ranger at Burning Man. For her presentation, Alicia will provide an intimate tour of the challenges and victories of the first treatment study with a psychedelic for cancer anxiety in nearly 40 years.

Julie Holland, M.D. (Clinical Asst. Professor of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine)

Dr. Holland is the editor of two non-profit books supporting MAPS-funded therapeutic studies: Ecstasy: A Complete Guide, and The Pot Book: A Complete Guide to Cannabis,. She is also the author of a medical memoir, Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych ER. Dr. Holland will be discussing psychedelic "emergencies," as well as the therapeutic uses of MDMA and other drugs.

Tania Manning (Archivist, Alexander Shulgin Research Institute)

Tania Manning is a research assistant and archivist at the Alexander Shulgin Research Institute, and is coauthor, with Sasha and Paul Daley, of the soon-to-be-released book, The Shulgin Index. With her husband Greg, she works to preserve Sasha and Ann’s papers, correspondence, library, and artifacts. Tania is also supporting and facilitating the writing of Book Three  by Ann Shulgin.  Book Three (working title) is the Shulgins' follow-up to PIHKAL and TIHKAL. At Catalysts Tania Manning will be co-presenting with Jon Hanna about the Shulgin Legacy Project, which seeks to archive, make available, continue, and expand on Sasha and Ann Shulgin’s work in the field of psychedelic studies. 

Jon Hanna, D.G. (Senior Editor, Erowid Center)

Jon Hanna is an event producer, editor, writer, and harm reduction advocate working in the field of psychoactive drugs. He is best known for his Mind States conferences, which focus on altered states of consciousness. Author of the Psychedelic Resource List, Hanna is a psychedelic consumer advocate who has written for numerous magazines and has spoken internationally on the topic of visionary art and entheogens. He has also volunteered as a sitter at Burning Man and the Boom Festival. He currently works as a Senior Editor for the non-profit organization Erowid Center. At Catalysts Hanna will be co-presenting with Tania Manning about the Shulgin Legacy Project, which seeks to archive, make available, continue, and expand on Sasha and Ann Shulgin¹s work in the field of psychedelic studies.

Martin W. Ball, Ph.D. (Independent Author, Entheogenic Researcher, and Publisher)

Martin is a provocative (and often challenging) figure in the entheogenic field with a background in Religious Studies, Comparative Mysticism, and Native American traditions.  He is the author of several books on entheogens, hosts the "Entheogenic Evolution" podcast, and is the originator of the Entheological Paradigm, a radical new perspective on the unitary nature of reality as a conscious, fractal energetic system.  The result of Martin's personal, transformative work with 5-MeO-DMT and other entheogenic tools, the Entheological Paradigm provides clear guidelines for understanding the genuine nature of the self as a fractal energetic expression of the One.   The actions of entheogens and psychedelics are described as “energetic openers” that allow for temporary transcendence of the limiting energetic patterns of the ego, thereby bringing subjects into direct states of energetic unity and non-dual awareness.  In short, psychedelics, particularly very powerful psychedelics, such as 5-MeO-DMT, are best understood as “reality therapy” tools as they make it possible for individuals to directly experience their infinite energetic natures beyond the confines of their egoic beliefs, thoughts, projections, and illusions.  As bio-energetic beings, these states of consciousness are also mirrored in our bodies to such a precise degree that egoic consciousness can be observed to manifest in physical asymmetry and unitary, non-dual consciousness manifests as physical bilateral symmetry.  These ideas and more will be discussed as time permits. 

James Fadiman, Ph.D. - Psychedelics as Entheogens: How to Create and Guide Successful Sessions

98% + of people using psychedelics worldwide use them illegally. In the United States alone, there are 600,000 new users of LSD each year. Restrictive laws have not led to any less use. Many users can only guess at how to prevent harm and maximize the benefits of their experiences. Manuals have been developed to teach how these experiences can be made safe and supportive by the proper understanding of set, setting, sitter, substance, session and support. We will consider the advantages and limitations of the use of guides and discuss how to establish the best possible conditions for spiritual or entheogenic (as distinct from psychotherapeutic and other uses) experiences. Other manuals have been developed for psychotherapeutic use, as well as for scientific or technical problem solving. These will be presented and discussed as time allows.

Clare Wilkins (Director, Pangea Biomedics Ibogaine Clinic, Playas de Tijuana, Mexico)

Clare is a former IV heroin user & methadone patient who, in 2005, shed her chemical dependencies with Ibogaine. In 2006, Miss Wilkins purchased the Ibogaine Association. She then created Pangea Biomecics in Tijuana, Mexico where she has facilitated over 400 Ibogaine treatments, & worked together with MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, to study the longterm effects of Ibogaine on patients undergoing therapy at her clinic. As a member of INPUD and INWUD, international drug user rights organizations, she is devoted to reducing stigma, promoting the health & defending the rights of people who use drugs. She is committed to providing loving, compassionate care for extremely physically challenged patients, & passionately believes in every human’s basic right to medicine.

Tom Kingsley Brown, Ph.D. (Co-Investigator, MAPS Outcomes Study of Ibogaine-Assisted Treatment for Opiate Addiction)

Tom Kingsley Brown, Ph.D. knew at age 11 that he wanted to be a chemistry professor, but his life was to take a different path. After studying chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh and neuroscience at CalTech, he eventually earned his doctorate from UC San Diego in Anthropology with an emphasis on psychological anthropology. There he studied altered states of consciousness and religious conversion. He has taught anthropology courses on religion, the environmental crisis, and mental illness and deviance. He currently lives with his partner and their two sons in San Diego, and runs a research program at UCSD. Through a close friend who worked for 3 years with patients undergoing ibogaine treatment at Pangea Biomedics in Baja California, he met Rick Doblin in a teepee at Burning Man a few years ago; these facts go a long way towards explaining how he became a co-investigator in the MAPS long-term outcomes study of ibogaine-assisted treatment. He has previously spoken about ibogaine at the “Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century” conference (San Jose, April 2010) and at the Burning Man festival (August 2010). In this presentation he will discuss previous research on ibogaine, the phenomenology of states of consciousness induced by Iboga and ibogaine, and the recently started long-term outcomes study of ibogaine-assisted treatment for opiate dependence.

Stay tuned - this page will be updated as we confirm more speakers, topics, and presentations!

MAPS will host two days of single-track programming at the Catalysts Conference in downtown Los Angeles over the weekend of Dec 11-12. Day two of the conference, Catalysts: The Impact of Psychedelics from Culture to Creativity, will feature talks on psychedelics, consciousness, and creativity (including Psychospiritual Death and Rebirth: A Visionary Journey, a special 2-hour presentation by Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D.), and will take place from 1-7PM at Temple of Visions Gallery in downtown Los Angeles.

Speakers to include:

Stanislav Grof, M.D./Ph.D., Co-Founder of Transpersonal Psychology and Holotropic Breathwork

Michael Divine (Visionary Artist, TenThousandVisions)

Amanda Sage (Visionary Artist, www.amandasage.com)

Charles Shaw (Journalist (Alternet, Reality Sandwich, Huffington Post) Author (Exile Nation), and Activist)

…and several others to be confirmed over the following weeks!

Stanislav Grof, M.D./Ph.D., Co-Founder of Transpersonal Psychology and Holotropic Breathwork

Michael Divine (Artist, Ten Thousand Visions)

Michael Divine’s artwork speak with a universal language of beauty that anyone can understand and relate to. His work follows in a long tradition of artists who base their work on their interpretive visions. From Wassily Kandinsky’s intuitive balance of line and color to the bold movement of Umberto Boccioni to the psychologically informed landscapes of Salvador Dali, the elements of the past inform Michael’s art. Introducing a very present spiritual component to this exploration of the artistic vision, Michael’s work adds another chapter to the continuing artistic lineage.

Michael will be presenting a well-illustrated journey through the lineage of contemporary visionary art and how it is directly related to the birth of Modern Art from the late 1800's onwards, tying it in with developments in psychology and spirituality. With the widespread use of the camera in the mid-1800's artists were freed from painting reproductions of reality and were able to turn the eye inwards, focusing it on something deeper, allowing their imagination the freedom to explore the inner worlds.

Amanda Sage (Artist)

Amanda Sage is at the forefront of a new breed of visionary artists using art as a tool for personal, spiritual and planetary growth and transformation.

 Amanda was born April 19, 1978 in Denver, Colorado. Starting in 1996, her travels and projects bounced her between Bali, Indonesia and Vienna, Austria. She studied traditional painting and etching for one and a half years with Michael Fuchs, and has been a painting assistant to Ernst Fuchs since 1999. Amanda has been blessed with a beautiful studio in the WUK since 2000, a self-governed culture house in Vienna, as well as being involved in creating new systems of group-interaction and presentation.

 In 2008 she began spending more time in the US and when she’s not traveling for projects & exhibitions she spends most of her time in Los Angeles, in her studio located in downtown above the HIVE Gallery & Studio’s and the new Temple of Visions Gallery & Sacred Space.

Amanda’s work has been exhibited and featured in Galleries and various projects/events worldwide since 2001.

In her own words, “Through my work I aim to shatter the ‘illusion of separation’, to challenge the viewer to question, and evolve out of ignorance, conditioning and ingrained genetic habits. In life I strive to take responsibility for the effect of my existence, and through my actions and images, inspire others to think/dream beyond their immediate capacity. Ultimately I seek to create portals that open to the infinite possibilities of being and expressing, so that we may remember and re-discover who we are, where we originate from and where we are headed. My aspiration is to paint messages, visions and narratives that communicate with an ‘older & wiser us’, awakening ancient memory; as well as the ‘present us’, that we may grow up and accept the responsibilities towards ourselves, each other and the rest of existence on this planet… now.”

Charles Shaw (Journalist (Alternet, Reality Sandwich, Huffington Post) Author (Exile Nation), and Activist)

Charles Shaw is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, Exile Nation: Drugs, Prisons, Politics & Spirituality, and the Director of the The Unheard Voices Project. He serves as Editor for the openDemocracy Drug Policy Forum and the Dictionary of Ethical Politics, both collaborative projects of Resurgence, openDemocracy, and the Sainsbury/Tedworth Charitible Trust.

Charles' work has appeared in Alternet, Alternative Press Review, Conscious Choice, Common Ground, Grist, Guerrilla News Network, Huffington Post, In These Times, Newtopia, The New York Times, openDemocracy, Planetizen, Punk Planet, Reality Sandwich, San Diego Uptown News, Scoop, Shift, Truthout, The Witness, YES!, and Znet. He was a Contributing Author to the 2008 Shift Report from the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and in Planetizen's Contemporary Debates in Urban Planning (2007, Island Press). In 2009 he was recognized by the San Diego Press Club for excellence in journalism.

Charles is the former Editorial Director of Conscious Enlightenment Publishing (Conscious Choice, Common Ground, Whole Life Times, and Seattle's Conscious Choice), the founder and publisher of Newtopia, former head writer for the nationally syndicated radio show Reality Checks, former Senior Staff Writer for The Next American City, and a Contributing Editor for Worldchanging.

His activist work has been featured in Democracy NOW!, WLS-ABC 7 (Chicago), Associated Press,Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Metroland NY, Knight Ridder, TimeOUT Chicago, and the Washington Post. He served as an official with the Green Party of the US and IDEAL Reform (Illinois Drug Education and Legislation), an organizer for the Chicago Social Forum and BioEthics 2006, as a judge for “Drug Reporting” in the 2006 ltWeekly Awards, and on the Host Committee for the 2007 Chicago Green Festival and the Advisory Council for the Green Street Project, a capacity and community building initiative between the City of Chicago and the not-for-profit sector.

Stay tuned - this page will be updated as we confirm more speakers, topics, and presentations!

Temple of Visions' beautiful exhibition space in downtown's Gallery Row displays world-class contemporary mystical art and is hosting a benefit party for MAPS! The Downtown Independent Theatre is only a few blocks from Temple of Visions, so attendees will find it an easy walk or taxi ride over from the day's earlier events. Flux will feature an incredible line-up of music and performance late into the night. This event is open to the public regardless of attendance at the day's earlier events.

MAPS will host Critical Components, a benefactor dinner from 5:30-9:30PM on Dec. 11th, 2010, to coincide with the Catalysts mini-conference. This benefit will generate funding for our upcoming clinical research project testing the efficacy of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of combat related post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Attendees will enjoy a fine beverages, including organic wine from Casa Barranca Vineyards, a selection of artisan cheeses presented by Barrie Lynn, The Cheese Impresario, and a delicious organic dinner from Divine Nourishment while hearing the latest in research updates from MAPS founder and Executive Director Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Clinical Research Associate Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Ph.D., and Director of Field Development Brian Wallace. Guests of honor at this event will include Stanislav Grof, M.D./Ph.D. (Co-Founder of Transpersonal Psychology and Holotropic Breathwork), Julie Holland, M.D. (Clinical Asst. Professor of Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine, Editor of Ecstasy: The Complete Guide and The Pot Book), and Larry Hagman (Television Star of the Series Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie, to discuss his own experiences with the therapeutic use of LSD).

This event will also feature an auction of unique, once-in-a-lifetime vacation packages and travel experiences, rare psychedelic artifacts and artworks, including laboratory glassware from Sasha Shulgin's lab (Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin and his partner Ann documented the creation and exploration of MDMA, 2C-B, and hundreds of other psychedelic compounds in their books PIHKAL and TIHKAL), prints and original visionary artworks, signed Albert Hofmann collector's items (Albert Hofmann, Ph.D., is the late chemist who invented LSD in 1938), and one-of-a-kind jewelry and custom clothing.