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    Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences
    Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences
    Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences
    Audiobook8 hours

    Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences

    Written by William A. Richards

    Narrated by River Kanoff

    5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Sacred Knowledge is the first well-documented, sophisticated account of the effect of psychedelics on biological processes, human consciousness, and revelatory religious experiences. Based on nearly three decades of legal research with volunteers, William A. Richards argues that, if used responsibly and legally, psychedelics have the potential to assuage suffering and constructively affect the quality of human life.

    Richards’s analysis contributes to social and political debates over the responsible integration of psychedelic substances into modern society. His book serves as an invaluable resource for readers who, whether spontaneously or with the facilitation of psychedelics, have encountered meaningful, inspiring, or even disturbing states of consciousness and seek clarity about their experiences. Testing the limits of language and conceptual frameworks, Richards makes the most of experiential phenomena that stretch our conception of reality, advancing new frontiers in the study of belief, spiritual awakening, psychiatric treatment, and social well-being. His findings enrich humanities and scientific scholarship, expanding work in philosophy, anthropology, theology, and religious studies and bringing depth to research in mental health, psychotherapy, and psychopharmacology.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWetware Media
    Release dateAug 14, 2017
    ISBN9781509449323
    Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences
    Author

    William A. Richards

    William A. Richards (Bill) is a psychologist in the Psychiatry Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a consultant/trainer at sites of psychedelic research internationally, a teacher in the Program of Psychedelic Therapy and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and a clinician in private practice in Baltimore. From 1967 to 1977, he pursued psychotherapy research with LSD, DPT, MDA and psilocybin at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, including protocols designed to investigate the promise of psychedelic substances in the treatment of alcoholism, depression, narcotic addiction and the psychological distress associated with terminal cancer including their use in the training of religious and mental-health professionals. He is the author of Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences released in 2015.

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    Reviews for Sacred Knowledge

    5/5

    44 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Bill Richards may get a little spacey at times and, as is true of most psychonauts, he may get caught up in the sense of truth occasioned by those lovely molecules that love that 5HT2A site, but the science when presented is sound, the conclusions, even when spacey, are tempered, and the anecdotes are something you will only get from the preeminent psychedelic psychotherapist and lay mystic, Bill Richards. If you're interested in the current state-of-the-art and state-of-the-science in the broad fields of application of psychedelic substances, this is a must-read. This book will only be more important as the psychedelic renaissance continues. Cheers!

      3 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It’s a very helpful overview of psychedelics and religious experiences, combining academic, experiential, and cultural insights!
    • 5/5
      The author puts many important personal into words that I’ve struggled to articulate.