Unofficial Vital Student ‘Zine
Notes from Vital Psychedelic Training class of ‘23
Kool-Aid Corner #12
Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.
To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life
Graph (or Fig.) of the Week
Comparison of calcified pineal glands with ossified compact bones:
From: Pineal Calcification, Melatonin Production, Aging. Associated Health Consequences and Rejuvenation of the Pineal Gland by Dun Xian Tan, Bing Xu, Xinjia Zhou and Russel J Reiter. Published in Molecules January 2018
My bookshelf weighs a ton
Notable new purchases for the occult library. Strictly second hand snap-ups only. This week: The Process by Brion Gysin
£23 fittingly. Hardcover first editions go for £1500+.
Naked Lunch author William Burroughs called his best friend and Dream Machine co-inventor Gysin “the only man I ever respected.” Gysin might be best known for ‘cut up technique’ a writing method used by David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Jello Biafra, much loved by English teachers.
The Process is a dreamlike, luscious ‘spiritual novel’ like Dune. It’s set in the desert too (sync). and a tableaux of his own soul’s development. His groovy mates have affectionate cameos in it. Gysin is said to have tutored Genesis P Orridge of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth in the mystic arts. ‘I could easily blast so much keef night and day I become a bouhali,’ his alter ego Ulysses O Hanson, a real-gone crazy, a holy untouchable madman unto whom everything is permitted, nothing is true.”
Next issue: MDMA therapy with the dyad who wrote the MAPS program, Annie and Dr Michael Mithoefer
Kool-Aid Corner #11
Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.
To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life
Graph of the Week
Panic over, someone’s sorted the whole ‘fly agaric is stronger once it’s gone through someone else’s bladder’ question
Direct Analysis of Psilocin and Muscimol in Urine Samples Using Single Drop Microextraction Technique In-Line with Capillary Electrophoresis by Anna Poliwoda, Katarzyna Zielińska Piotr P. Wieczorek published in Molecules spring 2020.
My bookshelf weighs a ton
Notable new purchases for the occult library. Strictly second hand snap-ups only. This week: Shroom by Andy Letcher
From WoB for £9.99, there are ones with slightly better covers out there
It’s a lecture circuit gag that one of the best books on the history of psilocybin has a really crappy cover.
Andy Letcher, writer of Shroom, is a high-level druid here in Britain. His rigorous taxonomy of magic mushrooms within society comes with shadow work: it debunks myths and sacred cows, in particular the stoned ape theory, left and centre. This paraphrase from author will Self, in his review of Terrence McKenna’s Food of the Gods is possibly the shadowiest bit: “he compares McKenna’s [worldview] to Marxist dialectical materialism, where the type of drugs you take determines the society you live in: mushrooms good, alcohol bad.” Want more? “Indegenous communities are rarely harmonious, and use ayahuasca to curse as much as cure.” Essential.
Next issue: MDMA therapy with the dyad who wrote the MAPS program
Kool-Aid Corner #10
Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.
To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life
Graph of the Week
“There are many other ways of acheiving altered states,” says Kylea Taylor, Grof Foundation therapist and psychedelic ethics expert. Here’s trip playlist maetsro, Guided Imagery and Music therapy inventor Helen Bonny’s handy guide to them:
From: The Use of Music in Psychedelic (LSD) Psychotherapy, Helen L. Bonny, Walter N. Pahnke, Journal of Music Therapy, Volume 9, Issue 2, Summer 1972
My bookshelf weighs a ton
Notable new purchases for the occult library. Strictly second hand snap-ups only. This week: Slaine: The Horned God by Pat Mills and Simon Bisley
Got it from America for £25 plus slow P&P here’s some 2011 editions for £300+
Celtic myth reinterpreted by one of UK comics’ greatest minds, illustrated by future fanboy favourite Simon Bisley.
This has just been re-released. But don’t be fooled, the new one’s got crappy matt pages. The 2011 original dust jacket edition and the 2014 second printing have gloss pages. It’s chock-full of inspiration for young fellows growing up, like this one direct from the lips of the Goddess herself: “The Horned God is nor afraid of death, of losing control… he sees the ridiculousness of taking the wheel of life seriously. The humour of death is his.” A bit much to take in aged 16 during the late 80s but it put a generation on the right track.
Next issue: Core module two Psychedelic Therapies continues with ethics training on the edge of reality
Kool-Aid Corner #9
Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.
To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life
Graph or Table of the Week
Self treatment with psychedelics:
From: Self-treatment of psychosis and complex post-traumatic stress disorder with LSD and DMT —A retrospective case study by Mika Turkia published in Psychiatry Research Case Reports Vol 1 Issue 2 (2022)
My bookshelf weighs a ton
Notable new purchases for the occult library. Strictly second hand snap-ups only. This week: Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger
Another score from the Brick Lane bookstore, £6.50
“No other writer has thus opened my eyes,” wrote Albert Hoffman of Junger’s sublime nature writing in LSD: My Problem Child. Although the psychedelic inventor who corresponded with Junger after WW2, was keen to point out that he was less into Junger’s ‘earlier books’ about ‘war and a new type of human being.’
Junger was Germany’s greatest military hero of WW1. Throughout his career he consistently refused to apologise for embracing conflict when necessary, perhaps in contrast to his proto-hippy views that influnced the 60s counter-culture. He did accept that the warrior was powerless against the march of tech. “In war you learn your lessons, and they stay learned, but the tuition fees are high” is just one of the gems from this terrifying and exhilarating account of trench warfare that’s often uncomfortably, but necessarily, voyueristic.
Next issue: Core module two Psychedelic Therapies continues with ethics training on the edge of reality
Kool-Aid Corner #8
Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.
To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life
Graph of the Week
Impact of traffic noise on heart disease:
From: Impact of road traffic noise on annoyance and preventable mortality in European cities: A health impact assessment by Sasha Khomenko et al, published in Environment International Volume 162, April 2022
My bookshelf weighs a ton
Notable new purchases for the occult library. Strictly second hand snap-ups only. This week: Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby.
From World of Books for £4.79
I understand why Cosmic Serpent is overlooked in favour of writings from more local experts like Eduardo de Luna. But it does at least come from the PoV of an intrigued, enthusiastic westerner. Plus it contains not only descriptions of the ceremonial process, but the animistic lifestyle that informs it.
Narby was only in his mid-20s when he travelled to Peru, and soon after first published the book in France in 1995. It was 1998 by the time it made it to the UK. That’s still 25 years ago. Kudos to Narby’s instinct for picking up on the vibe so long ago.
Next issue: Core module two Psychedelic Therapies begins with Courtney Barnes on the legal situation
Kool-Aid Corner #7
Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.
To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life
Graph of the Week
Positive effects of DMT on rats:
From: Effects of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine on Rat Behaviours Relevant to Anxiety and Depression by Lindsay P. Cameron, Charlie J. Benson, Lee E. Dunlap, and David E. Olson published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience, April 2018
My bookshelf weighs a ton
Notable new purchases for the occult library. Strictly second hand snap-ups only. This week: illustrated Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake
From the National Trust bookstall at Ashton Court, West Somerset for £2
I currently live near Bunhill Row Cemetery in east London, where the ‘noncomformists’ were buried just outside the old city gates. The plot includes resting palces for Wuthering Heights author Thomas Hardy, Pilgrim’s Progress writer John Bunyan, Robinson Crusoe’s Daniel Dafoe, and Blake.
These poems contrasting the attitudes of the fool and the magus are a 12-Step favourite and often paired with the Bible’s Book of Job, that teaches life is more colourful when it includes hardship.
Next issue: Bennet Zenner of Brooklyn Psychedelic Society takes the discussion into the here and now
Kool-Aid Corner #6
Your regular round-up of trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life.
To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life
Preview image from Internice Eating the Weather by Charlotte Wendy Law
Graph of the Week
The relationship between:
Mindfulness
Creativity
My bookshelf weighs a ton
Notable new purchases for the occult library. Strictly second hand snap-ups only. This week: The Archaic Revival by Terrence McKenna.
From the incredible book stall at Brick Lane Market on Sundays for £8
Not to be overshadowed by any Netflix series or glossy hardback.
Much more on this guy later on in the course, but Terrence was essentially laying down the psychedelic enlightenment in the underground press decades ago.
It’s full of gems for all psychedelic aficionados, not just DMT bros. Terrence muses on rthe return of The Goddess, mankind’s destiny communicating as cephalopods, urges us all to try yoga and reciting mantras while microdosing, tells mystics to nob off in favour of lived experience, and much more.
Next issue: Dr Rick ‘The Strass’ Strassman goes further than ever before… several times
Each ‘Zine features the most mind-blowing bits I scrawled down during each of Vital’s exclusive live lectures by the finest minds in the space. Browse them by issue or go straight to the introductions with lecturer details.
And search by the topics: Traditional and Modern Approaches, Therapy, Space Holding, Medical and Clinical, and Integration. Funnies at the end too.