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Beware of "nonsense" in the psychedelic community
🕑 Added 2023-04-13 16:11:44 +0000 UTCBefore I get into the actual topic of this post I want to send out a big THANK YOU to all of the long time supporters here as well as people that have just discovered my content, it has been a surprise to see so much interest recently. Sadly I have been having a hard time keeping up with all of the messages I receive on a daily basis, please be patient, I always respond to every single message but it might now take longer than it did in the past. đâ€ïžđ
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OK, onward! There is a VERY LONG history of sketchy behavior in the psychedelic community, everything from scientific fraud, to serial mental and physical abusers, sexual abusers, government funded programs where psychedelics were unethically used (like MKUltra), and nearly ENDLESS numbers of "gurus" and cults leading people astray, not to mention all the mythology and wacky belief systems with no foundation in reality. One of the ways we can (hopefully) avoid the mistakes of the past is simply by knowing more history. There is a lot of new interest in the psychedelic community these days, and many people have little to no understanding about these things. I generally like to focus on positive topics and this will indeed be my default, but in the interest of protecting the community, I want to also educate people in a way that may help avoid harm. DO NOT FALL for the shenanigans that inevitably crop up in the psychedelic community (or in life in general). BE a healthy skeptic, question everything. If you are interested in taking a much deeper dive into "the dark side" of psychedelic history, I suggest James Kent's ten part podcast he created under his "Dose Nation" name, starting with #1 of 10.
The first of the last ten episodes of DoseNation. James Kent presents "The Beginning of the End". Topics include How to Kill a Blog, The Darker Side of Psychedelic Culture, personal stories from earlier times, and reflections on personal interviews with Terence McKenna and Kat Harrison from 1993.
I actually hesitate to link to James Kent's podcast, I consider James a friend and we have actually had several pleasant email exchanges over the years, but he is also a lot different from me. James has become very disillusioned with psychedelics to the point where you would easily get the impression from listening to his content that he believes psychedelics are a net negative to the world. This is an extreme swing of the pendulum and obviously NOT what I believe. I know there is potential for good with psychedelics, but people have to understand them better than they have in the past, and use them properly. Science will play a key role in maximizing the benefit and the modern era of researchers have done a lot in this regard. We as a community need to look out for one another and shine a light on problems and bad actors before lives are negatively affected. I also believe psychedelics should be used sparingly, and with great care for maximal benefit, it pains me to see them abused and I'm also not happy that the most popular YouTuber in the realm of psychedelics is essentially a "goof" and very poor example for others to follow ("psyched substance" approaching 3 MILLION subscribers).
Anyway, James has produced about 20 hours of content that could be a good listen on a long road trip or flight or on your daily commute if you want to learn more about the sketchy past of psychedelic history to counterbalance some of the naiveté of the new generation of psychedelic enthusiasts.
All of that intro was simply to lead into this - I have recently taken it upon myself to do some investigative journalism into one specific new group that has arisen within the psychedelic community, The Church of Psilomethoxin. Why? Because more than one patron has contacted me about this group, and my "spidey sense" (or red flags) was immediately triggered. I felt compelled to dig deeper in the interest of protecting the community and maybe I can use this as a teaching moment so others in the community will see this stuff from a mile away when it inevitably arises in the future.
Reference: https://psilomethoxin.com/ The churchâs website has some of their back story and details about membership application and fees ($55 annual fee at the time of this writing, looks like that has gone up a lot since), it does not disclose the price for the actual product they sell as âpsilomethoxinâ but they sell it to members for $175 for half ounce and $300 per ounce according to a member who I am in contact with). For more background information see the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-Hydroxy-5-methoxydimethyltryptamine (especially the links toward the bottom under References).
On November 30th, 2022 the church reported having 500 members and things seem to have grown since then, they are even planning a big festival in Austin Texas on April 15 with bands and speakers and they will even be offering "the sacrament":
(this actually sounds pretty fun, not gunna lie!)
They are sending out this âpsilomethoxinâ product all over the United States and its co-founder claims they have sent it to âthousandsâ of people (reference below).
While the background story on how they allegedly produce psilomethoxin is perhaps plausible on the surface to those with little understanding of fungal biosynthesis, I was immediately skeptical about it nonetheless. They claim to feed 5-MeO-DMT to psychedelic mushrooms (via putting it into the substrate) and the mushroom allegedly takes it up and hydroxylates it creating 4-HO-5-MeO-DMT, they claim the idea was âendorsedâ by Alexander (Sasha) Shulgin (which may even be true, but I've seen speculations from Shulgin in the past that didn't pan out so this is not new and Shulgin himself was likely misled as I will describe).
Furthermore they claim their methods result in mushrooms that produce only 4-HO-5-MeO-DMT and no psilocybin or psilocin - my immediate thoughts were âhow could they possibly get the mushroom to not produce any psilocybin whatsoever?â Then my thoughts were, well maybe they are somehow removing the psilocybin after processing, otherwise how could it possibly be a legal product as they claim? But no, church founder Ian Benouis reveals (interview below) that they do not do any processing other than drying and powdering the mushrooms. But I had my doubts that the process they describe would even work in the first place.
This idea of making psilomethoxin from mushrooms was ultimately inspired by a published paper from Gartz: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2614674/ Over the years many people have tried and failed to reproduce Gartz's results and this paper is widely regarded as nonsense to be quite frank. It is an example of how one misleading paper can lead to YEARS (or even DECADES in this case!) of misinformation. In all these decades since his paper was published, no one has ever been able to validate Gartzâs work. Iâm also told (by James Kent) that Gartz was notorious for stealing work from other mycologists and publishing before they could -- so there may actually be a long chain of sketchy behavior behind all of this, one sketchy thing leads to another. Gartz also got many people excited about aeruginascin but that too is now viewed with great skepticism (aeruginascin likely cannot cross the blood brain barrier).
I initially contacted the Church of Psilomethoxin last year through their website, requesting a small sample for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis as part of a community review but the group completely ignored me (the first red flag).
I didnât think much about it after that, until I saw the following interview with Hamilton Morris https://youtu.be/p-bkFf6f6qc
At 56:38 Hamilton talks specifically about psilomethoxin (responding to a question that brought it up)
âI did look at a sample of that material and Iâll say the results are not conclusive at the moment. I did not detect it in a first analysis but Iâm going to look again and see if I can find itâŠâ
(this was a new major red flag for me)
The cofounder of the church is âIan Benouisâ:
He describes himself as âa West Point graduate, former US Army officer, Blackhawk helicopter pilot and combat veteranâ. It also says he is an attorney and was formerly a Pfizer sales rep.
Co-Founder of the church, Greg Lake is also a lawyer (sometimes he uses the name George Lake):
You can see an hour long interview with Ian here (UPDATE: This video was taken private because the organization that posted it no longer wants to be associated in any way with Ian or the Church of Psilomethoxin, but I saved a copy, if you want/need to see it contact me). Not sure if it really means anything but I noticed Ian touches his nose a bunch of times and Iâve read this is a sign someone may be lying.
At 17:10 he is asked âHow long is the experienceâ and he answers âIt seems to parallel the same hours as a psilocybin experienceâ (another red flag).
At 28:30 he says they have shared this product with âthousands of peopleâ (and âtens of thousands of dosesâ) and the people who have tried it admit it is not like 5-MeO-DMT, it doesnât have a sharp peak, itâs more smooth (Me: essentially people describe it as a low dose or microdose of cubensis mushrooms, another red flag)
39:17 He says you donât have to do analytical testing (chromatography/mass spec etc to measure things) because you can just bioassay it (eat some yourself) and âfigure it outâ haha.
39:40 he describes dosing and the range mentioned is identical to cubensis mushrooms (coincidence or another red flag?)
At 45:00 he describes how wonderful it is to short circuit normal drug testing protocols and just give it to thousands of people and collect anecdotes instead, apparently informed consent is a good substitute for safety studies and animal testing and scientific rigor.
At 46:00 mark he makes the claim that there is NO psilocybin in the product (the basis for claims that the product is completely legal/unscheduled). He also claims itâs not subject to the analog drugs act because itâs not a hallucinogen.
I put the call out for anyone to send me a sample of this groupâs alleged psilomethoxin product so that I could have it properly tested (Iâm friends with several testing labs that specialize in mushroom testing). It didnât take me that long to find someone willing to send a sample. Here is a picture of the shipping label used by the church (presented just as evidence that the sample did in fact come from them) but note they use the name âChurch of the Sacred Synthesisâ on the package which is a legal entity linked to Ian Benouis and George Lake as per opencorporates.com (not sure why but the officer registered as âIan Benouisâ was removed then they added âKemal Ian Benouisâ but according to this source they are the same person: http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/benouis_kemal_ian/
The product is being shipped out of Austin, Texas which is where Ian lives according to his LinkedIn page.
It is a fine gray powder that looks and smells exactly like every mushroom powder Iâve seen (nothing notable or unusual about it):
I immediately sent the sample to a lab for testing (I'll keep the lab anonymous unless they decide they want the exposure, but hard to say if there will be some backlash or retaliation from all of this). Anyone can easily send their own sample to a lab for testing (labs that specialize in mushroom testing include: TrypLabs, Tryptomics, Rose City Labs, Flourish Labs, Hyphae Labs, Altitude Consulting and MagicMyco to name a few. In Europe Energy Control seems like a good option).
Anyway, the results came back and the product these guys are selling looks like nothing more than a run of the mill psychedelic mushroom dried and powdered, probably a cubensis mushroom based on the alkaloid analysis. It contained 0.87% psilocybin and 0.13% psilocin which is a pretty typical result for cubensis mushrooms. Furthermore, there were NO unusual spikes on the chromatogram that would indicate the presence of anything novel/new/unexpected. In other words, it appears there is ZERO âpsilomethoxinâ in this product. The product is obviously totally illegal for this group to be selling in the U.S. and they put their members at legal risk by distributing it to them (most of whom will be completely ignorant of the fact that they are in possession of something that could get them into trouble which only elevates their risk as they will be less likely to take any precautions).
It would be hard to imagine but perhaps Ian and Greg have avoided doing the proper analytical testing just so that they can have "plausible deniability", they know its psychoactive, and they know it could potentially help people (because psilocybin has been proven to help people) so maybe the thinking is "We can just not test it and hope no one does and we'll just pretend its psilomethoxin for legal purposes''?
Notice in that hour long interview linked above, Ian doesn't talk about analytical testing at all, he describes testing it on himself by just taking it starting with small doses and he says something ridiculous like (paraphrase) "I knew it was psilomethoxin because I could feel my teeth tingling and that's what happens when I use 5-MeO-DMT" (seriously?). He says he has never tried more than 1.5g, they ask him how long the experience lasts and he says "the same as psilocybin" (haha) and he talks about feedback they've gotten from THOUSANDS of people and they all say it's nothing like 5-MeO-DMT and it has no sharp peak, and it's basically just like a microdose or low dose of cubensis! (because thatâs what it is). In the interview he even âpoo-pooâsâ analytical testing. Furthermore, their website basically says âwe tried to do testing but ITâS NOT POSSIBLEâ (WOW!! So they actually admit they have no scientific evidence!): https://psilomethoxin.com/psilomethoxin-the-history-testing-pharmacodynamics-and-pharmacokinetics/
âWe have performed GC-MS multiple times on our sacrament and to date, no one has been able to detect the molecule using this destructive testing process⊠Our church personally bioassays each batch of our sacrament for efficacy and safety.â So instead of doing proper testing, they are doing TASTE tests? Unbelievable! How have they gotten away with this for so long without any real testing or any scientific evidence? They donât even hide it! This is insane. Iâm saving a copy of their statement from their website below because itâs so ridiculous and incriminating that Iâm sure they will edit it soon:
Also I have received reports from members of the church saying this product âstains blueâ anything they put it in (which is a pretty good indication of the presence of psilocybin which dephosphorylates to psilocin which oxidizes and causes bluing when in the presence of bluing enzymes naturally in the mushroom). A patron of mine wrote: âWell I became a member of the church so I could get some psilomethoxin. I took 3 grams. Now Iâve tried 5-MeO DMT and I certainly do know what psilocybin feels like and that stuff they sent me felt just like psilocybin. A mushroom trip. Was nothing novel to me! Iâm convinced this church is a scam. What they preach is not what they practice!â
BOTTOM LINE: The Church of Psilomethoxin is an embarrassment to science and the psychedelic community.
Why Iâm conflicted about sharing all of this: The people involved are pretty much just giving out psilocybin to other people that âessentiallyâ want what low dose psilocybin does, the effects have pretty much been accurately described by Ian and others in interviews. This âchurch thing" may in fact be some kind of back door way of making psilocybin more accessible to people and essentially decriminalizing psilocybin for those willing to go through a church to access it. Psilocybin has shown all sorts of medicinal promise, in fact it was recently rescheduled in Australia and for the first time it can be prescribed by doctors to treat depression. The United States is expected to follow suit (phase 3 clinical trials are already underway) and many jurisdictions in the U.S. have already decriminalized psilocybin. I donât really see this group as putting anyone in harm's way because the safety profile of psilocybin is well known and itâs safer than alcohol, also this group is promoting quite low doses, and it doesnât seem like a mentally abusive cult or anything like that. Ian seems to have a history of helping veterans through the use of psychedelics or supporting organizations that do this, and I give him respect for that.
But what they are currently doing is very sketchy, they are either lying about what the product is and essentially defrauding people or they are just being dumb and not really bothering to find out whatâs in the product, either way, thatâs bad. Ian is also promoting dangerous behavior related to drug testing as well as the entire junk science myth of making psilomethoxin from mushrooms. They are also selling this product for approximately twice the âstreet priceâ of cubensis mushrooms so not only a deception but a rip off. Iâve seen too many charlatans in the psychedelic community and it really needs to stop. The only way to stop this is to shine a light on it. Plus let's be honest, it was only a matter of time before someone started testing this product, you can only get away with this level of madness for so long.
Also there is at least the possibility that this is not a deliberate con by the church and its officers, those guys may genuinely believe they are producing psilomethoxin (4-HO-5-MeO-DMT), I have no idea.
For what itâs worth, I actually feel BETTER knowing they are just giving people regular powdered cubensis mushrooms, as we know they are safe. If they were actually sending out psilomethoxin I'd be much more concerned (testing a new drug on thousands of people without any proper safety data is insane! The things Ian says in that interview about drug testing are equally absurd!)
There are legitimate safety/toxicity concerns around 5-MeO-DMT which would logically extend to psilomethoxin (perhaps even more so due to the much higher doses presumably being used compared to vaped 5-MeO-DMT). Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3028383/
There are also theoretical concerns that psilomethoxin could cause long-term lowering in serotonin and norepinephrine functioning if it is metabolized to 4,5-dihydroxy-DMT. Several dihydroxy tryptamines are considered neurotoxins to serotonin and norepinephrine.
Here's an older paper identifying 4,5-dihyroxytryptamine as a neurotoxin: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00306720
And here is a paper showing 5-MeO-DMT is turned into 5-HO-DMT by CYP2D6, suggesting the same thing might happen with psilomethoxin: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879007/
I donât want to see these guys going to jail. If they stopped the lies and just renamed it to "The Church of Psilocybin" I'd be OK with it. Of course they would be legally challenged but that case could go all the way to the Supreme Court.
Ian and Greg, if you are reading this, it may not be too late to make something good out of this mess. Become psychedelic legal pioneers and contribute something of lasting value to the community. It would actually be a pretty amazing accomplishment if you could pull off a new legally protected church that uses psilocybin, and who knows, perhaps the time in history is now right for this challenge. Plus arguing your case in the supreme court could be the achievement of a lifetime. Think about it seriously and do the right thing.
NOTE: I resisted publishing my investigative notes for a while because I feared retaliation and I donât particularly want to be dealing with lawyers or âtrue believersâ from some sketchy church. Also I could not rule out the remote possibility that the lab I used made a mistake, or the sample I received was not representative of the product other people receive from this church (maybe it was âjust a bad batchâ). However as of the time of this post, I have now received MULTIPLE reports from totally separate labs having tested their own independently obtained samples of this product with identical results (i.e. its just a regular mushroom containing psilocybin as the primary alkaloid, nothing novel). So knowing there are already at least three labs saying the same thing about separately obtained samples, convinced me to go public.
But the final straw was seeing that the Usona Institute tested their own sample and published their results to ChemRxiv under the beautiful title:
And here is their conclusion (same as mine):
UPDATE: The Church of Psilomethoxin has issued a response to the Usona testing which is "next level" unhinged! Another page I have saved before they remove it because it's so ridiculous and incriminating. My favorite line from the response is: "Our claims to the existence of Psilomethoxin, at this time, are solely based on faith, bolstered by our and our membersâ own direct experiences with the Sacrament." I'm rolling my eyes, this is really their defense?? Beyond that they seem to be going with "it was probably a fake/adulterated sample and/or smear campaign from an evil capitalist" Ugh. It scares me that they are already talking about "legal action" against Usona and others talking negatively about them. If Ian or Greg read this, I just report the facts:
You should just be cool with being a psilocybin church, there is nothing wrong with that (and its what you are, stop kidding yourself, your faith can't change psilocybin into psilomethoxin, haha). Your statements saying it is 'scientifically impossible' to confirm the presence or absence of psilomethoxin in your product without a reference standard are patently absurd and woefully ignorant. You do a disservice to the psychedelic community with this nonsense. Embrace psilocybin and carry forth, no need to concoct crazy stories.
UPDATE #2 I actually corresponded directly with the Usona researchers, they are working with Dirk Hoffmeister to try to produce psilomethoxin using mushrooms despite it now looking quite improbable that it's even possible (it surprises me that Dirk even thinks this is worth trying but he is far more of an expert than anyone involved thus far). They tell me they are also in the process of creating a synthetic psilomethoxin reference standard, which I was happy to hear, then they can finally document where on the HPLC chromatogram it will show up in relation to other common mushroom alkaloids. Maybe they can also do some human trials so we can know what real/actual psilomethoxin does (I bet the experience will not be like psilocybin and the duration will be very different as well).
UPDATE #3: Looks like the church changed its name shortly after they were exposed for the psilomethoxin hoax/fraud. Now they just go by the Church of the Sacred Synthesis and they have a new website address: https://thesacredsynthesis.com/
UPDATE #4: They removed all of the incriminating parts of their website as I suspected they would, thankfully I saved them to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine so I'd have proof, links to the archive have been added to the above post. Why do I need proof? Because Greg Lake has contacted me to let me know he is suing me for defamation. So much for free speech and free press? I guess their true colors are showing now, instead of doing the right thing, they are attacking our community with frivolous lawsuits. Thankfully Texas has wonderful anti-SLAPP laws so I'm not too concerned, I believe any competant judge would throw this case out after just minutes of review. But still this could be a huge waste of my time and potentially $ too (but I may be able to force these guys to pay my legal expenses). If it DID actually go to court I think it would be hilarious, these guys will be thoroughly humiliated:
UPDATE #5: As if we didn't have enough evidence already, Usona has informed me that they have actually synthesized real psilomethoxin, something the Church of Psilomethoxin should have done from the very start. Anyway, now that we have a reference sample we can tell exactly where and how it shows up in analytical testing. Also Usona, working with a well known and reputable lab in Germany, attempted the psilomethoxin biosynthesis experiments in Psilocybe mushrooms (by adding 5-MeO-DMT to the substrate), and no surprise, but there was once again no evidence of psilomethoxin formation. Furthermore the psilomethoxin they did synthesize proved to be extremely unstable, just as a past researcher had described (Julia M, Manoury P, Voillaume MC; Bulletin de la Société Chimique de France 1417-1423 (1965) "No 209 - Recherches en série indolique. XIV (*) - Sur des méthoxy-5 hydroxy-4, méthoxy-5 hydroxy-6 et méthoxy-7 hydroxy-6 tryptamines") so even if the biosynthesis idea had been legit, it is very unlikely the psilomethoxin would survive drying and powdering.
UPDATE #6: In Monty Python like twist, team Psilomethoxin shouts "we're not dead yet" by bringing out their in house science advisor Adam McKay, who apparently finally decided to actually test the product they have been making claims about and selling/distributing all over the country! I think they completely MISSED the main points that I made in the above post. It doesn't even matter if there are trace amounts of psilomethoxin in their product (but so far I have seen no evidence of this) the main point was that their claims that the product does not contain psilocybin/psilocin and that it's legal is complete and utter BS as has been confirmed again and again by every lab that has tested their product. It clearly contains typical amounts of psilocybin and psilocin for common psychedelic mushrooms, the powder itself stains blue and one can observe the psilocybin dephosphorylate into psilocin in the lab. Even a simple inexpensive do it yourself chromatography test can be used to show the typical mushroom alkaloids present in their product.
Notice in the interview Adam does NOT reveal what % of their mushroom powder they claim to be psilomethoxin (he should know this considering he stated in the interview that he synthesized a reference material). They also completely avoided the elephant in the room, that the product contains a rather large quantity of psilocybin and is not legal nor is it what they claim, nor do they label it properly, nor is it legal for them to sell and distribute all over the country. I really don't care if it has psilomethoxin in it or not, in fact its worse if it does, that means they are selling a potentially dangerous product to people without having performed any safety or toxicity analysis whatsoever. I don't know how the guys that started this church passed law school and the bar đ.
It blows my mind that they seem to be claiming they never did any proper lab testing before selling the product and shipping it to hundreds if not thousands of people all over the country. They never bothered to send the product to an independent lab to get a certificate of analysis? They claim in the above linked interview (paraphrase) "wah wah, NOBODY would work with us so we couldn't get any testing done!" đ, you have GOT to be kidding me. Even in this article I posted links to 7 labs that will do testing for a small fee (many of these labs have been operating for YEARS and certainly would have been viable options).
It's also perplexing to me that they would think it OK to send a new drug out to anyone willing to buy it from them, hundreds if not thousands of people, without even properly determining what's in it or even if it is toxic! What they did with the Church of Psilomethoxin is OUTRAGEOUS and DANGEROUS and they broke so many laws it's absurd (product labeling laws, giving people drugs without proper testing or analysis, sending schedule 1 controlled substances through the mail to hundreds if not thousands of people all across the country, selling schedule 1 controlled substances, etc). The best thing they could do is forget this whole mess and move on, they are lucky to not be going to jail over it. Instead they want to prolong the madness, attack the psychedelic community, and drag people to court. They are only bringing more attention to their reckless enterprise.
UPDATE #7 Since this post was originally made, more labs have come forward with their own independent analysis of the Church of Psilomethoxin's product, using samples obtained from more church members. I'm documenting these for legal purposes. It appears that the church may be trying to intimidate and silence critics by threatening legal action, so I have saved all the records before various sources are intimidated into removing them. Kykeon Analytics did a very thorough analysis and include on their website a 5 page PDF analytical report with full details and graphs: https://www.kykeonanalytics.com/newspages/church-of-psilomethoxin
PsychedelicPassage had a sample analyzed by Energy Control in Spain: https://web.archive.org/web/20230925090719/https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/what-is-psilomethoxin-where-did-it-come-from/
The active ingredients detected were psilocybin/psilocin
(That's 0.79% psilocybin equivalent [PCBE] which is about average these days for cubensis mushrooms).
UPDATE #8 Greg/George Lake is now officially "YouTube famous" (and not in a good way). Before I officially had representation, I had quite a few email exchanges with Greg (the lawyer suing me and also a former employee of the Church of Psilomethoxin). I feel like by the end of our back and forth things were actually quite cordial, I let him know that I genuinely care about him, I also offered to PAY for additional independent 3rd party testing of samples that THEY would send in themselves, using whatever solvent they specified for the extraction since that seemed to be a concern they had, but they did not accept even those generous terms). I warned Greg that if he proceeded with this case, he would be humiliated in court, but he clearly did not believe me (big mistake). It gets worse for them though, because I'm confident the case will be dismissed and the Church of Psilomethoxin/Sacred Synthesis will be forced to pay all of the legal fees (I warned him about this too), this will likely bankrupt them, but it could get MUCH WORSE for these guys, as the case itself is an admission of a massive number of felonies which probably isn't going to go over well with the judge in this case or future judges they will likely face as a result of all the publicity they brought upon themselves with this lawsuit (for the record I have absolutely no desire to see these guys locked up nor am I trying to make that happen in any way shape or form, I personally don't even think selling psilocybin or forming a church that uses it should be illegal). But let's be honest, openly selling controlled substances from a website and mailing them out to thousands of people all over the country is REALLY pushing the limits haha. I'm surprised that as of June 2024 they are still doing this. Anyway, the case has now made "Law Talk with Mike"! đ. On one hand, it may be the most entertaining thing you watch this week, I was laughing out loud and shaking my head. But on the other hand, its kind of disturbing and painful to watch all at the same time...
Top vid comments: "The church lawyer looks like he had WAY too much 'Spiritual Journey' LOL"
and "Wait so if I mix 3 controlled substances together, its not controlled any more? Time to make bank"
Someone should have had an intervention with Greg before he got to this point. I knew based on the petition that this would not go well for the church, but seeing it all captured on video đ WOW. Sadly, Greg seems like he needs serious help from his friends or family, he is clearly unwell... He doesn't remember illegally calling defendants using an alias but his WIFE remembers him doing it?? đ WHAT!? đ The livestream comments were hilarious too, everyone thought Greg was high, I'm pretty sure he took a vape hit in the middle of the hearing? đ If the church of psilomethoxin/sacred synthesis sees this video and STILL wants to proceed with this case, they aren't just silly, but brain damaged. This may even be evidence that their product is neurotoxic đ„Č
UPDATE #9 The very silly lawsuit the Church of Psilomethoxin / Sacred Synthesis filed against me (suing me for millions of $) was thrown out (dismissed by the judge). As mentioned above, my lawyers humiliated these guys in front of the judge, and it was all recorded đ so entertaining the video was posted with commentary on a very big legal review YouTube channel with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. The comments people left were hilarious. All legal fees now have to be paid by the Church of Sacred Synthesis thanks to the Great state of Texas where the case was filed, which may bankrupt them. Hopefully this will serve as a good example to anyone that has thoughts of suing me in the future đđđ»đȘđŒ These guys made a big mistake in bringing so much attention to themselves via this lawsuit, I hope they don't end up doing jail time, but if they are reading this update right now, seriously, you gotta stop sales and distribution of controlled substances immediately or it's not going to end well for you (I know you ignored my advice previously, but don't ignore this one). I previously thought you guys might have a shot at a supreme court case arguing for the religious use of psilocybin which might benefit the whole country, but now that I know you better, I can clearly see you are NOT cut out for such an endeavor, you would not win the case, and it would end up being a setback to the entire psychedelics movement.
I could play it safe and not criticize anyone, but if I see someone doing sketchy things in the psychedelic community, I'm going to call it out, just my nature, has to be done. I have no regrets. These guys tried to intimidate me into posting a retraction to get out of the lawsuit, that would have been easy and free, but I can't be bought, bribed, or intimidated. I was prepared to pay all of the legal costs if necessary just on principle alone. We as a community aren't going to tolerate this BS anymore. I want to break from the past/history of psychedelic nonsense and move toward science and evidence based approaches with well documented benefits and methods. To help people, not lead them astray. No more gurus, cults, lies, abuse, or brainwashing. The psychedelic community must insist on higher standards and forge a better path forward.
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Links to all of my TEKs, Videos, Trip music, and frequently asked questions with answers can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/22774475 (everything is made available for FREE, I do not use pay walls, support the work only if you feel like you've benefited from it and you are able to do so).
Comments
Scott B.
Congratulations Gordotek. This has been on my mind every once in a while. I just posted a Facebook comment about this case on The Portland Psychedelic Society facebook page. I linked the DoubleBlindmag.com articles about this oddity as well. That Mr. Lake was barking, here, as fiercely as a junkyard dog, but in the youtube video, not so much.
Scott B.
When a religion or a retreat is created or run by lawyers, that's a warning sign or red flag. I learned my lesson to watch for psychedelic retreats or religious retreats run by lawyers. Watch for unethical people involved in psychedelic retreats.
The Beehive Ashram
I got myself educated about psilomethoxin when you were Martin Balls podcast. I was real excited to hear about such a compound! Iâve also been super interested in 5MEO for a long time and still have yet to try it. So imagine my delight when I heard about your church!? So I quickly became a member. I ordered a half ounce. When the time came to finally try your âsacramentâ I had myself set up perfectly as I always do whenever I journey at home. I took 1 gram in capsules. Well I waited for probably over an hour and a half before I finally began to feel anything⊠And when I finally did feel something all it felt like in the end was WEAK psilocybin mushroom experience! Iâve had countless mushroom experiences and ZERO 5 MEO experiences! And there was nothing new and novel about your sacrament! In fact I became extremely frustrated and disappointed with what I what experiencing. I am no longer a member of your âchurchâ. I feel scammed and I donât need anyone to supply me with mushroom powder. Can I have my 150 dollars back?
GordoTEK
đ I'm still in disbelief about how ridiculous these people are and how slow they are to connect dots and understand where this goes.
GordoTEK
I think they completely MISSED the main points that I made in the above post. It doesn't even matter if there are trace amounts of psilomethoxin in their product (but so far I have seen no evidence of this) the main point was that their claims that the product does not contain psilocybin/psilocin is complete and utter BS as has been confirmed again and again by every lab that has tested their product. It clearly contains typical amounts of psilocybin and psilocin for common psychedelic mushrooms, the powder itself stains blue and one can observe the psilocybin dephosphorylate into psilocin in the lab. Even a simple inexpensive do it yourself chromatography test can be used to show the typical mushroom alkaloids present in this product. It blows my mind that they seem to be claiming they never did any proper lab testing before selling the product and shipping it to hundreds if not thousands of people all over the country. They never bothered to send the product to an independent lab to get a certificate of analysis? They claim in the above linked interview (paraphrase) "wah wah, NOBODY would work with us so we couldn't get any testing done!" đ, you have GOT to be kidding me. Even in this article I posted links to 7 labs that will do testing for a small fee (many of these labs have been operating for YEARS). It's also perplexing to me that they would think it OK to send a new drug out to anyone willing to buy it from them, hundreds if not thousands of people, without even properly determining what's in it or even if it is toxic! What they did with the Church of Psilomethoxin was OUTRAGEOUS and DANGEROUS and they broke so many laws it's absurd (product labeling laws, giving people drugs without proper testing or analysis, sending schedule 1 controlled substances through the mail to hundreds if not thousands of people all across the country, selling schedule 1 controlled substances, etc). The best thing they could do is forget this whole mess, they are lucky to not be going to jail over it. Instead they want to prolong the madness, attack the psychedelic community, and drag people to court.
Organizer
:-D the pope declares the religion to be true.
Organizer
Your arrogance is astounding, you're telling one of the most educated persons in the field to get educated. Wow!
Jerry Howard
Thank you so much for that reply! Your information always seems to be the most accurate. I do appreciate it. Interesting that you mention the strains have gotten stronger. A guy I know who favors Pan Cyan and grows various types of mushrooms claims that the "commercial" cubensis such as you might find in Oakland is getting weaker over time. Not sure why he thinks that.
George Lake
Gp ahead and get educated while I get my subpoena reaedy.
George Lake
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/entheogenic/episodes/2024-03-25T10_00_00-07_00
GordoTEK
For anyone reading still, this is the price I pay for standing up for truth, integrity, and science in the psychedelic community. It would have been easier and safer to just say nothing, but is that the kind of world you want to live in or the community we want to build?
GordoTEK
You cannot lump an entire species into a single potency number, but certain cultivars are relatively consistent. Analytical tests to determine potency are recommended. It always irriated me when researchers talk about how many grams of mushrooms equivalent their dosages are (5g used to come up a lot). Most of these guys had no clue about the potency of actual mushrooms and they based that on out dated published info and its completely useless and misleading for anyone trying to figure out their dosing from mushroom fruit bodies today. I can tell you how they got this though, it used to be generally recognized that your average cubensis mushroom is about 0.5% psilocybin equivalent (PCBE) potency, this is probably fairly accurate if you go back 10 years or so, and is reflected in published papers. So you take 5 grams of a mushroom with 0.5% potency and you get 5000mg * 0.005 = 25mg of psilocybin, and that does in fact match what researchers give for pure synthetic psilocybin in research studies to achieve a deep experience. The problem with that is mushroom potency has been slowly increasing over time as people cultivate stronger genetics and people have learned how to properly dry and store them, today the average cubensis mushroom is 0.85% potency, so that is a pretty significant different from the 0.5% of long ago. If you are interested in looking directly at a pretty large set of fruit body testing data, see this spreadsheet that I created based off of the latest Denver Psychedelic Cup: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1woXXns3CrWugsxGP5hFefP89Ca9Eeo2WW2mPqIFTLrk/edit?usp=sharing If you filter to only cubensis, you can highlight the PCBE column and see the average I mention. But of course the potency can vary WILDLY with some cubes hitting over 2% now. So it is completely useless and even dangerous, to just assume a certain potency for an entire species of mushroom, its very much cultivar dependent as well as growing conditions and harvest/drying conditions dependent. I am actually thinking about trying to publish a paper on this topic because I think it is greatly misunderstood, and it would also be useful for future rules about product labeling in decrim states. So anyway getting back to the math. First thing is to know your potency, you should be able to look up any specific cultivar today and get a very good sense of what your potency is. Next, divide your own bodyweight in KG by 70, that will just be a multiplier to use at the end. Decide what level of experience you want, based on the Hopkin's data I'd say 20mg PCBE for a first deep experience is reasonable, and anywhere from 25 to 30mg for a second if the first was not deep enough is a very reasonable guideline. So lets say you are taking a natalensis mushroom that has an average test value of 1% PCBE, and you want a 25mg PCBE experience, you would need to take 2.5g of dried natalensis material (x*0.01=25 so x=2500mg or 2.5g Multiply the 2.5g times (Your Body Weight in KG / 70) This is your recommended dose of natalensis. To do this with TTBVI pan cyan the numbers would be something like: x*0.035=25 so x=714 or 0.714mg times (Your Body Weight in KG / 70) This assumes 3.5% PCBE potency for your dried TTBVI, so dose for a 25mg equivalent experience is less than a gram (0.714g to be exact) adjust for body weight as needed.
GordoTEK
Hi George, sorry it took so long for me to find your comment here. Yes I stand by everything I said and I am also sad that you have gone down the wrong path with all of this. I have also received your threatening private messages and your attempt to stifle my protected 1st amendment rights of free speech and free press. While I do not wish to go to court, if you force me to, you will inevitably regret the day you threatened me as I thoroughly embarrass and humiliate you in court with facts, science and truth prevailing. You will not win and I think you know this. But before we go there I have sent you a proposal to do even MORE testing of samples of your product collected directly from your customers and sent directly from your customers to reputable testing labs. You claim there is no psilocybin in your product, I think you know that is a lie, but I'm willing to do even more testing to satisfy your doubts. If this new round of testing shows the same results as all the other rounds you can drop your frivolous lawsuit and issue an apology to me. If it miraculously shows psilomethoxin and no psilocybin or psilocin I will delete this post, issue a public apology to you, and even publicly promote your amazing accomplishment. Let's do this!!!
Jerry Howard
What percentage of a gram would one use for pan cyans vs cubes?
Organizer
It's such a pitty you didn't chose the path Gordo suggested for you. Now you have to come here and post a disingenuous statement instead, pretending you don't understand how easy defrauding your scheme was. Gordo's arguments are straight-forward and logical, the science speaks for itself. This is not a complicated case that takes years of study in order to even understand the question. It's a very simple debunking that anyone of average intelligence can replicate very easily once they know of it. Order a sample from your church, send it to a lab. This alone is enough, combined with all the collected red flags it's just a rock solid case.
George Lake
Hey Gordo! Hope you are doing well! It was a pretty rough 2023 for me and the others at my Church, many of us suffered very needlessly because of tortious and defamatory comments and republications such as this one. Lots of veterans and others we were working with were left more or less stranded and without a community because of your malicious, intentional, and tortious publications. Do you still stand behind the statements that youâve made in this post? Not that it really matters at this juncture as the damages, many irreparable, have already been incurred and many we will be dealing with for the rest of our lives. But it would be interesting to know if you have reflected upon everything you said here over the last almost year since you intentionally and maliciously published these claims and representations? We would be very appreciative and supportive if you issued an apology for and retracted all the of the tortious littered throughout this post. Better yet, i would be more than willing to meet or talk man to man about it. My email is george.lake.la@gmail.com and I would be happy to reserve some time for a phone or zoom call with you in the near future. But in no event, later than March 1, 2024. Looking forward to what Iâm sure will be a sympathetic and ethical response. We at the Church sure deserve it! Much Love!!!!
2high2flyfpv
Well, that was an interesting read. Never heard of any of them, thank goodness, the world is full of frauds. Glad there's someone out there exposing them.
Tom Eaton
Just read through this post and had a good chuckle. Each update made me smile a little bit more. Thanks for the highlight and also the entertainment gordo
Jay
This would be really funny if it wasnât so sad. What happens when 2 lawyers eat shrooms?haha
Walkushome
Great write-up and follow through! Appreciate the diligence and promotion of science.
Eve636
Thank you for the work you did on this and sharing the info.
Geek variant 42
Well written. Thanks.
Scott M
Happy little mushrooms...
smallfry
Wow!
Kelby Jade
GORDO AKA "BOB ROSS" of this field....
Angel
Bro youâre so goated idk why I havenât found you til now đ€Ż 100% truth đ€
Shelby Curry
I think in essence we agree and Iâll try to explain the sense in which this is true. I lean toward science, but science as process and not as a position. Take the scientific method, which may seem complicated in its refined forms but is in essence vey simple and i think natural to us as a species. It consists in observing such facts as will enable the observer to discover general laws governing facts of the kind in question. Not to get into this too much, but the two stages, first of observation and the second of inference to a law are both indefinitely subject to refinement. The one who first figured out that fire burns was using the scientific method, at any rate if allowed to be burnt several times. This pioneer had already passes through the two stages of observation and generalisation but not through what the scientific technique demands-a careful choice of significant facts on the one hand and various means of arriving at laws other then mere generalisations. Unsupported bodies fall is a generalisation and liable to be refuted by birds, butterflies and airplanes. Someone who understands the theory of falling bodies knows why certain bodies fall and others do not. To take this back to what i tried to say above with psychedelics, the most natural place to begin the study of these substances is the people who have been using them for generations. How do they navigate these spaces? Do they have any history of illness (mental or physical) which may be a result of taking them? This is what I mean by a shamanic influence, a strong foundation, albeit mostly generalisations and traditions, from which a careful choice of significant facts can be refined. What happened in the 60s really didnât have this scientific outlook. People were pushing how many mcg of LSD they could stomach. Things got a little nuts and the government had to put a lid on it before further experimentation could be done and i see the danger of history repeating itself for the reasons you pointed out. As to the character of the shaman (the traditional one not the copycat), i agree. I think one of the original meanings of shaman is âclever fellaâ (with the final A). There is a carnie feel about them which i think comes from cultural attitudes on what is termed intelligent. Traditionally, knowledge has been divided into practical and theoretical. The one shares its knowledge with the gods and the other with the foxes. Itâs the difference between Odysseus and Plato. Shamans are definitely on the side of the foxes where as the western mind strives for the divine. In the end, i think both kinds of understanding, that of Plato and Odysseus, are needed. How scientific knowledge is presented can be very deceptive because it is so abstract. I once calculated my LD 50 of dried mushrooms and it turned out to be something like 4.5 pounds. I shutter to think what would happen if i took 4.5 pounds of dried mushrooms
GordoTEK
Well this is a bit of a "can of worms" so to speak, and perhaps I'm too cynical, but while I do find it interesting to study how "shaman" have traditionally used psychedelics, I don't look to them as an authority on the matter. And modern "shaman" are pretty much all con artists, but they sort of were in the past too in many cases, haha. This is something the mainstream psychedelic community maybe hasn't realized yet. I thought the Hamilton's Pharmacopeia episode where Hamilton trains as a shaman's apprentice said a lot... there is much "theater/acting" mixed with some folk medicine that may or may not work and a heavy dose of placebo đ. Some shaman didn't give other people psychedelics either, they only used them themselves. But modern "shaman" that give psychedelics to others are mostly just tourist attraction type places, and there is a sketchy history there as well with many tourists improperly cared for, inappropriate group sizes, inappropriate or unknown dosages, sexual abuse, lack of proper emergency care, lack of proper supervision, no medical training, mixing of drugs, use of potentially dangerous substances including tobacco brews, datura, scopolamine/ToĂ©/Brugmansia and other substances that are sometimes mixed into ayahuasca, etc. People have died because of these charlatans. I lean toward science. The work they're doing at Johns Hopkins has been great, for example with psilocybin they found very good guidelines for appropriate dosing and have documented what happens when the dose is too high. The sweet spot is when a person starts lower and works up to a full blown mystical experience without excessive dosing that increases fear and anxiety and no additional benefit. I cover that in my Hopkins vid: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41836904
GordoTEK
Well ANYONE can do this, and many people have tried, and so far not a single person has shown any scientific evidence that it works. There are 7 different testing labs now willing to do alkaloid analysis (linked to in the above post). From my perspective it's a waste of my time, but I'm happy to hear that lots of people are working on this (including Dirk Hoffmeister) and you will see the news if they actually succeed. If that ever happens, I'll be happy to attempt to reproduce and validate the work. If anyone reading this actually succeeds and has a documented TEK for me to validate, please contact me by private message.
FruityLoops
Would you consider doing an experiment yourself and feed some 5MeO to the substrate to see whether the mycelium processes this added molecule and integrates in the fruiting body or maybe transforms it into something else? Iâm wondering whether this can bring some important tweaks at a molecular level that would somehow impact or change the user experience.
Shelby Curry
I think the main problem, at least in the US, is that there is no real shamanic influence here (cultural road map) on how to take this stuff, unlike in Costa Rica, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, etc. Although this seems to be changing in the Ayahuasca realm from what Iâve seen. Retreats are popping up all over the place down there mostly because itâs big money. The most popular Ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica makes about 800-900k a week and they put 60 people in a room, load them up with Ayahuasca and turn on the boom box. Itâs a disaster waiting to happen. The same type of attitude happened in the 60s and we know the result of fiasco. The government just shut it down without and real scientific experimentation.
Tony Loxton
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jrivera1
Thank you Gordo for being and staying on top of things... This is the only psilocybin church I attend...
cyance
You are amazing!! Oh I hope I get to meet you one day. Keep up the good work! I'm with you 100% always
Pete
You said it ALL in one sentence; "you should just be ok being a psilocybin church.....". Every one has their own opinion on trying to "improve" upon nature, and that's entirely up to the individual, but for me, I'm sort of a believer of leave nature alone, don't try and re- invent the wheel! Marinol is a perfect example of this and to a different degree; 10-20-50x kratom and salvia etc. Again, I'm not hear to lecture on personal choice. Thanks again for staying on top of scams like this. We have to be self policing and weed things like this out. It's people like this that gives the legislators the ammo to say, "SEE WE TOLD YOU SO!" Thanks again.
Tampasami
Thanks Gordo I appreciate the heads up. Like for real.
Jimmy Dimmick
Thanks for putting this much effort into looking into this. I know we've been talking about it for a few months but you've been busy in the trenches my friend. Good job!
GordoTEK
There will soon be an "up charge" for "pan cyan flavored psilomethoxin" ;) They should hire me as head of marketing! Hahahaha.
mike.rizzy
wow; would love to do this. but this sounds like a 1 way ticket to jail. how do these guys get away with it? .87% and gray powder. He should be ashamed at those bunk shrooms..
Mountain Myco
Good looking out brother. Thank you!
GordoTEK
It's good to hear some first hand accounts of people who have actually taken a higher dose of this fake psilomethoxin. Sorry they wasted your time and $ (reverse the charges if you can, in the very least they shouldn't get away with ripping anyone off, that part is for sure fraud, but I can't believe any payment processor would even work with those guys to begin with).
GordoTEK
Honestly it wouldn't surprise me. But I am NO SNITCH/Narc so 'da man' isn't going to get a direct alert from me. But at this point the gig is up and thousands of people know they are distributing psilocybin, so I don't see how they can avoid arrest at this point. Honestly I support freedom and the adult choice to use psilocybin so I don't even think these guys SHOULD go to jail, but law enforcement probably won't see it that way...
The Beehive Ashram
I was a church member and ordered a half ounce of their âsacramentââŠ. I have never tried 5 MeO DMT⊠yet⊠But I have had countless mushroom experiences so I know what that feels like. I took a gram of the bootleg sacrament and after an hour and a half I barely felt anything⊠I took another half gram. Eventually I got frustrated because I was hoping to feel something different than mushroomsâŠ. And thatâs all it felt like. A weak mushroom trip. The thing I find funny is that they never provided and proof of what they were claiming. So of course itâs going to get tested. The other strange thing i noticed is that they keep preaching microdosing. âWe take our microdoseâŠ.â They never talk about a big giant dose. Like they were trying to suppress the fact that if you do take a large dose youâd immediately realize that itâs just a mushroom trip. Itâs kinda Like the Terrance McKenna effect whatâs going on here. Well homey here donât play microdose! I have a high tolerance to mushrooms. I once took 10 grams of Cubensis. If I take cubes now itâs 4 or 5 grams. And Iâve taken 3.2 grams of cyans (which totally kicked my ass. It was my first experience with cyans and I kinda goofed lol) so I am of the MACRODose school! My stomach turned every time I hear or see something about the Church Of Psilomethoxin. People keep talking about psilomethoxin like THEY know. When Iâm fact they too know nothing of what the church is peddling. Major disappointment! đđŒđđŒ
Timothy Kramer
Thanks Gordo Would law enforcement show up at the "big festival in Austin Texas on April 15... offering "the sacrament" ". I'm not dropping a dime but hate cheats for profiteering especially with this natural medicine. More I think of this the more anger comes. Sorry for the downer. Mush love.
M Y C E L I U M
God Bless you Gordo.
Charlie Myc
I Think the Best way to Sum it up is that if Hamilton is going to present himself as a Scientist and Chemist then he should be aware People are going to look to him as an Authority on the Matter especially since he has a show on the whole subject and more often than not Hamilton is trying to play Devil's Advocate with quite a bit of Misinformation. I Know this is a Hard Topic to find reliable Information but that's the whole Reason for the Series is to bring these Things to Light so while I appreciate Hamilton for Sure most of his Information IS Anecdotal when he has everything at his disposal to actually get to the Bottom of. It also seems like his show is also at the bottom of his Priorities list so it seems but I can't see why with his following Educating the Public wouldn't be Higher on the List if that makes Sense? We have come Leaps and Bounds since his first Episode aired so I would be remiss to no recognize that his show also might have Helped get us to where we are but moving forward I Think can be done with more Due Diligence. I DO Respect that he at least admits his Mistakes so that's the FIRST Step to Recovery đ€Ł. A revised Amanita Episode would be Awesome now that more has come to Light with Alkaloid Testing. I Think if Hamilton did some episodes taking our newly found HPLC Labs into account we can make up for past Misunderstandings.
GordoTEK
Yea for sure Hamilton has made mistakes, at least he admits them and documents them most of the time. Some of the things he has said publicly have been kind of questionable though, on Joe Rogan he said 'Drugs don't kill people' which is a pretty ridiculous statement. Since that time it came to light that his own assistant, Justin Clark, died (very young man too) from a drug overdose, story is here: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/02/psychedelic-drug-overdose-deaths.html He was addicted to ketamine and it was because of Hamilton that he even started using ketamine, other details show that Hamilton treated him pretty poorly which is sad. I don't think Hamilton has done enough to warn people about ketamine, it can be very addictive for some people, and dangerous (several people from the psychedelic community have died from ketamine related incidents including an author who used the name 'DM Turner'). Also for some weird reason Hamilton has on multiple occasions told people about a friend of his that developed some psychosis after taking 'mushrooms' but after digging around, it turns out they had actually taken a research chemical (provided by Hamilton from what I've read) it was NOT mushrooms. Maybe such a detail doesn't seem important to him but it just seemed odd to me that he would call a research chemical 'mushrooms', it wasn't even psilocybin, it was some analog and who knows what the purity levels are on mail order chemicals (I'm not a fan of that).
MagicMyco
Thank GordoTek! We move forward together! đ onto positive things..
GordoTEK
No, I've taken some classes in chemistry and biology, but was a computer scientist by formal education and worked in the field as data architect and decision support. Also have some background with neural networks / AI. It's great the different styles of education are emerging to suit different people. You have to figure out what you want to achieve first, then take it from there. I'm super interested in the science behind CRISPR and synthesis of new compounds or even whole new organisms. There are endless fascinating things one could do with their time.
Charlie Myc
Ok Great! I was gonna ask who the "Goof" was but figured you would have said in the first place if wanted to put it out there. I just mentioned Hamilton because he's let me down a few Times with his lack of Attention to Detail. Like telling the WRONG Penis Envy Origin Story as well as the Synthetic Bufo Toad story which I can see both sides of that as well. He is only One Man tho and we are all Fallible as Humans. I NEVER Knew what the Psyched Substance guy's name was so Apologies there! YEAH that Dude is a Goof! Did You see his Enigma Video where he Obviously didn't eat any REAL TWÂČ or Enigma or he would have had a different report but I also Think he speaks to a Majority of People out there who don't Know what they are doing so I Totally see the Danger there as well but i've found the Quality over Quantity People shy away from People like him while the Quantity People Gravitate towards him so maybe that's their Karma and they get what they Deserve but that can also end up Negatively affecting everything just because One Lone Idiot makes the News or something. Thanks for Clarifying! I didn't Think Hamilton was necessarily the "Goof" but I did find this the Right place and Time to share.
GordoTEK
Wait a second, just need to clarify this right away. Hamilton Morris 'only' has 188k subscribers on YouTube and I really like his content despite some flaws and mistakes and many guests that I completely disagree with. I have met Hamilton in person twice, we talked in person, I even got him to sign my copy of a booklet that he published on 5-MeO-DMT synthesis. I was referring to 'PsychedSubstance' with 2.59 MILLION subscribers, as 'the goof' ;) The guy is a basket case, abuser of psychedelics, and 'the blind leading the blind'.
Daniel
Yes!!! Mushrooms helped me ask the questions I thought I could never ask. Socrates than taught me even more.
Joolz
Thank you for this measured assessment. Pressure from above (mushrooms are drugs - drugs are bad!) and from below - charlatans like this - make the decrim process and wider adoption so much harder than it should be. A thoughtful and honest assessment is the only way to keep moving forward. đ
TheArkchemyst
Thank you! It is always such a pleasure to read every one of your posts. The hard work, honesty, no nonsense, all the research, everything you put into it really shows thru. Credibility level 1000! Thanks
Ast
Mr. GordoTEK, did you study/work in a professional capacity in (Organic) Chemistry or are you self taught? Could you please give me some pointers on how I can start with this subject when my ultimate goal is to understand biochemistry/drug chemistry at least at a surface level, if such a thing is possible. (Some additional background: It has been 9 years since I last had Chemistry in school and I almost failed it along with Physics. I'm very mathematics and programming oriented and recently started self learning Physics from a resource which makes heavy use of programming/computer visualization as a pedagogical tool and I'm able to follow along very comfortably unlike in school. So, something computer/programming oriented would be a godsend.)
Jeesh
Thanks for this post Gordo I had seen a lot of fishy things from this "church" but didnt have the time to do a true deep dive.
Charlie Myc
Lol a Goof eh? It rubbed me the Wrong way when our Guy actually Champions synthetic drugs from Naturally Occurring. I Know we can't have everyone running around Milking Toads but I Think Harvesting from the Toad can be done in a Humane enough way but that does just bring us back to "Farming" them. There is a quandary there but just making Synthetically versus Harvesting from the Organism that Organically made it should always be more Inferior to the Divine Plan. I've always appreciated Hamilton getting the Information out there but some of his Ideas and Views are Ridiculous to me....especially because You would Think he would have Learned "Better" by now thru all of his Experiences.....like Knowing Love is Quantifiable now. I Know kinda off Topic but I've still been holding onto that so it was Good to share! Thanks.
Sadie Cat
Good on you, Gordo! Excellent investigational synopsis. We need more people like you to keep things honest, and moving in a positive direction.
Mushroompizza4
I want everyone to have access but spreading misinformation and purposely mislabeling drugs is not the way forward.
Mushroompizza4
Great post. Itâs tough to sort through the nonsense but remaining a skeptic is critical to not get caught in the hype.
