My Psychedelic Explorations: The Healing Power and Transformational Potential of Psychoactive Substances

Claudio Naranjo’s psychedelic autobiography with previously unpublished interviews and research papers • Explores Dr. Naranjo’s pioneering work with MDMA, ayahuasca, cannabis, iboga, and psilocybin • Shares his personal accounts of psychedelic sessions and experimentation, including his work with Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin and Leo Zeff • Includes the author’s reflections on the spiritual aspects of psychedelics and his recommended techniques for controlled induction of altered states In the time of the psychedelic pioneers, there were psychopharmacologists like Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, psychonauts like Aldous Huxley, and psychiatrists like Humphrey Osmond. Claudio Naranjo was all three at once. He was the first to study the psychotherapeutic applications of ayahuasca, the first to publish on the effects of ibogaine, and a long-time collaborator with Sasha Shulgin in the research behind Shulgin’s famous books. A Fulbright scholar and Guggenheim fellow, he worked with Leo Zeff on LSD-assisted therapy and Fritz Perls on Gestalt therapy. He was a presenter at the 1967 University of California LSD Conference and, 47 years later, gave the inaugural speech at the First International Conference on Ayahuasca in 2014. Across his career, Dr. Naranjo gathered more clinical experience in individual and group psychedelic treatment than any other psychotherapist to date. In this book, his final work, Dr. Naranjo shares his psychedelic autobiography along with previously unpublished interviews, session accounts, and research papers on the therapeutic effects of psychedelics, including MDMA, ayahuasca, cannabis, iboga, and psilocybin. The book includes Naranjo’s reflections on the spiritual aspects of psychedelics and the healing transformations they bring, his philosophical explorations of how psychedelics act as agents of deeper consciousness, and his recommended techniques for controlled induction of altered states using different visionary substances. Naranjo’s work shows that psychedelics have the strongest potential for transforming and healing people over all therapeutic methods currently in use.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Jose Maria Fàbregas, M.D. prologue Psychedelics as a Transformational Resource 1 A Psychedelic Autobiography 2 Pharmacologically Induced Altered States of Consciousness 3 Interpersonal Psychedelics 4 Oneirophrenics 5 Psilocybin 6 Spiritual Aspects of the Psychedelic Experience 7 Matters Related to Method and Training 8 The Role of Psychedelics in a Policy for Consciousness APPENDICES Press Articles Research Articles About the Author Index

About the Author :
Claudio Naranjo, M.D. (1932-2019), was a well-known psychiatrist, philosopher, professor, and university researcher from Chile. He was a Fulbright scholar at Harvard, a Guggenheim fellow at Berkeley, a council member of the Education Policy Research Center at the Stanford Research Institute, and a professor at UC Santa Cruz, the California Institute of Integral Studies. He was a pioneer in the use of psychedelics for psychotherapy and was known for his long collaboration with Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin. The author of many articles, papers, and books, his legacy lives on through the Claudio Naranjo Foundation (Fundación Claudio Naranjo).

Review :
"Claudio Naranjo was a profound inspiration to me and to so many others. Claudio helped train MAPS' first therapist team for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD, for our study in Spain that began in 2000. Claudio's talk was the highlight of the recent World Ayahuasca Conference. Despite his health challenges, in his final days he indicated an interest in being involved in MAPS' psychedelic reconciliation project focused on Israelis and Palestinians who are taking ayahuasca and sometimes MDMA together. We honor Claudio's memory by continuing to work to develop MDMA and other psychedelics into prescription medicines, and beyond." “A remarkable collection of Claudio Naranjo’s writings on psychedelics and their role in spirituality and psychotherapy--what he considers two sides of the same coin. Of special value are his plentiful case reports in which we see on display the humanity and wisdom of this wise and humane psychedelic guide and trainer. Naranjo’s unwavering commitment to the centrality of actual experience to personal growth provides a unique perspective on understanding and utilizing the psychedelic drug state. A timely and most valuable contribution to the field.” “Today’s psychedelic culture is a hotchpotch of conflicting and harmonious factors bubbling together in a multicolored cauldron of potential. With such a long history of seemingly miraculous successes and well-known epic controversies, it takes a scholar of epic proportions to guide us through the maelstrom. Claudio’s years--decades in fact--of frontline immersion in the multidisciplinary field of psychedelics has now produced the go-to text to navigate this fascinating space. This book is a cutting-edge examination of contemporary science with an essential focus on the story of humanity’s oldest philosophy. What better captain to steer us than the man who has been there since the beginning, always alert and vigilant to the emerging psychedelic tides and their place in our lives. Read this book; carry it with you on your journey. There can be no better map.” “Imagine a life that brings together the shamanic and the scientific sides of the psychedelic renaissance, the spiritual and the therapeutic, North and South, East and West. Imagine a writer who describes, with clarity and grace, the ineffable nature of the altered state. Imagine a psychedelic pioneer who is not afraid to call out the hedonism, grandiosity, and foolishness that sometimes darken this ‘enlightened’ community. Imagine Claudio Naranjo.” “I first met Dr. Claudio Naranjo 50 years ago when we both studied at the Esalen Institute with Dr. Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt Therapy. Claudio was already a psychotherapy pioneer at that time. He has continued to lead us toward new and important information on healing, now including this magnum opus that contributes significantly to the present worldwide renaissance in psychedelic psychotherapy.” “Claudio Naranjo is the most shaman of the scholars and the most learned of the shamans.” “Dr. Claudio Naranjo, pioneer of consciousness, has written the fundamental work for the psychotherapist who wants to not only experience but understand the world of known meditation techniques.” “I knew Claudio for many years. He is someone who immersed himself in a great variety of teachings and practices in order to help others heal their pain and find the way to the development of consciousness.”