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During the past twenty years, I‘ve amassed a vast reflection collection: 300+ video tapes that elucidate entheogenic ethnography of contemporary counterculture’s psychedelic scene. Since the time she joined me in such activities, my friend  Tania Manning has added another 100+ tapes to the collection. Very few of these tapes have been captured, digitized, edited, and posted online. Because our focus has largely been on catching the moments, most of these videos have never even been watched.

 

Unfortunately, the tapes are suffering from the ravages of time; they're showing varying degrees of signal loss. Examples of this degradation can be seen in the 1997 Botanical Preservation Corps talk about ancient Mayan culture given by Bret Blosser in Palenque (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twivar7Zp3s ) and the 2002 Mind States talk “Drug Geeks: The Role of Informed Peers in Psychoactive Drug Information” by Fire and Earth Erowid in Jamaica (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFF0gX_W8bE ). Such degradation is likely to get worse over time, so it's important to capture these tapes as soon as possible.

 

During November and December last year, I attempted to coax content off of some of these tapes and onto hard drives. Although I was mostly focused on capturing, I occasionally allowed myself to get distracted by encoding, editing, and uploading. One such example is Bruce Damer's 2007 “Condition Alpha” presentation at Burning Man. It's one of my favorite Palenque Norte talks; it, and a few other completed videos, are available here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/MindStatesConference

 

Capturing these decades-old tapes with my 9+-year-old Mac has been challenging and time consuming. My computer isn't well suited for the demands of video work. Certainly, not in any sort of a speedy way. But it's also gotten increasingly buggy, freezing or shutting down and restarting in weird and somewhat concerning ways. If I wish to remain marginally sane, I really need a new computer to accomplish this work. Unfortunately, the Macs models preferred for video work are priced outside my budget. The one I've been hoping to get costs almost $5k. Ouch.

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27‑inch iMac with Retina 5K display

4.2GHz quad-core 7th-generation Intel Core i7 processor,

Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz

32GB 2400MHz DDR4

2TB SSD

Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB video memory

Final Cut Pro X pre-installed

Magic Mouse 2

Magic Keyboard - US English

AppleCare Extended Warranty

 

My wonderful friend Tania poked a few friends and encouraged them to gift me cash toward a new computer for my 50th birthday in December. Because of Tania's efforts and the generosity of some of our peeps, slightly over 50% of the computer's cost was covered. In early March, Tania and I visited Jean Stolaroff for her 91st birthday. While we were in Lone Pine, Tania proposed that—in order to secure the remaining cash needed to purchase the computer—my appeal for funds should be broadened. She suggested that I send a message out to my Mind States e-mail list. Well, why the hell not?

 

I don't have any donation gifts to offer, beyond making these videos available online for anyone to watch. Transferring, editing, and uploading this material is going to take many hours. I suspect that most donors would prefer to see me putting my efforts into moving the project along, rather than becoming distracted with an incipient mail-order business sending assorted tchotchkes out to my kind and appreciated supporters. Of course, I will happily update the total amount of funds—as presented above—when more arrive (until there's enough dough to purchase the new computer).

 

Donations of any size are greatly appreciated!

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DONATE TO HELP

US PURCHASE A

NEW COMPUTER

for our video

archiving

project

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THANKS!

to our generous donors…

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The list below includes most of the individuals and events documented within this video collection. I suspect that there's some pretty cool stuff in there. If you subscribe to the Mind States Conferences YouTube channel, you'll be notified when new material is uploaded. The archive is mostly comprised of formal talks/presentations, along with an assortment of interviews, and the videos were shot at events/locations such as:

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Albert Hofmann‘s 100th birthday party near Basel

The AllChemical Arts conference in Hawaii

Botanical Preservation Corps/Entheobotany in Mexico

The Boom Festival in Portugal

Burning Man in Nevada

Damanhur in Italy

Dave Nichols‘ lab at Purdue

Die Grüne Fee in Solothurn

Entheon Village at Burning Man

The Feast of Fools

Frogwood

H.R. Giger’s castle

LSD Symposium in Basel

The Magic Funk Palace

Mind States conferences

MycoKosmos

New Living Expo in San Francisco

Nick Sand‘s memorial in Petaluma

Palenque Norte at Burning Man

Sacred Elixirs in San Jose

SheShamans

Shulgin Farm

Stolaroff‘s/Lone Pine

Symbiosis

Synergenesis

Women‘s Visionary Congress

World Psychedelic Forum in Basel

and others!

 

Individuals/groups featured include:

 

 • Albert Hofmann

 • Alejandra Gallanda-Godoy

 • Alexander Shulgin

 • Alex Bryan

 • Alex Grey

 • Alicia Danforth

 • Allan Snyder

 • Allyson Grey

 • Amanda Feilding

 • Ann Shulgin

 • Anne Zapf

 • Annie Oak

 • Andrew Edmond

 • Brandy Doyle

 • Bruce Damer

 • Carla Detchon

 • Carla Higdon

 • Carol Randall

 • Charles Hayes

 • Charlie Grob

 • Christian Rätsch

 • Clark Heinrich

 • Crystal & Spore

 • Cynthia Palmer

 • Dale Pendell

 • Dan Joy

 • Daniel Pinchbeck

 • Daniel Siebert

 • David Nichols

 • Deirdre Barrett

 • Delvin Solkinson

 • Donna Torres

 • Donna Tracy

 • Durk Pearson

 • Earth Erowid

 • Erik Davis

 • Fire Erowid

 • Fred Tomaselli

 • Gary Fisher

 • Greg Manning

 • Hidden Mountain

 • Huston Smith

 • Isis Indriya

 • Jack Goelz

 • James Fadiman

 • James Kent

 • Jamie Neidpath

 • Jaron Lanier

 • Jean Millay

 • Jean Stolaroff

 • Jennifer Dumpert

 • Jenny Pell

 • Jen Zariat

 • Jim DeKorne

 • Jim Woodring

 • Joao Serro

 • Joe Coleman

 • John Gilmore

 • Jon Hanna

 • Jonathan Ott

 • Julie Holland

 • Karl Jansen

 • Katie Salen

 • Laura Huxley

 • Linda Rosa Corazon

 • LordNose!

 • Lorenzo Hagerty

 • Lynzee Dava Lynx

 • Manuel Jiménez

 • Marcela Castillo

 • Mark Commings

 • Mark Henson

 • Mark McCloud

 • Mark Pesce

 • Martha Toledo

 • Martina Hofmann

 • Martine Tomczyk

 • Michael Horowitz

 • Michael Randall

 • Michael Shermer

 • Mike Crowley

 • Myron Stolaroff

 • Naasko

 • Nick Sand

 • Oracular Madness Choir

 • Pablo Amaringo

 • Peter Lamborn Wilson

 • Peter Stafford

 • Piers Bizony

 • Preet Chopra

 • Ralph Metzner

 • RafaelO Aisner

 • Reid Stuart

 • Rhoney Stanley

 • Richard Glen Boire

 • Rick Doblin

 • Robert Forman

 • Robert Venosa

 • Roger Liggenstorfer

 • Rosemary Woodruff

 • R.U. Sirius

 • Sandra Karpetas

 • Sandy Shaw

 • Scotto Moore

 • Seabrook Leaf

 • Sheldon Norberg

 • Sijay James

 • Stan Grof

 • Stanley Krippner

 • Stephen Kent

 • Stevee Postmann

 • Stewart Frescas

 • Susan Blackmore

 • Sylvia Thyssen

 • Tania Manning

 • The Teafaerie

 • Terence McKenna

 • Thomas Riedlinger

 • Tommy Thomas

 • Usha

 • Valarie Corral

 • Vibrata Chromodoris

 • V.S. Ramachandran

 • Zena Grey

 • Zoe Seven

 • and others!

 

 

THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP IN MAKING THIS ARCHIVING POSSIBLE.

YOU ROCK!​

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