Podcast

Way back when, in the world of 2016 I started an NTS podcast about the intersection between spirituality and activism. I came increasingly to believe the latter really needed to be animated by the former and wanted to explore this idea through a series of conversations with people who were knowledgable in different spiritual traditions and whose ideas intrigued me. 

Life being what it is and the pressures of work what they are I only recorded two episodes neither of which I ended up sharing. Sadly the second one seems to be MIA but I have found the inaugural convo  on my laptop (YAY) and I thought this would be a good place to share it - after I've given it a little edit. Listening back in 2020 this conversation actually feels even more urgent and necessary than it was at the time. 

The episode is a convo with Jeremy Weate about Iboga a form of plant technology Jeremy explains is a knowledge system much more ancient then the more widely known ayahuasca of South America.

 "The Iboga tree is central to the Bwiti  spiritual practices in West-Central Africa mainly Gabon Cameroon, and the Republic of the Congo where the alkaloid-containing roots or bark are used in various ceremonies to create a near-death experience. Iboga is taken in massive doses by initiates of this spiritual practice, and on a more regular basis is eaten in smaller doses in connection with rituals and tribal dances performed at night. Iboga extracts, as well as the purified alkaloid ibogaine, have attracted attention because of their purported ability to reverse addiction to drugs such as alcohol and opiates" (wikipedia). 

We discuss its effects on the brain, how it can help with Parkinsons, it resets  the mind, so that one can learn a language, an instrument and its powerful effects on the aging brain. 

We discuss problem solving conciousness and the way in which it  it marginalises other ways of being  necessary for freedom, and how its imperative that efforts to achieve forms of social justice shift out of merely operational conciousness in order to reimagine the world anew