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Event
Psychedelic and Death: A Conversation with Dr. Neal Goldsmith and Dr. Anthony Bossis
Date: Tuesday, September 15th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8
Location: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, 11215 Brooklyn NY
This talk will reprise Dr. Neal Goldsmith's sold out
presentations of his "Psychedelics and Death" lecture, with
the special addition of Dr. Tony Bossis, a Principal Investigator from the FDA and DEA approved, NYU School of Medicine Psilocybin Cancer [End-of-life] Anxiety clinical
trial. Dr. Bossis will join us to explore the potential
benefits that a psilocybin-facilitated mystical experience
may provide in helping individuals cultivate meaning,
enhance spiritual well-being, and experience a greater acceptance of the dying process with less anxiety. After
both presentations, we will interview/dialog with each other, and then open the floor to questions.
How does the modern view of death differ from the tribal perspective attained through the ingestion of visionary plants and admixtures (including Ayahuasca, AKA the "vine of death")? How do stage theory, birth trauma, near-death experience, and the death-and-rebirth experience as explored by Grof and others, help illuminate the psychedelic experience? Why has the Psilocybin End-of-Life Anxiety research project (at NYU, Johns Hopkins, and UCLA medical schools) found the ego-death experience to be of such central importance to successful outcome?
Psycho-spiritual and existential distress is often an
integral component of end-of-life suffering. Many
individuals diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer experience
hopelessness, but for some, a cancer diagnosis can initiate
a search for meaning. Subjective features of a mystical
experience include unity, sacredness, transcendence, and a
greater connection to deeply felt positive emotions
including that of love. The psilocybin-facilitated mystical
experience offers a novel therapeutic approach to promote
meaning and openness to the mystery of death. Implications for thanatology and consciousness studies will be addressed.
Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist and author
specializing in psychospiritual development. He is author
of dozens of popular and scholarly articles, curates and
hosts innovative workshops, salons, and conferences, and a
frequent speaker on psychotherapy and change, adult developmental psychology, psychedelics research and policy,
and the integral future of society. Dr. Goldsmith's book, Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy and Spiritual Development, describes the current renaissance in psychedelic research and the influence of psychedelics on his personality theory and clinical practice. (A six-minute clip from his interview on "Fusion of Spirit and Science" may be found at: http://vimeo.com/7517009.) Trained in humanistic, transpersonal, and eastern traditions, Dr. Goldsmith maintains a (non-psychedelic)
psychotherapy practice in New York City, and Sag Harbor, NY and may be reached via his Web site: http://www.nealgoldsmith.com/psychedelics.
Dr. Bossis is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine and a clinical researcher at the NYU Bluestone Center For Clinical Research. He is co-principal investigator, Director of Palliative Care Research, and a session guide for the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Research Project. He is a supervisor of psychotherapy at Bellevue Hospital NYU Medical Center and the co-founder and former co-director of the Bellevue Hospital Palliative Care Service. He is a Diplomate of the American Academy of Pain Management and a member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Care. Dr. Bossis is the co-author (with Drs. C. Grob and R. Griffiths) of the recent chapter, "Use of the Classic Hallucinogen Psilocybin for Treatment of Existential Distress Associated with Cancer" in Psychological Aspects of Cancer (Springer, 2013). Dr. Bossis maintains a private psychotherapy practice in New York City.
Image: Alex Grey - Dying
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LocationMorbid Anatomy Museum (View)
424 A Third Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
United States
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