Free Republic

What if a centuries-old Amazonian brew held the key to better mental health and well-being? Ayahuasca, a psychoactive tea traditionally used in spiritual ceremonies, is once again making headlines after the most extensive study of its kind reveals promising associations between its use and improved mental health outcomes. “Ayahuasca has been used for centuries by Indigenous communities for healing and spiritual purposes, but despite its growing global popularity, its effects on mental health in contemporary settings are not well understood,” study co-author and adjunct associate professor at Swinburne University in Australia, Daniel Perkins, told PsyPost. “With more people around the...

As Democrats and Progressives use this enormous tragedy as the tag necessary to push for nationwide gun control, permit me, a 30 year teacher of young adult males, to offer my reasons as to why this breakdown in our society is happening. First of all, was Adam Lanza on any type of “mind altering” drugs in recent months or from his early childhood? Teachers of young males often encourage parents to put their young children on hyper activity medication just to make the classroom atmosphere easier to control. One of my students, a middle age mom, asked me if she...

The founder of the Minuteman Project, the anti-illegal immigrant group, endorsed Republican Mike Huckabee on Tuesday, while Huckabee dismissed a presidential rival's immigration criticism as the work of "the tattletale in the third grade." At a news conference hastily arranged to cope with a crippling ice storm, Huckabee brought out Minuteman head Jim Gilchrist, whose private group patrols the Mexican border on its own to keep out illegal immigrants. "For months now, I've been searching for a candidate to support for president of the United States," said Gilchrist. He said he settled on Huckabee as the candidate whose plans were...

AN Iraqi rebel group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of French engineer Bernard Planche, threatening to kill him if France did not "end its illegitimate presence in Iraq" in a video broadcast by Al-Arabiya television. The group, calling itself the "Batallion of the Look-out for Iraq", claimed the kidnapping and "threatened to kill him if France does not end its illegitimate presence in Iraq," said the channel's presenter. The Dubai-based channel showed a black-and-white video bearing the group's logo and showing a man with a moustache wearing a dark polo shirt along with two gunmen stood behind him. The...

In The Futurological Congress (1971), Polish writer Stanislaw Lem portrayed a future in which disobedience is controlled with hypothetical mind-altering chemicals dubbed "benignimizers". Lem's fictional work opens with the frightening story of a police and military biochemical attack on protesters outside of an international scientific convention. As the environment becomes saturated with hallucinogenic agents, in Lem's tale the protesters (and bystanders) descend into chaos, overcome by delusions and feelings of complacency, self-doubt, and even love. If the Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) has its way, Lem may be remembered as a prophet. (Austin and Hamburg, 1 July 2002) -...