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Tablet Studios

Headspace: Ep. 234

Tablet Studios

Tablet Magazine

Judaism, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2020

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Unorthodox, we explore the role Jews played in the American psychedelic movement of the 1950s and 60s, and learn why some rabbis and spiritual leaders today are advocating for using psychedelics to unlock Jewish spiritual experiences. First, we talk to Jesse Jarnow, author of Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, who tells us about the emergence of psychedelic use in mid-century America, and the many Jews involved in that countercultural scene. Then, contributor Alix Wall brings us the story of three Jews—a Holocaust survivor, a Bay Area rabbi, and a Harvard professor-turned-guru—who all advocate for psycheledics playing a larger role in our personal and communal lives. Featured in this segment is Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, who is undergoing certification by the California Institute for Integral Studies to become the first rabbinic psychedelic guide. He wants to rekindle the mystical core of Jewish tradition, allowing Jews to connect with the divine through safe and supported experiences using a clinical model within a distinctly Jewish context. Also featured is George Sarlo, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor from Hungary whose guided experience with ayahuasca in Mexico healed his childhood trauma and lifelong depression, and also brought him back into the Jewish community. He established the George Sarlo Foundation to provide funding and research for the use of psychedelics to treat addiction and trauma. Dr. Gabor Maté was the friend who convinced Sarlo to try psychedelics as treatment for trauma, an approach pionered by Dutch psychiatrist Jan Bastiaans, who treated hundreds of Holocaust survivors with psychedelic drugs. As always, let us know what you think of the show. Email us at unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies here.

Transcript

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0:00.0

What better way to be proudly Jewish right now than with our book, the newest Jewish

0:06.2

Encyclopedia?

0:07.2

It's the perfect coffee table book for your proud Jewish home, and it covers everything

0:11.3

from Jewish history, pop culture, holidays, and of course food,

0:14.9

all with our trademark, irreverence, and love.

0:17.5

Our publisher is offering a special 20% discount on newest Jewish and their entire Hanukkah shop.

0:22.4

So head to Artisan Books.com

0:24.0

and use the code unorthodox at check out.

0:26.5

That's Artisan Books.

0:28.2

Discount code, unorthodox, all caps.

0:32.3

I don't know if this is a summer episode or not it feels summary.

0:37.0

This is unorthodox the universe's leading Jewish podcast. I'm your host Mark

0:41.0

Oppenheimer joined by two other hosts the regular other hosts the co-hosts

0:45.0

tablet deputy editor Stephanie Butnik hello and the editor at large Leel Leibowitz

0:52.3

The other other host other host editor at large, Leel Leibowitz.

0:52.8

The other other host.

0:54.4

Other host.

0:55.4

This week on on Orthodox, we bring you an episode

0:57.6

that's been in the works for a long, long time

1:00.2

and that I feel is actually gonna really hit the sweet spot for a lot of people at a time

1:04.8

when we're all sort of saying what is our most authentic self, what is our relationship to the universe,

1:10.7

how do we really look inwards for who we want to be and what our deepest values are?

...

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