<img class="size-full wp-image-1850" style="vertical-align: top; border: 0; margin: 8px;" title="MAPS" src="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/MAPS.jpg" alt="MAPS" width="350" height="103" />

<em>Playboy</em> magazine recently ran <a href="http://www.maps.org/media/playboy_the_psychedelic_renaissance_CT_0.pdf" target="_blank">this admirably sober article</a> about the state of psychedelic research, with a focus on the work of MAPS, the <a href="http://www.maps.org/" target="_blank">Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies</a>. Amongst the current projects run by MAPS are those looking at  the use of MDMA in palliative care and as part of therapy for post traumatic stress. Read the <em>Playboy</em> piece <a href="http://www.maps.org/media/playboy_the_psychedelic_renaissance_CT_0.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> (PDF).

Also over at MAPS is an <a href="http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v20n1/v20n1-44to45.pdf" target="_blank">essay</a> by green undertaker and SA pal <a href="http://www.thegreenfuneralcompany.co.uk/" target="_blank">Ru Callender</a>. Ru talks about the role that MDMA has played in helping him to deal with his own grieving process, and to better understand that of others.

<em>I am so grateful for the optimism and hope that MDMA has enabled me to feel, for the part it played in healing my own grief and for the opportunity to take the best of that experience back into the straight world. All who work with the dying and the bereaved would beneﬁt from the sheer, death-defying physical pleasure that MDMA gives, if only for an hour or two. As thirty odd years of authoritarian hostility towards psychedelic culture begins to thaw, maybe they’ll get the chance.</em>

Here's <a href="http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v20n1/v20n1-44to45.pdf" target="_blank">Ru's piece</a> (PDF).

In other psychedelic news, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hofmanns-Elixir-LSD-New-Eleusis/dp/0954805496/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1270546769&amp;sr=8-4" target="_blank">Hofmann's Elixir: LSD and the Road to Eleusis</a></em>, by Albert Hofmann et al is finally at the printers. A co-production by <a href="http://beckleyfoundation.org/" target="_blank">The Beckley Foundation</a> and SAP, it's a handsome tome collecting essays by and about the good doctor Hofmann and his problem child.  You can advance order a copy <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hofmanns-Elixir-LSD-New-Eleusis/dp/0954805496/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1270546769&amp;sr=8-4" target="_blank">here</a>.

And while we're on the subject of LSD: <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/589362/Tech_Visionaries_and_LSD_Turn_On_Tune_In_Geek_Out?page=1#slideshow" target="_blank">Turn on, Tune in, Geek Out! </a>
How LSD helped give birth to the computer industry at <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/589362/Tech_Visionaries_and_LSD_Turn_On_Tune_In_Geek_Out?page=1#slideshow" target="_blank">CIO.com</a>