Events

1/4/05

We are Critical Mass Productions and we are writing to invite you to an event promoting our new film: Entheogen: Awakening the God Within. A major fundraising event for the project will be held during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Wednesday, the 26th of January. We are bringing together a unique group of people in order to co-create an experience of sacred proportions, a 21st Century Mystery School. We invite you to come and participate in this extraordinary event.

Long ago in the ancient world, events such as the Eleusinian Mysteries created sacred spaces in the newly-emerging "civilized world" for the continuation of sacred rites of passage that led to an encounter with the divine. Though conspicuously absent in our postmodern lives, these rites of passage have been part of the human experience since time immemorial. Critical Mass Productions presents a documentary event experience that will communicate the primal importance of rites of initiation in the evolution of human consciousness.

An integral component to these rites of passage was the use of sacred medicines. Recently there has been a renaissance of government-sanctioned research into these entheogenic substances, and for the first time in decades the FDA and DEA have approved these studies. Exploring research ranging from the use of MDMA (Ecstasy) for PTSD in Charleston, SC, to the use of psilocybin for anxiety in advanced-stage cancer patients at UCLA, to the recently FDA-approved study at Harvard exploring the use of MDMA for anxiety in advanced-stage cancer patients (marking the return of psychedelic research to Harvard after forty years), Entheogen: Awakening the God Within follows several of these studies while simultaneously exploring the historical evolution of the interaction between these substances and human consciousness.

We live in an age of incredible synchronicity, for contemporaneous with this renaissance of interest in the psychopharmacological effects of these substances is the fusion of technology and media in the emergence of rave culture. Trance parties around the globe have brought people from all over the world to celebrate life in a way that is highly resonant with the mystery traditions of the ancient past. The emergence of this phenomenon is uniquely contemporary and yet historically transcendent.

This extraordinary project is gathering together people from all directions in the continuum of consciousness. Scientists, historians, and philosophers have joined visionary artists, authors, musicians, and actors to lend their energies to the exploration of this emergent phenomenon. We invite you to join us at this extraordinary event and add your unique vision to an alchemical crucible for the transformation of consciousness. The event will subsequently be woven into the fabric of the documentary, an extraordinary collage whose overall effect will be a fusion of classical scholarship, dance music, and modern medicine into what we hope will be the most comprehensive, objective presentation of the entheogenic experience to date.

A trailer of our film, which is a presentation of the vision emerging from our first round of principle photography (which already includes footage from over twenty interviews with visionary artists, classical scholars, and the psychedelic research community) will be premiered at the event. The event will be a microcosm of the film itself

Given the current state of global malaise in reaction to the ongoing "war on terror" and the collapse of the biosphere, it is imperative that like-minded individuals come together to forge a new vision for the planet. We are confident that your participation in this visionary event will be a catalyst in furthering your ongoing contributions to this global phenomenon.

Warm regards,

Rod Mann
The Critical Mass Production Team
650-339-4322

Trailer for the film can be viewed : http://www.maps.org/avarchive/igwana/Entheogen.mov
Event : http://www.suedepc.com/events.html

Entheogen: Awakening the God Within - Benefit/Fundraiser
- sponsored by - Red Bull / Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies(MAPS)
- 900 person event - largest venue at Sundance

Overview for Jan 26th @ Club Suede -

Talent/Speakers Confirmed for event:

Speakers:
Alex Grey -Visionary Artist alexgrey.com

Rick Doblin - founder of MAPS, PhD Harvard Kennedy School of Government maps.org

John Halpern - Psychiatry Harvard Medical School - MDMA study Post Tramatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) - http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6763524/ -- (http://www.maps.org/research/mdma/canceranxiety/irb-protocol/)

Charles Grob - Psychiatry - Harbor Medical Center - UCLA / Advance Cancer-psylocibin study http://www.canceranxietystudy.org/

David Ulansey - PhD Princeton/Comparative Religions - Emphasis - Shamanism/Hellenic Mystery Traditions