Melbourne – Fungimentary and Mushroom Workshops
Tickets
We’re heading to the hills once again to talk all things mushroom!
Winter means mushroom foraging for a growing number of Victorians seeking culinary delights, mycological intrigue or psychedelic venture. But those seeking psychedelic venture have also been the target of authorities for a number of decades.
For Western Australians, a small southern regional town has been the battleground between shroomers, authorities and locals for a number of decades.
Fungimentary: The Magic Mushrooms of Balingup
Is an award winning Australian made documentary, first broadcast on SBS in 1995 looking into this strange stand-off.
We’ve had the film re-mastered and are bringing it to the big screen in Belgrave, in the historic Cinema 1, first built in the 1930’s.
Following the film, we’ll be taking a look at some of the themes that were raised and looking at what has and especially what hasn’t changed since the documentary was made in the mid-90’s.
Fungimentary is on YouTube. Come and watch it on the big screen and take part in our discussion following the movie.
PANEL: Australian Psilocybe Culture in the 21st Century
PANELISTS:
Michael Bock
Longtime researcher of Australasian flora, Michael has presented many varied topics at the EGA conferences and at previous Australian Psychedelic Society events, all based on an aspect of Australasian natural history to bring his research to a wider audience.
Greg Kasarik
Psychedelic activist and mystic. Described by The Age newspaper as, “a drug user who is probably too honest for his own good”, Greg Kasarik is a drug law reform advocate, who is open and honest about his use of Enthogens for spiritual and religious purposes. Since 2010, he has been campaigning for the Victorian Government to provide regulated access to “Transcendent Compounds” for these purposes and as part of this campaign, he has completed a 28 day Hunger Strike and publicly taken LSD four times on the steps of the Victorian parliament house, after having announced his intentions to all members of the Victorian Parliament.
Hear Greg on 3CR’s Enpsychedelia
Jessie Murray
Former DanceWize NSW coordinator and advocate for sensible reforms to our drug laws, Jessie is also an amazing artist and performer. Jessie works tirelessly to support the building of resilient and strong communities that can take care of themselves and overcome many of the problems within themselves.
(ABC)
Meredith Louise
Meredith is a musician, Registered Music Therapist and psychotherapist with a breadth of experience. As well as her private work, Meredith has experience working in early childhood, community, mental health, gender equity, and the disability sector. She has facilitated Music Therapy groups in adult mental health and with drug and alcohol inpatient therapy groups.
Meredith has a private practice in Guided Imagery and Music therapy, a form of music psychotherapy that developed out of LSD research in the 1960s. She works with a holistic approach to address the needs of her clients and special interests include LGBTQIA+ issues, healing from trauma, relationships and spiritual issues. Meredith also works with Australian Psychedelic Society, facilitating integration workshops for people who have had challenging psychedelic experiences.
Workshop
For those looking for some hands-on experience, we’ll be holding a workshop next door at the Inspiro Communiy Hub (the one with the mushrooms out the front, of course) on mushroom cultivation and identification.
Our experts will guide you through the cultivation process so you can start growing your own culinary mushrooms at home and teach you how to properly identify mushrooms in the wild, so you can find the mushrooms you’re looking for and look after the environment that you’re in too.
We’ll be running two sessions of the workshop, one in the morning and one in the evening. Spaces are limited, so book quick!
Morning Session:
11am – 1pm
Evening Session:
5pm – 7pm
Mushroom Day Activities
We welcome you to spend the day in Belgrave and surrounds, join us for the movie and perhaps a workshop and check out our range of psychedelic stalls. There will be further announcements of activities on the day leading up to the event.
Apply for a stall here:
Tickets
Mushroom Day with APS-Sydney
The Australian Psychedelic Society – Sydney will be hosting a mushroom themed event on June 30th at The University of Sydney.
Speakers
DR MARG ROSS
Marg is a consultant clinical psychologist and the clinical lead in Australia’s first ever psychedelic clinical trial. The trial will be based at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne and it will investigate the ability of psilocybin-assisted therapy to alleviate anxiety and depression in terminally ill cancer patients. Marg will be talking about how the study will run, whilst addressing the rationale for how psilocybin works to alleviate such anxiety.
BOB OTIS STANLEY
Bob is one of the core founders of the Decriminalize Nature Oakland – the organisation behind the successful campaign to decriminalise personal use of psychedelic plants and mushrooms in Oakland. Bob is a life science informatics and molecular biology researcher and steward of Oakland’s Sacred Garden Community. Bob will talk to us about the Oakland resolution text, providing insight into what happened in the campaign, and where to next.
DR SIMON BECK
Simon was previously a senior psychiatric registrar and research assistant investigating the use of ketamine for depression. He is passionate about fungi of all kinds and runs educational events teaching mushroom identification. Simon will be discussing psilocybe mushrooms of Australia. He will go into details on how to identify various psilocybe species using habitat, climate, and morphology. This will help distinguish psilocybe mushrooms from other common look-a-likes.
PSILOKROETY
Psilokroety is a research scientist, who has been interested in edible mushrooms for more than 15 years. He will be presenting a workshop on the inoculation and growing requirements for oyster mushrooms. Be sure to bring your notepads!
WHERE
Eastern Avenue Auditorium, University of Sydney
WHEN
12pm-5pm, Sunday 30th June
EVENT – APS SYDNEY – The Politics of Awe with David Nickles
The Australian Psychedelic Society – Sydney will be hosting speakers with a focus on DMT, Ayahuasca and how psychedelics fit within our cultural and economic context.
DAVID NICKLES
David is an underground researcher and moderator for The DMT-Nexus community. He has worked on numerous harm reduction projects including KosmiCare, TLConscious, The Bunk Police, The Open Hyperspace Traveler and others.
‘Underground Research’
As new developments in sanctioned psychedelic research continue to drive increasingly positive mainstream publicity about psychedelic plants and compounds, governmental restrictions have relegated significant research efforts to the shadows of the criminalized underground. For the past decade, the DMT-Nexus has been at the forefront of this underground research, providing a hub where researchers from around the world and across numerous disciplines autonomously collaborate to push the boundaries of scientific knowledge on these substances. Underground research is an often overlooked and undervalued component of the current psychedelic resurgence. The members of the DMT-Nexus believe that psychedelic research should embody the psychedelic experience: open, inquisitive minds and a participatory spirit should be the bare minimum to engage in psychedelic research.
While sanctioned research is incredibly important to the current psychedelic paradigm, it is equally important to consider the social, political, and legal factors that influence the content and viability of these efforts. As new opportunities for discreet collaboration between sanctioned and underground researchers appear, larger questions loom with regards to the role of psychedelic research in dominant culture and the tension surrounding what applications are considered meritorious.
COL HAWK
‘Acacia DMT in Australia, a Personal Overview’
Col will give a acknowledgement of Ancestors and recognition of the Sacred Plants and places.
Col discusses Acacia’s importance as an entheogen and the plant’s environmental vulnerability with considerations for its responsible use from his perspective of 20yrs association with its Spirit.
EMILY BLATCHFORD
‘Does Psychedelic Substance Use Predict Empathy and Sharing?’
Psychedelic substances facilitate connections with others by enhancing social awareness and reducing egocentricity. Emily will explore the recent findings from her thesis, as well as neuropsychological and clinical evidence which supports the capacity of psychedelics to increase empathy and prosocial behaviour.
JEF BAKER
‘From Changa to Change – Self to Society’
By exploring Changa as a unique representation of modern alchemy, the theme of change becomes a central one. The way Changa alters our sense of being in the world has (like all psychedelics) the potential to act as a powerful catalyst in shifting conditioned personal, sociocultural and political boundaries. Changa is used here as a lens to inquire as to how selftransformation informs social change and to what extent people’s reactions to or utilisation of Changa and other such experiences validates the Ghandian notion “If you want to change the world, start with yourself”.
SEBASTIAN JOB
‘Psychedelic Capitalism and it’s Discontents’
The commercialization of psychedelics is happening in the context of a capitalist lifeworld which is itself becoming increasingly psychedelic. This far reaching process will likely change how revolutionary politics conceives of itself in the era of the eco-techo apocalypse. Put another way, as we fall deeper into the techno-capitalist “bad trip”, the psychonautic experience gains in cultural and political salience. This short talk will try to throw light on these issues.
