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Incidentally, I notice that you (Greg) did not include Edward de Bono in your list of authors who influenced you. I suggest you read his book, I Am Right–You Are Wrong for a wonderful critique of how “table-top logic,” or “rock logic,” unrealistically excludes the middle.

Do Magic Mushrooms unleash your psychic powers? Let’s ask 1961! John Newland of One Step Beyond takes us on a Trip!Hat Tip, UFO Mystic….

Yes, I think that they edited the time, since it supposedly takes 20-30 minutes for the effects to materialize. At one point, I think Puharich actually looks at a stopwatch or something and says that it’s been about 20 minutes since Newland ate the ’shrooms.

There was a video rental place in West LA that used to give the episode out for free with rentals, and Jeremy found about about it that way. I kept looking for it online for a few years.

I wouldn’t think that Johnny Quest or Dr. Quest had anything good to say about psychedelics. My favorite Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law episode was about Dr. Quest and that other guy who hung out with them being gay.

Maybe it WAS a little town in the middle of nowhere in 1960. Don’t you mean “pilgrims” and not “peregrines?”

Puharich was a pretty bad actor, but I do like how he says “You’ll see” when Newland asks what’s supposed to happen when the mushrooms come on.

Speaking of pachecos, I’m reading a great book called God’s Middle Finger. The (British) author traveled he length of the Sierra Madre a couple of years ago, in spite of warnings from his friends and people in the area. It really explains a lot for me, especially why people are leaving Mexico in droves.

There was one passage about the Huichol Indians that didn’t portray them as peaceful, peyote-eating, yarn painting-making hippies. Maybe it’s what they’ve become, or the report came from someone whom they didn’t like.

There’s probably nothing in the book you haven’t heard of yet, but the stories often had me laughing and helped me to better understand the culture, which is even more fascinating because of it.

In one small town near the beginning of the book, the author saw a statue of Jesus with stickers over his eyes. The weird thing was that the stickers were printed with blue “Smurf” faces. A woman explained that Jesus had seen enough suffering, and they didn’t want him to see any more. The point was made that the stickers were there for a specific reason, and no one cared what was on them, they just happened to be the only thing handy that someone could find that would do the job. Makes sense.

I have a 50 episode boxed disc set of this but it doesn’t have this episode (the set can be had cheap at Wal Mart - $5)

but, damn, puharich–judging from how stiff he is on camera you’d think he never touched a mushroom

saw an ep of Jonny Quest the other day that was about “hallucinogens”

Of course, a bit over-dramatized, like the way they portray the town of Santa Catarina Juquila as a God-forsaken little village lost in the middle of nowhere, when it seems this town is actually the head of the municipary district, and has a very important religious sanctuary that receives many peregrines annually

But the thing that striked me the most was—aside from Puharich being a LOUSY acto—the reaction of surprise from Newland right after he took the mushrooms, when Puharich told him they were going to make some medical tests to evaluate his reactions. I wonder if the man was propperly warned of the inherent dangers of ingesting those mushrooms.

I also wonder about this program’s real impact on all those gringos pachecos that years later ended up flooding the Sierra Madre, seeking to trip out with Maria Sabina’s “holy children”