Brainforest Café cover image

Brainforest Café

Brainforest Café

By: SpectreVision Radio
Listen for free

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/mo for 3 months

6.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.
In the Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna discusses a wide range of topics related to philosophy, plant medicines, psychedelics and consciousness in nature. Guests are invited from diverse fields such as anthropology, neuroscience, and spirituality to explore various aspects of the human experience. Some of the topics that are covered in the Brainforest Café include the history and the role of plant medicines in traditional healing practices and the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy for mental health. The Brainforest Café also explores the cultural, social, and political implications of psychedelic use. Dennis McKenna shares his own personal experiences with plant medicines, offering insights and reflections on his own journey of self-discovery and transformation. The Brainforest Café is a thought-provoking and engaging exploration of the intersection between science, spirituality, and culture, and offers a valuable perspective on the potential of plant medicines to transform our understanding of ourselves and the natural world. McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophyhttps://mckenna.academy/ SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring the anomalous, the luminous, and the numinous. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions. spectrevisionradio.com linktr.ee/spectrevision© 2026 McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy Philosophy Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • The Mushroom That Makes You See "Little People"

    The Mushroom That Makes You See "Little People"
    5 Oct 2026
    For nearly a century, reports of a mysterious psychoactive bolete have puzzled ethnomycologists and anthropologists alike. From the 1930s reports of "mushroom madness" in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, which drew the curiosity of R. Gordon Wasson, Roger Heim, and Albert Hofmann, to modern Yunnan, China, where accidental poisonings from undercooked culinary mushrooms cause people to reliably see visions of tiny, colorfully dressed "little people." In this episode of The Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna sits down with mycologist and PhD candidate Colin Domnauer (University of Utah) to discuss how modern genomics, natural product chemistry, and fieldwork cracked this long-standing mystery. Colin shares his journey traveling to the markets and forests of Southwest China and the Philippines, using DNA sequencing to identify the primary species responsible (Lanmaoa asiatica), conducting groundbreaking rodent bioassays, and exploring what these non-psilocybin compounds could reveal about the neurobiology of perception and the cross-cultural phenomenon of Lilliputian hallucinations. - - - Colin is a Bay Area California native whose research focuses on unravelling the ethnomycological mystery of psychoactive bolete mushrooms. With a lifelong interest and undergraduate degree in astronomy before changing his studies to the ethnobiology of psychoactive substances, Colin has always felt attracted to explore the mind-bending wonders of nature. In his free time, he enjoys engaging in just about any outdoor activity with friends, most of all foraging for mushrooms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    59 mins
  • The Brain Is a Field Computer, Not a Digital Chip

    The Brain Is a Field Computer, Not a Digital Chip
    21 Sep 2026
    Dennis McKenna sits down with scholar, lawyer, and philosopher Tam Hunt (UC Santa Barbara’s META Lab) to dive deep into the mysteries of consciousness, psychedelics, and the existential crossroads of artificial intelligence. Tam shares his unconventional journey, from growing up in a 1970s counterculture commune to transformative, high-dose LSD journeys in Waimea Canyon, and how these experiences led him to co-develop the General Resonance Theory (GRT) with Jonathan Schooler. Together, Dennis and Tam explore panpsychism, Whiteheadian process philosophy, the limits of reductionist neuroscience, plant intelligence, and whether future AI built on electromagnetic "field computing" could become conscious. They conclude with a candid discussion on AI safety, existential risk, the approaching 2030 Singularity, and why the principle of stewardship as love is essential for humanity's survival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 28 mins
  • Why Ibogaine Triggers a 'Second Childhood' in the Brain - Part 2

    Why Ibogaine Triggers a 'Second Childhood' in the Brain - Part 2
    9 Sep 2026
    Jonathan Dickinson, CEO and co-founder of Ambio Life Sciences and author of Ibogaine and the Bicameral Mind, returns to the Brainforest Café for part two of his conversation with Dr. Dennis McKenna. Where part one followed the personal journey, this one goes into the machinery: what ibogaine is actually doing to the mind and to the cell. - - - Jonathan Dickinson, co-founder and CEO of Ambio Life Sciences and founder of Terragnosis, joins Dr. Dennis McKenna on the Brainforest Café for a conversation about ibogaine, iboga, and the Bwiti tradition of Gabon. A Mexico-licensed psychologist and former executive director of the Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance, Jonathan helped develop the field's foundational safety guidelines and completed the first Nagoya-compliant export of Tabernanthe iboga root. In part one of a two-part conversation, he traces the path from harm reduction work in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to initiation in Gabon, and explains why ibogaine refuses to behave like a pharmaceutical. It does not reduce symptoms. It opens a door, and the person has to walk through it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 15 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet