Raghu interviews Leonard Pickard about his early involvement in psychedelics, zen practice, his 20-year incarceration, and building resilience via mindfulness.

Leonard will be joining Raghu, Zach Leary, Trevor Hall and others at a Ram Dass Legacy Event in Denver on December 12th, 2024. For more info, click HERE.

This week on Mindrolling, Leonard and Raghu chat about:

• Transformative experiences as not dependent on substances
• Delving into the great leaders of the sixties and honoring Ram Dass
• The psychedelic revolution that is currently taking place
• Our total dependence on one another
• The way that music transformed throughout the 1960’s
• Leonard’s time at the San Francisco Zen Center studying Buddhism, meditation, and yoga
• Carrying our practice out into the world
• How Buddhism prepared Leonard for years of incarceration
• The beauty of spiritual practice and growing ones heart

Check out Leonard’s book, The Rose of Paracelsus, which he wrote while incarcerated, to explore more about psychedelics, spirituality, science, and human evolution.

About Leonard Pickard:

Once known as the Acid King, Leonard Pickard is a former research associate in neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, Harvard fellow in drug policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Deputy Director of the Drug Policy Analysis Program at UCLA. His 1996 prediction of the fentanyl epidemic was published by RAND in The Future of Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Opioids. Leonard Pickard is one of two people convicted in the largest LSD manufacturing case in history. On July 27, 2020, Pickard was granted compassionate release from federal prison 20 years into his sentence.

“Transformative experience, if it is to be valid, cannot be drug dependent. It would be a terrible offense to think that such beautiful insights were dependent upon a mere substance.” – Leonard Pickard

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Amidst election results, environmental crises and more, Raghu and James Baraz consider how to awaken joy in times of disillusion.

To learn more about James’ work with the environment and to see how you can help, check out One Earth

This time on Mindrolling, James and Raghu have a talk on:

• Vulnerability and unconditional love
• Awakening Joy in times of disillusion
• James’ definition of Joy as the sense of well-being
• Making space for all the feelings we feel
• Training ourselves to look for the good
• How we have lost our connection to the land
• Being courageous and coming from love
• Indigenous and Buddhist teachings that point us to our place in the world
• Understanding the consequences of our actions
• Sila and acting with integrity as a path to inner peace
• Why meditation is so essential
• The joy of connection and a closing gratitude practice

About James Baraz

James Baraz has taught mindfulness meditation since 1978 and is co-founder of the world-renowned Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. He is co-author of two books Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to a Happier Life and Awakening Joy for Kids. James has taught the Awakening Joy course to over 24,000 people from 30 countries since 2003, as well as retreats and workshops in the U.S. and internationally. Learn more about James HERE.

“Actions have consequences, that is what karma is. What we do now has an effect on what’s to come in our children and future generations. Those are the dots that somehow the rich, supposedly brilliant minds, haven’t seen.” – James Baraz

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Dr. Dan Engle joins Raghu to discuss how to integrate the ineffable into our daily lives after profound psychedelic experiences.

In this episode, Dr. Engle and Raghu have a conversation about:

• How Dr. Dan’s life was profoundly changed after a serious accident
• Integrating psychiatry and neurology together
• Dr. Dan’s introduction to psychedelics in the jungle
• How the psychedelic experience opens us up but can’t be sustained
• Integration of the ineffable into our daily lives
• Looking at science and spirituality in a productive way
• The fundamental questions that arise out of the psychedelic experience
• Psychedelics as a catalyst for personal change and authentic self-discovery
• The soul as a drop in the ocean of spirit
• Regressive hypnotherapy and unwinding past life events
• Continuing to evolve toward greater understanding
• Psychiatry’s place in spiritual endeavors
• Living into the movie of we and building upon pillars of wisdom

About Dr. Dan Engle:

Dan Engle, MD, is a psychiatrist with a clinical practice that combines aspects of regenerative medicine, psychedelic research, integrative spirituality, and peak performance. Dr. Engle is an international consultant to several global healing centers facilitating the use of long-standing indigenous plant medicines for healing and awakening. He is the Founder of

Full Spectrum Medicine, a psychedelic integration and educational platform; and Thank You Life, a non-profit funding stream supporting access to psychedelic therapies. Dr. Engle is the author of The Concussion Repair Manual: A Practical Guide to Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injuries, as well as his new book, A Dose of Hope: A Story of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy. To learn more about Dr. Dan’s offerings check out his website HERE.

“The ceremony space, the experience with the ineffable, that opens us up (ideally) to our more divine nature, our more true self. That’s the catalyst. But, the real work happens in the integration. How do we make that real for the rest of our lives?” – Dr. Dan Engle

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