Deep Breaths

Quick Breather #11 (pt.2) - Rose, 2024 in Simon et al., 2025

In part 2 of Quick Breather #11, I get back to my ivory tower and talk about Rose 2024: doi.org/10.1556/2054.2024.00363 [http://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2024.00363] as cited in Simon et al., 2025 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-26198-4 [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-26198-4] I also mention Kangaslampi et al., 2025 (which I’ll discuss properly another time): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40337-025-01484-8 [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40337-025-01484-8]. And go into older references in Rose 2024: Watts et al., 2019: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022167817709585 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022167817709585] Nutt et al., 2017: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0092867420302828 [https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0092867420302828] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deeepbreaths.substack.com [https://deeepbreaths.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Quick Breather #11 (pt.1) - Hamilton Morris' group chat

This was supposed to be just a brief intro to the recording I made yesterday, but I ended up going on for a while… Dao Anh Kahn’s penis valley: https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07b3fds/the-controversial-art-festival-deep-in-the-jungle [https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07b3fds/the-controversial-art-festival-deep-in-the-jungle] An article from Rolling Stone on empathy x wealth research: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/billionaires-psychology-tech-politics-1235358129/ [https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/billionaires-psychology-tech-politics-1235358129/] “Wealth makes you less generous [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-14101-001] (lower-income individuals have been shown to give a greater proportion of their income than wealthier ones), less compassionate [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19121143/] (people with more money and status report less distress when confronted with another person’s suffering), and more narcissistic [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23963971/]. In a hilariously pointed study that was also included in the PNAS article, people primed to think of themselves as upper-class were more likely to take candy from a jar that they had been told was meant for kids in a nearby lab. In other words, they were more likely to literally steal candy from children… When it came to determining the mechanism behind this antisocial shift, researchers hypothesize that socialization itself is key. Wealthy people tend to have more space, literally and figuratively. They spread themselves out into bigger homes, they send their children to less crowded schools, they interact less with the hoi polloi [https://carlsonschool.umn.edu/sites/carlsonschool.umn.edu/files/2019-04/bianchi_vohs_2016_income_predicts_social_contact_0_0.pdf] and even, research has shown, with members of their own social class. And they have less need to: Wealthy people are insulated from relying on the types of pro-social engagement that the rest of us need to survive and thrive in an interconnected world. For them, it does not take a village; it takes a staff… If left unchecked, however, wealth-­related disengagement seems to not be so great for a species for which pro-social cooperation is programmed into our hunter-gatherer DNA. Clay Cockrell, a psychotherapist who caters to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, tells me he thinks of great wealth as subtractive: It doesn’t really add to one’s happiness, but it does take away struggles that can make someone unhappy. Yet it’s subtractive in a different sense, too — contributing to isolation, paranoia, grandiosity, and risk-taking behavior, as well as a pronounced lack of empathy. “As your wealth increases, your empathy decreases. Your ability to relate to other people who are not like you decreases.… It can be very toxic.” Social psychologist Michael Kraus, who participated in much of the Berkeley research with Piff, puts it even more pointedly: “You come to this idea that all of your thoughts and feelings matter, all your ways of interpreting the world matters, and everybody else is just kind of noise.… You just don’t care.”” https://artvee.com/dl/mystical-head-head-of-a-girl-frontal#00 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deeepbreaths.substack.com [https://deeepbreaths.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Quick Breather #10 - Hamilton Morris, seeming "seriously mentally ill", Psymposia, Jess Taylor, Joe Rogan, MK Ultra

In order of mentions: * I didn’t actually mention Moira Donegan’s tweet, but coincidentally, just before I recorded this, she summed up one of the patterns of responses guys like Hamilton use: * My “nutty” post about the very obviously not-organic Reddit promo of his interview. Keep in mind, Hamilton is also trying to normalise Matt Baggott’s Reddit-LLM-bot trained on Hamilton. These guys…seriously. * The sound event I went to that I had to leave was actually tied to psychedelic things in a way I didn’t realise — my partner bought the tickets, and I just showed up. Another reason I left was because they were professional recording and I felt like I was going to end up crying in an instagram ad. This is a whole other rabbit hole that I’ll have to get into another time https://www.theindigoproject.com.au/attune/ * Jess Taylor’s article on Lucy Dawson, who was misdiagnosed with psychosis at 12 years old and later ended her life in a psychiatric ward: * Here’s Jules Evans telling me to write a book about how much I hate Stan Grof in his comments. Jules has been an insecure and defensive jerk with me via DM before, so I wasn’t all that surprised. I’ve told him clearly that I’m trying to be friendly. I pay for his Substack. I had a Zoom meeting with him earlier in the year that I thought was friendly. I very rarely comment on Jules' stories, haven’t brought up Grof before in my comments on his posts, and when I do post about Grof, I ask fair and reasonable questions/comments. And yet, this is what I get as his summary of research interests. The last sentence was edited on, by the way. So Jules went back to add in the dig at me, to make me look unhinged and hysterical…how cool and stoic of him. * Documentary about Lenny and Elizabeth Gibson’s Grof-devotee Dreamshadow breathwork. * * * Both Joe Moore and Erica Rex have decided that Amy Griffin is a lying traitor to women. This is an especially wild position for Joe to take. The comments and ignorance about memory, and how much Joe’s work and Grofian views have set up the recovered memory explosion….ouf… * My homemade-in-Australia pumpkin pie This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deeepbreaths.substack.com [https://deeepbreaths.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Quick Breather #9 - Staying sane in insanity, suicide, kundalini awakening, Doblin on Williams, anger and crying

[Content warning: discussion of suicide, death, Nolan Williams, a psychedelics researcher who died by suicide in Australia a few years ago, kundalini awakening and psychosis] I started recording these audio notes on Sunday evenings, which has been a really nice routine for me. I’ve kept up with that, but the last three weeks, I haven’t posted my recordings publicly. I can’t explain all of the reasons for that, or everything in those (now private) recordings. Instead, here’s me drinking coffee and crying about suicide on a Thursday afternoon. Please know that I am most definitely *not* suicidal, as I mention in the recording, though I do talk about my suicide attempt at 13 and the experience of suicidality. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deeepbreaths.substack.com [https://deeepbreaths.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Quick Breather #8 - Jung, simplicity, Dumme Michel, Rolling Stone, MAPS image rehab, Psychedelics Today paid community, Shameless talks about The Tell

An extra-long, public holiday Monday recording: * Jung and simplicity: https://substack.com/home/post/p-175231954 [https://substack.com/home/post/p-175231954] [my image selection, in praise of la folie…. L’Éloge de la Folie – Erasmus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Folly#/media/File:L’Eloge_de_la_Folie_-_compos%C3%A9_en_forme_d%C3%A9clamation_(1728)_(14782268725).jpg]] See also: https://eternalisedofficial.com/2023/05/25/the-psychology-of-the-fool/ [https://eternalisedofficial.com/2023/05/25/the-psychology-of-the-fool/] * Rolling Stone and the casual on going campaign to keep MAPS relevant and respected https://www.rollingstone.com/culture-council/articles/lessons-leaders-can-learn-from-largest-psychedelic-science-conference-world-1235439690/ * Psychedelics Today builds a multi-tiered paid access community * Australian podcast Shameless the podcast “for smart people who love dumb stuff” covers The Tell: In the show notes for the episode, they write: ”Hiya! On today’s show: the billionaire, the psychedelics and the best-selling memoir. Amy Griffin was already incredibly wealthy before her best-selling memoir, The Tell. In fact, that wealth and influence might’ve just been the thing that pushed the publishing deal over the line. Now, after everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Gwyneth Paltrow to Reese Witherspoon has endorsed Amy’s book, the New York Times has raised some pretty serious questions about the story within... On today’s show, Mich recommended Running Point on Netflix. Zara recommended Spencer Matthews on Good Company. The Billionaire, the Psychedelics and the Best-Selling Memoir in The New York Times. Your hosts are Zara McDonald (@zamcdonald) and Michelle Andrews (@michelleandrews1).” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deeepbreaths.substack.com [https://deeepbreaths.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]