The psychedelic movement doesn’t have anyone remotely capable of being a leader who can keep their dicks in their pants, stay sober, not cut ethical corners, and/or not be a general fuckup.
And here’s why that’s not such a bad thing.

Daniel Pinchbeck has come under #MeToo fire recently. Has cancel culture gone too far? In Daniel’s case, it has.
Unless there is a straight-out rape or classic date rape via Ketamine or Rohypnol or similar situation, which would implicitly be de facto criminal liability (and I seriously doubt this is the case, but I know nothing of any particulars), I will continue to actively promote Daniel Pinchbeck’s events.
In this country, people are innocent until proven guilty.
I have known Daniel for two decades – we met when I was living in a squat on Duane Street in 2001. My bohemian fire twirler friend Charity had met him at an ethobotanical conference in Tulum, Mexico, the kind of place where elderly German psychedelic gurus loaded on coke and K swapped wives. As she swung back to New York, she brought her new acquaintance, Daniel Pinchbeck, in tow to what was as far as I knew, the Ground Zero for the underground New York psychedelic trance movement, with piles of pez and parties. One month before the real 9/11.
Daniel tried to heal me from my Ketamine addiction. He said that when I injected it, my soul would get further and further from my body and that when I died, my soul would take hundreds of years to… progress? He took a strange head tickler wire object I had picked up in Amsterdam and tried to whisk away all the bad spirits in the warren of rooms.
It didn’t work. I would go on to inject Ketamine until I eventually lost everything, as I was wont to do on a regular basis back then. The transcendent experience was that good.
But I will always remember and appreciate the gesture. Like I myself have done, Daniel brought a great many wonderful people together.
And although I have always been a rational skeptic that differed completely with his mysticism, crop circles, 911, etc, Daniel has always been a standup guy with integrity.
I have on thousands of occasions bought girls drinks, and, over the years, at least five different intoxicants to curry their favor. Probably orders of magnitude more than Daniel. A lot of times it worked. And guys do that every time they buy a girl a drink.
But I realized at some point I wanted a relationship, not sex, and drugs are anathema to relationships. Sexual drive is the core of relationships, at the early level. It is what keeps people coming back to each other through all the arguments. You two may in fact be an ideal mates – you both had lowered your standards exactly the right amount for that blink of an eye, when all the cosmic tumblers have clicked into place — and the universe opened itself up for a few seconds…. But why go back to that “asshole” or “bitch” if you can just get high and squeeze one out?
At that stage, any competition for the dopamine reward system, such as that presented by drugs, or other addictions, is problematic. If your primary source of dopamine and serotonin glow isn’t your partner, trouble may be brewing.
Add to that the loss of judgment and you have a recipe for being perpetually single, especially if you are on the dating conveyor belt that is NYC.
But in any event, I’m not rapey, and I seriously doubt Pinchbeck is either. Rumors of being a creep with women have dogged him for years, though, and he has admitted this. He should be called out for begging women for sex, even married ones.
I’m not a pretty young intern. I haven’t looked into the charges or accusations, and I won’t address them here. His guilt, or lack thereof, isn’t the point here. I’m not going to throw stones.
I have also removed a huge vitriolic writeup I had of the double suicide in his circle in the early 2000s. It wasn’t Daniel’s fault he attracted some troubled people. Such is the nature of public figures and would-be gurus, which points to the problem at hand:

The point here, is that no one is perfect, and everyone has skeletons.

The psychedelic movement’s only credible “voice” is Rick Doblin of MAPS. The man is more Data robot than Mark Zuckerberg. Exactly the man for the job. But even Rick isn’t perfect – there are reports he has looked the other way when people falsified their research or took advantage of patients in their MDMA therapy program. He is also a slave to MAPS donations and took a huge donation in exchange for Compass to have exclusive rights to psilocybin manufacturing for research. Also, he has shown up to psychedelic events so fucked up he was reportedly talking to a potted plant. 

Everyone is only human. Everyone has fatal flaws, addictions, proclivities, or even drug-fuelled, elaborate McKennaesque reality tunnels into which they try to pull people. And the psychedelics scene breeds hucksters and charlatans like no other scene in the history of humanity.

This movement is simply too important for individuals.

I once fashioned myself, in the late 90s, as a wannabe one of these people, but quickly found my weaknesses and realized the messenger can corrupt the message. Like a lot of men, as I gain wealth and power I tend to manipulate those resources to satisfy a constantly evolving romantic interest.
What we don’t need is another Timothy Leary or Terence McKenna. Those types are wonderful in person, but put in front of cameras on national TV, nothing good can come from that. There is still another generation or two that needs to pass before that can happen.
What we need is exactly what we have now – a faceless mass of thousands of dedicated people working behind the scenes to legalize medicine, erect the proper procedures and safeguards, and solve real world problems. Which is, by the way, what Pinchbeck is trying to do.
We need people that may not offer pithy soundbites and pack auditoriums with fiery speeches, or publicly describe their own progress in their personal hero’s journey.
If we don’t have a “LEADER,” then Fox News and the right-wing MSM has no AOC-style person to attack about all these crazy drugs entering the medical lexicon and being legalized left and right. They are left dealing with a parade of boring grey bureaucrats.
When was the last time you saw Fox attack Anonymous?
Exactly.
And yes I know I sound like one of the Pharisees who crucified Jesus. Judaism will endure without these troublemakers!
But I will not cast the first stone, nor any stone, for I am guilty as sin.
We all are.
Yet we shall overcome.
Everyone get on their own cross.
We have the technology.

None are righteous, no, not one.
– Romans 3: 10-12

Please Support these individuals and companies:

MAPS.org

Bronner’s Soap is by far the most visible corporate donor for psychedelic products with fantastic Earth-friendly products. Everyone needs to buy their soaps and products right now! Please show your support by buying from them for affordable gifts this Christmas and Hannukah!
Article on Bronner
Bronner’s website
Bronner on Amazon

Andrew Mason – Groupon Co-Founder
Ashawna Hailey
Carey Turnbull – Energy industry executive
Bill Linton – Promega
Dustin Moskovitz – Facebook Co-founder
Ekaterina Malievskaia
Elon Musk – Tesla
George Goldsmith
George Sarlo – Investment
George Soros
Nathan Cummings Foundation
Nick Pritzger
Rebekah Mercer – Yes, that’s right, Steve Bannon/Breitbart-supporting Rebekah Mercer is supporting MDMA for PTSD!
https://www.fastcompany.com/40532173/mercer-family-donation-mdma-ptsd-research
Rockefeller Foundation

You can buy Daniel’s latest books, How Soon is Now: A Handbook for Global Change here and When Plants Dream here.
Here is a 2000 interview of Daniel.