Project Nirvana

2011-08-24T01:32:00.000-07:00

Watch the full episode. See more MontanaPBS Presents.

Of course when they make expensive synthetic version of cannabinoids, they will suddenly become legal and available....

http://www.russiantranslate.org/

About Pyotr Patrushev About Pyotr Patrushev">

End the War on Pot?

2010-10-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/opinion/28kristof.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

End the War on Pot
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Alcohol abuse costs Australia $36bn a year

2010-08-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

By Danny Rose From: AAP August 24, 2010 10:06AM

A MAJOR study of the impact of alcohol misuse in Australia has put the annual cost of excessive drinking at $36 billion, along with a massive human toll.

More than 70 per cent of the nation's adult population would be "negatively affected" by someone else's drinking in a year, according to the research by the Australian Education and Rehabilitation Foundation (AER Foundation).

The human toll includes 70,000 Australians who would be the target of alcohol-related assault in a year - 24,000 of these would be adult victims of domestic violence.

There would also be 20,000 children across Australia who would become victims of substantiated alcohol-related child abuse.

"Behind each of these statistics lie personal, family and community problems that stem from the harms associated with the drinking of others," said AER Foundation director Reverend Tim Costello.

Related Coverage
Booze and thugs go hand in hand
Herald Sun, 10 hours ago
Action on alcohol changes town
The Australian, 11 Jul 2010
More SA pregnant women drinking
Adelaide Now, 7 Jun 2010
Mums ignore booze risks
Herald Sun, 7 Jun 2010
Older siblings influence binge drinking
Adelaide Now, 25 May 2010

"The results are clear - too many Australians are experiencing the negative impact of other's drinking (and) a range of evidence-based measures is needed to shift Australia's drinking culture."

The research, to be detailed at the National Press Club in Canberra today, put the total economic impact of alcohol misuse at $36 billion per annum and significantly up on previous estimates.

This comprises $24.7 billion in tangible costs which include out-of-pocket expenses, forgone wages or productivity and hospital and childcare protection costs.

There are a further $11.6 billion in intangible costs, which includes lost quality of life from someone else's drinking.

Other key statistics from the Range and Magnitude of Alcohol's Harm to Others report include that almost a third (29 per cent) of the adult population report being negatively affected by the drinking of someone who was known to them.

Women nominate being negatively affected by the drinking of a relative, or household member, more frequently than men (14 per cent to 8 per cent).

And while 70 per cent of adult Australians would experience "noise, annoyance or worse" as a result of someone else's drinking, 43 per cent say the impact would include physical or verbal abuse or

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/alcohol-abuse-costs-australia-36bn-a-year/story-e6frfku0-1225909272163#ixzz0xTsewykw

Ayahuasca and Human Destiny?

2010-08-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

Ayahuasca and Human Destiny

A most amazing experience of real-life transcendence described by a scientist

2008-03-31T00:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.microclesia.com/?p=320

This is a most eloquent, heart-felt expose I have ever witnessed from a scientist. The only other one was Baba Ram Dass (Dr Richard Alpert) describing how he felt on LSD when he spoke to a scientific audience about love.

I have passages in Project Nirvana and The Transcendent Ape that describe this sort of experience. At the end of the Transcendent Ape I spoke of the need for brain scientists to feel the workings of their brain from inside when they do their experiments. How much better to use your right hemisphere to heal and repair the world.

But for most people getting to that space (short of a very fortuitous stroke or an epileptic fit, or psychedelic plant ingestion — all temporary and fraught with dangers) is the greatest riddle of the universe… However, art, nature, music, meditation, any contemplation of beauty, animals, anything that shuts down the chatter of our mind can take us a step closer to at least a human approximation of "nirvana"... About the worst thing one can do is to go to some sort of a priest or a spiritual “teacher”…

Similar excerpts from my two books:

A woman patient with a terminal breast cancer received LSD (whose effect is similar to psilocybine but stronger, with a longer-lasting "trip") to relieve her pain and anxiety. Coming out of her first session she breathed deeply and said: "You know, for the first time, I can breathe again." Later she described her impressions:

I cannot remember the logic of the experience, but I became poignantly aware that the core of life is love. At this moment I felt that I was reaching out to the world — to all people — but especially to those closest to me. I wept long for the wasted years, the search for identity in false places, the neglected opportunities, the emotional energy lost in basically meaningless pursuits...

From my book "The Transcendent Ape", p. 101 also see my blog "The Transcendent Ape"
http://patrushevevolution.blogspot.com/

Memories from his childhood began to float into his consciousness, without disturbing the calm sea of his awareness or interrupting the gentle pulsation of his mantra. Snippets of dreams and nightmares were rising from the depths of his subconscious, disjointed and now somehow powerless. Images that ordinarily would have woken him shivering in a cold sweat were now dissolving painlessly, neutralized by the healing peace he felt within. Richard had a sensation as if his chest was expanding endlessly in one all embracing inhalation, which made him feel huge, as big as the universe itself. But at the same time he knew that this was an illusion and that his breathing was still, or almost still. The bright point of light with which he identified his consciousness was incomprehensibly spilling beyond the barriers of his skull, filling the whole world with a radiant and uniform glow.
He could not think at that moment, and only had a sensation of rising — or falling — precipitously. He did not know how long this ascent — or descent — lasted. When he could think again, words formed in his mind, “Life is joy, and peace, and light … And I am that, too...”

“Doctor,” he said, “I feel new, reborn. I feel… happy. You know something,” he said, feeling mildly embarrassed, “Life is joy.” (From "Project Nirvana", pp. 26 - 29)

Just a lot of Bull?

2008-03-27T23:56:00.000-07:00

I will provide items on healthy substitutes to commercial Enegry drinks that can also give you a kick without destroying your health -- or your pocket...

Energy drinks: good or bad?
Energy drinks such as Red Bull have become popular in the UK as a quick energy boost or as an alcohol mixer.
Energy Drink
But some experts claim these high energy cocktails come at a price to our health and even say they should be banned. We take a look at the arguments for and against energy drinks.
According to the slogan, Red Bull gives you wings. But what else exactly does Red Bull and other energy drinks provide? Questions have been raised over the safety of energy drinks ever since we learned of their caffeine content. And despite claims to improve performance, stimulate the metabolism and increase concentration, the sale of Red Bull is not permitted in Denmark, Norway, France and Uruguay. So why is it, and other energy drinks, so readily available in Britain?

International flavour
There’s no underestimating the success of Red Bull. In 2005 more than 2.5 billion cans of the high-energy potion, dubbed “the Porsche of soft drinks”, was consumed in over 130 countries. Despite these impressive stats, doubts have been raised by some health experts over whether the drink is safe.

Fuelling speculation are reports of a Red Bull ‘ban’ in a handful of countries. “Red Bull has not been banned in any country,” says a company spokesperson. “There are places where it has not been authorised yet. It takes a lot of time to get a new product with special ingredients in a complex composition through all the official channels."

It should also be noted that Red Bull isn’t the only product that has struggled to find its way onto shelves in these countries. For example, France has even refused to authorise some vitamin-fortified cereals made by Kellogg’s.

A load of Red Bull?
Critics of the drink frequently point towards Red Bull's caffeine content and just recently it was linked to the death of an 18-year-old Irish basketball player who died after apparently sharing four cans of the drink with his friends. However, one can of Red Bull contains 80mg of caffeine - the same as an average cup of coffee, and an inquest ruled that the boy's death was caused by sudden adult death syndrome.

In 2001 the Swedish National Food Administration issued a precautionary public warning about Red Bull following the deaths of three people who were thought to have consumed the drink shortly before dying.

“No authority has ever discovered or proven an unhealthy effect in or from Red Bull,” says the company spokesman. “We could only have such global sales because health authorities have concluded it is safe to consume. No one has ever shown a link between Red Bull and harmful effects.”

After independent scientific research, Britain’s Food Standards Agency believes energy drinks such as Red Bull are as safe as any other drinks for adults to consume in moderation.

“Red Bull has been authorised in the UK because it has been proven to be safe,” says Richard Laming from the British Soft Drinks Association. “The label states that it is high in caffeine and we always advise every kind of food and drink should be consumed within the context of a balanced diet."

Caffeine cocktail
“The bottom line is Red Bull’s caffeine content,” says Dr Frankie Phillips from the British Dietetic Association. “There are concerns over the effect high intakes of caffeine can have on people who are sensitive to it,” she says.

“An energy drink such as Red Bull could affect your heart rate, blood pressure and mood if you are caffeine-sensitive. Therefore caffeinated drinks could be potentially dangerous for these people."

“Caffeine can interrupt sleep patterns and a lack of good quality rest can impact on your overall well-being too,” she continues. “Red Bull also has a high calorie content and very little nutritional value."

Another issue with Red Bull is its “kick-start” cocktail of caffeine with taurine – a naturally occurring amino acid – and a carbohydrate called glucuronolactone. “No one knows what impact the combination of these three components can have on the body,” says Dr Phillips. “Individually caffeine, taurine and glucuronolactone are safe but it is unclear if they can have a different reaction when combined together."

However, in 2001, the Food Standards Agency concluded: “There is insufficient evidence to enable the setting of upper safe limits for levels of taurine and glucuronolactone in energy drinks or to support a ban on the use of these ingredients”.

The clubber’s choice
Despite being non-alcoholic, energy drinks are popular in clubs as a mixer to keep party animals going all night long. It is cause for concern if clubbers can extend their drinking time with ‘Red Bull cocktails' says Frank Soodeen from Alcohol Concern. “We would be worried if consumers are combining stimulant drinks with alcohol to heighten their drinking experience - especially if this results in drinking more that you would normally be capable of,” he says. One study apparently found mixing alcohol with energy drinks can mask the alcoholic effect. In other words, people can often feel less drunk than they really are.

The spokesman for Red Bull said: “There is no reason why Red Bull, like any other drink, should not be mixed with alcohol, as long as people do not underestimate that alcohol consumption might impair their mental and physical activities. Red Bull is not designed to counteract this. Excessive consumption of alcohol can have adverse effects on human health and behaviour, but it should be clear that this is due to the alcoholic drink – not the mixer.”

Should you or shouldn’t you?
Red Bull is the first to admit that this isn’t a drink for the caffeine sensitive. Pregnant women and children would also be wise to stay clear. “Because of the high sugar content and acidity in fizzy energy drinks dieticians would not recommend them,” says Dr Phillips.

“There isn’t a recommended daily amount for caffeine as you can live perfectly well without it. If you usually drink tea or coffee without any problems then it should be safe to have the occasional energy drink."
Windows Live

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More information on Red Bull.
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More on the alleged risks of energy drinks.
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More information on caffeine.
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More information on what to eat when you're pregnant.
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More information on alcohol safety.

Protesters make bid to save "magic mushrooms"

2007-11-05T01:57:00.000-08:00

Protesters make bid to save "magic mushrooms"
Mon Oct 29, 5:02 AM ET
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Protesters turned out on Amsterdam's central Dam Square on Saturday, hoping to stop the government from banning magic mushrooms and asking to "save the 'shrooms". Carrying banners reading "When will they ban bread?" and "Boss of your own brain", more than 100 people, some wearing hats resembling the bright red cap of the popular fly agaric variety, protested to keep hallucinogenic mushrooms legal.
After several incidents involving tourists -- in March, a French teenager jumped to her death from a bridge after taking mushrooms -- the Dutch government plans to ban them.
Arno Adelaars, author of a book on magic mushrooms, said this would only drive users underground and what was needed instead was better information how to use mushrooms right.
"It's only foreigners who have this problem, the Dutch don't because they have good information," he said.
"Amsterdam is like a pilgrimage for youngsters in Europe, they come here to get high in all kinds of ways.
"The typical young tourist that comes here drinks an awful lot of beer, smokes an awful lot of grass, and then takes mushrooms. That's the recipe for disaster."

Bill Maher on Government Drug Pushers and the need for preventive medicine

2007-11-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEwjPqlcPUM

Going beyond hybrid cars to hybrid humans?

2007-10-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

“We are no more qualified to be the stewards or developers of the Earth than are goats to be gardeners.”

James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia

We have go beyond our notions of sustainable development, green politics and even voluntary poverty (the extreme new form of which may be urban freengans, see www.extra.newsweek.com).

If one is to believe James Lovelock, we have to consider drastic solutions to the problem of climate change (read: human greed multiplied by shortsightedness and stupidity), such as:

1. Nuclear energy on a massive scale simply to buy us time, such energy being possibly the only practical and time-effective alternative to fossil fuels available to us right now;

2. Novel solutions like seeding huge clouds between the Earth and the Sun or superimposing giant sun-shade umbrellas suspended in space, etc.

I have a feeling that such solutions may be impractical and will not be adopted in time.

In my book Project Nirvana I described (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) the social consequences of adopting Supersoma (a plant-based euphoriant) on a mass scale to battle the addiction to alcohol that was killing Russia. I really thought this was a utopian idea and wrote about it largely to stimulate thinking and research in that direction.

In the second edition of Project Nirvana I plan to combine the euphoriant effect of Supersoma with a contraceptive action: a double whammy taking care of our primate pleasure-seeking habits that are driving our mad-hatter consumerism, as well as of our reproductive extravagance. I think it may be a more elegant (and less energy-intensive and expensive) solution than either nuclear energy or giant sun-shades in space. The development of human/plant photosynthesizing hybrids that will purge us of our destructive meat-eating and plant devouring habits will be the subject of my next book. The ideal would be to reduce the ecological footprint of Homo sapience to a negative value (in other words, we could become a Gaia-healing rather than Gaia destroying agents due to our very physiology).

But best of all – do something concrete, like becoming a vegetarian (I hear the screams of hungry, carnivorous stomachs!) This will have an immediate and greater net environmental effect than either getting a hybrid car or putting a solar panel on the roof.

Change of mind on magic mushrooms

2007-10-13T05:15:00.000-07:00

Change of mind on magic mushrooms

David Charter, London | October 13, 2007
THE sale of hallucinogenic magic mushrooms is set to be banned by the Dutch Government in the latest sign of a conservative backlash against Amsterdam's relaxed attitude to sex and drugs.
A series of high-profile deaths and injuries linked to magic mushroom "trips" proved too much for ministers, who were expected to discuss prohibition proposals from Health Secretary Ab Klink at a cabinet meeting last night.
The move follows growing official impatience with the unforeseen consequences of traditional Dutch tolerance, which instead of normalising drug-taking and prostitution has drawn in people-traffickers, dealers and organised crime gangs from across Europe.
Mr Klink's push for a mushroom ban follows plans by the Mayor of Amsterdam for an "upgrade" of the city's infamous red light district, including closing many of its prostitute windows and coffee shops where cannabis is openly sold.
Fresh mushrooms -- as opposed to dried fungi, which are already banned -- are legally on sale at so-called smart shops, about 40 of which have sprung up in the capital selling herbal and chemical compounds.
The dramatic rethink in The Netherlands has followed a rise in medical emergencies in Amsterdam linked to mushroom use. Ambulance call-outs rose from 70 in 2005 to 128 last year, with nine out of 10 cases involving tourists.
In July, an 18-year-old from Iceland threw himself out of a hotel window, breaking both hislegs.
But what really caught the public imagination was the 17-year-old French girl who jumped from a bridge over one of Amsterdam's canals to her death in March, apparently under the influence of magic mushrooms.
Magic mushrooms are not addictive but can have severe psychological consequences.
A spokesman for the Amsterdam Drugs Advisory Bureau said: "This is not a mushroom problem, it is a tourist problem. But the ban would hit Dutch users."
Peter van Dijk, a researcher at the Utrecht-based Trimbos Institute, which studies drug addiction, said: "A mushroom is not very dangerous. It is not as toxic as, for example, heroin or cocaine." The real danger came from a blend of alcohol, cannabis and mushrooms, which led people "to do things they normally would not, like jumping out of windows".

Why I wrote Project Nirvana

2007-09-20T03:04:00.000-07:00

Why I wrote Project Nirvana

By Pyotr Patrushev

rustran@gmail.com

www.russiantranslation.org

One Billion Deaths From Tobacco – and you are worried about some silly mushrooms?

In the October issue of the journal Nature Cancer Reviews, Penn State science historian Robert Proctor predicts that, left unchecked, tobacco products will cause up to one billion deaths by the end of the 21st century.

Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. It is currently responsible for the death of one in ten adults worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year). If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. Half the people that smoke today -that is about 650 million people- will eventually be killed by tobacco.

Some people thought after reading the first edition of Project Nirvana that I advocated legalisation or decriminalisation of some or all existing plants or drugs. This was not my intention at all. This article is written to explain my position and the intent of Project Nirvana. Nirvana is a book about human consciousness, political power, control of the mass consciousness, and the dual nature of science. It is also about our choice to either destroy life on Earth or to create viable and sustainable communities. Drugs and plants are just a means to explore these themes. I could have chosen the power of the censorship or the weapons of mass destruction.

I first thought about writing Project Nirvana

in the 60's when I arrived in Australia as a refugee from Russia . One of the first books that I read in English was Arthur Koestler's The Ghost in the Machine. I was inspired by Koestler's description of the conflict between our new "thinking cap" and the old mammalian and reptilian brains that drive us to love and hate, to kill and to defend our territory.

I escaped from Russia partly because of my resistance to military service. I lost my father in the war almost at the time of my birth. The Soviet Army in the 50's was already engaged in the suppression of popular movements against Communism in Eastern Europe and in a struggle for domination against the West. I thought that while a war of defence was acceptable, the industrial war machine that was being built around "defence" was a monstrosity that could imperil not only the economic wellbeing of the Russian people (it did) but ultimately the survival of life on Earth (it still does).

In 1970 I became a science correspondent for Radio Liberty in Munich, West Germany. I authored a program called The Future of the Planet Earth (the first such program on any Russian foreign radio station) and another program called The Inner World of Man. During the years that these two weekly radio series were broadcast I explored many themes, including the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Yevgeni Zamyatin, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Stanislaw Lem. The utopian and anti-utopian books of these writers made me think of a fictional resolution of what Arthur Koestler called "the predicament of man." The Inner World of Man explored the psychological and spiritual dimensions of life, from popular Western psychologists to Russian Orthodox saints, from teachings of fashionable Hindu gurus to the writings of Carl Gustav Jung.

Why I chose drugs, plants, and alcohol as a theme

There was a personal reason to my choice of drugs and alcohol as a metaphor for Project Nirvana. Since my arrival in Australia, smoking and alcohol became a problem for me. My father and my brother were both alcoholics. Many of my Russian friends drank excessively. Although in Russia I never smoked or drank alcohol at all, I began to drink and smoke while in solitary confinement in a Turkish jail, where I was detained and interrogated after my escape. I was aware of the tremendous influence that alcohol had exercised on the Russian mind, body and spirit. I broke my drinking habit by starting to meditate. I struggled with smoking for many years and finally gave up tobacco when it became clear that it would destroy my heart and kill me if I continued to smoke.

All these strands of thought and experience came together when in the late eighties and early nineties I began working as an interpreter and consultant at the Esalen Institute, located on the West coast of California. The Esalen Institute was and still is one of the leading institutions of psychological training and holistic medicine in the United States. Over the years tens of thousands of people from all over the world attended Esalen seminars and went through long term live-in volunteer programs. During the late 80's and early 90's Esalen had a very active Soviet-American exchange program. Under its aegis well-known Soviet and American scientists and writers were allowed to interact in a free and uninhibited manner (see http://patrushev-publications.com for a description of one of the seminars: "The Health Race: Finding a Cure for Isolation"). These seminars were not only intellectual, but also experiential. The scientists took part in shamanistic and rebirthing sessions and indulged themselves in the world-famous Esalen massages and spas. One of the scientists whose work was important for Project Nirvana was Dr Stanislav Grof, a Czech-born psychiatrist who in the sixties conducted pioneering experiments with alcoholics using LSD-25. When the use of LSD became restricted Stan shifted his work to what he called "holonomic integration," which involved rapid breathing and evocative music to provoke LSD-like experiences in his subjects.

Another participant in the seminars was Dr Andrew Weil who has now become probably the best known holistic doctor in the United States. At the time he was involved in the exploration of psychedelic plants and their effects on human consciousness. A Harvard graduate, he taught medicine at the Arizona Medical School, and even had a species of mushroom Psilocybe weilii named after him. In 1972 he traveled to a Mexican village where, under the guidance of a local curandera (a native Mexican woman-shaman), he participated in a healing ceremony. In this ceremony he consumed twenty-two specimens of Psilocybe cubensis ("magic mushrooms") and later reported that the curandera considered the mushrooms to be the gran remedio cure (the great healing substance). My discussions with Dr Weil and Dr Aron Belkin (more on him later) during a trip to a scared American Indian place in the Arizona desert (see photo in the book) had a profound influence on my thinking.

I was an avid yoga and meditation practitioner in those years and was against the use of any drugs, plant or otherwise. However, as I lived and worked as a radio correspondent in California, drugs were all around me. Dr Alexander (Sasha) Shulgin was my neighbour in Berkeley. One day he dropped a vial of pills into our kitchen table, saying that this is something we might enjoy taking. Shulgin is now credited with popularising of MDMA (street name "ecstasy"), especially for psychopharmaceutical use and the treatment of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder . Sasha was a leading psychopharmacologist who worked both for the government and for large pharmaceutical companies. He told me that MDMA and similar drugs could open people's hearts, and may even bring peace on Earth. I took his claims with a grain of salt I particularly distrusted all chemicals.

Meeting Dr Aron Belkin – a maverick Russian psychiatrist

But the strongest influence that finally made me sit down and write Project Nirvana were my meetings and conversations with Dr Aron Belkin, director of the Moscow Center of Psychiatric Endocrinology who also conducted research into drug addictions.

He told me about a project they had discussed at the Institute. The project was to rescue the native inhabitants of the Kamchatka peninsula, on the Far Eastern seaboard, from being wiped out by vodka. Kamchadals, as the natives of Kamchatka are known, were in the past avid consumers of the psychedelic mushroom Amanita muscaria, also known as Fly agaric. R. Gordon Wasson described in great detail the effects of this mushroom on the natives of Siberia and Kamchatka in his book Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. The mushroom is intoxicating, and appeared to boost endurance of the natives, who would, for example, run faster and for longer distances after their sleds. The shamans used mushroom in order to experience visions that allowed them to see more deeply into the psyche of their patients and the spirit world. Such practices persisted since times immemorial among Siberian and Far Eastern natives. No harmful effects were observed or reported. Even deer were seen to be fond of the mushroom, which they imbibed by trotting up and eagerly drinking the urine, containing a residue of the mushroom, whenever their riders would stop to relieve themselves.

When vodka was introduced, the native tribes in Siberia and the Far East were devastated by alcohol. Vodka had also caused such excessive mortality and disease among the general population of the Soviet Union that one of the first reforms that Mikhail Gorbachev introduced when he came to power was to restrict the sale and production of alcohol. However, the economic damage from this reform (sales of alcohol being traditionally an important element in the Russian economy) and the resistance of the population were such that the reform was hastily abandoned.

Dr Belkin thought that it might be a good experiment to restrict supplies of vodka to an isolated population in one of the villages on Kamchatka and provide them instead with their trusty mushroom. When he mentioned this idea, half-seriously, half-jokingly, to his superiors at the Institute (who were of course members of the Communist Party), he was told to forget all about it if he did not want himself and the rest of the Institute staff to be sent to a prison camp in Siberia.

There was another personal connection to the Amanita cult for me. My maternal uncle, Mikhail Leshchin, who was an NKVD officer until his enforced retirement on the Kamchatka Peninsula, due to some incurable skin disease, healed himself with Amanita after spending some years with the natives. He has learned their lore and healing methods and became a prominent holistic health advocate who was lauded by the Pravda newspaper for his work. Unfortunately, towards the end of his life, he started mixing Amanita decoctions with vodka. A bitter and disillusioned Communist, he died crippled by alcohol and diabetes.

However, busking in the warm Californian sun and submerged in the sulfur-infused hot springs at the Esalen Institute, we forgot about the Soviet realities and gave vent to our fantasy. We speculated what would have happened if the idea of replacing vodka with a plant decoction was accepted and implemented throughout Russia.

Are Plants Experimenting with Humans?

The early drafts of Project Nirvana were written some years later. With the passage of time the problem of drug and alcohol abuse became to be recognised as one of the principal health problems throughout the world. The famous "war on drugs" was declared, costing billions of dollars, leading to the imprisonment of tens of thousands of people, yet producing few visible results (see my article in the Sydney Morning Herald: "Are Plants Experimenting with Humans?" on www.patrushev-publications.com for my brush with the "war on drugs", and the latest statistics on http://www.drugwarfacts.org ).

As more chemical "designer drugs" and even natural plants were banned in many countries, new sources of supply were found and new substances were invented and made available to larger and larger populations. The number of people taking illegal drugs worldwide rose by 2004 to 200 million (the UN annual drugs report). The value of the global drugs trade, which the report says is about $320 billion in US dollars, is higher than the gross domestic product of 90% of the world's nations. No really effective treatment for drug addiction was offered by the medical profession and a number of new and relapsed users kept growing worldwide.

Be afraid of mushrooms – be very afraid…

At the same time, there was a realisation that legal drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol had a far more damaging effect on the general population, compared to which the effect of illegal drugs was almost negligible. In the US, tobacco killed 435,000; poor diet and physical inactivity 365,000; alcohol 85,000; adverse reactions to prescription drugs 32,000; while all illicit drug use, direct and indirect, killed 17,000, with marijuana killing 0 people (www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm ). In March 2007, Medical Research Council in the UK determined alcohol and tobacco to be far more harmful than most street drugs, with exception of heroin and cocaine. Ecstasy, LSD and marijuana – drugs causing thousands of arrests and imprisonments, were way down the list (http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,2040886,00.html ). Ecstasy was one of the safest drugs available, causing hardly any deaths despite of millions people taking it every weekend. With tens thousands of deaths from alcohol, tobacco and prescription pills, the picture of police chasing and imprisoning a few hippies for picking "magic mushrooms" (the toxicity of which is around half that of caffeine) looked ridiculous. Despite all of this, "magic mushrooms" are currently treated by law in most countries the same as heroin and their possession and cultivation can result in heavy jail terms. "We have to treat these problems as social and health matters and stop pretending we can arrest and imprison our way out of drug problems - drug law enforcement absorbs most of the money targeted at this drug," said the director of emergency at St Vincent's Hospital, Gordian Fulde, speaking of an epidemic of "ice" abuse in Sydney. However, in 2006 laws against "magic mushrooms" were instead strengthened in Holland and the UK, so that only fresh mushrooms could be sold legally, while drying mushrooms was interpreted as "preparation of narcotic substances."

The paranoia and lack of knowledge of the medical profession is telling. The first documented magic mushroom experience in Britain occurred in London's Green Park in 1799. A man who had been picking mushrooms for breakfast accidentally sent his whole family on a trip. The doctor who treated them described in the Medical and Physical Journal how the youngest child was "attacked with fits of immoderate laughter." Such dangerous symptoms could of course not be ignored and, with the fashionable label of a "laughing hysteria," the family was no doubt treated with emetics and hospitalised (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=395143&in_page_id=1770 ). The situation is hardly different today.

The unreasonableness of the current approach became even more evident recently. Due to the obesity crisis and the resultant host of degenerative diseases such as diabetes, realisation is growing that saturated fat, sugar and excessive animal protein are probably bigger killers than even tobacco, alcohol and prescription drugs.

Starting with the sixties researchers at leading American universities began to look at the problem of addiction in an evolutionary context. In 1989 Dr Ronald K. Siegel of the UCLA published his book Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise in which he described the natural drive to alter consciousness among most animals, including man. Calling it "the fourth drive" (after hunger, thirst and sex), Dr Siegel argued for the development of non-addictive substances that would replace the current generation of harmful natural and man-made intoxicants.

There is little doubt that such work is being conducted right now in the laboratories of large pharmaceutical companies, as well as at some university laboratories, to take advantage of the situation when public awareness catches up with the scientific evidence. As profits of the Internet-based companies selling legal and semi-legal artificial and plant-based substances grow, commercial interests and governments will no doubt want to jump on the bandwagon. As the population in the developed countries ages, the governments will become increasingly concerned about the damage that the current generation of legal and illegal intoxicants (including the revenue-producing tobacco and alcohol) are inflicting on the lives of the shrinking cohorts of young adults, without whom the global economy would simply grind to a halt. In Australia, the expenditure on prescription drugs is projected to increase sixfold in the next forty years – the largest growth in any expenditure category. We will need to get our oldies off their antidepressants and sleeping pills, off shrinking medical budgets, and make them as happy and productive as they can be. Any government that will not develop an effective "happy pill" for them and will not follow the scientific advice of Dr Siegel and his colleagues would find itself accused of gross fiscal mismanagement.

The universal prevalence of drugs – “High Society”

This and similar themes are explored in detail in Ben Elton's lively book High Society. Even the respectable journal The Economist recently joined the discussion by reporting (July 15^th 2006, p. 70) on research led by Roland Griffiths of John Hopkins University that had shown that Psilocybin – the active component in magic mushrooms – induced mental states similar to the highest religious experiences. The placebo given to the control group had no such effect. The experience was shown to have a lasting positive effect on those who took part in the study. Two months after the trial eight people out of ten reported increased sense of wellbeing and satisfaction with life. Such positive changes in subjects' attitudes and behaviour were confirmed by independent assessments made by friends and family. Psilocybin, as well as most other natural substances, is not addictive. Other studies show that plants such as Ibogaine and Hyawaska can be used to combat addiction to drugs, including alcohol.

As more people become aware of the damage done by the legal drugs such as antidepressants (note the recent information about diabetes-producing effects of a popular antipsychotic drug Zyperexa), the search for more effective non-addictive (and cheaper) plant-based substances will intensify. Such drugs would not only artificially alter brain chemistry but also make the individuals aware of why they are taking drugs at all and give them insight into the their own psyche and their personal relationships.

A woman patient with a terminal breast cancer received LSD (whose effect is similar to psilocybine but stronger, with a longer-lasting "trip") to relieve her pain and anxiety. Coming out of her first session she breathed deeply and said: "You know, for the first time, I can breathe again." Later she described her impressions:

I cannot remember the logic of the experience, but I became poignantly aware that the core of life is love. At this moment I felt that I was reaching out to the world — to all people — but especially to those closest to me. I wept long for the wasted years, the search for identity in false places, the neglected opportunities, the emotional energy lost in basically meaningless pursuits... The denial of the right to die in dignity and to make sense of life in the moment of death for those who wish to have such an experience is the insult to human free will and an indication of callousness mascarading as care for the terminally ill. How much more humane the end of life would have been for Remy, the hero of the Oscar-winning film The Barbarian Invasions, had he been allowed to die not under the heroin's influence but from some enlightening plant concoction. Aldous Huxley, a humanist par excellence and an intellectual leader of a generation, on his deathbed, unable to speak, made a written request to his wife for "LSD, 100 µg, i.m." He died peacefully on November 22, 1963. Huxley would have probably preferred a plant, akin to his fictional soma, had such a plant been readily available. Soma in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World had "All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects."

The Pursuit of Artificial Paradise

In the past, psychedelic plants were utilised in traditional "sets" and "settings," supervised by knowledgeable native guides and supported by the community; similar guidance and acceptance will be necessary to derive a maximum effect from plants which, though mostly harmless and non-addictive, might still be misused. Traditionally, healing ceremonies are conducted only infrequently in a person's lifetime, to give enough time to assimilate the insights.

Not all plants are the same and some of them have a degree of toxicity that could produce undesirable physical and psychological consequences, although most ill effects observed are usually mild and are mostly due to the negative "set and settings," including fear of the unknown (for novel users), fear of prosecution by police, or disturbed mental state of the individual. All relevant plant substances need to be studied in clinical and research settings, with large groups of subjects so that designer drugs (possibly genetically engineered) were adapted to particular groups of people and psychological and genetic types. There is no doubt that such research needs to be initiated urgently to replace the current generation of damaging intoxicants, antidepressants, and other psychotropic drugs.

While it may seem that almost nothing can be worse than the current drug situation, with millions of people being addicted to deadly tobacco, alcohol and legal and illegal drugs, it is obvious that the powers-that-be will demand near-perfection from any reform proposal that would challenge the status quo (see my paper Drugs, Medicines and Power on www.patrushev-publications.com. The paper also contains suggested books, articles and websites for further reading). Some argue that the development of the new designer drugs will be only a temporary "technological fix" for humanity's problems. Yes, but so are cars and penicillin.

Project Nirvana is essentially a thriller which introduces these ideas in a light-hearted and fictionalised form. It is a work of fiction (albeit in the "science truth" genre) whose purpose is to entertain and to open up new vistas of awareness and imagination.

There is no doubt its subject matter is becoming more and more topical. At the time of this writing the Academy of Medical Sciences of the UK is canvasing public opinion about future drug policy in the UK (www.drugsfutures.org.uk). You can find my answers to the survey on www.patrushev-publications.com .

If fact, in the current political climate and level of awareness of the general public, I consider the limited policies expounded by the NSW Greens as being progressive and achievable (http://nsw.greens.org.au/policies/drugs-and-harm-minimisation). I see the problem of drug abuse (including food abuse) as an evolutionary problem, arising from the drive among many animal species to alter their mood or consciousness through ingestion of intoxicating or mood-altering substances. The problem acquired the current epidemic proportion because of the great mismatch between the environments in which we lived during most of our existence and the highly stressful and/or monotonous environments in which many people live now. Science and human ingenuity contributed to the problem by inventing a myriad of concentrated and toxic substances that are completely unknown in nature.

Some could also argue that modern ideologies and religions no longer satisfy our urge to answer deep spiritual and existential questions. Yet the urge to reclaim the proverbial "lost paradise" seems to be still alive in the hearts of many people. Perhaps people living in highly stimulating, emotionally satisfying, stable and productive environments under the guidance of enlightenment political and/or religious leaders would have no need for any substances that could give them a glimpse, however illusionary, of artificial paradise.

Magic mushrooms are linked to religious ceremonies at the root of many religions. Aztecs called them "God's flesh." Tales of flying witches could have been inspired by mushroom "trips." Magic mushrooms could have influenced Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. What else could he mean by a hookah-smoking caterpillar who urges Alice to eat pieces of mushroom which has the effect of making her body grow and shrink? Women, as opposed to men who wield power in science and society, generally have more liberal attitudes to psychedelic plants. It is not an accident that Gaia, a Greek goddess personifying the Earth with its plants and creatures, is a female.

Looking into the more remote future I can see how new generations of enlightened scientists working together with their plant allies could develop the sort of consciousness that would at least partially heal the age-old rift in the human brain and our "racial memory" and synchronise it with the intelligence of all other life forms on Earth as well as beyond.

Instead of simply developing hybrid green cars that may or may not save us from man-made tsunamis, we could, with time, develop photosynthesising human/plant hybrids that would have no need of fossil fuels or animal flesh to sustain themselves. Not just our hot water heaters but our own bodies will then draw nourishment form sunlight and be in tune with the cosmos.

Alas, this day is yet far away… Far from advocating any kind of utopian panacea, the ending of Project Nirvana is rather realistic, provocative and unexpected.

So, let us grapple with the pressing problems of today. And to do that we have to join Swami, Glavni, Alfred and Alfa in their battle for the soul of Russia. Or is it the Earth's soul, no mater where we live?

And to get us into the mood for my largely humorous novel, here is a verse, written by Joseph Malins in 1895, that portrays the bitter divide between the prevention and the cure in many areas, including drug addiction:

The Ambulance Down in the Valley

'Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant;
But over its terrible edge there had slipped
A duke and full many a peasant.
So the people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally;
Some said, "Put a fence 'round the edge of the cliff,"
Some, "An ambulance down in the valley…"

But the sensible few, who are practical too,
Will not bear with such nonsense much longer;
They believe that prevention is better than cure,
And their party will soon be the stronger.
Encourage them then, with your purse, voice, and pen,
And while other philanthropists dally,
They will scorn all pretense, and put up a stout fence
On the cliff that hangs over the valley.

Better guide well the young than reclaim them when old,
For the voice of true wisdom is calling.
"To rescue the fallen is good, but 'tis best
To prevent other people from falling."
Better close up the source of temptation and crime
Than deliver from dungeon or galley;
Better put a strong fence 'round the top of the cliff
Than an ambulance down in the valley.

How the war on drugs was won

2007-09-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

PROJECT NIRVANA

(Available as an eBook or softcover book through Pyotr Patrushev website www.patrushev-publications.com)

In the dying days of the Soviet empire a Russian scientist decides to save the natives of Kamchatka from alcohol-related extinction by replacing vodka with a psychedelic mushroom. This experiment was quickly terminated by the Party. In Project Nirvana Pyotr Patrushev extrapolates these true events into a plot that is now more relevant than ever. Robyn Williams called "Project Nirvana": "A wildly imaginative book. . .Amazing tales..." (ABC Radio). Michael McGirr wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald: "Patrushev's novel brings together the visions of Orwell and Huxley."

About the Author
Pyotr Patrushev has worked as a radio journalist for the BBC in London and Radio Liberty in Munich and San Francisco. His commentaries in the Sydney Morning Herald and on the national radio and television established him as one of the pre-eminent commentators on Soviet and Russian affairs. His work as an interpreter with American and Russian scientists in the 80’s and 90’s in the areas of brain/mind interaction provided him with a wealth of material for Project Nirvana.

"A wildly imaginative book-Amazing tales..." (Robyn Williams, ABC Radio National ")

"Patrushev's novel brings the visions of Orwell and Huxley together" (Michael McGirr, The Sydney Morning Herald)

(More reviews at the end)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DESTINATION UNKNOWN..............................................................................

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME..................................................................................

THE SUPERSOMA.............................................................................................

THE YOGI AND THE INQUISITOR..................................................................

DR LARCHUK’S DISCOVERY..........................................................................

THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF RICHARD SINCLAIR.................................

MENTAL PROPHYLACTICS, PRACTICED TWICE A DAY...........................

HOLIDAY ON THE BLACK SEA......................................................................

THE CONSPIRATORS.......................................................................................

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION................................................................................

BIGGER THAN AN H-BOMB............................................................................

GLAVNY’S DREAM..........................................................................................

DOUBLE BLIND.................................................................................................

THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENS

MESSAGE TO AMERICA..................................................................................

HOMEWARD......................................................................................................

BACKGROUND LITERATURE AND FURTHER READING...........................

APPENDIX..........................................................................................................

ABOUT THE AUTHOR......................................................................................

PROJECT NIRVANA REVIEWS........................................................................

SAMPLE CHAPTERS

THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF RICHARD SINCLAIR

Sinclair was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling. It was the third day he had spent in this passive, withdrawn mood. They came in to give him some food; he ate it, went to the toilet and returned to bed to look at the ceiling with the same vacant stare. A doctor came in, measured his temperature, blood pressure, looked at his eyes and tongue, and left, shrugging his shoulders.

In the last few days Sinclair’s significance in the world had shrunk from that of a global military strategist to that of an occupant of a small prison like cell. And now it had shrunk even further — to a dimly-lit point somewhere inside his skull, which kept continually posing him some huge and ultimately unanswerable question.

His debriefing was finished. At first he felt bad about giving them any information at all. As he saw that they would not give up and might even use torture on him, he began to tell them a little about his work, but continued to withhold the sensitive data. However, he had to grant that the KGB or the GRU, or whoever was questioning him — knew what they were doing and expected him to behave exactly as he did. The whole team set upon him methodically, backed up by an unknown number of experts who checked and cross checked everything he said. Every lead he gave was relentlessly followed up, and whenever he left some gaps or they found inconsistencies, they demanded clarification. They pressured him by increasing or decreasing the small liberties which, to a man imprisoned, make the difference between bearable purgatory and sheer hell.

But in the end it was neither the pressure nor their interrogating skill that made him give up. He began to say everything of his own free will, even things that they did not need nor wish to hear.

It came over him slowly and imperceptibly, as the debriefing exercise proceeded. As he listened to their questions and their theorizing, anticipating their guesses and speculations, he discovered the strange and alarming fact that for the past 15 years, he had lived a life of unreality, fighting phantoms which were crazier than Don Quixote’s windmills.

In the minds of the Soviet military experts who came to debrief him, Richard could see the same suspicion and paranoia, the mirror image of his own and fellow workers’ worldview. The Soviets, he discovered, were animated by the same ideas as the Americans, only in reverse. They also looked at their American counterparts as treacherous and potentially violent barbarians who needed somehow to be contained, lest the world fall prey to their cunning and greed. It was suspicion breeding suspicion. As soon as one side postulated that the other side was gaining a new edge on weaponry (often incorrectly), it would search for an answer to this new challenge. This, in turn, would confirm the worst suspicions on the other side. Thus the growing spiral of weaponry pressed onward. Attempts to curb it were timid and ineffectual and were due not so much to the renunciation of suspicion as to the unbearable costs and potential dangers of new weapons to the whole of mankind, including the victors in the new war.

If there was any intelligence or rationality in this whole macabre and infinitely escalating process, it certainly did not reside in the minds of those who pushed it along. All that seemed to improve and become more sophisticated were the weapon systems themselves which their human inventors served like robots. Could it be that the development of ever more sophisticated weaponry had a rationale of its own, as yet impenetrable to the human mind? If so, what was that rationale? To what twisted part of the human mind/brain system was it hinged? Could it even be connected to some source of unknown, outside malevolent intelligence?

Worn out by endless questioning and sleepless nights, Richard was becoming more and more engrossed in such problems, until something in his mind finally snapped. It did not seem to matter any more if he gave information or withheld it. What was the use of hiding a trump when the rules of the game were not known even to the players? And if they were known to somebody — or something — outside of them, then surely that higher arbiter knew every card in the pack, and also who, if anyone, would win in the end.

Did life really have a meaning? Or was his consciousness nothing more than the puppet stage upon which Nature — or God — played out its illogical spectacle? Richard was no longer thinking of his cozy unit overlooking the lake in Croton-on-Hudson, nor his German Shepherd, Rekki. Mrs. Grim, his neighbor, would surely take good care of him. Working in the secret government business for many years, divorced, and remaining single for the past few years had taught him to keep to himself. Now he began to dwell at length over the same questions that he had so facetiously dismissed during his chess games with Swami.

There was a knock at the door. Richard rolled over to face the wall. He did not want to talk to the officer who brought in his meals. He found the officer’s attempts to cheer him up inappropriate and pathetic. Now that they had squeezed him dry of everything he knew, he was no use to anyone. He had become a non person. He wished they would leave him alone with his thoughts.

The door opened and into the room marched Vlas accompanied by Dr Larchuk.

***

That evening, Richard was transferred to the Institute. Dr Larchuk was so eager to verify his hypothesis that he decided to carry out some preliminary tests the very next morning, using Richard as a guinea pig. He explained to Sinclair that they were testing a new psychotherapeutic technique which could help relieve his depression. “What depression?” he thought apprehensively. Were they going to treat his existential anxiety as depression? But he became a little more interested in what they were proposing to try when they told him that the method was derived from an ancient Vedic tradition, and that Swami was involved.

He was sitting under the EEG helmet, staring blankly into space. In the laboratory, Dr Larchuk was speaking to Dr Kon. “He seems to be ideal for our purposes. Very little cross talk between the limbic area and the frontal lobes. Ordinarily, he would have no chance at all of homing into the pleasure areas by means of some traditional meditation technique. It would take him months, possibly years, before he could even attain deep relaxation. Right now, he seems on the verge of a neurotic, or maybe psychotic, breakdown.”

Dr Larchuk went over to the experimental cubicle. “Mr. Sinclair,” he said, “I want you to take this little pill now. It will intensify the effects of the meditation technique that I will teach you presently. Don’t worry; the pill is absolutely harmless, made from plant-derived material, and very quick acting. Now, this is the sound I want you to repeat in your mind effortlessly during meditation.”

He whispered a short, meaningless syllable into Richard’s ear. “Now, begin to say it with me… that’s right… and now with your eyes closed... more quickly, and softly, and still more quickly and softly, and now just say it easily in your mind. If you find yourself distracted by something, just revert back to the sound I gave you. Keep doing this for a few minutes until I come back.”

Dr Larchuk tiptoed out of the cubicle. “What’s happening? Anything significant?” he asked Dr Kon, who was monitoring the toposcope screen. She did not answer.

Blue, red and yellow dots were dancing across the screen, coming together and dispersing again like small flocks of sparrows scattering at someone’s approach and then regrouping again. Now and again, the seemingly chaotic dance of the colored dots and strips would become synchronized, as though some unseen conductor was imposing order upon the confused sound of an orchestra tuning their instruments. These bursts of synchronized brain function were becoming more and more prolonged until, after a few minutes, the entire brain was responding to the directions of the invisible conductor, blending itself into one grand, harmonious tutti.

Dr Larchuk was whispering, “The magic brew has opened the gate to paradise... this is the answer. For thousands of years man has searched in vain, through prayer and meditation, fasting and bodily modification... and yet, how simple, how sublime…”

Dr Kon turned away from the screen. There were tears in her eyes. She too, understood the meaning of what they were witnessing. She too, was experiencing the supreme satisfaction known to those who, under tremendous pressures from within and without, pursue their search and, despite tremendous odds, find under the rubble of discarded and half baked hypotheses the shining fragments of the philosopher’s stone. They embraced, forgetting for a moment their habitual reserve.
“Now that’s very nice,” a gruff voice spoke, “combining business and pleasure-I dare say.” Vlas had just entered the Laboratory.

Sinclair was oblivious to all this. Blue, red and yellow circles were appearing in rapid succession. Each repetition of the mantra was bringing in a new wave of color, which also seemed to resound in his ears. “That’s strange,” Richard thought, “I never knew that one could hear colors. Ordinarily, he could not even see colors vividly in his mind. All his dreams were in black-and-white. Only once had he seen dream in color, and even that was of a two colored globe, with blue oceans and green forests.

“The Peace that passeth all understanding,” he remembered the words he had read somewhere and thought how apt they were. The cares and burdens that had been crushing him just a few minutes before were melting away. He felt as though someone was washing and purifying him from within with a soft, caressing sponge.
“How silly it was of me to get depressed,” he thought. “This tranquility, this bliss… Life is joy.” Was this the meaning of life for which he had been vaguely searching all his life, but desperately during these last few days? Could it be true? All those years wasted in useless, self gratifying pursuits, futile relationships, striving for success, material comforts, and fame. He could have cried over the lost opportunities, the missed moments of happiness, of love and intimacy, but his eyes refused to shed tears.

Memories from his childhood began to float into his consciousness, without disturbing the calm sea of his awareness or interrupting the gentle pulsation of his mantra. Snippets of dreams and nightmares were rising from the depths of his subconscious, disjointed and now somehow powerless. Images that ordinarily would have woken him shivering in a cold sweat were now dissolving painlessly, neutralized by the healing peace he felt within. Richard had a sensation as if his chest was expanding endlessly in one all embracing inhalation, which made him feel huge, as big as the universe itself. But at the same time he knew that this was an illusion and that his breathing was still, or almost still. The bright point of light with which he identified his consciousness was incomprehensibly spilling beyond the barriers of his skull, filling the whole world with a radiant and uniform glow.

He could not think at that moment, and only had a sensation of rising — or falling — precipitously. He did not know how long this ascent — or descent — lasted. When he could think again, words formed in his mind, “Life is joy, and peace, and light … And I am that, too...”

Richard did not know how long he spent in this state, but gradually his senses were bringing him back to the other, everyday reality. For some time, his mind was still anchored effortlessly in that pleasant and brightly lit world of oneness. Then he would be distracted momentarily by some noise or feeling. He could, for a time, immediately return to that sublime world by simply bringing back his mantra. But the breaks of normal consciousness were becoming longer and longer.

Dr Larchuk, who was observing his progress on the toposcope, came into the cubicle at that moment and whispered softly, “Just sit quietly for a few minutes, with your eyes closed and don’t bring your mantra back consciously.”

Finally, Richard opened his eyes. The world seemed to have gained some new, translucent quality. His mind and his body were light and pliable, as if he had shed some terrific burden which had been encumbering him all these years.

“Doctor,” he said, “I feel new, reborn. I feel… happy. You know something,” he said, feeling mildly embarrassed, “Life is joy.” He smiled, looking Dr Larchuk straight in the eyes for the first time.

“Yes,” Dr Larchuk averted his gaze. “Yes, I know how you must feel. I also feel happy for you. Now, if you don’t mind, a colleague of mine will ask you a few questions about your experience.”

Vlas was waiting impatiently at the entrance to the cubicle.

More About 'Project Nirvana':

	“A didactic, yet tightly-woven tale... follows in the footsteps of Zamyatin, Orwell, Huxley and Lem.” Dr Y. Goloskokov, Physicist
	“This detective-like story subtly leads us to ask questions about forces that manipulate mass consciousness in contemporary society. *Project Nirvana* provides ample food for reflection.” V. Voytkevych, scientist and translator
	“Nirvana goes with the fantastic idea that Soviet style socialism could have been made to work … by a combination of psychotropic manipulation and transcendental meditation — and makes it plausible. Unhappily Gorbachev, when the time came, couldn't pull off anything so impressive.” Dr P. King, Professor, Sydney University
	“This book is built on a fantastic, yet surprisingly true depiction of the danger the authoritarian mind poses when imbued with intoxicating illusion of supremacy that science can give.” Dr V. P. Maslov, Mathematician, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
	“A great candidate for television drama.” Dr R. Mortimer, Psychologist