Daniel Kruger, PhD, is an expert on the real-world impact of psychedelic use and community-based research. Although a lot of times people get blown away by psychedelic headlines about a trial for a specific condition, the reality is that, over time, more people are going to be using psychedelics in the wild than in a clinic. We discuss his work examining real-world risk, psychedelic harm reduction, and the relevance of a little-known psychedelic public health superstar, Lisa Biberman, who developed “Session Games People Play: A Manual for the Use of LSD,” a psychedelic harm reduction manual that is surprisingly relevant today.

One of the most systematic and comprehensive systems of documenting the effects of psychedelics and other psychoactives wasn’t made in academia, but was crafted by some drug nerds with high trait-level systematizing and a penchant for self-expirementation. In this episode, Josie Kins is the founder of PsychoanutWiki, the Subjective Effects Index, and the Replications Reddit tells us about the backstory behind how Josie got involved in subjective effect documentation. We discuss what her quest to describe the “ineffable” has led her to do, everything from poring over pretty much every drug effects system known to taking DPH to accurately describe its deliriant effects. Josie also tells us a bit about her brush with “McKenna syndrome,” her “DSM fan fiction” diagnosis for describing people who go a bit out there with psychedelics. In Josie's case, it led her to create a GitHub for her own religion, which she no longer fully endorses. We also talk a little bit about neurodiversity and whether psychedelics could have an impact on autism or not, and whether Josie’s experience with persistent depersonalization shaped PsychoanutWiki.

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Lastly, I’d like to do a little shout-out for the Patreon! If you like the Furthure project, check out the Furthure page

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Nervewing may be the closest thing the field of psychonautics has seen to a Shulgin of dissociatives. Having cataloged an extensive repertoire of 253 unique substances ingested in their lifetime, including many substances that they were the first to synthesize and experience. Nervewing also has the honor of being the person with the most Erowid reports submitted.

But unlike Shulgin, there was a darkness that crept in. Nervewing describes what it’s like to be so in the grips of dissociative addiction that doing PCP to clean the dishes was an ordinary part of their daily life.

The circumstances of this story are singular. How many people synthesize novel dissociatives and get a chance to test their creations? Few people have a drive to catalog so innate to their psychological makeup that they have the drive to explore even the most unpleasant of pharmacological states and find themselves drawn into cataloging even the edges of the insect kingdom (Nervewing is also a skilled entomologist).

Yet, at the same time, their story is an everyday story of addiction. The slow slip-ups, the compulsive behavior, the formation of a sense of identity around use. The slow boiling. One day you are just a person who uses a drug, and before you know it— the drugs are using you. Replacing life with use.

The suffering and doldrums of recovery often get glossed over– Nervewing tells us about it. After all, how can a normal life feel good, when you are used to getting “dissed” every night?

This was a story that was beautiful to capture. It was my favorite story I have captured on Furthure. I hope to someday capture more stories with this depth and nuance in the future.

Trigger warning: This episode is not for people to listen to who might be upset about the discussion of self-harm, suicidality, and substance use. It is a deeply vulnerable and human story.