Descending the Mountain

Portland Psychedelic Society (PPS) will present a screening of DESCENDING THE MOUNTAIN, a tender film exploring psilocybin and the nature of consciousness by Maartje Nevejan

All eyes are on Oregon during this psychedelic renaissance as the first state to provide psilocybin services with the implementation of Measure 109, and the most recent news around the Shroom House exposé. As a part of its organizational mission, PPS aims to reduce confusion and misinformation around these topics. This film screening is one way the community group is facilitating inclusive space for psychedelic integration, education, and research.

What happens when you administer psilocybin to experienced Zen meditators? A neuroscientist and a Zen master carry out a double-blind experiment on a sphinxlike mountain in Switzerland. Their goal: to examine the nature of consciousness.

“These substances are not for the sick only, they belong in the hands of meditation” (Albert Hofmann)

Exactly fifty years after the ban on psychedelics, a group of Zen meditators – who have never used any psychedelic substances before – are given psilocybin on the last day of a 5-day retreat. Half the group receives a placebo. Mystical experiences are induced through a combination of deep meditation and psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms.

This scientific experiment, which was published in Nature magazine in 2020, may lift the controversy that has clouded the realm of psychedelics for far too long. Scientist Franz Vollenweider and Zen master Vanja Palmers descend from the mountain of bliss to teach us how we can integrate mysticism into our day-to-day life.

DESCENDING THE MOUNTAIN is a mesmerizing testimony of inner climate change that shows us how psilocybin could create a revolution in improving mental health and strengthen our connection with our environment.