Psychedelic Research / Healed by a UFO

About the show

Conceived by visionary ethnopharmacologist Dr. Dennis McKenna in 2018, the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy explores modern and traditional practices to foster the understanding of consciousness and the cosmos. In the first half, McKenna joined George Knapp to discuss his research into psychedelic substances, and the work he's doing through his academy. Psychoactive plants or drugs can open portals to what appear to be other worlds, which shatters scientific paradigms-- such experiences can be better understood through a religious perspective or shamanism, he noted. McKenna explained that his approach has been to have one foot in the phenomenology of psychedelic experience and the other in the hard sciences of chemistry, pharmacology, and botany.

One of the most interesting substances that Dennis and his late brother Terence McKenna studied has been DMT (such as found in plant brews like ayahuasca). Psilocybin mushrooms contain a chemical that is very similar molecularly to DMT, and provides a more prolonged experience into what seems like another dimension, he added. Further, the entities or intelligences encountered in these dimensions appear to be independent of ourselves, he marveled. The McKenna Academy explores a vast realm of ideas in many different areas, he shared, focusing on ways of knowing that go beyond the scientific. During the pandemic, the academy started offering online content and activities, such as the upcoming podcast The Brainforest Cafe. McKenna also touched on promising research, which indicates that psychedelics, when used therapeutically, may help rewire the brains of those suffering from such conditions as PTSD and depression.

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In the latter half, UFO experiencer Chris Bledsoe recounted his numerous close encounters in North Carolina and the healing associated with the activity. The events began in 2007 when he was on a fishing trip with three co-workers and his teenage son. During the evening, he stepped away to meditate and pray in the woods and subsequently saw several mysterious aerial objects responding to his movements and thoughts. He ran from the lights and rejoined his co-workers but was shocked to learn he'd experienced four hours of "missing time." The co-workers explained that he'd been gone all night, and they had been looking for him the whole time. Bledsoe's son, Chris Jr., was also missing, and he frantically searched for him in the woods. When he found Chris Jr., he was distraught after witnessing two translucent beings about 3.5 ft. tall with red glowing eyes that seemed to paralyze him.

As the group fled the scene, Bledsoe said that the anomalous lights were following his truck on the highway and, at one point blocking their path. And yet, he noticed that after some 17 years of suffering from Crohn's disease, he was free from the debilitating symptoms after the encounter. Incidents with various glowing beings and orbs of light have continued for Bledsoe, and he said that his case has been studied by personnel from numerous government agencies, including NASA, the CIA, the FBI, the DIA, as well as by MUFON. He has come to believe that the beings are benevolent, and a number of people have visited his property to experience healings seemingly connected to the lights. Bledsoe has posted numerous clips of the aerial objects on his Instagram feed, including a flashing orb in the trees from September 2022, and a rising orb in the sky from February 2023.

KNAPP'S NEWS:

George Knapp shares items of recent interest, including articles about the remains of an ancient glacier found on Mars, and a new theory about where aliens could be hiding:

Guests