On today's episode I speak with author, Tibetan Lama, Elder, and Polymath Mike Crowley.
Mike began studying Buddhism with a Tibetan lama in 1966, becoming an upasaka of the Kagyud lineage in 1970. In order to augment his Buddhist studies, he acquainted himself with Sanskrit, Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese. Mike has lectured at the Jagellonian University, Cracow, the Museum of Asia and the Pacific, Warsaw, the California Institute for Integral Studies, San Francisco, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work has been published in Fortean Studies, Time & Mind, the Journal of Archeology, Consciousness and Culture, Psychedelic American, and Psychedelic Press UK.
He is the author of, "Secret Drugs of Buddhism". Drawing on a wide range of disciplines (including pharmacology, iconography, botany, and scriptural sources), this book calls attention to the central role which psychedelics played in Indian religions, tracing their history from the soma of the Vedic period to amrita, the sacramental drink of Vajrayana Buddhism.