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Descending the Mountain (2021)

Name: Descending the Mountain
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2023-02-12T18:27:37+01:00
Rating: 2.75

Documentary | 78 minutes

2,75 8 votes

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Genre: Documentary

Duration: 78 minuten

Country: Switzerland

Directed by: Maartje Nevejan

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

Descending the Mountain plot

What happens when you give magic mushrooms (psilocibine) to experienced Zen practitioners who have never used drugs? What does that teach us about the mystical experience of oneness with nature? Based on these questions, psychiatrist Franz Vollenweider and Zen master Vanja Palmers set up a legal science experiment in a monastery at the top of Mount Rigi in Switzerland. Exactly 50 years after the magic mushrooms were officially banned, a new story begins in what is now called the “psychedelic renaissance”. While in 2021 most studies with psychedelics mainly focus on their promising medical applications, Frans and Vanja are already going a step further. Can the combination of meditation and psilocibin help humanity get out of the mess we have created on ourselves and the planet with our neo-liberal society?

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mrklm

11374 messages
9897 votes

12 February 2023 at 18:27

Vanja Palmers lived with spiritual demons for a long time, until he discovered that Psilocybin offered him a solution. He is one of the driving forces behind a special experiment by Franz Vollenweider who, in imitation of LSD developer Albert Hofman, uses Swiss legislation in the University Clinic for Psychiatry Burghölzi (to which Gustav Jung was affiliated), with the help of a group of experienced (hopefully beneficial) effect of Psilocybin can be scientifically proven. Food for followers of meditation and mindfulness, but also for science enthusiasts in general. But this documentary is a slightly too emphatic plea for the acceptance of (the use of) mind-altering substances. A more balanced approach to the theme would have been welcome.