Trews, the YouTube channel by English comedian, actor, author, activist and celebrity Russel Brand, promises to “unravel the matrix of modern media and reveal the gleaming reality beyond connecting us all to each other through pure consciousness. Or it’s true news. Trews.”
Similarly to Jason Silva, Brand brings YouTube viewers big, sparkling ideas in concise and accessible form. However, with a different mixture of elements: Less Californian techno-utopian ideas, and more social- and media critique on the state of global society; less scenic imagery and more hilarious humor.
The trews YouTube channel tackles issues like “Why so hard on the silk road?” “Are we all terrorists now?” and “Can Jeb Bush finally win WW2 for the Nazis?”. Above one of Brand’s more lucid videos, on the question of God’s existence.
Today we have something special for you here on the DPV. Steven Anthony Khoury has created a beautiful one-hour video designed to accompany the first hour of a tripping experience and gently ease the tripper into the experience.
As Steven Says:
“I wanted to create a vid that can hand hold people through the first hour of come-up, gently start their trip positively, catapulting them into their psyches with good energy.
This video was designed to remind us of what we hold dear to our hearts: children, happiness, nature, music, the universe, fire, speed, water and love, etc…. It’s not easy to depict so many thoughts into one piece of work, but with a psychedelic video there are no rules.”
The video, which is dedicated to MAPS (Multi-Disciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies) and to the Beckley Foundation, is a description of Steven’s own tripping experiences, he says. It is made of original footage which was shot over a 3 year period in many countries: Australia, US, UK, Guyana, Canada, Lebanon, Malaysia and Brazil, and stock footage obtained from friends and colleagues. Aftereffects were added with Autodesk Maya.
The video has been tested and trialed by a many of Steven’s friends who used it while breaking through to the other side. Steven says that “though not absolutely necessary, the vid does require a person to be inebriated in order to appreciate the introspective thought processes that it tries to portray.”
For my part, I can say that I never saw a one hour psychedelic video which grabs your attention, but this one seemed to do just that and yet keep itself introspective, enriching the experience with beautiful stimulation and very good vibe. So, next time you trip, consider this as an accompaniment video.
Jason Silva’s series Shots of awe takes mind-transforming ideas and warps them into a 3 minute YouTube format. Though Silva’s enthusiasm and optimism can be a bit over the top for some, you’ve got to admire the craft and energy that’s put into making these videos. Not only are they magnificently envisioned on the visual level, but as someone who tried his hand at producing mind-transforming videos for the web back in 2007 and 2009, I admire the great job Silva does in seemingly effortlessly translating big, complex ideas into the hyperactive format of online media. Silva is a smart guy, well versed in psychedelic thinking, and names like Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary and Robert Anton often come up in his raps. He describes his videos as “philosophical espresso shots; condensed trailers for ideas.” Indeed they work like appetizers, and hopefully they do not satisfy completely and lead viewers to deepen their exploration of the the big issues also after the video has ended. Here Silva explains why we don’t need to fear artificial intelligence And here he explains why “the idea of the singularity is awesome” If you check out his channel you’ll find Silva has created dozens and dozens of videos over the past couple of years. Recently the YouTube channel Seeker Stories did a story about Silva and his creative process titled “A philosopher’s mind trip”. An interesting viewing.
Some of the DPV readers might know that I was previously involved in a few psychedelic video projects, and while it feel weird featuring my own videos on the site, I guess it’s time these video get added to the growing collection of psychedelic videos accumulating here on the DPV.
The first one of these psychedelic video projects, the Intergalactic Underground, was a messianic web course designed to turn its viewers into intergalactic masters. It went on YouTube on March 2007, at a time when there was nothing like it on the site. Michal Wexler, who was a contributor and editor on this site featured one of the videos from the series back in the early days of the DPV. Here’s another one, the first, and most memorable episode from the series.
A second psychedelic video project I produced was Geula Party, which posted its YouTube videos in parallel to the 2009 Israeli elections. The Geula party demanded consciousness expansion for Israel and for the whole middle east. It was not about running for parliament but about participating in the inner elections, the ones taking place inside consciousness. You can read more about that project in this article which was published on Reality Sandwich.
Ken Russell’s controversial 1971 film incorporates sexually explicit hallucinatory sequences into this story based on the supposed demonic possessions in that took place in 17th Century Loudon, France.
An order of Ursuline nuns begin to exhibit wild, uncontrolled behavior thought to be led by Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), a proud priest, who has recently gained political control of Loudon. Sister Jeanne des Anges (Vanessa Redgrave), the sexually repressed hunchback Mother Superior of the convent becomes infatuated with Grandier, and her striking sexual fantasies haunt her guilty conscious.
Once word of Grandier’s secret marriage to another woman reaches Jeanne, she collapses into fits of hysteria and claims to have been possessed by the Devil through Grandier. Other nuns in the convent also claim to be possessed and the convent explodes into a frenzy of sexual outbursts and bizarre public exorcisms.
Russell boldly depicts the effects of sexual oppression mixed with religious mania. The censored scenes of the “demonic possessions” include a psychedelic orgy of naked nuns “raping” a statue of Christ and Sister Jeanne masturbating with a human bone. The uncut version of The Devils is a mind blowing, audacious exploration of ecstasy (both religious and sexual).
The “Baby! Love Your Body!” videos by Poussy Draama & Fannie Sosa offer liberated, guilt free and psychedelically minded sexual education for children. The many “thumbs down” and hate comments this video received just prove how bad it’s needed.
Dear DPV Followers, world psychonauts, wherever you are,
Exactly five years ago, on April 25, 2010, the first post on the DPV has been published. At the time it was not clear whether one could find enough psychedelic videos to sustain a site which purported to publish a new psychedelic video every day. Since them, more than 2000 videos were published on the DPV, and we proud ourselves for being the biggest collection of psychedelic videos on the web.
Today, we wish to announce a new psychedelic project intended to answer another need felt by psychonauts around the world. Psychedelic Traveler is a website dedicated to psychedelic travel locations around the world: Places which are fun and inspiring to explore under the influence of a psychedelic mind alterant, or, more generally, places which evoke psychedelic sensibilities in psychedelically-aware individuals.
In Psychedelic Traveler we hope to create a first-of-its-kind collection of recommended sites for psychedelic experiences and for psychedelic travelers – a comprehensive open-ended, community-based compendium of psychedelic locations around the globe.
Intrepid psychedelic travelers are highly interested in finding out about psychedelic gems to visit and immerse themselves in. Our hope is that in a few years Psychedelic Traveler will include hundreds of psychedelic travel recommendations, so that any psychedelic traveler on the road can easily search the database and find psychedelic locations in the area they are in.
We are looking for contributors! If you’ve traveled across the globe and discovered fantastic psychedelic locations, or if you’re hometown or country has a psychedelic location that the world’s psychonauts should know about, please contact us through the “Suggest a psychedelic location” link and let us know about them.
So be sure to visit us, and we hope you’ll like our new initiative. Let us know what you think! Here or on the new website.
And finally, for all those who weren’t there that day 5 years ago, when the DPV got started, here is the first video that was ever published on the site. The incredible Story from North America, which continues to be one of my favorite videos on the site to this day! (Original Post)
“Psychedelic Zion” follows the ups and downs of three rave organizers who operate under the banner “Peace and Love Production.” Filmed over the course of two years, director Isri Halpern follows the trio from their first ecstatic parties on the hillsides of the Galilee, into the living rooms of their religious, working-class families, and deep into the fray of their eventual and sometimes violent clashes with the police. In the midst of a public furor, they take their case to the government and the Supreme Court, fighting for the right to live out their psychedelic dreams.
A harsh, glitchy, low-poly mash-up about an infected digital bird glimpsing a coalescing future of nightmare scenarios for our species and environment.
Filmed by 3 cameras, a thermal/ infrared (Mark III), a Go Pro 3+ and an intrusive drone – some intimate places of the building, the engine house, the cult room, and other secret places.
Film Maker: Julien Berrod
Scriptwriter: Thierry Ehrman
The Daily Psychedelic Video 