0:00:01.4 April Pride: Hey, welcome to The High Guide. I’m your host, April Pride, and today I’m so excited to bring you the second installment of our series on entheogens. But if you’re coming to this show to learn about neuro-science or chemistry, you’ll get just enough of that to make you dangerous, don’t worry. Like Mark Ronson, I too am sapiosexual. Smart is most definitely sexy, and psychedelics are both. And the sexiest of them all, which technically is not a psychedelic but rather an empathogen, which are a class of psychoactive drugs that produce experiences of emotional communion, oneness, relatedness, emotional openness. Yes, on this Valentine’s Day, of course, we’re going to discuss my favorite all-time dare I say drug, the love drug. And what we’re talking about is pure MDMA, which is one of the words we’re covering this week. Tune in on Friday when we cover DMT.

0:00:57.2 April Pride: Today’s glossary word is MDMA, more commonly referred to as Molly or Ecstasy. And it’s an entheogen first synthesized in 1912 by Merck, but not popularized in its current fashion until the 1970s when Andrew Shulgin’s work with the substance gained traction. Celebrated for its empathy and connection inducing qualities, MDMA was originally used therapeutically in counseling sessions before it made its way to the rave scene where its reputation as a dangerous party drug took hold. By 1985, the DEA declared its illegality via its schedule I classification. It’s currently re-emerging, re-emerging in its original therapeutic form via studies of its efficacy in treating PTSD.

0:01:55.5 April Pride: Hi again, April Pride. We jumped right into our word of the week, MDMA, and yes, it really is my favorite of all of these substances that we discussed. And this recent story that I heard from a listener of The High Guide and who was new to MDMA, I think it explains why this is the substance that I appreciate the most. And she consumed MDMA for the first time under the watchful eye of both a man and woman serving as her high guides, her facilitators, and she was advised to not consume… Prior to the session, she was advised not to consume psilocybin mushrooms before she had consumed MDMA, because the thinking is that we should open our hearts before we open our minds. Because the memories and our re-interpretation of them will require compassion and empathy toward all involved including yourself.

0:03:03.8 April Pride: This isn’t a hard or fast rule, but it makes a ton of sense to me, and I’m curious what you think, ’cause I know some of you listening out there, you’ve took it when it was called ecstasy. That’s when I took it too. So leave us a voicemail on SpeakPipe and give us your thoughts on sequencing psychedelics. Is there an order for it to you? Do you… Yeah, do you get cross-faded and do you layer them in a certain way? And I’ve heard various sequencing ideas, but I wanna know what’s worked for you. So leave us a voicemail on speakpipe.com/thehighguide, and also let us know how MDMA, molly, ecstasy has changed your life because it has, and let us know if we can share your story in a future podcast.

0:03:52.8 April Pride: Okay, I’m gonna give you some trip tips. The effects of MDMA. It is the love drug, a stimulant that elevates mood and energy while also inducing an overwhelming abundance of empathy and compassion for others and oneself. MDMA interferes with the body’s ability to regulate temperature. Some report getting very cold while others find themselves over-heated. I typically get really cold. A dose… Okay, so you can Google search and find out what I found out, which is a recommended dose of 80 to 125 milligrams, and the reason I don’t know what the fuck that means is because black market MDMA isn’t labeled to dose properly. So you’re gonna need to get one of those kits, you’re gonna need to test your stuff and take half. Always take half to start, see what you think.

0:04:51.0 April Pride: The duration. Onset begins about 45 minutes after consuming and it can continue for four to six hours if you’re lucky. Dissolving MDMA crystals in water can speed up the onset of effects. I prefer to get one tequila at the beginning of the night, dissolve it in that and then water for the rest of the night. Although we don’t recommend this method of consumption, if you could see me, I don’t recommend this, but people do this. They snort Molly, that can speed up the onset of effects, but the high is shorter lasting, and I find it to be less of the high that you want when you take ecstasy or MDMA. Oh, here’s a pro-tip. After snorting anything, remember to use a Neti Pot before bed to reduce residual negative effects the next day.

0:05:46.4 April Pride: Alright, we have something you should read. Oh yeah, this is good, this is linked in our show notes. This article is mind-blowing. It talks about how there is this club in Dallas, that’s where MDMA really was huge. Texas was where it was in the 1980s, for some reason that’s where everyone was getting ecstasy, and you could order it at a bar with your drink from the bartender. Just walk up to the bar, it wasn’t illegal. The truth of this story is really good, and it was originally shared in the pages of Playboy, but you can read it on the Maps website. Again, linked in the show notes. You should listen to the episode on Goop’s podcast about Molly, also linked in our show notes. And I just watched over Christmas break, there’s a documentary on Amazon Prime called Limelight, and it’s brought to you by the same filmmaker behind Cocaine Cowboys, but the production quality on this one isn’t as good. And it’s very ’90s, which is appropriate because they’re telling a very ’90s story about the people behind the music and clubs that brought ecstasy across the pond and into the mainstream in the US.

0:07:11.4 S2: So this week’s quote is a song lyric. I mean, I think this song is kind of old. It’s by The streets, Blinded By the Lights. People know this song. “Maybe I shouldn’t have done the second one, I feel all fidgety and warm.” You probably know those lines. So I’m April Pride, thanks for joining me on this very brief episode. Again, we’re gonna have six of these. This is the second in the series, and before we launch our third season. And if you didn’t catch the first one, I am not working with an audio editor so you get to hear me talk more, less scripted. And if you’re a new listener and you’ve been loyal each week, please follow, subscribe and review The High Guide wherever you listen to podcasts. It really, truly does help more people find the show. And tune in this Friday for our episode on DMT. You can leave us… Drop us a line. DM us on Instagram @thehigh.guide. Send us an email [0:08:17.2] ____ I get @thehighguide, or as I mentioned at the top of the show, leave us a voicemail on SpeakPipe, speakpipe.com/thehighguide, with your thoughts.

0:08:27.3 April Pride: I’m your host, April Pride, looking forward to bringing next… Or this Friday’s episode of The High Guide.