Listening to Ecstasy

The Transformative Power of MDMA

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Pub Date 10 Nov 2020 | Archive Date 19 Oct 2020
Inner Traditions | Park Street Press

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Description

A personal narrative and guide to the safe, responsible use of MDMA for personal healing and social transformation

• Details the author’s 50 years of responsible experimentation with mind-altering substances and how Ecstasy has helped him become a better therapist

• Explains how he and his wife found Ecstasy to be the key to renewing and enriching their lives and marriage as they entered their senior years

• Describes what the experience actually feels like and provides protocols for the safe, responsible, recreational, and celebrational use of MDMA for individuals and groups

In a world that keeps us separate from each other, MDMA is the chemical of connection. Aptly known in popular culture as “Ecstasy,” MDMA helps us rediscover our own true loving nature, often obscured by the traumas of life. On its way to becoming a prescription medication due to groundbreaking research on its use to treat PTSD, Ecstasy can offer benefits for all adult life stages, from 20-somethings to seniors.

In this memoir and guide to safe use, Charles Wininger, a licensed psychoanalyst and mental health counselor, details the countless ways that Ecstasy has helped him become a better therapist and husband. He recounts his coming of age in the 1960s counterculture, his 50 years of responsible experimentation with mind-altering substances, and his immersion in the new psychedelic renaissance. He explains how he and his wife found Ecstasy to be the key to renewing and enriching their lives as they entered their senior years. It also strengthened the bonds of their marriage.

Countering the fearful propaganda that surrounds this drug, Wininger describes what the experience actually feels like and explores the value of Ecstasy and similar substances for helping psychologically healthy individuals live a more “optimal” life. He provides protocols for the responsible, recreational, and celebrational use of MDMA, including how to perfect the experience, maximize the benefits and minimize the risks, and how it may not be for everyone. He reveals how MDMA has revitalized his marriage, both erotically and emotionally, and describes how pleasure, fun, and joy can be profound bonding and transformative experiences.

Revealing MDMA’s versatility when it comes to bringing lasting renewal, pleasure, and inspiration to one’s life, Wininger shows that recognizing the transformative power of happiness-inducing experiences can be the first step on the path to healing.

A personal narrative and guide to the safe, responsible use of MDMA for personal healing and social transformation

• Details the author’s 50 years of responsible experimentation with mind-altering...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781644111161
PRICE US$18.99 (USD)
PAGES 256

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Featured Reviews

Charles and his wife Shelley are a senior couple, who have discovered how to ‘roll’ and have become ‘roll models’ or ‘psychonauts’ themselves.
He has written this book to ‘show others the promised land’ as well as expressing his ideas about the therapeutical benefits of MDMA. Researched from his viewpoint as a psychoanalyst and mental health counsellor.
He describes himself as a 25 year old man trapped in a 65 year old body, and discusses how taking MDMA brings him to ‘Youthlandia’ a place of youth, joy, playfulness and a happy space of a second childhood.
He sees himself as a Utopian:
‘because I have visited heaven and glimpsed the glorious, and I just haven’t been the same since. It’s the politics of experience.’
Charles writes an honest and candid account of his experiences past and present.
The main theme being: taking MDMA ‘the medicine’ as he refers to it in various scenarios with his tribe of ‘psychedelarati’ friends and acquaintances, in a form of group therapy.
There are many fun moments in this book when he writes of festivals and parties he has attended with Shelley.
It is written with warmth and a touch of humour, and oodles of home-grown jargon.
There is also plenty of solid advice, and many important points to consider for anyone experimenting with ecstasy
It was certainly an interesting, insightful and generally understandable read, although a little long for me.
A must read for anyone trying to understand the uses and abuses of MDMA from either side of the fence.

Thanks to NetGalley and Park Street Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
#netgalley #ParkStreetPress

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