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MDMA Solo
This guide was written in response to an outcry by the MDMA healing community. Many survivors of trauma discovered that the traditional MDMA Therapy model was not working for them. The traditional model appeared to be based on an outdated set and setting: One in which ‘therapists’ sat in a room with a ‘patient’ and oversaw the ‘patient’ as they took the MDMA.
This approach was both expensive and prone to mishap. Typically, ‘patients’ emerged from sessions allegedly ‘cured’ of their PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) but, mysteriously, still utterly compliant with the ideologies and belief-systems of their broken societies.
As a result of over six-years of research, The Castalia Foundation has discovered that MDMA is far more effective if a person takes it alone, without anyone else present in the room. This discovery came as a shock for many in the MDMA community, not least 'therapists'. This is because, as Upton Sinclair once said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
This approach was both expensive and prone to mishap. Typically, ‘patients’ emerged from sessions allegedly ‘cured’ of their PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) but, mysteriously, still utterly compliant with the ideologies and belief-systems of their broken societies.
As a result of over six-years of research, The Castalia Foundation has discovered that MDMA is far more effective if a person takes it alone, without anyone else present in the room. This discovery came as a shock for many in the MDMA community, not least 'therapists'. This is because, as Upton Sinclair once said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
- GenresPsychology
97 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2020
2 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 8, 2023
Review of second edition: My second time reading this book after a year brought me to the second edition. In the year that passed, I have been facilitating 5-MeO-DMT with my partner and I really resonate with this book’s description of how healing happens—many of which echo with and inspire my observations of myself and others. I have come from a life very mainstream, status-oriented, and admired to one of my own creation. It is really encouraging to see a book written by many who did the same. I think this book is a treasure for anybody interested in healing themselves in general, with or without MDMA.
Review of first edition: The author, associated with Timothy Leary’s Castalia Foundation, sprinkles lots of himself and the foundation in this practical guide to solo MDMA journeying. I found his dislike for authority hilarious and refreshing. I also appreciated his perspectives on mental health diagnoses.
Review of first edition: The author, associated with Timothy Leary’s Castalia Foundation, sprinkles lots of himself and the foundation in this practical guide to solo MDMA journeying. I found his dislike for authority hilarious and refreshing. I also appreciated his perspectives on mental health diagnoses.
August 26, 2021
Best book I've read all year for it's length.
September 8, 2021
This book has been banned from certain MDMA Therapy forums for presenting "specific unsubstantiated medical claims it is making, especially those surrounding schizophrenia and ADHD. These claims have a high likelihood of leading to harm.”
May 30, 2023
Dangerous garbage.
July 28, 2021
An incredible summary of the some of the most important concepts, notions and tools available to us in depth psychology. This book has been an invaluable resource for me on my healing journey in many many ways.
August 30, 2021
Amazing book. I read it multiple times and it is what led me to healing myself with MDMA and microdoses of LSD.
I had severe traumatic reactions and after 1 session with MDMA the trauma has already become much more manageable. Excited to see what it keeps offering me!
I had severe traumatic reactions and after 1 session with MDMA the trauma has already become much more manageable. Excited to see what it keeps offering me!
January 4, 2023
This is the best guide to healing that I have ever read. It is brilliantly unconventional because unlike other self-help books which are sold for profit, MDMA Solo is distributed freely. This epitomizes the spirit of the author who would like to share this critical knowledge freely, for the benefit of humanity.
Anyone who is in pain; who is struggling; who can't go on, should read this book. It is a life-saving guide for those dealing with trauma at any level. It will help you heal from even the most difficult abuses such as those encountered in memories of child abuse and ritual abuse. It will also aid anyone dealing with anxiety, depression, PTSD and other symptom clusters of trauma.
The method is simple. You need only yourself, a quiet space, and the MDMA. In a world full of money grabbing, malicious therapists, this book will give you the tools to heal yourself, by yourself, for free.
This is one of the top five books of all human history.
Anyone who is in pain; who is struggling; who can't go on, should read this book. It is a life-saving guide for those dealing with trauma at any level. It will help you heal from even the most difficult abuses such as those encountered in memories of child abuse and ritual abuse. It will also aid anyone dealing with anxiety, depression, PTSD and other symptom clusters of trauma.
The method is simple. You need only yourself, a quiet space, and the MDMA. In a world full of money grabbing, malicious therapists, this book will give you the tools to heal yourself, by yourself, for free.
This is one of the top five books of all human history.
January 1, 2023
'MDMA Solo' is a magical book. Radical and challenging in its approach to psychedelic healing. In an otherwise stale psychedelic-scene, radical is exactly what was needed! The first two chapters shook my world apart. The rest of the book put me back together. Kaspian feels like the natural successor to Stanislav Grof and Timothy Leary. I hear that the media are calling Kaspian "The High Priest of MDMA". Hilarious. And accurate. A great read!
July 29, 2022
This is a very weird book. Interesting read, but I am not sure if I would recommend it. The author makes some interesting points, however I doubt this is a completely trustworthy source of information. There are almost no references, and the one's that are there are mostly to psychoanalytic theory from the XX century. I guess this is also why the firm idea that one has to recover from all their trauma alone is so persistent.
November 2, 2023
Such a fascinating book. Much in it can be useful for solo journeyers, though, as other reviewers have pointed out, better books exist for that purpose. Still, I think it's worth reading for other reasons.
The aspect of this book that sticks with me the most is the author's critique of psychotherapy. It reads as furiously polemic and absolute in the charges it makes. That, plus the anonymity of the author, leaves lots of room for readers to speculate about what was going on for this person who wrote this for us.
Just to get it out of the way: this book utterly fails as an anti-psychotherapy treatise. It loses itself between its railing against the authoritarian status quo that psychotherapy upholds and its claims about how MDMA's potential to augment a very psychotherapy-centric idea of healing. The author aspires to present MDMA as a tool in the service of social upheaval and revolution while falling into the trap of many other would-be radical voices in psychology by ascribing to a hopelessly individualistic model of healing that has no meaningful leverage on the status quo.
It's not much of an intellectual work at all. The few citations it does include are bad ones (e.g., Nutt) and its references to Alice Miller and depth psychology signal a lot about its relationship to clinical research in general. Its claims about the therapeutic utility of MDMA are just as grandiose as the psychologists the author presents as charlatans, and it doesn't offset its enthusiasm with an adequate treatment of the topic of harm reduction (which you think would be CRUCIAL for a book helping people take MDMA on their own). And its discussion of mental health challenges often read like the dinner table brushoffs of a conservative uncle.
So, what is this book? Why do I keep reading it?
Maybe it points toward a different, yet-to-be-written book that we really need. One that is more honest with itself about its relationship to psychotherapy-style healing, less angry at its parents, and more focused on actually training people to unlock the immense promise of MDMA solo journeys (of which I am a strong believer). One that really does help us avoid the ways that psychotherapy replicates so many of the bad tendencies of neoliberalism - a process that may be augmented further by the plasticizing power of psychedelics. But this boom ain't that book.
The aspect of this book that sticks with me the most is the author's critique of psychotherapy. It reads as furiously polemic and absolute in the charges it makes. That, plus the anonymity of the author, leaves lots of room for readers to speculate about what was going on for this person who wrote this for us.
Just to get it out of the way: this book utterly fails as an anti-psychotherapy treatise. It loses itself between its railing against the authoritarian status quo that psychotherapy upholds and its claims about how MDMA's potential to augment a very psychotherapy-centric idea of healing. The author aspires to present MDMA as a tool in the service of social upheaval and revolution while falling into the trap of many other would-be radical voices in psychology by ascribing to a hopelessly individualistic model of healing that has no meaningful leverage on the status quo.
It's not much of an intellectual work at all. The few citations it does include are bad ones (e.g., Nutt) and its references to Alice Miller and depth psychology signal a lot about its relationship to clinical research in general. Its claims about the therapeutic utility of MDMA are just as grandiose as the psychologists the author presents as charlatans, and it doesn't offset its enthusiasm with an adequate treatment of the topic of harm reduction (which you think would be CRUCIAL for a book helping people take MDMA on their own). And its discussion of mental health challenges often read like the dinner table brushoffs of a conservative uncle.
So, what is this book? Why do I keep reading it?
Maybe it points toward a different, yet-to-be-written book that we really need. One that is more honest with itself about its relationship to psychotherapy-style healing, less angry at its parents, and more focused on actually training people to unlock the immense promise of MDMA solo journeys (of which I am a strong believer). One that really does help us avoid the ways that psychotherapy replicates so many of the bad tendencies of neoliberalism - a process that may be augmented further by the plasticizing power of psychedelics. But this boom ain't that book.
October 29, 2022
There are better books and guides for solo-trippers.
Unfortunately this writer does not offer any of the research he claims his group conducted. It is outdated and has a narrow focus.
It appears the writer has more internal work to do in order to gain humility and a broader perspective on the healing power of MDMA.
Unfortunately this writer does not offer any of the research he claims his group conducted. It is outdated and has a narrow focus.
It appears the writer has more internal work to do in order to gain humility and a broader perspective on the healing power of MDMA.
April 1, 2024
Some of the views on politics and psychotherapy are extreme. Other than that, lots of good psychology materials about healing.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews