Drugs

Can recreational drugs be an opening to genuine spiritual awakening? Brian Hartnett's passion for rave dance music -- as well as alcohol and ecstasy -- cost him his career. Doctors labeled his paranoia, telepathy, and voices symptoms of schizophrenia. But Brian went on to become one of the founders of Hearing Voices Ireland, and discover a new, heightened spirituality. www.voicesireland.com

When GlaxoSmithKline was caught lying about the risks of its blockbuster anti-depressant Paxil, it set off ongoing investigations. How did New York state take on one of the world's most powerful companies? Was NY Governor Eliot Spitzer driven out by his corporate enemies? Pulitzer-nominated Boston Globe journalist Alison Bass, author of Side Effects: A Prosecutor, A Whistleblower, And A Bestselling Antidepressant On Trial, discusses legal battles to clean up drug company corruption, including pay-offs to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. www.alison-bass.com/

Is madness part of a deeper calling? How is being transgender -- transitioning from one gender to another -- a spiritual process? Machete Mendias, female-to-male transgender activist and artist, discusses his life beyond the borders of gender identity, normality, and conventional definitions. Machete describes his childhood experiences with visions, ritual self-harm and hair-pulling (trichotillomania), and medications, as well as the role of transgendered people as healers, mystics, and shamans.

Blogger and former social worker Gianna Kali discusses her experience going into the mental health system after taking psychedelic drugs, spiritual emergence, decades of treatment with more than 30 different psychiatric medications, and the difficult process of coming off meds, drug withdrawal, and regaining her life. Gianna is the creator of the Beyond Meds blog about mental health and coming off medications. http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/.