The Heffter Research Institute

Given the paramount importance of the nature of the human mind to global existence, it is curious -- and unsettling -- to realize how little we know about it. The mind is the source of all discovery and invention, yet the relationship between brain and mind remains a mystery. Since our minds are our only means of solving the problems we face on this planet, understanding how the mind works and the nature of its relationship to the brain is an urgent and compelling priority.

Psychedelics have the unique ability to transform fundamentally the very functions that we consider uniquely human: the way we think, feel, communicate, and solve problems. They shift our cognitive and symbolic capacities, our aesthetic sensibilities, and our linguistic and imaginative abilities; the very kinds of brain functions that constitute the fabric of what we experience as mind. Because psychedelic agents are similar to natural substances already present in the human brain, the careful study of their effects upon brain function and experiences provides access to primary states of brain and mind and the connections between them. For these reasons, research with psychedelic substances offers an unparalleled opportunity for understanding the relationship of brain to mind in ways not possible using other methods. Indeed, it is the thesis of the Heffter Research Institute that these substances represent an essential technology for this investigation. From the chemical and neurological level, to the psychological and spiritual, psychedelic research is a complex and difficult area of exploration. Nevertheless, the time has come to apply our scientific sophistication to explore the powerful influences of psychedelics on the brain and mind.

For millennia, psychedelics played essential roles in the culture and spiritual practices of advanced civilizations such as the Mayans, Greeks, and Indo-Aryans. These substances hold similar importance today in many traditional non-Western societies. We are at an historic moment. Old social orders are changing rapidly. Economic powers are restructuring for the future. There is widespread popular interest in the brain and mind as never before. Interest in research with psychedelics seems to be growing, and yet organized financial support for this work is on the wane. The Heffter Research Institute is uniquely poised to be THE key player in the revival of psychedelic research.

Design notes:

Uses framesets, which is bad for usual reasons of nonability to send people URLs directly to page. To make things worse, you can't rightclick in home page navframe to extract URL.

Intro and mission pages are not discernably distinct and are not cross linked. Recommend merging into one About/Mission page, maybe. Having sitemap would help.

Recommend get rid of frames and create sitemap page. Put link to sitemap in hi-level navpanel of every page.

http://www.heffter.org/review/Institute.pdf - says funding is needed... but *oblivious* to online indiv donation potential though can do at Guidestar/Helping.org; should *at least* mention Heffter entry at Helping.org.