Charley Wininger: The Power of MDMA to Heal Society

On episode 20, we go deep with Charley Wininger to unpack the layers of MDMA as a powerful gateway medicine to a new paradigm. Charley Wininger is a psychotherapist in private practice who just published his book “Listening to Ecstasy,” a personal narrative and guide to the safe, responsible use of MDMA for personal healing and social transformation. Licensed as a Psychoanalyst and Mental Health Counselor, he specializes in relationships and communication skills, and has been treating couples and individuals in his Manhattan and Brooklyn offices for over 30 years. He has often been featured in The New York Times and Newsday as “The Love Doctor”, and has appeared several times on TV and recently featured on Forbes for his book. 

In this post-pandemic world that has only exacerbated the #1 mental health issue of loneliness in our country, the story of MDMA (“chemical of connection”) is a highly relevant one. As a psychotherapist who grew up as a hippie and student radical during the countercultural movement, Charley has spent the last 50 years experimenting with psychedelics (and the last 20 with MDMA), which has informed his own approach to his psychotherapy practice. What might it feel like to drop into deeper states of empathy and compassion to dissolve the defenses and embody more of you who truly are? While simple, the potential of this question and exploration of it is profound (with or without psychedelics), given all the “isms” that plague our culture, be it racism, sexism, homophobia and all other systemic prejudices that go unseen and unexamined in society. Integration of our psychedelic experiences is the key to true transformation. 

In this episode, we cover wide ranging topics:

• The experience of “coming out of the chemical closet” as a lifelong integration practice 

• How to safely and responsibly use MDMA for personal and societal healing (and why integration is the key here)

• What an MDMA “roll” typically looks like with Charley and his community, with “set and setting” all consciously considered

• What does listening to ecstasy mean in 2021 times and its capacity to heal our world’s most pressing and seemingly impossible problems like systemic racism and violence

• The long term therapeutic benefits MDMA could have on veterans and victims of PTSD after just 2-3 sessions and supportive therapy

• As an instrumental member of the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) community for the last 20 years, what kind of world he envisions for the psychedelic space

Check out Charley’s new book “Listening to Ecstasy” here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Listening-to-Ecstasy/Charles-Wininger/9781644111161 

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.