At the top of a mountain,

Where sacred valley’s prosper.

Grows a magical cactus.

Winning the San Pedro Oscars.

Only the blessed ones can harvest.

And the brave ones transcend.

It will be their turn soon enough.

But always keep a scientist as a friend.

The swords create a magnetism. Some say an energy field.

A dip into the Black Lagoon is when the deal is sealed.

The cactus is set to boil. Give it two hours or more.

Once the effects take place, it’s felt from your poncho to your core.

Watch the first episode of the show I Produce and Film here: Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia Season 2

(Photos taken in Huancabamba, Peru for a story about San Pedro Shamanism)

I traveled to Laos because Mindy said “lets go to Laos, Kauai is boring.” I understood Mindy. She wanted a little adventure and I wanted some too.

We arrived as the sun set over the Mekong River. These boats are the slow boats that you can take anywhere up or down the Mekong. For just $25 you can enjoy a two day boat ride from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang.

In Luang Prabang we rode a moped to a beautiful waterfall and along the way we found this place where you can feed elephants bananas and sugar cane. You can also ride them, but that didn’t look too comfortable for the elephants.

These elephants are decommissioned logging elephants. Logging is horrible for elephants.

They can eat an unlimited amount. I don’t think an elephant has ever said “I’m full now. No more food please.”

So I kept feeding it bananas. Bundles of them at a time. It started to get expensive.   

We then took a long bus ride up to Northern Laos, camped in the Laos jungle in Luang Namtha, then headed into Thailand to Chiang Rai. This is the famous White house of Chiang Rai. It’s better than our White house currently. 

Near the border of Myanmar and Thailand was a place called Monkey Cave. It was one of my favorite places. The monkeys came down from the mountains to eat peanuts, torment the tourists and hang around the temples grooming each other. They were actually very nice to me though. I was scared once when one grabbed my back pack and jumped on my umbrella to steal my peanuts.

The Monkey language is Monkey body language.

Smiles all around.

Temple monkey’s.

Pink Sculptures at Monkey cave. Once you pass these sculptures you can enter these caves that supposedly go very very deep. I was afraid of finding viscous monkeys in the cave aka: the movie Congo. Inside the caves are where monks used to meditate and pray. Buddhist sculptures and candles were scattered around the caves everywhere.

Ancient temple near Monkey Caves.     

Some of the Monkey’s had bright red faces, some of them had horrible open scars. They fought with each other  a lot. They are warriors.

After Thailand we headed back into Laos and ended our trip in Luang Prabang. I reccomend a Laos travel adventure to anyone and everyone.  Especially if you like riding motorcycles and bicycles everywhere.

SPECIES: Psilocybe Caerulescens: These mushrooms went from hanging with their family members to being consumed by a shaman’s family members. In Huautla De Jimenez Mexico, their healing powers are believed to be more beneficial than modern medicine.

Protector of the magic mushroom farm. Not the woman, the dog.

A Mazatec Mushroom cultivator.

They were set out to dry before heading into town to be sold.

This photo was heavily photoshopped and became the digital poster of the Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia TV show.

SIDE NOTE: This mushroom town was also known for spelunking. The Shaman works with the mushrooms that we gathered. His name is Filigonio, grandson of the famous shamaness, Maria Sabina.

The alter is where the mushrooms are hidden from bad spirits within giant green leaves and before they are consumed they are spiritually cleansed by copal.

The shaman’s wife used mushrooms to heal her vision, and her son used them to cure his obsession with local cane sugar moonshine. 

A wooden Jesus oversaw the ceremony along with my clamp light and Kevin Hayden’s LED. Spirituality and cinematography become one.

Watch the documentary online Here

Here are some medium format photos from a shoot I did for VICE about the stockbrokers who are going to dominate the cannabis industry.

A secret grow lab in Canada owned by stockbrokers. It costs 2 million a year for just the lighting alone.

We took private plane rides to get to the secret grow labs. This was a sea plane, and it had a very smooth landing.

More grow labs in Connecticut. Hamilton engages with the luminous crystals.

Rolled testing materials in San Francisco.

Hanging out to dry in Vermont.

If only one plant survives on Earth, this will be the plant. It’s makes too much money to go extinct.

The stockbrokers who are still left in New York stockbroking are waiting to begin their investments in the cannabis industry. Soon all cannabis stocks will be broken by the brokers of stock.

Starring Hamilton Morris : entitled “White Collar Weed.” Produced by Eric Weinrib.

I took a thorn out of this horses hair. The thorn was wrapped around his head like a crown of thorns and he looked like a Jesus-horse. He followed me around town to thank me for removing the annoying thorns on his head. It was like he wanted to return the favor somehow.

While Jesus-horse was following me, I walked over to a pony and gave it an apple. Jesus-horse watched the whole event and got incredibly jealous and jumped into the air while letting out a visible fart on the little pony below. The little pony and I ran away in fear.

Jesus-horse galloped away into the New Forest bush and disappeared into the fog. After a few minutes, I gave the same pony another piece of fruit since he was startled off and I noticed Jesus-horse watching from behind a bush. He dragged his back hoofs on the dirt aggressively. Jesus-horse reveiled a very real human-like jealousy.

This is the pony that was farted on. The bigger horses seemed to hate this guy. They would quickly charge him in groups of four, it was like a horse drive by.

They chased the little pony for about twenty feet, made aggressive horse sounds,  then continued onward into the fog towards the forest. Every half an hour, they would make another round. Horses don’t have equal rights yet.

Ponies aren’t small horses destined to be big horse, Ponies are at their full size when they are at full Pony size. This is a full sized pony. About 2 1/2 feet tall.

To be honest, wild horses don’t really care to be around humans. It’s like they know how humans have enslaved their race. New Forest was like planet of the Apes but with horses instead of Monkeys.

Wild Horses are a lot like wild humans. Free all animals and let them be wild and human-like, like us.

And Equal rights to all ponies, inter-galacticly.

When you prefer to be alone with the company of other people.

When you prefer to be with people while focusing on yourself.

When you prefer to transport yourself beyond yourself.

When you want someone else to transport you into a place that you can’t find alone.

When people are calling to tell you about the different ways they find themselves.

When you’re finding yourself around other people who are also finding themselves.

When you’re trying to find yourself, but instead find a cat who has found itself.

When you’re all alone wondering if anyone else is out there is trying to find themselves.

But you are never alone, and you have yourself to thank for that.

Psychedelic nudibranchs hold high numbers in the international black market, which is why they are going extinct.To tell this story, I followed two smugglers who are involved in this lucrative industry. One who delivers the cash from China and the other who delivers the nudibranchs slugs from Slug Island, a privately owned estate unknown to the outside world.

These very rare psychoactive sea slugs are raised in slug farms deep in the forests near the Hinuwentu Villages of Slug Island. The slugs contain a potent aphrodisiac when consumed and are known to give off intense sexual hallucinations. Slug farmers dress in colors that help sooth the slugs as they are being captured. This color response relaxation method prevents the slug from secreting it’s air born hallucinogenic toxins.

I followed Najua, a black market nudibranch transporter on his journey from Slug Island to Montauk. A thirty five day plane ride.

Back in NY, I also followed Sarah, an international money transporter who models on the side. Her special made coat can fit up to half a million dollars of any foreign currency.

Two men are needed for these international transactions. One to count the cash, and one to handle the merchandise.

David, is the cash man.

Judging by the looks of Sarah’s padded coat, I bet she has at least two hundred thousand on her right now.

Sometimes it’s a waiting game when it comes to this line of work.

When Sarah arrived, Najua had me take this picture of them together. Something to show his family back home I guess.

They headed to a hotel room that their bosses had set up for them weeks in advance.

Inside the room, things got moody.

Sarah went quiet and Najua went quiet.

David, the cash man, closed the blinds to hide this transaction from public view.

This was the last picture I remember taking before collapsing. The toxins got released and everyone passed out.

Inside the realms of hallucinations.

When I woke up, I found Sarah lying on the beach with a nudibranch sea slug on her face. She was in a deep trance.

Najau and Sarah were both in a deep hallucination when I left them on the beach. The fact that they were holding hands is a good sign in the Slug Islander tradition. It’s a sign of Coastal Love.

You can watch the documentary film I made about the subject here.

Bryan Derballa, CEO of Love Bryan Enterprises

This year, Bryan Derballa, the CEO of Lovebryan Enterprises, awarded me with a full time blogging position and the chance to shoot at this years Company Blow Out Party.  It was a huge honor and I said yes to the event but I had to turn down the full time position. There were no health benefits discussed or vacation days. Not even a 401 K Retirement Plan. Anyways, here are some photos from the company party.

Patti Mera of Human Resources also likes animal resources.

Allen Ying, Intern Recruiter.

Left :DB, CEO    Right: Sade, Fashion Editor.

Cameron, Chief Operating Officer on a hot date.

Rubert, actually a competitor of the company. Possibly a spy.

To the left we have our Sales Rep Associate.

Allen hired the new intern.

Then he grabbed my camera and took this photo. He was waisted.

Newest Staff member Andrew White. He hasn’t signed any contracts yet so we had to blur this one. He said he’s down though.

These are the company PA’s for the winter semester. They don’t get paid but they get credits for middle school or something. They work Monday-Sunday 9am-5am.

View of the Technical Support office top right. They weren’t invited actually.

Phil Montgomery handles the Associates Studio office as a lab assistant. Mostly blemish removal type post work.

Accounting.

We had to remind these two about the company ink.

Patti wears multiple hats in the company. She also takes out the company trash after parties.

Then she trash talks about everyone.

Annalise: Vice President. She makes all the company speeches. This is when she said  “Happy New Years from Lovebryan Enterprizes.”

We were all very moved.