Mike Jay
@mikejay.bsky.social
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http://mikejay.net
reposted by
Mike Jay
MIT Press
6 days ago
Sleep paralysis, somnambulism, hypnic jerks: weāve all drifted through the borderlands of sleep & wakefulness. Those borderlands have preoccupied philosophers, scientists, & novelists, from Montaigneās āmost profound and maddest fanciesā to E.M. Cioranās warning of sleepās āfrightening importance.ā
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Daydreamers and Sleepwalkers: Crossing the Borderlands of the Unconscious
Scientists and philosophers have spent centuries studying sleep. Each descent only deepens the mystery.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/daydreamers-and-sleepwalkers-crossing-the-borderlands-of-the-unconscious/
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12 days ago
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Only recently learned that A MAN CALLED HORSE and THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALLANCE are both based on short stories by a little-known female author. Both in this collection which is solidly excellent.
13 days ago
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theconversation.com/a-century-ag...
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A century ago, John Logie Baird achieved a landmark moment in television history. The viewers werenāt convinced
In Soho, London, 100 years ago, John Logie Bairdās mechanical television system broadcast recognisable human faces for the first time.
https://theconversation.com/a-century-ago-john-logie-baird-achieved-a-landmark-moment-in-television-history-the-viewers-werent-convinced-274089
13 days ago
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Mike Jay
Noema Magazine
25 days ago
āIf we conflate the richness of biological brains & human experience with the information-processing machinations of deepfake-boosted chatbots, or whatever the latest AI wizardry is, we do our minds, brains & bodies a grave injustice.ā ā
@anilseth.bsky.social
, winner of
@berggruen.org
Essay Prize
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The Mythology Of Conscious AI | NOEMA
Why consciousness is more likely a property of life than of computation and why creating conscious, or even conscious-seeming AI, is a bad idea.
https://www.noemamag.com/the-mythology-of-conscious-ai/?utm_source=noemabluesky&utm_medium=noemasocial
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The most detailed account yet of the Liberty Capās emergence - highly recommended š
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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nhmu.utah.edu/articles/exp...
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Experts Explore New Mushroom Which Causes Fairytale-Like Hallucinations
Between traditional folklore and modern biology, the wild forest floor and the sterile scientific laboratory, lies the story of the lilliputian mushroom.
https://nhmu.utah.edu/articles/experts-explore-new-mushroom-which-causes-fairytale-hallucinations
2 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Rich Haridy
2 months ago
In the middle of a wild wkend at Entheogenesis Australis' Garden States. Missing way too much but what I have caught has been deeply engaging. Below daytime is Dave Nickles dropping bombs on the local community and night time is
@mikejay.bsky.social
going deep on mescaline art.
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Tim Nicholson
3 months ago
Still a few tickets left for this event with the amazing
@mikejay.bsky.social
tonight 6-7.30 at
@kingsioppn.bsky.social
All welcome as Mike discusses his new book on the discovery of N2O & the birth of psychedelic sciencešš
add a skeleton here at some point
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Mike Jay
MIT Press
3 months ago
From ancient dream theory to hypnosis, somnambulism to psychedelic mind-expansion, "The Unconscious" by Antonio Melechi traces the wider social and scientific history of the unconscious mind. Coming in February!
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205102...
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www.kcl.ac.uk/events/free-...
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Free Radicals - In conversation with Mike Jay | King's College London
Mike Jay will discuss with Dr Matt Butler the fascinating stories and cast of characters involved in the discovery of laughing gas (nitrous oxide) which is the subject of his latest book Free Radicals...
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/free-radicals-in-conversation-with-mike-jay
3 months ago
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mikejay.net/we-burn-to-r...
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We Burn to Remember - Mike Jay
Bonfire Night in Lewes: its riotous origins and survival against the odds
https://mikejay.net/we-burn-to-remember/
3 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Bethlem Museum of the Mind
3 months ago
#OnThisDay
in 1977 the artist William Kurelek died. His 1953 autobiographical painting, The Maze, painted during his time as a patient at the Maudsley Hospital, continues to captivate visitors to Bethlem Museum of the Mind. Discover this intriguing artwork here:
bit.ly/MOTMMaze
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reposted by
Mike Jay
The Public Domain Review
4 months ago
Listen to a series of recordings made by the ethnographer James Mooney in 1894 of different Native American Ghost Dance songs. According to the Library Of Congress notes that accompany the recordings, the performances are probably by Mooney himself ā
publicdomainreview.org/collection/j...
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reposted by
Mike Jay
The Public Domain Review
4 months ago
The tragic story of James Tilly Matthews, a former peace activist of the Napoleonic Wars confined to Bedlam asylum in 1797 for believing that his mind was under the control of the āAir Loomā ā a terrifying machine which was brainwashing politicians:
publicdomainreview.org/essay/i...
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āTis the seasonā¦
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Mushrooms in Wonderland - Mike Jay
Was Victorian fairy art and lore inspired by actual experiences with mind-altering fungi?
https://mikejay.net/mushrooms-in-wonderland/
4 months ago
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Mike Jay
Erowid Center
5 months ago
"Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Mind" by Mike Jay "ā¦Mike Jay brilliantly recovers a lost intellectual tradition of drug-taking that fed the birth of psychology, the discovery of the unconscious, and the emergence of modernism." Mike is always a great read!
erowid.org/books/psycho...
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Erowid Center
5 months ago
Erowid needs your support. Donate toward real, honest info about psychedelics plants & drugsā¦for harm reduction, benefit enhancement, and the history books. Matching challenge! $20-$499 donations are DOUBLED $500-$3,000 donations are TRIPLED
Erowid.org/sept_drive
Donate and help spread the word!
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reposted by
Mike Jay
The Public Domain Review
5 months ago
From fairy-rings to Lewis Carroll's Alice, mushrooms have long been entwined with the supernatural in art + literature. @MikeJayNet on early reports of mushroom-induced trips and how one species became established as a stock motif of Victorian fairyland.
publicdomainreview.org/essay/f...
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Rich Haridy
5 months ago
If you're anywhere in Australia at the end of Nov then I'd suggest you make your way here. This is the first outdoor entheogenesis conference in 8 yrs. An incredible event with a sharp line up of speakers.
@mikejay.bsky.social
@tehseennoorani.bsky.social
@pyrodelic.bsky.social
@gmantic.bsky.social
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reposted by
Mike Jay
London Review of Books
5 months ago
āOne veteran shaman, returning from his first experience performing at a top-dollar eco-lodge, asked the ayahuasca researcher Stephan Beyer why these people had come halfway round the world to see him when they werenāt sick.ā @mikejay.bsky.social on shamanism:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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Mike Jay Ā· Priest of the Devil: On Shamanism
āShamanismā, as a concept, is of course a Western invention, and from the earliest cross-cultural encounters it was...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n16/mike-jay/priest-of-the-devil
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reposted by
Mike Jay
manvir singh
5 months ago
Thrilled to see this mammoth review of "Shamanism" in
@lrb.co.uk
from master drug historian
@mikejay.bsky.social
!
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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Mike Jay Ā· Priest of the Devil: On Shamanism
āShamanismā, as a concept, is of course a Western invention, and from the earliest cross-cultural encounters it was...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n16/mike-jay/priest-of-the-devil
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Bethlem Museum of the Mind
6 months ago
Ever dreamt of being chased, falling, or flying? Our new exhibition, 'Between Sleeping and Waking', will bring together 200 years of artwork to show you are not alone! Opening this Thursday, 14 August *ą©ā©ā§āĖ
bit.ly/MOTM_dreams
Image: Let There Be Light, Edgar Farrar, 1943.
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Out in paperback in the US today
mikejay.net/books/free-r...
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FREE RADICALS - Mike Jay
How a Group of Romantic Experimenters Gave Birth to Psychedelic Science
https://mikejay.net/books/free-radicals/
6 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Neil Denny
7 months ago
On today's new Little Atoms podcast,
@mikejay.bsky.social
on his latest book Free Radicals. Out now from
@yalebooks.bsky.social
. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or here:
shows.acast.com/b5fe8d16-751...
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Little Atoms 962 - Mike Jay's Free Radicals | Little Atoms
A Podcast about Ideas and Culture
https://shows.acast.com/b5fe8d16-7518-4208-861b-e1ec5ce88192/68823a9de0a86cc3abb1a2a3
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Talking FREE RADICALS and the discovery of nitrous oxide
www.drugscience.org.uk/podcast/epis...
7 months ago
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Behind the scenes at the Pneumatic Institution, with Tim Haigh
bookspodcast.com
7 months ago
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Iāll be down under for this in Nov/Dec
www.gardenstates.org
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EGA Garden States: Regeneration
https://www.gardenstates.org/
8 months ago
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Mike Jay
Peder Clark
8 months ago
late to this but easily the best thing that's been written on the history of ketamine to date. i dream of visiting john lilly's archive at stanford...
add a skeleton here at some point
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On the gas in Bath tomorrow
www.brlsi.org/whatson/free...
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Free Radicals! Thomas Beddoes, Humphrey Davy and the Pneumatic Institute of Bristol ā Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
At the very end of eighteenth century, the distinguished Oxford chemist Dr Thomas Beddoes founded a new private medical research clinic, The Pneumatic Institute, where together with his brilliant assi...
https://www.brlsi.org/whatson/free-radicals-thomas-beddoes-humphrey-davy-and-the-pneumatic-institute-of-bristol
8 months ago
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The mighty Sia get due recognition in Audubon - great piece by
@rachelnuwer.bsky.social
www.audubon.org/magazine/nat...
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This Native-Run Raptor Center Is Safeguarding Sacred Birds, Feathers, and Practices
A Comanche-led conservation project takes on an increasingly urgent mission: protecting the birds revered by many tribes while preserving traditions at the heart of their culture.
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/native-run-raptor-center-safeguarding-sacred-birds-feathers-and-practices
8 months ago
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Bristolians: launching FREE RADICALS at the Bookhaus on Wednesday
www.bookhausbristol.com/events/
8 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Transform Drug Policy Foundation
8 months ago
This guest blog by
@mikejay.bsky.social
Mike Jay was originally published in the New Statesman, reproduced with permission Mike Jay is a cultural historian, author, & former Transform Trustee
mikejay.net
His books include the recent: 'Psychonauts: drugs & the making of the modern mind' 2/
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Transform Drug Policy Foundation
8 months ago
šØNEW BLOGšØ "Ketamine has no deep history or hinterland: it is a product of pharmaceutical modernity. Its multiple identities mirror the broad spectrum of its effects...from a mild & pleasant giddiness to a white-knuckle ride into another dimension"
transformdrugs.org/blog/how-bri...
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How Britain fell into the K-hole | Transform
https://transformdrugs.org/blog/how-britain-fell-into-the-k-hole
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution
8 months ago
How did laughing gas change medicine forever? @mikejay.bsky.social and Stuart Reynolds, who will be exploring the groundbreaking work of #ThomasBeddoes & #HumphreyDavy at #ThePneumaticInstitute.šš¬šļø #FreeRadicals #HistoryOfScience #BristolEvents
www.brlsi.org/whatso...
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Free Radicals! Thomas Beddoes, Humphrey Davy and the Pneumatic Institute of Bristol ā Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
At the very end of eighteenth century, the distinguished Oxford chemist Dr Thomas Beddoes founded a new private medical research clinic, The Pneumatic Institute, where together with his brilliant assistant Humphrey Davy, he administered experimental treatment of volunteers and medical patients with the psychedelic gas nitrous oxide. Seeking to cure chronic diseases, they instead discovered that the gas had remarkable effects on the mind. Davy was fascinated and although he dubbed the treatment ālaughing gasā, he took it much more seriously than that. The astonishing story of this short-lived, but immensely influential, medical research institute involves a stellar cast of characters: from the socialite and political hostess Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, to the scientists James Watt and Erasmus Darwin, not to mention the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Mike Jay is the author of a new book about Beddoes and his circle, Free Radicals (Yale University Press) and this event will be in conversation with the BRLSIās Professor Stuart Reynolds. There will be book sales and signings with Mike after the talk. Mike Jay is an author specialising in psychedelics and the history of drugs. He has published many books on this subject. Mikeās book Free Radicals will be published in the UK by Yale University Press in June. He writes regularly for the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books. You can read about his work by visiting his website https://mikejay.net/ Stuart Reynolds is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Bath and is convenor of the BRLSI Science group.
https://www.brlsi.org/whatson/free-radicals-thomas-beddoes-humphrey-davy-and-the-pneumatic-institute-of-bristol/
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A chat with the Lewis Carroll Society of North America
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5s5...
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Spr 25 (03) Magic Mushrooms in Wonderland - Mike Jay (LCSNA)
YouTube video by Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5s5l3ASxHY
8 months ago
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Discussing FREE RADICALS at a launch event in Bath on Thursday 26th
www.brlsi.org/whatson/free...
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Free Radicals! Thomas Beddoes, Humphrey Davy and the Pneumatic Institute of Bristol ā Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
At the very end of eighteenth century, the distinguished Oxford chemist Dr Thomas Beddoes founded a new private medical research clinic, The Pneumatic Institute, where together with his brilliant assi...
https://www.brlsi.org/whatson/free-radicals-thomas-beddoes-humphrey-davy-and-the-pneumatic-institute-of-bristol
8 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Jay
The Public Domain Review
8 months ago
In his essay āThe Ether Dreams of Fin-de-SiĆØcle Parisā, @MikeJayNet explores how consuming powerful solvents shaped the writings of Guy de Maupassant and Jean Lorrain:
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/ether-dreams
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Some thoughts on ketamine
www.newstatesman.com/politics/hea...
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How Britain fell into the K-hole
Silicon Valleyās favourite drug is also the UKās.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2025/06/how-britain-fell-into-the-k-hole-ketamine
8 months ago
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Hot off the press: out June 24 (UK), August 4 (US)
8 months ago
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www.mindbodyhealthpolitics.org/p/the-scient...
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The Scientists Who Drank Their Own Medicine - Mike Jay
When self-experimentation was heroic, not shamefulāand what we lost when courage became career suicide
https://www.mindbodyhealthpolitics.org/p/the-scientists-who-drank-their-own?utm_campaign=post
8 months ago
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Alessandro Voltaās āvoltaic pileā was modelled on electric eel anatomy
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Electric Fish and the First Battery - JSTOR Daily
Allesandro Volta invented the voltaic pile, the earliest electric battery, in part because of his investigations into the torpedo, an electric ray fish.
https://daily.jstor.org/electric-fish-and-the-first-battery/
9 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Peder Clark
9 months ago
very apposite that this is getting re-issued simultaneously with
@mikejay.bsky.social
's book about Thomas Beddoes and the discovery of laughing gas...
yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
add a skeleton here at some point
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Just asking questionsā¦searching stuff from
@robertshrimsley.bsky.social
in Saturdayās
@financialtimes.com
9 months ago
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Could equally be evidence for an egalitarian multi-ethnic pilgrimage site with a local caste of ChavĆn guides. Where are the āeliteā residences, defensive structures etc?
add a skeleton here at some point
9 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Jay
The Public Domain Review
9 months ago
āOn May 5th, at night, after walking for an hour amidst the scenery of the Avon, at this period rendered exquisitely beautiful by bright moonshine; my mind being in a state of agreeable feeling, I respired six quarts of newly prepared nitrous oxide....ā
publicdomainreview.org/essay/o...
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Forbidden Histories
9 months ago
Gold from the FH archives: guest post by my teacher & current head of HPS Cambridge, Hasok Chang.
www.forbiddenhistories.com/2018/08/haso...
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Daily Grail
9 months ago
The OG 'Illuminati' came into being on May 1 1776 - but it wasn't until a sensationalist book was written two decades later that conspiracy theories about the organization went into high gear.
@mikejay.bsky.social
writes about the real origins of the Illuminati:
www.dailygrail.com/2010/07/the-...
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The Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy - The Daily Grail
Excerpted from Mike JayāsĀ Stranger Than Fiction,Ā available inĀ KindleĀ andĀ paperbackĀ editions from Amazon. At the beginning of 1797, John Robison was a man with a solid and long-standing reputation in t...
https://www.dailygrail.com/2010/07/the-birth-of-the-illuminati/
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Long overdue and thoroughly chilling biography of William Sargant
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āHe still features in my nightmaresā: how a sinister psychiatrist put hundreds of women in deep, drug-induced comas
In the 1960s, William Sargant used a combination of narcosis and ECT to āreprogramā troubled young women. Now his patients, including the actor Celia Imrie and the former model Linda Keith, are trying...
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/29/he-still-features-in-my-nightmares-how-a-sinister-psychiatrist-put-hundreds-of-women-in-deep-drug-induced-comas
11 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Jay
Olga Byrska
11 months ago
Picture of 2025 so far, IMO (Erdem Sahin/EPA)
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