Descending the Mountain

Feature Documentary Film, 78 minutes
Subtitels: English, French, Spanish, Dutch and German
Location: Switzerland
Production: Switzerland/the Netherlands
World premiere: Fall 2021

This film takes you on a journey of mystical revelations through magic mushrooms and meditations.
In ‘Descending the Mountain’ psychiatrist Franz Vollenweider and Zen master Vanja Palmers create a ground-breaking scientific experiment located on the majestic Mount Rigi in Switzerland.
The film shows if and how, when united, psilocybin and meditation might expand our understanding of the nature of consciousness.

Leaving the iconic visuals of the 60’s behind, ‘Descending the Mountain’ uses animation, sound, and A.I. to create a new visual language for the transcendent experience of oneness with nature.

Descending the Mountain is exemplary for the current psychedelic renaissance. In the hallucinating setting of the Swiss mountains and the serenity of a monastery surrounded by nature, Maartje Nevejan takes us on an audio-visual journey through expanded consciousness. As in her previous work ‘Are You There?’ she uses various subtle techniques to document the enhanced reality of inner experiences. Visually surprising and with a mesmerizing sound track this film literally opens doors of perception akin to the effects of psychedelics.”

Patricia Pisters
Prof Media and film studies University Amsterdam

In the Media

Continue reading "In the Media"

Synopsis & trailer

What happens when you administer psilocybin to experienced zen meditators? A neuroscientist and a zen master carry out a double-blind experiment on a sphinxlike mountain in Switzerland. Their goal: to examine the nature of consciousness. 

These substances are not for the sick only, they belong in the hands of meditation”
Albert Hofmann

Exactly fifty years after the ban on psychedelics a group of Zen meditators – who have never used any psychedelic substances before  –  are given psilocybin on the last day of a 5-day retreat. Half the group receives a placebo.

Mystical experiences are induced through a combination of deep meditation and psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms. 
This scientific experiment, which was published in Nature magazine in 2020, may lift the controversy that has clouded the realm of psychedelics for far too long. 

Continue reading “Synopsis & trailer”

Where to see

DTM opened in cinema’s in the Netherlands in november 2021.

Streaming platforms

GAIA
https://www.gaia.com/video/descending-the-mountain

VIMEO
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/descendingthemountain

APPLE TV
https://tv.apple.com/mz/movie/descending-the-mountain

PRIME VIDEO AMAZON
https://www.amazon.com/Descending-Mountain-Dr-Peter-Gasser

Film Festivals

2023
Distribution Canada is set by January 2023 by Levelfilm

November 24 -26 2022
Spirit Film Festival Israel

October 28 2022
VOD premiere for Germany, Austria and Switzerland is set for October 28, 2022 by Polyband.

October 19-23 2022
Festival de Cinema Budista de Catalunya (FCBC), Barcelona Spain

October 7-9 2022
Festival La Conscience dans tous ses Etats France

October 2022
Screening ROXY in Prague, Czech Republic

August 2022
Sphinx Cinema Gent Belgium

June 30 2022
Garden Festival Landhuis Oud-Amelisweerd, Utrecht.
Screening: 19.00 hrs

June 29 2022
Broadcasting on Dutch TV, NPO 2 23:20 hrs

June 15-19 2022
Siberzalz Science and Media awards. Nomination Homeland Earth Award, Halle, Germany

June first – August 14 2022
BuddhaFest/Tricycle Online Festival all over USA

May – September 2022
Cultural Society, Deliberate Practice AB Sweden

May 2022
Nickelodeon Cinemas, USA

May 13 – 22 2022
Millennium Docs Against Gravity film festival Poland
World Economic Forum Davos, Switserland

April 28 – May 3 2022
Academia Film Olomouc, International Festival of Science Documentary Films Czech Republic

November 2021
InScience Film Festival, Nijmegen The Netherlands

Educational screenings

For educational screenings email MAGNETfilms in Berlin.

We are proud that students, art-schools, clubs, conferences and psychedelic societies, organise worldwide, with our help, special screenings.

2023

Tricycle Magazine Monthly Film Club  USA      
January 2023 – online for a month (not online yet)

October 2022
Basel Hyperwerk, Switzerland

October 11-17 2022
Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Global Summit USA

September 2022 – 5 days
Cultural Society, Deliberate Practice AB, Oslo, Sweden

September, 2022
Unsui Praxis Switzerland
ICPR Conference The Netherlands September, 2022

August 2022
Western New York Psychedelic Society, USA

June 17-25 2023
The Psychedelic Society Maps Screening in Colorado USA      

Berlin Mind Foundation Members, at Soho House Germany

June, 2022
Victoria Association for Psychedelic Studies VAPS, Canada

University of Southern Maine USA

June 2022, date tbc
Victoria Association for Psychedelic Studies VAPS, Canada

June 9th 2022
Buddist center, Bern, Switzerland

May 2022
Choka Sangha e.V. Germany

May 2, 2022
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine University of Utah USA

We had special screenings in Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Mexico, Switzerland.
CITIES: Berlin, Lausanne, Zurich, Paris, Lyon, Mexico City, Rotterdam, Nijmegen, San Francisco, Oslo, Stockholm, Den Haag, Baden, Marseille.

Where to hear

The soundtrack of this film contains music composed by Cosmo Sheldrake and Michel Banabila.

Read more about these amazing artists

Soundtrack for ‘Descending The Mountain’ @ Spotify

Descending the Mountain – EP, Michel Banabila

Wake up calls, Cosmo Sheldrake

The making of

Behind the scenes of Descending the Mountain

“If approached respectfully and under good conditions, these substances have the power to facilitate the real deep spiritual mystical experience”

– ‘Descending the Mountain’

This video shows the making of the wonderfull animations (by Douwe Dijkstra), used in the movie.

Enjoy lots of ‘behind the scenes’ photos….

Continue reading “The making of”