Andrew Weil Would Prescribe Ecstasy

MyPrimeTime, Inc.’s New Public Television Series, Great Leaders Challenges Conventional Thinking While Offering Real Insight Into Success

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 11/09/2001 -- The Public Broadcasting TV series Great Leaders is proving to be a ground-breaking look at not only what powerful people achieve but what they believe, how they think and behave and how they lead change.

Interviewed on November 1, 2001 on location at his X-9 ranch outside of Tucson, Arizona, Andrew Weil, M.D. and best-selling author told Great Leaders that the controversial drug Ecstasy can be useful in treating some medical problems. “If it were legal I would certainly recommend it to a variety of patients,” said Weil.

The noted alternative medicine practitioner added: “I've seen chronic pain disappear as a result of one session with Ecstasy. I've seen allergies disappear. It gives you a chance to experience your body without the chronic tension that we normally impose on it. And although it doesn't teach you to maintain that, it shows you that it's possible and it can motivate you to find out how to make it happen … without the drug."

Weil may once again be ahead of his more traditional medical colleagues. Just four days after the Great Leaders interview was shot, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the first study of Ecstasy, (MDMA) as a treatment for people with posttraumatic stress disorder.

For more of the interview, visit: myprimetime.com .

Distributed to public broadcasting stations, Great Leaders is the first TV production to deconstruct the attributes of leaders in a wide variety of fields and delve into the traits and techniques that have made them so successful. Donald Van de Mark, Cofounder, SVP of Programming at MyPrimeTime and host of Great Leaders said, “Again and again, we’re coming across the same series of characteristics that make for superior performance. There are recognizable and learnable traits that great people demonstrate. Just as Abraham Maslow, the great psychologist said that most of us are capable of optimum health and happiness, these peak performing individuals show us how.”

Among the themes and leaders featured in the first set of episodes are:

- Conviction & Leonard Goldenson of ABC television
- Endurance & Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen (polar explorers)
- Epiphanies & Thomas Monaghan of Domino’s Pizza
- Communication and Reputation & H.J. Heinz and David Ogilvy
- Defiant Optimism & Sumner Redstone of Viacom and Jack Welch of GE
- Candor & Jack Welch of GE
- Consciousness & Deepak Chopra, M.D. and Matthew Fox (Theologian and Author)
- Commitment & Dennis Conner and Jerry and Eileen Ford of Ford Models, Inc.
- Balance & Andrew Weil, M.D.

Great Leaders is produced by San Francisco-based, MyPrimeTime, Inc. and is a weekly half-hour broadcast that began airing in early October in select markets, including: Dallas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit, Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut. Dozens of other public broadcasting stations have indicated that they will air series over the next twelve months.

About MyPrimeTime Inc.

MyPrimeTime, Inc. is digital media company whose television shows and internet products empower adults to live the lives they imagine. Through its public-television productions and Internet operations, MyPrimeTime has achieved total monthly audiences of over five million households, and 1 million registered users.

MyPrimeTime's management team includes former executives from AOL Time Warner, StarMedia, Infoseek and Arthur Andersen. MyPrimeTime's investors include venture capital firms Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Sequoia Partners, Blue Chip Capital, Presidio Ventures Partners, Odyssey Capital, Integrity Partners and W.R. Hambrecht, as well as angel investor Joan Rivers. Including the Series C round, the total equity investment in the company stands at roughly $33 million.