In case you lived on another planet, there’s a “psychedelic renaissance” going on.
It’s a big deal. Like affecting the fate of humanity level big deal. How we come into relationship with, how we integrate, and what we learn from psychedelics individually and collectively over the next few decades will impact humanity’s trajectory.
After too many years of harmful prohibition, propaganda and stigmatization, psychedelics are being let out, but on a tight leash. The cat couldn’t stay in the bag forever, especially as our increasingly disconnected, materialist, consumerist, competitive and dominator culture begins to take its toll on the health of people.
Psychedelics are powerful. They transform, awaken, heal. They amplify meaning and create group cohesion, they produce mystical experiences of profound personal significance. For some, they illuminate God. For others, spirits and aliens. According to most, they improve cognition, wellbeing, sexual drive and creativity.
Psychedelics do many things.
Including reliably causing the dissolution of culturally laid down models of perception and behaviour, putting tradition, authority and truth into question.
Psychedelics threaten the norm. They weaken the established political and cultural powers that be, and give immense power to those who know how to take advantage of the highly suggestible and vulnerable psychedelic-induced state of consciousness.
As millions begin taking legal psychedelics, culture and society will transform.
But how? Some believe the renaissance of plant and fungi teachers will contribute to the continued unfolding of a global spiritual awakening. Some push for psychedelics to become effective clinical treatments for the major mental health conditions that plague civilized minds. Others are working to revolutionize a pharmaceutical industry and make lots of money, and more believe psychedelics will reform our understanding of human psychology and spirituality while facilitating new approaches to healing and transformation. There’s no lack of opinions and activity in the psychedelic sector.
Yet, the psychedelic renaissance will only be as significant as we make it.
It’s possible psychedelics will slowly steer the world into a brighter future for all through a genuine process of healing and awakening that honours the dynamic psychological, social, ecological and spiritual foundations of human and planetary health. Heightened creativity as a result of popular psychedelic use may reveal novel solutions to pressing problems such as ecological destruction or technology addiction. Further, there may be a significant cultural transformation as people discover God in a pill, a hyperconnected brain and deeply amplified sensemaking.
It is also possible psychedelics will be digested by modern capitalism, amounting to not much beyond psilocybin in a pill sold at a pharmacy, mail order ketamine with AI chat-bot support, expensive retreats for the those who can afford it, psychedelics without the psychedelic experience (Prozac 2.0), and the rise of radical (and radically weird) ideologies. But why would we stop there? There’s more to the “psychedelic renaissance” than capitalizing on the commodification of powerful earth-medicine.
Psychedelics present an opportunity for us to heal and transform ourselves and our relationship to planet Earth, the universe and existence in new but ancient ways that contribute to planetary harmony and sustainability. However, these beneficial changes are possible only if the psychedelics are approached properly, with respect for the wisdom that the plants and fungi communicate when we silence ourselves enough (a significant challenge for a culture that idolizes the individual self) to truly listen in a way that allows for genuine integration of the psychedelic experience.
Enduring significance of a psychedelic experience must be imbued in the world.
The sense of self-discovery and self-completion that we achieve through using psychedelic plants is a cultural indulgence unless we translate it to the next level of political action.
— Terence McKenna
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Awesome share friend :)