Podcast: The Future of Psychedelics

Great comments. Thanks

I think that, for a lot of people, the use of psychedelics for spiritual purposes might best be a pretty rare thing. It can definitely be powerful, I personally know this, and the recent experiments with the terminally ill patients and psilocybin are recent proof. But, in my experience, to use the substances, and turn my mind (not to mention, my heart) to such matters too often seems to bring diminishing returns. I know others might disagree, but I think that the insights don't ultimately bring too much, if we commonly receive them. I've had so many that shouldn't have meant anything, but did because I let them. And, quite a few times, I've ended up pretty sure that a person could go on finding meaning in those frayed or fractal dead ends--why not?

I think McKenna (and to varying extents, others) succeeded in bringing some beauty out of the psychedelic experience, and the places that ideas and visions could take us. It is a great way to open up to possibilities. But things so often go in circles. McKenna contradicted himself many times, and some of his most intoxicating ideas can seem absolutely horrifying, upon closer inspection. I think the psychedelic experience can blind us to possibilities (both good ones and bad ones), as well.

We can be good people without the help of psychedelics, and I'd rather not let them burn my time with unnecessary insights that end up more like a busy-work side-project. There's a place for monks and sages, but I think there are other approaches to living that need to be recognized, as well. I wonder if these mind-altering substances aren't dragging some people deeper into structures and habits that they don't really need, despite how entrancing and compelling they might sometimes seem.

I enjoy the beauty and creativity that can come from psychedelics, and the opportunity to play with the mind's imagination--and, yes, there can be spirit in all of that, to varying extents. But bringing my very heart onto that shifting, weird, and deceitful playing-field, and living life as if it were a play or a game--well, it just isn't my cup of tea. Not often, anyhow. My heart is most of all for those who I know well, and who I am sharing my life with. Steeping my heart in the psychedelic experience seems to remove it from them, or perhaps place an unnecessary filter between us.

And I wonder if it is this sort of filter that is evolving, rather than the people that are drawn into its counsel.

Very well said Anonymous. Like you, I didn't intend for my post to be negative. It's just the truth of what I feel.

You bring up a good point. McKenna was awesome, and so many of his ideas were new and original. I think that's why I find myself disappointed with the likes of Pinchbeck and Razam. It's because all their ideas seem to be a rehash of what has already been explored. They don't seem to have anything to add to the psychedelic conversation.

You know, that last post I made came out sounding somewhat negative, and since I've sort-of made a personal commitment to try to be more positive, let me see if I can put a more positive spin on it.

All those people who think they are acting as the agents of conscious ascension by brining about a new manifestation of the divine vegetal? THAT'S ALL GREAT!

If the psychedelic experience holds and meaning and value at all, we have to at least ponder the insights it brings to us. That's not to say we have to accept those insights as divine guidance from on-high, but if we just dismiss them as out of hand we're probably just burning time. And I've had some insights on this.

The way I see it, it's all divine play, all lila. Good stuff happens. Bad stuff happens. It's not that it's all the same, but it's all there.

What matters is not if these "save the world by plants" people are right; that matters is how well they play the game. We don't appreciate the actors in a movie by how well their actions match something that happened "in the real world." We appreciate how well they played their role.

That's the main issue I have with Pinchbeck. He's trying so obviously, desperately hard to be important, it kind of negates the story he is ostensibly telling. As a "thought leader" he fails because so many of his thoughts are just a mash up of other people's thoughts. As a writer he's OK, but not great (but Breaking... was better than 2012). As a spiritual leader his ego gets in the way. And as an enlightened businessman his businesses seem really, really marginal. (But in the spirit of full disclosure, I like some of the writers he has on Reality Sandwich, like Charles Eisenstein, so I read it, if not religiously). And trying to be all at once-- thinker, writer, leader, businessman--keeps him trying to do too much and not focusing on what he's good at.

McKenna, on the other hand, played his part really, really well, and deserve high marks for it. He was a great story-teller, and articulate speaker, and talented writer. His scientific acumen wasn't what he thought it was, but it functioned well enough as a sub-plot to the story he told, and above all he was a story-teller.

I agree too.

Don't get me wrong: I'm a big fan of psychedelics. I drink ayahuasca several times a month, and have no plans on changing that practice. But I have no illusion that it will swoop down, messiah-like, and save humanity from itself. I do it because I find it personally meaningful, and its part to the practice I undergo to try to find a little meaning and understanding in my life.

Serious psychedelic practice is like any other "spiritual" path. Look a Buddhism, for example. I have no doubt that it has made a great difference in many people's lives, everything from reducing the stress in their lives a bit all the way up to the-state-called-Enlightenment. But is it enough to "save" humanity? Well, that experiment has been under way for several thousand years, and so far there is no evidence that it can.

If, as some believe (but I don't particularly, archaic man lived in some entheogen-fueled state of grace, then the psychedelic experiment has already been going on for tens of thousands of years. And look where is has gotten us.

No evidence than anything can save us.

And so I meditate. I drink ayahuasca frequently. And I try to not become too bleak with contemplating the existential realities of human society and culture.

We live by story, and we tend to believe the things we hear and read that excite our imagination (both positively and negatively). That's why people loved McKenna so much. That's why people like Pinchbeck and Razzam have lots of listeners queuing up behind them. And that's why James Kent is relatively obscure (I think PIT is a good, serious, book, but when it comes to "exciting the imagination," it doesn't do it in the same way the McKenna did). It's all about the story.

I am basically with you, dreamdust. It seems like it can get sort of cultish, maybe because of an "us against them" stance against gov't regulation, or maybe because it involves ceremonies where people gather, and a culture is able to ingrain itself (maybe for good and for ill). I imagine that managing to take the drug and navigate/integrate with the others doing it, and fitting into some traditional context, etc. can feel like quite an accomplishment. I don't know if it is necessarily evolution though, though it might seem as such if one's perspective is locked within the experience/culture itself.

Despite the claims of greater empathy and ego-death, we've recently seen cases of conflict and huge-ego within the community. I think this sort of inconsistency, coupled with group-mind tendencies and ego-shattering psychedelics makes for something that could get a bit unhealthy, without a little more respect for other fronts and strategies in human or cultural evolution.

Honestly, for people who constantly talk about "ego-death" and the like, the psychedelic culture seems to possess a deluded sense of self-importance.

Come on, I thought we learned that drugs themselves don't produce spiritual understanding. It's the context. LSD, DMT, ayahuasca aren't spiritual tools for everybody.

Ayahuasca guiding the West "back" to a cooperative Gaian partnership? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

Galactic community? Razam needs a dictionary. The Evolver community? After listening to the podcast, what do they mean by this? They're "evolved" because they take ayahuasca?

Am I the only one who sees the recycled meme of psychedelic panacea here?