Fighting the Psychedelic Police, pt 468
a.k.a. the people who think they're an authority on something they've never tried
We’re firmly out of eclipse season and we all lived.
Specifically, my 17 y/o cat Bearface lived, which is such a relief considering how up and down things were with her health over the last month. I ended up adding two supplements to all of her food that have turned things around significantly. She’s now running around, playing, and telling me when to go to bed and wake up every day just like she did 10+ years ago. Fingers crossed this continues.
Similar to my experience with Western medicine, mainstream veterinary recommendations are a deathtrap and I’ve been learning so much valuable, life-saving info going the more holistic route. A topic for another time though.
On the Unisom tapering front, I’ve momentarily stopped lowering my dose. I reached a point where I completely stopped sleeping so I’m holding steady where I’m at (currently at 57% of the way through) and waiting for my system to regulate a bit more before I lower it again. It’s a bummer but sleep is necessary to life for some reason.
In other news, some positive breakthroughs are happening in my career world. I’m feeling optimistic. So optimistic that I might actually talk about those breakthroughs soon. But not today.
Today I want to talk about my greatest passions: getting irritated with people who speak authoritatively about things they don’t understand and psychedelics.
Recently I was talking with someone who doesn’t know me well and the topic of psychedelics came up. It was clear from the start that they had no direct experience with them but somehow had very strong opinions based on things they had heard.
My use of psychedelics has winded down considerably over the last few years but I still regard them as some of the most powerful, life-changing technologies that exist on earth. So when someone speaks ill of them, I get activated.
Sure enough, this person wanted to talk about how most people use psychedelics as a way to escape reality. “What they really should be doing is taking a hard look at the things in their life that make them unhappy and then take consistent, productive action to improve those things.”
Easy as that! How intelligent and evolved they were to totally and completely understand what everyone needs.
So I asked, “What do you think a person should do if they have no idea why they’re unhappy? What if they have taken a hard look at their life and made drastic changes to improve things? What if they got everything they thought would make them happy and they’re still suicidal? Then what?”
“They could see a doctor or a therapist. Go on medication. Exercise every day. Read books. Watch inspirational YouTube videos. Just continue to work hard and look for fulfillment and it will come.”
“What if they’ve done all that and they still find life unlivable? Then what?”
We were at an impasse. This person struggled to comprehend a world where what I was describing was even possible. While they likely thought I was being purposefully difficult, I was honestly describing what I had lived through.
Coincidentally what this person was experiencing at this moment was the same issue that psychedelics are great for. They expand your mind beyond your current limitations of understanding and allow you to easily comprehend things that are far beyond your typical scope of consciousness.
Almost always, the things we're most blind to are the things that would radically change our lives if we truly saw them. We can’t see them because we get locked into a specific perspective, crafted by our families, peers, and the cultural microcosm we’re born into. We can’t see our blindspots because we aren’t even aware they exist. For each of us, there exist unlimited possibilities we can’t see because we’re running unconscious programs we’re not even aware are holding us back.
Telling someone that they don’t need to do ayahuasca (repeatedly or at all) and should simply deal with their issues by getting tough with themselves is an indication that your blindspot is not comprehending the depth and spectrum of pain that exists in the world. It’s okay that you can’t see it or understand it, but that doesn’t mean that your perspective is correct for others who exist in entirely different realities than you.
If therapy, medication, exercising, reading books, or watching a few YouTube videos was enough to pull you out of a dark place, that’s not a sign that you found the solution for all of humanity’s suffering. It’s a sign that the pain you’re carrying in this lifetime is manageable and you are fortunate.
Do I think some people abuse psychedelics like MDMA, LSD, and shrooms and use them to escape their reality? Absolutely. If you’re just taking them with zero intention or reverence, there’s way more room for escapism. It’s probably not the most productive use of your time but there are way worse things you could be doing.
Do I think someone can do a ceremonial medicine like ayahuasca too many times to the point where it’s harmful to them? It’s possible but seems unlikely from everything that I have seen and experienced with these medicines. There are layers to healing and it can’t all happen at once. To believe that it is a simple linear process shows a fundamental misunderstanding of pain.
It feels like judging someone for praying too much. If you’re praying all day every day, that’s probably interfering with your life. But I have no idea how much worse you’d be if you weren’t praying at all. I’d trust that whatever is driving you to obsessively pray is something that’s working itself out so that you can eventually stop. I don’t need to understand why it helps you to respect that you feel it’s necessary.
From my perspective, doing ayahuasca is like communing with the underlying all-knowing intelligence that some would call God. The idea of telling someone, “Hey, stop trying to connect to God. You’ve had enough already,” is as crazy as telling someone how often to have sex or eat food. It’s highly personal and none of your business, Judgy McJudgerson.
Is it a waste of time to let this work me up? 100%. It’s futile to explain magical things to someone who can’t comprehend magic. And yet, here I am, attempting to explain it all anyway.
Until next time.
I wonder what the supplements you referred to are that you're giving to Bearface? Mr. Meow might benefit from them too! Thank you kindly, Joely