ReThink — The Shadow of Psychedelics.
A few years ago, I spent 40 minutes talking to an individual who had lived on the streets for the majority of his life, outside of the system, begging for money with no place to call home.
We spoke about Voltaire, God, Capitalism, and Psychedelics [1].
First of all, I was as surprised as I guess you are now. After all, I was not expecting that kind of conversation when I decided to remove my headphones to meet his eyes and give my standardized polite nod coupled with a brief “Hi” — in order to not feel like too much of a horrible person. Second of all, I took away one really important lesson from that conversation — Psychedelics have a shadow.
Do not get me wrong, both I as well as the person I spoke to had a really positive outlook on the matter as a whole. We both saw them as being great catalysts in our respective lives and as having a lot to thank them for. But at the very end of our conversation, he looked me in the eyes and said one thing that stuck with me:
- “Just don’t overdo them!”
A brief recap of what had happened to him was that he, during one of his many trips had been “Told that he was sent here to earth with the mission to save us” i.e. a classical messiah complex. As most people might understand, this is quite the burden to get put on oneself. So after he had, in his own eyes, failed that mission, he went manic and depressed. This it seemed, ultimately ended up putting him in his current life situation [2].
While I would still consider myself being very positive about the recent development as well as the field as a whole, I am at the same time a bit afraid that painting such complex and powerful tools with all the marry colors that are nowadays sometimes used might be risky [3].
Most people, however, due to their upbringing would never dream of touching the stuff, and maybe rightly so. But people of a more analytical and adventurous nature might interpret the promises being discussed in the studies of today [1] as something too good to pass, as was the case for myself as well as countless numbers of others I have talked to.
Since I for one have had my mind blown to pieces more than a handful of times, after which I have returned and started looking at the world with a whole new set of eyes filled with wonder I feel the need to talk about both sides of them.
While they have given me experiences beyond my and any fiction writer’s wildest dreams I can also attest to the fact that revising every single one of your most fundamental beliefs about yourself and the world at large is very hard work. And to add to this, in my view the actual understandings and value they will bring to real life are likely to be finite. So people that keep coming back for more or people that view them as universal panaceas are likely to end up with more trouble than good as they risk drifting further from reality with every throw of the dice. A final note in relation to what I just said and to repeat what the homeless man told me is that overuse of psychedelics is a real thing. Sure they do not have the standard physiological mechanisms associated with addiction as other drugs of recreational use often do, but they can still get you hooked on the revelations they give.
Carl Jung is attributed with saying “Beware of unearned wisdom” and in agreement with the rest of the internet, I would say that this is in no place as true as in the realm of psychedelics.
The points I will bring up below does by no means reduce these risks, the shadow is still very real and very dark. I simply mention them because they are points I would have liked to have been familiar with myself prior to using them [5]. But once again, please remember that psychedelics are always to be handled with deepest respect and caution.
Finally, here is a list of things I wish I knew before using them:
1 — Test your drugs, if you are going to take drugs, you must test them.
2 — Think trice about the dose. Sure, there is value in the heroic dose, but a higher dose is most often also synonymous with a higher risk.
3 — Know why you are doing them.
4 — Make sure you have found a good philosophical and psychological container before you do them [2].
5 — Make sure you know how to meditate before you do them.
6 — Think long and hard about who you do them with.
7 — Understand that these drugs will very likely change you, the way you view the world, and your own life.
8 — Accept the process the drugs will lead you through and do not try to fight this, if you do, you’ll regret it.
9 — Do not think you, I or anyone around you know what will happen during the trip. This is not to say that a guide, shaman, trip sitter, psychologist, or any other experienced person is not of use, because they are. It is simply stating that after ingestion of a high enough dose of any psychedelic, you are ultimately on your own in most respects, and anyone telling you anything else is simply wrong and/or naive.
10 — Revisit point 7, because once again, I really wish I knew this.
[1] https://journals.lww.com/co-psychiatry/Abstract/2019/01000/How_do_psychedelics_work_.4.aspx#O3-4-2 — (A very good and worthwhile read to get an introduction to the science of the topic. I was unfortunately not able to find the whole PDF online but it is available as full text to most university students)
[2] The experiences one encounters during a psychedelic journey might seem comical or psychotic to someone that has not tried psychedelics and trying to interpret these within for example an individualized skeptical Western framework, a framework that has much of its roots in monotheism, usually does not go too well. Similar “calls to action” as mentioned by the homeless guy I talked to, and having the meaning of life bestowed upon oneself, and way stranger things still will likely occur during the influence of higher doses of psychedelics, so you need to be able to make these experiences somehow fit into your ordinary life — because that is what you will always be coming back to afterward. Hence point number four. The container is important as these experiences will need interpretation. Buddhism, Daoism, and branches of Hinduism are great places to start as the psychedelic experience is very similar to deep meditative experiences and these ancient schools of thought explain and provide interpretations for these.
[4] To be fair to the papers and the scientists discussing the topics, they are often very cautious while doing so and often make sure to put in caveats. But the popular press when discussing this, as is often the case, is more sloppy.
[5] These points are by no means substitutes for the more common ones brought up to consider such as their legality status in the country you are using them in and the hugely important “Set and Setting”.
…
I wrote this post about six years ago but I think it is still as important as it was back when I wrote it. I took it down shortly after I had published it because I was scared about how it would look as I was looking for a job — Confessing that one has tried psychedelics is not the smartest thing to do in most circumstances.
That still being true, I simply care a bit less about it nowadays, so the mixture of my incredibly low Medium following, that I’ve now had respectable jobs for a while, and most of all the fact that I still think this is really important made me repost it.
