Don't mistake the keys for the castle or the kingdom of god. Neem Karoli Baba once said, if you want to raise your kundalini, feed someone. Once the elevator key gets you to ground level, get out and help somebody else. Aiming for the penthouse just keeps you locked in a box.
Very well put. I like the analogy of your electrolyte experience. Since the pandemic, reality seems more and more like a psychedelic experience - at least in my experience. I wonder if mass adoption of psychedelics has anything to do with it or if it’s just the complete disruption of how life used to be pre-pandemic. Maybe it’s everything and our monads are interacting in new ways due to ever accelerating changes that we can’t measure because we don’t know how consciousness works.... anyway food for thought. I love your writing!
Your observations about salt remind me of the fact that the word "salary" comes from "sal" referring to the quotum of salt ( & onions) given to soldiers in the Roman army as a pay... No doubt that it was to observe that the lack of salt in the diet of a soldier could lead to a lack of motivation to battle.
About your statements concerning the effects of a psychedelic peak experience to be very subjective and most likely to wane over time, this might be due to the absence of social framework in which these experiences might be validated. Our culture & media and society has become so materialistic and toxic, that in Belgium alone, 300 million individual doses of anti depressants are taken by a population of 10 million people on a yearly basis. And still this country has one of the highest suicide rates in the EU!
Like any of the indigenous rituals, there need to be communal experiences, to be held at the right times in the right settings with guidance of experienced elders and a shamen.
Brazilian native ayahuasca cults have monthly meetings in a religious context, and participants share singing, praying and dancing. Regular attendance of these meetings help people find a common moral ground to strengthen them in their social survival.
Next month I will attend a first meeting of the Belgian Pychedelic Society, and I'm curious if I will meet interesting people with whom I can share insights on how to keep a healthy mind in a f*cked up society like ours. Thanks for the newsletters, I'll keep on reading as I like your style...
As usual... you get to the essentials simply, effectively, & with precisely the right amount of snark. Your points are also quite handily extendable to areas of cultural concern that I critique. However, I continue to ponder on the way your writing reiterates the very concepts I discuss with my likeminded friends--like yesterday. Gratitude.
The tendency that you are highlighting is absolutely true: in our super-individuated ego-selves we grasp onto anything that offers us the chance to supercede those barriers of the self that we so carefully create. But by focussing on the tendency to extremes I feel you've fallen prey to the same impulse of 'all or nothing' and have missed an opportunity to explore the reality of post-psychedelic integration. What does integration really mean, what is its purpose, how do we gauge it and what makes it successful (or not)? This is where the real work of psychedelics lies - in the days, weeks and months between trips where we use those heightened perceptions to observe our interactions, undermine some of the armour and begin to generate awe in every day. To return to your hiking analogy, these are the trips that you take without the bunch of students to recce the terrain, get to know the landmarks, practice basic first aid, making a shelter and so on. When we have some competence on the ground then we might ask if we're ready to guide others into the wilderness.
Whoa... that vintage Incredible String Band album cover art was a fantastic touch at the ending! I really enjoy your writing. I’m glad you are critiquing the rush to experience [all the] sacred substances, minus the sacred containers. The older I get, the more wary and protective I feel towards my brain. TBH, my history with psychoactives made me less able to deal with the default world, at a time when I wish I had been more present.
Trust the voice inside that says enough is enough, following the path of balance & wisdom. Notice when it's NOT working out before is fails completely.
Healthy local tribalism, inclusive as possible- gently fostered through seasonal and communal use of psilocybin. What IF (and it’s a BIG IF), churches, mosques, synagogues supported this kind of community-building effort? Are current bastions of religion, which historically stood as pillars of virtue in a community, too far removed from the fact that God has historically healed through people, pills, plants and prayer?
Don't mistake the keys for the castle or the kingdom of god. Neem Karoli Baba once said, if you want to raise your kundalini, feed someone. Once the elevator key gets you to ground level, get out and help somebody else. Aiming for the penthouse just keeps you locked in a box.
Very well put. I like the analogy of your electrolyte experience. Since the pandemic, reality seems more and more like a psychedelic experience - at least in my experience. I wonder if mass adoption of psychedelics has anything to do with it or if it’s just the complete disruption of how life used to be pre-pandemic. Maybe it’s everything and our monads are interacting in new ways due to ever accelerating changes that we can’t measure because we don’t know how consciousness works.... anyway food for thought. I love your writing!
Your observations about salt remind me of the fact that the word "salary" comes from "sal" referring to the quotum of salt ( & onions) given to soldiers in the Roman army as a pay... No doubt that it was to observe that the lack of salt in the diet of a soldier could lead to a lack of motivation to battle.
About your statements concerning the effects of a psychedelic peak experience to be very subjective and most likely to wane over time, this might be due to the absence of social framework in which these experiences might be validated. Our culture & media and society has become so materialistic and toxic, that in Belgium alone, 300 million individual doses of anti depressants are taken by a population of 10 million people on a yearly basis. And still this country has one of the highest suicide rates in the EU!
Like any of the indigenous rituals, there need to be communal experiences, to be held at the right times in the right settings with guidance of experienced elders and a shamen.
Brazilian native ayahuasca cults have monthly meetings in a religious context, and participants share singing, praying and dancing. Regular attendance of these meetings help people find a common moral ground to strengthen them in their social survival.
Next month I will attend a first meeting of the Belgian Pychedelic Society, and I'm curious if I will meet interesting people with whom I can share insights on how to keep a healthy mind in a f*cked up society like ours. Thanks for the newsletters, I'll keep on reading as I like your style...
Brilliant writing, once again.
“… one trip every year, for twenty years…”
with committed processing and integration.
This is spot on. Excellent piece.
God*damn* this one hit hard today. Thank you. Every time, you don't know *how many people* look forward to your emails✌️
Outstandingly Written. Love the way you see the world and articulate it so clearly. I'll be pondering this for some time.
As usual... you get to the essentials simply, effectively, & with precisely the right amount of snark. Your points are also quite handily extendable to areas of cultural concern that I critique. However, I continue to ponder on the way your writing reiterates the very concepts I discuss with my likeminded friends--like yesterday. Gratitude.
The tendency that you are highlighting is absolutely true: in our super-individuated ego-selves we grasp onto anything that offers us the chance to supercede those barriers of the self that we so carefully create. But by focussing on the tendency to extremes I feel you've fallen prey to the same impulse of 'all or nothing' and have missed an opportunity to explore the reality of post-psychedelic integration. What does integration really mean, what is its purpose, how do we gauge it and what makes it successful (or not)? This is where the real work of psychedelics lies - in the days, weeks and months between trips where we use those heightened perceptions to observe our interactions, undermine some of the armour and begin to generate awe in every day. To return to your hiking analogy, these are the trips that you take without the bunch of students to recce the terrain, get to know the landmarks, practice basic first aid, making a shelter and so on. When we have some competence on the ground then we might ask if we're ready to guide others into the wilderness.
Whoa... that vintage Incredible String Band album cover art was a fantastic touch at the ending! I really enjoy your writing. I’m glad you are critiquing the rush to experience [all the] sacred substances, minus the sacred containers. The older I get, the more wary and protective I feel towards my brain. TBH, my history with psychoactives made me less able to deal with the default world, at a time when I wish I had been more present.
Trust the voice inside that says enough is enough, following the path of balance & wisdom. Notice when it's NOT working out before is fails completely.
Really appreciated this post🙏🏼
Healthy local tribalism, inclusive as possible- gently fostered through seasonal and communal use of psilocybin. What IF (and it’s a BIG IF), churches, mosques, synagogues supported this kind of community-building effort? Are current bastions of religion, which historically stood as pillars of virtue in a community, too far removed from the fact that God has historically healed through people, pills, plants and prayer?