Insight #20: The value of psychedelics

Hello everyone and welcome to Insight #20: The value of psychedelics.

• Historically psychedelic substances have had major cultural and spiritual impact. Since ancient times humanity has experimented with their psyches, wether through things like eaten plants, smoked herbs, and even through breathing techniques.

• Once civilization rose and things like religions and laws came to be, the world divided itself on this topic, some religions and cultures heavily relying and even holding as sacred things like magic mushrooms, peyote and other substances, and the other side, groups calling them evil, fear mongering them and demonizing them.

• Eventually the gatekeeping side gave way, and today psychedelics are being studied more and more, and being understood at ever deeper levels. However I believe today's progress still lags way behind what we had discovered in ancient times. Today I would like to bring to light some of this knowledge.

• Psychedelics aren't simply hallucinatory drugs, they don't “numb” nor take your mind into a world of illusion or falsehood. Instead what they do, primarily, is increase your awareness and consciousness.

• There is an analogy I find useful for psychedelics. Imagine your experience, that is the sum of all your perceptions and your reactions to those, as a computer screen. Connected to this screen is a massive audio console with various knobs and buttons. In the center there is a big knob that can turn indefinitely, that is the main consciousness knob.

• What psychedelics do is move that major knob, but also they move a lot of the other smaller ones. Depending on the substance, this means you might see colors more vibrantly, or hear sounds, or even feel temperature or touch differently.

• All these effects have their value, but aren't the main point of doing psychedelics. Our focus should be on the main consciousness knob, and the things we can do with increased levels of it.

• The way our brain works is like that of a system (see the insight on system thinking), that means there are nodes and connections within it. Psychedelics enhance brain interconnectivity, which means that your intelligence is literally increased, you can reason better, understand things more quickly and process a lot faster. All of these are extremely helpful for things like introspection, trauma analysis and healing, philosophy and more.

• Psychedelics aren't the only way to increase consciousness. You can, and people have, just meditate in a cave in some mountain range for 20 years, and you'll reach levels like some psychedelic substances. However, when done right, that is in a safe environment and if needed, guided by experienced people, you can reach those same levels and even way beyond what is possible through “substanceless” methods.

• The research on this field, although incomplete, is very promising on its findings, for these medicines have been shown to have lasting effects, improving people's wellbeing and mental states. There really is nothing quite like psychedelics, and If you have the chance to have an experience, in a safe and guided environment, I would very highly recommend it. Of course, you should do a lot of research beforehand and do it in the right mental state.

That's all from me today. By the way, did you know you can respond to these emails? If you have feedback, or want to share something, please do! Have you had any psychedelic experience? I would love to know about it.

Until next time, have a great start to your week!