Spirit molecules
Jill Bolte Taylor’s 2008 TED Talk, “My Stroke of Insight,” describes the stroke that silenced her left hemisphere in 1996. According to Taylor, her ego went offline, and with it her awareness of any separation between herself and the world around her. Later, as her brain began to heal, she resolved not to let this joyful perspective slip away.
Bolte’s travelogue mirrors in many respects those of so-called “psychonauts” who’ve made similar journeys via ayahuasca, LSD, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin, amanita muscaria, “the toad” (frog venom, 5-MeO-DMT), and others, all of which fall under the general heading of “entheogen,” or substances “said to induce spiritual experiences.”
In How To Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan writes that psychologists and neurologists agree that suppression of the self is fundamental to the effectiveness of entheogens, and scanning technology bears this out, showing a dampening effect on the default mode network (DMN) of the brain where our sense of self resides, a loosening of old patterns of thought/behavior, and an increase in brain plasticity overall. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has proven to be extremely effective in the treatment of depression, addiction, and anxiety.
From none of which do I suffer, but …
One use of psychedelics suggested by not a few therapists is the “betterment of well people.” According to Pollan, “Albert Hoffman [who first synthesized LSD in 1938] emerged from his experience with LSD-25 convinced the molecule offered civilization not only a potential therapeutic but also a spiritual balm – by opening a crack ‘in the edifice of materialist rationality.’”
That there are Matrix overtones here, I won’t deny. Psychologist Matt Johnson says, “So much of human suffering stems from having this self that needs to be psychologically defended at all costs. We’re trapped in a story that sees ourselves as independent, isolated agents acting in the world. But that self is an illusion. It can be a useful illusion, … But at a systems level, there is no truth to it.”
If you agree with Johnson, as I do, you also might share my belief that gaining access to what Dr. Andrija Puharich called “the key to the door to eternity” (The Sacred Mushroom, 1959) is a thing to be wished for. Puharich also conducted psilocybin research with R. Gordon Wasson, the wealthy American businessman whose Life magazine article introduced mid-century readers to the concept of “magic mushrooms.” Timothy Leary arrived on the scene soon thereafter, as did the political backlash he incited, one that continues to this day.
At a recent “Ayahuasca Open Sharing” meetup in Hendersonville, the stories I heard were consistent with Pollan’s. Obliteration of the self, panpsychism, transcendence, love, healing, and long-term positive change – all in stark contrast with decades of Reefer Madness-style (and, dare I say, big pharma-funded) “public information campaigns.” Fortunately, perhaps inevitably, psychotherapists around the world are advocating use of these substances in their work. And while it’s true that irresponsible use is strongly discouraged, particularly among those already taking psychoactive medications, the overwhelming consensus among healthy, responsible users is that entheogens are, at a minimum, life-enhancing.