By Sean Illing — 2019
What the psychedelic drug ayahuasca showed me about my life.
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As is the case with many spiritual or transformational experiences, it’s all too easy to confuse the profound healing la medicina delivers with the shaman who helped deliver it.
The mind-altering drug has been shown to help people suffering from anxiety and depression. But how it helps, who it will serve, and who will profit are open questions.
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The psychedelic revolution has arrived—yet psychologists still have major gaps in knowledge about going on a shrooms trip in the name of mental health.
Many people have a spiritual experience on psychedelics. How they make meaning of it could be influenced by the metaphysical beliefs of their therapists.
Taking drugs is generally perceived as a social activity. Whether you’re passing joints at home or raving bug-eyed in a forest, the presence of other people can elevate those bliss-inducing chemicals.
I'm no psychedelic prude. I reported on, and applauded, the resurgence of research into psychedelics in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism. I participated in a peyote ceremony of the Native American Church, and I advocated legalization of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes.
Over the last decades, iboga has developed a cult following in the United States and in Europe, where it is known as ibogaine. In the West, the psychedelic is being promoted as a potential one-shot cure for treating addiction to heroin and other drugs.
Could there be one factor that links together conflict, climate change, racism, anxiety and eating disorders?
Society has started to become more accepting of our work and MAPS’ goal of mainstreaming psychedelic medicine seems closer than ever to being achieved,” explains MAPS Policy and Advocacy Director Natalie Ginsberg, M.S.W., in an interview with Jessica Semaan of Seismic Sisters.
As we search for ways of understanding the possibly infinite resources of human consciousness, I suggest that the potential of psychedelics as tools for learning should not be ignored.