Tools for the medicalization and mysticism of modern spiritualism
Let’s be honest, if you live in a developed society most likely all your physical existential needs (food, shelter, education, healthcare, etc.) are met to a large degree. So, chances are then that your problems may not be material, but could be mental or psycho-spiritual. In the era of the “Bucket List” and a “1000 Places You Must See Before You Die”, more never suffices for long and the number of opportunities to do this, that (and that again) are seemingly infinite. In fact, one can spend every minute of their life doing more, attaining more, and consuming more – and our consumption-based society clearly wants us to go on doing so. For many, this form of consumptive behavior is perceived as being more as an individual and doubles as an immortality symbol – i.e. the more I’ve done, the more I’ve achieved, ergo – the more I am! This is where the aspects of individualism and narcissism become indistinguishable. For example, if haven’t achieved celebrity fame and receive >1K likes every time we post our most trivial of endeavors on FB or Insta – then what? If we don’t measure up to some metric, do we deem ourselves mediocrities at best or failures at worst? Of course we shouldn’t, but – and this is the catch – if people thought their lives were so great, i.e. having a true sense of self and purpose, then many tens of millions (e.g. 13% of the adult US population) probably wouldn’t be dosing anti-depressants and, likewise, thousands wouldn’t die of opiate overdose annually in the US alone. And why is it that alcohol and drug abuse in Western countries is higher than ever, despite all our acquired knowledge and the many paths and opportunities available for individualism in modern society? It cannot be that people are so content if that many wish to escape the confines of their lives, nay their minds – their selves – if, but for a few moments. Clearly, more is not enough. On the contrary, perhaps the sustained drive for more only leads to more anxiety and depression. We’re neither gods nor animals, neither fully subconscious nor superconscious. Thus, we can’t live mentally unaware to the happenings around us, nor can we easily transcend the myriad of demands and stresses of modern life and exist in a godlike state (whatever that is). Thus, life is often perceived as a burden, rather than a joy or the miracle that it is. If we perceive life to be a burden, why is that – is this the consequence of having a conscious mind and recognition of an inherent tedium in living or is it merely a fault of human perception? Is having a conscious mind a gift or a curse? Moreover, have we merely used our extensive knowledgebase to create substances (e.g. anti-depressants, drugs, and alcohol) to glaze over perceived gaps/missing pieces in our lives (e.g. the lack of love, emotional support, self-esteem, wealth, etc.) and, therefore, dwell more unconsciously? The problem in trying to answer this question that most people just don’t know enough about themselves and, thus, can’t decide. For modern society doesn’t provide basic knowledge of the three W’s (the who, the what, and the why, i.e. who am I, what am I, and why I am here?) beyond shallow consumer- and social media-centric levels. And if that isn’t enough, aside from consumptive behavior our purpose is even more unclear. So the never-ending more is just a substitute for the absence of existential self-reckoning. It’s more like we don’t have a clue, so let’s go shopping.
How did it get like this? From the day we are born we are conditioned to fit into a behavioral mold or pattern concurrent and co-existent with the demands of society. First we are conditioned by our parents and siblings. Next, by our neighbors and schoolmates, and finally by the general society and our culture as a whole. Some have called life the “school of hard knocks” exactly for this reason, as we are conditioned on what to do and what not to do in order to get, in simple terms, what we want (pleasure) and what we don’t want (pain). Yet, we are also conditioned to identify with cultural identities that often bear painful traumas, like slavery, the Holocaust, and many other forms of repression that have been incurred by different racial, ethnic, and religious groups over the centuries. And once you’re identified with that group, then the burden is yours to feel, to identify with, and pass on to the next generation. For some, it doesn’t matter whether the spiritually unconscious people that killed your ancestors did it a year ago or thousand years ago, for the pain is continually kept alive and well in their consciousness training. Plus our identities can get caught up with collective memory – and, thus, we react as if whatever happened in the past continues to unfold in the present. By reliving past emotional pain, cultural conditioning can be highly effective in controlling subsequent generations.
It’s a tough training period, childhood – we assume an identity, a brand, like the clothes we wear over our bodies and don’t come with a set of operating instructions or a reset button. That’s why life can appear far less than ideal – because we are conditioned by imperfect beings that also have received imperfect training. In parallel to cultural conditioning, we then have the user (or consumer)-based conditioning of Western society. This type of materialism-realism conditioning substitutes consumption for happiness and identity. Although we probably sense that more doesn’t bring happiness (happiness still isn’t a product that one can order from Amazon), and is only a by-product of consumption. Yet, advertisers would have you think that you’re buying happiness – and it’s their job to sell us the illusion of happiness, based upon what they can convince us that we lack, e.g. a hot body, a showy car, or a shoe collection worthy of Imelda Marcos. That’s the goal of advertising and it’s very effective because it works on our ego-driven nature. Yet, as we lack the who, the what, and the why, consumption only brings a pyrrhic form of happiness that lasts only until the next urge or craving sets in. We all know that intuitively. Nevertheless, many people end up turning to some form of extremism, whether narcissistic or religious, as forms of escapist enterprise. The former manifests itself in addictions, based on a whole variety of abuses (e.g. alcohol, drugs, sex, shopping, etc.) and there’s even suicide when all seems hopeless. The latter can manifest itself as inflexible ideologies and behavioral patterns. These are all escapes of one form or another and prevent us from knowing our true selves.
Yet, who can blame people if they lack spiritual awakening and the understanding of who they are if they were never explicitly taught that? Many of us may pass through life without ever realizing the three W’s and perhaps not even caring – as through ignorance and delusion can also come ennui and apathy. Is it our fault – or is it just faulty conditioning? The problem faced by most is that solutions to existential problems just don’t come in boxes. But could they? And if they did, how would that change the world? Would we be able to solve our humanistic, socio-political, and environmental problems which threaten us as a species? Would that bring in an age of spiritual enlightenment to balance out our technological prowess? And what if such agents of transformation might really exist?
Since the sixties, new age spiritualism (woo-woo practices, as some might call it), but better defined as paths for the transcendence of the material self (or ego) and recognition of the ethereal god-self, has undergone commodification through a wide range of self-help/actualization, mental and physical health, and a myriad of psycho-spiritual courses, programs, and movements. Ironically speaking, even the process of becoming aware has become the process of more. That’s not to fall, necessarily, into the trap of saying more = bad, since these practices do allow for virtually anyone to partake in some type of enlightenment training (although we may disagree on what enlightenment actually signifies). While acquired human knowledge can be used poorly or wisely (e.g. splitting the atom for bombs or for generating electricity, respectively), the different enlightenment methodologies can be used as a means to liberate one from patterned conditioning, thus, allowing for a greater sense of self in order to get to the three W’s and realize more love, compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness. At some level we all recognize that we carry emotional pain, whether personal or collective, from the conditioning we received while growing up and that this pain prevents us from being happier and, perhaps, realizing our true potential or even self-love. This pain is further exploited by the consumer society in order to maintain growth, such that the pain is managed, but not alleviated. However, there are alt-neu tools now becoming readily available for emotional healing and enlightenment that may reverse the situation. These tools are the psychedelics – mind-manifesting substances (also called entheogens) and when used in a psychotherapeutic environment (whether a therapist’s office or a shamanistic new age ceremony) can offer dramatic success in treating a wide variety of mental health issues (e.g. from post-traumatic stress to depression). These are the medicines that allow one to begin to discover the three W’s at the personal level, hence, entheogen itself means becoming the divine within.
As of yet, entheogens don’t come in boxes available on the supermarket shelf and may never, but they are now more available to ordinary people than ever before. Called medicines (and not drugs) by both practitioners and users, because of their curative nature, their use allows one to discover the three W’s through acute (short-acting) transpersonal experiences that have long-acting psycho-spiritual effects. Although illegal since 1970 in the US (through the Controlled Substance Act) and many other countries, entheogens (e.g. LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA, ayahuasca, mescaline, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and 5-methoxy-DMT, etc.) are for the most part natural substances long used by indigenous peoples around the world as part of mystical ceremonies aimed at acquiring knowledge. Importantly, modern practitioners (or facilitators, as they are called) claim that entheogens elicit strong empathic effects in users resulting in a greater understanding of the who (i.e. who they are as humans, recognition of the true self versus the conditioned self), the why (i.e. why they are here, why their lives are the way they are), and the what (i.e. what is their purpose as a person as a human being). In addition, users can receive information from their subconscious regarding the how, i.e. how can they make their lives better, how they can enhance interconnectivity with others, etc. Moreover, if there is intention in the user before using entheogens, then there seems to be a strong retention that can manifest the desired result and alter one’s outlook on life, behavior, and even personality.
That sort of sounds too good to be true, i.e. that a short-acting administered substance can allow you to better know yourself at the level of personal narrative, as a human being within the context of biological form, and to achieve a higher level of enlightenment. Perhaps not all at once, but if used as a form of therapy and with an experienced facilitator, the results can be tremendous – and this is where we are today and where the future for psychotherapy lies. For example, controlled studies with several entheogens (MDMA, psilocybin) at Johns Hopkins University and Imperial College London were shown to largely alleviate (if not cure) post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), one of the most severe mental forms of stress, and depression, and are currently being tested in late-stage clinical trials for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration. It’s like what antibiotics did for infection, entheogens do for traumatic stress. Interestingly, the neuropsychology behind the phenomenon shows that entheogens don’t eliminate the memory of past trauma, but instead allow for transcendence of the trauma and its effects. No other medicines have shown the ability to have such dramatic results, suggesting that these substances are legitimate and highly effective tools that can provide meaningful self-discovery and relief, when used in a controlled therapeutic setting. Moreover, unlike drugs that work on the dopaminergic systems and cause severe addiction problems (e.g. heroin, opium, cocaine, etc.), entheogens are non-addictive and act on the serotoninergic neurons of the brain to activate the parasympathetic neuronal pathways leading to states of empathy and clarity. As a consequence, numerous non-profit groups are actively engaged in bringing these substances back into legality and the use in therapeutic settings, including organizations that promote their use in research and influence public policy (e.g. MAPS; https://maps.org/, CIIS; https://www.ciis.edu/, and ICEERS; http://www.iceers.org/, among others). Although cities like Denver and Oakland recently have recently passed laws decriminalizing the use of psilocybin, in most Western countries these substances remain illegal. However, the internet is a central site for the dissemination of information regarding entheogen usage by both novices and experts alike in the form of numerous written and video testaments, blogs (like Metaformity), web journals, movies, conferences, and even retreat programs involving ayahuasca or psilocybin mushrooms, for example. Thus, the dark age of the banned experimentation and use of the entheogens is finally passing – hopefully to the benefit of all mankind.
This isn’t an advocacy for the uncontrolled and recreational use of entheogens, because it’s not. Since entheogens are tools, they should be used wisely and properly. Just as a hammer is good for pounding nails, it is likely to be problematic for putting in glass windows or tying flies for fly fishing. The same is true for entheogens and “set and setting” are catchwords often used to describe the preparation for their use – meaning at the right place at the right time and with the right people to facilitate. That means probably not with the kid next door. Although they appear to be completely non-addictive (unlike the opioids or barbituates that act as central nervous system sedatives), there is a heavy stigma still attached to the entheogens, since medicines like LSD were sensationalized in the 1960’s as counter-culture tools and, thus, banned in many Western countries. But this is changing, as psychologists, therapists, research and medical professionals have seen and shown the benefits of treatment with entheogens. Simply put, entheogens are mind-manifesting substances that act in a temporal fashion to open one’s mind to the hidden subconscious, lessen the control of egoic nature, and give valuable personal information that cannot be taught in any school, house of worship, or by any system of control or ideology. In fact, entheogens promote our independence from these things and from the conditioning they impart. They also act to free us from conditioned fears and show us that fear is just a lack of awareness of love, which just is a fault of perception.
In addition to their empathic effects and healing nature, there is a mystical component often associated with the use of entheogens. Most of these medicines come from natural sources (or were modified from naturally occurring forms) and were discovered long ago by indigenous American (north and south), African, and Asian peoples, and likely by the early humans as well. These medicines were used in ceremonial practices and were found to lead to mysterium tremendum et fascinans – ecstasy, visual psychedelia, and a way to achieve a direct connection to God (and non-duality) itself. The fact that these substances are not a part of the modern religious Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Hindu practices may be a good indication that their use probably does not make for compliant customers or, worse, willing extremists. Over the millenia, mind control has been the name of the game and it’s not implausible that these religions banned the spiritual experience in exchange for the religious. For example, early Christian missionaries to South America apparently thought that ayahuasca was a tool of the devil and banned its practice. Thus, the use of entheogens essentially disappeared and it took till the late 20th century for their use to find a place in Western society. Popularized by Timothy Leary, the defamed Harvard psychologist and professor who along with others, like Stanislav Grof, helped mainstream the use of LSD in the 1960’s, and promoted the idea (and oft-used metaphor) of turning on, tuning in, and dropping out. Namely, to open oneself up to experience, interact harmoniously in the world, and detach oneself from commitments or conditioning through self-discovery. We can debate how these phrases were interpreted over the years, but it was clear enough then to the Nixon administration that people taking LSD or smoking marijuana wouldn’t fight his wars – hence his declaration of the war on drugs, beginning with the Controlled Substance Act. In fact, the war had quite the opposite effect, as the outlawing of marijuana and entheogens only led to a greater avenues of serious addiction-forming and harmful drugs, like cocaine and heroin in their different forms, getting into the US and Europe and becoming widely used. There are many ironies to the war on drugs, but probably the biggest being that it was the US Army and CIA who first experimented with LSD on soldier volunteers in the late 1950’s (Project MKUltra). However, not only did it not make people want to fight (although they did like to paint flowers, apparently), it let the proverbial cat out of the bag for the dissemination of LSD to the public. Perhaps we owe the CIA a hand of gratitude for their role in the renaissance in the use of entheogens and despite criminalization, LSD never fully went away and remained underground in use along with other mind-manifesting substances. It is important to note that entheogens do not numb the mind, like opiates, but rather expand consciousness and self-awareness, and yet are neither physically or psychologically addictive. So one has to wonder why they remain criminalized and aren’t more accessible considering their psychologically beneficial actions, while substances with proven destructive properties (e.g. cigarettes, alcohol, and barbituates/painkillers) are?
So what are entheogens and how did we come by them? For simplicity’s sake, most of the entheogens have structural similarities at the molecular level, being small tryptamine-based alkaloids that have an ability to interact with the serotoninergic system of the brain (via 5-HT2A-type receptors) to elicit what is known as the psychedelic experience (e.g. non-ordinary reality, hallucination, religious or psycho-spiritual epiphany, empathy, etc.). That’s a fairly shallow level of description, but it parallels our basic lack of knowledge of how these experiences are invoked by these agents. It is recognized, however, that the default mode network, a general area of the brain comprising different nodes that connect the posterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, angular gyrus, hippocampus, and a number of other subsystems, undergoes deactivation upon treatment with psilocybin, LSD, or 5-MeO-DMT, for example. Since this network is tasked with many self-referential traits, including thoughts, feelings, and memories about one’s self, as well as past and future, it may be that these agents loosen the mind’s grip on thought patterns and conditioned responses to allow for out-of-the-box thoughts, emotions, and visions. Basically, the psychedelic experience can then be considered as a lessening of the ego and ego-controlled reactivity, and an opening to higher states of consciousness (i.e. bliss states) wherein self-healing appears to occur.
Although found naturally in plants and animals, many of the entheogens are easily synthesized, making medicalization possible without invoking environmentally destructive processes. Historically speaking, LSD, a derivative of a common wheat fungus (ergot) was first synthesized in 1931 by Swiss chemist, Albert Hoffman, who immediately recognized its psychoactive potential (think bike day). Later, the US government employed LSD as a mind control substance in volunteers, which eventually led to its popularization either unintentionally or, perhaps, intentionally to delegitimize the growing liberal progressive and anti-war movements in the US in the late 1960’s. In contrast, psilocybin-containing mushrooms (genus Psilocybe) were known almost universally to native communities in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, where they were employed in religious ceremonies and rituals. However, their modern use was promoted by ethnomycologists, Gordon and Valentina Wasson, who studied its use by Mazatec Indians in Mexico, and then later by Leary and both Terrence and Dennis McKenna, among others, to bring out deeply transformative psychedelic visions and transpersonal experiences. While mushroom rituals were widely used in pre-colonial Mesoamerica, early Catholic missionaries apparently saw their use as work of the devil and made the natives switch to something more innocuous for communion purposes. That a saltine was substituted for something that actually did provide a spiritual experience is yet another irony in the story of the psychedelics. Ayahuasca, a composite mixture containing the active N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is derived from South American rainforest plants, Banisteriopsis caapi and Chacruna (Psychotria viridis), and was first investigated by ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. Otherwise known by a variety of names, such as aya or yage, ayahuasca is a purgative that induces a psychedelic experience similar to psilocybin and is widely used in organized retreats in Europe, South America, and the US. DMT itself was popularized by researcher Richard Strassman, who carried out controlled studies with this entheogen and found that it had very powerful psycho-hallucinogenic properties. Interestingly, Strassman theorized that DMT is naturally produced in the pineal gland and might even play a role in creating visions in the dream state or during near-death experiences. MDMA, a synthetic entheogen that releases serotonin was developed by chemist Alexander Shulgin and promoted by psychologist Leo Zeff in his research. Later used in the party drug, Ecstasy, MDMA was found to work mainly at the level of cognitive thinking and to yield a strong sense of self-love and acceptance. In addition, it was found to give clear insights into the nature of the individual and lately, as mentioned, is on target to be legalized for the psychotherapeutic treatment of PTSD. If one Googles MDMA and PTSD alone over 300,000 hits can be retrieved! Then there’s 5-methoxy-DMT (5-MeO-DMT), which is found in certain plants and, most bizarrely, is a secreted component from the parotid gland of the Sonoran desert toad, which may have used by indigenous groups in Mexico and Central America. Popularized more recently by writers like James Oroc and Martin Ball, 5-MeO-DMT is considered to be perhaps the most powerful entheogen known that rapidly results in complete ego loss and a cessation in cognitive thought, leading to a full connection with the universal consciousness, oneness, and the sense of the infinite and eternal nature of the universe (god-consciousness, if you will). Others include mescaline, derived from hallucinogenic cacti (peyote, San Pedro) naturally found in Mexico, the American Southwest, and the Andes, as well as ibogaine, which is found in root barks of the Tabaranthe iboga tree in Central Africa.
Because of their fast-acting nature and relatively short duration of action, entheogens can be used to provide powerful experiences that can change how one sees themselves, their personal narrative, and how they interact with the world. While perhaps scary to use (in conceptual sense of surrendering to an unknown substance), in fact when done under the auspices of therapist or facilitator they are far more safer (dose-wise) than most common drugs, like aspirin, and rarely seem to cause additional mental health issues. They are medicines that require administration and monitoring, however, there is already a strong push towards decriminalizing them for use in controlled settings. Recently, several US cities have even passed laws decriminalizing psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Thus, a wave in the use of entheogens appears inevitable, although significant issues surrounding their usage need to be answered. These include concerns regarding how entheogens will be used (i.e. in what format – medical or shamanistic/ceremonial?), who will practice with them (e.g. psychiatrists/psychotherapists or simple facilitators?), where to practice with them (e.g. in clinics or at-home settings?), who can be patients (i.e. will it be open access or prescription-only?), and what will the business model be (i.e. for-profit or public benefit/non-profit?). No less important is the creation of ethical rules to protect the patient and patient rights, as well as in the use of information for insurance purposes. Lastly, pharmacological issues regarding which medicines should be used (or not) for a given indication and whether large (so-called heroic) doses or microdoses should be employed are being raised. Clearly, standardized protocols for their use in psychotherapeutic treatment or even in open-access ceremonial settings will be required.
It would seem to this writer that just about everyone would want to improve their state of mind, their sense of self, and get some personal answers to the three W’s. Since we possess a natural inherent drive towards betterment, greater access to entheogenic medicines could spread the seeds of compassion understanding, happiness, and wisdom, and thereby lead to less infighting/competition and depression within modern societies. According to Asian wisdom traditions (e.g. Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, Taoism, etc.) enlightenment is obtained by knowing our transpersonal nature, our true self as an expression of the one consciousness (or energy) that pervades and gives rise to all things. If we could freely experience our true transpersonal nature, then we could see how we are essentially the authors, actors, and audience of our own lives, of our own narrative. Through experience we can then alter our narrative for our own betterment, not as defined by family, society, corporations, or governments, but as defined by the truth. That sounds like a tall order, since we are not (yet) conditioned to recognize this, but it is accessible. Some people may need entheogens to realize this, although there are many who have realized and expressed these truths (whether by using entheogens or not), and have made it their life’s work to spread the information of how to awaken from unconscious and ego-driven slumber. Writer Eckhart Tolle (www.eckharttolle.com) for one, is a most lucid and complete spiritual thinker that espouses great practical and philosophical wisdom. Two of his books, “The Power of Now” and “The New Earth” greatly encapsulate much of the entheogenic wisdom in terms of being able to transcend early conditioning and mind patterns, and live in an non-egoic (or perhaps “ego-light”) state. Like Tolle, another superb non-dualist, Rupert Spira, regularly holds retreats and webinars that bring people together to meditate upon and discuss conscious awareness. Buddhist teachers, like Thich Nhat Hanh, have spread the word of how to use mindfulness to cultivate joy and spread compassion. Filmmakers, like Daniel Schmidt (Inner worlds, outer worlds and Samadhi Parts 1 and 2) have made wonderful visual works that give voice to the ancient wisdom traditions, the nature of reality, and the higher states of consciousness (nirvana or nirvikalpa samadhi). Artists like Alex Grey (www.cosm.org), have transformed the psychedelic experience into strong expressions of visionary art. All of the written and visual works by these sentient beings (and those of many many others to whom I apologize for not being able to include) point to the same direction, that the use of entheogens and other spiritual practices can lead us to understand not only ourselves, but also to better our world. (www.eckharttolle.com)
Never before has all this information been readily transmissible and as freely available as on the proxy neural network of humanity, the internet. This network has spread information regarding the availability and use of entheogens around the globe, and overcomes all censorship or restriction of the subject. Entheogens are the next big thing in psychotherapy and may prove to be not only agents of self-acceptance, love, and positive thinking, but also as buffers against addictive and escapist patterns of behavior. The key is that with their help and our awakening we won’t need, nor want, to escape anymore. Thus, we can begin to experience our world as a grand and wonderful playground, but only if we learn to see it that way and treat both life and our environment respectfully and with love, compassion, and gratitude. If we can digress from our fixed ideas of being separate egoic identities locked in adversarial competition and realize that everything is connected, we can better our lives and those of whom we care for. The tools are to do this are here, whether through meditative arts or through the use of entheogens. Billions of years of evolution have led us, as sentient bio-vehicles capable of self-awareness and choice, to this very moment. While we may not fully grasp the idea or mechanics of the quantum space that gives rise to the physical reality we are born into (and will exit from), at least we can begin to understand it and why we are here. As expressions (avatars, if you will) of the universal energy (call it God, Brahman, Zero-point field, Higgs field, Akashic field, the Tao, etc.) that has been experimenting for a very long, long time in order to perceive itself, we as the authors, actors, and audience can begin to recognize that the plot, the course of our lives, is open to change and that entheogens are tools which can facilitate this transcendence.