Psychedelia: A quest for the unknown
Recently, something has become a martyr in my head, and I think many people have this same question.
Why do people keep on using psychedelics?
If we analyze people who take psychedelics once, they typically end up consuming them at least once again throughout their lives. Even if they’ve decided to use them as a therapeutic tool, they will likely use these compounds more than once.
For a fact, we know that classic psychedelics aren’t addictive, and if anything, we end up building tolerance to the compounds over continuous use.
So why don’t we stop taking these compounds after achieving healing or having the experience we were eager to have?
To answer this, I would like to present you with a personal story of mine and an analysis of the human mind.
When I was in my late teens or early twenties, I remember having the vague idea that I’ve seen much of what the world had to offer, I’ve passed through plenty of humanly possible emotions, explored plenty of theories regarding how the world functions, various religions, various archetypes and plenty of books left behind from great minds, and everything seemed done already, from the fields of art, science to literature and chemistry. For a period, I thought, what else does the world have to offer?
My current bet is that everyone reading this can resonate with this and knows the feeling of our world that we saw as canvas bloomed with colors and pleasant imagery suddenly becomes swarmed with tones of sepia and conflict about our beliefs and how the world works. Our hobbies suddenly become our professions, and we become older and pressured by society to follow the book of life.
I’ve come to grow to believe that the dulling ideology feeling of thinking everything is created and that we have no space to leave our mark in the world or find something to do or which community we can fit in, alongside the lack of guidance, could be one of the main societal issues that end up developing various mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety.
If we analyze humans, we will observe that the human species is constantly seeking the unknown and easily fascinated by folk stories and mythical creatures, knowing what might be out there and creating theories to explain the unexplainable or finding proof of what cannot be explained by the naked eye.
I would go as far as saying that the human mind craves the unknown.
If we search throughout history, there will be various instances that prove this search for the unknown from the first day of humans on earth, exploring which foods we can eat or not, exploring whether they could hunt or not, finding fire, exploring various continents, and setting sail to find tribes hidden in the Amazon Rainforest, and most recently, we can all remember the “What is the dark web?” craze or compilations of scary videos about CGI creatures caught on camera, or even watching thriller/horror movies waiting for what might be the ferocious entity that is about to strike, what it looks like, and what will it do to us.
Curiously, after exploring such situations and seeing what the horror movie beast looks like, we quickly lose interest in what the movie or situation might be and search for another exploration that can create another deep search for the unknown.
This specific search for the unknown is the reason why people typically continuously explore and become curious about psychedelics.
When entering a psychedelic experience, it’s hard, if not impossible, to predict what someone’s experience will be.
Even if we take into consideration the set and setting, short and long-term memory, Entheogenic Synergy, Therapeutic Synergy, and Recreational Synergy, exactly knowing what someone will be going through in their mind when having a psychedelic experience would be the same as winning the lottery.
So let’s say the following happens, and quoting Dr. Andrew Gallimore, each time we take psychedelics, we get transported into a new reality within our brain, and psychedelics potentiate a reality switch.
When entering a new reality in our mind, maybe we’ve witnessed a world where lizard people are predominant or go back to a world where technology never existed. Somewhat brings us the satisfaction of meeting the unknown once again. What is this world? How can I fit in? And most importantly, what is there for me to find? These are typically questions that roam around our head post-trip, among many others. Usually, trips end up bringing more questions than answers.
Often, we devote ourselves to understanding and applying the metaphors we’ve seen during our trips to our reality. Perhaps the mechanical elves we encountered during our trip symbolize our immersion in technology, prompting us to consider embracing nature instead. Alternatively, our journey may have revealed that numerous aspects of the world remain unseen, requiring us to open our minds and allow ourselves to perceive them. It’s also possible that a trip involving an encounter with various molecules sparked a newfound interest in the world of chemistry, leading to a different perspective on how everything around us is composed of atoms and chemical structures, in between many other variants.
This leads us to another aspect of people who seek psychedelic experiences.
If you’ve been in a psychedelic realm for quite a while or know someone in the psychedelic community, you probably have heard that the best trip is the one you think you are going to die.
Death is considered the ultimate encounter with the unknown that every species has faced up to this day. Many religions have tried to explain what happens after death. However, it is impossible to know what happens after we die. Making it the final frontier, where all our knowledge, beliefs, and perceptions meet their limits.
However, in the mind of psychonauts, this can be a gateway to deeper understanding and exploring altered states of consciousness. Facing the unknown will allow them to experience for a meticulous moment what lies on the other side, confronting the ultimate mystery of what death feels like. To this, we entitle ego death, a phenomenon of complete dissolution of the self, where identity and consciousness fall away, leaving us with a profound sense of unity with the cosmos.
During these states, typically, people fear losing everything that defines them, yet with this fear comes a sense of profound peace, interconnectedness, and continuity.
What we seek in psychedelic experiences represents the epitome of human existence as we try to satisfy our rooted curiosity about the unknown and could be the reasoning behind why people continuously explore the realms of consciousness and, consequently, psychedelics.
Let us know your opinion about the unknown!
Stay safe, sending love.
