Psychedelic Individualism, a shift on purpose

Dating back centuries ago, near the first civilizations built on earth, we began noticing a few patterns of people gathering around to make celebrations, whether we think of Egyptians gathering around to drink barley-made beer or more transdimensional experiences such as drinking Blue Lotus tea, or the Greek use of wine and the mysterious beverage Kykeon.

 

 

Such traditions using mind-altering compounds like alcohol or even psychedelic compounds evolved with the discovery of different psychedelics across the world. We had Mayans gathering for Psilocybin ceremonies, Indigenous communities of Brazil gathering to consume Ayahuasca, and Native American communities gathering in Teepees to eat Peyote near a fireplace. To this day, many of these practices are still alive and present in our culture, while some, with the introduction of synthetic compounds, started being seen as party drugs, for example, the use of MDMA/LSD in raves and nights out with friends.

 

From the beginning of civilizations to the early 2000s, I believe millions of trips have modulated the human brain and the expansion of consciousness. Not only that, many trips have united us as human beings, bound solid friendships with the aid of trip sitters, and even became a reason to hang out with our friends to have a chill Saturday, pop a few mushrooms, and enjoy the sunset.

 

Essentially, psychedelics have been used to strengthen community bonds, connect individuals, link people together, and guide them toward a profound sense of shared purpose and belonging. For example, observing rituals of passage in certain tribes to integrate a member into adulthood or even creating the immense bond of trust to have your friend care for you while you are tripping balls!

 

 

Unfortunately, the compounds we once knew as agents to bind communities together seem to be pivoting to individualism, a psychedelic individualism if we were to name the phenomenon.

 

Society is undoubtedly becoming more focused on individualism and losing the sense of what once made it a community—communion. We all have no idea who our neighbors are, especially if you live in a big city.

 

We’re slowly losing communicational skills, such as the typical short talk that led to friendships often lasting our whole lives.

 

Whether society is to blame, the economic or social media is only something time will tell. Perhaps it’s an inevitable step for the evolutionary step the German band Kraftwerk named Mensch-Maschine (Man-Machine).

 

Truthfully, in the current economic state, it is nearly impossible not to think about money and career, leading to putting friends, family, and potential future friends away. As an alternative, we are witnessing the rise of AI friendships and relationships unraveling and substituting human bonding, a true dystopia of the ‘Man Machine.’  And a step closer to the reality of 2017’s Blade Runner 2049. And let me tell you, the rabbit hole is probably deeper than you may think. With the current resources, such as available exoskeletons and advanced robotics conjoined by AI and silicone replicas of human skin, it’s already possible or nearly possible to make humanoid androids reality something feasible if you have the skill set.

Realbotix has the aim to create robots and AI that are indistinguishable from humans in appearance and social interaction.

 

This generational loss of communion by society reflects the set behind psychedelic use. What once was used to enjoy a good time with friends or even introduce the new chapter of adulthood to tribesman is now a portal of focus in the individual and our careers.

We can witness this shift in purpose with the integration of psychedelic therapy in the clinical world and even recreationally. People are increasingly turning to this substance for help in resolving their work-related issues, seeking inspiration for complex creative projects that involve a timeline, and looking for answers to their problems, whether financial challenges or difficulties in maintaining relationships.

The same is beginning to happen in the recreational space, in the evolving movement of micro-dosing, which consists of taking microdoses of certain psychedelic compounds such as psilocybin, MDMA, or LSD to enhance human performance in communication, and creativity,  boost our moods and energy.

When looking for these answers in clinical settings with a psychotherapist or even a well-grounded trip sitter, we will likely obtain insight into what we set our minds to. Psychedelics can be wonderful tools to explore the human mind at the end of the day. However, we are not fully benefiting from these compounds by taking an individualistic approach, as our current situation transcends individualism.

As mentioned previously, we, as a society, are slowly losing communication skills, a needed skill to be a community. As a species, humans possess various traits that promote mental stability, a sense of community, and the ability to integrate into groups are some of them. With the current state of communication or lack of it, alongside the socioeconomic issues, it’s only certain that in future generations, we will witness more people with traits present in conditions such as ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), Anxiety, and OCD.

When looking for these answers in clinical settings with a psychotherapist or even a well-grounded trip sitter, we will likely obtain insight into what we set our minds to. Psychedelics can be wonderful tools to explore the human mind at the end of the day. However, we are not fully benefiting from these compounds by taking an individualistic approach, as our current situation transcends individualism.

As mentioned previously, we, as a society, are slowly losing communication skills, a needed skill to be a community. As a species, humans possess various traits that promote mental stability, a sense of community, and the ability to integrate into groups are some of them. With the current state of communication or lack of it, alongside the socioeconomic issues, it’s only certain that in future generations, we will witness more people with traits present in conditions such as ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), Anxiety, and OCD.

 

 

Despite the seemingly inevitable evolution of the human species, the subtle shift in our intention when we take psychedelics may bring us back as a community once again and allow us to heal as a society.

Going back on memory lane, if we think about the ’60s, a new societal group was formed, a group sharing a love for psychedelics, peace, a discordance for the current governmental choices and the media, and various societal issues present at the time. This group coined the term ‘Counterculture’ as they opposed the interpretations of the capitalist American Dream and the political choices leading to the war in Vietnam.

Another observation would be if we look into certain tribesmen in the Amazon Rainforest. While many wish to migrate to the city to provide for their families and give them a better life, it’s very often that people who live in a gathered community that use these compounds and wish to be more connected to Mother Nature are opposed to various political decisions, and decide to remain secluded from masses of the population.

We witnessed the same and still do witness this in the psychedelic community. It’s very often that members of the psychedelic community end up having different ideologies of how the world should function. Various believe that the wheel that makes the world move around is love and that, in the current state of society, we have lost love and respect for each other.

Additionally, when these communities tried to spread their love for these compounds as a method to explore the human mind and as an escape from oppression, censorship, and political decisions, these compounds became illegal as a method to control society, to break the counterculture apart and oppress and censor the human mind, leading this and many other communities to go rogue and set themselves apart, as a minority. 

The same happens not only in communities that are pro-psychedelics but in communities that have an opposite ideology from their government.

However, I do believe that psychedelics hold a special key when it comes to communing and breaking through our ingrained set of beliefs.

As we grow up and develop our personalities, we form our likes and dislikes, beliefs shaped by experiences, information gathered, and teachings from our parents, friends, or educational systems. Thus, we create political, societal, religious, and personal beliefs.

Once these beliefs become challenged by disagreement or an argument, we become defensive.

Imagine going to a stranger on his way home and telling them: “You have the path to your home wrong.”

Or, to a more abrupt example, going up to a priest and telling them that you’ve seen that God isn’t real. Instead, every human should be a God as we’ve built the world we know today.

It’s unarguable that the first response of many would be violence. In a more plausible example, picture when you were back in college and tried to defy your college teacher in the middle of the class that what they were saying could be erroneous and that you have data proving that they were, in fact, wrong. You probably got yelled at and got a nasty response for trying to defy their knowledge. Even if it wasn’t a physical altercation, there was still a clash after their beliefs had been challenged. 

When this happens, something fascinating yet marvelous occurs in the human brain. Depending on our egos, we can either firmly stand our ground and forever be in discordance with the new theory we’ve been presented with,  or, in most cases, we begin to doubt our beliefs and wish to explore the options present in the world.

Psychedelics do exactly this. These compounds can shake down everything we believe in by showing us alternate realities of our political, societal, and religious beliefs, and in my genuine opinion, setting sail for evolution, finding the turning wheel of love, and finding communion, sharing experiences, compassion and love can only be done by breaking down what we thought we once knew.

This is the power of psychedelics and the ancient power that we seem to be lacking with recent events, showing compassion and sharing love despite different beliefs, political viewpoints, or religious beliefs.

We all share one big culture as a species. Even though there have been events in history that we do not accept or agree with, in history books, they will always see it as our shared history as a species. Now, it is for us to get educated about other cultures, explore our beliefs respectfully, and accept that others may have a different point of view than ours based on how they grew up, the experiences they collected, and the personalities they developed.

But one simple rule that cannot be missed.

We must be compassionate, respect and love their diversity of beliefs, learn with them, always keep our minds open to everything string of theory and thought, and know that it’s okay to change our beliefs without losing our integrity. Only in this way do we evolve as people and as a species. 

Become educated with different cultures, and absorb the most knowledge you can get as it is our history as a species.  

And most importantly, stay safe!

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