Personally I have gained so much in my own life through many experiences of these mind-expanding substances.
I could talk for hours about the spiritual impact they have had on me but want to also share the basic science behind how they interact with our brain and thus our external reality.
Firstly I’d like share this amazing passage that underpins the power and importance of the role psychedelic medicines can, and are having on our global consciousness:
“Imagine taking a medicine that alters your mind and facilitates the generation of new thoughts and new ways of looking at the world.
Imagine taking a medicine that facilitates solving problems of, be they personal or professional.
Imagine taking a medicine for the purpose of spiritual prophylaxis, the cleansing of the spirit that has been clogged up by life.
When we expand our consciousness, we liberate ourselves from the slavery that is inherent in all cultural and institutional systems. The slavery derives from repetition of daily life until behaviour becomes institutionalised, thereby creating culture.
Rigidified, institutionalised culture is the ultimate peer pressure, which stifles, dominates, and controls both creativity and consciousness expansion.”
From the book ‘Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca’ By Dr. Louis Richard Miller
That’s pretty much a ‘mic drop’ passage right there, that really gets to the heart of the benefit of psychedelic use and as the late great psychedelic explorer Terence Mckenna once said:
‘Culture is not your friend.’
Terence Mckenna
Free Your Mind
We can only create what we can imagine and our imagination is impacted by the experiences we have had. The structures of the society we have been brought up in, along with the laws and beliefs, dictate what experiences we can have or that are acceptable. Those that control our society, control our ability to imagine and thus create.
This control reduces our ability to create outside of the known and agreed upon structure, which makes thinking and living outside of the box, an uphill struggle.
I believe many of the issues around depression and anxiety that western cultures are suffering from is an innate dissatisfaction with the way our world operates. What our society promises and ultimately what it doesn’t deliver, which is truth, transparency, and freedom.
Look at the leaders of governments around the world, the old paradigm ways of thinking that are keeping us locked in the recycling of history, namely wars of power and control.
Freedom really is the wholly grail of human existence and so if we feel our ability to live and think freely is restricted, the essence of what it is to be human starts decaying and life loses the rich and vibrant colours that we have come here to experience.
Enter the ever-growing use of psychedelic medicine, now being studied for it’s benefits on improving mental health conditions such as PTSD, depression and anxiety.
It can also offer us a new perspective from which to see and understand the world, a place that provides new ways of thinking and thus creating.
Have you ever felt that there is more magic in this world than you are consciously able to observe, an unseen place, that you know exists but just can’t touch?
A kind of world that you know is possible, but that is being blocked from manifesting through old ways of thinking.
Well after one of my first Ayahuasca experiences, I had a deep feeling that finally I had been able to see and feel that magic first hand, I had seen beyond the veil.
Switch on more brain cells
Now was that ‘magic’ per say that I experienced or was that due to the effect the psychedelic medicine was having on increasing blood flow to certain areas of my brain?
More of my brain cells were activated with increased levels of oxygen and glucose, literally switching them on like Christmas tree lights, allowing more parts of my brain to communicate and thus enabling me to see and feel much more.
Basically, psychedelics are what a telescope is to outer space. They help you to focus your lens on an unavailable dimension that is inaccessible during day-to-day activities.
What I’ve described sounds like magic in itself but that’s biologically what happens during a mystical psychedelic experience, more blood flow, equals more oxygen, which equals more life in the old grey matter.
Turn off your restrictive programming
One of the inbuilt mechanisms of our brain is something called the ‘Default Mode Network’. It is the ‘seat of self’, the ego that is made up of the stories we tell ourselves along with the beliefs and patterns that are programmed through our early life experiences that form a rigid structure of self-identity.
Brain scans and studies have shown that psychedelics actually restrict blood flow to this area of the brain, effectively shutting down the rigidity in your thinking, whilst allowing more blood flow to other areas increasing activity and a more expanded way of thinking.
Heroic vs Micro dose
The phrase ‘Heroic Dose’ was coined by Terence Mckenna when describing a 5g dose of psilocybin mushrooms, which will take you to infinity and beyond!
Five grams is pretty excessive for most people and if you’re in search of a mystical experience then two grams upwards of psilocybin should suffice, depending on body weight and previous psychedelic experience.
I just recently had a really powerful ceremonial experience after taking 2g of a strain called Blue Moon, which was equal to one earlier in the year where I took 4g, you don’t always know what you’re going to get when you start taking higher doses, once you take the blue pill, anything is possible, so approach with caution.
When taking this kind of dose it’s advisable to take them in a more controlled environment with experienced facilitators who can help guide you through the experience if it starts to get a bit too challenging for you.
The same can be said for all psychedelics and especially with Ayahuasca which is pretty much always done in a ceremonial space, held together by a Shaman and or experienced facilitators.
A mystical experience with or without psychedelics gives us all a deeper sense of connection to all things and to our purpose for living, enabling us to reconnect with a more heart focused way of living.
Micro-dosing has become really popular over the last 10 years to help with focus and cognitive function. It means taking a small or micro-dose of a psychedelic medicine. The minimal viable dose needed to enhance creativity and neural activity without it outwardly effecting your ability to perform normal everyday tasks.
You essentially take it like you would any other performance enhancing vitamin or neurotropic (a formulation of natural compounds in supplemental form created to enhance the performance and activity of nervous system tissue.)
Micro-dosing can have many benefits on creativity and productivity, in fact I’m writing this article whilst micro-dosing psilocybin mushrooms and the words are just flowing.
I have also been micro-dosing with Ayahuasca whilst being here in the Colombian jungle, to help with increased connectivity and self-awareness, plus to enhance my Ayahuasca ceremonial experiences.
Beyond the Veil
There’s more to you, me and this cosmic human experience than meets the eye, not everyone will feel called to take psychedelics and just like everything in life, they’re not for everyone but for those that do seek out the experience, more often than not the effect on the individual’s life is profound and can have long lasting effects.
Some people have likened an Ayahuasca retreat as equivalent to 10 years of therapy.
The physical and mental benefits of these plants is now becoming more common knowledge due to the amazing work being done by the committed scientists and organisations such as MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), The Beckley Foundation and John Hopkins University in the funding of psychedelic studies that have been restricted for so long by controlling governments and drug policies.
Clinics are now opening up in the US to provide psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, using MDMA, Psilocybin mushrooms, LSD and Ketamine with a trained psychotherapist, enabling people to deal with deeply rooted trauma.
Along with the amazing health benefits of psychedelic compounds are the deeply profound and transformative spiritual effects they can have, bringing you to a deeper connection with yourself, with source and an increased sense of unity with all life on this planet.
There is also an infinite well of wisdom and insight that can come through these plant teachers or maybe they just enable us to access the infinite well of wisdom that already exists within us all.
The answer to that question is contained within the great mystery of existence, which we may never know but one thing is for sure, psychedelic use makes this game of life more fascinating, magical and easier to navigate.
Are you ready to free your mind Neo?
If you’re thinking of embarking on a deep journey with psychedelics or have just had one then I am now offering Psychedelic Integration coaching and support for more information click here >>
