The Science and Controversy Surrounding Psychedelics for Therapeutic Use
IMPORTANT: I am not a doctor, nor do I prescribe any medication or try to treat or cure illnesses/disease. The purpose of all my blogs/articles and information I share with clients is to invoke curiosity, and to inform individuals of alternative options for treatment. Allopathic medicine is not always the only option. I feel that all patients/clients should do their own research and investigate their best treatment options. With that being said, I support responsible use of psychedelics, which include:
1. Proper preparation of the physical body, and mental awareness--which includes positive and well thought out intentions.
2. Proper and safe setting—which includes licensed professionals or experienced shamans/facilitators in a safe space.
3. You should carefully examine your physical and mental well-being and thoroughly investigate your individual situation.
In November of 2021, my cousin passed away at the age of 36. She was my best friend, nanny to my kids, and the sister I never had. She will always be missed in her physical form, and I am grateful for her spiritual presence in all our lives. She had suffered from back pain most of her life, as well as depression. At the time of her death, she was taking approximately eighteen prescription medications, attempting to control her depression, blood sugar, cholesterol, sleep disturbances, and many other conditions. She had also participated in many different therapeutic programs for depression over the years. She became addicted to pain medication following her first back surgery. Leading up to her death, after seven years on Percocet, her doctor stopped prescribing her the medication. In her desperation, she started down a very short road of street drugs and risky behaviors. We did all we could for her, but in the end it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t save her; however, I am grateful for the opportunity to help others find their journey to healing from not only drug addiction, but other disorders as well.
I began a spiritual journey around Christmas of 2018, which led to reading articles and watching shows on psychedelic medications and more specifically their ability to help not only addiction but a whole range of mental health disorders. It is incredible that western medicine really has no answer for these conditions, other than years of therapy, which makes positive momentum and healing rare, and a very long process, offering little or no long-term relief. My cousin and I would share conversations regarding my interests and research of these topics. My cousin was afraid of plant medicines, despite the overwhelming evidence of potential benefits. I had invited her many times to come with me to Peru, for an Ayahuasca retreat. My cousin had a very strong subconscious cultural belief that pharmaceuticals are safe and effective, and psychedelics are bad and scary. I am sure that there are many individuals in society still affected by this same conditioning. I hope that my voice and coaching practice can help begin to break down these belief structures.
In Donald W. Lights’ article in 2014, out of Harvard University, states “Few know that systematic reviews of hospital charts found that even properly prescribed drugs (aside from mis-prescribing, overdosing, or self-prescribing) cause about 1.9 million hospitalizations a year. Another 840,000 hospitalized patients are given drugs that cause serious adverse reactions for a total of 2.74 million serious adverse drug reactions. About 128,000 people die from drugs prescribed to them. This makes prescription drugs a major health risk, ranking 4th with stroke as a leading cause of death. The European Commission estimates that adverse reactions from prescription drugs cause 200,000 deaths: so together, about 328,000 patients in the U.S. and Europe die from prescription drugs each year.”
What about psychedelics?
There are countless articles on safety and efficacy of psilocybin and other psychotropic plants in all the literature. In this article the British Association of Psychopharmacology states that no major Adverse Events (AE’s) were reported during; or in the 12 months they followed participants. No psychosis, and no suicide. No deaths, and no overdoses. In fact, the difficult mental and emotional processes that come along with a mystical experience show great benefits to the participants. (See link at the end of this article).
I would agree with Simon G. Powell, who states in an interview with Regina Meredith on her show, Open Minds, that there is a disconnect in collective society, when it comes to Schedule One substances in comparison to legal pharmaceutical medicines, opiates, and alcohol.
Even alcohol which is legal to buy and consume has detrimental effects in large amounts, such as harm to oneself or others, and even death. Opiate addictions and overdoses continue to escalate. Yet medicinal plants and psychotropics when used in a proper/safe manner, with screenings and/or experienced indigenous shamans(curanderos), shows few life-threatening effects. In fact, it’s helping a lot of individuals overcome addictions. Many individuals show succession of symptoms, and in some cases eradicating their original diagnosis.
Stephen Harrod Buhner is an amazing author who portrays plants as something magical. Living, breathing, ever changing, and evolving, with a palpable and measurable intelligence. He shows us in his book, Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm, these psychotropic chemicals show up everywhere in nature. He quotes Rick Strassman;
It(DMT) is part of the normal makeup of humans and other mammals, marine animals, grasses and peas; toads and frogs; mushrooms and molds; and barks, flowers and roots.
He states, “It(DMT) is especially high in vascular plants. One source puts the compound in over 200 different species in 18 different families, most especially in the Acacia, Delosperma, Psychotria, and Virola genera.
Alexander Shulgin comments in his book TIHKAL: Tryptamines I have Known and Loved, “DMT is everywhere…it is in this flower here, in that tree over there and in yonder animal. It is most simply everywhere you choose to look.
These serotonergic compounds are connected to us, on a very basic and chemical level, and mother earth provides the healing that we need. Pharmaceuticals have been around for 200 years, and yet plant medicines can be traced back to tens of thousands of years. If you are interested in this subject, I would recommend Graham Hancock’s book Supernatural. He explores the origins of psychedelics, the archaeological cave art that led him on his journey, and his personal stories of his experiences with a variety of plant psychotropics.
Medical literature is continuing to grow as more and more clinical trials commence, so I would encourage you to look for your own answers and information. As westerners continue to search for the answers of healing and travel the world to partake in ayahuasca ceremonies, psilocybin journeys, iboga, mapacho, kambo, el sapo, and many other healing plants and psychedelics, I invite you to read their stories; study, learn, and if you dare, experience these realms for yourself.
In closing I would like to leave an excerpt from Stephen Harrod Buhner’s book, Plant Intelligence and the imaginal realm, into the dreaming of Earth. p341-342
“Indigenous cultures’ understanding of the heart’s capacity for sensory perception and cognition was far different from the kind of mushy sense of heart we now have in the West. To the ancient cultures, the heart was a sophisticated organ capable of both perception and a unique form of analytical thought that was oriented around images filled with feeling, a synaesthetic perceptual sensing that uses a specific form of imagination….
…It is this kind of imagining that is central to this way of perceiving and thinking. It both works with and generates images that are filled within them deeper awareness’s of the object of our attention. It’s how the imaginal is accessed, how we get to the place where we can touch the mystic and enter the dreaming of Earth.
That is what we, as psychonauts exploring the deeper foundations of the world, do. We access the imaginal through our capacity for analogical thought and we build year by year, a database of our analogical exploration of the world. For us imagination is not something that happens in the brain but is rather a different form of cognition, one inextricably interwoven with feeling, one filled with full sensate perceiving. It is the only way we can get to the meaning-filled text that underlies, that resides within, the world of form.”
I encourage you to do your own research and investigate these ideas for yourself. Keep an open mind, and allow your intuition, Higher Self, and Divine Energies to guide you. There are two TED talks on the Johns Hopkins website that really do an AMAZING job of providing details and information about what psychedelics have the potential to do for humanity. I have included the links here. Sending you love and hugs, and wishing you happy discoveries, and, of course, the most joyous life, with or without psychedelics.
Blessings!!
Links:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/research/psychedelics-research
https://youtu.be/81-v8ePXPd4?list=TLGGLF6yFEGMmOAxMDA5MjAyMw
https://youtu.be/sxm8QwvESJk?list=TLGGXRH_f6-DjZIxMDA5MjAyMw