Posted on 11/24/2020 5:39:19 AM PST by rochester
In 1967, ex-Harvard professor Timothy Leary famously coined one of the slogans of 60’s counter culture when he told hippies to “turn on, tune in, [and] drop out.” Psychedelics like LSD became a vital part of what Leary would later call the “graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments.”
Advocating for psychedelics made Leary an academic pariah and a target of the FBI. Had he come along fifty years later, he may have landed a lucrative consulting gig with venture capitalists.
On November 3, Oregon became the first U. S. state to legalize “magic mushrooms” for therapeutic use, following the lead of a few cities like Denver, Oakland, and Ann Arbor. Almost immediately afterwards, articles appeared advising investors how to “take full advantage of this $100 billion (USD) market potential.”
Investing Daily summed up the bullishness many see in this new market segment: “‘Magic mushrooms’ aren’t just for getting high and playing your old Iron Butterfly albums. These versatile fungi are entering the consumer mainstream and they’re evolving into a major investment theme.” Joining the “cha-ching” chorus, Business Insider has run a few articles as well, with titles such as “4 ways entrepreneurs can break into the psychedelics industry,” and “Why I’m betting big on psychedelics.”
If I were to bet big about psychedelics, I’d bet our nation is making a big mistake. Psilocybin, the ingredient that puts the “magic” in “magic mushrooms,” is sold on its therapeutic potential but, like marijuana (which also won big on election day in Montana, Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, and even Mississippi), there’s no way to limit its use to medical settings.
In fact, Michael Pollan described the real-world use of psychedelics in his 2018 best-seller, How To Change Your Mind: “What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Pollan and others don’t ingest “LSD, psilocybin and the crystallized venom of a Sonoran Desert toad” because they are clinically depressed. They are doing it to pursue what Leary called “the divinity within” and “the discovery of one’s singularity.”
To put it in more accessible terms, our increasingly materialist culture rejects any God Who is authoritative and transcendent (i.e. who exists outside of the material world). Thus, the divine must be found “within.” Many think psychedelics can assist their search by making it that much easier to escape the constraints of reality, authority, and limitations.
Of course, something is noticeably missing in any alternate reality, whether induced by psychedelics, alcohol abuse, or virtual reality: other people. “Pursuing your singularity,” as Pollan put it, leaves little room for anyone else, and feeds the illusion that we are somehow free of any obligations and commitments to others.
People who use psychedelics say simply that it makes them feel better. What often goes unconsidered is whether or not psychedelics makes them better… better spouses, better parents, better employees, better friends.
Advocates, like Pollan, also say that it helps them see things more “clearly.” In the 1990s, a small group of volunteers were injected with the psychedelic DMT. “Almost half experienced terrifying hallucinations, like ‘aliens’ that took the shape of robots, insects or reptiles.” So much for clarity.
And, of course, there’s this notion that psychedelics help you “find yourself.” But, as John Horgan wrote in the Scientific American, that may not be a good thing. “Far from making you wiser and nicer,” he wrote, “psychedelics can make you an arrogant, narcissistic jerk. It can be hard distinguishing an ego that has vanished from one that has expanded to infinity.”
That is, of course, at the root of the problem with psychedelics. Escaping reality never solves the problem of reality. Deluding oneself about oneself is never a fix for the problems of oneself.
Leary died in 1996. He didn’t live to see this brave new world of psychedelics entering the consumer mainstream. It’s just as bad of an idea today as it was fifty years ago.
No mention of ecstasy.
Let’s just legalize everything BUT guns!
I experimented in the ‘60s - saw some folks have the “bad trips” but never did have one myself. Seems like those who had trouble coping with reality were more prone to having the bad experiences.
That said, I don’t see how one can use a lot of them and stay grounded in reality. I’m glad mine was only a very finite, passing phase.
I don’t think any state should legalize their recreational use. But the Constitution grants the feds no authority over within-state drug policy.
“What often goes unconsidered is whether or not psychedelics makes them better”
Making us better is definitely beyond the competence and legitimate authority of government.
I guess it’s all good until you are caught snorting your legal cocaine thru a bootleg plastic straw...
I say legalize it all. But NO use of narcan on those who OD. Let every person choose their destiny not the government.
Thanks for sharing. Next time, don’t!
Leary didn’t just do LSD and pot. He did heroin
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/11/archives/timothy-leary-the-madness-of-the-sixties-and-me-the-sinner-and-the.html
He did ketamine
he did it all.
Why?
Isn’t first-hand experience/observation of any value?
At least I didn’t go the “Baptist Minister” route and say that I tried it so Y’all don’t have to...
Uh-oh, this thread is becoming a real trip...
Have a great day!
Saying you never had a bad trip goes against the Drug Warrior party line - and like all statists, Drug Warriors don’t want to engage in debate but suppress it.
Yep - not like I was condoning the drugs; just talking about some personal observations.
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