Hey Scott, I know this post is almost a year old but I stumbled upon this post in particular and was introduced to your entire Substack. So, for that I am grateful. I am 29 and I had my first psychedelic experience at about 26 and it changed my life forever and for the better. They’ve given me guidance, let me cry out the tears that I never got to. Helped me make changes to my lifestyle. Quit everything from alcohol, friendships / relationships that were bad for me. I came into each experience with intentions. I wanted to find myself and find the answers or assistance to gain the answers. And psychedelics gave me that and I will be forever grateful. It has taught me to be more mindful of my body and what goes into in all regards. From food, to stress, to over the counter medications. I try and stay as natural as I possibly can because our bodies have the power to achieve great things.
So, thank you for this. You give me tremendous hope for my 30’s.
Thanks for the kinds words Miguel. Sounds like you've been on an awesome journey. I am sure there's many great experiences and revelations to come : ) Keep going
Nice piece! I think we need more writing that seeks to authentically evaluate the benefits and also the downsides of psychedelics. The focus in the psychedelic movement has been to push the positive aspects without considering the negative possible outcomes. For myself, I benefitted greatly for a while (they were the focus of my first books, particularly Breaking Open the Head) but then I think they became destructive and it took me a number of years to rebalance. Now I use them more carefully and judiciously and feel strong benefit again. And of course it is ultimately an individual choice, but people won't be in a good position to make such a choice without a full spectrum of honest information. I also see that you don't discuss the "middle world" of spirits / demons / entitities that is the special provenance of shamanic work... You might want to come back and address it. I feel this is one reason many Eastern-tinged spiritual teachers ignored psychedelics - like Ken Wilber for instance - because they were only oriented toward Satori / transcendence (can't recall Wilber's term at the moment) and didn't feel the "middle world" of entitities was important to address. I vehemently disagree with this, for many reasons... partly because our world seems, to me, infested by these middle world spirits, who cause a kind of cultural possession trance... ("Wetiko" is one term that has become popular). Anyway good to encounter your writing here and thanks for recommending my newsletter too. Kind regards, Daniel
Thanks Daniel! You’re on the money that both sides need to be reflected and frankly I think the downsides are less discussed because they’re still very new and it’s all playing out. Moreover we don’t have support models to help people with things like the development of energetic sensitivities so people can’t really articulate what is wrong with them and why.
I have experienced a ton of middle world things. In fact, for awhile I had outside energies / entities entering my field and attaching themselves to me all the time. It was very annoying at first and inconvenient. I do think despite the fact most people aren’t capable of feeling them, it’s a good topic to discuss in probably a seperate post. My current worldview is that entities too are a part of consciousness which we are that, so it’s best just to accept it all vs resist.
Thanks for stopping by and keep up the great work!
VERY timely. Thank you for sharing and I love the audio read. Made this more meaningful--forced a lean back mode.
Appreciate that man. Perhaps I'll do more audio reads in the future : )
Hey Scott, I know this post is almost a year old but I stumbled upon this post in particular and was introduced to your entire Substack. So, for that I am grateful. I am 29 and I had my first psychedelic experience at about 26 and it changed my life forever and for the better. They’ve given me guidance, let me cry out the tears that I never got to. Helped me make changes to my lifestyle. Quit everything from alcohol, friendships / relationships that were bad for me. I came into each experience with intentions. I wanted to find myself and find the answers or assistance to gain the answers. And psychedelics gave me that and I will be forever grateful. It has taught me to be more mindful of my body and what goes into in all regards. From food, to stress, to over the counter medications. I try and stay as natural as I possibly can because our bodies have the power to achieve great things.
So, thank you for this. You give me tremendous hope for my 30’s.
Thanks for the kinds words Miguel. Sounds like you've been on an awesome journey. I am sure there's many great experiences and revelations to come : ) Keep going
Nice piece! I think we need more writing that seeks to authentically evaluate the benefits and also the downsides of psychedelics. The focus in the psychedelic movement has been to push the positive aspects without considering the negative possible outcomes. For myself, I benefitted greatly for a while (they were the focus of my first books, particularly Breaking Open the Head) but then I think they became destructive and it took me a number of years to rebalance. Now I use them more carefully and judiciously and feel strong benefit again. And of course it is ultimately an individual choice, but people won't be in a good position to make such a choice without a full spectrum of honest information. I also see that you don't discuss the "middle world" of spirits / demons / entitities that is the special provenance of shamanic work... You might want to come back and address it. I feel this is one reason many Eastern-tinged spiritual teachers ignored psychedelics - like Ken Wilber for instance - because they were only oriented toward Satori / transcendence (can't recall Wilber's term at the moment) and didn't feel the "middle world" of entitities was important to address. I vehemently disagree with this, for many reasons... partly because our world seems, to me, infested by these middle world spirits, who cause a kind of cultural possession trance... ("Wetiko" is one term that has become popular). Anyway good to encounter your writing here and thanks for recommending my newsletter too. Kind regards, Daniel
Thanks Daniel! You’re on the money that both sides need to be reflected and frankly I think the downsides are less discussed because they’re still very new and it’s all playing out. Moreover we don’t have support models to help people with things like the development of energetic sensitivities so people can’t really articulate what is wrong with them and why.
I have experienced a ton of middle world things. In fact, for awhile I had outside energies / entities entering my field and attaching themselves to me all the time. It was very annoying at first and inconvenient. I do think despite the fact most people aren’t capable of feeling them, it’s a good topic to discuss in probably a seperate post. My current worldview is that entities too are a part of consciousness which we are that, so it’s best just to accept it all vs resist.
Thanks for stopping by and keep up the great work!
it is Daniel actually!
Wow my bad man, brain fart yesterday 😅
This is an amazing piece! Love the fish analogy. Well done.
Thanks Andrew! All from the heart : )
Love this
Thank you very much : )
Very cool Kimia. I've done mindbloom and have a very positive experience in the therapuetic setting.
1) reminds me a lot of Ram Dass's accounts.
3) sounds really cool. Hope that keeps going for you!!