The Widening Divide

The Widening Divide: Medicinal Application Of Psychedelic Substances Psychedelics seem to be what the alchemists called quintessence. I see the Psychadelic experience as an opportunity to not only view something that points to the ultimate, but something that also allows one a chance to participate in transformation towards the ultimate. This transformation begins with the realization of our symbiotic relationship with a hypothetical form of dark energy, more precisely a scalar field, postulated as an explanation of the observation of an accelerating rate of expansion of the universe. That being said, I’ve noticed a problem in the community. A seven hundred and twenty three pound gorilla in the stoned ape theory. There seems to be an ever widening gap on the medicinal application of psychadelic substances. Like North and South America being pulled apart by continental drift, It seems to me there are two hemispheres in the debate about psychedelics that are slowly drifting further & further apart. On one side we have the: I must patent this, require a prescription, follow the pharmaceutical industry playbook, keep out these weird trippy hippies so they don’t ruin it like “God Damn Leary did.” Also we’re going to make a ton of money types On the other side we have the: This can be produced for almost nothing, and help millions of people. Additionally it’s spiritual in nature & can potentially lead to the end of the …there’s no money in a cure so we’ll use a business model based on addiction to siphon money out of every individual in the health care system bunch. I have read intriguing articles from both sides of the aisles. To me it’s almost like a left and a right hemisphere of the brain. The left hemisphere of the brain being the sharp scalpel of the intellect much like the scientific method trying to constantly reduce that which is visible into a logical format or a patent. On the opposite side of the spectrum we see not so much as a reducible logical argument, as we do the nature of our humanity and the symbol thereof. The widening divide mirrors that which exists in our culture. That is the chasm between science and spirituality. I fear there will forever be camps on both sides of the bridge. Perhaps it would help to think of Psychedelics a little bit like the corpus callosum. A psychedelic bridge of quintessence, that allows both hemispheres to crossover between science and spirituality. It is an opportunity to create the future by fusing or at least having ambassadors from both hemispheres able to shake hands in the middle of the bridge Some of the arguments from the scientific stem from the beginning of the western psychedelic journey. It was fraught with misuse, drug addiction, irresponsible use, bad ideas, pain, abuse and even death. This side argues that we must not allow for the same carelessness that shelved psychadelic medicine fifty years ago. That we run a risk of repeating the same mistakes. Thus we must implement tight controls. Those in the spiritual camp might say that psychedelics brought us closer to understanding who and what we really are. Some would argue they enabled us to see God within ourselves, that they enable us to see ourselves as the creator. They provide insight to view ourselves as part of the whole, instead of individual entities. I would like to share with you what I see when I look at both camps from the middle of the bridge. I think it would be a big mistake to deny the tumultuous beginnings of the movement. The early days of psychedelics were filled with lots of irresponsible people & ideas. There were people in pain, people that were suffering and people who were not ready for such powerful tools. At times, irresponsible use even led to death. However, much like all youth, be it a a powerful young country, an incredibly intelligent young adolescent, the strong young warriors of indigenous tribes, all of these must have their adolescence, all of these must have their childhood, all must make the mistakes that lead to experience. When the youth rebel, some of them rebel by leaving their home from which they were born, some rebel by chanting down the laws and rules and the customs that they were forced into. Still others rebel quietly, on the inside, until it becomes to be too much and they decided to take their own lives. It’s reminds me of an ancient African proverb that says: “The child who is not embraced by the tribe will return to burn it down, just to feel it’s warmth” I think it’s imperative that we embrace the chaos that was the beginning of the psychedelic movement, the 60s, the Vietnam war, and the turning away from main stream society. I don’t think that these particular things, incidents, or situation should be celebrated with there own holiday nor ever be forgotten. They should not be pushed to the back of the mind or relegated to a part of the brain or museum that has no use for them To deny your youth, is to deny the suffering you had, to deny the battles that you went through, it is to deny who you are today, all your struggles, all your problems, all your obstacles, These things are what made you who you are today. The truth is you can never get better until you except that you are responsible for your past. Let us look at psychedelics as a powerful youth that has taken the same course. The same as all powerful technologies before them have taken. How are we supposed to know? How are we supposed to understand? How are we supposed to foresee? Unless we experimented with them. The pioneers of psychedelic exploration have grown into responsible practitioners of medicine and so to has relationship to the psychedelic experience ripened. I think you could argue that it’s gone full circle. Prior to us in the west understanding what this powerful plant medicines can do, there were teachers in the heart of the Amazon, there were teachers in the Bhagavad-Gita, in eastern religions, in western mystics, the ideas of these plant medicines were written down and recorded. To all those who are on this journey, know that we are all on the same path. A path that leads to the promise of the psychedelic experience. A path that leads to dangerously beautiful tomorrow land I would like to extend a hand to each of you, my brothers, my sisters, regardless of what camp your in, regardless of which side of the bridge you find yourself, with my hands wide-open on both sides I invite both camps to the middle of the bridge.