Are entheogens a shortcut to the divine or just a way for pseudo-intellectuals to feel like they are “spiritual”? It seems like DMT is more popular than ever, for better or for worse. We can probably thank Joe Rogan. In many places psilocybin mushrooms are easily accessible through the internet or even a dispensary. In Canada it’s even possible to mail-order a sheet of LSD or an ounce of powdered san pedro (mescaline).
Is this the beginning of a new entheogenic renaissance or are we all just getting fucked up for the fun of it? Let’s take a trip and explore this a bit further.
Entheogens Across Space & Time
Throughout history if you look close enough in any corner of the world you can find some form of entheogen use intertwined with humanity’s eager search for spiritual knowledge and power. From the amanita mushrooms of Siberian shamans, to the mysterious Soma of the Vedic Sanskrit hymns, and the rapidly growing in popularity ayahuasca ceremonies of South American cultures. The ancient Greeks had their Eleusinian mysteries. Iboga, and others, comes to us from Africa. Anywhere you look humans were, and a lot still are, getting very high and searching for wisdom and healing. The idea of psychedelics having mysterious powers that have the potential to benefit us is as old as humanity itself.
Today psychedelic tourism is booming in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia. Some of these tourists claim to have childhood traumas healed, others say they met their ancestors or had their addictions cured in a single night, but yet so many of them are still absolutely insufferable people. Similar to how your college buddy took LSD once, swore his love for the whole universe, then a week later used every derogatory and sexist term in the dictionary to refer to his ex-girlfriend that dumped him for being a waste of oxygen.
How is it that psychedelics can make us feel so life-shatteringly enlightened only for us to fall back into our shitty habits before we can blink an eye?
Unearned Wisdom
Carl Jung, the famous (and in my opinion profound) Swiss psychologist often criticized the idea that there are shortcuts to psychic growth. He scoffed at the idea that hypnotherapy and other “quick cure” methods could magically fix our problems at the drop of a dime. In his view, regardless of what tools we choose to use, there was actual work and effort that we must put in as individuals seeking individuation.
While the term “unearned wisdom” is often associated with Jung, I don’t believe he ever actually used the words himself. However I feel like those words hit the nail on the head. If we think about it for one moment then we can see how our “self”, that same shitty personality we try to escape from, is not a simple construct. It is an accumulation of a lifetime of traumas, mental associations, ego identities, and a plethora of ideas we take so dearly that we will fight tooth and nail anyone who dares to challenge them. Cognitive dissonance is an understatement.
The fact remains that while we are forced to let go of that ego when the immense push of entheogens comes to shove, those same forces are not going to stick around any longer than our trip lasts. By next morning we are already having trouble putting our experience into words, and very quickly our mental composition begins the task of rebuilding our old shitty self. It’s so much easier for the mind to tuck away the experience than it is to discard EVERYTHING ELSE it knew about itself.
In the end the truth of the matter is that integration is even more difficult of a task than making it through the trip. Beyond that, true spiritual and psychic growth is a lifetime affair that often challenges us, frequently batters us, and drags us through our own inner hell before it rewards us with any form of actual growth.
The Status Quo
I’ll be honest, I am often sceptical of people, and people almost always prove me right in being so. Whether it’s turning Buddhism into a corporate tool for productivity, or making a mockery of sacred substances by claiming a weekend retreat in Peru delivered them true enlightenment. The average person is not very bright, extremely selfish, and rarely capable of anything extraordinary – thus is the term “average”. This is not any different when it comes to the latest craze of entheogens.
On the one hand I think that it is wonderful that so many people are having experiences that push them well beyond the boundaries of their box. In my younger years I thought that if everyone took LSD at least once then the world’s problems would be fixed. Yet just like the fizzled out hippy revolution, my hope of a simple solution to world peace was pure naivety. It’s just not that simple.
So what about those that lay beyond and above the fold of the average?
The Noble Few
I’m going to start off with an analogy. Theravada Buddhists are forbidden from drinking alcohol, and I’m sure it’s very easy for us to see why. All too often alcohol only amplifies our faults and makes us shittier people. Yet Vajrayana Buddhists not only partake of alcohol, but they even use it in certain practices that manage to yield profound insights about the nature of mind[ness]. Entheogens become much more powerful of tools when they are used as tools, rather than being taken as the end fruition itself.
Integrate, Integrate, Integrate
The fist and foremost in making proper use of entheogens is to make integration the forefront of the experience. It matters less about how profound your trip was than how you integrate it back into your psyche. The act of integration is to sit with it, consider it, prod at it, and above all apply skepticism.
True realization can withstand all scrutiny and will create unshakable changes. Staying skeptical is our shield against delusions. It’s very easy to get carried away by our fantastic trips and believe we have discovered a rare secret of the universe. Yet, have you met someone else who has done the same? All it takes is for us to hear the same ramblings coming from someone else to realize just how cringe it all sounds. Prod at your realizations first and foremost, test them, try to explain them away before you go all in and place your ego on it.
Once we have scrutinized the experience and “stripped away” as much divinity as possible we may be left with nothing – which is better than being left with something fake. On the other hand we might find that a kernel of something remains. It might be a tidbit of realization, or it might be a grain of inexplicable mystery. Now what are the implications?
What does this experience tell us about ourselves? What parts of us does it challenge? Which direction does it point us in? These are the questions we should be asking and considering. It’s not enough to HAVE the experience, it must then be allowed to change us. We should pay special attention to what parts of ourselves are made uncomfortable by this new piece of information, and at the same time which parts of ourselves feel elated by it. This type of introspection is important, but without a direction we can easily use it to beef up our ego instead of growing. This is why…
It’s vital to have some larger framework that can accommodate the biggest mysteries and realizations.
The Need for a Spiritual Framework
Atheists often love to quote Nietzsche as a proclamation “God is dead!” However they miss the rest of that quote which has a much deeper and profound implication than the death of religion:
God remains dead! And we have killed him! How can we console ourselves, the murderers of all murderers! The holiest and the mightiest thing the world has ever possessed has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood from us?
- Friedrich Nietzsche
The move away from religion was a necessary step for humanity in order to gain footing as liberated individuals. However to replace the old certainties of theism with the new conviction of atheism is simply replacing one belief with another. The average atheist is just as dogmatic as the average theist. Worse yet, they have completely removed all framework for their psyche to process anything “greater than” itself. There is no room for the divine, there is no place for mystery.
As Carl Jung points out when we repress parts of ourselves they begin to fester deep inside and create neurosis (maybe even psychosis). For us to be able to truly integrate the deepest mysteries of entheogens we need some kind of spiritual framework. I’m not saying you should drop skepticism, on the contrary I am saying that you need to MAXIMIZE your skepticism and turn it even against itself. Once we have become stagnant in our beliefs we become dumb, we close ourselves off from further possibility.
“Belief is the death of Intelligence”
- Robert Anton Wilson
You should have the sword of skepticism in one hand and the fire of curiosity in the other. When we truly take a dive into the depths of mystery we find that all of our assumptions tend to shatter. The impossible seems possible, and we are given the room to grow beyond a limited Self. However having an “open minded” framework is only half the battle.
We must also have a practice to go hand-in-hand with our framework.
The Importance of Praxis
While it’s cool that you’ve used entheogens to reach altered states of consciousness and witness mysteries beyond comprehension what good will it to do to you in your day-to-day life? Is the plan to jump towards psychedelics any time we have a problem or hurdle? A spiritual practice is even more important than a spiritual framework.
For the sake of staying impartial I won’t try to sway you towards the same direction that I have ended up taking on my path. Instead I’m going to say that there are some criteria you should look for when choosing your practice:
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MOST importantly: The practice should depend on your own first-hand experience as a vehicle, rather than relying on believing someone else’s claims. This automatically disqualifies the majority of religions and spiritual beliefs.
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The practice should be one that has been tested by time. Avoid following PEOPLE, especially ones who’s names are cheesy and cringey like “Teal Swan”.
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It should be difficult and challenging, forcing you to confront yourself and challenge your ideas. Don’t find a practice that tries to tell you the answers, because each person is their own unique problem that requires a complex and personal solution.
There are very few spiritual practices that remain after you have filtered them through the above criteria. You will find that the common thread between them all is that they are difficult and take a lifetime of practice. Once again we loop back to the truth that there are no shortcuts, there are no easy solutions. Life, suffering, is complex and if you decide to face it head on then be ready for one hell of a war.
In Conclusion
To finish off this piece I want to go back to the question, “do psychedelics make us enlightened?” I hope that you can see that there is no simple answer in the same way that you can’t answer “will buying power tools build me a home?”
Entheogens are a tool, and as proponents of psychedelic therapy have realized they are a very unique and powerful tool, but they do not bring about a result on their own. Most people will not have the knowledge, expertise, or the mental capacity to utilize entheogens properly on their own. Those people should not delude themselves into thinking their sneak peaks of ego-death make them enlightened beings.
For the rare few who carry the noble torch, this writing is redundant. Still, I hope that those still sitting at a crossroad may find an inkling of guidance in this piece to set them on the conquering path
would be cool to see how your journey progresses.