The Hidden Dangers of Psychedelics

there are more pitfalls than you might think

Since the subject of psychedelics and plant medicines is a hot topic yet again, let's revisit what I had to say on the matter in December 2022 on Instagram.

The biggest obstacle to this essay is going to be me consistently spelling psychedelics correctly. Let’s pretend that I’ve gotten it right even when spell check misses it. Thanks.

My other big caveat is that traditional ceremonies fall outside the scope of what I’m discussing. There are such deep energetic roots within certain cultures that without having experienced them first hand, I cannot speak to them.

What we’re about to address is when you jump into those practices without being a member of that community or culture. Even when someone from such a tradition leads you through a ceremony or experience, the energetic dynamics shift. You are not joined to the ancestral lineage or practices.

psychedelic | psy·​che·​del·​ic /ˌsīkəˈdelik/
noun; adjective

1. relating to or denoting drugs (especially LSD) that produce hallucinations and apparent expansion of consciousness.

What falls under the category of psychedelics? In no particular order — ayahuasca, cannabis, LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, PCP, ecstasy, ketamine, and so on.

This was originally hosted as a Q&A on Instagram so you will see many comments and questions throughout this piece indented and in bold to identify them.

OMG, yes please talk about this! One disastrous experience with marijuana changed my life forever. It blasted apart my energy channels, left me blacking out and spasming, and caused energetic disturbances that took years and thousands of dollars with energy healers to heal and rebuild. It also opened me up to entity possession, which complicated matters. I am finally in a good place now, but to this day I have an extreme energy hypersensitivity. I would love to hear your take on psychedelics.

Experiences like these are why we’re discussing this topic. Yes, all of these things will provide an expansion of consciousness. But at what cost?

There’s an overall altering of our energetic bodies when we introduce drugs into the picture — pharmaceuticals or psychedelics. When someone is already energetically sensitive, this can wreck both the physical and energetic bodies. Think of it like a Formula 1 car having standard gas put into it from any old, corner gas station. It completely throws off the perfectly calibrated settings.

The individual is catapulted into an energetic space beyond what the bodies (energetic and physical) are ready to navigate. When we outpace the natural timeline of expansion, we don’t have the tools to understand what is happening.

I’ve heard accounts of micro-dosing or other such activities having great healing effects for people. But what I read energetically is that there’s still a gap. The way it’s shown to me is a sliding door that won’t quite close. Critters can still sneak in at night, and this too is the way with malignant energies. That’s the very specific term I’m being told.

Even writing this, the concept doesn’t sit well with me. As we continue to discuss this and collectively piece it together, there will be additional clarity on this aspect.

Another surefire way to get me to raise an eyebrow at something is to start pushing a healing modality in the mainstream. So when ayahuasca and micro-dosing became popular to the point that I had numerous friends wanting to experiment with them, I got curious.

Plus, how many Netflix documentaries are there on these topics at this point? (The Mind, Explained (2019-2021); The Goop Lab: The Healing Trip (2020); Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics (2020); and How to Change Your Mind (2022) for a start.) And why were the dispensaries allowed to stay open when the rest of the country was shut down during COVID? Both eyebrows were raised at that point.

There’s something about all of this that makes my heart gasp and want to do the signature mom arm when you come to an abrupt stop so that your passenger doesn’t go flying through the windshield.

It’s not that malevolent energy sneaks in every time, but the propensity increases the more one uses these shortcuts to expansion. We’re outpacing our body’s ability to support us and the information our energetic field is able to interpret.

That comes with risks. Whether those feel like worthwhile risks is entirely up to you.

I found your sliding door analogy very appropriate. I wish you would talk a bit more about the energy the intention the psychedelic is grown with. I think it makes a difference. It resonates with me how harmful mushrooms can be, but at the same time, I believe that they can be healing to some. My worry is the proper setting and lack of support not mentioned in documentaries. I see your truthful words about negative possibilities. It clarifies what can be seen on a mushroom " trip ". How come for some people it comes through the opposite? Being finally able to cry, feel the anxiety, and pain that they can deny feeling on an everyday basis? Thanks.

While I do believe that the intention behind the growth is important, it’s a bit like fire. You can be incredibly cautious and know that you’re having your bonfire in safe conditions, but if that spark flies and catches, how the fire spreads is completely out of your hands.

I spent my summers having beach bonfires on the shores of Lake Michigan almost every night of my teen years. We were raised to understand the gravity of what would happen if we didn’t put our fires out completely. Fire would tear through the woods and the entire community of cottages rather rapidly. We all shared in the responsibility of extinguishing the nightly bonfire.

When I worked at Interlochen in my early thirties, I realized that not everyone approached fire safety the same way. Friends would want to leave the beach with the fire only partially extinguished. Obviously that didn’t fly with me. And while we’re on the topic, never cover your bonfire with sand. That makes for invisible coals that will burn someone’s feet. But those folks thought they were putting out the fire sufficiently.

I’m guessing you see where I’m going here. Even with good intentions, we don’t know what we don’t know. Add to that malevolent beings who are flicking embers and blowing on the ashes to reignite the flames.

As far as the release you’re describing, when I feel into it, it comes across as a false release, almost like using a menthol stick to elicit tears. Yes, you’re crying, but the emotion that’s meant to be attached to it isn’t there.

I also don’t want to negate the profound effect many describe from these experiences. But again, they feel partially done. Incomplete. The kicker being that you end up thinking you’re fully moved through that piece or that phase. It’s a trick in many ways. I still get a strong, “No! No! No!” when tuning into it. That’s my take and you’re welcome to disagree with me.

Whether it’s psychedelics or something else, if we try something that harms us, in the same way you talk about reclaiming physical health, can we reclaim energetic health?

Yes, but it may take time. Remember, in many cases these are intentionally malignant energies. They’re meant to stick with you. It’s like the chemical scent in laundry products. I’ve washed a quilt four times and hung it in the sun for multiple days, and I still can’t get the fabric softener scent out of it.

So clearing these things from our energetic and physical systems is likely going to be hard work. Oh, and incredibly painful. (And probably expensive.) Again, they’re designed that way.

But if you’re willing to go through the agony, it’s possible. I will add that the symptoms of excretion and release are typically the ones that people want to suppress. In which case, you would end up layering additional obstacles onto the ones already there.

This question has been asked quite a bit relating to the thing we’re not supposed to mention (COVID vaccines). Juice box anyone? 🧃

I still have more questions than answers, as do the beings who are actively working on this.

There are different energetic patterns to those who were coerced into receiving it versus those who bought into the lie. Further gray area is added when people got it willingly-ish to travel or engage in activities they didn’t wish to miss. Regardless, there’s an energetic contract that exists.

The first step is to explicitly proclaim, “I cast the evil out of me.” That breaks the initial bond and denounces the contract. It doesn’t resolve things on the physical plane.

The energetic impact of it was meant to harm along with subduing free will. There are three main alien groups at the helm of that technology. Actions are being taken to dismantle their activities. As that continues to unfold, we will see where this leads.

Do you think that different psychedelics have different entities connected with them?

Ooh, I love this question! The way the ghosts are explaining it is that it's more about the person than the drugs. In the same way that they (the ghosts) pay particular attention to specific people, so do the more malicious beings. They're lurking, waiting for an opening, and the psychedelics provide that. They take you out of your energy which makes you easy to manipulate. Once they're affixed to you, you don't notice because you've had such a significant energetic leap that you no longer know your own energy. That's what makes it so dangerous.

Do the visions from mushrooms show truth? Can they be trusted? Or are they false? Or a better way to ask it: what are people actually seeing when they have these visions?

The story that immediately comes to mind when reading this is when a friend took mushrooms while we were in college and promptly spent the rest of the evening walking sideways across Oberlin's campus. I remember thinking even then, these are not things to be taken lightly if they can have that kind of neurological impact.

As the galactics describe it, what you're viewing is a projection on a screen. There's no there there. It isn't another dimension or another life but a facsimile of one.

There are threads of truth in it which is why it feels so comfortable and like it's helping. But those few strands are surrounded by musty cobwebs meant to give you a false sense of security. It's possible to cut through the haze, but it takes so much effort that the physical body often gives out. This can lead to vomiting, broken bones, and dehydration as the top items that are being listed for me. It also establishes a connection that funnels in noise from manipulative energies.

"They are seeing what they want to see instead of what is actually there," a direct quote from the galactics. Interpret it as you will.

People engage in risky behavior every day. I'm not saying, "Don't do it!" though I strongly warn against it and have no interest in engaging myself. I do want people to know the risks associated with these activities. With awareness comes a keener ability to look out for yourself.

So what do you do to protect yourself if you do decide to experiment with these things? And the answer I heard was, "You can't."

My attention has been drawn to Ouija boards all night and how those are something that I definitively say, don't mess with it! This isn't exactly the same energy as that, but it shares many similarities. With Ouija boards, the energy is so embedded in the object that no matter your intentions, they're already tainted. With some of the psychedelics, this is also true because of the depths of dissociation you see with those who are already addicted.

In the same way that we share energy with those who identify with a shared diagnosis and the corresponding label, there's a connection between people using the same drugs. The one that I'm specifically being shown in this example is heroin. There's no "safe way" to try heroin — not exactly the classification of drugs we were discussing but relevant none-the-less.

Because there's such a likelihood of abuse, that energy touches anyone engaging with the drug. It makes the odds of having something go wrong higher. So with the psychedelics, it's not just your energy and relationship to the drug that impacts you. It's all users.

The other thought that keeps coming to me is about coping mechanisms and numbing agents. As one goes through periods of energetic expansion, there's often a need to suppress some of the energy coursing through you as you become accustomed to it. Alcohol, sugar, and food can be used to take the edge off of energy that feels overwhelming. This is where drugs come into play too.

If you're choosing to numb some of the new energy in order to acclimate to it, ideally this is a transition period until you know how to sustain it on your own. Then you wean off of the things you were using to cope.

Where it can get tricky is if you're using suppressants that also expand your consciousness, such as pot. It becomes a viscous cycle because you're trying to quiet the noise of the new while also forcing it to continue to expand at a rate greater than you can accommodate. This is what can prompt long term addiction.

At first I thought, great I’ve watched Gabor Mate and think his work has far more benefit than Psychologists and pharma drugs. However when the excessive push from all mainstream outlets started I thought uh oh something is very off here. “cracking the door to evil” as you put it

Oh, I find him to be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO creepy. I'm not sure I provided enough emphasis there.

Dr. Gabor Maté at his home in Vancouver, Canada photographed by Alana Paterson for The Guardian

I know very little about the work of Gabor Maté because the man makes my skin crawl. He has the energy of a death eater. Every time his videos pop up in my scroll, my skin goes cold. That's all the information I need. I swear I don’t dislike every high profile person promoting healing and/or channeling.

That said, I believe a lot of the folks who are prominent have a lack of awareness about the energies moving through them and interlaced throughout their work. When someone is promoted by all the mainstream talk shows, I begin to question. Such prevalent suppression of health information has happened these past few years (more obviously than in the past) that I pause to wonder about anything that was a “fringe” healing modality that is now being accepted.

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Reference Library of Awful

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The same goes with anything promoted or endorsed by Big Pharma. There are layers to pharmaceuticals that impact multiple dimensional planes. As I was ridding my body of the Valium that torched my nervous system in 2016, deep roots that had grown into my spine in the fifth dimension as a result of it had to be removed. Incredibly painful.

The rise of ADHD diagnoses and prescriptions in the thirty and forty-something female crowd has made me take notice. An energetic indicator of where your attention is being guided is being muted by that medication. I often see this with people who are incredibly intuitive but are stifling that ability and then layering the drugs on top of it.

My opposition to the pharmaceutical industry comes from pharmaceutical injury after injury that I have incurred. Countless times I’ve been told that I’m not “reacting to the drug like I should be” as my body takes another hit. If you find these means working for you, that’s a completely different experience than mine and likely your energetic makeup differs immensely.

One major way to suppress the knowledge that is being brought to this planet by each subsequent generation is to hop them up on more and more pharmaceutical products. It manipulates energetic frequencies, sometimes irreparably. We see few kids being given LSD or magic mushrooms so I can’t weigh in on how that might impact them.

Related to this, I remember watching an interview with Joe Dispenza a few years ago where he described working with giant beings. What struck me about it and why that exchange has stayed with me is that he had no interest in discerning who those beings were. What were their overall intentions? Were they syphoning energy in exchange for the healing they were offering? It didn’t even occur to him to inquire about such things.

What are the energetic arrangements people are making? If we’re using their tools and techniques, we are a part of those pacts. The agreements that they made extend to those using the modalities they developed. It might only be minimally, but the energetic thread is there. This is why it’s so important to vet the people behind the techniques.

Something in me really bypassed this about Gabor Maté. I do (now) see the death eater part and an intense grayness, lifelessness, zero vitality, even slithery like a Harry Potter snake made out of steam or clouds kind of energy. But I bypassed this because he was introduced to me as an expert by someone I thought knew all. He spoke to 30 of us for 3hrs at an intensive I was at in LA in 2016. I had a hard time staying awake and still never have really made it through any of his videos but have kept trying because the bits I hear sound brilliant. Interesting how we write off some energy as not that bad vs are a hell no to others. Like for me Jamie Spears seems far more creepy. If you’re up for any more on Gabor I’d love to hear - as a way to help parse out what his energy is or what it’s doing. He wrote a book called in the realm of Hungry ghosts which is funny because it sounds like Death Eater. Lol

Let’s reintroduce the Asch Conformity Experiment. A test subject enters a room of what he believes to be other test subjects. Ah, but no. The other participants are in fact part of the experiment. The facilitator goes down the line asking the subjects to indicate which line is longest. For the first few rounds, everyone identifies it correctly. Then comes the switch. The participants involved in the experiment began to identify the incorrect line. The actual test subject continues to identify the correct one for a few rounds even though everyone around him disagrees.

What the test shows is that at some point, except for a rare few, the test subject ultimately gives in to identifying the same incorrect line as the other participants. The explanation when asked why is usually one of two things — I figured I was wrong and they were right, or it was simply easier to agree.

This is why when those around us are clamoring about how wonderful someone is, we are predisposed to want to concur. It takes a heck of a lot of confidence and energy to question or disagree. On top of that, how often do you get ridiculed, ostracized, or fired for being the voice of dissent? It's further incentive to stop speaking up when you observe the world differently.

I didn’t know who this was. I looked him up and do recognize him but have never heard him speak. I was looking at his books though and I have Hold on to Your Kids which was co-authored. Interesting how these things cross over. I found the book helpful for my life as a parent but again I know nothing about this man at all. I will have to watch a few things now just to get a sense of him.

I’ve dubbed it the 90/10 Principle where ninety percent of what is being presented is energetically true and then that final 10 percent is manipulation. One of my friends has started responding to my slides with that as her sole response. It’s great! That’s exactly what we need to be doing.

Call it out when we see it!

If it were all lies and manipulation, no one would listen in the first place. There has to be a hook. A draw. People can tell a bald-faced lie, though I do think many are so worn down that this is becoming more and more difficult. A lie coated in truth, ah, that’s another story. It takes more work to sort through what is truth and what isn’t.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Chances are there are individuals that have played a role in your growth and expansion that you now view differently. That doesn’t mean their work hasn’t been valuable. It does mean that you’ll approach what they present currently with a watchful eye.

And remember, it’s okay to outgrow or outpace people.

And also since you have dove into the topic about 90/10 and when we learn to trust our discernment, it’s now a fun challenge to “test” with all of the IG accounts I follow. It’s actually a game and I can only hope I am doing well.😂

This makes me so happy! Each of us has to figure this out for ourselves, and oh boy does it help to have fun with it. What flies for me may not be right for you and vice versa. We’re each at different points of our energetic expansion requiring different things. I’m so glad so many of you are feeling empowered sorting out what works for you!

Ohh snap. Ohhhhhhhhh snap!!!! I hadn’t even thought about Joe Dispenza yet. I was dead set on going to one of his retreats when I started watching his stuff. It’s so interesting because when I got to the last module (the group meditation) I never did it. I need to start noticing/realizing it’s not lack of time or procrastination when that stuff happens but my intuition saying no, don’t do it. As always, thank you - this convo is very empowering.

We will be navigated away from manipulation. Whether it's never getting to the end of the video or falling asleep as someone else mentioned. Perhaps that trip falls through again and again and again. Pay attention.

Now, where it gets tricky is that both sides are playing this game. So how do you tell if it’s redirection or unwarranted turbulence? How does it make you feel? When that trip got canceled, was it actually a relief? Were you watching to the end out of a sense of obligation? This distinction really only comes through trial and error. Wish I had an easier solution. I don’t. You have to understand your tells.

You do get a say in this. Recently, the ghost crowd has been showing me the kettle being on as we leave accompanied by a vision of setting fire to the house, burning it to the ground, to indicate that I’m heading into an undesirable situation. As someone who has quieted a high level of anxiety after the past few years combined with the recent death of my mom, this isn’t a great sign. Seeing visions of my house burning to the ground is the least helpful way to communicate anything! So I asked them to find a new sign. Heck, they can just show me the kettle!

I’ve also worked out a physical system to know that the vision is not based in reality. When my dad and I are done boiling water, we move the kettle to the back left burner. That way I have a mental image I can reference to confirm that our home is not in jeopardy.

Oh something I’m super interested in would be hypnosis specifically related to past life regressions. There is this Newton method (can’t recall his first name right now) but he has two documentaries about the method. One is called see you on the flip side and it seems super fascinating but also as with the other stuff I assume it opens the doors to darker energies

There are those out there who are more versed in these techniques than I am. What I will say is that this is a technique that relies heavily on the clarity of energy of the person performing it. The same goes for NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). Look no further than NXIVM to see how that went awry quickly.

These are complicated energies at play, particularly when it comes to past life regressions. Not only are you dealing with multiple dimensions, you’re interacting with threads from the same soul across time. It can get messy. Energies and experiences from past lives can be pulled through into this one. Dormant energies can be stirred into activation.

In my experience, if a past life needs to be addressed, it will show itself to you. There isn’t a huge need to go searching for them. I get the draw and the curiosity, but you’re playing with fire. If a past life is impacting your present one, ask for it to make itself known and go from there instead of relying on someone else to determine that for you.

I so resonate w your comment about mainstream. Who is promoting this psychedelic “ trend”? I am old enough to remember the conversion of Ram Das ( I don’t think conversion is exactly the correct word. May transformation?) Then it seems this subject was rather quiet for awhile… at least here in CA, wine became the drug of choice with huge marketing behind it! Now we are back to psycho relics ( HA, new term! ) and it tickles that some younger people act as if it’s a new concept! I so appreciate your thoughts on this topic!!

Not to flash my secret decoder ring and laminated conspiracy theorist card, but the more I dig into the Laurel Canyon bands of the late sixties and early seventies, the more questions I have. Woodstock gets included in there too. So many ties to parents in government programs. It’s rather uncanny.

Additionally, and most definitely worth a deeper conversation on another day, there were three main vortex inversions in LA — one in Laurel Canyon; one at the house passed from Madonna to Britney Spears to Brittany Murphy; and one at Sony Studios. Those three have been uninverted. Is that the technical term for righting a vortex? Smaller ones remain but don’t have nearly the pull that these did.

One look at LA tells you things aren’t quite right there. Why do I suddenly feel like I need to watch Mulholland Drive again? I saw it in the theater when it was released in 2001 and was completely baffled. Granted, no more so than with Blue Velvet (1986) which was one of my friend’s favorite movies so I had seen it repeatedly and still didn’t quite understand the appeal.

A note from present day Libby. If the work of David Lynch makes you a little uneasy, read about his influence in Transcendental Meditation included in this essay.

The Covertly Disempowering Teachings of Gabby Bernstein

This reminds me of the Charles Manson story, the real story described by Tom O’Neill in CHAOS, the story about MK ultra and CIA LSD experiments to try and create killers. He talks a lot about 69 and all the weird stuff going on at Laurel Canyon (then owned by Terry Melcher from the byrds, who knew Manson).

Yes! This fits right into the conversation. CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties has been on my reading list for quite some time after listening to some enjoyable interviews with Tom O'Neill. I'll read it eventually. In the meantime, I very much enjoyed this synopsis-like essay — “The Manson Murders, an MK Ultra project gone right?”

What do you think when people say Mother Ayawasca called to them? Do you think it's a pos or neg energy/entity doing that? Or does it depend on the user, like the other tools you've been sharing about?

I lived in Peru for six months after graduating from college. Not once did I hear anyone refer to “Mother Ayahuasca.” That includes spending time in smaller villages in the Sacred Valley and learning from the indigenous weavers. So yes, call me skeptical.

This was also a time in my life when random shop owners and strangers on the street would stop me to tell me that my skin reminded them of the moon and that the energy of Pachamama moved through me, which makes me think it would have come up in conversation.

The energy I get is less negative entity and more marketing ploy to hook westerners with disposable income. I love the people of Peru. I would go back there in a heartbeat. One thing they’re incredibly good at is getting tourists to open their wallets. So why not ride the ayahuasca craze and make some money off of it?

Peru is home to many galactic settlements to this day. While Machu Picchu gets most of the attention, the rest of the Sacred Valley holds most of the energetic impact. Tipón is a vastly underrated site.

In my opinion, it's the galactic presence that has kept things as safe as they have been energetically. Since much of the experimentation happens on the land, the ancestors and the galactics are able to run incredible interference. This makes it no safer to experiment with ayahuasca. They're just keeping you from running head first into danger. Think of it like following someone around with a hose because you know that person keeps setting herself on fire.

Wow, just wow! This is so profoundly understandable and relatable! Since I presently ingest very little alcohol, sugar or have eating issues, I am SO much more peaceful. Along w that, however, has come an adjustment period of integrating all the energies that used to overwhelm me!! I try to use breathing and present moment awareness to remain calm and joyfully aware. Do you have any other suggestions for staying grounded “naturally”? Thank you Libby💜🎆

I realized that in pausing to make banana bread and clean up the kitchen, I actually addressed one of these questions.

First of all, let’s release the notion that we’re going to remain grounded or stable in our energy at all times. It’s unrealistic and doesn’t account for the experience of being human. Instead, let’s have the aim be to not be pulled as far out of kilter each time and to return to your fully embodied self more quickly. Deal?

You may have noticed that the majority of my hobbies are tactile — baking, quilting, gardening, ax throwing. (Seeing if you’re paying attention. Though I do want to take up wielding an ax sometime.) This is because I find doing something with my hands stabilizes my energy in my body. These activities are also incredibly meditative in their repetition. It’s when I am most connected to my own thoughts that moments of clarity break through.

I also return to my breath. Am I breathing? How deeply? Have I been holding my breath? Making sure that air is moving is vitally important. Hydration too.

Now, let’s talk about when such things might not be accessible to you. There were years where I couldn’t engage with my favorite activities because I was bed bound. At my first Disability interview, the woman asked if I were still hiking. I looked at her to see if she were joking. She was not. I explained that I could barely walk from the car to her office so, no, I was no longer hiking.

During these times, I relied on what I call proximity grounding. I ask myself, "If I were to feel stable, what would it feel like?" That connects me to the energy of my personal stability, my own energy. It then closes the distance between where I am and where I desire to be thus shortening the gap between the two. When we focus on the sensation of our own stable energy, we are quite literally connecting to it. You are bringing that energy to you.

And when all else fails, I look at pictures of Pyr puppies.

I’ve never been drawn to alcohol to numb BUT my three year old LOVES sugar and now after reading this - I think he’s trying to calm the nerves and energies coming through him. For three this little guy is ALL there. You can hold full conversations with him and he’s beyond many three year olds I know. (He’s also never been v’d so I feel like he’s more clear in many ways cognitively). His verbal expressions are intense and concise, too - always have been.

How do we support the kiddos out there who are learning to navigate all of this? What tools do they need? What are the conversations or groups that would benefit you moms who are raising children with abilities such as these? Let’s make them happen!

Also, I’ve been introduced to the concept that we are here on earth to be and experience humanity. Dabbling into these modalities are either to enter the spiritual world or heal. I’m not sure we should be entering the spiritual world, and do we need to “heal” (through these modalities) is that messing with our human experience?

Speaking of experiencing humanity, we really are incarnated in this way to enjoy the full range of emotions. “No highs. No lows. It must be Bose,” is offered by my dad whenever their commercials air. That’s not what we want for our music, much less our lives! A range of experiences help us to understand the true joy of a moment or savor the subtle aspects of our days. Contrast goes hand in hand with expansion.

We spend so much time focusing on healing that sometimes we forget to live. Or worse, we pick at our perceived imperfections like a spiritual scab never letting it naturally do its thing. As I navigated these past few years, I found myself distancing from the term healing. Yes, there are things that need to heal, but what if having things fall apart is actually part of the healing and the expansion? What if rushing it is the equivalent of helping a bird crack the shell of its egg? What if the lived moment is the healing, and there’s no way that we can possibly mess it up?

How much better does that feel?

Being fully content with where you are in the present moment does not preclude you from wanting to improve. To get there, to embrace the expansion, you must live. You must act. By doing so you gather feedback. Do I like this? Does this work for me? Would a different approach be more fitting?

When we introduce psychedelics into the mix, we jump a few chapters ahead in the novel that we’re reading. (Embrace the analogy smorgasbord that we’re enjoying today.) Suddenly there are characters that you don’t recognize and dynamics that make no sense. You try to piece it all together, but you can’t because those chapters have been ripped from the book. There’s no going back to reference them.

Expansion through psychedelics does exactly this. It takes you to new places without you having gathered the skillset to understand how to navigate.

Genuine question. Not sarcasm. What do people mean by “spiritual world” or “spiritual realm?” The term was used repeatedly in a Blurry Creatures interview, and I had no context for the meaning. Does it come from religious doctrine? Thanks!

I believe people use it to refer to the unseen (to the human eye) dimensions. For these people, the “spiritual world” or “spiritual realm” is where the galactics, ghosts, aliens, etc… live. I do think it’s a crossover from religion.

Okay. This is more or less what I anticipated the answer to be. Thanks. I’m getting a really strong message saying that this terminology is all but outdated. Here’s why —

When we were operating in a mostly third dimensional Earth plane and the ghosts were contently hanging out in the fourth dimension, we were in separate realms. Now that we’re on the cusp of moving fully into the fourth dimension, we’re all in the same space. We also have increased access to the dimensional frequencies beyond that.

We’re being encouraged to start thinking of it all as one.

Have you run into the concept that women are our connection to the spiritual world? (I swear this connects to psychedelics). The “shamans” I’ve known (with the exception of a couple) have been “medicine men”, “shamans”, “guides” and they have all been frauds. Only wanting the money, energy, and/or sex from their followers..

I am not familiar with this concept but to say that only women or only men are our connection feels entirely false.

What I see happening is people with no cultural ties to shamanism taking up the moniker. It’s the equivalent of a correspondence course. Having lived in Peru, I have met a handful of shamans who are incredible and able to access deep histories and energies of the Quechuan people. Where I take issue is when some white dude named Phil from the suburbs of Detroit says he’s a shaman without ever having immersed himself in these energies or these principles. And yes, in that order.

While I don’t entirely believe in appropriation because I believe we have ties to cultures through past lives that don’t show up on 23andMe or Ancestor.com, this comes pretty darn close. It’s similar to taking a weekend class to get certified in a modality that typically takes years of study. So while I believe that ties to a tradition are more complex than a genetic lineage, we return to the theme of shortcuts.

I hope the ancient traditions continue to be passed down from generation to generation. But that’s not what’s happening with the man-bun wearing, “I’m a shaman” crowd. Not to generalize, but in my experience that Venn diagram is a circle. What I don’t want to see is the adoption of the techniques with none of the understanding.

Ever heard the story of a tourist who got hooked on ayahuasca ceremonies and then completely lost it and killed several people in the village? Don’t remember his name, it was on a true crime podcast once. Biggest problem with ayahuasca, to me, seems to be that a lot of foreigners go to Peru and other places to start their own ayahuasca business. Not only do they take business away from the Peruvians, they often lack the knowledge. They might hire a random Peruvian to do the ceremonies, to give the illusion of legitimacy but it’s really just a random guy in need of money, it rarely is an actual healer / knowledgeable person. Just an easy way to get tourist’s money. Actually, these days they don’t even need to go to Peru. I’ve heard stories about a white dude in the Netherlands, organizing ceremonies and convincing the women to do ayahuasca with him every week and a couple weeks in he convinces them to spend all their savings on a community he wants to build in Portugal 😂

Case in point. Also, did you know that there’s a huge Dutch population in Peru? Took me by surprise when I lived there.

A junkie, is a junkie, is a junkie, people try to argue that psychedelics aren’t addictive and are spiritual but if you are spending your sober time thinking about being back in the psychedelic world you are a junkie.. if you utter the world “I need it to heal” you are a junkie.. dabble if you may, but the “meaning” behind it all seems very shady to me

I find myself disagreeing with this sentiment. From an energetic perspective, I believe that many junkies are actually suppressing energetic abilities for which they have no context. When psychic information floods through you or ghosts and galactics are constantly wanting to chat but you don’t have a clue what is happening, you find every way to shut that [insert expletive here] down.

During my twenties, I used the socially acceptable social lubricant of alcohol to subdue the chatter of ghosts and other beings. When I stopped drinking because I felt like crap, it was ice cream and bread that filled the void. I didn’t dare risk harder things because something in me told me I would end up dead. There was no temptation there. I had found a way to manage the unwanted noise.

I’m not saying this is all addicts or junkies, but it’s more than you may realize. When you grow up with ghosts gathered at the foot of your bed or having plants talk to you or knowing things your teachers yell at you because you should have no way of knowing, your world shifts. You learn to be quiet. Chances are you want the whole thing to go away.

What an incredible gift if the current generations don’t have to suppress their abilities. There’s so much more information out there than when I was a kid, not only for those experiencing it but for their parents too! I have so many moms here who know their children are moving through the world seeing it differently than their peers. My parents were incredibly supportive, and I still didn’t know how to navigate.

Where I do agree with this sentiment is that many people who are addicted believe they’re only dabbling — addiction under the guise of healing, shall we say. This then becomes an abdication of responsibility and a road that leads to ignoring what actually needs to be addressed in order to live a life of vitality. This happens not only with psychedelics but with all sorts of barriers we put in our own way to contract our growth.

I keep hearing the word “escapism” as I ponder these thoughts about psychedelics. What are we (people) wanting to escape from rather than learn to manage and co-exist with? Hmmm…..

Okay, let’s talk about this. Escapism or whatever synonym you want to place there is running rampant through society. Drugs, sex, alcohol, phones, video games, the path to healing, and the list goes on. Anyone with half an eye open doesn’t wonder why people desire to withdraw from the world.

On the whole, people aren’t taught the skills of how to navigate rough waters and trying times. So when buffoonery (and I say that to be gentle) is running rampant, what do you do? Where do you turn?

We end up focusing on the behaviors people are using to escape rather than what is prompting that response in them. We want people to get back on their feet but often don’t give them an alternate way of addressing what overwhelmed them in the first place.

Now, imagine that you’ve found some tools but that they’re laced with threads of deception and are actually a subtle alien attack. That’s what’s happening on a massive scale. Think about the conversations we’ve been having recently and how on the surface these speakers and modalities and tools seem incredibly supportive. Then when we strip layers away, they’re anything but.

People are being asked to deny their own internal knowing so frequently that they’ve begun to doubt themselves. They no longer trust their truth meters. The level of psychic dissonance is off the charts.

The amount of active lying in all corners of our culture is unfathomable. Without pulling back the curtain to look the evil in the eye, you end up doubting yourself. Rather than even try to comprehend any of it, you numb yourself.

Everywhere we turn we’re being pitted against each other. We’re being encouraged to find division instead of shared sensibilities. I have an incredible appreciation for those gathered here willing to openly question and disagree in order to better understand the intricacies and complexities present with all of these topics.

The reason to let these outdated systems and institutions fall is that they’re the very things from which people are trying to escape. Let’s look at the source that’s causing the anguish and put our efforts there. Fingers crossed, it means there will be less from which people want to withdraw.

On another note, any thoughts on when psychedelics don’t work on someone? Like they try them and nothing happens. A friend was mentioning this today about mushrooms, specifically.

No thoughts on this whatsoever. Anyone else want to weigh in?

The level of outsourcing is mind blowing. So many have given their power and energy away at great a great cost. May this year be the year of trusting in the healing capacity of our beautifully created bodies and minds and being. And not only healing but optimizing. And spreading the love of confidence in knowing that going through can be the path of incredible growth. Despite how damn hard it can be. We can do it.

What an excellent note on which to end. But first a playlist.

Join me on Instagram for an updated discussion of this topic coming very soon.