Psychedelic prohibition is being reconsidered worldwide. Scientists find more about practices to minimize the risks of a meaningful psychedelic experience. And start to see it as a viable alternative to modern pharmaceuticals. The war on drugs may have started because of prejudice, but now with technologies like social media, online forums, and more, psychonauts from all over the world find an upper hand on the law. To responsibly conduct healing rituals with the assistance of sacred medicines in a modern context is now possible.
Did you know that we are in the middle of a psychedelic revolution? And as a psychonaut, you have a great upper hand on the prohibition.
Age of Discovery
During the historical era of the Age of Discovery, the Europeans expanded routes through navigation and visiting foreign countries. They were looking for novel spices, herbs, and other potential products they could import to Europe for profit. It was also around that time that tribal people from Africa were taken against their will and forced to work as slaves in the plantations. To make communication and cooperation more difficult, slave farm owners used to mix slaves from different cultures and backgrounds, sometimes even rival communities, and made them live and work together. One way that the slaved people learned to communicate was through dancing, which is a significant way of inducing trance and non-ordinary states of consciousness in tribal cultures. In ancient Africa, these rituals often came coupled with Cannabis and other psychoactive substances as a facilitator for achieving altered states of consciousness.
By the time slavery was abolished around the world, Brazil – under the rule of Portugal – was notably one of the places worldwide that most relied on forced labour to feed its ever-expanding agricultural business, besides, wealthy local families with significant political influence mainly owned these farms. They felt threatened by the singing, dancing, and communion during religious rituals practised at night by the slaves. Since psychoactive substances were such a significant part of these rituals, the wealthy population started to denigrate the image of the ones using them. They were considered inferior people. Soon the law turned against those who consumed the plants used in the rituals which further alienated the African and the indigenous population of Brazil who saw plants like cannabis as a gateway to the divine; a great comfort in times of hardship; and a fundamental part of their culture.
Psychonaut Prohibition as a means of segregation
The movement of segregation that emerged in Brazil made its way into the present day in the form of outdated drug policies. Those have arguably created more harm than the consumption of the substance itself. Using science as a tool of exploration, researchers have been helping change the image of psychedelics. By systematically verifying the risks and benefits of a meaningful psychedelic experience, they create a modern movement toward reconnection with sacred medicine. To think that psychedelics may have a significant role in how we will deal with mental illnesses in the future as an alternative to pharmaceuticals is now mainstream.
One of the biggest challenges in enforcing drug prohibition is that many of the popular psychedelic substances don’t need to be manufactured and grow naturally. They are flowers, mushrooms, seeds, etc… This is also, however, one of their greatest qualities. As pharmaceuticals become increasingly unaffordable, having a highly accessible organic alternative to modern pharma seems like a divine gift.
The Great Triumph of Psychonauts On Prohibition
In January of 2023, the Canadian province of Alberta started to regulate and allow the use of Psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, Mescaline, Ketamine, and DMT for medicinal purposes in psychotherapy. Laws are finally catching up with science, and soon more people will be able to legally conduct their own experiences with psychedelics. However, only having access to sacred medicine is not enough, as science has shown. The long-lasting benefits of a therapeutic psychedelic experience are related to how the patient prepares for the trip. As well as how they integrate the journey in the weeks and months after the consumption of the substance.
Since the psychedelic experience is highly subjective and mostly ineffable, it can easily fall outside science’s scope. Researchers have tried to unravel the empirical characteristics of the experience. However, the scientific vocabulary has yet to evolve to describe the world as seen from the point of view of a psychonaut. The internet has proven to be a huge tool for this community, allowing members to share their perspectives, and put together the bigger picture. By talking about the transcendental experience, we are breaking the stigma against altered states of consciousness. We are getting closer to implementing sacred medicine in a balanced way.
Modern Rituals
Humans have come a long way in their relationship with nature and its remedies. After a long campaign for the prohibition of certain substances, we see countries slowly shift their old perception that psychedelics are something to be afraid of. They now start to see them as an effective and relatively safe medicine for various mental illnesses and behavioural problems. Towards the future, it is essential to use science in our favour to guarantee safe practices and develop modern rituals as a community. With the intention to reconnect with our ancestral culture that was so brutally repressed in the last centuries. It is also essential to talk with each other freely and with an open mind, reminding each other that we are not alone in this journey.
The stage of integration is one of the most important parts of the experience. It is when the participant really digs into the insights of the journey and transforms them into lessons to be applied to a wholesome lifestyle. To this end, a supportive community is super important. At psychedelics-integration.com you can browse our community of coaches and find someone who can help you find a better perspective to integrate your psychedelic experience fully.
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du Toit, Brian M. “Man and Cannabis in Africa: A Study of Diffusion.” African Economic History, no. 1, 1976, pp. 17–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4617576. Accessed 19 Feb. 2023.
Aday JS, Mitzkovitz CM, Bloesch EK, Davoli CC, Davis AK. Long-term effects of psychedelic drugs: A systematic review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2020 Jun;113:179-189. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.03.017. Epub 2020 Mar 16. PMID: 32194129.
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2022.html
