Tag: psychoactive plants

When we are stuck in one approach, whether it’s appropriate or not: Hippie therapist

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A friend in our town in the Andes experienced a mental health crisis a few days ago and is on his way to a psychiatric hospital. We have seen the signs for a few weeks and have been concerned. Apparently, he has a diagnosis and has lived with it for decades.

I heard that he has been going to a therapist in town. This therapist apparently recommended magic mushrooms and marijuana to help him deal with what he is going through.

To me, that seems profoundly misguided. If someone is in a crisis, psychologically unstable, and already losing touch with reality, you don’t push him further in that direction. You help him stabilize. You encourage him to stay away from anything that can destabilize him, including any kind of psychoactive or recreational drugs.

Why did she recommend it? My guess is that it’s the tool she is used to, and she may recommend it to most or all of her clients. It may be a kind of ideology for her. It’s possible that she does not have a wide range of tools and approaches she can choose from depending on what the person needs. In addition, she may not be thoroughly trained in dealing with people who are in a mental health crisis and have an existing diagnosis. She may not even have screened for it.

I titled this post “Hippie therapist” since that’s the term used by the person telling me this. I generally love hippies – they are medicine for many of the imbalances in our society. At the same time, I have noticed that some sometimes prioritize ideologies over taking a more pragmatic, grounded, and flexible approach. (Some also get into habitually escaping through mind-altering substances, and are into conspiracy theories, both of which I understand and see as misguided.)

Is this an accurate account of what happened in this situation? Likely not. I only know a few things one person told me, so it’s unreliable and just a tiny piece of the picture.

I don’t now that whatever she said or did necessarily made a difference in this situation. What I do know is that if she recommended magic mushrooms and marijuana to someone in a mental health crisis, it seems misguided and potentially destabilizing in an already destabilized situation.

That said, I am all for using some kinds of psychoactive drugs in a therapeutic setting if it’s done by someone responsible, present, thoroughly trained, and qualified. Another friend of mine, who is mentally stable and grounded and lives in a US state where this is legal, has been doing that for some years and reports deep shifts in healing and maturing.

Personally, I would not do it. I have lived my life staying away from mind-altering substances (apart from a small amount of wine with food on rare occasions). Why? Partly because an acquaintance went into a drug-induced psychosis in high school. Partly because I prefer to go through life sober. And partly because I don’t feel I need it. Life is already psychedelic enough.

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Dream: Magic psychoactive potion

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I am in a small rural town in England with a group of people. Adam S. and another are making a psychoactive drink. I hold a cup of it in my hands. Aware I am dreaming, I notice thinking that is not the same for my mind to imagine I am taking it as it is to actually taking it, and then remembering that it’s my mind creating the experience in either case.

I am on a train, on my way to the circle of the first part of the dream. Some bandits are on the train. I tell a friend it’s best we pretend to sleep and hide our faces so they don’t recognize us. (They know us.) He agrees but is relaxed about it. I pretend to sleep and they take a pillow, my sweater, and a bag of food. I run after them to get some of my food back since I need it.

Adam S. is a senior Vortex healer who gave me many sessions when I was new to Vortex Healing. He lives in Totnes, Devon, where I also lived for a six months some years back. The first part of the dream may have been set there – a little outside of a small town in a very charming part of England.

There was again, as in so many dreams these days, a sense of being part of an Earth-centered community. The psychoactive drink was made of a fungus from a tree. It comes from an unbroken ancient tradition. The purpose of the community and drinking it was for profound healing and supporting awakening and embodiment. And doing so with the help of the plant spirits and in a way difficult to do any other way.

The second part of the dream seemed to happen before the first part. I and a friend are on our way to the gathering, and some people with no good intentions are on the train. They know us so we find it best to hide our identity as long as possible. One of them steals my food which – in my waking life – is essential for me to avoid crashing. So I run after him to get some of it back.

Synchronicity: Walking on Hampstead Heath later in the day, with my partner, I see a tree-fungus on the side of the path. It’s the same type of fungus they made the psychoactive potion from in the dream. The photo is of this fungus.

Note: This is a dream. As far as I know, this type of fungus has no psychoactive properties in waking life.

Magic Mushroom Research

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Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate. These similarities have been identified in neural imaging studies conducted by Swiss researchers and in experiments led by Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins. …..

Since that study, which was published in 2008, Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues have gone on to give psilocybin to people dealing with cancer and depression, like Dr. Martin, the retired psychologist from Vancouver. Dr. Martin’s experience is fairly typical, Dr. Griffiths said: an improved outlook on life after an experience in which the boundaries between the self and others disappear.

In interviews, Dr. Martin and other subjects described their egos and bodies vanishing as they felt part of some larger state of consciousness in which their personal worries and insecurities vanished. They found themselves reviewing past relationships with lovers and relatives with a new sense of empathy.“It was a whole personality shift for me,” Dr. Martin said. “I wasn’t any longer attached to my performance and trying to control things. I could see that the really good things in life will happen if you just show up and share your natural enthusiasms with people. You have a feeling of attunement with other people.”

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