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Integrating The News

In my post-election piece for Lucid News, I spoke of learning how to take psychedelic responsibility (as in, response-ability, or the ability to respond) while we encounter the world we live in.

As many of us grapple with the ongoing news stories from L.A. and Washington, I invite us now to take on a practice that can improve our ability to respond, just as it can improve our state of mind, our lives, and the lives of others: Every time we watch or read the news about something that freaks us out or otherwise makes us feel we’re stuck in the middle of a bad trip, we pivot away from reactivity and towards something more constructive. 

Here’s how: First, just as we might prefer to have someone there with us when a journey becomes challenging, we can reach out at that moment and not be alone. For this, I suggest getting a VAPP: A Vent And Pivot Partner. This means processing one’s daily sense of shock or despair, naked fear, heartbreak, or outrage, with someone you feel safe with and who shares your perspective. (This can be a mutual arrangement.) I suggest doing this in a live, voiced conversation — no texts! No posts! — and as often as necessary. This can prepare you to then pivot towards getting out of your head and into a better place.

Second, it is helpful to understand there exists two excellent antidotes to anxiety and other difficult emotions: creativity and action. 

One can transform this energy creatively by singing or dancing it out, drawing it out, composing a poem or essay, or creating a random act of kindness.

One can also resolve to take action, as in…

Today I will give something to someone. Perhaps I’ll surprise a friend with a joke, gift, or love note; anything that will make them smile. Or…

Today I will do something to spread the word about the benefits of the responsible use of psychedelics. With a post-prohibition future always a possibility in a new administration, we may wish to promote legislation on the state and/or federal level to ensure these medicines become readily available and accessible to those who most need them. (To avoid burnout, I suggest teaming up with others, or with an organization like Students For A Sensible Drug Policy, the Drug Policy Alliance, or Lucid News!)

Today I will open my heart and commit to assisting, protecting, or marching in support of a person or a people who may need it.

Or, for self care…

Today I will use laughter to break the chokehold of fear in my throat. Laughter can be the best (sober) medicine. (Some psychonauts like to chill out at the end of a hard news day with a hit of Kimmel or Colbert. Others find a dose of Weekend Update on SNL can do wonders to reduce cortisol levels.)

This week I will observe a news sabbath — one day when I’m free from the news media, so I can clear my head and recharge.

I liken the above to doing MDMA, as in:

Me

Doing

Mindful

Actions!

Now is this kind of pivoting or shifting simple to do? Yes. 

But is it easy? Not so much. I learned this long ago.

When the Path Gets Hard

Back in the ‘80s, I attended an outdoor retreat where we were instructed to run up a mountain every morning before breakfast. (Don’t try this at home, folks.) Almost instantly I became painfully exhausted, and stopped, along with most of the others, gasping to catch my breath. My mind cried out, “I can’t go on!”  The lesson of the exercise? It wasn’t my body but my mind focusing on my own suffering that was the problem. The solution? Following the instructions from coaches on the sidelines to shift my attention away from my woe and instead supporting my fellow runners. 

When I called out encouragement to those  around me, two things occurred: 

They started running again! 

And then, so did I!   

But where had that inner voice gone? My mental monkeys screaming “I CAN’T!”  evaporated the moment I opened my mouth. When I shifted my attention from my own distress to supporting others, “I,” for that moment, vanished, along with my suffering. 

When we all supported each other, we could suddenly do what needed to be done.  This was the key to our empowerment.

Likewise, fear, dread, and despair can act like mental bullies that prey on the solitary and are diminished when faced with the help of others. 

I have found that when it’s me vs. my fear, fear wins. But when it’s me plus you vs. our fears, we win!

So the daily choice is: We can ruminate with fret or angst, or we can turn our attention away from our suffering and towards giving of ourselves to someone or something. 

Put another way, when we step outside of ourselves, we take a step closer to creating that new world we all know is possible.

For me, this is the psychedelic vision in action. It’s a discipline, and it’s maybe the ultimate integration technique. 

This entails choosing the right enemy. For example, is the real enemy my fellow citizens who voted for the other person, or my own self-righteousness? This ego-driven malady, along with the pain-addled habit of needing to win an argument and be right about my opinions, has been an ongoing source of pain for me.

Accordingly, I’ve developed a sharp distaste for social media, which feeds my self-righteousness and sense of virtue as I adopt a funhouse mirror view of my adversaries. Some antidotes include Ground News, which exposes media bias on both sides and offers stories that your primary source of news has determined you don’t want to hear. (Thank you, Randy Rainbow.) Also, Braver Angels, which fosters dialogs and alliances across the political spectrum. Finally, I find it helpful to stay aware of the fact the algorithms used by social media are designed to escalate and reward conflict, and that I can simply choose to take a break from it. 

The Medicine In Action

In the midst of such a media environment turning us against each other with suspicion, hate, and fear, I say journeying with our friends is the best revenge! Doing so can create an energy field that can ripple into the future, disrupting linear time and creating hacks into a plethora of possibilities. 

I mean, have you ever wondered if perhaps the real problem is that most of the world is about 120 mg. behind? 

On this coming May 24th, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I intend to spark a nationwide coming together of the tribes. These would be gatherings (rolls, really) around the country. Each community would organize itself and invite who it wants, but everyone would be rolling that day across the time zones. Wouldn’t that be the chemical of connection in action?

The Darkness That Precedes The Dawn

I find it hopeful and exciting to view our time as one rife with a sort of pre-dawn panic — a dark era of the kind that often precedes an enlightened one. A time of stagnation that leads to explosive change. (E.g., America in the 1950s sowing the seeds of the 1960s.) 

Something is collapsing before our eyes (have you noticed?) and is in dire need of replacement. In its wake it is leaving what I’d call a fertile void, one that could lead to a culture-wide shift away from Us-And-Them, and towards Us All. The destruction of what has been fertilizes the creation of what can be.

See Also

There’s a nascent awakening of consciousness that is gathering strength within and between us while waiting for its moment to arise. Perhaps springing from tribes of medicine-inspired explorers, it will bring people together and reach across illusory divides.

It may spring from an underground bunker, or some sun-stroked savant on the playa, or from a message in a bottled-up teenager in North Dakota or North Korea. 

But most likely, the evolution will not be televised.

And it may look at once absurd and something just nuts that breaks everything wide open (starting with our minds), making us feel drunk with possibilities and crazy fun!

It could take another 50 years (Goddess help us!) or 5, or it could be lying right here under our noses, awaiting our next sneeze.    

The Psychedelic Vision

Some of us have been sensing this for years now, this joint mission to land the first fully human being on earth.

I feel it, and maybe you do too. We’re bonded at a very deep level, due to all these journeys we’ve been on, as we weave them into the fabric of our being. We’ve been building this perhaps without even knowing it or meaning to — finding each other and replenishing our spirits in little pods of healing and love as we together build a kind of me-and-youtopia.

You and I were advised to “find the others” long ago. 

Well, here we are.

What we have is precious and unique, because what we have here is each other. And with each other, we can light the way for more others to follow.  

For us psychonauts, what has been to this point a necessity or a pleasure or an innocent exploration is now, for me at least, also a statement, a stand: I will do what nourishes and wakes me. I don’t give a damn whether it’s sanctioned by law. I’m here to be as alive and free as I know how, and to use the precious, fleeting time left to spread the love, ignite joy, and lead others into a brave new whirl.

I like to call this work “pulling down heaven.” I like to believe it’s what we’re here to do.

The world is full of so many people of good will waiting to be found, and so many future tribes of mutual support waiting to be founded, tribes that foster the kind of connection that feels like communion. Tribes that fulfill the powerful and universal hunger for safety, belonging, and transcendence. 

What would it mean to our country if we all awoke to the fact that these medicines are here to help us —  just when we need them the most?! 

What would it mean to life on this planet if word got out that such experiences were available to billions of us? Available to help us discover our common humanity across cultural and political divides, as tools to facilitate our evolution as a species? 

What would be the cumulative effects of so many people from all over the globe doing medicine together in order to heal, celebrate this gift of life, and fulfill the psychedelic vision — one of a world based on principles of peace and love, generosity and gratitude, equality and justice, and tolerance for all peoples? 

What if this were really possible, and what if people like you and me could really help make it happen?

Together, let’s find out.

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