The role of psychedelics in western culture

[Artemisia]

I've spent the better part of my life taking psychedelics. They have been catalysts for change, healers of trauma, and they've raised profound questions around what it is to be human and have consciousness. They are impossible to categorize. Popular culture has categorized it as a medicine; excluding many of the undefinable aspects of the experience.

Without a cultural context or guide for my journey, I have had to reinvent what I feel is well-trodden territory. I've witnessed the power of context within some of my experiences with Navajo friends. The social bonding of all ages, and the cultural thread that links it all together. I can't help feeling that I am missing an important part of the puzzle. My practices surrounding psychedelics have been built through intuition, experience, and guidance from others with more experience. I wish there was a way to share intentional experiences with others legally. I feel that I am missing a large component of the psychedelic journey, because group intentionality is a strong force. I have never found a way to experience that outside of Navajo culture in the USA.

What role do psychedelics play in your life? Lacking a framework for psychedelics in my culture, is it possible to have more understanding of the experience without co-opting another culture that I don't fully understand?

 

[dragonrider]

This is a realy great question. I think this is something that many people are asking themselves right now.

You cannot realy go back to the sixties, and it is also something you shouldn't want because it is already been done.
You cannot just copy something from another culture and understand what you are doing, without realy being immersed into the context of this other culture either.

So that is one of the things we are trying to do here. We are gathering knowledge, learning from eachothers experiences, and in a sense building a new tradition.

Modern science has produced so much knowledge and also new ways of thinking. And it would be a waste not to somehow incorporate that into our current practices. We have the great benefit of knowing about a lot of very ancient traditions, as well as of modern science.

But to fit all of that together is a seemingly impossible task.
So we do it bit by bit.

Part of what we do is pioneering. Another part is relying on old traditions.

And by sharing your ideas and experiences, they will become a part of that new cultural framework.

 

[Icyseeker]

To me they represent the unknown before the trip and during the trip you are then taking a bit of the unknown and incorporating into your self.

Powerful tools that can reframe your entire life.

 

[Grey Fox]

The plants are the teachers. Originally, every culture with psychedelic wisdom and traditions began with men and women who consumed the plants. The plants are the origin of everything. They are the real power. The best way to learn about the plants is to grow them and consume them. Tradition can be good, but it is secondary to time spent with the plants and time spent tripping. Each of us has the capacity to discover new traditions.

 

[dreamer042]

If you get the opportunity to participate in a traditional ceremony. Take it! Pay close attention, ask questions, try and understand. No need to try to recreate it, just employ your new understandings into your personalized practice.

Ultimately whether you are in the tipi, the hogan, the moloka, around the campfire, on the dancefloor, or on your couch, the encounter is between you and the medicine. Cultivate that direct personal relationship and you'll never go astray.