I agree with you Voidmatrix, I don’t think we should be gate-keeping, I do not think it is elitist to let people discovering it for themselves be a natural filter and prepararion, unless you think some people are smart enough to discover it and others not, I would say it is at everybody’s reach. I think hiding and never mentioning it, just as much as distributing it in the street like pamphlets would be 2 opposite extreme forms of gate-keeping, because both constitute in individuals deciding for others. Whether the gate is locked shut or wide opened, if you are standing there regulating entries, you are in a way gate-keeping. I am not for never discussing it, otherwise I wouldn’t have joined this forum, but I am not for trying to push it by broadcasting it to everybody either. I do not use the terms “initiated” and “uninitiated” in my own definitions of the world, it was just to speak in OP’s terms. I am not an absolutist, I believe every situation should be approached individually and mindfully. I do however think it is beyond our perception, control, understanding and therefore jurisdiction what even is going on in others’ minds, and that is before even throwing psychedelics into the mix, so we just cannot be judges on whether or not it is the moment for someone, this is why I think it is best to let everyone set their own pace and discover and share it at their own rhythm. I am sure that if you have been mindfully approaching this for years, you must have a more developed intuition on the matter than I do, and as long as you know what you are doing, get positive results, and are willing to carry the responsibility, I say go for it. I am all for welcoming and helping those who join, but when they do through the natural force of things, and by giving them concrete and practical information.
I do see that the cultures that have integrated psychedelics most often work on a system of teacher/guide, so I am sure there is a place for that in ours too, but these people have countless generation of accumulated and refined knowledge, they have elevated this practice to a science, and dedicate their entire lives to it. I also think that the reason why these forums even exist in the first place is because we are working to integrate them into our own world, and we cannot just copy what others did because we are not living in the same world as them, we have our own sets of challenges, so we need to develop our own method. I find our society prone to superficiality, ego overflow, because we place such an importance on the public eye. I think that should be kept in consideration in the debate too, because I see a lot of people nowadays wanting to embark on psychedelic journeys not because it is relevant to them, but because their favourite celebrity/influencer talked about it and it is the new cool thing. I think it also comes down to the kind of person, some probably do better on their own, and some probably do better with a teacher. For my part I do fine without a teacher, and I don’t think I would do good as one.
I would happily guide and care for someone through their experience, but only if they came up with the subject, asked me themselves, made their own research, and came to me with their own final product. I would maybe supply a device, but definitely not the product, the initial idea, the initiative, the research, or the workforce. I would share the tips and tricks I learned and let them discover for themselves. If they choose to tell me their experience, I would only listen and not offer any interpretation of meaning, because I believe only the intended recipient can understand the message, and interpreting it is a skill that gets sharpened over time with practice.
One of my greatest teachers once told me: “A bad teacher provides answers, a good teacher provides questions.”
Some people surely are slaves of their own convictions, to some extent at least by their own design, and we have to accept that many of them will not be able to, or even want to free themselves in their lifetimes, and it is not our place to force things that are not meant to happen. True freedom also means having the right to be a slave if that is what you choose to do.
I agree that environmental factors definitely do come into play, and my approach comes from a within a place of prohibition. However we are not talking about the same thing here, you seem to be doing it at an individual scale, in a mindful, methodical and constructive manner, OP spoke in the context of creating social media content destined to a wide untargeted audience, I am addressing the intention and the context rather than the action of sharing itself.
It also comes down to where we come from, we live in a society of quick mass manufacture, gig economy, broadcast and crash courses. I do not mind what you do, I am trying to address newcomers who under the excitement of having discovered spice and wanting to share it with the whole world might not do it in the most mindful and constructive way. I myself created an account here to contribute and talk about it after all, this in itself should show that my argument is not against any discussion even remotely related, but rather to keep it concrete and useful, and be mindful when and with who we share.
The contents of the experiences are unenglishable anyways, so why even try in the first place? We would need to create a new language to describe it, and only those with experience of it would be able to understand that language, so I don’t really see a way to share the experiences even if we wanted to.
My own personal opinion is nothing more than that, it is the way I myself approach things on the basis of my individual experiences, but we are all different, so we all play different roles, and I embrace that, so I am not inviting everyone to do the same way as I do. I am hoping to contribute by participating to the discussion here amongst those who like myself use themselves as test subjects in their research of better understanding themselves, the world, psychedelics, and the connection between the 3. I am in no way opposed to different approaches as long as they are mindful. We are in a way splitting up to cover more ground, and that is the more mindful way to go, being that we haven’t got it all figured out, so I am all for you having a different approach than I.
At the end of the day, we all have the same goal: to find out how we can use these plants to make the world a better place for all of us, and I think that is the only point that is important we agree on.
