The Coming Goldrush in Psychedelics
Misunderstandings about psychedelics are created by factions who want to control them.
“I know people who have tried to order it around—heavy male dominator types who want to beat information out of it—and my god, they have bad trips so terrifying that they never come back to it again.” — Terence McKenna (1992)
On a Large Scale
I’m a neurophysiologist, hypnotherapist, and clinical counselor who has been therapeutically involved with psychedelics for 30 years. Psychedelics were on the scene long before there were psychotherapists, and they played a spiritual role in culture before there were organized religions.
More recently, in the 1960s, psychedelics were politicized and made illegal, which was part of a power play by politicians who leaned along conservative lines. Psychedelics are now being marketed as therapeutic tools for the popular Western illnesses of depression, anxiety, addiction, and post-traumatic stress.
New ideas need allies, and allies have appeared in healthcare, academia, and business. Interest is spreading rapidly partly because of dramatic stories of healing, and partly because no organized group is against their use. It’s interesting that, in spite of the old relationship that exists between sacramental substances and religion, no established religion is taking a position on the use of psychedelics.
On a larger scale, world politics continues cycling between authoritarianism and populism. As authoritarianism grows in the East (Cai, et al., 2023; Kovalev, 2023), and populism grows in the West (Berman, 2021), psychedelics are advertised as addressing our individual needs (Kähönen, 2023). A contest of globalism, corporatism, authoritarianism, and individualism is buffeting the use, meaning, and future of psychedelics.
“Whether this era of psychedelic research will conclude with another scientific and clinical dead-end period of prohibition or move ahead into a productive time of mainstream research and clinical application remains to be seen.”
— Yaden and Griffiths (2020)
Vying for Control
I recently spoke with a journalist working on an article about the Amazonian psychedelic called ayahuasca. Their article is to appear in the business-focused magazine Forbes. They used buzzwords like “personal experience” and “psychedelic-informed therapy,” but it became clear they didn’t know their meaning.
After a good deal of explanation on my part, the journalist stopped the conversation because I was not endorsing what they thought. I wrote to the editors at Forbes with my concern this person would contribute to public confusion. I suspect my caution fell on deaf ears.
I recently hosted a meeting for people using and facilitating the use of psychedelics. One attendee worked underground as a for-hire psychedelic facilitator. People in this growing business have little authority, may not follow any tradition, and conduct their work with varied degrees of competence. Nowhere in the US or Canada is this facilitation legal.
We should not be surprised that this facilitator, though inexperienced, was bold and righteous. It takes a person with a strong ego to break tradition, as we know from the long history of rebels and reformers. Terrance McKenna heralded psychedelics as the new sacrament, and many followers share his religious zeal (McKenna, 1992).
“The most important political work that needs to be done is for each of us to raise our own consciousness about these issues, and then to create a community based on the sum-total of our personal acts of reformation… we should act as though the salvation of the Earth is on our shoulders, but feel as though it is an automatic unfolding that we need not have anxiety about.”—Terence McKenna (1992)
At the recent nation-wide conference of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, held in Denver earlier this year, a group of Indigenous and minority attendees interrupted the closing session. They objected that Indigenous involvement was falsely manufactured, and that minorities were being excluded from the discussion (Lekhtman, 2023).
We have uninformed journalists ready to fuel a public spectacle, anxious professionals inventing certifications for currently illegal treatments, and righteous reformers breaking the law to further their vision, while disenfranchised groups are wanting access.
On top of this, we have academics interested in applying psychedelics for untested purposes, service companies exploring profit opportunities, and pharmaceutical corporations hoping to develop proprietary products. Each faction has an agenda, and the currency that’s being traded is altered minds.
Roller Coasters Are Medicine Too
There is talk of cures and healing, but limited context for it. Dramatically positive results show the benefit some psychedelics are affording to people diagnosed with mental disorders. We’ve got an epidemic of street drugs laced with fentanyl, and law enforcement is getting mixed messages.
Using a drug because you are sick, and using a sacrament because you are inspired, leads to different results, relationships, and states of mind. Using psychedelics as medicines or sacraments will have different results. Judging from the comments in social media, the public doesn’t know the difference between recreational, therapeutic, and inspirational drug use.
“When one is sick, they are freed from the typical obligations we assign to ‘well’ individuals, like attending school or going to work... When those who are sick don’t demonstrate that they are seeing the right professionals in order to heal, we tend to view them as not doing their part in meeting the responsibilities of their role, typically seeing them as irresponsible, lazy, and deviant… the message that medicines and sanctioned therapies are the only cures for psychological pain can be understood as more of a monopolistic grab on psychological well-being.”
— Ellenhorn and Mugianis (2022)
In the 1960s, when psychedelics were legal, Levine and Ludwig coined the term “hypnodelics,” and described a protocol in which a therapy client was hypnotically induced before the onset of an LSD-induced psychedelic experience. Reading Ludwig’s 1967 “Outline of Hypnodelic Therapy,” we notice the assertive brand of hypnosis practiced before the trials and tribulations that arose from inducing false memories.
Their method was to combine the dissociation and emotional lability typical of a chemically-induced psychedelic state, with the assertions and affirmations of hypnotherapy. Viewed from today's recognition of the power to implant images and experiences, Ludwig’s protocol is ill-advised. What could have happened next is unknown as the use of psychedelics was made illegal and research ceased.
In 1990, Rick Strassman (1994) was one of the first to loosen government restriction with a publication of the clinical effects of DMT. While the door opened to research, substance use remained restricted to that context. What was previously spiritual and transformative shifted to being objective and scientific.
In the last two decades there has been a surge of research on the psychological and neurological effects of psychedelics (Thal, et al., 2021), but the continued restrictions on use has twisted the therapeutic to an observational approach. The result is that the therapeutic protocols that previously involved the client and therapist have now become objective to the point where the therapist has no experience with and is not involved with the client.
Janis Phelps (2017) has been a leading voice in the development of psychedelic-assisted therapies. She notes that the role of the facilitator, which has varied between being a sitter, guide, or therapist, has now become more of an observer or scientist.
“The influence of therapist variables that we commonly see in therapy outcome studies has not been the focus of this era of research, however, because the work within the structure of FDA-approved clinical trials necessitates controlling for differential therapist effects. This contemporary research has sought to delineate the role of the therapist as a deliverer of a safe and consistent set and setting within consistent protocols across conditions.” — Janis Phelps (2017: 455)
Hypnotherapy has never invested in the pathologizing of altered states. Altered states have been our stock-in-trade. Most schools of psychotherapy don’t teach hypnosis or appreciate the role of altered states. Consequently, most psychotherapeutic approaches to psychedelics don’t appreciate hypnosis or altered states despite their strong amplification of positive therapeutic outcomes (Ramondo, et al., 2021).
The result of psychedelic research’s pathological focus, the role of the therapist being constrained to that of an uninvolved scientist, and the client’s experience limited to metrics of pathology, is that psychedelics are now seen as medicines for disease. A potentially psycho-transformative experience is being reduced to that of social normalizing. Most psychotherapists are happy to follow along.
Psychedelic experiences are unique to individuals and have an effect that’s broader than what’s socially sanctioned. They do not follow the DSM or the suggestions of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Whether or not they are positive, they will be dreamlike and chaotic. Shoehorning these experiences into a scientific model amputates much of the experience along with its positive potential.
Alternate reality experiences are recognized by hypnotherapists. Their symbolism is better understood by humanistic psychologists than by psychotherapists. The advocacy of a more humanistic and progressive approach to the use of psychedelics will require those of us with a wider appreciation of the value of diversity to become more involved in psychedelic transformation (Lemercier and Terhune, 2018; Yaden and Griffiths, 2020).
The use of psychedelics is still illegal with exceptions made only for research and some therapeutic purposes. Hypnotherapists practicing in an assertive style and in a limited context of habit remediation may not find psychedelics useful. They may be useful to those who practice hypnotherapy broadly and provide therapy, coaching, and consulting.
What is Psychedelic Science Studying?
It is clear that psychedelics are not useless drugs, and that they are not toxic when used appropriately. Yet therapists, coaches, counselors, and others in management and healthcare continue to have their feet tied together in terms of learning, using, applying, and educating others in their use.
We are not legally allowed to use psychedelics ourselves, nor are we strictly allowed to help others in their use of these substances. We might squeak by, as I do, by saying that I help others manage the use of psychedelics, much as I help others stop the use of alcohol. But this doesn’t allow or condone our personal use of psychedelics. Personal experience is essential if we’re going to be of any use as sitters, guides, or therapists.
The only avenues for reliable education are underground use, which is illegal at a Federal level. We can also travel to countries where these substances are uncontrolled. This is how I was educated, but this is expensive. It also involves additional layers of culture, discretion, and professional connections.
There are many books and articles on these topics, but, as my contact with the Forbes journalist highlights, this information may be poor and misleading. Even the academic literature is suspect as it toes too close a line to biased doctrines of objectivity and authority.
The underground use of psychedelics remains easily available. Legal confusion is enabling some provisioners to advertise themselves publicly. The underground remains an unsafe marketplace that contains tainted drugs and predatory individuals. Safety does not guarantee insight, and wise guidance is not available safely. Psychedelics are going mainstream, but there is still no easy path to their safe and informed use.
“Psychedelics are not palliatives swallowed to instantly eradicate psychopathologies. They are liberating medicines which, when used in a supportive context, can enable people to fathom and deal with their suffering on their own terms. Used correctly, they can enhance our sense of our agency in the world.”
— Ellenhorn and Mugianis (2022)
To learn more about the promise of psychedelics, schedule a free conversation with me at:
References
Berman, S. (2021 May). The causes of populism in the West, Annual Review of Political Science, 24:71-88.. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-041719-102503
Cai, W., Byrd, A., Buckley, C., Robles, P. (2023 Sep 2). How Xi returned China to one-man rule, New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/02/world/asia/china-xi-rule.html
Ellenhorn, R., & Mugianis, D. (2022 Feb 18). The corporatization of psychedelics would be a disaster, Jacobin. Retrieved from: https://jacobin.com/2022/02/psilocybin-mdma-drugs-psychiatry-mental-illness-profit
Kähönen, J. (2023 Jun 14). Psychedelic unselfing: self-transcendence and change of values in psychedelic experiences, Frontiers in Psychology, 14: 1104627. Retrieved from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1104627/full
Kovalev, A. (2023 Aug 1). Russia Is Returning to Its Totalitarian Past, Foreign Policy. Retrieved from: https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/08/01/russia-putin-wagner-repression-authoritarian-totalitarian-arrests-ukraine-war/
Lekhtman, A. (2023 Aug 17). Why Indigenous Protesters Stopped a Global Psychedelic Conference, Filter. Retrieved from: https://filtermag.org/indigenous-psychedelic-protest/
Lemercier, C. E., & Terhune, D. B. (2018 Jun). Psychedelics and hypnosis: Commonalities and therapeutic implications, Journal of Psychopharmacology, 32 (7). Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325974920_Psychedelics_and_hypnosis_Commonalities_and_therapeutic_implications#fullTextFileContent
Ludwig, A. M., (1967). Outline of hypnodelic therapy. In: H. Brill (ed.) Neuro-Psycho-Pharmacology 1967: 411-15. https://bibliography.maps.org/bibliography/default/resource/8917
McKenna, T. (1992, Oct 2). The birth of a new humanity, The Library of Consciousness. Retrieved from: https://www.organism.earth/library/document/birth-of-a-new-humanity
Phelps, J. (2017). Developing guidelines and competencies for the training of psychedelic therapists, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(5): 450-87. Retrieved from: https://www.challiance.org/file%20library/landing%20pages/psych%20ce/meditation-and-psychotherapy/faculty-handouts/14_janis-phelps_saturday_145_handout-1.pdf
Ramondo, N., Gignac, G. E., Pestell, C. F., & Byrne, S. M. (2021 Mar): Clinical hypnosis as an adjunct to cognitive behavior therapy: An updated meta-analysis, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349709991_Clinical_Hypnosis_as_an_Adjunct_to_Cognitive_Behavior_Therapy_An_Updated_Meta-Analysis_View_supplementary_material_Clinical_Hypnosis_as_an_Adjunct_to_Cognitive_Behavior_Therapy_An_Updated_Meta-Analysi
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Yaden, D. B, & Griffiths, R. R. (2020 Dec). Psychedelics in psychiatry-Keeping the renaissance from going of the rails, JAMA Psychiatry. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346573201_Psychedelics_in_Psychiatry-Keeping_the_Renaissance_From_Going_Off_the_Rails