So no less than three times last night the word psychedelics came up. Oh, yes
I was kind of surprised and wanted to ask you about that next week
Actually, I'm taking a journey down to Costa Rica and I'm planning three Iowaska ceremonies.
-You've ever done that?
I've done it once. Oh, no three times before five or six years ago
so I am fairly terrified as should be when then um, you know,
Good, absolutely man.
And again I feel like I just want to make sure I'm in touch with doing something meaningful
I think sometimes my human brain can trick me and to think I'm doing something meaningful when in fact, I'm doing something just
Beneficial to me. - Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah
I was just worrying what your thoughts were and that was weird that that came up so many times between you and Sam and
I just wondered what do you think about psychedelics? And what do they do and what don't they do?
I have no idea what they do
they're
What we don't understand about psychedelics is a very thick book they bend the structure of reality and
And I don't I can't understand what they do. I have no conceptual framework for psychedelics
I have no idea what they are. They could be anything. I have no idea
They're unbelievably
Strange what they reveal to me is how little we know about everything
And that's a terrifying thing.
Okay, something to be investigated further?
With great risk.
Okay.
Now, you know I mean
It's interesting so the the the scientific literature certainly indicates that under some circumstances
Psychedelic use can produce outcomes that you could regard as beneficial
Psilocybin seems to be a very effective agent to help people. Stop smoking
So it's quite interesting cuz that's that's a hard problem and it does kill people
Eighty-five percent success rate was what was reported in the last-
Investigation if people had a mystical experience eighty-five percent of them quit smoking.
It's like " hmmm It's pretty interesting"
I think that they can help you orient yourself morally but
Look the hell out
So, you know you should in, when people used to
Approach the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament. They purified themselves ritually
it's like that's not a bad idea if you've got a lot of
Unfinished business lurking around in your soul,
You might want to clear some of that out before you try to attain wisdom that's beyond your understanding.
Hmm, maybe a way to get in touch with the dark side possible.
Well, yes, or to have it get in touch with you.
Were the experience is useful?
They were very traumatic and very useful.
They pushed me further into giving more starting a family becoming less and less selfish
They're also, you know, difficult.
But they taught me a lot about myself and I don't think I would have figured that out on my own or it might have
Taken me a long time.
Mmm. Yeah. Well, I think that's a common account of the consequences
What did they do to the way that you looked at the world?
Made me more grateful to be a part of this world, didn't feel like it was a burden again
I struggled a bit with nihilism as well
That's the point of this, doesn't matter,  but I felt more connected to the human experience
And then I played a part in it and I think you probably know from studying alcoholism
I think a lot of alcoholics feel just detached from this world and they used that to soothe that pain
at least I did and so for this it got me back in the game and
Showed me that I needed to be a part of this game and not be on the outside. I thought I could function without
Being emotionally involved with the rest of the species and I couldn't. So once I got that meaning online
That's when the nihilism goes away and I feel like life has a purpose.
Well, you know religious transformation is one of the well-documented modes of treatment for alcoholism
It's one of the few things that the litter treatment literature actually indicates works
so which is you know hard to fathom but appears to be the case, so
That's something that's worth serious consideration
