I was going to write an essay this morning about the mind-bending world of DMT experiences as reported by users. DMT is the so-called "spirit molecule" that tends to inspire users with a belief in divinity, typically with the help of a cast of characters that makes Tim Burton look like a realist. This is heady stuff, no pun intended. The cavalcade of characters (or character types) that has been encountered by today's mostly anonymous psychonauts after inhaling this naturally occurring substance suggests that there is a method to the DMT madness, albeit one that might turn out to be well beyond the power of Homo sapiens to discriminate, let alone to understand. This is the sort of discovery that would have delighted and astonished William James. It will be remembered that the Harvard psychologist urged his fellow philosophers to undertake the study of what today we might call "altered states." Or perhaps it will not be remembered. Philosophy and psychology departments are uncomfortable with that aspect of James' work, preferring to focus instead on his functionalist theories about human behavior. Those latter theories can be squared with evolutionary theory and materialist dogma in general; whereas God knows what a would-be "hard" science like psychology can make of altered states and alternate forms of consciousness. Indeed, James' philosophical experiments with anesthetics are not even mentioned in his online biography1 on the homepage of the Harvard Psychology Department which he founded, this despite the fact that James made it clear, both in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" and "Some Problems in Philosophy," that he has a far from materialist viewpoint when it comes to what philosophers call ontology, the nature of reality.
Psychiatrists refuse to acknowledge that it is hugely disempowering to turn patients into wards of the healthcare state with dependence-causing "meds." End drug prohibition and end the psychiatric pill mill.
At best, antidepressants make depression bearable. We need not settle for such drugs, especially when they are notorious for causing dependence. There are many drugs that elate and inspire. It is both cruel and criminal to outlaw them.
In fact, there are times when it is clearly WRONG to deny kids drugs (whatever the law may say). If your child is obsessed with school massacres, he or she is an excellent candidate for using empathogenic meds ASAP -- or do we prefer even school shootings to drug use???
The press is having a field day with the Matthew Perry story. They love to have a nice occasion to demonize drugs. I wonder how many decades must pass before they realize that people are killed by ignorance and a corrupted drug supply, not by the drugs themselves.
We won't know how hard it is to get off drugs until we legalize all drugs that could help with the change. With knowledge and safety, there will be less unwanted use. And unwanted use can be combatted creatively with a wide variety of drugs.
"Those gentlemen who adopt the anti-opium doctrine... are only comparable to the monomaniac, who, sane upon every subject but one, is thoroughly daft upon that." --William Brereton
All drugs have positive uses. It's absurd to prohibit them because one demographic might misuse them.
"The Legislature deliberately determines to distrust the very people who are legally responsible for the physical well-being of the nation, and puts them under the thumb of the police, as if they were potential criminals."
-- Aleister Crowley on drug laws
It's disgusting that folks like Paul Stamets need a DEA license to work with mushrooms.
I could tell my psychiatrist EXACTLY what would "cure" my depression, even without getting addicted, but everything involved is illegal. It has to be. Otherwise I would have no need of the psychiatrist.
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