Plantmedicine, Psychedelics & Personal Growth
What do you (think) you know about plantmedicine and psychedelics?
Why are psychedelics are illegal and is that right? What is it like to do ayahuasca? How can plants help you become happier, more creative and more focused?
Read about my journey with the sacred medicine of Ayahuasca with the Indigenous Yawanawa in Brazil, the political history of the illegalization of psychedelics, and learn about the role psychedelics and plant medicine have in individual and collective spiritual development.
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Psychedelics and plantmedicine
Hi! On this part of my blog you will find content about plantmedicine and psychedelic drugs and plantmedicine and psychedelic drugs awareness. We are raised in a society where most drugs are highly illegal. The reason they are illegal is because they are dangerous for yourself and for society. Or at least, that is what we all learn. But where and how do we learn this?
In primary school and high school there were information and awareness days on which we would get educated on the danger of drugs. I think these are the first moments I explicitly recall on which I learned about the danger of drugs. What has always stuck with me from these sessions is that they were also about alcohol. One instructor described alcohol as the single most dangerous substance that should be on top of the official hard drug list. However, in reality alcohol is considered a soft drug (in the Netherlands) and is legal. But why, if it is so dangerous for people and society is it not illegal?
Other places where I learned that drugs are dangerous were through media. For example news items on police arresting drug dealers, films about the world of illegal drug trade and cartels, but also books in which the ‘bad phase’ of the story was when people used drugs. That started with teen novels such as ‘Afblijven!’ from Carry Slee.
When I followed a subject on Philosophy of Mind in my second year at the university I stumbled upon a documentary about DMT, which is a psychoactive substance. This documentary started a long research session on psychedelic drugs in which I, perhaps for the first time in my academic ‘career’, read academic papers in its entirety. I ended up writing a paper for my Philosophy of Mind course on the possible effect of psychedelic experiences on our definition of consciousness. Since then I have been finding more and more evidence on why the story we are told about drugs is a lot more nuanced than society teaches us.
In this category I will upload blogposts, papers and resource materials that will give a more nuanced view about (psychedelic) drugs and plantmedicine, its historical and cultural background and the politics behind the illegalization. Since it is such a (societally) sensitive subject I will be supporting my writings with research as much as possible. If you have feedback or questions, or if you have research topics, papers or names I should look into, let me know!
Lots of love,
An academic hippie
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A continuous insight into my personal journey of figuring out what life is and what it means to be alive. Read about some of my realizations and lessons learned in different spaces and through different spiritual traditions.