Healing Technique: Drugs and Plant Medicine

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The National Center for Health Statistics says that nearly 50% of Americans have used prescription drugs in the last 30 days. We live in a drug-based society but for some reason have stigmatized natural plants and deemed them "bad" in comparison to pharmaceutical, non-natural drugs. If asked whether we would prefer meat from a cow or lab-grown meat, the majority of people would readily prefer the natural meat yet for some reason we haven't applied this same logic to plants. That is a very odd contradiction.

As stated in my theory of existence, drugs have been and are a very healing aspect of psychology and religion with most major religions having deep roots in substance-use. All things can be used in a positive or negative way and even water, what most of our body is comprised of and needs to survive, can kill us. Many New-Age spiritual traditions have stopped using the term drugs and started using the term "plant medicine" in order to differentiate between the use and misuse of chemical aids. This post aims to address how to use substances in a healthy way rather than unhealthy way.

In order to write this post at all I feel that I must first make a disclosure statement: all substances should be used judiciously and, advisably, legally. This post is NOT advocating for abuse, addiction, or the misuse of substances, it is advocating for its opposite.

I will be going over substances and the benefits that they have provided me. In doing so I hope to explain the healing potential of healing substances as a whole.

Alcohol

Let's start with the most abused, most destructive, and arguably worst substance of them all, alcohol.

Source. In a study done in Britain they found alcohol to be nearly 1.5 times worse than heroin and nearly 2 times as bad as meth. Yikes. Also notice where the psychedelics are located, at the very bottom of the chart.

Alcohol and I have had quite the tumultuous relationship over the years. I started drinking at 27 and stopped drinking about a month ago at age 36 as I feel I no longer need it. During that time period alcohol has done a lot of good things for me. Here is a list of them:

1. Helped me realize unconscious psychological issues that became apparent only when my inhibitions were lowered. Usually this resulted in destructive behavior.

2. Helped me learn who I am without the typical reservations I may feel are socially necessary.

3. Helped me learn to have fun.

4. Helped me realize the discrepancy between my normal resting emotional state and my inebriated state. I learned what uninhibited happiness felt like while inebriated.

5. Helped me learn to be vulnerable and more honest through drunken confessions.

All of these items are good. Most of these lessons certainly didn't feel good in the moment or in retrospect but ultimately I learned a lot in my relationship with alcohol. That being said, I only really started to grow when I stopped blaming alcohol for my behaviors and started using it as a tool to learn about myself. That was never a comfortable experience but it was certainly a transformative choice. Allow me to explain.

Alcohol lowers inhibitions, it plays on what already exists within yourself and can't interact with something that isn't already there. Excusing yourself or others based on being in a state of drunkenness isn't graciousness, it's denial. The most important use of alcohol is being able to come to terms with this fact, that alcohol only reveals what is already unconsciously relevant. To use alcohol to inform yourself about yourself, or others, is far more beneficial than running away from uncomfortable truths revealed by it. Take ownership of what alcohol illuminates.

Alcohol brings a state of happiness for most people, a state that I ceased to experience after extensive self-work, it literally stopped making me feel better in any way. I only realized then what alcohol had done for me, it helped me learn what I could experience as a emotional constant steady-state rather than a substance-induced one. This enabled the other lessons learnt from alcohol including the ability to have joy and fun, to feel no need for social inhibitions due to working through all internal shame, and to be vulnerable and honest without fear and without harmful intent. I wish I had learned these lessons sooner and in less destructive ways, but I'm grateful that alcohol helped me learn them at all.

Cannabis/ Weed

Of all substances I've used weed is by far the MVP. Weed may be the single most influential factor in my own healing, a fact that I really struggled with for a while because I had internalized shame over deriving such a high benefit from a substance that is not typically used for self-healing purposes... but god damn is it helpful and here is how:

1. Helped me work through subconscious, unidentifiable fears.

2. Helped me analyze my problems.

3. Helped me gain body awareness.

4. Helped me connect with my creativity.

5. Helped me learn to relax and appreciate life.

Unlike alcohol, weed doesn't have a whole lot of negative side effects coming in at about 2/7 of the impact of alcohol according to the aforementioned study. I don't think any of my experiences on using cannabis have been negative, although that isn't to say that they can't be for other people.

I used edibles when I had dense emotional issues I knew I needed to work through that I either felt was too heavy to do with other healing methods or when I didn't know where my feelings were coming from. Cannabis was extremely effective at helping me process through these emotions and come out the other side feeling completely differently about them. I've cried more using weed than any other substance, a natural indicator of healing.

Weed helped me conceptualize things differently. When my uses were focused on self-healing they brought other perspectives and reshaped my understanding. They helped me analyze emotional information in a way my sober mind could not at the time. They also helped me learn to pay attention to my body as my bodily sensations became heightened during use. The integration of all of these aspects led to healing on multiple levels.

Many people write off creative thoughts when using substances as "high thoughts" but I've found that these thoughts have not only been incredibly informative, but also surprisingly accurate. Thoughts I initially wrote off I later learned had much more substance to them than anticipated. Moreover, towards the end of my use of weed (as I no longer need it either), I came to realize that most of the time I had these ideas in my conscious mind, I just hadn't consciously given awareness to them. It's not that weed enhanced my creativity, it's that it helped me see my innate ingenuity.

Ayahuasca

For those that aren't aware, ayahuasca is the most powerful psychedelic substance on Earth and has been used specifically for healing purposes for around four thousand years in South America. It is not taken as a casual substance and shamans have to train for over six years to be able to administer it in ceremonies, if not longer. Ayahuasca does not fuck around. Of all substances I've ever taken, ayahuasca's impact has been the most potent. Here is what I've gained from it:

1. Powerful energetic shifts.

2. Profound changes in paradigms and belief systems.

3. Love for others.

While a short list, ayahuasca has always resulted in a big shift in life course. It completely changed my perception of reality and made me consider possibilities I never would have otherwise. I credit a lot of where I've ended up in my healing journey to shifts that started after using ayahuasca and it's the only substance I've ever considered to be "holy" in nature, although all of them arguably are in their own ways.

Ayahuasca made me come in undeniably close contact with the spiritual side of life. I experienced unexplainable connections with others, extremely odd synchronicities, and changes in beliefs I had vowed I would never change. These experiences changed how I viewed the world and made me a much more open, loving, and accepting person. Energetically I have been able to feel changes in life course from ayahuasca, which is an odd thing to say and to explain, but it was a knowing that things were not the same after my experiences and a feeling of embarking on a journey or stage of life that I couldn't consciously comprehend. Ayahuasca has been a spiritual jump-starter to me which jolted me into psychological and spiritual change like a spiritual defibrillator.

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Psilocybin/ Mushrooms

Psilocybin is a mixed bag that I'm not sure I've learned all my needed lessons from which makes it hard to speak on it. My current perspective is that its purpose is to provide spiritual growth and direction. Here is what I've got from it:

1. Spiritual insights and knowledge even to the point of feeling divine intervention on multiple occasions.

2. Crazy, unexplainable experiences.

3. Forced emotional processing.

4. A deeper appreciation of nature.

5. Fun and laughter.

Mostly I've experienced deep inner knowing and guidance from mushrooms. I've also seen and experienced a lot of things on mushrooms that have challenged and shifted my perception of reality. Mushrooms are like a spiritual guide that pushes you to work past difficult truths and psychological and spiritual ignorance.

Mushrooms has also helped me take notice of things that I normally would pass over without thinking, such as the beauty of nature. Colors are more vibrant and nature speaks to me in a deeper way on mushrooms. I often find myself staring into nature soaking in the beauty that I neglect to notice on a day to day basis, and it is deeply rejuvenating.

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LSD

LSD got a bad rap in the 1960's but nearly all research results have been positive, even back then. Here is a study by the National Institute of Health stating that subjects enjoyed sustained positive changes with one use of LSD even 12 months after use with zero negative impacts. Many subjects rated their experience as in the top 5-10 experiences of their life. Here is what I've gotten from it:

1. Happiness and fun.

2. A deeper appreciation of beauty.

3. A deeper appreciation of relationships.

4. A deeper appreciation of nature.

LSD's impacts on my life have been far less substantial than other substances, but that doesn't mean they haven't been equally as beautiful. In fact, LSD is my favorite substance of them all because of how it has changed my perception of beauty and many of the most beautiful experiences of my life have come along with its use.

My first time using LSD changed my relationship to music, a change that I'm eternally grateful for. I've seen columns of fire in the sky, lightning storms that didn't exist, and had deeply connecting non-verbal experiences with others that I can't explain. LSD helps me see and appreciate beauty in a way that I find incredibly healing.

Other Substances

I've tried a lot of things and I've gained something from all of them, but not all of them deserve a special mention. Everyone experiences substances differently and are called to different substances should they choose to go down that path and that's how it's supposed to be. Whatever substance you are called to, choose to learn from it and with it rather than push its lessons aside.

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