How Real are Psychedelic Insights?

In this episode we discuss how “real” psychedelic insights into the self and reality actually are. Such insights include uncovering traumatic repressed memories, facilitator-induced modifications to belief systems, and deep revelations about the true nature of reality (birds aren’t real, wake up sheep!). We cover what can go wrong with each of these categories, and then discuss how we should actually approach these insights to ensure that we’re taking the most out of them. We hope you enjoy.

 

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As is always the case, psychedelics are not a toy. Please use them responsibly. We can only speak to our own psychological and spiritual evolution, we cannot speak to yours. If you have mental health issues, please seek a professional. There is no shame in getting help and you will never be judged for your problems.  If at any point you uncover a traumatic memory, please, work with a therapist before acting on this memory. They will help you move forward in a healthy way. We wish you the best in life and in mental health.

 

Show Notes

• 0:00 - For how powerful psychedelics can be, how real are the insights you receive?

• 1:49 - Shouldn't we be able to tell the difference?
• 3:54 - When we say real often what we mean is helpful, but this can get fuzzy.
• 7:25 - What happens if something is helpful, but doesn't correspond to what's real? Seems like we're getting circular here, but an example from Joseph Tafur and Shamanic Rituals may help us.
• 10:55 - Trying to define what a bad insight is. It can mean getting stuck because of a trip and it can mean being motivated in negative ways, even if the outcome could be described as positive.
• 16:21 - Taking the experience slow, working with someone, and opening yourself up can help. This isn't meant to be an indictment of psychedelics, more an indictment of poor preparation and integration.
• 17:48 - The double-edged sword of psychedelic revelations. The very insights that drive the benefit, can be what create the psychological distress.

• 18:51 - Three types of psychedelic insight: Biographical Events, Facilitator-Induced Insights, and Metaphysical Insights; and what can go wrong when we remember something that didn't happen.

• 25:06 - The facilitator of the experience can help us interpret the experiences in ways that are defined by that facilitator's belief system.

• 32:54 - There is a need to create a safe container, informed by empiricism, for people to explore themselves when the psychedelic experience can attach meaning to certain things they wouldn't have otherwise consented to give meaning to.
• 37:20 - What we mean by empiricism, and the limitations of scientific control.
• 46:00 - Creating a safe container doesn't mean a sterile container. It means creating a space that a person feels comfortable in to explore their own consciousness and their own beliefs.
• 53:55 - Metaphysical revelations can be what drives the greatest benefit, but that doesn't speak to the veracity of these revelations.

• 59:05 - How can we verify the nature of reality? The intensity of our belief says nothing about the truth value of that belief. Even our direct experience cannot be trusted. What are we to do?

• 1:05:57 - Talking about real and helpful in a therapeutic context when psychedelic experiences transcend our ability to explain with language.
• 1:09:46 - In all that we know and act from, we are operating with a fake framework. We cannot know something with a full and complete understanding, let alone act with a full and complete understanding. Our map is not the territory.
• 1:16:26 - Fake fwameworks are not only necessary to navigate the psychedelic experience, but are also necessary to improve oneself given the fact that we can't know the final, best answer to the problem of our imperfection. This protects us from our own narcissistic ideological machinations about our own beliefs.

• 1:20:06 - This works very well for facilitator-induced and metaphysical insights because we aren't wholeheartedly accepting whatever we learn from the psychedelic. The point of the psychedelic is to give you a flexible map of reality, not an absolutistic one.
• 1:24:33 - Seeing someone without the filter of the self blurring our view can help us widen our self-concept once the self returns.
• 1:29:33 - The idea of fake frameworks may not work as well when it comes to traumatic biographical events, or at the very least, it is much more difficult to do. In this case, you must work with a therapist before acting on the memory. Even if you normally do them on your own, if such a memory comes up please work with a therapist.
• 1:34:38 - We as a society have to choose what we want to educate ourselves about. We shouldn't have to worry about psychological issues when we have 12 years of schooling to teach at least some skills for psychological healing.
• 1:44:23 - What if we had learned how to meditate in school?

 

 

Joseph Tafur - The Fellowship of the River

• https://www.amazon.ca/Fellowship-River-Exploration-Traditional-Amazonian/dp/B078TQBY86/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=joe+tafur+fellowship+of+the+river&link_code=qs&qid=1617911599&sr=8-1

Towards Psychedelic Apprenticeship - Timmerman et al. (2020)

• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347999949_Towards_psychedelic_apprenticeship_Developing_a_gentle_touch_for_the_mediation_and_validation_of_psychedelic-induced_insights_and_revelations

Consciousness, Religion, and Gurus - Johnson (2020)

• https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsptsci.0c00198

In Praise of Fake Frameworks

• https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wDP4ZWYLNj7MGXWiW/in-praise-of-fake-frameworks

Actualized.org - How Psychedelics Work

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG8swAQYwc

Nine Levels of Increasing Embrace in Ego Development - Cook-Greuter (2013)

• http://www.cook-greuter.com/Cook-Greuter%209%20levels%20paper%20new%201.1%2714%2097p%5B1%5D.pdf