Psychedelic Religions of The Future

What would a non-indigenous psychedelic religion look like?

The Rastas, Sufis, Sadhus (cannabis) Bwiti (ibogaine) Native American Church (peyote) UDV and Santo Daime (DMT + harmaline) have all integrated drugs into their religious practice with encouraging results.  Conversely in the west no such institution has emerged and survived long enough to earn legal standing and exemption from drug-laws.  To be exempt from federal law members of the Native American Church must be at least 25% native although some states allow non-natives to participate. 

In fact several hundred small North American, European and Australian groups have formed celebrating psychedelic spiritual communion but none have emerged strong enough to unify Huxley’s three generations of post Hiroshima psychedelians – and this is a shame. But the United States Supreme Court has approved the use of Peyote for Native Americans and Ayahuasca (DMT/harmaline tea) for all people in the Santo Daime.  What other psychedelic religions might the future bring?

1.     Psychoactive use is a basic human drive behind food, drink, sex and sleep – a fifth drive – also many if not most animal species also get “altered” sometimes

2.     Hydraulic drugs like cocaine, alcohol, amphetamine, heroin, tobacco etc. stimulate the brain temporarily and often become the focus of addiction, whereas holotropic (growing towards wholeness) drugs like LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, ketamine, can help the brain heal and change it indefinitely, MDMA and cannabis sit on the fence between hydraulic and holotropic.  With one dose in well-adjusted, spiritually ambitious people about 2/3 will experience a peak mystical experience regarded as the greatest or one of the greatest of their lives.  (replicated, peer-viewed, double-blind, active placebo, independent raters for psilocybin)

As I discussed in my last blog “serotonin and original sin” using any hydraulic drug daily for more that four months may permanently dysregulate the system(s) the drug is working on.   Not only do holotropic drugs satisfy the fifth drive for altered states but also there is considerable evidence that they can help “reset” the brain after long-term hydraulic drug use.   Take the animal and human addiction research with ibogaine  - http://www.ibogaine.desk.nl/ch01.pdf and the human research with ketamine http://www.maps.org/research/ketamine/krupitsky_2002.pdf. 

Those addicted to ketamine of course will have to take ibogaine but for all other classes of addicts from alcohol to xylophones clients should be given one to three sub-anesthetic doses with a male and female therapist.

 

Phase	One	Two	Three
Diagnosis	Addiction, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, with or without Psychopathy, coercive paraphilia	Death Anxiety, PTSD, certain forms of depression and personality disorder, many psychosomatic conditions and paraphilias, creative problem solving, spiritual experiences and those who successfully complete phase One	Those who have completed at least phase Two
Treatment	One to three Ketamine or Ibogaine sessions with a male and female therapy team	One to three MDMA sessions with a male and female therapy team	One to six full spectrum psychedelic experiences (LSD, Mescaline, Psilocybin) with a male and female therapy team

That’s the clinical use of psychedelics that I see unfolding over the next thirty years, but once clients have completed therapy they may choose to join a psychedelic religion like the Ayahuasca, Peyote, Cannabis, Ibogaine groups or they may choose to start their own.

http://www.leary.ru/download/leary/Timothy%20Leary%20-%20Start%20Your%20Own%20Religion.pdf

I am doing a second printing of Shamanic Graffiti if you are interested in this demented, debased and debauched subject matter – 30$ for the hardcopy – 10$ for the digital – or with my pay what I say program replacing my pay what you can program 10$  -

2012 - YEAR OF THE BRAIN DRIVE

The War on Drugs and the Partnership for a Drug-Free world if successful would eliminate over three trillion dollars of economic activity a year.  Obviously they mean an illegal drug free world but since they don’t say that let’s follow their thought experiment through to its conclusion. 

psychoactives – alcohol 1 163 Billion

illegal drugs –494.25 billion

cannabis – 181.8

cocaine – 100

ecstasy – 17

heroin – 68

illegal prescription – 100

amphetamine – 28.25

other – 5.25

psychiatric medicines – 40 billion

tobacco - 614 bn

caffeine – 92.5 billion

coffee – 70 billion

tea – 7.5

other caffeine drinks – 15 billion

that's 2 trillion 409 billion 500 million dollars a year on psychoactives – this doesn’t include the non-psychoactive pharmaceuticals worth another 600 billion plus over the counter drugs at another 60 billion - that’s over $3 000 000 000 000. Imagine the war on drugs has been won, over three trillion dollars is saved and the world is free but oh no I think I’m getting a headache – we should have kept at least one ibuprophen. 

It was estimated by the European Drug Monitoring Agency that there were 40 brand new psychoactive substances introduced in 2011.  These are mostly formulas from obscure chemistry journals manufactured in China and India and marketed to European and North American customers.  Some, like the synthetic cannabis K2 and stimulant mephedrone, though now illegal, are hugely popular.  In my math all these drugs along with hallucinogens, solvents, natural psychoactives like kava or valerian are included in the 5.25 billion “other” category. 

The sobering truth is each year human beings spend almost two and half trillion dollars (excluding non-psychoactive drugs) to alter their state through chemistry. 

Proponents of the war on drugs and a drug free world have there work cut out for them 2 and a half trillion on getting high – former U.C.L.A. professor Dr. Roland Siegel believed that since all human cultures and many animal species self-intoxicate getting high represents a universal life drive like sleep, eat, drink and sex.

Prostitution and porn are only 100 billion each and mercifully, despite the musings of Rick Santorum the elimination of the sex drive is no longer pursued as an available goal – but it was, the church tried to eradicate sex for pleasure.  The sex drive outlasted all the perverse old queens of the catholic church and the brain drive or drive to alter consciousness will outlast the dreamless serpents spearheading the gravy  train called the drug war (500 billion dollar drug cash).  The war on the sex drive was lost and the war on the brain drive will be too.