The
1960's are well-known as an era, sometimes a failed era, of a psychedelic
renaissance which was nicely accompanied by protests, a sense of revolution,
and an anti-war/government agenda. Psychedelics, with their mind-bending, eerie
clarity made people think about things in a different light, specifically their
own culture which was and is continually being fueled by war. They broke down
barriers and made people question things left unquestioned. Like, why are we
going to war? Why am I being forced to go kill people who are apart of my own
species, my family? Music, being a psychedelic in its own form, was a central
part in this outbreak of societal change. Music rippled throughout the land,
showing things left unseen, even without the use of any psychotropic substance.
Music can rip through to the core of individuals and help spark societal change. One song that helped spark that change and continues to today is "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield.
"There's
something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a
gun over there, telling me I got to beware..." This line shows the
relationship between the police and the citizens for whom they are supposed to
serve and protect. Police are there to keep us in line, and as they shows us, violently. Sure, they
are here to protect us from those pesky vigilantes and even ourselves from when
we cross over to the wrong side of the law, but laws in place today are not
inherently moral, nor did I or you have much say in making most of them.
It is
completely legal to march a few thousand men and women to another side of the
globe, kill thousands of people, and all for the sake of power. However, if you
are outside the few States that has legalized it, it is completely illegal to
smoke a plant. Or, if you live anywhere on this Earth besides Spain , it is
illegal to consume the eye-opening, soul shifting, psilocybin mushroom. But if
you want to drink or smoke tobacco until you die, go right ahead. No one is
stopping you. In fact, they encourage you.
Growing
up in a world where there is war, famine, innocent women and children being bombed by United States' drones, people
starving to death while others have enough to buy a private jet, and homeless
people filling our streets, the youth are usually the first to speak out about
such atrocities. Those of us that have been here longer than most have either
given up or are used to it, and those younger than, say sixteen, are most
likely unaware of the problems at hand. Springfield
illustrates this beautifully with: "Young people speaking their minds.
Getting so much resistance from behind." The youth speaking out has been a
fairly common theme throughout history, but there are definite leaps here and
there. The 1960's was one of them. And, mainly due to the internet and the
rising psychedelic culture today, it is
happening again.
Some
believe we are going through a psychedelic revolution and this time with
science on our side. There have been countless studies done on LSD,
psilocybin mushrooms,
and MDMA (to name a few) that have shown to work incredibly well for treating
depression, alcoholism, anxiety, PTSD (specifically for veterans), and even with
helping terminally-ill cancer patients with helping ease their anxiety with
their impending death.
If a long-haired 23 year-old with oozing hippy vibes
told you that psychedelics are going to change the world, you probably would write them off immediately. But when you have a sincere, touching
video of someone dealing with cancer and depression telling you how psilocybin
mushrooms has helped their lives immensely, you might just have to believe
them... and possibly cry. Not only that, but there are more and more studies coming out everyday showing the healing powers of psychedelics.
Through recent research, psychedelics are now
shown to help with many psychological issues millions of people face with today. Not
only that, but psychedelics can open up ideas to new ways of thinking and
living. It is obvious the current track we are going down is not working.
Scientists say if we continue down this same path, we will lose our wildlife
and eventually our own species. We have already lost half of our wildlife in
the past 40 years thanks to human consumption, the main fuel to our beloved
free market, capitalistic economy. Psychedelics open your eyes to ideas like perhaps
there is no democracy and we are being played on a mass scale. Or how can there
even be a true democracy if we do not vote for the real things that matter like
war, bail-outs, etc.? Why do I have to go work? Why do I have to pay to live
and in addition pay for tuition? How can there be a democracy if there are
things going on behind closed doors that we know nothing about (the NSA scandal
and many others)? And this is just touching the surface with a psychedelic trip. Psychedelics make you feel connected with everything and everyone around you, especially nature. And what do we need more than to feel a sincere, deep connection with nature? Take enough, and you become one with the universe. You see that everyone is connected all the time and separation is only an illusion made through the filtration of the mind. You see perfectly that we are all one consciousness, experiencing itself one at a time through you.
If you are hesitant of using any sort of "drug" (although, if you think about it, you are drugs) to achieve this experience and state of being, there are many natural ways to do so; meditation, yoga, holotropic breathing, and sensory deprivation to name a few. If you are confused on what to do with meditation, you can check out my previous blog post on How To Meditate. Psychedelics and meditation put together are an incredibly powerful tool and can allow the experience to go deeper and deeper. I recommend meditation before, during, and after the ingestion of any psychedelic, but of course, the use of psychedelic is not "needed".
I
think we need to take the advice from the band Buffalo Springfield and "...stop. Hey, what's
that sound? Everybody look - what's going down?" Indeed we do need to take
a second and stop. Stop everything and really take a fresh look at ourselves
and the world around us (which in-turn is
us). Things are getting out of hand, yes, but this Earth is still in our hands.
Right now, scientists around the globe would argue we are at a pinnacle moment
in history. Either we go the easy way out and do nothing, leaving behind a
world uninhabitable for humans and most living creatures, or we change our ways
drastically and use science and reason to our advantage, not to our
destruction. This requires a sort of inner-revolution, a revolution of the
psyche. To expand our
consciousness to the entirety of experience, rather than a small blip of it,
our inner narrative. It is time to step out of our minds and into reality
through a simple act of surrender. Fear is what is stopping us from saving the
world. It is time to face it. With the help of controversial psychedelics (used
in a respectful, safe, professional, ritualistic manner), the art of meditation, timeless music like
"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, and many other songs
that are coming out today (although they may be hard to find in this trashed
culture), together we can change the world. This is our time, in fact, it is
the only time. And it starts now.