Book Review.
“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.
William James, Psychologist
Let’s talk psychedelics.
Ever heard of a psychonaut? Neither did I until I read Michael Pollan’s provocative book - How to Change Your Mind - the New Science of Psychedelics. I eagerly went in search of the book as a committed fan of Pollan, who introduced me to the detailed back story of food production a number of years ago when all hell was breaking around the low carb healthy fat debate. His aphorism “Eat real food. Mainly plants. Not too much.” became a universal meme and debate for those interested in food as the best medicine; and weaponised in the 100 year long Food Wars. What is real food? Why mainly plants? How much is not too much?
I managed to track down one copy and purchased the book at the far off Exclusives, Benrose Gardens, Sandton. A good choice and a great read. It was worth the trip.
What got me going was watching the highly recommended documentary film, FANTASTIC FUNGI, that set my neurotransmitters on fire. Mycology is the study of fungi that teem under our feet when we walk the earth, and connect trees by extensive synaptic root systems, a kind of underworld wide web. The most well known fungi are mushrooms, which I tried, unsuccessfully (in my romantic urban farmer phase) to propagate in a dark, damp room a decade ago. And some mushrooms produce magic in the mind.
Psilocybin, originally cultivated in rural, mountainous Mexico, when ingested by mouth, breaks down into its constituents, and after digestion the magic bit is absorbed by the gut membrane into the bloodstream. The psycho-active component crosses the delicate, fort-like blood-brain barrier, and then binds with serotonin (2A) receptors and, incredibly, mysteriously, within minutes after the initial chew, a substantially altered state of the contents of consciousness takes vivid form.
The bolt shutting the floor lock between the conscious and the unconscious is released and a rollercoaster journey into a metaphysical, different psychological realm is now in full throttle (that can extend for an hour or so.) Aldous Huxley would agree that this dirty little mushroom opens the doors of perception into mind states not accessible during a normal day of consciousness. Mind blowing!
LSD (acid or aka Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) is a chemical derivative of ergot that was first isolated in a laboratory by the chemist, Albert Hoffman, in 1938, and quickly forgotten.
Herr Hoffman then had an accidental psychic exposure to the acid and went whoopy in circa 1943. Subsequently LSD was manufactured from 1948 by the bucketful making a ton of money for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland. LSD was globally distributed and used recreationally by the masses, especially in the West.
Then the perfect storm broke in the late 1960s with the advent of the counterculture revolution, Vietnam war protests, hippies and the Beatles. Acid was the new god they bowed down to.
Conservative Americans went ballistic as they collectively gasped at their precious spaced out kids dancing frenetically at Woodstock festivals that prompted President Richard Nixon to declare a massive war on such drugs.
LSD was legally classed as a Substance A banned substance - neither for scientific research nor personal use. A federal offence - serious jail sentences for those breaking the law. Tim Leary, the notorious professor of Harvard University was declared the most dangerous man in the United States by Nixon. He evangelised the masses to … turn on, tune in, and drop out. Gevalt!
Of course, the use of psychedelics went underground, like any self-respecting fungus. And now, fast forwarding fifty years, the ghost of classical psychedelics arises out of the ashes and magic mushrooms are riding a triumphant wave of optimism. A respectable, more nuanced revival is unfolding.
Psilocybin, within the confines of strict controlled protocols prescribed by trained medical scientists, is in advanced Phase 3 trials for treating stubborn but tragic mental conditions like severe posttraumatic stress disorder and treatment resistant depression. Many sufferers, sadly, commit suicide.
Psychedelics, the prodigal son excommunicated for half a century, the antihero, may yet provide a fundamental solution to such intractable brain diseases. How the world turns!
What provoked my curiosity is the insight that psychedelic trippers are perfectly aware of what is unfolding and can remember the micro-details of the journey into lala land. This is a critical point: their memory of the chemical induced altered mental and emotional state fits in perfectly with the mindfulness definition of Jon Kabat-Zinn: Mindfulness is the awareness that arises when paying attention to the present moment in a specific way, without judgement.
The well known raconteurings by post-trip psychedelic users are lyrical about their mystical experiences - of an overwhelming sense of unity, of a feeling of joy and blissful contentment when recollecting their ‘most meaningful encounter of their lives’. They experience all these phenomena by simply paying attention. They are passive witnesses to all the unfolding psychedelic induced mental events, moment by moment.
Psilocybin and it’s compatriots seem to block distraction, decentering the observer from the observed. All these rollercoaster rides starts and ends because of a string of chemicals embedded in a little psychoactive brown mushroom, a really fun guy! But can these brain changes be induced naturally. In other words, not by exogenous chemicals, but by behavioural techniques.
I hurriedly went to the libraries in search of the neuroscience underpinning these mind-alternating phenomena as well as the latest consensus on brain sites activated by long term meditators. What an intellectual finding. I focus on one major discovery.
Essentially, psilocybin inhibits activity in the recently described default mode network of the brain. This area is the nonstop narrative machine in the brain referring to myself: the personal pronoun story of me, mine and I. It appears that when this cortical real estate is offline the self identity dissolves. Interesting, then the ‘self’ (ego) could turn out to be a basic construct of the mind.
Functional and structural radiological observations in real time suggests the default network is also activated in meditators when their ‘mind starts to wander’ off the object of attention - a perfectly normal activity. Mindfulness meditation teaches the discipline of returning to the intentional focus once the realisation of wandering pops into consciousness. The aim of meditation is to turn off the noisy, distractible default network. Eureka. I get it now.
A vital connection is apparent:
Psychedelics and mindfulness meditation, arguably, have the same ends in mind, but have different means of achieving their goal. The former is sudden and violent; the latter is softer and gentle. Both quieten the ego, which dissipates with a knock out thump.
Psychedelics, interpreted from the original Greek, as mind manifesting, is a wild thunderstorm (a mental cloud burst) hammering the brain by releasing massive amounts of brain chemicals that induces everything from visual hallucinations to prosocial behaviours of empathy and altruism.
It dissolves the construct of self and the old, old stories of the past and all its disasters and near misses, and the nightmares of future dystopian scenarios. Psychedelics freeze out everything except what is arising in the present. Eckhart Tolle, surely, would be impressed.
Reading every word in the book - the new science of psychedelics - over four days, watching the movie fantastic fungi (twice) changed my mind, and the subsequent searching of the rigorous science of both meditation and psilocybin, blesses me with a healthy dose of clarity.
I am starting to understand the immense power of psychological resistance to change, the varied subtle defences of the ego as the major players. Mindfulness meditation is not difficult; but the ego gets in the way. Psychedelics whilst active on brain serotonin pathways, before natural degradation, switches off the ego resistance. And, like an inverted Hubble Telescope, another internal universe is discovered.
The past couple of weeks I witnessed my own mind manifesting trip: My Job (capital J) on this earth is to continually learn mindfully and to teach mindless people mindfulness, to train the brain to switch off their repetitive stories, to open the vault, to become their own psychonauts.
Astronauts explore external space, psychonauts explore inner space. You can do it by the (illegal) drug-chemical route, or by the affordable, accessible, regular practice of meditation.
The choice is clear: medication or meditation - a ‘c’ or a ‘t’ as the only differentiator. I prefer the natural way. Why need a synthesised chemical when the beauty of the present priceless moment is within your breath cycle, literally just below your nose?
Let Elon worry about populating Mars; you point your compass into the richness of your inner environment by activating your superpower: expanding your awareness capacity by paying attention to the present experience. Every moment fully attended contains multitudes. That, friends, is not rocket science.
So now I am dedicating time and resources in training myself as a professional psychonaut, sharpening my skills everyday. I don’t have to be the richest man on earth to blast off into (inner) space. The poorest person can simply stop, take a breath, observe the undulating landscapes of the mind, and then proceed in a wide berth of awareness as life unfolds moment-by-moment.
Simply, learning to be present, by letting go of the mental constructs of the past and future. Liberating, a wiser relationship to life. A natural mind blast, mind manifesting. A continuing love affair with life, to paraphrase Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Let me know if you need a few initial lessons to lift off out of your limiting inner atmosphere and gravity. I position myself as a co-pilot to start your education in psycho-nautology. You then can change the arc of the quality of your life, as the worldwide mindfulness movement clearly indicates. If you want to.
Just have to sideline the small matter of the ego (the story of me, mine and I). It may be your most rewarding present.
Links
1). The Movie
https://fantasticfungi.com/
2). The Book
How to Change Your Mind (Michael Pollan)
https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/
Dr Jonathan D Moch,
Contrarian Psychiatrist,
Founder and Director,
MINDFULNESS IN ACTION.
Website
www.jdmoch.com
Your article as been a real motivating start to my day. I have a long way to go before I can shake the mental clutter. Will start with the movie and take it from there. Thank you
What a treat to read this profound, beautifully written masterpiece. You have enlightened and demystified LSD for me which I previously thought of as - just don't go there. I'm curious about the metaphysical, so you've piqued my curiosity about the mushrooms. However, I've for a long time also been a follower of the mystics and sages and they say that chemical drugs shatter our auras in a way that can never be repaired, so - I just don't go there. It's amazing to me how they banned that but still don't ban cigarettes which does more harm than just about anything on this earth to the smokers' health, second hand smokers' health (people forced to smoke as a result of exposure to smokers), and the environment. Wonder when they'll jump on that one. And when are they going to make laws about selfishness. Thanx for inspiration and motivation. Now where's that candle :)