Pixie Dust to Brass Tacks: The Real Stakes of the Psychedelic Renaissance

In all of the hype and hoopla of the last decade’s psychedelic resurgence, we often gloss over the core reasons the psychedelic experience itself actually matters. And while there are as many perspectives, traditional, post-modern, indigenous and cosmopolitan–as their are participants–three predominant hopes stand out. #1 A re-enchantment of the world. Whether “awe” or sky high scores on the MEQ30, we deeply value the immersion in wonder and reverence as an antidote to a hyper-modern and materialist world. #2 Personal insight and healing. This is primarily the thrust of MAPS multi-decade push into the medical and therapeutic spaces. It hinges on the pattern disrupting/insight dispensing nature of the psychedelic experience itself and the chance it provides us to mend our trauma and integrate our psyches. And last but not least, #3 Perspective and Insight to Heal a World in Crisis. If we can get #1 and #2 more or less straight, we reason, then we should all get cracking as fast as possible on #3 while there’s still some time. These are all sweet, well-intentioned, potentially profound reasons to engage with, and support psychedelics. But at this inflection point in policy politics and polycrises, it’s worth pausing for a moment and assessing, how are we really doing on all three? This talk will offer a fun, engaging and accessible survey of those three topics, offering a scorecard of progress to date, and likely prescriptions for how we can do better on all three.flowgenomeproject.comrecapturetherapture.comstealingfirethebook.com