Irony of ironies, I who have been called to psychedelia and the study of consciousness, have never and may never go to a ketamine clinic or a ayahuasca retreat. Why?
For one, I'm a self-defined psychiatric survivor. That means I've been in and out of clinical settings including psych wards with prison-like conditions. I've seen a few name-brand psychiatrists. A few were helpful but the system made me worse rather than better. I've got a healthy disregard for DSM-driven care protocols.
Therefore, I also mistrust the process of mainstreaming psychedelics by making them available through traditional clinical care.
Second, I've had enough bad trips to not want to entrust my vulnerable psyche to anyone, no matter how recommended or credentialed they may be.
And related to this latter point is the emergence of the case of Meaghan Buisson.
Buisson enrolled for a MAPS clinical trial using MDMA for PTSD.
She wishes she hadn't because the therapists...
...I can't even talk about it. Watch the video, read the accompanying article, and see for yourself.
This is disgusting. Unbelievably creepy. If something like this happened to me, it could push me over the edge!
I made myself write this post so I could explain why I am less than enthusiastic about psychedelic-assisted therapy. Yes, I know this is an outlier incident, and it more relates to the lack of standards for therapist training in the space.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy does seem to be saving lives, improving lives, and opening minds and hearts.
But I am not interested in getting psychedelic-assisted therapy (not now, anyway), and I'm certainly not going to push it on anyone. All the rah-rah hyperdelic crap out there frankly has started to bug me.
My interest in psychedelics, which was built into the Lucid Humanity vision and mission, stems from a belief that these powerful compounds are going to lead us towards a better understanding of consciousness, the mind/body connection, and the fundamental nature of reality.