I've always loved Terence McKenna, and while he wasn't a formal leftist in any sense, what he spoke about always suggested to me that the way forward was the values that are inherent to leftism. So naturally, psychedelics took me to leftism.
I see somebody like Jordan Peterson, or Joe Rogan, who both take psychedelics for spiritual reasons as well, but come to radically different conclusions. As I've grown older, I've realized psychedelics aren't an instantaneous answer to helping people see the interconnectivity of the world. It's strange to me, as the messages I always got from these experiences were always telling me that life was about unity, love, change and transformation.
Reading some McKenna quotes today, I came across this one which exemplified exactly what I felt the psychedelic experience showed me early in my life.
"But I think it’s not simply taking psychedelics but it’s also to decondition oneself to the notion of ego and all the concepts which constellate around that, such as place, property, ownership, and stability. You see, the idea that we have inherited from Western religion and science is the idea that things should be stable. This is a very male dominant notion, the wish for stability, eternity, when in fact the message life hands you over and over again is “nothing lasts”. nothing lasts. Not what you love, not what you hate, not your enemies, your friends, not even your dear, dear self. nothing lasts. And the ego goes mad in the presence of that truth; it, it, it can’t swallow it. And so we have anxiety of death, need to dominate people, need to possess property, terror of illness, resentment of fate, because we are not in the flow."
I find it really interesting that the values of, as Terence would say, "dominator culture" revolve around stability and how that is antithetical to the psychedelic experience, which is an experience revolving around hallucination and constant transformation of not only material objects, but sense of self as well. Panta rhei.
I have come to grips that psychedelics are not an easy answer towards seeing the world as more unified, but it makes me wonder why someone like JBP would still be attracted to the experience. It's always possible that his experience is vastly different than mine, but because the psychedelic experience is a somewhat specific experience, I have to wonder how he bridges these contradictions in his mind as he sobers up.
Anyway, just something I thought was interesting and wanted to discuss, especially in relation to leftist politics. I'll leave with another McKenna quote.
"Well what I’ve learned from life, vegetables, travels and books can be summed up in two Greek words. It’s the central message of the philosopher Heraclites. He was always my favorite philosopher but whenever I would read about him, he was called the crying philosopher. I had to live to be 44 years old to understand the poignancy of Heraclites’ message. He said in a nutshell, Panta rhei. All flows. Nothing lasts. Nothing is permanent. This is the hardest message life has to teach because what is says is: your joy is transient, your anguish is transient, your fortune, your home, your dream, your moments of great ecstasy, your moments of great insight and your moments of great empowerment. Everything is flowing through your hands at the moment that you are aware of it."
Yeah, Alan Watts is great too. Bill Hicks is my spirit animal.
I definitely go through phases of my life where engaging with politics and current events too heavily does become a burden. I was very political at a young age and then I found psychedelics, which reinforced the political values I was nurturing. I have found that I go through phases of disconnecting with politics and reconnecting with my spirituality (of which psychedelics can play an important role) because there is an ebb and flow to it. Sometimes you need to focus on yourself and center yourself, find your flow, etc. As I've grown older, I've learned to put my political values into better action through organizing and working with likeminded comrades. But even then, burnout is a real thing. For me, psychedelics are a really good way to kind of reset things and clear out all the data that's not helpful and slowing me down. I used to think of it as defragging your computer, which I don't even know if that's even a thing anymore. It seems each time I come back to organizing, it gets better and more focused, so I think it's been a useful pattern so far.
I also want to say that in regards to the ego, it can be demonized a lot in psychedelic culture, but I think it's a deeper thing than that, like you alluded to. The ego is neutral as I see it. It's another piece of the mind/body/spirit, but like all aspects if you venerate it too much then it grows out of balance. One thing I find super useful about psychedelics is they can help people see that the ego is not the center of their being. It's just another aspect that needs to be balanced and nurtured. It's an engagement tool, but it should never get in the way of experiencing your life. Easier said than done, of course, but that's the dance of life.
Anyway, I think, at least for me, there is a synthesis between the values of psychedelic realms and experiences and leftist values and ideology. The through-line is not perfect, and there is a lot of lib shit that came from the hippie era, but for me it was a super powerful combination.
That’s comforting hear. To remind myself it’s okay to tap out for my own mental clarity. Since covid has been going on I haven’t been involved in as much community building and mutual aid, but I’m excited to get more involved as we get back to normal. I’ve been doing some research and thinking about how I can best apply my skills.
I totally agree with how you describe the ego. Even the act of trying to balance it is done by the ego. Watts talks about that a lot. You want to change yourself, but you are also the one doing the changing, kind of a difficult paradox to navigate. That’s why meditation, journaling, and other practices of presence help to go beyond the voices in your head and get to the self that is in tune with the now.
I think think their can be a synthesis between psychedelic realms and leftist values, but you have to be willing and open to see that perspective. Watts I think got it wrong when he pretty much said it doesn’t matter if your right or left because we are constantly changing on that continuum throughout our life and we shouldn’t take those ideas so seriously, but I can also see how one could get that perspective after having a psychedelic experience.