The effects of psychedelics exist outside reductive psychology.

“The scientific literature lacks any comprehensive framework through which we understand psychedelics.”
— Petranker, Kim, & Anderson (2022).

Facts are experiential and knowledge is cultural. Because the subconscious exists outside of language, psychedelics will always exist outside of psychology. Efforts to contain, define, limit, or apply psychedelics to one point of view are a failure from the start. The idea that psychedelics are going to “assist” psychotherapy is both absurd and a desecration of the original language. The original language is the chaos of experience, and that’s what psychedelics offer.

Psychedelics’ action on the mind is not chemical, although they are chemicals that act on the brain. The mind is not a linear algorithm and is not reducible. Psychedelics release the mind from the reductionist blinders of logic, language, and culture. They will not be harnessed in service of psychology’s flawed definitions of mental health, any more than they can be used as a paste to relieve itching.

Anthropology

Medicine

Therapy-Assisted Psychedelics

Safety

Communication

Invitation

“For clinicians who were trained to avoid (spirituality) unless directed by the client, a focus on this dimension may feel foreign and possibly uncomfortable, and therefore, more training may be required to do so in a manner that is ethical, client-centered, and ultimately effective.”
— Lafrance et al. (2021)

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