PT454 Jamie Wheal The Shadow Aspects of the Psychedelic Movement: Is the Other Shoe About to Drop?
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In this episode, Kyle interviews author of Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death In a World That\\u2019s Lost Its Mind; speaker; and Founder of the Flow Genome Project, which researches and trains on improved human performance.
This episode \\u2013 the last of the many recorded at Psychedelic Science 2023 \\u2013 may ruffle some feathers, as Wheal is very outspoken and opinionated, focusing on what he spoke about at the conference: the pitfalls of the psychedelic movement. While his outlook is negative, he speaks with humor, and these shadow aspects are issues we need to be talking about: how the nature of capitalism and returning profits to shareholders affects the concept of set and setting; how easy it is to prescribe ketamine and the puppy mill clinics popping up everywhere; how innovators are racing to the bottom to get ahead; the designer drug epidemic likely leading us to a Prozac Nation 2.0; digital narcissism, Instagram \\u201cShamans,\\u201d and the dangers of cults; chemists trying to take the experience out of the drug; the overuse of psychedelics creating super egos; and much more.
While he believes the hype and excitement of the psychedelic renaissance is leading us towards a trough of dissolution and that people aren\\u2019t turning their amazing experiences into net positives anywhere near enough, he believes that fewer people using psychedelics less often and more intensely \\u2013 with initiatory practices, intentions, integration, and honest self-reflection \\u2013 will help us all climb out of our egos and move towards a healthier society. There is hope, but we need to honestly look at all the shadow aspects in order to move towards it.
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