Does an image of your brain frying like an egg come to mind when you think about psychedelics?
While vivid…that trop isn't exactly accurate or the whole story…
In Episode 83 of the How the Wise One Grows podcast, Liz Bowden challenges the stereotypes and historical narratives between humans and psychedelic mushrooms.
From drawings in Guatemala where mushrooms were revered as the "flesh of the gods" to the Kykeon drink in ancient Greece's Eleusinian Mysteries, psychedelic mushrooms were intentionally a part of ancient ceremonies, where people sought wisdom from the earth to become better ancestors and community members.
Now, how did we go from those intentional ceremonies to the modern "war on drugs"?
Let's rewind to the mid-1950s when Gordon Wasson's wife learned about Maria Sabina, a Mazatec priestess in Mexico conducting healing rituals with psychedelic mushrooms. After meeting Sabina, Gordon Wasson's published a Life magazine article in 1957 that catapulted psychedelic mushrooms into Western pop culture, marking the first wave of psychedelics in the U.S. This also brought a huge influx of Westerners that traveled to study with Sabina, which ultimately overwhelmed and harmed her town, the people, and culture.
In the '60s, researchers like Richard Alpert (now Ram Dass) and Timothy Leary, explored LSD and psilocybin. However, the '60s counterculture collided with the Nixon era's War on Drugs, and the government's desire to regain control contrasted with promising research results. This led to the criminalization of psychedelic substances. The shift from intentional ceremonial use to controlled substances left a lasting impact, fueled by anti-drug propaganda that still lingers today.
Today psychedelic mushrooms are regaining respect. Psychedelics are gradually becoming decriminalized and used for therapeutic healing, particularly through microdosing (check out Ep 5 with Liz for more on microdosing). Liz is an advocate of microdosing for many reasons– including its ability to slow down the nervous system and to deepen the healing process for gradual integration and lasting change.
As we navigate the twists and turns of history and healing, Liz's insights encourage us to approach psychedelics with intention, respect, and a commitment to cultural and ecological restoration. It's a journey that nudges us towards a reharmonization of the feminine, a reconnection with the body and to the earth.
Listen to Episode 83 of How the Wise One Grows to expand your understanding of the world of psychedelics.
