I resonated deeply with Dr. Devenot's criticism of the "hegemony of capitalism" as applied to the burgeoning academic mainstreaming of psychedelic studies, and cheered at her embrace of poetic expression as deserving equal weight with scientific lingo in reporting psychedelic experiences. As a published poet with a PhD in consciousness studies (emphasizing non-ordinary states), I have benefited from both modes of expression.
Back to the hegemony of capitalism: I have long understood that as one of the most destructive forces at work in undermining planetary well-being in general--and not just a harmful influence in studying entheogens.
THIS: I have this dream of one day having a psychedelic study with poets, who are used to communicating experiences in non-ordinary language — they’re disrupting language to describe the non-ordinary; poets and literary scholars could help generate and interpret trip reports.
I first took LSD in 1964 as a lark. Talk about a surprise! I tripped several more times in the 60s and came to use Leary's manual for all subsequent trips. Also did IV DMT. It changed my life.
I'm now almost 80 and can look back on a rewarding career and a great family. But It makes me sad to see that politics creeps into everything, including the psychedelic intelligentsia.
The rails are really being laid right now for creating the routes of access and defining what psychedelic medicine and therapy will look like.
First I wish to appreciate The Micro Dose/Jane C. Hu and Neşe Devenot. It is important for work like this to reach directly to people in an approachable way. For this interview I am grateful. I say this because what follows is a critical assessment of the ideas shared here. My credentials. None unless you respect my growing up in the 1950s 60s and 70s valuable. None unless you feel my experience with psychedelics is some how authenticating and validating then... I did have an amazing experience in 1968/69 that has informed everything I do since. It remains a quest to integrate and understand. It has always been a blessing.
But if none of that counts. Then consider what follows from someone who has studied history, whose mom was mostly raised by an Indian woman which deeply touched me and informs what follows.
The whole rail analogy feels suffocating to me as it was for the Great Plains Buffalo and Indians. I am not comforted by the thought that Capitalism has found a way to profit from psychedelic trends you see. Why?
Since they already have the means to control legality of psychedelic substance, it isn’t to much of a stretch so see they will in short time have exclusive rights and control of that market. To think that controlling that market doesn’t pose a problem is naive. Pharma will be in total control of the substance that will inform people’s psychedelic experience. Two things have surely happened since the 1960s freeze on psychedelic experience and experiments in the public domain. One, they have the legal means to control the market and make sure they exclusively profit. Two, pharma has found the means to shape the experience of psychedelics so that outcomes are supportive of the corporate paradigm.
Consider the roll out of gene therapy injectables. Is it having the desired effect? What is the nature of the effect on people? Do we know the ingredients in the product even though as tax payers we paid for it. This is to point out control may apply only along one of the many dimensions of a given reality. I ask..
Where is the shamanic path? Shouldn’t it hold as much value as pharmaceutical path. Were is the fun? Where is there room for the garage chemist similar to Bill Hewlett and David Packard also Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, because creativity just can’t be found except in the wild.
____________
Jane C. Hu interview with Neşe Devenot:
Hierarchies of power can influence the kinds of ideas that are represented and circulated in a field, and capitalism has that effect as well.
Capitalisms effect is particularly bad for the health of the individual live forms and the planet. This is true since the beginning of Western History. See Forgiven them their Debts by Professor Michael Hudson
_____________
Jane C. Hu interview with Neşe Devenot:
I’m also interested in societies that have had relationships to plant medicines that are not based on capitalism, like the various Indigenous communities.
Thank you so much for supporting this path as this is sorely needed and I applaud the effort.
Your point about thought leaders is true. But capitalism has its' very own critics. If the alternative path of shaman or indigenous community that use plant medicines begins to threaten the profitability of psychedelic capitalism (or capitalism in any other way) there will be strong critics sponsored by capitalist that will do what they can to poison the mind of the general public against such “quack” paths. If that doesn’t do the trick deplatforming said threat and legislated against it is just a short step away. It only takes a brief look at history to see that this is true. That is the gentle way. They are not afraid to go much harder as John Michael Greer points out [1]. and proof this is in this link to the song Abraham Martin John and Bobby https://youtu.be/a5hFMy4pTrs
_______________
Jane C. Hu interview with Neşe Devenot:
...concerted effort to include those people in the conversation.
And include their way as viable path/experience. After all their experience is centuries if not thousands of year greater than psychedelic capitalism. Their intention is proven. They have barely harmed the earth if at all. Western capitalism can’t say or demonstrate that.
__________________
[1] DECLINE AND FALL by John Michael Greer
I’ve talked elsewhere about the way that this nascent vision helped guide the first promising steps toward technologies and lifestyles that could have bridged the gap between the age of cheap abundant energy and a sustainable future of relative comfort and prosperity. Still, as we know, that’s not what happened; the hopes of those years were stomped to a bloody pulp by the Reagan counterrevolution, Imperial America returned with a vengeance, and stealing from the future became the centerpiece of a bipartisan consensus that remains welded into place today.
I resonated deeply with Dr. Devenot's criticism of the "hegemony of capitalism" as applied to the burgeoning academic mainstreaming of psychedelic studies, and cheered at her embrace of poetic expression as deserving equal weight with scientific lingo in reporting psychedelic experiences. As a published poet with a PhD in consciousness studies (emphasizing non-ordinary states), I have benefited from both modes of expression.
Back to the hegemony of capitalism: I have long understood that as one of the most destructive forces at work in undermining planetary well-being in general--and not just a harmful influence in studying entheogens.
THIS: I have this dream of one day having a psychedelic study with poets, who are used to communicating experiences in non-ordinary language — they’re disrupting language to describe the non-ordinary; poets and literary scholars could help generate and interpret trip reports.
I'm a published poet, count me in.
I first took LSD in 1964 as a lark. Talk about a surprise! I tripped several more times in the 60s and came to use Leary's manual for all subsequent trips. Also did IV DMT. It changed my life.
I'm now almost 80 and can look back on a rewarding career and a great family. But It makes me sad to see that politics creeps into everything, including the psychedelic intelligentsia.
So excellent! Thank you for sharing this!
TheMicroDose Interview with Neşe Devenot
psychedelic medicine and therapy
Jane C. Hu interview with Neşe Devenot:
The rails are really being laid right now for creating the routes of access and defining what psychedelic medicine and therapy will look like.
First I wish to appreciate The Micro Dose/Jane C. Hu and Neşe Devenot. It is important for work like this to reach directly to people in an approachable way. For this interview I am grateful. I say this because what follows is a critical assessment of the ideas shared here. My credentials. None unless you respect my growing up in the 1950s 60s and 70s valuable. None unless you feel my experience with psychedelics is some how authenticating and validating then... I did have an amazing experience in 1968/69 that has informed everything I do since. It remains a quest to integrate and understand. It has always been a blessing.
But if none of that counts. Then consider what follows from someone who has studied history, whose mom was mostly raised by an Indian woman which deeply touched me and informs what follows.
The whole rail analogy feels suffocating to me as it was for the Great Plains Buffalo and Indians. I am not comforted by the thought that Capitalism has found a way to profit from psychedelic trends you see. Why?
Since they already have the means to control legality of psychedelic substance, it isn’t to much of a stretch so see they will in short time have exclusive rights and control of that market. To think that controlling that market doesn’t pose a problem is naive. Pharma will be in total control of the substance that will inform people’s psychedelic experience. Two things have surely happened since the 1960s freeze on psychedelic experience and experiments in the public domain. One, they have the legal means to control the market and make sure they exclusively profit. Two, pharma has found the means to shape the experience of psychedelics so that outcomes are supportive of the corporate paradigm.
Consider the roll out of gene therapy injectables. Is it having the desired effect? What is the nature of the effect on people? Do we know the ingredients in the product even though as tax payers we paid for it. This is to point out control may apply only along one of the many dimensions of a given reality. I ask..
Where is the shamanic path? Shouldn’t it hold as much value as pharmaceutical path. Were is the fun? Where is there room for the garage chemist similar to Bill Hewlett and David Packard also Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, because creativity just can’t be found except in the wild.
____________
Jane C. Hu interview with Neşe Devenot:
Hierarchies of power can influence the kinds of ideas that are represented and circulated in a field, and capitalism has that effect as well.
Capitalisms effect is particularly bad for the health of the individual live forms and the planet. This is true since the beginning of Western History. See Forgiven them their Debts by Professor Michael Hudson
_____________
Jane C. Hu interview with Neşe Devenot:
I’m also interested in societies that have had relationships to plant medicines that are not based on capitalism, like the various Indigenous communities.
Thank you so much for supporting this path as this is sorely needed and I applaud the effort.
Your point about thought leaders is true. But capitalism has its' very own critics. If the alternative path of shaman or indigenous community that use plant medicines begins to threaten the profitability of psychedelic capitalism (or capitalism in any other way) there will be strong critics sponsored by capitalist that will do what they can to poison the mind of the general public against such “quack” paths. If that doesn’t do the trick deplatforming said threat and legislated against it is just a short step away. It only takes a brief look at history to see that this is true. That is the gentle way. They are not afraid to go much harder as John Michael Greer points out [1]. and proof this is in this link to the song Abraham Martin John and Bobby https://youtu.be/a5hFMy4pTrs
_______________
Jane C. Hu interview with Neşe Devenot:
...concerted effort to include those people in the conversation.
And include their way as viable path/experience. After all their experience is centuries if not thousands of year greater than psychedelic capitalism. Their intention is proven. They have barely harmed the earth if at all. Western capitalism can’t say or demonstrate that.
__________________
[1] DECLINE AND FALL by John Michael Greer
I’ve talked elsewhere about the way that this nascent vision helped guide the first promising steps toward technologies and lifestyles that could have bridged the gap between the age of cheap abundant energy and a sustainable future of relative comfort and prosperity. Still, as we know, that’s not what happened; the hopes of those years were stomped to a bloody pulp by the Reagan counterrevolution, Imperial America returned with a vengeance, and stealing from the future became the centerpiece of a bipartisan consensus that remains welded into place today.