PT454 – Jamie Wheal – The Shadow Aspects of the Psychedelic Movement: Is the Other Shoe About to Drop?

In this episode, Kyle interviews author of Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death In a World That's Lost Its Mind; speaker; and Founder of the Flow Genome Project, which researches and trains on improved human performance.

This episode – the last of the many recorded at Psychedelic Science 2023 – 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 "Shamans," 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't turning their amazing experiences into net positives anywhere near enough, he believes that fewer people using psychedelics less often and more intensely – with initiatory practices, intentions, integration, and honest self-reflection – 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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