It is Not All About Therapy: “Tripping” is Okay, Too
The widespread idea that “psychedelics are for healing, not for tripping” —that one should not seek new experiences for the sake of psychonautic exploration, the pursuit of pleasure or sheer curiosity unless we are ready to put in “the hard work to heal” is reductionist and misguided, an unfortunate byproduct of the successful strategy of medicalization that has propelled psychedelics back into public awareness and discourse.
The so-called “psychedelic renaissance” went mainstream by mindfully downplaying the countercultural connotations and revolutionary potential of these tools and substances, favoring a narrow and institution-friendly view of their potential medical applications for mental health. The rise of the therapeutic society focused on bypassing systemic issues by distributing increasingly sophisticated individual band-aids, has allowed psychedelics and plant medicines to claim their rightful place at the table of legitimate treatments in the Age of Anxiety.
Medicalization is happening in all walks of life, well beyond the meteoric rise of psychedelic therapy or Healing Culture, as more and more aspects of our raw humanity get pathologized by a medical-industrial complex that cares more about social control than it does about the human soul. Grief is now routinely treated with anti-depressants, allowing people to bypass the pain of processing significant loss. Childhood gets routinely medicated, with generations of curious, healthy children running on amphetamines that help the education-indoctrination juggernaut turn them into obedient consumers and conformist workers.
And to be fair, medicalization is not necessarily always a bad thing.
Developing new and effective therapeutic interventions can, and often does, significantly ameliorate human suffering. The exponential proliferation of new therapeutic approaches, new drugs, and even the increasingly popular array of Aesclepian healing approaches —from reiki to homeopathy to faith healing or energetic surgery— they can all be beneficial, even if just for the very important and very real components of placebo medicine, enhanced meaning response and the humanity, vulnerability and intimacy inherent in a good therapeutic relationship.
And it is important to be clear: we are not claiming that therapy is not important, or that being smart when choosing a set, setting and intention doesn’t matter. Of course safety is important, and we’ve come a long way in educating ourselves and others on how to minimize risk and maximize benefit. What we are saying is that the current dominant model isn’t and should never be the only model.
Yes, psychedelics and plant medicines can be therapeutic, and therapy is sometimes needed. And therapies that actually work are particularly welcome in times when medical charlatanerie by opportunistic wellness buffoons has become the norm within Healing Culture. And yes, psychedelics can be useful for introspection, or for rewriting and rewiring emotional memories imprinted by trauma, amongst many other therapeutic uses. However, it is important to keep in mind that a hyper-focus on trauma comes with many risks attached, not only due to the proliferation of under-trained, instagram-educated and shamelessly self-promoting “trauma experts”, but also because the idea that psychedelics help us “remember” the repressed source of our open wounds is a double-edged sword that needs to be approached with caution, as shown by abundant clinical research that highlights the risks inherent in therapeutic interventions focused on allegedly recovered memories.
Therapy is important, but not when it comes at the expense of other necessary aspects of what it means to be healthy and happy. Focusing too much on “healing” often leads to self-absorption and a narcissistic obsession with “our personal process”; the difference between medicine and poison is often a measure of degree. If we find ourselves always “in a process”, maybe what we’ve been doing is not actually helping very much. Maybe its time to focus less on “healing” and more on reassessing what it means to live a happy and fulfilling life.
“Just tripping”, for the sake of psychonautic curiosity, having fun, enjoying a beautiful day in the company of our friends, enhancing the experience of watching a movie or listening to music, and hoping to kickstart our creativity — these are all intentions that are just as valid as wanting to heal a childhood wound or get resolution over a difficult loss. Dancing our asses off at a music festival, glued to the speakers, wild-eyed in ecstasy with an acid tab under our tongues, can be one of the most memorable, remarkable, and therapeutic experiences of our lives. Even doing drugs for the sake of escapism can be a valid intention that deserves no judgment or condescension. The human experience is complex and nuanced, and we can learn to hold a little more complexity in relation to our psycho-spiritual tools and technologies.
We don’t have to call something a “medicine” in order to enjoy it without guilt, or shame somebody for not using our medicines “intentionally”. People need different things at different times. We just need to remember that joy, fun and community are also “medicine”, and that healing doesn’t always have to be heavy, grueling, self-absorbed “work”. It can also be fun, light-hearted, expansive, explorative, and joyful.
-- Adam
