Why There Is So Much to Learn from Psychedelic Medicines if Administered in the Right Way!
Also why we urgently need more knowledge about what the right ways are!
Australia has recently legalized psilocybin, and having been an adviser to Maria Florencia Bollini’s (Flor to her friends) startup NANA heals for some time, I figured I would put my money where my mouth is, follow the NANA heals progressive dosing and integration protocol, and safely see for myself what the fuss is all about.
As a serious tech entrepreneur and investor, I brought a healthy dose of skepticism to this journey, conducting extensive research and consuming papers on a variety of topics and substances before consuming any of the substances themselves. There are some pretty terrible stories out there of people frankly abusing psychedelic substances and even some deaths (usually due to crazy practices or co-morbidities, it’s not a good idea to try something that can induce strong fear if you have a heart condition!)
The preponderance of evidence is clear: administered with precision and within an appropriate setting, these medicines have huge potential benefits in areas where other medicines and treatments are failing our civilization, such as countering addiction and reversing depression.
What is sadly also apparent in the research is the emergence of a new, almost macho, tech bro culture seeking “heroic” dose experiences, along with a pervasive “party” drug scene. There are also anarchic practitioners who are clearly bad actors just randomly dosing people. None of that is helping these therapeutic compounds to be taken seriously as mainstream treatments.
Further, from speaking with a variety of influential folks, it is clear that many people of high stature are already benefiting from these therapies but are not sharing their experiences. Many, it appears, are simply embarrassed to admit that they have been covertly benefiting for quite some time.
Nearly all the major compounds of interest occur in nature and are perfectly fit for purpose in their natural state if handled with great care. Consequently, there is little motivation in the pharmaceutical industry to support research that might make several very profitable classes of drugs, such as SSRIs, irrelevant. It would be a big hit to Pfizer to lose all its Xanax revenue to something that grows naturally in autumnal fields worldwide.
What is crystal clear to me is that treating these compounds with great care and respect is absolutely critical, and the best way to do that I have found is to use progressive dosing, which is part of an ancient, feminine, African tradition. Progressive dosing is the sine qua non of Flor’s NANA heals startup, and as an advisor to the company, this regime makes the most sense to follow. Who better to guide me on the journey than the founder herself? In fact another problem in this nascent industry is that truly experienced practitioners are few and far-between and frankly working with these medicines without a super experienced guide is plain nuts!
As background to what follows, it’s important for you to know that while I wholeheartedly endorse NANA heals’ progressive dose and integration protocols, I am primarily concerned with safety rather than efficacy. That said, it should also be clear to everyone that any carefully administered therapeutic is undoubtedly going to be more efficacious than randomly downing a handful of, who knows what, at any given party.
Having literally spent decades practicing mindfulness, meditation, and letting go, it felt right that when Flor and I happened to, literally coincidentally, be in the same city, that it would be an auspicious time to go into some natural wilderness and deepen my personal understanding of the benefits of this class of therapies using the NANA heals protocols. Perhaps counterintuitively, we chose 5-MeO-DMT (which is as hardcore as it gets according to the tech bros) to work with. It does though have a major advantage in that its half life is roughly 5 minutes even at a large dose.
What actually happened was one of the gentlest, most serene, and joy-filled experiences of my entire life. After some discussion and a brief yet meaningful and respectful ceremony, including selecting some tarot cards as guides for the intention of the journey, I was given a microdose to settle into the experience. Then, a significant dose. Let’s eschew the word “heroic” as that has the wrong grounding for the truly amazing experience that followed.
As a card-carrying atheist, it is with no small irony that I describe what happened next as dying and seeing the face of God’s love in a most genuine and feminine aspect. Not, mind you, as any form of vulgar hallucination. After the deep inhalation and hold, there was a second of terror in which I could see my ego wanting to hang on (which I am sure would have led to something traumatic as it was terrifying). This is where my years of mindfulness training paid off in spades.
I let go of… me.
Now without the mindfulness grounding I shudder to think what could have been and so I do not recommend this experience to the unprepared and unguided at all.
What followed my letting go was 15 minutes of really pure love, fully lucid and with full faculties. Every petty fear that might have dogged me for 56 years dissolved. All my posturing and flawed nature evaporated, leaving only love. A vastness of love in such quantities that it is literally impossible to adequately describe.
Then it was gone, and I watched as my ego and mind returned to their usual places. That might have been it, except that it wasn’t. Since that moment, the pure love has not left me. I have it now as a resource so simple yet profound that I could describe it as a new faculty. Every single hour of every single day since the ceremony, while being exactly the same as I have always been, I am also something a bit more. I can now draw on that love experience at will and my life is thereby upgraded. I am less stressed, more effective and more creative.
Frankly, my days since are now filled with more productivity and joy than ever before. The irritants of life have lost their edge, the saboteurs of my anxieties are all blunted, and every interaction I have with other people is all the better for it. My life is undeniably better.
This is what has made me resolute in sharing my journey despite the possible blowback. Now, more than ever, it is clear to me that there is a potential new dawn for psychedelic therapies, and that future is only accessible through the gentle progressive dosing and integration protocols that NANA heals is championing. So too NANA must be supported thus I am also calling on the many others who have benefited from what Flor does to join and give voice in support of what is right for I am also convinced that if we do not bring these therapies into the mainstream we will lose access to safely using them at all.
Now as the title of this piece suggests, I am still the flawed human I have always been and expect to be. The concerns of life have not disappeared. And, with this gentle wellspring of love and bonhomie unveiled within me, I am much better placed to deal with the everyday vicissitudes while being kinder to everyone whose life intersects with my own.
Again this is not advocating for anything less than awareness for both knowledge and ultimately safety. My journey would definitely have not been as it was had I not had, long established, mental disciplines and more importantly one of the most experienced guides on the planet in Flor!
Lastly, in the vein of the all pervasive American advertising, for the vast array of drug ads that appear to infest their every TV channel;
Side effects may include:
Authentic joy, smiling more, singing a bit, not taking things too seriously, considerable additional productivity, befriending new people, and overall just having a much nicer time!
Humour aside, unguided, unprepared people not using progressive dosing and proper integration may experience harsh side effects that could include and are not limited to:
PTSD, palpitations, elevated blood pressure, nausea, night terrors, psychosis and with co-morbidities or mixing other drugs, even (albeit rarely) death.
None the less, with the scale of the potential benefits to our civilisation, in my considered view it is actually urgent we move now to bring progressive dosing and state of the art integration, and the safety they bring, into the mainstream of clinical research.
Note – as of this writing 5-MeO-DMT is legal for personal use in Canada.
My, oddly helpful, small tarot card guide selection;
