The Importance of Accessibility for Mushroom Medicine

In his incredible thesis The Psilocybin Connection, Jahan Khamsehzadeh covers a wide range of biological, social, and spiritual issues that are touched by the psychedelic influence. Focusing on psilocybin mushrooms, he explains how these medicines may have been influential on our evolution as a species, and how they may help us continue to evolve.

He explains:

These medicines may be key to healing many of today's psycho-emotional illnesses, our rapidly expanding epidemics of anxiety and depression that stem from our sense of isolation, stress, and distorted perception of reality and ourselves. Near-end-of-life studies have repeatedly shown that therapeutic use of psilocybin helps patients shed their deepest anxieties, supporting them in facing the unknown with courage and a deep sense of peace. The greater sense of belonging and unity that can also occur can perhaps galvanize humanity toward becoming harmonious warriors who protect and cherish our Gaian family. As climate change threatens the collapse of ecosystems, and our economic systems continue to become unstable and affect billions of people across the planet, psychedelics can conjure in us the necessary hope and vision to take action instead of drowning in despair.

In another section, he also points out:

Psychdelics enable people to draw from untapped potentials of creativity. This creativity can be better expressed when individuals have their base needs met, like those presented by Maslow's hierarchy. [...] According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, human beings cannot collectively reach a level of self-actualization and self-transendence until their basic requirements for resources and safety are widely met. [...] Once we collectively establish physical security, which must involve the transformation of our economic systems, then we can further explore the imagination, including mining the deepest riches within psychedelic experiences, and make a quantum leap in human evolution.

I am just presenting a couple bites from his impressive work here, and I would encourage anyone interested to check out the full book - it also includes an in-depth history of psychedelic philosophy, integral philosophy, and goes deeper into these economic issues. He also talks about chaos theory and how complex systems can change over time. As a failing complex system breaks down, it may not leave total waste in its wake - instead it may reveal even more complex and connected systems that were forming under the surface in the background. This is a core concept of integral theory.

I am not qualified to go into these issues completely, but I think they're interesting and useful models. In this post, I just want to further amplify his thoughts on the economic state of the world. It's true that many of us spend most of our energy focusing on basic survival. As workers in a capitalist system, our time is increasingly stolen from us. Our freedoms - of movement, expression, and health - are increasingly limited. We understand that this is an unjust, and unnecessary, system which serves the interests of the rich and powerful.

So what are we to do about this? The path forward may require us to create new connections, within ourselves and our communities, so that we may give rise to better systems - and better people - as the old systems fall apart.

I believe natural medicines are such an important part of this process. Our environment provides us with allies in the form of plants and mushrooms to help us evolve. It is well-documented that Psilocybin can create new connections in our brains. Outside of science, it has also been used traditionally for millenia to open us up to more evolved spiritual possibilities, for healing emotional and physical ailments, and promoting psychological maturation.

Even the modern practice of microdosing is showing promising results for treating mental health and improving physical dexterity!

I believe that integrating these natural medicines into our diets will do more than strengthen us at the individual level. Our families, communities, and social systems stand to benefit as more of us undergo these evolutionary shifts. These new connections in our bodies and souls can help each of us lead our communities into a brighter, more connected, future.

For now, though - we are still working toward that goal. These medicines are slowly being reintroduced to society and we're still figuring out what that process should look like. One day soon, Psilocybin may be de-scheduled and offered via corporate products at high markups. Or worse, restricted to expensive therapy centers requiring medical prescriptions. While that is better than a total ban, I believe they should be available to anyone who wants them for their own development and healing.

This is why I offer them to my local community, and help people learn to grow their own - to empower us individually and locally.