The current national conversation on racism and social justice work intersects with the psychedelic movement in several ways. We often talk about psychedelics for personal liberation, but as a collective movement, psychedelics also inform and are informed by wider social movement. Madison Psychedelic Society feels that investing in intentional conversation around social liberation is necessary to our role as a community discussion forum building positive psychedelic culture. We cannot talk about psychedelic research without talking about medical research bias and unequal access in psychiatric medicine. We cannot talk about lobbying for decriminalization without talking about the war on drugs and racist prison institutions. We cannot talk about traditional psychedelic use without talking about cultural appropriation and indigenous resource reparations. We cannot talk about personal liberation without also talking about social liberation.
This satellite discussion group has been brewing in MPS for a long while, and will become a regular offering of our calendar. While we've had intersectional and social justice-focused conversations before, we haven't before made intentional space to unpack the ways systemic injustice impacts the wider psychedelic movement, and our own local corner. While these discussions may be stirring and uncomfortable, they are necessary and timely. We will be working to create a container of community growth and personal clarity, to hold complexity and discomfort in generative support. We want to keep our eyes and hearts focused on the more excellent future we can make together. We will mostly be discussing articles and films and talks from psychedelic and social justice thought leaders, but we will also discuss ways MPS can become more actively antiracist. In our first meeting, we will be using two pieces of media to set the groundwork for our group. Both come from the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines (chacruna.net). Chacruna is an academic organization dedicated to propogating accessible psychedelic research and to sharing "cultural and political reflections on the field of psychedelic science and facilitate conversations about controversial topics that have been simmering on the sidelines as psychedelics go mainstream." They are one of the few international organizations in the psychedelic movement who focus on the intersectional impact of psychedelics in science, politics, and global culture. We hope you will join us for our new conversation on social liberation and psychedelics experience.
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For the next few months, we will be exploring the sensory realms of psychedelic experience. In popular culture, the mental illusions and neurological development of psychedelics are often centered. But what about the impact of expanded consciousness on our senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell?
SOUND: Music and sound have been integral to psychedelic culture, history, and science. We will discuss the arc of visionary music through psychedelic movements, the playlists being used in psychedelic research, theories around auditory hallucinations, and more. Together, let's consider, IN PSYCHEDELIC SPACES: -- What is it like to listen to music? Recorded music, live music? -- What is it like to play an instrument, or sing? -- How do environmental (nature, surroundings, one's own body) sounds impact us? -- How does listening to music of our cultural heritage, or the cultural heritage of others, impact us? -- Which musicians and sound artists have been inspired by psychedelic states, or have influenced psychedelic culture? Expanded consciousness offers us the experience of unity and relatedness with the natural and human world, and allows us to see the manifestations of our own minds. Psychedelic science is publishing research that describes the physiological effects of psychoactive substances, and their neurogenic healing benefits. The psychedelic healing movement is creating protocols to enhance psychotherapy effectiveness by including the expanded experience of psychedelics to reach deeper into patient consciousness in facilitated therapy sessions. Psychedelic medicines are extracted by and copied from fauna and flora stewarded by indigenous cultures, who are not remunerated for the environmental, cultural, or economic impact of that (often involuntary) contribution. Popular US American culture is portraying psychedelic therapy as an effortless silver-bullet cure for common and serious mental wellness conditions. Psychedelic societies are a public access forum for citizens to actively participate in the generative discourse of the psychedelic movement.
Given what we know about the urgency of our personal healing journeys, our society's hunger for progress and indifference to inequality, and the powerful multi-valent impact of psychedelics; let's examine how we can stay in right relationship with psychedelics. How do we relate to the psychedelics as an experience, as drugs, as teachers? How might we shift cultural narrative into more accurate expectations? What would move our movement to a more beautiful and just future? Hello friends,
I hope you all are healthy and happy, and are finding your stride in the continuing project of slowing the pandemic. I hope the past few months have given you some real insights into your happiness, connection, and pace of life. I think anyone who has explored expanded consciousness philosophy is uniquely resourced to engage trying times like these, and mine them for their positive lessons. I hope you are enjoying a summer rich in social connection, even at a distance, and I wish you fortitute, patience, and optimism through the coming seasons. Like you, I'd hoped we would be able to see the end of the pandemic by now, but it doesn't look like the environment will be safe to host a gathering this October. For many reasons, I'm committed to hosting an in-person event, and so I'm cancelling this year's event. I will be looking forward to finding a time in 2021 to rekindle the Midwest Psychedelic Healing Symposium. Thank you so much for your support, enthusiasm, and participation in making our local psychedelic community strong and vibrant! I will be refunding all tickets purchased to this point, and look forward to contacting you all again next year with another invitation! In the meantime, I hope you will continue to stay in touch and involved, and join Madison Psychedelic Society in our online discussion groups. You can always find details at: www.meetup.com/Madison-Psychedelic-Society Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions. Dear Community,
You are all in my thoughts every day, as every day I hear stories of increasing intensity for our culture, our planet, and in our personal lives. There is certainly a way to look at 2020 as a disaster, a dangerous and fearful time for all. But if there is one lesson we hear ringing through all of psychedelic science and spirituality, it is that ordeal can be ultimately healing. As the harm reduction credo of the Zendo Project says, "Difficult is Not Bad." Difficult experiences can spotlight needs, and draw our attention to our wounds. Certainly, the pandemic has shined a spotlight on our public healthcare needs. Black Lives Matters shines a spotlight not only on police violence, but on systemic racism our culture needs to address. In these intense times, we have an opportunity to use our expanded-consciousness skills of empathy, unity, self-awareness, and culture-changing. MPS is dedicated to inclusiveness and antiracist community, and we are committed to hosting conversations that meet the fear, anger, and urgency of the times, with compassion, education, and authenticity. We'd like to use the safe space of our community to join together for transformative conversation. Please join us. At our next monthly meeting, we'll be discussing points of intersection between the Psychedelic Movement and the Social Justice Movement. We will touch on the racist origins of the War On Drugs, the biases in medical research, and the need for marginalized voices in the development of psychedelic therapy. In our commitment to inclusiveness and activism in the psychedelic movement, we understand that cognitive liberty, therapy access, resilient harm reduction, and drug decriminalization cannot authentically exist in a society without social justice. We are focusing this month on American (US) society and justice work to keep our attention on the urgent issues currently present in our community. MPS is an antiracist community, and we feel strongly that our public psychedelic society conversation must include an active analysis of the systems that shape our culture. One of the Zendo Project's harm reduction guiding principles is, "Difficult Is Not Bad: Challenging experiences can wind up being our most valuable, and may lead to learning and growth." I think we can apply similarly generative optimism to these difficult days. I believe those of us who are invested in expanded consciousness have a skillset for transforming challenging experiences into beneficial growth; a skillset that can be useful in promoting hope and resilience among our community. I hope that, in the midst of the uncertainty and fear of the COVID pandemic, you are able to center in these strengths.
This month's meeting is a special offering as we welcome a local author and psychedelic activist, Matthew Simpson. Matt champions a "love revolution that is fueled by forgiveness, compassion, kindness, and selfless service to others" through his podcast and self-published book, both titled, "Worth The Fight." Join us for an enthusiastic presentation at our May meeting, where Matt will lead a discussion on:
I sat down for a podcast conversation with this month's presenter, local author and psychedelic activist Matthew Simpson, to dig deep into the nuances of language, access, and the importance of psychedelic societies in the psychedelic movement.
Worth The Fight Podcast #31 As we continue to practice spacious solidarity and successfully flatten the curve of this pandemic, I hope you all are finding ways to stay centered in yourselves, stay connected to one another, and to enjoy the abundance of online, virtual, and digital media being shared globally, locally, and in psychedelic community!
The decision to move online for the forseeable future was not made lightly, because it comes with some inherent risks. In our monthly meetings we talk about integrity in our introductions, as a way of creating community in a very public setting. Meeting in person, integrity is an agreement of honesty that is matched by the accountability of our personal presence. When we meet online, our integrity and accountability needs to be more explicit. As we continue to build our community in public online spaces, we feel strongly that we need to know with whom we are sharing conversation, and that we ask everyone to think of group safety when sharing. Given what we know about online security and surveillance, we should all always assume our actions and expressions online are being recorded, and are permanent. Please help us keep our community strong and safe! In order to assure as much integrity and accountability as possible in our online meetings, we are setting some new guidelines for our online meetings. If you choose to not follow these guidelines, you will be blocked from the online meeting with no further warning. 1. Participants must sign in with their real full names. 2. Participants must keep their video screen on during the entire meeting. 3. Participants may not disclose any illegal activities. (And lastly, though not a strict guideline, please also consider allowing this time to be a break from pandemic-discussion! Let's take care of each other, and continue our community conversations.) Almost every day since the coronavirus pandemic began, someone has said to me, "Our culture is changing." More and more, my reply has, "How do we want to shape the change of our culture?" In this time of transformation for our culture and community, its more clear than ever that we, together, create the world we live in. The choices we make towards caring for one another in spacious solidarity, towards organizing connection in conjunction with safety, towards using our hard-won lessons to embiggen our presence in the world, fill me with optimism for a future shaped by expanded consciousness.
My friends, It's with a heavy heart but a steady that hand I've decided to cancel our March meeting. The best way we can keep our community strong in these days of pandemic is by taking care of our own health and being aware of those who are more vulnerable than we. As the COVID-19 pandemic precautions affect more and more of our lives, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and frightened. Choosing to cancel events or distance ourselves socially (beautifully reframed as "spacious solidarity" by one of my favorite educators) can feel like defeat, but it is in fact an act of love, as we work together to slow the progress of this pandemic. We may not be able to stop this pandemic today. But we can wash our hands and trust our self care practices. We can choose how much time to spend reading headlines, and how much to spend nourishing our bodies and spirits. We can choose how much energy we use to focus on fear, and how much on the loving connections we feel and create through our relationships. We can look forward to reconnecting in person. Responding with an eye toward community health will change the shape of our Psychedelic Society in the coming weeks, and I expect more events will be cancelled. I'll keep you updated with changes, and look into alternatives, like possible online gathering options. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the media offerings below. I look forward to discussing them with you soon! Take excellent care of yourselves. Be safe but not scared. Be kind to one another. Happy Hand-washing! |
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