Leslie Avila

Psychedelics

 

Psychedelics allow us to move away from this three dimensional world – a place where we usually only believe what our five senses can perceive, where time plays out in chronological order, where our logical minds usually lead us to answers, and where we usually rely on proof and data over intuition –  to a place of logical fallacy, mystery, wonder, magic, dreams, oneness, fullness, and more fantastical ideologies.

 

Too many times have professors, persons of authority, scientists, HUMANS in general, think that they obtain the power and ability to understand and define happenings and occurrences of the world around us with data, numbers, logic, and rationality. The sciences are getting answers. I has much value. And I appreciate the warriors who do it. But this value helps only the mind. 

 

I am here to defend this statement: Some of the mysteries of the world cannot and furthermore, should not be explained through these methods – they are not to be explained through words and numbers, but you still try. But no matter how close you get, you are not capable of getting THERE. Being it. Holding it, smelling it, able to refer to it at all times. You just can’t. You get a taste of it, yet continue to be hungry for more explanations.

 

What is IT? 

 

The answer you are all looking for when you look to physics or religion – when the mind won't stop thinking. The gap. The why and how. The explanation. The origin. The truth. The reason. What came before, what will come after. The everything.

 

When you’ve been through a psychedelic experience, you kind of laugh at anyone trying to define the world beyond our five senses with words or numbers, or any sort of ordered data. It may get you close. But psychedelics shoot you up and beyond your thinking. They spin you in a circle and spit you up like a baby. Psychedelics show you the side of the world, and ourselves, that is undefinable, unexplainable. This medicine will leave you speechless. And some people don’t like that answer: “If you've been there, why don't you know what it is?” 

 

I do know what it is and you do, too. But it’s your soul that does. Your spirit knows. Your mind is trying to understand something that the soul knows; the mind wants to define and explain it. And THAT is what you’ll never be able to get to know. It is not enough for you to catch glimpses of this eternity inside and around us. You need to catch it! But the psychonaut knows better. Psychonauts have seen the glimpse of it, got to smell it, got to hear and feel it. It is something to experience, to feel. It is not something that can be explained through logical reasoning.

 

One may ask, “Why can’t you explain it?” Well because you wouldn’t believe us. You’re trying to look past what it is. You probably won’t think it’s enough.  You’d want more, and more, and more, and more. 

 

Let us say I try to use human words to explain where I was; it would be a combination of thousands of words and letters congruently trying to create an experience. It was me, the trees, the soil underneath us, this beaming light coming towards me, it was the sound of soft music, a harmonious DNA strand, a deep beating drum, words and thoughts coming and leaving, water flowing in my mind, the rise of the sun, the sound of a coconut, the taste of the wind, the sweet smell of silence. I experienced all of these things, but they were different. Different than what you’re imagining right now. Different from the words I just said. It had a dash of sazon to it, a splash of water, a sprinkle of rainbows, a hint of darkness. It was all of them mixed together, blended, indistinguishable, yet completely independent of each other. Indefinable. I just tried to define it, and here you are, still not believing me, and asking for more.

 

But the soul needs not these answers, it has it all. It IS it all.

 

Psychedelics and Healing

There are many reasons why and how Psychedelics heal. This is one.

 

We, as a people, have severed our connection to our spirit, no longer do we even mention Spirit in the classrooms (due to the damage religion has done). This has ultimately led us to a disconnection within ourselves. We rely on our logic, our words, the data and the numbers to help us understand ourselves and the world that we live in. We are forgetting, as I mentioned above, that some things just lie in the Spirit.

 

Due to the overwhelming reliance on logic and rationality in order to understand ourselves and the world around us, we are no longer asking our Soul these questions of Self, but our minds, and the computers. We look to our phones, we look to the data, we look to others for reassurance, we look for the proof – no longer do we trust in our intuition to tell us who we are and how to manage the life around us. To think that we could ever neatly package the vastness of our mind, body, and soul into one nice box and deliver it to the world. We can see this manifested on social media, as users try to capture their entire lives into one post. And in the ever-giving question from institutions or parents, “WHO ARE YOU?” as they look for a career or job position to understand you through.

 

Our over reliance on “proof” is not allowing us to see the bigger picture. Because the bigger picture is far too large for the screens. The tv screen, the computer screen, the research software, the research report, and last but not least, controversially, our minds. They are NOT DEVELOPED ENOUGH, NOT LARGE ENOUGH, to capture IT, and furthermore, unable to capture US. 

 

When we ingest psychedelics, we are able to experience a glimpse of our vastness, of our complexity, and our eternity as connected Soul beings –  we are given a window to go BEYOND the mind. As we leave our human responsibilities, our human logic, amd our concept of time for just a few hours, we are able to go to this vast,mysterious, cosmic place that everyone seems to be searching for. What the physical plane seldom allows us to see or gives us. When we experience this vastness, we begin to truly understand that we do not and cannot understand it all with our minds. We must put our minds to the side, and start walking with our Soul first, living through our hearts, because THAT is where the truth lies. We begin to let go of the logical explanations for our lives, and we begin to become One with IT. 

 

This will be our freedom. For the mind to cease its endless search for answers, and to look towards the soul (of the Self and the Universe) for refuge.