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Many seekers of the deeper truths about life and ultimate reality pursue psychedelics to explore such questions as: What is the nature of reality? Who am I? Why am I here? What is my life purpose? How shall I live? What can I do to help humanity, the animals, and the earth? For others, pursuing a psychedelic experience is about dealing with sadness, depression, fears, or grief over the loss of a relationship or family member, or overcoming the pain of past trauma and disappointment. We sometimes refer to these experiences as amplified-states of consciousness, or transcendental consciousness. The beauty of psychedelics is the way in which they grant us natural access to the mysterious wisdom of the deeper psyche.
There is a natural path or spiritual arc that we traverse over time, and when we step into the alchemical fire of transformation with intentionality, it can serve to expand our minds, spark our natural intelligence, accelerate personal growth, and catalyze our inner wisdom. This, as a result, impacts us all as a collective. It makes problems less intractable and makes any life burdens feel less heavy. And it often gives us intensely deep feelings of love for ourselves and others, that is unforgettable—and life changing. We often come back with the awareness that we need each other. That we are here to love and support each other. That we are here to help humanity elevate and rise. This is what we refer to as the enlightenment drive. Because let’s face it, sometimes we need to experience a new viewpoint, a wider perspective—more of a bird’s-eye-view of life, of our personal history, of human tendencies and our own innate potential to transcend these stories and patterns. In short, the psychedelic experience points to an inherent telos-- a developmental arc—that aims toward some future destination—the soul’s arc.
So we come as seekers, to heal the wounded parts of ourselves. We come in earnest to be nourished, to drink of an ancient wisdom, and to recapture the truth of who we are—to remember. We come to these mind-expanding experiences to deepen our capacity to love, to deepen our ability to care, to re-envision our world and to find our place in it.
-Laurie Maddox
