#127: The False Promise of Psychedelic Utopia (ft. Neşe Devenot & Brian Pace)

It's Not Just In Your Head

Our guests discuss their fascinating paper 'Right-Wing Psychedelia' and why psychedelic substances have been mistakenly considered a substance that fosters socially progressive politics. Instead Brian & Neşe show that these substances are 'non-specific amplifiers of consciousness' and make the case that psychedelics can just as equally be used to rarefy hierarchy and authoritarian ideologies.

We discuss how different substances carry different stigmas, explore Jordan Peterson's idea of competence hierarchies, how the capital backed marketing of psychedelics is - yet again - an individual solution to systemic problems and how, at worst, these substances are just an 'antibiotic to a distressed animal to keep it going'.

“The world we're building is a bad place for our brain, so mental health issues will go up. But I do think we have some real shots in our portfolio to end the mental health crisis” - atai Life Sciences' Christian Angermayer

References:

Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733185/full

Psymposia: https://www.psymposia.com

The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-role-of-luck-in-life-success-is-far-greater-than-we-realized/

(As an addition check out 'WHY THE SUPER RICH ARE INEVITABLE' - "This is the crux of the Yard-sale model. In a free market, one person ends up with all of the wealth – completely by chance.": https://pudding.cool/2022/12/yard-sale/)

The False Promise of Psychedelic Utopia: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypzxj/the-false-promise-of-psychedelic-utopia

The “heroic dose” of psychedelics, according to Johns Hopkins | Dr. Matthew Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGqFxjQI3is

William Shatner's experience of the 'overview effect': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNXBvpLb9o&t=90s

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesdigitalcovers/2018/07/30/the-backsies-billionaire-texan-builds-second-fortune-from-wreckage-of-real-estate-empire-hed-sold/?

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/william-shatner-explains-trip-space-felt-funeral-saw-death-saw-life

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