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The opinions surrounding the use of mind-altering substances, also known as psychedelics, are very divers. They are not newly found, and the oldest evidence of psychedelic use dates to between 7000 and 9000 years ago, with the species of fungi being even older. During spiritual ceremonies shamans of the native tribes guided its people on their trips. It was in the times of colonization that the western world got into contact with these ‘magic’ mushrooms and their research began. It is important to note that many native tribes considered their ceremonial plant medicine sacred and were not able to give consent on the out of context research their colonizers were doing. The research of what the psychedelics did to the brain and body was only on its surface level when the substances escaped the lab and people started using it recreationally. Following the widespread use of psychedelics in mainstream society in the early and mid-60s, bans on specific psychedelic substances started to be introduced. Later, we would see the prohibition of pretty much all psychedelics. Now, however, ever since the resurgence of government-approved studies about psychedelic substances, as well as their growing popularity in mainstream society, sometimes overly positive sounds are being heard again.

All this black and white thinking is embedded in the culture. Either “drugs are bad!”, and (traumatic) abuse of psychedelics has been the focus, or the illegalization of mind-altering wonder substances has been an invasion on the scientific progress that was being made and “now is the time of psychedelic renaissance!”.

I believe the current thinking is not nuanced enough to fully capture the risks and responsibility the usage of psychedelics brings with it.

To further research this, I want to dive into the collective archive of western vs. native culture and the sciences involved in this topic. I will look at the ‘inherently bad’ point of view, as well as listen to the ‘enlightened’ and ‘euphoric’. My goal is to find a middle ground of which an educational narrative will form. How and through what medium this will be is still unclear to me, since I intend to let the archive lead the way.