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Namah Vol. 28, Issue 1, 24th April 2020

(3), seemingly as an evolutionary survival proper preparation, psychological capacity,
mechanism. Understandably, as hunters and intention and optimal setting may engender
gatherers, we could not survive being in an outcome less than desirable. Furthermore,
a state of constant expansion, lest without within a comprehensive therapeutic protocol,
singularity of focus, we would become our post-session integration is essential. In these
predators’ next meal. We have therefore, both altered, expanded states, one may have an
consciously and unconsciously, selected, experience, or accept a narrative previously
programmed and reinforced certain patterns outside the scope of one’s purview, which
of behaving, seeing, thinking, understanding may necessitate repeated understanding,
and believing, while discarding many others. refinement and integration.
This mechanism has enhanced survival
probability, keeping us in an ever-alert, In one case study (4), a marine returning
fight-or-flight mode, but in simplifying from Afghanistan was thrust into a state
alternatives, it may have also stifled human of intractable depression. Through the
creative potentialities. therapeutic use of MDMA, guided by a
caring, skilled husband and wife team, the
We might glimpse into what has been lost ex-marine recognised that he had been frozen
when we observe the expanded sensory in guilt, unable to move past the atrocities
and emotional capacities of children. As he had witnessed and those he himself had
we grow older, these neural network committed. In an expanded state, induced
connections appear to become ever more through MDMA, he was able to arrive at another
confined to limited, comfortable yet repetitive narrative. He recognised that he too had been
and restrictive loops. This would suggest a victim of a cause and a system much larger
that we experience through our senses than himself. This insight allowed him to
only what we’ve conditioned ourselves to begin a process of healing through self-
experience through our personal, ancestral acceptance.
and transpersonal imprinting.
Along this continuum, a new and often more
Entheogens are reclaiming their rightful salutary narrative arises. Once sparked, it
place as curative agents. Research studies must be stabilised, reinforced. The integration
for the treatment of depression, anxiety, process is the key to long-term positive result
addiction and PTSD (post-traumatic stress of psychedelic-assisted therapy.
disorder) completed at John Hopkins, New
York University (NYU), Imperial College of Another hugely important factor is the actual
London and Multidisciplinary Association for quality of the experience. For some patients,
Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), among others, are clients or voyagers, it may simply be a novel or
reporting excellent results, far exceeding the interesting inner adventure. For others, it might
outcomes of most pharmaceutical drugs. But be referred to as a peak experience. While
it is important to add that these medicines with still others, with proper preparation, in
are not a magic bullet, guaranteeing curative a sizeable portion of the population, patients
outcomes for all. What we do know is experience a sense of ego dissolution, a merging
that simply taking an entheogen, without into a sense of interconnection, a deeply

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