The Myth That Hallucinogenic Drugs Will Fix You
A new trend in taking psychedelics doesn’t mean they’re any less pernicious
Hallucinogenic drugs are making a roaring comeback. They’ve undergone some sort of rebranding exercise in recent years. Once the preserve of the 60's hippy or 90's crusty, they had formally been regarded as lonely and unfashionable drugs for flower power loons and rug wearing Levellers fans.
Hallucinogens, by and large, were left behind on a wave of cocaine excess and pill-popping raves. These were uppers; quick-hitting, fun drugs that you could collectively enjoy and would actually achieve results, Goddamit. But times have changed. Self-help is now all the rage (though this too has undergone some rebranding and thanks to the Internet is often referred to as “life-hacking”) and what comes with it is the idea of hallucinogens being functional drugs: Acid dropping spirituality is out, acid dropping productivity is in. Suddenly hallucinogens are the drugs that heal you from the inside. A bit like probiotics or omega 3.
This rebranding exercise wasn’t a conscious thing, surely. I doubt there was some genius drug lord that controlled the world’s supply of mescaline who seized upon the growing self-help industry to promote the benefits of his mind-altering product, especially considering it’s found for free in the nearest biologically available cacti. No one can really make money from this drug resurgence, but for whatever reason, it’s happened.
Language is a good indicator of how we collectively regard things and the vernacular around hallucinogens has been changing over the years. Magic mushrooms are now commonly referred to as “psilocybin” mushrooms. This makes them sound much more sciencey, like a shampoo advert, than it does some hippy-dippy bullshit drug that’s going to make you lie in a field for five hours convinced that you can feel the earth breathing.
Likewise, the explosion of interest in the South American hallucinogen Ayahuasca might not need to be renamed (it sounds pretty sciencey already, right) but it can’t just be referred to as a drug. Oh no, this is a native and earthy gift that’s an answer to all your stupid, western problems, ergo it’s a plant stew drunk as part of a “ceremony”. A shaman (dealer) makes up the brew and gives it to you. Don’t take it back in your flat in Croydon and drink it you idiot, that’s not going to work, is it?
Author Graham Hancock said Mother Ayahuasca stopped his hardcore skunk habit after decades of daily abuse. I’m not doubting he went through a profound personal experience but as he said on Joe Rogan’s podcast recently, he’s back smoking skunk as and when he feels like it. World bodybuilding champion Dorian Yates went on the London Real podcast to talk about his own Ayahuasca experiences and he’s an athlete so it must be good. Brian Rose, the show’s host also preaches the benefits of his own ayahuasca experiences and claimed the successful relationship he has with his girlfriend is in part down to constant and managed magic mushroom consumption. Sorry, psilocybin mushrooms.
Perhaps paradoxically, considering the tone of this article, I do have great respect for all the men listed above. Yet they all share a passion for using hallucinogens to “heal”. They’ve bought into and driven forward this mysterious rebranding, referring to the drugs as “psychedelics” as perhaps this word just sounds cooler, more penetrating and more active ingredient rich.
This isn’t an anti-drug article. I’m attempting to highlight the alarming rebranding of an entire category of drugs as some kind of health supplement.
People can and probably should have the right to take whatever drug they want if it’s just them and their body. But it’s this marketing twist that’s the problem. No other drug has undergone such a transformation in the last two decades. If you listened to these life hack podcasts enough, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re living with your eyes shut and only scoffing a load of mind-bending substances was the way to open them up and have a shot at inner peace.
So if I’m playing the cynic, what’s my own experience with hallucinogens you ask. Well, not much to be honest. Hallucinogens played a part in my teenage years for me and my friendship group. I’ve tripped a couple of times. I’ve had panic attacks at the hands of ominous flashbacks, as have others. One friend couldn’t go to the cinema without the flickering screen setting them off; another couldn’t go to bed without getting drunk first as it was the creeping night that brought on the flashbacks, as I found also. My father was a 60's hippy and he saw at least one close friend institutionalised through LSD use. He told me several times about the poor guy standing slack-jawed and motionless in the rain in just his hospital gown, evidentially unaware of his predicament.
Then there was the 70's free spirit I worked with. We once talked about our shared experiences with hallucinogens as he was a keen LSD user in his youth. He told me of the horrors he went through with flashbacks for years after. One story he told was about walking through a housing estate when a considerably distressing flashback took a grip of him, sending him fleeing in terror at the sight of a colourful rug someone had hanging over their balcony, such were his senses working against him.
Then there are the more infamous cases. Beachboy Brian Wilson said of acid “It fucked my brain” after an acid-induced mental breakdown at 25, whilst LSD casualty Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd to pursue a full-time career in being cognitively impaired. Even outspoken hallucinogen champion and intellectual Terance McKenna stopped taking all mind-altering substances for the most part in 1989 after experiencing a significantly bad trip (at least according to his brother Dennis’ book).
Ok, perhaps these anecdotes mean little and fair enough. No one wants to hear scary drug stories. This isn’t school. But perhaps what is pertinent here is the number of people you may know who have dropped acid, taken mescaline, eaten magic mushrooms, had an ayahuasca ceremony and it had simply done nothing. Well, after the tripping off your bonce that is. Almost all my friends dabbled in one of the substances mentioned above. None of them had profound visions, none of them felt long term cognitive clarity. Some had negative side effects but not one is now a CEO or living in a yurt at one with the universe all thanks to swallowing a microdot.
I’ve personally had more substance-based epiphanies drunk than I ever managed when tripping or smoking weed, but perhaps that’s just me. I never got on with narcotics and they do say everyone has to find their own drug. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe hallucinogens are not a panacea for the human condition, maybe they’re not a life hack or a path to enlightenment, maybe some people just enjoy them more than others.
What’s much more likely is hallucinogens are a bunch of biologically related drugs that help you have a good time and sometimes, a bad time. Do it, don’t do it. Whatever. It’s your life and your mind. Just don’t listen to the snake oil salesmen who tell you they’re a shortcut to self-improvement. They aren’t.
There are no shortcuts son, and when are you going to get a damn haircut?
