On Psychedelics and Collective Intelligence

Written 6/13/21

Published 11/20/23

Some thoughts on the nature of the cultural and pyschological significance of psychedelics.

The creative passion and revitalization of American culture in the 60's and 70's is largely associated with the progressive consumption of psychedelics across the country. This movement has even assimilated into political and economic thinking, technology, and especially neuroscience. Now let me make a somewhat unfounded claim based on some of this information.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were totally tripping out on acid when they were coming up with their ideas for Apple and Microsoft. No question in my mind. Jobs has been quoted saying that taking LSD was one of the most influential experiences in his life.

Now this seems like a somewhat strange jump to make but it will come back around. Their technology has led to the widespread usage of electronic devices, and allows for the existence of social media platforms. Social media is widely regarded as one of the key factors in rising awareness of mental health issues, due to the increasing complexity of human interconnectivity. On paper, being able to communicate with anyone in the world seems like a good idea, but now social and cultural standards are increasing due to increased visibility, and these standards are getting harder to maintain over time.

I believe this shift in psyche and perspective exhibits many parallels to the early psychedelic movement. Not just in the way of Apple and Microsoft, but I felt like that needed to be said here. The sense of interconnectivity and community was revived during the psychedelic era, however it may have led to a drastic and permanent shift in the collective perspective on the world. Progressive ideas, while they may seem necessary and proper for the betterment of society, all require time and effort. Everyone began to realize all the problems with the world, much like when social media came around and new social standards began to reflect everyone's own insufficiencies to themselves. But when you spend all your time worrying about every single problem, you never actually fix them all. And you will be disappointed when you try to fix everything, and probably end up creating more problems in the process. So the key is to go slow, and know where to draw the line before you draw it.

Social media is incredibly valuable to society, and has created a new landscape of possibilities with technology, commerce, culture, art, and communication in general. But it needs to be regulated properly. If there are problems with content regulation, as Twitter, Youtube, Twitch, etc. all found out very quickly, they need to be persistently dealt with until the problem is essentially negligible.

Likewise with psychedelics, the most important steps will certainly be research, education, and harm reduction. Part of the problem with unregulated consumption of psychedelics is that it clearly led to a shift in the landscape of thought, culture, and mental health. This is in part due to the fact that we have little to no knowledge on the effects of psychedelics on human beings in any field of study. The most developed "field of study" would probably be ancient shamanism and religious rituals, as these experiences are intended to feel much safer with the guidance of a religious leader. But until we can understand the short term and long term effects of psychedelics on the brain, on the body, on communities and the world at large, it will be difficult to safely and ethically enter the process of legalization.