Psychedelics: True or False
If you have experienced psychedelics, you likely enjoyed some “aha” moments—insights into key aspects of your life—when you were in that mystical state of consciousness. Also, on the other side of that coin, you might have experienced insights that, upon further review, weren’t very insightful or even accurate. Sorting out fact from fiction can be a fun and challenging part of a psychedelic trip. It also is a very important part of a trip.
Drawing on research regarding such “aha” moments, Vice magazine published an article applying the known science of such insights to psychedelic experiences. In “The Insights Psychedelics Give You Aren’t Always True,” Shayla Love cautions psychonauts to use critical thinking when interpreting “aha” moments gained under the influence.
There can be no doubt that psychedelics have helped occasion many brilliant artistic, scientific, and relationship breakthroughs. Also, there can be no doubt that psychedelics also have occasioned, well, ideas that are dumb and even harmful. How can a psychonaut tell the difference?
William James—and, more recently, Michael Pollan—have written about mystical experiences occasioning “noetic” insights, which are “illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain; and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority.” The problem is, these deeply known and felt insights might simply be wrong—“meaningless drivel” as James called them—yet a person is convinced of their truth.
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“Aha moments” have been extensively studied by scientists. An “aha moment” is a combined emotional and cognitive process that occurs when someone believes they suddenly understand something. Solutions reached with an “aha moment” actually do tend to be accurate. Thus, the “aha” feeling becomes associated with correctness. More so, we often regard those answers as sacred. This can be good. And it can be dangerous.
Danger can arise in the psychedelic space when the “aha” feeling attaches to wrong or bad solutions. Ideas, including bad ideas, can be seeded into psychedelic experiences. For example, when psychonauts are told they will receive insights, they tend to attach truth to any and all ideas they have while under the influence, including bad ones. Examples of this include ideas of the guide becoming a guru with excessive influence—financial, sexual, personal, etc.—over someone.
The key for the psychonauts is to reexamine “aha” moments achieved under the influence, rather than simply accept their truth. While weeding out the bad ideas, reexamination in no way diminishes the value of insights that do prove to be useful.
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