Unlocking Your Emotional Capacity With Psychedelics
by MADELINE FERGUSON
Recently, I had a conversation with my partner about our parent's relationships and how ours seems to differ. The conversation then led to how our worldview and emotional capacities are different from theirs.
Now, there are many reasons for this, but one we both agreed on and found really interesting was that we both have used different types of psychedelics in our lives. And we also see therapists and are open about these experiences.
We concluded that one reason our emotional capacities feel so much bigger and open is that we have both used psychedelics AND done integration work.
I genuinely don’t think I would have the same capacity for love if I hadn’t felt that intense love one feels with MDMA. It is almost like that level of unconditional love and connectedness was opened up to me and now I can access it at any time, without the use of any substances. This intense love is often directed toward my partner, and is something we often revisit if we feel disconnected.
A similar experience comes to mind when I feel stressors of life, be it financial, existential or any of those things we stay up late thinking about sometimes, it has become pretty easy for me to take a step and realize not much is important enough to be filling my head with negative thoughts and it helps get back to a place of gratitude for the things that are going right.
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This type of thinking was an insight I gained once thanks to psilocybin and the more I tap into that insight the easier it is for me to default to that way of thinking when my anxieties may be spinning out of control. I can pull back and see the bigger picture through the lens of gratitude.
This phenomenon is well documented with research into the human brain on its own and the use of psilocybin. It is well known that the human brain can “rewire” itself by creating new neural pathways which are new defaults in your thinking. Research into psilocybin and its ability to treat depression point to magic mushrooms making those new neural pathways grow faster and stronger.
“We not only saw a 10% increase in the number of neuronal connections, but also they were on average about 10% larger, so the connections were stronger as well,” said Yale’s Alex Kwan, associate professor of psychiatry and of neuroscience and senior author of the paper linked above.
This capacity to better understand, feel and express emotions has been a game-changer in my life and levels of fulfillment and happiness. I genuinely hope people who want to gain these same experiences from these transformative substances can have these types of experiences and I hope even more that our society opens its minds leading to legalization and more research.
I am thankful for the things my psychedelic experiences have given me, and I would for others to experience these things. I think it could make our world a better place.
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