The Power of Psychedelic Healing: Can Social Media Help Foster Understanding?

It’s been such an interesting year so far within the psychedelic movement nationwide, some advances and some setbacks but overall movements forward. Living and being from Colorado has given quite a perspective on what the overall temperature is of the movement, at least from a perspective of a state who has decriminalized psilocybin. Connecting with other individuals across the country who have formal training in mental health as well as no formal training has been a true eye opener to where this industry is headed and what it can do. Having graduate degrees and formal training in mental health and also being a huge proponent of natural medicine has put me at quite a crossroads with many things that I see and hear on social media that aren’t relative to the argument of improving lives. Rather these things are obviously relevant to lining the pockets of the content creator by saying what makes the most money and drives the most followers.

The exchange of relevant knowledge is so important in every professional field: real, documented, appropriate knowledge that is empirical is a cornerstone in so many cause and effect relationships that can subsequently lead to huge discoveries and movements forward. At this point, it’s how we move the entire knowledge base forward to make a difference for millions of people, not just your total Instagram follower count. Furthermore, this method of explanation and consuming of knowledge via controlled experiments to represent why ‘X’ may cause ‘Y’ and why this relationship may exist in the first place must be the focus when applying it to our personal experiences with natural medicine, this isn’t the time to shoot darts in the dark. 

Now don’t get me wrong, first hand knowledge without an empirical element is also important and leads to further understanding; talking about the experience gives a shared sense of experience under the umbrella. Ultimately this personal knowledge will lead to folks down the path of empirical data for a sense of understanding on why they had the experience they had. If we want to heal more than the bank accounts of a few people who influence millions, we must consume and understand both streams of knowledge.

In the end we truly need both to move this industry forward in a positive manner; however a balance to be struck soon. Social media is overrun with influencers who have become “healers” overnight and their main goal has become views and money and not impacting the lives of others. The moment this becomes the driving force instead of helping people, just like the cannabis industry did with selling to big business, it will head in a for-profit direction that nobody is ready for and the knowledge can then be contorted to however it may fit the conversation or business narrative.

Now the good thing is that there are quite a few legitimate folks out there who are healers and are not only pushing the science forward but also talking about it and disseminating the knowledge they have. I’ve learned a ton from following these people; not only about myself and my experiences but also healing techniques that formal training in psychology couldn’t prepare me for. However these people are few and far between on social media and you have to be prudent with who you follow. I remain grateful for them taking the path of healing and experience understanding before profit because it has people like me and so many others paying close attention.

My point of writing this post is simple… 

Do better. Do better with your research, do better with your presentation of experiences, do better with integrating your experience and how this relates to a relevant topic, do better with your social media postings, do better with your words because people are listening.

NB