I explore science, spirituality, consciousness, the transpersonal, and more weird stuff in my book: Order here, or sold wherever books are sold.
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Woman. Life. Freedom.
**I have created a document of how we can help the protesters in Iran. You can find it here.**
As a cool, hazy autumn descends upon Los Angeles, one of the lessons I learned through psychedelic integration comes to mind: nature has wisdom for us. If only we’d look.
People who have reached transcendent states – be it through meditation, psychedelics, breathwork, or other practices – often refer to the codes of nature because they come to not only feel the ubiquitous connectedness; they become it. They report that nature is – or we are – an eternal, interconnected constellation that ebbs and flows.
I’ve felt this in my own sessions, the feeling of being a part of the Universe’s push and pull, or its rhythms.
Here’s an example of a nature-inspired insight from a participant in a psychedelic trial:
“Suddenly the rosebud started to get larger and larger and soon blossomed into a full-size rose. The beauty was exquisite. As I kept looking at it, I suddenly said, ‘I see me!’ I was quite shocked at this unexpected comment. I didn’t understand what I’d said at the time but afterward, the significance came to me that I was really ‘at one’ with the rose, with nature. We are both part of a much larger being or force or power, just like two leaves are part of a tree.” (p.75)
In modern Western culture, these wisdom teachings of nature’s rhythmicity, cycles of transformation, and interconnectedness are out of reach. Rather, separation reigns supreme. We see ourselves as separate from each other. And nature – that unruly, dangerous beast – is separate from us.
In that disconnection from nature and her rhythms, Western society has focused on linear growth, perpetual forward motion, and progress. Or on happiness at any cost (but, obviously, preferably, through consumerism). To use the nature metaphor, it’s like we expect it to be summer all year long. We ignore one side of us – our darkness – at great peril. The darkness doesn’t cease to exist. It simply waits.
The consequence is that when winter inevitably arrives, as it always reliably does, we are not prepared. We have no tools to tap into the wisdom of nature for transformation. We have no infrastructure to support ourselves or each other through the darkness.
I realized this during my own transformation (that I write about in my book). I realized how unfamiliar I was with the concept that sometimes things have to die for other things to be born. I unearthed a subconscious belief that happiness should grow linearly over a lifetime – rather than go through sinusoidal cycles, which is the way it truly is.
Altered states and spiritual practices can help us see that there are rhythms and balance in nature and that these are part of the core of existence (whatever that is). We are all connected in this rhythmic flow and we can look to nature to understand this flow. The seasons rhythmically cycle through, hitting polar opposite extremes of warmth and cold, dark and light. The sun rises and sets daily. Balance and harmony exist, where things are born and die and shift and change constantly.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Sometimes, things just aren’t great, but that’s okay.
As a personal example, I am following the woman-led revolution happening in Iran (which I wrote about in the previous newsletter), and the subsequent horrors committed by the Islamic Republic, daily. The images and facts haunt me, and a lot of intergenerational “stuff” is coming up. On top of that, today is the one-year anniversary of a close friend and mentor passing away. And I have just accepted that this is going to be a heavy time. Having literally embodied the rhythmicity of the Universe in a psychedelic session is helping, though, as I have an easier time flowing through the moment.
Everyone goes through these challenging, darker times. Unfortunately, our society doesn’t have good and easy ways to initiate conversation around them. Actually, sometimes words won’t suffice, anyway, and the best thing to do for people who are going through a difficult time is to simply support them in other ways. Still, we never even ask about each other’s challenges. Why not? Because it makes us uncomfortable? Because we would rather be experiencing positive emotions? Instead, we are all isolated in our own darkness.
Instead, let’s take the lessons from nature and admit that life will not be a perpetual summer. We can also tap into that universal connectedness, and find ways to support each other. I recently came across this list of 50 ways to be ridiculously generous, and I think it has really creative suggestions for small actions we can all take that help us connect to each other while dropping random acts of kindness throughout humanity. Try one and revel in the results!
***In loving memory of Jeff Goad.***