All language subtitles for S02E02 - Psychedelic Psychology.en

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Even though we have
access to technology capable

of connecting us all, people
around the planet are feeling

afraid, isolated, and depressed.

According to the Anxiety
and Depression Association

of America, anxiety
disorders are the most common

mental illness in
the United States,

with 40 million adults
affected every year.

Even though anxiety is
treatable, less than 40%

of those suffering from
it receive treatment.

With so many moving
away from religion,

can psychedelic plants give us
access to our subconscious mind

to initiate the deep healing?

In the early 1900s, renowned
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung

developed dream interpretation,
a form of psychology

based around archetypal imagery.

Some of these archetypes
that he discovered

are the hero, the
lover, and the sage.

These images described
by his patients correlate

with ancient myths.

Decades later, this
same archetypal imagery

is being studied as
the visionary framework

for psychedelic experiences.

The sensation of allowing one
of these archetypes, the ego,

to die is viewed
by many as the key

to tapping into the
collective unconscious.

Rashad Evans, a UFC light
heavyweight champion,

an advocate of psychedelics,
spoke openly on The Joe Rogan

Experience about how
it changed his life

and gave him a new perspective.

It's about to experience
the ocean of consciousness.

And that right there was, it
was the most humbling experience

I ever had.

Just to feel my
ego who I thought

I was, what I thought I was,
completely just annihilated,

and to feel what I actually was.

It was crazy.

It feels so much bigger
and collective to me

once I started to go
down this journey.

It felt as if for the
first time in my life,

I understood what it
meant to be the oneness.

I understood it from a
conceptual point of view

before but I actually
had an experience

of feeling the oneness.

Psychedelics allow us
to tap into the collective

unconscious.

Not only that they allow us
to understand who we truly

are as human beings and what
is our connection to all living

things and the connection to
the intelligence in nature

and Gaia.

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But how do we let
these archetypes we create

symbolically die so that we
can connect to the oneness?

Science tried to answer
that ancient question.

In November of 2020, a
new study on psilocybin

found in magic mushrooms was
published in the journal JAMA

Psychiatry.

Using 27 test
subjects, the study

examined how
effective psilocybin

was at treating
symptoms of depression.

The researchers measured
that the psilocybin

was as much as four
times more effective

than traditional psychotherapy.

Shamanic practices go
back thousands of years

and focused on healing the
psyche with psychedelic plants.

This approach encompasses
emotional and spiritual

well-being, not
just mental health.

We have some vocabulary in
our society around physical

health and well-being.

We have some around mental
health and well-being.

We have very little around
emotional and spiritual

well-being.

There is no empathic
container to process

traumatic experiences.

They happen and then
it's supposed to be done.

Plants have a different
gift than humans,

which is that they seem to
exist in a kind of unity

consciousness state.

And when people ingest these
sacred plant medicines,

we kind of entrain
to their state

of consciousness, which is like
a unity consciousness state.

And this in itself is incredibly
healing for the individual

and for our connection with
others and with the planet.

After millennia of sacred
use among various tribes,

these plants went through
a global dark age as use

of psychedelics was viewed
by the Catholic church

as heretical.

But by the mid-1900s,
the scientific community

had rediscovered
psychoactive plants

and earnestly began to study
drugs like Mescaline and LSD.

Following the end
of World War II,

psychedelic medicine
was enthusiastically

embraced and researched
by many psychiatrists.

Some of these early
studies were even

funded by government entities.

By the mid-'60s, over 1,000
research papers had been

published on psychedelics,
suggesting potential treatments

ranging from depression,
addiction, and pain relief.

But a backlash soon followed.

Critics pushed back
against a perceived lack

of long-term follow-up
and criticized

many studies' methodologies.

When some repeat studies
were unable to replicate

early results, the scientific
community's perception

of psychedelics quickly soured.

This was all happening
in an era that

was defined by cultural
shifts and civil unrest.

Psychedelic use was a major
part of various counterculture

movements and soon
became associated

with protests and social
disobedience, which

only sealed their fate in
the eyes of the government.

Despite objections from
many psychiatrists,

the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970

was passed, placing psychedelics
on the most restrictive

schedule alongside heroin.

Before Prohibition, my
understanding is there would be

research for a lot of different
things, psychiatric purposes.

So depression, anxiety,
looking at addiction,

known as an area of focus.

Psychedelics were prohibited
few decades ago because they

were misunderstood, based
on very little research,

and some research was falsified.

Also exacerbated by the fact
that people who were using them

with good intentions
did not realize

the importance of the
mindset and the setting.

So they took them in
non-controlled settings,

and that increases the
chance of harm to occur.

But now, thanks to
renewed research,

we have a different
look at them and we're

realizing that they're not
what we thought they are.

Today, grassroots groups
across the country are pushing

people to rethink the
prohibition of these plants.

Combined with another
movement to reduce

drug related incarceration,
both public and political views

of psychedelics are evolving.

Can this mark a
new turning point

for the field of psychology?

If psychedelics are going
to be successfully used

in biomedicine, we have to
completely revolutionize

the way that psychiatry
works, and it's likely that

the psychedelic therapies of the
future are going to look a lot

like shamanism.

Because shamanism is all
about creating an optimal set

and setting, and creating
the environment where

people can undergo these
experiences and integrate them.

In order to do that, you
have to completely change

the economic model,
a therapeutic model,

and everything else.

So that's a challenge.

But experts assert that a
psychedelic like ayahuasca is

an ordeal medicine.

Meaning you can't just
take it and forget it.

It has many properties
that heal the body.

But its most powerful
attribute is how much

psychological healing
people get from not only

the chemicals but
the experience.

There's a certain faction of
psychopharmacologist who think,

well, the psychedelic experience
in a psychedelic molecule is

a undesirable side effect.

And they want to try to engineer
the psychedelic experience out

of the molecule.

I think this is impossible.

I think this is a complete
misunderstanding of what

it is because psychedelics work
at this interface of the mind

and body.

And if you don't
have the experience,

it's not going to be reflected
on the physiological level,

on the neurochemical level.

Many people have experiences
with early life trauma with

ayahuasca.

Yes, many, many, many.

I would say that's very
common to see how experiences

from their early
life and childhood

or even adolescence may
be affecting their life

and their current experience.

Past life experience,
there's a few people that

have those kind of experiences.

I don't think that's as common
but it exists as a phenomenon.

The idea that one can access
memories from a previously

lived life is not a new one.

Some believe that recent
studies into our DNA

show how it might be possible.

In 2013, researchers
at Emory University

conducted a study
with mice concluding

that traumatic experiences could
alter DNA and pass those traits

down to future generations.

These mice were shocked
every time this certain smell is

presented to them.

Until finally, they're
so traumatized by that,

that just the smell alone will
elicit a fight or flight stress

response in them.

So then that gets passed down.

The baby mouse and
multiple generations

apparently now have a
sensitivity to that smell.

Usually, DNA mutations occur
when they benefit an organism

and they are gradually
passed down over generations.

But studies like the one
from Emory University

suggest that changes can
occur much more rapidly.

In humans, could this explain
why certain populations

appear to get stuck in cycles
of addiction and mental illness?

People have experiences
of their parent's childhood,

and then beyond that, and beyond
that deeper ancestral trauma.

There's people like Tony Moss.

He's out there speaking as
an African-American talking

about how he had a major
experience of the slavery

experience of his
ancestors and the way that

has come through
him and the healing

that he can potentially find
through working with plants

about that.

And there's many other
versions of that.

People just feel this
deep ancestral stuff

that they're letting
go of, sometimes

they don't know
exactly what it is.

So I would say that most
of the trauma that we carry

in our modern day has been
passed along our ancestors

for many, many generations.

If we really break it down,
what the psychedelics do

is they allow us to see
the nature of reality.

Ultimately, when
we start to address

these ancestral
traumas, we release

that for our entire lineage.

In 2015, a team of
researchers at the Icahn School

of Medicine released results
from a study that examined

the genes of 32 Jewish Holocaust
survivors and 22 children

of Holocaust survivors
born after the war.

Previous studies show
that children of survivors

showed a higher risk
of developing disorders

like depression and anxiety.

While their findings are
disputed by some scholars,

they found that changes
in the DNA of survivors

caused by the Holocaust were
passed down to their offspring.

We need to remember
that we are a continuation.

We are part of a lineage,
so we have whatever traumas

and experiences we may have had.

And those, we hold
it in our cells,

we hold it in our
organs, we hold it

in our connective tissue.

We even hold it in
our DNA or the way

our DNA is read,
our epigenetics.

But we also are
holding experiences

of our parents, grandparents,
great grandparents.

Then we also hold
collective trauma.

So psychedelics
allow us to access

our own personal experience,
our familial or lineage or

ancestral trauma, and
then in many cases,

we can have contact with
collective experiences

and collective wisdom
that we need to access.

Were our ancient ancestors
aware that we can hold this

collective trauma inside
and that we could use

the epigenetic power of these
medicines to heal that trauma?

A recent animal study
in Spain suggests

that Banisteriopsis caapi
preparations like ayahuasca

show antidepressant activity,
a therapeutic effect that

has been linked to
hippocampus neurogenesis

in adult mammals, the
creation of neurons involved

in emotion and memory.

Psychedelics appear to
stimulate parts of the brain

responsible for
autobiographical memory

and how our brains attribute
meaning and significance

to them.

For skilled
psychedelic journeyers,

this can help them
to reinterpret

meaning from past
traumas or life events.

The ability to step out
of your reference frame is,

I think, at the heart
of psychedelic healing.

For example, with
addiction, people

get into these feedback loops
with addictive substances.

They come to depend on them.

But psychedelics
that you step back

from that look at your behavior
in terms of your relationship

with the substance
like an opiate

or whatever, and say, this
needs to change, here's

the way to do it.

What you learn of the
psychedelic sessions

has to be applied.

The real work begins
after the session.

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The Congo Basin,
Central Africa.

The second largest
rainforest in the world.

Its swamps, rivers,
and dense vegetation

spread across six countries.

It is home to thousands
of species of animals

and over 10,000
species of plants.

30% of which are
native to the area.

One of these native plants is
the tabernanthe money shrub,

more commonly called iboga.

Long used in
indigenous ceremonies

and traditional medicine,
iboga roughly translates

as "to care for" or "to heal."

Use of the plant
was first observed

by Western explorers in
the late 19th century,

and the main act of substance
called ibogaine was eventually

extracted in 1901.

It was sold throughout
France during the 1930s.

In those days, it
was found to be

a mental and physical
stimulant for depression,

medical recovery, fatigue,
and infectious disease.

Starting in the 1960s,
psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo

began testing ibogaine's
potential for psychotherapy.

He discovered ibogaine's ability
to dredge up lost memories

and resolve past
emotional trauma.

He reported that the
effects of the root

served as a catalyst
for self-discovery

with visions of the archetypes
cataloged by Carl Jung.

According to Naranjo,
these experiences

produce psychological
healing in test subjects.

Psychedelics allow us to
deal with childhood trauma

because they're able to
disconnect us from the part

of the ego that wants
to suppress this memory,

sweeten the memory, make it
seem like, oh, it wasn't so bad.

That's a mechanism
that's healthy in a way

to keep the person sane,
to keep the person going.

But it comes at a cost,
which is pushing something

under the rug.

And that under the rug
is the subconscious mind,

which controls conscious
reality 95% of the time.

This is the shadow basically
that Carl Jung speaks about.

So when we take
psychedelics, these things

come back but not in a
screaming and frightening way.

But there's a great
level of equanimity

to understand the nature
of what we did that was not

healthy to push something away.

When we put something
away, we create duality.

The self is the one
pushing that thing away,

the hand is part of me,
and what I'm pushing away

is also part of myself.

Cleveland, Ohio, 1947.

A 14-year-old boy goes into
cardiac arrest during surgery

to treat a congenital disorder.

His surgeon, Dr. Claude S
Beck, uses a defibrillator

to resuscitate him.

The first time in
history the technology

was used to bring someone
back from the brink of death.

Since that day,
more and more people

have been back from
the brink of death

and many have
returned with accounts

with what it feels like to die
and what the afterlife actually

looks like.

Interestingly, some
of these accounts

describe something quite
similar to the experience

of a psychedelic journey.

Many survivors describe
being enveloped

in darkness or the sensation
of moving through a tunnel,

as well as seeing
vivid lights and stars.

Most agree that they felt an
overwhelming sense of peace.

In Western culture,
death is feared,

and the traditions surrounding
the loss of a loved one

are deeply mournful.

But many look at
death in another way.

The German poet Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe said of death,

"die and become."

Mystery schools reenact death
with a "die before you die"

core belief.

The Greek philosopher
Socrates even

described death as something
to look forward to.

In North America, many
indigenous traditions

regard death as
natural and inevitable.

Some tribes allowed the dead
to decompose in open-air burial

platforms or trees,
illustrating how

they viewed the cycle of life
and death as a part of nature.

Why do indigenous cultures
seem to embrace the humility

and loss of ego that
comes with the acceptance

of our mortality?

While researching solutions for
treatment-resistant depression

in 2017, Dr. Robin
Carhart-Harris

discovered that psilocybin
induced reductions

of neuronal activity
in brain regions

such as the medial prefrontal
cortex and the anterior

cingulate cortex.

Why was this
discovery significant?

Because this is
where neurobiologists

believe our sense of self or
the ego is created and stored.

The death of the ego appears to
be a recurring theme in healing

and spiritual traditions.

So how can psychedelics be
useful for this purpose?

The personal journey of mixed
martial arts fighter Rashad

Evans may shed some clues.

From 2003 to 2018,
Rashad Evans was

one of the biggest stars in the
world of mixed martial arts.

A fearsome, perennial
contender Suga Rashad Evans

joined the UFC Hall
of Fame in 2019.

For years, Rashad was at the
top of his game, a success

by any measure.

Behind the scenes, however,
the competition and lifestyle

began to take a toll physically,
mentally, and spiritually.

It just kept me so locked
up into this Rashad Evans,

you know, who I thought I
was, who people thought I was.

Living from that
place, it really

was not me because it was
based off of something

that I accomplished.

And I'm not my accomplishments.

It was just a product of
things that I've done.

But then I started to live
in my accomplishment body.

And before I know it, whenever
that character would lose,

it was something that
was very disorienting

for Rashad Evans the person.

After a while of having so
many ups and downs in a career,

I just want to get off the ride.

You know, I wanted to be
able to lose and win and not

feel the stain on who
I was as a person.

That's what made me really
want to start to dig deeper

and to find out who I am
and why I'm even here.

For Rashad the defining
moment was when he found

himself at a crossroads.

He was struggling between
finding a deeper purpose

or continuing his
fighting career.

His journey with plant
medicines began in earnest

after an experience with DMT.

It showed me that I was
not this physical body.

It showed me that what I was,
was beyond space and time.

It showed me that
what I was a part of,

this collective consciousness,
we all are part of,

and in a way, it showed me
the way to really connect,

was to connect
with myself first.

And that's something
I struggle with.

I struggle with
understanding how

do I connect with the
rest of the world.

And the truth of the
matter was it was just

a matter of just
connecting with myself.

This shedding of ego and
realization of a collective

consciousness during a
psychedelic experience that

Rashad Evans had, has been
described as ego death.

Is it possible that
the ego death is

a death of our own archetypes?

The human body and
nature seem to intertwine

to bring us this answer.

To that end, ayahuasca, a
natural provider of DMT,

has been called the
vine of the dead.

Traditionally taken at night
when most people are asleep,

the experience is
often explained

as taking a journey
after leaving one's body.

This dovetails with many
traditional and religious

descriptions of the afterlife.

Ego death is when we let
go of our orientation in this

current reality that we're in.

It's disrupting the
idea of separation,

being a separate entity
or being, and who you are.

And that part of you
dissolving and merging

back in with the web of life.

This unitive or
transpersonal experience

can be very different
depending on the psychedelic

that you take, and depending
on how deep you can

surrender to that experience.

Ego death is that
experience of surrendering

into our interconnectedness.

Rather than seeing how
we are all separate

and it's only about me
and mine, that ego death

is seeing how important
it is that we realize

that we are on this
planet Earth together

and that we need
to work together

to solve some of these
tremendous concerns

that we all have.

And I feel that ego death in
the psychedelic experience

can also be sort of a
dress rehearsal for dying.

We can perhaps embrace
death with a lot less fear

and anxiety if we have these
dress rehearsals in our life.

So this ego death is
losing the notion of the self

in experience where the
individual and the experience

are one.

And that's the non-dual state
that the Sufis were looking

for and called al-fanaa--

the state of thought
of dissolution

of the ego, which is similar to
the Samadhi state, the Satori

state, the Kensho state.

And that's a very important
state for humans to seek.

Psychedelics give
us the opportunity

to experience it
in a powerful way,

but we need to learn to
surrender, allow, trust,

and accept, and to be in
a safe environment working

with a reliable person who is
facilitating keeping us safe,

keep our guests
working on track.

The ego death, that's part of
this disabling the default mode

network.

A lot of what the default
mode network is all about

is about maintaining that ego
and that sense of self, the I

function.

When you dissolve that, then
that temporarily goes away.

The insights that come
out of these mystical type

experiences, you know,
people say, well, you know,

we're all one.

There is no separation.

It demolishes the sense of a
separation between ourselves

and the cosmos.

And you know, your ego
will reconstruct itself

but it might reconstruct
itself in a better way.

Maybe you're a
little kinder, maybe

you're a little more empathic,
a little less arrogant,

and maybe less egotistical.

You can re-understand
your existential situation

in a different way.

Perhaps these plants are
calling humans to come learn

death before we die.

Healing the mind, and
clearing epigenetic residue

could make up the core of how
psychedelic plants teach us

how not to fear death.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Up next, we explore
the default mode matrix

that humanity's brains
aren't trained by,

and how psychedelic plant
teachers can lead the way out

of this complex maze.

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