All language subtitles for Psychedelica - S01E01 - Psychedelics and Consciousness-eng

[MUSIC PLAYING]

>> The mind, it's our link to
consciousness, our thoughts,

and as a byproduct, the
expression of our soul--

that free and unfettered aspect
of being human that no one else

has jurisdiction over.

But as easily as the mind
expresses the depths within,

it remains easily lured into
a false reality where thoughts

become the object of
attention, and the source

becomes forgotten.

It is here where some scientists
and philosophers believe

we have lost the true
reality and, in turn,

become products of our
environment and culture.

And it wasn't until
scientific study partnered

with ancient rituals
that they discovered

that there might be a way to
reconnect the soul and the mind

more quickly and intimately.

But are these just
escapist tools?

Or could they actually be a
cure for the common human issue

on this planet--

the sleeping mind?

>> I don't know which half is
trying to get into the other

half.

But somehow or other, I
seem to be going like that.

>> Certainly you notice that
there aren't these separations,

that we are not on a separate
island shouting across

to somebody else and trying
to hear what they're saying

and misunderstanding them.

Well, I mean that
there are the colors

and the beauties-- the
designs, the beautiful way

things appear.

[STATIC]

>> When it comes
to drugs, please--

for yourselves,
for your families,

for your future
and your country--

just say no.

[APPLAUSE]

>> But what are these substances
that have such a negative

social view, and how did
they come into the limelight?

One specific drug that
captured the hearts and minds

of scientists and
young adults started

a particular investigation of
the inner workings of the mind.

As World War II was ending,
Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman

was investigating
a migraine medicine

and pulled an old vial
off his shelf of LSD 25.

His accidental dosage opened
his eyes to a new experience

that he wanted to
share with the world,

as he believed that
this substance elicited

a form of psychic
loosening or opening.

Czech psychiatrist
Stanislav Grof

believed that the psychic
opening allowed experiences

to resurface that go all
the way back to birth

and even pre-birth trauma.

So he was willingly among the
first to experiment with LSD

to investigate what
it does to the mind.

>> Then I met Robert
Hoffman quite a few times.

He loved nature.

He was taking small dosages
of LSD in his garden

until his death.

And he said, I see
the hand of God there.

And if anybody thinks
that the atoms can do it

all by themselves,
they just don't know

what they are talking about.

I was trained in Czechoslovakia
when we had a Marxist regime.

So I got the purest mentalistic
doctrine you can imagine.

And it was clear for me during
graduation that, you know,

the consciousness is the product
of the neurophysiological

processes in the brain.

And when the body
goes, the brain goes,

and there goes
the consciousness.

And it was as simple as that.

Now, I see it very differently.

I realize we have absolutely
no proof that consciousness

is generated in the brain.

Very few people realize
this, including scientists.

So those are tremendous
contributions

that psychedelics can bring.

>> But the psychedelic
experience wasn't something new

when LSD hit the scene.

Since the late
1800s, experiments

were already being conducted
on the psychedelic plants

containing mescaline
and psilocybin.

Mescaline comes from the
peyote and Wachuma cactus

and is used in many
Native American rituals.

The Huichol mothers
of Jalisco, Mexico

would introduce peyote
through breast milk

and by chewing off bits and
feeding them to their children.

Even the Spanish chronicler Fray
Bernardino de Sahagun reports

that among the Chichimeca
and Toltec peyote

was being used at
least 2,000 years

before the European
explorers arrived.

Archaeological
artifacts were found

in a cave near the lower
Pecos River region in Texas

dating back to 3700 BC.

In South America, in
prehistory, the Chavin

were using the Wachuma cactus in
their own religious ceremonies.

Wachuma has many different
psychoactive compounds

than peyote.

So the experience is said
to be slightly different.

But the sacramental use
of each were both used

to connect with the Divine.

These cacti species are
native to the Americas.

Psilocybin is from
a class of mushrooms

and used by indigenous from
nearly every continent.

In Central and North America,
we see mushroom imagery

in many indigenous artifacts,
such as the mushroom stones

found in Highland
Guatemala, which

were used to grind
mushrooms before their use.

Some images refer to the
Amanita muscaria mushroom,

which isn't a
classical psychedelic--

as it works on different
neurotransmitter pathways--

but still is a psychoactive.

The Olmec, Toltec,
and Aztec imagery

shows that the Americas once
had a rich history of mushroom

appreciation before the European
settlers and missionaries

resisted their use.

Imagery in Siberia
among the Chukotka

appears in rock carvings.

In Hindu imagery-- such
as Lakshmi holding what

appears to be mushrooms--
some have debated these images

as misidentified
everyday objects.

But believers of the deep
psychedelic and shamanic roots

of almost every ancient
culture and religion

say that you'll even find
references in the Bible.

The King James Version
of Exodus 16:14

gives a description
of manna that

seems very similar to
mushrooms in shape and location

and even the time of
day that they appear.

Even a modern look
at the witch hunts

and trials shows a
deep appreciation

for psychedelic and
psychoactive plants

that account for their tales
of flying on broomsticks

and shapeshifting into animals.

There are too many to deny that
psychedelic mushroom and cactus

use were integral to
many cultures worldwide.

Whatever the conquistadors of
the New World were so afraid of

seems to still be present
as we fast forward

to the end of the 1960s.

The revival of psychedelic
appreciation among young adults

began affecting the
national narrative,

and anti-drug
propaganda was beginning

to lose its effectiveness.

How would the world deal
with this new problem--

people attempting to
dissolve the reality

constructs of culture?

What would this mean
for the rest of society?

>> Psychedelics are the antidote
to propaganda in some ways.

They help you develop a mindset
that sees through all that.

That's the real reason they're
considered dangerous, you know.

As Terence said, psychedelics
make you have funny ideas.

But funny ideas are
dangerous ideas, you know.

So that's the
reason psychedelics

are prohibited,
because they encourage

you to think for yourself.

>> You know, so the nation
states act as though it's kind

of normal to have wars.

You know, go drop bombs on
people, send in the troops--

it's kind of a
normal thing to do.

It's not a normal
thing to do at all.

It's a completely abnormal,
aberrant, psychopathic thing

to do.

We shouldn't be going out
there and killing other people

for some sort of
weird national goal.

It's a terrible, terrible
mistake that we're making.

And now, the toys of war have
become so big and so huge

that they actually pose a
threat to the whole future of--

to the whole future of humanity.

>> The power of psychedelic
plants for perceiving higher

patterns and seeing through
rhetoric led to a desperate

reaction by superpowers,
shutting down the collective

memory of traditional indigenous
practices and cutting off

the public from legal use.

Quickly, independent
chemists were

making slightly
altered compounds which

were technically not illegal.

To combat this
backdoor approach,

the Analogue Act was
passed, and the DEA

was granted emergency
scheduling power in which they

could declare any
substance illegal

and may take up to
a year to decide

what schedule to class it as.

Psychedelic plants and
synthesized versions

were put into Schedule I.
This category proclaims

the substance is
highly addictive

and has no medicinal value.

Was there any evidence for this
claim, or was it a fear move?

>> The classic psychedelics have
been used for millennia really,

if you think of
mushrooms and peyote--

no evidence of toxicity.

If you took heroic
doses, I suppose you'd

see increased blood pressure.

But in the normal
doses in the studies,

you really don't
see that happening.

>> There is no
craving to take them.

As a matter of fact,
they're anti-addictive,

you know, in the
sense that you often

have to kind of screw your
courage up to take them.

>> The addictive qualities of
psychedelics are non-existent.

In fact, many of the
psychedelic plants

are used to quit highly
addictive drugs like opiates.

Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder
Bill Wilson reportedly

used LSD to quit
drinking in the 1950s

at the Veterans Administration
Hospital in Los Angeles.

>> Classic psychedelics-- like
psilocybin, LSD, mescaline--

they're not addictive.

Because they don't
activate-- actually,

the reward pathways in the
brain involve dopamine.

>> Psychedelic plants mimic
the neurotransmitter serotonin,

and tolerance builds quickly
at these receptor sites.

Even those plants that
don't build tolerance still

eliminate themselves
quickly and leave

behind virtually no toxicity.

They're also being shown to
treat addiction rather than add

to them.

There are so many
benefits coming

to light from these
substances that groups

such as MAPS, Heffter,
Beckley, and many others

are organizing a science-based
campaign to reverse

the prohibition.

Because the evidence is clear--

they are not addictive, and
they have remarkable medicinal

and therapeutic value.

So the question remains--

why are highly addictive and
toxic substances in Schedule II

with widespread medicinal use,
while these age-old plants--

with a safe and
ceremonial history

going back many thousands
of years and no evidence

to prove physiological harm--

are in Schedule I lockdown?

Is it a war on drugs
or a war on the mind?

Why haven't the
institutions that

make these suggestions
turned back

to the original use of
psychedelics, a return

to Mother Earth for answers?

>> The position that
modern societies have taken

on psychedelics-- we've
demonized these substances.

We've made them illegal.

We've subjected
people to harsh prison

sentences if they are found and
in possession of psychedelics.

This is a terrible
error that is being

made in modern Western society.

We are losing contact
with our fundamental roots

by doing that.

>> Indigenous people
have been their stewards.

They've preserved the plants.

They've preserved the
practices in a certain way.

But now all of a sudden
psychedelics are going global,

you know.

And you get a phenomenon
where ayahuasca is like taking

over the world, you know.

And a few years ago, mushrooms
did something very similar.

>> With all psychedelic plants,
the traditional shamanic use

of them nearly always includes
a community and ritual setting.

[SINGING]

>> Shamanism is essentially
a living tradition of alchemy

that is not seeking the stone
but has found the stone.

>> A ritual simply means an
arrangement of the certain

setting for certain intentions.

This would also be
true, for example,

of a Native American
church peyote ceremony.

They have the same
kind of thing.

It's a group of people.

They know each other.

Some of them are friends.

Some of them are neighbors.

Some of them may be invited.

And they share the intentions.

And then they have
the traditional songs

and invocations.

They invoke the spirits.

And that's completely different
than the scientific study.

There's no psychological
discussion.

It's not a modern
Western system.

>> The shamanic cultures
were very clear about this.

They viewed the
psychedelics as instruments

that opened up the brain--

the mind-- to telepathy, to
clairvoyance, to precognition,

pre-sentience.

And that ultimately it
may be necessary to view

the perceptions that occur
under psychedelics as our brain

basically tuning into
a different channel

and receiving information
that we really don't know

how to define at this point.

>> For roughly 20 years, across
the world the prohibition held

firm--

no public use, no
medicinal use, not even

research to back up the claims
that placed these plants

in the strictest category.

The sleeping mind of the
people seemingly fell deeper

into consensus trance.

It was as if the innate
pattern recognition

and problem-solving faculties
of human consciousness

were missing a
critical ally, one

that had been with us since the
dawn of modern intelligence.

It seemed that the propaganda
campaign had worked.

Then in 1990, Rick Strassmann a
medical researcher specialized

in psychiatry, applied
for a federal grant

to give dimethyltryptamine
to volunteers to simply see

what the effects might be.

>> Well, so there was
a group in Germany--

which got started
around the same time

or sooner than I did--

studying mescaline.

But my DMT study was
the first in the US

and the first that used, you
know, DMT in quite a while.

It was pretty frustrating.

I never really
expected to succeed.

And you know, I don't
think many people did.

>> Public opinion of any
mind-altering substance tends

to evoke the belief that the
experience is simply what

happens when the brain
fails to function properly,

as if the default state most of
us spend time in is the proper

state to operate from.

However, even if this were true,
when someone's brain becomes

dysfunctional and then hours
later returns to normal,

how would that individual
explain the experience?

>> Well, I think the most
striking part of the research--

and what I really
wasn't expecting--

was the sense of reality
that people returned with.

They felt the experiences
were more real than real.

The importance of the
feeling of more real

than real is we make
our decisions based

on what we believe is real.

You know, the outside world
we're assuming is real.

Our inner world is real.

And we make decisions
based on reality--

inner and outer.

So if there's a state that
feels more real than real,

then do we make decisions
based on the information there?

>> What really is the
bedrock of reality?

Is the consensus
world we typically

operate from the more real one?

Is this where we'll find
the universal truths

we seek to make
life decisions from?

Is it the psychedelic
realm that some

believe is more real than real?

Perhaps it's neither, and
they're both merely reference

points, implying and pointing
to the underlying universal

truths, encouraging us to engage
with our own truth-seeking

impulse, our innate
memory, and inner sense

of our integral place within
the fabric of reality,

that we are all aspects of a
singular phenomenon appearing

as independent things.

Even Taoists and
Buddhists believe

that the outer visible
manifestations of life

are the illusion of
temporary garments cloaking

universal and unchanging
principles that inform,

instruct, guide, and
breathe life into all

that we experience around us.

So why do we experience
the illusion at all?

What mechanisms cause
us to collectively share

such a misleading perception
of life and living?

Perhaps we should
take a deeper look

at the physiological effects
of the chemical compounds

in these plants that the
government feared so much.

>> Classical psychedelics
activate a type of brain

serotonin receptor called
the 5-HT2A receptor.

And what that
means in real terms

is the cells become
more sensitive.

So what you're
doing is really sort

of ramping up the ability
of these cortical cells

to process information
quickly and more effectively.

There is an area in the
brain stem called the locus

coeruleus, the LC.

It sends projections
up to the cortex

that release norepinephrine.

And the locus coeruleus
has been referred to

as a novelty detector.

So normally if you look at
firing in the locus coeruleus,

it fires in bursts.

So it won't do anything, and
then you'll see-- dzzz, dzzz--

bursts of firing.

So what happens is psychedelics
increase those bursts.

So we can imagine if
those bursts correspond

to the locus coeruleus
detecting some novelty,

then maybe it
looks more novelty.

And I've used the analogy
when people take a psychedelic

and they look at,
say, a flower it's

as if they're seeing
it for the first time.

So it increases the
sense of novelty.

>> What would be the biological
purpose of these plants causing

humans to see the world
as if it's new again?

It is a well-known phenomena
to be looking for something

like your keys while they're
in your hand or right

in front of you, but
you don't see them.

Your eyes have
even spotted them,

but you don't acknowledge
that you've seen them yet.

Our perception works
in pattern recognition,

and this allows the world
to become predictable

so we can find a rhythm
to operate within.

These plants and their
effect on the detection

of new information
from old patterns

may be the direct
cause of neurogenesis

and neuroplasticity.

It has been shown that these
serotonergic plants initiate

the growth of new
brain cells, as well

as new neural connections
and patterns to emerge.

Let's think of this less
as a causation and more

of a correlation.

Neurogenesis and
neuroplasticity could

be occurring when
authentic childlike

learning is happening.

The neural growth
seems to happen

most in the hippocampus, which
regulates emotions and is

involved in memory.

A Psymposia.com article
says new studies

are showing that neurogenesis
and the hippocampus activated

by psychedelics might be
a part of the acquisition

of new behaviors and
new pattern recognition.

With proper set,
setting, and skill

these changes in
the brain may likely

be why psychedelics have
been so effective in treating

post-traumatic stress disorder,
anxiety, and depression

where other treatments
have failed.

Imagine for a moment that
you were just born again

or that all your memory
has been put on hold,

and you're seeing the
world free and clear

of cultural conditioning.

Imagine all the explanations
for what this world is

and why it is the way it
appears have been erased.

Imagine you take a look at the
people in your neighborhood,

the animals in
homes and in nature,

the health of the oceans,
forests, and communities.

What questions would
you begin formulating?

And what role do you
play in all of this?

These are the
questions one starts

asking when introduced to
the world of psychedelica.

The mind begins asking broader,
deeper, and more timeless

questions.

And perhaps this is what
makes them so difficult

to properly name.

They allow new patterns to be
recognized and new behaviors

to be adopted, where most of
what the Western world calls

medicine tends to disengage or
mask the symptoms while leaving

the root cause untouched.

>> And we even have another
term, which is entheogens,

for usually for the weaker,
the amphetamine-related

and so on, or something
that awakens the God within.

I myself prefer to call them
like sacred psychedelics

or sacred medicines.

Because that's what they are.

That's how the native
cultures saw them,

and I think it's accurate.

>> It seems that these ancestral
tribes understood the many

healing qualities
of these plants.

The most profound
effects seem to be

the self-reflection people go
through under their influence,

the ability for these
plants to confront you

with your regrets and worries.

Psychedelics help deconstruct
old behavior patterns

and build newer
and healthier ones

as seen from the creation
of new neural pathways

and the birth of
new nerve cells,

a quality long thought
to be impossible shortly

after childbirth.

>> Very, very often, what the
psychedelic experience will

show you is the mistakes
and errors that you've made

in your life, where you have
chosen the dark side rather

than the side of light.

Where you have chosen
evil-- it may be very small,

may be very large--
where you have

chosen evil rather than good.

>> Psychedelics can give
you insights into how to be

a better person.

It won't make you
a better person.

And if you're a bad person,
you may still be a bad person.

>> Some of the most skeptical
and evidence-dependent

researchers speak very lucidly
about a very tangible spectrum

of benefits they have personally
experienced from using these

substances responsibly.

>> One of the fundamental
effects of psychedelics is

to integrate material that
is normally not accessible

to consciousness.

And the fundamental way in
which psychedelics make this

information available is by a
destabilizing of what's called

the default-mode network--

this part of the brain that
integrates our sense of self,

our autobiographical
memories, and our reflection

upon our lives.

So basically, what's
happening under psychedelics

is a liberation of the
parts of the brain--

that 80% or 90% of the brain
that they say we don't use.

I mean, we use it, but we're
just not able to access it.

Psychedelics give us
access to that unconscious.

>> The language facility in the
brain is destabilized as well.

So the combination of our
self-identity and our language

being put off-balance by
simply ingesting a plant

gives rise to the ineffability
of the experience.

Just as we see with any mystical
or spiritual experience,

words are not enough to
communicate the magnitude

of the experience.

>> But the possibility has
to be considered that what

the psychedelics are doing is
retuning the receiver wavelike

of the brain and actually
allowing us to gain access

to the radical
alternative realities--

parallel dimensions.

>> We have the same
situation in the television.

We would laugh if somebody
would study that set

and go down to molecular
level of the transistors

and the wires and would
believe that this gives you

an explanation why you get
a Mickey Mouse cartoon,

you know, at 7 o'clock
in the evening.

>> If Stan and many researchers
are correct in positing that

consciousness is not generated
by the brain but tuned

into, what then are these
psychedelic plants trying

to show us?

>> Across the range
of the psychedelics,

you can definitely say
that there is a broad range

of imagery that is common.

Not everybody will have all
those images all the time.

Not everybody will agree on
every single aspect of it.

But it starts off with
what I refer to as entoptic

phenomena-- because they're
considered as originating

in the ocular system--

where you start seeing
zigzag lines, and cross

hatches, and
geometrical patterns.

Sometimes fantastically
complex and elaborated mandalas

appear in the geometry.

Then there tends to be
the sense of passing

through a vortex of some
kind into a seamlessly

convincing parallel universe.

>> Is this the same phenomena
that humans have been

experiencing since the time
our ancestors were painting

their visions in caves
some 40,000 years ago?

Were those entoptic
images engrams and portals

depicting a dimension that we
are still tapping into today?

What is this
vision, and could it

be some kind of collective
consciousness of the human soul

experience?

>> It's important
to keep in mind--

I'm not saying that
this is the perception

of alien transdimensional thing.

It might just be a
psychological construct.

It might be the result of
brain activity in certain areas

in relationship to each other.

In which case, they would
still be as interesting

as if they were anything else.

>> If five or six artists, you
know, were to walk around--

I don't know, New York
or Boulder, Colorado--

and make some paintings,
you could clearly

see that the paintings--

each of the paintings might
be slightly different.

But you could see that they
were of the same place.

>> The botanist, author, and
psychedelic psychonaut Terence

McKenna relates the plant
intelligence to that of Mother

Earth.

The ancient Greeks
called it Gaia.

>> The whole thing is an
enzyme-driven process.

We are like an organ of Gaia.

We are the organ which
binds and releases energy.

I mean, a liver
cell doesn't need

to understand why it binds and
releases enzymes of the liver.

We bind and release energy
for reasons perhaps never

to be clear to us,
but which place us

firmly within the context
of the Gaian mind.

Suddenly, we come with
an epigenetic capability.

We write books, tell stories,
dance, sing, carve, paint.

These are not genetic processes.

These are epigenetic processes.

And they bind information
and express the Gaian mind.

>> The Gaian mind--

to many this idea doesn't
fit within the context

we've been given
by Western culture.

How could the rocks
be considered alive?

How could the bones in our
body be considered the same?

What does alive really mean?

>> The Gaian mind
is a real mind.

Its messages are real messages.

And our task-- through
discipline, psychedelics,

attention to detail,
whatever we have going--

is to try and
extract this message

and eliminate ourselves
from the message

so that we then can see
the face of the other.

>> The other in this case would
be the identity of that which

is sending the message.

Because we scarcely
understand who and what

we are, why we're even
alive, and what we're

meant to do with our time here,
asking what the Gaian mind

truly is might be premature.

Could it be possible--

just like a human organism--

that plants communicate not only
among themselves and to humans,

but among all other species?

Is this the collective
consciousness of the planet?

And is it possible the
war on the mind is not

limited to human minds but to
the mind of the entire planet--

the plants, animals,
humans, and more?

>> Their message, or
their interaction with us,

might be very different than
their interaction with a fungus

or a bacterium.

But they are in conversations
with those things as well,

you know.

So the message varies.

In other words,
these are multi--

sort of multi-purpose molecules.

>> Terence and Dennis McKenna
are possibly the most notable

pair of scientists and theorists
on why these plants are here

and what their greater
purpose might be.

Both have firm beliefs backed
by a lifetime of investigation

that these plants
are here to serve

the planet by those willing to
listen to their place in it.

>> I like to call them
ambassadors from Gaia.

You know, they happen to make
these messenger molecules that

are useful for communicating
with the complex brains

of these problematic apes
that evolution has spawned.

That would be us, you know?

And we're the most dangerous
thing to show up on the planet

in--

who knows, depends
on when you want

to start counting-- but at least
the last 100 million years.

You know, because we
have the potential

to completely upset the apple
cart by the technologies

that we can manipulate.

>> I mean, when you look what we
have done to the Pacific Ocean,

you know, what we are
doing to the atmosphere,

what we have done to water--

you know, things like the
Mexican Gulf or the reactor,

you know, from Chernobyl
to the Japanese one--

we cannot do this
for a very long time.

We might not make
it as a species.

>> One of the other things we
know about the world today is

that we are living in the midst
of a major ecological crisis.

Some people talk about
the fifth major extinction

here on the planet being
promoted by human activity.

We don't have a
compassionate relationship

with our environment
as a global society.

>> If the ecological threat
that we face is truly upon us,

could the psychedelic plants be
intervening on behalf of Gaia?

>> So the Earth, I think, senses
that we're-- it's in danger

and is trying to get a message
to us that we have to wake up.

>> Are psychedelic plants here
to introduce us to ourselves,

to the shadow of our psyche
and the ills that come from

the sleeping mind?

What if the greatest
threat we face

is not out there in the world
of symptoms, but in here--

in the dark corners of
individual psychology

and its rippling
effect into the masses?

Since the dawn of time,
psychedelic plants

have been there.

They've seen the horrors of the
past and have always produced

the medicine most needed
by these dangerous minds,

a class of compounds that--
when all is said and done--

offer us an honest
look at ourselves.

And from this new perspective,
humility, compassion,

and community bonding
naturally emerge.

Perhaps they confront
us and give us

the only medicine that may help
us out of these dark times--

love.

And how far back can we
trace the human psychedelic

relationship?

>> There is really an enormous
wealth of evidence to suggest--

I would go beyond
saying to suggest--

to prove that our ancestors,
deep into prehistory,

were using the
kind of substances

that we call psychedelics today.

And these would be the
natural psychedelics

that are available from plants.

These plants have played
a fundamental role

in the human story.

>> But how have these plants
shaped our human story?

What evidence can be found
that suggests at one time

psychedelics were an accepted
practice on the understanding

of the universe?

Mysteriously, in 1976, a
Soviet archaeologist uncovered

a 4,000-year-old temple complex
in present day Turkmenistan.

This complex has many rooms with
stone vats coated with residue

of cannabis, as well as
poppy used to make opium,

and ephedra used to
make amphetamines.

This must mean it was a
facility to mass produce

a hallucinogenic cocktail.

Historians have suggested
that this region was home

to goat farmers that comingled
with a nomadic horseback tribe

and for the most part
stayed quiet of conflict.

Could this discovery
hold the key

to the ancient mystery of the
fabled beverage of the gods?

Has the evidence and
long-lost ingredients

of what the oldest Indian
text, the Rigveda, called soma

and the Persians called
haoma finally come to light?

Is this evidence of an
ancient psychedelic society?

And if so, where did
they disappear to?

Why has memory of this
culture been erased?

And could this be an
ancient representation

of humans going
beyond the veil to see

the collective consciousness?

Up next, we will explore
the shamanic route

of humankind's relationship with
psychedelic plants and altered

states of consciousness.