Greetings! Thanks for checking out the first edition of Tripping with Nate.
It might be useful to begin with a statement of purpose. The foremost purpose of this publication is to provide context neccesary to understand the rapidly developing world of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. The last ten years have brought a flurry of interest, as well as substantial investments of time and capital, into an ancient yet somehow newly rediscovered (again) class of mind-altering substances. The pace of this development has quickened yet more in the last few years, and now feels positively frenetic.
With seemingly new information available weekly, often from very different types of sources, it's hard to keep everything straight. Trust me- I've been reading, studying, practicing with and talking about this field my entire adult life. The last few years have been especially exhilarating, if overwhelming.
The good news here is that it's not really important to keep things straight. Psychedelics aren't straight, by any stretch of the imagination. They are swerve-ey, exponential, difficult to measure and well, decidedly odd. In order to think well about psychedelics, that's what we have to get our heads around. It takes some real mental stretching.
Psychedelics serve as conceptual solvents. They tend to melt categories, symbols, taxonomies, long-held beliefs, even human language itself. Users overwhelmingly describe reduced, at times even complete incapacitation of their ability to use language. They will often discuss a dissolution of the boundary between self and other, and may experience a completely new perspective from which to view things, a new experience of self.
In order for something new to come into being, something old must yield its form. In this way, when these conceptual solvents enter human systems, they create conditions neccesary for change. It does not then follow that change is inevitable- language capacities and formal logical structures do come back, after all. If in fact change does occur, there is no guarantee that the change will be what we might call "good". The solvent merely reveals alternate possibilities for how to be. Sometimes many possibilities.
Let's circle back and mention the psychotherapy aspect of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Definitions and practices vary, but as a veteran psychotherapist, I view the primary aim of therapy as enhancing the well-being of my clients, specifically by promoting psychological flexibility. In order to promote psychological flexibility, we must take note of the impediments standing in the way- agents of rigidity, if you will. These agents of rigidity may operate within the individual we are working with, or they may be lurking somewhere out in their environment.
Human well-being is influenced by many systems; personal, familial, medical, economic, socio-political, ecological and cultural. Many of these systems were created and are perpetuated by conceptual patterns of thought- about how we should behave, how society should organize itself, how families should act: e.g. justice, fairness, equity. These categorical definitions aren't bad- who would argue against "justice", after all- but sometimes our definitions and practices become rigid and inflexible, and fail to adapt to changing circumstances. This is true for individual people, and for human systems at any scale.
Adaptation is the sine non qua of evolutionary survival. If an individual cannot adapt in a changing environmental context, he or she will not thrive. If a system is not hospitable to its constituent parts, it will break down. If an individual or system parasitizes its host too aggressively, none survive. Fluid adaptation to changing circumstances is an essential component to life.
This is to say that one of the things that makes psychotherapy so difficult- that you are working with an individual whose problems are just as likely to lie in the systems in which they are embedded as in themselves- is the same problem that makes talking about and considering how to best use psychedelics so difficult. The problem is that you don't know where one thing begins and another ends.
So, in the broadest possible sense, a newsletter about psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is a newsletter about everything humans do and say and every way in which human actions impact other humans and the world at large.
This is an unwieldy- perhaps a just tad broad. So I'll limit my scope a bit and hone in on the following themes that are most persistently relevant:
What in the Hell is happening?
In these types of entries I'll mostly try to make sense of the psychedelic experience itself. This might be discussing a recent paper, unpacking a typical description of a psychedelic experience, or simply musing on my own experiences as a psychedelic familiar and psychotherapist. See above.
Who is in charge?
Throughout history there seem to have been societal "gatekeepers", those who held the knowledge, rituals, spaces, and the substances themselves. These gatekeepers may have been priests or priestesses, shamans, or other ritual leaders. In our society, who will own these roles? This is a multibillion dollar question already, with tremendous issues of cognitive liberty and justice at stake. Currently there are no officially recognized gatekeepers, so we have an illicit network of underground guides, internet supplied mushroom grow kits and drug dealers. Many would like those gatekeepers to be formally licensed and required to use only expensively procured pharmaceutical grade drugs. This would be very profitable. Others believe that a person’s relationship with freely growing plants and fungi need not be mediated by any authority whatsoever. I will explore this question at length, because it is a vital one.
How is this supposed to help?
This type of entry will revolve around a common buzzword in the current psychedelic conversation: integration. From the "blooming, buzzing confusion" (A. Huxley) of psychedelic experiencing, how does one make use of the insights and inspiration gleaned from the heights of the experience? How can conversations and practices undertaken in therapy sessions increase the desirable impact of the experience on a person's psychological flexibility?
What's going on?
News and new research is coming out at a rapid pace. It's hard to keep up with. I keep up with it, generally, because I'm obsessive about things, especially this thing. My obsession can be your time savings. This won't be an exhaustive clearinghouse of all news items, by any means, but I'll make sure to highlight a couple of the bigger stories in the psychedeliverse every week.
What's Groovy?
All work and no play.... well, we can't fall into that trap. One of the beautiful things about psychedelic work is that it can expand the space that we usually view as therapeutic. It includes the funny, the absurd, the bizarre and the beautiful- among other multitudes. Music, art, and other curiosities and gifts will have a space in this newsletter.
What are the downers?
Psychedelic drugs are not without risk. Many risks have been vastly overblown by prohibitionist propaganda, but other risks can be underappreciated, as well. Bad Trips can be truly horrific experiences, and may in some cases lead to lingering ill effects. People under the acute effects of psychedelic drugs are vulnerable and suggestible- much care must be taken to protect them in that state. Ethics in this venture deserve serious consideration, and we will do that here.
Fuck the drug war.
Six ways from Sunday. This is a social justice issue, an issue of cognitive liberty and personal freedom, and a simple recognition of a disastrously failed policy.
Cow Pictures
Come for the psychedelic chats, stay for the pictures of cute cows. One expression of love and appreciation for the earth that our family has embraced is the rehabilitation of the family farm through regenerative practices. This includes some subcontracted 100% certified organic row-crop farming, but out main efforts are towards breathing biodiversity and ecological robustness into our pastures through the use of managed, rotational grazing of cows. This is fun and rewarding (and a lot of work) and I love to share pics of our cows doing their thing. And no, I’ve never found psilocybin mushrooms on their poop. That would be too perfect.
I plan on publishing weekly, and keeping the missives between a 5-10 minute read- something that doesn’t take a lot of time but offers something substantial to ruminate on (sorry, Dad jokes are in the repertoire). The precise format & focus will doubtless evolve over time with successive iterations in response to your interests and needs. Let me know what is useful and interesting to you, and I’ll do my best to make this a resource that is informative, thought provoking and fun.
If you are with me so far, please subscribe for weekly updates. Additionally, consider forwarding this to an interested friend and help me build a curious and inclusive space to explore what is a at the moment still an open and wondrous frontier.