Imagine compressing a decade of therapy into three hours. That’s the crux of Jason Silva’s interview on Huffington Post Live about why humans need to explore the medicinal use of psychedelics.
“Imagine if you could have the cathartic breakthroughs that ten years of hard therapy might give you in one afternoon,” said Silva, who hosts the National Geographic Channel’s Brain Games show. “It’s a shortcut to the divine.”
He cited the benefits of using psychedelic substances to treat mental disorders, like using MDMA to confront PTSD and psilocybin mushrooms for addressing anxiety in people with terminal cancer. Psychedelics have also been successful in treating addiction and depression, giving patients the tools to conquer their inner demons.
“It’s about time that the government and everybody is opening their eyes to the psychotherapeutic use of these substances that mankind has experimented with for tens of thousands of years to connect us with the transcendent,” Silva said. “Probably the origin of many of the worlds’ religions is even associated with psychedelic drug use.”
Silva noted theory by a leading psychopharmacologist named Ronald Siegel speculating that the desire to alter our consciousness is as natural for humanity as the pursuit of sex and shelter. “Literally human beings are just wired to experiment with their perceptions of the world,” said Silva. “Part of what it means to have an imagination and have a consciousness is to probe the perimeters of our perception.”
The philosopher and freestyler argued that the use of psychedelics is essential to cognitive liberty, whether they are taken for medicinal, therapeutic or recreational purposes. “Your boundaries dissolve,” Silva said. “What does that result in? Humility. Compassion. Empathy for the other. These tools blast new tunnels between the mind and the other. And it leads to a different way of looking at the world.”
Check out some of Silva’s other interviews as well:
- Silva calls cannabis legalization “a huge win for civilization” and a step toward “cognitive freedom” — the freedom to choose how to use one’s own mind.
- Silva discusses the potential for exploration of consciousness that psychedelics offer, explaining that “you are immediately plunged into a dialogue with your own subconscious.”
- Silva describes the “entheogenic revolution,” occurring across humanity. He calls psychedelic substances “God hacks,” or tools that “can act as conduits” and mediators for “encounters with the numinous.”
- Silva explains that we are “definitely witnessing a turning point in America’s relationship” with marijuana. “It’s been used for thousands of years in all kinds of contexts for promoting healing, for promoting transformation, for promoting spirituality and everyday we’re learning a host of new benefits that are associated with the plant.”
Rarely taking time to breath, Silva is, nonetheless, highly articulate. His enthusiasm is tremendous, and therefore infectious. BTY, the interviewer is also very well informed and a pro at his trade. Silva will take his conviction to a new level when he decides to walk the walk like Terrence McKenna.
I agree wih you Tomas and would love to listen to his psylocibin or ayahuasca story. I understand he’s a person and it’s not easy to just jump into that ocean, but he has been saying for some time now that he is open to it yet still he hasn’t done it. I imagine those things should be more accesible to someone in his position.
This man is apparently telling you to do something he hasn’t done himself. What’s wrong with that picture? Is he whoring for the media?
This guy is a trainwreck … yack ..yack ..yack
weak … !
Why was this on reset me ?
While I am very positive about using psychedelics in therapy, I can’t support statements like these. People with serious mental health issues will rarely get all their problems fixed by a single trip, most likely they will have to have several sessions and still need long-term therapy to deal with their issues. This is dangerous talk.