7 Psychedelics Impact on Society (And Why Research was Halted)
This chapter looks at how the power of psychedelics have been harnessed, both for good and evil in the Western hemisphere. We start out by looking at how early use of psychedelics were used to heal in religious ceremonies as far back as 5,000 years. This was determined from the way psychedelic plants were respectfully depicted in ancient art. The power of the ancient religious psychedelic practices was recognized as a threat to the Christian conquistadors, who persecuted these practices. These persecutions where at the direction of European empires, which then resulted of the extinguishing of religious use of psychedelics both in Europe and the empire expansion in America.
Fast forward to the United States in the 50’s. LSD, which had been discovered (but not understood) in 1943 became the center of the military use of psychedelics to brainwash and/or incapacitate enemies of the United States. The idea of a “bloodless” war was considered a patriotic endeavor, even though some of the architects of this concept were formerly Nazi scientists.
The origins of how psychedelics moved out into the public is looked at in the context of the 60’s and the counterculture movement. We come to better understand that it was this nefarious use of these powerful drugs prior to these times that was responsible for letting the psychedelic genie out of the bottle. Once released, it could no longer be contained! The attempt to contain psychedelics and the counterculture became one of the priorities of the Nixon administration. Much like in ancient times, the power of psychedelics became a threat to the establishment, and the administration was able to criminalize these drugs to try and suppress dissent. Despite this, the psychedelic movement for reintegration into society as a force for positive change continued underground and eventually gave birth to the psychedelic renaissance.
Read
- Principe, R. (2023). Psychedelics and Their Influence on Past and Modern Society NHS Digital Commons.
- CIA and the Behavioral Sciences: Mind Control, Drug Experiments and MKULTRA
