[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another episode of the philosophy guy. Hope you are all doing well, both new listners and longtime listeners. But before we begin, as you might be able to tell from the title we're going to discuss some psychedelics, we're going to discuss a little bit government. We're going to discuss a little morality around psychedelics.
[00:00:16] We're in discussing mental health and self-development around this topic. So it's going to be a topic that I haven't directly. A disgust around the psychedelics necessarily, but I felt compelled to do that of recent, but getting into a topic like this as psychedelics, although they're starting to become decriminalized in various cities in America I still need to add this disclaimer because reasons, I guess.
[00:00:44] So before I begin, I'm going to add a preface or disclaimer whenever you call it. I found a funny one on the interwebs, so I made one inspired by it. So I'm going to use it to cover my ass essentially, because that's the society we live in. One that wants to find ways to punish people for considering things [00:01:00] outside of the norm.
[00:01:01] So I'm about to be, be very, very serious  (sarcasm) here. So, you know, take this very seriously. This is a serious topic..The government has made a proclamation about this topic and they must be right on it because we should always trust our government overlords, right? So. Serious me. Serious, serious Brenden here, drugs are bad.
[00:01:24] And the government is your friend. Trust them that people making laws, make laws, having all the information, and they are considering all the input of experts who have direct involvement with what they're passing laws on. Always right this. This always had, we have no stories of the government going against us.
[00:01:43] This is not sarcasm, right? Only rebels, and in submersive descendants, use psychedelics. So you should never ever do them under any circumstance. Or it will make you a bad cog in the machine. You want to remain a good cog in the machine, right? You know, [00:02:00] always obey the government, continue to follow and fall in line because that's exactly what they want you to do and what you should do.
[00:02:06] You need to be a good cog. You want to be a cog. You just want it to be another piece of the puzzle that. You don't really know what your purpose is, but just fall in line with the government. Right? Right. So everything you know, you listen to in this episode is, is not trying to convince you the government has messed up his position on psychedelics.
[00:02:24] We should trust the words of the government as they keep them as schedule one substances. And you know what that means? That means the government is proclaiming their proclaiming. They have no positive benefits for society. None whatsoever. They're only bad. We should dismiss the words and stories of thousands upon thousands of people who have found benefit from their use and helping their self development and mental wellbeing and helping cure depression and helping work through trauma.
[00:02:54] We should just dismiss those stories because we should trust the words of government who don't even take the time to read those stories. [00:03:00] So everything you're about to listen to. Should be taken as words from a fool because I am a fool who can never understand and hold better policy positions than the the all powerful and trustworthy institutions of our government.
[00:03:15] But we should also not forget the trustworthy institutions of the pharmaceutical industry that never has stories coming out of corruption and trying to sell scam pharmaceutical products to profit off of disadvantaged people. They never. ever do that. They never stamp or have trampled down research on various psychedelic substances and the benefits they're using, they never do that. 
[00:03:39] Right. So like I said, this is not sarcasm  (it is)  or something. So you should continue obeying your government overlords because only fools disagree with an institution that continues to be wrong or, or sorry, sorry. I mean, continues to be right. Shoot. Sorry, government overlords. Please forgive me. Grant me my freedom back.
[00:03:58] But anyway. [00:04:00] Let's, let's reenter our regularly scheduled programming
[00:04:19] so when Paxton was young, Paxton is a. He's a dear friend of mine. He learned that being above the influence was naughty above the influence with psychoactive drugs, at least that was, that was naughty, but alcohol consumption was acceptable. Okay. And in many locations in our country, it's expected. You are looked at as an as odd by many.
[00:04:43] If you don't consume alcohol. Yet in those same places, for many, it's a point of pride to embrace, you know, Nancy Reagan's famous saying, just say no. I, yes, the, you know, the, the Reagan administration that accelerated the war on drugs, the same war [00:05:00] on drugs that targets less privileged groups and rarely gives privileged groups in even a slap on the wrist for the same offenses.
[00:05:07] So what's next? Well. The pharmaceutical industry decides to sanction off drugs as medicine, such as antidepressant, um, and fed amines, sleeping pills, painkillers. Yes. The so-called medicines that have side effects with, you know, the side effect list is much longer than the benefits list, but if you dare step outside of this accepted list, you are going against the establishment and in the establishment is right.
[00:05:37] It's always right. Right. But doing so, you were not only being doing something illegal, you were bad, immoral. You're, you're lacking in moral fortitude. As a kid, Paxton and I were fed the ridiculous analogy that all those illegal substances were illegal. You know, they were illegal [00:06:00] for a reason. They were illegal to protect us.
[00:06:02] And if we dare consume. You know, we rest turning our brains in scrambled eggs, you know, just say no. Otherwise your, your brain will be scrambled evidence for this. None to be found. You just had to trust the words of your, your righteous truth bearing government and pharmaceutical industry, an industry built on profit instead of the good of humanity.
[00:06:22] And I will say, because some drugs are dangerous and it happens to often be the ones that pharmaceutical industry gives out to people. Um. I'm talking directly about psychedelics and the narratives you've been told around psychedelics. So this episode is inspired by that. So today we have a growing list of positive research being done, showing the positive effects of psychedelics on mental health.
[00:06:46] In personal growth, in a research that is slowly peeling away the, the false and destructive narrative that has been spewed for over 50 years. You know, peeling back, and it's been over 50 years, but been [00:07:00] dominant for 50 years, right? It's a peeling back the, the leeches of harmful stigmas and false narratives that have sucked away the souls of our communities.
[00:07:09] So we need to accept a basic understanding as humans. We. You know, through various means. We, we as humans, desire to alter our States of mind. The food we consume every day affects our state. Some state of mind, sex alters our state of mind. Alcohol that our society has deemed acceptable, altered our state of mind.
[00:07:32] The information you consume alters your state of mind. The amount of sleep you have alters your state of mind, exercise, friends, family. Everything around you is being taken in by you being experienced by you and altering you. You know, seeking to understand life is quite literally in a constant exploration of mind alteration.
[00:07:55] No matter what you do, you are altering your mind. So accepting this [00:08:00] truth of our universe, I think will allow you to begin understanding the ridiculous laws we allow around drugs. And especially for this episode around psychedelics. We have archeological evidence from early tribes and societies in Africa, consuming psychedelic mushrooms, seeking methods to, to alter their state of mind, to understand themselves, to communicate with their fellow human and find new ways to understand our place in all of this.
[00:08:27] And then this giant cosmos and this giant universe. It's our natural instinct and instinct instinct. We even see it in nature. You know, cats consume catnip, for example, to get high elephants. We have reports of elephants consuming fermented fruit. We have reports of animals like, like Jaguar seeking out who's the genics.
[00:08:51] And I'm not saying just because animals do it that therefore we should do it. I'm not making that argument. I'm saying. We don't know the motivations of animals and why they do it. Maybe they're trying [00:09:00] to understand the universe more and and their instincts and and all that. Or are telling them to seek out this, this seek out maybe for self development to get rid of boredom or you had to understand or maybe formed communicative paths of their, of their, however their mind works to survive.
[00:09:17] We don't know. That's the point. But like, why should we stop ourselves from exploring or at least researching or regulating and researching at the very least, right? Because the U S isn't the first place to try out the old drug war. And I find this example really interesting. So the Aztecs who have a lengthy, lengthy history of psychedelic use for their traditions and kind of inner transformation of its people, they, they, their religion was very much based on this psychedelic.
[00:09:45] Use, but the Spanish came into town in the 15 hundreds in the Catholic church saw this this. Saw the power of the substances essentially, but they saw it as a dangerous power. As a Spanish conquer. They quickly made it a [00:10:00] point to suppress the use of psychedelic mushrooms. Why? Well, some of the Spanish people were starting to realize these substances were allowing them to connect with the divine.
[00:10:09] Without needing to ask, follow in de kneel to the authority of the church in order to earn a connection to the divine cause. That's what the very much the church is about. No, you need to follow what the church says in order to connect with the divine. You can't, you can't take your own self exploration path towards the divine.
[00:10:27] No, you need us. You need this authority to tell you how to do it, to tell you how to be, to tell you how to live your lives. No, you can't. You can't figure, possibly figure that out for yourself. That's what the Spanish were seeing. That was, that's what the Catholic church has been saying for thousands of years.
[00:10:43] The Spanish Catholic church proclaimed that those experiences. Sorry. Those experiences of the divine, those were, those were simply temptations from the devil. They couldn't possibly be connections with God. What was that? What was the reasoning though? Well, [00:11:00] you know, it didn't match with the truth of the church, and of course they believe they had no reason to question what they proclaim to be truth.
[00:11:07] You know, why admit to being wrong when it would force your whole belief system to come crumbling down beneath your feet, making you realize it's all full of UTR. Bullshit. Then. Then they try to suppressed the very substance that could help them cope with their harmful beliefs being washed away beneath their feet.
[00:11:29] A substance that would help you wash away your beliefs, to leave you open to beliefs. They make you feel happy, whole and connected with. Whatever in the universe, whatever that is connected in some way with your fellow human even. Right? But yeah, the Spanish are yet another example that when anything dares question the power government or institution of oppression and suppression, you know, it's going to come hard and fast, that they're going to suppress that.
[00:11:59] Right? [00:12:00] People being allowed to think for themselves, pursue understanding for themselves and others. That's not allowed by the people who have a hold power. They see that as dangerous. So how in this day and age, even in the past decade, and it's been in more recently than that, how can someone like Jeff sessions be allowed?
[00:12:21] He was, you know, wants an attorney general that he, how could he hold the position of attorney general when he holds the views that propelled him to say things like, good people don't smoke marijuana. Excuse me. Good people don't negatively affect the lives of millions by making sweeping proclamations of justice without taking the time to adequately understand the substance that they are, D that they've deemed immoral to consume.
[00:12:53] Who's the good and bad guy in that story you told me right then from this [00:13:00] that this person decides they have the capacity for truth to judge the moral character of someone simply from them to sign to consume a fucking plant. Right. And I, I'm not, and I know this episode might be a little ranty, more ranty than usual, but I promise you, I'm, I hope at least you're finding some of this information helpful and new information at least, or a new way to say it.
[00:13:26] But yes, this is kind of a rant today. So a person with these views in 2020 should not be anywhere near anywhere near. Our criminal justice system. It is disgraceful to allow someone with those views to be in a position of power in our criminal justice system. It is absolutely opponent that, it's not even a word point.
[00:13:48] I'm going to see, I'm going to create a word. If it's not a word, a Porin, it just means it's bad, right? So you know what else? So. Psychedelics happened to be non addictive. We have a lot of research showing them now, [00:14:00] you know what is addictive or maybe better put people commonly become addicted to alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and tobacco.
[00:14:10] All of those happen to be. Legal and I, and obviously I'm not saying those should be illegal, but my point is, is these contradictory standards that we have as a society, the stories we create around various substances and excuses we make that don't make any fucking sense. Right? So, and I asked you, why should a government that often quickly jumps to conclusions before, you know, understanding the facts, why should they, they demand.
[00:14:36] What a human being chooses to ingest a government that often decides he used punishment over mercy and compassion. The research coming out about psychedelics is providing profound evidence that the positives of psychedelics, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far outweigh the negatives. Okay, so keep talking about the benefits of psychedelic substances and the [00:15:00] research coming out and being done.
[00:15:02] But why is this important? Like why am I feeling compelled to give you this information? Well, one, we, we want to safer, healthier, and happy society, right? One that helps each other. It looks to understand, finds happiness, lives, life with compassion, yada, yada, right? You kind of get that, these, these sound good, but in order to get to that point.
[00:15:25] We have to help solve a very real problem. We have a severe mental health crisis in the United States, and we are seeing this in various areas across the world as well in Western psychology. Although I think it, you know, it has its benefits of course. I think a lot of fields have something to provide.
[00:15:44] That's, if you know me and you know that we're talking about, you know, I tried to find little nuggets of truth that pretty much anywhere the Western psychology has fallen behind. In helping provide the answers to mental health problems that we face. We need to re [00:16:00] insert the freedom to explore ancient medicines that will allow people to expand their minds, expanding their minds to help them then understand the mind, their mind, work through trauma and come out happy and healthier people.
[00:16:15] And, and I knew my dear friend Paxton, he has personally changed his life with these substances, finding a sense of purpose, connection, and he desired to grafter what he feels to be his calling, his purpose, something he opt to do. Isn't that what we all want? At the end of the day, finding a purpose, finding a calling that we feel compelled to act towards, that we feel is something higher than ourselves.
[00:16:42] If people are using psychedelics, getting to that feeling, why should we stop them? Why should we, why should the government stop them from improving their lives or making the choice to try and improve their lives? The way I picture it. Psychedelics opens parts of our [00:17:00] mind. We come, we compartmentalize our life.
[00:17:03] We can't experience everything all the time. All our memories or understandings are subconscious things needed to be  so that we can operate in life and survive. So we need to store things away. To kind of basically to continue operating in the every day, but sometimes we store things away and they still kind of affect our everyday lives.
[00:17:24] Subconsciously they, they kind of, I guess the best way to batch rate is that they kind of spill over you. You put a cap on something, but if it's, I don't know if the right word to use is traumatic, but I think it could be, let's say something's traumatic and it starts, it starts boiling over and it starts spewing out of that lid.
[00:17:42] And then it's going to start affecting your everyday life. Subconsciously. You're not really sure where it's coming from, and you need to find ways to access into your mind to deal with that spill over that trauma that, that emotional distress and Paxton was able to use [00:18:00] psychedelics to unlock doors and, and basically those caps he never knew were locked.
[00:18:07] It not only opened him up to understand the various workings of his ego brain, but it opened the door to make connections around the beliefs, values, and desire for truth. He holds, which then helped him reach his inner truth. And at the end of the day, we can talk about truth and what truth means, what objective truth, what's objective truth is, conscious experience, morality, meaning values, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:18:33] All those very interesting topics that I am fascinated with myself, but at the end of the day, inner truth, inner peace, inner purpose, that's, that's what we're going after. And every person has probably their own way of doing it. You know, I have my own unique way of achieving it or trying to achieve it. I don't know if I ever fully will.
[00:18:55] I don't know if anyone ever fully does. They can get really close. I think. [00:19:00] But it's, it's a journey that you have to make yourself and find ways and, and take in knowledge that you think will help you achieve that inner truth, that inner peace, and that, that inner purpose and, and I think that's what we desire.
[00:19:15] But anyway, a little side tangent there, uh, science is, it's a why it's widely accepted in Western society. And I know, like, I don't know if I've done an episodes, but maybe interviews. I might've seemed like I'm critical science, but I love science. I wish I better understood science and I wish, um, that was something I became interested in earlier in my life cause it's been kind of a more recent development.
[00:19:41] Um, but yeah, we, we need to use science in the sense that people in the U S are also persuaded by it. What was once in out there. Practice of mental health and personal development is becoming more widely accepted and that is the use of psychedelics for mental health. We are seeing [00:20:00] the research back up what has been talked about in psychedelic underground for thousands of years and yes, thousands of years, I meant to say thousands of years.
[00:20:08] There has been some unique understanding of in reports from people using psychedelics humps. This of not only, which we'll get into other episodes of not only consciousness. In recent developments in consciousness that psychedelic users have been, you know, they've basically been on board with for a long time, and all of a sudden now science is like, Oh shit, maybe they're onto something there.
[00:20:30] And I don't even know if they've connected that dots and dots and I'm trying to connect for people. But anyway, but on the mental health side, that's something that's absolutely been around for thousands of years and been reports, but you know, the almighty people in power have decided that. That's dangerous.
[00:20:48] You know, people questioning the narratives they follow, maybe questioning narratives that they might realize that they are doormat dogmatically following narratives that actually might be harmful to [00:21:00] their lives. Oh, how dare someone questioned that story, right? So people having powerful myths, dilutive experiences, personal experiences that changed their life for the better.
[00:21:11] And I'm not saying there isn't scary stories on psychedelics and reports of that. There absolutely is. But we have research when the setting is correct, when, when, uh, doctors and psychiatrists are allowed to control the setting to. Carefully take into account the patient and understand the patient. We're seeing profoundly positive effects and as the key point.
[00:21:36] So psychedelics could be the means to treat depression away, to treat the minds of patients, treat their minds in the sense of giving them the means to understand themselves instead of relying on the pharmaceutical industry that treats people like malfunctioning machines and just in need of changing.
[00:21:50] Well, what if they're just people that aren't in need of understanding themselves? That's kind of the key point. We don't need to change their minds. We need to give them [00:22:00] access to their minds. That's the point. So I think this is mostly enough thoughts for one day, but I'll, I'll leave you with this if you've enjoyed this podcast and topics I've covered, you are probably as fascinated with understanding this, this grand cosmos as I am.
[00:22:16] You look at the universe with wonder. That wonder puts a smile on your face and with this wonder, you've realized that understanding this universe as much as you can, or maybe as much as humans can. Is it choice? You have to make a responsibility, and in that journey you have to figure out ways to understand the universe that has useful, beneficial, and helpful to you.
[00:22:37] And maybe once you figure out the ways it's helpful to you, you can help find ways to make it helpful to society. So you have to find ways to create your own understanding. So at the end of the day, understanding your mind isn't a central way of understanding our place in all of this. Don't blindly listen to people telling you to take psychedelics trust, trust your knowledge, trust your understanding of yourself, and make the educated [00:23:00] decision that only you can make.
[00:23:02] I can't make it for you. I cause remember I'm a dummy, I will remain a dummy. But what I can give you or do for you to maybe persuade you to keep listening to me is I'll be a dummy that remains open and continue to try in and understand all of this. And I'm always going to try to be someone that doesn't try to dogmatically follow things.
[00:23:23] Try to admit when I'm wrong and when I fuck up. That is what I. I'm going to promise people that listen to the show. So yeah, tell me if I'm wrong and, and show me that I'm wrong, and I will do my best to admit when I say, okay, I was absolutely fucking wrong on that. I'm not even saying like I'm wrong about what I'm talking about right now, but like what I'm saying is.
[00:23:45] You need to go and pursue this. Like if when I present to you ideas, you get to go and pursue your own understanding because I'm giving you my understanding. So I'll leave you with those thoughts and you know, as [00:24:00] always, thank you for listening. Check out the patriarch and check out the bonus episode feed.
[00:24:03] Check out the discord, email me, follow me on Twitter or all that good stuff. But as always, thanks for listening and.