As with distress related to psychedelic insights, grand insights should also be approached with post-trip critical thinking. Grand psychedelic insights – such as the existence of God, spirits, the afterlife, the soul, and love as a fundamental force in the universe – can be sources of well-being. Nevertheless, as in the case of emotional distress, what is most joy-inducing and comforting is not a reliable indicator of truth. Supernatural beings, forces, and dimensions may exist, and there may be good reasons for believing in them, but it’s worth questioning whether it’s reasonable to base belief in them solely on a singular personal experience occasioned by a psychedelic.
Even the most ardent psychonauts who are deep in the spiritual waters would doubt some supernatural claims made by other psychonauts, such as them being the second coming of Christ or possessing special magical abilities. Other extraordinary claims can also be non-supernatural in nature, which most reasonable people would still question, such as the embrace of conspiracy theories like cabal/globalist elite narratives (which are often antisemitic). We have reason to doubt these conspiracies because they lack any evidence for them and they often stem from scapegoating, paranoid thinking, personality differences, and apophenia (seeing patterns where none exist). This is not to dismiss every conspiracy outright, as some of the more plausible ones could turn out to be true, but these factors should make one open to doubting grand insights simply because they felt definitely true while tripping.
Whether a grand insight is metaphysical or worldly in nature, it’s worth challenging to see if there are independent reasons, arguments, pieces of evidence, personal experiences, and experiences that others have had that support or weaken the case for believing that insight. For example, if one has a personal encounter with (what one calls) God on a psychedelic, the arguments for the existence of God may, nonetheless, still not feel convincing. Of course, personal, direct experience does, for many people, hold greater weight than any other argument for God’s existence, but then we again run into the issue of other personal experiences that feel convincing but which most people judge to be delusory. And sober, non-pathological insights and experiences can fail to match reality, too, so we should be wary about claiming that ‘consensus reality’ is the touchstone for what’s real.
In any case, I think the types of sober insights worth challenging are the same types induced by psychedelics that should invite careful consideration. These are insights involving major life changes, distressing thoughts, and overarching theories concerning reality or global affairs.
Sam Woolfe | Community Blogger at Chemical Collective | www.samwoolfe.com
Sam is one of our community bloggers here at Chemical Collective. If you’re interested in joining our blogging team and getting paid to write about subjects you’re passionate about, please reach out to David via email at blog@chemical-collective.com
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En la mayoría de cosas que dices estoy muy muy de acuerdo, maravillosa reflexión
I did make some inconsiderate choices after doing psychedelics, but at the end everything turned out fine. cool article btw!