Drugs! Drugs are good, drugs are great, can’t get me enough drugs. Some drugs are bad for some people, and some people can be bad if they detect drugs. But they’re a tool, not a curse. Useful if utilized wisely, devastating if exploited and misused. And sadly, the attempts at controlling them can end up being more devastating than their potential effects.

“Drug” is a four-letter word that is most replete with controversy. It is the derivation of our civilization, and its potential undoing. Drugs love humans, humans love drugs, sometimes we wish they wouldn’t love us so much. But regardless of your opinion of this umbrella term, you are most certainly affected in your life by them, whether you consume extra sources of it or not. After all, when we aren’t consuming drugs, our brains are generating them for various functions.

Indeed, drugs are a massive part of everything. And our brains love ’em. The mellowing of seretonin, the thrill of dopamine, the rush and excitement of adrenaline. When we aren’t consuming drugs that affect these things, we’re consuming information that performs much the same processes. We’ve discovered new technological means of doing this to a rather overstimulating extreme, but that doesn’t make the chemicals excreted bad, it just means we need a bit of decompression from these new sources of stimulus.

Humanity functions best when we utilize our worst traits (like addiction, obsession, personal intoxication) for the best of things. If you’re to believe the conventional read on history (I am not so certain of this), drugs fueled our technological expansion. After all, we liked getting drunk, and didn’t want to rely on random fermentation, so we developed agrarianism. Of course, as we settled into less nomadic lifestyles, we discovered everything under the sun, and partook of that as well (part of what civilization grants is intoxication with reduced peril, so in a way we were encouraged to come together for the love of being wasted together).

Through these experiences, we learned adaptations via drugs. Means of extending our natural abilities, diminishing our weaknesses, nullifying our pain, mitigating our sickness. But that is merely the assistance they provide us physically. Beyond the standard ups, downs, cures and ills, there lies those which enhance the mind: the psychedelics, the dissociatives, the deliriants. I consider these less drugs, and moreso miracles in chemical form. Via these, we discovered a means of accessing information our brains routinely discarded. These bits of data weren’t accessible to our regular conscious minds. No, they required a bit of enhancement to be noticed.

I am firmly convinced that everyone would benefit in their lives from at least one psychedelic experience. This may not necessarily involve drugs. After all, the drugs are merely forcing states that can be achieved naturally in some circumstances as well. But everyone could stand to spend a bit of time in such an enhanced and ecstatic state, processing information they’d never dreamed existed, let alone that they might know it.

I would posit that these psychedelic ecstatic states, achieved via various means throughout human history, are extremely involved in our continued development, but especially in our continuously evolving communications. From gesturing, to speaking, to writing, to transcribing, to publishing, to digitizing, to the multimedia cannonade of the meme, our ability to convey information has advanced significantly, while our storage capacity has done little. We went from being able to point at something to being able to transmit images and text to convey complex concepts via the least effort possible, a triumph of laziness, obsession and addiction. But even as our capacity slowly grows, we find it’s only surface level information that we might convey.

To progress on, we must look deeper still, for we remain incapable of transmitting the barest expressions of a soul from one to another. We can send merely a dim substitute, a few words and a picture. There’s a reason so much is left to the nonverbal, words and pictures simply don’t suffice.

When it comes to “cheat codes” and outside stimuli, I’d prefer a bit of chemical enhancement to cybernetics. A bit of software within the brain is not the proper evolution, the proper evolution is for our brains to be able to effortlessly interface with our fellow soul software processors after proper permission be granted. We must access parts of our brain that already exist, after all. We will never gain the fullness of ourselves from an external item, even the drugs can’t just “do” it for us. The psychedelic experience merely encourages us to continue down this path, to look within our minds for new means of communication, that we might draw ever closer to a spiritual singularity with our fellow living beings.

From the psychedelic realm comes our gods, our heroes, our stories of wisdom and valor and woe. Whether they existed already and simply come into contact, or whether we pulled them from the ether, they surely partake in this dance we are all in. Our development is inextricable from the stories we live around. And how might one best convey their will unto those upon whom they call? Why, the psychedelic experience, most naturally! These entities aren’t on the mortal plane, with you and I, sitting here. They “exist” (loaded verbiage there) upon another layer. It helps to have a nudge up there when one wishes to talk to them. It’s no surprise then, that in the modern era, when there’s much insistence that the only true spirituality be the sober and strictly third-dimensional kind, or via simple reason, that their ears ring silent, going without word from the gods or their messengers? Perhaps they gave up on the exploits their ancestors used? Or perhaps they wish to gatekeep what is known, to ensure no one travels another path . . .

One aspect of spiritual law that I have always found quite intriguing is that utilizing one’s abilities for selfish personal gain can often result in their revocation. So much gain, only to lose the true gift, the willing ear of the divine. Gain all, yet lose everything. Such a shame.

These sort of experiences are, I would argue, the most important ones humans have. We are a sentient species, our intelligence serves a purpose. We were granted it with the intention of using it beyond simple problem solving. We were given it to solve for reality. Intelligence means we can think and reason our way to higher functions. We envy the domesticated dog, with the vapid, contented look borne of an existence that’s already been fulfilled. Yet, without knowing why, the dog seeks to be us, that though it might conceive of great woe, it might also conceive of great heights, and further the understanding of its soul.

I’m not at all convinced that this realm psychedelics take humans is a forbidden place. The realm is not unwelcoming if you approach it with humility and caution, and though there be dangers within, no reward comes without risk. After all, it’s nowhere our brains can’t already take us. And it’s not the drug performing the action, it’s mechanisms within our own minds. Our own receptors make these things happen. They want them to. They need them to. If we aren’t meant to go there, why are we drawn there? Why can we get there? If we ever intend to become genuinely 4D or 5D beings, we must find means of traversing the spans that those expanded realms exist within. And that’s going to involve a psychedelic means of traversal, whether that involves a high or not.

For now, we are not 4D beings. But the psychedelic experience connects us not just to the spirit realm and its respective entities, but to our earthly companions as well. Indeed, everyone could use a bit more connection to their fellow human beings. It makes it just a bit more hard to be cruel, a bit tougher to be callused, a bit more likely that you’ll actually consider what someone else might think. Self-absorption is best cured by recognizing there’s selfish reasons to care about others, after all.

There is a concept sprung out of raves known as PLUR, one I’ve found remains forever true. Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. All the things necessary that one might have a harmonious dance with one’s fellow human beings. Without peace, the dance cannot begin. Without love, the dance is without enjoyment. Without unity, you devolve into bickering. And without respect, you ignore when your actions ruin everyone else’s time.

When you think about it, it’s also the things you need to keep a civilization running without breaking down. Tragically, we are seeing what happens when the PLUR is disobeyed. Dissonance, pointless bickering, selfishness, rudeness, these discordant tunes are often spun up into mindless bouts of anger. Abuse and rage is thrown back and forth in furious exchanges for no reason other than to shunt away the personal power of those so ensnared. Life is a harmonious dance, and the DJ is botching the track on purpose. It is upon us to ignore this dissonant tune and seek out a song more suitable for our future.

I want a future full of the same love I feel and wish to pass on to others. You can’t get that by defeating an enemy, or throwing your hope and energies behind some perceived champion. You can only get that by at last being at peace with your fellow human beings, and seeking further peace within yourself. I seek stillness, understanding and ascension, and I want it granted to everyone who wishes to have it. They need merely seek it. The psychedelic experience reminds us that nothing is permanent, and everything can change as soon as we want it to. Let’s want it to.