Culture Council: Awakening From Self-Centric Paradigms in Cannabis and Psychedelics

Is the cannabis and psychedelic renaissance a movement or an industry? Is it a medicine or a medication? If you see it as a movement, then I believe it is critical to address the colonized mind to divert the ills that capitalism has brought to Earth. I believe that to do this, our movement needs to be a pariah of traditional industries.

As a leader, you need to decide what is more important for you: impact or profits. Do you want net zero trauma by 2070 like Rick Doblin of MAPS so boldly claimed in front of 5,000 people at the Psychedelic Science Conference, or patent medicine to control how it’s used and who can use it, shadowed by so many particulars that take the magic out of mushrooms? I hear many people say both, but is that possible? What I know is it’s impossible to reach net zero trauma by 2070 if a colonial mind is driving the ship.

These master plants (a plant that teaches you a lesson) symbolize to many a path to connect us back to Mother Earth. Many believe in the healing powers of these plants, but I believe there is a risk of prioritizing profits to the point where the medicine becomes unrecognizable from its original form and no longer serves its original purpose.

I believe this risk stems in part from a colonial mindset. What is a colonial mind? According to Psychology Today, “Colonial” psychology “emphasizes individualism and exalts the self over community.“

The psychology stems from people of Western Europe colonizing different lands extracting richness and material benefits over centuries. Under the guise of modernizing these lands, colonizing countries exerted control over land and culture.

Whether your ancestors were the soldiers or members of society in the homeland reaping benefits, this masquerade of modernization supported generations of the colonizing country’s communities forming what is often referred to now as the colonial mind.

There are multiple truths, many layers and nuances — as a leader in the psychedelic space, do you have the capacity to hold multiple truths? Acknowledgments and pain that thread into this understanding need a tremendous amount of tending. More than what can be presented in this article. Therefore I write this intending to flip a light switch of a dim bulb that may sit next to your soul. I pray this bulb will grow brighter and brighter through the yielding and the individual work you do.

As we continue, I want to acknowledge that I am not above this, I was born with a colonized mind and I have made harmful decisions and I have more work to do. 

My understanding in this field comes from a deep heart space, somatics, integrity and a humbleness to have difficult conversations as I tend to this idea — which I follow up by sitting with my thoughts, ferreting to the truth, speaking to wisdom keepers — elders, uncomfortably gnawing on my belief systems, diving deep in prayer with entheogenic plants and reading to gather information in support to what comes up. 

I have also been allowed to practice my findings in my work and longtime presence in the psychedelic industry, whether testifying in state senates and houses or tending land with indigenous elders. 

The Rolling Stone Culture Council is an invitation-only community for Influencers, Innovators and Creatives. Do I qualify?

How can a colonized mind affect your business decisions? Well, putting yourself over the community may drive your company to lay waste to that which doesn’t serve the bottom line. You can see this all over many industries. 

A possible scenario of putting yourself over the community is the potential for someone gaining a spiritual experience from your product or service to the point where they feel they no longer need to visit your establishment again. Putting yourself over the community may have you asking where is the value in non-returning clients for shareholders in this scenario.

Another way a colonized mind may impact business decisions is if you feel that in order to have an impact, you must build a certain level of wealth. Money is not evil; it’s how we acquire and use it that may lie within a blurry line. And money is a main constituent of colonial psychology… I need this! I desire this! Wouldn’t it be great to have a 3rd home in Maui? No shame if you can have a second home but what’s the true cost?

The possibilities are endless as the tapestry of the colonial mind can penetrate purity and pervert a movement’s ideology.

How do you start dissolving the colonized mind? 

First, it starts with acknowledging that you have one. You don’t need to shame yourself about it; this is what many of us were born into as well as our parents, grandparents, and so on… until you possibly land in your indigenous ancestry. 

Secondly, sit with the discomfort of knowing this, again; no shame, just yielding. This may be extremely difficult so maybe use these psychedelics you want to provide the world. Blaise Pascal, a 17th-century French philosopher, wrote it well when he explained “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Thirdly, you must tend to this understanding for a long time like we need to tend to the soils; this is generational and we can be the generation to break this. We won’t get it right immediately, but if we keep showing up, we will and our Grandchildren will receive the most glorious shade. If you can create space to understand indigenous mindsets, this would be very helpful for this step and is highly encouraged. If you’re blessed to be able to sit with an indigenous elder, while understanding our language and the way we look at the world are completely different as they understand this world is relational, and show up in humility with a curious heart, you’ll be led to incredible understanding.

And lastly, utilize your genius! We have an innate responsibility with our privilege to hold a higher level of awareness and to act on it. How can you operate a business that can no doubt have transformational prowess in the name of community and Earth over self? I believe in you! I believe that the times we are in will rewrite history for the most beautiful world we can ever imagine — once we dissolve colonial psychology that prompts us to be similar to cancer cells colonizing our body.

This is up to you! And I continue to pray for you! Let the light bulb brighten as your path is revealed and your genius creates a masterpiece on Earth!