FOCUS: CONSCIOUSNESS
“To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours, the outer and inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended directly and unconditionally by [the Universe]—this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone....”
- Aldous Huxley, English writer and philosopher, 1894-1963 AD
(From The Doors of Perception)
In 1954, celebrated English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley published The Doors of Perception about his life-changing experiences in 1953 with the cactus-derived psychedelic mescaline. In the decades following, other "psychonauts" experimented with mescaline, LSD, psilocybin ("magic mushrooms"), MDMA and other psychedelics. Between the 1950s and 1980s, many psychotherapists saw tremendous value in the potential of these compounds to heal, especially when it came to treating PTSD and depression. Unfortunately, beginning in the 1970s, the Controlled Substances Act started listing these compounds as Schedule I substances, making them illegal and relegating their use to underground communities of practitioners.
Over the past four decades, thanks in large part to the indefatigable Rick Doblin and his leadership at MAPS, the Multi-Disciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, clinicians and governments are starting to re-discover the tremendous therapeutic value some of these medicines provide.
There are a growing number of organizations and practitioners who are helping lead the charge to legalize psychedelics and help train others to create a safe mindset and setting for exploration. There is also a simultaneous movement to honor the lineages of wisdom keepers in indigenous communities so their sacred knowledge with these plant medicines is appropriately recognized, honored, and protected.
Explorer At Large intends to sit with these cultures and practitioners to learn, in situ and in ceremony, and explore the power of these substances and their potential to help us create a better world.