Psilocybin the Holy Sacrament

Psilocybin the Holy Sacrament

Different denominations apportion different meanings to the use of sacraments in their practices. Sacraments carry a significance, a symbol that underscores the reality of beliefs. From Rastafarians smoking marijuana to shamans using ayahuasca and priests celebrating mass, rituals play a critical role in accentuating a practice. Religious patterns carry a compelling meaning to practitioners who perceive them as spiritual elements that open the door to mystical and transcendental experiences. For example, Rastafarians smoke pipe and chant to invoke God, and Catholics partake in the sacrament in a bid to be one with the body of Christ.

There has been a reluctance by governments to allow psychedelics, limiting their use to scheduled and controlled environments. The use of psychedelic drugs was the purview of science, and people in social interactions were denied availability. Psychedelic use for therapy and religious practice was unachievable without changing federal laws. In 2006, the United States Supreme Court ruled based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 to allow psychedelic substances as sacraments by religious communities.

Shamans use psychedelics during rituals to access unconscious information and traverse mystical realms. The drug of choice during shamanic practices is psilocybin, whose potency for spiritual and therapeutic stimulation alleviates mental issues such as PTSD, depression, and addiction. Shamans use psilocybin as a sacrament to free devotees from the bounds of everyday thought and perception, assisting them to access enlightenment. Shamans use dosage as the important predictor of all response variables.

The winning campaign to add psychedelics into American society is the same strategy employed by cannabis proponents seeking its decriminalization. Psilocybin’s capacity to treat Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder (PTSD) and depression has disclosed the power to improve humankind by accessing a spiritual dimension to consciousness. 22 out of 36 volunteers carried out by Griffiths et al. (2006) claimed to have experienced a complete mystical experience. 67% of these volunteers rated the experience “among the top five most meaningful experiences in their lives.” Most individuals experience few psychological problems after the use of psilocybin.

 Benefits of Psilocybin

Psychedelics carry therapeutic possibilities whose potential for cognitive liberty makes them compelling substances during observances. Psilocybin helps suspend the ego, offer a therapeutic afterglow, brew a connection with nature, and counterbalance technological developments with materialistic rationale. Psilocybin provides access for mystical experiences, after which individuals come out feeling earnest, sober, and methodical. When excavating the depths of the human psyche, psilocybin shifts focus to the exploration of inner states, which ultimately changes outward behavior. Psilocybin allows individuals to remain intellectually and emotionally curious, potentially rehabilitating individuals from various afflictions.

As a sacrament, psilocybin offers its devotees:

1. Blissful states
2. Experiences of pleasure, love, and inner peace
3. Experience of unity
4. Remarkable insights into life and existence

With previous skepticism in using psychedelics as remedies of psychotherapy, shamanic healers continue to provide alternative perspectives. The validity of psilocybin as a traditional model for spirituality and its clinical efficacy in treating mental illness has birthed interest in psychedelic research.

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Psychiatrists use different paradigms: psycholytic, psychedelic approach, and psychotomimetic. Psychiatrists employ psychedelics such as psilocybin to reduce psychological defenses, which in turn produces spiritual and mystical experiences, thus turning psychiatrists into modern-day shamans. Shamans have an in-depth understanding of the correlation between consciousness and contemplative practices, using psilocybin as a tool to access the mysteries of phenomenology. The mystical experiences associated with deep meditation open up individuals to serendipitous introductions that link the mysteries of existence.

How Psilocybin is administered

Much as psychedelics are psychoactive substances that shift perception and mood, their consumption is considered safe on account of their use by traditional cultures during rituals. Aztec shamans used psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms in religious healings, to provide remarkable insights into life. These mushrooms represent “god’s flesh” and are used as a sacrament during services to achieve spiritual exaltation.

Shamanic devotees are ushered into an environment whose setting is designed to optimize a spiritual experience. The structured conditions provide individuals with significant spiritual meaning and personal significance. Shamans administer psilocybin with detailed knowledge of its range of possible experiences and clinical sensitivity.

The participants take the mushrooms by brewing them in tea to mask the bitter taste or mix them with food. The effects begin after 30-45 minutes and can last up to 6 hours, so participants might lie down whenever they start to lose their sense of reality and place. Shamans guide individuals during rituals providing safe spaces to experience a relaxed trip into the mystical world.

Psilocybin alters reality and affects judgment, and using them under expert guidance helps lower the possibility of paranoia, hallucination, and nervousness. The “trip” is dependent on an individual’s expectation, mood, and personality, which act as insights into the dosage a shaman can administer. Therefore, the dosage will determine the length and intensity of the “magical” trip, and the sort of trip an individual could have varies.

During the administration of psilocybin, music is played to foster an intensified stimulus. The emotional response to music allows the effective enhancement of psilocybin absorption. After the music, questions such as “how emotionally affected were you by the music,” are asked to gauge the tenderness, transcendental, and emotional arousal to music.

After administering a high-dose psilocybin session, shamans conduct a follow-up session to analyze striking personality changes that may arise. The changes may include conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, extroversion, and neuroticism. The long-term changes can be enriching because they provide the individual with a solid relationship with nature and improve aesthetic experiences.

For most devotees, taking psilocybin as a sacrament elevates mystical beliefs by fostering oneness with nature and God, improves psychosocial well-being by increasing value and concern for others.

In Conclusion

Psychedelics are finding their way around mainstream fields such as psychology, psychiatry, and anthropology, but they have been in existence in ancient cultures that used them as spiritual balms.  Psilocybin has the tremendous effect of inducing spiritual experiences and insightfulness. Shamanic healing ceremonies use psilocybin to symbolize oneness with self, nature, and God.  Magic mushrooms help express the boundlessness of the mind and alter the dimensions of human behavior.

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