An examination of the use of psychedelics for understanding ourselves, connecting with the world around us, and enacting outer change through inner transformation

• Explores sacred tools and technologies to help us reestablish a lost ideology of unity, with a specific focus on natural plant/fungi psychedelics

• Looks at the history of psychedelics and their role in facilitating natural intelligence’s ability to increase itself through ongoing analysis of its own experience

• Provides guidelines for safely using natural plant/fungi psychedelics and integrating them into society to access unified consciousness and restore balance to our world

Our ecological, social, and political issues all stem from the ideologies that drive our collective actions. In contrast to our innate humanity, which is rooted in unity, these ideologies have led us to believe that we are separate from each other, separate from nature, and separate from the results of our actions. Such a worldview encourages individuals to maximize self-interest, which then causes fragmentation, conflict, pollution, and the depletion of natural resources. Offering practical steps that we can take to heal ourselves and our fragmented world, author Daniel Grauer explores the use of sacred tools and technologies, such as natural psychedelics, meditation, and yoga, in order to reestablish an ideology of unity, work in symbiotic harmony with the Earth, and restore our world as a sustainable and prosperous whole.

Grauer explains how individuals--and by extension societies--benefit from safely accessing transcendent states of consciousness, such as those provided by psychedelics. He explores how psychoactive substances have been used throughout history all over the world for healing, personal growth, spiritual development, and revealing hidden truths, such as in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Soma practices in Vedic India, and rituals in several South American indigenous cultures. Drawing on the plant intelligence work of Paul Stamets and Stephen Buhner, Grauer shows that the growth of individual and collective intelligence is hindered by the prohibition of psychedelics, which naturally foster humanity’s capacity for analysis, innovation, and cooperation. In addition to creating a sense of unity with all things, psychedelics offer the mind a new perspective from which to analyze its experience and heighten its awareness. Drawing on his own experience and research, Grauer provides guidelines for how to safely use natural plant/fungi psychedelics in order to access the unified consciousness of our ancestors and induce the states of awareness we need to restore natural harmony to our world.

Daniel Grauer is a writer, teacher, and speaker who explores individual and collective transformation through the lens of philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and ecology. He teaches workshops on the transformative potential of psychedelics and is the cofounder of Marble Blue, a community-based think tank striving to harmonize human systems with ecosystems. He lives in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains of New York.

Acknowledgments

Part 1
THE ROAD WE’RE ON
1. Offness
2. Innate Humanity
3. Fragmentation
4. Behind Every Pointing Finger, a Chain around the Wrist
5. Thinking about Thinking
6. Crossroads

Part 2
NAVIGATIONAL TOOLS AND HARMONIZATION MECHANISMS
7. Sacred Technologies
8. Practice-Based Technologies
9. Natural Substance-Based Technologies
10. Plant/Fungi Psychedelics
11. History of Psychedelics
12. Feedback Mechanism
13. The Bridge

Part 3
MY JOURNEY
14. Connecting the Dots
15. I Am Just a Man, and I Will Eventually Die
16. Oneness
17. Integration

Part 4
TRANSFORMATION
18. Subtle Evidence
19. Transformative Healing and Revelation
20. The Collective Hero’s Journey
21. Death and Rebirth
22. Letting Death Be Our Conductor

Part 5
THE MOMENT
23. Getting There
24. Becoming Whole
25. Bridging the Chasm
26. Respect
27. Getting a Bearing
28. What Happens Next?

Appendices

LEGALITY AND RESPONSIBLE USE

A. Why Are Psychedelics Illegal?
B. Medicine
C. Religious Freedom
D. Autonomy
E. Cognitive Liberty
F. The Setting
G. Societal Integration
H. Safety, Comfort, Resources, and Information

Notes

Bibliography

Index