Mechanisms of Evolution: Antidepressants, Psychedelic Therapy, and Occupy

Pretty much everyone agrees the world is changing, and regardless of Mayan prophecy, the status quo is not likely to survive past 2012. As I understand it, Evolver and Reality Sandwich are promoting the idea of a spiritual evolution of the human species. This is a positive counterpoint to the more widespread beliefs in either Christian Apocalypse, global holocaust, or worldwide dystopian police-state.

What will the catalyst for this spiritual evolution be? Mayanist theorists speculate about some metaphysical global event, while Terrence McKenna and other psychedelic evangelists have called for a mass-awakening through entheogenic medicines brought to the West from Shamanic cultures.

McKenna's theory has a precedent in the psychedelic awakening of the 1960s, where LSD influenced US popular culture towards peace, human communal unity, and environmental values. But this revolution was rapidly contained and co-opted by establishment power structures, as well as producing a persistent backlash against and suppression of scientific and medical research into psychedelics.

Back to the present, the scientific and medical backlash has, for the most part, faded into history. Research funded by organizations such as MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, has accumulated a substantial body of evidence which proves that Shamanic medicine is more effective by an order of magnitude than modern pharmaceuticals in treating modern cultural ailments such as addiction, depression, and post-traumatic stress. And aside from treating specific ailments, research, for example an analysis of the UDV church membership in Brazil, shows that psychedelic users are in general more mentally sound than the rest of the population. And there is a growing body of evidence showing Spiritual benefits as well.

Were psychedelic treatment and therapy to gain widespread acceptance from the medical community, it would result in
an unprecedented effect on Western society and culture. With the veneer of scientific validity, the potential cultural and establishment backlash would be minimized. According to the National Institute of Health, 1 in 10 Americans is perscribed an anti-depressant drug. That is more than 118 Million people, the majority of which, when presented with a psychedelic alternative that produces none of the side-effects and is significantly more effective than pharmaceuticals, would choose traditional, Shamanic treatments. And the result would be a more widespread, more effective cultural awakening than the 1960s.

Due to organizations like MAPS, this awakening is already beginning. However there are still forces in play which are doing all they can to prolong the inevitable. Specifically, the influence of Big Pharma in the US government is driving the DEA/FDA to obstruct research into plant-based alternatives to antidepressant drugs which are hugely profitable to the Pharma industry.

It is up to us, if we want this to happen in 2012, to demand change in the institutions which are slowing its progress. Most importantly, we need to call for reforms which will prevent Pharma money from corrupting government regulatory agencies that are protecting their monopoly. Lobbying reform, and most importantly campaign finance reform, are the primary solutions to get the corrupting influence of corporate money out of the US government. In this sense, the Occupy movement is a natural ally to Evolvers who want to bring about spiritual change. Occupy is a popular movement against money in politics - supporting and joining with them, as I'm sure many on this site already do, is the most effective path to bringing about the advances in medicine with the potential to spiritually awaken hundreds of millions of Americans.

Support MAPS.org, support Occupy, support Third-Party candidates who are calling for electoral, lobbying, and campaign finance reform, and we have a real chance to make the 2012 prophecy that we are all hoping for a reality.