Can Psychedelics Tune You in to the Divine?
Science is dragging psychedelics out of stigma, suggesting they have a remarkable host of abilities in fighting addictions, depression — or tapping into the mystic.
In July 2015, 25-year-old programmer Mickael Bergeron Neron landed in the jungle bordering the city of Iquitos, the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon. He was there for a spiritual retreat involving the use of ayahuasca, an herbal drink made from plants that grow in the Amazon jungle. Bergeron Neron would use his experience to try to get rid of “residual early trauma,” a vexing anxiety he had with girls. His previous experiences with psychedelics had fallen short, but this time, he was confident it would work.
“Early into the experience, I was merely feeling love. [Then], my whole body was lightning with love. Later, I was love. And yet later, I was a fountain pouring love. I got how life could not sustain itself without love. I was seeing that since my parents met and had me through love, I was a product of love and, by extension, love itself. I was shown that not only life, but the universe itself could not exist without love, and that, fundamentally, love makes up the whole universe. When I had the experience, I was not just part of the universe, but I was the universe itself.”
