Psychedelics and Humility

17 Feb 2024

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts.”

 —Bertrand Russell

I wrote last year about the ever-present shadow side of psychedelics and how we are currently in an era in Australia where there is so much light shining on psychedelics, that the psychedelic shadow, the dark side of psychedelics, is easily forgotten or ignored. And when this happens the shadow does not go away. Rather its influence becomes more insidious and potent which can lead to unexpected and unfortunate outcomes.

The powerful, and what seems ever present public urge to rapidly introduce psychedelics into clinical practice no matter what it takes, is ultimately the result of potent unconscious projections being directed towards the whole concept of psychedelics and their potential magical effects.

 These projections have now reached almost messianic proportions. And they are seductive projections in an era where so called mental health problems encompass just about all the normal challenges of living, both economic and social, and in a society that tends to discourage resilience and emphasize a dependant therapy culture.

So enter psychedelic medicines which are said to be both transformative and curative. Now at the risk of sounding cynical, I should emphasize that psychedelic medicines do have potential to help some people with psychiatric illness. The problem is that at the moment the promises without basis that are being made about psychedelics on all sorts of levels, far outweigh the potential of psychedelics.

Psychedelics will never be a quick fix to the world’s problems or for that matter to an individual’s problems. Yet they are currently being sold as such to investors, legislators, doctors, Government agencies and the public in general.

Yes, psychedelics can open doors in the mind, they can show us other ways of being, they can also shine light on our personal shadows by revealing hidden aspects of our unconscious, but they cannot do the work for us that is required to commit to a long-term inner healing journey. This is the integration process (or as Jung called it, the process of individuation) that requires personal and often painful efforts to bring about psychological change which is hopefully beneficial. Psychedelics may open the doors of the perceptual journey, but they are not the journey itself.

But in a world which is already burdened with complexity, and in a culture which is increasingly losing its way, the promise of a quick fix remains very seductive. And the selling of this idea appeals to the egos of some and the wallets of others.

The irony here of course is that one of the outcomes of the so-called transformative or mystical experience, often but not always induced by a psychedelic medicine, is the induction of humility and connectedness. Or in other words psychedelics may bring about a temporary diminution or negation of the ego which can be the gateway to a life changing humbling experience under the right conditions and circumstances of set and setting.

But at the present time psychedelic induced humility seems to be in short supply, whereas ego-inflation on the other hand, an always unwelcome outcome of psychedelic experience, seems to be running rampant!

From my observations those who are preaching the benefits of psychedelics the loudest, are often the ones who have learnt the least about what psychedelics are trying to tell us. Or to quote from Lao Tsu:

“Those who know do not speak.

Those who speak do not know”.

I know that most psychedelic researchers in Australia are good people with good intentions. And hopefully most of them are forever working with their own shadows. Because this is never a static process in any field of psychotherapy, whether it involves psychedelics or not.  Shadows demand repeated confrontations. Once recognised they do not simply go away for good. They hang about as does their potential influence. A good psychotherapist recognises that in order to do an effective job there will always be repeated confrontations with the shadow so that he or she can fulfil their work.

Let’s keep in mind the following research results which prove unequivocally that humility is a therapeutic virtue:

1.  Those therapists who rate themselves more negatively are typically judged the most competent by independent experts.

2.  The more modest or conservative a therapist’s estimation of their client’s progress, the more their client’s symptoms reduced and their quality of life increased.

3.  Those therapists with higher scores on professional self-doubt tended to receive more positive ratings from their clients in terms of the therapeutic alliance and the outcomes of therapy.

The willingness to listen to the other is probably central in explaining why humility is beneficial. Or as Kierkegaard said: “all true help begins with humbling”. 

So as a psychedelic psychotherapist myself I humbly suggest that in this overblown and overexposed world of psychedelic medicine, the best approach is to remain sceptical of pretentiousness, arrogance and hubris, whatever dark place is their source.

By Dr Nigel Strauss