Geral Blanchard, LPC, is a psychotherapist who is university trained in psychology and anthropology. Formerly of Wyoming and currently residing in Iowa, Geral travels the world in search of ancient secrets that can augment the art and science of healing. From Western neuroscience to Amazonian shamanism, he has developed an understanding of how to combine old and new healing strategies to optimize recovery, whether from psychological or physical maladies.
MDMA and the Indigenous Default State
Geral T. Blanchard • September 2, 2022
From earlier articles you may recall how the default state network is the “go to” place our mind automatically wanders into, especially when we are relaxed and not distracted by a lot of noise and activity.
Out of discomfort we often avoid quiet reflection times when we are likely to revert to a default state of fear, inadequacy, or shame – often the emotional residue of unprocessed trauma.
What I’ve learned from the African Bushmen, particularly during their trance-inducing and healing Giraffe Dance, is that their reentry into spirit world is a natural default state of consciousness from which other everyday social activities develop meaning. This default state is something sought out, not avoided. The state reflects the underlying deep reality of the universe, beyond what is right in front of them, and they seek to connect with it on at least a weekly basis.
Of additional interest is that they don’t look to psychedelics to take them there; the ability to be transported to another level of consciousness is wired in, innate to all human existence, something they have never forgotten living barefoot in Nature. In the West we may have allowed that ancient faculty to slumber and atrophy over hundreds of years physically and spiritually detached from Mother Earth.
Carl Johan Calleman wrote in Quantum Science of Psychedelics: “Perhaps the prolonged stomping on the ground that Bushmen and other indigenous people engage in during their ceremonial dances is another way of asking for the compartmentalized global mind to yield so that a channel can open up to the otherworld…the prolonged drumming and dancing in shamanic ceremonies may be part of what induces such a shift and may even be a prerequisite for an opening to take place. If this is true, shamanism is also a form of quantum healing.”
When we became so ensconced by indoor living and our addictive technology that often is asked to think for us, modern culture has looked for quick and easy ways to explore other realities, mostly for recreational purposes. The answer for many has been pills, even a psychological reliance on them to break the long standing guiding patterns produced by our egos – the habits of an overly active and pesky left brain. As sometimes happens with MDMA (not a psychedelic) patients, the Bushmen, without any drugs, can enter and explore other worldly realms (not
otherworldly as in hallucinations) with highly routinized activity (rituals) and, importantly, in the company of other community members while healing. Sometimes MDMA patients and Bushmen are reunited with Elders (who have passed over) during these ceremonial times and find the experiences to be very reassuring and healing.
Most all the Bushmen, female and male, can develop altered state healing abilities that are readily tapped during their sacred cultural activities. Anyone can be a shaman in their culture; it is regarded as a natural human condition.
In essence, what they are doing is volitionally deactivating their everyday ego guided consciousness, disengaging from that singular way of knowing reality, thereby enhancing the brain’s connectivity with higher frequencies beyond the veil. They call this transporting energy num.
Beyond that, many indigenous people, and even a few Western patients who have used entheogens and empathogens, report still another form of connectivity – this time with spirit forms beyond humans. Calleman again, “[Commonly, there are] reports by people using psychedelics of meeting well-known animals such as serpents, jaguars, owls, or horses.” They can arrive on scene during challenging times and lend support to us. In addition to the “family of man” – both alive and “deceased,” encompassing the ancient ancestors we physically separated from long ago – there is also the “family of animals,” what Lakota Indians refer to as mitakuyae oyasin, meaning “all my relatives.” So, of course, indigenous wisdom suggests we heal in Nature close to our fellow critters. They become, as Luther Standing Bear said, “medicine that walks.”
So when a trauma victim wants to avoid people because of harm endured at their hands, it is somewhat paradoxical, but no longer uncommon, to chance upon a form of relational healing in a ceremonial setting using MDMA. The result is often stronger relationships than before yet with greater discernment of who they want to be connected to. And better results seem to occur if MDMA is administered in Nature close to Her medicine.
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Other Topics
Basics of MDMA
Rituals and Ceremony
Brain and MDMA
Trauma
Heart
Energy Movement
Quantum Physics
Native Cosmologies
Nature
Spirituality/Enlightenment
Kogi Tribe
Books written by Geral T. Blanchard
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Just as we have started to witness the reality of individual post-traumatic growth (PTG) – not just bouncing back after trauma but bouncing forward – could we entertain the concept of intergenerational growth (IG) – in other words, thriving from generation to generation?
There can be two levels at which trauma is processed. The first tier may be a time of quiet denial or the dissociation of nearly all thoughts of how painful the past was. The body feels it, but the mind does not speak it. On the second level a person awakens to the entirety of it, often an unpredicted and sudden onslaught of previously suppressed details with extensive associated pain. When trauma is reconstituted at the second level it often happens unwillingly. A person may be swept away by an awakening that seems very ugly. It feels like too much to absorb in its entirety. The result is often to feel afraid, even shattered – at first. Now with everything out in the open, what must be done with it?
At the second level of awareness, it is almost impossible to go on pretending that everything is fine. No longer can the visuals and emotions be kept submerged. One wonders, “Damn it, will I ever get better?”
Traumatized persons, with their pervasive pain, typically seek mood altering experiences. This can include ascetic restrictions, hedonistic over-eating, chemical dependency, sexual dependency, sexual anorexia or celibacy, romance addiction, relationship dependency, compulsive gambling, TV or movie binging, rock climbing, auto racing, reliance on antidepressants and/or antianxiety medications, religious addiction, and so much more that can serve to pacify, distract, and avoid unpleasant thoughts and feelings. By thrill-seeking, the higher the risks being engaged, the greater mood alteration one can experience. It’s a big dopamine splash and more.
These are the adult versions of childhood thumb sucking, according to Dr. Harvey Milkman, the author of Craving for Ecstasy (the feeling of ecstasy, not the drug). Harvey pointedly said, “Growing up consists of finding the right substitute for your thumb.”
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It’s impossible to talk about projection without incorporating a discussion about Sigmund Freud and Donald Trump. In this article I will skip Donald but throw in a little Carl Jung. Freud, of course, named several distinctive defense measures – reality distorting strategies to keep us safe. Two of the big ones are displacement and projection.
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So, could it be concluded that MDMA is a transcendent spiritual event -- a chemical event, or perhaps a neurological experience? By themselves, both seem unlikely. They can change activity in the brain, but enlightenment comes from hard work before and after their use. Entheogens and empathogens likely have a catalytic but not a primary casual effect in awakening.
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