Hey all; I was having a conversation with my sister about a variety of topics and she quoted something pretty profound (I thought at least) from a book called Barbed Wire: An Ecology of Modernity. The book is a history of the use of barbed wire and how it has been used to control people and populations, and some of the long-term societal implications are staggering (led to the invention of the tank, eg WWI; control populations eg concentration camps in WWII, etc...).

Anyways, I thought this quote was very psychedelic in it's perspective, and I thought many of you here might appreciate it. I remember having an epiphany on LSD some time ago that closely resembled this idea.

A quick bit of background info: Before cattle were put into ranches surrounded by barbed wire and fencing, they openly grazed on ranges. As railroads were built across the continental US, cattle would wander in front of oncoming trains and would be killed (which was expensive for cattle owners) and/or damage the train. As a result, barbed wire would be lined on both sides of the tracks so that cattle could not cross them and get in the way of oncoming trains.



I think this is relevant for 2 reasons. The first being, as I mentioned earlier, that this perspective seems incredibly psychedelic to me; that everything affects everything. The creation of the locomotive for something as seemingly reasonable as connecting the country has massive implications that are incredibly disconnecting. To re-iterate, the locomotive led to the invention of barbed wire which brutalized warfare and has been used to control populations and murder millions upon millions of people. You can not do anything without affecting something else, and no matter where you put your attention you are only seeing part of the picture.

Second, how does last part of the quote apply to a community of psychonauts? We all hold dear to us certain substances which show us our intrinsic connection to reality and foster a resulting perspective. But in what ways have psychedelics disconnected us? I don't feel out of line when I say that the vast majority of Nexians (if not all of us) come from some form of privilege; after all, how many people can spend this much of their time experimenting with drugs and post about it on the internet? The answer is not many.

Despite my love for psychedelics and our community, I can't help but shake the fact that the psychedelic community has become increasingly separated from real world issues. Once an integral part of radical movements in the Western world (think 1960's), psychedelic culture (in my opinion) is now a beacon of self-indulgence and escapism. Lazy sociopolitical analysis (to quote another Nexian) is far too dominant; there are too many new-agers and young people who think the global crisis can be solved if everyone just ate acid and bought organic and didn't judge people. The issues at hand are much, much bigger and more complicated than that. Look at the fossil fuels required to extract DMT, look at the resources dumped into psychedelic music festivals, the impact of Western tourists making pilgrimages to Latin America to drink ayahuasca (look up appropriation if you haven't heard the term before), etc...to be frank we are a highly unsustainable community that is disjointed and critically disconnected from real-world issues, despite the fact that psychedelics tune us into a sense of greater connectivity.

These are all just thoughts, and I don't mean to offend anyone. There are of course relatively clean ways to extract DMT, there are sustainable and ethical ways to partake in ayahausca ceremonies in Latin America, and of course (as the Nexus clearly demonstrates) not everyone who takes psychedelics is self-indulgent and lazy. My comments above were all generalizations.

But anyways I'd love to hear people's thoughts on all of this, if you have any.

the absence of use is more a symptom of the modern disease of profound disconnection much of humanity currently suffers from. I dont think the question of the psychedelic community being disconnected is even so relevant at this point..who isnt?..the use of entheogenic plants and fungi predates almsot everything else going on in modern culture, despite whatever privilage we might enjoy..it is this modern cultural paradigm that spanned the globe and instigated the inquisition against pharmacological agents of ecstasis and ecological dialoge in the first place. Our "privilage" has often led to people being incarcerated for this kind of behaviour. To call it a privilage may only be true to a degree. Many people dont feel privilaged. Cars and money do not necesarily = privilage. That is such a superficial point of view many people subscribe to. Quality of life is something that is measured in a much more complicated way.

When we move back into a dialogue with the living world, enter back into sacred time through relation to plants, animals and fungi we remember the connection that lay at the roots of what it even means to be human, and that is something far more profound then any connection we might have to the modern culture around us that we identify with as the "real world".

That world is arguably based from the ground up on the disconnection of the human animal from the rest of the ecology that it birthed from. To that world, everything is simply resources and capital. As profound as that dislocation is, there really is nothing profound about it.

One more thing..IMO it is a trap to get too caught up in radical ideas about having to be politically defiant etc..dont worry about what the counter culture did in the 1960's, or throw out the relevance of the modern entheogenic movement just because stuff goes on that looks like appropriation. It is appropriation, but you know what???...I think that kind of thing has ALWAYS gone on. Is it ideal? No, and maybe sometimes yes. Whatever you look for man, that is what you are going to see. So dont focus on tunnel visions. This thing is taking place from so many different angles.

What i would like to see is a deeper folk resurgence taking place in the community, and it is something I see seeding right now.

I'll keep it short and sweet: There is NO such thing as being "disconnected" from the "real world" because, quite simply, there is ONLY the "real world" and we are ALL deeply entrenched no matter how different we may think we feel and act compared to the majority.

Going in line with your barbed wire reasoning, I think that the disconnections that result from the connectivity that psychedelics offer, are a result of the rest of the population not having these connections or the access to them. When we make certain connections that change our point of view or behavior to the extent that others cannot relate, internal friction and conflict can be created where it never was before. People can be shunned for their beliefs. Also, in line with your television and radio analogies include that when people are taking psychedelics, they will often avoid interactions with certain people under the influence. Psychedelics bring people together as well, but I suppose there are always other people you could be interacting with. As you point out, like most things in life, those things that can be used or have been invented for positive things can be used for negative things and vice-versa.

he,


nice post, this is something that has been on my mind for some time now. The points you make are, as you said stereotypical, and that makes it so difficult (for me at least) to judge them as one thing. There are so many variables that matter. So some thoughts;



I'm not sure about this, I think everyone has a hobby or something on hand to pass time, some people watch television and some use psychedelics. What does amaze me is that there are members with hundreds of quality post, where do they find the time?

One thing that strikes me is that you seem to have the feeling that there is a universal psychedelic community,I think that there are lots of different groups of users.


Are there realy? I think that those new-agers are mostly repeating things they think "psychedelic people" say. The same way they like to say they hate alcohol and love psychedelics and weed.
Most of them don't seem to last and after a period of experimentation they stop and move on.
You can find them at any psychedelic festival and places like the nexus or forums alike. I like to call them the psychedelic preachers



The issues are bigger and in my opinion psychedelics are not going to solve them.

I would just like to point out that having time to work with entheogens or write about them does not automatically equate to privilege because the exact opposite could be true.

I see your point Jamie, and I do agree that use of these substances predates modern institutions, are essential to human understanding, and everyone has the right to experiment with them without being judged or penalized. This said, class and racial privilege do exist in our society. I think that before I move on it’s important to clearly define what privilege is in this context.

Privilege, which exists in our culture in many forms (race, class, gender, sexuality…) refers to a set of privileges that a specific group of people benefit from that those of a different class, race, gender, orientation, might not have access to. A key aspect of privilege, take racial privilege for example, is that those benefiting from it are often oblivious to how much of it they have. Much of privilege exists as unquestioned assumptions which are actually racist/classist/sexist in their basis, but goes unrecognized.





And to address what you said about these substances leading to the arrest of people, that is definitely true--but if I can be totally honest, as privileged people these substances are not really all that illegal unless you do something stupid to get caught with them. It's an unspoken privilege; but if the DEA really wanted to crack down on drug use they would bust college campuses and music festivals, but those are frequented by the elite ruling class. Instead, taxpayer money goes towards policing and brutalizing colored communities. I mean this website is a monument to the freedom we really have. We're practically shouting our drug use from the roof-tops, and openly educate people about the process of extraction; which is technically highly illegal. You think if there was a rap or rnb music festival in a poor black community where people were openly doing drugs it would be left alone by the police? It'd be a trainwreck.

The majority of people do not have the luxury of being able to experiment with these substances as freely as most of us here do. Why are the majority of Nexus users white males? Why are the majority of people involved with psychedelic research or at psychedelic events, again, white males? Cars and money do not necessarily make one happy, no—but again having a car and money to freely spend are luxuries that many, arguably most people do not have. In the modern world, to be able to not have to worry about how you will feed yourself and your family, or to not have to jump through endless hoops to avoid repression and stay alive are luxuries. The bottom line is that people are suffering on a scale we’ve never seen, and they are demanding justice even if we are conditioned not to hear it. To effectively combat injustice we need to recognize the ways we support an unspoken status-quo, make a change, and truly be allies with those who are repressed.



Privilege, perhaps?



I do agree with this, and I think that is a hurtle that psychedelic culture is taking on well right now, integrating psychedelic research into the mainstream in a way that the vast majority of the ‘status-quo’ public can relate to.



Thanks for your input! I agree it can go both ways and I don’t think that railroads are inherently bad.



These are people with privilege and do not represent the vast majority of people. Everyone in dominant culture? Yes, good point. Everyone? No.



Good point. I guess a better phrasing would be psychedelic culture. While there might be a wide variety of communities within this culture, I think psychedelic culture as a whole is something that follows a general trend; like any other collective culture.



I think that depends on the culture in which you live. For the vast majority of people on earth, I think it does equate to privilege. Yes, there are groups in developing nations that use them, and there are exceptional people who might be significantly under-privileged and still work with them. But I think these are outliers and fall into the “my grandma smoked a pack a day since she was 12 and she’s still alive” category.

I want to make another disclaimer that I’m not trying to offend anyone here. I know class and race are touchy subjects, but I think they’re vitally important and if we wish to look at ourselves and the world honestly, I think they need to be addressed.

I also don’t want to make this a thread about privilege—I only bring it up because I think it’s relevant within the context of the question of whether or not psychedelics disconnect us from real-world issues, and how might that relate to the "geometrical law" mentioned in the barbed wire book

my point is, at the end of the day we all go off to work for hours to make a very small ruling class of people extremely rich. Whatever privilages we think we have, they are largely superficial and our right to a certain quality of life is not necessarily one of those privilages.

I also dont really buy into the whole man hating feminist thing, and the arguemnts over who is more privilaged than who in general, because its divisive. Look beyond that.

Privilaged or not privilaged, anyone who says any of that downplays what goes on in the depth of gnosis is full of shit.

Just becasue your surrounded by shit, does not mean that at the core there is truth.

Sorry, but I dont really know any other way to describe what I am trying to say. I am not saying class, race and sex systems dont exist. I am saying, you get to a point where all you can say is "who cares"?..not becasue I personally dont care..but becasue I really do wonder who are the people who are really still caring about all of that enough to continue to keep all of that alive...and I see many more people outside of the psychedelic community keeping racism and classism etc alive than inside of it.

Im sorry if this sounds arrogant. I believe pretty strongly that to be able to even be humble you also have to be able to state your position, and this is mine. It's way way too friggin easy to make white people, or men, or people with jobs etc into nothing more than scapegoats. The problem lies in idealogies, not in race or class or sex..ideas that many people no longer subscribe to, yet still have to deal with surrounding them in a world they were simply born into. This privilage arguement looks more and more like a straw man to me.

No you don't sound arrogant at all, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your opinion. I inherently agree with what you're saying, but I do think privilege matters.

You're right, at the end of the day we are all just people trying to get by and the power and decision-making is really in the hands of a select few people. But I'm not saying that people who benefit from privilege are racist, classist, bad people who should be blamed and used as scapegoats; quite the opposite actually. I don't blame anyone for being born into a system that happens to benefit them; but the fact of the matter is that by being blind to this unspoken structure of 'isms', it continues to be supported. By either being ignorant and not knowing (which isn't a bad thing at all), or by knowing and doing nothing, you give consent. You can't acknowledge the separating systems and structures of 'isms' that exist without acknowledging privilege. That's how systemic oppression works now--it's not overt and open anymore like it used to be, but exists informally within the structures of our everyday lives. In modern times, oppression thrives through silent consent of the majority.

I don't want to get into a discussion here about race and class and all that--the issues are relevant and provide the context for this thread but I really don't want to derail things too much. But when you say it's too easy to use white people and men and whatnot as scapegoats, I see where you're coming from, but I think that is a big generalization. Nobody is blaming the white working class for the world's woes. One of the tactics used by the state to suppress movements is to divide them by offering one group privilege, and then pitting them against one another. A perfect example is the history of populism in the 1920's and 30's in the US, when white farmers and black people were working together for the first time; questioning the state. The state offered the farmers some kind of subsidy, and the movement died shortly after, as the farmers no longer had a direct 'investment' in taking on the government. A modern example would be the labor movement and the environmental movement; which are both fighting the same system, but are pitted against one another in a false dichotomy. That's the whole "jobs vs environment" argument; when in reality, workers and environmentalists should be working in solidarity with one another to take on a common enemy.

So in the context of modern privilege, nobody is blaming you or me for having more than others. But it is paramount that we acknowledge we do indeed have these privileges, and until we do so we can't hope to formulate a full and comprehensive analysis; and without a solid analysis, we have no basis for which to effectively challenge the status-quo that only few benefit from.

Maybe that clears up my perspective a bit? I think we're on the same page for the most part.

I don"t see how you can say this. Political correctness in relation to racism, sexism and homophobia has improved massively over the last 40 years.

As far as psychedelic use disconnecting one from real world issues, i guess it depends on the kind of person you are and where you are at in life. Some people see the growing gap between rich and poor as a real world issue while others see getting their kids fed, off to school on time and then going to work as a real world issue.
If i am honest, i am afraid to say that i use psychedelics mainly as a tool for escapism and if i get any real world insights it"s a bonus.

The Lazy sociopolitical analysis quote was in relation to Amber Lyon who, previous to her psychedelic experience, could not be accused of not being in touch with real world issues (she was a reporter). It could be said that she is going through an airy fairy "everyone"s horrible to eachother because of trauma" phase. But that could be her way integrating and healing her PTSD. Maybe she needed a bit of de-connection from "the real world".

This strikes me as both a reactionary and paralyzing way of being in the world.

The only actions any of us appear to have control over are our own.

The notion that the inaction of others justifies personal inaction is not something I identify with, but has been shown to be quite common, historically.



So clearly, we can't wait for other folks to engage or draw cues as to what our own actions should be from them.


This is precisely why I applied the term "lazy" with regards to her. There are many in our communities who may lack a nuanced understanding/analysis/critique of the sociopolitical institutions at play, she's not one of them. And, she gets media attention when she speaks, implicitly bearing a burden to not get airy fairy when talking about such important (and commonly woo woo'd) issues (and their intersections with psychedelics).


As to the earlier claim that somehow psychedelics and tv are equatable as hobbies...come on. This is only true if you apply perhaps the lowest common denominator and say "they are the same because the are both things you do with your time." They are fundamentally different activities and there is physiological evidence that says as much, in the event that you need hard evidence to make that distinction. One treats the self as spectator and encourages such a role even in day to day life; the other requires direct engagement with the self.

I think this is some of what VTSeeker48 is driving at. Psychedelics can inform certain understandings about ourselves and the world we live in. If we gain these insights and do not act on them, what's the point? What good is the lesson that everything is interconnected if we do not work to sustain those connections? What good is realizing that we are love, if we do not actively put that love out into the world, in ways that do not perpetuate destructive and authoritarian cycles?

We can flip through the Nexus (or wander through any psychedelic festival) and find oodles of people talking about why psychedelics are such great compounds. And yet, how many people espousing these beliefs are working to change the structures that surround us and seek to control us? How many times have psychedelic folks commented on the futility of various social upheavals from the sidelines, as though they know better, without ever setting foot on the grounds they presume to know so well?

If these compounds catalyze understandings about ourselves and the world we live in, we owe it to ourselves to apply those understandings, not just theorize about them divorced from other components of our lives.

"Be about it. Ain't no other way to say it."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Where's that excerpt from? I can't say I'm surprised but those are scary numbers. That's super relevant to the modern paradigm imo.

I don't mean to derail the thread either. These two statements just stuck out to me and I wanted to address them.


Since when does law enforcement allow drug use/possession on college campuses and at music festivals? All of the college campuses and music festivals I have ever been to (admittedly, not that many) have had a significant police presence. People are arrested quite frequently in both contexts.


How do you know that they are? Do you have evidence to support this claim? I have yet to see any large-scale polls regarding the gender or ethnicity of Nexus members...

a nugget of brave souls sharing unconventional ideas. wouldn't say disconnected, though admittedly it is the disconnect that is the lure and must be responsible for drawing the better part of it's mass. ie the psychedelic community at large, not the nexus particularly. age plays a role, and cultural origins also. But what, and whose reality are they disconnecting from? unclear, though certainly it is deliberate - a decisive contour of free agency.

Sure, but you are confusing what I said with something else. I never said anything about inaction. You missed what I meant by "who cares"..it was literally a question..not a blank statement..and its a question you have to ask IMO, becasue there is a large portion of people who dont seem to care, and it helps to know who they are.

I dont beleive much in this culture of guilt and self hate etc..these are christianized ideals we have projected. I dont feel the need to feel bad or guilty for being able to enjoy my life day to day, or feel paralyzed because of it. Dont let fear, guilt or panic etc rule you or you have already lost.

There is soemting to be said IMO for taking pride in who you are, and so far in this thread I do see some guilt tripping. No offense to anyone I dont think it is intentional, but it happens nonetheless IMO, and acknowleding that is not giving in to paralysis. Things are not so black and white. Feeling of guilt, sin, worthlessness etc are symptoms of this culture that we need to acknowledge and get over IMO for use to move foreward. I understand that a lot of people are going to read this and not really understand why this is relevant to any of this..but hopefully someone does.

You cant ever move into your own true power from a place of guilt, or feeling sinful or worthless..and those are also not places where you can claim your own power either. You wont acomplish much until you get over that. These are things are creat nothing more than a void from which we either crawl out and grow as persons, or we try to fill with external stuff and becomes consumed with greed.

If you get caught doing drugs, anywhere, you will be penalized. The difference is that college campuses and festivals aren't targeted; law enforcement doesn't go out of their way and spend tons of money to round up all the college kids and festival-goers, deny them their rights, and funnel them into federal prison. (Or for that matter, supply them with these drugs in the first place) Targeted communities are exactly that, targeted. A couple people might get slaps on the wrist for doing psychedelics or smoking weed or doing coke on a college campus or at a music event, but police presence and sentencing is grossly disproportionate in colored communities. Source: http://www.hrw.org/legac...sa/Rcedrg00.htm#P54_1086
If you really want more info just do a google search for sentencing disparity; it's not that hard to see and there are countless primary sources all over. I have to be honest, it's so apparent that I didn't even think it was a question up for debate or scrutiny anymore.



This is a fair question and unfortunately I can't support it with a link. I do remember a poll a year or 2 back and the vast majority of those who voted were white males; but again I can't actually find it so I guess its up to your own judgment.



Self loathing and being held accountable are 2 different things. Again, nobody is pointing the finger at the middle class white man, unless the middle class white man recognizes his privilege and influence within a system of domination and yet continues to actively support it. How do we just magically move forward by ignoring the fact that we play a key role in this system? Asking people to own up to the fact that they have it better than others and therefore have a position of power and the opportunity to do something about it is not asking people to hate and loathe themselves. It's asking them to act like grown ups.

Im not sure on the nexus but research indicates that the biggest user groups of psychedelics are young white males.



Wow really, I have been to lots of country's all over the world including war zones and extreme poor places. I have seen some terrible situations but even then i would not say that the fast majority has no free time. In poor places it seems that that is all there is.

This is not a disconnect. It's an establishment of a privileged means of connection.
At it's core, this is the essence of culture.

And she has also been suffering from PTSD. Give the poor girl a break and let her heal how she sees fit. I think you are going to have to get used to the fact that some people"s insights and how they react to them are not inline with yours. Which may not be such a bad thing. You can do your Che Guevara thing while Amber can represent the fluffy end of the spectrum, thereby presenting a two pronged attack on the system.

Would you say that starting a website on medicinal psychedelic education is being lazy?

I think very often the psychedelic sub groups of the planet are more connected with real issues and will think and feel deeply about them.
People will find their own way through this existence many cant let themselves feel the rawness of this reality and will happily dose on alcohol and sugar and TV and just look after their own which in itself is no easy job while govts and corporations try to take our time and money in the name of stakeholders.
Many will try to harness good in the small ways we can there are few heroes that can a will reverse this wave of greed for power and the earths body be that more taxes less land less trees or more oil.