Psychedelics in Jewish communities| It's time I speak up!

There's an increasingly popular trend of people taking psychedelic drugs for therapeutic purposes and specifically for the purpose of healing trauma. And there are serious concerns about this and I'm not talking about medical or halakic concerns. If this is a route you are considering taking, talk to a psychiatrist to a doctor to and to those are not the areas that I'm commenting on in this video. I want to talk about the therapeutic perspective for a moment. The thinking is that if somebody takes psychedelic drugs, which are mindaltering medications, they can experience deeper levels of consciousness, of awareness, and they can face deep levels of trauma that they wouldn't have been able to on their own. And by doing that, they can better process trauma. And there is research that is coming out to support this. I don't know if it's conclusive or not, but there is research that is supporting this on some level and that psychedelic drugs can be useful if done safely can be useful uh to treat trauma because it can help you process trauma. I am not a fan of this approach. I don't think it's a good idea from a therapeutic perspective. And the reason is because I don't think trying to process trauma is actually a useful idea. I'm not suggesting you ignore trauma. I'm not suggesting you bury your head in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist either. But I think the whole premise of using psychedelic drugs to heal trauma so you can better process your trauma needs to be challenged because who says processing trauma is good? Who says that's helpful? How does it feel after you process your trauma? How does it feel after having a discussion about all the pain you're in? You feel like you've vented and somebody's listened and that could be supportive, but that doesn't feel good. That actually triggers trauma. And research does show that. research and Jewish tradition as well, by the way, show is that what you talk about, you're going to feel passionate about. Right now, I'm talking about this because I'm passionate about it, but the talking about it makes me more passionate. And that's true with anything in life. I'm not suggesting we bury our head in the sand and pretend the trauma isn't there either. What I am suggesting though is that we don't look at trauma victims as a identity on itself. This is a trauma victim. This is a human being who has trauma who is carrying around pain. But there are other parts of this human being and those other parts can prevail. This human being has hopes has aspirations. maybe not be that person might not be aware of it if they're feeling trouble but they're there. This person has resilience. The very mere fact that they're trying to get treatment whether it's the right treatment or not is a sign of resilience. and having a conversation with trauma victims about the other parts of their existence that they're most proud of can actually bring that to their awareness and create space for hope and healing. A lot of people don't like this perspective because it sounds like you're burying your head in the sand and kind of masking the problem, masking the trauma with positivity, which creates uh toxic positivity. If the positivity was fake, if the hope was fake, if these other parts of this person's existence were not real, so you're right, they'd mask the problem. That would create toxic positivity. That'd be a problem because the trauma would be suppressed and ultimately erupt, implode. But the hopes that you have, the aspirations that you have, the resilience that you've demonstrated are very real. And if you could have a conversation with somebody who believes in you and can inspire you to believe in you and show you that your greatness is real, it doesn't mask trauma. It heals trauma. It replaces trauma. And this has to be done skillfully. This has to be done empathetically, not by dismissing the trauma. But in spite of the trauma, there is a hero here that has yet to discover his or her cape as it were. And when that is discovered, healing happens. And research shows that this is true. Jewish tradition shows that this is true. By the way, as well writes in quotes, and this is quoted in many places, a little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness. And sometimes when we're focusing too much on the darkness, and how do I get rid of this darkness? And why this darkness get get here? We start realizing that there's more and more and more of it and there's like this black hole of endless darkness. If that darkness wasn't there, if that darkness did disappear, if I was able to confront the trauma and somehow let go of it, what would I have instead? And getting the person to talk about what they want instead is is lighting a candle is illuminating. And then the darkness isn't relevant anymore. I'm not dismissing the problem. I'm just saying that people who discover their greatness by discovering what they want instead and looking for evidence of having that in the past and envisioning what that would be like in the future. Having a conversation about that is incredibly enlightening, incredibly healing and creates less space for the trauma to attack. This is a researchbased approach. And if you have more questions about it, you can PM me. But I think that's a lot safer than trying to confront your trauma. And certainly trying to take a drug that's going to confront your trauma for you when there isn't necessarily conclusive research that says processing trauma works. And maybe it does work long term for certain people, but it does hurt. But talking about your hopes doesn't hurt. That feels great. And it doesn't mask the problem if it's real and done in a way that's empathetic. That's my story. And I'm sticking to it.