Gabor Maté on the benefits of Psychedelics

[kalmia]

 

 

 

Renowned Doctor Gabor Mate on Psychedelics and Unlocking the Unconscious, From Cancer to Addiction

Drug addiction expert speaks on the mind-body connection and the medical and emotional potentials of psychedelics.

Photo Credit: By Gabor Gastonyi (Clare Day) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

May 30, 2013  |  

 

 

 

 

 

Gabor Mate, M.D., says the "unconscious mind" can cause medical afflictions like cancer, addiction and trauma. In his speech at the Psychedelic Science 2013 conference, Mate rejects the assumption that the human mind and body are separate entities, and points to an inherant connection between psychological/environmental experiences and medical afflictions. He contends that the war on drugs is actually a war on drug addicts, and speaks to the addiction cessation potential of psychedelic substances. He also discusses the potential ability of psychedelic substances, particularly ayahuasca, to reverse medical issues like cancer and addiction when coupled with therapy.The following is the transcript of Dr. Gabor Mate's speech, "Psychedelics and Unlocking the Unconscious; From Cancer to Addiction," which he delivered at the Psychedelic Science conference in Oakland Calif., on April 20, 2013.

My subject is the use of ayahuasca in the healing of all manner of medical conditions, from cancer to addiction. And you might say what can possibly a plant do to heal such dire and life-threatening medical problems? Well, of course, that all depends on the perspective through which we understand these problems.

Now, the medical perspective, the allopathic Western medical perspective in which I was trained is that, fundamentally, diseases are abnormalities that occur either due to external causes such as a bacterium or a toxin, or they’re accidental or due to bad luck, or their due to genetics. So, the causes are outside of the usual internal experience—the emotional and psychological and spiritual life—of the individual. These are biological events, so the medical assumption goes, and the causes are to be understood and the treatments are to be administered purely in a biological fashion.

Underlying that set of assumptions are two other assumptions. One is that you can separate the human body from the human mind, so what happens to us emotionally and psychologically has no significant impact on our health. Number two: that the individual is to be separated from the environment. So, what happens to me if I get cancer? That is just my poor personal, pure personal, misfortune, or maybe because I did the wrong things like smoked cigarettes. But, that my cancer might have something to do with the lifelong interaction which I’ve engaged in with my environment—particularly the psychological social environment—that doesn’t enter into the picture.

But what if we had a different perspective?

What if we actually got that human beings are bio-psycho-social creatures by nature, and actually bio-psycho-spiritual creatures by nature—which is to say that our biology is inseparable from our psychological emotional and spiritual existence—and therefore what manifests in the body is not some isolated and unique event or misfortune, but a manifestation of what my life has been in interaction with my psychological and social and spiritual environment?

Well, if we had that kind of understanding then we would approach illness and health in a completely different fashion.

What if, furthermore, we understood something in the West which has been the underlying core insight of Eastern spiritual pathways and aboriginal shamanic pathways around the world, which is that human beings are not their personalities, we’re not our thoughts, we’re not our emotions, we are not our dysfunctional or functional dynamics, but that at the core there is a true self that is somehow connected to—in fact not connected to but part of—nature and creation.

An illness from that perspective represents a loss of that connection, a loss of that unity, a loss of that belonging to a much larger entity. And therefore, to treat the illness or the symptom as the problem is actually to ignore the real possibility that the symptom and the illness are themselves symptoms, rather than the fundamental problems.

 

 

CONTINUE ARTICLE===>>  http://www.alternet.org/drugs/gabor-mate-ayahuasca-maps-conference-2013

[Lens]

I personally find it dangerous to say that we need drugs to unlock the unconscious mind. Most of drug addicts use these drugs to escape from the pain of their childhood, a knowledge that is stored in the cells of their bodies. Using such treatment will only alleviate the symptoms rather than knowing exactly what the body is trying tell us by these "illnesses".

 

From my experience like Stefan Molyneux loves to say "Empirical" point of view I listened to my own body messages and pain and got many memories that I had no awareness of their existence before. The way I did it is to take seriously my body and the feeling attached to this illness and started to feel. Someone can do this only in safety and love once we are not afraid of our feelings.

 

So after I did that myself I can hardly say that I needed meds or drugs to help me to get into the message by manipulating my brain with an external substance and then dive into space. 

 

Actually I am asking myself what if a parent gave some of that kind of drugs (natural or artificial) to his toddler to make him sleep because the baby doesn't stop crying. Don't you think that same toddler once grown up wouldn't tell people to use drugs (any type) to heal or to sleep ? Maybe he had to learn that very early in life and has no memory of it.

 

Lens

Here is a text that also helped me not only to avoid drugs of any kind but also to advance in self-knowledge.

It is quote from the Book by Alice Miller, "Free From Lies" page 161. I quote:

 

Mental Blockades 

 

Today there are so few people who do not take pills, smoke cigarettes, or drink alcohol. Most of them resort to these things to achieve an artificial state of well-being that can divert their attention from unpleasant thoughts, rather than prompting them to try to understand them. So how can they appreciate their true meaning or even try to? How can they realize that these feelings are their true best friends, attempting to put them on the right track that would lead to self-knowledge? Experience is the only thing that can bring this home to them. You have had this experience, and now, to your astonishment, you find that the quality of your life had definitely changed to the better. But you will not be able to explain this to someone in the grip of the products manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry. They will not be able to listen to you. They will carry on "loving" their parents until they run into a crisis and suffer from depression or attacks of panic or both. But there are allegedly "effective" remedies for that as well. Extreme intelligence is no safeguard. These people will use those remedies as a drug to help them deny their own truth. Why do they do this? Because they are driven by the panic fear felt by the children they once were at the prospects of some more beatings if they should dare to see the truth or speak out about it.

So all I can say in response to your question about why so few people want to uncover their own histories is that the overwhelming majority of people in this world were beaten in early childhood. (22 june 2006)

[LovePrevails]

Ayahuasca is not a drug, the active ingredient is Native To The Brain and so it coul be as easily viewed as a nutritional suppliment.

 

Studies have shown very clearly that Aya can reduce or eliminate drug and alcohol dependency, including amphetamines and heroine addiction.

 

Some people don't like to ask for help, but as someone who has some reasonable experience with this particular tool I can testify that it helped me learn things I have literally no idea how I could learn in other ways. It has helped me improve my psyche, my relationship with myself and others, improved my self esteem, made me a braver person, and much more eager to embrace life and see it as a good thing and a giift rather than a series of challenges.

 

It is a deeply conservative strain that says "manipulating your state of consciousness is dangerous"

you manipulate your state of consciousness when you eat, drink, breath, sleep, watch tv, listen to FDR.

[Wesley]

I personally find it dangerous to say that we need drugs to unlock the unconscious mind. Most of drug addicts use these drugs to escape from the pain of their childhood, a knowledge that is stored in the cells of their bodies. Using such treatment will only alleviate the symptoms rather than knowing exactly what the body is trying tell us by these "illnesses".

I tend to agree and do not like to take drugs. However, a special place may be reserved for psycadellics by inducing hallucinations, also known as a form of waking dream. As long as you do not believe that these dreams come from a god or something, but are produced from your own mind, they could be as "unlocking" as dreams are. I have not tried them still, but I have been curious at times to do so.

[TheRobin]

Lens, you're extremely mischaracterizing here. No one says you "need" "drugs". Same as you don't "need" a specific type of therapy, it's just another thing that can help if used correctly. 

 

And calling psychedelics "drugs" and therefore throwing them in the same pot as alcohol and heroin is also very misleading. There are those substances that enhance and intesify one's experience and then there are substances that numb and dissociate. And throwing those in the same pot is neither accurate nor helpful for a better understanding of either.In regards to the article: I hope someone at some point can make a long-term study of the effects to see how permanent they are or aren't but it's certainly interesting to see the interest in psychedelics rising again lately in the academic field.

[Lens]

I can testify that it helped me learn things I have literally no idea how I could learn in other ways. It has helped me improve my psyche, my relationship with myself and others, improved my self esteem, made me a braver person, and much more eager to embrace life and see it as a good thing and a giift rather than a series of challenges.

 

Good for you !

[Stephen C]

In the video Gabor Mate expresses the opinion that less is better. So if a person can achieve the same results, minus the extras, that's good for business. I think a descent analogy would be something like.. people use metal weights and machines to gain muscle, but if they can gain the same amount of muscle without using weights and machines, that's even better. I imagine that would be less strain on the joints or tendons. It's also less of a strain on the wallet, gym memberships cost money and so does exercise equipment.From my super limited understanding of psychedelics, they draw all kinds of stuff that's buried in the unconscious to the surface. I think it's similar to what black salve does with pimples, boils, cysts, cancer and all those yummy growths. That could be a great alternative to getting these things removed with a scalpel or leaving them to grow, but if you can remove them without any of these things that's a plus.  

[kalmia]

"These people will use those remedies as a drug to help them deny their own truth. Why do they do this? Because they are driven by the panic fear felt by the children they once were at the prospects of some more beatings if they should dare to see the truth or speak out about it."

 

We build up emotional defenses against feeling certain emotions and thinking certain things. Some people are not in a position to just let themselves feel unpleasant emotions. It is emotional scare tissue on top of emotional scare tissue. People are buried under emotional reactions that prevent them from thinking in a reasonable manner. Psychedelics can undo all of that. What's revealed after that can be healing for some and horrible for others. They aren't for everybody. The emotional aspect often gets overlooked in these in favor of hallucinations when hallucinations are really a minor side effect. The real benefit is in the emotional healing for those willing to take it. Psychedelics can show you the answer, but many refuse to listen. I know a guy whose life centers much around drinking and smoking weed (which can be beneficial in moderation). I asked him about mushrooms and DMT that he used, and he said he was done with psychedelics after DMT. I asked him what he did not like about DMT, and he said it made him feel foolish for mush of what he does with his life, specifically mentioning drinking and smoking weed all the time. I think some just refuse to listen to what their subconscious mind is saying.

[Mister Mister]

  Yes it is important to realize with psychedelics, that they are in many ways the opposite of addictive drugs.  One experience can bring up so many new or repressed thoughts and usually results in a kind of feeling of refreshment, or release of anxiety and nervous energy, that there is, for most people, not an urge to use them again in the near future, the way there is for cocaine or nicotine or perscription painkillers.  Furthermore, many psychedelics have been used therapeutically and are proven to be incredibly effective at curing addiction, from alcohol to heroine.  The substances are not therapeutic in themselves, they drop the barriers that one has to self-knowledge and clarity of thought.  The work still must be done by the individual, and the set and setting must be appropriate.