“Suffering is due to our disconnection with the inner soul.” ~ Amit Ray

   

From the macrocosm to the microcosm, the space where the upward and downward pointing triangles meet is at the heart-space—and with this is the bridge between worlds, one of our power places of inner knowing. These concepts can feel confusing and can bring up many questions and insights about our place in the universe.

   

Perennial questions have been our companions throughout time. Who am I? Where do I come from? Where do I go? What is my purpose here? These questions plague or amuse all of us at varying degrees.

   

For those of us living in the world today, Gabor Maté says, we are all journeying with the impact of trauma, which directly impairs our sense of belonging. For those of us who have this reality, or know of those who grapple with it, this can cause a type of existential dread, which can lead to a variety of other mental health obstacles and greater degrees of loneliness and disconnection.

   

Psychedelics can have the effect of ego dissolution—a state of being wherein the sense of Self expands to include all that exists. This is one of the ways psychedelics have a positive impact on our mental health. When we go from feeling isolated to feeling a sense of connection to everything, we can also move from existential dread to existential awe—a greater sense of vastness and thus greater sense of connectedness.

   

It is not uncommon to hear folks in psychedelic states feeling at one with the sunset, in tune with the heartbeat of the Earth, viewing nuances of the night sky and the twinkle of light in another’s eye. It can be quite natural in this state to see everything as sacred. Many times, a person wakes up from a stupor of recognizing the rabbit hole they’ve gone into and how sometimes the solution can be as easy as popping their head out and looking around, smelling the fragrance of the flowers, basking in the sunset or savoring the feeling of water flowing through their hands.

   

At these moments, we can recognize how precious existence is, and how precious this very moment is, and with that can come a greater sense of responsibility for how we tend our bodies as extensions of the earth, and how we tend the Earth as extensions of our body. We recognize those who have stewarded the land for generations and generations and hold immense gratitude and reverence for this. We waste not a drop of water, heat of a flame, sound of the wind moving through the trees or the glimpse of a special stone, still and silent.

   

It isn’t necessary to ingest and experience psychedelics to develop awe and connection with the land, but it goes a long way—especially for those who have lost, or maybe never found, this sense of awe and reverence for the elements. Therein lies the potential for a paradigm shift and a greater sense of responsibility for the way we walk through the world.