Ayahuasca isn't going to save Trump
Peak conspirituality video highlights continued spiritual bypassing
In his book, LSD Psychotherapy, psychiatrist Stanislov Grof writes that psychedelics serve as “nonspecific amplifiers” of the human psyche. The idea is that, basically, these substances amplify the pre-existing contents of an individual’s mind. As he frames it:
LSD and other psychedelics function more or less as nonspecific catalysts and amplifiers of the psyche. This is reflected in the name given by Humphrey Osmond to this group of substances; the Greek word “psychedelic” translates literally as mind-manifesting.
There’s a competing theory in psychedelics spaces, one that contradicts Grof’s assessment: the substances are transformative.
While there’s certainly evidence of their potential therapeutic power in terms of combating anxiety, depression, and PTSD, the assumption is that consuming substances like ayahuasca will completely change a person—it will “give” them something not already in their consciousness. Such a narrative inevitably details an individual being transformed from a vile, confused, or harmful person into a spiritual warrior composed of light and love.
I’ve long taken issue with this idea because, as Grof highlights, psychedelics don’t magically imbue you with previously unimagined information; rather, they drudge up what’s been simmering on the conscious and unconscious levels, bringing psychological, usually emotionally-charged issues front and center. While that can result in a transformative experience, that’s a different application than assuming a person can be rearranged from scratch.
Which brings us to Donald Trump.
This AI-generated video features Trump going on an ayahuasca hero’s journey, being transformed from a selfish narcissist into a shaman healing others with newfound spiritual knowledge. He becomes, well, Alan Watts, meditating in Buddhist robes, banging on hybrid djembe-bongos, counseling others.
The arc of the video is well-known to anyone familiar with Joseph Campbell’s work, yet is steeped in spiritual bypassing and political ignorance. The notion that a man who has exhibited nothing but selfish, self-serving behavior in public life for over two generations would magically be “healed” after one ayahuasca ceremony is so satirical and absurdist that Kafka would balk at its very suggestion.
This is a man who continues to brag about stripping women of their right to healthcare; who put children in cages; who continually lies about his opponents; and who’s the first convicted felon to run for president. There’s nothing in the man waiting to be “transformed.” Any amplification would only increase his dreams of dictatorial power.
The comments on the AI-generated video are as disconnected from reality as the video itself. The expected Trump stans found it; no surprise. But those in the “spiritual community” continue bypassing reality under the illusion that a few ounces of jungle juice would—as has been said of Trump since 2016 in these spaces—turn him into a “light worker.”
The only person who could make such a claim is someone who’s never been personally affected by one of his disastrous policies—or at least doesn’t realize they’ve been affected, if they’ve been indulging in right-wing media. More likely the former, however.
And so every time I think we’ve hit peak conspirituality, someone has to go top it.
Psychedelics are powerful. I’m hopeful that integration into therapeutic environments will help alleviate the suffering many are enduring. And their ceremonial usage will continue to provide comfort, education, and insight for as long as we’re here.
But we need to be realistic about their capabilities. Wasting time focused on impossible missions can only be fruitless, especially when giving cover to one of the most selfish and dangerous men on the planet.
For a community to verbally committed to empathy and compassion, it’s telling how often they miss the mark.
Or, to sum up even more succinctly, former Conspirituality guest and friend of the pod, Daniel Latorre, captures it in a sentence:
Great article! I found the AI video amusing and even reflective of the archetypal ayahuasca drinker or healing narrative you hear and see time and again. Kind of cringey to hear myself in my early part of ayahuasca journey in parts of that video when I felt that ayahuasca or DMT were inherently benevolent and beneficial. I used to be a talking parrot of the healing narrative for a time.
I don’t know if AI generated the spoken script for it, or whether a human wrote the narrative, but it seemed to me to also be a solid if subtle example of spiritual narcissism—I say “subtle,” because many people watching that video and listening to the story arc would not see anything wrong with who the AI Trump character evolved into by the end. By the end, he speaks in the same tropes and spiritual word salad as many shamans and ceremony-goers.
A lot of people in the spiritual and psychedelic space can’t see past superficial appearances—if the person looks like a guru, acts like a guru, and talks like a guru then it follows they must BE a real guru, right? Superficial appearances count for a lot in the ayahuasca/spiritual community, and are the reason so many predators operate in the space cosplaying as healers.
In the video, the AI Trump character was only superficially changed; his words were still tainted with spiritual narcissism instead of the overt malignant grandiose narcissism. The video felt like a trope or parody of many of the shamans and “light workers” actively operating the healing space.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit I sat 25 ceremonies on 3 continents with about 7 shamans over 6 years, and my take after all that “work” (looking in the magic mirror), is exactly what you and Grof stated: psychedelics are merely amplifiers. They don’t make people into better versions of themselves, they only dial up the volume on who they were all along. This is the reason there is so much drama, egotism, sexual and financial abuse, broken friendships and other dramas (including murder) in the ayahuasca space, because psychedelics don’t make those qualities go away in people who already possess them; the “medicines” often turn-up the volume on whatever was there all along.
Some of the least-healed, least reflective (or most vulnerable) people I’ve ever met talk a good game after a few ceremonies, and then rush into pouring medicine or life-coaching others. It’s almost like a mind-virus how often people sit a few ayahuasca ceremonies and then fall into the path (trap?) of trying to serve to others it in some fashion before they’re out of the woods themselves. The video hit that trope hard.
There’s a weird photo of the neo fascist group the Base where they pose with a sheep’s head. They all took LSD on a retreat, stormed around the countryside being idiots, and slaughtered this poor sheep. Julius Evola took psychedelics. I think you could make the argument that taking psychedelics doesn’t necessarily turn you into a fascist shitheel any more than it doesn’t necessarily turn you into a shaman saint guru. My few experiences with psychedelics have been very difficult but meaningful and useful, and they’ve had a lasting effect. But they didn’t turn me into anything I’m not already. I don’t think good people get good trips and bad people get bad trips. That’s a kind of simple religious fantasy. But subjects can be manipulated eg: a study induced a feeling of gratitude in subjects on LSD and those who felt gratitude were more likely to agree to doing something they would otherwise consider slightly unethical, in this case grinding worms in a blender.