Connecting to the Bigger Picture

I was interviewed on the DoubleBlind Podcast – have a listen, here!

*****

The other night I dreamed I was swimming in a vast, enormous river I knew to be the Amazon. In front of me I could see the line where it met another mighty river that was its source.

In the book I just finished reading, The Bigger Picture – How Psychedelics Can Help Us Make Sense of the World, the author, Alexander Beiner, mentions a Sufi saying “where the two seas meet.” The reference was to the liminal realm in Islamic mysticism “that lies between us and a deeper, underlying reality.”

I’ve known that delving into altered states of consciousness opens us to synchronicities. But as I devoured this book over the weekend, the perfect timeliness of its appearance filled me with awe.

For several years I’ve been investigating how older adults are exploring intentional psychedelic experiences in ways that enhance their experience of aging. Often this involves deep psychic healing and spiritual exploration, and can lead to what some describe as the most joyous, fulfilling and meaningful times of their lives.

And yet, I’ve always suspected that the implications of psychedelics in older age extend beyond individual transformation.

Unburdened of psychic baggage and with a visceral appreciation of our interconnectedness with each other and the natural world, we older adults can potentially become powerful agents of social change.

Gifting our ageist society with a radical new model of elderhood is one place we can start.

In these terrible times, I thought, why couldn’t we, as wise and powerful elders, get organized and mobilized? Pick up the idea of the counterculture discarded from the 60s, learn from past mistakes and reanimate it.

That’s as far as I got.

Until this weekend, when Alexander Beiner spelled out a Bigger Picture.

Beiner’s is an exhaustively researched, far-reaching, visionary and extremely timely book, with an ending that took my breath away. It also hints to a role for elders in the grand shift that is underway with the return of psychedelics adding to its momentum.

As Beiner spells out, the Big Crisis we’re facing is far too complex for easy answers.

But one place he points to for change is in how we relate – “to one another as individuals, as well as how our whole species relates to the wider ecosystem of the planet and the cosmos.”

“Billions of distorted and broken forms of relating lie at the heart of the Big Crisis, and the hope for transformation lies in bringing those pieces back together.”

Expanded states of consciousness can illuminate the pathways towards those relationships. But like any journey, the path starts with where we stand right now. And as Beiner observes, “True revolution is born not from changing what we do, but changing how we see ourselves.”

One way we could see ourselves is as powerful, badass elders, with the maturity and gravity to lead the way “in and through” the challenging trip ahead.