Geral Blanchard, LPC, is a psychotherapist who is university trained in psychology and anthropology. Formerly of Wyoming and currently residing in Iowa, Geral travels the world in search of ancient secrets that can augment the art and science of healing. From Western neuroscience to Amazonian shamanism, he has developed an understanding of how to combine old and new healing strategies to optimize recovery, whether from psychological or physical maladies.
MDMA, Mystery, and Matter
Geral T. Blanchard • December 30, 2021
Certainty and predictability is what all of us seek, particularly if we have come from an environment of unpredictability, chaos, and trauma.
Understanding something and predicting what might occur next provides comfort. Uncertainty and mysteries can be a little unsettling. It is natural to want to grasp onto something for emotional serenity to have faith in the way things are and can be, hopefully built on visible, tangible, and measurable evidence.
In the grand scheme of things, what really matters? To make the next point the important question for now will be, “What is matter?” It is regarded as a handful of elementary particles which vibrate and fluctuate constantly between existence and non-existence. Eye opening and comforting? Didn’t think so.
Try this. Did you know that only 4 percent of our universe consists of ordinary matter of the kind we are familiar? The rest, 96 percent, is a complete mystery. Ninety-six percent! Just think of all those persons – prophets, pastors, gurus, politicians – who dare to be so absolutely certain of everything between countries, heavens, earth, and hell. It may be that the world is more boundless and mysterious than we can even imagine given the limitations of our brains. Perhaps, with a little help from an entheogen or an empathogen to get our limiting brain momentarily out of the way, our way of “seeing” matter and the things that do matter -- like spirit, vibration, and the energizing forces of our world -- can become clearer.
With all this “not knowing” should we be frightened or excited? Be intrigued? Or fearing bedlam, duck and cover? Fall on a spear?
Perhaps the best recourse is to follow the Buddhist practice of getting comfortable with what is, just as it is, trusting there is a greater organizing force in charge, and it’s not us, not even a body of politicians or group of neuroscientists.
Many people, who have faith in God or Allah, seem to be able to trust in intangibles, things we cannot see or touch. The Ojibwa Indians conclude our brains, minds, and imaginations are so puny that we can only conclude one thing about large creative and sustaining forces: they/it should be called the Great Mystery. Not knowing is part of being human. It is even more expansive than the “beginner’s mind” that Buddhism references, but difficult to sit with.
Joseph Chilton Pearce, in The Heart-Mind Matrix, cautioned us not to live too much in our cranial brain. It just can’t handle the big questions. He wrote: “The irony is that the intensity of our current crisis…can be attributed to our very ‘superior brain.’ It takes some extraordinary brilliance and creativity to make the incredible mess we have made on this good Earth. The sharper our intellect, the deeper our crisis. And we are getting correspondingly smarter intellectually while less intelligent.” It’s time to plug into a bigger mind that has a far wider perspective, the mind of the universe. Admitting we may not have all the answers is the first step to discovering answers to our planetary and interpersonal existence.
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The Institute for HeartMath has taught us that a minute or so of anger or fear can depress the immune system for hours. In contrast, what might the feelings of MDMA induced compassion, empathy, love, and bonding awaken? If we become happier can it be the start of being healthier? And if we tap into the creative and benevolent forces of the universe, the larger Us, there appears to be some certainty that the world will be experienced as a kinder and nicer place.
With the left brain momentarily calmed down and out of the way due to being blindfolded and under MDMA’s influence, and with the frequencies of a greater mind penetrating our consciousness and being transmuted in little digestible bites fed to our brain, we may become slightly more familiar with the underlying mind of the universe – the Great Thinker. Paradoxically, the world becomes more illuminated in the dark recesses of our mind, when we “plug into” the larger feminine consciousness all around us – in the field where we detect a hint of the enormous explanatory process we are positioned in. As the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse posits, both practically and poetically: “You can never see further than in the dark.” And within the human body, Joseph Chilton Pearce believes, it is the heart-mind, especially when activated by MDMA, that is the command center.
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“Fritjof Capra noted that in quantum physics we never end with things, or the safe round solid objects sought by materialists, but only connections, influences, forces. Or, as I have in my previous books, all there is, is relationship.”
- Joseph Chilton Pearce in
The Heart-Mind Matrix
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Other Topics
Basics of MDMA
Rituals and Ceremony
Brain and MDMA
Trauma
Heart
Energy Movement
Quantum Physics
Native Cosmologies
Nature
Spirituality/Enlightenment
Kogi Tribe
Books written by Geral T. Blanchard
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Just as we have started to witness the reality of individual post-traumatic growth (PTG) – not just bouncing back after trauma but bouncing forward – could we entertain the concept of intergenerational growth (IG) – in other words, thriving from generation to generation?
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Traumatized persons, with their pervasive pain, typically seek mood altering experiences. This can include ascetic restrictions, hedonistic over-eating, chemical dependency, sexual dependency, sexual anorexia or celibacy, romance addiction, relationship dependency, compulsive gambling, TV or movie binging, rock climbing, auto racing, reliance on antidepressants and/or antianxiety medications, religious addiction, and so much more that can serve to pacify, distract, and avoid unpleasant thoughts and feelings. By thrill-seeking, the higher the risks being engaged, the greater mood alteration one can experience. It’s a big dopamine splash and more.
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