054 | A Critique of Healing Culture, Psychedelic Narcissism & Hyper-Individuality w/ Adam Aronovich
“Psychedelic Narcissism relates to a phenomena that happens when we have access to extremely powerful technologies, such as psychedelic substances, yet we haven’t figured out good epistemic frameworks to make sense of those experiences.”
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I wish I had the information in this podcast years ago when I was stuck in the never-ending healing journey. This conversation is a call move away from hyper-individualism and instead turn “one eye inwards, and one eye outward.”
Adam spent more than four years conducting research and extensive fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, where he also facilitated Ayahuasca workshops in the context of shamanic and medical tourism. He is the creator of Healing from Healing, a social media platform that casts a critical, skeptical and humorous gaze at Healing Culture.
Adam has insights and reflections based on his years of experience overseeing participants of ayahuasca ceremonies. He challenges the commonly heard (harmful) narratives, sense-making and spiritual orientations of medicine guides.
This episode will give you a fresh perspective of the healing journey. Once we get over how triggering it is to call out our own “psychedelic narcissism,” we can see an alternative path; one that is oriented towards not just the individual, but the social, cultural and environmental systems that need healing just as much as individuals do.
Topics covered in this episode:
Psychedelic Narcissism: what is it & how to spot it
The dangers in sense-making psychedelic experiences as absolute Truth
The dangers of going into psychedelic experiences with the narrative of healing childhood trauma
How the orientation of medicine providers primes certain experiences
Creating narrative-neutral medicine spaces
Hyper-individualism and con-spirituality within plant medicine culture
The link between individual health and cultural, social and environmental health
Transitioning into service from the “never-ending healing journey”
How control and fear of uncertainty perpetrate psychedelic narcissism
“Psychedelics show us reality tunnels and the way we build those tunnels. When we have self-awareness around how we construct our view of reality and sense-make, then we have more agency in re-configuring our perspective”
LISTEN
“Healing is not the end goal. Healing is a vehicle towards feeling whole enough so that we can show up for life. If we forget to do that transition, we’ll get stuck in the healing spiral instead of being of service in the world.”
Where to find Adam Aronovich
About Adam Aronovich
Adam is a doctoral candidate at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain, focusing on Medical Anthropology and Cultural Psychiatry. He is an active member of the Medical Anthropology Research Center (MARC-URV) and part of the Ayahuasca Community Committee at the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines.
Adam spent more than four years conducting research and extensive fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, where he also facilitated Ayahuasca workshops in the context of shamanic and medical tourism. He is the creator of Healing from Healing, a social media platform that casts a critical, skeptical and humorous gaze at Healing Culture.
Adam is currently the director of therapy and integration for Rē Precision Health, a wellness centre in the Pacific Coast of Mexico. He also facilitates preparation and integration processes in private practice, and helps clients reframe “Healing” within relational and recreative frameworks and a secular, humanistic, grounded and open-ended interpretive and epistemic orientation.
Looking for a professional coach to support you on your psychedelic path?
Look no further! Along with being the host of the Modern Psychedelics Podcast, Lana is a 3x certified professional coach who works with people on the psychedelic path.
