Video
SEP 2023
“There is a war on consciousness in our society, and if we as adults are not allowed to make sovereign decisions about what to experience with our consciousness while doing no harm to others, including the decision to use responsibly ancient and sacred visionary plants, then we cannot claim to be free in any way. And it is useless for our society to go around the world imposing our form of democracy on others while we nourish this rot at the heart of society and we do not allow individual freedom over consciousness.”
– Graham Hancock
Graham Bruce Hancock is a British writer “who promotes pseudoscientific theories involving many ancient civilizations and lost lands.” We share the same Alma mater, Durham University, which is one of the many reasons I feel connected to him.
Hancock gives an incredible talk about the war on consciousness, which was banned due to his “promoting” of the psychoactive substance ayahuasca. It is completely irrational and sad to me that such an important speech was deemed to be inappropriate. I believe this to be the reason why psychedelics are still so misunderstood and stigmatized. Something that stuck with me from the talk was when he said, “In our society if we want to insult somebody, we call them a dreamer. In ancient societies, that was praise.”
He also talks about the hypocrisy of our society that we get persecuted for owning even tiny amounts of psilocybin or DMT. Yet, we have a love affair with other mind-altering and destructive substances and stimulants such as alcohol and sugar.
We need more Graham Hancocks to walk us through why it is so important to engage with these topics to evolve and grow as a collective.
If this video speaks to you, I also recommend listening to the podcast below (from minute 47):
