Psychedelics in the Polycrisis

Nick Sun

Image (circa 1250) from Hans Biedermann – Medicina Magica. Metaphysical healing methods in late antique and medieval manuscripts, 1978

As you may have noticed, reality has become an exponential shitshow in the last five years with all manner of destabilising events and influences that have made many of us question the very fabric of a once shared consensus reality. Never before have we faced such a number of varied and largely man-made existential threats to our survival as a species. Climate change, AI, political corruption,  economic instability, pandemics, the sixth mass extinction, social media, information warfare, nuclear arms threat, the list goes on.

The Polycrisis is in effect, the sum of all of the above listed threats along with the interconnected nature of many of them. In other words, if one or more of these crises occurs, they will trigger other crises to happen, amplifying the combined impact of one another and producing cascading effects that are too complex and variable to accurately predict or plan for. 

For example if climate change occurs and the sea level rises, low lying continents would go underwater, triggering a refugee crisis that may cause potential government, political and economic instability and a potential resource war. In other words no crisis will be an isolated affair.

Based on the current trend, this exponential shitshow isn’t going to end anytime soon and unless the magical Aliens come down and give Trump, Netanyahu, Musk, Thiele et al a solid talking to, I’m expecting things to only continue in the direction of maximum entropy.   

Sometimes I fantasise about humanity waking up to realise heaven on Earth but after performing comedy to a wide demographic of regular people around the country for the last two years, I would say the mean level of consciousness hovers somewhere between wilful ignorance, disassociation, denial and overwhelm.
  
‘Shut up with the negativity oh prophet of doom!’ I hear you say. ‘We want solutions, not more diagnostics of why everything is so exponentially fucked! What can we do and how do you live in these times of total unpredictability and what do psychedelics have to do with it? Are they going to save us?’

In short no, psychedelics wont save you. Nothing will save you except for yourselves and perhaps the magical alien spaceships. But psychedelics may help you save yourself during the polycrisis.