The Evolved Podcast

Reclaiming Sacred Medicine: The Suppression of Psychedelics

Subscriber Episode • • Aaron Scott • Season 1 • Episode 17

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The hidden truth about psychedelics might be one of modern medicine's most shocking cover-ups. What if powerful healing tools weren't banned because they were dangerous, but because they were too effective at liberating people from systems of control?

The Evolved Podcast pulls back the curtain on how these ancient medicines—once revered by civilizations worldwide for healing, insight, and spiritual connection—were systematically suppressed by political powers, religious institutions, and the medical industry. This wasn't about protecting public health; it was about maintaining authority over consciousness itself.

Consider the evidence: While nearly one billion people worldwide suffer from mental health conditions with minimal treatment innovation, substances like psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, and ketamine have demonstrated remarkable efficacy in treating depression, PTSD, addiction, and existential distress. Research from prestigious institutions confirms what indigenous cultures preserved through millennia—these aren't recreational drugs but powerful medicines for mind, body, and spirit.

Unlike pharmaceuticals that require daily dosing and create dependency, psychedelics often need just 1-3 sessions for lasting effects. They promote neuroplasticity, dissolve rigid thought patterns, and facilitate profound healing experiences. Yet they were classified as Schedule I substances with "no medical value"—a classification that contradicts mounting scientific evidence but serves institutional interests.

The suppression follows historical patterns: from monotheistic religions labeling plant ceremonies as "sorcery" to colonial powers outlawing indigenous rituals to Nixon-era criminalization targeting counterculture movements. As John Ehrlichman later admitted, "We couldn't make it illegal to be black or against the war, but by getting the public to associate hippies with LSD, we could disrupt those communities."

Today's psychedelic renaissance represents more than new treatment options—it's a reckoning with systems that profit from disconnection and suffering. It challenges us to reclaim our autonomy in healing and to protect the wisdom traditions that preserved these medicines through centuries of persecution.

Join us weekly as we continue to unveil the systems shaping our world and explore pathways to higher awareness through truth and knowledge. If this episode resonated with you, please follow, share, and support our evolution of consciousness movement.

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Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Evolved Podcast, a space for unfiltered truth, deep reflection and heightened awareness. Here, knowledge isn't just information. It's a tool for transformation. Each episode is designed to challenge illusions, reveal patterns and empower not to entertain, but to awaken. Today, we're stepping into one of the most misunderstood battlegrounds in modern medicine and spirituality psychedelics, once revered by ancient civilizations as sacred tools for healing, insight and communion with the divine. As sacred tools for healing, insight and communion with the divine, these compounds have been banned, buried and demonized by the very institutions that claim to safeguard our health. But why? In this episode, we explored this question and uncovered the deliberate suppression of psychedelics by political powers, religious institutions and the medical industry itself. We'll uncover how these substances capable of unlocking deep healing, neuroplasticity and spiritual awakening, were sidelined, not for lack of efficacy, but because they posed a threat to centralized control. You'll hear how modern research is now confirming what indigenous cultures have known for millennia that these are not recreational drugs. They are medicines for the mind, the. These are not recreational drugs. They are medicines for the mind, the soul and the trauma we carry. So ask yourself why were these tools made illegal? Who benefits from your disconnection, from your suffering and what becomes possible when we reclaim our right to heal, awaken and see. Clearly, let's begin.

Speaker 1:

Unlike many areas of medicine, such as oncology or cardiology, mental health has seen almost no true innovations in the last half century. Mental health conditions have not only become more visible, they've become more prevalent and more urgent worldwide. Some key facts as of 2019, an estimated 970 million people globally were living with a mental disorder. The most common conditions Anxiety disorders and depression. In the United States, rates of depression and anxiety have surged. Suicide rates among youth ages 10 to 24, have increased by 56% between 2007 and 2017, marking one of the most alarming public health trends in decades. Globally, nearly one in eight people live with a diagnosable mental disorder. However, up to 85% of people in low and middle-income countries receive no treatment at all. This due to lack of resources, infrastructure and stigma. The economic cost of mental illness was approximately $2.5 trillion in 2010, and is projected to rise to $6 trillion by 2030, factoring in lost productivity, absenteeism, healthcare utilization and premature death.

Speaker 1:

Now, while traditional medicine stagnated, alternative modalities like psychedelics were either dismissed or banned entirely. Substances like psilocybin, lsd and MDMA showed early promise in treating PTSD, depression and end-of-life anxiety as early as the 1950s and 60s, but in the 1970s these were classified as Schedule 1 drugs, effectively halting decades of research. This suppression wasn't purely about safety. It was about control. Psychedelics, when used responsibly, increase individual awareness, ego dissolution and connection, all of which challenge social conformity and institutional authority. Their spiritual and healing potential was incompatible with the model of medicine built around repeat prescriptions, symptom management and passive patient roles.

Speaker 1:

While we are now witnessing a renaissance of mental health innovation from telehealth platforms to renewed psychedelic research, the field is still catching up. Ketamine and S-ketamine are now FDA-approved for treatment resistant depression. Psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA are in late-stage clinical trials for PTSD and major depression. But to create true breakthroughs we need not just new tools. We need a new philosophy of mental health, one that embraces complexity, honors personal healing and removes the fear of consciousness expansion. We need to stop ignoring the shortcomings of present-day treatments and come to the realization that across the mental health industry and society at large, a shift is not only responsible but absolutely necessary. Remarkably, psychedelics have shown tremendous medicinal benefits, especially in the treatment of mental health disorders, trauma and end-of-life distress. Modern clinical research, combined with centuries of traditional use, supports their therapeutic potential when used in controlled, intentional settings.

Speaker 1:

Here are the most studied psychedelics and their specific medicinal benefits, backed by current real evidence. We have psilocybin, a psychedelic that has been burdened by the common nomenclature magic mushrooms. There are medically proven, documented benefits to their use in treating mental health illness. They have helped individuals with treatment-resistant depression. Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London show rapid and lasting reduction in depressive symptoms after one to two high-dose sessions. That's incredible. Individuals with anxiety and depression and terminal illness have shown that they reduce existential dread and improved quality of life for patients facing death. They have shown miraculous benefits in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. Preliminary studies show reduced compulsive thought loops and anxiety, and psychedelics are reshaping treatment of alcohol and tobacco addiction. They have displayed high success rates in quitting due to increased self-awareness and motivation. The mechanism at play here is psilocybin enhances neuroplasticity, decreases activity in the brain's default mode network and increases emotional openness.

Speaker 1:

Now a more potent psychedelic that has been burdened by immense prejudice is LSD. Lsd has been shown to benefit through research or historical use. There's been anxiety reduction in end-of-life patients. It has been shown to relieve cluster headaches in microdoses and even alcoholism. Specifically, in the 1950s and 60s, studies showed LSD increased abstinence rates in alcoholics by around 50%. They also enhanced creativity and problem-solving. Although not strictly medicinal, these increased faculties are highly valued in a variety of therapeutic contexts. The mechanism here is that LSD alters serotonin receptor activity, increases connectivity between the brain regions and disrupts rigid thought patterns.

Speaker 1:

We have the NFAD, psychedelic ayahuasca, which is a combination of DMT and MAOI. Ayahuasca has been shown to benefit through research or historical use. It has worked miracles for treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. It's especially powerful in releasing emotional trauma during ceremonies. It has shown remarkable results in addiction recovery, especially alcohol and cocaine. Ayahuasca has also shown benefit in PTSD and complex trauma. The mechanism here is with DMT inducing powerful emotional catharsis and visionary insight. The MAOI extends and deepens this experience. Lastly, and what is now more mainstream, is ketamine, which can be best described as a dissociative anesthetic with psychedelic properties. Here we have seen rather rapid benefits in treating severe depression and suicidal thoughts. It acts within hours versus weeks for SSRIs. It has shown tremendous impact with bipolar depression and pain and trauma-related disorders. The mechanism at play here is it increases glutamate and promotes synaptic repair and neuroplasticity.

Speaker 1:

There's a vast array of other emerging applications. We have eating disorder, adhd, chronic pain syndromes, neurodegenerative diseases. Now let's make sure we caveat this and highlight the inherent risks with the use of psychedelics. They are not for everyone. They can exacerbate psychosis, bipolar disorder or trauma if used irresponsibly. With all use cases, healing depends heavily on mindset and environment. And then there's the current legal status, which varies by country and region.

Speaker 1:

Many psychedelics are still classified as Schedule I substances. And yet, despite the profound therapeutic potential that psychedelics have shown in treating conditions like depression, ptsd and addiction, their mainstream acceptance has been systematically obstructed. What follows is a closer look at how the medical establishment and regulatory systems suppressed these treatments, not due to lack of efficacy, but because of a deeper political, cultural and economic motivation. The medical industry, particularly in the West, has historically refused or delayed the serious consideration of psychedelics for treating disease, not because of a lack of evidence, but due to a complex mix of political pressure, cultural bias, institutional conservatism and profit-based incentives. In the 1970s, psychedelics were classified as Schedule I under the US Controlled Substances Act, defined as having quote no accepted medical use, a high potential for abuse and a lack of safety under medical supervision. This labels severely restricted research funding, clinical trials and institutional interest. Even today, this classification contradicts modern data but remains in place for most psychedelics.

Speaker 1:

Psychedelics are not ideal products for the pharmaceutical industry either. They often only require one to three doses for long-lasting effects. Psychedelics do not produce dependency or require daily use. They are also often administered in non-standard settings like therapy rooms, with guides making them hard to monetize. Ssris and benzodiazepines, the drugs commonly used to treat these illnesses, by contrast, provide recurring revenue over months or years, for many a lifetime.

Speaker 1:

There has been this institutional conservatism in psychiatry. Psychiatry has been dominated by biochemical models, treating mental illness as brain chemistry imbalance. Psychedelics challenge this by offering rapid symptom relief, emphasizing subjective, spiritual or mystical experience hard to quantify. They also require psychological integration, not just chemical balance. There have been widespread research blockades. Until recently, even elite institutions faced denial of research grants, institutional review board resistance and negative stigma among peers and journals. And negative stigma among peers and journals. Studies were often forced underground, outside academia or in fringe circles.

Speaker 1:

Let's examine the mainstream medical arguments against psychedelics and why they fall apart. One argument they're dangerous and addictive. In truth, most psychedelics are non-addictive and have low physiological toxicity. Alcohol and opioids are far more harmful. Another argument they're not evidence-based. In truth, dozens of peer-reviewed clinical trials like a Johns Hopkins, nyu and Imperial College show efficacy for depression, ptsd, addiction and anxiety. Then we have the. They're unpredictable. However, with proper set and setting, you minimize real risk. Modern protocols include screening, supervision and integration therapy. There's the commonly misunderstood statement they're not real medicine, it's just a trip. However, mystical experiences correlate directly with therapeutic outcomes, especially for depression and end-of-life anxiety. Subjectivity does not make it invalid. And then, as I mentioned previously, the argument that they can trigger psychosis True for a small subset, like those with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but screening protocols mitigate this.

Speaker 1:

Most users reported enhanced psychological resistance. Today, with the psychedelic renaissance underway, institutions are beginning to reverse course. But it took decades of resistance. And the truth is these medicines were never rejected for being ineffective. They were rejected for being too effective in liberating people from external control. Beyond their clinical efficacy in alleviating mental health disorders, psychedelics offer something even more profound the potential to reconnect us with a deeper sense of meaning, unity and self-awareness. Their ability to dissolve ego boundaries and foster transcendent experiences opens a pathway not only to healing but to spiritual awakening.

Speaker 1:

The history of psychedelics in spiritual and religious practice is long, global and deeply intertwined with humanity's earliest attempts to connect with the divine, to understand consciousness and to transcend the material world. Across continents and cultures, psychoactive plants and fungi have been used as sacraments, oracles, tools of initiation and vehicles for communion with gods or spirits. We see reference to the use of psychedelics as far back as prehistoric cave art from around 7,000 to 10,000 BCE. Tassili and Adger in Algeria features cave paintings of humanoid figures with mushroom heads, interpreted as evidence of ritual psilocybin use. Shamanic cultures in Siberia, africa and the Americas likely used psychoactive plants for healing, trance and communication with spirits. Indigenous and traditional practices have been culturally and, as a result, spiritually anchored in the use of psychedelics.

Speaker 1:

In Mesoamerica, psilocybin mushrooms were used by Aztecs. Mesoamerica, psilocybin mushrooms were used by Aztecs, mixtecs and Mayans in religious rituals. Peyote cactus was consumed in sacred rites among Huacal and Tarahumara people for centuries, possibly millennia. In the Amazon basin, ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew combining MAOI and DMT were used in communal shaman-led ceremonies to heal, receive visions and access spiritual worlds. Indigenous cosmologies view ayahuasca as a conscious entity, often referred to as la madre or the mother, and with Andean cultures, the San Pedro cactus was used by shamans in Peru and Ecuador in pre-Incan civilizations as early as 2000 BCE. This was often combined with music and chanting and healing and visionary ceremonies.

Speaker 1:

The use of psychedelics were also well documented within the mystery religions and the ancient world. There were the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece between 1500 BCE and 400 CE. This was a yearly ritual dedicated to Demeter and Persephone that offered initiates an experience of death and rebirth. Most scholars now believe the drink, kikion, contained ergot alkaloids similar to LSD, producing mystical visions. Participants were sworn to secrecy, but many reported profound transformation.

Speaker 1:

Then we have in India, during the Vedic period around 1500 BCE, soma, a sacred psychoactive drink mentioned in Rig Veda, praised for granting divine sight and immortality, was used. The exact identity of Soma is debated, but it was clearly a theogenic. Even with Zoroastrian belief systems we see the use of heoma Similar to soma. Heoma was a ritual drink consumed to connect with Ahura Mazda or God, and align with divine order or Asha. It was believed to grant health, strength and spiritual clarity. And yes, these practices even transcended to the Middle Ages and the early modern era with mystical Christianity, sufism and Kabbalah. While these traditions typically discouraged drug use, some mystics sought altered states through fasting, breathwork or extreme devotion. There is speculation, though debated, that certain medieval mystics used ointments that contained datura, mandrake or belladonna plants with hallucinogenic effects.

Speaker 1:

What we all typically, and unfortunately, associate psychedelics with is the mid-20th century psychedelic revival there was in the 1950s. Through 60s scientific and spiritual exploration. We saw Albert Hoffman, who synthesized LSD and later became a strong advocate for its sacred use. Gordon Wasson, who rediscovered mushroom rituals in Mexico, publishing his experience in Life magazine. Timothy Lirian Ramdas, who promoted LSD as a tool for consciousness expansion and spiritual awakening. And in the present 21st century we are experiencing another re-emergence, a remembering, through neo-shamanism and psychedelic spirituality. Ayahuasca tourism, mushroom retreats and ceremonies guided by Western or indigenous practitioners have grown worldwide. Groups like Santo Dami mix Christian mysticism with Ayahuasca rituals, which are legal in Brazil and parts of the US.

Speaker 1:

Not surprisingly, psychedelics have been repeatedly suppressed by religious, colonial and political power structures, not because they were ineffective or irrelevant, but precisely because they were powerful. Their capacity to disrupt control, dissolve ego, foster direct spiritual experience and challenge centralized authority made them a threat to those seeking to monopolize truth, obedience and social order. Let's examine how, where and why psychedelics were removed or banned and what larger aims those actions served. We see this overtly with the rise of centralized religion, such as Judaism, christianity and Islam. With the rise of centralized religion, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, psychoactive plants and folk atheogens like mandrake, syrian rue and mushrooms were common and pre-monotheistic and pagan traditions. As monotheism spread, especially during the formation of the Hebrew Bible and later, the church rituals involving altered states were labeled as sorcery, idolatry or demonic. This followed in tandem the suppression of the mystical or female goddess concept, when these religions were working to establish patriarchy and a material-based view of the world. Their aim A control of spiritual authority. Psychedelics offered direct experience of the divine which bypassed the need for priests, temples or scripture. They sought to consolidate doctrine. Hallucinatory experiences are unpredictable and personal. They couldn't be standardized or institutionalized. They sought to enforce moral control. Altered states often define rigid moral categories and encouraged ecstatic or erotic expressions.

Speaker 1:

The results of these actions are well documented, but whose context has been obfuscated. Folk healers, mystics and midwives who used plants were criminalized, seen as witches or heretics. These methods of suppression were too ever-present with global colonialism and the rejection of indigenous religions. Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors outlawed peyote, psilocybin, ayahuasca and coca. In the Americas, catholic missionaries destroyed sacred objects, outlawed rituals and often replaced plant sacraments with the Eucharist. The aim here was to destroy indigenous identity. Psychedelic rituals were central to community cosmology and oral history. They sought to replace indigenous cosmologies. European powers imposed Christianity and European models of governance. They sought to break resistance, plant ceremonies, sustained cultural resilience and resistance to the colonial rule. These actions resulted in centuries of cultural trauma, secrecy and disconnection from traditional medicine and spirituality. And, as we all know, history tends to repeat itself.

Speaker 1:

This suppression extended to modern nation-states and the war on consciousness In the 20th century. Psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin and mescaline were criminalized worldwide under UN treaties and US federal law. The United States, with the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, labeled psychedelics as a Schedule I drug, which means that they serve no medical use and have high abuse potential. The aim here was more cultural and control-oriented Suppression. In these instances was to reject counterculture movements.

Speaker 1:

Psychedelics were linked to anti-war activism, civil rights and a rejection of capitalist norms. They felt to control minds and not just bodies. States feared mass disobedience, radical empathy and deconditioning of authority. Maybe the most tangible example of this suppression was a desire to institutionalize a sort of pharmaceutical monopoly. You see, psychedelics offered healing outside the biomedical model threatening the emerging psychopharmacological industry. As Nixon advisor John Ehrlichman later admitted, we couldn't make it illegal to be black or against the war, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with LSD we could disrupt those communities. These methods of suppression transcended macro levels of societal control and metastasized through methods of institutional psychiatry and rationalism.

Speaker 1:

The rise of modern psychiatry in the early 20th century dismissed non-materialist models of the mind. Indigenous and entheogenic practices were viewed as superstition, psychosis or delusion. The aim here was to centralize mental health authority under Western materialist science, pathologize spiritual experience that wasn't quantifiable or testable, protect pharmaceutical institutional dominance over mental health. See. Psychedelics were seen as too unpredictable, subjective and transformational, a threat to reductionist paradigms. However, despite suppression, these substances survived underground through indigenous lineages, secret societies and mystery schools, even artistic, literary and spiritual countercultures. And now, as psychedelics re-enter clinical and spiritual contexts, the same systems that once banned them are seeking to regulate or commercialize them, highlighting that the original aim was never safety or efficacy, but control.

Speaker 1:

What we've explored today isn't just about psychedelics. It's about power who holds it, how it's maintained and what happens when people begin to remember their own. How it's maintained and what happens when people begin to remember their own. These medicines, long vilified and criminalized, were not cast out because they were harmful. They were cast out because they opened doors that the dominant systems could not control.

Speaker 1:

Psychedelics break more than mental patterns. They break dependence on external authority. They dissolve the illusion that healing must be outsourced, that spirituality must be mediated, that wholeness must be prescribed. They reconnect us not just to neurochemistry, but to the sacred within ourselves, in one another and in the living earth. But that reconnection threatens the systems built on disconnection Medical industries that profit from chronic illness, religious hierarchies that fear unfiltered experience of the divine, governments that thrive on numbered obedient populations. And so for decades these compounds were buried, not because they failed the science, but because they bypassed the system. Yet here we are, standing at the edge of remembrance. Clinical data now validates what indigenous cultures have carried for millennia, and people across the world are no longer asking permission to heal.

Speaker 1:

The return of psychedelics is not a trend, it's a reckoning. So as we move forward, we must ask will we reclaim these tools responsibly, with reverence and integrity? Will we protect the wisdom keepers who safeguarded them through centuries of persecution, and will we finally begin to heal not just our minds but the broken systems that taught us to fear our own awakening? Because this isn't just about medicine, it's about memory, it's about freedom and it's about the sacred right to see clearly outside the veil, beyond the prescription and within the truth.

Speaker 1:

As you continue listening to the Evolved podcast, I'm going to unveil the true nature of the world that exists right under your nose. I'm going to analyze with you, out in the open, the systems at play here and the ways we can grow together and evolve. My aim To provide you with real ways to touch higher levels of awareness through truth and knowledge. Episodes are updated weekly. If you want to change your world for the better and support this evolution of consciousness, please show me by following, sharing this podcast with those you love and leaving a review. If you enjoyed our time today, please donate on BuyMeACoffee, linked in the show notes below. Until next week, let's level up and master your universe.