Discourse on Psychedelics

Sometimes I feel like an imposter on this topic because I have not worked with psychedelics personally. Yet I believe this neither disqualifies me from taking a perspective nor adjudicates my responsibility to have one as an investor in the inner healing space.

As I continue to educate myself through research that includes open and deep discussions with experts, practitioners, and professionals, my current perspective is that there is a role for these medicines to play in healing. More specifically, there seem to be two general instances where psychedelics help to accelerate the healing journey for people.

One instance is in the nature of spiritual growth - allowing some people who are early on in their journey to experience, for the first time, a deep perspective of what lower or no ego feels like. That experience helps to shift them and move them towards exploring how to live from a place of more compassion and service to community. They realize that there is more peace and joy from this way of being and it impacts the way they live moving forward.

A second scenario is more grounded in the science of mental health. For subsets of people who are struggling with more intense mental health challenges, there is strong research and evidence that points to relief. For example, in the 10-15 million people who struggle with Treatment Resistant Depression, Ketamine has been shown to have relatively quick efficacy in a significant portion of that population. For these people, instead of a dead end, there is suddenly hope.

Yet, others I have talked to were destabilized by a psychedelic experience that shook them up too much without the proper integration and follow up work. They may have derived some long-term benefit, but it was not clear to them and certainly caused a lot of disruption in the short term.

The yoga lineage that I practice in, as well as several spiritual teachers whom I am influenced by, do not believe that there is a role for these medicines in healing and spiritual growth. Some are more nuanced and believe there could be a limited role that allows people to have a shifting experience. Others believe that it’s better not to even have those initial experiences.

At the end of the day, there is so much we do not know, including how and why these medicines have an impact. It comes back to the individual and where applicable, her/his care team and healers to decide if there is benefit to be derived. The one thing that’s clear is that we have to be careful in our approach to these medicines.

Here at Manifestations, we have made an investment in this space and will be making more. Three things are important for us in this consideration. One is to invest in CEOs who are very intentional about balancing the entrepreneurial drive with a deep and genuine intention to help people. Second, we invest in models and businesses that are hyper focused on the person’s safety and on ensuring integration into a broader healing regimen of therapy or other support. Lastly, we ensure that the tough trade-offs are made in the business, where profitability is never placed ahead of the healing intention and the safety of the person.

We hope that the business leadership in this space is grounded in the right intention, and we will do our part to help ensure that.

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