PT516 – Embracing the Mystery: Making Psychedelic Literature Engaging, with Sean Lawlor

Psychedelics Today

In this episode, Joe interviews Sean Lawlor: writer and therapist specializing in ketamine-assisted therapy at Reflective Healing in Fort Collins, CO.

His first book, Psychedelic Revival: Toward a New Paradigm of Healing, will be released on June 4. Written as somewhat of a primer for psychedelics and psychedelic therapy, he talks about how he decided to write the book, how Michael Pollan was an influence, and the importance of making psychedelic literature not boring: Research and statistics are important, but how does one relate to data points when trying to understand something so rich and weird?

He discusses:

• Studying philosophy, from Nietzsche and Freud to Jung and William James
• When a clinical frame or license is important (but can you always trust a license?)
• How context and interwoven culture matter when differentiating between plant medicines and man-made psychedelics
• Brian Muraresku’s The Immortality Key and research into ancient Greeks using psychedelics: Why do we place so much importance on proving this?
• The importance of community, rituals, shared meanings, mythology, and rites of passage and more!

For links, head to the show notes page.