The Profile:
Name: Kelsey
Nationality: American
Lives in: Austin, Texas
Age when taken psychedelics: 18-39
Job: Procurement Specialist
Psychedelic of choice: LSD
Place of ceremony: Home
What was your intention?
To open my mind and go beyond. To get clarity on what was happening and how I was approaching it. It’s hard for us to get out of where we are unless we are willing to do something different – to me doing something like that was different.
The reason I was interested in opening my mind is because I was looking for a way could be more objective. I feel like we have to be so careful in today’s world where people are so quick to respond to information and to get a story out. I needed to make sure that I had the clarity to discern the various pieces of information that were coming at me, especially during this crazy pandemic and elections time.
It can be a humbling experience but I have to remind myself that before I start stating something as an absolute truth, I need to be sure of it, be able to back it up with evidence and make sure that truth is shared among other people and not just a siloed opinion I’m touting as truth.
So, I took a bigger dose of LSD and after that, I was also microdosing for 3 weeks. Now I find I don’t need to do that anymore.
It was important for me to do that as I’m a spiritual person and I felt there were some things I was doing to cope with what was going on with the state of affairs in the word. There is of course a lot of positivity that came out of the pandemic but I was just trying to cope with all the bombardment of everything. I was ready to have a shift in my perception – even just 1% can mean a totally new world for us.
Why did you take it?
I used it during the pandemic to help me cope – I thought that given the state of everything, what better time to take the time to really do it.
Like I said before, I felt I needed my perception expanded. We are being bombarded with so much information and so much of it is really hard to understand. It was important for me to be able to step back and try to see both sides of the coin. For me LSD is a more immediate way to make those walls that we built up crumble down to gain that clearer vision.
I found that with other substances like mushrooms, they do that too but LSD is more manageable for me. Maybe it’s because I took too big a dose with mushrooms in the past – it was a whole other level where I had an encounter with a past ancestor that lasted a few seconds and was kind of scary. I guess LSD lends itself more to my personality and how I want to work with it.
So, I used it to help me keep me present, keep my mind open, push me into reading other philosophies I may have not wanted to read just for the sake of wanting to understand more. I can see how important it is when people communicate nowadays. Before I enter into a conversation, I need to be well-read, well-spoken, able to speak about the different things instead of throwing conjecture and opinions, which is what we are seeing today.
As a result, I’m just going back over some of the things I may have not had a good understanding of like Marcus Aurelius, or listening to Plato’s “Republic” – we forget that we are living in a society built on many of these people’s thoughts and philosophies. I may not be a very political person but I like history and I like to understand where we came from, where I’m at right now and where we are going too.
What were you most afraid of?
Nothing. I have a long history of use of LSD so I think I have conquered all those fears. I’m not really afraid of much of anything – today is what we get and I try to live for that.
What did you most look forward to?
I call it ‘clearing the cobwebs’ – I needed to clear my mind from all that clutter. I needed a bit of a reset.
I love doing physical stuff like cycling but it wasn’t getting me the kind of mental reset I was after. LSD did do that and I didn’t need it after.
Also, I realised there was some depression in the background because of the pandemic. My wife is a barber, and she couldn’t do her job that she loves. We were staying inside almost all the time with our 2-year-old baby – all that was difficult. I wanted to lift that feeling.
What was the hardest bit about the experience?
When you are in a trip like that, you have to be ready to look at some difficult things. I had to realise that I have taken my eyes off my family. I asked myself why I have done this and now I’m holding myself accountable because I’m seeing things for what they are. So, even though it’s helped me change my perspective to be more positive, it’s also made me take a hard look at all those hard truths. The good news is that I have the ability to change what I don’t like and choose what’s important to me.
What was the best bit about the experience?
Refocusing on my family. Nothing was greater than dropping acid at 3pm, getting my baby into a stroller and walking around the neighbourhood with my wife. I felt a sense of appreciation and connection. These are the people I love.
I think that the people we can really help and impact are friends and family as well as our community. If we get caught up and swept away in the media sensationalism over a few people that have never met me in my life, I need to put my focus back on what matters and that was the sweetest little bit.
What did you get from it?
That 1st LSD trip I had, I immediately felt that pandemic-induced depression melt away. I was able to see the joy in front of me. I could see all these things that were going right that were just completely taken for granted because I was focusing on those other things instead.
I feel like we are going through this 3rd psychedelic wave where more people are making it again and figuring out how to do it better. When I was a teenager, I wanted everyone to take it but I quickly realised that maybe it’s not for everybody – it takes a certain time and setting and a certain need to want to do that.
That one reset gave me a fresh perspective and instead of me being ‘in it’, I’m ‘over it’ and I’m kind of looking down. It was incredible for me.
Also, I got the realisation that regardless of what we think, life is going to go on. Nature has not slowed down one bit. The trees are going to keep on growing and the animals are doing their thing and if they are being taken care of like that, then maybe I will be as well.
That experience has definitely given me respect for life. If you are out in the beauty of it, you can have that appreciation.
These are things we know but we forget them as these cobwebs come in.
How did it impact your life?
One of the biggest things was my attitude – that’s what we have the biggest control over. It’s allowed me to be more positive.
What did you struggle with after?
There really wasn’t a whole lot of difficulty. Probably more just getting the deeper views and perspectives, being more grateful because a lot of people got hit hard during the pandemic while I have moved up the ladder 3 times at work and am getting paid 75% more than before. Instead of griping about these little things, I was able to readjust and focus on where my real value is.
What improved?
My overall quality of life. I think America is one of the craziest places out there to live in. I thought Bush – Cheney Iraq war years were crazy but where we are today, I really feel like there is a psychological warfare on a mass scale and we have to be careful and stay watching and listening, a bit like a weatherman who watches the weather everyday. We need to strive to be thinking, objective, questioning human beings – we have to be more aware globally.
I do believe there is a type of global consciousness going on and I can see more people moving in this direction – it’s a good way to combat some of that psychological warfare…
What do you need to work on?
I feel like a lot of people need to start picking up books, start learning, reading, getting themselves educated and start caring for the communities around them.
I’d like to become more precise in the way I do things – not that I’m sloppy but just to tighten a few things. The way I see it is that if you are going to do something, try to do it the best way you can.
What would be your advice if you were to do it again?
I think I would have told myself that it’s not the LSD that’s going to do this. It’s just the vehicle. It’s not this magic thing – it’s more about me and less about it.
I’m just glad I had the ability to have the experience and I wish more people have access to it.
Kelsey's drive for knowledge and objective truth (if such a thing exists) was a breath of fresh air, especially after learning that 70 million Americans voted for a candidate who practically invented "fake news".
This next-door, Austin based, white male who's into cycling and works in procurement has realised the world driven by guesswork and uneducated personal beliefs purported as facts is dangerous. So, he went back to the basics: history, the Stoics philosophy and...LSD - things we once deemed great but eventually demonised or forgot about.
Maybe not everyone is ready to take mind expanding substances such as LSD but I would hope the attitude of searching for that mental clarity becomes more prevalent in our society. We have indeed been successful in many ways achieving a great amount of comfort, reducing crime, improving health, travelling to the moon but we have also been destructive allowing the wealth gap to widen, increasing depression rates, chronic diseases or causing the climate disaster. We cannot afford to sit back and rely on the governments or any other institutions to tell us what's right. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves so we are not manipulated into helping someone fill up their coffers under the pretense of fighting for our greatness.
The best weapon against bullsh*t is knowledge and for that we are responsible ourselves. Go and get your books - Plato's "Republic" is a good start...
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