Why can’t psychedelics grant enlightenment?

Some people speak of “seeing” the Self, or the Absolute, on plant medicine or other similar psychedelic substances. But, if you think about it, that’s no different than reading about it in a book. They’re both indirect experiences. A psychedelic experience carries the illusion of being direct, the illusion being “I’ve seen the Absolute!” That’s one of its greatest traps.

I respect the traditions that hold plant medicine as sacred, and wholeheartedly believe in their ability to heal the human mind. But contrary to what is commonly believed, I do not believe that plant medicine or psychedelics can give one what we call jñāna, satori, nirvana or gnosis. Why is that?

The question that teachers, like the Buddha, were trying to address is not of seeing the Absolute, but of permanently ending suffering (not pain, but suffering). For that, there are many prescribed paths that all address how to actually bring the mind under control, so that the mind can stop believing itself. A psychedelic cannot do that for you no more than a book or a guru can. The practitioner has to do it for themselves.

Having a transcendental psychedelic experience that allows you to notice the Absolute within oneself can bring about an appreciation of this absolute reality. But appreciation is not the same thing as actually having the mind give up the…