The Guru vs. the Sovereign

Leadership Archetypes & The Psychedelic Guide: Part I

Psychedelics, and all drugs for that matter, are saturated with power. A single drop of LSD can send you on a twelve-hour voyage, a dusting of MDMA crystals can heal trauma, and trace amounts of fentanyl can kill.

Because of this, being in close proximity to this power also contains certain archetypal qualities. Archetypes, as Jung noted, are also crystallizations of power, which, also like drugs, can just as easily expand and enliven the psyche as they can overtake and consume it. Jung calls this phenomenon “archetypal possession.” 

According to Jung, this occurs when the archetype unconsciously “seizes hold of the psyche with a kind of primeval force and compels it to transgress the bounds of humanity. The consequence is a puffed-up attitude (inflation), loss of free will, delusion and enthusiasm for good and evil alike. This is the reason why men have always needed demons and cannot live without gods…”

We all have seen instances of archetypal possession. Celebrities going off the rail…