The Sibling Society

The Crisis of Leadership and the Psychedelic Renaissance

Old stories often reveal the value of elders who can help to temper the overly ambitious, ego-driven flush of youth.

Like fire, if you’re playing with psychedelic medicines, or anything filled with a power beyond your control, it's best to learn from those who’ve been around a while–people whose hands maybe have a few burn marks from their own experiments gone awry.

The tale of the sorcerer’s apprentice–iconically represented in Disney’s Fantasia with Micky Mouse as the eager apprentice–is a story most of us know in our bones. It describes how a young apprentice begins meddling with powers he doesn't truly understand, and sets off a series of events he is unable to stop.

The first thing that occurs in the story is that the initiated elder (the sorcerer) leaves the room. 

For most of us living in modern Western culture, true elders are hard to come by. In the world of psychedelic therapy, many of our elders are slowly fading into the twilight of their years, or already waiting gleefully fo…