Death Nesting by Anne-Marie Keppel

Author:Anne-Marie Keppel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company

PSYCHEDELICS AND VIRTUAL REALITY

Indigenous cultures around the world have practiced healing rituals with psychedelic plants and fungi for millennia. The use of these medicines offered perspectives not otherwise seen or felt, and the medicines were respected as great teachers.

Today, scientific research increasingly supports the use of psilocybin in easing chronic depression and anxiety at end of life, particularly in cancer patients. Psilocybin is becoming more widely available medically, as are other psychedelics, and an increasing number of people are partaking and benefiting. In these instances, each individual’s experience should be supported with education and preparation, correct dosage, a statement of intention, and careful supervision. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a credible resource for information.

Institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and NYU are also researching the use of psychedelics in medicine, and Naropa University in Colorado offers a Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies Certificate. As exciting as it is that these therapeutic modalities are becoming more widely accepted, I think it’s important to remember and honor the fact that ancient cultures and indigenous peoples have been using psychedelic medicines since long before recorded history. Like the work of the death doula is not new, neither is this form of medicine.

I have supported dying individuals through safely coordinated sessions and have witnessed psilocybin’s benefits, such as a spiritual connectivity and calmness that otherwise might not have been possible. (Though, closer to active death, it’s hard to know what kind of magic uncommunicative dying individuals are experiencing in their own natural processes.) One woman I worked with who was chronically depressed slowly weaned herself from her depression medication and then with her doctor’s approval partook in a psilocybin session with me as her doula. For three full weeks following the session she had no need of her antidepressants and began enjoying her life once again. When the daily grind with terminal illness feels emotionally debilitating, a three-week vacation from despair is a great consolation. I have also witnessed the benefits of microdosing—one can find great solace in small medicinal doses and does not necessarily need to have a full “journey” experience.

Though psychedelics may not feel like a comfortable way to treat depression and anxiety in each person (because of a great variety of reasons), technology now offers an alternative that simulates a gentle psychedelic experience. I have had the unique experience of being an advisor and session facilitator for a virtual reality start-up whose focus is to reduce anxiety and existential dread through the journey of terminal diagnosis and to connect loved ones to each other though they may be far distances from each other physically. Though the experience is not as transcendent as an actual psychedelic experience has the potential to be, because the virtual reality environment is unlike everyday surroundings, and participants in the experience appear as a “cloud body” rather than a physical human form, the healing possibilities are boundless. It becomes so clear how much our physical appearance, facial expressions, and body language in everyday life impede our ability to truly, deeply listen to each other.

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