Psychedelics Don’t Heal Addiction—They Return us to Wholeness
Welcome to The Psychedelic Blog. I write about the Impact of Psychedelics on Grieving, Relationships, Culture, and Death. This week, I’m delving into Addiction. Chances are, you or someone you love has faced its grip at some point. Let’s debunk common myths and explore how Psychedelics can help us reclaim our wholeness.
“If you are going to outwit the devil, it’s terribly important that you don’t give him any advanced notice.”
—Alan Watts (on addiction)
We are all addicts. One of the greatest illusions our culture perpetuates is the arbitrary labeling of certain patterns of behavior as “addictions.”
Take the person addicted to their job—working long hours, always grinding. They’re labeled a “hustler” or a “hard worker.” Or the person who chases romance relentlessly, sharing their love with as many people as will have them. They’re labeled a “bachelor” or a “player.” Then there’s me: I wake up hours before the sun rises to push my body through rigorous training. When injury or travel prevents this, I’m overwhelmed with anxiety, feeling disconnected from who I am—it’s tantamount to withdrawal. Yet, I’m labeled a “fitness bro” or an “athlete.”
Make no mistake: these are addictions. They may be productive. They may carry less stigma. But their genesis is the same—a deep desire to return to wholeness. To reclaim the feeling we had as children: eternally present, unconcerned about the past and unworried about the future.
Some pursue this essence in ways that harm them. But they can right the ship. We all can. Because addiction, at its core, is not a moral failing—it’s a longing to be whole again.
The Science of Psychedelics & Addiction
The scientific literature about the impact of Psychedelics on addiction is captivating. Countless studies have demonstrated their ability to help discover unresolved traumas and rewire neuroplasticity of the brain to unmoor it from destructive patterns. Here are the takeaways from multiple studies involving various Psychedelics:
1. Addressing the Root Causes of Addiction
Insight into Trauma & Emotional Pain: Psychedelics like Psilocybin & MDMA bring suppressed traumas & unresolved emotions to the surface in a safe therapeutic context. By confronting & processing these experiences, individuals often find a sense of release, clarity, and closure.
Reduction of Cravings & Withdrawal: Ibogaine has been shown to interrupt the physiological & psychological grip of addiction, creating a space for individuals to reimagine their lives without dependency.
2. Dissolution of the Ego
Temporary Ego Dissolution: Psychedelics produce a state of ego-dissolution, breaking down the rigid mental structures that reinforce addiction. In this state, people feel connected to something greater than themselves, whether it's nature, the universe, or their true essence.
New Perspectives: This altered state allows individuals to see their addictive behaviors from a detached, non-judgmental viewpoint, recognizing how those behaviors do not align with their true selves.
3. Reconnection to Meaning & Purpose
Spiritual Insights: Participants in Psychedelic-assisted therapy report experiences of profound unity, love, and connection, often described as "spiritual awakenings." This helps individuals rediscover a sense of purpose & alignment in their lives.
Restoration of Inner Balance: Addiction often stems from a feeling of disconnection—from oneself, others, or the world. Psychedelics help rebuild those bridges by fostering compassion, gratitude, and an awareness of the present moment.
4. Fostering a State of Wholeness
Integration of Experiences: Through integration therapy, individuals learn to incorporate the lessons and insights from their Psychedelic journey into daily life, creating sustainable patterns of self-care & well-being.
Emotional & Cognitive Reframing: Psychedelics facilitate a shift in perspective, where individuals reframe their addiction as a symptom of disconnection rather than a defining feature of their identity. This empowers them to focus on their intrinsic wholeness. It is who they are disconnected from that matters most—themselves.
5. Key Findings Linked to Wholeness
Psilocybin for Smoking Cessation: Participants who quit smoking describe their experience as a reconnection to their values and a realization of the harm they were causing themselves—a reclaiming of integrity & wholeness.
MDMA for PTSD: By resolving past traumas, individuals report feeling like they can "be themselves" again, no longer shackled by fear or pain.
Ibogaine for Opioid Addiction: Many describe the experience as a "reset" or "reboot," enabling them to reconnect with their authentic selves without the haze of dependency.
In essence, these findings reveal that Psychedelics are not simply tools for treating symptoms of addiction—they are gateways to self-discovery & healing, offering individuals the opportunity to reunite with their innate sense of wholeness and live meaningful, blissful lives.
The Old Way Isn’t Working
Programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) have undeniably helped many people, but their success rate reveals significant room for improvement. Studies indicate that AA has about a 50% success rate. If you or someone you love falls into that success cohort, it’s easy to see AA as a godsend—and I would never dismiss any path that leads to a better life. However, to truly address the epidemic of addiction, we must assess these methods holistically. A 1-in-2 success rate is not enough. We can, and must, do better.
What’s particularly interesting is that Bill Wilson, the founder of AA, would have agreed. Wilson began experimenting with LSD in the mid-1950s under the supervision of Dr. Sidney Cohen, a psychiatrist & pioneer in Psychedelic research. He believed that LSD catalyzes the kind of spiritual awakening that AA considers foundational to recovery. In AA’s 12-step philosophy, a transformative spiritual experience is a cornerstone of healing—and Wilson saw LSD as a way to help people access that experience.
The Controversy Around Wilson’s LSD Advocacy
Wilson’s interest in LSD sparked controversy. AA was built on an abstinence-based philosophy, and the idea of promoting a drug—even in a controlled therapeutic context—felt like a contradiction to the organization’s leadership. As a result, Wilson eventually distanced his personal experimentation from AA’s official teachings.
But the takeaway is profound: Wilson understood the critical role of spiritual connection in recovery. He recognized that addiction isn’t just about breaking habits or achieving sobriety—it’s about reconnecting to a sense of self & meaning.
A Long-Overdue Upgrade to Addiction Treatment
Fast-forward to today, and countless studies involving MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ibogaine affirm what Wilson was hinting at all along. These substances are proving to be powerful tools for fostering the kind of transformation necessary to heal addiction at its roots.
The way we treat addiction is antiquated, relying on methods that often fail to address the whole person. Imagine telling a 24-year-old struggling with alcohol or substance use, “That’s it. Your days of pleasure-seeking are over.” That message is not only harsh but fundamentally misaligned with human nature. We are all pleasure-seekers—it’s an intrinsic part of being alive.
What if we reframed the message? Instead of emphasizing deprivation, we could say: “You’ve become disconnected from who you are. There are modalities that can help you reconnect, and if you do the work afterward, you can live blissfully.”
This updated approach aligns more closely with both science & humanity. It recognizes that addiction is not a moral failing but a disconnection—a yearning for wholeness that can be met with compassion, innovation, and a willingness to evolve.
The Fascinating Connection between Addiction & Archery
In his book Zen and the Art of Archery, Eugen Herrigel explores the necessity of letting go of the bowstring without first deciding to do so. The release and the action must be simultaneous—what could be called an act-decide. Expert archers don’t aim and then shoot; they shoot before they think. It is not a sequence but a single, fluid motion.
The brilliant philosopher Alan Watts drew a profound parallel between this process and addiction. He argued that we cannot decide to stop being addicted. The only way forward is to simply not engage in the behavior—without any premeditated decision to do so. This is no easy task. Yet, for many, there comes a day when it simply clicks. The thing we once thought we couldn’t live without becomes something we couldn’t imagine doing again.
For me, that day was June 20th, 2018, when I quit alcohol. Many reading this may recall their own day—the exact moment they let go of whatever harmful addiction plagued them. For some, that moment stands as a turning point etched vividly in memory.
Alan Watts captured this transformation beautifully in the following passage, which perfectly encapsulates what happens when we break free from addictions that have been harming us:
“We work and work to achieve that final point of perfection. And it doesn’t come—it doesn’t come—and then one day it happens. Now what is the reason for that? It is not that we have practiced it so often that it suddenly becomes perfect. What happens is that we’ve practiced so often, that we find out we can’t do it. And it happens at the moment you know you can’t do it. When you reach a certain point of despair. When you know that you are the one weird child who will never be able to swim, at that moment, you’re swimming. You stop trying. You stop not trying. You just have arrived at the insight that your decision—your will doesn’t have any part in the thing at all. And that’s what you needed to know.”
When we know we are no longer whole, we become whole. That’s the moment addiction ends.
The Danger of Labels
Our culture is drunk on labels. We assign labels to almost every pattern of behavior. Some might think this is no big deal—labels simplify things and help us understand one another better. This might hold true if we were static beings. But we are far from static; we are ever-changing vibrations of energy, soaring through the cosmos. Labels, by their very nature, fail to stand the test of time, rendering them meaningless. More importantly, they fail to capture the multidimensional essence of what it means to be human. Labels are oversimplified & reductive.
But labels are not just inadequate—they are dangerous. Why? Because people live up to the labels assigned to them. I once dated a woman who had spent years in a marriage with a jealous husband who constantly labeled her a cheater. After a decade of hearing this, she had an affair. In her words, she lived up to the label she had been given. When someone addicted to alcohol achieves the unthinkable and quits drinking, they often relapse. Why? Because they have been told their entire lives that they are a drunk. It creates a deep sense of impostor syndrome, driving them back to the label they’ve been forced to embody.
Once we understand that all of us have addictive tendencies born from a desire to feel whole, we stop labeling one another. We stop stigmatizing those who pursue harmful endeavors in their search for wholeness. And when we do this, people can begin to naturally outgrow their destructive addictions—not through shame, but through practice, failure, and the eventual insight that Alan Watts so eloquently describes. They don’t "get clean"; they become whole.
Closing Thoughts: Awareness = Wholeness
I recently caught up with an old friend who asked me what I attribute to the growth I’ve experienced over the past several years. I sat with the question for a while, reflecting deeply, and it became clear: Psychedelics have been the most transformative healing modality in my journey. Why? Because they cultivate unprecedented levels of awareness.
When we are truly aware, the mind no longer holds unchecked agency over our decisions. Temptations, like those tied to addiction, may still surface, but awareness allows us to see them for what they are—momentary impulses rather than directives. With this clarity, we remain on the right path.
In this way, Psychedelics don’t directly "heal" us of our addictive tendencies. Instead, they expand our awareness. And through that awareness, we reclaim our wholeness.
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Fascinating information about Bill W’s psychedelic journey!
Also, I was that 24-year-old (except I was 21) in AA hearing that my days of pleasure-seeking were over. The program helped me quit narcotics, and for that I’m forever grateful. But I can’t imagine my life if I had stayed on that path.
Quite right. it’s all about reconnecting to a sense of self & meaning, not caring about any labels they might have put on you.