Are you open-minded? If I were to poll my entire mailing list – including you – roughly 75 percent would say yes. That is not my opinion. It is what a 2024 Pew Research survey found across a broad sample of Americans.
The other 25 percent are probably more honest.
None of us like to think of ourselves as the closed-minded one in the room. Which is, of course, exactly what makes this statistic interesting.
Before we go any further, a short test. Three scenarios. Honest gut reaction only. Not what you think you should feel, but what actually moves in you when you read it.
- A thoughtful journalist publishes an investigation documenting serious harm caused by a country you feel is on the right side of history. The reporting is rigorous and damaging. Do you believe it?
- You are seated next to a stranger at dinner. The conversation is warm and easy and you like them. Midway through the meal, you discover they vote opposite to you. Nothing else has shifted. Do you still like them?
- A woman you respect professionally tells you that her most meaningful spiritual practice is an annual ayahuasca ceremony. She says it has replaced church, therapy, and antidepressants. Do you respect her choice?
If one of those made you put down your coffee, it may be the mindset worth examining.
A fixed mindset is not a character flaw. It is a map drawn early and mistaken over time for the territory itself. Contradicting evidence gets filtered out or explained away. The cost of being wrong feels too high to tolerate genuine inquiry. Most of us are walking around with maps drawn when we were ten.
There is an answer to this.
Psychedelics appear to physically loosen the brain’s existing grooves and create conditions for new ones to form.
I understand if you need a moment to check in with your open mind. : )
Still here? Good.
A single dose of psilocybin has been shown to grow new connection points between neurons in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that governs thinking and emotional regulation. The experience also temporarily quiets the default mode network, the system most responsible for repetitive, self-referential thought. The loops that keep fixed beliefs in place go quiet. The brain, briefly, becomes more like fresh snow than packed ice.
I have experienced this personally. Each of my plant medicine journeys changed a belief I had defended before the journey, often with complete conviction. I have written about them in past posts. If you missed them, a few links below show my own well-worn grooves dissolving.
From atheist to spiritual:
I’M CONVERTING
ORA & TOAD ARE FRIENDS
From critical to more accepting:
CHANGE OF MIND
DON’T BELIEVE YOURSELF
The question, in this divisive moment in time, is whether any of us are willing to tolerate the cost of being wrong about something we have always defended.
In my experience, a soft mat, a satin eye mask, a few grams of psilocybin mushroom, and a skilled facilitator can make that considerably easier.
