Sobriety, Psychoactives, and the Mechanics of Consciousness
Are we sober when we dream? Are we sober when we meditate? Are we sober if we’re angry or dysregulated? If we enter into a trance-like state through breath work or shamanic drumming, are we sober? Does sobriety include or exclude the traces of psychoactive tryptamines, alkaloids, phenethylamines, opioid peptides, terpenes, cholinergic compounds in our everyday foods? The very consciousness you experience is so heavily impacted by the foods you eat that we can't even tell the difference. Our entire conscious experience is affected by the chemical reactions of what we ingest. We draw a line only where we notice a difference, not where there truly is one.
We are typically subconsciously relating sobriety to a perceived narrowed field of vision due strictly to a non-endogenous substance. True sobriety has more to do with awareness than external components. If you've helped a loved one through an emotional tough time or calmed a friend’s nerves or frustration, you've essentially assisted them through a mind-altering experience. Our mind is CONSTANTLY altered. You’re late for work so everything feels frantic and rushed. You’re angry so you fumble with your keys, uncoordinated. You’re tired so you exhibit drowsy, spacey, dissociative behavior. You have too much sugar so you run around wired, full of energy and crash and burn in an hour. You have a cup of tea and get a relaxed-focus effect. You eat high amounts of tryptophan and get tired. You’re a walking chemical reaction, constantly having a psychedelic experience that's depending on your environment.
So why do we shy away from the “noticeable” mind-altering chemicals? Why do we rely on a conscious threshold that only shows us more and more how influenceable we truly are to our environment? Group consensus is likely one of the largest factors. The efficacy and safety of plant medicines are generally looked down on as an archaic belief inherited from the colonialist and Christian mindset. Only when science proves an irrevocable conclusion through reductive methods do people begin to doubt their conclusion. That’s just a scratch on the tip of the iceberg though. Even if science proves something, it doesn't mean people just jump on board. The people who once scrutinized others for cannabis use, now take derivatives of it daily, and hold investments in the cannabis industry. Hypocrisy runs rampant in the field of pharmacology. For decades, studies of the benefits of psilocybin for mental health, cognitive rewiring, neuroplasticity, have proven time and time again that mushrooms can help people with complex trauma, PTSD, anxiety, stuck belief patterns, and increase longevity for mental health and brain function. Studies have proven the safety and non-toxicity of said mushrooms. One could easily say they are one of “God’s gifts to mankind”, even citing global spiritual and religious importance for millenia. Yet they’re discredited, passed over, scoffed at, abused, misunderstood, and of course, illegal.
On one wavelength, it’s probably a similar scenario to how meditation has been studied thoroughly for decades, proving health benefits, mental clarity, nervous system regulation, and greater depth and insight, yet many people choose to not find the time to do it. We have an unconscious resistance to growth due to our doubts. If we don’t get immediate gratification and see results instantly, we get distracted easily.
On another wavelength, we don’t understand what we don’t know. What we don’t understand comes with an anxiety of lacking reason or logic. We can shy away from uncomfortable scenarios, or even euphoric, pleasurable acts of connectedness and vulnerability. We get in touch with a child-like, primitive aspect of ourselves and the contrast to the standard of our modern societies are vast.
At the core of it, psychoactive chemicals show us that our mind is constantly evolving; running on whatever is fueling it. Our consciousness is like this active projection that this motor churns out. A motor that’s fueled by our emotions, environment, experiences, beliefs, and the things we consume. There are so many things that affect this motor. Countless. Even ones that give us wildly limiting experiences; the ones that obviously tighten our experience through a pinhole, tunnel vision effect, are looked at and treated as “sobriety”. I would posit that the term itself SHOULD reflect a level of adaptability. Basically, if you’re showing an observable level of dissociation and disconnectedness with your present moment and environment, if you can’t interact, communicate, learn, and show responsive awareness to your surroundings, you aren’t sober.
By this alternative definition, the consciousness altering substances in your body, BOTH endogenous and non-endogenous, are still the actors in the play, but don’t define whether you are “sober”. The only defining factor of sobriety in this definition is your level of awareness and ability to respond and interact with the environment consciously.
Where this gets interesting is how experiences CAN be dissociative. Dreaming, meditating, day-dreaming, and out-of-body-experiences happen naturally. You can be aware and interact with a scenario and environment that isn’t visible by the naked eye to others.
You could almost describe it as attention held hostage. Say you’re conducting an erratic and non-compliant orchestra. They’re not picking up the cues. Timing is off. They aren’t sticking to the notes in the music. You’re doing your damndest to orchestrate and communicate with this unruly mob. Then you notice someone in the front row dancing, smiling, enjoying the music. You’re so invested in the structure of the synchronistic output of the music that you hear it in fragments, not as a whole. You may feel like the dancer is on an entirely different wavelength, like they’re drunk; unable to pick out all the chaos and impromptu variations of the agreed upon music. You catch eyes with the dancer and you realize they’re looking at you bewildered. The look in their eyes shows you right away that they are seeing you amidst this passion, this beauty, the soul of the frequencies coming to life, and that they aren’t landing for you. Their face is portraying the shock that the source of the orchestration seems lifeless and disconnected. While they’re in the thick of the feels, they look at the leader of the melodies and rhythms and see a robot frantically trying to line up binary patterns. You became so invested in the mechanics of the moment, that you lost the ability to feel it. Both parties are witnessing the same happenings but through wildly different lenses, all while entirely sober as per the traditional Western definition.
Another example, you meet up with a friend at a coffee shop. You have a calming chamomile tea, they get an espresso. Two of your other friends show up and see you, come in and strike up a conversation. One of them is energetic, discombobulated, and expressive, the other serene, observational, and quiet. You notice the chaotic energy to be “a bit much” and appreciate the groundedness of the other. Once they leave, your caffeinated friend expresses how they resonated with the energetic friend but felt hesitant and reserved about the calm friend, like they had something to hide or they were “too quiet”. Here’s a scenario where all parties are essentially sober, yet the energies at play are extravagantly divisive or attractive. On one hand we could put the blame on the beverages, saying that they caused the narrowing of consciousness; highlighting the synchronous frequencies. On the other hand, we could dismiss the contribution of the mind-altering substances as so “mild” that they aren’t factors whatsoever and the individuals bear the credit of their cognitive sovereignty and conscious awareness. The tricky part is that both hands hold correct answers.
This breaks down one of the most rigid societal constructs that we have: the definition of sobriety. We are experiencing our perception independently. At the same time we are at the mercy of our environment and biological chemical reactions; what we witness, think, consume, and feel. Sobriety at its deepest layer is a culmination of infinite variations that impact awareness and responsiveness. True sobriety is a spectrum of awareness, not a binary switch of “drugs vs. no drugs.” Our default state is a stew of chemical concoctions of food, stress, hormones, and environmental factors. Illuminating Cognitive Sovereignty needs to reflect the idea that we are always under some influence, and the real question is that of our ability to be present. Our current definition of sobriety rewards dissociation and punishes presence. We have a definition reflecting chemical purity rather than responsive awareness. Someone who is dysregulated and frantically attempting to adhere to a binary system at their own expense is deemed sober while someone who is grounded and present on a low dose of psilocybin is deemed not sober. The former would arguably have more “blind spots” in their consciousness and the latter would be more grounded and exhibit more responsive awareness.
This is a part of a greater redefinition of the “self” where we should stop fearing “mind altering” substances and focus more on awareness altering factors. If sobriety includes this level of awareness and adaptability, the goal isn’t to attempt to stay free of anything that affects the mind but to stay connected and responsive. It’s not solely about what you took, it's how you are.
