A Beginner’s Guide to Psychedelics & Plant Medicine

Photo by Dr. Avanti Kumar-Singh of sacred medicine at a retreat in Mexico.

“When someone is in ceremony with plant medicine and they are dissociated from their body, it’s like the stress response doesn’t grip them and so they can really be with the thoughts and the memory and look at them without getting overwhelmed by the stress response.”

— Dr. Ellen Vora

Two years ago, I completed a series of six ketamine treatments over two and a half weeks. My stress response decreased and I felt more capable of accepting what life was throwing my way. A fear response didn’t manifest in my body and I was able to just be. While this description doesn’t do justice to my full experience, it does describe the expansive feeling of oneness and connection I felt.

Since I’m still trying to understand my experience with psychedelics, I interviewed Dr. Tanmeet Sethi, a board-certified integrative physician, and Dr. Ellen Vora, a board-certified psychiatrist, to help me unpack psychedelic and plant medicines, and what’s happening inside our bodies when we use them for healing.

What are psychedelics?

Psychedelics generally describe psychoactive drugs that alter or shift our consciousness. The definition describes our experiences of the drugs and the impact of using them, rather than the mechanisms of each drug inside our bodies.

Ketamine is currently the only psychedelic that can be legally prescribed. But there are many others that you’ve probably heard of including ceremonial Ayahuasca, LSD, and MDMA which is also known as ecstasy or molly. Psilocybin is the psychoactive agent of the ever-popular “mushrooms.” Other than ketamine, most of these are considered illegal substances at this time.

But as Dr. Sethi says, “in the end, what we're talking about are plant medicines. Even the ones synthesized originally came from an honoring of plants and ancestral indigenous knowledge of those plants.” Western science is catching up to what many cultures have used throughout history.

Healing properties of psychedelics.

Each psychedelic medicine described above uses different mechanisms and each has unique healing properties. Ketamine has been studied most extensively by Western science, though research is also being conducted on LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA. Many psychedelics interact with serotonin, one of our key “happy” hormones.

Dr. Ellen Vora finds that ketamine treatments create a space to explore trauma where our anxiety and fear responses aren’t triggered. As I experienced, ketamine can create a distance or dissociation from the body. This allows people to explore traumatic memories without triggering panic attacks or other stress responses.

Ketamine also changes what happens when our brain is in the default mode network. The default mode network (DMN) is “where we hang out when we’re not actively engaged in a task” says Dr. Vora. If you start scrolling on your phone to avoid being anxious about the future or dwelling too much on past events, you’re redirecting from the default mode network. Dr. Vora notices that using ketamine helps people be present with those anxieties without judgment.

Psychedelics foster internal dialogue.

I believe that self-awareness is the most important tool for self-healing. And it’s really important to separate awareness from judgment. This is why I get frustrated with Westerners who are obsessed with perfecting yoga postures. The purpose of doing postures is to be in conversation with your body and mind.

Psychedelics can also support our dialogues with ourselves. Dr. Sethi describes a “sense of self-dissolving” with psychedelics. Our egos take a break and allow us to see our lives in a greater context with a different clarity. That kind of distance, ironically, can help us feel more connected to the people around us. As Dr. Sethi says, “our ancestors had these experiences and then had more curiosity about what this world was about and how to tend to all of the earth and all of us.”

This post is just a tiny sample of what is possible with psychedelics. Listen to Part 1 & Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Sethi and Dr. Vora to learn more. I also recommend these resources to understand what scientists are learning about psychedelics:

Be on the lookout for my next post about psychedelics and spirituality. I’ll unpack how psychedelics can stimulate deep empathy and the power of ritual and ceremony.

Be well,

Avanti Kumar-Singh, MD

P.S. Dr. Sethi and Dr. Vora both talked about the importance of recognizing the indigenous roots of plant medicine and that it’s important to honor rather than appropriate indigenous practices. I’m sharing a few resources below to support your education in this matter.