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Comment by vmoore | Hacker News Reader

And we lack actual shamanic centers where we can do this stuff safely, where the dose is exact and you know what you're getting, and you can have guides to help you through the trip if things start feeling sketchy. And we could even have people on standby to administer anti-psychotic medicine in-case you have adverse reactions and need to calm down quickly before you do something stupid. The illegality of these substances is illegal in itself!

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I think the issue starts with the moniker "shamanic", which does not sound like a place many people would trust their health to.

Well, I would rather say there are probably way too many people, who would totally trust such a place with their whole health, just because of the name and some other esoteric buzzwords like indigenous, ancient wisdom.

I do have great respect for "real" shamans. But I met way too many fake ones, handing out horrible and dangerous advice, while glowing in their self declared illuminative state of higher consciousness.

Yeah its interesting because I've had absolutely game changing experiences with real shamans, and then bad experiences with phony ones. If you find a good one, stick with them

Where'd you find these?

All around the world.

Most are quite harmless and you still can have interesting conversations with them. Some are more weird and even dangerous, like this individual, which I have not met personally, but people like him.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Angeli

I agree. And I also think that for the same reasons, the psychiatry system, at least the parts that I was exposed to, is abysmal. They prescribe according to whatever scriptbook is en vogue at the jurisdiction and the substances themselves are very far from proven - and also the part where you're guided on the trip you're having can be almost completely missing. There's a huge room for improvement in this area.

Check out the Cover Story podcast mentioned in the article. It's pretty eye opening. They mention a few centers that historically you can categorize as unsafe. The key would be to find professionals that have your best interests in mind but the podcast and this article reveal how surprisingly difficult that is.

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