Thank the universe that Psychonaut’s HQ is not bugged! Conversations go deep and sometimes, close to the wire on what could you be considered conspiracy theories, sabotage, treason or crimes against the state – but we would argue that we dare to ask “Why? , But What if?”. The sheer fact that we, you and me, are active on LB is a testament that we DO NOT just settle for the Status Quo. We question, we ask, we want to peek behind the veil and if things don’t sit right, we dig deep to understand more. My mum loves to quote Judge Judy at every possible opportunity – and I will give her this one “If it doesn’t make sense, it probably isn’t true”. And I hope we speak for many of you, lots of things do not make sense in the world right now.
So anyway, ramblings…. Whilst the majority of our posts share the pure amazingness of psychedelics, we wanted to have some fun with snippets of our conversations to open up to the LB community to also help us open our minds to different view points, opinions and maybe, just maybe, change our minds on a subject…..
The Duck with the Human Brain
A few years back, I read “New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle and one story stuck with me ever since – “The Duck with the Human Brain”. Long and short, if a duck thought like a human, it would forever fight, get itself into all sorts of bother by keeping stories alive in it’s head, swimming around in the pond, without being able to release all its energy until inevitably ending up with its legs permanently pointing towards the sky. And that got me thinking “Is that what happens to human beings when the majority of our communication and interactions happen online?”. How did I link the Duck to our modern forms of communications? Come with me...
I saw this unfold in front of my very eyes over the past week with my partners interactions. Two people with whom they recently developed a close business-friendships with. Don’t get me wrong, they have meet face to face several times and had what I call “old skool” telephone conversations (actually calling someone) but I would say that a large % of their communication are in the form of voicenotes and messages. I was born in the (late!) 70’s so I remember the times of no mobiles, arranging to meet somewhere at a certain time and waiting there questioning yourself on the time you agreed, location or even day. You still waited in the hope your friend would turn up and you’d go to Blockbuster and buy a drink, crisps, chocolate and sweets all for £1. So, when I think of voicenotes, yes they are convenient and yes you can say everything your heart desires without getting interrupted and the recipient can listen to your 15 minute speech at their earliest convenience. But where is the human interaction in all this? Where is the “Yes but… or YES! Man, I totally agree with you, remember the time we did that……. Or HANG ON, WTF, what are you saying, that is bang out of line!”. But, I stood back, watched their 1,000’s of voicenotes fly back and forth, sounds of laughter, sounds of speeding up to 1.5 / 2 times because some were just too bloody long to listen to at regular speed, and listened in the shadows like a MI5 agent, waiting and gathering all my intelligence.
You’re thinking “What intelligence?” - let me tell you. Post Pandemic, the world is in a right mess. Long COVID this, rise of the cost of living that, Presidents and PM’s running a mockery of our countries and increased depression, anxiety and a decline in general mental health. We were all caged, kept away from one another and forced to interact via any form of technology. If you recall, it was all fun and games to start with, virtual pub quizzes, virtual dinners, all sorts of novel ways to have some sort of contact whilst we couldn’t leave our homes. Slowly, over time the prison guards gave us some (but not all) of our freedom and we started to try and be comfortable with being around other people again – did we hug, or did we handshake? – shit, my partner and I (our views on the pandemic / vaccine etc can be discussed on anther ramblings!) would often have a Hug declined – you guys ever experience that? – when you go in for a hug and are either side stepped / pulled back from or actually told “No, I don’t hug - COVID” – I MEAN WTF!. I digress – back to my intelligence - I was building my case for the Duck.
I had a theory that with everything that has gone on over the past 2 years, the new normal is communication through voicenotes and messages, and when we do have those difficult conversations or arguments, we never give our bodies the opportunity “shake” off the emotion – that pent up / excess energy that we have during these exchanges. And the result – carrying it round all day, for days on end, packing them up somewhere in our psyche / body parts waiting for the next instalment of “Where do I put this energy?”. How does this relate to my partner – well again, short story for you – some of those newly formed business-friendships started to enter, lets say, less fluffy / fun discussions about projects and I started to see the tones of the voicenotes change. It was hard for me to see, the emotional toll it started to take on my partner and the atmosphere / energy in our house change. As this went on for at least a week, I could see it clear as day, each party was not feeling heard or acknowledged in conversations (before you ask, “old skool” calls were suggested but never came to fruition) and therefore it didn’t feel like either of them came to a resolution.
Is that what is happening to human kind? Are we all in these conversations, never really being able to fully express our anger / sadness / disappointment / real joy / love with our bodies? Are we all so disconnected that we are now unable to do what should be a completely natural and, frankly, a HUMAN need (important side note -Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”) – to express ourselves through our body – opening our mouths, expression/ animation through our arms and faces, releasing emotions / our thoughts through movement? Being able to tell each other face to face how we feel and how something is affecting us…
As we end up doing this day in, day out, it is no wonder why our minds don’t switch off, why we can’t sleep, we are on anti-anxiety medication and we can’t remember what we did that week other than work, eat, try to sleep and repeat? Don’t get me wrong, technology during the pandemic helped millions to stay in touch, let grandparents see their grandkids, allowed many of us to keep our jobs – the list goes on. I am not a technophobe, we have to embrace technology and the good it can do – but just like anything it is a TOOL and like a knife – a surgeon can save lives with it while someone else can take a life with it. I believe that we should take back our “Human-ness” again, start meeting face to face again, and if that’s not possible, have an “old skool” phone call, HEAR the emotion in REAL TIME, stop sending voicenotes! - start having those arguments, express your feelings outwardly, shout, scream like we used, exactly like we did back in the day when Blockbuster didn’t have the VHS of Coming to America that waited all bloody week to watch.
So – ramblings – what I am saying is lets all try and be more like those ducks…….
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