Psychedelics as a Tool for Parent-Child Connection

Part of what makes Plant Parenthood such a compelling project is the way it has allowed me to connect with others around topics that we normally feel apprehensive about sharing. When I first met this mom, we had a beautiful conversation that eventually veered—cautiously at first—toward psychedelics. Once we both realized that we shared a common interest, the floodgates opened. It was like we had finally found someone who could understand a part of us we normally had to conceal. 

         Psychedelics are a tool of connection, and not just while you’re on them. Just being able to talk about them with someone else can sometimes, if the conditions are right, allow an opening that doesn’t exist elsewhere in our lives. And of course its not just adults who are connecting with each other, as this mom shares in our conversation. They’re also a powerful tool of connection between parents and children. 

         Often we don’t get that chance though. In our attempts to be responsible parents, we go off somewhere else to have our psychedelic experiences because, heaven forbid they see us in an altered state. We don’t tell our children about our substance use because we don’t want to be a bad influence, and if we do, we limit the stories to cautionary tales. 

         As psychedelics go mainstream, perhaps its time to re-think the idea of parents and children having experiences together. What would a future look like where a postpartum mom with severe depression, struggling to connect, was given a dose of MDMA and asked to interact with her baby? Or a family who had experienced a trauma sitting in a healing ayahuasca ceremony together? Surely these things are already happening, but imagine how healing it would be for the stigma to be lifted.