It’s common to point out the failures in other people’s thinking.
Ah ha—I see something you don’t.
But the more psychedelic journeys I guide, and the more time I spend genuinely stepping into other people’s worlds, the more I find myself believing the opposite: even when people can’t articulate why, their feelings and tendencies are often right and true on a deep level.
This isn’t to say they can’t find more freedom by escaping the many prisons of the mind. But the reasons behind so many of their choices are sound.
Maybe it’s okay to believe people—because chances are, there is a reason for their actions.
My approach is to fully explore someone’s story, to understand the narrative from their perspective. When I do, a constellation appears. The shape of things comes into focus. What once looked confusing or misguided begins to make sense.
Then pockets of untapped potential reveal themselves. I can see them—in faces, in eyes, in body language, in the habitual loops of conversation that repeat.
A friend once abandoned his East Coast family. Maybe he couldn’t actualize within their narrow definition of who he was allowed to be. Maybe I shouldn’t tell him to keep trying. Maybe he already knows what’s best.
He can accept their limitations and forgive them for not being what he needs. But he doesn’t necessarily need to carry them into his present or his future.
At the end of the day, I continue to be impressed by each person’s ability to seek the light of growth - we all have this natural tendency - even when we can’t yet see it clearly.
I trust this in you.
* Jodi spinning fire 2000. Photography by Dawn Bard