The Medicine of Relationship
Humanity as a whole is probably about 21 years old. I base this assertion on our behavior as a species. Our self-reflective group mind is fully developed, but our ability to participate as a mutually supportive member of the family of life on earth has just barely begun. When I think of how I behaved in my late teens as a kid, I remember how little it seemed to matter if anyone else was impacted by what I did. I was so consumed by my own stories about who I was and what I needed and so certain that I knew everything I needed to know, that I just acted out and was surprised if anyone took offense.
I was lucky in a way, psychedelic experiences opened up my brain and belly in irreversible ways and then I had an initiatory experience at age 20. My depression and anxiety had reached a nadir that led me to drive my VW van into the front bumper of a delivery truck in Richmond California. Modern medicine saved my life: stopping the bleeding from crushed organs and transfusing me with nearly the entire volume of my blood. To accomplish this, they slit my belly open from groin to sternum, unceremoniously moved my intestines out of the way, stuffed them back in and trussed me up with about 20 loops of 100 pound test monofilament, then gave me pain meds which caused me to break out in an all-over rash.
When I got out of the hospital I knew two things: I was here for some reason and it must have to do with healing since I was going to have to do a lot of that, and I never ever wanted to work in a hospital. My experience is actually a great metaphor for how I feel about “conventional” medicine now. It’s heroic, it fends off death, I’m incredibly grateful for it, but it does nothing to connect us to life.
I’ve now spent the entire 44 years since then healing the wounds and scar tissue caused by both the accident and the surgery that saved my life. What I have come to realize is that the work I’m doing to heal myself IS the work I’m doing to heal the world. I have very organically become the shaman that crosses the void between personal and collective experience and applies what I have learned in the service of life. I have power plants AND modern medicine (and many amazing teachers!) to thank for that.
I am now an “Elder”(how fucking weird is that?!). I can live in a way that may help the species as a whole to survive the dangerous time of our youth and allow for the evolution of the consciousness of our awesome responsibility as a powerful member of the family of living things. My healing work on myself and with others contributes to restoring the awareness that we are the creation and expression of life itself. The work anyone does to heal their relationship with all living things contributes to the healing of our species.
Glyphosate is a symptom of our overextended adolescence as a collective mind. It is the ultimate example of the mental attitude that humans must survive by dominating and exploiting life for the benefit of our species. Originally patented as an antibiotic (anti-life), it has become the ultimate solution for industrial agriculture. As long as you believe it is necessary to create massive monocultures that exploit the living soil to “feed humanity” then glyphosate will continue to be “necessary”. It fends off hunger (death), it allows for the heroic production of millions of tons of food. We think we know what we have to do to survive so we dump billions of tons of “anti-life” poison onto the soil, into our food, air and water and into our bodies, killing the very micro-organisms that live in the soil and within us that create health and life.
Life is a relationship. The self reflective mind of our species creates the illusion that we are separate from the organisms that support us at the most fundamental level of life, right down to the mitochondria that live in our cells. They are bacteria that produce the energy of life at the cellular level. Glyphosate kills them. It destroys our gut lining, flooding our body with undigested substances that stress out our immune systems, making them hyper-reactive. It destroys the blood brain barrier, causing our minds to be filled with poisons and pathogens that muddle the very precious mental abilities we so irresponsibly rely upon.
One of the most potent ways to find healing from this illusion of separation is through experiences with power plants such as Ayahuasca. I’m very encouraged that there is such a demand for healing through psychedelic plants since most of the ritual uses of them originate from cultures that have preserved the sense of belonging to the web of life and all it’s living beings. Yet I am concerned for us too, because we still enter these experiences from the painful state of separation, because we come from the mindset of exploitation of resources. Because we still think we know everything and we are not prepared to give up the identity we create by reciting the stories of our lives.
I’m extremely grateful for people like the amazing coaches and teachers of Plant Medicine People who have done the hard work to learn the value of context and rituals of the native cultures that use these plants to heal their relationship to nature and return themselves to harmony with the Whole. I’m grateful for the infrastructure they’ve created to reach out to and support those seeking healing in this way. Yet I’m still concerned that the modern culture of plant medicine lacks the fundamental integrating capacity of the indigenous societies that originated these healing rituals.
Some of the most useful research on healing these days concerns the “Poly-vagal Theory” of the autonomic nervous system. In a nutshell it shows how 80% of the information traveling in the vagus nerve comes FROM the gut and goes TO the brain. It breaks down the “unconscious” response system of our bodies into three basic states:
When threatened with physical or perceived harm, the adrenal epinephrines are stimulated through the “sympathetic” nervous system to prioritize fighting, running away or placating the source of the threat. “Inessential” body functions such as digestion and the immune system are shut down in favor of muscles, lungs and senses.
In extreme threat, the parasympathetic nervous system goes into overwhelm and the dorsal vagal response from the spinal nerves causes a shutdown or freeze, feigning death.
The Ventral Vagal System activates the reconnection to other members of the group, allows for recovery from the stress of the sympathetic response, releasing such “social hormones” as oxytocin and serotonin, increasing feelings of compassion and belonging.
In our modern hyper-busy lives, this critical social re-engagement stage of healing from stress is often given little to no emphasis. We’ve adapted to our hyper-mental-techno culture by treating all our experiences, including medicinal plant experiences like emergency medicine. This is actually necessary given the dire state of psychosis the collective mindset is experiencing. Yet if we do not give ourselves the social safety net of re-inclusion into a group of people we feel seen and supported by, then even the most transcendent experiences will just add more unprocessed, unreleased traumas to our already stressed out bodies.
So I encourage the readers of this article to gather in your communities and to take the time to “come down” into your daily lives. Always take extra time to communicate and reach out to others who are going through similar processes. Work to find other people dedicated to healing. It doesn’t matter if they are doing what you do, what matters is that they are kind and treat you with respect, include you in their lives and envelop you in their auras. And while you are developing those supportive communities of living people, by all means take advantage of the support you can find here in these coaching and healing forums. Take the opportunity to reset your nervous system and re-include yourself in the family of humans and all of life by having a session or two with one of us that resonates with what you need to mindfully return to your life with compassion and joy.
About the Author
David Kitts has been working in the healing arts for over 34 years. He found is way to this path after a near-fatal car accident at age 19. He is a licensed acupuncturist who can administer sessions remotely via a technique called Virtual Light Needle Acupuncture, and he’s extremely gifted at clearing unwanted energies in spaces and physical bodies. David is also an expert at Human Design and Gene Keys, which helps clients embody enormous and profound self-discovery and personal transformations. He teaches Energy Body Awareness, is a Diplomate of Oriental Medicine, and he loves helping people feel whole, healed, and empowered.
