"Chakras, Drugs and Evolution"

A podcast chat on Escaping Saṃsāra with Nathan Thompson

I’m a big fan of book clubs. I’ve run several myself, including some in a glorified cupboard at Triyoga in London. So when Nathan Thompson proposed a podcast version on Escaping Saṃsāra, I said sure!

Our focus was this recent publication by Gregor Maehle, titled: Chakras, Drugs and Evolution: A Map of Transformative States. As we discuss, I had initial reservations, not least about the mapping of human psychology to “the chakras”. However, I was struck by the opening lines, which echoed something I wrote last year:

“The most frequently occurring question asked in my yoga events is whether higher yoga and spiritual evolution can be supplemented with psychedelics like Ayahuasca, Psilocybin or DMT, or whether these substances could constitute a shortcut. I cannot remember a single workshop where this question was not asked and this book will attempt to give a comprehensive answer.”

It also attempts to do more, and covers interesting ground about people’s tendencies, plus unhelpful trends in contemporary culture. You can stream our conversation below, or on podcast platforms (it’s episode 20 of season two of Escaping Saṃsāra).