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Based on our community organizing, policy advocacy, and mental health practice experience at Elemental Psychedelics, we often find ourselves contemplating a pressing question: How does social change happen? After all, this is the promise of psychedelics, right? We are supposed to be changing our minds so that we can change our relationships, change the way we do business, change the way we treat the planet, and connect to purpose, meaning, land, and Spirit. Plant and fungi medicines and psychedelics are supposed to represent social change movements.
However, as we navigate the complex tapestry of the psychedelic movement, we see visionary goals and lofty proclamations and also fighting within and amongst people of the movement. We see people working from the inside-out and others from the outside-in; some are calling in the people they don’t agree with, while others are calling out; we see binary thinking, unchecked assumptions about who’s doing what where, and the continuation of an unhealthy cancel culture. How is social change supposed to happen in the midst of all of this?
Through this blog, Elemental aims to touch on important questions about social change and review the roles we all can play in social movements. Understanding that we all have important roles to bring to movement-building might bring us closer to finally feeling like we can be on the same team, even when our positionality and work in the movement look very different from one another.
Social Change Is Fundamentally About Power
At its core, social change is about moving the needle on systemic problems. In this vein, we should recognize that providing education or a platform to express our perspectives represents only a sliver of what a social movement actually is. The desire to change people's attitudes through education, while noble, is insufficient on its own for social change because the systemic issues of a movement will not be touched by changing people’s attitudes about a topic. Much of what we see on social media too may give us a sense of platform, but it generally lacks real movement. Social media can be strategically helpful in some instances, but more often than not, it makes us feel like we have voice, influence, or power when in reality we are yelling into a void.
As Tyson Yunkaporta aptly articulates, if we focus on fighting for our brand of individual issues, we might just find ourselves in a fake wrestling match. The time we spend platforming some people and demonizing other people is not activism. We are only fighting amongst ourselves and moving scraps around on the floor. Whether discussing broad movements like Ending the Drug War or Decriminalizing Nature, or local initiatives, like the campaign that successfully decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms in Denver in 2019, we must ask ourselves: What truly constitutes a movement?
A movement is not merely a collection of voices or an educational campaign to change attitudes. A movement is a force of collective energy that channels our deepest emotions and is mobilized by our hopes and dreams for a better future. (Thank you Alicia Garza for this definition).
The “psychedelic movement” can broadly be conceptualized as an initiative to make psychedelics accessible for healing, growth, and exploration of consciousness. Beyond that though, the psychedelic movement overlaps with many other social movements, connecting with efforts to end oppressive systems of drug prohibition and mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities, right collective wrongs, and re-indigenize relationships to each other and the Earth.
At Elemental Psychedelics, we encourage our students to explicitly position themselves within larger social movements, as this awareness fosters greater clarity of our purpose and roles as change agents. To live into the promise of psychedelics as social change tools, we must consciously and deliberately place ourselves within a movement-building framework.
Our Individual Roles in Building a Social Movement
Building a massive social movement requires sustained efforts of numerous people over extended periods of time. Each of us brings energy, perspectives, and roles to the movement-building table, and our diversity enriches the overall structure of the movement. We do not all have to agree on every aspect or detail of the movement. It is not at all essential that we achieve perfect unity. What is vital is to remember that every contribution is essential. It’s all of us playing our roles that creates the robust fabric of a real movement.
Movement-building, as explored by Daniel Hunter in Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: An Organizing Guide, examines four essential yet distinct roles: Helper, Advocate, Organizer, and Rebel. It’s natural to feel a sense of FOMO, competition, or judgment against others in the movement who are playing different roles than you. We also see divisions within movements when we start judging what others in the movement are doing as if the role they are playing is wrong and the role we are playing is right or better. We review the roles below in the hopes of bringing value to all of us playing whatever role we play as part of creating real change.
Helper
Helpers are vital to the psychedelic movement. They discreetly provide "underground" services, offering healing to those in distress despite it putting their own livelihoods on the line. These practitioners often operate in legal gray areas, laying the foundation for others to access healing while simultaneously navigating the structures that render this work clandestine.
However, if this was the extent of everyone’s involvement, there would be no social movement. No one would be addressing the larger systems that maintain the illegality and secrecy surrounding this form of healing. Many of these practitioners prefer to remain in the shadows, serving those who are suffering without taking on public roles. Without their efforts, the rest of the movement would remain largely theoretical. We need the Helpers to keep us grounded in the actual work of healing and to give the entire movement ground to stand on.
Advocates
Advocates occupy the forefront of lobbying for (usually small) changes in legislation, gradually widening access to these powerful tools. Organizations like MAPS work endlessly to navigate regulatory processes. There are lawyers actively filing test cases in court concerning patients' rights to try psilocybin mushrooms at the end of life. Many, many other such advocacy efforts are ongoing.
However, if advocacy were all anyone was doing in the movement, the risk here lies in compromising too much. If the voice of advocacy becomes disconnected from the grassroots, we risk watering down the core values that drive genuine transformation. It's essential to stay rooted in community while pursuing legislative progress, ensuring that the movement remains genuine and inclusive. It is also easy to find the advocacy role frustrating, slow, overly compromised, and requiring a lot of effort for small wins. Again though, we need the Advocates to push, inch by inch, out from their position inside the system and laws that rule the day.
Organizers
Organizers build community power by bringing people together based on shared interests. Organizations like The Nowak Society and the many psychedelic clubs and societies across the nation exemplify this role. Organizers in the psychedelic movement bring individuals from isolation into groups that are connected and prepared for collective action.
However, organizers must remain vigilant against patriarchal leadership styles, ensuring diversity of perspectives is welcomed. Groups may come together initially based on a shared interest, such as decriminalizing plant and fungi medicines, and then splinter when a diversity of perspectives are not welcomed or when a single leader rises to the top and takes over the mission of the group. Organizers, as Helpers and Advocates too, are essential to movement-building. It is the organizers who build power in community.
Rebels
Rebels push out the edges of the movement and remind us of the underlying values of the movement. They challenge frameworks that prioritize one group over another, for example challenging psychedelic exceptionalism, and create greater solidarity across different struggles.
However, those in the rebel role must guard against self-righteousness that could alienate other supportive groups. Rebels can outcast other parts of the movement by being so dogmatic, rigid, or judgmental of anything but a specific morally superior way of making change. Of course, a powerful social movement needs Rebels to keep us honest and in integrity as a true movement for systemic change.
As you can see, each role is vital and together they create a rich tapestry to fuel and strengthen the psychedelic movement. We need the courageous helpers, the persistent advocates, the passionate organizers, and the bold rebels to harness the collective energy that builds a powerful movement. We truly are in this together.
Harnessing the Emotional Spectrum of Change
Building any movement is imbued with emotion — both uplifting and challenging. As Alicia Garza notes in her book Purpose of Power, it’s crucial to acknowledge and navigate the complex emotions we encounter. These emotions can fuel our movements or destroy them. Let’s explore some of these feelings that arise on our mission:
Anger can be a driving force but must be handled judiciously. We must learn to channel it as motivation to fuel meaningful action rather than allowing it to consume us.
Fear often whispers doubts of inadequacy, fear of failure or rejection, or fear of whether we’re making a difference at all. Embracing vulnerability and courage is our way through fear.
Despair sometimes engulfs us under the weight of the enormity of the issues and can lead us to feelings of powerlessness and cynicism. To combat despair, it’s essential to reconnect with our purpose again and again.
Burnout can sneak up on even the most dedicated individuals. Prioritizing self-care and setting boundaries is crucial to sustaining our efforts.
Co-optation may lead us to compromise our values, becoming assimilated into the very power structures we were seeking to change.
How Do We Find Our Path to Connection and Meaning?
The path to connection and meaning in our movement can guide us through these swirling emotions. Persistence is essential; we continue to show up, shifting our focus as needed and holding steady through the trials. Clarity comes through dialogue and reflection, while joy reminds us that this work need not be a burden. Embracing moments of play and creativity can be revolutionary in itself. Be present with what’s right in front of you, take each step as it comes, and find space to be creative and inspired. This is essential to movement building too.
What Is the Importance of Facilitator Training in Psychedelic Therapy?
As psychedelic therapy continues to evolve, the demand for skilled and ethical facilitators becomes increasingly evident. Training is essential not only for continuing to deepen your own personal relationship with medicine, but also for ensuring safe, ethical practices within this emerging landscape. Elemental’s foundational psilocybin mushroom training encourages individuals to position their practice meaningfully within a social change movement, so that we can each understand our role with clarity and enlarge our purpose within a bigger change effort.
Through our advanced community-based educational opportunities, Elemental Psychedelics supports helpers who are ready to take the risk of being at the forefront of the movement. These students have taken a risk by attending a program without the certainty of how the legal landscape and practice will look in the coming months and years. Their courage exemplifies a commitment to transforming societal norms around psychedelic therapy.
Explore the Future of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
The psychedelic movement is multifaceted, driven by individuals with varied experiences, intentions, and hopes. No one path is greater than another; rather, we need each other and at Elemental, we recognize the importance of each role — helpers, advocates, organizers, and rebels — coming together to guide us forward. As we embrace these roles, we cultivate a space that nourishes our collective aspirations.
As we look ahead, let's stay patient, compassionate, and open-hearted. Together, we can create an environment where we are truly on the same team, even when working in very different parts of the larger movement.
Reach out to Elemental Psychedelics to connect and learn more about how you can be part of this journey!