Author: content_ly0hqz

A visit to Hekate’s domestic chapel

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A visit to Hekate’s domestic chapel

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Katalina Lourdes

 

 


I rode up towards Mas Castellar on the local train to Cerbère, a town just across the border on France’s Mediterranean coast. Cerbère is French for Cerberus, the Hound of Hades – a three-headed dog that guarded the underworld. I’m amused, because I’m headed to a Hellenistic temple that was also a site of ritual dog sacrifice.

In the ancient Greek world dogs were associated with purification, and sometimes used to cure diseases. A few miles away, dogs would have roamed the underground chambers of the temple of Asclepius in Empúries, licking sick pilgrims who came to be healed by the god through their dreams.

Dogs were also symbols of protection, and sacred to the goddess Hekate. Known as Prytania (“invincible Queen of the dead”), Phosphorus (“the light bringer”), and Soteira (“Savior”) among other epithets, Hekate is a goddess of protection, entrances, crossroads, darkness, light, liminality, birth, death, mystery, herbs, and witchcraft. It was to her the dogs were sacrificed.

 

Hekate is often depicted with three bodies facing in different directions, which may symbolize the three realms she reigns over: Earth, sea, and sky. It could also represent her role in guiding those at a crossroads, or her ability to see into past, present, and future. Or that she is a triple goddess, representing Hekate, Demeter, and Persephone as one; grandmother, mother, and daughter.

I look out the window and watch the endless fields of grain, thinking about how they’re thousands of years old – eternal, even. This is the mystery I’m searching for.

We pass through pine groves and cross streams. Magnificent mountains begin to appear ahead of us, snow-capped.

I get off the train south of Figueres, where my  accommodation is across from the village’s only restaurant. Everyone greets each other as they enter. They even greet me, out of place as I am. It’s filled with farmworkers and older men who were once farmworkers.

As I look around the room I wonder if any of these farmers’ ancestors lived at Mas Castellar de Pontós. If they drank the Kykeon at the temple there.

I wonder where its inhabitants went when the site was abandoned at the turn of the 2nd century BC.

Did the Romans destroy the settlement as part of their crackdown on the Dionysian Mysteries in 186 BC?

Did the priestesses sacrifice dogs to Hekate for protection before fleeing to the Pyrenees?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dionysian Mysteries

 

 

 

The Dionysian Mysteries (or Bacchanalia) was the Mystery of the cult of the god of wine. They were known to meet outdoors, performing their rituals in the mountains where all initiates – regardless of their status in Greek society – became equal, creating an ethos of communitas. The maenads, or priestesses of Dionysus, mixed their wine with god knows what else. The sacrament was equivalent to the god – by drinking it, initiates became one with Dionysus. Music and ecstactic dance were also used to induce trance states. Welcoming everyone, including outlaws, the cult of Dionysus apparently became a hotbed of political radicalism. The Roman senate deemed the cult a threat to state security and issued an decree in 186 BC to outlaw it and its Mysteries throughout Italy. Dionysian temples were destroyed across the peninsula, and thousands of priests and initiates into the cult of Dionysus were put to death.

 

Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus

“No man is to be a priest; no one, either man or woman, is to be an officer (to manage the temporal affairs of the organization); nor is anyone of them to have charge of a common treasury; no one shall appoint either man or woman to be master or to act as master; henceforth they shall not form conspiracies among themselves, stir up any disorder, make mutual promises or agreements, or interchange pledges; no one shall observe the sacred rites either in public or private or outside the city, unless he comes to the praetor urbanus, and he, in accordance with the opinion of the senate, expressed when no less than 100 senators are present at the discussion, shall have given leave.”

 

 

The many figurines and incense burners found bearing the likeness of Demeter or Persephone at the temple at Mas Castellar de Pontós, and a psychedelic sacrament mixed in beer rather than wine, suggest the rites practiced there were an adaptation of the Eleusinian Mysteries – the mystery of the cult of Demeter, not Dionysus. But would the Romans have known the difference? And it was just around this time that the Romans were beginning to settle in the province now known as Alt Empordà.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most famous – and secretive – mystery cult of the ancient world. Symbolized by an ear of grain, they were known for bestowing knowledge of immortality on their initiates and making them “better in every way.” Hundreds or perhaps thousands traveled to Athens to take part in the Mysteries every year for over a millennia. From Athens, they embarked on a 10 day pilgrimage to Eleusis, reenacting the story of Demeter, the Earth goddess, in her search for her daughter Persephone, goddess of the underworld and the Spring.

Once in Eleusis, before entering Demeter’s temple, the Telesterion, initiates would drink a sacrament called Kykeon. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the goddess gives the recipe: barley, water, and pennyroyal. However given the transformational nature of the Mysteries – after which initiates became “god-like” and no longer feared death – it’s long been suspected that an entheogen was in the mix.

The 1979 book The Road to Eleusis proposed that the secret ingredient in Kykeon was ergot, a purple fungus that grows on the ends of grain, from which Albert Hofmann synthesized LSD. Ergot is poisonous, and it will kill you if prepared in the wrong way, but Hofmann concluded that the ancient Greeks could have removed its toxic compounds using an oil extraction method.

 

 

It’s a two hour walk from here to the archaeological site, but cutting across fields and highways isn’t always straightforward, and it takes me three. I say a short prayer on my way to the goddesses I’m about to visit.

Across the highway there’s a forest, and I’m invigorated by the peaceful cover of pine trees. I pick up my pace as the light begins to fade from the sky.

 

 

The breadbasket of Alt Empordà

Finally I come across the entrance to the site. As I walk up the path a tractor passes carrying farmwood. There’s an old farmhouse with a garden. A kitten poses for my camera, and a bull takes me by surprise, staring me down as I walk past.

Bulls were associated with Dionysus, but they were also sacred to Hekate. She was goddess of the night sky, and their horns, turned sideways, look like the crescent moon. In the Greek Magical Papyrii Hekate is referred to as “Bull-faced and bull-headed,” with “the eyes of bulls and the voice of dogs.” And in the Orphic Hymn to Hekate she is described as “drawn by a yoke of bulls.”

 

The Orphic Hymn to Hekate

I call Ækátî of the Crossroads, worshipped at the meeting of three paths, oh lovely one.
In the sky, earth, and sea, you are venerated in your saffron-colored robes.
Funereal Daimôn, celebrating among the souls of those who have passed.
Persian, fond of deserted places, you delight in deer.
Goddess of night, protectress of dogs, invincible Queen.
Drawn by a yoke of bulls, you are the queen who holds the keys to all the Kózmos.
Commander, Nýmphi, nurturer of children, you who haunt the mountains.
Pray, Maiden, attend our hallowed rituals;
Be forever gracious to your mystic herdsman and rejoice in our gifts of incense.

 

Underground grain silos at Mas Castellar de Pontos

The settlement at Mas Castellar de Pontós was more than just a temple. The town was the “breadbasket” of Greek Catalonia, supplying grain to the nearby coastal cities of Empúries and Rhode. The lead archaeologist of the site, Enriqueta Pons, has estimated that as many as 2500 grain silos remain unearthed in a few hectares surrounding the main structures. 

So it makes sense that they would have worshipped the agricultural goddesses Demeter and Persephone here and even, on the edges of the Hellenistic world, carried out an Iberian version of their Mysteries.

 

 

 

The remains at Mas Castellar

The “domestic chapel” of house 1. Ceremonial activities took place in Room 3, while Room 7 appears to have been an entrance hall. 

At the back of the site, two houses from the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC have been excavated. Room 3 of House 1 is a sort of temple, or what the archaeologists call a “domestic chapel” – a temple within a house, which was typical in ancient Iberian communities.

In the center of Room 3 they found an altar made of Pentelic marble, imported from Greece. Incisions in the marble and organic analysis  indicate that it was used to make bloody sacrifices. The charred remains of several dogs were found in pits next to the altar. In front of the altar was a shallow water pit, probably used for ritual purification or ablution, or possibly to create steam baths.

 

Room 3 of House 1 – the “domestic chapel” where the altar, chalices, and dog sacrifices were found.

The archaeologists found an incense burner in the shape of a woman’s face, representing Demeter or Persephone. Several like it were also found buried near the site.

And strewn across the temple were 11 miniature chalices.

In the 1990s, the archaeobotanist Jordi Juan-Tresserras examined the remains at Mas Castellar with new technology that allowed for the detection of millennia-old organic compounds. He discovered remnants of pine and cedar in the incense burner.

And in one of the miniature chalices he found traces of “ergotized beer.” He also detected ergot in the teeth of a standalone jawbone from an adjacent room. The same ergot Albert Hofmann used to synthesize LSD, and that he hypothesized had been used in the Mysteries.

Miniature chalice that once held ergotized beer. Museo de Arqueología de Cataluña de Girona.

Tresserras knew what he had found, even if no one noticed for 20 years, until Brian Muraresku published his findings in his book The Immortality Key, which makes the case for a psychedelic sacrament in early Christianity. But Tresserras’s finding is the smoking gun, the holy grail – hard evidence that initiates in the Greek Mysteries were tripping on an LSD-like alkaloid.

While the other archaeologists speculated that this was the site of a grain cult, and more specifically the worship of Demeter and Persephone, in the 600 page monograph on Mas Castellar de Pontós published in 2002, Tresserras is the only one to bring up the Mysteries – or Hekate.

Tresserras cites The Road to Eleusis, and suggests the ergotized beer is the same Kykeon that was taken in the Eleusinian Mysteries, and that the people of Mas Castellar were practicing an Iberian version of them.

Subterranean votive silo

In 1992, archaeologists discovered an underground silo not far from the site’s main structures that contained not grain nor waste, but offerings. A fire had been made in the pit, and votive offerings were carefully placed upon the ashes. They found a terracotta head with a feminine face, nine amphora, agricultural tools, and domestic objects including keys. The fact that the offerings were buried suggests that they were left for a chthonic deity like Persephone – or perhaps Hekate.

Hekate in the Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries are known as the cult of Demeter and Persephone, but Hekate has a prominent role in their myth. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, she is the only deity who comes to Demeter’s aid. Torches in hand, she leads Demeter to the sun god Helios, who tells the goddess that Hades has abducted her daughter with the permission of Zeus. When mother and daughter are finally reunited, Hekate is there to celebrate with them. She becomes Persephone’s guide, escorting her back and forth from the underworld each year, and takes Persephone’s place as Queen of the Dead when the maiden is above ground with her mother. Hekate was also recognized in the ceremonies at Eleusis, where initiates carried torches in her honor.

Tresserras suggests the keys found in the votive silo were offerings to Hekate, symbolic of her keys to the underworld and other realms, and her protective role as the guardian of entrances.

He also connects the dog sacrifices to Hekate, detailing many instances of dog sacrifice across the Greco-Roman world.

When I go back to read the monograph after my trip, I discover that Tresserras describes Hekate as carrying two torches – and accompanied by two howling dogs.

 

Hekate’s dogs

So I’m sitting in this ancient temple of a room where they sacrificed dogs and drank Kykeon. I feel at one with my surroundings; I begin to blend in with them. Until I flip my camera, and I notice how I’ve aged since the pandemic began, and all the rest before it. An existential anxiety creeps in – what am I doing here? The sun is going down, I’m feeling fragile, and I have to start walking back.

Out of nowhere, a dog runs up to me. She jumps on me, trying to lick me. I’m not a dog person, and I can’t remember the last time a dog has been friendly with me. In my experience, Spanish dogs are reserved with strangers. I ask her what she’s doing in this temple, a site of ritual dog sacrifice, and she digs furiously at the ground in front of me. I call her “Gosso,” from the Catalan word for dog. Her joy is infectious, and before I know it I’m laughing with her. It’s as if she’s come to comfort me, and to remind me that this is the point of life.

Gosso waits for me to depart, and I’m glad to have a companion. Walking past the farm again, now there are four bulls. Standing in a row, their heads are turned at the same angle, and they’re all watching me with equal intensity. But they don’t make me so nervous this time, because I have a protectress.

 

Two guides

Gosso meets up with her friend, and they begin chasing each other through the fields, unbridled in their happiness.

I turn to take the road into town, and they follow me. Luckily, cars are few, and Gosso begins to heed me as she and her friend guide me along the road to the town, occasionally disappearing from sight to frolic in the sunset.

Nightfall descends as we come upon the town of Pontós. The sound of sheep bleating comes from a nearby stable, and the dogs make our presence known as the lanterns light up the tiny, medieval village. I look for its only restaurant.

As soon as I find it, a car pulls up in front of us and a man gets out.

“Did they follow you?” he asks me.

Gosso doesn’t want to leave; she lies down in front of the restaurant in protest. The man picks her up and carries her back to his car.

Bolivian energy

I call a taxi and a Bolivian man arrives from Figueres and takes me back through the valley, lights sparkling about us in the night, the sensation of flying. Bolivia makes me think of lithium mining and the 2019 coup d’etat that ousted Evo Morales. And I think of how the energy carrying me and manifesting as light around me has been mined from the Earth. I think of how Morales returned from exile and Jeanine Añez was jailed. A victory for Bolivia’s indigenous peoples and the Earth. A rare glimmer of hope in a world growing dark.

Hekate as the feminine principle

I felt Hekate was with me, guiding me during this journey, bringing me safely to my destination.

Back at the villa I sit in the garden, looking up at the starry night sky that is Hekate’s domain. I could feel her presence with me still, looking down from the heavens.

My experience with Hekate reaffirmed my belief in communism and put it in an ancient, feminist, Earth-based context. As triple goddess over all realms, dark and mysterious but carrying torches, Hekate is Yin, the feminine principle.

Hekate is at once a goddess of the underworld, the heavens, the Earth and the sea. Her priestesses Medea and Circe have been portrayed as wicked witches. However in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, her role is totally benevolent. And in the Chaldean Oracles, a neoplatonic poem (Plato himself was deeply influenced by the Eleusinian Mysteries), Hekate is the World Soul, and the guardian between the spiritual and physical realms.

The Earth goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone are also aspects of Yin, though Hekate encompasses both of them. As in the Eleusinian Mysteries, these goddesses remind us that we live by the Earth. In traditional societies, like the simple farming community at Mas Castellar, what we took from the Earth served to sustain us more or less equally.

As society grew and became more complex, more was extracted. As long as what is taken from the Earth serves the good of all equally, it’s in balance. However evil men take more than their share, and use what they extract from Hekate’s realms and the toil of the working classes to create structures that secure their power and oppress those beneath them, destroying everything around them in a quest for power. Quo vadis? Ad quam finem?

This imbalance reaches an apex with nuclear weapons. Uranium is extracted from the Earth and the underworld, concentrated into the ultimate destructive force that’s wielded by men for the purpose of world domination. It’s a supreme expression of evil. An extreme disequilibrium and an affront to the feminine principle – extracting from her realms, poisoning and threatening to poison Earth, sea, and sky, and enslaving the world’s creatures to a gang of men who care for nothing except their own power – their power over women, other men, and the Earth itself.

Feminine justice

Hekate is an empowerer of women. Some of her followers, like Circe and Medea, take revenge on powerful men through witchcraft. Even Demeter brings the world to the brink of starvation in her grief. In doing so she spites the patriarchy and brings Zeus to his knees. It’s a feminine wrath, and sometimes necessary to restore balance.

In Essays on a Science of Mythology Carl Jung analyzes the myth of Demeter and Persephone. He concludes that the secret of the Eleusinian Mysteries was that we live eternally through reproduction. Hekate is Demeter and Demeter is Persephone. Mother and daughter are one, just as an ear of grain houses its descendents in seeds that fall to the ground, and is born again in Spring.

Carl Ruck, who coauthored The Road to Eleusis, suggests that inside the Telesterion, initiates witnessed Persephone return from the underworld to give birth to a child, Dionysus.

We live on through the Earth. We are born of the Earth, we return to the Earth, through this cycle we give life to plants and other creatures.

It follows that our existence depends on the Earth and our care of it. If we hurt her, she may just starve us all. Balance, respect for nature, and respect for the feminine is necessary for life to continue, for this organic immortality, to live eternally.

In his book, Muraresku describes how the Roman hierophant Praetextatus intervened when the Roman emperor Valentinian sought to shut down the Eleusinian Mysteries in 364 AD. He told Valentinian that the Mysteries “hold the human race together” and that their loss “would make the life for the Greeks unlivable.”

At the end of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Rhea comes to summon Demeter to Olympus. Before setting off, the goddess makes the world fertile again, and teaches the secrets of her rites to priests in Eleusis:

 

 

 

“Straightaway she sent up the harvest from the land with its rich clods of earth. And all the wide earth with leaves and blossoms was laden. Then she went to the kings, administrators of themistes, and she showed them—to Triptolemos, to Diokles, driver of horses, to powerful Eumolpos and to Keleos, leader of the people [lâoi]—she revealed to them the way to perform the sacred rites, and she pointed out the ritual to all of them—the holy ritual, which it is not at all possible to ignore, to find out about, or to speak out. The great awe of the gods holds back any speaking out. Blessed [olbios] among earth-bound mortals is he who has seen these things.

But whoever is uninitiated in the rites, whoever takes no part in them, will never get a share [aisa] of those sorts of things [that the initiated get], once they die, down below in the dank realms of mist.”

 

 

 

 

If we properly worship Demeter (the Earth) we will be reborn. If not, we die. Hekate is here to guide us towards this worship, to help us find each other, and in doing so be renewed and transformed. I believe she guides women to come into their own power.

She has the keys to unlock our cages, she knows the plants that make us fly, her dogs protect us, and her torches light the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources

Betz, H. D. (Ed.). (1996). The Greek magical papyri in translation, including the demotic spells, volume 1 (Vol. 1). University of Chicago Press.

Juan Tresserras, J. (2000). La arqueologia de las drogas en la peninsula iberica. Complutum (Madrid), No. 11, Ene.-dic. 2000, P. 261-274.

Kallímakhos. 2010. The Orphic Hymn to Hekate. HellenicGods.org. https://www.hellenicgods.org/the-orphic-hymn-to-hecate-aekati—hekate

Muraresku B. & Hancock G. (2020). The immortality key : the secret history of the religion with no name. St. Martin’s Press.

Oberhelman, S. M. (Ed.). (2013). Dreams, healing, and medicine in Greece: from antiquity to the present. Ashgate Publishing Company.

Pons, E. (2002). Mas castellar de pontós (alt empordà): un complex arqueològic d’època ibèrica (excavacions 1990-1998). (Ser. Sèrie monogràfica / museu d’arqueologia de catalunya, 21). Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Cultura. P. 548-556.

Taylor-Perry, R. (2003). The god who comes : dionysian mysteries revisited. Algora Pub.

Wasson, R. G., Hofmann, A., & Ruck, C. A. P. (2008). The road to eleusis: unveiling the secret of the mysteries (30th anniversary). North Atlantic Books.

 

 

 

 

Dream incubation: from ancient practice to DIY

Posted on by content_ly0hqz

 

Dream incubation: from ancient practice to DIY

 

By Katalina Lourdes

 

Dream incubation is a practice in which a person performs a ritual to invoke a dream. People may ask for guidance, knowledge, or even to be directly healed through dream incubation. The dream world will usually respond to a sincere querent with a message – from a god, a higher power, the inner self, or the collective unconscious – depending on the person’s beliefs and the dream.

 

The ancient roots of dream incubation

 

Dream incubation is at least as old as written history. Variations on the practice were recorded in Ancient Egypt, by the Hittites in Anatolia, and in Sumeria. 

In The Epic of Gilgamesh – which was written about 4000 years ago – the hero makes an offering to Shamash, the sun god, asking the god to send him a dream with a good omen. He does this several times, and when he wakes up, Gilgamesh tells his friend Enkidu his dreams. Even though Gilgamesh’s dreams are foreboding, Enkidu interprets them positively, and they carry on in their quest to defeat the monster Humbaba. Yes, the epic is fictional, but we can imagine that it reflects a real practice of dream incubation in Sumerian culture.

Another example of dream incubation in the ancient world can be found among the Hittites of Anatolia. Around 1300 BC, they suffered from an epidemic lasting several years, which may have been Bubonic plague. The king performed several rituals with offerings and elaborate prayers to the gods, known as the plague prayers of Mursilis II. In the prayers, the king praises the gods, pleads with them, and asks for a dream from the gods to tell him what the Hittites have done to displease them and cause the plague.

 

The Temple of Isis at Empúries. Catalonia, Spain.

An ancient Egyptian dream incubation ritual was found inscribed on papyrus from 1350 BC. It advises the reader to draw an image of Besa, a goddess of childbirth, protection, art, and music, on their left hand, wrap it in black cloth consecrated to the goddess Isis, wrap the rest of the cloth around their neck, to be silent, and sleep.

 

 

Dream healing at the temples of Asclepius

 

Dream incubation became popularized in Ancient Greece, where sick people would travel from around the world to temples of Asclepius, the god of medicine.

 

Statue of Asclepius at the Asclepeion in Empúries. Catalonia, Spain.

 

The temples, called Asclepieia, were like ancient hospitals, where “priest-physicians” would perform surgeries and other medical interventions. Around 420 Asclepieia have been discovered throughout the Mediterranean. Asclepieia have also been likened to spas or ancient resorts, as many of them were located next to gyms and theaters for leisure, and constructed along beautiful landscapes. This way patients could not only undergo treatments, but spend time in convalescence, peacefully recovering while receiving friends and family as visitors.

After arriving at an Asclepeion, patients would make offerings to Asclepius, have a ritual bath to purify themselves, and at some temples, also fast for a period. They would then be led to underground chambers called “abaton” where priest-physicians would induce sleep with opium. Patients would then dream of Asclepius, who would either heal them directly through the dream, or give the dreamer advice on how to cure their malady.

Many of the treatments “prescribed” by Asclepius through dreams were straightforward, like removing a tumor, but some were unusual, like walking through snow. If a dream wasn’t clear, the priest-physicians would help the patient interpret the dream and carry out the appropriate intervention. At the Asclepeion of Epidaurus, successful treatments were inscribed into large tiles called iamata, which graced the temple’s entrance.

People would usually make the pilgrimage to an Asclepeion when they had an illness that was persistent or couldn’t be cured in their hometown, but there were some people who went to Asclepieia all the time, like the Greek orator Aelius Aristides, who was a known hypochondriac.

 

 

Dream incubation in Christian Byzantium

 

The practice of dream incubation continued into Byzantium, but instead of occuring at temples of Asclepius it would take place at churches or the shrines of saints, who would appear in dreams to heal or advise the querent.

In one account in a collection of dream healings by Saint Demetrius from the 7th century CE, Demetrius appears as a beloved friend to a dreamer who is suffering from paralysis. When the dreamer asks Demetrius what he should do, Demetrius replies:

“First of all I advise you to cheer up, and not to bury yourself into soul-destroying sadness, to keep your hopes to the providence of God, who has created everything. Because you know well that each illness is sent by our Creator’s provident force, and aims at the sufferer’s benefit: if he is a right man the illness is given to him for not becoming proud, or rather for becoming more notable; just as the gold in a melting pit becomes more genuine through fire. If he is a sinner the illness is given to him to clear his sins …”

At the end of the dream, Saint Demetrius tells the man that because he shows sincerity and humility, he will heal him through the power of Jesus Christ. The man is so inspired by the dream that his attitude changes entirely and he begins to express joy. Saint Demetrius then appears to him in a second dream to remove his physical suffering.

Many dream incubation stories from Byzantium emphasize the connection between physical and spiritual health, to encourage us to see illness as an opportunity for spiritual growth rather than cause for despair.

 

 

DIY dream incubation

 

 

Though historically dream has involved sleeping in a sacred place, you don’t have to travel to an Asclepeion to try it out. You can practice dream incubation from home, and ask the dream world about any problem you’re facing in life.

In Dream Guidance: Connection to the Soul through Dream Incubation, the author, Machiel Klerk, tells us that dreams want to help us. If we approach them with reverence, intentionality, and openness, they can show us our path, and how to solve some of our most difficult problems.

Klerk outlines a five step dream healing incubation process that you can carry out from the comfort of your home.

 

Step 1: Identify the problem you want guidance with

 

Step 2: Formulate the question

 

Klerk emphasizes the importance of coming up with the right question. Firstly, dreams probably won’t give you a yes or no answer, so it’s best to leave questions somewhat open ended. Dream entities might be less willing to help you with issues that you haven’t tried to solve or investigate consciously, so he emphasizes that the dreamer needs to do their part and make an effort here. Connected to your question or intention is the attitude with which you approach a dream. If you have a bad attitude in approaching the dreamworld, it’s more likely to meet you with a nightmare – just as someone who takes psychedelics for granted is more likely to have a bad trip.

 

Step 3: Create a small bedtime ritual to ask for the dream

 

This could be as simple as lighting a candle and doing a short meditation or saying a prayer. Or it could be more elaborate, and involve spending time in nature, doing yoga, making art, journaling, or any number of other practices.

 

Step 4: Go to bed and sleep – possibly multiple consecutive nights before getting a clear response

 

Step 5: Write down the dream when you wake up

 

Spend some time reflecting on the dream’s meaning, interpreting it, and thinking about how to carry out the dream’s advice or integrate your new knowledge into your daily life. This process could take days, weeks, or even months, depending on the question you ask and the answer you receive.

There you have it – a simple five step process for discovering hidden knowledge and healing potential through dream incubation.

I tried this method out for myself last week. I came up with a specific question that I’d been struggling with, lit a candle, and did a short meditation to focus on the intention before bed. I wrote down my question and put my journal and a pen next to my pillow. When I woke up the next morning, I wrote down my dream. After spending some time thinking about it and what it could mean, I realized that it was a message to integrate my anima. In Jungian psychology, this is the part of our psyche associated with the feminine principle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography:

 

Askitopoulou, H., Konsolaki, E., Ramoutsaki, I. A., & Anastassaki, M. (2002). Surgical cures under sleep induction in the asclepieion of epidauros. International Congress Series, 1242, 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0531-5131(02)00717-3

El-Kilany, E., & Elgammal, I. (2019). Dream incubation tourism: the resurrection of ancient Egyptian heritage of sleep temples. International Journal of Heritage and Museum Studies, 1(1), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.21608/ijhms.2019.118759

Harrisson, J. (2016.) The classical Greek practice of incubation and some Near Eastern predecessors, www.academia.edu, accessed in 28//l/2016.

Klerk, M. (2022). Dream guidance: connecting to the soul through dream incubation. Hay House.

Nielsen, T. (2012). Dream incubation: ancient techniques of dream influence,
www.dreamscience.ca.

Oberhelman, S. M. (Ed.). (2013). Dreams, healing, and medicine in Greece: from antiquity to the present. Ashgate Publishing Company.

 

 

 

 

The neuroscience behind ayahuasca’s magic

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The neuroscience behind ayahuasca’s efficacy

 

By Katalina Lourdes

 

Ayahuasca is an Amazonian tea traditionally used by shamans for making contact with the spirit world, as well as for sorcery, divination, religious ceremonies, and healing. The decoction, which typically combines the vine Banisteriopsis Caapi with another plant containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT) like Psychotria Vidris, has been growing in popularity in Europe and North America over the past two decades for its powerful therapeutic effects.

Research studies have been rolling in to confirm innumerable anecdotal reports of ayahuasca’s ability to heal disorders like depression, addiction, and PTSD. With the psychedelic renaissance underway, entheogens are the hottest new area of research in mental health. Not just ayahuasca, but magic mushrooms and LSD are being researched at universities and consumed medicinally in legal and underground settings around the world. However the benefits of ayahuasca are rumored to be above and beyond those of its counterparts. At least one study has found that ayahuasca experiences are more positive and their effects more enduring than experiences with LSD, psilocybin, or plain old DMT. Ayahuasca users also tend to have higher levels of well-being than LSD or psilocybin users.

If you’ve seen a documentary featuring Dr. Gabor Maté, like The Wisdom of Trauma, you may know that ayahuasca has also received attention for its potential to heal cancer and other chronic diseases.

So what makes ayahuasca so powerful? Does the answer lie in biology? Or could environmental factors explain ayahuasca’s extra magic? Could this panacea’s efficacy come from the supernatural realm?

Is it even possible to know?

Does it matter?

Maybe not. However by looking at the various factors influencing the ayahuasca experience (biological, physical, social, cultural, and spiritual) we can at least hope to gain some new insights and ideas about why we trip, and how to trip well.

I’ll begin by summarizing the science of the so-called civilized, with a deepish dive into the neurobiology of ayahuasca.

 

 

The neuroscience of ayahuasca

 

Disconnecting & transcending

 

Humans have been resetting our brains with psychedelics for thousands of years. And they work. Like a switch that lights up your unconscious – maybe you see your shadow, your guardian angel, your spirit animal or your inner child. Turn it off and on again, and the next day when you wake up you may find that your depression has lifted. You may even have a death and rebirth experience. You may find that the experience changes you profoundly as a person. It’s okay to say goodbye to people we were or parts of ourselves – that’s how we grow. Hanging on to the ego is where trips can sometimes go south. We have to let go and trust in the plant spirits. Or the science, if you prefer.

Like other tryptamines, DMT disrupts major neural networks, those well-worn pathways connecting different brain regions. One such network is called the default mode network (DMN), and its disconnection is liberating. Known as the seat of the ego (and of depression), at higher doses DMT and other psychedelics thoroughly deactivate the DMN, decoupling its various nodes, inducing ego death and unleashing intensely meaningful and mystical experiences.

The DMN’s main nodes in the brain are the medial prefrontal cortex (the mPFC), the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and the angular gyrus. Together, these nodes are responsible for many of our mental processes – especially dysfunctional ones.

The DMN directs our attention internally – but not in the same way we turn inwards with ayahuasca. The DMN is active when we’re daydreaming, recalling our pasts,  planning for the future, and entertaining complex social thoughts like ethical judgments or mentalization about another’s state of mind. The construction and maintenance of a stable sense of self also takes place in the DMN. So it’s not unimportant – but the DMN has a real dark side.

At the center of the DMN is the PCC. The PCC is implicated in just about every disorder of the mind you could think of from Alzheimer’s to depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism, and traumatic brain injury.

The PCC is highly sensitive to our emotions, which triggers it to call forth relevant autobiographical memories. This could be a way of monitoring our experiences and comparing them to our pasts, thereby ensuring the continuity of the ego by reinforcing our self-concept and bringing the same person, thoughts, or behaviors into the present.

However a hyperactive PCC will take that self-referential thought and go wild. It will obsess – turning attention not just inwards but against oneself with negative self-criticism, self-aggression, and doubts, leading to a spiral of rumination that makes it difficult to pay attention to what’s going on outside ourselves. Creating our own personal hell.

 

It seems to me that the PCC is like a muscle; the more you use it, the more it grows – but its growth is malignant.

Meditation, on the other hand, deactivates the PCC. And if your PCC begins to shrink, well praise be – you may become a boddhisatva after all. You’re on your way to Nirvana.

A recent study found that members of the Santo Daime, the Brazilian ayahuasca church (where ‘daimistas’ may take ‘daime’ as frequently as once a week during religious rituals), have significantly thinner PCCs than the rest of us. The thinness of the daimistas’ PCCs was directly correlated with the duration of their use and the quantities of daime they consumed. And the thinner their PCCs, the higher the daimistas scored on a scale measuring “self-transcendence.”

 

 

 

Freeing our depths from logical repression

 

The neocortex is the outer layer of the brain, where our gray matter and logical thoughts live. Under normal circumstances, the neocortex controls the rest of the brain through neural networks like the DMN. Serotonergic psychedelics like DMT deactivate and decouple these networks, disabling the top-down control that the neocortex usually exerts over the more ancient, emotional limbic midbrain. This allows repressed feelings and memories to surface from deeper brain areas without being suppressed by the thinking, judging neocortex.

DMT also deactivates our right amygdala and binds to the serotonin 5-HT1A receptor , which is thought to decrease anxiety. These are like safety mechanisms that help protect us from being frightened by any traumatic content arising from our unconscious, or from being overwhelmed by whatever other vision ayahuasca may present us with. These mechanisms may also help us feel safe enough to confront and process any sensitive material that comes up for us in new and creative ways.

The inhibition of top-down cortical control also allows a more anarchic, “entropic,” pattern to form in the brain. Not only do psychedelics disconnect normal neueal pathways, but new ones begin to emerge, as nodes that don’t usually talk start to communicate. This opens us to new ways of thinking, ideas, and insights.

Like other psychedelics, DMT binds to the serotonin-glutamate combination receptor 5-HT2A/mGlu2. How does this play out in the brain? Serotonin doesn’t have its own special type of neuron, but is expressed on many different neurons. The 5-HT2A/mGlu2 combo receptors are expressed on both excitatory pyramidal cells (which release the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate) and inhibitory interneurons (which release the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA) in the neocortex. However the mGlu2 receptor is an inhibitory glutamate receptor, and it prevents the release of glutamate into the next neuron. So the activation of this receptor creates an inhibitory pattern in the brain. This is what quiets the neocortex, and opens the brain up to information buried deep within.

DMT’s activation of the 5-HT2A/mGlu2 receptor also causes the release of what’s called a G protein at the receptor. The protein is released into the neuron, spurring a series of intracellular processes that end up stimulating the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that’s essential for the development and sustained health of neurons.

In pathologies such as depression, stress, and PTSD, neurons fry and their dendrites wither. Through a dramatic uptick in BDNF in the brain, neurons begin to flourish – growing new dendrites, forming new connections at synapses, and nourishing baby neurons from the dentate gyrus. This neuroplasticity means there are more neurons, and they’re healthier and more able to communicate with each other, and new connections form in the brain, creating new neural networks and thought patterns. These new neural networks provide an escape from the well-worn, dysfunctional thought loops of the DMN that we may have been trapped in. If we nurture these new thoughts, they can turn into permanent changes in our attitudes, behavior, and lifestyles. We can shed our old skins and become new people.

 

O Sigma-1

 

All serotonergic psychedelics are understood to work in the ways described above, not just ayahuasca or DMT. However DMT binds not only to the 5-HT2A/mGlu2 receptors, but a receptor called Sigma-1. The Sigma-1 receptor “has so far been implicated in illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, cardiomyopathy, retinal dysfunction, perinatal and traumatic brain injury, frontal motor neuron degeneration, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, HIV-related dementia, major depression, and psychostimulant addiction.”

Activation of the Sigma-1 receptor through DMT may be a way to prevent, heal, and even cure some of the diseases listed above. How? Well, Sigma-1 protects against oxidative stress, low grade inflammation (LGI), and endoplasmic reticulum stress. All of these cellular stresses are closely related to and exacerbate one another. Oxidative stress can lead to cancer and apoptosis (cell death). Research increasingly implicates LGI in most chronic diseases, including disorders of the brain. The endoplasmic reticulum is responsible for protein folding, which goes awry in diseases like Alzheimer’s. Sigma-1 also supports mitochondrial activity and cellular survival, thus promoting neuroplasticity and preventing the neural degeneration typical of many brain disorders.

 

B. Caapi to the rescue

 

Banisteriopsis Caapi, the vine that constitutes half of a typical ayahuasca recipe, contains no DMT, but shamans have long considered it to be the key ingredient in ayahuasca. It contains alkaloids that prevent the immediate breakdown of DMT in the gut, allowing us to enjoy the trip for a few hours instead of seconds. These alkaloids have also been found to stimulate neurogenesis – the growth of new neurons in adults.

What could be better for your brain? I mean, maybe bolstering the brain’s immune system to kill free radicals and prevent cell death, which B. Caapi also does. It turns out the vine also has compounds with anti-inflammatory effects in microglia, protecting and strengthening the brain’s immune system. So ayahuasca doesn’t just heal by way of DMT, and scientists are now studying B. Caapi to find ways to prevent neurological diseases.

 

This short neuroscientific overview may explain some of ayahuasca’s proclaimed magic, its curative powers – but there are more variables at play in the complex interactions that occur between the biological, personal, physical, and social worlds.

In Part II, I’ll introduce the epistemologies of Peruvian shamans (though I’ll hardly be able to do them justice), before returning to Western thought and looking at aspects of set and setting in ayahuasca ceremonies. Hopefully, Spirit will guide me away from too much reductionism or empiricism in the realm of the personal, social, and spiritual, where most things are invisible and immeasurable.

 

Learning to ride the bipolar roller coaster

Posted on by content_ly0hqz
living with bipolar disorder

 

 

What’s it like living with bipolar disorder? Learning to ride the bipolar roller coaster 

by Tina Phillips, MSW

What is bipolar disorder?

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition which causes intense mood swings, often between depression, or low mood, and mania, high mood. Most of us are familiar with depression, but may not be as familiar with mania.

Mania can cause different kinds of behavior including grandiosity or inflated self-esteem, pressured speech or talking fast, racing thoughts or flights of ideas, impulsivity or taking risks that put one in danger, and decreased need for sleep, among some other symptoms.

Some people with bipolar disorder experience paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions, among other psychotic symptoms. Not every person will experience all of these symptoms, but to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder a person must experience at least three of the diagnostic criteria. There are varying symptoms and it can be hard to recognize if one is not aware of how it manifests. It is important to be aware of what bipolar disorder looks like so one can seek diagnosis and treatment or help a loved one in need.

There are several subtypes of bipolar disorder and some consider bipolar disorder to be a spectrum disorder. Bipolar disorder is largely considered a serious psychiatric disorder and around 2.8 percent of the population has it. Bipolar disorder is considered one of the more stigmatized forms of mental illness, making it particularly hard for those who have it to recognize, acknowledge, seek treatment for it, and stick with treatment the rest of their lives in order to manage it. 

 

Types of bipolar disorder

 

Bipolar I

Bipolar I disorder is a mental illness comprising episodes of mania. Many have both episodes of mania and depression. To receive a Bipolar I diagnosis a person must have a mania last at least a week or be so profound that it requires hospitalization.

 

Bipolar II

Bipolar II disorder is a type of bipolar disorder where a person experiences depression with episodes of hypomania, which is not a full blown version of mania, but shares some features.

 

Cyclothymic disorder or cyclothymia

Cyclothymic disorder or cyclothymia encompasses a period of unstable mood in which a person experiences both hypomania and mild depression. This must last for at least two years to meet the criteria and sometimes one can experience leveling off periods of normal mood, but this usually lasts less than eight weeks.

 

Bipolar disorder, “other specified” and “unspecified”

Bipolar disorder, “other specified” or “unspecified” is when a person doesn’t meet the criteria for bipolar I, II, or cyclothymia, but does experience periods of abnormally elevated mood.

 

What causes bipolar disorder?

Scientists are still studying the cause of bipolar disorder, and it appears there are several complex factors at play. These include genetics, brain structure and chemical makeup, and stress/triggers. While each of these plays a part, there isn’t one reason scientists can pinpoint or say every person with bipolar disorder developed it because of something specific. Bipolar disorder is known to run in families, but there is no one gene responsible, and there is no direct connection between one family member to the next. There is some evidence that disruptions in a protein called Akt can lead to brain changes that can contribute to developing bipolar disorder. Also stressful events in our lives can sometimes be a trigger for an underlying condition to express itself. It is most common to see bipolar disorder develop in one’s late teens or early 20s. However, some people don’t get diagnosed until later years, and unfortunately many experience misdiagnosis, leading to many years of suffering without proper treatment.

 

What’s it like living with bipolar disorder?

I can speak from my own experience of living with bipolar disorder. Diagnosed at age 14, I have lived with bipolar disorder for a little over 25 years, more than half my life. I have Bipolar I, which means I have the most severe type of bipolar disorder. For me this includes manic episodes with psychotic features, such as hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and complete black outs, in addition to most of the symptoms from the basic diagnostic criteria list.

It always starts out as feeling good, and ends with feeling bad. I develop a lot of energy and creative ideas, I come up with grand projects, I start to believe I have special powers, I start talking fast, I have a decreased need for food and sleep, I talk to complete strangers and become flirty, my inhibitions go away, but then my behavior becomes stranger as time goes on. I end up becoming so irritating to those around me, and I cannot believe it when they say there is something wrong with me. To me I am more than fine, I am great. It adds to my stress when others don’t believe what I am saying. My paranoia picks up and then the darkness takes over. 

In the early part of my life I had been on and off several different medications trying to find the right medication for me, working with different psychiatrists. I experienced three major manic episodes, and was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward twice. I stabilized on Carbamazepine in my early 20s and have been on it ever since. However I suffer from traumatic memories of those manic episodes even now. I also recently had an aggravation of my symptoms due to life stressors and had to add medication to treat bipolar depression. 

Although I am medicated I also experience some depression and a lot of anxiety, which I only recently learned is often a large part of bipolar disorder. Even after this long I am still discovering things about the disorder and how it manifests for me. It’s very complex, not every person experiences the exact same symptoms, and it can also shift throughout time. I am starting to look at my emotional patterns and seeing how my mood swings despite being on medication, which is frustrating, but part of the reality with living with bipolar disorder. 

I am still learning about what my triggers are, how to manage my bipolar disorder, and what about me is because of my bipolar disorder. Some of the things other people dislike about me are because of my bipolar disorder, and they aren’t things that can be medicated away. Things like my sensitivity, intense emotions such as anger, how fast and dramatically my mood can change, my anxiety, my loudness, my sleep schedule/being a night owl, my bluntness, and my bossiness. I have to remind myself that I don’t have control over what others think of me, and I need to learn to love myself, even the challenging parts of me.

Many people with bipolar disorder experience isolation and many lose family, friends, jobs, and romantic partners in part due to their bipolar disorder. This can make people feel ashamed for having it and it can lead to further depression. Despite the challenges and heart breaks bipolar disorder can bring to our lives, it’s not something we should be ashamed of. There is nothing we did to deserve having it, and there’s only so much we can do about it. It takes a lot of work to manage our moods and all the parts of life impacted by our disorder.

Sometimes bipolar disorder is like riding a roller coaster we cannot get off, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing we can do to improve the quality of our lives, learn to cope, and find treatments that work for us. There are many other experiences of bipolar disorder, and no two stories are exactly alike. 

 

Bipolar emotions: Intense and sensitive 

Many people with bipolar disorder are accused of being overly “intense” or “sensitive.” In fact, these are common traits and there’s not much one can do about this, as this is the person they are. Medications can stabilize moods to some degree, but some traits cannot be medicated away. People need to try to adjust to their loved ones, friends, or co-workers who display sensitivity and emotionality. When people in a persons’ life don’t try to accept their differences, it can leave a person with bipolar disorder feeling isolated, depressed, anxious, and misunderstood. Often stresses in life and mistreatment can lead to trauma and other disorders.

There are several common co-occurring disorders with bipolar disorder. These include ADHD, OCD, substance abuse disorders, anxiety, and eating disorders. Some of these may come along the same genetic line as bipolar disorder, but also could be triggered by stress in a person’s life. Some people use substances to self-medicate, and eating disorders are often a way for people gain control when they feel their lives are out of their control. In addition, suicide attempts and completed suicides are more common in people with bipolar disorder. In fact, “up to 20% of (mostly untreated) bipolar disorder subjects end their life by suicide, and 20–60% of them attempt suicide at least one in their lifetime.” Given such alarming rates, it’s vitally important we take a look at what can prevent people with bipolar disorder from attempting to take their own lives. Important factors in reducing suicide attempts include early diagnosis, effective treatment, and clinical interventions. 

 

Treatment for bipolar disorder

 

Medication

psychiatry

One of the main treatments for bipolar disorder is psychiatric medication. Medication can be very effective in helping to manage symptoms. There are a range of medications that treat mood disorders, mania, psychotic symptoms, anxiety, and depression. Many people with bipolar disorder see a psychiatrist regularly to help manage medications and make adjustments as needed. Some people require multiple medications to effectively manage their symptoms.

Many people with bipolar disorder struggle to take their medications or do not stay on their medications. Reasons behind this vary. Many experience side effects that become intolerable or they don’t like how the medication dulls their personality. Some people like the way mania makes them feel and are used to living life with mania, and go off of their medication to gain back what they feel like they lost. Some people start to feel better on their medications, and think they no longer need their medication. However, it’s often the medication that is making them feel better and once off the medication they can backslide.

Some people feel the pressure of the stigma of being dependent on medications, or worry about what other people think of them and cave to pressure of wanting to appear “normal.” This is ironic because medication actually stabilizes mood and can help people manage their condition, making them more functional. Some people worry being on medication for life will affect their long-term physical health or even shorten their lifespan.

It’s important not to judge people for their decision not to take medications because we don’t walk in their shoes. Respecting the self-determination of people with mental illness is key. We should work towards research that will develop new therapies that have less side effects. People with bipolar disorder should work closely with their healthcare team to address any concerns and adjust medications as needed. 

 

Therapy

Psychotherapy can also help people manage moods, learn their triggers, develop and practice coping skills, and find creative ways to regulate their mood. Several types of therapy have been shown effective in treating bipolar disorder including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Family Focused Therapy, Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy, and Group Psychoeducation. Group therapy also helps some people as they can talk with peers experiencing similar struggles, feel validation, and share social support.

Learning coping skills and having a wellness action recovery plan can really help people navigate the bipolar journey. Different techniques work for different people and so it’s important to be open to trying various tools and strategies to find which ones fit best for you. Some people also use apps to manage their symptoms or keep track of their moods. 

 

Finding balance: ways to manage bipolar disorder

There are many ways to manage bipolar disorder outside of traditional methods. These include exercise and other coping mechanisms such as art, journaling, and mindfulness/meditation, among other activities. Other important factors are proper nutrition, getting enough sleep, keeping a schedule/routine, and avoiding drugs and alcohol. Disruptions in these key factors can lead to mood destabilization or lead to medications being less effective. 

Furthermore, managing stress and triggers, relaxation and rest, and having social support are very important in managing bipolar disorder. Having places to go and community that is inclusive decreases stigma, gives people hope, and builds skills that help people recover. One such place is a clubhouse for those with mental illness. Putting together the right plan for each individual to successfully manage bipolar disorder may take some trial and error, but it’s worth the journey of exploration. It takes a lot of adjustment and readjustment throughout the lifespan to learn to ride the waves of bipolar disorder. It is not an easy life, but it is a life that can be worth living. Seeking help to manage the mood swings and creating a good quality of life through various coping skills and strategies is how we thrive through the ups and downs of life. 

 

Further resources and recommended reading

 

https://www.bphope.com/

https://www.dbsalliance.org/

https://www.dbsalliance.org/support/chapters-and-support-groups/find-a-support-group/

https://www.verywellmind.com/best-online-bipolar-disorder-support-groups-4802211

https://www.nami.org/

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bipolar-disorder/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20355961

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/bipolar-disorder.shtml

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/bipolar-disorders/what-are-bipolar-disorders

https://www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/about-mental-illness/learn-more-about-conditions/bipolar-disorder/

https://www.psycom.net/what-i-wish-people-knew-about-bipolar-one-disorder

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/bipolar-disorder/living-with-bipolar-disorder.htm

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/bipolar-disorder/bipolar-disorder-treatment.htm

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/bipolar-disorder/helping-someone-with-bipolar-disorder.HTML

 

Accessing treatment in a deteriorating system

Posted on by content_ly0hqz
city budget cuts and mental health services

  

Accessing treatment in a deteriorating system

 

By Angel V.

I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder about six months ago. Before that I’d had a diagnosis of bipolar one, a severe form of bipolar where rapid cycling and suicidal ideation are particularly common. Borderline personality disorder, or BPD, makes it difficult for someone to control and regulate their emotions, affecting interpersonal relationships, basic day to day functioning, and employment.

Finding treatment and therapy for both of these diagnoses is difficult. Even under the best of circumstances.

Before covid, my options were limited. Most people choose to go on a waitlist and wait for the type of therapy that is known to work best with borderline personality disorder, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, to become available. This type of therapy works best in a group setting and takes the form of a course wherein a person is taught better coping mechanisms, based on a practice of mindfulness.

I’ve been waitlisted for almost a year now.

Covid made treatments like this near impossible. People can meet in Zoom chat rooms, but scheduling can be difficult. And it requires a full group doing the full 6 to 12 week program in order to work.

 

mental health budget cuts

 

Cutting mental health budgets, militarizing the police

Part of the problem lies with state funding. Without people who are experienced in this type of treatment, who can facilitate the group, the number of groups that are available dwindles.

Funding for programs in Chicago and throughout Illinois was cut years ago.

Under Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, the state decided to allow mental health services to receive little or no funding during sweeping budget cuts. True to form, it was the most at need that received the least assistance under the new budget.

Psychiatric care for many programs were reduced drastically or eliminated completely as a result. In Chicago, a city of over eight million people, these budget cuts, and the reduction in services that they cause, have had deep and lasting effects.

Under Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel, many of the city’s major providers were shuttered because of lack of funding. Unsurprisingly, the first providers to go were the ones in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods.

The money that should be going to mental health services and clinics is going instead toward policing and prisons.

The 2021 budget allocates nearly $1.7 billion dollars toward police spending. This is nearly 40% of the corporate fund, the largest of funds of the city’s spending plan.

As seen during the Black Lives Matter Protests, the city’s police force is better equipped than some military forces. In addition to full riot gear, tear gas, batons, rubber bullets, police have availed themselves the use of the Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, a sonic weapon intended to disperse protesters using an ear splitting deterrent tone, capable of causing permanent hearing damage. Use and operation of these weapons is not cheap. Spending suggests the city would rather deal with the problems that having an unhealthy population cause then preventing the problems by providing services.

 

A history of cuts to mental health services

Cutting health services is a hallmark of Republican budget strategies: As soon as he took office as governor of California, Reagan decided to slash funding for health services. The number of people suffering from mental health issues in the prison system effectively doubled as a direct result of this action.

Private board and care facility operators capitalized on former patients who needed assistance. There was money to be made providing spaces and services for the mentally ill. Those who didn’t end up in prison ended up in one of these facilities, or eventually on the street if their symptoms were severe enough and they were not receiving proper treatment and medication.

Later as president, Reagan decided to cut funding for health services again, reducing federal spending for mental health and pushing the responsibility for funding services onto the states.

This fiscal strategy of intentional neglect continues today. As recent as last year, 45’s proposed budget for 2021 included $2.9 billion in cuts to the National Institute of Health and another $708 million to the CDC, this during a pandemic.

In January, the senate overrode a veto to pass a $740 billion defense budget while denying us our $2,000 survival checks. The Democrats still haven’t delivered.

National policy affects people who are suffering from mental illness personally.

Shortly after I was diagnosed with bipolar one, I was prescribed lithium to help with manic episodes and to regulate depressive cycles. I was on lithium for a year before switching to depakote after finding out lithium can damage the liver and kidneys.

Under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, I qualify for Medicaid.

Without insurance, I would be paying hundreds of dollars for my medication. 

Even with medication, day to day functioning is a challenge. Trying to explain the necessity of taking medication to someone who doesn’t struggle with mental health issues is difficult and adds to the challenges that neurodivergent people face.

I am in constant fear of losing my insurance because of a change in the administration.

 

Change is possible: cities making progress

Forward-thinking cities have taken matters into their own hands. In 2018, Denver residents passed a measure that would allow for a .25% tax increase that earmarked funds for mental health treatment. Among a rash of suicides and overdoses, Denver wanted to see its citizens receive access to better mental health services. 

Other parts of the country have taken similar steps with positive results. In 2008, King County Washington saw a .1% increase in funding for behavioral health services. Within three years, they witnessed a drop in psychiatric hospital admissions of 29%, with a 35% drop in jail bookings.

The major problem with programs like this is how people access them. A lack of standards means that people might have trouble finding them, and without regulation there is a good chance that those most in need will slip through the cracks.

In Chicago, this has been a big part of the problem as well as limited services. People who are computer literate and who understand how to navigate bureaucratic systems are still left daunted by a confusing and complicated, time consuming, frustrating system.

For those who do not have the time, patience, and wherewithal, it’s easier to find other ways of coping with mental health issues.