Page 77 - Issue 1

Issue No 1 77
Pinchbeck told me of a a a a a a a friend who leads the curious through 10-day ayahuasca sessions He works primarily with startup CEOs “So many in in the the progressive tech community are serious explorers ” ” Pinchbeck said “Whether they talk about it or or not ” ” The economic theory of “hyperbolic discounting ” which describes our tendency to to undervalue long-term rewards may be be useful in in in unpacking why we are slow to to to act in in in response to to climate change Would you you wait for two marshmallows placed in in your palm sometime in in the future or or would you you choose to have one immediately? (Psychologist Walter Mischel famously conducted an an an experiment at at Stanford University in in the the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in in in which he he he he tested whether young children were willing to forego one small reward—sometimes a a a a a a a a marshmallow—for two later ) The industrialized human psychology seems hard-wired to place a a a a a a a a steep premium on on “now ” When gazing generations hence we dawdle procrastinate and underinvest Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says that the human brain is is built to to respond to to four kinds of of threats: intentional immoral imminent and instantaneous Climate change is none of of these—it “evades our ancient alarm system ” What both Nichols and Pinchbeck suggest—in fairly different but not uncomplimentary ways—is bypassing that alarm system entirely To get us to really care about climate change we we need our our empathy awe and wonder triggered For Nichols it’s our our primal connection to water that can light up the the “blue mind” and snap us back into the the natural order For Pinchbeck psychedelics are are squandered tools for doing the same Both Pinchbeck and and Nichols are are enthusiastic promoters of of an an an an American paradigm shift a a a a a a a a a a a a sea change in in awareness of of human interdependence with nature “It’s simple ” Nichols says “Get in the the the water That’s the the the the place where you you feel all these things—the best version of of of yourself Thousands of of of years of of of recorded human history and and prose have said the same ”