Statement of Solidarity for Palestine & Ways to Take Action!
Statement on Palestinian struggle and ensuing genocide.
We, the members of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective, reject any false equivalence between the legitimate right to self-defense of anyone and the horrific violence being inflicted upon a captive civilian population in Gaza and the West Bank. This has all the outward signs of genocide, a scouring ethnic cleansing that cynically seeks a brutal final solution. We join our voices with the overwhelming majority of Earth’s people demanding an immediate ceasefire. This cannot be allowed to continue. Therefore, we call for an immediate end to the Israeli occupation and all policies that constitute the architecture of Zionist apartheid.
Our organization’s work is founded on a deep appreciation of the vast and unknown potential of human consciousness and the sacred and inalienable right of each human to explore this potential. In that sense, our work embraces an individual right to autonomous agency over the dynamic contours of awareness. Because of this, we stand and defend in the name of our communities and all Earth communities the right to trip (common slang for intentionally altering one's consciousness).
This violence and its psychic effects reach far beyond the geographic confines of the so-called Middle East. Since October 7, all mediated social space has been awash with every available audible and visual record of these horrendous events. Thanks to our innate capacity to share and to feel, we are all having our consciousness forcibly altered in the most vile ways possible. How many dead children have you seen on your phone in the last nine weeks? Collectively, these stimuli are a powerful consciousness-altering substance being inflicted upon us all. While the vicarious harm we experience within our physical security is nothing in comparison to those who have been left without even a safe place to bury their dead, we must be aware that these sounds and images have surely damaged us, and we, too, must be healed.
As people of color, our communities share a historical awareness of the violence that is occupation. Within our disparate identities of color, we share an understanding of colonial domination as the violent negation of human life. Whether we speak as members of one of the many nations of the Americas, Asia, or Africa whose land was stolen by colonizers or as descendants of African people whose Black bodies were similarly “occupied” by the same gang of thieves, we know that all occupation is immoral, illegal, and toxic. It will eventually prove lethal for all involved – occupiers no less than occupied.
Ultimately, our planetary survival rests upon our ability to perceive the mutuality of our destiny as we travel together on this spaceship Earth. False ideologies of domination are the largest obstacle in our path toward this collective realization. All ideologies of domination are false and will and must fall, and we will use the force of our collective effort to hasten their demise.
Our primary focus, however, is the elevation of our minds and our communities through access to the fullness of human consciousness made possible by psychedelic intervention. Over the past five years, psychedelics have been increasingly used by people around the world to treat trauma-induced disability. Psychedelics may offer promise in ameliorating the searing trauma of the ongoing slaughter in Gaza.
In June of 2023, the POC Psychedelic Collective interviewed Noor Ramadhan, head of the Arab Psychedelic Society. The Iraqi researcher has studied ketamine-based psychotherapy and often reflects on the dark irony that most of the research on the use of psychedelics to treat the trauma of war has been done on white American veterans whose PTSD was acquired while participating in the US campaign to destroy her country. “I am really interested in bringing psychedelic-assisted therapy and treating people with trauma,” Noor told us. “There are refugees, there are immigrants that have lived through war, and a lot of those people don’t have any access to treatment.”
Our ancestors taught us to treasure the medicines that come up out of this good Earth, to preserve their integrity, and to defend our integrity as we stand with them on this sacred planet. Our medicine is greater than their machines of war and death. We will win, and we will heal.
Victory to the Oppressed,
Free Palestine,
People of Color Psychedelic Collective
Here are three things you can do to support Palestinians:
-Support the Palestinian Children Relief Fund: if you live in the United States, speak Arabic, and can host a child coming to the US for medical care- please consider applying to volunteer (this is not an adoption opportunity!)
-Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Campaign: Learn about what companies and goods to boycott in support
Share more resources among your networks!