Just a heads up—this week’s psychedelic news link roundup will be delayed. It will come out sometime early next week.
Celebrating Think Wilder's Sixth Anniversary
Today Think Wilder is turning six.
That’s right—six years ago I launched this blog, and a whole lot has happened since then. In this commemorative post I’m going to go over the evolution of my work here at Think Wilder, share a couple improvements that I’ve made to the website, and give an update about where I’m taking things in the future.
Think Wilder’s History
So let’s start off with a little bit of history. This blog’s first post was published on March 27th, 2015. Before that, I had launched two other blogs that eventually ran out of steam.
The first was a cigar review blog; I don’t remember its name. I used to be really into cigars, smoking anywhere from 1-3 cigars a day, trading them with people online, subscribing to cigar magazines, and spending thousands of dollars on them over the course of 2 or 3 years.
That was shortly before I got into psychedelics. I hadn’t even tried cannabis when I got into cigars, so in a way, tobacco was one of my gateway drugs. Although really my gateway drug would’ve been caffeine, because I drank a lot of soda when I was younger and got into coffee before I got into cigars.
But anyway, I digress. My second blog was a book review blog where I wrote reviews about the books I was reading at the time. It was called DDubsReads because one of my nicknames in college was D Dubs (short for “David Wilder”) and I liked reading. It was kind of a silly name to be honest.
I wrote a fair amount of reviews of books about psychedelics but was a bit afraid to exclusively write about them because this was a bit before psychedelics really went mainstream. It was around 2008-2010 or so. In addition to writing reviews about psychedelic books, I also reviewed science fiction, classics, science, nutrition, and spiritual books.
It was a fun blog to run but eventually I stopped posting content, and I essentially stopped blogging for 3 or 4 years, if I’m remembering my timeline correctly.
Then one day while I was listening to one of my favorite tech podcasts (The Talk Show) I got the inspiration to start up a third blog, and after some brainstorming I decided to name it Think Wilder.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to write about, so my early posts varied in topic quite a bit but included a lot of the same types of topics as the books I reviewed for DDubsReads. In fact, the tagline I chose for the site was “An Open-Minded Exploration of Everything.” That doesn’t really explain what to expect from a blog called Think Wilder, does it?
A few years into this project I decided to narrow down the topics I wanted to cover on Think Wilder to psychoactive drugs, spirituality, technology, and personal development. Then a little over a year ago I made the decision to stop covering news about all psychoactive drugs and instead go back to just covering psychedelic news, in addition to creating content about the other topics.
And today I’m going to be making an announcement about how I’m niching down even further now, so that I can focus on what I really want to talk about with my platform.
But before we get to that I want to share a couple improvements I’ve made here on the blog.
Site Improvements
Every year I celebrate my blogiversary by announcing improvements to the site, and this year’s no different. As of today, there are now two new archive pages that will make it easier and faster for you to find the blog posts I’ve written.
The first site improvement is a resource guides archive, which is where you’ll find a list of the resource guides I have created. As of now there’s only one but I’m planning to create some more this year.
The second improvement is a general archive page that lists the blog posts that don’t fit into the other defined categories on my blog: reviews, link posts, resource guides, and psychedelic news roundups and recaps.
You can check the new archive pages out by hovering over the “Categories” menu item at the top of the site, and please let me know if you have any ideas for site improvements that you’d like to see me implement in the future.
A New Direction
So getting back to what I teased earlier, I’ve decided to niche down a bit further and narrow my focus to psychedelic news, reviews, and resource guides.
I may still post something that would fall into the categories of spirituality, technology, personal development, or any another topic, but I’m really going to be focusing primarily on psychedelics from here on out.
It’s just that there is so much to talk about in the world of psychedelics that I’ve been plenty busy keeping up with it all and haven’t really had the time and space to create content about other things for a while, and so I’ve decided that Think Wilder is going to be all about psychedelics moving forward.
It’s crazy to think that it took me six years to figure out what I really want to create content about, even though looking back it should’ve probably been more obvious. I suppose in this case, hindsight is actually 20/21!
Psychedelics are the most fascinating thing I’ve ever come across and I want to use my platform to spread information about them so people don’t end up making the same mistakes I did when I first started experimenting with psychedelics 15 years ago.
So if you’re here for news, reviews, or resource guides related to psychedelics then stick around because that’s going to be my main focus from now on. Here’s to six years, and many more.
Previous Years
Every year I celebrate my blogiversary by announcing improvements to the site. Here’s what I did to celebrate the first five blogiversaries at Think Wilder:
2020: Five new archive pages (Book Reviews, Film Reviews, Weekly Psychedelic Links, Monthly Psychedelic Recaps, and Yearly Psychedelic Recaps)
2019: Think Wilder brand logos and a Link Posts archive
2018: The creation of three new pages (Start Here, Hire Me, and Support), a Patreon account, and an option to give a one-time PayPal donation
2017: I made a commitment to write more feature posts for the site
2016: A site redesign that made it easier to navigate around the blog
The Plant Spirit Summit
An intriguing free online event called the Plant Spirit Summit is scheduled to take place later this month from February 22-26 and I thought my readers might be interested to learn more about it. This five-day conference will feature more than 40 Western and indigenous experts on plant medicine and psychedelics, focusing on a variety of related topics, such as:
Ancestral Plant Spirit Healing Traditions (Ayahuasca, Iboga, Peyote, San Pedro, Magic Mushrooms, Kambô, and Bufo)
The Past, Present and Future of Psychedelic Medicine
The Art and Science of Microdosing Transformation
Psychedelics and Leadership Innovation
There is a solid lineup of speakers, including:
Ninawa Pai da Mata – spiritual leader of the Huni Kuin community of Novo Futuro, on the indigenous cultural renaissance catalyzed by the globalization of ayahuasca and their tribe’s decision to collaborate with outsiders.
Wade Davis – celebrated author, anthropologist, ethnobotanist, and filmmaker, who will talk about the impact of the psychedelic renaissance on contemporary culture, as well as about the drug war’s destruction of Colombia and what he considers to be the ultimate sacred medicine of South America (hint: it’s not ayahuasca).
Jazmin Pirozek – integrative healer of the Kinosao Sipi Nation, who will share how Amazonian plant medicine of the South is healing the trauma of colonization in indigenous communities of the Canadian North.
Bruce Parry – filmmaker and explorer, on the delicate nature of living with remote peoples, egalitarian tribal cultures and his visionary experiences with iboga, ayahuasca, Bufo and ebene (yopo), revealing the surprising reaction that overcame him.
Françoise Bourzat – consciousness guide and author, who will share what happens when you integrate indigenous sacred mushroom ceremonies and Western psychology.
Cecilio Soria Gonzales – Shipibo indigenous rights activist, on how the Comando Matico initiative is distributing plant medicine through indigenous communities to treat and prevent COVID-19.
Shelby Hartman – cofounder of DoubleBlind Magazine, on the medicalization of psychedelics and whether these emergent drugs are all they are hyped up to be.
Jeremy Narby – legendary anthropologist and author of The Cosmic Serpent, with advice on how Western ceremony facilitators from the Global North can stop engaging in spiritual extraction of indigenous cultural wisdom, and give back in a meaningful way.
You’ll also hear from Daniel Shankin of the Psilocybin Summit, Carmen Jackman of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Tricia Eastman and Joseph Peter Barsuglia of Psychedelic Journeys, iboga provider and integration coach Elizabeth Bast, visionary artist Chor Boogie, Kyle Buller of the podcast Psychedelics Today, and more.
The Plant Spirit Summit is being produced by Lorna Liana and her psychedelic publication EntheoNation. Lorna discovered her purpose while drinking visionary plant medicines with indigenous shamans in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. She was given a mission: “To leverage emerging technologies to preserve indigenous traditions, so that ancient wisdom can benefit the modern world, and technology can empower indigenous people.”
In pursuit of this mission, Lorna became a new media strategist to sustainable brands, social ventures and visionary entrepreneurs, helping them attract their tribe and ignite a movement around their mission-driven businesses. Through podcasting, video blogging, and social media, she shares the stories of both indigenous people and the world’s foremost experts in psychedelic science, modern shamanism, and consciousness research to inspire each and every one of us to explore the depths of our minds, spirits, planet… and evolve.
EntheoNation is a leading psychedelic media publisher that produces content about plant medicines, psychedelics, shamanism, indigenous cultures and reciprocity, transformative technologies, conscious relationships, and much more. The site features podcast episodes, articles, ebooks, and guides about how you can work with these powerful tools for healing and spiritual growth, and it explores these topics through the multifaceted framework of science, culture, and spirituality.
There is no charge to attend the Plant Spirit Summit, and all sessions will be free to the public for 48 hours. You can grab your complimentary seat by navigating to PlantSpiritSummit.com. I reckon I’ll be pretty busy working on my February monthly recap content around that time but I’ve already registered myself, so maybe I’ll see you there!
This Week in Psychedelics 12.11.20 Will Be Delayed
Think Wilder needs a break. This week’s update will hopefully come out next week.
Think Wilder Is Going Back to Its Psychedelic Roots
For the last year or so I’ve been running an experiment on this blog and my YouTube channel by trying my damnedest to cover the hottest news about all psychoactive substances in my weekly link roundups and monthly/yearly news recaps. But that’s about to change.
Think Wilder is going back to its psychedelic roots. Moving forward all of my link roundups and news recaps will focus on plants, fungi, animals, and chemicals that can be reasonably classified as “psychedelic”.
Before you object, let me first clarify that this doesn’t mean that I won’t ever publish anything about non-psychedelic drugs again. You’ll still see content related to mind-altering substances like cocaine, heroin, alcohol, and nicotine from time to time—in the form of feature pieces or link posts. However, I won’t be focusing on drugs like these in my regular roundups and recaps.
The rest of this blog post explains why I’ve come to this decision, so if you’re interested in the reasons behind the change then you can keep reading. If you’re not, then at least now you know what to expect in the future from Think Wilder.
Rewinding back to the end of 2018, after 3.5 years of covering mostly psychedelic news on a weekly basis, I began to cover all psychoactive drugs. As I explained in that that year's recap:
Earlier this month I polled the Think Wilder audience on Twitter and Facebook about the overall scope of the blog, asking if I should narrow my focus to exclusively write about psychedelics or expand it to cover other psychoactive substances as well. Thank you to those of you who responded. Most people seemed to be interested in psychedelics, but a few reported that they found information about other drugs to also be valuable. After mulling it over for a few weeks, I decided to expand the scope of the blog to focus on all psychoactive substances. First of all, I wanted to avoid practicing drug chauvinism, the belief that some drugs are inherently “better” than others. I also feel like there is significantly more honest reporting about psychedelics than there is about drugs like stimulants and depressants and wanted to help balance things out. But most importantly, I realized that although I’m far more familiar with psychedelics and am by no means an expert on other drugs, I still have a healthy interest in psychoactive substances in general and want to see them fairly covered. I added a “cocaine” section to this year’s post, and you can expect to see news about other psychoactive substances like benzodiazepines and deliriants in the near future.
Many of those things remain the same today. I don’t want to participate in what I termed “drug chauvinism” at the time (although I have since come around to prefer the term “psychedelic exceptionalism”). Instead, I want to promote the ethos of drug positivity throughout my work.
I still think there is more decent reporting about psychedelics than other psychoactive substances, but have learned that I truly feel like I have more to contribute to the psychedelic niche than in the overall drug niche.
And I have maintained a strong interest in all things psychoactive and love learning more about non-psychedelic drugs. However with all of that said, I still have decided to make a change.
There are two main reasons why:
First and foremost, narrowing the scope of my regular news coverage will significantly cut down on the amount of time it takes to create link roundups and news recaps so I can focus on other projects that keep getting put on the backburner.
To give you an idea of how much time I’ve put into covering drugs over the last five years, each weekly link roundup takes anywhere from 10-20 hours to complete, while monthly recap videos take about 10 hours and monthly recap blog posts take about 20 hours. All of that work is done without any outside funding other than my Patreon patrons. (By the way, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to those of you who are supporting me there and invite everyone else to become a patron to help keep my work going.)
Since covering non-psychedelic drugs takes up about half of the time it takes to produce my link roundups and news recaps, dropping them from my regular updates should enable me to spend more time covering psychedelic news as thoroughly as possible and free me up to work on other content and projects that I’ve been wanting to create for a long time.
Second, I feel like I’ve drifted away from what I want Think Wilder to be.
When I first started this blog I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with it. But after a couple years I started to realize that I really wanted to focus on psychedelics, spirituality, and technology. Expanding my scope to cover all psychoactive drugs was a departure from my original intention and didn’t really reflect my true passions.
My initial—and most influential—experiences with drugs involved psychedelics, not uppers, downers, or other all-arounders. Although I do have limited experience with some non-psychedelic drugs, I am by no means an expert on them and have come to the realization that it’s better to leave coverage of those substances to people better equipped to discuss them.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, this news doesn’t mean that this marks the last time I’ll ever cover non-psychedelic drugs on Think Wilder. I have some ideas for psychoactive drug content that have been bouncing around in my noggin for the last few years, and hopefully some of them will come to fruition sooner or later. And I still plan to link to big news stories about non-psychedelic drugs, too.
This decision has been difficult for me to make and it feels bittersweet. On one hand, I’m fascinated by psychoactive drugs and love learning about them, but on the other hand I just don’t feel called to continue going down the path I’ve been following any longer.
These changes are effective immediately. This week’s link roundup will return to the original name that the column sported until the end of 2018 (“This Week in Psychedelics”) and the news recaps at the end of the month will be called “This Month in Psychedelics”.
I hope that everyone who was tuning in for psychedelic content is excited about this news and that those of you who come here for news about all psychoactives understand where I’m coming from. Obviously I can’t please everyone and I just have to listen to what I feel is right for me. Thank you for your understanding and feel free to contact me to let you know what you think about this announcement.