Hi friends, Laura Dawn here, and it’s been a minute since I’ve published an episode on the psychedelic leadership podcast. And in this solo episode, I want to share my perspective on the current situation with psychedelic censorship. And this is going to be my final episode under psychedelic leadership.

And what I’m going to share here today really just feels like the perfect segue to introduce the new name of my show, which I’m going to share here in just a little bit. But in this episode, I wanted to talk about psychedelic censorship because, well, it’s hot. It’s up for a lot of people in a really big way right now.

So I want to share a snapshot of what’s going on, share my perspective on it, and a viewpoint I haven’t really heard many people speaking to, and why in some ways, despite the many challenges, I think there are some beneficial outcomes to censorship. Which I know is a strong statement, but I’m rolling with it.

I want to share how this censorship era as I’m calling it has impacted my decision making as a psychedelic entrepreneur and share some advice for anyone who’s navigating the fun complexities of social media with a psychedelic related message. And I’m going to be speaking to this on both an individual and organizational level.

I’m And I want to speak to the importance of building a stronger foundation for your business, particularly by moving more slowly at the true genuine pace of integration, by building a stronger, more integrated offering, and why companies who bypass this organic process will likely implode. And I’m suggesting that Now, I just want to name that I’m not speaking directly about any particular company in this episode, meaning I’m not casting judgment here, I’m not saying that anyone who is getting censored or who is going out of business deserves that because they’re out of integrity.

I don’t wish that upon anyone. All I’m saying is that these censorship guardrails are perhaps beneficial at this particular moment in time because I think it might be supporting the integrity of the larger movement overall. Okay. So just to offer a brief overview, which you likely don’t need. I mean, if you have even a pinky toe in the psychedelic space, you’ve probably noticed that psychedelic censorship is at an all time high right now, especially on meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, you know, um, Instagram is really just the worst.

It’s a major pain in the butt. And there are a few bigger brands and psychedelic companies who have had their accounts revoked. Some have been able to get their accounts back. Others I don’t think we’ll get their account back. We shall see. Again, I’m not naming names. All the names here. If you’re tracking it, you probably know who I’m talking about and it’s not just meta.

I’ve been having a lot of conversations with people who are being impacted by changes in Google search and SEO search engine optimization. They just aren’t getting the traffic that they did. Even a year ago and it’s hurting their business, you know about a week ago I was catching up with a girlfriend who hadn’t dropped in with in quite a few months And she was telling me that she got shut down by stripe and that’s all Also becoming a huge issue in the space right now.

And between that and shifts in Google censorship, her business took a really big downturn overnight. And I know that she was doing really good work. She does really good work. And these are the unfortunate casualties that are happening. So I do have a lot of empathy. For a lot of people who are feeling it right now, and I’m calling this the censorship era.

And even though it feels like it’s at an all time high right now, this has been going on for some years at this point. Um, but I do feel like it’s been getting worse, especially in 2024. Uh, just for context, I also lost my own Instagram account for about three months. I was able to get it back and this was, gosh, at least a couple of years ago at this point, uh, when I was super focused on the psychedelic leadership podcast, I was leading with a strong psychedelic first message and losing my account was super stressful.

You know, it’s like our, our livelihoods are at stake, so I totally understand how challenging that can be. And to be honest with the growth of my Instagram account over this past year, the stakes feel higher. Um, but you know, I feel like the stakes feel high for pretty much anyone listening who’s even invested five days into content creation because you know, just like how much effort, how much love and devotion goes into Creating meaningful and thoughtful content and sharing a message that we care about and right now You know We live in a culture a business culture that over relies on social media And I think this is part of the problem and I think censorship is sort of Forcing a return to our grassroots, our underground network, which I think is actually a really good thing.

So even though we’ve been in this censorship era for years, I don’t think censorship is gonna last forever. I believe that we will see the other side of this, I really do. That being said, I also don’t think it’s going to change overnight. I think we’re going to be in this sort of muddy, liminal, in between space for a while.

You know, on a legal level, things haven’t been going in the direction I think many people hoped for or anticipated. And unfortunately, there’s also been a recent death in the space that has had a fairly large ripple effect. And I don’t want to go there. But I do think that all of these are contributing factors that aren’t helping the censorship situation.

And you might be thinking to yourself, well, what about RFK? You know, of course I’m hearing lots of whispers of people expressing optimism that RFK is pro psychedelic. And I’m not here to make political commentary or predict the future. But I don’t think this situation with censorship is going to shift overnight because a single person doesn’t have the power to just flick a switch.

These things take time. And so I want to hold this view of the censorship era within an even broader context, because I think we are at the very beginning. Of the psychedelic movement. I think for those of us who have been in this space for a while, we feel like it’s very saturated and crowded. But every time I poke my head out of this bubble, I am always reminded of just how forefront we still are right now, right?

We are just seeing the very tip of the iceberg. Yeah, the wave hasn’t even fully formed yet. And that’s just my perspective. So I want to presence that context because I feel like how we choose to navigate these next few years are going to play a big role in the future of the psychedelic movement. Okay.

So before I share what I see as the silver lining of psychedelic censorship, I will share Just my overall perspective on censorship itself. It’s nuanced. I don’t think anyone can hold like a hard black or white viewpoint on something as complex as this. I will say that as someone who stands for cognitive liberty and radical sovereignty, there is a part of me that is also outraged by it all.

We have a fundamental right to speak our truth and the freedom of speech is an incredibly important value. I think we as a culture need to take a stand for. I also feel like we need to choose our battles and fighting force with force isn’t actually always the best move. Sometimes fighting force with flow is a better strategy.

That being said, I have a lot of respect for the people who feel like it is your purpose to fight the censorship battle. Thank you for doing that work. I don’t personally feel like that is my mission in life. And, of course, when we have our accounts revoked, it can feel violating. It’s a form of oppression.

I had a friend who recently just went through it and she was rightly very triggered by the situation. She said it was, you know, triggering this, this deep ancient witch wound, which I totally get and people’s livelihoods are at stake. And of course I want to share that context as I offer my perspective on what I’m calling the benefits of censorship because I’m holding all of us in this space with a lot of empathy and compassion for.

People who are really doing good work, right? And like my friend who I spoke to last week, who has really taken a hit because of these censorship shifts. Okay, that being said there’s also another part of me that deeply trusts what is happening right now And I think it’s very easy to forget that there is a much larger restructuring taking place And there are many invisible forces at play including the The intelligence of the sacred plant medicines and fungi medicines that hundreds of thousands of us, probably millions of us are intentionally praying with right regularly praying for the healing and awakening of humanity with these allies in ceremony.

There’s probably thousands or hundreds of thousands of people in ceremony every single night all around the world. And I think that. That has a huge impact, and I’m noticing in my conversations with a lot of my closest allies that there is a really deep sense of trust for what is happening with censorship, right?

In a way, I think it’s helpful for us to have these guardrails right now. Um, you know, I guess I’ll just say it because, you know. Imagine there wasn’t any censorship. It would be so much more of a free for all than it already is. You know, I had a, another sister leaving me a WhatsApp voice memo last night saying the exact same thing, right?

She is doing really incredible psychedelic advocacy work. And she was like, I think these medicines are working their magic. And I agree. She’s noticing a lot of the things that I’ve been noticing in terms of just, like, the shenanigans going on and just, like, the boldness and the how people are moving in the space.

And I think there’s a lot of divine orchestration going on, and yes, there will be casualties along the way, but the broader implications of censorship, I think, are putting on necessary guardrails to invite people to slow down, to create a stronger foundation and to move with more caution and awareness and integrity.

And anytime we face a challenge, we are presented with an opportunity to learn and to grow. And I think, for me, censorship is teaching us about creativity, and adaptability, and resilience, and what it means to move at the pace of integration, and actually how to roll with changes, and as I mentioned earlier, you know, fight force with flow, and do that by actually moving with change.

in attunement with a deep sense of listening to guidance from our plant medicine teachers. Okay. So I want to talk about one of these benefits that I’m noticing. I think censorship is encouraging people to listen more deeply, as I just mentioned, and focus on deeper truths and a deeper wisdom that is wanting to come through.

So part of the reason I wanted to share this episode is because this question is coming up all of the time. I’m getting emails about it. It’s coming up in my mast