Laurie Brooks, a mother of four from Abbotsford BC, was one of four Canadians with a terminal cancer diagnosis to receive a legal exemption for psilocybin end-of-life therapy.
According to this CBC article, Brooks has had two bouts with colon cancer and has struggled with psychological distress as she reckons with the possibility of imminent death.
After hearing the decision, she told CBC, “I was pretty emotional. I was surprised … Just to have that recognition … that what I was fighting for was worthwhile, it meant a lot to me.”
Psilocybin is now undergoing clinical trials before it will be made widely available to the public. While the trajectory is positive and moving swiftly forward, there are thousands of people who are suffering and need help now.
The legal exemption for these 4 patients comes as a result of the help from the advocacy group Therapsil, who believes that,
“Canadians with severe psychological distress deserve access to effective new therapies … which can improve their quality of life/death.”
After being granted access to the medicine, Laurie Brooks experienced her first guided psilocybin session under the supervision of her therapist. She told CBC,
“I did my psilocybin trip last October and immediately afterwards was able to see my cancer in a box beside me on the floor instead of this black cloud hanging over me all the time.”
While she cautions that her experience did not come without some powerful negative emotions, we here at Great Valley Therapeutics understand that this is one of the most important parts of a healing psychedelic journey.
Emotions are energy in motion. When they are prevented from moving through us, emotions become stuck within us, and when those emotions are negative, we begin to manifest sickness.
To heal from pain and trauma, we must allow trapped emotions to move through and out of us. In order to do this, we have to be willing to feel those emotions fully.
What often gets mislabeled as a ‘bad trip’ is merely a person experiencing negative emotions that have reached the surface and are ready to be released.
We commend Ms. Brooks and everyone else who has summoned the strength and courage it takes to face these heavy emotions.
Remember: before we may bask in the glory of dawn, we must first bare witness to the blackness of night.
Let us all have the courage to sit in the blackness and await the rise of a new dawn – for it is coming, and it is glorious.
-Dallas