directed by:
Christopher James Cramer written by: Christopher James Cramer genre: Documentary |
Apparently, this movie wasn’t made to convince us to try magic mushrooms. That’s probably for the best…and especially for people like myself who definitely don’t need any extra convincing and have been a fan of the fungus for about as long as I’ve been able to think clearly, which traces back about thirty years or so by now, I reckon. You had me at hello, Writer/Director James Cramer – there’s no convincing the already convinced – but sure, it’s a good disclaimer to run at the very start, given all the unknowns.
It’s interesting how Cramer presents this organic solution in a nearly clinical way as his film begins, but I understand why a director would choose this route. The longstanding stigmas and preconceived notions of what psilocybin is like to experience, as in ‘being trippy’ and for hippies and you’re just gonna sit there in the corner of the room with your mouth agape while it swallows the colors swirling into it from the ether around you, is probably something that true believers would have to constantly battle against in order to be able to effectively communicate its demonstrated therapeutic values, of which there are many. “Journeys” makes it pretty clear, pretty quickly, that it’s not about tripping out so much as the ingestion of mushrooms being key to a form of mental wellness that many people do not know. From veterans with PTSD, to those struggling with other kinds of psychological issues, to the ordinary, everyday people who can’t seem to put the pieces of their life together in ways that make sense to them, psilocybin has become an unexpected lifeline for a whole lot of people out there. Its remarkable ability to shake things up and break the loops & patterns we toil within as human beings is practically unparalleled, as those who have chosen the psychedelic route would likely tell you. Cramer’s guests also make a case about the ineffectiveness of pharmaceuticals, which is an important aspect that can help people understand why it would be important to consider alternative therapy options, like psilocybin. Think of your own life experience, for example…I’d be willing to bet that most people know someone who has either been misdiagnosed with medication or simply supplied with a potential solution that never seems to fully fix the problem. This documentary reveals a wealth of expertise and knowledge, based on years of research and education, that shines a light on alternative approaches to the traditional medicines we’ve come to rely on, largely because we’re not aware of any other options. I really loved and appreciated the person who mentioned how using mushrooms at a rave could be every bit as therapeutic as any other way you could potentially use them to your benefit. From celebratory atmospheres to the use of music, to the freedom of expression and how that can be closely related to the crucial importance of finding ways around our natural inhibitions in order to learn more about the people we truly want to be, “Journeys” highlights a wonderfully wide spectrum of ways we can potentially help ourselves heal. Cramer is also very careful to point out that there are still risks that are involved, and has no problem whatsoever calling out specific cases where therapists have broken the rules and their own codes of ethics for self-serving, fairly monstrous reasons that are generally the exceptions and certainly not the standard…there are dangers in anything we do in life, so of course they exist in situations like these as well. You shouldn’t be munching a bunch of mushrooms & immediately heading out to handle heavy machinery and such…some of these warnings seem like a given to many of us, but if you have no experience with psychedelics, there could be all kinds of stuff that might not occur to you at all, and Cramer is mindful in making sure that the viewers of “Journeys” know what’s involved. Set and setting have long been the mantra of those who understand how they work. It’s about knowing as much as you can to mentally prepare, and it’s about the equally crucial aspect of being able to take psychedelics in an environment & mindset that would be conducive to yielding the best results. We’ve all heard the stories of bad trips and such, because that’s anti-psychological clickbait and stuff that is really easy to read – but these situations are absolutely avoidable in many circumstances, if not all. I’ve used psychedelics myself in a variety of ways throughout the past thirty years, and never once have I personally experienced what I’d consider to be a bad trip by any definition, because I understood the massive importance of set and setting. That’s not to say there aren’t significantly more challenging experiences than others – there absolutely are – but if you put yourself in a position to succeed, to learn, and to grow in a place where you feel safe to explore who you are & what makes you, you – you’ll probably be astonished by just how much you can truly get out of alternative medicines like psilocybin.
Through the interviews of “Journeys,” you’ll see how seriously important it can be to have a comfortable environment in order to achieve a successful outcome, especially given that many of these folks have endured traumas of all kinds. If anything, I think you might say there’s a bit of a disconnect between the subject matter and the way “Journeys” is presented in such a normal, atypical style…straightforward interviews, knowledgeable experts, so many rules and regulations being explained – all stuff that would have easily freaked me out if I was taking psilocybin. What it loses in earthiness, it gains in the kind of credibility I believe Cramer is seeking when treatments like this are compared to the more traditional medicinal answers we’ve become accustomed to trusting. The people being interviewed have some of that easygoing nature to them, even if it’s still rooted in analysis and science…but yeah, it almost seemed out of sorts to me at times to have something like this explained in such a kind of distant style. But that’s me…and I’m not you…and as “Journeys” will go on to explain at length, we’re all very different in terms of what we need, so maybe this factually-based approach to the effects of psilocybin are precisely what someone out there will benefit from, even though it might be just as fair to say this is presented in a very square kind of way to those of us that might feel we’re a part of the counterculture. They’ll go on to explain neuroplasticity and how tough it can be to rewire a brain, no matter how much it might seem to be needed. They’ll talk about how taking psilocybin can affect other medications that might be being used, and where you should/shouldn’t try alternative medications in relation to the more traditional ones we know. From anxiety to what’s known as “ego death,” “Journeys” makes a concerted effort to get you the information you’d need to make an informed decision without feeling too much like it’s taking one side of the conversation any more seriously than the other, despite being a documentary that specifically dives into psilocybin. I’m sure we can all agree that you probably wouldn’t make a full-on documentary about anything without having an interest in the subject or at least being supportive of the theme, but Cramer’s film does its best to maintain a level of professional objectivity. It is lengthy, probably too lengthy, which was taken into consideration with my rating, but it is undeniably educational…you might very well find out the answers to something that you were curious about. Could this be put out in a more compelling and/or less clinical way? Perhaps. I don’t think that was the main focus here, so much as getting you the information you might need was the real priority, and “Journeys” succeeds in that mission. If you’re interested in the topic to begin with, you’ll have no problem watching this from point A to point B, but if you weren’t, I’d understand if you found it a little dry. It IS cohesive & comprehensive though, and it gets 3 stars out of 5 from me. |
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