…During my early research of the spirit molecule DMT, I first came across the work of Krystle Cole via YouTube, as she has many videos where she speaks of her own experiences with various psychedelics and how they have impacted her consciousness. Krystle Cole is founder of Neurosoup.com; her website specializes in giving vital information for harm reduction in the psychedelic community and strives to educate people around the world on responsible drug use. She has given lectures and has written several books about her path with psychedelics, as it was during a live interview in 2012 at a festival in California that I had a chance to hear her passion and realized I was witnessing a great spirit in action! I can remember a line she said that “all of our life is a psychedelic experience”, for if we really think about this reality, it’s all based on chemical reactions and the expression of energy. In this interview she expresses her passion on the subjects of psychedelics and spirituality, as she shares some of her deeper insights and wisdom, for as they say wisdom is not wisdom if IT is not shared!…

 

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Many know of you from your highly viewed YouTube videos and your website Neurosoup.com, both which are great for promoting harm reduction within the psychedelic community. But many do not know that you are studying to be a doctor, can you tell us a little about this journey, and what specifically do you plan on specializing in within the psychedelic research field?

I’m currently a PhD candidate. I’m completing my dissertation on the topic of hallucinogen-induced glossolalia. Glossolalia is also known as speaking in tongues. It is a type of vocalization comprised of words and sounds that are unintelligible to observers; yet, these vocalizations are often extremely meaningful to the person producing them.

I’ve been navigating the process of obtaining approval for my research through my university for the past seven months. My dissertation mentor believes that my research plan will receive IRB approval, but I’m not sure how much longer it will take. At this point, it’s an exercise in patience, which isn’t my strong suit! 🙂

Once I receive IRB approval, I will perform a qualitative study to examine the experience of hallucinogen-induced glossolalia among citizens of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It will be the first time this vocal phenomenon has been empirically studied within this population.

In your experiences with DMT, you have said that you did not witness any entities. But have you ever encountered any “other” worldly influences that felt external to you during any of your other experiments with psychedelics in the past? Do you feel that these beings and deities that many claim to encounter, are they reflections of our own archetypal energies like in our dreams, or are they external incarnate entities just as we are separate individuals? Some would say that even this reality is but reflections of our own inner mind and energy, so is it that it’s all a dream, or is there a multidimensional aspect of life that could be eluding our daily detection?

I have never experienced contact with entities during a psychedelic experience. One time I did have a strange alien hallucination from an opiate-induced hallucination though. I was on oxycodone, which was prescribed to me by my doctor for neck pain after a car accident. I experienced a vision of myself being in a cuddle puddle with half a dozen aliens. Their bodies were naked, hairless, and pasty-white; their body parts reminded me of the photo of Marilyn Manson on his mechanical animals cd cover. Essentially, they all had the rounded body parts of a Barbie doll. They made love to me with their minds telepathically, and when I eventually emerged from the hallucination I was in the middle of an orgasm. As soon as I came out of it, I knew that the experience was a hallucination caused by the opiate. It did not have the “this is the real reality” quality typically brought about by the psychedelic experience.

Personally, I believe that the entities people encounter during psychedelic experiences are archetypal experiences rather than actual contact with external beings. I think it all comes down to how we interpret our experiences. Some of us interpret certain headspaces as encountering other aspects of our Self, whereas others interpret these headspaces as contact with external entities. Our set and pre-understandings have a significant impact on what we see/experience and how we formulate understandings about those experiences.

You have a lot of passion within all of your work, in your books and videos, and now I’ve seen you have been getting into expressing your spirit through the creation of visionary art. Many have been inspired by your words, what draws you to art, and what role do you feel visionary art has with the development of our spiritual expansion?

I’m drawn to art because it is a method of communicating the ineffable. Ever since my first psychedelic trip, I’ve felt inspired to share my experiences with others. I’ve tried my best to use words to do this. Still, psychedelic experiences are so vast and complex that words seem to fall short at times. I love how art can be utilized to enable the viewer to experience the subjective in a nonverbal manner. It can be used to communicate the subtle and incomprehensibly infinite qualities of the psychedelic experience that are challenging to describe with words. So in this sense, artwork has a role in the development of our spiritual expansion as a communicative tool; it can assist us in sharing with and learning from our community.

There are many people who overuse sacred plant medicines like DMT in the search for enlightenment; do you feel our awakening and enlightenment is found within certain sacred chemicals? Or is their work on this level that goes hand in hand that is being overlooked by many in the spiritual circles? One thing that DMT showed me clearly is the amount of unconsciousness which runs rampant in this realm, what are your feelings on this, what deeper insights have come to you by working within the bardo realms?

I do not feel that awakening and enlightenment can be found solely within certain sacred chemicals or plants. I believe that the ability to experience enlightenment is an inherent part of our humanity. Psychedelics alongside other tools like meditation, lucid dreaming, and contemplative prayer are catalysts that stimulate the emergence of the many aspects of ourselves/our Self. I think that all too often people see the catalysts as the spirituality, when the catalysts are merely catalysts.

One of the deepest insights I’ve gained from consciousness exploration is that our spirituality, our enlightenment, our ability to understand our Self…it’s always here, always now. And once you realize this, you simultaneously come to understand that the catalysts you’ve always used are no longer necessary. No keys are needed to open the doorway within. Subject and object are one.

Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and insights with us, it is because of spirits as you that the Universe continues to expand! Where can we find your books and art, and where can we find your continuous inspiration on the web?

You’re welcome, and thanks for allowing me to share my views with your readers! My paintings, digital art, and books can be found on my personal website www.KrystleCole.com. As well, my YouTube videos can be viewed at www.youtube.com/user/NeuroSoup. And there are lots of resources pertaining to psychedelics and harm reduction on the NeuroSoup website at: www.NeuroSoup.com

Interview by: Alistar Valadez
www.facebook.com/AlistarValadez



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