Swimming in the Sacred

Wisdom from the Psychedelic Underground

By: Rachel Harris PhD

Narrated by: Kathleen Li

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

WISDOM FROM THE WOMEN HEALERS OF THE PSYCHEDELIC UNDERGROUND

The use of entheogens, or psychedelics, is out of the closet today. LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and other medicines once associated only with the counterculture are now being legally studied for their healing properties. But as Rachel Harris shows, the underground use and study of psychedelics by women dates back to the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece.

Harris interviews the modern women elders carrying on this tradition to gather their hard-won wisdom of experience. Any listener interested in inspiration, healing, and enlightenment will find here a wonder-filled narrative packed with provocative and perhaps life-changing insight.

©2023 Rachel Harris (P)2023 Tantor

Great Subject Matter

I’ve read/listened to many books of this genre and this is NOT just more of the same. Definitely worth a read if you are interested in this topic!
I have to agree, though, with several other reviewers that the reading doesn’t quite do the work justice. The narrator has a pleasant and clear voice, but there is something about her inflection or emphasis or timing that feels a little bit like AI. The listener keeps being reminded that it is not the author reading the book, which makes it a bit more difficult to connect with the material.

Interesting Book on Psychedelic Therapy

The previous brutal review of this book and especially the narration is unwarranted. Any lack of polish in the author's writing is more than made up for by the interesting and rarely discussed subject matter. In my opinion, Ms. Li has a pleasant voice, impeccable diction and her narration is fine.

Untouched terrain

A very compelling investigation of an incredibly important topic that I relate to deeply on both a personal and professional level. 5 stars for the bravery to explore these waters.

Not interesting.

I was really excited to hear what the authot had to say but the material was noy interesting and the narrator didn't help.

Poor narration, slightly less poor writing.

The writing on this one isn't very strong to start, then the sing-song narration of the narrator truly tanks the overall performance.

The emphasis that the narrator chooses with her voice over and over again subtly shifts the meaning of the writer's intent.

This, for me, is the definition of a poor narration performance, as the performer tends to repaint the scenes through their own narrative lens and this does not appear to be the intent of the writer through their written words.

A very distracted and poor narrative interpretation overall; a more neutral performer would have been much better if the intent of this audiobook is to convey the writer's message.

Sexist Projections

Rachel Harris is an excellent example of how one can go through both the ladder of academic achievement and many journeys of psychedelics without becoming very enlightened. The amount of resentment and vitriol towards men in this book is frankly impressive. My presumption is that wisdom comes from appreciating the masculine and feminine elements of existence in equal regard rather than the elevation of one via the derogation of the other (classic Mean Girls” tactic). It’s very disappointing to find that this darling of the psychedelic psychotherapeutic world emerged from all her explorations so resentful and antagonistic toward men.

Sexist author

This book is more about man-hating neo-feminism than psychedelics. Would not recommend. There’s plenty of good books on psychedelics and this is not one of them.

The tone presents an obstacle

I am trying very hard to get through this book because I think there is much that I could learn, but I’m having a tough time getting past the harsh, judgmental, authoritarian tone. The language used has so many high handed moral imperatives embedded that I don’t feel like the author trusts me to think for myself or form my own opinions. There is an astonishing amount of “should” “always” “never” “must” etc. I was honestly surprised and blindsided by the energetic similarities between this narrative and that of Christian religious fundamentalist speakers.

I want to hear the stories of these powerful women without the frame of why they are Messiahs and everybody else is Satan. The problem with this frame is that it is agenda driven and the constant presence of that agenda is a warning flag that the author is attached to an outcome that may override the goal of communicating honestly, transparently, and objectively.

Having personally grown up with the apprenticeship model, and knowing, from first hand experience, the authoritarian abuses that are systemic in that model due to the lack of accountability, it was hard to see it being held up as the gold standard of training. There is no governing body that you can appeal to when patriarchal norms are espoused, when gender inequities are embraced and when grooming and unwanted sexual attention is taking place, for example. Teaching styles that are authoritarian, morally heavy handed, that focus on isolation, suffering and deprivation, and that glorify subjugation and domination are a big red flag for me personally. The fact that they are indigenous and not Christian or military does not rescue it for me. It is exactly in this sort of isolation that the worst atrocities are allowed to fester without remedy.

I was astonished that the woman who is being guided by mushrooms was described as somebody with nobody to guide her - which immediately discredited the idea being promoted - that the plants are spirits. If the plants can be spirit guides, why are they not recognized as being mentors? Why suggest this idea and then immediately discredit the personhood of the plant spirits?

The author seems to carry wounds from the scientific / medical community. These burdened parts are allowed to spew disparagement using an extremely broad and generalized brush. Perhaps some shadow work could have been done prior to publishing?

I grew up in Wisconsin and have been eaten alive by mosquitoes but I never enjoyed any spiritual enlightenment from the experience, so I have a hard time believing that being eaten by chiggers makes you more qualified as a guide.

I could go on, but it would be more examples of the same. Suffice it to say that I personally learn best when people tell me what they have learned, experienced, and come to believe without trying to convince me that they are right and everybody else is wrong. I have no trouble accepting the idea that I could learn from an indigenous shaman, but I do have a problem with setting them or anybody else up as the one true source and accepting that I should submit to their teachings and authority without question. It does not help that I have heard and witnessed numerous cases of shaman led ceremonies that did not have the container of setting intentions or integration and that left people with horrible backlash. These were shamans with decades of indigenous experience.

There is a lot here that I am expected to accept on faith in this book - unsubstantiated and unquestioned statements of how things are. Energetically, it feels the same to me as being told that Jesus is the only way to God. Show me a reason to believe you over the myriad of other sacred belief systems. Offer evidence. I left Christianity precisely because it makes a lot of unsubstantiated claims with the accompanying mandate that they are right and everybody else is wrong. Intellectual / spiritual humility and freedom are very important to me.

Toward the end of the book, there are some very interesting anecdotal stories that started to feel helpful and I definitely gleaned a few examples that fit the title, “Swimming In The Sacred.” And that was what I was looking for when I came to this book. But I really had to sift out a lot of chaff to get to the wheat. And even there, I found the confident tone and factual statements of how things are to be off putting. Christians will also confidently tell you how things work in the spiritual world. The level of confidence doesn’t make it true. In my experience, people speak most confidently when they are trying to convince themselves.

The last observation I’d like to offer is that there is a noticeable emphasis on the primacy of the role of healers for effecting healing. As in medicine, it is often neglected to point out that doctors do not heal the body. The body heals itself and the role of the doctor is to support that work. In this book, as with many psychedelic workers, I sense too much emphasis on the idea that psychedelic masters are healing and too little is being devoted to the idea that the “self” is the healer. This book suffers from that same messianic burden. Some of the modalities talked about in this book sound invasive to me - violating the primacy of the individual “self” with the hidden assumption that the healer knows better than the “self.” Maybe they do … but that’s a big maybe. It’s also possible that this is a spiritual violation of the autonomy of another sentient being.