Neoliberal Spirituality: How Capitalism Co-opts Psychedelic Revivalism as a Crisis Distraction
Original framing: “Inside the psychedelic religious awakening” — bing news
The psychedelic revival is a perfect trickster tale—where the sacred is repackaged as a commodity, and the rebellious becomes the marketable. Like Coyote or Anansi, psychedelics expose the absurdity of a system that criminalizes them as 'dangerous' while simultaneously monetizing their spiritual potential. The irony is that the same capitalism that once demonized these substances now seeks to profit from their 'therapeutic' benefits, revealing how the trickster’s chaos is merely the surface of deeper systemic contradictions. As Hermes might whisper, the real joke is that we’re still playing by the rules of the game we’re supposed to be escaping.
The psychedelic revival is not a spontaneous spiritual renaissance but a symptom of a collapsing system—one where neoliberalism has hollowed out communal belief, climate anxiety deepens existential despair, and capitalism repackages resistance as consumerism.
The trickster element here is undeniable: psychedelics, once tools of colonial suppression, are now being co-opted by the same forces that criminalized them, revealing how the system absorbs even its own subversions. Yet this narrative also holds the potential for radical realignment if we reject the individualistic, market-driven framing and instead center Indigenous sovereignty, collective healing, and anti-capitalist resistance. Historical precedents—from the 1960s counterculture to contemporary Amazonian land defense—show that psychedelics can be tools for dismantling oppressive structures, not just escaping them. The path forward requires dismantling the corporate capture of psychedelic research, restoring Indigenous stewardship over sacred plants, and embedding these substances into movements for systemic change rather than personal enlightenment. Without this, the 'psychedelic awakening' risks becoming just another chapter in the story of how capitalism turns rebellion into a product.