Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson's Vision of Expanding Human Consciousness

Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson were utopians who believed in using plant-based psychedelics, hypnosis, and trans states to expand human consciousness and heal society. They saw science as a tool for positive change and worked to push the boundaries of understanding sexuality and gender as a spectrum. Mead's interest in psychedelics began during her field work with the Omaha tribe, where she saw peyote use as a modern coping mechanism. Later, in Bali, Mead and Bateson studied trance states and saw it as a way to transcend the individual ego and expand perception.