Travel as a mind-altering substance

I just got back from traveling in Mexico. There is a brief window after you return home from traveling when you enter your own culture and are able to see it with fresh eyes—things which are usually invisible because we are so used to them become visible. For example, for about a week after returning from travel in countries without the heavy-duty plumbing infrastructure that we are used to—flushing toilet paper down the toilet feels slightly magical and luxurious.

That’s a silly example of course, because the more interesting things are the customs the way people laugh, touch, talk, look at the world, inhabit and live are all a little bit different everywhere you go. Travel is really good for making you see all the little invisible things you take for granted about your own way of life. Moving between cultures is one of the few ways to clearly see the culture that you are in. A culture that you never leave becomes invisible to you, and in this way, you might come to believe that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to be—which is the root of intolerance.

Travel is basically a form of mind-altering drugs. You go somewhere else, and everything is a bit different, but then the really interesting part is that when you come back, to your own life, you are sightly changed, because you see things differently. You re-enter your old habits and routines and you realize that they are just that; just habits and routines, and they are somewhat arbitrary. Travel makes you realize that the way life is set up is in fact a choice, a thing that you could arrange differently if you wanted. Taking mushrooms or dropping acid and so on, is similar—after the trip you come back into your day-to-day regular life and it’s like you are seeing all of it from a fresh perspective, you realize that the way things are or seem to be is in fact a stance, a perspective, and that perspective is something that can be shifted, or changed.

This is true for the many things that make up the culture you are within—the social norms and expectations, the details that make up the social reality that you take for granted. Just like psychedelics allows you to look at your own life with that fresh set of eyes. You leave and go spend a week or two in Mexico City or Tokyo or Lisbon or wherever, anywhere but here, and then when you come back it’s like you can briefly really see your own life— all the details of your own routines and customs that you normally take for granted become visible.

To put it another way—travel can be good for you for the same reason that mind altering substances can be. Psychedelics change everything, make you see everything from a fresh perspective, and that fresh perspective is what allows you change. You can’t change something without first seeing it differently.

I have often thought that one of the core problems with the American psyche is we don’t travel enough. And when we do travel, oftentimes Americans travel and demand the world bends to suite them, but when you just go to a really resort place like Tulum on Cancun or whatever, and don’t bother to even try speaking the language, etc. that’s not even really travel, or it’s a stunted version of it. Genuine travel, the kind where you are forced to learn and deal with unfamiliar customs and perspectives and ways of living and being in the world deeply different than your own, is something that I think would be very healthy for the collective American soul—it would make us as a culture more understanding and open to the world at large.

That’s easy enough to point out, but the real math behind it is —Americans would travel more if they could, but we just don’t get the vacation time we need to actually go do it very often. As an American, when you meet travelers from other countries, they immediately feel sorry for you because they know you are lucky to get like 2 weeks off a year. legally, Americans get don’t get any guaranteed vacation days off, in many other countries— France, Germany, Spain and much of Europe it’s typical to get about 30-40 paid holidays a year. It may sound a little bit indirect, but I think one of the most powerful ways to make America a country that is more tolerant, humane, and open and understanding is to raise the amount of paid vacation days that everyone gets. And of course, also—travel (like drugs) can be one helluva good time.

Of course, for travel to affect you in this way, to actually let it change your perspective you have to accept the dance as it is offered. If you just travel in a bubble of wealth, where you don’t need to adapt or change anything then it isn’t really going to affect your perspective deeply. If you travel to the point that it gets you out of your comfort zone, then you will come back with a new point of view, with greater acceptance and empathy for other’s people’s point of view—and that is something this country needs more of.

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