ISHAM COOK

At the risk of coming off as eccentric or outrageous, or better yet, as practical, in the following I propose five steps toward personal emancipation, more important in these Orwellian times than ever! This post will be regularly expanded and eventually turned into a book, in which I will delve into the history—going back to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution—of these intertwined ideas.

My steps are different from what you might expect in a typical self-help guide in that each presents the same paradox: while some people will find them a snap, others may find them daunting or simply untenable. But they are all attainable with a little shift in perspective.

The five steps are progressive: it’s advised to proceed through them in order, though which steps one finds easy or difficult will be a matter of individual personality, and one can start anywhere. They link together, build on, and mutually reinforce each other.

After each step is explained, there is a challenge for practical application, which you can embark upon by yourself or with others, followed by a few selected readings.

Table of Contents:

1. Go naked
2. Be pansexual
3. Be polyamorous
4. Do psychedelics
5. Conceptualize freedom
6. Integrating the 5 Steps

STEP 1: GO NAKED

Open your body to others. Go naked at home and outdoors as well, wherever risk of arrest is low. Not just when alone but with everyone—family, friends, and select guests. Announce in advance your intention to do so; the purpose is not to shock but to liberate living space. Invite, rather than insist, others to do the same by setting an example. And of course, sleep naked; don’t advertise the apparel industry’s unnecessary product known as pajamas.

If this sounds like imposing our private matters where they’re not wanted, recall that our homes have long been invaded by the cultural ideology of body shame, and we need to combat it with body freedom. Take off the state’s clothes.

A popular word for nudism is naturism, the nonsexual nudist life, with an emphasis on nudity in nature and the outdoors. A less-known word which I am partial to is panism, from the Greek god Pan who frolicked naked in nature.

A main obstacle to social acceptance of public nudity is the all-too-common assumption that any display of the naked body is about sex. In fact, nudism has nothing to do with sex (sex is covered in Steps 2 and 3). This stubborn notion has less to do with nudity than with distorted notions about sex—the way sex gets attached to everything in the minds of those disturbed by sex. Such people can’t understand why anyone would want to appear naked in front of others outside of the house or bedroom unless it’s to be provocative.

In response to this timeworn fear of nudity, some naturists would explain it’s not for the sake of anyone that they go naked. They go naked simply for love of being naked, inside and outside—the feeling of sun and wind on bare flesh or water coursing through the loins while swimming. Other naturists might have more of an “exhibitionist” inclination, but this is not in the least salacious but purely celebratory. They have triumphed over the tired old injunction that the naked body is shameful. They’re saying, “To hell with puritanism!”

Consider social nudity to be a form of honesty, similar to removing your sunglasses or earphones with someone in private and, conversely, the distinct discomfort you feel when someone doesn’t remove them. We are so used to wearing clothes that the sight of them is hardly discomfiting. Obviously, nice clothes are delightful to the eye. But naturists naturally prefer to doff their clothes at the first opportunity. It’s also a way of breaking the ice with people. They can’t wait to do so. It comes as a great relief, even when others present don’t themselves disrobe but give them permission to.

Some stats: Explosion of nudism/naturism in Europe

If you’re European, you’ll probably find naturism easier to grasp. Europe, particularly France, Germany, and Spain, leads the rest of the world in enshrining social nudity as a right and setting aside officially designated spaces—beaches, nature areas, resorts, clubs, saunas—for this purpose. In addition to France’s countless nudist beaches, there are 250 clothing-optional campsites, and the “naturist village” in the town of Cap d’Agde balloons in peak season to over 30,000 naked residents. Spain has 450 nudist beaches; the country does not have a law against public nudity. In Germany, all beaches are nudist beaches by default. The Germans have been practicing FKK (Freikörperkultur—Free Body Culture), their term for naturism, for over a century; the storied park in central Munich known as the Englischer Garten swarms with nudists—many of them office lunch-goers. In most European countries, female toplessness is permitted on public beaches where full nudity isn’t, and mixed-sex nudity is expected, even mandated, in public saunas (again, strictly within non-sexual boundaries).

Now, either the rest of the world is normal and the Europeans are depraved, or they are onto something. Europe also happens to have some of the best educational systems, the most advanced social-safety nets, virtually free health care, and progressive LGBTQ+ laws. Sixteen of the top 21 countries ranked by the Global Nudism & Naturism Index in 2025 are in Europe. The index combines three criteria: “Legal Recognition (laws, tolerances, and bans), Naturist Infrastructure (beaches, resorts, trails, spaces), and Cultural Acceptance (events, media portrayal, public attitude).” (Note that Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands are tied for first place, France, Norway, and Spain are tied for second place, etc.):

1. 1 Denmark
2. 1 Germany
3. 1 Netherlands
4. 2 France
5. 2 Norway
6. 2 Spain
7. 3 Austria
8. 3 Sweden
9. 3 Switzerland
10. 3 United Kingdom
11. 4 Croatia
12. 4 New Zealand
13. 5 Australia
14. 6 Canada
15. 6 Portugal
16. 7 Argentia
17. 7 Belgium
18. 7 Brazil
19. 7 Finland
20. 7 Latvia
21. 7 Montenegro

The stripping challenge:

Imagine I invite you over to my home for the purpose of gauging the extent of your “openmindedness.” I reassure you in advance that the challenge is completely safe and harmless and your cooperation is optional. You might even find the challenge fun. You may come alone or bring a partner or friend; they’re also welcome to participate in the challenge (participants’ gender is not essential but a mixed-sex group will heighten the challenge).

Once settled in with a bit of chitchat, drinks, and relaxing music, I get up to close the living-room curtains. “Now,” I announce, “can you take off your clothes?”

You freeze. “Why?”

“Because that’s the challenge.”

“Why don’t you take off your clothes?”

“It’s the easiest thing in the world for me to take off my clothes. But do you really need me to initiate? The challenge is for you. Wouldn’t it be better if you were the first to get naked, to prove to yourself that you can fully respond to the challenge, regardless of what I do?”

“It’s your idea, so you should set an example,” you insist.

“Fair enough.” I proceed to strip naked.

Now at this point I cannot say whether you will follow through and join me in our exercise. People are very different and many factors will influence the outcome. One of two outcomes, to be exact:

→ You disrobe (this may happen at once or after a drink or two). Congratulate yourself on passing the test!

→ You refuse to disrobe. Refusals generally fall into two categories:

1) Provisional refusal. Due to sheer awkwardness. Being caught off guard with an unprecedented request that you simply aren’t ready for. You’re embarrassed not so much at the prospect of getting naked as at your failure to get naked. You might consider following through on another occasion, with more mental preparation. If that is the case, I invite you to organize the same event at your place, and I guarantee you I will show up!

Some might consider disrobing with the “right people.” Nope, not a valid excuse. Whether you’re with your closest friends/family or total strangers should make no difference to your own body freedom and independence. You should be able to get naked with anyone as a matter of principle.

2) Out-of-the-question refusal, though the reasons can vary greatly:

• You regard the challenge as silly, stupid, and irrelevant to what you imagine to be loftier or more philosophical conceptions of personal emancipation.
• You regard the challenge as an affront to your personal privacy and dignity.
• You regard the challenge as a rude, underhanded sexual proposition (despite my assurance that the exercise has absolutely nothing to do with sex).
• You have no problem with the challenge itself but are too self-conscious and shy about your body to allow others to see it (despite my reassurance that it’s not a beauty contest and all bodies are respected regardless of appearance).
• All of the above.

Personally, the nudity challenge is the most elegant and efficacious test of mental freedom ever devised. It gets to the core of what people hold most dear—and fear: their body, which they stubbornly and irrationally cling to and protect while claiming to be wholly liberal in intellect and daily life.

There are indeed many other conceivable tests. And, of course, people can be openminded about nudity and close-minded about many other things (that’s why we have more challenges below). If you must refuse, at least ask yourself why and what might lie behind your reluctance. Give it some thought. If offered the nudity challenge in real life, where would you fall on the scale?:

Body freedom scale →
1 —– 2 —– 3 —– 4 —– 5

1 Out of the question, period
2 Out of the question but it does get me thinking
3 Intrigued by the idea but need more time
4 First time to experience social nudity but rose to the challenge!
5 Would happily cooperate; already a practicing nudist/naturist

Further reading on nudism/naturism/panism:

A few naturist websites:
https://www.nakedwanderings.com/
https://www.naturismre.com/

Barcan, Ruth. Nudity: A Cultural Anatomy (Berg, 2004).

Baxandall, Lee. World Guide to Nude Beaches and Resorts (Elysium, 1998).

Carr-Gomm, Philip. A Brief History of Nakedness (Reaktion, 2010).

Hoffman, Brian. Naked: A Cultural History of American Nudism (New York UP, 2015).

Merrill, Frances, & Merrill, Mason. Among the Nudists: Early Naturism (Knopf, 1930).

Merrill, Frances, & Merrill, Mason. Nudism Comes to America (Garden City, 1932).

Parmelee, Maurice. Nudism in Modern Life: The New Gymnosophy (Muller, 1927).

Smith, Mark Haskell. Naked at Lunch: A Reluctant Nudist’s Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World (Grove, 2015).

STEP 2: BE PANSEXUAL

Open yourself to other bodies. Be bolder than a bear hug: sleep with people because you like them, without regard for gender, age, ethnicity, or any other restrictions. Entertain the idea of sexual generosity. This does not mean that we should sleep with everyone, of course. The point is that one’s sexual “orientation” need not be a barrier to sexual expression.

Pansexuality follows from panism (nudism, naturism), because sex is the next logical step for people who are naked together and who are also into each other. Here the Greek prefix pan– comes not from the god Pan but means “all, every, whole, all-inclusive,” that is, all-inclusive sex.

Polls regularly reveal that 5-10% of adults identify as LGBTQ+ (Gallup; Williams Institute). Looser estimates range from 2-15% (Gayther). The Kinsey Reports (1940s-50s) found that “37% of men in the U.S. had achieved orgasm through contact with another male after adolescence and 13% of women had achieved orgasm through contact with another woman.” British researchers in 2012 found that 17.3% of men and 19.7% of women reported having a same-sex experience (Demographics of sexual orientation).

Traditionally, there was one universal straitjacket: heterosexuality. Today, we have at least five more to choose from: LGBTQ+, standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning, while “+” includes pansexual, omnisexual, ambisexual, intersex, nonbinary, genderqueer, aromantic, asexual, and others. Remove the straitjacket: it’s superfluous. Don’t pin yourself down to a single “orientation.” What sets pansexuality apart is that it incorporates all these orientations: it’s fluid and elastically erotic. Many people are pansexual without necessarily identifying as such; they may not even be aware of the term and identify instead as bisexual.

Pansexuality constitutes a radical act of imagination. It reverses the usual gender/love hierarchy by placing love over gender instead of gender over love. In conventional love, sexual expression follows from attraction to the opposite gender; or if you’re gay, attraction to the same gender. In pansexual love, sexual expression doesn’t follow from gender attraction; it takes primacy over gender attraction. Gender attraction never goes away but is subordinate to love—attraction to the person rather than to their gender.

If you are proudly heterosexual and would never remotely consider exploring your gay side, it’s still vital to support LGBTQ+ in principle and LGBTQ+ people, as these freedom fighters are in the politically progressive vanguard. They raise the sexual-freedom bar for everyone. They are the first to be attacked wherever fascism rears its ugly head. Your own sexual freedom will be the next to go.

Stats: LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance worldwide

Europe as a whole is at the forefront of gay rights worldwide. The left column below (top column on a cellphone) ranks the top 20 countries in 2026 for LGBTQ+ acceptance (combining “equality,” “legal,” “public opinion,” and “travel” criteria). The right column ranks the top 20 countries in 2026 for gay-friendly travel alone:

Same-sex marriage is legally performed and recognized in the following countries: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay (Same-sex marriage).

The 180-degrees challenge:

Here things become genuinely more difficult than Step 1 for many people because it involves sex. And it should be apparent that you will not be able to proceed unless you have a keen curiosity and desire to.

You are curious and your desire is keen. Let’s begin with the easiest form of sex (apart from masturbation): passive sex. Passive sex is when you don’t do anything but you allow someone to do something to you. Consider a massage with a first-time therapist who doesn’t arrive in your room until you’re settled prone on the massage table. You don’t know whether they are male or female and they go to work on you without speaking. If they are doing a good job, does it really matter what gender they are? Would their gender make any difference if they massaged you erotically? What if you imagined them to be your preferred gender and it turned out you were wrong? Would that necessarily diminish the experience?

Okay, so you can handle gender-blind passive sex. But you can hardly bring yourself to reciprocate with someone of the same sex (or the opposite sex if you’re gay). If this is the case, consider the challenge in a reversal-of-perspective way: imagine yourself as gay and your partner as straight but curious (or vice versa if you’re gay). This is what bisexuals can do. However you configure the scenario in your head, imagination—the most powerful motor of mental freedom—is key.

Is there any straight male out there who has never fantasized watching his female partner doing it with another woman? This common sexual fantasy is an act of the imagination. If he’s lucky enough to witness it in action, he can still feast on it with his eyes without physically involving himself. Many people have far more elaborate sexual fantasies than this. In fact, sex is all about the imagination. The challenge here is how to extend your own sexual imagination to encompass all genders and scenarios in novel and unforeseen permutations and combinations. You will soon surmount the limitations of gender and achieve full-blown pansexual clarity.

We might consider the analogy of travel. It’s often said that one learns more about one’s own country by living in another country for a significant period of time than if one has never gone abroad. Only in this way can we view our own culture objectively, as something strange and fresh. Similarly, if I am a straight male, it’s not until I experience and cultivate a taste for gay male sex that I can come back full circle and truly enjoy sex with women. And vice versa: if I am a gay male, it’s not until I experience and cultivate a taste for straight sex that I can truly enjoy sex with men.

Even if after all of this sincere experimentation you find that you’re not one iota closer to enjoying sex with a new gender, try yet another perspective. Consider not just what you prefer but what they might prefer. Experience the joy of giving. We do this normally whenever acting on behalf of friends and acquaintances—surprising them with a nice birthday gift, attending their wedding, visiting them in the hospital, helping out with a house or car repair. We get distinct joy out of these acts of generosity and don’t mind being inconvenienced in the least. You might discover that you can get the same joy out of sharing a bit of bodily intimacy—the sexual gift. And then what does it matter what gender the receiver of your gift is? It’s the giving that counts. More on this in the next section. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

Further reading on LGBTQ+:

The literature on LGBTQ+ is too voluminous to list here, but newbies can begin with these starter kits by a few pioneers, with an emphasis on bisexuality/pansexuality:

Eisner, Shiri. Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution (Seal, 2013).

Hutchins, Loraine, & Kaʻahumanu, Lani. Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (Riverdale AVE, 2015; orig. pub. 1991),

Queen, Carol, and Rednour, Shar. The Sex & Pleasure Book: Good Vibrations Guide to Great Sex for Everyone (Barnaby, 2015, orig. pub. 1994).

Rubin, Gayle S. Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader (Duke UP, 2011)

STEP 3: BE POLYAMOROUS

Open your house to others. Dismantle the monogamous nuclear family structure, which is nothing other than the authoritarian state replicating itself in miniature by the millions, with all, conveniently for the state, being isolated from each other to prevent grassroots interaction and organization. Communal polyamory unfolds the household to accommodate more than one family, with communal kitchen, living room, and other shared spaces, while separate bedrooms can be maintained. With this act of domestic liberation, the horizontally extended family enables the pooling of labor, resources, and wisdom and the raising of children in a more socially convivial environment.

Sexual polyamory follows naturally from communal polyamory, by turning the bedroom into a shared space as well. How multiple couples work out the often-complex intimacy arrangements is entirely up to them. An easier option for some is romantic polyamory: multi-partner intimacy without the sex.

Polyamory is also known as consensual non-monogamy or ethical non-monogamy. The practice is often confused with swinging (aka. the “Lifestyle”) but differs from open sexual encounters in the greater emphasis on bonding, intimacy, and cultivation of long-term relationships in addition to or in place of the exclusively sexual. Polyamory is sharply distinguished from polygamy (with which it is sometimes lumped together and confused), since unlike polygamy, no gender bias or coercion is involved.

Polyamory follows naturally from panism and pansexuality. If you can get naked with more than one, you can get sexual with more than one. If you can make the leap to sex with a new person of an untried gender, it’s only a short leap to sex with a new person of whatever gender at the same time you’re involved with someone else.

The big barrier to sexual polyamory for many people is morality. But what really lies behind “morality” is the commodification of sex as a form of property and exchange value. The monogamous bedroom is a giant safe or vault in which a couple’s sex life is locked up and stored, without much productive use, not to mention any accrued interest or gain. The stubbornness with which people hoard and guard their sexuality has no equivalent among any other valued possessions, mental or material. It is done unthinkingly, at the insistence of a very powerful overload—ideology (to be returned to below). Some, however, aren’t intimidated by this overlord. Friedrich Engel’s wasn’t (see his The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State). And you needn’t be. Freed from the monogamous bedroom vault and recast as a form of abundance rather than parsimony, people’s sexual capacity to engage with others is almost limitless.

Note that there is no contradiction between monogamy and polyamory; polyamory does not have to dispense with monogamy. What we are dispensing with is a rigid, inflexible form of monogamy. Monogamous couples can take on another couple or third person without having to sacrifice their own relationship or household. It’s not a zero-sum game: becoming intimate with a new person does not necessarily entail losing interest in one’s current spouse or partner. On the contrary, your love for the latter might deepen as a result. To counter possessiveness (the enslavement urge), cultivate jealousy’s opposite, “compersion,” polyamory’s term for taking pleasure in your partner’s attraction to a new person. The tricky thing is apportioning time to both. This is easier if you are all sharing the same house and bed and doing things together.

Few stats yet on polyamory:

According to Wikipedia, “about 4% of people practice polyamory, and up to 17% are open to it” (Polyamory). No country as yet officially recognizes polyamorous marriage, though “courts and cities in Canada and the U.S. are increasingly recognizing polyamorous families, granting legal parentage to multiple adults and extending protections to multi-partner relationships” (Polyamory). Short of threats to one’s job or stigmatization in divorce court, such relationships are de facto legal in any country in which mixed-gender, multi-partner cohabitation is legal.

There are as yet no recognized global rankings for polyamory acceptance; it’s too new. As a rule of thumb, legal and social tolerance for polyamory may be said to mirror legal and social tolerance for LGBTQ+.

The camping-trip challenge:

If you are a couple, arrange a camping trip with a third person or another couple; if you are single, find a willing couple to go with. Everyone is aware in advance that you will all be occupying the same tent, naked, and things may get sexual (the tent must comfortably accommodate the number of people involved). You’re not going to pull any of this on unsuspecting guests! They too must understand, agree to, and show curiosity and interest in the trip’s purpose: to explore a consensual intimate and/or sexual relationship with more than two people. Whatever transpires sexually does so spontaneously and is never forced, especially when people are first getting their bearings. Not everyone may be ready, and it may take several camping trips. But it’s clear you’re all working toward the goal of a polyamorous relationship.

Why a camping trip? A tent puts everyone together in an intimate space. Additionally, you are all helping out with the cooking and other preparations, learning how to get along twenty-four hours a day for several days. Polyamory isn’t just about sex, like swingers who depart when the evening is over. It’s about three or more people involving themselves in a way that catches, holds and lasts, because all parties want it to. An alternative to a camping trip is an out-of-town hot springs resort with a hot tub or pool in a private room large enough to accommodate more than one couple. All should sleep in the same room.

If you are already a full-fledged panist and pansexual, polyamory will be the next logical step (and the reverse, polyamory may lead pansexuality and panism): you can easily get naked with new people and readily adapt to bisexual arrangements. However, this is notoriously more challenging for men than it is for women. Let’s return to our example of a threesome involving a heterosexual couple and a third female. We are presuming both women are willing to get sexual with each other and with the man without his female partner’s jealousy getting in the way (a sine qua non of open relationships!).

When it comes to a heterosexual couple inviting a male to join them for the female partner’s satisfaction, however, things can hit a wall. Anecdotally, in few cases will the men dare to get sexual with each other. It’s almost an unspoken taboo, and an unfortunate one. This is not the space to go into the possible reasons for male bisexual anxiety. The burden is on men to deconstruct and decalcify their male pride and become as fluid as women in exploring their bisexual side. Polyamory provides the perfect opportunity.

Further reading on polyamory:

For an extended discussion of polyamory, read my Loving many: Polyamorous self-actualization

An interesting take on polyamory by an OnlyFans star: Adult star dated “six people at once” as “humans aren’t meant to be monogamous”

Recommended homework from the growing literature on polyamory:

Engles, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884).

Fern, Jessica. Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy (2020).

Fern, Jessica. Polywise: A Deeper Dive into Navigating Open Relationships (2023).

Hardy, Janet W. & Easton, Dossie. The Ethical Slut, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love (2017; orig. pub. 1997).

Ryan, Christopher, and Cacilda Jetha, Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships (2012).

Thouin, Marie. What Is Compersion?: Understanding Positive Empathy in Consensually Non-Monogamous Relationships (2024).

Veaux, Franklin & Rickert, Eve. More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory (2014).

Weitzman, Geri, Davidson, Joy, & Phillips, Robert A. What Psychology Professionals Should Know About Polyamory (National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, 2014).

STEP 4: DO PSYCHEDELICS

Open your mind to plant wisdom. The natural mind medicines—cannabis (marijuana), psilocybin (magic mushrooms), mescaline, ayahuasca, etc.—have been used for enlightenment purposes for thousands of years. Their illegal status in the modern age, due to the state’s arrogating the right to dictate which plants, freely proffered by nature, we may or may not cultivate and consume, is a crime against human freedom and decency.

Fortunately, there has been a collective turnaround in recent years, as their legally sanctioned use in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and PTSD is gaining acceptance. Psychedelics expand consciousness and awareness and can be life-changing and transformational—and frightening. To quote psychonaut Terence McKenna, “If you’re not scared of psychedelics, you haven’t taken enough.” They are not for everyone, but the risks can be minimized with homework and guided use.

They also powerfully enhance empathy and creativity, while cannabis, steadily being legalized, is the greatest of aphrodisiacs.

Psychedelics follow naturally from panism, pansexuality, and polyamory. After opening your mind by opening your body, leverage the process further with these revolutionary consciousness-expansion tools, likened by Terence McKenna in their significance to the discovery of the telescope—directed at inner rather than outer space. Psychedelics can also assist those experiencing stumbling blocks in Steps 1-3.

The desire to consume psychoactive substances and experience altered states of consciousness is hard-wired into our nature. In their book From Chocolate to Morphine, Rosen and Weil note how children will spin around on the floor till they drop for the pleasurable rush it produces. Most cultures permit legal consumption of four psychoactive substances—alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and sugar—a paltry menu of choices. In spite of what the state forbids, we have the natural right to experiment with whatever drugs are within our reach, while guarding against their abuse. (The big exception is the plague of Frankenstein synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, carfentanil, cychlorphine, and the nitazenes. These poisons have been massacring narcotics addicts in recent decades and have no redeeming value except to profit the cartels).

The Western Hemisphere is the region with the largest number of indigenous psychoactive plants. It’s not surprising that countries in this part of the world—notably the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Peru, and Brazil—seem to be leading the way in liberalizing use of psychedelics. Though laws allowing personal recreational or medical use of cannabis and psychedelics are constantly changing, globally the trend is clearly upward.

Stats: Gathering momentum for psychedelics worldwide

Countries where cannabis is legal or decriminalized (“tolerated” or unenforced) for recreational use, as of mid-2026: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Austria, Barbados (Rastafarians only), Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands (legal gray area but sold in shops), Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, USA (legal in 24 states for recreational use and in another 10 states for medical use only).

Countries where psilocybin is legal or decriminalized: Australia (medical use only), Austria, Bahamas, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Canada (legal gray area but sold in shops), Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic (medical use only), Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands (truffles only), Peru (psilocybin in gray area; ayahuasca is legal), Philippines (not classified), Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay, USA (decriminalized in more and more cities; legal in Colorado), Vietnam.

Countries where psychedelics are undergoing state-sanctioned research for potential medical treatment:

• Australia: psilocybin, DMT, ketamine, N₂O, MDMA
• Brazil: psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT, ketamine, ibogaine, MDMA
• Canada: psilocybin, ayahuasca, ibogaine, ketamine
• China: psilocybin, ketamine
• Denmark: psilocybin
• Germany: psilocybin, ketamine
• Ireland: 5-MeO-DMT
• Netherlands: psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT, MDMA
• Spain: ibogaine, MDMA
• Switzerland: psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT, ketamine, LSD, MDMA, mescaline
• UK: psilocybin, ibogaine, ketamine, MDMA
• USA: psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, ketamine, kratom, LSD, MDMA, salvinorin A

The micro-to-macrodosing challenge:

This is the biggest challenge yet. Psychedelic drugs can be dangerous for some people, especially when consumed carelessly, in the wrong set and setting. In high doses they can temporarily shatter the ego—the very coordinates shoring up your consciousness and sense of reality. This is actually the goal of psychedelic therapy: to reset the ego in a healthier way than before. As with sex, your desire to explore these powerful substances must be keen and already in place. Nobody need persuade you to experiment with them; only you know if the plant spirits (or their synthetic cousins) are calling you. If you have no such interest in the mind medicines, perhaps because you find it challenging enough just making it through the day, they are probably not for you.

It’s recommended to start small, with microdosing, and work your way up. When you’re ready for a stronger dose, do it with a friend who has experience with and a mature attitude toward the drug in question: one who is willing to work with you during any turbulent episodes, reassuring you that you are not falling apart but the fear is precisely what you need to embrace; that fighting it is as useless and counterproductive as fighting your image in a mirror; that letting go is not only the only option but is the magic carpet you will emerge upon out the other end.

Further reading on psychedelices:

It’s recommended to read up on psychedelics by the many great writers on the subject before embarking on these powerful substances for the first time. For starters:

Fadiman, James. The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys (Park Street, 2011).

Gallimore, Andrew R. Death by Astonishment: Confronting the Mystery of the World’s Strangest Drug (St. Martin’s, 2025).

Grof, Stanislav. LSD Psychotherapy (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, 2018; orig. pub. 1980).

McKenna, Terence. Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge – A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution (Bantam, 1993).

Mitchell, Andy. Ten Trips: The New Reality of Psychedelics – An Engrossing Neuropsychologist’s Experiment with Ten Compounds, from Labs to Ceremonies (Vintage, 2023).

Pickard, William Leonard. The Rose of Paracelsus: On Secrets & Sacraments (Michael Haydens, 2022).

Pinchbeck, Daniel. Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism (Broadway, 2002).

Pollan, Michael. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (Penguin, 2018).

Rosen, Winifred, and Weil, Andrew T. From Chocolate To Morphine: Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs (Harvest, 2004; orig. pub. 1983).

Strassman, Rick. DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences (Park Street, 2000).

Tumbleweed, Daniel. The Museum Dose: 12 Experiments in Pharmacologically Mediated Aesthetics (Phoropter, 2015).

STEP 5: CONCEPTUALIZE FREEDOM

Open your mind. Conceptional freedom involves critically imagining and constructing your own understanding of freedom independently of any conventional definition of the term. This step is placed last, as mastering Steps 1-4 better prepares one to tackle Step 5 (some may navigate Step 5 with seeming ease while balking at Steps 1-4).

Conceptual freedom follows from panism, pansexuality, polyamory, and psychedelics, as theory follows from praxis (practice). If you have conquered Steps 1-4, you cannot be conscious and at the same time conceptually bound and shackled. On the other hand, claiming to be intellectually “free” (Step 5) does not translate into willingly getting naked or enlarging one’s sexuality or one’s intellect with psychedelics. The philosopher Slavoj Žižek wryly notes that the very people who claim to understand how ideology shapes their lives ironically often enjoy their repression and remain just as bound as everyone else. The solution to this trap is praxis: carrying out freedom in action, in the flesh (Steps 1-4).

Conceptual freedom can be understood as psychological freedom. The wellness symbol above captures one aspect of the human capacity to bloom internally, but true mental freedom goes deeper than the oft-superficial New Age notion of “wellness” (which originally derives from Maslow’s commendable psychology of “self-actualization”). In placing the burden of unhappiness entirely on the individual while allowing state repression to flourish, New Ageism easily veers into neo-fascism.

Conceptual freedom is also a type of intellectual freedom. It presupposes the ability to critically investigate all forms of freedom in order to create new forms of freedom. It is not founded on impoverished, ascetic religious notions of “freedom” through the rejection of fleshly desire and worldly pleasures but on abundance, generosity, and ease of communication. You must invent your own understanding of it. It is the freedom to cultivate the extravagant life free of money.

Conceptual freedom is both the application and outcome of ideological deprogramming. The big initial step for many is deprogramming religious indoctrination. However—and this is important—atheism does not by itself constitute liberation from dogma, as atheists may be just as bound by prejudices (nationalist, racist, sexist) as the religious; and atheists are often just as monogamous as everyone else: the religion of Monogamism. To build character free of a rigid personality structure, work on uprooting internal prejudice and bias in all its forms.

Stats: Global freedoms

Standard notions of freedom tend to include the following political and personal freedoms: freedom of worship, assembly, speech and the press, worship, movement, freedom to vote and petition the government, and the rights to privacy, to own property, and to to run a business. Some countries, notably the U.S., consider the right to bear arms essential.

Then there are freedoms not always labeled as such but highly important nonetheless: freedom from fear (from violence and intimidation, i.e. safe streets) and freedom from want (civilized social-safety net, national health insurance, etc.). Despite the right to bear arms and the illusion of safety it provides, the United States does not fare well with regard to the latter two freedoms compared to other developed countries. It ranked 7th worldwide in 2007 and fell to 17th in 2021. It’s hovered between 15th and 17th over the past five years. The top twenty countries in the Human Freedom Index in 2025:

1. Switzerland
2. Denmark
3. New Zealand
4. Ireland
5. Luxembourg
6. Estonia
7. Finland
8. Czech Republic
9. Netherlands
10. Australia
11. Iceland
12. Canada
13. Sweden
14. Taiwan
15. United States
16. Norway
17. Germany
18. Portugal
19. Japan
20. United Kingdom

There are also the freedoms explored in this essay. Typically regarded as trivial or petty by old-school conventional morality, they are not only vital but fundamental to the very identity of those who live and advocate them: freedom of naturism (public nudity in legally designated areas), freedom of sexual orientation (LGBTQ+ and pansexuality), freedom of nonmonogamous cohabitation (polyamory), and freedom of psychedelics for both recreational and medical use.

The challenge: The Ideology Game

Choose from the various personal freedoms above to craft your own manifesto of freedom. Activate and actualize them. Let others witness the living out of your freedom project in your daily life. Openly discuss with others how you apprehend freedom. Be firm yet flexible in your opinions and respect and consider differences. Be enthusiastically eccentric.

Play the Ideology Game. Engage in dialectical discussion with one or more friends about any everyday object or situation and see who can uncover its ideological underpinnings first.

Example: You (A) are at a local coffeehouse enjoying coffee with a friend (B).

A: Let’s take my coffee. Unlike your turmeric caramel latte, mine is a plain brewed cup of black coffee. You know, they want you to have the fanciest coffee so you spend more money. And they convince you it needs to be sweet so they can keep you addicted to sugar.

B: I don’t feel guilty. This isn’t Starbucks. It’s a locally owned coffee shop and they use Fair Trade coffee beans. And they provide their baristas with a livable salary and decent health insurance. By spending more money here, I’m supporting a local business.

A: I enjoy neighborhood cafés as well and never go to the big chains, but aren’t they just aping what the big chains do? By allowing local businesses to operate alongside the chains, rather than simply crushing them, consumerist ideology only secures itself in place. It’s considered normal and inevitable that we need to patronize any kind of business, big or small, on a daily basis.

B: It keeps people employed and the economy running. What would these people be doing if they didn’t have a job?

A: They might be organizing collectively rather than being dispersed and isolated in workplaces. They would form communes and open their own coffeehouses in them serving free coffee.

B: Who’s going to pay the rent and supply the free coffee?

A: The property isn’t necessarily rented but owned by generous patrons who are a bit better off and are part of the collective. When people band together and pool their resources, and wealth is more equalized, everything becomes cheaper and affordable. People will still have to work, of course, and be productive. But we are accustoming everyone to the idea that many things can be enjoyed practically for free or with minimal outlay. This is terrifying to capitalism.

B: You make it sound so logical and easy. But why aren’t people already doing this?

A: Have you ever invited someone to your home for coffee? If so, you are already doing this. Now if you make your home an attractive place and regularly invite many people over for this purpose….

The discussion may go on indefinitely even with no clear outcome. The point is to unmask ideology along way—in this case, the irrational addiction people have to spending money which is disguised as a normal facet of everyday life.

Further reading on ideology:

Grasping ideology is the best starting point for achieving conceptual freedom. A few texts for newbies:

Eagleton, Terry. Ideology: An Introduction (Verso, 1991).

Freeden, Michael. Ideology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2003).

Reich, Wilhelm. The Mass Psychology of Fascism (Orgonon, 2023; orig. pub. 1933).

Žižek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology (Verso, 2009).

INTEGRATING THE FIVE STEPS

It helps to conceive of Steps 1-5 as deconstructing five “ideological” taboos, those against social nudity, gender-blind sex, nonmonogamous relationships, psychedelic medicines, and critical deprogramming. There is nothing inherently wrong with going nude among likeminded others in social or public settings, sleeping with people of a different gender, ethnicity or age, carrying on a concurrent intimate relationship with more than one person, or exploring the fascinating realm of mind-altering drugs. They are “taboos” only because they threaten traditional patriarchal heteronormative monogamous family culture, which is inherently repressive.

The resistance and fear surrounding these taboos follows not from any real dangers (reckless use of psychedelics excepted) but from ideology itself: the unconscious precepts put in place by society’s ruling structure for its own benefit but at the expense of people (even the ruling class suffer from the deleterious effects of ideology). These precepts become normalized and universalized to the point where they are indistinguishable from “common sense.” It’s ideology that is behind your fear or disapproval of the above taboos. When you object to any of them, you are being ventriloquized. The state is employing you as its obedient subject by disguising its dogmas as personal opinions you take to be your own, though in fact you have hardly ever given them the slightest thought.

Psychedelic drugs are particularly useful in that they tend to reveal the ideological underpinnings of daily life. To quote Terence McKenna again: “Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.”

Stats (Steps 1-5 combined): The freest countries

Returning to our various global rankings, let’s combine the seven sets of data: 1) Human Freedom Index (HFI), 2) nudism/naturism index (NNI), 3) LGBTQ+ general acceptance, 4) LGBTQ+ travel acceptance, 5) legality of gay marriage, 6) legality of cannabis, and 7) legality of psilocybin. (Cannabis and psilocybin: legal for recreational and/or medical use and not merely decriminalized; Canada and the Netherlands are here considered legal for both cannabis and psilocybin.) We then add up the number of sets achieved by each country:

1. 1 Netherlands
2. 2 Australia
3. 2 Canada
4. 2 Denmark
5. 2 New Zealand
6. 2 Spain
7. 3 Germany
8. 3 Ireland
9. 3 Norway
10. 3 Switzerland
11. 3 Thailand
12. 3 United Kingdom

Only one country fulfills all seven sets and comes out on top: the Netherlands. Five countries are tied for second place (e.g. Canada fulfills five of seven sets and is null on HFI and NNI) and six countries are tied for third place (each fulfilling four of seven sets). My ranking system is admittedly somewhat arbitrary and provisional. I give relatively greater weight to LGBTQ+ freedom (three of the seven sets), as a broad category that includes polyamory acceptance, for which we do not yet have any official rankings.

If we tweak the criteria to give greater weight to the Human Freedom Index (two sets worth), a broad category in its own right, and less weight to LGBTQ+ (by eliminating, say, the LGBTQ+ travel acceptance set), we come out with the following ranking:

1. 1 Netherlands
2. 2 Denmark
3. 3 Australia
4. 3 Ireland
5. 3 New Zealand
6. 3 Switzerland
7. 4 Canada
8. 4 Estonia
9. 4 Finland
10. 4 Luxembourg
11. 4 Norway
12. 4 Spain

The Netherlands still comes out on top (seven of seven sets) and Denmark in second place (six of seven sets). Four countries are in third place (five of seven sets each) and six countries are in fourth place (four of seven sets each).

Overall, more and more countries are acquiring more freedoms, while other countries don’t change or even backslide. And of course, the relative rankings of countries may change year by year. (Disclaimer: I am neither a citizen nor resident of any of the countries in the above two rankings.)

Go naked together in your communal, polyamorous family household. Open yourself to simultaneous gender-blind romantic and/or sexual arrangements with more than one person, while cultivating compersion (anti-jealousy). With the aid of psychedelics, reset and reinvent yourself; replace prejudice and blockage with productivity and creativity. And enrage the capitalists by paying nothing to embark on the 5 Steps. Their cost is practically free, and any initial outlays negligible (the botanical medicines of Step 4 are free if you grow your own). The best things in life are often free.

To recap Steps 1-4 (all combinations):

Panism + Pansexuality: Getting naked with anyone regardless of gender, in bed as well.

Panism + Polyamory: Going naked in a house you share with two or more people, in bed as well.

Panism + Psychedelics: Doing mushrooms with people in the nude.

Pansexuality + Polyamory: Sharing a house and bed with two or more people regardless of gender.

Pansexuality + Psychedelics: Doing mushrooms in bed with anyone regardless of gender.

Polyamory + Psychedelics: Doing mushrooms in bed together in the house you share with two or more people.

Panism + Pansexuality + Polyamory: Going naked in the house you share with two or more people regardless of gender, in bed as well.

Panism + Pansexuality + Psychedelics: Getting naked and doing mushrooms with people regardless of gender, in bed as well.

Panism + Polyamory + Psychedelics: Going naked and doing mushrooms in the house you share with two or more people, in bed as well.

Pansexuality + Polyamory + Psychedelics: Doing mushrooms in the house you share with two or more people regardless of gender, in bed as well.

Panism + Pansexuality + Polyamory + Psychedelics: Going naked and doing mushrooms in the house you share with two or more people regardless of gender, in bed as well.

The massage challenge:

One useful and pleasurable way of doing something in bed together is the age-old bodily technology of massage. Start with mutual massage and progress to erotic massage as desired. Nude massage: massage is ideally given and received fully naked, with the erogenous zones and genitals folded in by mutual consent. Pansexual massage: give and receive massage with someone of a different gender than you’re used to; massage is a good launching pad for gender-blind sex. Polyamorous massage: give and received massage with someone who is not your current partner, and take turns with two-on-one or three-on-one massage. Psychedelic massage: both giver and receiver can experiment with low doses of cannabis, psilocybin, or other psychedelics, solely or in combination. High doses can quickly become overwhelming and counterproductive and should only be ventured upon by experienced psychonauts.

Let’s again mark your progress on a scale. If you find that Steps 1-4 are presently too much and out of reach, begin with Step 5, which can be performed in your head alone. All you need to do is to acknowledge your willingness to proceed and make a plan to act and follow through on at least one of the first four steps. You now qualify for Step 5 and have earned yourself one point! But perhaps you have already previously achieved one of the four steps—say, having dropped acid in college. Provided you enjoyed or at least learned from the experience, saw its liberatory value, and are willing to try it again, that’s two points! And so on:

Personal freedom scale →
1 —– 2 —– 3 —– 4 —– 5

1 Achieved 1 of the 5 Steps
2 Achieved 2 of the 5 Steps
3 Achieved 3 of the 5 Steps
4 Achieved 4 of the 5 Steps
5 Achieved 5 of the 5 Steps

Related posts by Isham Cook:
Loving many: Polyamorous self-actualization
Music for massage, meditation, psychedelics, and sex
Datura and the psychedelic Tao
Transgressions: From porn to polyamory
Confucius and opium
My problem with the atheists (it’s not what you think)
Sexual Fascism: Essays

Also by Isham Cook:

THE TAO OF POISON
“The bold characters, kinetic plot, and rich sense of atmosphere make this epic tale a studied contemplation of how beauty can usher in tragedy and sorrow.” — BookLife Reviews by Publishers Weekly