Psychedelics Today Podcast

In this episode, Joe Interviews Dosed filmmakers Tyler Chandler and Nick Meyers, as well as the subject of their documentary, Adrianne. 

Nick and Tyler tell the story of how they went from really knowing very little about the psychedelic healing movement to becoming advocates solely from a panicked call from Adrianne.

Adrianne speaks of her journey from opiate addiction and severe depression to trying mushrooms and eventually learning she needed Iboga and a community around her to really fight her way out of a life she no longer wanted to live.

They touch on the costs of Iboga compared to other rehabilitation methods, the often glazed-over dangers of Iboga, the effectiveness of psilocybin against opioid withdrawal, anxiety in the western world, holotropic breathwork as a safer method towards healing, the power of the Pixar movie, Inside Out, and why it would be beneficial for young viewers to watch Dosed.

www.dosedmovie.com

“I have gotten sober and detoxed many, many, many times and not stayed sober, so obviously while the physical withdrawals are completely excruciating and definitely a big barrier to getting sober, there’s really something more to recovery than that, and that’s that kind of spiritual experience or awakening. And the psychedelic component is really important to that and I feel like that’s what’s contributed to me... not only getting sober but staying sober.” -Adrianne

“The real problem is that… people are forced to make these decisions and take these risks because something that has been known for 40 years to have this wonderful effect on opioid addicts is somehow something that nobody knows about and isn’t legalized.” -Nick Meyers

“No matter how you choose to recover or what you do to get sober and stay sober, having a community around you and staying connected with people is so, so important.” -Adrianne

“I definitely had a lot of discomfort just learning to… be still or be with myself and not have an escape. That’s part of recovery and it’s very uncomfortable. It takes time to get used to that. I was always used to having some kind of coping mechanism that took me out of myself, that just helped me not feel uncomfortable or whatever negative feeling I was feeling. So that’s always a challenge and there’s no shortcuts to that- you do have to just learn to be in your body and feel feelings, which I did not like very much. But, you know, it gets easier over time.” -Adrianne

“Everybody is so scared of just saying... ‘this is something that teens should do’ because nobody wants to have anything bad happen and then have it get traced back to them. But look at the realities of what teens are going through with... the rampant alcohol and other drugs, and… vaping and smoking and all the other vices- prescription medications, everything that’s available. And there’s like, no guidance, no supervision a lot of the time… What we’re doing right now isn’t working. Can I dare say it? It would be better if there were rites of passage with psychedelics in controlled settings with proper set, setting and dose with young people, because it really helps you recontextualize and reframe things in your mind.” -Nick Meyers

After many years of prescription medications failed her, a suicidal woman turns to underground healers to try and overcome her depression, anxiety, and opioid addiction with illegal psychedelic medicine such as magic mushrooms and iboga. Adrianne’s first dose of psilocybin mushrooms catapulted her into an unexpected world of healing where plant medicines are redefining our understanding of mental health and addiction.

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In today's Solidarity Fridays episode, Joe and Kyle sit down and discuss topics in the media including the usefulness of brain activity scans and the idea that “brain does not equal mind,” how language can shift the social narrative to or away from stigma when describing substance use, and psilocybin testing in mice and when we might see psilocybin start being prescribed.

They spend a lot of time on the questions everyone is asking right now- what changes can we make that will help the most people and give the oppressed what they need? What tangible changes do the oppressed actually want? What should the role of police look like, either compared to or in conjunction with social work or therapy?

They look at these questions with hope, but through a realistic lens- disasters, illness and even global warming always affects the poor and oppressed more than those in power. And historically, people have always shown a natural tendency to want to hold others down. What is the real purpose behind what those in power do (for example, outlawing encrypted texting or arresting someone for doing drugs)? Are they trying to encourage only specific conversations they’re comfortable with? 

So what really can we do, and what specifically can those with white privilege do? The answer there is to find where your voice is most effective, and to have those tough conversations. “Find those inarguable points. Don’t let the media steer your narrative. Major media outlets want you to talk about certain things. Don’t do that. Find out what you think is most important and most helpful to discuss with the people you’re around. Where do you have the most influence?” -Joe 

“How can we... shift the narrative there to help people heal instead of… putting them in this lifelong box of ‘you’ll never heal from this because you have this disorder and this disease’? I’m always on the side of healing [rather] than trying to completely pathologize experiences.” -Kyle

“It sounds nice to say that we want to eliminate violence, we want to eliminate racism, we want to eliminate rape- all these really bad things. But how long have those things been with us? At least 14,000 years, I think. What’s it going to really take to totally reprogram the human genome- the human mind- to transition to this ideal? Is it possible? I don’t know... I want to see these police held accountable, I want to see… criminals in the government go to jail. But it’s kind of the nature of these institutions. They have this monopoly on violence that was granted to them a long time ago, and there’s no real recourse. They’ve got way bigger budgets than any of us as individuals or gangs have, much more training, much better gear… I don’t totally see a great path out.” -Joe

Studies of Brain Activity Aren't as Useful as Scientists Thought

Language Matters in the Recovery Movement

Interview: Adam Halberstadt, UC San Diego

Protests Drive DC Psychedelics Decriminalization Signatures As Activists Launch Major Mailer Campaign

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In this episode, Joe speaks with Mark Plotkin, Ph.D., author of The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know, and President and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT).

Plotkin talks about studying under Richard Evans Schultes (“the father of ethnobotany”), biocultural conservation (the main point of the ACT), Covid-19 and the possibilities for cures in the Amazon, how ayahuasca news can always be viewed as both good and bad, how indigenous people often know much more about their environment and plant medicines than we realize, and how not all ayahuasca is created equal.

They mostly talk about the purpose of the ACT- using ethnographic mapping to help indigenous people take control of and protect their own land from their government and mining or logging interests, all while trying to bring a focus on respecting and protecting the environment, culture, and traditions encompassing the Amazon and its many people.

“The race is on. Protect the forests, protect the shamans, protect the frogs, protect the plants, protect the fungi, and let’s learn what these people know before that knowledge disappears because the knowledge is disappearing much faster than the forest itself.”

• www.markplotkin.com
• www.amazonteam.org
• www.psychedelicexperience.net (essentially a Yelp! for the psychedelic world)

On the ACT: “When we set up the Amazon Conservation team about 25 years ago, the idea was that you had groups like the World Wildlife Fund (where I had been working) that was focused on protecting rainforests, and you had groups like Cultural Survival that was focused on protecting indigenous culture, but they really didn’t talk to each other. And so we wanted to help create a discipline now known as Biocultural Conservation because those of us who work with indigenous cultures (whether it’s in the far north of Canada or it’s in the Amazon) know that there is an inextricable link between traditional shamanic cultures and their environment. And nobody was addressing that.”

“There’s a great saying… that the rainforest holds answers to questions we haven’t even asked. So who knows if the answer to Covid-19 or SARs or the next virus which is coming at some point is in the Amazon, and the answer is- nobody knows, and nobody’s really looking for it. So why not protect this treasure, steward it better, look for these answers, and keep the earth a rich and wonderful place?”

“The medical office of the future, if we get it right, is going to have a physician... a nutritionist... a pet therapist... a music therapist... a dietitian... a shaman... a massage therapist. Because there’s no one person and one way that’s going to embody all aspects of healing at the same time.”

“We all go to the grocery [store and ask]: ‘I want to buy organic stuff.’ How come nobody ever asks where the ayahuasca comes from? Is it harvested sustainably? Was it grown organically? You know how many times I’ve been asked that question? Never. If we’re having raised consciousness, why the hell aren’t we asking these questions? So my challenge to all of our like-minded colleagues is: Let’s make sure we’re getting this from a sustainable source. Let’s make sure it’s being replanted when it’s harvested. Let’s make sure it’s benefiting tribal communities or peasant communities that are respectful of nature and shamanic processes and things like that because I don’t understand why anybody would go to the grocery store and want to get organic grapes but will buy ayahuasca off the internet without knowing where it came from.”

“The shamans often say everything is connected, which sounds sort of trite- this “butterfly effect.” But here’s proof of that. This whole terrible pandemic is due to our lack of respect for nature.”

“It’s not nice to screw mother nature either, because, you know, mother nature always wins. And thinking that we can get away with this and make a few bucks or eat a few weird dishes and not pay the ultimate price is foolish… It’s us [who are] following our nests... abusing indigenous cultures... abusing forests… and mother nature is ultimately going to have her revenge.”

Dr. Mark Plotkin is a renowned ethnobotanist who has studied traditional indigenous plant use with elder shamans (traditional healers) of Central and South America for much of the past 30 years. As an ethnobotanist—a scientist who studies how, and why, societies have come to use plants for different purposes—Dr. Plotkin carried out the majority of his research with the Trio Indians of southern Suriname, a small rainforest country in northeastern South America, but has also worked with elder shamans from Mexico to Brazil. Dr. Plotkin has a long history of work with other organizations to promote conservation and awareness of our natural world, having served as Research Associate in Ethnobotanical Conservation at the Botanical Museum of Harvard University; Director of Plant Conservation at the World Wildlife Fund; Vice President of Conservation International; and Research Associate at the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Plotkin is now President and Board member of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), a nonprofit organization he co-founded with his fellow conservationist and wife, Liliana Madrigal in 1996, now enjoying over 20 years of successes dedicated to protecting the biological and cultural diversity of the Amazon. ACT has been a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Roll of Honour since 2002, and was recognized as using “Best Practices Using Indigenous Knowledge” by UNESCO, the United Nation’s cultural organization.

In today’s Solidarity Fridays Episode, Kyle and Joe interview Kwasi Adusei, Nurse Practitioner, and board member of Psychedelics Today. In the show, they talk about the root of protesting, privilege, the country’s leadership, the importance of this conversation and ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

• It's difficult for all groups of people to talk about, not everybody is coming from the same place on this topic
  • Kwasi says it's wonderful to see so many people rising up to fight against injustice
• These things have been happening for a long time, and it speaks to the history in America
• Kwasi grew up in The Bronx, and it wasn't uncommon to hear about deaths, gun violence, etc
• Kwasi went to receive his Doctorate, but reflects on his time in middle school and barely graduating
  • It wasn't because of him and his willingness to learn, it was because of his environment
  • The high school he went to is now shut down because of the low graduation rates

• Kyle says he wonders why this time in particular, why this is impacting the nation and the world more than anything else going on
  • Kwasi sees it as a two part thing, it's a snowball effect, the anger around these instances continue to grow
  • The other part of it, has a lot to do with the Coronavirus, people are losing their jobs, having trouble paying rent, feeding their family, etc
    • They are losing their outlets to grieve, and they go through it for weeks
    • Then something like this happens and it results in rage 

• It's important to look to the family of George Floyd, they are angry at the violence coming out of the protests
• Some people believe that the anger that people are showing when damaging property, is causing the same anger when lives are lost
  • But some people are capitalizing on chaos, burning buildings and bringing destruction, and it takes away from the message of changing the systemic issues, it perpetuates it
  • It brings the spotlight to those who are inviting hate by graffiti-ing, lighting buildings on fire, ec
  • The conversation needs to prove that protests are making a statement 

• We have a President that is enforcing law and order to remove peaceful protesters in a violent way
  • The leadership we have is very important, how crisis is approached is really important
  • “How [as a leader] do you calm the nerves of people, while getting to the root of the problem?” - Kwasi
  • We have a lot of people that support Drumpf, and he doesn't do the best job at leading and supporting the country in a respectful way, especially in these times
• Joe mentioned videos out there of undercover cops breaking windows that are ‘bait’ to bring in stronger forces to shut down the protests
• “We should all be asking ourselves, if I care about the messaging, how do I use my sphere of influence to change things?” - Kwasi
• There are so many roots to this problem
  • How much are we using to fund the police force versus funding education, community services, public health? 

• Joe says this platform (Psychedelics Today) is to create a space for people to give back, have an impact, share stories and support movements like this
• Kwasi says to look locally to give your time, money and support
  • He says look to get involved in local elections, making a small difference in your local community, makes a difference on the larger scale when multiplied
• Stay informed for yourself and share that information with everyone else
• People are thinking heavily right now “where are my tax dollars being spent?”
  • Instead of extra funding to the local police force, you can vote for that increase to go toward something else like education 

• Our voice is our vote
• Many people who listen to the Psychedelics Today podcast are probably privileged
• The psychedelic movement is (and if not, should be) connected to so many other movements like BLM
  • Psychedelics Today is mainly about social justice, changing the narrative on drug policy, the drug war, psychedelic exceptionalism and access
• Kwasi says that for those who have acknowledged their privilege, not to just keep themselves in the pillar of ‘because I support the psychedelic movement and its connected to the BLM movement, I've done enough’
  • He encourages becoming an ally of the BLM movement, as well as any other movement

• Being a spiritual and privileged person, you have even more time to sit and process and think about all of this, especially when it's not affecting you
• It’s difficult to analyze one’s own privilege
  • Kwasi says he went on a medical mission to Ghana, where he was born
  • Going back and seeing what the lifestyle was like there, it shifted a lot in him to understand his own privilege
  • He had the privilege of coming to America, receiving an education, etc
  • Because of his education, he is asking himself how to give back

• If you're going to voice your support, that voice needs follow up with actions
  • Actions like donating to groups, educating yourself on local authority measures, voting, etc
• Sometimes an organization's agenda isn't always aligned with what the people want
• Kwasi says that he had a few people randomly venmo him money and it offended him
  • He doesn't want money, he wants change to be made in other ways
  • He says for those looking to help, ask first and see what ways those who have been oppressed want to see the change and be supported
• “We can all be change makers, and all make a change in this world” - Kwasi

• Kwasi wants to bring mental health into communities of people of color
• He says email him at kwasiadusei@buffalo.edu

Reading list

• Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Marie Brown: Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live.
• The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein: Analysis of laws that have maintained and further facilitated racial segregation and inequity
• Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates: The biggest concerns of racist American history reframed through personal stories of racial awakening in a letter to his son.

Viewing list

• 13th: An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
• I Am Not Your Negro: Explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin’s reminiscences of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his personal observations of American history.

Ways to take action; Donate to victim funds

• Official George Floyd Memorial Fund: These funds will also go towards the funeral and burial costs along with the counseling and legal expenses for his loved ones. A portion will go towards the Estate of George Floyd for the benefit and care of his children and their educational fund.

Ways to take action; Donate to organizations

• The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund: the NAACP Legal Defense works on advancing the goals of racial justice and equality by protecting those that are most vulnerable in society. Their work includes court cases that work for a fairer justice system, increasing graduation rates among African American students, protecting voters across the nation, and decreasing disproportionate incarceration and sentencing rates.
• Communities United Against Police Brutality: The Minneapolis organization was created “to deal with police brutality on an ongoing basis.” More information can be found here.
• Campaign Zero: The organization uses data to inform policy solutions that aim to ends police brutality. Their vision is to create a better world by “limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability.”

Kwasi dedicates his work in the psychedelic movement to altering the stigma in mainstream channels by promoting the science, the healing potential of psychedelics, and civic engagement. Kwasi is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and graduated from the University at Buffalo. He is the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York and project manager for Psychonauts of the World, an initiative to share meaningful psychedelic stories, with the ultimate goal of publishing them in a book as an avenue to raise money for psychedelic research. He is also one of the administrators for the Global Psychedelic Network, a conglomerate of psychedelic groups and individuals from around the world. Born in Ghana and raised in the Bronx, New York, Kwasi hopes to bring psychedelic therapy to communities of color.

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In this episode, Joe speaks with Jacob Curtis a photojournalist at Denver7, a Denver-based ABC affiliate. 

Curtis covered Alaska’s marijuana legalization in 2014, and as a photojournalist living in Denver, has been at the forefront of the Decriminalize Denver movement, even providing some of the first broadcasted footage of a local mushroom grow.  Curtis speaks about attending Psychedelic Club meetings and meeting James Casey, wanting to be the person to bring this story to the mainstream, and how these meetings and growing interest from the community were ultimately the incubators for the Decriminalize Denver, and later, Decriminalize Nature and #thankyouplantmedicine movements. 

They also discuss the National Psychedelic Club (of which Joe reveals he is now on the Board of Directors), Edward Snowden and the dangers of speaking with the media, and advice for how to protect one’s identity, the Telluride Mushroom Festival and documentaries like “Dosed,” the Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, new startups in the field like MindMed, the Denver Mushroom Cooperative, MkUltra experiments in Denver, the importance of the #thankyouplantmedicine hashtag, and ultimately, how much Covid-19 has impacted the speed of progress in bringing legalization to the mainstream. 

Resources:  www.facebook.com/somasagas

On James Casey: “He was an awesome subject to sort of wrap the story around, and he was the perfect poster child because he had all the right ingredients- he was a veteran, really well-spoken, and just pretty straight-laced.” (9:41)

“It is interesting to watch, how the media sort of responds and works with stories that are on the fringes and then move slowly towards the mainstream.  It’s one of those things about our culture- it bends and shifts.  The times change and what was radical 10 years ago is normal now.” (13:51)

“We’ve had so many huge events that have taken place in our lifetimes that this kind of seems trivial… it’s not the highest priority anymore after we had the 2000 election, September 11th, the Iraq war.  Those things [psychedelics] aren’t as high on the list of things that we are supposed to be worried about anymore.” (14:45)

“I don’t think that we’re going to shy away from talking about psychedelics after a catastrophic virus collapses the world economy.  It’ll be an easy topic.” (15:57)

On #thankyouplantmedicine: “I don’t think there was necessarily a hashtag for drug policy reform that has been a conscious effort like that before, so it definitely gained some attention... If anything, it brought people together.  If it didn’t get this big media splash, it definitely helped grow the network.” (53:09)

Jacob is a photojournalist at Denver7, a Denver-based ABC affiliate.  He has been at the forefront of the Decriminalize Denver movement, even providing some of the first broadcasted footage of a local mushroom grow.

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In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to talk about Grof Legacy Training, Peyote scarcity, a DMT survey on entities, and more.

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• Its based on Stanislav Grof’s research into psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork, transpersonal psychology, and spiritual emergencies
• Dr. Stanislov Grof and his wife just launched this program
  • It’s not just about breathwork
• His involvement in the Grof transpersonal training program dropped off in the last few years
  • He wasn't allowed to teach breathwork in the GTT model, there wasn't any growth in the company, so a lot of people like Grof left and started their own thing
  • Kyle says this is pretty common with trademarks and protocols
  • Joe says he's very excited about it
• Kyle says Stan’s work is very important and a lot of the reason Psychedelics Today came to be 

• Native American Churches don't have as much access as they need to properly grow Peyote
  • Perhaps, in countries where Peyote isn't illegal, there should be growing of Peyote
• Native American’s are in a bad spot due to colonialism
• As insiders, we need to talk about how to use less Peyote
  • “Pick one, plant two” should be the mindset
• Kyle says, “how do we just respect these sacred medicines?”

• Survey of entity encounter experiences occasioned by inhaled N,N-dimethyltryptamine: Phenomenology, interpretation, and enduring effects
  • 2,561 individuals (mean age 32 years; 77% male) completed an online survey about their single most memorable entity encounter after taking N,N-dimethyltryptamine
  • Senses involved were visual and extra-sensory
  • The most common descriptive labels for the entity were being, guide, spirit, alien and helper
  • 41% of respondents reported fear
  • More than half of those who identify as Atheist before, no longer identified with Atheism after the experience
  • Out of any other method, DMT seems to occasion the most entities

In this episode, Joe and Kyle interview Erik Davis, Author of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. In the show they cover topics on La Chorrera, uncertainty, synchronicities and more.

In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode, Kyle and Joe interview Dave McGaughey, Founding Partner of NorthStar. In the show, they talk about NorthStar, Ethics, and the story, “We Will Call It Pala”.

In today’s episode, Joe and Kyle sit down with Dr. Mike Hart. In the show they talk about Cannabis and Ketamine used as medicine.

1. The main uses for Cannabis are for chronic pain and mental health. CBD is really good for people with inflammation.
2. When it comes to any psychedelic/plant medicine therapy, it's all about agency. The power lies within the individual, the therapy and the drug are just tools to help the person obtain the power to heal themselves.

3. Ketamine is a useful treatment for depression. It's instant, a patient can take it and it's effective right away, where typical antidepressants may take 4-6 weeks to kick in.

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• He attended Med school on Saba Island
• Then he came to Ontario where he did his residency
• 8 months after practicing he started prescribing cannabis
• He got into cannabis because it's a great alternative to opioids and pain pills, etc.

• The main uses for Cannabis are for chronic pain and mental health
  • CBD is really good for people with inflammation
  • CBD is good for anything with -itis like arthritis, etc
• THC is found to be much better than CBD for things like sciatica and nerve pain
• Kyle mentions that when he takes CBD he has flashbacks of ayahuasca dreams/experiences
  • CBD is not psychoactive in that it doesn't get you high
• Kyle says that people can have spiritual experiences just by breathing, so the
  • CBD is just another vehicle that helps
• Adding a small amount of THC to CBD isn't going to potentiate it, but there may be an entourage effect that can be a further benefit to a patient
  • Don't use more than 2.5mg of THC with CBD if you don't want psychoactive effects
• Mike says that some people use CBD isolate, and that's great, but like an egg, it's best not to eat just the egg whites, it's best to eat the whole egg to get all of the benefits
  • So just like eating the whole egg, the best way to get all the benefits of cannabis is to use/consume the whole plant
  • There are definitely situations where using the whole plant is best, and other situations where isolation is best

• Anxiety can be treated very well with exposure therapy
  • Exposure therapy is exposing something you're afraid of, and exposing it over and over until its not an anxiety anymore
• CBD can decrease learned fear
  • PTSD is a learned fear
  • “The people who end up doing the most in life, are the people who have had the most trauma. We need to tell people that their trauma does not define them.” - Mike
• It's all about personal agency
  • It's not about the drug, its you
  • It's not about therapy, its you
  • The power is in you, its just learning how to harness and use that power
• Mike says your relationships, your job, and your health are the three most important things to master
• Going without something makes you more grateful for that thing

• Mike has been prescribing Ketamine for just over a year now
  • It is helpful for mental health and chronic pain
  • Ketamine is really useful for treatment resistant depression
• He prescribes Ketamine orally
  • He advises his patients to take it in the morning as soon as they wake up on an empty stomach
  • If it is taken that way, they get a psychoactive effect, and he thinks that it is the most effective way
  • Its instant, a patient can take it, and its effective right away, where typical antidepressants may take 4-6 weeks to kick in

Website

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Michael Hart, MD is the medical director and founder at Readytogo Clinic in London, Ontario. Readytogo Clinic focuses on cannabinoid medicine, but also offers family medicine services, IV vitamin therapy and specialized hormone testing. Dr. Hart is a recognized speaker on the topic of cannabis. He has spoken at CME events throughout Ontario, multiple cannabis conferences and has been featured on a variety of cannabis websites. In March of 2017, Dr. Hart released a free Ebook with his co-author Jeremy Kossen. Dr. Hart has seen first hand how the opioid epidemic is affecting our population and wanted to take action by finding a solution. Dr. Hart believes that cannabis is an excellent alternative to opioids and has seen excellent results in his practice. Dr. Hart emphasizes lifestyle changes in his medical practice and follows a low carb diet himself. Dr. Hart actively trains MMA at Adrenaline Training center and follows a comprehensive strength and conditioning program.

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In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to talk about therapists being unprepared to talk to people taking psychedelics, the drug war and more.

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• PRESS RELEASE: Interim Analysis Shows At Least 90% Chance of Statistically Significant Difference in PTSD Symptoms after MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy
• MAPS hired a third party to work through their data set and they may be getting FDA approval

• Should there be some sort of body regulating therapist training in integration?
  • Should there be a standardized training?
• There are going to be good therapists that care, and go out of their way and get the training, and there will be bad therapists, that do harm
  • It's a long and difficult topic
  • Should people be going to jail for being bad therapists?
• Looking at breathwork, there are training groups, but there isn't one large, overarching group that governs all trainings
• “Are we acting with integrity if we aren't bringing the utmost safety to the table?” - Joe

• How is COVID going to impact psychedelic tourism?
• In breathwork, people are potentially coughing, crying, and in general just doing heavy breathing, COVID is super contagious

Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

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In this episode, Kyle and Joe interview Eamon Armstrong, host of the Podcast, Life is a Festival. In the show, they talk about Eamon’s Iboga experience, the festival culture, rites of passage, ethics and more.

1. Eamon Armstrong is the host of Life is a Festival, a podcast promoting a lifestyle of adventure and personal development through the lens of festival culture.
2. Maya is an intelligence platform for psychedelic therapists to manage their clients and their protocols. 

3. Rites of Passage can look different for everybody, they can look like going to Africa to be initiated in an Ibogaine ceremony, to attending Burning Man. 

• Eamon is the host of the Podcast, Life is a Festival
  • It's not about festivals, it's about how to make life like a festival
• Eamon is very passionate about mental wellness
• After graduating college, he felt very lost
• He was throwing mushroom tea parties, making electronic music with his friends
  • The key to throwing a mushroom tea party is to have people drink less mushrooms than they think that they're drinking, everyone just thinks they are tripping harder than they were
• He went to Burning Man in 2010
  • He started working in social media for Burning Man’s off playa events
• Psychedelics and harm reduction became core to their editorial voice
  • He worked closely with Psychedelic Peer Support, Zendo, Kosmicare, etc

• Eamon attended an Iboga retreat in Gabon, Africa, and he says it was more about the retreat than the Iboga
  • He was in the chamber for 5 days, and he was alone in it
• This retreat was in the Bwiti religion
• He really went there for a full sledgehammer experience
  • He felt he had some addicted aspects that were hindering his sexual experiences
• Iboga goes to the root of the trauma and shows you where the addictive pattern of behavior is
• Iboga has a long integration period
• Iboga is a root, and he consumed it in a form of a tangled nest
  • He felt very blasted open from the experience
• Iboga took him directly to his anger
• “We have in our modern Western Culture, a lot of lost, young people” - Eamon
  • “The value of a rite of passage, is that you are confronted with certain things that you can't get to on your own” - Eamon
• The fact that you can die in an Iboga experience, is part of the initiation

• Burning Man isn't a rite of passage, but it can be used as a rite of passage
  • Burning Man is a temporary experience in civic living, it is not orchestrated by elders
• There is a growing topic on psychedelic parenting, and taking psychedelics with children

• Maya is designed in partnership with psychedelic practitioners & ceremony leaders
• Maya is an intelligence platform for psychedelic therapists to manage their clients and their protocols
• Ethics in psychedelics are so important right now
• This does not replace the therapist, it's everything the therapist needs to support their clients in healing
• “The ecosystem itself will thrive when we are all working in service to each other” - Eamon
• “If you want to be a part of the cool kids, and the cool kids are doing it ethically, then you have to do it ethically” - Eamon

• The soul is the most beautiful thing
• “Psychedelics as medicine, treat society, beyond individuals” - Eamon

Eamon Armstrong Website

Life is a Festival Facebook Group

Maya

Maya Health Facebook Page

Psychedelic Therapy Podcast

Psychedelic Therapy Podcast by Maya Facebook Group

Eamon Armstrong is the creator and host of Life is a Festival, promoting a lifestyle of adventure and personal development through the lens of festival culture. He is the former Creative Director and public face of Chip Conley’s industry-leading online festival guide and community Fest300, where he was a global community builder. Eamon’s belief in the transformational power of psychedelics led him to take part in a traditional Bwiti initiation in Gabon, and to become a trained Sitter with MAP’s Zendo Project. Eamon is a passionate advocate for mature masculinity and offers public talks and workshops from mythopoetic men's work to stand-up comedy on integrating masculinity.

Headshot Photo Credit: GBK Photos 

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In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode, Kyle and Joe sit down with Brett Greene, who was the very first guest on Psychedelics Today four years ago. In response to last week’s episode on the Corporadelic topic, Brett comes on the show to talk about companies and drug discovery.

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• Brett Greene was the very first guest on Psychedelics Today four years ago
• Brett and Kyle originally met at the Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference in New York City in 2013.
• He works at The Center for Drug Discovery

• At his new company, they are making drugs from tryptamines that are more predictable
  • His team has not only done this countless of times with the FDA, they have also done it with psychedelics

• The psychedelic movement doesn't own psychedelics, they don't own molecules, but they do own their history
• “We should get away from the right and wrongness of the mechanics, and get into the right and wrongness of the ethics” - Brett
• “Patents are the language of invention” - Brett
• “An ethical charter is one that covers cognitive liberty, business ethics, and responsibility and accountability for patient safety” - Brett
• What are the minimal acceptable requirements when doing this work?

• We need to be kind with each other
• We need to balance truth with kindness and compassion
• For those interested in a work postiton email Brett@adeliatx.com 

Brett works in research administration under Alexandros Makriyannis, one of the world's top cannabinoid researchers. His job consists of a multitude of functions, ranging from administrative support for a team of 15+ grant submitting scientists to lab equipment and lab management, and diverse recruitment for NIH grants.

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In this episode, Joe interviews Tom and Sheri Eckert, organizers of the Oregon Psilocybin Therapy Initiative. The IP 34 is the bill that would legalize psilocybin therapy.

1. IP 34 asks the Oregon Health Authority to create a licensing system that will create a regulated program where Oregonians suffering from depression, anxiety, trauma and other challenges can see a licensed and trained facilitator to receive supervised psilocybin therapy.
2. IP 34 was written by licensed therapists in Oregon along with the country’s leading advocates in the field. It is supported by healthcare professionals, treatment providers, veterans’ groups and community leaders across the state.
3. There has been a multitude of studies from leading medical research institutions such as Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and NYU showing that psilocybin therapy works.

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• Tom and Sheri began their interest in psilocybin research about 5 years ago when they read an article in The New Yorker by Michal Pollan
• They realized how powerful psilocybin was for clinical work
• They are both therapists, and were inspired to find out if there was a way to create a modality that allowed them to provide psilocybin therapy to help their clients

• Psychotherapy is supposed to be experiential, the breakthrough is where the change happens
• Sheri says that psilocybin therapy gets all parts of the brain in communication together
• “The more intense the mystical experience the more clinical outcomes that are achieved” - Tom

• They started in 2015
• They wanted the breakthrough studies and the research proving low risks to work for them
• The psychedelic community was very helpful
• They went through rotations with the way the initiative was written
• They like the therapy model, its safe, careful and mindful

• Joe asks about a Supremacy Clause, where the state supersedes local districts
  • This initiative does not get in the way of any other initiative
• There are angles on all different types of drug policy reform
• There is nothing in the IP34 that blocks any other initiative like decriminalization
  • We are all a part of the big picture, we all need to work together

• They wanted to keep this in the frame of non-commercialization
  • Their goal with this is not about money, it’s really about the healing
  • “We are trying to move forward a healing modality to help people, we are trying to legalize psilocybin assisted psychotherapy” - Tom
• There is a part in the initiative that says measures will have to be taken to make sure the psilocybin is ‘food grade’ standard or in general just clean and safe

• Download the petition, sign it, and mail it in

• Sheri says that the team behind the initiative is inspired by what is happening globally around psilocybin and research
• They are right at the end of their signatures, but they need help to reach the goal
• “We've got to see the bigger picture here, and get behind it.” - Tom

Website

As husband-and-wife founders of the Oregon Psilocybin Society (OPS) and authors of the Psilocybin Service Initiative (PSI), Tom and Sheri Eckert have set in motion a historic campaign to legalize Psilocybin Services, also known as Psilocybin Assisted Therapy, in their home state of Oregon. A growing number of Oregonians are getting behind the idea, largely in response to the latest science. The Eckerts, with a growing army of volunteers, are spreading a truth held increasingly self-evident: that the psilocybin experience, when facilitated under safe and supportive conditions, can be a life-changing gift.In addition to their activism, the Eckert’s own and operate “Innerwork” – a private psychotherapy practice serving the Portland metro area. Included in their catalog of services is their groundbreaking “Better Man” program, which is shown to neutralize intimate partner and family violence. Sheri has been awarded a Cosmic Sister Women of the Psychedelic Renaissance in support of her presentation at the Spirit Plant Medicine conference.

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In today’s Solidarity Friday’s Episode with Kyle and Joe, they talk mostly about Corpora-delic, companies and wealthy individuals investing in the psychedelic industry.

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• The company is valued at 111 million
• The CEO, Jason Hobson says, “The current health pandemic has resulted in a societal shift in the way we think about our health and the importance of access to treatment, both physical health and mental health. Ei.Ventures believes this is the right time to lean into mental health issues such as mood disorders and addiction, and eventual access to therapeutic treatments from innovations in botanical compounds that have been around for thousands of years.”
• Joe and Kyle say that there is so much money coming in, and it worries the psychedelic community because they aren't used to seeing capitalism
• Joe says that he hopes that some patents don't equate to ruining access

• “Are these companies going to bully the smaller organizations out of existence so that diversity doesn't really exist in the way we think it should?” - Joe
• Medical is a great model, but it should be reduced to that only
• Kyle says the sacred-ness feels like it may be taken away, and big companies just look at it as a commodity

• "Not everyone sees this opportunity for entrepreneurship as a good thing. For researchers looking into the efficacy of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, these substances are far more than a market opportunity—they’re potentially life-saving medications. And after decades of prohibition, psychedelics are just barely gaining mainstream acceptance.’ - from the article
• People are bold enough to stand up to companies they don't agree with It's no joke how much money was spent on making Tim Leary look bad

• The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is launching a new drug program for treating soldiers with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and drug addiction, and it is drawing inspiration from psychedelic research.
• Kyle mentions that this is tricky, its both a biochemical and experiential thing
• Will eliminating the hallucinations ruin the experience?
  • Joe says that there are some people that are so unstable that a psychedelic experience can be really a lot
  • Joe also says that there arent alot of drugs that their use needs to be supervised (medically) and psychedelics are some of them

• Joe recorded with Erica Darragh from Sunrise Movement
• Their talk was about how climate justice could end the drug war
  • They talked about more equitable ways of including people of less power, influence or privilege into the world of psychedelics
• The more ahead we are of the government, the more likely we are to influence policy, Joe says it's best to just stay informed

• If we aren't coming from psychedelic values when bringing these substances into the mainstream, then what are we doing?
• What are psychedelic values?
  • Valuing the planet, valuing your place in the planet, a sense of connection, cooperation vs. competition, how do we honor a lineage or where these medicines come from? these could be some psychedelic values
• Following the permaculture principles and applying them to life is a great tool for systems thinking

Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

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In this episode, Joe interviews Amanda Feilding, Founder and Director of The Beckley Foundation. In the show, they cover topics on psychedelic research, policy work, regulation, and the benefits of psychedelics in a time of crisis.

1. The Beckley Foundation pioneers psychedelic research to drive evidence-based drug policy reform, founded and directed by Amanda Feilding as a UK-based think-tank and NGO.
2. There is some interesting research happening around LSD expanding the neuroplasticity of the mind and increasing neurogenesis.
3. We are in the midst of a mental health crisis, especially in the West, and psychedelics may be helpful in improving mental health.

• Amanda says she felt alone for a long time, they were taking a scientific approach, and it was much too serious for the underground
• The Beckley Foundation is doing policy work, medical work, scientific work, etc
• Amanda has a passion for science, but felt a social responsibility to do the policy work
  • It's a very destructive work with ‘drugs’, because they are all under the same umbrella, but we psychedelic enthusiasts know, that psychedelics are beneficial and different than other drugs
• Joe mentions he always thought how crazy LSD sentencing is, in some places it is longer than murder charges
• “The ego is really a mirror of the government, and it can be much too restrictive and damaging” - Amanda

• LSD increases cognitive function by expanding the networks of integrative centers in the brain
  • Amanda thinks that LSD is better at increasing cognition than mushrooms
• She says they are doing exciting work with LSD and how it expands neuroplasticity of the mind, and how it increases neurogenesis
  • She thinks we haven't really even scratched the surface of exploring the benefits of these compounds
• Joe says he is hearing about a lot of athletes using LSD as a performance enhancing drug
• Neuroplasticity is like when the brain becomes hot metal and it can adapt and change

• We have a horrible mental health crisis in the west, 1 in 3 teenage girls are depressed
• Out of all death causes in the US, air pollution is one of the largest
• “Our society needs a paradigm shift” - Amanda
• Amanda says that she doesn't believe that all people need to take psychedelics, but that they can be very beneficial

• Joe says he would love to see regulation everywhere
• The cause of most drug harms are prohibition
• Portugal and Switzerland are great models for boosting public service
• Recognizing the potential benefits helps (starting with medical but not stopping there)

• We are all moving in the right direction
• The spreading of knowledge and education is the right path
• The intuitive gains are the main benefits of these altered states of consciousness

The Beckley Foundation

Amanda Feilding has been called the ‘hidden hand’ behind the renaissance of psychedelic science, and her contribution to global drug policy reform has also been pivotal and widely acknowledged. Amanda was first introduced to LSD in the mid-1960s, at the height of the first wave of scientific research into psychedelics. Impressed by its capacity to initiate mystical states of consciousness and heighten creativity, she quickly recognised its transformative and therapeutic power. Inspired by her experiences, she began studying the mechanisms underlying the effects of psychedelic substances and dedicated herself to exploring ways of harnessing their potential to cure sickness and enhance wellbeing. In 1996, Amanda set up The Foundation to Further Consciousness, changing its name to the Beckley Foundation in 1998.

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In today’s Solidarity Fridays Episode with Kyle and Joe, they talk about current topics in the news including MindMed, psilocybin synthesis, treating climate grief with psychedelics, psychedelic decriminalization and more.

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• Psychedelic Pharmaceutical Company MindMed Develops LSD Neutralizer Technology To Shorten and Stop LSD Trips
• MindMed is a psychedelic Pharmaceutical company that is exploring LSD and patenting anything they find during the research
• Joe comments and says that organizations like Zendo are able to do optimal work and we don't necessarily need a Pharma company to help in recreational/festival settings
  • But in a clinical setting, this is more necessary
• “Are these big companies coming into the space as allies are not?” - Joe
  • Joe says he thinks they are part of the ecosystem, for better or worse
• Joe says, imagine if drugs were legal, they would be so much safer
  • Kyle questions what legalization would look like not in a capitalistic market

• There is a lot of reason why people choose not to play in commodified markets
• “How do we know what is true? How do we know what is helpful for us?” - Joe
  • Joe says lets not have a quick easy answer
• "It's infeasible and way too expensive to extract psilocybin from magic mushrooms and the best chemical synthesis methods require expensive and difficult-to-source starting substrates” - a quote from the article

• 20 years is when it's going to be really bad for climate change
• It's been more prominent, people getting therapy for trauma of what's happening in nature
• The question of a conference that Joe and Kyle attended was, “Can extraordinary experiences help save us from planetary, ecological collapse?”
  • We are able to make people feel more connected to ecological systems with psychedelics
• We have to be able to feel the grief, but we have to be able to act
• Are we stewards of the earth, or do we want to work pointless jobs and be a part of consumerism?

• If COVID wasn't a thing currently, it looks like decrim would happen in the belly of the beast, in D.C.
  • Despite the public health crisis, its looks like citizens want to reassess entheogenic use
• “When there is hardship, creativity seems to spike” - Joe
  • Joe says to check out the microdose VR by Android Jones

Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

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In this episode, Kyle interviews Melissa Stangl and Daniel Cleland, Co-founders of Soltara Healing Center. They talk about integration, Shipibo healing lineage, accessibility of psychedelics, and psychedelic tourism. 

1. Soltara is a Healing Center dedicated toward  integration as well as practicing and preserving the Shipibo tradition of Ayahusca healing. 
2. It doesn't make sense to take nature based traditions and turn it into instant gratification and business. The further you get from tradition, the less beneficial it may be.
3. Tourism for Ayahuasca can bring both harm and benefits to the local community. Reinforcing the heritage, paying the healers very well and giving back to the forests in terms of sustainability are all ways that Soltara is using Ayahuasca tourism to help the local communities.

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• Melissa originally comes from the STEM field
• She was working in corporate America and was in search for a deeper meaning
• She met Dan and after joining one of his initial ayahuasca journeys into Peru, it changed her mindset about healing
• Dan looked for someone to help him after starting up his first ayahuasca center in Peru, and so she dropped everything and moved to the jungle to make it happen
• After witnessing the healing potential working within the Shipibo tradition, and the need for integration within the community, she later founded Soltara with Dan in Costa Rica

• Daniel grew up in a small town in Canada
  • He followed the typical life trajectory, go to school, go to college, get a job, etc
• He didn't have big ambitions at the time, very in line with the middle class area that he grew up in
  • After entering the work-force, he was in un-ambitious jobs
  • He thought “are there just 30 years of doing this until this is over?”
• He felt a strong pull towards South America
  • He was very close to nature in his upbringing
• He got a job leading tours
• He had a personal crisis that led him to do some soul searching
• Within the span of a few years, the trajectory pushed him to build his own healing center in Peru

• They feel very strongly about having the Shipibo healers lead the ceremony, and everything that they (Mel, Dan and the team) do is to help honor the tradition
• They focus a lot on integration
  • For the Shipibo culture, their life is integraton, but for a lot of people that are coming from the Western world and other places, that is not the case
  • They started collaborating with clinical psychologists to help create a program that puts the retreat at the start of the program, the work comes after
  • Soltara includes a workbook for integration afterward
• Our transition times in modern life are shamed, getting your period, having a mid life crisis, having a psychedelic experience, but these experiences can be very sacred
• “Connecting to the sacredness of life is so healing and so needed for modern-day society” - Melissa

• The sensationalism is more around the experience itself
  • People think that you just go in and have the experience and then your life is changed forever and that is not the case
• A place where people not only can find who they are, but then be who they are in that container, and meet people and create community, is so powerful
  • Kyle said when he attended his retreat there, he can't shake how safe he felt He said it really stood out to him, for someone who is looking at integration and so involved in this field
• “I would like to bring people to this tradition in a way that is accessible, and I think that starts with safety” - Melissa

• There are new products, treatment centers, etc
  • The further away you get from tradition, the less beneficial it may be
• Dan says it doesn't make sense to take nature based traditions for instant gratification, monopoly, and business
  • The ceremony is the healing part, the ayahuasca allows one to connect with the plants, and that it is just the songs in ceremony that really create the healing
  • Melissa says she understands that the science is helping the movement, but she is so afraid that big corporations will just run with this and ruin tradition around it
• Kyle says during his experience at Soltara, he just felt flooded with gratitude to experience the medicine healing in nature and in the Shipibo culture, where it is natural

• Tourism for Ayahuasca causes harm but also brings benefits to the community too
• Dan says they are expanding the work, they are not taking away from the traditions
  • It takes a certain capacity to travel to the jungle, speak the language, figure out where to go, how to get there, and how to receive healing is not typically possible for the vast majority of people
• The Shipibo is receiving really good pay doing this work, which isn't typically possible for the indigenous people
• This is also reinforcing the heritage, encouraging the children to continue the traditional path
  • Now it’s not only a cultural heritage, it's also a way to make a living for the community members
• You don't cut down trees to grow ayahuasca, you grow ayahuasca among the trees, so it's protecting the jungle
• In recent years there has been more information and collective awareness to ask the hard questions, Bia Labate has been on the forefront of this, asking the indigenous leaders the important questions of how to keep Ayahuasca tourism sustainable, beneficial and protected

• They just completed a fundraiser for the Amazon
  • They have been collaborating with Amazon Watch, and they raised over $10,000
  • They are working to plant new Ayahuasca, not to harvest but just to put back into the jungle

• Melissa suggest listeners to watch Reconnect, a movie about a man’s journey to Soltara

Soltara Website

After taking a leap of faith in September 2015 to step out of Corporate America and into the Amazon jungle, Melissa has since used her background in engineering, science, and management to help advance the plant medicine and psychedelic movements – first by helping run a top-rated ayahuasca center in Peru as Operations Manager, and then as Director of Business Development – and now as Founding Partner and COO for Soltara. She is passionate about using her technical, managerial, and problem-solving skills to help bridge the gap between the Western world and the incredible healing potential of plant medicines and holistic health. Melissa is honored to be a part of this project and working with such a high-quality team that understands the importance and sacredness of this work. Her ethos is one of authenticity, professionalism, respect for tradition, transparency, and high-quality service. These mutual tenets are the team’s vision for Soltara as a whole, and she is grateful to take part in creating a space that is a strong conduit for healing, sustainability, and knowledge, empowering each guest to become global beacons for positive change.

Daniel Cleland is the Founding Partner/Chairman and CEO of Soltara Healing Center. He is an international entrepreneur, traveller, and author of the book, Pulse of the Jungle: Ayahuasca, Adventures and Social Enterprise in the Amazon. Originating in Walkerton, Ontario, he has spent over a decade globe-trotting and hosting group tours all over Latin America and in the deepest parts of the Amazon to work with traditional indigenous medicine practices. After completing his Master’s of Intercultural and International Communication, Daniel founded the company Pulse Tours, a company operating in Peru which became one of the highest rated shamanic retreat centers in the world before he sold it completely in 2017. He believes in supporting sustainability initiatives around the world, such as a free solar power installation that he spearheaded for an entire village in the Amazon in 2017, and the work being done by Amazon Rainforest Conservancy, a Canadian NGO wherein Daniel sits as a member of the advisory board.

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In today’s Solidarity Fridays Episode with Kyle and Joe, they talk about the Shadow Panel, embracing the weird in psychedelia, what is real, re-examining ‘normal’, and more.

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• Topics in the Panel include
  • Ayahuasca retreat centers
  • Maximization culture to use psychedelics for optimization
  • Ketamine therapy and shadow as aspects of character
  • The collective shadow and astrology
  • and much more!

• Joe and Erik just had a call and they talked about his book High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies (The MIT Press)
  • It is a study of the spiritual provocations to be found in the work of Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Robert Anton Wilson
  • It's a really nice survey of the weird
  • “Are you acknowledging what you're getting by believing something is true? It's a part of your analysis”
• Joe says if you're into the weird stuff in psychedelics, this book is for you. If you are only into the clinical stuff, then this is good for you.
  • Kyle says sometimes we don't give enough credit to the weirdness in the psychedelic space
• Corporadelic is a means of spiritual bypassing
• The weirdness is core to what the psychedelic experience is

• Psyche means more than just mind
  • When its mind, body, spirit, breath, it seems more accurate
• It is worth reading Alfred Whitehead and James Fadiman, Philosophy is important
• We are trying to understand and have helpful language around the psychedelic experience
  • “There are no whole truths, there are only half truths”
• Kyle said that at the core of our being, how do we know what is true and real?
  • At the fundamental truth of what real is, Kyle says that sitting in the CAT scan machine and being on the brink of death, that's the only place where truth sits for him

• Saturday and Sunday April 25th and 26th
• Receive a discount here
• This is a psychedelic conference that turned virtual due to COVID-19

• Breathwork, retreat centers, etc are at an undetermined standstill because we don't know how this is going to plan out
• The Navigating Psychedelics Today Online class has students learn the information first and then come together to talk about it
• There are so many means of transmission
  • Kyle mentions he read something about COVID being transmitted on the soles of shoes
• We will probably need additional shelter in place measures all the way until 2022
• We are almost hitting 9/11 death toll numbers on a daily basis

• Do we want to go back to the way things were? Or do we want to take this weird/uncertain time and do something with it?
• The worst of climate change is only a mere 20 years out
• It's easy to have emotional heartbreak when ecological destruction happens
  • Eco-psychology is a huge field

• Australians crippled by anxiety from the coronavirus crisis 'should be treated with MDMA and magic mushrooms', charity claims

• Navigating Psychedelics for Clinicians and Therapists, May co-hort is SOLD OUT The wait list for the next co-hort can be found here 

Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

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In this episode, Joe interviews Michelle Janikian, Author of Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion. In the show, they talk about Michelle’s book, the need to speak about the unspoken, and how psychedelic experiences differ for everyone.

1. Michelle Janikian is Author of the book, Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, an easy-to-use guide to understanding magic mushrooms, from tips and trips to microdosing and psychedelic therapy.
2. Psychedelics can help people, but they don't solve all problems. Doing the homework after an experience is so important.

3. The psychedelic subculture has a lot of repressed stuff going on like sexual abuse. We need to speak about the things that aren't necessarily good for the movement, we need to talk about all of it. 

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• Michelle was originally a cannabis journalist
  • Then she was a staff writer for Herb
• She then started writing her own book, Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion
  • So much has been happening with mushrooms lately, and Michelle thought we really needed a resource on how to use mushrooms safely
• Ulysses Press did a few Cannabis books
  • Michelle was approached by them, they wanted to do a mushroom guide
• She first took mushrooms when she was 17
  • She took them for fun, but had so many deep and meaningful experiences too
• Michelle believes there are multiple right ways to use psilocybin, either therapeutically, ceremonially, recreationally, etc.
  • "As long as you're being safe with your surroundings, and with yourself, anyway is the right way (except for the fact that they are still illegal)" - Michelle
• In places where mushrooms are decriminalized, she mentions it totally changes your comfort level and experience when you're not so afraid to have them on you

• Michelle just volunteered as a trip sitter at a week long women's retreat in Mexico at  Luz Eterna Retreats
• She says she doesn't have all the answers, but the group environment can be really great for some, and not good at all for others
• She suggests, “do what feels right for you”

• There isn't one ideal form of administration across all drugs
• Joe says one route of administration may be good for one person, and not for another
• You can powder the mushrooms and put them into capsules, put them on food, eat them plain, make a tea out of them, etc
  • Michelle says she has a great recipe in her book for mushroom tea to prevent nausea

• Michelle felt a calling to write the book because she says many other books and publications were coming out, and she didn't want some people to feel upset when psychedelics didn't just ‘heal them’
• She says psychedelics help her, but they don't solve all of her problems
  • Doing the homework after an experience is so important

• She says she feels uninspired to write about the ‘black and white’, the same old, stereotypical narrative
  • She wants to write about the grey, the unexpected, the in-between
• Michelle asks how do we talk about the things that aren't right for the movement? Like the sexual abuse that happens in this space
• This psychedelic subculture has a lot of repressed stuff going on, and how do we talk about it?
• We need to keep learning in this field to keep improving, it is dense and detailed
• Michelle leaves us with a final thought, “read more books written by women!”

Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion: An Informative, Easy-to-Use Guide to Understanding Magic Mushrooms―From Tips and Trips to Microdosing and Psychedelic Therapy

Website

Michelle Janikian is the author of Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, the down-to-earth guide that details how to use magic mushrooms “like an adult.” As a journalist, she got her start writing about cannabis for publications like High Times, Rolling Stone and Herb. Now, she writes a column for Playboy on all things drug related and also contributes regularly to DoubleBlind Mag, MERRY JANE, Psychedelic’s Today and others. She’s passionate about the healing potential of psychedelic plants and substances, especially psilocybin and cannabis, and the legalization and de- stigmatization of all drugs. Michelle studied writing and psychology at Sarah Lawrence College before traveling extensively in Latin America and eventually settling down in southern Mexico. Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, Michelle ventures back to the States a few times a year to give talks and workshops on safe mushroom use and other cannabis and psychedelic related topics. 

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In today’s Solidarity Friday’s episode with Kyle and Joe, they cover current events on psychedelics for treatment of COVID-19 trauma, an article on single dose psilocybin effects, psychedelic investments, self care and more.

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• It was a small study of only 12 people
• The article states, the researchers found that self-reported emotional distress was reduced one week after psilocybin administration, but returned to baseline levels at one month after psilocybin administration

• There were a few doctors and people that didn't understand the value of psychedelics being used as psychiatric tools
• Kyle thinks especially of all of the first-responders that are working non stop, without a break, for weeks on end, witnessing tons of people dying daily, and then trying to come back and process this
  • The mental health, long term of these people is going to be so impacted
• Then we have to think about the people that can't come together for a funeral after they lose someone
• This pandemic is going to be traumatizing for people
  • Joe says this looks like a global ego death, all of the systems that we have had before are not adequate
• The Spanish flu of 1918 was only a few years away from the Great Depression
• We know that traumas influence health and behaviors, but we have tools and technologies to get ahead of this, from an epigenetic standpoint

• Kyle and Joe talk for a while about psychedelics and money and research and funding
  • It's a tricky thing, because we want there to be funding to make this accessible, but we want people to invest with integrity and to not start a monopoly on the funding
• Joe says we (as a company) have been approached by investors, but we have been hesitant to stay with our vision, keep our integrity and stay on track with our mission

• Kyle says stay in the present moment, limit news consumption (watch it maybe once a day to know what's going on, but then put the phone down and not drown in it)
• It's helpful to develop more of a spiritual practice in this time (yoga, meditation)
• Self care is going to look different for everybody
  • Joe says ‘Maslow it’, get good sleep, drink good water, satisfy basic needs, those are first step during this time
  • Kyle says that he uses movement, somatic work, breathing into places in the body that are tense, etc
• Kyle says that those who are doing a lot of online work, take time to move and stretch
  • This is a time to do a lot of work we have put off, but at the same time, its okay to give our bodies a break, take time to rest, get outside, find movement, etc
  • It's important not to take on too much or do too many things

Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Get a 30 day free audible trial at audibletrial.com/psychedelicstoday