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The Shaman Mystique AyahuascaSociety

The Shaman Mystique

The shaman mystique runs deep in the Amazon, imported by innocent, sometimes gullible visitors seeking an ayahuasca experience with the ultimate ideal(-ised) maestro. Google searches and Reddit posts abound for "How to find a real shaman/the right shaman/a genuine shaman." The belief is, find the perfect medicine man who will see into your soul and fix you. The reality is more complex. Here we dive into the archetypal roots of shamanism, gaps between indigenous practices and Western assumptions, and what…
Jun 21, 2024
Why Integration Is Not a Should AyahuascaIntegrationSociety

Why Integration Is Not a Should

Very occasionally an integration session feels faintly out of alignment to me. It seems like the person I'm working with is doing it from a sense of duty, rather than a genuine desire to deepen into their own experience—as if they’re not quite sure what integration is, but they’ve heard it’s important, so they’re checking it off the post-ceremony to-do list. Sometimes we can explore together to tap into a genuine desire to grow; and then we’re integrating.
Feb 25, 2023
WTF, Ayahuasca?! AyahuascaEmotionsIntegrationPersonal ExperienceSociety

WTF, Ayahuasca?!

Often, too often nowadays, people expect ayahuasca to be some sort of magical potion, instantly reformatting them into a completely healed state. When this doesn't happen, they feel resentful, even betrayed: "I did the work, I showed up—why did it do this to me?" This can easily segue into the very common plaint of individuals wrestling with unrecognized trauma: "What's wrong with me?" I'm seeing this kind of reaction more and more lately, due in part to the rapidly spreading…
Dec 29, 2022
#Thank You Plant Medicine AyahuascaSociety

#Thank You Plant Medicine

I recently had the opportunity to ask Rick Doblin, the founder of MAPS, what we could do to accelerate the legalization of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for trauma. What could we do, that is, besides pray, and visualize—“and donate,” muttered the guy sitting behind me. “Share your experiences,” is what Rick said. “Make it public.” So many people have benefited from psychedelic use, he went on, and yet there’s still a stigma around speaking publicly about it. Broad-based popular support is what…
Feb 19, 2020
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Planetary Therapist AyahuascaNewsSociety

Planetary Therapist

Watching bumblebees plunder the garden's snapdragons, I think of how the magic web of life is unraveling. It’s coming, and it’s here, environmental collapse on a systemic and unfathomably vast scale. This past year has seen a grim torrent of information about the seemingly inexorable damage we’re doing to the earth. The picture coming into focus is bleak indeed: Insect communities collapsing around the world. Oceans warming 40% faster than previously thought. Ice loss in Antarctica proceeding at a terrifying…
Jan 11, 2020
We’re Not Made to Heal Alone IntegrationPersonal ExperienceShadowSociety

We’re Not Made to Heal Alone

We humans need other humans—to call us on our stuff, to name our shadow. To see ourselves as we cannot. To initiate us into new paths and practices. And to support us through the rough ride that ayahuasca can bring, the retriggered trauma and angst-y feelings that can arise. Let’s take shadow work first. By shadow I mean all the forgotten, repressed, unseen and un-integrated psychic material we’ve left behind in the process of growing up. Very often we need…
Jul 13, 2019
How Dieta Rewires Your Being DietaPersonal ExperienceSocietyTeacher Plants

How Dieta Rewires Your Being

During my last half-dozen or so plant dietas, I’ve been experiencing a phenomenon I call ‘unfolding.’ It has something to do with the way my normal life, much of which is spent staring at a laptop screen, flattens my perception, collapsing my sense of dimensionality. Technically speaking, you might say I suffer from an overemphasis on the mono-focus of the left brain, at the expense of the holistic vision of the right. What’s interesting is how I find dieta to…
Apr 29, 2019
Owning The Dark Side AyahuascaSocietythe Dark Side

Owning The Dark Side

I am not a fearmonger saying that ayahuasca is something dangerous to be avoided. Whether you as an individual should work with it, or not, I can't say. I believe that ayahuasca has tremendous value as a transformational agent, for both individuals and the collective. As a therapist working with integration, I witness firsthand the tremendous change ayahuasca can trigger in individuals. Along with other psychedelic medicines, I believe it offers a great deal of what we desperately need to…
Feb 27, 2019
Synchronicity: Magic, and Shadow AyahuascaDepth PsychologyIntegrationSociety

Synchronicity: Magic, and Shadow

You think of a long-lost friend, and she gets in touch with you that very night. Glancing at the clock over the course of a few days, you continually get repeating numbers—11:11, 5:55, 2:22. You take a seat in a coffee shop, and the conversation at the next table oddly, unbelievably, but precisely parallels your line of thought. All these are examples of synchronicity, a term coined by Carl Jung a century ago to describe the coincidence of outer and…
Jul 6, 2018
Tourist or Pilgrim? Approaching Ayahuasca AyahuascaPreparationSocietySpirituality

Tourist or Pilgrim? Approaching Ayahuasca

Delphi. Eleusis. Kailas. Mecca. From ancient times, people have traveled to sacred places to be initiated into the mysteries. Power places like these connect humans with the Divine, bringing the earthly plane into alignment with higher worlds. Now the initiatory substance is coming to us. In living rooms across North America and Europe, people are gathering for ayahuasca ceremonies. Underground, yes, as ayahuasca is illegal in most places. But this doesn’t stop the surge in interest, nor the need. You…
Feb 17, 2018