Jim Harris worked as a ski photographer and writer until he was paralyzed while snowkiting in Patagonia. It took over a week to reach definitive care in the States where five of his nine broken vertebrae were fused. “I feel lucky that the doctor never told me I’d never walk again,” says Harris, “There wasn’t much reason to think I would, and I might have believed him.” After his spine fusion he began to wiggle a toe. Within a few months, muscles in both legs began firing. In the years since that accident Harris has transitioned from wheelchair to walker to trike to mountain bike and continues to challenge the limitations of his disability. 

In this episode, Michaela Carlin and Jim Harris discuss …

• How Jim’s experience growing up awoke his love of adventure and nature connection
• The way nature teaches us about actions and consequences through immediate feedback
• The kite surfing accident that paralyzed Jim
• Jim’s experience at a music festival where he ate magic mushrooms and experienced an unexpected recovery of motor function
• Recognizing that psilocybin is not a magic bullet but that it may have the potential to help restore some neurological function for people with spinal cord injury
• Exercised based therapy in conjunction with psychedelic therapy as an approach that may yield more healing than either done alone
• How psychedelics have helped Jim learn to “zoom out” and recognize his default thinking and behaviors
• Are psychedelics vs. traditional meditation a shortcut to experiencing “interbeing”?
• Jim’s excitement about deepening his work as a psychedelic support person working with people with spinal cord injury
• Some of the unique physiological effects psychedelics can have on people with spinal cord injury
• Jim's current work as an artist specializing in woodcut prints
• Books that have had a huge impact on Jim’s transformational healing process
• Learning to access flow states in different ways depending upon our current capacities

Jim Harris’ Links 

• Website: https://www.gorgeousstorm.com/
• Instagram: https://perpetualweekend.com/
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/gorgeous_storm/
• Email: [email protected]

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - https://tinyurl.com/yemfj2ur
• Book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle- https://tinyurl.com/yr57ppyp
• High Fives Foundation - https://highfivesfoundation.org/ - the non-profit that helped Jim with his rehabilitation and works with injured athletes and disabled vets by providing grants and community building