One-Degree Shifts

Ifetayo Harvey was four when her father was arrested. He had come to the US from Jamaica as a migrant worker and spent about a decade on the run, and she was born in that decade. He served roughly half of a fifteen-year sentence and was deported in 2004. She grew up with the anxiety and shame that came with it, and with nobody her age to talk to.

At 21 she started telling that story in public. She interned at the Drug Policy Alliance, wrote about what it means to grow up with a parent in prison, and kept going. She now runs the People of Color Psychedelic Collective, and the question she keeps asking is who all of this is being built for.

We start with how the drug war began. Early 1900s laws aimed at immigrant communities, then the DEA and the Controlled Substances Act under Nixon, and the quote Ifetayo cites from one of his own advisors about why it was really started. From there we come to this year. The April executive order put ibogaine in the spotlight, and her first reaction was surprise, then worry for the people of Gabon whose sacred medicine it is. She also talks about who shows up in psychedelic trials, which she says are roughly 90 percent white, and why that leaves so much unknown about everyone else.

Then the phrase that gave this episode its name. We're integrating these medicines into a burning house, she says, a healthcare system with a long history of discriminating against people who use drugs. We talk about who gets left out of the legal wave, from people who don't trust doctors to people with records who took the risk when this was underground. We also get into repair as something specific: releasing aging prisoners, expungement, home grow, and a view on reciprocity that may surprise you.

We close on what's being built. Portugal and the Czech Republic after twenty years of decriminalization. A monthly circle of grassroots leaders sharing skills. And two things anyone can do this year, which are to find what's already happening in your community and help out, and to bring these conversations to the dinner table.

Adam Aranovich is a medical anthropologist and the curator of Healing From Healing, the crowdsourced Instagram account that catalogs healing culture as it performs itself online. He spent years working at the Temple of the Way of Light in the Peruvian Amazon.

We talk about why humor lands where critique bounces off, and how a joke can keep a powerful experience from hardening into certainty. We meet Janice, the account's mascot, who is both the person fake crying on camera and the person laughing from the other side of the screen. We follow the pipeline from wellness into conspiracism, and land on what Adam's research actually found: it was never really the ayahuasca. It was the circle.

We close on hope as a daily practice and what Adam wants to build next.

Daniel Miceli grew up watching addiction and systemic harm move differently through different parts of his own family, depending on how dark someone's skin was. That early awareness followed him into the Amazon at twenty one, into years of ayahuasca and bufo ceremonies, and eventually into the work he does now, helping people feel the difference between healing themselves and healing the systems they live inside of.

This conversation moves through some hard territory.

Daniel talks about watching Western facilitators drift toward far right politics while insisting their spaces are apolitical. He talks about anger as something the psychedelic world tends to push aside, and why he thinks that instinct causes harm, especially for people whose grief has real political roots. He talks about extraction, not just of plants and medicines, but of attention, labor, and land, and what it might look like to build psychedelic spaces that don't quietly repeat the same patterns they're meant to help people heal from.

What stays with you isn't the critique though. It's the hope underneath it. Daniel believes the discomfort so many people feel right now is part of something waking up, not something falling apart. He talks about his son, about bearing witness without bypassing, and about why he still believes, after fourteen years in this work, that a better world is possible even if he doesn't live to see all of it.

 This episode asks a little more of you than some of our other episodes do. It moves through addiction, grief, violence, and some of the harder history underneath this work. If you feel comfortable, I invite you to lean into it. There's something at the other end of it worth reaching.

What if the most important part of a journey is everything you do before it begins? Pascal sits down with Dr. Sujatha Kekada, an Ayurvedic physician and co-founder of AmrtaSiddhi Ayurvedic Center in Bali, who has spent more than twenty years helping people prepare their bodies and minds for powerful experiences. Most of us get handed a list of things to cut out before a journey. No alcohol, no red meat, no caffeine.

Dr. Sujatha spends this conversation on what to tend to instead. We move through the doshas, through agni, the fire that digests food and experience alike, through ojas, the reserve we either build or burn, and through ama, the residue that collects when we don't digest what we take in. She keeps returning to one image. You can't dye a dirty cloth and expect a clean color. The medicine fills whatever vessel you bring it.

Whether you're preparing for a ceremony, sitting with the residue of one, or just curious how an older tradition thinks about all this, this conversation offers a slower, more embodied way in.

What does it actually mean to make sense of something that broke you open?

In this episode, Pascal sits down with Guy Simon, a psychotherapist, trauma researcher, and PhD candidate at Bar-Ilan University, to explore what actually happens when people try to make meaning after a challenging psychedelic experience.

Drawing on 48 in-depth interviews with people who had difficult experiences outside clinical settings, Guy shares a map of five distinct patterns of meaning-making, and the specific conditions under which those patterns help, and when they don't.

This is one of the most honest and grounded conversations we've had on the show about what integration actually looks like, and what can go wrong when the story you come out with isn't really yours.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction
02:49 About the research
11:16 Having your own internal framework for meaning making
16:21 Patterns 1-2: "The Mind Goes Looking" - Somatic Discovery and Embodied Re-Experiencing
29:37 Pattern 3: "The Experience as Instruction"
40:32 Pattern 4: "The Recursive Healing Project"
49:55 Pattern 5: "When the Framework Fails"
01:03:23 When a facilitator is going beyond holding space and imposing a framework on you
01:07:55 Pattern 6: "The Pressure to Have a Good Story" 01:14:57 Fetishizing the psychedelic insight, undervaluing the mundane
01:23:16 Advice for someone carrying a story that isn't yours into integration
01:27:05 Advice for someone preparing for a journey

WHAT WE COVER

• The five patterns of meaning-making after a challenging psychedelic experience
• The difference between finding a framework and being handed one
• Somatic discovery and embodied re-experiencing: when the body becomes the text
• What happens when something comes up in a session that you can't verify
• The only way out is through: when it helps and when it causes harm
• The recursive healing project and when more medicine isn't the answer
• The social pressure of integration circles and the cost of sharing too soon
• Why the best facilitators act like carpets
• Why not knowing is itself a form of knowing
• After the ecstasy, the laundry: finding meaning in ordinary life

NOTABLE QUOTES

• "Not knowing is knowing."
• "You are not a Gabor Maté book. You are very unique and very fragmented and not clear to yourself, and that's okay."
• "The only way out is through is a framework that can do much more damage than it can support."
• "The best facilitator should be the best carpet they can be. It's not about you."
• "Psychedelics are not silver bullets. They act as a compass. You still need the car." "You don't need to fight the dragon. There is no dragon."

ABOUT GUY SIMON

Guy Simon is a psychotherapist, trauma researcher, and PhD candidate at Bar-Ilan University, based in Amsterdam. His work focuses on how people make meaning after difficult psychedelic experiences outside clinical settings. He is clinical director of Impulse, an integrative mental health center, and a collaborator with the Challenging Psychedelic Experience Project.
🌐 guysimon.com

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Guy Simon: guysimon.com
• Challenging Psychedelic Experience Project
• Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score
• Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy the Laundry
• Adam Aronovich, Temple of the Way of Light
• Gabor Maté

How do we stay human and compassionate when the world feels like it's on fire?

In this episode, we sit down with Daan Keiman, a Nectara collaborator, Buddhist practitioner, psychedelic care giver, and someone deeply committed to holding both grief and joy in these turbulent times. Daan brings the wisdom of years of spiritual practice, the honesty of someone still learning, and the courage to face the most difficult questions without pretending to have all the answers.

Together, we explore the tension between spiritual truth and lived experience, between rage and compassion, between the desire to change the world and the acceptance of what we cannot control. Daan shares what Buddhism teaches about responding versus reacting, the fierce energy of anger and how to transform it, and what it means to practice love amid suffering...even when that practice asks everything of us.

Whether you're navigating grief, anger, confusion, or simply trying to stay present in an increasingly turbulent world, this conversation will meet you where you are and invite you deeper into the questions that matter most.

Come join us as we explore what it means to go against the stream with an open heart.

• Struggling to balance spiritual practice with activism and social engagement
• Navigating grief, anger, or despair about the state of the world
• Wondering how to stay compassionate without spiritually bypassing difficult emotions
• Curious about Buddhist perspectives on suffering, impermanence, and compassion
• Seeking to integrate psychedelic insights into meaningful action
• Trying to understand what it means to "live love" in times of injustice
• Exploring the relationship between personal healing and systemic change
• Looking for guidance on working with fierce emotions like anger and rage

• Finding joy amid suffering: Buddhist practice in turbulent times
• Responsibility vs. reactivity: creating space for compassionate response
• The tension between spiritual truth and lived human experience
• Working with anger as compassionate energy rather than spiritually bypassing it
• Going against the stream: individual practice and cultural resistance
• Acceptance and impermanence in the face of death and uncertainty
• The myth of individual problems: understanding systemic causes of suffering
• Integration as engagement with the world, not retreat from it
• Small acts of love as meaningful resistance
• Devotion to compassion while acknowledging our capacity for violence
• The role of community and relational practice in transformation
• Normalizing difficult emotions and violent impulses on the spiritual path

If you’ve spent any time working in the psychedelic space, you’ve likely felt the strain growing beneath the surface. Integration has become a buzzword, yet the actual skills needed to support people after deep experiences have not kept pace. New facilitators are entering the field every week. Training programs multiply. But practical foundations, ethical clarity, and real world competency are often missing.

Many practitioners find themselves navigating complex cases with little guidance. Personal experience gets mistaken for professional readiness. Some trainings offer inspiring ideas but lack depth. Others promise certification without preparing people for the realities of supporting someone through confusion, fear, overwhelm, or unfinished processes.

This gap affects everyone. It creates uncertainty for clients, frustration for practitioners, and a field full of well intentioned people who simply need better tools.

To help illuminate these challenges and the path forward, I’ve included a 30 minute talk in this email where you can hear Marc Aixalà speak directly about the state of integration work today. His reflections come from more than a decade of responding to over a thousand real integration cases through the ICEERS Support Center. It’s a rare chance to listen to someone who has actually been doing this work at scale.

This talk also introduces why the ICEERS Integration Training is so valuable. Unlike many programs on the market, this one is built entirely from practical experience. It gives facilitators and care providers real frameworks, scenario based tools, and a clear model for supporting both positive and challenging psychedelic experiences.

If you work with journeyers, or hope to, this program offers essential grounding in a field that urgently needs it.

What happens after the journey ends? Why do insights fade? Why does healing feel so hard to hold?

In this episode, we sit down with Marc Aixalà, founder of the ICEERS Support Center, clinician in psilocybin research, and someone who has walked beside more than a thousand people navigating the aftermath of psychedelic experiences. Marc brings the clarity of an engineer, the presence of a therapist, and the embodied wisdom of years spent holding space through vulnerability and transformation.

Together, we move past the buzzwords and into the lived terrain where expectations soften, insights meet resistance, and healing unfolds in its own quiet rhythm.

Marc shares what he's learned about inner challenges, the myths of integration, and the support that makes real change possible.

Whether you're a journeyer, facilitator, or simply walking the path of inner work, this conversation will help you understand better how to root your integration into daily life; where the real transformation happens.

Come join us as we step into the heart of integration.

Pascal sits down with Troy Valencia to explore the world of Iboga and the Bwiti tradition.

Troy shares his own journey of initiation and healing with Iboga, offering insights into how ancient practices and modern science can come together in respectful and effective ways. He emphasizes the importance of community, sustainability, and ethics in the use of this sacred plant medicine.

We also dive into the science of Iboga and Ibogaine, their therapeutic potential, and the risks and safety considerations that must be understood.

This is a conversation about healing as both a personal and collective process—where science, spirit, and community all play a role.

🌿 Who this is for

👉 Journeyers curious about Iboga as a healing path, and what makes it distinct from other medicines

👉 Seekers who want to engage responsibly with the Bwiti lineage and support ethical, sustainable practices

👉 Anyone interested in the intersection of traditional knowledge, conservation, and modern therapeutic science

✨ Key themes

• Iboga as a powerful plant medicine with deep cultural roots
• The Bwiti lineage: community, lineage, and spiritual growth
• Sustainability and conservation: protecting Iboga’s future
• Iboga vs. Ibogaine: whole plant and single alkaloid approaches
• The role of intention, safety, and preparation in the Iboga experience
• Integration and community as the foundation of lasting transformation
• Ethical sourcing and questions to ask providers before choosing to work with them

🗣️ Notable quotes

• “The only way to really understand what the Bwiti is, is to sit in ceremony yourself. Words can’t capture the beauty and depth—it’s a way of life, a collective heartbeat.”
• “Life doesn’t just happen to you—it happens for you, with you, and eventually as you. Iboga taught me that.”
• “Community isn’t optional—it’s the soil where healing takes root and blossoms.”
• “Iboga is the rainbow. Ibogaine is just the color red.”
• “The medicine is powerful, but it’s what you do with your life afterwards that matters most.”

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction to Iboga and the Bwiti Tradition

03:07 – Troy’s Journey and Connection to Iboga

06:08 – Understanding the Bwiti Tradition

08:47 – Living a Bwiti Life in the Modern World

11:52 – The Earthy Connection of Iboga

14:55 – Sustainability and Conservation of Iboga

17:47 – Finding Ethical Iboga Providers

20:35 – The Science Behind Iboga and Ibogaine

29:33 – Understanding Ibogaine and Its Medical Context

31:29 – Risks and Considerations for Iboga and Ibogaine

34:08 – Navigating the Experience: Control and Intention

36:39 – The Importance of Environment and Support

39:16 – The Healing Journey: More Than Just a Quick Fix

40:12 – Psycho-Spiritual Journeys: Deep Healing Through Iboga

48:16 – Empowerment and Community in Healing

51:19 – Preparing for an Iboga Retreat

55:01 – Integration: The Key to Lasting Change

58:31 – The Role of Community in Healing

Mee Ok shares her powerful personal story of healing from chronic illness through Ayahuasca and her deep relationships with Shipibo teachers in the Amazon. As a queer, transracial adoptee and survivor, her lens is uniquely attuned to the intersections of identity, power, and healing, and how those dynamics show up, often unconsciously, in psychedelic spaces.

Together, they unpack the uncomfortable but necessary themes of spiritual superiority, cultural appropriation, unconscious harm, and the ongoing impact of colonial mindsets—especially in Western facilitation of sacred plant medicines.

This episode is for:
- Facilitators and space-holders who are willing to reflect on how harm, even with good intentions, can still be present in healing spaces—and what humility, feedback, and reparations might look like in practice.

- Journeyers and medicine seekers who want to engage more responsibly with the traditions they benefit from, make conscious choices about who they sit with, and understand their role in the larger ecosystem of healing.

**THEMES**
- Shadows and light in sacred spaces
- Why Mee Ok believes Westerners should not be serving sacred plant medicines
- What “reparations and sacrifice” mean in a healing context
- Cultural and spiritual contamination vs. sacred exchange
- How feedback is an act of love and a pathway to integrity
- The danger of pedestal culture in spiritual work
- Indigenous sovereignty and supporting lineage-led healing
- Ways to be in right relationship with sacred traditions

This is a conversation about truth-telling, leaning into challenging topics, and healing as a relational, not personal, path. It’s about becoming the kind of people—and the kind of community—the medicine has been asking us to be all along.

**CONNECT**
Book a 1:1 session with Mee Ok: https://www.nectara.co/guides/mee-ok-icaro
Join Mee Ok's BIPOC circles on Nectara: https://www.nectara.co/membership
Explore her private offerings: https://www.HoldingCompassionate.space
Mee Ok's Substack: https://meeok.substack.com/