Primal Movers Podcast

"We need to find a way to hold on to the beauty and magic and wonder of these substances but we have to find a language and a mechanism to make them accessible because it´s the current situation that´s exclusive and inaccessible. It´s what I´m doing. Medicalizing is increasing accessibility and inclusivity, not reducing it."

Dr Ben Sessa (MBBS BSc MRCPsych) is a consultant psychiatrist based in the UK and one of the world´s leading psychedelic drug researchers. Sessa specialises in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with a special interest in the developmental aspects of trauma in children and how this contributes to adult mental disorder and especially substance dependence. Using this experience of  child psychopathology, he carries out assessments for the family law courts and provides psychiatric care to teenagers and adults with post-trauma symptoms.

Dr Sessa is currently a senior research fellow at Bristol, Cardiff and Imperial College London Universities, where he is conducting the UK’s first clinical studies with MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD and alcohol dependence syndrome. In the last ten years he has worked on several UK-based human pharmacology trials as study doctor or as a healthy subject administering and receiving test doses of LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine. He is the author of several dozen peer-reviewed articles in the mainstream medical press and has written two books exploring psychedelic medicine; The Psychedelic Renaissance (2012) and To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic (2015).

Dr Sessa is an outspoken lobbyist for drug reform in the UK, advocating for a more progressive policy of regulation that would reduce the harms of recreational drug use and provide increased opportunities for clinical psychedelic research. He is also co-founder and director of the Breaking Convention conference.

This was an eye-opening conversation that got me thinking about the notion of inclusivity/exclusivity of psychedelic medicines and the way we can use language to assess the risk/reward factors of drug use, research and therapeutic interventions in modern society. Ben is a tremendously impassioned voice in this renaissance and a true pioneer in the way those struggling most may find assistance with psychedelic therapy.

Thanks for listening and please share this and other episodes with your friends. Feel free to get in touch via email if you´d like to share your thoughts and experiences too!

Follow Dr Sessa: https://twitter.com/bensessa?lang=en
Ben´s website: http://www.drsessa.com/
Current research, clinics & training: AWAKN Life Sciences Inc
Intro music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
Outro music: Roof: So So - Epidemic Sound

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes

"You do have a big responsibility (as a trainer) because you're a container - and you have to wash your own container first"

Brandon Chien is a coach looking to find meaning and build resilience in life through an open, fluid and inquisitive set of physical, mental and spiritual practices. In this wide-ranging conversation, we speak about some of his experiences as a trainer, athlete, mentor and explorer of consciousness. Strength and endurance are often concepts that become easily compartmentalized in the health and fitness world, but guys like Brandon seek to bridge the gaps between internalized practices and the experiences we all have as humans interacting with the world. When these experiences are freely shared, we may all benefit.

Whether you´re a coach, athlete or just someone interested in personal exploration and wellbeing, I reckon you'll enjoy this chat and have a chance to reflect upon the identities we bring to our practices and how malleable they actually are. We can be strong in so many ways and physicality is such a great lens through which we can enter the gates of deeper self-awareness, maturity, humility and compassion. 

Thanks for listening and please share this and other episodes with your friends. Feel free to get in touch via email if you´d like to share your experiences too!

Follow Brandon: https://www.instagram.com/brandon_chien/?hl=en
Intro music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
Outro music: Roof: So So - Epidemic Sound

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6U50aWNy1GikYV0NLm6nBA

Support this podcast with some PayPal energy:
https://www.paypal.me/TomMountjoy

"Once you have time and space for yourself, you can offer that out to someone else"

Daniel Lucchini is a curious guy. Recently, he ran for 24hrs (for this charity - donate here!) to see how his body and mind would respond. He looks to experience for lessons, and follows the sensations that emerge. In this conversation, Dan talks about his run, his eating, his meditation and his outlook on life as a chance to learn and spread joy. 

As a successful strength & conditioning coach based in Sydney, Australia, Dan is the epitome of a guy who walks the walk (or runs, more appropriately!) and offers guidance in a range of mindful-based practices that naturally emerge from physical training. Experience, as Dan reminds us,  breeds more room for experience.

DJ & I met Dan at Joshua Tree during the 2019 Emptiness Project. We were impressed with his willingness to explore the deeper nature of an awareness practice that ultimately, is what brings people like us together. To follow his practice this past year has been intriguing and I encourage you to give him a follow on IG for his unique insights into human experience.

Thanks for listening and please share this and other episodes with your friends! 

Follow Dan: https://www.instagram.com/meraki_performance/?hl=en
Intro music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
Outro music: Luwaks: Below Horizon - Epidemic Sound
DJs Podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/...

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6U50aWNy1GikYV0NLm6nBA

Support this podcast with some PayPal energy:
https://www.paypal.me/TomMountjoy

Psychologist Rachel Harris, PhD is the author of Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD and Anxiety. She was in private practice for thirty-five years working with people interested in psychospiritual development. During a decade working in research, Rachel received a National Institutes of Health New Investigator’s Award and published more than forty scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals. She has also consulted to Fortune 500 companies and the United Nations.

Rachel was in the 1968 Esalen Residential Program, Big Sur, CA. This intensive six-month program focused on meditation and body work. In the early seventies, Rachel studied with Dorothy Nolte in the movement system, Structural Awareness, based on Dr. Ida Rolf’s Structural Integration (Rolfing). Rachel also co-edited the Journal of the American Dance Therapy Association for three years. Awareness of how people live and move in their bodies has always been an aspect of Rachel’s approach to psychotherapy.

During the mid-eighties into the early aughts, Rachel led workshops at Omega Institute, NY and Esalen Institute, CA. She wrote Twenty Minute Retreats: Revive Your Spirit in Just Minutes a Day with Simple, Self-Led Practices (NY: Holt, 2000). This book describes many of the psychological, meditative and body awareness exercises she taught in her workshops.

In 2005 Rachel traveled to a retreat center in Costa Rica and serendipitously found herself with the opportunity to drink ayahuasca with Ecuadorian shamans. The morning after her first ceremony, Rachel began asking questions about the therapeutic potential of this medicine. She conducted a three-year research project with Lee Gurel, PhD that resulted in “A Study of Ayahuasca Use in North America,” published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (Summer, 2012).

In this podcast, Rachel shares some of her earliest stories from Esalen, her approach to somatic practice and psychotherapy, and of course, her research and experience with Ayahuasca. What a lovely lady and how much DJ & I enjoyed this conversation! 

Publications: Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD and Anxiety
Intro music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
Outro music: Luwaks: Below Horizon - Epidemic Sound
DJs Podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/...

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6U50aWNy1GikYV0NLm6nBA

Support this podcast with some PayPal energy:
https://www.paypal.me/TomMountjoy

Dr David Luke is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Department of Psychology and Counselling, University of Greenwich, London. 

Luke is currently module leader of the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience, which has been running since 2009, and also teaches on the Introduction to Psychology, and Criminology and Forensic Psychology modules. He is currently Honorary Senior Lecturer, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, and is a lecturer on the MSc Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology course where he leads and teaches a module on Psychedelics and Entheogens.

David's particular interest is in transpersonal experiences, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, having published over 100 academic papers, including ten books, in this field, making him one of the world´s leading researchers in this specialist area. Luke is also director of Breaking Convention, one of the world´s largest multidisciplinary conferences on psychedelic consciousness.

In this episode we spoke about the phenomenology of transpersonal non-ordinary experience, shamanism, the DMT state, psychedelic archetypes, pre-cognition experiments, dreams and more... such a fascinating chat that flew by... certainly keen on having a follow-up chat with David and hear some more of his unique insights into altered states of consciousness.

Luke´s most recent books Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience and DMT Dialogues: Encounters with the Spirit Molecule weave personal experience and scientific research into fascinating explorations of chemically mediated extra ordinary human experiences.

Publications: https://www.gre.ac.uk/people/rep/faculty-of-education-and-health/dr-david-luke

Music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
DJs Podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/...

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6U50aWNy1GikYV0NLm6nBA

Support this podcast with some PayPal energy:
https://www.paypal.me/TomMountjoy

Dr. Kate Pate is a neurophysiologist and combat trauma medical researcher based in Colorado. Her research career began over 13 years ago, borne out of a fascination with the brain, but specifically the brain-body-breath connection. In addition to the neural control of breathing, Kate has conducted research in the fields of neurotrauma, arthritis, cancer and radiation biology, human performance, mental health, and military (combat trauma) medicine. Work aside, Kate comes from a military family and has always been passionate about finding ways to help military service members and veterans. This passion, coupled with her interest in plant-based medicines and her journey to find ways to heal from her own traumas, led her to the Heroic Hearts Project. She immediately knew she wanted to be involved in the organization and help further the mission in any way she could. Kate joined HHP as the Director of Research in early 2019 and has been working closely with the team to secure research funding and design rigorous scientific studies focused on investigating the ways in which Ayahuasca can benefit veterans suffering from PTSD. Kate is also a yoga teacher and mountain sport lover with a fascination for the human body and the multitude of ways in which we may learn more about our human nature via the body/mind connection.

DJ & I are focussed on using a wide-range of tools to experiment with, and experience human consciousness, physical potential and psychosocial expression. We speak with a wide-range of scientists, practitioners, explorers, therapists and interesting people with authentic stories to tell. Our aim is to keep conversations real, relaxed, probing and imaginative. We all have experiences to share and if our discussions help you to ask better questions and reflect upon life´s great mysteries, we´d love to hear from you!

Hope you take time to enjoy this conversation with Kate! Remember to take some slow and deep breaths throughout and if you want to watch the video, head over to my YouTube channel to watch the conversation and others from the series.

Website: https://www.heroicheartsproject.org/team
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doc.pate/?hl=nb

Here´s a few of books/authors highly recommended for further research into trauma and our bodies:
Peter Levine - Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IYE5XO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
Bessel van der Kolk - The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind & Body in the Healing of Trauma https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748
Gabor Mate - When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection https://www.amazon.com/When-Body-Says-Understanding-Stress-Disease/dp/0470923350/ref=sr_1_3?crid=8Z9M2EHLHQI9&dchild=1&keywords=gabor+mate&qid=1600800296&sprefix=gabor%2Caps%2C259&sr=8-3

Music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
DJs Podcast:

Mike Jay is an English author and cultural historian whose subjects include science, medicine, drugs, madness, literature and radical politics. The author of Artificial Paradises, Emperors of Dreams, The Atmosphere of Heaven, This Way Madness Lies and Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic, his critical writing on drugs has appeared in many publications, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The International Journal of Drug Policy. He sits on the editorial board of the addiction journal Drugs and Alcohol Today and on the board of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation.

We spoke to Mike about an array of topics relating to his unique interest in subject areas not often covered in such an in-depth manner. He speaks about the diversity of the roles that mind-altering drugs have played throughout history and across all cultures and the interrelated dialogues of science and religion, pleasure and madness, individualism, conspiracy, art and social control. The hour flew by and we hadn't even scratched the surface of the questions we had in mind! We will certainly be inviting Mike back on to listen to more of his stories and very nuanced research approach to issues that are often presented in a narrow and judgemental manner.

DJ & I are focussed on using a wide-range of tools to experiment with, and experience human consciousness, physical potential and psychosocial expression. We speak with a wide-range of scientists, practitioners, explorers, therapists and interesting people with authentic stories to tell. Our aim is to keep conversations real, relaxed, probing and imaginative. We all have experiences to share and if our discussions help you to ask better questions and reflect upon life´s great mysteries, we´d love to hear from you!

Hope you take time to enjoy this conversation with Mike and if you want to watch the video, head over to my YouTube channel to watch the conversation and others from the series. Oh, and please take the time to leave a review on whichever platform you listen and share the podcast so it can be heard by others. I´ll give a shout-out on an upcoming episode!

Website: https://mikejay.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikejaynet

Music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
DJs Podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/...

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6U50aWNy1GikYV0NLm6nBA

Support this podcast with some PayPal energy:
https://www.paypal.me/TomMountjoy

Andrew Serrano is a strength trainer and competitive powerlifter based in Long Beach, California. With a deep fascination for many aspects of human performance, his career has seen him work for supplement companies, athletic training facilities, private studios, big-box gyms, physical therapy clinics and of course, personal clients. All the while, Andrew is experimenting with ways to optimize his own personal health and performance, without getting confined to particular methodologies and theories.

When DJ and I heard of his deep explorations with the psilocybin mushroom, we had to have him on to share his experiences. His stories were certainly eye-opening to say the least! Andrew was frank and open about his very personal practice and some of the potentials he sees in these substances for helping certain people overcome trauma as well as delving into hidden elements of the psyche.

DJ & I are focussed on using a wide-range of tools to experiment with, and experience human consciousness, physical potential and psychosocial expression. We speak with a wide-range of scientists, practitioners, explorers, therapists and interesting people with authentic stories to tell. Our aim is to keep conversations real, relaxed, probing and imaginative. We all have experiences to share and if our discussions help you to ask better questions and reflect upon life´s great mysteries, we´d love to hear from you!

Hope you take time to enjoy this conversation! Remember to take some slow and deep breaths throughout and if you want to watch the video, head over to my YouTube channel to watch the conversation and others from the series.

Website: https://masterathletic.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serrano.fitness/

Music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
DJs Podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/...

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6U50aWNy1GikYV0NLm6nBA

Support this podcast with some PayPal energy:
https://www.paypal.me/TomMountjoy

Bjarte Hiley is a specialist at facilitating the transformation of people´s relationships to themselves and life through movement. He is the founder of Daomove, a method he developed to invite people into a deeper contact with their embodied experience, and let themselves be moved into bold action from that place.

What Is The Daomove Practice? It is a space where you can explore yourself and the completely unique expression that lives inside you. A space for exploring what happens in you as you connect with another person in the moment, not knowing where it will take you, or what will be created between you. A place where you have the possibility to open up parts of yourself that you may not have known existed.

DJ & I are focussed on using a wide-range of tools to experiment with, and experience human consciousness, physical potential and psychosocial expression. We speak with a wide-range of scientists, practitioners, explorers, therapists and interesting people with authentic stories to tell. Our aim is to keep conversations real, relaxed, probing and imaginative. Bjarte is certainly a unique guy. At a young age, he moved to China where he studied under Daoist kung fu master Zhong in the mountains of Wudang. Whilst this conversation doesn't go into detail of that experience, it does allow space for bodily experience to be presented through questions, reflections and stillness.

Hope you take time to enjoy this conversation! Remember to take some slow and deep breaths throughout and maybe head over to my YouTube channel to watch the conversation to gain a closer perspective on the presence in motion of someone who has certainly experienced internal practice on a deep level.

Website: https://daomove.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daomove/?hl=en

Music: https://www.akirathedon.com/
DJs Podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/...

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6U50aWNy1GikYV0NLm6nBA

Support this podcast with some PayPal energy:
https://www.paypal.me/TomMountjoy

If you´re into snowboarding and know some Volcom team riders, chances are the epic photographs you see on the magazines and posters are taken by Vernon Deck. Born in New Zealand and actually growing up pretty close to where I spent every summer, Vernon is a freelance outdoor action photographer who travels the world chasing the snow, and more recently, the waves, living aboard his 37ft yacht. I got to know of Vernon´s story via his fantastic Youtube channel "Sailing Learning By Doing". What drew me to his work was the authenticity he shares by living a life of adventure on his own terms and learning as he goes. A typical Kiwi "give it a go eh bro!" ethic. Between the scenes of epic underwater, still and drone videography, Vernon travels to remote areas of Melanesia and South East Asia on his boat documenting the everyday life of local populations few have witnessed on film before.

I was super keen to hear more about Vernon´s story, due in some way to the many parallels he shares with my own. We´re the same age, from the same place and left New Zealand at a similar time in the 90s in search of adventure. Apart from the fascinating tales, there´s so many great lessons from the conversation about allowing curiosity, experimentation, humility and an easy-go-lucky nature be the pathway to a life of freedom and joy. Of course we all have our own take on the great mystery called life, but I certainly resonate with people like Vernon who simply don´t wish to follow the standard rules and wait for the ideal circumstances to turn up before setting out on adventure and living your dreams.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Vernon who was actually aboard his yacht somewhere in a remote part of western Indonesia. And be sure to check out his awesome Youtube channel for some beautiful films and a very unique way to share his talents on this medium.

Please share this with those you reckon might find it interesting and as always, I´m happy to hear from you with any comments, ideas, experiences, questions etc.

Vernon´s website: https://www.vernondeck.com/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgF3P33zmbewXrksprcvFJA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vernondeck/?hl=en

Intro/Outro music: https://www.akirathedon.com/

Listen and support the Primal Movers Podcast on the usual platforms
https://www.buzzsprout.com/276060/

Primal Movers YouTube channel - Video episodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6U50aWNy1GikYV0NLm6nBA

Support this podcast with some PayPal energy:
https://www.paypal.me/TomMountjoy