Psychedelic Divas

Mareesa Stertz, visionary filmmaker, storyteller, and co-founder of Lucid News and the Global Psychedelic Society, shares her transformative journey with psychedelics, which began at a young age in Las Vegas with many challenging, yet enlightening, experiences. Mareesa discusses the pivotal role psychedelics have played in healing her trauma, the importance of community and storytelling in fostering collective healing, and her upcoming projects, including a comprehensive online storytelling workshop and a large-scale art installation at Burning Man. Mareesa emphasizes the significance of realistic expectations for those seeking psychedelic-assisted healing and provides practical advice for individuals with trauma looking to explore these powerful substances. Finally, Mareesa shares insights into her deeply personal film project "Confessions of a Psychonaut" and the cultural importance of Lucid News.

You can learn more about Mareesa's projects at... YourStoryisEverything.com - Learn about Mareesa's storytelling programs

TheSphinxGate.com - Immersive Art ConfessionsofaPsychonaut.com - Documentary Project TheSeeingMachine.com - Film work GlobalPsychedelic.org - Community Building/Psychedelics

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Get your free Psychedelic Safety Guide Including What to Do If Things Go Wrong here: PsychedelicDivas.com

My dear friend, Alan Levin, interviewed me for his podcast Crossing the Boundary. I first met Alan in a Ralph Metzner circle, and we have been dear friends for decades now, sharing many, deep transformational moments together both on and off the mat. It was an honor to be featured on his podcast and to share tales of our time together with Ralph. Alan's connection with Ralph predates mine by many years, and it was fun to journey back in time together to reminisce about one of our most important teachers.

Here's what Alan wrote in the email he sent out promoting this podcast:

Carla and I were in ceremonial spaces together many times with the masterful guide, Ralph Metzner. Metzner's approach to psychedelic ceremonies included what he called "divinations," purposeful inner journeys for opening to divine guidance and healing. He would take us through mythic realms and lead us through spiritual practices, some of which aimed to heal wounded parts of ourselves and explore our relationship to the physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of male and female consciousness.

Through her work as an integration coach and through her podcast series, Psychedelic Divas, Carla supports people in the preparation and integration of psychedelic journeys. She is passing along the legacy of Metzner's wisdom teachings. Her emphasis, as the podcast name makes clear, is on the feminine. While ultimately, we all need to balance the male/female within, the long suppression of the feminine in humanity calls for us to highlight that aspect of our nature. We need an affirmative action focus of our attention on HER for our personal benefit, and for the much-needed transformation of the collective human consciousness.

Learn more about Alan's work here: www.CrossingTheBoundary.org

Watch more episodes of Alan's YouTube series

Listen to more episodes of Alan's podcast

Check out Alan's useful handbook: Preparation for a Sacred Psychedelic Journey

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In this episode, Danielle Nova, co-founder of Flow State and the Microdosing Facilitator Training, shares her personal story of overcoming a 15-year addiction with the help of psychedelics. She offers her thoughtful insights into addiction recovery as the founder of Psychedelic Recovery, the critical role microdosing can play in healing addictive patterns, and her deeply personal familial healing journey. We also discuss the Microdosing Facilitator Training, co-created by Danielle, which Carla joined as a participant. Our conversation touches on the broader implications and applications of microdosing, its potential for personal transformation, and the hurdles faced in promoting such educational content on social media platforms, which often ban discussions of psychedelics, even for harm reduction and educational purposes. Join us for an inspiring conversation on the future of addiction recovery and the power of microdosing.

Interested in the Microdosing Facilitator Training? Get $250 off by using the code DIVAMICRO at checkout!If you use this code to make your discounted purchase, we may earn an affiliate commission, for which we will be grateful!

Watch Danielle's Addiction Recovery Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRv19w7XU3o&t=332s

James Fadiman's Book: Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance https://www.microdosingbook.com

Learn more about Danielle https://flowstatenow.com https://www.instagram.com/connectwithd/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/connectwithd/

https://psychedelicsocietysf.org https://psychedelicrecovery.org https://www.facebook.com/connectwithd

Watch us on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@carladetchon

Connect with Psychedelic Divas Pick up your Psychedelic Safety Guide Including What to Do When Things Go Wrong https://psychedelicdivas.com/

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My guest for this episode of Psychedelic Divas is Valeria McCarroll, PhD, LMFT, a psychedelic educator, writer, and speaker who teaches courses on psychedelic humanities at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Having been in the field of psychedelics for over a decade, Valeria has developed and taught curriculum for the training of psychedelic guides as well as serving as a consultant in the synthesis of ethical codes and navigating rupture and repair processes.

Valeria and I first met at an underground psychedelic gathering in 2015, and that fortuitous meeting has grown into a long-term friendship involving many collaborative adventures. In this conversation, Valeria elaborates on her extensive background in psychedelic work, highlighting her experience in non-dual wisdom traditions, somatics, psychedelics, and social justice. We chat about the significance of intuition, the integration of spiritual practices with psychedelics, and the role of the divine feminine in modern psychedelic practices. We also touch on the obstacles faced by the psychedelic community, like the FDA's decision on MDMA and the challenges of harmonizing underground and above-ground practices. It includes insights on creating effective psychedelic containers and the importance of rebalancing masculine and feminine energies in healing practices.

You can learn more about Valeria and her work at ValeriaMcCarroll.com

You can also follow her on Instagram.

Learn more about Ralph Metzner's work at https://www.greenearthfound.org

Download our Psychedelic Safety Guide Including What to Do When Things Go Wrong at PsychedelicDivas.com

Did you know you could watch this episode on our YouTube Channel?

What's it like to trip in a MRI? That question would send most people running for the emergency exits, but not this week's guest Executive Coach, Author and Speaker, Amy Wong. Amy shares her experience as a participant in a cutting-edge psilocybin study led by renowned researcher Robin Carhart-Harris at UCSF's Neuroscape Neuroscience center.

Combining images and information from the MRI machine, an EEG cap, simultaneous feedback via a handheld device while in the MRI and detailed interview notes, the study aimed to capture real-time brain signatures alongside subjective experiences during psilocybin trips.

Follow along as Amy details each of her four distinct psylocibin journeys as the very first participant in this cutting-edge study. Her story is a testament to the potential of psychedelics in personal transformation and scientific exploration.

You can find more about Amy and her book at her website: AlwaysOnPurpose.com

Don't forget to download my Psychedelic Safety Guide Including What to Do When Things Go Wrong on our beautiful website: PsychedelicDivas.com

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I'm your host, Carla Detchon, and this episode is a little different in that it's a live talk I gave at Psychedelic First Friday, a monthly event hosted by the Santa Cruz Psychedelic Society, which is held at Green Magic Yoga. In this episode, I'm the one being interviewed by the lovely Dr. Jen Christian, who I originally met on the Clubhouse App.

Over the hour, Jen and I covered a lot of territory, and I shared some (hopefully) entertaining stories. We chatted about:

· My historical psychedelic perspective (historical as in dating back to the 80s LOL).

· My experiences with Ralph Metzner and his amazing, guided group experiences.

· All things Divine Feminine and why it's important to honor that energy.

· What worries me about the future of psychedelic medicine.

· How Jen and I both hold integration as the most important part of the journey, because it's the only way to make change real.

· My favorite medicine and so much more.

· Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychedelicdivas/

· Website: https://psychedelicdivas.com/

· Be sure to check out and support our hosts for this event: https://www.greenmagicyoga.com/

Advisory: There is a brief, non-graphic mention of sexual harm/assault contained in this podcast.

We are exploring the depths in this episode. You know, those parts that we're not supposed to talk about in polite society: sex, drugs, consciousness. Today's guest embodies them all. This episode features Britta Love, an advocate for sex workers' rights and the decriminalization of drugs and sex work. We begin our discussion with a deep dive into the divine feminine, reclaiming feminine power and breaking binaries.

The conversation delves into trauma, femininity, balancing masculine and feminine energies as well as a life-changing experience with Iboga. We also discuss the integration of conscious sexuality with psychedelic rituals, social justice and embodied consent. As a certified somatic sex educator through the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education, Britta has trained with the Betty Martin School of Consent and is a Certified Circlekeeper with the Planning Change Restorative Justice Certification Program.

Links

PsychedelicDivas.com

www.brittaloved.com

Power and Embodied Consent for Psychedelic Practitioners training and retreat October 2024 in NY

The Iboga Experience anthology where Britta shared their story

In this episode, we explore the role psychedelics, especially ketamine, can play in women's health from menstruation to menopause. Psychotherapist Melissa Whippo shares her history working with women both before and after birth to help them with anxiety, depression and other mood disorders. Melissa was behind the first study to determine whether ketamine was safe for lactating mothers.

We discuss how psychedelics might mitigate hormonal fluctuations during PMS and perimenopause, addressing issues such as feminine rage and how ketamine can often soften challenging mood swings. We take a dive into the more "real" side of motherhood and the difficulties mothers face including bonding difficulties and partner support, while also exploring the profound, often psychedelic, nature of the childbirth experience. Melissa shares personal accounts of ketamine and psychedelics significantly alleviating her depression, which she was shown had actually been her mother's depression that she took on at birth. She also credits psychedelics with fostering a more empathic mothering perspective and describes how she has shared her own medicine use with her teenagers.

We also balance these benefits with cautions about ketamine's potential darker aspects, including side effects and addictive qualities and emphasizing the importance of dosing and choosing a reputable provider and setting for treatment.

https://melissawhippo.com

https://www.devacollective.org

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/08/microdosing-mushrooms-anxiety-depression-moms/

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ketamine-injection-after-childbirth-reduces-postpartum-depression

https://www.kriyainstitute.com

In this episode, I dive into the recent developments in the psychedelic world, exploring the FDA advisory panel's surprising vote against the use of MDMA for treating PTSD. Join us as I unpack the implications of this decision and reflect on what it means for the future of psychedelic therapy.

To put it in context, I provide a little historical back story on how MDMA became a Schedule I drug. I then discuss the history of MAPS and their tireless work to bring MDMA back into the therapeutic world as a legal medicine.

I talk about the wisdom of the medicine, lessons on integrity, ethical standards, and the importance of accountability in psychedelic therapy. Finally, I explore the difference between intention and expectation in psychedelic experiences and how the medicine can often say no to us when we show up with an expectation instead of an open-minded intention.

Until next time, keep exploring and growing together!

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"PSYCHEDELIC SAFETY TIPS INCLUDING WHAT TO DO WHEN THINGS GO WRONG: https://psychedelicdivas.com/

What's a nice girl from the Midwest doing with an underground psychedelic guide? (Thanks for the inspiration, Michael Pollan!)

• The good, the bad and the transcendent—Sheri discusses her various journeys and the messages she received.
• Sheri and Carla discuss the various merits of snorting versus smoking 5-meO-DMT
• The power of integration. Sheri shares how she integrated the messages and visions from her journeys in order to uplevel her vibration—and her life!

Sheri Salata is a world-class producer and transformation guide who leads women around the globe in creating limitless lives. Sheri dove into the deep end of the personal growth pool when she landed a job at 35 with Oprah Winfrey as an entry-level promotions producer and ultimately rose to Executive Producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show and Co-President of Harpo Studios and OWN.

Her memoir, The Beautiful No: And Other Tales of Trial, Transcendence and Transformation, is a journey through failure, despair, disappointment and anxiety until she finally arrived at the life of her dreams, which she began to fully manifest at 56.

Today, Sheri lives in full service to the divine feminine. She has created two revolutionary membership communities. The first, The Support System, is for women who are passionate about expanding the possibilities for their lives. And to help women succeed in business, she co-created the Prosper Network.

As she says on her website, she's here to remind us that life is meant to be dazzling.

Thanks for the inspiration, Michael Pollan! Michael Pollan How to Change Your Mind

You can find all things Sheri at her website: sherisalata.com/