We return to the world of Aurduin for this week's episode with the next chapter from the audiobook of The Alchemist and the Eagle, chapter 18, "Inner Motu." With this installment, Orobai travels with Kalzhat into the inner reaches of Motu territory where he hopes to gain audience with the matriarchs and share the harrowing details of his vision with them ... 

This week I'm happy to share with listeners my recent public talk from The White Lotus in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Sunday Jan 18th, 2026. Int his 2.5 hour long talk I cover a lot of ground around the topics of 5-MeO-DMT, nonduality, energetic processing, personal transformation, liberation, and why I consider working with 5-MeO-DMT a fundamental human right as a direct access point into the universal ground of being - something we all deserve to know and experience directly for ourselves without any intermediaries, belief systems, dogmas, or doctrines. I hope you enjoy ... 

My guest this week is author and integration guide, Deva Arani, who joins me for her very first podcast interview of her career. In this conversation we explore her entry into the world of psychedelic medicines coming from the world of competitive long-distance running, how she approaches integration with clients, and the messages and topics explored in her two new books, Integration Alchmey and The Mother Ache. You can find out more about Deva and her work at her website, www.devaarani.com

Last week Hewkii (Helgi) and Flammeus invited me back on their show to talk about my time in Iceland, the work with 5-MeO-DMT I was doing there, and also give Helgi an opportunity to share about his experience of working with my students. This lengthy and engaging conversation is already available on their YouTube Channel, but we wanted to do some cross-pollination, so here it is for my audience. 

I'm joined this week by Morocco-based French podcaster and Youtuber, Ali Nuit. Ali is all about exploring research chemicals from the widely-known to the obscure and is also found of various psychedelic cocktails. We get into it all in this lengthy conversation. If you speak French, you can enjoy Ali's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@Nuit

It's back to Aurduin this week with chapters 16 and 17 from The Alchemist and the Eagle, "The Grand Lucidium" and "Desire." We get our first look at how the Jolao rule through theatrical cruelty and get a behind-the-scenes look at their secretive alchemical practices that keep the empire running in chapter 16, and in 17 we learn more about the fractures in the facade of the "Ruling Hand" of the Jolao and how the "Thumb" of Jao is losing influence as he embarks upon a path driven by desire. 

In this episode I'm sharing the audio of a video I created on the topic of 5-MeO-DMT reactivations. I'm sharing this here as an example of the content of my upcoming 5-MeO-DMT Integration Specialist Training course with Mindscape Institute where we comprehensively cover the phenomenology of both the direct experience of 5-MeO-DMT as well as the ongoing energetic processes and events (such as reactivations) that occur subsequently. Enrollment is now open for the spring term course which starts on March 4th. Visit www.martinball.net or www.nondualentheogenicintegration.com for more details, or just reach out. 

We return to the world of Aurduin with this week's episode with the next two chapters from the Audiobook of The Alchemist and the Eagle. In chapter 14, Orobai ponders his choices for the future and in chapter 15, Nataali discovers that her mother has made a startling choice indicating that she's more aware of world events than Nataali had assumed ... 

To kick off the first episode of 2026 and my 19th year of podcasting, my guest is recent Ph.D. recipient, Azul DelGrasso, who wrote his dissertation at the California Institute of Integral Studies about 5-MeO-DMT. We had a lengthy conversation about it a few months ago to help him celebrate being perhaps the first person in the world to earn his Ph.D. by writing about 5-MeO-DMT. 

Also on the 5 front, I announce the dates for the next offering of my 5-MeO-DMT Integration Specialist Training course with Mindscape Institute, which starts on March 4th. Enrollment is now open - feel free to contact me for details. 

We conclude the 18th year of the Entheogenic Evolution Podcast with some zany, mind-bending fun with a representative of Mindcom, a Division of Octocorp ...

For anyone out there who's been listening to this weekly podcast for 18 years ... you're amazing! Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy this end-of-the-year episode and I'm looking forward to your continued listening as we enter the podcast's 19th year with 2026 ...