The Psychedologist

Acacea Lewis is a friend and amazing interdimensional being who I deeply respect, appreciate and enjoy! We met at the Detroit Psychedelics Conference back in 2018, where she spoke about a brilliant array of topics (you can hear more in a prior episode of the Psychedologist, entitled "Detroit Psychedelics Conference"). Acacea has a lot of knowledge and wisdom to share, and while she has been known to teach, she's currently doing the hermit thing. So if you find her, you are in luck!

In this episode, Acacea shares about reconciling the self, impermanence, individuality (or, what it means to have your own life). She imparts that life is a prolonged experience of building our own funeral pyre. We talk about grieving, and Acacea shares some reflections from her experience of losing her wife, Mike, one year ago.

Leia asks about how to reconcile manifestation / the law attraction, with feeling our feelings / giving our emotions time and space to be felt and expressed. Acacea offers suggestions such as what might help someone become at peace with their own journey. We talk about death as an evolution, love as suffering's polar opposite, and how only love can heal suffering.

Also discussed are dreams as a way to emerge from grief, the divine practice of giving offerings to oneself, how to sit with and unpack our hatred, interview it, and undo the knots in the heart (without taking scissors to the damn thing), through patience and a magnifying glass that allows the emotions to unfold and reveal subtle qualities to you. Acacea finishes by offering that we can feed love to our emotions, embrace the ritual of silence, and hold ourselves accountable to our own needs.

Links:

A conversation about grief, prayer, religion, loss, pleasure and pain, love, parenthood, IFS, and movement with the fantastic Dr. Sherry Walling!

Bio:

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience. Sherry hosts the ZenFounder podcast, as well as Mind Curious, a podcast series exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics.

Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is a poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. 

Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist.

Links:

@sherrywalling on Insta and Twitter

touchingtwoworlds.com

The talk Leia mentioned in the episode, Decolonizing the Dead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFvjqHDHhmk

TiTa Espindola comes on the show to talk about sound healing, singing bowls and musical medicine.

TiTa is a Brazilian, 3rd generation singer that has been invested in creating healing journeys with music using the power of the voice, guitar, drums, bowls and other sacred instruments. 

From a popular music background and many years dedicated to studying music and the voice, for the past three years TiTa has been exploring research and knowledge on different therapeutic sound modalities to combine into her offerings. A certified Sound Healer, she also completed training in Quantum Sound Therapy, Rhythms for Healing Advanced Facilitation and the Arimany Method, to mention some, and now is pursuing a certification as Modern Meditation Teacher.

In her performances she seeks to bring mindful experiences combined with sounds and music, playing the instruments, singing mantras, indigenous songs and music that speak directly to the heart with intention, awareness, and transformation.

Links:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/40ZGxppr3GKCDX6ovS2sYD

Instagram: @titaespindola

Fox, editor and producer of The Psychedologist, comes on the podcast to celebrate our 100th episode! We talk about his experiences with psychedelics and he shares his thoughts for any of the more straight-laced listeners who might be thinking of trying out journey work for themselves. We set the intention to do 1,000 episodes of the Psychedologist, and have Fox on as a guest for every 100th episode.

While Fox provides encouragement to folks who might be on the fence about trying psychedelics, we want to be clear that psychedelics aren't necessarily for everyone. Please be responsible for your own choices, do your research to find out if its a good fit for you, and go about it in the safest way possible. Just as psychedelics can call to us, there can also be a time when we feel the call to shift to using other tools, and that's great, too :)

Links:

Jiminy Cricket, for anyone who wasn't sure:

https://youtu.be/U1MKN7TD-R8

A collection of ThatWasEpic give-away videos:

https://youtu.be/zksbi3YFtLY 

David Carradine playing a Chinese character and promoting Eastern philosophy to a young Fox:

https://youtu.be/W2yIkDVs0cA

This episode is a reading of the article I wrote in June 2021, entitled "Consent is Psychedelic.. Here's Why." This article was published in Doubleblind Magazine, and is an adaptation of a longer article which I wrote for Psychedelic Press UK, published in 2020. 

I hope that reflecting on the interactions and intersections of Consent and Psychedelics is as interesting and fruitful for you as it is for me :)

Original Article:

https://doubleblindmag.com/consent/

A dialogue with the fantastic Gina Tacconi-Moore! We chat about trauma and the body, the nervous system, consciousness and mystical experiences.

Bio: A pioneer in the world of manual therapy with knowledge that goes far beyond the four walls that house your primary care physician, Gina Tacconi-Moore spends her time answering mystery pain with the motto: “It’s not magic—it’s mobility.” 

As an accomplished clinician and businesswoman, Gina has been running her own practice, The Treatment Room, in all of its iterations since 2013. Aside from working as a member of the medical staff for CrossFit Regionals from 2013 to 2018, she is a renowned consultant for high profile sports organizations and clients nationwide including the NFL, MLB, and PGA. Gina’s unique approach to pain management and relief is rooted not only in her copious manual therapy certifications, but also in her extraordinary prosection work. Most notably, Gina was a part of the team at the PLASTINARIUM lab in Guben, Germany that prepared the world’s first plastinated model of the human fascial system. 

Even with this impressive roster, Gina still finds time to pursue her own love for CrossFit, weightlifting, literature, and the art of interior design. There’s truly never a dull day in Denton County, Texas where she lives with her husband, Alexander, and their dog, Dorian.

Bio: Shawna is a Transformational Guide of 20 years helping everyday leaders who feel stuck with an opportunity to heal from unresolved trauma, rewire the Nervous System for safety & success, stop self-sabotaging behavior and patterns of resistance, feel more confident to communicate your boundaries, and prosper with purpose. 

Link:

*This is a conversation originally published on the Quantum Shift Podcast. Shawna, my friend and colleague, invited me on to discuss PSIT - Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Therapy, and therapeutic psychedelic work in general.**

Please note - PSIT is a fascinating and powerful modality. Similar to psychedelics, it should be approached with great care, intentionality and respect. And, it is not for everyone. Proceed with caution, learn all about how it works so you have an understanding of what you're doing, follow the instructions (including the importance of having internal resources to call upon in order to navigate the destabilization that will come up) and seek out an experienced facilitator. 

This article has great tips about vetting a psychedelic guide, and much of it could apply to vetting a PSIT facilitator:

Gabi Dias is originally from Brazil and now works in New York City as an educator of consciousness integrated with the physical body. She is a Reiki Master and a forever student. She is also initiated in Shamanic wisdom, Tantra, Sacred Death and Birthing Doula, and an Energy Intuitive healer.

In this episode, we talk about Gabi's history, her awakening in 2019, and her path with plant medicines, shamanism, tantra, doula work and more.

Links:

Insta: @goatgabi

Website: www.goatgabi.com

This episode is an interview with Nilson Tuwe Huni Kuin, translated by Gabi Dias. Tuwe is a spiritual leader and Chief of his tribe, the Huni Kuin people of the Brazilian Amazon. Tuwe is from a long tradition of medicine people. He shares with the support of all his ancestors and community. Tuwe has a clear connection with the spiritual world and strives to build harmony for all people.

Tuwe lives in the Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá) Indigenous Territory of Rio Humaitá, São Vicente village, in the city of Tarauacá in Acre, Brazil. This is a 5 day boat ride from the nearest town. He is a filmmaker and has already produced a documentary about the indigenous peoples who still live voluntarily isolated in the Western Amazon, located on the border strip between Brazil and Peru.

As an Agroforestry agent, he also works in the Environmental Territorial Management of his homeland and surroundings. He is also a leader, thinker and messenger for his people, both domestically and internationally.

He has been researching his culture, cultivating his native spirituality and following the path of sacred medicines from a very young age with his father. Tuwe is the youngest son of the Tribal leader, Vicente Saboia Nawa Iba Nai Bai Huni Kuin, who worked for the protection of the Rio Humaitá Indigenous Land and for the rights and empowerment of his people. Although his father is no longer on this physical plane, he lives on as a warrior and a patriarch of the Huni Kuin Land of the Humaitá River.

Kufikiri comes on the podcast to talk about his journey in this life and a new project, called A Table of Our Own. 

The goal of A Table of Our Own is to create a documentary about a gathering of Black luminaries, highlight those doing great work in the psychedelic space and expand the reach of these important ways of healing to more Black people. Another wish is to further de-stigmatize these substances so that they’re no longer seen as “White people stuff” and more as the natural balms and salves to Black people’s psyches that we’ve been using for millennia.

The conference will be a three-day, invite-only, all-Black affair. It will focus on those who’ve had experience in the areas of psychedelics and the arts, activism, academics, sciences, entrepreneur, cultivators, and those still working in the underground scene. The documentary will cover not only the conference but the current state of Black people in the psychedelic space as a whole.

Link: https://www.atableofourown.org/

Insta: @kufikirihiariimara

Bio: Kufikiri Imara; born and raised on unceded Huichin territory of the Ohlone people (Oakland, California). With parents that were involved in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960's and 1970's, he grew up in a family and community that strongly emphasized cultural awareness and social responsibility. He volunteered with Green Earth Poets Society in NYC, bringing poetry to incarcerated African-American youth. He was an early member of the Entheogen Integration Circle in NYC, supporting marginalized communities within the larger psychedelic community. His past studies with Sacred Garden Community were focused on deepening his understanding as someone who holds space, and was focused on growing diversity. A former member of the Decriminalize Nature Oakland grassroots collective, after his efforts to help see the landmark resolution passed, he went on to head the DNO committee on Outreach, Education, Access, & Integration. He was part of the team of instructors for the first of its kind above ground training, with the former OLP, in Jamaica, on psychedelic assisted therapy that included engagement. He lent his voice to the Horizons Media documentary film Covid-19, Black Lives, & Psychedelics. He was the inaugural facilitator for the BIPOC Entheogen Integration Circle in partnership with the San Francisco Psychedelic Society. Kufikiri Imara is a globally recognized voice on championing the important issues of access, education, and inclusion within the larger psychedelic community.