Reverend Erika Allison is a queer interfaith minister and the author of the memoir "Gay the Pray Away: Healing your Life, Love, and Relationships from the Harms of LBGT Conversion Therapy." We spoke about her personal journey of healing after being sent to conversion therapy as a teenager in Texas, the coping strategies she developed after experiencing the trauma of identity harm, the state of conversion therapy in the United States today, how few practices harm teens more than attempts to change their sexual preference or gender identity, how a search for her mother’s approval led to a string of serial monogamous relationships, her path to becoming an interfaith minister, how this book landed with her parents, and her current mission to empower the queer community through spiritual liberation.

http://reverikaallison.com

Today we celebrate Bicycle Day, a modern semi-holiday (unrecognized by official governmental agencies yet observed by psychedelic enthusiasts across the globe) that commemorates Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman’s bike ride home from his lab on April 19th, 1943, after ingesting 250 micrograms of lysergic acid diethlymide, and in the process creating the world's first recorded intentional LSD trip. When Hoffman originally synthesized the compound in 1938, in the Sandoz Pharmeacuticals laboratory, in Basel, he had deemed it next to useless, and put it up on the shelf to be forgotten - but five years later, something within him told him to take a second look. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today’s Voices of Esalen episode is a treasure drawn from our extensive archives - an interview with Albert Hoffman himself, conducted by none other than Stanislav Grof, sometimes known as the godfather of LSD psychotherapy. Grof was a Czechoslovakian psychoanalyst who was enormously influenced by Hoffman’s discovery of LSD; in his research in Czechoslovakia he oversaw tens of thousands of supervised therapeutic LSD trips. Grof would emigrate to the United States in the late 1960’s, a move precipitated by the Soviet invasion of his country. Grof spent more than ten years as a teacher in residence at the Esalen Institute during the 1970’s and 80’s, where he developed the practice of holotropic breath work and became one of the founders of the school of transpersonal psychology. In this interview, Grof and Hoffman explore a host of topics, including Hoffman’s discovery of LSD and how on his first trip, Hoffman freaked out and thought he was going insane, then thought he was dying; how Hoffman then became aware that his new discovery would have immense significance to the field of psychiatry; why Hoffman believed LSD could be used as a model psychosis and a way to study schizophrenia; how Hoffman collaborated with amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson to create a synthetic version of so-called magic mushrooms, which would be known as psilocybin; how Hoffman traveled to Mexico to deliver this modern version of mushrooms to the famed curandera Maria Sabina, who had introduced Wasson to the mushrooms in the first place, and more. They end this interview by speaking about Hoffman’s reaction to the way LSD escaped the laboratory and infiltrated culture during the turbulent 1960s.

This interview was conducted at Esalen Institute in 1984 - just one part of the ever evolving and complex tapestry of history that unfolded here in Big Sur.

Laura Mae Northrup is a somatic psychotherapist, educator, podcaster, and author. Laura has been a guest on this show before, in 2020, when we discussed her podcast "Inside Eyes", a one-season tour de force that focuses on people using entheogens and psychedelics to heal from sexual trauma. She is now the author of a new book, "Radical Healership: How to Build a Values-driven Healing Practice in a Profit-Driven World." Northrup views healing work and healing practitioners through a spiritual and political lens, as they do battle with the forces of capitalism while attempting to heal their clients and take care of themselves, all at the same time.

Find Laura on the web at https://www.lauramaenorthrup.com/

Check out Radical Healership :

https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/radical-healership/

Keith Thompson is an author, independent journalist, talk radio host, and former U.S. Senate staff member. Keith’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s the author of the new book, The UFO Paradox: The Celestial and Symbolic World of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, in which he reveals how the UFO phenomenon ultimately represents a call from the cosmos for humanity to open to greater dimensions of reality and recognize that our understanding of the universe is still far from complete.

Together we talked about how he discovered Esalen in 1975 from a New Yorker article, his friendship with Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, how he became involved in the earliest incarnations of Esalen’s Center for Theory and Research, the genius of Esalen’s "no one captures the flag" approach, the "Tuesday morning phenomenon," and the links between the paranormal and the aims of the human potential movement.

Today we have a special episode. We're bringing you something unique and powerful: a real Esalen check-in. This practice, rooted in the Gestalt therapy that evolved at Esalen over the years, has become a cornerstone of the Esalen experience, often described as a catalyst for self-awareness, connection, and personal growth.

Our check-in features an incredible group of people: full-time staff members Nani Almanza, Jess Siller, Alex Shepherd, Sam Stern, and Shira Levine, as well as Faith Blakeney, a participant in the LEEP and REEP residential programs.

What you'll hear is real. It is authentic and unscripted. While our participants were aware of being recorded, they spoke from the heart. We've made every effort to preserve the intimacy and rawness of the experience with only minimal editing.

This episode offers a rare glimpse into the heart of what makes Esalen truly special. This is the secret sauce - the open, honest sharing that forms the foundation for personal transformation.

I invite you to listen with an open heart and mind, as we explore this fundamental Esalen practice together.

Erik Davis stands tall at the intersection between mysticism, technology, and counterculture. He's one of my favorite writers, the author of many stupendous books, among them "TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information," "Nomad Codes," as well as "High Weirdness" a highly entertaining book that explores 1970s counterculture and its relationship with altered states of consciousness. Erik is also an Esalen faculty member, having recently taught a course on Embodied Writing and Spiritual Practice. In this conversation, we went into his new book, "Blotter," an extended meditation on LSD blotter art and the culture that surrounds it. We also found time to veer off into a host of topics, including Terence McKenna, John C. Lilly, Dick Price, madness, Stan Grof, the spiritual emergency network, prep-school deadheads, the Village Voice, the Internet and Erik's theory that it kills subcultures, the phenomenon of what Erik calls "cannabis thinking," how he was never much of a "cannabis writer," tape machines and their place in the counterculture, the Merry Pranksters, Phillip K. Dick, Bay Area Poster art, the DEA and its own little zine - and much more.

Erik is one of the cofounders of the Berkeley Alembic - a nonprofit bodymind center committed to experiments in transformation. https://berkeleyalembic.org/

You can also find his collected works at Techgnosis:

https://techgnosis.com/

Dr. Mellody Hayes is an evidence-based and spiritually-centered medical expert in the emerging clinical science of Psychedelic Medicine. Dr. Hayes is a graduate of Harvard and UCSF medical school and is an anesthesiologist, leader, public speaker and founding member of Decriminalize Nature. She’s also the founder of a Bay Area clinic that offers psychedelic ketamine therapy. Dr. Hayes is the creator of How We Heal, an online community of healers and leaders committed to creating belonging, safety, and health for all people, particularly those from historically marginalized communities.

We discussed the mechanics and science of ketamine-based psychedelic therapy, the need for diversity within the psychedelic community, her optimism for the practice of psychedelic medicine in creating cultural change and cultural healing within contemporary society, and the healing power of story.

To learn more about Dr. Hayes's work, please visit www.drmellody.com and howweheal.net.

Dr. Adele Lafrance is a clinical psychologist, research scientist, and a leader in the research and practice of psychedelic medicine. Currently, she is the clinical investigator and strategy lead for the MAPS-sponsored MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study for eating disorders and a collaborator on the Imperial College study for psilocybin and anorexia nervosa.

We talked about her history as a clinician, and why she believes psychedelics may offer a different and perhaps more successful way of treating eating disorders than traditional methods. We also spoke about a system she developed known as emotion-focused family therapy. Dr. Lafrance believes emotion focused family therapy can used effectively in conjunction with psychedelic therapy to treat eating disorders.

https://dradelelafrance.com/

Coming soon at Esalen -

The new LEEP program. Live and learn at Esalen for 4 weeks as part of our Live Extended Education Program, or L.E.E.P.  Under the guidance of our skilled faculty and surrounded by a cohort of twelve other learners, students will be challenged to expand their personal growth edges and open up to greater discoveries of self and community.

THE STUDY COMPONENT

Engage in a rigorous course of study, up to 26 hours per week over the span of four weeks. Daily deep dives led by world-class faculty members allow you to learn heartfully about the essential teachings and practices of Esalen.

Areas of study may include Gestalt practices, massage, somatics, yoga, leadership, and more.

THE SERVICE COMPONENT

As a cement to your studies into body and mind, you will be required to dedicate 26 hours of service each week in one of Esalen’s operational departments. The campus is rugged and students should anticipate robust physical activity.

Areas of service are assigned and hours are typically performed in the kitchen or housekeeping.

https://www.esalen.org/learn/live-extended-education-program

Dr. Rick Hanson is a psychologist, best-selling author, and the co-founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. The subtitle of one of his books, Budha’s Brain is "The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom," - and that speaks volumes about Rick’s purpose as a clinician and teacher: to show clients effective ways to light up the brain circuits that relieve worry and stress, in order to promote positive relationships and inner peace. Recently, he’s developed the online course Positive Neuroplasticity Training to teach general methods of self-directed brain change. He is a wise teacher and a great resource at this time. Visit his site www.rickhanson.net, and check out the many free resources available there.

Alex Belser is the founding member and administrative director of a Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Trial at NYU School of Medicine where he’s investigated if psychedelic mushrooms can ease anxiety for folks facing end of life. In his psychotherapeutic practice, he focuses in part on preventing suicide amongst young gay and bisexual men. We spoke about his queer critique of the psychedelic world from his vantage point as a researcher and a queer cis-gender man, and ruminated in depth about queer spirituality, queer wisdom and the subversive nature of psychedelics.