Let’s enter a mind-altering world where a mushroom can change your life and save our species.

In this reality-bending episode you’ll learn:

• how I almost lost my mind during an ayahuasca ceremony
• the role that psilocybin mushrooms can play in personal development
• what a healthy partnership with plant medicine looks like

The full text, images and references can be found here: https://open.substack.com/pub/jjvandevyver/p/can-magic-mushrooms-evolve-human

• (00:00) - Introduction

A huge thank you to:

• Storm for your feedback on an earlier draft
• Leigh and Lesanne for encouraging, shaping and reviewing this series
• Phillip-Jan van Zyl for his beautiful piano collection “Spiral”
• Louise for guiding my way to inspired creativity
• My partner Ash for your love and support throughout this project
• The incredible plants and facilitators who shaped my journey
• The many wonderful humans who inspired these words through our conversations.

I'll see you in the wilderness.

Let’s uncover the power of stories, how we inherit trauma and disease, and what it takes to heal.

In this very personal episode you’ll discover:

• the spiritual transformation that my mom experienced with cancer
• the echoes of stories and trauma that shape who we become
• what a miracle can look like

The full text, images and references can be found here: https://open.substack.com/pub/jjvandevyver/p/what-if-mommy-healed-her-past?

• (00:00) - Introduction

A huge thank you to:

• Jayni, Ash and Axel for your generous feedback on early drafts
• Leigh and Lesanne for encouraging, shaping and reviewing this series
• Phillip-Jan van Zyl for his beautiful piano collection “Spiral”
• Louise for guiding my way to inspired creativity
• My partner Ash for your love and support throughout this project
• The many wonderful humans who inspired these words through our conversations.

I'll see you in the wilderness.

Let’s explore death, faith and that fateful morning when everything changed, in the cathedral without a roof.

In this very personal episode you’ll discover:

• the mysterious circumstances leading to the morning I lost my dad
• the cathedral without a roof and the soul imprints within it
• what it took to find my own way to the divine

The full text and images can be found here: https://open.substack.com/pub/jjvandevyver/p/what-if-i-was-meant-to-be-there-when?

• (00:00) - Introduction

• Jayni for the gift of the cathedral without a roof, the generous feedback on early drafts and for your beautiful mandala artwork included in the print version of this piece
• Phillip-Jan van Zyl for his beautiful piano collection “Spiral”
• Leigh and Lesanne for encouraging, supporting and shaping this work
• Louise for guiding my way to inspired creativity
• My partner Ash for your patience and support throughout this project
• The many wonderful humans who inspired these words through our conversations.

I'll see you in the wilderness.

Let’s look across a career to ask whether meaningless work is a personal problem or a feature of the economy.

In this episode you’ll find out:

• why I quit my job and walked away from everything
• what each step up the career ladder actually revealed
• the unnerving answer keeping our current world in place

The full text, images and references can be found here: https://substack.jjvandevyver.earth/p/what-if-i-cant-find-meaning-in-corporate?

• (00:00) - Introduction

• Barbara Okhrati for her skilled hand in creating the visuals for the print version of this piece
• Ben and Hunter for the generous feedback on early drafts
• Dan Perez for his audio recordings of gaita music along the Camino de Santiago
• Phillip-Jan van Zyl for his beautiful piano collection “Spiral”
• Leigh and Lesanne for encouraging, supporting and shaping this work
• Louise for guiding my way to inspired creativity
• My partner Ash for your patience and support throughout this project
• The many wonderful humans who inspired these words through our conversations

I'll see you in the wilderness.

Welcome to the wilderness.

After fifteen years climbing the success ladder, JJ decided to walk away. He began to write to make sense of it all - the meaningless work, losing a parent, intergenerational trauma, psychedelics, coming home. This is where the journey begins.

Wild Ideas launches 26 August 2026 with a five-part series. Follow now to walk into the wilderness together.