Episode 27: [Part 1] Sacred Plant Medicine - Introduction & Overview

Join me for the first part of a four-part series where I take a deep dive into sacred plant medicine. In today’s show, I give an overview of how this powerful type of plant medicine has helped many people heal and, for some, quicken their road to awakening and enlightenment. I came to this subject as someone who was against it for many years until I did my own research and began to realize that what I’d been taught was based on rumor, outdated studies and opinions instead of facts. I learned that plant spirit medicine indeed has the potential to bring one closer to the Divinity within and break down the barriers that have prevented one from body, mind and spirit healing. While not suited for everyone – and I delve into this aspect on today’s show – if one is able to “find their medicine,” they have an opportunity to create a cosmic connection with the plant that opens both their mind and heart. This episode is for those who already use sacred plant medicine as well as those who are intrigued by it but don’t know where to start. And if you are against all of it, as I used to be, I hope you will listen with an open mind and possibly begin your own research.

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Transcript

            Welcome to Episode 27: Today’s show is the first of a four-part series on Sacred Plant Medicines. Part 1 is the Overview.

            Before I start, I need to make a disclaimer for this episode and state that the use of sacred plant medicine is for those of you who are consciously and purposefully engaged in deeply transformative inner work and personal healing that is fueled with reverent intention as to the purpose of using these powerful medicines. Many of the substances I will discuss in the first three episodes of the four-part series are not legal in all fifty states or around the world. In order to obtain and experience some of them, you either have to have a prescription, take part in a psychedelic study,  know how to grow some of them or find them in the wild or travel out of the country to South America or elsewhere where it is not illegal to use these substance. When I speak about the intended use of these plant medicines, I’m NOT talking about recreational or party use whatsoever. These shows are all about talking about the use of specific sacred plant medicines that are used within a safe environment where one is monitored and guided on their sacred journey. Furthermore, I don’t endorse any of these substances that I will discuss for anyone under the age of twenty-one or anyone who haa a predisposition to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychotic pathologies or any hardwired mental condition unless you are under the care of a highly qualified medical professional who can be right there with you when you take the plunge. 

            Who is this series for? There’s three groups: Those who have used or are currently using these sacred plant medicines and have their own perspective, opinions and so on. Second, those who know nothing about them, they’ve heard about them, maybe watched some videos but have no experience but are open to learning more about it. Third group consists of those who are completely against it for whatever reason. Could be spiritual or religious. Could be leaning on fifty-year-old studies that have been debunked but they refuse to acknowledge it. Lots of reasons for people to be completely resistant to the use of sacred plant medicine. If you fall into that third group and you’re still listening, I give you a lot of credit and I hope you stick around because as somebody who believed just like you did, it’s important to look outside the narrow box and consider that not everything you believe is true or accurate. That’s exactly what I had to do and I’ll get to that in a second. 

            The opposite extreme of that is that I realize there are people listening right now who have years of experience using sacred plant medicines and have well defined beliefs about how these substances have changed their lives. And I want you to know that I do honor your experience because you took the time to take the trip and come back with greater awareness. I hope you can honor my point of view, which is not an anti-psychedelic point of view whatsoever. It’s just more of a measured overview from a lot of personal experience and through helping others move through their psychedelic experiences and also being a witness to those who did not in fact benefit from the use of these substances. I know there are people out there who love psychedelics and believe if we could just have every world leader take a trip we could experience world peace. Of course, they would have to sufficiently hydrate and integrate before they could hit the bargaining table. But that’s a statement I’ve heard a lot. And I’m not sure that would work for a lot of reasons. Because I think the people who say that believe that everyone’s experience will be as wonderful and magical and life affirming as theirs was. And that’s not always the case. 

I’ve been working on this four-part series for over one year. There are plenty of podcasts that focus on the subject of plant spirit medicine, as it’s often called, and it’s often presented – not always – but there is a tendency to present the subject matter in a romanticized, often ungrounded way that for people who are new to using this powerful medicine, they don’t hear much about the potential intensity of these trips. That’s often glossed over or minimized. There is also this idea that these sacred medicines can literally fix anything and that’s not accurate. The medicine is only as powerful as your willingness and  ability to dive into the experience and not resist what you are being shown and then come out of it with a greater awareness of where you getting in your own way or not opening your heart or where you are shutting yourself down. And then you have to be willing to take all of that and integrate what you learn with a trained shaman or therapist who understands the nature of this type of alchemical healing. 

            Initially when I was putting this subject together for a show, it was designed to be one show but I quickly realized that there was no way I could adequately give the subject the depth I felt it needed, especially for those listeners who are truly interested in this subject but don’t know where to start or whether it’s right for them. Obviously, as an herbalist, I am all about plant medicine. But as I said, I was not always on board with psychedelics or even cannabis. But I am an advocate now but I’m an advocate with genuine concerns about how these sacred medicines are dispensed and how some of them can be abused. I’m an advocate with genuine concerns about how many people want to do psychedelics but aren’t given guidance or understand that you must be able to talk to someone about the experience and integrate it into your psyche. And if you don’t, you have the potential for causing more problems for yourself and worsening whatever reason you are using the plant medicine for. I’m also concerned how the staggering financial incentive for retreat centers in South America that utilize sacred plant medicines are leveraging profit over a true concern for a participant who really needs to take a break from the ceremonies and get some perspective and grounding before launching back into the intense work. In Part 2 next week, I’m focusing on cannabis and psilocybin, and I’ll go into a lot more detail on the importance of taking breaks and utilizing what they’ve learned instead of just manically dipping their fly into the cosmic waters and seeing what they hook without taking the time to understand it. I have plenty of personal experience and being around others who didn’t integrate their trips and how it created complete chaos in their lives and the lives of those they loved. 

It's important to mention that using psychedelic plant medicine or sacred spirit medicine is NOT a requirement of successfully doing transformative alchemical healing. You can achieve what is needed without it. And what is needed is a powerful Come to Jesus moment, so to speak, that rocks your internal world and brings you back to the Divine where we all originate. This work pivots on one’s ability to gain a deep, spiritual healing because through healing the spirit, the rest of the bodies can become aligned and healed. The physical, the mental, the emotional all become connected and work as one with the spiritual body. That’s the ultimate goal of alchemical healing. Alchemical healing has a lot to do with remembering who you are as both a physical being and as a spiritual being. The myth of separation has to be understood. You are not separate from God. God is within you and God is outside of you as well. God is all around you. You carry the spark of the Divine with you and you always have. But you forgot and plant spirit medicine can give you the ability to not just remember that, but to experience again for the first time and stop the internal battle that rages within you and that has created and maintained a sense of separation that was always an illusion. When you use plant spirit medicine, you’re not finding God. You are remembering God and that that infinite energy has always been within you and then through that memory, cultivating that connection on a conscious level. And through that understanding, you can further explore and come to the realization that everything we see and feel and believe is a construct. Basically, a projection of one’s consciousness. And ideas such as quantum entanglement that you may have read about and made no sense to you, will actually make perfect sense to you after you use sacred plant medicines.  What I find so intriguing is how many people who use sacred plant medicine have the same or similar experiences that focus on the lack of duality and constructs and more. There are too many similarities for the experience to be labeled ‘just a hallucination.” Those of us who have done this medicine are not experiencing the same delusion. It’s the medicine showing it to us in whatever language or words we are able to understand it. I can use the word “construct” and someone else says that he or she learned that everything in our life is an illusion and we’re both reporting the same experience, just using different vocabulary. And I did not have that experience because somebody told me that was what I would experience. Nobody inserted any expectations into my head of what I would learn. It just happened and it was a clear as a bell when I began to do this healing with tremendous intention and reverence for whatever I was going to experience.  

            Now, conversely (I always like to look at both sides), using sacred plant medicine does not ensure that you will have a powerful spiritual experience. It all depends on what substance you’re taking, how much of a dose you’re taking, how you are being guided during your trip, what is called “set and setting” which is a term I’ve heard probably a hundred times or more since I took part in this healing method. Set and setting is making sure that the trip is done with intention, a willingness to move through what appears to be dark or dangerous because that’s where you need to go, a deep understanding of what you are about to do and doing it in a place that is absolutely safe, where you are protected and given the space to scream or cry or just stare into space and say nothing. 

One thing I have learned and can share with no reservations, is that if you are devoted to alchemical healing, anything that allows you to have a deeper connection to the Divine increases the odds that you will gain greater awareness which leads to potential growth which leads to a greater chance of healing whatever needs healing inside you. I feel that the intentional and safe use of sacred plant spirit medicine increases those odds. But for some people, it’s not a good fit. And I’ll mention more about that later in the show. Some of these plant medicines can eliminate addiction if the person doing the trip has the clear intention of creating that outcome and if they are being guided and given proper integration therapy after the trip. However, I know two addicts who, in my opinion, abused plant spirit medicine and that was because their intention was not about healing. It was about disappearing or dissociating from this world and maintaining that state of detachment through hallucinogenic drugs. And when you have addicts who do that, it gives sacred plant medicine a bad rap. BUT if an addict goes into a session or ceremony with the intention of kicking their habit and finding out the root of the root of their need to be addicted, their odds are a lot higher that they will overcome their addictions. 

Some of you may know this and some may be shocked to hear that the famed Bill Wilson or “Bill W” who started AA used LSD in a therapeutic setting in 1956 at the Veteran’s Administration hospital in Los Angeles, and found it so useful for eliminating his addictions and chronic depression, that he strongly suggested to his Board that AA formerly endorse LSD as a tool for recovery. Of course, his idea was loudly shut down. And he was warned to not publicly discuss his use of LSD for fear of how it would negatively affect AA. And while he agreed, there is a still a lot out there about why Wilson was so compelled to incorporate a hallucinogen into a therapy session for treatment resistant alcoholics. 

            And his premise was that many alcoholics have a hard time turning their life over to God which is a fundamental principle of the tenets of AA. And through his use of LSD, he was able to clearly see without resistance or ego or leaning on past beliefs that we had to remember what had been forgotten and that was that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We don’t have a soul, we are a soul and that soul is projected into a physical body for a period of time in order to experience itself. And if you have not done psychedelics, what I just said might sound like a word salad. But if you’ve done psychedelics, you’re like, “Yep. Truth!” So Bill Wilson took a trip and got that message loud and clear that attaining and maintaining a spiritual connection was absolutely required to quit drinking or quit anything that was destroying your life. But for some people in AA, they could not find that spiritual path through organized religion. It came with too much baggage or dogma for them and it became a huge hurdle to jump in order for them to stay sober. The spirituality that Bill Wilson described as being the difference between addiction and redemption, was the recognition of oneness and what he referred to as his “doors of perception” finally clearing so he was able to see the light of Oneness and God. But it was perceived as the light from within. So the spiritual or God-centered requirement for sobriety was more about a personal connection with the Divine, however you choose to see or experience the Divine. 

            Now, that dovetails into my own former and what I would describe as my engineered resistance around any drug that had the potential to “take me out of myself” as it was described to me. The people I listened to growing up and who I considered intelligent or were mentors of mine when I was in my teens and twenties, were flat out against any hallucinogenic drug. Period. Why? A lot of them came from a spiritual as well as religious perspective. And that perspective was that by using these substances, you would create an energy or vibratory response that would essentially attract to you any number of dark and powerful entities when you were under the influence. I was told and I quote, that these drugs would “blow your Crown Chakra out and kept it open,” and because of that, you could be at the mercy of opportunistic attacks that would never end and you would be unable to stop it. Well, that was enough to keep me away from weed, let me tell you, let alone LSD or magic mushrooms that were beyond my immature ability to comprehend back then. Now, in full disclosure, I did try a few hits of weed when I was sixteen but I felt absolutely nothing and I didn’t attract anything negative toward me except really bad weed. But all joking aside, I do agree to a point that there is a potential to blast yourself wide open when you use these substances and yes, they can blow open your mind and perspective. But if you are fortified with a connection to God or the Divine or have an incredibly skilled shaman who can walk with you on your trip and literally keep you safe from those dark entities that do live in the lower astral – yes, I’ve encountered them and yes, they are real at least to me – you will not take them on. But understand that you can also have a high fever or have a near death experience and encounter demons and dark entities. I’ve also experienced that without any drugs whatsoever. So while drugs can leave you open for these experiences, that can also happen when you are sober. And because I had many of these types of experiences under the age of twenty-five and to this day when I’m totally sober and not trying to manipulate my mind in any way whatsoever, the question begs whether having these types of experiences without being induced by a drug is on the same level of concern as when it is induced by a drug? And I only really contemplated that question recently when I was preparing the notes for this episode. I believe strongly in the Divine and a world far beyond this one but I also believe in using my mind and critically thinking about what I’m told and seeing it if holds up when you introduce a question such as I just did. But I didn’t ask or contemplate questions like that when I was ten years old and older and being taught to stay away from these substances. So I bought into it without challenging it and I mindlessly parroted what I was taught for the sake of maintaining what was considered unity. And by unity, I mean being able to get along with my parents, my mentors and holistic doctors and more that I was surrounded with and who had a lot of influence over me. I know that where I used to be on this subject and where I am today is so divergent that many of my family members and cherished teachers and mentors who guided me on my spiritual and herbal path are turning in their graves right now because the consistent energy they expended to demonize these substances was so strong that for me to turn against that dogma and be open to promoting it as well as publicly talking about my own experiences, is tantamount to betraying an unspoken allegiance. 

             While these people who I trusted were certainly highly educated and incredibly talented healers and therapists, they professed complete knowledge on these substances based on rumor, tragic stories of unsupervised recreational experiences with a certain substance where someone jumped off a building because they were tripping, and also the occasional small study that was repeated and never challenged that always painted the substances as creating irreversible brain damage. None of their opinions were based on their own experience, whether that experience was positive or negative for them. It’s one thing to tell me that this plant substance is not useful for depression or seeking enlightenment because you’ve tried it more than once and gotten nothing out of it or had a horrible experience using it or closely know someone who has used it and they had a terrible time versus reading a study or hearing a rumor and using that as a reason to warn people against it. In Part three of this series, I’ll be discussing Ayahuasca and Ketamine, two substances I have not used but I have a lot of observational experience with others who have used either one that are both positive and negative that I feel I can draw upon to give an informed opinion to a point as I have not used them. And the reason I have not used them is because of what I have consistently observed in those who often depend on either one of them to take them where they feel they need to go. When you find the substance or substances that resonate with you and are a good fit, you have found your medicine. I know what my medicine is when I need to get deeper understanding. I know what works for me and I know what most likely will not. And when you find the plant spirit medicine that works for you, it becomes the teacher you go back to every now and again to get another lesson or perspective from. 

I think if you demonize these plant medicines you are closing your mind off to their inherent deep healing and truly transformational potentials. Conversely, I think if you only choose to romanticize their use and believe that ‘everyone’ should use them, you are ignoring potential psychological addictions. I stress psychological because it’s hard to have a physical addiction to psilocybin, but they can be psychologically appealing if all you want to do is escape. And nothing is wrong with escaping every blue moon. But chronic escapism is certainly not an aspect of alchemical transformation. 

So what was my personal Come to Jesus moment that propelled me into exploring these types of plant medicines? For me, it was realizing that I needed to learn to really let go and I had no clue what that meant when I made that discovery. I just understood that I couldn’t get where I needed to go if I was unable to let go of what I didn’t even realize I was holding onto. And while it absolutely terrified me to utilize sacred plant medicine to accomplish this, I was willing to dip my toe into that world and give it a shot. I did make some stupid mistakes and misjudgments which I’ll talk about more in Part 2 next week. But my intention of learning to let go was the catalyzing energy that propelled me forward and many times it took a lot of courage and sheer determination to really let go because for me, there was a tremendous amount of anxiety when I went from lower doses into therapeutic doses, and that was really more about fear of the unknown. And I think that’s a common concern and reality for a lot of newbies who walk this path. I joke that some people shouldn’t be alone with their own minds and that definitely speaks to how some people, including myself, are affected by certain plant medicine teachers because if you find the right fit for your needs, it will challenge and provoke your mind to expand and explore beyond anything you’ve ever chosen to explore before. Because this is not just the fearless exploration of your mind but of your consciousness as well. And that will lead you to accept certain awakenings or understandings that you never contemplated let alone agree to integrate into your newfound awareness. For me, I had to ditch the hardwired belief system that dabbling in one’s consciousness through the intentional use of a specific sacred plant medicine was betraying my physical experience. That might sound high and mighty but that was a big deal for me back then. And I had to get over it if I was going to have any chance at generating an experience that would provide any kind of cosmic knowledge that would help me heal. If I’m taking a substance and wanting help with my healing, but simultaneously feeling terrified that I’m agreeing to do this given all the stern warnings I heard for over forty years, there’s going to be a lot of conflict brewing under the surface and that will inform how you allow yourself to have your experience. And that type of internal conflict will absolutely imprint itself onto the trip and you will build up resistance due to the fear and that will create so many distortions that really prevent you from diving into the dark waters and opening your eyes. It took me three sessions to truly let go and do a lot of release. And I thought I had already done a tremendous amount of releasing without the aid of the plant medicine. But when I finally did let go during my third session, it was clear that there was a lot still there that needed to be released. And I remember thinking a few days later how I’d been stagnating prior to that but I wasn’t realizing I was stuck, I was thinking that I was just cruising along and it was all coming together. But there was this big ball of stuff that was neatly tucked away and the dose I took was powerful enough to locate it and flush it out.  So for me, I would agree that the use of sacred plant medicine certainly has the potential to not just jumpstart your healing but also to blow through stagnation or an outright freezing in your progress. 

Shifting gears here, I want to talk briefly about how these sacred medicines were utilized by individuals or groups throughout history who respected their power and trusted the guidance that they were given. It’s really been just over the last hundred or so years that many of these substances have been put into the hands of the public. For centuries, these sacred medicines were considered so powerful that the average man or woman was not allowed to have access to that experience, unless they came across a magic mushroom in the field or a button of peyote in the high desert. There was a belief, right or wrong, that in order to take part in a ceremony of this type, you had to have earned it through other types of initiatory rituals. You were observed by the priest, priestess or shaman or tribal leader as whether you were someone who naturally had the ability to hold this type of spiritual energy inside you and also be brave enough to have the experience and be able to bring back a vision or a warning or whatever was shown to you with a clarity that was useful or helpful to the tribe or the group you belonged to. And with each experience, the priest or priestess or the elder guide who worked with you helped you understand your experience, whatever it may have been. And through that calm, sober reflective understanding, each experience built upon the former until there was a solid foundation from which to launch you into the true shamanic teachings until you became fully actualized in that role. It had to be slow and steady and built on a firm foundation because without that sturdy foundation, you can’t launch your astral body into the lower astral or the darkest of the corners of the other side and expect to be able to navigate it let alone return to this reality and not have damage to your mind or soul on the trip back. Each trip was sacred and always approached with ritual, a sense of purpose, intention and strong connection to one’s own Divinity. There was deep respect for the process and often a period of fasting or a sweat would precede the use of the substance. Once you were purified, the initiate always entered into the process with a humbled nature. Because the deeper they traveled into the cosmos with these substances, the more profoundly humbled they needed to be while at the same time maintaining an inner strength and courage. 

So realize that it’s a profound choice that you make when you decide to take the path of using sacred plant medicine and that you are initiating yourself, so to speak, in your own enlightenment. Embarking on this type of healing involves willingly and intentionally diving INTO the greatest of the greatest unknown and trusting that you will emerge into a place that teaches you what you need at that time.

And to this, I want to add that I think ritual is important when you are doing this. Yes, you may be doing it in a clinical setting or in a hut somewhere in Costa Rica, but I always create some ritual around the session because I think it contains it and helps your focus and intention. You can light some incense or sage or a stick of palo santo, maybe light a candle if someone is there to monitor it, you could play some instrumental music that helps take you into a calmer space. You could meditate and incorporate some classic Mudras that activate certain channels in your body. One thing I do not incorporate in any pre-dose ritual is a computer or a cell phone. Have your music on but put your cell phone in the other room. This pre-ritual, however you chose to do it, is about setting the tone for what hopes to be a journey into consciousness that provides you with answers that could help you with your healing. It’s the going into yourself and quieting your mind before the sacred plant takes over and moves you into a deeper level. 

I think it’s important to gain as much clarity as possible prior to doing any sacred plant medicine and I came up with questions that I personally think are important to ask yourself prior to engaging in this powerful type of healing. These are questions I asked of myself as well as others who were either debating using sacred plant medicine or were misusing the substance and needed to potentially take a step back or a long break. 

The first question is: What is my mental/emotional/spiritual intention that I wish to achieve or learn from taking ________. And answering, “I want to find myself” is too broad a statement. Be specific and dial it in. So that could be, “I want to understand why I constantly self-sabotage.” Or something like, “I want to learn the first step to heal my chronic anxiety.” When you figure it out, write it down and really focus on it for three days prior to your ceremony and then say it out loud or focus on it before you take your dose. 

Second question:  what will you do with the information or knowledge (and that’s a loaded word) or awareness that you are shown? I know a lot of people who have very deep experiences but they can’t unpack it or they don’t have the ability to step outside themselves so they can understand whatever they are shown. Who are you going to share the information with? My advice is to keep that list short and with those who have the capacity to understand and that’s a very short list which could have zero people on it. This is where the integration therapy plays such a vital role because you are sharing with to someone who first of all, is trained to understand what are often metaphors and secondly, the therapist can teach you to decode deeper meaning. This is very much like going to a Jungian psychologist and that’s someone who follows the tenets of psychologist, Carl Jung and Jung was big into dream analysis and how one’s subconscious mind can leave fertile clues in the soil of one’s nightly dreams. The trick for the integration therapist is to not lead the client to a biased outcome but to get the client to really think for days perhaps or longer about what he or she experienced and allow it to unfold without pushing the envelope. And sometimes the information you get back is not complicated. You can find yourself sitting in a ball of white light and feeling pure love and that doesn’t need to be unpacked. That just needs to be deeply appreciated and remembered whenever you need a reminder. My personal advice from my own experience is you don’t need to share your experience with anyone outside of the therapist who is helping you integrate. Don’t set yourself up like I did and tell someone who you thought would be open to what you were telling them but in fact, is demonstrating body language that really screams, “Get me outta here.” 

Third question: This is for those who have done at least six ceremonies where you took what would be considered strong doses each time and experienced tremendous catharsis and breakthroughs? The question is: Do I believe I’ve learned what I need to know and have applied that knowledge to my physical and spiritual world and if so, why do I feel a need to keep going back to the substance? This is a question more people need to ask who are hardcore veterans, so to speak, of this path of plant medicine. I met a lot of people who take part in this type of plant spirit medicine and a few of them really looked shattered in their eyes and just in their way of being and communicating. They were like cosmic junkies and in my opinion, were too obsessed and far too focused on whatever plant medicine was their thing. There were a couple of people I met who had lost complete perspective on their life in general and were infatuated with their plant and wanted to keep swimming in the endless streams that turned into inlets and then became rushing rivers. The conversation was always about “the next trip” and investigating this rabbit hole and that one. There was the sense of them wanting to know the answer to everything! And you’ll never learn everything so if you have that mindset, you’ll keep going to back to the well and spending more time out of your body than in it. And I don’t endorse that at all. People who do this and I personally feel it’s a misuse of this type of plant medicine, tend toforget that everything begins and ends from within. In order to access that information, you have to be grounded and contained and in your body and able to consciously reflect without the reflection being done by the spirit of the plant when you are under its influence. Some people would say it’s not the spirit of the plant it’s your mind doing all that. Well, okay. But your mind is still influenced by the plant substance. It can be increasing dopamine or serotonin or another neurotransmitter and when that plant substance is no longer in your system, and your neurotransmitters go back to whatever levels they operate on without the substance, how do you pick up the slack and generate the answers you need? How do you take whatever it is you feel you have learned and apply it into your daily physical reality? I mean, you are in a physical body and that body needs to be nourished and given a chance to actualize in the physical what is being downloaded to you in the spiritual realms. People will say that the magic mushroom is responsible for changing their life or that Mother Ayahuasca spilled the tea of enlightenment over them and now they are a new man or woman. And I’m not negating that potential. But how are you showing that as you go through your day when you are not under the influence of the hallucinogen? But it’s not enough to say you’ve been exposed to astral wisdom or spiritual knowledge and amuse others with your supposed brilliance but nothing you’re saying is remotely brilliant. In my opinion, when that’s happening, that’s your cue to step back and take six months or year off or longer from any sacred plant medicine. And if the mere thought of taking a long break makes you scared or angry, why do you feel that way? 

            So who should potentially steer clear of hallucinogenic plant medicines? I think if you’re pregnant, you should not imbibe. There’s a standard warning about schizophrenics, psychotics and those with bipolar disorder not using this type of medicine. However, in the 1950’s when LSD was available to physicians, there are studies I read that noted how schizophrenics were dosed with LSD in clinical settings but I could never find any information on how they were affected and whether there was any long term stabilization. 

            From my own experience of witnessing different people who used this intense medicine, I would say that there is a category of people who typically have issues with it. I’ve noticed that people who are neurotic should probably not use it unless they are somehow able to disengage from that hyper nervous, anxious, anticipatory energy because it will just reflect back onto their trip. Same idea with anyone who is very fearful by nature. That can absolutely be mitigated if the fearful person is truly dedicated to overcoming their fears. But if you’re doing this in a group, and you can’t contain your fear, don’t chose the format of a group ceremony because you will be highly disruptive and potentially affect the others in the group. I understand fear, believe me. But if you are afraid and you still want to do it, do in a private session with a qualified sitter who can expertly guide you through your fears. I love that quote from Joseph Campbell. “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” And boy that does apply to sacred plant medicine. 

            There is the concern voiced a lot about whether former or current addicts or alcoholics should not touch these substances and all I can tell you is that I know three addicts who have used either Psilocybin, MDMA and Ayahuasca and gotten sober. There’s another plant spirit medicine called Ibogaine which is a shrub from West Africa, and it is known to cure opiate and alcohol addiction. But from what I read and was told about it, it’s a very tough trip that can last from twelve to thirty-six hours. And as one person told me, for him it was thirty hours of pure hell and I remember that conversation because this individual got sober and had not relapsed and nothing else he had used had worked. And I think if you are that treatment resistant, it most likely takes an equally hard punch to your psyche to break that addiction. 

            Other types of personalities that I think need to stay clear are people who lean into the narcissist personality disorder group. I’ve witnessed these types of people when are they are under the influence and afterward and they tend to blame others if they have a bad trip or what they perceive as a bad trip. It may not be a bad trip at all. But it could be an experience that came out of left field that they had no control over and because they couldn’t drive the narrative and were forced to endure perhaps their own nature being mirrored back to them, they had a bad time. From what I have personally experienced in observing narcissists who take part in this type of medicine, their hardwired perception that carries them through each day and that has served them in their own mind, will not serve them when they use sacred plant medicine.  They either become completely unhinged and out of control or they become way too addicted to the experience, not the plant, and then use that experience to become even more self-absorbed. I’ve seen this a lot with narcissists who do tons of Ayahuasca or psilocybin. And they don’t have any true reverance for the experience. They try to fake it but because they have no understanding of the word ‘humble,’ they aren’t good at faking it. It’s just all about them and their viewpoint and their this and their that and ech, it’s not enjoyable to be around. 

            I’d say anyone who is a control freak is going to have a problem. I’ll go into a lot more detail about this in next week’s episode because I find this an interesting thing to observe. So many people who put on the façade of being in control and having it all together give away their true nature and that nature is terrified of being out of control. Control freaks become really freaked out when they try even microdoses of these substances. And the more need they have to ‘be in control,’ the worse their experience always is. 

            I think in the next five to ten years in the United States, there is a great potential for psychedelics to become integrated into the alternative/holistic medical landscape for the treatment of PTSD, depression and anxiety as well as hardcore addiction. I’m kind of old school when it comes to the setting for these powerful medicines and I don’t necessarily think that a sterile, medical environment is the best setting for the experience. Ideally having the experience in nature or in a non-medical type place is ideal, in my opinion. Being closer to nature would be my preference to an indoor room where you’re lying on a couch with eye shades and an air conditioning unit humming in the background. But I do understand the reality of making this available on a more widescale basis means that you will lose some of that essence in order to create a safe and controlled container for the experience. 

            As someone who has come full circle regarding sacred plant spirit medicine, I can attest that when I see someone who has gone through a deep transformative session or trip and who has emerged into what I would call their Light, it is seen through their eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul and I saw this in someone just the other day and it always makes me smile and simultaneously stand back in awe of the power that these types of sacred plants can imprint on the psyche when the person is willing and open to whatever they need to experience. For some reason, they always appear younger to me and it’s through the eyes. There’s a softening in the eyes. Harshness is gone. Pain is gone. There’s a calmness but it’s so deep. It’s as if their soul has been both comforted and allowed to become exalted through the physical experience they agreed to go through. And when they take that experience and maintain the changes that they need in their life, everything shifts for them. The psychic burden is no longer there. The darkness that has plagued them for their entire life is lifted. And I guess it’s a peace that descends. But in order to obtain that peace, they had to face the darkest parts of their psyche and they had to do it with intention and bravery and this agreement within themselves that whatever they encounter is there to teach them something, no matter how much it may terrify them. They didn’t get caught up in the colors or the spirals or shapes that is the eye candy for the recreational user. They chose to follow the dark figure in the corner of their mind’s eye because they knew that the thing they perceived as dark or frightening, is only presenting itself in that shape because it represents something else that they never were brave enough to face and experience. And the enlightenment that they receive from that experience, always looks beautiful on them. 

That’s all for this week. Thank you for choosing to listen to this show. Keep emailing me all your great emails with your questions for the upcoming show I’m putting together. Share this podcast with others and follow me. Check out the notes for this episode where you’ll see the links to find me on Instagram and X @laureldewey or thealchemyofnaturalhealing. On all the show notes, I’ve included the companies I support and have helped me greatly in my healing process, so check that and look for the coupon codes. Looking forward to you joining me next week for Part 2 of the series, when I do a deep dive into cannabis and psilocybin. New episodes drop every Saturday. Until then, remember that “Awareness is a demanding mistress. Once she wakes you up, she won’t let you go back to sleep.”