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The Psychedologist

Culture

The Psychedologist is consciousness positive radio. This show engages with topics of psychology, non-ordinary states of consciousness, culture, sexuality, sustainability, wellness, and community. Sometimes all at once... and, sometimes with special guests!

Location:

United States

Genres:

Culture

Description:

The Psychedologist is consciousness positive radio. This show engages with topics of psychology, non-ordinary states of consciousness, culture, sexuality, sustainability, wellness, and community. Sometimes all at once... and, sometimes with special guests!

Language:

English


Episodes

Body Autonomy with J and Melodie

3/13/2024
The first ​episode of a two ​part series, with contributors to Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use! In this conversation, Melodie and J share so many nuggets of wisdom and experience from the realms of sex work, drugs, gender, religion/spirituality, consent and altered states of consciousness. Melodie Garcia, MPA is the Co-Director for New Moon Network, an activist-led intermediary funder and capacity builder advancing sex workers' rights in the USA. Melodie is a published author, speaker, and nonprofit strategist with over 12 years of experience leading social justice projects ranging from direct services to advocacy to philanthropy. At the intersection of people, policy, research, and creativity is where you will find longtime sex worker J Leigh Oshiro-Brantly. As a multi-racial Ryukyuan non-binary trans person who has lived with disabilities, poverty, food/housing instability and violence, they have brought this experience to their research and advocacy. J loves to support their sex worker and survivor communities by serving at organizations like New Moon Network and the Ishtar Collective. Links: Preorder Body Autonomy! https://www.newmoonnetwork.org/ https://www.ishtarcollective.org/ J Leigh IG: @‌dominartrix Melodie Twitter: @‌theworld_onfire Melodie IG: @‌melodiekk

Duration:01:01:40

Whole Medicine with Rebecca Martinez

2/17/2024
The riveting Rebecca Martinez in a conversation about her new book, Whole Medicine! In this episode you will hear about the natural world as central in the conversation about people, plant medicine, ethics and expanded states; Alma Institute; being on both sides of the altar; power, harm and responsibility; normalizing conflict; a wish for this book to educate and empower the psychedelic naive; shrinking the power dynamics between facilitators and journeyers; and a pondering of, how are the medicines doing? Finally, Rebecca reads an excerpt from Whole Medicine for us. I highly recommend the book! Link to purchase in the show notes. Rebecca Martinez is a Chicana parent, writer, community organizer, and social entrepreneur living in Portland, Oregon. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Alma Institute, a nonprofit educational institution that equips trainees from marginalized communities to become legal psilocybin facilitators. She is also the author of Whole Medicine: A Guide to Ethics for Psychedelic Therapy and Plant Medicine Communities, published by North Atlantic Books in 2024. She is a voice on psychedelic justice and has been featured in NPR, Business Insider, STAT News, Lucid News, and Psychedelics Today. Links: Order Whole Medicine Alma Institute Rebecca's Website Rebecca's Instagram https://www.psychedelicsafetyflags.com/

Duration:00:48:53

Ayize Jama-Everett Returns

1/22/2024
Ayize just released his final book of the year, Box of Bones: Book Two. By popular demand, he comes back on the podcast for a part 2! We discuss, “what is evil?” and Ayize shares some stories from his work as a counselor, therapist and spaceholder. He says that evil could perhaps be defined as “that which does not lend its support to the life cycle.” I hope you enjoy this elaboration on the rich topic we unearthed in our first podcast conversation (the episode before this one)! Links: A Table of Our Own Ayize’s writing Therapy/psychospiritual work with Ayize A Table of Our Own on IG Buy Box of Bones Book 2

Duration:00:48:27

A Table of Our Own with Ayize Jama-Everett

11/11/2023
Ayize Jama-Everett holds three Master’s degrees: Divinity, Psychology, and in Fine Arts, Writing. He blends these degrees in all his work, often identifying as a guerilla theologian, a community-based therapist, and an afro-futurist in the same breath. He’s taught at Starr King School for the Ministry, California College of the Arts, The University of California, Riverside, Western Colorado College, and several private High schools for over twenty years. His expertise includes working with adolescents, the history of substance use in the United States, the history of Sacred Plant medicines in the Maghreb, the religious roots of political violence from Ireland to the Middle East, educational arts pedagogy, and Afrofuturism. He’s published four novels (The Liminal series )and two graphic novels(Box of Bones and The last Count of Monte Cristo). As an associate professor at Starr King, he teaches The Sacred and the Substance, a course that examines the role of consciousness altering plants in religions around the world. He also coordinates the Psychedelics and the Seminary lecture series for Starr King, which invites luminaries from the Psychedelic world to discuss their orientations to faith and religion. Ayize is the producer of a documentary about Black people and psychedelics entitled A Table of Our Own. His shorter works can be found in the LA Review of Books, The Believer, and Racebaitr. He is a Board member of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, leading their initiative to look at the role of psychedelics in the mental health of People of color and poor people. Ayize also serves as a board member to Access to Doorways, a non-profit committed to increasing the number of Queer and BIPOC people involved in psychedelics at every stage. In addition, he serves as a board-level advisor to Psychedelics Today, focusing on their VITAL psychedelics training program. He’s also served in an advising capacity at UC Berkeley Center for psychedelic science, has been a guest lecturer at the California Institute of Integral Studies Psychedelic Therapies and research center, and was a featured speaker at Stanford’s first Psychedelics and design symposium. A Table of Our Own is a groundbreaking documentary about Black People and Psychedelics/Plant Medicine. Although Ayize wears many hats, from therapist to writer to professor, filmmaking was not something he ever saw himself doing. He shares about the process of seeing this project through, including the fact that no major psychedelic organizations put forth support to make it happen. Through discussion of one of his books, Box of Bones, the topic of stories arises - who gets to tell the stories, and why? The cornerstone of therapy is, what stories are you telling yourself, and why? Stories always reinforce a narrative. Adjacent to this and the discussion of evil, Ayize pushes back on the “hurt people hurt people” trope - not all hurt people hurt people. Some hurt people hurt people, some hurt people protect people, help people, say “never again, I’m not going to let that happen to me or anyone else.” During and following this conversation, I find myself reflecting on the position of privilege that is to take a stance that evil does not exist. In the context of harms in community, Ayize puts forth that people who want to avoid conflict will ask what was going on for that person who caused harm? You get to ask the question because you haven't been hurt. The conversation winds down with a tip of the hat to speaking the truth, and all of the people who have come together to birth A Table of Our Own. Links: A Table of Our Own Ayize’s writing Therapy/psychospiritual work with Ayize A Table of Our Own on IG “The greatest tool the colonizer has is the mind of the colonized” - Franz Fanon

Duration:01:02:47

Love Beyond Binaries with Kai Cheng Thom

10/15/2023
A riveting and dynamic conversation about love, community and complexity with the phenomenal Kai Cheng Thom! We hear about her act of prayer in a collapsing world: FALLING BACK IN LOVE WITH BEING HUMAN, a book of poems and rituals for connecting with the unlovable in ourselves and others. Kai Cheng shares about her early experiences with being conscious of consciousness, daydreaming and intentionally projecting self into another world, and wondering, 'is this the real reality?’. A thread of nonbinaristic thinking weaves throughout the episode. We hear about led Kai Cheng to writing her most recent essay, The Village and The Woods, a venture into inquiring about a problem with no name. This essay explores the anatomy of the cycle of social panic: how community, initially a place of refuge, can turn more and more horrifying; the seductive urge to raise ourselves “above” and maintain that above status, even (especially?) in social justice communities; the importance of going more slowly and resisting the urge to dive into that swift right/wrong pattern. Can we really tell the story, slowly understand all of the different threads of what happened? What are the extenuating factors? Recognizing that abuse is about power, Kai Cheng offers a meta and a micro example of how we can train our sense perceptions to hold onto multiple threads in a story and hopefully gain a holistic understanding of what’s going on. Holding onto complexity - which can be difficult with activation and trauma - and tending to our own nervous systems and the collective nervous system, especially involves the responsibility held by the bystanders, and the capacity for nuance. That egregious harm is real, that the monster/innocent binary doesn’t allow us to address different grades of harm, and that we all deserve to be able to say “I am hurt right now, I was let down, and I need community,” and be met with support. We transition back to poetry, and being in touch with the wild divine. Kai Cheng reads Leia’s favorite poem from the book (and, perhaps, favorite poem ever), To Jesus. We muse on the beauty and power of ritual and symbolic action, and on personal relationships with the divine. Bio: Kai Cheng Thom, MSW, MSc, is a certified Somatic Sex Educator, Qualified Mediator, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Certified Professional Coach based in tkaronto/Toronto. She is also the author of six award-winning books in various genres, including the recently released poetry and self-help collection Falling Back In Love With Being Human. Kai Cheng's work focuses on the intersection of social justice, pleasure activism, and transformative approaches to healing conflict. A noted speaker and practitioner of somatic wellness, healing, and group process facilitation, Kai Cheng supports individuals and groups who are seeking to repair relationships and make transformative change. She also teaches as Adjunct Faculty at the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sex Education. Links: Kai Cheng Thom Arise Embodiment The Village and The Woods Instagram

Duration:00:52:36

The Magic and the Mundane with Soma Phoenix of Psillygirls

9/7/2023
I’m a huge fan of Soma and Psillygirls! She graces the podcast with her brilliant presence. Topics include the deliciousness of air, magical thinking, the balance of dreaming/wishing while having two feet on the ground in this reality. Soma appears in the documentary A Table of Our Own, which you can catch at the Grand Lake Theater this Wednesday, Sept 13 2023 at 7PM! Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-table-of-our-own-fundraiser-tickets-679867601297?aff=oddtdtcreator Can’t make the fundraiser? Please consider Donating! (in the note, write: A Table of Our Own) https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=PZXHTWF9ZYFYA This is a fundraising viewing for the film, which premiered to a standing room only crowd at Psychedelic Science this past June. If you attend the fundraiser in Oakland, you will not only have the chance to witness the impactful documentary first hand, but also contribute to the ongoing efforts to raise awareness about the potential benefits of plant medicine and the connection Black people have to it. In this episode, Soma shares about letting our strengths lead us and working holistically, from the root to the fruit. We discuss colonization and this larger cultural turning point we find ourselves in - recognizing that water, air, and the climate are incredibly precious and are in danger for everyone. We gush over our love for the plants and the mushrooms (all of them, but specifically tulsi, cordyceps and cannabis), and Soma imparts some wisdom from her experience cultivating medicine. We talk about having reverence and being in intentional relationship with the plants and mushrooms we work with, paying mind to patterns of “using” them that can lower our frequency and make us stagnant. The conversation wraps up with a nudge for all of us to “remember your why.” Bio: Soma Phoenix is a psychedelic researcher and integration consultant who works with individuals seeking healing from trauma and spiritual transformation. As an attorney, Soma advocates for drug policy reform and supports the idea of cognitive liberty, or freedom to explore consciousness on our own terms. Soma provides private integration support services and is the founder of Psillygirls, an organization devoted to community building, spiritual support, and discourse around psychedelic experiences and insights. LINKS Patreon PsillyGirls Website Tinctures A Table of Our Own https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-table-of-our-own-fundraiser-tickets-679867601297?aff=oddtdtcreator

Duration:00:48:46

A Deep Dive into Midnight Water with Dr. Katherine MacLean

8/30/2023
A deep, thoughtful and bright conversation with Dr. Katherine MacLean, my friend and colleague! Love is the starting point for this episode. Katherine shares wisdom from her experiences with life, death, psychedelics and forgiveness. We talk about how lower doses of medicine can also be healing. Katherine shares about the psychedelic experience of publishing a personal memoir, Midnight Water, and the process that led her to choosing to write the truth. The conversation flows through more themes: being reborn, working with recognizing, owning and releasing burdens. At a certain point, Katherine stopped trying to exile or destroy the parts of her consciousness that were tormenting her, and befriended them, after recognizing that “there might be another way.” She shares about how a story can be like water, and about the magic of mist. We discuss the medicines as having character, personality, intention. Hooray for the Psychedelic breadcrumbs! Katherine speaks to the miracle of letting go of one way of trying to heal yourself, which often pits you against the problem. We explore the idea of monsters as invisible, ever present aspects of our own minds. The topic shifts to forgiveness, and Katherine reads from a chapter of Midnight Water. Links: https://www.katherinemaclean.org/midnight-water Katherine MacLean, PhD is a writer, research scientist, mother and adventure-seeker. She has spent the past two decades studying the effects of mindfulness meditation and psychedelics, surviving motherhood, and learning a lot about death and grief. Her debut book covering all of this terrain - Midnight Water: A Psychedelic Memoir - is available in print (now) and audio formats (soon).

Duration:00:52:40

Finding pleasure in the spirals of healing with Ariel Szabo

8/16/2023
Ariel Szabo, a midwife of intimacy and connection, and dear friend, comes on the podcast for a deep and yummy conversation about pleasure, grief and spirals. In this episode we discuss imagination, dearmoring, vulnerability, conflict as an opportunity to get closer, and the practice of using pleasure to integrate all parts of us. Ariel shares about bodywork and the gift it offers through giving and receiving it, seeing people come alive when they give themselves permission to express themselves fully. We hear about genital de-armoring, a practice that brings presence and loving connection to our body's resistance and blocks to liberate them. The conversation turns to a discussion of shame and grief. We talk about masturbation, the commonness of childhood sexual abuse and Ariel’s journey of healing and integration. We celebrate the magic of mirror work. The conversation, unsurprisingly, turns to plants and how much we love them. Plants as teachers, showing us possibility, plants resourcing us to feel. We touch on how colonization has impacted us in our bodies and as a society, and the beauty in reclaiming our inherent belonging with the plant, animal and fungi kingdoms. Ariel shares about two upcoming offerings as well - Temple of the Womb, a six week in-person immersive in Salem, MA this fall and an Ayahuasca & Huachuma Plant Medicine retreat in Peru in March 2024. Bio: Ariel is dedicated to walking with people back to their bodies, their hearts, and their souls. Formally trained as a sexological bodyworker, somatic sex educator, and psychedelic therapist; all in service of supporting people in remembering their inherent value and belonging. She weaves together spiritual and western teachings, integrating the wisdom she receives from the consciousness of the plants and elements she sits with and western knowledge on working with the nervous system and trauma. Links: IG - @‌sacredmoonflower www.sacredmoonflower.com https://www.sacredmoonflower.com/temple-of-the-womb https://www.awamayu.com/return-to-the-womb

Duration:00:45:38

Listening inside of the silence with Spirit Traveler

8/2/2023
Spirit Traveler, my beloved twin and much admired role model, comes on the podcast for an enlightening conversation about getting the lesson, giving thanks and keeping it moving! Topics include growing up in Detroit, day dreaming and cloud gazing; how she got her name; being sensitive and intuitive, finding support and mentorship to understand and develop her gifts; changing perspective about food and the energy and vibrations that come along with anything we consume or do; being the vessel. Spirit also shares about saying thank you for those who are responsible for who I am; pausing and giving thanks, being present, and giving back to community. “Each moment can be as good as you allow it to be.” “Remember to take the same medicine that you give others.” “Death is sad, though through understanding life’s cycles, it is a blessing.” We talk about singing and tap dancing, and Spirit expresses her views on how being technical can stifle us from being fully self expressed. We can be mindful not to let the laws and rules restrict our full self expression, our art. Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference Links: We’re All Doing Time - https://humankindness.org/product/were-all-doing-time-by-bo-lozoff/

Duration:00:57:45

Where Land Based Healing and Addiction Recovery Meets Psychedelic Ceremony

7/24/2023
Leia reads an article that she wrote for DoubleBlind Magazine. This reading is the unabridged version of the article. An edited version, titled Why Connecting to the Earth May Be a Vital Part of Psychedelic Healing, is available at https://doubleblindmag.com/permaculture-healing-sacred-rebels-recovery/

Duration:00:16:48

Shades of Awareness: Exploring Racial Consciousness with Claude King, LCPC

6/23/2023
Claude L. King is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Employee Assistance Consultant based in the Chicagoland Area with 13 years of experience in the mental health field. He specializes in working with teens, young adults, and working professionals with a focus on work-life balance, employee mental health, emotional regulation, stress-management, mindfulness, positive parenting, and healthy masculinity. In addition to his therapy practice, Claude is the founder of CK Psych and conducts trainings and workshops on various mental health and wellness topics for corporations and community-based organizations. Through his work, Claude is committed to promoting mental wellness, improving emotional health, and empowering individuals to live their best lives. In this episode, Claude shares that his earliest experiences with consciousness were around race. As he grew up, he recognized that the phenomenon of race extended beyond physical appearance, to things that had happened historically and even that were still happening now, such as educational disparities. He questioned why this was the case. Now he works as a therapist, with a passion for men’s mental health, specifically men of color. We discuss Gabor Mate’s insight about trauma being not what happens to you, but what happens inside of you as a result of what happens to you, and that having support can make a huge difference in processing difficult or traumatic experiences. Claude wants people to know that therapy is a process, that it’s not necessarily an immediate deep dive into one’s darkest traumas and secrets. It takes time to build rapport and develop trust, and that is part of the therapeutic process. We touch on shame, the stigma around mental health, trying to conform our authentic selves into the norms society deems to be appropriate, and the need for therapists to recognize the societal context we are in and to look at how it's impacting us and our mental health. Finally, we discuss honoring the coping mechanisms that we’ve had to develop out of survival as an integral part of shifting into new coping mechanisms and ways of looking at the world, and giving ourselves grace as we learn something new. Links: https://www.instagram.com/ckpsych Claude King, LCPC (@ckpsych) | TikTok (24) Claude L. King, LCPC | LinkedIn website: www.ckpsych.com

Duration:00:44:15

Megera Magic

6/8/2023
A dear friend comes on the podcast to discuss all things kink and BDSM! bondage /dominance/sadism or submission/masochism Links: https://altsexnycconference.org/about/ https://www.instagram.com/whoisbellaluna/reels/

Duration:00:51:08

Land Based Healing, Holistic Recovery and Permaculture at Sacred Rebels Recovery

5/22/2023
Makena and Sapha are the founders of Sacred Rebels Recovery, a project supporting individuals in recovery from addiction through land based treatment and plant medicine in Peru, in association with Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. According to the International Journal of Indigenous Health, land-based healing is a culturally defined practice, program, or service that takes place in an urban nature-based, rural, or remote location, on a land base that has been intentionally spiritually cultivated, honored, and respected (Hanson, 2012). The land is situated as firmly relational within an Indigenous pedagogy, and is understood to be an active “partner to the person or people engaged in the healing process” (Hanson, 2012, p. 2). Steps are taken to identify how an individual or community’s relationship with the land, self, and others has been disrupted and how best to help renew this relationship (Laurie, 2013). This has also been referred to as “land-based intervention” in the literature (Walsh et al., 2018). Sapha and Makena discuss the importance of being in community, how they were first exposed to permaculture, and the magical way that gardens attract community and offer a meeting place for connection to spark. We also explore some ways that permaculture can be practiced, either to reproduce colonial systems or to deconstruct them. The conversation turns to addiction, and the prejudice that people who use psychedelics can face from the recovery community. Sacred Rebels Recovery is bringing together land based healing with community, both in the jungle and virtually. Sapha and Makena share about working alongside the local community village Llanchama (sounds like yawn-chama), which neighbors Nihue Rao, about 1 hour away from Iquitos by motocar/river boat. This collaboration adds value to the recovery journey, as knowledge and healing is shared and integrated. Sapha and Makena shared with me in an email that Sacred Rebels Recovery is indigenous owned and operated, and visitors/residents have the opportunity to access psychedelic therapy and permaculture during the inpatient treatment process, which is generally not available with treatment in North America. The modalities are traditional indigenous healing practices held in a traditional container by indigenous people. Land based healing abroad adds a layer of adventure to the experience and an opportunity for the individual to be away from the city or town they used drugs in for an extended period of time. They also get the chance to experience a different culture, art, spirituality, and way of life. Their time away gives the family or closest care of the individual seeking treatment a break and ability to create healthy distance to allow space for healing on both sides. Seeking treatment internationally can also be more cost effective. Sapha and Makena’s intention as stewards of the land is to develop food forests and systems that can thrive with native medicinal and edible plants, so the local community can continue to cultivate and enjoy the fruits of the land for years to come. They are also hosting ayahuasca retreats and residential programs for individuals on a path of addiction recovery. The conversation also includes a discussion of the ways that ayahuasca and other native jungle plants have supported us in our individual recovery/mental health journeys. There were various candid appearances in the background of this episode, from people splitting wood, dogs barking, planes flying overhead, birds singing, motorcars, to other jungle creatures. Thank you for your patience and understanding :) Links: sacredrebelsrecovery.com IG: @‌sacredrebelsrecovery hello@sacredrebelsrecovery.com Youtube: @‌sacredrebelsrecovery

Duration:00:55:30

Loving Pause & Sacred Subtleties with Éva-Milan Zsiga / Coyote

5/4/2023
Éva-Milan Zsiga (aka Coyote) is a writer, preschool teacher, artist and mindfulness meditation facilitator interested in finding awe in the “mundane” and emanating reminders of meeting ourselves where we are. She is a holistic-health advocate and “jack of all trades,” learning to embrace her fullness and multitudes, with each breath - shifting nervousness to excitement and fear into fascination. Raised in Brooklyn, N.Y, Éva-Milan has had the honor to offer tools and techniques of mindfulness through her guided meditations for the past 7 years- in NYC, Mexico, and virtually- far and wide. Some things that tickle her soul & bring her joy are; -moss, frogs, & many animals (sparrows!) -communing with the ocean on a surfboard -the vagus nerve & learning more about the fascinating human brain -being barefoot -exploring nature -traveling the world" Links: Éva-Milan’s website: http://www.waterforease.com/sos Tumbleweed: www.tumbleweedbrooklyn.com https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/

Duration:00:58:30

Embracing Death with Ellen Wong

4/24/2023
Ellen Wong is a Chinese-American psychedelic death doula who guides medicine journeys, breathwork, sound and somatic root healing. She companions people in reclaiming life through facing death. She is a resident facilitator for DoubleBlind Magazine and The Ancestor Project, and co-creator of the “Woo Knew.” Podcast In this rich and potent episode, we discuss ancestral wounding around the sharing of emotions, embracing the light and dark within ourselves, accountability, developing the tools to sit with discomfort that comes with taking responsibility, anger and grief, technology, and astrology and revolution. Ellen shares about coming into a more loving relationship with religious trauma, representation in medicine spaces, death doula work, the mundane as the special sauce of life, and turning toward nature and her own intuition to direct her toward what feels resonant. Links: https://tripwithellen.com/ wearealldaughters.co IG: @‌tripwithellen moonomens.com

Duration:00:52:27

Sharing the Medicine with Caitlin Bernhard MSN, FNP

3/11/2023
Caitlin and I recorded this juicy and nourishing conversation over herbal tea in her home (you may hear her ancient kitty, Mimi, chime in occasionally). We talk about stories, masks, meditation and reiki, her relationship to the plants, eating with the seasons, food as medicine, herbs and astrology, the moon, cannabis, and microdosing various medicines (including those that are more famously known for macrodosing). A recurring theme in the dialogue is tapping into the enormous universe while dropping down into the earth, connecting to being a Being who is crossing these many and various plains of existence. Caitlin Bernhard, MSN, FNP is a radical wellness clinician and an expert in plant medicine and cannabis care. Caitlin has been an herbalist since she first started playing with plants and she has an extensive background in holistic health. She is also a Family Nurse Practitioner and Integrative Health Coach specializing in cannabis and preventative medicine. Combining her passion for science, plants, healing, and fun, she created Azalla Wellness & Education LLCs, her clinical practice and education platform. She resides in western Massachusetts, where she can be found watching for hawks and listening to rivers.

Duration:00:50:10

Supporting Others by Being Human with Karen Kieffer

2/27/2023
Karen Kieffer, my dear friend and colleague, comes on the podcast to talk consciousness and her journey with cancer. Bio: Karen Kieffer currently is. She is a trauma therapist, trainer, and integration coach, as well as mom, sister, daughter, friend, plant mom, and cancer egghead. She has lived in Massachusetts for over 30 years, but may soon become a nomad. In this episode: What is reality? Karen discusses out of body experiences, pleasure activism, and how culture shapes us. Karen mentions her path to social work, the experience of being disabled by depression, peer support, becoming trauma informed, becoming a therapist, and her present work. She shares about open dialogue, a systems approach to mental health and working with families. A theme of this conversation is supporting others by being human. Karen has also helped white people understand why issues of race can be so hard for us. We discuss somatics, complexity, resilient movements, and psychedelics. Links bell hooks - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/17/bell-hooks-obituary Resmaa Menakem - https://www.resmaa.com/ Pleasure Activism by adrienne marie brown - https://www.akpress.org/pleasure-activism.html Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkins - https://orphanwisdom.com/2021/10/31/kimberly-ann-johnson-interviews-stephen-jenkinson-on-spirit-work-conspiracies-elderhood-and-grief/ Talk about cancer Leia described in Intro: https://youtu.be/6VXTiI7eWD4

Duration:00:56:03

A Philosophical Talk about Consciousness with Facundo Raganato

12/21/2022
Facundo Raganato, writer, poet, artist, and philosopher comes on the podcast to talk about understanding philosophy through introspection and self-awareness. We talk about conscious dreaming, lucid dreaming, and how our being is ruled by the subconscious. Other topics include alchemy, astrology, empowering ourselves through adversity, and some of Facundo's work, including the book The Author, and his forthcoming game, The Mystic Mountain, which engages the player with different virtues. Leia reads a poem that recently touched her: The Ocean of my Life, by Antonella Russo-Ball. At the end of the episode, you'll hear music by Raganato! Links: IG, FB, twitter: @facundoraganato Bio: Facundo Raganato, award-winning author, composer, artist, alchemist & philosopher. He is dedicated to studying the bridge between Art and Spirituality and its integration for the growth of the soul. His books, music and artistic projects always aim to reflect awareness of the spiritual for the expansion of consciousness with the transcendence of our sacred humanity.

Duration:00:56:47

Reconciling the Self with Acacea Lewis

11/5/2022
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: FB - Akashic Thunder Insta: Acacea_Lewis

Duration:01:08:02

The Embodied Nature of Grief with Sherry Walling

10/7/2022
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