SOMA - Stories of Modern Awakening: Recent Episodes

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The horizons of psychedelic supported psychotherapy are constantly being expanded and reimagined, and this weeks’ guest is at the forefront of the research and clinical trial effort. Meet Dr. Steve Thayer, co-host of the Psychedelic Therapy Frontiers podcast, who joins us today to discuss the current psychedelic renaissance, where it’s going, and his unique role within it as a therapist specializing in PTSD and former member of the LDS church.

Introducing Dr Steve

• Steve’s background in the Mormon church and how he began to question his religion after experiencing a crisis of faith
• Steve makes a practical decision to pursue therapy over philosophy
• After researching psychedelics, Steve's first mushroom trip puts him in contact with his authentic self
• Steve considers how his psychedelically informed understanding of mindfulness could be applied to his therapy practice

Awakening and Religion

• The intellectual culture of Judaism and its emphasis on the spirit of inquiry and how it compares to the LDS church’s support of contemplative practices
• Steve describes where Mormonism “runs off the rails” for him - when you need a middleman between yourself and God
• Aaron shares his experience of camping with a group of ex-mormons at Burning Man

Psychedelics as Therapy

• LSD and psychedelics as tools to study the mind and learn about consciousness.
• How we can access an container of compassion of psychedelics where all things are permitted because they are human
• The importance of set and settings and psychedelics as “non specific amplifiers”
• Steve's experience of facilitating clinical trials for psychedelic treatment, including a life changing psilocybin experience

Approaches to Psychedelic Therapy

• The role of the psychedelic therapist in holding space with an agenda
• How to approach resistance during a psychedelic journey
• How to get started with psychedelic therapy and how triggers serve as opportunities
• The inner healing wisdom and how it applies to psychedelic therapy

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In 1962, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert bridged the spiritual and psychedelic discourse, introducing the concept of reliable entheogens to the contemporary psychedelic research effort. Today’s guest, a former staunch atheist, tells us how he stumbled into God Consciousness via a mushroom journey and his passion for sharing that experience with others.

Join our survey of psilocybin through various historical, cultural, and religious lenses as we interview Josh Leonard, co-host of the Pursuit of Infinity podcast. Is the iconography we experience under the influence of psychedelics inspired by ancient cultures? How do western religions and eastern philosophies align with mystical experience? And how can we make use of psychedelics to heal and deepen our connection with our romantic partners?

Explore these questions and more in this week’s episode.

Mushrooms & Awakening

• Rachel recounts how psilocybin brought attention to her internal dialogue and negative self talk
• Aaron talks about using journeywork to process relationship breakups
• Josh starts his psychedelic research with Terrance McKenna, Rick Strassman and Alan Watts
• Josh shares his first mystical breakthrough experience on mushrooms blew the doors open on his understanding of reality, values and god

Mushrooms in History, Culture & Religion

• Are the visuals on mushrooms influenced by ancient cultures or did these cultures influence the mushroom experience?
• How Josh's awakening on mushrooms aligns with western religion and eastern philosophies
• Atheism and the conception of God as the acknowledgement something larger than yourself
• Approaching mysticism from a scientific perspective and how your religious and cultural background influences your psychedelic experience

Mushrooms Saved My Relationship

• Josh describes the mushroom that saved his relationship
• The importance of set and setting and how Josh approached his partnered mushroom journey
• The telepathic experience of love and how we can experience the connection to our partners more deeply with the assistance of psychedelics

Reflections on Mushroom Journeys

• Aaron describes his gentle introduction to mushrooms that gave him insights into how his senses worked
• Rachel’s impression of her psilocybin experiences being suffused with divine energy
• Bad trips, why they happen, and how to navigate them skillfully

The Pursuit of Infinity Podcast

• YouTube.com/channel/UCPpwtLPMH5bjBTPMHSlYnwQ
• Instagram.com/PursuitOfInfinityPod
• Patreon.com/PursuitOfInfinity

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For many, intuition labels psychedelic experiences as threatening, knowing that character defects and shameful behaviors are bound to confront them under the influence. But what happens if we lean into that fear? What do the molecules have to teach us, and how can we heed their teachings?

After years of dissatisfaction and a cynical world view leading to psychological and emotional struggle, Jay Nelson was catapulted into the vulnerability of a life curiosity by way of an unintentional LSD overdose. From there, Jay became obsessed with the hard questions of consciousness, and began devoting his life, in partnership with his wife Lindy Nelson, to finding and sharing answers.

What is consciousness? What is its purpose? And how can we function most skillfully knowing its influence? Join us for this week’s episode as we sit down with authors and explorers Jay and Lindy Nelson to discuss their forthcoming creative nonfiction, Consciousness in a Nutshell.

Intro to Consciousness

• Jay’s recounts the near death experience that that cracked his brain open and started him on his quest to explore the nature of consciousness
• 350 micrograms of LSD and the experience of the never-ending moment
• Jay comes face to face with death and resists surrendering to his ego
• Jay’s brains reboots and he sees the layers of consciousness stack up

The Photoshop Layers of Reality

• Exploring the layers of consciousness and how psychedelics increase the permeability between the unconscious and conscious selves
• How the majority of our reality is constructed from memories and past experience
• Understanding the malleability of our internal experience and how to use that knowledge to rewrite our identity and past experiences
• The similarities in psychedelic accounts of dissolving ego identity and experiencing unity consciousness

Depression & Healing Through the Shadow

• The default mode network, how it helps us to navigate the world, and the dangers of getting stuck in the past
• Seeing depression as a disconnect between the feeling body and thinking mind
• How altered states serve to surface subconscious information that the conscious mind doesn’t want to face
• Accessing “possibility space” through altered states of consciousness and how to bring that awareness into daily life

Other Resources

• Consciousness in a Nutshell
• Jay's Theory of Depression

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So you’ve had a psychedelic or psychedelic adjacent experience. What comes next? This week we sit down with Beni Summers, Rabbinic Intern at Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Supports, to discuss psychedelic integration, float tanks, Buddhist psychology, and Jewish mysticism as we cultivate a deeper understanding of ecstatic states and the fruits they bear.

"Something that floating taught me was that I have, or that we as people, have the whole keyring with every key attached to our being. I used to think that you had to go out and find the keys, in a book, in a pill, in a song - and yes, they're out there but they are already inside of us." - Beni Summers

Jewish Psychedelic Integration

• Rachel intros Shefa and the Jewish Entheogenic Society and how it supported her during her psychedelic explorations
• Aaron shares his early experience with floating and how it reminded him of his first mushroom journey
• Beni explains Shefa’s origins in a John Hopkins study where high doses of psilocybin were given to clergy of different faiths

Beni’s Story of Awakening

• Beni shares an early experience of spontaneous awakening that occurred after getting lost in the Sahara desert
• Beni’s horrific experience with hash cookies and how it led to a deep curiosity around the nature of consciousness
• How Beni turned to the contemplative arts of mindfulness and meditation in order to integrate his experiences of expanded consciousness

Floating into Revelation

• Beni’s introduction to float tanks, his initial disappointment, and the opening he discovered after his third float
• How Beni became interested in altered states of conscious through doing research on Dr John Lily, the investor of the float tank
• How the Buddhist orientation to the mind describes what is happening to the self when we have spontaneous endogenous awakenings
• How the sensory deprivation of the float tank allows the mind to focus on areas that are normally attention deprived areas and allow for personal revelation
• Beni shares his advice on how to have a powerful float tank experience
• Rachel and Aaron share their own experiences of spontaneous awakening

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Does sexuality hold the key to healing our deepest wounds? Join us as we dive into the roots of our sexual identity to understand how our core desires originate from early traumas, and explore ways to heal through sex and relationships.

This week we sit down with, Celeste Hirschman, a sex therapist and co-creator of the Somatica Method. Celeste draws on her training in attachment psychology, sociology, gender studies, and body-based modalities to help individuals deepen into their experiences of pleasure, and realize their full potential.

Sex & Energy

• Aaron discusses his introduction to sexual healing and his background in sexological bodywork
• The Daoist perspective on sex & energy, and how men can learn to separate orgasm from ejaculation

Celeste's Journey into Sexuality

• How Celeste’s upbringing in a “hippie cult” gave her freedom to explore her sexuality and the power within it
• Celeste’s journey through higher education, and how it led her to human sexuality studies
• How taking responsibility for one’s own emotions in relationships contributes to long term intimacy
• How our core sexual desires originate from our deepest wounds
• Celeste discusses her research on oral sex among teenage girls
• Sexological bodywork and how it can be used for trance and emotional integration
• Celeste’s transition from sexual bodywork to a modality that included intimacy and relationships

Practical Advice for Sexual Empowerment

• Celeste talks about how to get in touch with core desires around sex and how to navigate that with a partner
• Rachel shares about her experience drawing connections between childhood wounds and corrective experiences and how that has played out in her relationships
• Aaron shares his experience and conflicts around spiritual sexuality, Tantra and energy
• Kink/BDSM and what dominant and submissive types get out of playing those roles
• How to explore safely when one has experience sexual abuse or trauma

Books by Celeste Hirschman

• Cockfidence: The Definitive Guide to Being The Man You Want To Be And Driving Women Wild
• Making Love Real: The Intelligent Couple's Guide to Lasting Intimacy and Passion
• Coming Together: Embracing Your Core Desires for Sexual Fulfillment and Long-Term Compatibility

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This week, we share the tale of a divine encounter with a psychic who weaves his wisdom in unique ways - and discuss how light and chaos work together in the process of healing and awakening.

Joseph Grayshock is a metaphysical healer whose craft was born of chaos and honed through difficult life experiences. We talk to Joseph about his personal story of awakening to psychic abilities and how that now informs his healing practice.

Whether it be crystals and chaos magick, yoga and meditation, psychadelics and spirits, or shamanism and voodo, we explore the myriad of tools that can be used to develop our psychic sensitivities - and discuss the benefits and pitfalls of being called to the healer's path.

Meeting Joseph Grayshock

• Aaron and Rachel share how they crossed paths with Joseph during an MDMA journey
• Rachel reflects on her previous experience with psychics

Developing Psychic Abilities

• Joseph describes the mind-body-spirit balance and how that opens us up to psychic abilities
• Joseph and Aaron discuss the balance between learning from a teacher and developing abilities though intuitive knowledge
• Tales of dubious healers and “the idea of being spiritual” vs being a clear channel

Healing Through Light and Chaos

• Joseph shares a story of healing trauma through his chosen modality
• Aaron describes the “karmic layer” and how it affects our life path
• Joseph discusses how choice, accountability and action contribute to our spiritual evolution
• How being in acceptance of both light and dark allows us to work with our shadow
• Finding a balance between bringing in light and working through chaos

Changing the World with Loving Awareness

• Rachel describes being able to access presence and acceptance through her meditation practice
• Brining prayer into meditation and how that creates a ripple effect of healing
• The nature of being healers who are called to do our part to wake up the world

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Can sex facilitate transformation and healing? And what role do sex workers play in this dynamic? Join us as we discuss sexuality as a vehicle for personal growth and the role of the sacred intimate in creating safety and acceptance around sexual space.

This week’s guest, David Wichman, is an award winning author, speaker, sex, love & intimacy guide, soundbath practitioner, and lover of all things wild. Driven by his deep compassion for individuals seeking healing and human connection, David found a calling in sex work, and then saw his practice evolve through the integration of ritual and sound healing.

While working with seniors, the differently abled, and those with severe intimacy issues, he discovered the profound transformational power that sex work creates for both client and provider. He joins us for this episode to share stories, insights, and wisdom around sacred sexuality and to discuss how we can leverage our sensual experience toward growth and healing.

"You can have the best diet. You can have all the exercise. You can be as healthy as you want. You can have a lot of money. And you can sit in meditation. And you can do all of the yoga... but if you're not being touched in a way that makes you feel fully and completely accepted, then there is a part that's missing." - David Wichman

Setting up for Sacred Sexuality

• Rachel reads the story of Pass-a-Million, a prostitute and bodhisattva who lived during the Buddha’s lifetime and used sex to heal
• David’s lifelong search for God and his underlying sense of brokenness
• The book that brought David to tears and began a shift in awareness around his wholeness
• Aaron and David discuss the concept of the essential self and “what if nothing needs to be fixed”
• David recounts his tumultuous upbringing and how he used to look for love outside of himself in God and religion

Sex Work and Sacred Intimates

• How David’s preaching on the importance of sex and touch as a basic human need turned to a focus on intimate connection
• Shame, unacceptability, and the pitfalls of expressing a sense of freedom around sexuality
• How sex can be a powerful tool for introspection and how sacred intimates guide people into this space
• David discusses the clients he sees and his role in showing up in complete acceptance
• The importance that touch and feeling accepted play in our whole health

David’s Initiation into Sacred Sex Work

• David teases how ayahuasca caused him to stop looking to be healed or fixed
• David’s pandemic explorations into meditation, chakras, and sound healing
• David shares the story of his initiation as a sacred intimate and how it made him realize that he was doing the work he was meant to be doing

Combining Sex and Ritual

• How ritual and flow states allow us to channel information for others
• David describes how introducing crystal bowls and sound healing modalities into his sessions transformed his work
• Rachel gets real about her hesitance representing a podcast about sex drugs and spirit
• Aaron explains why Tantric rituals are performed naked and how Vamachara Tantra differs from Neo-Tantra

Books by David Wichman

• Every Grain of Sand: a memoir

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A 2021 Gallup poll revealed that 49% of US adults have used marijuana at least once, but what percentage of those individuals use cannabis to facilitate self-discovery, integrate difficult emotions, or enhance creative pursuits? Join us for an honest conversation about the reality of cannabis use, and the possibilities available when one chooses to get high consciously.

In this episode we are joined by NYC native comedian, producer and writer, and co-host of Two Nosy Meerkats podcast, Gabby Jordan Brown to discuss how she has integrated cannabis into her creative pursuits, and how it has influenced her writing and performing. Aaron also provides insight into the energetic influence of cannabis, and introduces concepts for changing pre-existing, non-conscious relationships with the substance.

“I think the best comics are the people who really know themselves, but I don’t know if you can know yourself if you are pushing away that self knowledge… and when you smoke weed, you can’t not do that.” - Gabby Jordan Brown

Cannabis & the Creative Process

• The benefits of microdosing THC for creativity and focus
• Aaron talks about his experience attending a cannabis yoga event
• Rachel recounts how cannabis consciousness influenced her artwork

Introductions to Cannabis

• Gabby shares her unfortunate first experience of getting high
• Gabby discusses the way that cannabis has impacted her comedic performances
• Aaron recounts how his first experiences with marijuana evolved into personal journeys
• Rachel recounts the ceremonial construction of her first intentional cannabis journey after a meditation retreat

Yoga, Meditation, Sex & Other Spiritual Practices

• Gabby’s intro to yoga and how she benefits from her practice
• How Gabby’s mother being a sex therapist impacted her relationship to sexuality

Cannabis for Creativity

• Gabby talks about how she developed her comedy by analyzing comedians while high
• How smoking helped Gabby to take herself less seriously, and why she believes that makes her a better comedian

Using Cannabis Consciously

• Giving people new ways to approach cannabis consciously
• Aaron and Rachel share stories of using cannabis for intentional journeywork

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Can the release of endogenous DMT be the key to understanding the biblical prophetic experience? And how does one square modern psychedelic experiences of transcendence and mystical reality with religious conceptions of prophecy? Join us as we dive deeper into Rick’s Strassman’s theory of theo-neurology and his search for the connection between DMT and mystical experience in the context of the Hebrew bible.

Rick Strassman is an author, psychiatrist, and researcher whose groundbreaking research into the effects of DMT led him on a personal journey through tangled webs of academia, psychedelics, Zen Buddhism, and ultimately a return to his Jewish roots.

In this week’s episode we discuss the concept of prophecy and how it compares and contrasts to the psychedelic experience.
Rick Strassman gets biblical

• Rachel’s connection to Rick Strassman through the Jewish Entheogenic Society
• The relationship between Rick’s DMT research and his study of the prophetic experience in the bible
• Rick’s work of autobiographical narrative - Joseph Levy Escapes Death
• Rick’s upcoming book -The Psychedelic Handbook

The implications of shared experience on psychedelics

• Rick describes the similarities between prophetic experiences in the bible and the effects of DMT
• Rick suggests that the brain is designed in order to allow divine communication to occur, with endogenous DMT being the medium
• Shared reality in the psychedelic space and the dangers of “false prophecy”
• Rick shares his personal experience of shared hallucinations on cannabis

DMT, prophecy and the Hebrew Bible

• Similarities between buddhist and yogic philosophy and the biblical tradition
• Rick describes the universal truths of cause and effect and morality in the bible
• Rick and Aaron debate the reality behind the biblical story of the burning bush
• Rick on the difference between spiritual development and being worthy of prophecy
• Living Judaism through the interpretation of the spiritual message in the bible
• “Storming Heaven” - The difference between DMT experiences and the prophetic state

Books by Rick Strassman

• The Psychedelic Handbook
• Joseph Levy Escapes Death
• DMT: The Spirit Molecule
• DMT and the Soul of Prophecy

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Can DMT produce inherently spiritual experiences? This week we profile the work of Dr. Rick Strassman, whose seminal study on the effects of DMT set the stage for contemporary clinical psychedelic research.

Rick Strassman is an author, psychiatrist, and researcher for whom an interest in chemistry, psychology, and altered states fostered a passion to reduce suffering by finding the link between neurochemistry and spiritual experience.

In this episode, we talk with Rick about the early psychedelic experiences that inspired him to explore the function of these substances, and DMT in particular, in an effort to heal the world. We also discuss the limitations he faced pursuing these ends in an academic context, and how a dissatisfaction with what his study concluded about the link between DMT and spiritual experience led him back to his Jewish roots.

“I dropped acid and watched the sun go down, and I had this flash - I’m going to do psychedelic research. I’m going to cure humanity through a combination of drugs, meditation and Freud.” - Dr Rick Strassman

DMT - The Spirit Molecule

• DMT as a facilitator of mystical experience.
• Rachel rephrases Rick’s concept of DMT as a microscope or telescope in perceiving different levels of reality.
• Are DMT experiences generated in the mind or do they exist as an objective reality?
• Aaron discusses how spiritual practices like yoga, meditation, and energy work allow individuals to access deeper insight in altered states.
• How self perception influences the content of psychedelic, near death, and death experiences

Rick Strassman - Researcher and Spiritual Seeker

• Rick describes how being raised in an alcoholic family led him to introspection and psychological inquiry.
• Rick retells his first cannabis experience in college and how it got him interested in understanding the chemical underpinnings of psychedelic experiences.
• Rick shares how the intersection of his psychedelic experiences and descriptions of mystical states in Buddhist and Hindu scriptures led him on the search for a spirit molecule.

Psychedelics and Psychological Health

• Rick recalls accessing altered states as a child through music.
• Rick’s experience with psychotherapy and psychedelics and how that influenced his clinical work.
• Rick’s desire to pursue psychedelic research as a way to reduce suffering and increase happiness and how that conflicted with his academic trajectory

The Search for the Spirit Molecule

• Through research in melatonin, Rick discovers the pineal gland and DMT as a potential chemical medium for mystical experience.
• Rick travels to a psychedelic conference at Esalen and experiences DMT firsthand.
• Rick & Terrence McKenna create the scaffolding of the DMT study.
• Rick concludes that DMT is psychedelic, not inherently or pharmacologically spiritual.

The Biology of Spiritual Experience

• Rick’s search for a model that explained the DMT experience and how this led him back to his Jewish roots, and consequently, the prophetic model established by the Hebrew bible.
• Rick explains neuro-theology as the bottom up model where the brain gives the impression of having a divine experience that is evolutionarily advantageous.
• Rick coins theo-neurology as the top down model where the brain is designed to allow divine communication to occur.

Books by Rick Strassman

• The Psychedelic Handbook
• Joseph Levy Escapes Death
• DMT: The Spirit Molecule

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Could we be living in a simulated universe? Suspend your disbelief for 68 minutes as we consider the implications of what can be observed under the influence of DMT with the aid of a 650nm refractive laser, and explore a metaphysical discovery that could change the way we understand our world forever.

This week’s guest, entrepreneur and psychonaut Danny Goler was always interested in the big question. An early interest in physics set Danny on a psychedelic trajectory fueled by an undying commitment to scientific discovery. While many have postulated that DMT space is an objective and self-illuminated realm, Danny claims to have found a conclusive answer to this question.

In this episode, we explore the phenomenon of shared realities under the influence of psychedelics, and we ponder whether science can satisfactorily fill the gaps in our understanding of the psychosphere. And after having our minds blown, we find ourselves returning to the universal truths that led us on this journey in the first place.

“Your brain is simulating what you're seeing right now. This is not what reality looks like. This is a very tiny sliver of what your brain constructs into what you think is the physical world. So all you're saying here is that the simulation is not just occurring by the laws of physics, but that somebody is actually simulating it.” - Danny Goler

Psychedelics and the scientific method

• Aaron and Rachel introduce Danny’s theory that we are living in a simulation based on observations he’s made under the influence of DMT.
• Aaron and Rachel theorize potential causes behind shared phenomena in psychedelic states.
• Aaron discusses Qi as a metaphysical placeholder.

Danny Goler - Physicist, seeker and psychonaut

• Danny recounts his interest in physics and how it led him to the exploration of psychedelics.
• Danny shares how DMT differs from other psychedelics.
• Psychedelics as a “meaning expansion machine.”
• Exploring whether psychedelic experiences emerge from mind or are evidence of an independent, external reality.

Danny’s Introduction to DMT and his discovery

• Danny’s experience with Vipassana meditation and how it led him to DMT.
• Danny shares his first breakthrough experience of interacting with intelligent entities in DMT space.
• Danny recounts the story of how he was led to learn that that a 650nm refracted laser would show “something” while under the influence of DMT.
• Danny finds code running through material reality.
• Danny shares why he believes the experiment concludes we live in a simulation and proposes a direction for further scientific validation.
• Danny ponders the practical implications of his finding and how it has impacted his personal life.

Danny Goler: YouTube | Instagram

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Discover life from the left-handed perspective. Tantra Yoga teaches that our spiritual development can be supercharged through the intentional enjoyment of life’s many pleasures. In this episode, we are joined by psychedelic facilitator, qigong practitioner, and social entrepreneur, Scott Vineberg to discuss our love of all things left-handed. Plus, we explore the emerging consensus that psychedelic-assisted awakenings need not be difficult and confronting when aided by temperance and thoughtful preparation. Whether you are a newcomer looking to dip your toe in the waters of psychedelic experiencing, or a practiced sadhu already walking the path, this episode delivers wisdom and unique perspectives.