Ritual smoke: Keeping it together in altered states
I was on time but without a moment to spare, so I sneaked into the back of the crowded yoga session right before the teacher, who was new to me, locked the doors. I plopped down on a cushion, closed my eyes and began taking long deep breaths like the rest of the class. Long, deep belly breaths. But not for long.
The cultural shift from pills to psychedelics
Take a pill and feel better! As Westerners that’s what we’ve been conditioned to do. No muss, no fuss! Just take the pill and be done with it! Of course, as we know for these “mood managing”medications, the trade-off is side effects. The side effect reported to me most frequently is the narrowing of the whole emotional spectrum.
For real? Demons, entities and psychedelic plant medicine
Demons – or spirit entities are a very real thing in the beliefs of indigenous cultures. And one of the beliefs is that whenever a person is in a state of altered consciousness, a portal can open for these malicious entities to “possess” a person – and maybe hang around long after. Having said that, we know that when a person takes psychedelics they are entering an altered state of consciousness.
Celebrating with my wise men
Hold your applause, but tomorrow, December 24th, is my birthday. I’m in good company with Santa and baby Jesus!
If someone asked me how old I feel I am, I’d say about 450 years. All the shit I’ve been through to get where I am today, I’ve moved mountains through centuries. You could say I’m a young 450-year-old. I stay in shape 😉
My pivot to cannabis & spirituality
“Oh no, microdosing psilocybin won’t do a thing for me!” he exclaimed, in total disbelief during our initial discovery session. He went on to tell me he was wrestling with grief and depression from his partner dying a couple of years ago and trauma from an abusive childhood. “I need something stronger to knock all that out!” he declared.
In our take-a-pill-and-feel-better culture, people just want relief by taking that pill – or a whole bunch of them….
Rinse & Repeat: War on Drugs?
Did you see? Last month the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and state police nabbed a 23-year old man. Well, I really want to call him a kid but of course I’m a woman of a certain age – so everybody seems pretty young these days to moi (that is eu in Portuguese, where I’m now living;) Anyway, the cops and DEA in Connecticut arrested 23-year-old Weston Soule for growing whopping amounts of magic mushrooms in his house.