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Let’s talk Taylor, deepfake porn, and the queer community

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Call me backward, but my true introduction to the term “deepfake porn” came in January with the unsettling news of Taylor Swift becoming a victim of it. She emerged as the focus of what’s called, “image-based abuse” in January, where sexually explicit content is created using AI to realistically superimpose people’s faces onto bodies not their own. I was curious about it and with easy browsing, it didn’t take me long to find the repulsive internet images.

Please Don’t Subject Me to Torture

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I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately in the wake of the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. I often say I’m not afraid to die. Yes, I do love living – but I’m also fine with dying when the time comes.

Do shamans pick-up where gurus left off?

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It used to be an easy shorthand to describe somebody at the top of their game as the “guru” of fill in the blank… the tech guru, the marketing guru, the fitness guru, etc. In Western vernacular, “guru,” came to mean someone who possesses deep wisdom, experience, and insights, and is often sought after for guidance or advice.

Ritual smoke: Keeping it together in altered states

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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

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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

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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

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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

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“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. Of course, if that was an approach that worked, we wouldn’t have an epidemic of anxiety, depression and despair in our Western world.

Rinse & Repeat: War on Drugs? 

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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.

Why psilocybin alone isn’t enough

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“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. Of course, if that was an approach that worked, we wouldn’t have an epidemic of anxiety, depression and despair in our Western world.

BECCA WILLIAMS

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