Thank you plant medicine…
I have been thinking a while about what exactly I would share for this event. A lot has come to mind over the last few weeks but at the core of it I want to declare: I am an advocate for plant medicine, psychedelics, and for the responsible, ethical, use of these medicines from a place of integrity.
A little about my story, during college I had my first experiences with psilocybin mushrooms, and they were fantastic. Thankfully the people with whom I was tripping with were good friends and there was a healthy dynamic between all of us. Having never worked with psychedelics and knowing nothing about intention, set & setting, energetic space or maintaining a clean energetic space this was probably the best possible group of people to trip with. Needless to say that first experience “cracked me open”. It rekindled my passion for philosophy, phenomenology and set the stage for the rest of my college experience. It would then be a few years until I encountered/was called to the world of Ayahuasca.
In 2012 I had finished Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, 2,185 miles from Georgia to Maine. I had initially left my job as a financial advisor because I could just tell something was off. While working as a financial advisor I was feeling unfulfilled and in-authentic. During that time, I got caught up with and addicted to my Adderall prescription. The call to the trail was my soul letting me know something was wrong; wrong with my lifestyle, with how I was treating my body, with my relationship to myself and self-love. After the trail I was still quite lost, I felt accomplished having achieved my goal, but I ended up taking and abusing my Adderall prescription again.
During the hike I was fortunate to meet a wonderful stranger who talked to me about Ayahuasca. I didn’t learn much about it other than it was an amazing experience and had really brought a lot of joy to this stranger’s life. I was rather ignorant and at the time I had no idea DMT was one the active ingredients in the tea. (A little aside, a few weeks into hiking I carved the DMT molecule structure into my walking stick.) November after the completing the trail, I traveled to go experience my first round of ceremonies. Needles to say it was beyond expectations. It was one of the biggest heart openings of my life. I remember the morning after the first ceremony proclaiming in the mirror “I am so fucking happy to have a body!” among other things. Now this was not a one and done experience with healing, but it was a catalyst that propelled me to make dietary and some lifestyle changes. Those changes lasted a while, but it was not until another ceremony a few months later did I truly see the damage that Adderall was causing me. After that ceremony I got rid of my prescription.
For this I want to express my gratitude to plant medicine. Express gratitude for time and time again teaching me that I am whole as I am, that I am loved, worthy of love, and can express love. My healing over the years has been like a cha-cha. Dancing two steps forward and one step back. With the help of plant medicine, I learned to have compassion and patience for myself and my journey.
With all that I just want to leave this blog on this point. Plant medicine is an amazing tool, it is not a cure all and they are not for everyone. Plant medicines are teachers, and like teachers they will not do the work for us. We have to claim our sovereignty and own our responsibility in order to make and be the change that we wish to see in our lives and the world.
Thank you plant medicine for changing my life for the better and always reminding me of who I truly am.