Cultivate Your Wisdom as an Integration Professional. Join 13k+ subscribers to Red Things on Tuesday. Every week, you'll get a small, curated collection of music, tips, and psychedelic insight on how to move through this ever evolving psychedelic space.
Fungi, Algae, Human, Dancer? - Red Things on Tuesday
Are we fungi, or are we algae?Lichen. It's fascinating. Until just the other day, I thought it was a single organism. It came up in a conversation with a client, who explained that it's a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae. Algae is capable of photosynthesis, which provides energy, nourishing the lichen. The fungus offers structure, it's the reason the lichen is able to live on rocks and trees. Without the contributions of both, lichen wouldn't be able to thrive in such a wide variety of environments. Other than being fascinating on it's own, what does this have to do with our work. So glad you asked. We were also talking about Michael Pollan's new book, "A World Appears." We were discussing the age-old question, does the brain generate our thoughts, or does it act more like a receiver? Does consciousness originate in the brain, or does consciousness precede our biology? Oh, we're lichen. It's both. Why can't we be at least as complex and interesting as glorified moss? (Is that a slur? a lichen slur? I sincerely apologize.) There are parts of us that are sensitive to the field of information that is constantly pulsing around us. There are parts of us that are attached to the rock of our material form. Makes perfect sense to me. You're a lichen. I mean, really, we're obviously even a more complicated consortium than lichen, but it's a fun mental model to help stretch our ideas about what we might be. It's good practice to see how we can move from either/or thinking to both/and. To consider that there are ways to build models and systems that include many positive, if not seemingly contradictory, aspects, motivations, and values. In our coaching training program, we learn something called Polarity Management. It's a process for integrating two seemingly opposite yet positive forces. Like innovation and scalability. Like freedom and security. Like the desire to serve the people who need service the most, and the need to make a decent living. These are all polarities. Once you learn the process, you start seeing them everywhere. Everything in our lives needs balance. Too much altruism can leave us feeling burnt out and used up. Too much self-interest, and we might lose sight of our values or damage our relationships. We need both, in the right measure. This is how we work. This is part of being an integration coach. Our Coaching Training Program, starting in September. If you're interested in becoming a Psychedelic Integration Coach, you can shoot me an email or come to the training session on April 17th Training Info SessionFriday, April 17th at 3pm Eastern time: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mt-tam-psychedelic-integration-coaching-training-info-call-tickets-1986355021340?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true Are we human, or are we dancer? I know it's cheesy, but sometimes things pop into my head. Lichen New Jon Hopkins The Golden Road - Mentorship, Peer Support, Supervision, and Skill Building for Serious Psychonauts and Healing ProfessionalsThe Golden Road has evolved into a wonderful group of practitioners. We meet every Thursday at noon eastern, and there are monthly masterclasses as well. There is also a large archive (over 200 hours) of psychedelic education and past talks. The wonderful people who show up share not only their journeys, but the journeys of those they steward. It's become a place of learning, support, accountability, and peer review. Folks are learning some things from me, but they are also learning from each other. We all face unique challenges as we work in this space, and it's great to have a place where we can bring them for non-judgmental feedback and reflection. You're invited. Click here to join Golden Road Masterclass - Tuesday, April 28th at 4pm Eastern TimeMeeting the Medicine: Holding Integrity with Psychedelics w/ Jennifer AllenWestern culture’s version of integrity is set, setting and integration. These are a translation of the reverence many indigenous people have held for millennia with plant medicines. In our two-hour class, we will explore the growth spiral relationship between set and integration, how both ask us to create bridge practices to and from non-ordinary states of consciousness and how we can align with the nature of these medicines to reveal truths vs escape them. We will engage energy practices and bridge practices. Please have a few sheets of paper and basic colored art media (ie. pencils or markers). About Jennifer: After a full career as a trauma informed psychotherapist and art therapist, Jennifer shifted to psychedelic integration and ketamine assisted psychotherapy. She found this to be the perfect weaving of her clinical background, creativity and spiritual path as a student of shamanism and earth-based traditions. Register here - free for golden road members, $30 for the general public - forever access to the recording The Tam Integration Coaching Training Program - Fall CohortThis cohort is full, and we're now interviewing for the fall session. If you're interested, fill out this form, and we'll reach out soon: https://forms.gle/oB9Xk6RrkDE6xtsV9 Learn More Here: https://tamintegration.com/psychedelic-coach-training/ Info Session, Friday, April 17th at 3pm Eastern time: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mt-tam-psychedelic-integration-coaching-training-info-call-tickets-1986355021340?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true DisclaimerNothing in this email should be considered medical or legal advice. We're not suggesting that you break any laws or do anything dangerous. This email is offered as education and entertainment in the spirit of harm reduction. Consult medical and legal professionals if you have questions. Sometimes, there are affiliate links in this email. It helps support this project. Thank you! |
Tam Integration
Cultivate Your Wisdom as an Integration Professional. Join 13k+ subscribers to Red Things on Tuesday. Every week, you'll get a small, curated collection of music, tips, and psychedelic insight on how to move through this ever evolving psychedelic space.
Every Time a Guide Asks For Consent, An Angel Gets Its Wings I love a good savasana adjustment as much as anyone. Pull my shoulder blades down, lengthen my neck, maybe swing my legs a bit. It's the best. I got one today. It was awesome. And something that made it so sweet, and maybe a little unexpected, was when the teacher came over, they touched my shoulder gently and said, "May I?" Oh, by all means! We speak a lot about consent in social and relational circles, but it's a fairly new...
Holding the Psychedelic Container I met with our local psychedelic society over the weekend, and we discussed the importance of a good container. We discussed the finer points of what makes a container a container, namely: Intention (Why does this container exist? What are the shared motivations and values of the people in it?) Ethics (What are the agreements and expectations shared by the people in the container) Responsibilities (Who is in charge or what? Who is taking care of whom?)...
You're the common denominator of all your problems One of the most beautiful parts of this work is realizing how our beliefs limit our reality. There are some who love to intone the sacred adage, "your beliefs create your reality," but I think this perhaps misses the mark. It's only half the story. It's more likely that our beliefs limit our reality. This explains why there are scads of new agers staring into mirrors, desperately chanting "I am abundant" while noting changes. Opportunity...