Program Notes
Guest speakers: La Laurien & Shonagh Home
In this wide-ranging conversation between two experienced medicine women, in addition to talking about shamanism and psychedelic medicines, such as magic mushrooms, MDMA, LSD, and others, they also venture into such diverse areas as aliens and language. Most importantly, they talk about Atlan, which was co-founded by La Laurien. Atlan is a living and learning ecovillage dedicated to the artful co-creation of healthy living systems celebrating the connectedness and diversity of all Life. The village is located in the Columbia River Gorge.
MIRRORACLE (La Laurien’s Web site)
https://vimeo.com/68182209?width=800&height=600
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The 2007 Palenque Norte Lectures (video)
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Transcript
00:00:00 ►
Greetings from cyberdelic space.
00:00:19 ►
This is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in the psychedelic salon.
00:00:23 ►
And before I forget to mention this, I want to once again thank all of our donors this year
00:00:28 ►
and to assure you that the salon is in good shape for the rest of the year.
00:00:33 ►
And in particular, I want to thank the Bitcoin donors,
00:00:36 ►
several of whom I haven’t been able to send a thank you note to since Bitcoin is basically anonymous.
00:00:42 ►
Several Bitcoiners have sent me a note, but there are still a few of you that I’d like to send a thank you to.
00:00:47 ►
So if you’re one of them, please send your email address to lorenzo at matrixmasters.com.
00:00:54 ►
Also, in my original podcast about this year’s fund drive,
00:00:58 ►
I noted quite a few people who I thought had slipped through the cracks of my less-than-efficient filing system.
00:01:04 ►
As it turns out, however, there were only five people who were missed,
00:01:08 ►
and four of you should now have your thumb drives.
00:01:11 ►
However, as I was trying to get more efficient in my organization,
00:01:15 ►
I seem to have misplaced the address for that one last drive I need to mail out.
00:01:20 ►
So, if that’s you, please let me know.
00:01:23 ►
Now, let’s get to today’s program, which is another of our Medicine Women conversations.
00:01:29 ►
This time, our guests are Shana Holm, who you already know if you’ve been listening to these podcasts,
00:01:35 ►
and the other person is someone that you most definitely should know.
00:01:38 ►
Her name is LaLaurian, and she’s a longtime friend of mine.
00:01:43 ►
In fact, the program notes for today’s podcast,
00:01:45 ►
which you can get to via psychedelicsalon.us,
00:01:48 ►
there you’ll see a picture that Bruce Dahmer took of La and me
00:01:51 ►
at the 2002 Burning Man Festival.
00:01:54 ►
However, I’ve known La a lot longer than that.
00:01:57 ►
If my memory is correct, we first met at the Entheobotany Conference
00:02:01 ►
in Palenque, Mexico in January of 1999.
00:02:05 ►
And after we listen to the conversation that I’m about to play,
00:02:09 ►
I’ll be back with some stories about a few of the people who were also at that conference.
00:02:13 ►
A lot of interesting work has been done by the people who were there,
00:02:16 ►
and that, in fact, was the last year that Terrence McKenna made it to the conference.
00:02:21 ►
As you’re about to hear, Lelorian has covered a lot of ground since
00:02:25 ►
we first met, and she still has miles to go before she’s done.
00:02:32 ►
Hey everyone, welcome to another conversation between myself, Shauna Holm, and a very amazing
00:02:41 ►
medicine woman. And today I am so lucky because we’re not doing this via Skype.
00:02:48 ►
Actually, we did do this via Skype and I lost the recording. So we’re doing this in person.
00:02:53 ►
So I have at my kitchen table, a dear woman who I very much admire, La Lorien. And I am going to
00:03:08 ►
LaLaurian, and I am going to read to you her bio that she sent me.
00:03:17 ►
And just because she is an artistic woman of great depth, and there’s just so much to this, and so I will read this to you, and then we will have a discussion here.
00:03:23 ►
This is what she sent to me. She wrote,
00:03:25 ►
I’ve spent my life creating in the world, businesses, community, art, and all of the
00:03:32 ►
relationships and creationships inherent in the process. My spiritual practices have always
00:03:38 ►
included a variety of medicines as well as meditation, yoga, ayahuasca, shamanism, Hindu, tantra, Mayan, Zolkin, and living my life as art.
00:03:50 ►
As an artist, I have spent many years making ceramics, painting, batik, henna body art, and photography.
00:03:57 ►
As a writer, I have focused on poetry, and in particular, working with the formation of new worlds
00:04:03 ►
in the hope that by creating a new language of word magic,
00:04:07 ►
collectively we can take much larger steps towards solidifying a new culture and worldview
00:04:12 ►
in alignment with peace, harmony, freedom, and creativity.
00:04:18 ►
My website, called Mirror Oracle, will include art, writing, and new language,
00:04:23 ►
and will be up and running in a few months.
00:04:26 ►
I am part of the dynamic co-creation of an international community in the Columbia Gorge.
00:04:32 ►
Here is where all of the experiences of my entire life that include medicinal journeys,
00:04:37 ►
world travel, and businesses are called on to birth such an enormous project.
00:04:42 ►
Atlan is becoming an eco-village with a learning center, and our
00:04:47 ►
progress is slow and steady. What matters most to me is learning how to live and sharing the process
00:04:53 ►
with others. My inquiry into what life is and how it works fuels my spiritual path of art, medicine,
00:05:00 ►
and visionary community, and these pursuits fuel in turn my spirit unfolding.
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I believe that this quest is something we all share, however varied our approach.
00:05:12 ►
I work as a creative inspirer, helping people access transformation and move past blocks.
00:05:18 ►
I’ve experienced with some simple ritual containers for purposes of healing,
00:05:23 ►
giving personal counsel, and mediation for
00:05:25 ►
conflict. I’ve been leading integration circles with evergreen college students once or twice
00:05:31 ►
per quarter and mentoring young individuals as the situations and needs arise. As we each reach
00:05:38 ►
out to touch the world, questioning the way things have been done, we must also reach within to question our own assumptions and to commune with the mystery. So thank you, Ra. That is absolutely beautiful.
00:05:54 ►
Yay. So glad to hear it read out loud by you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Well, this is cool
00:06:00 ►
because we’re having this conversation for a second time, so I never question that
00:06:06 ►
kind of thing.
00:06:07 ►
It’s clearly meant to be, and perhaps we’re just going to deepen this even more so.
00:06:13 ►
And so let’s start, as I always like to start, with a bit of, let’s talk medicine for a bit
00:06:21 ►
as we are speaking to our friends here on the Psychedelic Salon.
00:06:26 ►
And let’s talk about what brought you to the medicine and what that was
00:06:33 ►
and what those teachings were and how it has inspired you.
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And that’s a huge loaded question.
00:06:39 ►
No kidding.
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Well, having come of age in the late 60s, early 70s,
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I sort of floated right in on the frequency of LSD and cannabis and things like that.
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And so all of my early openings happened with medicine in those times.
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And I played it really cool.
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I wasn’t like somebody who just had to take it every day
00:07:08 ►
and just act normal in the world.
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I was very intentional even at a young age.
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And so my experiences were big teachings even then
00:07:20 ►
and one journey would last a very long time
00:07:24 ►
as I would work to integrate it.
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I would say now, you know, fast forward 40 years, I find that I’m not using only one
00:07:35 ►
kind of medicine.
00:07:36 ►
I work with different medicines at different times.
00:07:39 ►
I’ve had years where I worked mostly with ayahuasca and other times where I was more connected with the mushroom or with Elle or with Ecstasy and Mushroom together with MDMA.
00:07:51 ►
And they’re a beautiful combination.
00:07:53 ►
And in my communities of spirit at the time,
00:07:58 ►
we did circles using those medicines together,
00:08:02 ►
you know, with Talking Stick and very intentional sharing our visions and channeling through the medicine with one another.
00:08:12 ►
We never recorded anything that we did, but it was very beautiful, you know, containers that we had.
00:08:19 ►
That’s beautiful.
00:08:21 ►
I never thought of that.
00:08:23 ►
To sit in a circle, each person opened in that way with a talking stick.
00:08:27 ►
Yeah.
00:08:28 ►
Yeah.
00:08:29 ►
Wow.
00:08:30 ►
What was that like?
00:08:32 ►
Well, there were, we learned that smaller is better.
00:08:37 ►
There was one circle with like 24 people or something like that.
00:08:41 ►
And also sort of the wild card element when people would
00:08:45 ►
be invited who maybe weren’t quite up to speed yep and so some people would get the talking stick
00:08:52 ►
and not let it go or like have a really kind of almost a break and would need a lot of support
00:08:59 ►
and would need the stick to be taken away but then So when we were six or eight really conscientious travelers who knew the terrain,
00:09:08 ►
we would have marvelous experiences together.
00:09:11 ►
And one time we were outside in the northwest on Vashon Island,
00:09:16 ►
and we really had a visitation from what seemed like unidentified flying objects or spacecraft coming into our field.
00:09:28 ►
And it was very, very potent.
00:09:31 ►
So there’s been such a range.
00:09:33 ►
Sometimes it was just like singing songs and giving love to each other
00:09:37 ►
or supporting one or another sister or brother who was in need.
00:09:41 ►
So we would do healing works, and then we would put one person in the
00:09:45 ►
middle and all work on that person through the medicine and through touching and song and things
00:09:52 ►
like that okay well that’s really fascinating because that is what uh many of these traditional
00:09:57 ►
healers who work with the medicine do and so uh were you ever the recipient of that absolutely yeah i was and all of those are just
00:10:08 ►
precious precious things sometimes we would trade off and everyone would take a turn being in the
00:10:13 ►
middle and everyone would say like how they saw you and how they felt and how it was like
00:10:19 ►
being blessed and poured energy into it was really really a phenomenal experience yeah i can you
00:10:27 ►
know to be that open and to have that happen and to give it i mean both as a receiver and a
00:10:31 ►
transmitter okay and then as um i would ask then what were the effects the lasting effects of that
00:10:39 ►
after receiving something like that you know it’s hard to measure but i would say that what that has done for me
00:10:47 ►
in all of my medicine work is it just opens up my life so that my life and the medicine start to
00:10:54 ►
inner intertwine and so i in many ways take less medicine but the medicine is always present in my
00:11:02 ►
reality making in my art and in my creating.
00:11:06 ►
So there’s just this weaving that starts to happen
00:11:09 ►
where they’re not differentiated so much.
00:11:12 ►
I see. I know that.
00:11:14 ►
Because in my work, because I work therapeutically with people.
00:11:20 ►
I mean, I’m not a classically trained quote-unquote therapist.
00:11:22 ►
I’m a shamanic woman doing soul healing with people.
00:11:26 ►
But I have clients who come, you know, for 90-minute sessions.
00:11:29 ►
And the work is very, very deep.
00:11:32 ►
And I have realized, you know, the majority of people who come to me,
00:11:35 ►
they’ll never do this medicine.
00:11:37 ►
They truly won’t.
00:11:38 ►
It’s not realistic.
00:11:39 ►
It’s not in there.
00:11:40 ►
But I’ve become the medicine in a way.
00:11:43 ►
Like, we have become the medicine.
00:11:44 ►
And so it’s working through me.
00:11:46 ►
And so as a result of my deep journeys with that medicine, my goodness, now I’m activated and it’s working through me.
00:11:55 ►
And I’m working with those people in a very different way that I didn’t have access to these kind of psychic and highly sensitized faculties. I didn’t have that before
00:12:06 ►
I started the medicine. I did not. I mean, I was good at what I did, but not like this.
00:12:11 ►
And so I know exactly what you are saying. So it’s like the medicine, even like the intelligence of
00:12:17 ►
the medicine itself, of course, realizes that, you know, really a select few on this entire planet will find their way to the likes of us,
00:12:26 ►
but we will ensure that those who do and who really come to it in this way that you speak of this,
00:12:34 ►
with reverence, with respect, will then carry it outward.
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And that’s true with all art forms as well,
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is that the visionary nature of the medicines
00:12:45 ►
comes through the art and through the music,
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and people will no longer need to do the medicines,
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a lot of people in the culture, in the society.
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They will receive the message,
00:12:54 ►
just exactly like what you said.
00:12:56 ►
Yeah.
00:12:57 ►
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:12:58 ►
Of course.
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It’s designed.
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It’s by design.
00:13:00 ►
Yes.
00:13:01 ►
Isn’t it amazing?
00:13:02 ►
Yeah.
00:13:02 ►
Amazing.
00:13:04 ►
It’s just, yeah, it is expressed through us in whatever medium we choose.
00:13:11 ►
That’s so beautiful.
00:13:12 ►
And I, too, have found that it doesn’t lend itself to large groups or, you know, I did
00:13:19 ►
a group once.
00:13:20 ►
It was very spontaneous, and I kind of let it get away from me in terms of how it developed,
00:13:28 ►
grabbing this person, this person, very last minute, because I happened to be in town.
00:13:34 ►
It did not go well, as people broke from the circle, and then some drama.
00:13:40 ►
And so for me, when I work, if I do work with other people in this medicine and in
00:13:46 ►
the capacity of sort of mushroom shaman assistant, whatever you want to call it, um, I do one-on-one
00:13:53 ►
and I act as midwife for that person’s unfolding through that. And, um, and other, otherwise I
00:14:01 ►
would participate in a small group. Like you say, R Rak Razam was telling me that there was a woman,
00:14:07 ►
because I spoke at the Samara Conference in Australia in February via Skype.
00:14:13 ►
Unfortunately, didn’t get to go there.
00:14:15 ►
But in any case, Rak was saying that a woman had recently been arrested
00:14:19 ►
and she had a circle of 60 people for a mushroom circle.
00:14:25 ►
Yeah, that’s really too many.
00:14:27 ►
Yeah, that got way out of hand.
00:14:29 ►
Yeah.
00:14:30 ►
Yeah, because it’s so profound.
00:14:32 ►
And you’re right, like some people have breaks,
00:14:33 ►
some people just need a lot of assistance.
00:14:35 ►
And so, yeah, you have to be very clear in terms of how that circle is going to be.
00:14:42 ►
Yeah.
00:14:42 ►
You’re going to create something like that.
00:14:44 ►
Yeah.
00:14:45 ►
The word to the wise.
00:14:46 ►
The template has to be tight and clear.
00:14:50 ►
Right.
00:14:50 ►
And then the choosing the people.
00:14:52 ►
I mean, that’s been true in the ayahuasca community for years.
00:14:54 ►
There’s usually a rigorous questionnaire
00:14:58 ►
and checking people out before they’re accepted into circles
00:15:02 ►
because most traveling shamaman don’t want to
00:15:06 ►
necessarily work with the most difficult situations in especially with 10 or 20 other people there
00:15:13 ►
right so it’s right doesn’t work that would be more of a like a one-on-one kind of deal right
00:15:18 ►
you know i mean i did work one-on-one with someone and I joked that I sang for my supper that night. I mean, oh, my goodness.
00:15:26 ►
You know, it was two hours of, you know, literally having her back, you know, and quite something.
00:15:32 ►
I mean, on the other side of that, it was amazing for her.
00:15:35 ►
But, you know, getting her there was quite something.
00:15:38 ►
And so I couldn’t imagine doing that with, you know, even four or five others.
00:15:46 ►
with, you know, even four or five others, you know, you really, but also, uh, we would have to think that, uh, even in the past when circles came together, of course they ensured that it was,
00:15:53 ►
you know, sort of select group of people. Um, not saying that this is a, um,
00:16:01 ►
I’m not going in the direction of, of, Oh, we are being very selective in terms of any kind of,
00:16:07 ►
you know, you can’t come.
00:16:09 ►
Not in that, but more, we’re talking plant medicine after all.
00:16:13 ►
So we’re talking about when there is a specific intention,
00:16:16 ►
of course you want to choose wisely.
00:16:19 ►
Yeah, yeah.
00:16:21 ►
Huh, all right.
00:16:22 ►
And so, all right, and you are an artist,
00:16:24 ►
and so no doubt this medicine has
00:16:26 ►
informed your art absolutely and you know i currently am most interested in edible cannabis
00:16:35 ►
as sort of my ongoing art and writing medicine and then i punctuate that with other experiences throughout the year,
00:16:45 ►
but just very, very particular for particular moments.
00:16:49 ►
But I love to do art, you know, when I have the magic running through me.
00:16:56 ►
I mean, it’s just thrilling.
00:16:58 ►
But I like to do it in a light enough manner, you know,
00:17:02 ►
like where I can be kind of woven into my life
00:17:05 ►
without kind of separating myself out and the big deep, deep dive kind of journey.
00:17:11 ►
Right, right, right.
00:17:13 ►
So cannabis would not be the deep dive per se.
00:17:15 ►
Right, right.
00:17:15 ►
It’s lighter but strong.
00:17:17 ►
I find very strong and a very good ally for me.
00:17:22 ►
Do you get a sense of cannabis as being either masculine or feminine?
00:17:26 ►
You know how ayahuasca is thought of as more feminine.
00:17:28 ►
Yeah, I know.
00:17:29 ►
I know she’s been described as feminine quite a bit
00:17:33 ►
because she’s quite a temptress for a lot of people.
00:17:36 ►
Cannabis, a temptress.
00:17:37 ►
I’ve seen a visionary art depiction of her as a beautiful, beautiful woman,
00:17:44 ►
like this beautiful green goddess,
00:17:47 ►
sort of alluring.
00:17:49 ►
For me, I don’t really read gender.
00:17:54 ►
I mean, I’m just kind of going off of what I’ve seen from others.
00:17:57 ►
Yeah, yeah, yeah, just curious.
00:18:01 ►
I find also people say a lot that ayahuasca and cannabis don’t get along
00:18:06 ►
and that they are very jealous of one another or, you know, not good juju.
00:18:10 ►
And I haven’t found that to be true at all for me.
00:18:14 ►
But that doesn’t, you know, I don’t know where others come from when they have,
00:18:17 ►
they might be on a deeper level or have experienced that themselves.
00:18:21 ►
But I find sometimes from ayahuasca that I might not fully
00:18:25 ►
understand all of what I’ve been shown. And then later, if I have a cannabis experience,
00:18:31 ►
I will receive the final like, oh, clarity, like it brings it into focus. Very good. So I’ve found
00:18:38 ►
medicines to be very cooperative together. Yeah, like a weaving. Yeah, yeah. Very, that is so, that’s very interesting.
00:18:47 ►
All right, all right, I’ll have to practice with that. I don’t like smoking cannabis, but
00:18:54 ►
anyway, I kind of stick to the mushroom and just, you know, very sporadically. You might try eating
00:19:00 ►
a little bit of cannabis in an edible. Yeah. I find that a lot nicer, even though there’s a lot
00:19:06 ►
of unknown about it. I think I kind of like that. Like you, you’re, you can have a prescribed amount,
00:19:11 ►
but for many people it’s unknown when it will happen. So some people like an hour later,
00:19:18 ►
like sometimes for me, three hours later. And so I’m thinking, oh, that really didn’t work or
00:19:23 ►
whatever. And then all of a sudden boom I’m there
00:19:26 ►
so that could be a little off-putting if you have plans yeah you might not want to do yeah I would
00:19:32 ►
never do that with plans that is for sure no plans with plants yeah yeah yeah exactly that’s good one
00:19:38 ►
no plans with plants yeah no I would take like a nature day to do that, for sure.
00:19:45 ►
Yeah.
00:19:51 ►
And even, again, I think, you know, we are all, we’re endeavoring, I think,
00:19:58 ►
to call back something that, you know, was very familiar territory to our ancestors. Of course, we were working with these plants,
00:20:01 ►
and they knew they would have that kind of formula down pat.
00:20:07 ►
Exactly. So we’re just still kind of figuring this we’re relearning the territory yeah yeah well all right well speaking
00:20:15 ►
of territory uh let’s get into atlan a bit and have you talk about this gorgeous community
00:20:22 ►
you’re creating okay well atlan i wouldlan, I would say, first of all,
00:20:26 ►
is a dream held in my being since my earliest memories
00:20:31 ►
of being human in this lifetime.
00:20:34 ►
And I was a child of a straight, regular 50s and 60s household,
00:20:42 ►
but I went to camp as a child and so my journey
00:20:46 ►
of a community that i experienced in camp in the summers informed me it was like a like oh this is
00:20:56 ►
it this is what i’ve been longing for and this is what this is the template it just you take it out
00:21:01 ►
of the formula of camp itself like you’re just here for three weeks and you do this activity and that activity,
00:21:08 ►
and put it into a whole lifestyle.
00:21:11 ►
And so I’ve spent my whole life living communally in different formations of people
00:21:15 ►
and kind of arching toward this larger creation.
00:21:20 ►
And there were years where I would have a map up on the wall in my kitchen and I you know friends
00:21:26 ►
and I both would be putting putting in pins to say well maybe it will be here and maybe it will
00:21:31 ►
be here and for a long time I noticed a lot of us were focusing on the where it would be
00:21:37 ►
and finally I got I got past that and realized it’s not where it’s’s who. It’s who to do it with. And that is also, in our independent style of living in the West,
00:21:49 ►
it’s kind of a hard question.
00:21:52 ►
It’s hard enough to have a relationship.
00:21:54 ►
Who can I be committed to?
00:21:56 ►
One person, but who in many people?
00:21:58 ►
And then once we have a where and the who,
00:22:02 ►
then the commitment aspect is enormous but i can really say that
00:22:07 ►
when the right people showed up we all said yes and we began and that’s how it how it started
00:22:16 ►
and since then often we will like the seven or eight of us that were there at the very beginning
00:22:21 ►
some have stepped back and some have moved on to other things,
00:22:25 ►
but there are still a core initial group of seven that are working together.
00:22:30 ►
And we’ll look at each other and go, hmm, how did we find each other?
00:22:35 ►
Or how did we end up being together?
00:22:38 ►
And it’s very familial.
00:22:40 ►
It feels like before birth.
00:22:42 ►
It feels like a contract.
00:22:47 ►
Is seven you say? Yeah, there’s about seven interesting yeah but really when people say how many people are in the community it’s way more
00:22:53 ►
than that because we’ve expanded the concept of the what atlan is so atlan is no longer the small
00:23:02 ►
group of people going to build an eco-village in this spot.
00:23:05 ►
We are rather, we’ve landed in the spot.
00:23:08 ►
We have this beautiful piece of land in the Columbia Gorge.
00:23:13 ►
And now people all around us from the area are saying,
00:23:17 ►
we love what you’re doing, can we play too?
00:23:19 ►
And then, of course.
00:23:20 ►
And so whoever is interested is welcome.
00:23:22 ►
Of course. And so whoever’s interested is welcome.
00:23:35 ►
And we’ve now been including people of all kinds of people who already have their own homes in the area to participate in pods. We have different pods, which are the different hats we wear.
00:23:42 ►
We’ve had a building pod which then turned into
00:23:45 ►
our artifactory pod which is our new shop and um you know we have an outer facing pod which is like
00:23:52 ►
our web design and and uh newsletter people who do that kind of stuff we have a garden pod which
00:24:00 ►
is really strong and consists mostly of our community who are there all the time and um
00:24:06 ►
various things like that we have a geomancy pod for people we’re all doing doing prayers and
00:24:12 ►
creating altars and uh we created a medicine wheel in our garden recently beautiful you know what i
00:24:19 ►
think of pod i think of seeds yeah of course seed pods. Seed pods. Of course, yeah. Perfect.
00:24:25 ►
So it’s kind of like the planting of all these different ideas.
00:24:29 ►
And many of us are in many pods.
00:24:31 ►
So it’s like the changing of your hat, and then you’re in a new seed packet,
00:24:37 ►
operating a new, like, okay, now what are we playing?
00:24:41 ►
It’s like being a kid a lot, using our imaginations and trying to jump out farther.
00:24:49 ►
Well, I’m struck by the story of how this came to be, La,
00:24:53 ►
because essentially you were very focused on the prize,
00:24:59 ►
on what you wanted,
00:25:01 ►
and then realized, oh, we need to sort of redirect this focus from,
00:25:04 ►
okay, not necessarily the place, but who is going to co-create this focus.
00:25:10 ►
So that’s a very essential piece to creating manifesting as well.
00:25:15 ►
And I actually have been giving quite a lot of thought to this creating reality piece.
00:25:22 ►
It is more than New Age mumbo-jumbo
00:25:25 ►
because I realized, huh,
00:25:27 ►
the folks who have created the system,
00:25:30 ►
the civil system that we live in,
00:25:32 ►
essentially, civil legal system,
00:25:35 ►
they’ve created a reality.
00:25:37 ►
And we are all playing along with our consent.
00:25:41 ►
It’s held together by collective consent.
00:25:43 ►
And so you can do that for the rest of your life.
00:25:47 ►
Or you can take charge.
00:25:49 ►
And it’s like a completely different mindset, if you will.
00:25:54 ►
And say, well, you know, I’m going to create a different reality.
00:25:58 ►
I am not content to, you know, get a house at the end of a cul-de-sac in a busy area and where you’re not
00:26:06 ►
not that there’s anything wrong with that but you know it’s like i’m not content to sort of
00:26:10 ►
follow the formula shall we say that is given to us in our public school systems and whatnot no
00:26:17 ►
you have chosen to do this and i would imagine there wasn’t any money initially when you even
00:26:23 ►
had this vision i don’t know um but in terms
00:26:26 ►
of you know i mean this costs money you have to buy land how does that work well in our case we
00:26:31 ►
have kind of a i wanted to throw out one word in relation to what you just said which is
00:26:36 ►
trans formula the trans formula you know um in our case there was some money that came through a generational pass down,
00:26:48 ►
and that came through my family.
00:26:50 ►
Did it come through initially or after the vision?
00:26:54 ►
It was in the works all along.
00:26:56 ►
I think I knew it was there, but I would say earlier in my life I didn’t really know about it.
00:27:01 ►
So the vision was already there.
00:27:02 ►
It was fully installed before the money was there.
00:27:05 ►
Because it’s almost like then Providence opens.
00:27:08 ►
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:09 ►
And then you are supported.
00:27:10 ►
Right.
00:27:12 ►
Yeah, so every community has a different formula when it comes to how everyone plays.
00:27:19 ►
Because it’s all made up out of the people who are there and their particular backgrounds and needs and directions and whatnot.
00:27:28 ►
But there are a lot of books now out about community building and community making and
00:27:33 ►
then all of the reframing and reclaiming the territory of governance and things like that.
00:27:41 ►
You know, dynamic governance is a system that we use.
00:27:44 ►
It’s also called sociocracy in Europe. Sociocracy? Oh, good. Talk like that. You know, dynamic governance is a system that we use. It’s also called sociocracy in Europe.
00:27:47 ►
Sociocracy?
00:27:48 ►
Okay, talk about that.
00:27:49 ►
Well, it’s just a decision-making style
00:27:52 ►
that’s very alive and kind of on the ground,
00:27:55 ►
and it kind of provides small groups like our pods
00:28:01 ►
to be fully dynamic in their, you know, make decisions.
00:28:05 ►
And decisions as a large group are defined as either being things that spend quite a lot of money.
00:28:12 ►
We’ll have an amount that triggers the need for everyone to be present.
00:28:17 ►
Or something that’s permanent.
00:28:19 ►
Like if you were doing something on the land that was going to affect the land forever,
00:28:23 ►
then that would be a big group decision.
00:28:31 ►
But a lot of decisions can be made by the pods and then the pods are circles of influence and there are circles link so there’s they call it up linking and down linking but essentially
00:28:38 ►
it’s not a really hierarchical at all so it doesn’t have to go up or down but you have uh people as representatives in the
00:28:46 ►
different circles to you know keep everything kind of reconnected with the whole it’s a little
00:28:52 ►
hard to explain all right now but it’s it’s quite dynamic and uh and there are you know other lots
00:28:58 ►
of emotional tools at hand you know like for for community work i mean well-worn systems like non-violent
00:29:07 ►
communication or there’s a group in eugene practicing salsara and we all went and did
00:29:13 ►
a workshop together there from atlan and um there’s there’s just a lot of things out there to keep
00:29:20 ►
honing in a deeper and higher level of our togetherness yes and which is essential very
00:29:26 ►
because if you try to formulate these new communities with people who are have not dealt
00:29:31 ►
with their shall we say personal material it can be just a mess right well just the whole idea of
00:29:37 ►
consensus uh the classic bad version is that one unenlightened person can just hold everything up and just make the whole
00:29:45 ►
thing crazy right so we don’t even think about consensus in that way it uh the dynamic governance
00:29:52 ►
described it as consent based so it’s working with uh agreement and flow rather than you know
00:30:00 ►
putting so much emphasis on who doesn’t like the who doesn’t like this or that and how
00:30:05 ►
they can interfere and but but somebody could still have a paramount objection and could
00:30:10 ►
give their viewpoint at any time anyway yeah well and the fact that this continues to evolve and it
00:30:17 ►
has been around for a few how many how many years we’ve been working together for over seven years
00:30:23 ►
so the seven keeps coming up
00:30:25 ►
yeah we can’t actually remember whether it’s seven or eight but we keep kind of just keep it
00:30:30 ►
sort of blurred along there okay well i mean you know you’re clearly doing yeah something yeah uh
00:30:38 ►
very cohesive here yeah and i would imagine medicine would be a grand influence to this piece.
00:30:46 ►
Medicine has influenced all of us and we continue to utilize it as needed in various configurations.
00:30:55 ►
Beautiful. Beautiful. This is, I find this very exciting because there are so,
00:31:00 ►
this is going on all around the globe and And you’re not going to necessarily read about it in the mainstream media all the time.
00:31:09 ►
But I see it as really good and exciting news that people are starting to call back their power in a way
00:31:16 ►
and create these communities that are much more enlightened
00:31:29 ►
you know, much more enlightened and are desiring to establish a harmony with each other and the land and create something new and wonderful. And I also, it makes me excited to, you know,
00:31:38 ►
to hear about some of these people out there who are experimenting with water purification and all these sort of, uh, technologies
00:31:47 ►
that are not in the mainstream yet probably would not be welcomed, um, by those who have
00:31:52 ►
been sort of holding the reins of their own technology, but, but they’re coming anyway,
00:31:56 ►
they’re coming anyway. And I can see those, you know, uh, as a part of these communities
00:32:01 ►
as well, you know, cause that would come up. Okay, how do we, you know, get clean filtered water?
00:32:07 ►
Absolutely.
00:32:08 ►
You know, and what about electricity?
00:32:10 ►
How would we do that?
00:32:11 ►
Is there an alternative?
00:32:13 ►
And so it really sparks the creative impulse in people.
00:32:18 ►
Totally.
00:32:20 ►
Agreed.
00:32:21 ►
Yeah, so exciting.
00:32:23 ►
And so you’re also, I want you to speak to the work you’re doing at Evergreen College,
00:32:27 ►
because I just think this is so wonderful that the likes of you would be in correspondence with young people and assisting.
00:32:38 ►
Well, it was my good fortune to meet Katie, who was the person who started the group the psychedelic studies group
00:32:48 ►
at Evergreen and she and I hit it off right away and became friends she’s been living back and
00:32:53 ►
forth sometimes in Portland and now in at Evergreen and later in the Bay Area but she started the
00:32:59 ►
group and she’s just incredibly wise for her young years. And the circles that she leads, that she asked me to participate in,
00:33:08 ►
are called integration circles, which is so enlightening just for that.
00:33:13 ►
And so people would bring their psychedelic questions
00:33:15 ►
or their unfinished business or whatever they needed.
00:33:20 ►
And it didn’t have to be medicine-related.
00:33:23 ►
So sometimes we don’t even talk about medicine at all and sometimes we’ve talked only about medicine but the size of the group varies
00:33:30 ►
every time i go sometimes they’ve been they’ve been from 6 to 25 oh wow so some of our conversations
00:33:37 ►
were just huge far-reaching you know like high level uh likeis-life kind of conversations.
00:33:46 ►
Sometimes they’re very focused and very intimate,
00:33:48 ►
where people feel safer because it’s a smaller group
00:33:51 ►
and that they can share more personal things that they need help with.
00:33:56 ►
So it’s been really lovely.
00:33:58 ►
And I’ve used some writing practice one time and some art making
00:34:03 ►
and invited people to different versions of
00:34:05 ►
ways to work together to integrate beautiful beautiful that’s wonderful uh let’s talk about
00:34:14 ►
writing a little bit and let us talk about words because i can’t talk to you without uh broaching
00:34:20 ►
that subject because i heard you speak at the Women’s Visionary Congress and you gave this fabulous talk and it was all about word magic and you are quite a uh magus shall we say
00:34:33 ►
you have quite a wand when it comes to uh wordplay and so yeah so I’m just inviting you to do to just riff it okay well i would say you know word word magic is my home territory it’s
00:34:49 ►
like my uh my natural habitat so that’s what my mind does when i’m turned on and when i’m creative
00:34:57 ►
either with medicine or with other people who are also word magic so it’s a lot of it is the field
00:35:02 ►
itself so when i’m with other people and we’re all thinking like that it just starts pouring out all over the place but basically this is a
00:35:09 ►
cultural phenomenon so it’s not just me at all but i’ve kind of jumped on it and grabbed it and
00:35:17 ►
really like you said i wield the wand of it because i feel so strongly about how what the
00:35:22 ►
kind of effect that that reclaiming our language can have in
00:35:27 ►
in terms of our reality making and i agree with you so much shauna that this is a time
00:35:32 ►
for remaking everything in the world it’s like reclaiming our sovereignty our power you know
00:35:40 ►
reframing the the world that has been handed to us and, you know, saying,
00:35:45 ►
no, it doesn’t work like that. It actually works like this. Let’s do it like this.
00:35:48 ►
Everything has been made up. Everything that exists in the world. Somebody made up.
00:35:53 ►
It’s a construct.
00:35:54 ►
We have to, or we get to actually, it’s more of a privilege than anything to join in with creator.
00:36:01 ►
And I call it creationship. It’s the relationship with creator.
00:36:06 ►
I feel like that’s what life offers us is that opportunity.
00:36:09 ►
Source offers us, yes, you can play with me.
00:36:13 ►
You can join, and we can create together.
00:36:16 ►
It’s not like we’re separate from anything.
00:36:18 ►
It’s just our oneness kind of coming through each of us.
00:36:22 ►
is kind of coming through each of us.
00:36:30 ►
And, you know, for me, my Mirorical website is going to feature a lot of different words.
00:36:33 ►
And some of the words have been used in the world already. And I always say to people, just use them, because that’s the way they get, they become real, is to use them.
00:36:41 ►
You know, we break the spell of that which no longer fits,
00:36:46 ►
and we reclaim our language.
00:36:49 ►
And some of the words I love,
00:36:51 ►
and ones that have been the most enlightening when they happened for me,
00:36:55 ►
one is, I was looking for a word that would mean responsibility and freedom at the same time.
00:37:02 ►
And I was actually just pondering that and contemplating,
00:37:05 ►
what would that look like?
00:37:06 ►
What would that word be?
00:37:08 ►
And all of a sudden, there it was, free responsibility.
00:37:10 ►
Free responsibility.
00:37:12 ►
Free responsibility.
00:37:12 ►
So the word was even right there.
00:37:14 ►
So you can add a letter to an existing word,
00:37:17 ►
and boom, you’ve changed everything.
00:37:20 ►
And in that case, responsibility had, in my mind,
00:37:25 ►
had come to be kind of an obligatory, you know, response,
00:37:29 ►
you know, ability to respond.
00:37:31 ►
But it always held a kind of like, you have to because you should.
00:37:36 ►
And actually, free responsibility then lifts it up to a new level
00:37:40 ►
where it’s our ability to respond freely.
00:37:43 ►
And that is a higher vibrational place to come from.
00:37:48 ►
Now, another one is moving from a state of unequal.
00:37:55 ►
You know, we all, we like equality.
00:37:56 ►
I like equality.
00:37:58 ►
I think that it’s acknowledging equality.
00:38:00 ►
But something in just equality, because we’re not born the same we have different parts
00:38:07 ►
that are more developed we are truly unique and equal so the word that came out of that is
00:38:14 ►
unique and that completely takes the unequal and rises it up to unique well right unique yeah unique well um other words that i love like just fun things like
00:38:29 ►
um well i like to look at existing language anyway not even beyond when you make up something but
00:38:36 ►
like the word there’s a sequence of tending like we tend to different activities in our life so what happens first in the tending
00:38:46 ►
ritual is we pretend pre-tend ah we pretend we forget that that means pre-tending that’s what
00:38:55 ►
you do before attending and then you attend and then so you’re paying attention. And then you, or you could intend.
00:39:06 ►
You can push that forward.
00:39:09 ►
Attention is going throughout attending.
00:39:12 ►
But then extend, you know, to hand it out, to give it out, to extend your hand.
00:39:18 ►
So just even the words as they already are are filled with meaning that we’ve forgotten.
00:39:23 ►
And we just use the words like sort of have forgotten that they have value.
00:39:28 ►
It’s like we’ve devalued our own currency.
00:39:31 ►
Ah, yes.
00:39:32 ►
You know?
00:39:33 ►
Right.
00:39:33 ►
And words are currency.
00:39:34 ►
They are currency.
00:39:35 ►
Yeah, the current that runs through us.
00:39:38 ►
Right.
00:39:38 ►
And that we exchange.
00:39:40 ►
And it’s social capital is the other way of looking at our wealth.
00:39:45 ►
We don’t have to just look at wealth as our pocketbook or our bank account.
00:39:50 ►
Our wealth is our ability to share and give and what we know and our excitement and our…
00:39:56 ►
to re-evaluate social capital.
00:40:00 ►
Yes, because, well, our wealth, et cetera, our bank account, that’s an overlay.
00:40:04 ►
Yeah, totally. That’s the world as it has been. And it’s also a spell. yes because well there are wealth etc bank account that’s an overlay yeah totally that’s
00:40:06 ►
that’s the world as it has been and it’s also a spell it’s not even real it’s not even real
00:40:12 ►
and it comes from the roman system i read this book called law of roman slavery oh my goodness
00:40:17 ►
and um and so they would uh uh value put a value on slaves depending on what they could do.
00:40:27 ►
And that gave me a full-body chill.
00:40:28 ►
I was like, wait a minute, we’ve still got the same thing going on here.
00:40:31 ►
Absolutely.
00:40:32 ►
And it’s absurd.
00:40:34 ►
And so someone thinks, oh, you know, yeah, I’m just a waiter or I’m just a this.
00:40:38 ►
That word just you should riff on because I see that as a way of, it diminishes.
00:40:46 ►
Right.
00:40:47 ►
And yet it comes from justice.
00:40:49 ►
Right.
00:40:50 ►
Just to be just.
00:40:51 ►
Yes, to be just.
00:40:52 ►
There’s this.
00:40:52 ►
Yeah.
00:40:53 ►
Yeah, and yet we use it mostly, oh, it’s just me.
00:40:56 ►
This is where language, you can watch it flow through time
00:41:00 ►
and see how it takes downward spirals like that.
00:41:03 ►
Yeah.
00:41:03 ►
Like, or changes.
00:41:04 ►
Sometimes words flip to being the opposite of how they started.
00:41:08 ►
Like, I was looking at the word protest,
00:41:10 ►
and what it means is pro, for, test, testimony, testament.
00:41:17 ►
Like, it’s like saying your piece,
00:41:19 ►
like making your reality claim, your testimony.
00:41:24 ►
But it became now against.
00:41:27 ►
To protest is to be against something.
00:41:30 ►
It’s just very strange how they flip.
00:41:34 ►
Yes.
00:41:35 ►
Yeah.
00:41:35 ►
Language has changed so much over the centuries, really.
00:41:39 ►
Yes.
00:41:39 ►
Absolutely.
00:41:40 ►
I always go, when I’m looking up words, I will often go to Webster’s 1828 online dictionary.
00:41:47 ►
Old Webster was a bit of an old fart,
00:41:49 ►
but when you see the definitions of all the different words,
00:41:54 ►
it’s astonishing.
00:41:56 ►
And yet the newer dictionaries, it’s just almost nothing.
00:41:59 ►
Yeah, or you go to the etymologies of the old American heritage,
00:42:04 ►
or some of those, they have incredible, the etymologies of the old American heritage, or some of those, they have incredible,
00:42:05 ►
the etymologies trace everything back to Sanskrit.
00:42:09 ►
And it’s fascinating.
00:42:10 ►
And actually when you read through those for people who might be interested,
00:42:13 ►
it’s like a journey through time to look at a given prefix
00:42:18 ►
or a part of a word or a word itself
00:42:20 ►
and see how it meanders through positive negative up down you know yeah yeah
00:42:27 ►
i just saw something that someone shared the other day and it was a photo of this native
00:42:32 ►
american woman and i don’t remember the tribe uh but but in that language human meant gift
00:42:43 ►
beautiful and and uh and i must find that I made a mental note of like,
00:42:48 ►
okay, I’ve got to come back to this and I got too busy, but you know, now we think of people as
00:42:53 ►
being a scourge into cancer and just all this negative, horrible stuff. And yet, gosh, everyone
00:42:59 ►
I know is, I mean, most people are just gems. They really are, you know, and they’ve got a heart of gold.
00:43:05 ►
And if you go to Iran, if you go to Pakistan, if you go to Palestine, where a friend of mine just
00:43:11 ►
was, or any of these places where, you know, they’re made to be so awful, people are amazing.
00:43:16 ►
They invite you into their home. They can’t wait to feed you what little food they have
00:43:20 ►
and just talk to you and just warm and kind and giving as can be.
00:43:26 ►
I’ve often heard, or I don’t know where I know this from,
00:43:30 ►
but the word human being God-man.
00:43:33 ►
Yeah.
00:43:34 ►
Like who is like the infinite, the source,
00:43:37 ►
and then man is like this part, you know, the earth part.
00:43:43 ►
Right.
00:43:43 ►
So I always think of that as God.
00:43:45 ►
I think of humans as God beings.
00:43:48 ►
I do too.
00:43:49 ►
Really?
00:43:50 ►
Yeah.
00:43:50 ►
Really.
00:43:51 ►
And then there’s like a mind virus.
00:43:53 ►
I mean, I see that’s what’s kind of, you know, if we can each individually kind of clean
00:43:56 ►
up that virus or that bad programming or whatever.
00:44:00 ►
Or spell.
00:44:02 ►
We were talking about spells.
00:44:03 ►
Yeah, it’s a spell.
00:44:04 ►
And so we’ve been spellbound and I’m
00:44:06 ►
going to be giving a couple of talks this summer at, um, different conferences on the mushroom as
00:44:12 ►
a spell breaker. Absolutely. Beautiful. Yeah, it truly is. And, and, um, one of my teachers always
00:44:19 ►
used to say, the face you show is the face you get back. And I was thinking that when you were sharing about how you approach these medicines.
00:44:28 ►
Very much.
00:44:29 ►
It’s like you are approaching, well,
00:44:32 ►
another being, an intelligence.
00:44:35 ►
And so it’s like, well, take your shoes off,
00:44:37 ►
and you know what I mean?
00:44:38 ►
And bow down.
00:44:39 ►
Bow down.
00:44:41 ►
Make a prayer.
00:44:43 ►
Yeah.
00:44:44 ►
Save and love.
00:44:44 ►
And then you’re given so much.
00:44:46 ►
Yeah.
00:44:47 ►
So, it’s just so beautiful.
00:44:50 ►
Language.
00:44:51 ►
All right, well, where are we with time?
00:44:53 ►
We’ll take a quick pause here.
00:44:54 ►
We have a little more time.
00:44:56 ►
Ah, I want to ask you about poetry, sweetie, because I write poetry.
00:45:01 ►
And I never did before until I started working with the medicine.
00:45:06 ►
And, and so, uh, and of course there’s that medicine activated in me and I’m not on the
00:45:11 ►
medicine, but I’m running in the woods. I’m running in the woods and the trees are speaking to me
00:45:16 ►
and they speak in poetry. And then the, we folk, I call them the Faye or the nature spirits speak
00:45:24 ►
and they speak poetically. And so these words just come pouring in and then I’m like, I call them the fey, or the nature spirits, speak. And they speak poetically.
00:45:26 ►
And so these words just come pouring in, and then I’m like, I’ve got to get home. Quick.
00:45:30 ►
This is good. And it just comes pouring out. And so I’m curious about your poetry, because
00:45:38 ►
it’s a language of the soul.
00:45:40 ►
Yeah, yeah. I would say for me, I write a lot, but very few really become the full transformative pieces that I would call a poem.
00:45:52 ►
Well, I have to tell you something. You said in our last conversation, I love this, you said, a poem doesn’t just come every day.
00:46:00 ►
It’s not an everyday thing. It’s almost like an event. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for
00:46:06 ►
reminding me. That is,
00:46:08 ►
that’s how I wear it right now. I write
00:46:10 ►
a lot, but there’s still the few
00:46:12 ►
that actually really
00:46:13 ►
say it all perfectly.
00:46:16 ►
And that’s where the poetry is.
00:46:19 ►
So I do a lot of
00:46:20 ►
you know,
00:46:22 ►
meme, you know,
00:46:23 ►
almost writing, maybe it’s like haiku or like small just little
00:46:28 ►
parts of things and then some days i get a whole download and it’s a full piece
00:46:33 ►
i don’t suppose you brought any poetry with you did you well i have one that i know by heart
00:46:40 ►
that i could say which would be fine you want? Yes, because you’ll put us in an altered state at that point. This is my cosmic piece. It was on Christmas Eve a few years ago,
00:46:52 ►
and it goes like this. I am an open window with life pouring through, a peculiar vantage point
00:47:01 ►
with a splendid view. I’m an echo of the Big Bang,
00:47:06 ►
a frequency in the symphony of Aum.
00:47:10 ►
I’m a wave of emotion,
00:47:12 ►
of consciousness growing strong as emotion,
00:47:16 ►
kissing the shore with sweet flowing devotion,
00:47:20 ►
rich in pattern,
00:47:21 ►
arching toward home,
00:47:24 ►
spirit blended with matter.
00:47:26 ►
I’m a question mark on life’s wall.
00:47:29 ►
Who am I here and now?
00:47:32 ►
Particles of a particular life form from a father and a mother.
00:47:37 ►
I’m an offering on the universal menu.
00:47:40 ►
I’m a flavor like no other.
00:47:43 ►
I’m so alive and shimmering. The elemental crackle comes bursting
00:47:48 ►
through the wiring and the wirelessness. Creature of sinew, blood, and bone with sacred space between
00:47:57 ►
each cell. I’m more empty than full. I am God essence. I am the void exposing itself to light.
00:48:06 ►
I am a photograph in black and white.
00:48:09 ►
I am the photon belt as Earth herself has entered me.
00:48:15 ►
I am the galactic center swirling past nurseries of fresh new galaxies, born and scattered.
00:48:26 ►
I am no one, I am everyone, I am you.
00:48:31 ►
I laugh inside this mirror’s view humanness, this time around.
00:48:50 ►
Absolutely beautiful.
00:48:51 ►
See, it is a whole different language, a whole different weaving of words.
00:48:56 ►
And this is something else that we used to do.
00:49:01 ►
You know, there were people who, in all cultures, all cultures, were amazing storytellers
00:49:08 ►
and poets. And singers. And singers. Yeah. That’s another thing we don’t do is we don’t sing enough.
00:49:15 ►
We don’t sing enough. And moms don’t really sing to their children like they used to.
00:49:21 ►
And, uh, beautiful. Thank you. Well, I’m wondering, could i share a poem of mine so i will uh read
00:49:30 ►
this is called message from the forest folk and i wrote this in february and uh again well
00:49:40 ►
came to me when i was on a run in this beautiful park down the street from me.
00:49:47 ►
Down a path of mossy green, I’m led to magic, sight unseen.
00:49:53 ►
The trees instruct me, take this turn, sit by the stream, and you will learn.
00:49:59 ►
Breathless, I take in the sight.
00:50:01 ►
A brook flows briskly to the right.
00:50:04 ►
It’s water crystal clear and cold. I dip
00:50:06 ►
my hands, and then I’m told, dear one, you must now still your mind and tune into a different kind
00:50:14 ►
of folk who live among the moss. Look for a bridge that you can cross. It can’t be seen by human eyes,
00:50:21 ►
but if you’re still, you’ll realize the bridge exists within your mind.
00:50:26 ►
The we-folk call you to their kind. I closed my eyes and stilled my thoughts and listened to the
00:50:32 ►
reverie of water babbling quickly by and dancing over rockery, and then I felt a strange sensation.
00:50:40 ►
Something soft caressed my cheek. A subtle whisper in my ear said, Dear one, we know
00:50:46 ►
what you seek. We are the magic forest folk, and dear, we know how much you care. When you bow to
00:50:53 ►
moths and tree, we hear your thoughts within the air. We tell you now this world is changing. What
00:50:59 ►
will happen? Who can say? But know we’re in this all together. Know that there will come a day.
00:51:06 ►
We herald a great reckoning when man will see his great mistake. We know you wish this day to come
00:51:12 ►
and fear that it will come too late. Yet we say when hearts are pure, when will is strong,
00:51:19 ►
intention sure, a realization can arise that all this time has been disguised.
00:51:29 ►
A potent spell was cast on you, and when it breaks among the few,
00:51:34 ►
you’ll realize unbridled power that summons wisdom to the hour.
00:51:37 ►
Great minds and hearts will gather insight.
00:51:41 ►
Groups will form to lead and highlight action that will bring a change.
00:51:45 ►
And though some will think it’s strange, they’ll come around,
00:51:51 ►
they’ll have no choice. And through good leaders, we will voice our good guidance for correction to initiate the resurrection of mankind’s bond with all of nature. We will work with you, dear
00:51:58 ►
one, and all your folk who humbly come. The invisible bridge that can’t be seen will appear where it has always
00:52:06 ►
been mankind will then have eyes to see and ears to hear the reverie and nature will lead once again
00:52:14 ►
all her children finally sane beautiful i can imagine that sung, definitely, as a song. Oh, thank you.
00:52:26 ►
Yeah.
00:52:27 ►
So lovely.
00:52:28 ►
Thank you.
00:52:29 ►
Yeah, well, maybe we need to put some of this poetry to music as well.
00:52:33 ►
Mm-hmm.
00:52:34 ►
Well, yeah, well, gosh, we have the medicine to thank truly for so much.
00:52:39 ►
Mm-hmm.
00:52:41 ►
In that, I think, you know, we show up on this earth,
00:52:48 ►
and I think of the baby, I play with a commercial term,
00:52:49 ►
and I call it the original issue.
00:52:52 ►
And so we show up, and we’re the original issue,
00:52:56 ►
and we are carrying all of that exquisite potential.
00:53:01 ►
And then we show up into a family or a situation, whatever it is,
00:53:05 ►
and we are raised by others who themselves are spellbound to a degree, whatever their degree is.
00:53:08 ►
And then all of that is imprinted on us and we lose touch, many of us, with that original
00:53:13 ►
issue.
00:53:14 ►
And then somewhere along the line, we’re able, some of us, to get that back.
00:53:20 ►
And I see the medicine as that which provides a grand assist to call back that original issue.
00:53:28 ►
And it says, look, sweetie, all of this is in you.
00:53:31 ►
And so we are going to assist you to call it up and then some and see what you will create. uh this medicine is simply not their path uh the medicine is still activating them through uh those
00:53:49 ►
who are you know the visionary artists and healers and singers and creators and whatnot who’ve worked
00:53:56 ►
with the medicine and of course earth’s other medicines because i see so many people being
00:54:02 ►
called they want to grow their own food.
00:54:06 ►
Absolutely.
00:54:10 ►
And they’re really wanting to get back to the land.
00:54:12 ►
And I think ultimately that,
00:54:15 ►
it’s like we’re calling back our humanity.
00:54:17 ►
Our Gaian humanity.
00:54:21 ►
Yeah, our place in the galaxy, for that matter.
00:54:28 ►
You know, to become earthlings once again of the highest degree you know and be able to then imagine our place among all the other planets and stars and other beings
00:54:35 ►
i mean it’s just it’s all waiting for us this you know yes identity, this new, old, ancient, true identity.
00:54:45 ►
Yes, and a very ancient communion that we once had,
00:54:48 ►
a direct connection with the sacred.
00:54:51 ►
And, you know, the beings that spoke through me last week
00:54:55 ►
that I was telling you about earlier, they’re very playful,
00:55:00 ►
and they were referring to, they said,
00:55:02 ►
those Facebook pictures you see where it is, where it is, the interspecies friendships.
00:55:09 ►
And they said they call it unlikely friendships.
00:55:11 ►
So you’d have like a tiger curled up with like, I don’t know, a baby monkey or something.
00:55:14 ►
Right. And they are saying those interspecies friendships extend beyond the creatures, even on your planet.
00:55:22 ►
They extend outward into the cosmos.
00:55:24 ►
And we are seeking
00:55:25 ►
these unlikely friendships quote unquote right so yes there is so it’s like we’ve been so spellbound
00:55:33 ►
and kept into like this is reality and this is how it looks and it’s like no no it’s far more vast
00:55:39 ►
far more malleable far more vast it’s actually like we’re given this potential we’re potentiated
00:55:48 ►
for creating reality and for making life uh more beautiful and more amazing so it’s not even like
00:55:59 ►
just saying let’s have this view instead of that view. It’s like it can be an ongoing creating of reality that we’re invited to.
00:56:10 ►
Because at each step, we might realize, oh, yeah, I’ve got to learn a few more things.
00:56:14 ►
And then, boom, then you’re suddenly able to create even better, more interesting realities.
00:56:20 ►
Right.
00:56:21 ►
The key is to realize that you are, that you actually are.
00:56:23 ►
That we’re doing it.
00:56:24 ►
We are doing that. Right. But most people don’t even realize that you are that you actually are doing it we are doing that right but
00:56:25 ►
most people don’t even realize that that’s even possible they just sort of think things are the
00:56:28 ►
way they are and oh well right the game has been cast and i’m stuck over here on the board
00:56:35 ►
right yeah right it’s kind of a shame yes because i i just know i don’t believe this i know this is
00:56:42 ►
the garden we’re in the garden and we can have heaven on earth.
00:56:46 ►
And truly, I think we can have heaven on earth, even with all these people,
00:56:51 ►
the trick is, the catch is, you know, getting them all to sort of wake up,
00:56:54 ►
but truly, if they did, it would be a very different planet.
00:56:58 ►
Maybe what I’m saying is sort of an ancient lament, I hope not,
00:57:01 ►
because I do hold that hope hope because i know it is possible
00:57:05 ►
yeah i hold that too for all of the dire and desperate things that are happening on earth
00:57:15 ►
right now i still hold that it could all shift in a moment it’s just it’s actually in our hands to do that yes yeah and so maybe it just happens exponentially like
00:57:29 ►
in small starting small and then you know growing wider and more as we as we go but just by doing
00:57:38 ►
our part and then every person we meet and affect meets other people and affects them and it’s like this ongoing shift
00:57:47 ►
that’s just moving like dominoes across the landscape right across the mind field yeah and
00:57:54 ►
i realized like we can’t underestimate our influence because i ran into a woman the other
00:57:59 ►
day i haven’t seen her in a couple years at least and said to me, you have been the greatest influence on my life.
00:58:05 ►
You got me to go into the nutritional therapy association. And then my whole life opened. And
00:58:11 ►
I, then I went on this and this and this, and she said, it’s because of you, you inspired me.
00:58:14 ►
I was like, really? Gosh, I barely remember that conversation. And so it’s just like you say,
00:58:21 ►
yes, it’s this incredible. We don’t even know sometimes. If we can just be ourselves in the world,
00:58:26 ►
even a smile in the right moment,
00:58:29 ►
a word here, a word there,
00:58:32 ►
it changes everything for people.
00:58:33 ►
Yeah, I remember I was in one of my pits of despair
00:58:36 ►
over the overwhelm,
00:58:38 ►
over just sort of the state of affairs on this planet,
00:58:42 ►
and I was speaking with a fine medicine woman I know. And I said,
00:58:46 ►
what happens if it’s just, you know, it just all goes to hell. And she said, well, Shana,
00:58:53 ►
who’s going to be here to hold that light? Who’s going to, someone’s got to be here to hold that
00:59:00 ►
vibration no matter how dark. And then also, you know, when I was in this beautiful greenhouse on the medicine last
00:59:10 ►
week that I was telling you about, and there was just a single candle, and the beings said,
00:59:15 ►
look at how, despite the overwhelming darkness, a single candle casts light.
00:59:22 ►
candle casts light.
00:59:26 ►
And then they also said, is it not true that if the conditions are right, a single spark
00:59:30 ►
can ignite an entire forest? Absolutely.
00:59:35 ►
So yeah, that’s what we are doing.
00:59:38 ►
And many, many, many of these just beautiful people on this earth who are really just saying, you know what?
00:59:42 ►
This is bullshit, essentially.
00:59:45 ►
I know.
00:59:46 ►
Let’s create something new.
00:59:48 ►
Let’s have a new game.
00:59:49 ►
It’s time for a new game, if you will.
00:59:51 ►
Yes, please.
00:59:53 ►
Truly.
00:59:54 ►
Well, thank you.
00:59:55 ►
This has just been so fun sitting here.
00:59:58 ►
Pure delight.
01:00:00 ►
Yeah.
01:00:01 ►
Delightment.
01:00:02 ►
Yes, yes, yes.
01:00:04 ►
Well, anything you want to, any last words you want to share before we wrap this lovely conversation up?
01:00:15 ►
I was thinking of some, you know, a quote recently.
01:00:20 ►
It’s about art because I really feel I feel like I live art
01:00:26 ►
like my life is art
01:00:27 ►
and I read a quote
01:00:30 ►
by Tom Robbins and he said
01:00:31 ►
in the haunted house of life
01:00:34 ►
art is the only
01:00:36 ►
step that doesn’t creak
01:00:38 ►
and it just
01:00:40 ►
touched something so fun
01:00:42 ►
and joyous in me and I thought
01:00:43 ►
that kind of tells it all.
01:00:46 ►
So I just wanted to end with that.
01:00:49 ►
You’re listening to The Psychedelic Salon,
01:00:51 ►
where people are changing their lives one thought at a time.
01:00:56 ►
A few minutes ago, we heard La and Shana talking about the interesting ways
01:01:01 ►
in which La likes to play with words.
01:01:03 ►
A little word magic, I think she calls it.
01:01:05 ►
Unfortunately, this is one of those times when an audio podcast
01:01:09 ►
doesn’t quite get the full picture across.
01:01:12 ►
At least for me, it helps to see these new words as well as to hear them.
01:01:16 ►
But fear not, if you go to our program notes,
01:01:19 ►
you’ll find a link to a short Vimeo video that I shot at the Planque Norte lectures.
01:01:24 ►
And the first part of it shows the yurt as we were setting it up. you’ll find a link to a short Vimeo video that I shot at the Planque Norte lectures.
01:01:28 ►
And the first part of it shows the yurt as we were setting it up.
01:01:34 ►
And around the top of the walls of the yurt are some signs that La made with a few of her magic words on them.
01:01:36 ►
Words like miracle.
01:01:42 ►
It’s the word mirror, M-I-R-R-O-R, and it ends in A-C-L-E.
01:01:43 ►
Miracle.
01:01:45 ►
And you get the idea.
01:01:47 ►
It’s really worth checking out if you get a chance.
01:01:53 ►
Also, one of the things that Shauna and La didn’t get to in their conversation is a festival that La and her friends produce.
01:01:56 ►
It’s called Beloved,
01:01:57 ►
and it’s an open-air art and music festival
01:02:00 ►
that will be taking place this coming August
01:02:02 ►
from the 7th through the 10th.
01:02:05 ►
I wish that I could tell you about this festival from a first-hand experience,
01:02:09 ►
but I must admit that I’ve not made one of these events yet. However, several of my friends who,
01:02:14 ►
while they seem to attend almost every outdoor music festival on the west coast of North America,
01:02:20 ►
they all tell me that, without a doubt, this is the best thing going on the festival circuit.
01:02:25 ►
And I’ll put a link to that in our program notes as well,
01:02:28 ►
but if you’re thinking about attending, you probably should get your tickets today,
01:02:32 ►
because I’ve been told that they sell out early.
01:02:35 ►
And I mention the beloved festival because LaLaurian is one of the original organizers of this event,
01:02:41 ►
just as she is also one of the key people involved in ATLAN, the eco
01:02:46 ►
community that she talked about just now. And I’ll provide a link to that website as well.
01:02:51 ►
As we just heard, ATLAN is a living and learning eco village that several years ago moved from the
01:02:58 ►
dreaming stage into the reality of the default world. In other words, it’s real, not just
01:03:03 ►
somebody’s dream of a future community.
01:03:06 ►
Which brings me to what I think is a rather interesting point.
01:03:10 ►
In January of 1999, before Terence McKenna learned of what would prove to be his terminal illness,
01:03:17 ►
he was the main feature at a conference that was being held each year in Mexico.
01:03:21 ►
Now, I’ve talked about this conference before, but now might be a good
01:03:25 ►
time to add a few more details. And my point in telling you this story is not simply to reminisce
01:03:31 ►
about a great time in my life, but to give you some idea of what can happen when a group of
01:03:36 ►
like-minded psychonauts get together and dream about the future. So, first of all, La was there,
01:03:43 ►
and among other things, she’s now an elder
01:03:46 ►
who periodically travels
01:03:47 ►
to Evergreen College
01:03:48 ►
and helps some of our newer psychonauts
01:03:51 ►
reintegrate their psychedelic experiences
01:03:53 ►
and she is a co-founder
01:03:55 ►
of the Atlin community
01:03:56 ►
there’s more but you get the idea
01:03:58 ►
La is very involved
01:04:00 ►
in the psychedelic community
01:04:01 ►
also coming out of that 1999 conference were Anita and Seabrook,
01:04:07 ►
both of whom are co-founders of two other eco-communities. The Planket Conference is where
01:04:12 ►
I also met Daniel Pinchbeck for the first time. At the time, he was beginning work on his book
01:04:17 ►
Breaking Open the Head, which started him off on a psychedelic fast track that led to another book,
01:04:23 ►
Reality Sandwich, and much more.
01:04:26 ►
It was at that conference as well where I first met Daniel Siebert, the man who brought Salvia
01:04:31 ►
Divinorum into the mainstream of our community. And I should add that it was also at that
01:04:36 ►
conference where Daniel met the woman who became his wife. And as you already know,
01:04:41 ►
that is where I also met the woman who is now my wife. Before I went to Palenque for
01:04:45 ►
the first time, I was just another techie geek whose only involvement with the psychedelic
01:04:51 ►
community was the occasional mushroom and LSD trip I took whenever I could find those magic
01:04:56 ►
medicines. Since then, I’ve started these podcasts from the salon and launched the Palenque Norte
01:05:01 ►
lectures at Burning Man. I can go on about some of the other people who attended that conference
01:05:06 ►
and all that they’ve done since then,
01:05:08 ►
but if you notice, I haven’t even mentioned any of the speakers at that conference.
01:05:13 ►
And that’s the point that many people who attend conferences like this make.
01:05:17 ►
While the speakers are the draw for a conference,
01:05:20 ►
the real magic in them comes from the interactions and inspiration of the attendees.
01:05:24 ►
So if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of these conferences,
01:05:28 ►
well, my recommendation is to stretch as far as you can to get there.
01:05:32 ►
It could become a major turning point in your life.
01:05:35 ►
At least that one was for me.
01:05:38 ►
Now, on my third day at the 1999 conference,
01:05:41 ►
I skipped the trip to the ruins and stayed back at the Chan Ka
01:05:44 ►
where I ate a big bag of mushrooms that I bought from a kid on the trip to the ruins and stayed back at the Chan Ka where I ate a big
01:05:45 ►
bag of mushrooms that I bought from a kid on the road to the ruins. And by the time my friend Minot,
01:05:51 ►
the man who traveled to Palenque with me, came back from the ruins, well, I was coming down a bit, but
01:05:57 ►
I told him that I had just made a hard left turn. Six months later, I quit the best job I’ve ever
01:06:03 ►
had in my life and I moved out here to the coast
01:06:05 ►
and today I really shudder to think what my life would be like
01:06:09 ►
had I never attended that conference
01:06:11 ►
and my friend Minot, I should add
01:06:14 ►
was the editor for my novel, The Genesis Generation
01:06:17 ►
whose story coincidentally begins near the ruins at Palenque
01:06:21 ►
and by the way I want to thank Mark, Rodney, Dave, Matt,
01:06:26 ►
Forteanerfan, and Zach C.
01:06:28 ►
for their wonderful comments about my book that they posted on Amazon.
01:06:33 ►
To be honest, book sales have been somewhat disappointing
01:06:36 ►
in that I’ve only sold 40 copies so far.
01:06:39 ►
But I’m here to tell you that if I never sell another copy,
01:06:42 ►
the comments that have already been posted are more than enough reward
01:06:45 ►
for the work involved in writing and publishing it.
01:06:48 ►
So, thank you one and all,
01:06:50 ►
both the reviewers and those who bought a copy.
01:06:52 ►
You have all brought a big smile to my face.
01:06:55 ►
Now, one last thing before I go,
01:06:58 ►
and it could be both important and fun
01:07:00 ►
for our fellow slauners who are into travel.
01:07:02 ►
As you may recall,
01:07:04 ►
my friend and our fellow slauner, are into travel. As you may recall, my friend and our fellow slaunter,
01:07:06 ►
Ido Hardikusen, is the man behind DailyPsychedelicVideo.com.
01:07:11 ►
And the URL is just like it sounds.
01:07:13 ►
All one word, DailyPsychedelicVideo.com.
01:07:17 ►
Well, that site is now five years old,
01:07:19 ►
and so Ido has decided to launch another site
01:07:22 ►
that will be of interest to our community.
01:07:24 ►
You’ll find it at Psychictraveler.com.
01:07:27 ►
Once again, all one word, psychedelictraveler.com.
01:07:31 ►
This is a website that’s dedicated to people who like exploring magical and mind-expanding locations,
01:07:37 ►
with or without the aid of psychedelic medicines.
01:07:41 ►
Through the recommendations of a community of psychedelic travelers from around the world, Thank you. will be able to easily search recommendations for psychedelic locations in the area they’re going to.
01:08:06 ►
And even if you don’t have any travel plans in your future,
01:08:09 ►
I think you really owe it to yourself to visit this site.
01:08:12 ►
Although Ido tells me that the site is in the early stages of development,
01:08:16 ►
I was blown away by it.
01:08:17 ►
The photography is excellent and the accompanying text is very helpful.
01:08:22 ►
In fact, even though I decided to quit traveling myself, after seeing
01:08:26 ►
some of the locations for tripping that are shown there, well, I’ve now found more than one place
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that may get me back on the road. Check it out. You won’t be disappointed. And for now, this is
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Lorenzo signing off from Cyberdelic Space. Be careful out there, my friends. Thank you.