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024 - Cannabis Ceremonies

Aug 14, 2017, 38 min read

Program Notes

Guest speaker: Becca Williams

http://cannanaut.comDate this lecture was recorded: 2017

After much work with cannabis, Becca Williams learned how to use it as a Spirit Plant medicine. She teaches people about the power of cannabis to heal traumas and now leads Cannabis Ceremonies in Denver, Colorado. Her work also includes excellent educational videos. Her Website, Cannabis Ceremonies, is overflowing with content.
Cannabis Ceremonies on YouTube

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Transcript

00:00:00 ►

Greetings from cyberdelic space, this is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in Psychedelic Salon

00:00:23 ►

2.0.

00:00:24 ►

This is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in Psychedelic Salon 2.0.

00:00:30 ►

And today we are going to continue our exploration of the wonderful world of cannabis.

00:00:40 ►

Lex’s guest today is Becca Williams, who was trained as a healthcare practitioner and is a registered nutritionist and dietician.

00:00:45 ►

But it was through her work as a journalist covering alternative and holistic approaches to health that she began a deeper investigation into the rich history of the healing properties of cannabis,

00:00:52 ►

particularly in the realm of emotional healing.

00:00:56 ►

Becca has two websites that I think you’ll find interesting.

00:00:59 ►

Her main site, simply titled Cannabis Ceremonies, is packed with information,

00:01:04 ►

and she’s also the force behind a YouTube channel which is also called Cannabis Ceremonies, is packed with information, and she’s also the force behind a YouTube channel, which is also called Cannabis Ceremonies.

00:01:10 ►

And there you’ll find much more information about my favorite plant.

00:01:15 ►

And I’ll link to both of those sites in today’s program notes, which you’ll find at psychedelicsalon.com.

00:01:21 ►

I’m really looking forward to listening with you to this conversation between Becca and

00:01:26 ►

Lex Pelger. As a daily cannabis user for over 30 years now, I’ve read and listened to quite a lot

00:01:33 ►

of information about the healing properties of cannabis, but to be honest, there isn’t a whole

00:01:38 ►

lot of information I’ve found about the emotional and spiritual aspects that this plant medicine provides.

00:01:47 ►

And while I use cannabis for physical pain,

00:01:52 ►

its use is even more important to me from an emotional standpoint.

00:01:55 ►

I know several other people who are also using cannabis to tame some of the unruly states of mind that come to women and men suffering from PTSD,

00:02:02 ►

and I know how important this sacred plant is to their mental well-being

00:02:06 ►

as well. So now I’m going to turn it over to Lex Pelger and listen along with you to the words and

00:02:12 ►

wisdom of Becca Williams. In his intro last week, Lorenzo mentioned cannabis as his personal

00:02:19 ►

favorite, and that inspired me to declare this to be Marijuana Month here on the Psychedelic Salon 2.0.

00:02:28 ►

So we will hear from Becca Williams today about using cannabis spiritually and what it takes to become a cannanaut.

00:02:36 ►

Becca was actually my first interview here in Denver since I arrived and she represents the spirit of that boom town where Neal Cassidy was raised.

00:02:44 ►

Not only does Becca lead cannabis ceremonies mixing many different practices,

00:02:48 ►

she also has a YouTube channel with dozens and dozens and dozens of excellent videos

00:02:53 ►

explaining many different parts of cannabis.

00:02:56 ►

Now, if you’re like me, and you feel that it’s incredibly important to try and turn on

00:03:01 ►

your aging relatives to the healing power of marijuana,

00:03:04 ►

you know how hard it can be to find someone believable to them.

00:03:08 ►

I am always looking for someone who knows how to present information

00:03:11 ►

so an elderly patient can grok it and believe it and try it.

00:03:17 ►

If you know someone who should be considering using cannabis to improve their life,

00:03:22 ►

point them to Becca’s videos as a solid source they can trust.

00:03:26 ►

From our talk, you’ll see why.

00:03:35 ►

Hello, I’m Lex Pelger sitting here with Becca Williams. And before we find out how you came

00:03:41 ►

up with a term like cannanaut for exploration, what was your own journey with cannabis and how did that start?

00:03:49 ►

Hi. It’s so nice to be here.

00:03:52 ►

I’m really a fan of psychedelic salon, by the way, because I love Lorenzo.

00:03:57 ►

And then when I heard that you were coming on, wow, that was pretty cool.

00:04:02 ►

So, yeah, cannabis has been in my life since I was a young adult.

00:04:07 ►

I come from a really challenging, abusive childhood.

00:04:13 ►

And when I went into college, you know, some of my friends introduced me to a doobie and liked that, liked that a lot. And then the more I, I call it working with cannabis, but the more I interacted with cannabis,

00:04:30 ►

the more I realized that I liked it better by myself and the way it made me feel.

00:04:34 ►

Because I had a lot of anxiety.

00:04:38 ►

And it really calmed.

00:04:41 ►

It really softened the edges around that.

00:04:43 ►

And I found actually it was interesting

00:04:45 ►

it was in being in groups it actually heightened my anxiety so I actually preferred it by myself

00:04:53 ►

and so I really have used it self-medicated as they call it for decades decades and then

00:05:00 ►

a few years ago I started weaving meditation into it and realizing what a beautiful support and amplification cannabis is for really attaining higher levels of consciousness.

00:05:18 ►

How did you come to realize the anxiety was in the group situation and that it was better to start doing it by yourself?

00:05:25 ►

And how did you start doing it as you saw that happening?

00:05:29 ►

Well, back then all there was was flour and you just smoked whatever you could.

00:05:35 ►

And of course, you know, on the black market, and as it has been for years and years,

00:05:40 ►

it was all about the THC, right? Higher, higher, higher THC.

00:05:46 ►

it was all about the THC, right? Higher, higher, higher THC. And now we know with the cutting edge research that’s out that THC can actually provoke anxiety. So I reflect back and see that that was

00:05:53 ►

probably the thing. And I also realized that I was microdosing before it was even a term because I found a little went a lot further. And as far as

00:06:08 ►

realizing the comparison, I mean, it was pretty evident and profound when I was with a group of

00:06:13 ►

people. I got really anxious and started worrying about, I had a lot of self-doubt that was really,

00:06:21 ►

that emerges from shame. And shame is about self-doubt. It’s about not

00:06:27 ►

feeling deserving, really comparing and contrasting. That’s basically what shame is all about,

00:06:32 ►

from a spectrum of, I don’t really like myself all that much, to self-loathing or self-hatred

00:06:38 ►

and everything in between. And I was on that spectrum from end to end

00:06:45 ►

and it emerged when I was with other people.

00:06:50 ►

So I think it was just a matter of comparing it, Lex,

00:06:53 ►

to being alone and going, oh, gee, I like this.

00:06:57 ►

There’s no anxiety involved.

00:06:58 ►

It feels good.

00:07:01 ►

So how long did you have a meditation practice

00:07:04 ►

next to your solo smoking before you started to

00:07:07 ►

combine them man i could first of all let’s say that i always hated meditation let’s just put that

00:07:14 ►

on the table amen i uh and as it turns out i didn’t like the meditations that I tried. There’s many, many forms of meditation.

00:07:27 ►

And one of them is sitting and watching your thoughts.

00:07:30 ►

Sitting, doing nothing, and watching your thoughts.

00:07:33 ►

And I had disassociative thoughts.

00:07:37 ►

I had just an onslaught of thoughts always all the time.

00:07:42 ►

And I could never slow that down.

00:07:43 ►

So meditation never worked for me. So it never, meditation never

00:07:45 ►

worked for me. And I also tried yoga for years and years and it actually turned into more of a

00:07:50 ►

physical practice than any sort of meditative practice. Because again, when I’m on the floor,

00:07:57 ►

on the mat, the thoughts just kept flowing. So about two years ago, i started studying with a teacher out of la who comes from a lineage of

00:08:12 ►

kriya and kundalini traditions and that meditative practice is far different than any others that I had encountered before. And it’s a very active practice that involves, of course, the breathing.

00:08:30 ►

That’s the one core element of all meditative practices,

00:08:34 ►

that movement of breath or what we call pranayama.

00:08:37 ►

But also these traditions include mudras, which are hand and arm movements,

00:08:46 ►

and also chanting of mantras, which is basically a series of sacred words put together.

00:08:58 ►

And what all of this does is activate the chakras and the meridian.

00:09:05 ►

That’s Chinese medicine.

00:09:06 ►

We call it the naughty system,

00:09:08 ►

which is the energy irrigation throughout our bodies.

00:09:12 ►

And make no mistake about it,

00:09:15 ►

what I found in pursuing this is the overlay of the physical body

00:09:20 ►

with the energy body and how it stimulates and activates that to block out our thoughts

00:09:27 ►

and go deep into consciousness, touching what we might call our deep inner resources or

00:09:36 ►

our intuition or our soul with a capital S.

00:09:40 ►

So what did the shift feel like when you already had that kind of sensation and then added cannabis?

00:09:46 ►

Whoa, man.

00:09:51 ►

How I learned this, Lex, was that I was studying with my teacher and it was within a group, actually online.

00:10:10 ►

And this tradition that comes out of India, and there were in the 60s, let me just back up for a moment.

00:10:22 ►

In the 60s, there were a lot of holy men that came over from Tibet, Nepal, India, southern China, and gathered, gained quite a following over here.

00:10:27 ►

And one of them was a guy by the name of Yogi Bhajan.

00:10:28 ►

Have you ever heard of him?

00:10:35 ►

Yogi Bhajan came over and saw all these hippies involved with drugs and just out of their mind trying to find meaning in life.

00:10:38 ►

And he said, well, if you follow me, if you study under me,

00:10:42 ►

then there will be no drugs, absolutely none.

00:10:48 ►

That was a tenet.

00:10:50 ►

And so when I was studying with my teacher who hails from that tradition,

00:10:54 ►

the subtext is no drugs.

00:10:57 ►

Well, so when I was moving through this year-long course of study around emotions,

00:11:04 ►

and I am a serious student of emotions.

00:11:09 ►

I started micro dosing with cannabis and comparing to the other people in the

00:11:17 ►

group who was doing, who were doing this work. I was,

00:11:21 ►

I was making what do I want to say?

00:11:24 ►

I want to say?

00:11:29 ►

I want to be careful how I explain this because it wasn’t exponential,

00:11:36 ►

but it really was leaps and bounds in feeling this growth around emotion,

00:11:38 ►

being in touch with consciousness, higher consciousness.

00:11:43 ►

Would you recommend that people try to have a practice without using these substances for some length of time before they start combining them?

00:11:47 ►

You know, my work in elevation ceremonies or cannabis ceremonies is really very specific to the discipline that I employ.

00:11:55 ►

And I call it a secular form of kundalini, kriya traditions graced in ceremony.

00:12:07 ►

And so the magic, I believe, is with these mystical, sophisticated technologies that we employ.

00:12:17 ►

And then the tool is our beloved cannabis plant.

00:12:23 ►

They’re all tools, make no mistake about it,

00:12:25 ►

but the cannabis plant is an exogenous.

00:12:28 ►

It comes from the outside and supporting that.

00:12:33 ►

So I am in touch with a lot of people who do a lot of meditation

00:12:37 ►

who say I use this or that approach with cannabis

00:12:44 ►

and I make great progress.

00:12:48 ►

So I don’t really know the answer to that specifically because it’s so individual,

00:12:54 ►

and it’s so individual to the specific disciplines, if you know what I mean.

00:13:00 ►

Do you see people come through your ceremonies that should be careful

00:13:05 ►

of certain kinds of things that you’d like to watch out for? Yeah. So over the time that I have

00:13:13 ►

guided my ceremonies, I’m really very much favoring a CBD dominant

00:13:20 ►

flower or what do I want to call it? Because some people, I prefer the smoke in a

00:13:28 ►

ceremony. It’s just more ceremonial or vape. But some people saying, well, I have lung involvement.

00:13:33 ►

I don’t like the smoke. Or, you know, there’s some hangovers of stigma from the war on drugs.

00:13:38 ►

So I have been, I’ve been practicing and experimenting with oils and oils are good too.

00:13:44 ►

I’ve been practicing and experimenting with oils, and oils are good too. So CBD oils, hemp oil.

00:13:49 ►

Yeah, there’s been some research.

00:13:52 ►

All the research out there is pretty sketchy because, you know,

00:13:55 ►

we’ve just been able to have this cascade of research around cannabis.

00:14:01 ►

But, you know, they talk about what is the term, a psychic break, is that what it is,

00:14:08 ►

with, for some individuals who are prone to it with CBD THC or two-to-one and I’ve

00:14:31 ►

been even using some 20 to one CBD to THC that makes a lot of sense too just because CBD all

00:14:40 ►

alone actually looks like it might be a treatment for some types of psychotic and mental break type stuff.

00:14:47 ►

Absolutely.

00:14:47 ►

And at least it could be functioning as a protectant for people who might have some leanings that way.

00:14:52 ►

No questions.

00:14:53 ►

Yeah.

00:14:53 ►

No question about it.

00:14:54 ►

Yeah.

00:14:54 ►

That’s really great.

00:14:56 ►

Now, could you walk us through how one of your ceremonies would go?

00:15:00 ►

Sure.

00:15:02 ►

So let me see.

00:15:04 ►

How do I want to approach this? I’ve never really described my ceremony

00:15:09 ►

step-by-step for anyone in particular. But what I do do is I want to make sure that all my

00:15:17 ►

participants understand what’s going to happen because it can be a very anxiety-provoking thing to walk in

00:15:29 ►

and not know what’s going on.

00:15:31 ►

I call those who attend my ceremonies edge walkers

00:15:37 ►

because there needs to be a sense of walking into the unknown to begin with.

00:15:43 ►

of walking into the unknown to begin with.

00:15:54 ►

And so what I like to say is that most of the people who come to my ceremonies, participate in them,

00:15:58 ►

are either feeling expansion coming

00:16:03 ►

or in the midst of an expansion of some sort and are looking to move

00:16:09 ►

through that in a graceful way. And I really believe what we do in a ceremony is it’s sort of

00:16:17 ►

an arc. And that is that we go into it with the Kriyas. Yes, we have a smoke session.

00:16:26 ►

We create the container.

00:16:29 ►

We welcome the flower.

00:16:32 ►

We welcome the fact that we have brought our best,

00:16:36 ►

our most experienced, our wisest selves

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to this place right here, right now.

00:16:43 ►

And then I introduce some kriyas and kriyas are the

00:16:48 ►

practices that come that that are comprised of that pranayama always the uh the mudras hand and

00:16:56 ►

arm movements um and the mantras so it can be only the pranayama or it can be a mix of all three. And so I make sure that everybody knows

00:17:06 ►

that they are in a very safe and nurturing environment, that I am there to hold the space

00:17:14 ►

for them. But they do need to take responsibility for they have come. That’s a huge responsibility.

00:17:21 ►

I mean, they took care of all the details I mean I

00:17:27 ►

have you know women with children at home um married couples I had a married couple who who

00:17:33 ►

came for um a date night I thought wow now those are people I want to know in fact everybody who

00:17:41 ►

turns up for my ceremony in a way I I find that I have created these ceremonies to attract the people who I’m drawn to. Anybody who walks into

00:17:52 ►

my ceremony, I want to call a friend because, hey, fellow edge walkers. So we move, it’s a three hour, it’s a three hour time frame. We start, I like evenings, I am drawn,

00:18:09 ►

I am drawn to the evenings. And I think that that’s where the veils of consciousness are thinnest.

00:18:15 ►

And, and so we move through that in over a three hour period. And in between, people are able to stretch, walk, drink water, whatever they need

00:18:34 ►

to do, smoke more if they want to. And then we go back in and do another Kriya. So usually over the

00:18:40 ►

three-hour span, we do three or four of these, uh, of, of these kriyas that really are,

00:18:47 ►

are very intense. What they’re doing, make no mistake about it, they are activating our energy

00:18:52 ►

body, uh, uh, by, by stirring up, um, the, the chakras and the naughty system in order to bring

00:19:02 ►

up the stuff that, that, that is standing in the way of a more fulfilling life,

00:19:07 ►

that are self-limiting beliefs, self-doubt, whatever it might be. We call them seven heavy

00:19:15 ►

emotions. They can be anxiety, which is also fear or even terror or panic, desire, and that’s a whole other esoteric area,

00:19:26 ►

but anger, depression, grief and sadness, shame and guilt.

00:19:33 ►

In any of those, please bring it in.

00:19:36 ►

And I have people who come in who have used approaches, meditation or therapy, and not gotten any results,

00:19:50 ►

and in one three-hour ceremony walk away more calm and open and clear than they have been perhaps in their entire lives.

00:20:11 ►

lives. It’s really important for me as I move through these ceremonies to hone them to the best of my abilities so they embrace anyone who is called to come to do the work.

00:20:17 ►

So make your kind of flower and you attract your kind of bees.

00:20:21 ►

I love that. Yes.

00:20:23 ►

Well, yeah, it must be a fascinating array of people who show up,

00:20:26 ►

especially around here in the Colorado area.

00:20:28 ►

It’s a fascinating array.

00:20:31 ►

The way I look at it is Seth Godin,

00:20:36 ►

the conscious business coach that we all know

00:20:39 ►

and who is such a prolific writer.

00:20:43 ►

I read something from him a few years ago,

00:20:46 ►

and it was about understanding that what you’re making

00:20:52 ►

or what you’re offering is not for everybody.

00:20:54 ►

You know, in marketing, it’s kind of like, well,

00:20:58 ►

we want to talk about our target audience, but it’s not for everybody.

00:21:02 ►

And the way I look at my ceremonies is this isn’t for

00:21:05 ►

everybody. It’s for those who are called to come and be in this very special space, this container

00:21:15 ►

that allows us to go deep with ourselves and linking arms with others to create that supportive energy.

00:21:26 ►

And so some people will come and I’ll never see them again, and others will continue on.

00:21:36 ►

What stuff seems to come up the most for people?

00:21:39 ►

Are there certain experiences you see pop up a lot from service to service?

00:21:44 ►

Are there certain experiences you see pop up a lot from service to service?

00:21:50 ►

What I do in ceremony, there’s not a lot of talking in ceremony.

00:21:56 ►

I have created some salons where we can actually have next-level conversation.

00:22:07 ►

But at the very beginning of a ceremony, I will go around and invite everybody to give me a word or two or a sentence as to where they are. And there will be those who will say, um, I’m, I’m curious. Um, I am, um, feeling really uneasy or

00:22:17 ►

unsettled. Um, I’m scared. Uh, there will be people who will talk about their life and where they are.

00:22:26 ►

One woman recently said she was lost.

00:22:29 ►

So it is the reason why I create this space is because I want people to bring their deepest and darkest feelings so that we can bring them into the light.

00:22:45 ►

And how did you come to create the term Cananot that covers that idea and start making these

00:22:52 ►

videos?

00:22:54 ►

Yes, Cananot is the name of my project.

00:22:59 ►

And I describe Cananot as exploring the deep inner reaches of consciousness with the support of cannabis for emotional healing.

00:23:11 ►

And don’t we do that as psychonauts?

00:23:14 ►

Essentially, that’s the definition of a psychonaut.

00:23:18 ►

And so I really wanted to put a name to it for cannabis exclusively and specifically

00:23:28 ►

because cannabis is kind of what I call the little sister of the big girl psychedelics.

00:23:35 ►

And cannabis carries a much broader, what do I want to say, personality. So she can be a psychedelic, like a hash

00:23:52 ►

concentrate, but she can also, as I invite her in, in a ceremonial space with the CBD dominant, for instance, can be an opener that allows us to be relaxed, spacious,

00:24:08 ►

allows us to lean in to this exploration that we’re going to be going on.

00:24:15 ►

And everything in between.

00:24:17 ►

Yeah.

00:24:18 ►

And you’re right.

00:24:19 ►

It’s too bad she’s seen as someone that can’t make the world go completely sideways on you. Do you hear about

00:24:26 ►

people or have you tried the experiments with using really high levels, like the old hash eaters

00:24:31 ►

to go to the other world with this? Or do you think that might be useful for some people?

00:24:38 ►

So it’s funny you ask because after every ceremony, as I mentioned, I send out a survey.

00:24:46 ►

you ask because after every ceremony, as I mentioned, I send out a survey. And at the end,

00:24:54 ►

I say, here’s a list of specifically themed ceremonies. And you tell me which ones you would like. And there’s one that I call a hash eaters ceremony. And I’ve had people say, yes,

00:25:01 ►

yes, yes, I want to do that. So last Saturday, we had it scheduled. And as you

00:25:07 ►

know, my air conditioning, I do it in my sanctuary, in my personal residence. And our air conditioning

00:25:16 ►

went out, so I needed to cancel. I disappointed a number of people, I’m afraid. So I can’t really tell you on that front, but of course, as a plant spirit guide myself,

00:25:29 ►

I do explore with various, various, what do I want to say, kinds or forms of cannabis. And one of them is hash. So from hemp to hash, if you will.

00:25:47 ►

And I love it.

00:25:52 ►

But one of the pieces when we were working with high THC,

00:25:59 ►

it’s different than when you’re just using it in a,

00:26:02 ►

what do I want to say, in a more recreational space, or we know people who do concentrates and

00:26:06 ►

hash because of physical ailments, you know, and they’re just in such pain that they need

00:26:11 ►

to be out, they need to be out of it.

00:26:14 ►

They need to be couch locked.

00:26:16 ►

And so this is far different than that.

00:26:19 ►

Using, using hash, uh, to propel you into, um, higher into higher states of consciousness.

00:26:28 ►

And one really needs to be anchored.

00:26:32 ►

And you do that with the breath work.

00:26:34 ►

So that’s why I’m there.

00:26:37 ►

It was a, I’ll do it again.

00:26:39 ►

I had to postpone it.

00:26:40 ►

People go, when, when are you going to do it again?

00:26:42 ►

And so we’re looking probably at October or November because the other themes for the cannabis ceremonies are already done and

00:26:50 ►

people have, you know, reserved their spaces. And so I don’t want to change the themes on them.

00:26:54 ►

You know, one is a hemp oil evening. So it’s like, oh, wait a minute, we’re going to do a hash eaters.

00:26:59 ►

Oh, didn’t I tell you that? Oh, man.

00:27:05 ►

What are some of the other evenings, actually?

00:27:09 ►

You know, the core of it, Lex, is really about going deep experientially,

00:27:16 ►

exploring stuff that’s on your head, stuff that is nagging you.

00:27:24 ►

stuff that’s on your head, stuff that is nagging you.

00:27:31 ►

Let’s bring it up, look at it, transmute it, and meet the light.

00:27:40 ►

And so that’s very important for me to see that my participants land in a great space at the end.

00:27:45 ►

And categorically, that happens.

00:27:50 ►

And what did you learn through these about how to be holding space to keep it a safe spot?

00:27:54 ►

What seemed to really resonate with people

00:27:56 ►

that this was a spot that they could go deep

00:27:58 ►

or this ceremony was a spot that they could explore?

00:28:01 ►

Telling them, for one thing.

00:28:05 ►

And isn’t it really set in setting? could explore? Telling them, for one thing. And

00:28:05 ►

isn’t it really set in setting?

00:28:09 ►

And being able

00:28:10 ►

to come in knowing that

00:28:12 ►

you’re going to be in a safe,

00:28:14 ►

legal, nurturing,

00:28:16 ►

comforting space?

00:28:18 ►

I mean, that sets the scene right

00:28:19 ►

there and allows people

00:28:21 ►

to open.

00:28:29 ►

And the big piece is that we sit, we sit on the floor.

00:28:39 ►

Although if people need to sit in a chair or a, we have a sofa, I have a sofa in my sanctuary where I get, the most important thing is that people are comfortable.

00:28:48 ►

Yes, you know, we sit cross-legged.

00:28:55 ►

That would be probably the recommended way if you can do that because the idea is to keep our spine straight.

00:28:58 ►

Because remember, we’re activating that energy,

00:29:00 ►

and our spine essentially becomes an antenna.

00:29:03 ►

And whether you’re sitting cross-legged

00:29:06 ►

or whether you are on a chair or propped up on a sofa with pillows behind you, we want a straight

00:29:13 ►

spine. And, um, and I insist before we even start, I make everybody, uh, my, my sanctuary is also a

00:29:22 ►

playroom in the sense that we have pillows all over, pillows and small cushions, small hat socks,

00:29:28 ►

and every varying level for people to be able to elevate their hips

00:29:34 ►

or sit directly on the floor.

00:29:36 ►

And so comfort, comfort, comfort.

00:29:38 ►

Because if you’re not comfortable, what can you do?

00:29:40 ►

You know, you’re just sitting there going, oh, Jesus, I’m so uncomfortable.

00:29:44 ►

Oh, man.

00:29:45 ►

But people insist on wearing tight jeans.

00:29:50 ►

Even though I say bring a water bottle, you know, wear loose clothing.

00:29:57 ►

People don’t know from loose clothing until they’ve come into one ceremony.

00:30:01 ►

And then, you know, they’re always wearing something loose from there on out for the rest of them.

00:30:09 ►

But that’s a big piece. So it’s really about comfort too makes sense um and speaking of legality like you would just would if the if we were free to alter our own

00:30:17 ►

consciousness as we see fit would there be any other substances or materials that would interest you to try to combine into your ceremonies?

00:30:27 ►

So I’ve been a psychonaut,

00:30:38 ►

and I have partaken of various sundry substances

00:30:42 ►

and had quite profound experiences.

00:30:46 ►

But I was actually at a conference,

00:30:49 ►

the Plant Spirit Conference in Vancouver that comes up every year.

00:30:50 ►

It’s one of my regular stops,

00:30:52 ►

and I highly recommend it.

00:30:54 ►

It’s coming up, I think, in November of this year, 2017.

00:30:58 ►

And there was a shaman who spoke one year.

00:31:03 ►

And this was when I was working with meditation and cannabis and

00:31:07 ►

also dabbling in various psychedelics. And there was a guy, a kid who stood up and started asking,

00:31:16 ►

obviously using psychedelics very indiscriminately and asking this, that, and the other thing about them. And this shaman who was up visiting, you know, from Peru, read him up one wall and down the other about this promiscuous use of various medicines and theogens.

00:31:38 ►

And said that if you were really serious, you would take one and work with it. And he said the only

00:31:46 ►

thing that he had ever done in his, you know, 50 year life was, was ayahuasca. And I really took

00:31:54 ►

that to heart. That if you are, if you are interacting with the personality and spirit of a plant that in order to be true to it,

00:32:08 ►

you really need to focus on that.

00:32:11 ►

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do other things

00:32:15 ►

because cannabis is very forgiving in that way.

00:32:18 ►

She goes well with a lot of psychedelics.

00:32:22 ►

But for me, it struck a note in the sense that

00:32:26 ►

if I am working with, um, with cannabis in regard to, to higher forms of consciousness,

00:32:34 ►

that I really needed to be true to her. And so right there, and then about two years ago,

00:32:39 ►

I, um, I pledged, uh, monogamy, uh, to cannabis. So I have not done for at least that long for any other entheogens.

00:32:52 ►

Wow.

00:32:53 ►

Yeah.

00:32:53 ►

That’s an interesting idea.

00:32:54 ►

Because, you know, among other things, I’m trained as a clinical nutritionist.

00:32:58 ►

And we call it confounding variables.

00:33:07 ►

confounding variables. So how do I know that, that this healing has been affected by the combination of the discipline that I introduce and the, the spirit of the cannabis plant when I’m doing other

00:33:14 ►

stuff. So I really need to be very true to that approach. I picture a small green ring for monogamy. Oh, I like that. And speaking of nutrition and that

00:33:31 ►

the combination of food and cannabis and all the different strains of cannabis and how complicated

00:33:37 ►

that gets. What’s that like for you to deal with the food people eat before a ceremony and in their lives as well,

00:33:45 ►

but then all the different strains of cannabis that would combine with that?

00:33:49 ►

Yes. So of course, just like yoga or any kind of meditation, what you want to do is come in

00:33:56 ►

on a light stomach. And so I always advise our participants to eat lightly and actually abstain if they can from cannabis for even a few days before.

00:34:09 ►

But ideally, if they can a day before or even four hours before, again, there are people who

00:34:14 ►

use cannabis for their medicine and really need it. So it’s all fine, whatever. But to come in on a light stomach uh because otherwise the the digestive system just

00:34:28 ►

kind of takes over it’s heavy and and you’re digesting food instead of putting that energy

00:34:34 ►

toward dancing with that uh with with the channels of consciousness um not that you can’t do that but

00:34:44 ►

it does take away. I mean,

00:34:45 ►

it’s like if you’re sitting there and going, Oh, I’m so full. Jeez, that leg of lamb that I had

00:34:50 ►

earlier, you know, it was just like really heavy on my stomach. So, uh, what I do, uh, is during

00:34:56 ►

the breaks of our ceremonies is offer, uh, some fruit and nuts if people want that. Also, because on an energetic level, the energy level which folds into the

00:35:10 ►

emotional body also, people respond in different ways. So it can go from, oh, wow, I felt what it was like to take a deep dive into my inner resources to really

00:35:30 ►

a lot of emoting, a lot of releasing.

00:35:35 ►

And what do I want to say?

00:35:50 ►

what do I want to say? Uh, uh, it can be, uh, I don’t want to scare people away, but it can be a little scary sometimes for some people. And that’s why it’s very important for me to hold

00:35:56 ►

the space, uh, for people. Um, and, um, where was I going with this? So that’s another reason why we’ve got to be very careful about what we have,

00:36:10 ►

what’s on our stomach, what we’ve interacted with before we come in.

00:36:15 ►

And absolutely, I don’t want any other substances in the body when we’re doing this work.

00:36:21 ►

What would your advice be to somebody hearing this,

00:36:23 ►

and it’s really pinging to try using cannabis as a sacrament instead of how they’ve been doing it?

00:36:28 ►

What would you recommend for someone who wanted to try this at home and design their own ceremony?

00:36:34 ►

Again, I’m really an aficionado of my particular discipline because it’s tried and true for me.

00:36:41 ►

I found that moving through this work and particularly with the

00:36:46 ►

support of cannabis, I have healed myself. I navigate mostly in a calm, centered clarity.

00:36:53 ►

And when I don’t, I know how to get back there. As opposed to most of us who are

00:36:59 ►

in a fight or flight response most all the time, whatever that might look like.

00:37:05 ►

And then we’re, we’re trying to grab that piece of clarity and calmness, trying to, and we grab it

00:37:12 ►

and we hold onto it and then we lose it. And, you know, that can go, you know, where we navigate in

00:37:18 ►

that for, you know, maybe days, maybe weeks, maybe hours, maybe minutes for some people. I mean, bring it on. I,

00:37:26 ►

you know, bring, I want you here. I, I with, uh, it’s all about emotions and emotions have been

00:37:32 ►

the missing link in our healing, uh, for, uh, uh, for all of time essentially. And we’re just

00:37:41 ►

getting to the point now where some doctors are writing about brain science and how it relates to trauma most often.

00:38:07 ►

can’t afford to go to a therapist or go to a doctor who’s kind of, you know, who’s studying this stuff and, you know, oh yeah, come on in for an hour, it’ll be 300 bucks, hello.

00:38:11 ►

So the ceremonies serve a couple, well, quite a few dimensions, but one of them is being able to

00:38:32 ►

dimensions, but one of them is being able to explore in a kind of your own self-therapeutic way what is on your head. And I’m just there holding the space. Lex, I want to make it

00:38:39 ►

absolutely clear that I don’t consider myself a shaman, a medicine woman. I mean, those people are inculcated into that.

00:38:51 ►

I do have some skills.

00:38:54 ►

I do believe I’m kind of a peer counselor,

00:38:58 ►

but also really my specialty is soul medicine.

00:39:04 ►

And being able to guide people. I believe that I

00:39:09 ►

am maybe a little further ahead than other people are with my work. I’ve found the door,

00:39:15 ►

I’ve opened the door, I’ve flicked on the switch and I’m saying, come on in. Um, I’ve been here

00:39:21 ►

and maybe you want to come here too. There are many, many ways out there, many portals for healing,

00:39:30 ►

and I offer one that I believe is quite efficacious.

00:39:34 ►

Are there future plans for different directions you might want to take this?

00:39:38 ►

Yeah, I’m just about to recreate my website,

00:39:44 ►

cananaut.com, C-A-N-A-N-A-U-T.com.

00:39:50 ►

And because of the urging from around the country, actually, you know that I have a YouTube channel,

00:39:56 ►

which has actually attracted people to what I do as well.

00:40:00 ►

And so I’m going to be taking these online.

00:40:02 ►

And so I’m going to be taking these online.

00:40:14 ►

I don’t see any reason why we can’t do ceremonies, say, in a Zoom venue where people can come into my sanctuary through Zoom. And they create a lovely sacred space for themselves in a room.

00:40:21 ►

And we have ceremonies together.

00:40:22 ►

So that will be something that’s coming up.

00:40:25 ►

Why not?

00:40:26 ►

Why not?

00:40:27 ►

Yeah.

00:40:28 ►

That’s great.

00:40:29 ►

And I also do one-to-one.

00:40:33 ►

Sometimes people who are a little uncomfortable with being with other people,

00:40:39 ►

that’s why I like the CBD, is because the people who have called me and said,

00:40:44 ►

oh, Beck, I would love to come, but my social anxiety is just so heightened.

00:40:49 ►

I can’t do it.

00:40:50 ►

And my heart hurts for those people.

00:40:54 ►

Even when I say, oh, come on, sweetheart, you can come.

00:40:56 ►

We’ll do it.

00:40:57 ►

We’ll take care of it.

00:40:58 ►

So to be able to do it in the privacy of their own home

00:41:02 ►

or when we – I often do one-to-ones also that way or

00:41:07 ►

private in-home gatherings.

00:41:09 ►

In fact, I was just speaking with a woman this morning who offers curated dinners with

00:41:16 ►

cannabis pairings and she was very interested in bringing me on.

00:41:20 ►

I’m going, well, I don’t know how that would look because people you know when they go to

00:41:26 ►

cannabis pairing dinners they’re in a different mindset than when they are coming into a sacred

00:41:31 ►

space for um for emotional healing but you know where there’s a will there’s a way

00:41:37 ►

the question i often like to end with usually is about how, what would you make the world look like if you were in charge

00:41:46 ►

of writing the laws, but you’re in one of the best spots for the law of your favorite substance of

00:41:51 ►

anyone in the world being here in Colorado. So maybe the question would be, if you got to design

00:41:56 ►

a giant chapel of canonauts, what kind of rooms would you have? What kind of place would you like to see the most? Well, let me just say this, that human beings are drawn to ceremony.

00:42:10 ►

It’s primal.

00:42:13 ►

It’s tribal.

00:42:14 ►

For thousands of years, ancient cultures and indigenous peoples have created ceremony.

00:42:27 ►

And so we have in our culture a lack of that.

00:42:35 ►

Ceremony allows us to come together for meaning and a richness of depth.

00:42:43 ►

and a richness of depth.

00:42:52 ►

And to be able to do that in a ceremony is really important.

00:42:55 ►

And to create that.

00:42:59 ►

We have a lack of meaning in our lives.

00:43:02 ►

We don’t know how to be with other people.

00:43:08 ►

We don’t know how to be with other people. We don’t know how to have meaningful conversations with others and coming together to explore the depth of being in a group

00:43:15 ►

and being able to do the inner exploration ourselves.

00:43:20 ►

So that chapel would have a lot of different gathering spaces for ceremony.

00:43:28 ►

That sounds beautiful.

00:43:30 ►

Becca Williams, I just want to say thank you so much for your work

00:43:32 ►

and taking the time to talk to us today.

00:43:34 ►

Oh, Lex, thanks a lot.

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