I graduated from Vital

The Zoom call background display of certificates grows albeit slowly

This certificate just arrived from Vital. And I got an offer from modern-day mystery school Exeter University to study a psychology MSc.

Regular readers know how massively impressed I am with Psychedelics Today’s year-long flagship practicioner training course.

Expert advice informed me to “get a speciality” before formal postgraduate study. Initially I was stumped. Not for long. Vital was unapologetically aspirational, and altruistic – its teaching faculty an all-star squadron of psychedelics.

And the US course was less than half of the price of the admitedly well-know, flashy European alternative… which actually went spectacularly bust just as Vital was winding down.

The second Vital cohort’s just started. You can still just about get on it. There’ll be offers, maybe bursaries too.

Modern day mystery school Exeter University announced the world’s first legit psychedelic postgrad

While aimed at clinicians, therapists, activists and professionals, they took me. Then let me ask the likes of Bill Richards and The Mithoefers whatever I wanted. Questions about laughing and crying respectively, come to think of it. My tutor was an expert in Carl Jung and alchemy, and the study group featured a disaster zone psychotherapist, an ex-banker who takes veterans to jungle ceremonies, and an otherwise straight-up christian pastor who’s been licensed to guide mushroom ceremonies for years. Plus a permaculture gardening psychedelic sex therapist. I held space on retreat which was fucking wild and a story for another day.

I really miss having it in my life. And felt like I was cheating death a bit (with inevitable upcoming consequences) by carrying on with learning about a fascinating and worthwhile subject, at the highest level available. Until I remembered that was the idea in the first place. The colourful and attractive people are a syncronicity. And amost certainly a sign things are going in the right direction.

On that front. I’ve received a formal offer to study on a psychology MSc from modern day mystery school Exeter University.

That’s where the Philosophy of Psychedelics set-up is. The world-ranked institution based in the West Country of England just announced the world’s first ever legit university postgrad in psychedelic science and humanities too.

Goddess willing I start in September. There’s all sorts of logistical hurdles still to be overcome. And other possibilities to consider. Or events that require adapting to: pre-Covid I’d just taken a job in Ibiza, and found myself on the penultimate British Airways flight off the White Island with only three other passengers, sat in adjacent rows drinking and sharing life stories at 10.30am.

Plus I’ve a bunch of Vital notes still to write up in the Unofficial Vital Student ‘Zine which I’ll post over the summer. Sign up for Messages from the Ether below, or follow me on Twitter and Instagram to stay with the vibe.

More West Country shizzle: