Veterans and Plant Medicine: 24hr Circle Saturday 15 July

I’m co-hosting this live-streamed discussion with ex-military service people sharing their stories. Watch live or join the call, links below

Ex-military personnel are at the vanguard of the psychedelic healing movement.

Hear personal stories from former soldiers working with psychedelics to help heal trauma and other issues, from 6pm UK/10am PST on Saturday 15 July.

Here’s the free link to join the call plus it’ll be live on YouTube and Facebook too. I’ll be co-hosting on Sunday morning UK time. Later on at 3pm I’ll introducing British infantryman turned MMA coach Ben Vickers (7am PDT and midday in NY). Ben taught me MMA before moving to Western Australia where he trains UFC contender Jack Della Maddellena.

The 24 Zoom comes out of Seattle from its ADAPT-WA org and Entheo Society.

Drop in and out anytime and get a blast of community on microdosing day, via your laptop, phone or personal device.

More veterans’ interest stories here on New Psychonaut:

Psychedelics and Environmental Activism: 24hr Circle Saturday 10 June 2023

Grab the free link below for the next inclusive global gathering hosted by Entheo Society Washington.

Save the planet – one remote meeting marathon at a time.

Here’s the free link to join me this Saturday 10 June from 6pm UK (10am PST) when I'm co-hosting the latest 24-hour open-access psychedelic circle from Entheo Society of Washington.

This month the theme’s ‘Psychedelics and Environmental Activism’.

Every hour a fresh speaker from the world of eco-consciousness shares the story of their work. They’ll speak on not only the climate crisis, but also about how re-engaging with the natural world can be highly beneficial to personal, and clinical, practice.

Drop in and out anytime. You can also just watch on Facebook here and there’ll be a live Youtube stream too. It’s stimulating company for microdosing day, right there on your laptop.

More eco-psychedelia here on New Psychonaut:

Strip Reports

Are your voyagers taking their clothes off – or Goddess knows what else – in your ceremonies and sessions? And it can’t necessarily be brushed off lightly? Annie Boheler knows the score.

Annie’s a somatic experiencing practicioner who’s building a framework for sex positivity during a sesh. 

A classmate of mine on Vital Psychedelic Training, she’s also a trained herbalist, a somatic intimacy coach, a declared anarchist and a former erotic dancer.

“There's all sorts of things that could come up,” says California’s Annie Boheler of the great unspoken topic in many therapy rooms, let alone psychedelic ones… the sexual self.

Even if we’re not ‘going there’ as such, “Someone could be like, ‘I'm gonna take off all my clothes,’ because of any reason on psychedelics,” Annie reminds us, “Like, ‘There's a bee in my clothes,’ or ‘Fuck society, I'm taking off my clothes’.” 

Find out more on Annie's website www.loveagesomatics.com on Instagram @rewildingintimacy

“It could be nonsexual, but very intimate too,” sagely advises the sexuality, intimacy and relationship coach who’s learned with The Kinsey Institute, and Somatic Experiencing International.

What’s the sex positive psychedelic therapist or guide to do in this situation fraught with a heroic dose of awkwardness? Besides stay up on the trends.

The tactics Annie suggests form the basis of her upcoming sex positivity training program. They include chatting over beforehand what options you both have if, for example, the voyager wants to go one further from stripping off and start, y’know, playing with themselves (it could happen). 

It doesn’t say anything about that in The Tibetan Book of the Dead (the actual one, I think it does a bit in the Leary one).

“An increased capacity, awareness, and ease with discomfort can help us feel a bit more in control of a psychedelic experience”

Such an incident could be just the beginning of a shame reinforcing downwards sex spiral. What’s the most deft response? Can you just leave them alone for ten minutes, with a gentle “I support you being yourself” like Annie offers as one option?

Or is that not safe, so you’ve made clear that it’s not the done thing in your shared holistic therapy rooms during the prep sessions?

And even the most agile surfers of inner space might struggle to navigate that little chat.

“Once again, it’s about explicitly naming it: ‘Hey, we're about to talk about something really intimate. And for you this is only our first time meeting. So you only share what you want; there’s no pressure,’ or saying, ‘I do this for my work, you know, it's very comfortable for me. And there's no problem that it seems a little bit new for you. That's okay.”

“Somatics means mind body connection in from the perspective of therapeutics, with a goal of healing or growing”

‘Attunement’ is the somatic experiencing (‘SE’) skill of “kind of being able to see and reflect this person's energy: if they’re more reserved, or they're really excited to share.”

The next-level emotional intelligence – EQ – which SE cultivates has relevant uses, says Annie.

“If we have some experience with somatics, or somatic experiencing, we've increased our internal capacity to be with emotions in general, whether they're comfortable or uncomfortable,” advises Annie, “ during a psychedelic experience, that increased capacity can allow us to have a bit more, I guess, ‘control’ – because of that awareness, and comfortability with discomfort.”

Embodiment therapies and upbeat approaches like Adrienne Maree Brown’s emergent strategy and ‘pleasure activism’ make enjoying yourself somehow socially acceptable and subversive, simultaneously: both lust and appreciation for life.

“Somatics means mind body connection in from the perspective of therapeutics, with a goal of healing or growing,” says Annie, “’Somatic experiencing’ is orienting around our senses: sensations, the temperature of the air, emotions, visualisations, any impulse to move. If we slow down enough, we can tune into these different things. There’s no right or wrong way.”

Find out more on Annie's website www.loveagesomatics.com on Instagram @rewildingintimacy

Britain's only traditional master builder is erecting stone circles in Glastonbury

Mark rewilding

Mark Leib is a contemporary geomancer and biodesigner. He uses the ancient tradition of sacred geomtery to create structures, spaces, settings and sensations in the now.

"The planet can heal and sustain us like a plant can, whether that’s in the Amazon or a field close by," Mark says. Hear more from him, and all about his stone circle building workshops near Glastonbury, England in my first broadcast below.

A geomancer (left) talking down the astralabe

Mark’s an award-winning restaurant and nightclub designer. He gave up throwing shapes to master them instead and trained in the arch-discipline of traditional master building for ten years.

The almost-forgotten art kept pace with civilisation in this part of the world from the Egyptian empire if not before, and was used to raise pyramids, temples and cathedrals. It’s also one of those antediluvian innovations that somehow spread across the globe – Mark points out that seed fossils have been found atop South American pyramids, where farmers left their fledgling crops to harness bio-energies.

Sacred shuteye

Among many techniques it includes building in harmony with the energy fields of natural objects nearby. So like “Chinese medicine for the construction industry” and “feng shui for the encvironment.”

He’s currently the only traditional master builder in Britain and one of only a handful in the world. But their ranks are swelling as people turn to holistic solutions for habitat and health.

Futurists too are frothing at the mouth at ‘bio-architecture’ examples like these Buckminster Fuller-style concept domes by BioArc.

BioArc’s dome habitats

Mark began fusing his ancient and modern skills in projects ranging from modern menhirs to integration tactics. And amateur megalith masons are in luck, because Marks’s hosting a workshop near Glastonbury, England on Sunday 8 May 2022.

Soul Sanctuary’s site near Glastonbury

Particpants will build a stone circle together and learn the fundamentals of sacred geometry.

Enjoy a day in the countryside, maybe bust out a ritual later on

If you’re up for it get in touch with Gibby from Soul Sanctuary via gibby74@sky.com.

The treatment can be applied to mandala and labyrinth designs too

No going too fast as per usual, I don’t want to hear about anyone burning out after whacking up a pyramid in their back garden.

Mark’s website: www.markleib.com