Summer 2023 Kaftan Collection

Sold to support my training and research they’re part garment, part mystical experience

Never turn up to the ceremony underdressed again with unique tie-dye kaftans from New Psychonaut

Email me at kaftans@newpsychonaut.com with your enquiries for custom colours and combinations. Or click through to the merch store to browse the collection.

Conceived and crafted over lockdown to get myself away from a screen (what did you think I’d be making, sourdough bread?) they take the otherwise exhausting notion of ‘festival wear’ to another level.

Browse the tie-dye kaftan collection now

Unofficial Vital ‘Zine Class of ‘23 Edition

The final slide of my Vital student presentation

Click here to see all the issues of the ‘Zine I’ve made to cover my studies on Psychedelics Today’s acclaimed training course Vital.

You’ll see the cribsheet format I presented to classmates and tutors near the end of the final term. There’s a modest sample below.

I still have a handful of sessions to write up which I’ll enjoy doing over the summer. In autumn ‘23 I have plans to study further which are in good stead. More details when they’re fully confirmed.

Unofficial Vital ‘Zine #19 up now with Ido Cohen

From ‘Novae’ by Lab212 Collective at Wavelength: A Momentary Spring at Beijing Times Art Museum till 1 July

Carl Jung’s psychology lends substance to psychedelic vision work. No wonder it’s fast becoming the framework of choice. Here’s the shadowiest moments from the Vital lecture on Jung, and its shadow work course courtesy Dr Ido Cohen and friends.

My unofficial Vital Study Zine features observations from the past week’s learning and happenings in the space. The top post is a round-up. Highlights follow themed by Vital’s core learning elements: Traditional and Modern Approaches, Therapy, Space Holding, Medicine, and Integration. Plus there’s funnies at the end. This blog is not affiliated to Vital beyond my study on the course. The content shouldn’t be taken as representative as it’s a personal reflection and includes my own lived experience of the sector too.

Men’s Stories: 24hr Circle Saturday 12 March

At 11am UK time on Sunday 12 March 2023 I’m moderating Entheo Nation Washington’s latest 24 hour Zoom circle.

My holding space face

Jump on, listen to psychedelic-tinged tales of masculine triumph and failiure. Everyone’s welcome – it’s a lifesaver on microdosing day or if you’re stuck on your own.

Moderators change every hour. Get the link for the free sesh via Eventbrite or info@entheosociety.net.

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