Entheogens

Entheogens are known as psychedelic drugs, which are used for spiritual benefits. Several indigenous cultures around the world have used these substances for their psychological therapeutic properties as well.

Here I’ll describe a few of the ones I’ve used, and how they’ve helped me along my journey.

Cannabis, aka Marijuana or weed.
This plant can be used in several different ways, but the effect is usually a relaxing “high”, that makes you feel very mellow and peaceful, often described as “releasing resistance”. It helps you “let go” and be at peace.

There are two main types of Marijuana – Sativa and Indica.
Sativa gives you a “head high”, and Indica gives you a “body high”.
What this means is that if you’re using a sativa-strain of weed, it will make you “think” more, and you’ll feel the “high” more in your mind. This makes you want to explain things, and think about life. It sort of brings you into a philosophical mode.

Indica, the kind that gives you a body high, is more for chronic pain relief. It makes your body relax so much, people say it releases lower back pain, or joint pain, or whatever physical ailment they’re dealing with.

I personally prefer Sativas as my favorite, because of how it feels, as well as the fact that Indicas can be so relaxing it often gives what people call “couch-lock syndrome”.
Couch-lock syndrome is when your entire body becomes so relaxed, it makes you feel completely lazy, and you don’t want to get up or do anything.
It makes you TOO relaxed.
For this reason, I prefer not to use Indica weed very often, or at least keep the dosage at a minimum because of how it affects me.

Weed also has a few other side effects as well:
-Red eyes
This isn’t really a big deal. The only reason weed makes your eyes red, is because it increases the circulation of blood-flow going into the capillaries, which actually improves your eyesight. If your eyes have better circulation of blood-flow going into them, it may make them look red, but it actually may help you see better.
Some people say it heals them from cataracts, or other vision problems.

-Cotton Mouth Syndrome
Usually when I’m using weed, regardless of whether I’m smoking it, using a vaporizor, or even using edibles, I nearly always get cotton-mouth syndrome.
Cotton-mouth syndrome is when your mouth gets so dry, it feels like you have a ball of cotton in the back of your throat.
This may only last for a few minutes when your body is first absorbing the weed, and may actually be a reminder to just stay hydrated in order to quench your thirst.
Once you drink some water it isn’t a major problem.

-Short term memory loss
This is one of the major effects that many people have heard about Marijuana. They say it’s bad for your short term memory.
What’s tricky about this is that cannabis does not actually “damage” your short term memory, it just makes it so that you’re not thinking about the past so much, and are focused more on whats happening right now.

When you get “high”, which means you’re feeling the effects of using Marijuana, you become so relaxed and completely focused on the present moment, it’s as if you forgot about whatever happened 5 minutes ago. You don’t literally lose the memory, and you can still access all of your memories just fine, but during the time that you’re actually “high”, it makes you no longer care to think about certain memories for the time being.
The memories are still there when the Marijuana wears off, but you become more focused on the present moment when you’re using Marijuana, so it makes you not think so much about stress you had from earlier.

This effect is only experienced for a couple of hours while actually using Marijuana, and has no lasting effect on your memory after the high wears off.
In some ways, this can be very beneficial for meditation practice, because once your mind lets go of stress, now it can relax and bring in new info more efficiently.
This helps you move beyond whatever you were worried about, and be completely present in the current moment.
This is a very big key to being centered in meditation – letting go of all the cluttering thoughts bouncing around, and just relax completely into the present moment.

-Munchies!
This is one of the effects that I personally don’t experience very often, but other people have told me it’s one of the main things they notice every time they get high.
It increases your appetite, and makes you feel super hungry.
People call this the “munchies”, because it makes them want to snack on everything in sight. You just get really hungry all of a sudden, and food tastes extra good.
This can obviously be a bad thing if you don’t have self-control, but in some cases it may actually benefit a person if they need help with eating more. For example an elderly person or a cancer patient who doesn’t want to eat much, may find relief and an increase in appetite if they use a little Marijuana.

-Lowers your inhibitions
This can be a double edged sword.
When people talk about alcohol (which I don’t drink by the way), one of the main things they say is that it lowers your inhibitions. This means it makes you more likely to do things that you would normally decide not to do.
This can be very good in the right situation, but also very damaging in the wrong one.
For example, if you normally doubt yourself, or have a lot of self-defeating talk, lowering your inhibitions may give you the courage to do things that you’re usually too afraid to do. This can help a lot with social anxiety, or having the courage to speak up when you need to.

In other cases though, lowering your inhibitions can be pretty detrimental if you’re doing a lot of risky behavior. It may cause you to think that it’s okay to do things that you usually know are socially unacceptable, but while you’re high you won’t even care, and decide to do it anyways.
The problem with this is, who exactly decides whether something is socially acceptable or not? What if just because something is “socially acceptable” doesn’t make it right, or good.

Marijuana makes you more rebellious. It helps you break out of conformity, and find your own path. You’ll know not to follow the crowd anymore, even if you’re the only one.
It helps you stand up and speak your truth, even if you’re standing alone.
It makes you more authentic and real, which may actually be quite dangerous if you were taught not to be real. If you’re taught to always be professional and politically correct, suppress your emotions, and tell people what they want to hear, like a people-pleaser, you’re going to look totally nuts if anyone ever saw the real you.
If you take off the facade, like a mask you have to wear at work in order to fit in, people may not like it very much if you don’t talk and act the way they want you to, so now being “real” is considered a threat to their comfort zone.
Conforming and being “normal” is done to suppress you and keep you in line, like a sheep. “Do what you’re told.” That kind of shit.

Marijuana causing you to lower your inhibitions may be considered a bad thing, because it makes you step out of line, but who says the “line” is in the right place anyways?
What if “stepping out of line” actually points you in the right direction, and Marijuana is a tool that helps you find your personal truth.
It helps you realign with who you really are.

This is how it can be used as a spiritual tool, which is basically self-help and psychology. When you use it while meditating, it helps you hear your intuition much more clearly. This is what some people call the internal bullshit detector, which allows them to know when people are lying, and it also helps them be more authentic. Most people generally become nicer when they’re high, because it connects you with your emotions on a deeper level, so you have a greater understanding of “How would I feel if someone did this to me?”
This will affect the way you interact with people in social environments, as well as anytime you have a conflict throughout the day.
I find that I’m more respectful to people and appreciate them more when I’m using Marijuana.

For the people who are interested in the medicinal properties of Cannabis, but don’t actually want to get high, there is something called “CBD”.
CBD is one of the active compounds in Cannabis, which is known to have several therapeutic effects, without making you feel intoxicated. It does not get you high at all, but still provides a subtle relaxing effect, which many people say helps relieve anxiety and depression. Many people also use it for chronic pain, as it’s known for reducing inflammation.

In a normal marijuana plant there may be a certain percentage of THC (the stuff that gets you high), as well as a much smaller percentage of CBD.
If you’re only looking for the CBD though, and don’t want to get high at all, you’d want to use Hemp, which is like a cousin of the Marijuana plant. It contains a higher percentage of CBD, without the psychoactive compounds.
Most places that sell CBD now have it in a tincture or something, which means it was extracted so it’s pure CBD, and can be used as a medicine without any intoxicating effect.

There are TONS of different methods for ingesting Marijuana.
Smoking is the most common, but there’s also vaping, edibles, and tinctures (which is also considered an edible).
Smoking the dry herb material is the fastest way to get the compounds in your body. Once you inhale it, the THC gets absorbed into the bloodstream, and attach to the cannabinoid receptors throughout the body.
We actually have specific receptors in our body called cannabinoids, which are made for interacting with cannabis!
After smoking it, you may start to feel the effects immediately, but it will increase and be felt more strongly for the next 20 minutes or so. Once it’s fully activated, you may feel the high for a couple of hours, and then it slowly dissipates.

Even when it comes to smoking, there are several different methods to choose from, which all have an effect on how high you get.
The most basic smoke method is what’s called a “joint”. This is basically just marijuana rolled in a piece of paper like a cigarette. This is probably the least efficient way of getting high.

Next we have the “Blunt”. This is when you take a cigar or cigarello, which is rolled in Tobacco leaves, and replace the Tobacco on the inside with Marijuana. Some people prefer this method because they enjoy smoking the Tobacco mixed with Marijuana, but I personally don’t enjoy Tobacco smoke very much, so I prefer to smoke Marijuana by itself.

The glass pipe is a staple favorite for many smokers.
A “Bong” is a more complex version of a pipe. It has a section filled with water, which allows the smoke to cool before it’s inhaled. It seems this may help with being able to take more in and absorb it better.

Vaporizers are one of my favorite ways to get high. The idea behind a vaporizer is that it heats up the weed, without actually setting it on fire. That way, you can inhale the vaporized particles from the weed, and still get high from it, without having to inhale smoke and ash. Smoking is just not good for the lungs, so using a vaporizer is much safer and more efficient.
After the weed is done being used by the vaporizer, it will look “cooked”, but not completely burned to ash. The plant material just turns a dark brown color, like it’s been dried and roasted, and you can actually save it to re-use for making edibles. After the weed has been vaped, there is still a bit of THC left in the plant material, so you can use it for making edibles, which means you can basically use the same batch of weed to get high twice.

Edibles are the most efficient way to get high.
When you smoke or vape weed, you’re actually getting only a small percentage of the beneficial compounds absorbed into your body. Burning the plant material in order to smoke it actually destroys most of the THC, so you’re only inhaling a small percentage of it.
Even using a vaporizer does not allow you to inhale all of the compounds, so some of it gets lost or not pulled from the plant material during that process.
Edibles on the other hand, are a totally different bread.
Edibles are things like cookies, brownies, treats, or just anything that you choose to infuse with Marijuana, and can be eaten.
The concept is that the THC in the Marijuana is fat-soluble and alcohol soluble, but not water soluble. This means the THC molecules can bond with either a fat or an alcohol in order to be absorbed by the body, but making a cup of tea using just water and marijuana won’t work. The THC would pass right through you, because it needs to bond with either a fat or alcohol molecule in order to be absorbed by the body.
One easy way to do this is to mix weed with an oil, such as coconut oil, and then use the oil to make whatever you want.
I like to mix it in a 1:1 ratio, so 1 gram of weed can be mixed with 1oz of coconut oil, and then heated on the stove for a couple hours. It can work in as little as 30 minutes, but it’s best to let it stay on the stove for several hours, and stirred continually, so the oil will absorb all the THC molecules from the weed. I also like to use a double boiler so I don’t burn the oil. A simple way to do this is to put the weed and coconut oil in a jar (leave the lid off), and put the jar in a pot of boiling water. The hot water will heat up the oil enough for the bonding action to take place with the weed, but without overheating it or causing it to burn directly on the pot.

Allow it to cook for at least 6 hours (or even overnight if you want) for a really strong dose, and then let it cool and use it whenever you want.
I find that it’s most efficient to cook a large dose of weed every time I want to make oil, so I wait until I’ve collected several grams from my vaporizer, instead of just making 1 or 2 gram batches at a time.
Once you have the oil made, you can either use it to make anything that requires oil, like cookies, brownies, treats, etc, or you can just eat a spoonful of the oil by itself to get the results directly. It’s best to use it on an empty stomach, so your body can process it and make it activate more quickly, and this will also make it feel stronger if your body doesn’t have to digest a bunch of other stuff at the same time.
Edibles can become activate in about 15 minutes or so after eating them if your stomach is empty, or it may take up to 2 hours if you just had a meal, because your body has to digest everything else so it takes longer.
With a good dose of edibles it should last at least 6-8 hours, and maybe longer depending on what kind of dose you take.

Tinctures are also a very efficient way to use weed. Some are made from an alcohol source (like grain alcohol or something), and some are made with coconut oil (it’ll say something like mtc or fractionated coconut oil, which allows it to stay in liquid form so it doesn’t solidify).
These are really easy to use, and are kept in a small 2oz dropper bottle, so you don’t need to worry about keeping an entire big jar of coconut-cana oil.
These are also good to buy at a dispensery, if you live in a place where it’s legal.
I live in Oregon, so it’s nice being able to just buy it from the store.

One of the things that makes edibles much more potent than smoking weed, is that when your body is digesting edible Marijuana, the THC molecule undergoes a totally different process as it passes through the liver. The way your body absorbs it in edible form is several times more powerful than inhaling it through the lungs.
This means edibles gets you MUCH higher, and should only be used in a safe and comfortable environment.
In several cases, using a high does of edibles can be somewhat similar to a low dose Mushroom trip. Very Heart-opening, and allows you to explore your consciousness on a much deeper level.

Some people would even say using weed, and definitely strong edibles, induces anxiety, but in my experience all it does is help you process things with a much deeper level of understanding. It may cause you to think about the worst case scenario, and think about it much more deeply, so you can analyze and work through it in your mind. It’s meant to be a tool that helps you learn, but many people feel uncomfortable when this happens, so they say it gives them anxiety and makes them freak out.

I was against using drugs for most of my life, as I was raised in a conservative Christian home, and thought it was wrong to use them.
In 2012 though, when I was 21 years old, I’d been hearing people talk about the positive benefits of Cannabis, so I decided to do some research, and realized that it isn’t even close to being as bad as people told me.
There really needs to be a major distinction between synthetic drugs, and even pills, which have tons of toxic effects, and natural plants such as Marijuana, which actually have a lot of positive benefits.
After doing my own research and discovering how amazing some of these entheogens (plant medicines) can be, I decided to try Cannabis, and I’ve been happy I did ever since.

Aside from the medicinal and therapeutic properties of weed, one of my favorite things about it is that it enhances my creativity, and really amplifies the spiritual work I’m doing. I seem to sense things better and be more in-tune with my intuition when I’m using Cannabis.
This means I see more spiritual visions, and come up with ideas for how to draw them, like this:

Mushrooms:
Psilocybin Mushrooms, also called Magic Mushrooms, or just “Shrooms”, was the 2nd entheogen I used.

I guess it’s true after all. Marijuana is a “gateway drug”, because it opens your eyes and helps you see that you’ve been bullshitted and lied to for your entire life.
Once I realized that certain plants actually have a lot of natural healing properties, this opened me up to exploring what other plants may be able to help me.
Mushrooms were something I’d heard about, and just naturally felt a pull toward once I started doing research. The vast majority of people who have done mushrooms say it has had a positive impact on their life, and often say it was one of the most meaningful experiences they’ve ever had.
From what I’d read, lots of people have spiritual experiences when they use mushrooms, even if they weren’t religious to begin with. Even those who don’t have that type of experience, still say that it was psychologically beneficial in one way or another.

After perusing online, and gathering an idea about what to expect, I decided to go for it and try the mushrooms for myself.
From what I read, 2 grams is a good starting dose for my first time, that way it’s not too overwhelming, so that’s what I decided to use. When I was getting the mushrooms though, the salesman said that these mushrooms are strong, so I decided to cut the mushroom in half (it was one dried mushroom that weighed 2 grams). I used one gram my first time, and then waited a month and used the other half.

For my first mushroom experience I was super excited!
I’d read that it’s best to either do fasting (don’t eat anything), or just have a light breakfast, like some fruit or something, and try not to have a bunch of heavy food in your stomach. I just had a glass of orange juice, and decided to go to the park to use the mushrooms.
People usually recommend going into nature and treating the mushroom trip like a sacred ceremony. Set an intention, like a prayer, or say whatever you’d like to learn and process at this time.
I decided to go into nature for my first experience, but I learned later on that I actually prefer doing mushrooms in silent darkness. Lying in bed, with earplugs in, and a scarf over my eyes, so it’s completely dark and silent. This is how you go REALLY deep into your mind, and see all of the mindblowing visuals. This helps me connect with myself on a much deeper level.
You can see a lot of amazing visions in nature and connect with the environment around you, but everything you see physically, and everything you hear with your ears, are actually distractions from the subtle things you can see while using mushrooms. It’s only when you block out the external stimulus that you truly begin to see what life is all about.

One of the things I learned during my first ceremony was “You can see more with your eyes closed.”
That does not seem possible at first, but once you experience it for yourself you will truly understand.

The first ceremony happened on a Saturday morning, in June of 2012.
I had the whole day planned out, and decided to use the mushrooms at a nearby park. There’s a wooded area nearby where I can explore and be kind of secluded.

Similar to Marijuana edibles, Mushrooms also take a bit of time to kick in, because your body has to start digesting it. That’s probably the only way that they’re alike though, because the trip is completely different, other than the fact that they both open your Heart and help you have more spiritual experiences. The main similarity though is that they help you process your emotions and stress on a deeper level, so it feels psychologically healing.
Another thing I like about them, as well as most of the other Entheogens I use, is that they don’t have any addictive properties. They are not physically addictive. They’re not like cocaine or heroine, or even caffeine, which is a highly addictive substance.

In most cases, if your stomach is empty, the mushrooms may kick in within 15-20 minutes, and then reach a peak, which is the climax and most intense part of the “trip”, at around 2 hours.
The entire journey may last about 6 hours, and you may feel an afterglow for a few hours afterward.

I wasn’t sure what to expect my first time, but I think I started to feel the effects coming on about 40 minutes to an hour after eating the mushrooms.
At first I just felt really nauseous, like my stomach was uncomfortable, but it was nothing too serious. I just felt very different from how I normally feel. It was like my body and mind were “opening up”, but I didn’t know how to describe it.
It felt uncomfortable at first because it was just a new feeling, but looking back, I actually enjoy the “coming up” phase of the mushroom trip the most, because it’s when you first start feeling the transition to opening up your consciousness.

One very important thing that will often happen when using mushrooms, is that you may feel your intuition, or even a spirit guide or guardian angel speaking to you, but it will feel like it’s just your imagination. It will feel like an idea just randomly pops into your mind, but it kinda feels like you weren’t the one who put it there. It sort of feels like someone else put that idea in your mind telepathically, and this is how you communicate with your spirit guides or follow your inner voice.
At this time, my inner voice (which was actually the consciousness of the mushrooms speaking to me!), told me, “You’ll feel better once you get through the door.”

It was like someone was talking to me inside my own head, but it felt like my own thoughts, as if I’m just thinking to myself. It was like new ideas just came out of nowhere, and it was being caused by the mushrooms.
So basically the mushrooms just wanted to tell me that once I “get through the door”, meaning once I get through the first “coming up” stage of the mushroom ceremony, I will feel a lot better, and won’t be feeling the discomfort or nausea anymore.

I decided to get up and walk around, so I went exploring in the woods and found a nice area to relax.

After another 15 minutes or so, I really felt the mushrooms starting to kick in.
I was starting to feel better, and wasn’t nauseous or uncomfortable anymore.
At one point I looked down on the ground, and saw a tiny insect. This is when I received my first insight from the mushrooms. I just had a deep sense that I appreciate all life. I felt a deeper connection to nature, and understood that even tiny insects have a role to play. They exist for a reason. Literally nothing is insignificant. Everything has a place in nature.
I felt a deep sense of respect for everything, even insects, and realized that I shouldn’t think less of them just because they’re smaller than me. All life is sacred, so I shouldn’t kill things just because they’re a “pest”.

I was raised to believe that mankind has “dominion” over the animals, which basically means it doesn’t matter if we kill them because we are superior.
I spent my whole life thinking it was okay to swat a fly or step on a spider, because it’s just a tiny insect so it doesn’t really matter. After having this mushroom experience though I have SERIOUSLY changed my views regarding the sacredness of life, so I don’t kill things as easily as I used to.
If something is threatening me, then I’ll do what I have to in order to defend myself, but I don’t just kill things for no reason. Even if it’s just a tiny insect, their life is still sacred. Mushrooms helped me see that.

Throughout the ceremony there are always little nuggets of insight that allow me to see things from another perspective. It helps me reevaluate what I believe, and filter through what other people mistakenly told me I’m supposed to believe.

One of the main things I really gained from the first ceremony, is having a sense that my ancestors are proud of me, and are around me at all times.
This was another “intuitive knowing”, that I just sort of sensed, and could feel in my Heart. I just sensed the presence of my ancestors, as if they’re watching over me, and they’re really happy about who I’ve become.

Feeling that was INSANELY healing psychologically!
I’d spent most of my life having low self esteem, and constantly doubting myself because of how I was raised.
There was one phrase my dad would always use – “You don’t bit know what you doing.”
That was his way of saying, “You don’t know what you’re doing one bit”, basically just a way of shooting me down and making me feel like crap for not doing good enough. He was very harsh when it came to pointing out how “bad” I am, and was the complete opposite of encouraging.
He wanted me to know that he thinks I’m inadequate.

I naturally started to think badly of myself from an early age, because my dad always seemed to be upset about something. I started to think there’s something wrong with me, or I’m just unlovable, because I’m constantly being told that what I’m doing is wrong.

To make it worse, I was forced to go to church, and believed in Christianity from an early age, so I was also being taught that I’m a bad evil sinner, and destined to roast in hell unless I follow the Christian bible.
Being taught that you’re “born into sin”, and need to be saved in order to avoid hellfire, is basically like saying you’re a bad person just for being born, and are going to be tortured for all eternity in hell unless you do exactly what the people at church tell you.
It’s like being held hostage by your own family.

Growing up in that kind of upbringing made it feel impossible to reach those insanely high standards. No matter what I did, it wasn’t quite good enough. I was always expected to do better.
I felt like I just wasn’t a good person, and that I’m defective.

Having this mushroom experience, and feeling a sense of approval from my ancestors, healed a lot of this psychological damage, and helped me start seeing myself from a positive perspective.
I felt a deeper connection with who I am as a person, and feeling accepted by my family, which is something I’d never felt from my own relatives.
My ancestors understand me on a deeper level, even when the people right in front of me do not.

Also, the ancestors I connected with were not anyone specific, with names or faces.
It was more like I felt all of my ancestors, from both sides of my family, as one collective consciousness, which I am now the offspring of.
All of them combined as one “person” wanted me to know that they’re proud of me.

About two hours after eating the mushrooms, I reached the climax of the trip. This is when things got the most intense.
Before this, I had just been listening to music on my mp3 player, and then alternating to listening to the sounds of nature. There was a creek nearby, and there were birds singing.
Music sounds extra beautiful when you’re using mushrooms, but nature itself also sounds amazingly symphonic. It was hard to decide on one over the other, so I kept alternating back and forth between the two.
First I’d listen to music on my ipod, but then I’d turn it off and just enjoy the sounds of the world around me. The Earth has its own music.

When the peak hit, things got SUPER intense!
I usually cry during the peak, but this is the best part ever!
It may sound weird to someone who’s never done mushrooms, but I was actually crying because nature is TOO beautiful! I could feel it so deep.
There was SO much beauty all around me, I just felt overwhelmed and started crying. It was probably the best cry I’ve ever had, because it didn’t feel sad in any way. It just felt like crying was the only way to release what I was feeling, because it was too overwhelming to hold in. The atmosphere itself had this thick tangible “energy”. It was the most amazing thing ever.

Normally, when you look at a landscape, there may be certain areas that look beautiful, like a mountain or a flower, but for the most part there’s the space inbetween, which most people think of as empty space, or just gasses in the atmosphere, so it seems like there’s a lot of “nothingness” between me and the beautiful flower that I’m looking at.

When you peak on mushrooms, this is not the case.
What I felt during the peak made it seem like there IS NO empty space between me and what I’m looking at. Even the “air” itself is beautiful!
You can FEEL it!
You can sense that everything around you is vibrating with life. Nothing is empty or static. Everything contains “LIFE!!” energy.
I was feeling this in a way that my senses were much more open than usual. Mushrooms seems to expand your perception of reality, so you start taking in more information, as if you gain extra senses that you didn’t even know were there.

I was so overwhelmed by how amazing this felt, and how beautiful nature is, I couldn’t help but just cry at how amazing it is.
Going through that could potentially be the most healing experience of your life. It allows you to see the beauty in a way that you can’t even imagine, and you’ll have a deep sense of awe that you’d never felt before.
Truly a life changing experience!

After the peak, there was also an experience I had that was really amazing.
I was lying down on the ground, looking up at clouds, and for some reason I could see my body, as if I were overlooking it from a birds-eye view.
It took a moment for me to realize what was happening, because it actually felt normal at first, but once I stopped and thought about it I realized, wait, how the fuck am I looking DOWN at my own body, even though I’m looking UP at the clouds in the sky?!
I was literally seeing my entire body lying down on the ground, like a 3rd person perspective, even though I was looking up at the clouds.
I realized later that this is what’s called an out-of-body experience. My consciousness had separated from my physical body, and I was seeing myself from an outside perspective.
It was really weird though because I could see my body on the ground, but also the clouds in the sky at the same time, so it was like I had 360 degree vision, and could see everything all around me.

Many people have out-of-body experiences while using psychedelics, but I’ve actually had experiences like this for as long as I can remember, long before I did any drugs.
There was one time, when I was in 2nd grade, I had a random out-of-body experience without even realizing why.
I remember the school day was just ending, and I was walking down the hall, on my way to the front of the school.
I noticed though, that for some reason I was looking at the TOP of my fucking head, while I was walking down the hallway. Somehow I was seeing my body from a birds-eye-view, basically an out-of-body experience, even while I was walking down the hallway.
The weird thing is, I remember feeling that exact same thing happen before, a few other times, but I may not have been fully out of body, or just didn’t understand what was happening. I just remembered it had a very distinct feeling, and I could see that I was outside of my physical body. I still had complete control over myself, but I was just in two points of perspective at the same time.

When this was happening during the mushroom trip, it felt completely normal, as if being out-of-body is actually my natural state, and being stuck inside my physical body is actually the illusion that we buy into.
Your true form is “consciousness”, and the physical body is just a vehicle used for this human experience.
It gets you where you’re going, but it’s not who you really are.

Another thing I experienced, that really took me by surprise – I actually felt my guardian angel.
This happened while I was still halfway out-of-body, I could physically feel a persons hand touching my back. In my “minds eye” I could “see” a figure with their hand on the back of my Heart, but in physical reality there was nobody there. I actually looked over my shoulder just to be sure there was nobody there.
Even though I could physically see that there was nobody there, I could still feel a persons hand on my back, and I got a sense that he’s my guardian angel. It was just sort of an intuitive sense, where I could see in my mind that there’s a “person” with their hand on the back of my Heart, but I couldn’t actually look directly at them or describe any features.

It’s almost like you can only see it by not looking directly at it. So it’s basically a being from another dimension, who could be overlapping the physical 3d realm, but our eyes are unable to see it because they don’t have a physical form.

I knew that it was my guardian angel because I just sensed it intuitively, and I had a strong feeling that he’s protecting me. He has a very peaceful presence, and most of the time you won’t even notice he’s there.
I felt it strongly while the mushroom trip was in full effect, but the feeling started to fade after the mushrooms wore off.
Even when this happened though, my Angel told me telepathically that he will always be with me, even when I don’t feel it. He’s still there, even when I don’t sense him.
Overall it was amazing to have that experience, and to know that an Angel is always protecting me.

For the rest of the time during the trip, I continued relaxing and enjoying the beauty of nature for a few more hours.
One thing that I thought was cool, as I continued to look up at the clouds in the sky, it seemed like I was able to see them with MUCH greater precision than usual. It was as if my eyes could “zoom in” and see the tiny details of the clouds, even though they’re actually several miles away in the sky.
Looking at the edges of the clouds, I could see these little spiral motions as the cloud was swirling in on itself. It seemed like I could actually see the water molecules coalescing, and I was seeing the cloud formation take place.

Those are some of the highlights from my first mushroom trip, but every time has been just as beautiful and unique.
The main theme I usually go through is having a much deeper sense of gratitude and appreciation, as well as seeing things from a new perspective, and I’m always learning new lessons and insights.
It’s always therapeutically healing in one way or another.

One of the things I’ve heard about the science of how it works, is that mushrooms causes several parts of the brain to become active, that normally would not be active at the same time.
For example, when you’re going through your morning routine, there is a different part of the brain being active than when you’re studying or reading a book. Being asleep activates certain parts of the brain, and so does meditation or listening to music.
When you use mushrooms, it causes several of these different parts to become active at the same time, which is why it increases your creativity, as well as helps you come up with new ideas and see things from a different perspective.

Here is a painting I made, from a vision I experienced during another Mushroom Ceremony.
I was in a higher realm (lying in bed with eyes closed, seeing visions of another dimension), and there were cascading rainbows emanating from a universal “eye”.
All throughout the space there were “structures”, that I don’t know how to describe. It would be impossible to draw or recreate. It was basically some type of vision from another dimension, that you can’t recreate in the physical 3d realm, so you can’t really understand it until you see for yourself.
This painting is the closest I could come to describing it, but it was actually a million times more complex in person. While I was going through the experience the only thing I could think to say was, “It’s so beautiful, it’s so beautiful, HOLY SHIT!! It’s so beautiful!!”
It’s not just about how it looks, but mostly how the experience FEELS, and that it activates certain senses outside of the physical body.
Just seeing the vision may be enough to raise your consciousness to a higher level.

Ayahuasca:
I’ve written a few blogs already about my Ayahuasca experiences, which you can read about here, here, and here.
Overall, this is a really good plant medicine for someone who seriously needs a breakthrough in their life, whether spiritual, psychological, or if you just don’t know how to deal with past trauma.

Ayahuasca is really good at helping you sit with your shadow. This terminology in the spiritual field means to be present with your negative emotions.
Integrate the part of you that you were taught to suppress.
In modern culture, most people are taught to disassociate from negativity, as if being positive all the time is the only acceptable way to be.
Ayahuasca shows you any destructive patterns or thought processes that you’ve been stuck in, and helps you move past it.
It doesn’t taste good, and it’s not a fun experience (because it makes you throw up), but it’s definitely worth trying if nothing else has worked.
It’ll help you realign yourself.

Here is a drawing I made, which vibes in the same realm as Ayahuasca.
She shows you different layers of reality, and helps you navigate the inner worlds.

San Pedro Cactus:
Mescaline is the psychedelic alkaloid found in San Pedro Cactus, and is also known to have an even higher concentration in the Peyote Cactus. Both cause the same effects, but Peyote is stronger.

My first time using Peyote was with a Native American Church in 2018.
It’s often used similar to Ayahuasca, in a spiritual ceremony setting, and may also cause nausea and vomiting as well. This is known as purging, like cleaning out your body and releasing negative energy, so this is often considered a good thing.

It’s a good idea to use Peyote or San Pedro if you’re working with Ayahuasca, because Ayahuasca is known as “GrandMother” and Peyote is known as GrandFather.
One brings harmony to the other.
Ayahuasca brings you into your shadow, and helps you face your shit, but Peyote brings you back into the light, and restores you to your full radiance. It often feels like an encouraging father figure, who reminds you not to doubt yourself, and helps you see your strength and move forward.
It’s a very cleansing plant-medicine like Aya, but also has its own vibe, and goes well if used the day after Aya.
The ceremony for Peyote/San Pedro lasts much longer though, so it may take 12 hours for the effects to wear off, and even then you’ll feel an afterglow for a few hours.

I’ve heard it said that Peyote is nature’s LSD. I’ve never used LSD though because I just don’t feel drawn to it, and would prefer to stick with natural plant medicines (not synthetics made in a lab), but people who have done it say that LSD is like Star Wars, and Mushrooms is like Lord of the Rings.
Mushrooms gives you a “relax into nature” vibe, like an epic adventure like Lord of the Rings, while LSD is said to give more of a mathematical, geometric feeling, and seems more fast paced like Star Wars.

I definitely feel that fast paced vibe whenever I’ve used San Pedro. It stimulates your mind, so you’ll have a sort of jittery feeling, which can be overwhelming if you’re moving around too much. It helps immensely if you lie down (like stay in bed with a scarf over your eyes the entire time), and I also like to listen to certain music that matches the pace of what I’m feeling.

Because of the “high intensity” feeling that Mescaline produces, the Native American Church likes to play a drum that matches this feeling, while doing their ceremonies.
It’s usually done at a fast pace, and has a very distinct deepness to it. Focusing on this helps bring you through the ceremony, without feeling overwhelmed by how it feels.
Even though the feeling can be intense, the actual visions and lessons that Peyote teaches can be very gentle. They’re usually subtle visions, but still very distinctly seen inside the mind, and most of the lessons you learn during the ceremony may be pretty gentle. People say that Peyote/San Pedro are great because it’s really difficult to do too much. With Mushrooms and Ayahuasca, you could easily do too much, and wind up having a really uncomfortable trip because of how deeply it makes you “face yourself”.
Mescaline though, is much more gentle. Even if you use a high dose, you’ll still receive the lessons and insights that you need, but it probably won’t overwhelm you with anything that’s too hard to handle. You’re less likely to have a “bad trip”, because the medicine carries you through very gently.

It’s also really good because it opens the Heart (like REALLY REALLY opens the Heart chakra!) so you may feel tons of deep compassion and empathy immediately after using this medicine.
Here’s a painting I made, from a vision I saw during my first San Pedro ceremony.
At the end of the ceremony I saw myself (like I was in another dimension), and I was standing in front of what felt like the “throne of God” (however you imagine that to be).
It was like a column of electricity, radiating TONS of energy! After a moment, I realized I was actually looking at my own Heart.
It felt like this is my true “God”, and I will always live a happy life as long as I follow its lead.
“Follow your Heart”

Rape’ Tobacco
Hape’ is a plant medicine that I normally use every morning to start my day. This is the only “drug” I use that actually has addictive properties, but for some reason it doesn’t seem like to effect me in that way.
It’s well known that Tobacco contains Nicotine, and especially the Tobacco used in Hape’ is known to be something like 20x stronger than the common Tobacco used in cigarettes.
Because of this, you’d think that it would be super addictive and hard to stop using, but in my experience it has never been difficult to stop using at all. Every so often I’ll go a month without using it (same for weed too), and I’ve never experienced any of the side effects or withdrawals that people talk about when quitting an addiction. I get no craving for it whatsoever.
I actually find it kind of amusing that people experience worse side effects from quitting caffeine (like headaches and feeling irritable and shit), than I do from any of the “drugs” I’m using.

One of the things I love about Hape’ is that indigenous cultures (like First Nations people, and tribal people living in the Amazon), consider it a Sacred Plant Medicine of the Earth.
When you use it, it gives you a quick “ceremony”, but it doesn’t have a lasting effect like other drugs.
At first it burns, because it’s basically Tobacco powder being blown up the nose, but once the discomfort wears off (after a minute or so), you feel totally relaxed, and it brings you into a meditative sort of state.

I always see spiritual visions when I use it, but it’s not the same as using mushrooms and actually being “high”. When I use Hape’, it’s like the visions are just an overlay that I see in my “imagination”, even though what I’m really seeing (with my eyes closed) is just darkness.
After blowing the powder into my nose, I close my eyes and let the “medicine” work.
The visions usually have to do with shedding old layers of myself, sort of like a snake shedding its skin, but in this case I’m “peeling off” a layer of the ego. I’m letting go of old energy, or stagnant thought patterns that are no longer useful.

Sometimes I’ll receive a nugget of insight, but most of the time I just feel and see some negative energy leaving my body. It also opens the crown chakra and the root chakra at the same time, which allows you to connect with higher realms, while also being fully grounded with your physical body.

The first time I tried Hape’ it was a certain kind called “Nunu”, which contains Tobacco mixed with Cacao, and is made by the Matses tribe in South America. They are the same people who use Sapo (aka Kambo) the frog venom for healing ceremonies.

After my first dose, and I realized how amazing it can be for balancing the body’s energy field, I decided to add it to my own repertoire of natural medicines.
I was also really happy to meet a new friend a few months later, who is also into some of the same plant medicines as me, and he was happy to share some of his Hape’.

The thing about Hape’, like any plant medicine/entheogen, is that the dosage you decide to use can have a major effect on the type of experience you have.
The first time I did it, when I used Nunu, it was a little uncomfortable, but I would call that a pretty average dose. I got what I needed, and it wasn’t too overwhelming.
This next time I did it, I used a HUGE dose compared to what I did the first time. This time was overwhelmingly powerful!
As soon as the Hape’ was blown up my nose, there was an instant reaction to pull back, because it feels super uncomfortable. It goes WAY up there, so it feels like it tickles your brain and pineal gland. Not only that, but when you do a big dose, some of the powder goes all the way up the back of your nose, into the back of your throat, and then may accidentally be swallowed.
Swallowing Tobacco makes you throw up, so that’s exactly what happened to me.

At first, I was fine, it just felt like some really intense plant medicine.
As soon as it “kicked in” I immediately felt my intuition lead me to do certain mudras. Those are the hand postures that people do when they’re meditating, like putting a finger and thumb together in an “OK” sign. This stimulates certain energy meridians throughout the body.
I instantly knew which mudras I needed to do, and felt a sudden prompting to move my body a certain way, so the energy would flow and release exactly how it needed to.
The main thing I experienced next, was a feeling of “completion”, like I had just finished a major part of my spiritual journey, and was ready to move on to whatever was next.

This happened around mid 2017 when I was living in Dallas. When I did this Hape’, it was like I suddenly received a bunch of insight about my overall journey.
I felt like I had been called to Dallas for part of my journey, and that part had come to a close, so now I felt called to go somewhere else.
It wasn’t until several months later that I ended up leaving Texas and moved to Oregon, but I wound up exactly where I needed to be, and I’m much happier now than I’ve ever been.

Overall I think Hape’ is really good for removing blockages, and helping you move forward in your own life’s journey.

After receiving my big insight, I continued soaking in the good vibes for a while, until about 10 minutes later I noticed I was super nauseous.
At first I thought I’d be fine, but I actually knew I was about to throw up. I ended up throwing up off and on for about an hour, and was still in a super relaxed state from the high dose of Hape’.
The main reason this happened though is because you’re supposed to do hape’ in both nostrils, so after I used it in both (I had my friend blow it in with a pipe he has, from a condor bone actually), I asked him to put some more in my left nostril, because it felt like he put more in my right.
After he did it, and he saw my reaction, he was saying that he accidentally gave me too much, which is why I started throwing up. In this circumstance, I think I got the exact dose that I needed, and I considered the throwing up to just be part of “purging” process, like a cleansing that my body needed to go through.
Once it was done, and I was feeling better, I was really happy about the breakthrough I had.

Sapo (aka Kambo) Frog Venom:
This is technically not a “psychedelic drug”, and does not get you high or anything, but it’s still a natural medicine that has powerful healing properties.
Basically, the Matses tribe in South America discovered one particular frog, which secretes a venom from its body, that can be used for healing.

First they use a vine or stick to burn a mark on your arm, sort of like being burnt by a hot incense, in order to remove just the top layer of skin.
Once the tiny capillaries of the skin are exposed, you can put a goop of the frog venom on, and it will be absorbed into your body.
Your body recognizes that it’s frog venom and wants to get rid of it, so it immediately fires up the immune system and tries to flush it out as quickly as possible.
This causes your heart rate to increase, your face swells up, and you just feel super uncomfortable. Your whole body just starts aching.
During this process, your body also starts vomiting, in order to get rid of the venom (but that doesn’t actually get rid of it because the venom is on your arm).
The important thing that happens here though, is that while your immune system is fired up and trying to get rid of this venom, the body simultaneously releases ALL toxins built up in your organs, so you may feel your muscles spasming, especially around the stomach, kidneys and liver. This causes those organs to squeeze and wring out any of the toxins that have accumulated over time, and then you throw it up.
It’s a good way to clean your filters, and wring out the entire body.

They usually keep the venom on for 15 minutes, but the first 8 minutes or so are the most intense. Once you make it through that, you feel your body starting to calm down, and you probably won’t throw up anymore.
Overall this is a good medicine for cleansing, because it flushes out the physical body, as well as the energy meridians and etheric body as well.

So those are some of the Entheogens I’ve used.
Marijuana
Mushrooms
Ayahuasca
San Pedro Cactus
Rape’ Tobacco
Sapo frog vemon

Each one of these medicines has their own effect, but overall they each promote healing in their own unique way.
As natural medicines from the Earth, Entheogens really are the way to go. They have minimal side effects, and most are not addictive.
They restore your Body and Mind, and help you realign.
Entheogens are sacred plant medicine.