Before being labelled as “magic” Psilocybin Mushrooms are considered as “sacred” by the Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico. Nahuatl language the word Teonanacatl, literally means “The flesh of God”. The consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms as sacred still survives in a few small villages as a ritual.

In 1953, American banker, Robert Gordon Wasson with a passion for mycology, was among the first to discover the continuance of the ritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms among the Mazatecs. On his journey of exploration in Mexico, Wasso met the world-renowned healer and the Shaman, Maria Sabina. Very quickly, touring Mexico in search of Maria Sabina became an initiatory journey for any follower of the psychedelic trend in the ’50s including figures as diverse as John Lennon, Jim Harrison, Aldous Huxley and Walt Disney.

Other traces show that the use of mushrooms dates back to even earlier times as more than 200 “stone mushrooms” found in Chiapas and Guatemala in Quiché and Mam lands. Some date more than 3,000 years ago.

Mexico’s Zapotec indigenous tribe uses hallucinogenic mushrooms as a ritual to initiate children around the age of 5 to celebrate the passage of infancy to childhood. Another fascinating tradition is from the indigenous people of the Mazatec tribe, where many members of the same family eat the mushrooms together; father, mother, children, uncles, and aunts all participate in the transformation of their minds as they elevate consciousness onto a higher state.

The ancient indigenous wisdom and the rituals around Psilocybin Mushrooms give us hope that maybe, Psilocybin can be the agent in solving a lot of the dysfunctional family dynamics in the civilised western world.

As the pandemic keeps on pressing, need for urgent transformation is increasing. I cannot help but to think that maybe pandemic is the manifestation of the cosmic consciousness conspiring to create a new way being as a collective. Maybe it’s an initiation to “reset” our body and mind, transcend the toxic wiring of the unconscious and open ourselves to grasp the bigger picture. Maybe it’s an initiation to grow in humility and let go of the destructive beliefs of separation. Maybe it’s an initiation to finally respect and reconnect to the sacred plant medicines, and develop a sustainable new world. Little do we know that Psychedelics may be the most potent ally we will have as species that would play a role in initiating humanity in this passage of pre-covid to the post-covid realm.

Mush Love 

Microdosing is the phenomenon of taking small, controlled doses of psychedelic substances and the idea is that the quantity is too small to produce noticeable effects of being high but big enough to change thought patterns and behaviours, function better, happier and more productive.

One Canadian study recruited people from online forums to ask about microdosing habits and mental health and research found that nearly 25% of users reported a sharpened focus and heightened energy and 13% said microdosing alleviated their existing anxiety and stress. Further, more than 20% reported that their mood and outlook on life improved.

Psilocybin mushrooms have been used ceremonially for thousands of years and recently has become the next best thing in holistic healing and wellness. Some of the known benefits that stand out are;

1. stimulate the growth of new brain cells
2. helps deal with social rejection
3. alleviate OCD symptoms, anxiety, PTSD and depression
4. connecting the brain in new ways and promoting neurogenesis

Further studies have shown evidence that psilocybin significantly reduces anxiety in patients with life-threatening illnesses like cancer.

Who should use microdosing? 

✅ Anyone who suffers from increased anxiety due to uncertainty of the future and affected by the current pandemic crises

✅ Anyone who is seeking an alternative medicine to heal their mind and body 

✅ Anyone who feels under the pressure of life’s challenges 

✅ Anyone who suffers from depression 

✅ Anyone who is seeking spiritual growth 

✅ Anyone who has tried everything in modern medicine and not received positive results 

✅ Anyone with chronic pain, aches and inflammation 

✅ Anyone who is looking to transcend past traumas and improve their life experience 

✅ Anyone who is experiencing dissociation, disconnection from themselves 

✅ Anyone who is experiencing challenging relationships 

✅ Anyone who is experiencing deep sadness and low mood

✅ Anyone who lost hope in life and live in fear 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to claim sovereignty 

✅ Anyone who is looking to boost their self-esteem 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to boost their creativity, focus and clarity 

✅ Anyone who is looking to connect to a higher order and wisdom 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to grow in awareness and courage 

✅ Anyone ready to live their truth and seeking self-acceptance 

✅ Anyone who feels that they don’t fit in the society 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to do deep self-work 

✅ Anyone ready to confront their unconscious drives 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to claim self-agency and take responsibility and ownership of themselves 

✅ Anyone ready to transcend their limiting beliefs 

✅ Anyone who is looking to improve their general well-being 

✅ Anyone who is going through a tough time and needs emotional support 

✅ Anyone who feels stuck 

✅ Anyone who innately knows there’s more to life and need initiation 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to unlock their capacity for more profound intuition and soul connection 

✅ Anyone who respects psychedelics and regards them as medicine for life

✅ Anyone ready to explore new territory in life and themselves 

✅ Anyone who suffers from an addiction 

✅ Anyone who suffers from intrusive thoughts, self-loathing, self-criticism and self-sabotage 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to improve the quality of their life 

✅ Anyone curious and seeking to explore the psychedelic realm

✅ Anyone seeking to learn mindfulness and meditation practice 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to eliminate stress 

✅ Anyone who is seeking to connect with nature

Mush Love

The Psilocybin mushroom has evolved into medicinal and nutritional use where pharmaceutical and other companies are in the process of developing psychedelic-derived consumer goods products. The new age deep-dive in scientific research and developments of Psilocybin expected to expand into other psychedelics such as MDMA, ketamine, Ibogaine and Ayahuasca.

Currently, Psilocybin mushrooms are being used primarily for critical mental health challenges focusing on unmet therapeutic needs with promising results. As the post-covid world is witnessing high demand in alternative medicines, we see a global effort across the board in designing comprehensive products that can lead us into the future innovation and the advancement in optimising health and well-being.

The mind-body-spirit elevating properties of the fungi is now being used in “microdosing” as a way to explore the benefits with minimised risk of experiencing altered states, cultivating healthy biopsychosocial immune function which simply means the role of the interaction between the psychological, biological and social aspect of our being that impacts our complex nervous system processes which play a critical role on our well-being.

Microdosing Psilocybin is a practice of taking a tiny dose with targeted benefits while going about the day without the feeling of you’ve taken psychedelics, and it’s the revolutionary way of using psychedelics without tripping. Currently, microdosing is under the spotlight and emerging as highly sought after alternative medicine for spiritual growth and transformational healing with over 400 published paper indicating promising outcomes.

A brief look at the benefits of the microdosing are; an enhanced mood that lingers for multiple days, reduction in stress, increase in mindfulness, focus and creativity along with greater self-awareness and insights. On a cognitive level, microdosing shows signs of neurogenesis, rise in cognitive processes and plasticity.

To conclude, magic mushrooms are the force of nature with healing potentials creating a vast myco-culture revolution with a strong positioning at the intersection of psychedelic use and personal transformation. With responsible use, integrated research and development, we can begin a new journey, laying down the decades of stigma and create a sustainable future exploring the limitless psychedelic realm and build a new symbiotic relationship for a better world.

Mush Love

As the pandemic unfolds, compromised mental health is affecting many of our communities. Uncertainty, collective fear and anxiety challenge even the fittest among us.

There’s an urgent need to develop new treatments and microdosing is becoming the new global movement that is currently growing exponentially.

Microdosing refers to ingesting a very small dose of a psychedelic substance such as Psilocybin using a specific protocol that is proposed by the expert researchers and pioneers of the Psychedelic Science.

Almost every civilisation in history used psychedelics for rites of passage which is an indicator of the deep connectedness we carry within, and these compounds are recognised and processed intelligently by our complex biochemistry.

Psychedelics work on serotonin receptors enhancing the adaptability, flexibility of our brain functions, stimulating higher quality of activity that increases plasticity and opens us to new perspectives, a shift in awareness that creates the possibility to change from our pathological beliefs and habits.

Psilocybin is the active ingredient in the magic mushrooms has now been approved by the FDA in many parts of the world as an alternative treatment in mental health and well-being and microdosing is the safe way to begin exploring the future medicine that can help reset mind-body-soul in ways that we cannot comprehend.

With microdosing you cannot trip or experience altered states, the affects are experienced profoundly on a metabolic level, subtle yet remarkably enhances awareness, enhances senses that allow access to the deeper parts of ourselves, activates intuition, increases mental clarity.

Brief look at the things to consider before embarking on a microdosing journey:

1. Check the status and legalities of the compounds in your country.
2. Screening the safety of the microdosing protocol, do your research as there are many articles and scientific papers available online.
3. Making sure the medicine is cultivated ethically with respect, do not take any substances from an unknown source.
4. Be honest about any existing health condition and take mature responsibility and caution in deciding to take the microdosing route.
5. Make sure to start your microdosing journey with an experienced facilitator in the field.
6. Honor the set and setting, have a clear intention and make sure you’re in a safe and familiar environment while on the medicine.
7. Do not mix with other substances and alcohol.
8. Acknowledging that this is a holistic medicine and can bring up repressed emotions and trauma, therefore, have a facilitator or a trusted person to hold space for you if it arises.
9. Prepare yourself mentally and make sure you have done prior self-work to increase your capacity and emotional resilience to deepen your connection with yourself.

Risk and disclaimer: Due to the early stages of the research, one must be responsible and mature in exploring, especially with the psychotic predisposition and neurological susceptibility.

The impact of microdosing is currently being explored at Imperial College London, the world’s first placebo-contolled study of the treatment and could be the start of a new era in pschedelics as potential medicines for the well-being of people.

Love and Courage

There’s a phenomenon known as self-agency in social sciences defined as the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices. Agency in self-work is the sense of taking ownership of your life and the ability to handle the internal and external challenges. And self-agency for me is the highest attainment in self-work, the ultimate initiation cultivated through the practice of daily meditation. 

With the rise of the frequency, we’re experiencing spiritual growth collectively, and many people are seeking to have a better relationship with themselves, their environment, and with life, respectively. As we enter a new era of soul searching, meditation is becoming the universal tool, aiding humanity in transcending the intellectual limitations by returning to our inner core and turning inward to the unified field of unbounded divine intelligence, absolute knowledge, creativity, the wisdom that is eternal, immortal and available to all.

We all have an intrinsic drive toward growth and personal evolution, a powerful force in the human condition that propels us towards self-discovery, connection and fuller self-expression. Meditation can be a super powerful tool in pursuing self-mastery. All great thinkers of our time developed rituals around meditation purposely to actualise their potentials. With deep conviction and commitment to the path, we too can start honing in on our essence and tap into possibilities.

Love and Courage

Humanity is undergoing a profound shift in consciousness, and we are witnessing emerging outgrowth of our capacity for empathy, expressing love and light and extending our biological instinct of empathy to serve others in ways that never heard of in the past.

Is it really about serving and helping others?

Can we actually help others?

Are we caught in the frustrating gap between ego drives masking as ‘selfless service act’ to avoid the real work?

And I don’t mean helping someone to achieve personal life goals or teaching a skill. I mean the real and raw spiritual growth in self-awareness, self-inquiry and self-work. 

The idea that we can change, transform and enlighten others is the most prevalent and deepest delusion. We are intrinsically centred in self-interest and mostly spend a lifetime proving our self-worth that mostly plays out in the selfless act of service. We are never really helping anyone, its a myth, its the manifestation of indirect suffering of the insecure parts of ourselves that lacks self-trust.

Serving others only serves us and reveals the capacity to see through the veil of our own self-deception. The only thing we can offer someone is acceptance and love, which can only come from a place of accepting ourselves. The more we radically accept ourselves, the more we can accept others, anything outside of acceptance is a judgement. 

To conclude, we cannot drag others into the light; before the light comes the capacity to hold darkness with emotional maturity. The individual growth is not possible without ownership and brutal honesty that requires paradigm shifts. The lack we see in others is the lack within us that comes from the inability to accept and trust ourselves. The greatest service we can render to humanity is taking ownership of our own self-work and have the responsibility to grow in self-awareness.

Self-work is our gateway to understanding our drives, motives and impulses to become empowered beings.

Love and Courage

Art by Brooke Shaden

We are often a product of our circumstances beyond our control. It is our circumstances that may dictate our emotions and drive our actions.

The mind has conditioned beliefs that filter perception and we become a victim; prone to emotional injury through disappointing experiences, real or imagined.

The poisoning effect of replaying the mistakes, regrets, guilt, rejection weakens the immune system and saps the cognitive resources by draining our mental energy.

According to famous Stoic Marcus Aurelius, we do have the power of our mind to influence our inner world. It is our responsibility to find the courage and strength to re-write our story.

Once we figure out that we can interrupt our unconscious impulses and patterns, we can then unhook from the autopilot living into expanded consciousness through deeper awareness.

The greatest gift we can render to humanity is to free ourselves from ourselves with courage and grace.

Love and Gratitude

Art by Brooke Shaden

So many broken children living in grown bodies.

“Cracked, flawed and powerful.”

It is time for fresh introspection, self-inquiry, self-reflection, go deep into your pain and stay there, breathe deeper into that pain, pull out the parts within you and breathe deep into them with compassion, acknowledge and release.

Today marks the summer solstice, as the sun reaches a unique marker in the cosmic skies, the veil is thinner, the energies are intense and we are called to express ourselves and receive the offerings of the universe.

It is a time to harness our mind, body spirit connection as we are moving into a very reflective season, recognise the wisdom you carry, your capacity for courage, strength and reverence.

Time to lay down the groundwork to process, release and leave behind to grow and shift in consciousness.

Love and Courage

“You live through that little piece of time that is yours, but that piece of time is not only your life, it is the summing-up of all the other lives that are simultaneous with yours…

What you are is the expression of History.”

According to Elvin Semrad, most human suffering is related to love and loss. The highest service is to help people acknowledge, experience and bear the reality of life — with all its pleasures and heartache.

If you are familiar with my work, you know that I often share unconventional perspectives, tools and many different forms of alternative approach on the process of self-work.

I believe that asking hard questions such as how do you choose to suffer? can bring forth a powerful and transformational shift in our perspectives.

We are on the verge of becoming a conscious society on the workings of the mind-body-spirit.

Advances in science and spirituality are guiding us to better understand how our unique life experiences change the structure and the function of fundamental processes in self-regulation and self-perception.

I’m excited to share a series of mini-blogs based on my own experience in the field of self-work, self-awareness and developing a spiritual connection, activating intuition and re-connecting with the body.

Join me on this adventure in self-discovery, as we are all capable of transcending our learned and primal reality into intentional and meaningful existence.

Let’s do this.

Stay tuned!

Love and Courage