TrueLife - Rev. Dr. Jessica Rochester - Projection, Transference, & Counter Transference in Non-Ordinary States of Conciousness
Episode Date: September 4, 2024One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psych...edelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Rev. Dr. Jessica Rochester is the Madrinha and President of Céu do Montréal, a Santo Daime (Ayahuasca) Church she founded in 1997 in Montréal, Canada.She is a transpersonal counselor, she trained in the work of Dr. Roberto Assagioli and trained with Dr. Stanislav Grof.She worked with Health Canada from 2000 until 2017 to achieve an Section 56 Exemption to import and serve the Santo DaimeSacrament (Ayahuasca).She is an ordained Interfaith Minister with a Doctorate in Divinity.From 1986 to 2018 she has been a workshop leader, teacher, and in private practice.She is the author of Ayahuasca Awakening A Guide to Self-Discovery, Self-Mastery and Self-Care, Volume One and Two.She continues to lecture on consciousness, non-ordinary states of consciousness, self-discovery, spiritual development, health and well-being and personal transformationhttps://www.revdrjessicarochester.com/https://psychedelicscene.com/2024/06/20/entheogens-psychedelics-nosc-and-the-search-for-wholeness/ One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg
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Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft.
I roar at the void.
This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate.
The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel.
Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights.
The scars my key, hermetic and stark.
To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear.
through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.
The poem is Angels with Rifles.
The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini.
Check out the entire song at the end of the cast.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast.
I hope everybody's day is going absolutely beautiful.
We are streaming to you today from the Bay Area.
the first podcast of the True Life podcast in California.
So I'm excited to have an incredible guest, which most of my listeners know,
and that is Reverend Dr. Jessica Rochester.
She's the Madrina and president of the Sioux de Montreal,
a Santo Dimei Ayahuasca church that she founded in 1997 in Montreal, Canada.
She's a transpersonal counselor.
She trained in the work of Dr. Roberto Asagioli and trained with Dr. Stanislav Graf.
She worked with Health Canada from 2000 until 2017,
to achieve a Section 56 exemption to import and serve the Santo Dimey Sacrament.
She's an ordained interfaith minister with a doctorate in divinity.
From 1986 to 2018, she has been a workshop, leader, teacher, and in private practice.
She is the author of Ayahuasca Awakening, a Guide to Self-Discovery, Self-Care, Volume 1 and 2.
She continues to lecture on consciousness, non-ordinary states of consciousness, self-discovery,
spiritual development, health and well-being and personal transformation.
Dr. Jessica, thank you for being here today.
How are you?
Well, thank you so much for inviting me back on the show.
I'm really honored to be your first guest in your new studio and launching a new season.
So the first thing I'm going to do is send you life, health, happiness, and open paths.
Okay, health and the body, peace in the spirit, love in the heart.
it is this that I wish for you, all our brothers and sisters, all creatures and all men.
Well, thank you. I can feel the love surrounding me. And, you know, there's a sort of
electric newness that happens when you're in a new area. And I feel like moving to an area
sort of opens up and makes you more aware to its own new awareness. And I think that's a nice
segue into what we're going to talk about today. Well, it actually is. And I do want to confirm what
you've said, those of you who are interested, if you haven't read my books, you'll find that
in volume two, when we talk about the Circle of Homeless, we talk about where we live.
We touch on it in the self and volume one, part one, but we talk about how where we are,
sacred sites and geography affects us. And whether we're in the mountains or on the desert or
next to the ocean or the casheweras, the little rivers and streams,
that there's a connection that we have with nature.
And when we change our geography, they talk to people,
and they go and they go and live in the mountains or in the forests.
And so you've made this switch,
and you're going to find that the trees will talk to you if you listen.
The earth, you know, everything has a vibration.
And this is not just la-law of talk.
This is science.
You know, the insects are all talking to each other.
It's just in a decibel that is beyond our range.
Elephants often, they have a call.
They can do well below our range.
You know, the tectonic, you know, plates are shifting and grinding.
Can I just think we can hear all of this?
It would be overwhelming.
So, each body that we have, whether we're a bird or dolphin, you know, an elephant or a human,
is a filtering mechanism that filters out everything that isn't essential for our survival.
And that's just how we're wired.
So we see, smell, here, sense a certain range of things.
And then every other creature does so a bit differently.
But if we pay attention, we'll find that there is a vibration, exactly what you're saying.
And there's a vibration, a new place and the new energy.
And is it the land and the rocks and the rivers and, you know, the trees talking to you?
Is it the people in the culture around?
And we can say yes to it's all of it.
Yeah.
Everything has its place.
Yeah.
The wonderful language of relationships.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you're making new relationship.
you know
and you can do the indigenous
all my relationships and
bow of the rocks and the trees
or you can do the Buddhist
you know which is we are
brothers and sisters and everything
or you can do the last day
you know what feeling right
for you but we find that
all ancient cultures have this
deep understanding of our connectedness
to nature and to our surroundings
and
how to really
experienced that in the best way that we can for our higher good, for nature's higher good.
So all good vibrations for your new chapter.
And we have an interesting topic.
And it's such an interesting one to start your new season in.
So, you know, I flew it by you last month or so two months ago.
Hey, do you want to talk about this?
And you said, yeah, sure.
So we're talking about projection, entrance, and countertransference,
and then specifically in the non-ardinary state of consciousness,
because that's an important thing to be talking about,
and needs to be revisited every now and again,
because these things kind of sit down into our unconscious
because you can feel vulnerable talking about these things.
Right.
So let's start with some definitions, you know me.
I would like to define things.
These are listeners, you know, are scrambling for dictionaries.
What's that?
Okay?
Some strange idea about what these words actually need.
So to start with, we got to roll back to Freud and Young, you know, because they battled
out the definitions of this.
They were colleagues who discussed these things and wrote about these things and corresponded
with each other about what these things meant and how they saw the placement of them in
the theories they were developing and in the reality of living with their.
practices and their clients and patients and what they were discovering through their own awareness.
Now we can say, okay, their maps were a little limited, especially the Freudian one.
We're a little focused in one area, but everything has value.
Okay.
We just have to put the other pieces in to balance it out.
So what is projection?
What would be your definition?
Projection seems to me, in my experience, to be a defense mechanism, often unconscious,
that we, if I say this person is being really hostile,
maybe it's because I'm being really hostile.
It's sort of this mirror image that we put on people.
And if we pay attention to it, at least in my experience,
you can see yourself and other people
through this sort of unconscious projection,
your thoughts onto them.
Yes, that's already speaking to an awareness of the mechanism.
So let's dial it back down.
There's a few definitions of projections of projection.
each one adding on.
Okay.
So the classical definition is what happens when we repress or reject on an internal level
because it has been repressed or rejected by family education systems, society, culture, an era.
Okay.
We repress certain aspects of ourselves that are, is unacceptable in our environment.
Okay.
And then once it's repressed and it's usually going in.
to our unconscious, okay?
If we see it out there,
we might have a strong reaction to it.
Okay?
Because we've had to repress it in us.
So if we went to school in a conference school,
okay, where we had to obey the nuns
and live in a very strict, strict system,
you know, then it's only natural
with certain movements might be,
attributed to acting, you know, acting in a certain way that was unacceptable, that sexuality,
sensuality, even creativity, curiosity, okay? Many things can get packed down because of external
situations and environments. And so if we see it in someone else, that will awaken response,
and we may feel the need to reject or repress it in the person that we see it in, or
the situation that we see it in, or we might feel envious of it without realizing that it's inside
of us.
Jealous or envious.
Okay?
And have a kind of, you know, I've worked with many people who have that whole thing going on
for them, that they got so contained that they didn't realize that what they saw in others
that they envied was, you know, a lot of it was inside of themselves, and if they just
turn their focus back on, you know,
and find what's in me and develop that,
then they don't always looking on other people.
So those are some of the common things that are happening
in kind of classical projection.
And those of you who have my books, you know that I cover it in Volume 1.
In a broader sense, it's the unconscious denial of an aspect of our reality,
our internal reality.
So it's a combination possibly, the things that we've seen.
It may have been an actual imposition because of society or culture that we have to dress a certain way we have to.
And this is affected, you know, it's affected, it seems to affect women more than women.
Because certain aspects in culture and society have always been more restrictive where it comes to women and men.
You know, men could travel by themselves.
women couldn't for centuries or not millennia, you know.
Men could publish, women have to publish in their husband's father's or brother's name, or do art.
You know, how many great books and great works of art and literature are actually done by women.
We ought to their husband's brothers or fathers, you know.
When you think about it, women's clothing always more oppressive than men's.
so, you know,
they could go to university, women couldn't go to university.
So those things have always been somewhat more tight when it's come to women.
But no one should think that men got off scoffrey.
Okay, because there's some aspect, just want to say a word about that.
There's an aspect in kind of what's called the feminist movement.
And I am all in supporting for women to be empowered and strong and take their place
an equal opportunity on absolutely every single solitary level.
But men didn't get off.
It's caught free and get it all.
They had to disown parts of themselves.
They had to always be strong.
They always had to be brave.
They have to go off and fight the wars.
I mean, okay, more recently, women are allowed to do that should they wish.
Okay.
And there was always those queens, you know,
who would, Eleanor, Aquene, and Budica,
who would get on the horse and take a sword and go and fight,
but they were very rare.
The average woman was not allowed to do that, you know.
If you were a queen, you could get away with a little bit more stuff
than the average woman.
You know, put your apron back on, sweetheart.
You're going to get you.
So the man also had to, you know, stuff down stuff.
and only more recently are men allowed to take ownership
and of trauma or loss or
you didn't have to come back from every war saying
me hero, me strong
you could come back saying horrified
what I had to do and what I saw
and our culture now has made space for men to have that
and so many things can get disowned, hidden
And then they can move into that area of rejection.
So I just want to read one thing that I wrote here.
How deep it can go.
It can go into thoughts, feelings, belief systems.
Okay?
It's as if what we disown can have its own life.
It's only its own body sensation.
Does this make sense what I'm saying?
Yeah, absolutely.
Often it does take on its own life.
And that's when you say, I don't know who I am.
When it gets activated, there can be a lot of sensations, thoughts, feelings, believes, body feelings, even in body posture that accompanies that which has been disowned or passed or denied.
It's the mechanism or imagining also that other people have those same experiences, okay?
and that's an interesting form of projection.
The thief thinks everyone is chewing, right?
Yeah.
So that's a different aspect of projection now.
The person who is unfaithful assumes that everyone cheats on their partner.
This is all projection.
That what I'm doing thinking, feeling, everyone's doing, thinking, and feeling.
It's interesting, isn't it?
Yeah, it's interesting to think about the role of the collective unconscious in that.
Mm-hmm.
Same more.
Well, it seems to me that when you get to a certain age or maybe you've had a certain set of experiences,
you come to this realization that just because you think something or just because you think something doesn't mean anybody else in the world may be thinking it.
They may, but that particular situation has gotten me into some sticky situations.
And so that's why I think about your name is, you know, a legion, okay?
Because this is what happened is the unconscious trips aside.
We know it.
We've stepped into a pile of doo-to and everything is kind of stinky now, you know?
And how do we get past that, you know?
So let's talk about another aspect of the projection,
which is particular, is really interesting in our current,
where our culture is right now,
and Western civilization and what's going on.
Okay, so another form is holding people responsible
for what we feel inside.
You made me feel like that.
This is particularly specific for people.
people who carry shame or feelings of inadequacy.
Okay?
Instead of seeing, oh,
something about this situation or this person is awakened this
that is inside of me,
they blame the other person.
You make me feel like this,
which is a projection.
It's not true.
So you may have a friend who's brags and is arrogant
about their accomplishments.
And instead of you being happy,
for them and teasing them about their bragging, which would be a healthy response.
Like, yay, you know, you got that promotion that you were after.
And hey, dial down the ego, buddy, you know.
So instead of having support for the accomplishment and a sense of humor,
which is always can ease things, okay, as long as it's a true, kind sense of humor
and it's not sarcasm or, you know, covert put down and all those things.
Ha-ha, only joking.
You know, email will wipe your blood off my knife and stick it back in my food.
You know?
So you made me feel like this.
It's not okay.
You know, everyone needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror.
If they find themselves doing that, okay?
They can come home and say, oh, my boss, you know, or supervisor or manager or whatever.
Okay, or go out with the girls or the guys or whatever you might do.
and say, oh, my partner, you know,
that makes me feel like this all of the time.
No, uh, uh, uh, you kind of, oh, that's inside.
We have to be willing to look in the mirror and say,
okay, this is mine.
And if I'm feeling inadequate,
I need to look inside of myself and think,
what is it about this situation or this person
that is it that makes me feel inadequate?
And what's that about?
And what is it that?
I need to be doing, you know? Does that make sense what I'm saying? Yeah, 100%. I look at experiences
in my life and my relationships and, you know, you see it. I see it in my, in growing up. And it's
been a big part of my therapy of living the best life I can or having a better relationship
is coming to terms with you can't control the situation, but you and you alone,
get to control the meaning of that event.
And that's ownership of it, right?
Mm-hmm.
And that is core in the therapeutic relationship.
Right.
To create the space, a supportive,
and even, let's call it safe, sacred space
in which respect, okay,
and healthy boundaries are always there, ethics on the top, okay?
in which we help people find that place that you just spoke to.
You know, we need to get to that place where what's mine and what's not mine.
What am I accountable for?
And what is I just got to let go off?
And what's just part of life?
It's just part of being human and living.
Yeah.
And, you know, who am I?
and how do I come to terms with,
this is what I got in this lifetime.
Now this is a hand of cards
or what I got dealt.
And now how do I make my journey?
This is one lifetime.
How do I make my journey?
And what meaning do these things have for me?
And it gets very interesting.
So a projection bias,
which is another aspect of projection,
I find particularly interesting having, you know, practice,
and especially in non-adinary states of consciousness,
the decades I was doing Stan Groff's work,
the whole topic draft work.
So it is a bias that one's current state of being will last forever.
We'll always last.
Okay?
Let's look at two experience, okay?
The person who is completely depressed, okay?
For whatever reason.
could be any reason a divorce or career change, a loss of some kind, a health diagnosis, could be any reason for it.
Okay, in that depression, they may look at it.
Instead of saying, this is a difficult passage, it's actually a healthy reaction to that grief, that loss.
And if I work with it, I will travel through it and come up the other side, which is what most of us therapists been doing,
just trying to help people get that okay okay they will think i'm in it forever it's always
going to be in this i'm always going to feel this sad this bad this brightened this inadequate
this shameful what have you okay the flip side of it is fall in love oh you know my partner
he's the best this wonderful one we love everything is perfect yeah
Then you'll see what's really there.
Okay, is it love?
Was it lost?
Is it infatuation?
Are you going to create this space for it to become love?
Okay, so this is a projection bias where what we're feeling right now feels like it's
going to continue.
Instead of just seeing it's like sunny days, cloudy days, rainy days, and then it snows.
Okay.
It's kind of like the weather.
Everything comes and goes.
You know, we want to grasp onto it.
It slips through our fingers.
we want to push it away it sticks to our hands.
So anything more you want to ask or say or share about projection.
I think we've presented a nice sort of opening for projection.
Yeah, good.
Okay.
So now the thing is, we have to understand that this is operating all the time.
Right.
We're in it, like fish and water.
It's like we're in air.
It is something that is always happening.
And only when it bumps into something,
we'll become aware that it's happening
that these things are inside of us.
But it's ubiquitous.
Everybody has it.
Everybody's got it.
The more we hold it with respect and a little humor
and some kindness and some wisdom,
the more likely we are to be able
to name it, work with it, and integrate, understand, or leave behind.
So this affects everything everywhere.
Personal relationships is often where it's going to really, I mean, if you find yourself
going in and the bank teller can set you off, well, something's really close to the surface,
okay?
You know, you really need to have a look at something's close to the surface.
But it's usually the closer the relationships are.
or the more power dynamic structure.
Okay.
And so that takes us right into transference.
Do you want to do a little definition of your sense
of what is transference and then what is countertransference?
Yeah, it seems to me that transfer is the idea,
if I fight with my wife, I'm fighting with my mother.
I'm fighting.
You know what I mean?
Like you're still fighting this last battle.
They say the generals fight the last wars.
Maybe in the idea of transfers, we're fighting the last war that we had.
Very well put.
It has gold star, George.
Gold star.
So, yes, it's our internal story.
Now, it focuses on this lifetime and this family of origin.
And, you know, that has really valuable stuff, that it is broader than by.
You know, it can be any of the authority figures in our life.
It can be an older sibling.
I've worked with people where an older sibling has played a larger role or even a younger sibling,
especially situations where in the family dynamic, there's one of the children has a health disorder
or a behavioral disorder or special needs.
Okay, that sets up a whole lot of stuff, you know.
and so we can also have transference that comes beyond that comes from past lives.
And that, you know, for anybody who has a different map from that, that's fine.
Okay.
But it just has, I've seen it so many times that at some point I just have to accept it,
that this is the possibility.
And whatever one chooses to believe about of the experience of past lives and reincarnation,
you know,
it's a quote,
Stan Groff,
you have to admit
that there's something
happening
here.
Okay.
So people feel
that they've
re-lived or
re-experienced
something that has
great meaning
and teaching for them
and that somehow
shows them
something in this
lifetime
that echoes
some theme
or experience
in a past life
or past lives
that can be resolved
in this one.
And that's kind of
as simply
as I can put it.
So yeah, so transference is the original word that Freud was using is Uppertogun, which stands, which is actually translation, is an overcoat.
And he saw it, it's as if we took the overcoat of somebody and, you know, our mother's, fathers, grandparents, whatever, and put it on somebody else and reacted to them as if they were that original person or dynamic.
Now we can have transference not on only people, we can have transfers on institutions.
And of all kind, business, academic, religious, we can really have, you know, deep, strong feelings and reactions to those.
We see this a lot, I'll use an example.
We see this a lot in this album, I mean, and our dynamic.
nature. We wear a uniform. Why do we wear an uniform? Well, there's a very good reason that
Mr. Ernail decided a uniform was important. And all I have to do is say, when you go on a boat,
does the crew wear a uniform so that you can identify the crew when you get on an airplane?
Does the crew wear uniforms so that you can identify whose passenger and whose crew?
You imagine if everybody just all the crew got on board and whatever they felt like wearing leggings
and a T-shirt, cargo pants, you know, a pullover or something, how would you know who's the pilot,
who's the stewardess, who's the, you know, who's the cabin crew, who'd ask for somebody to eat
or where the bathroom is or, you know, that you don't feel well or, you know, whatever.
So he saw it like that.
He saw that, you know, and he'd had an army background.
He'd been constricted into the army.
and had served his years in the army.
And so he understood a chain of command.
And he understood the necessity of having uniforms
and also being able to identify chain of command
if there's an extra stripe on your shoulder
or on your cap or something, what that signifies.
And so you know who to salute and whose orders to follow
and what that chain of command is.
And so that worked its way into two uniforms that we wear in the South of the time,
and the white uniform and the blue uniform, and especially our blue uniform, which is one we wear most often,
which is a very simple white shirt for the man and navy blue pants and a navy blue tie.
For the women, it's a short sleeve white shirt and a navy blue skirt.
It's so simple.
Okay, a little navy blue tie.
So simple.
But you instantly know who's crew, okay?
You instantly know who's on deck and who's visitors and whose participants and what have you.
And yet it's astounding how many people come in and react.
They react to the uniform because it reminds them of schools that they went to
or they had really difficult school experiences.
And that's a really big reaction that can happen.
you know and and so you know they they get the santo damee is a syncretic christian path so what's got
eastern spiritualism is it's called european spiritism it's got some african influences through yesterday
his family came from africa and it's got some amazonic shamanism in it so it's very eclectic
and yes we do have the cross on the hill of central altar and it's got two bars on it not just the one classic
say Catholic or standard Christian cross on it.
So people will react to that if they've had a tough,
imposition, kind of imposing impositional,
religious Christian background.
They'll come in and go, you know.
And so these are the things that we can,
you know, it can go on institutions and sit,
not just individuals.
If we only think it's about an individual,
then we're going to be missing a lot,
really missing a lot.
Okay, countertransference.
What's your definition on that one?
It seems to me the counter transference is almost when the individual who is sitting with someone or the recipient transfers, like their reaction.
Maybe they get offended and all of a sudden now they are no longer listening to what the individual told them,
but they are responding to a feeling that hurt them in a past conversation or a past experience.
And so the conversation just goes sideways from there because they're no really longer talking to one another.
Now they're just talking about past projections or past sort of transgressions.
Yeah, just side monologuing.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, my story.
Yeah.
And the other person's going, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, my story.
Okay, and everybody stopped listening a long time ago.
Okay, and the hackles are rising and the horses are growling and tails are stiffening or swishing.
Right.
The ears are out and the whole thing's going on.
Right.
Okay.
Now, interesting about Young, he considered transference to be a spontaneous, complicated phenomenon
with many different features.
I agree 100% to that.
Okay.
He believed it connected to instincts and spirit and is aligned with the process of projection.
Yes, you got it.
So it's not some simple thing.
It's quite complex.
So we need to be patient and breathe with it and do our best to try and understand it and, you know, do our best with it, you know.
Now, countertransference, and I'm going to give you a funny, funny, ha-ha, but not funny,
a ha-ha, example, okay?
Decades and decades ago, I'm going to say, it must have been early 90s in my training with Stan Groff,
where in a retreat, I think there's about 60 people in the room,
divided in sitters and breathers, of course, there's facilitators.
It was just Stan was leading it.
He did do other ones with Jack Cornfield, but this one's just then.
And often Paul Groff, his brother, who I've made reference to poor, who is a dear friend.
And he would come up just to if it was close to, you know, the east side of, or he could skip out of work for a while he would join in.
And he would just hang out as a kind of an unofficial facilitator, okay, because he himself is an extreme.
what was breakfast, psychiatrist in his own field.
And it was always a joy to have him hang out.
And so the thing happens, okay?
It happens, and it's not in the little group that I was responsible for
because facilitators would usually work two in a team,
and you'd have a group of people within the larger room, larger group.
So it would be broken down to about 10 or 12 people,
and you're responsible for your little group in the room, right?
and then leading the sharing circle afterwards
and then going into the larger circle.
So one of the breathers is clearly going through something quite deep
and is demanding that the sitter will sit in a way that they can kick them.
There's certain things that you can ask for.
You're going to have someone hold your hand if you're feeling scared.
You have some Kleenex, getting some water.
you know, even hold you or hug you in a way that is appropriate.
Even what you do is put a pillow between you and the person.
There's still a hug, but it's not like intimate,
intimate, I'm saying, because transference and countertransferents
are so sensitive in non-ardinary states.
So there's ways of supporting people and holding them and reassuring them, okay?
This person was demanding.
And what happened to the sitter was,
they got in the rage and started kicking this breather.
I mean, it's funny, not funny.
Okay.
I mean, it is not funny.
It's only funny in retrospect in the moment.
It was like shocking.
Okay.
So, you know, immediately the facilitators are over there and then Paul sits with that
breather because he's got the, you know, he's got the crazy to be able, you know, he's not
going to get caught up in whatever was happening to this breather, that they had the ability
to and here's where it gets very interesting.
The more baggage we have, the more emotional psychological baggage we have,
the more likely that we're going to have projections and transference and on our transference going on for us.
And there's certain things that happen in the non-ordinary state of consciousness
in which everybody in contact with the non-ordinary state, okay,
Even if you're the sitter, you're the facilitator, you're not the breather.
Okay.
Then, and I'm going to use breathwork as a model and then perhaps our church,
is when you're in the non-ardinary state, everybody is affected.
The energy is different.
We opened today's talk with talking about energy and how it's different where you are now.
Be in a room where people are in a non-ordinary state of consciousness,
deliberately having chosen to enter into an honor in your state,
the energy is affecting everybody in the room.
And when people go into deep passages or difficult material comes up,
it's going to affect everyone, okay?
Because it's now kind of in the space.
So if somebody goes through a deep grieving process or deep rage process
or a deep terrified process,
it's going to reverberate in the whole room.
And the deeper of the non-ordinary state of it is,
the more expanded it is,
so the difference between facilitators and sitters
in a breathwork workshop and congregation in a Saldan ritual
is everybody in the room is going to feel
and have some kind of connection with the person in the passage.
So how it gets managed in one session is different
from how it gets managed, obviously,
or the other.
But it's equally interesting to see
how deep the counter-transference can be.
So the point of transference is,
you know, pretty much what you said,
but when something inside a person
reacts to the transference
and or projections of the other person.
And instead of saying,
hey, you seem really upset.
Do you want to take a little time
and maybe we can talk about this later?
Or, hey, wait a minute, I don't,
this is really about me.
Maybe you're worried or concerned or angry about something else.
You know, can you take a breath and, you know?
So the person's ability to not slide into that countertransference and start reacting to.
And these are deep unconscious things.
We can be halfway into it before we're going, wait a minute.
And this is a marker of,
our evolution is how quickly we catch ourselves.
How quickly we catch ourselves.
Do we only see it afterwards?
Do we part way in?
Oh, wait a minute.
I'm in that same whole story game.
I'm now reacting, like we're screwing up,
I'm angry, I'm feeling defensive, whatever it is,
or I'm feeling needy and afraid that the person's gonna be angry
with me, another classic response,
or I'm frightened of them,
And I need to please them, another classic response, right?
I need to protect myself and defend myself and come back three times stronger than what they're giving me.
These are all classic examples of countertransference to somebody who's reacting, you know,
projection or transforms towards us.
Does that make sense?
Everything I'm saying, yes?
Yeah, it's, you know, I think it speaks to the idea of the difference between complicated and complex.
Because when you start looking at it from a realistic lens, you realize that not only are you not the person you think you are, but everybody who sees you as a different person. So you're like a thousand different people constantly. You got to just take a moment and breathe it in. And especially when we start talking about non-ordinary states of consciousness, like we're on a whole other realm of possibilities. And all of a sudden, I started thinking about the maps and the likeos or the, the, you know, the,
people enabling people or people taking advantage of people.
You know, it's a really complex situation.
Yes. Now, almost, almost without exception,
people underestimate the power of the non-ardinary state of consciousness.
It's as simple as that, you know.
And even people who are working in it all the time,
It's easy to forget how sensitive you are, how sensitive others are.
This is why, again, I'm using these two examples because they're the ones I'm familiar with
and I feel have an area of expertise in.
Scan Geroff's work is really clear rules.
You know, there's about people who are sitting and then the facilitators about what their whole is,
what they are doing and what they're not doing.
and how they're supporting and how they're stepping away and, you know, how to manage certain
situations and what to do. And it's the same in our center. We have rules of the Salah,
and they're really clear. They're posted on the wall. We read them at the opening of a ham
practice even. People forget them. They get into the non-ordinary state and all the rules go out
the window. The same way you can get on a plane and somebody has a few drinks and the next thing you
know they won't wear their seat belt and they want to change their seat and you know they want to order something off the menu and they want to argue with the person in front of them and the kid that's getting their chair behind them and before you know it there's a whole whole whole of blue right and we have to remember that alcohol cannabis and all these legal things these are legal in canada you know they create a non ordinary state of consciousness and and so we need to be mindful if we are with people
who are taking alcohol and using cannabis,
we need to be aware that they're in a non-ordinary state of consciousness.
And we have to decide how deeply we want to become engaged in that.
That's just a personal choice.
Now, different would be a setting, such as the therapeutic setting
of the Holotropic Breathwork setting, Grotswark's work,
or the spiritual-religious setting of our center of the Sumpth of the Dime.
religion and spiritual tradition and our particular center where there's rules of this law
there's no talking there's all the chain of command instructions of you know no talking i mean we
we have people getting in our seat and they want to skip around the room they don't want to stay on
on their side of the room the women and men are separated for very good reasons if you ever want to
ask about that okay they get down in the healing area they want to touch everything explore everything
It's like a two-year-old.
And the guardians of people who are on duty for the people in the healing area,
sometimes have to work very hard to help them get back into, you know,
this is the airplane.
You need to sit down and be quiet and you see Belmont.
Okay.
You train the appropriate position, you know.
And so it's for the safety and well-being of that person
and for the well-being of everybody in the slough.
The Salah was the sanctuary.
So there's rules.
There's rules of the Salah.
And they are there for very specific reasons.
We have rules of the Salah for mediumship,
some people come in,
and they have some background and some healing.
Yes, I am doing that for healing because you know my position.
Please don't call yourself a healer.
Okay, you can call yourself a Ricky Master.
If that's what you are,
you can call yourself a massage therapist.
If that's what you are,
you can follow yourself, all other kinds of things
according to your training and experience.
But kind of leave the healing thing out
because that's a whole other
kind of conversation I think we've had before.
Might have to have it in the future.
Who knows?
You know?
So that sensitivity that happens
when you have a group
that is in a non-ordinary state of consciousness
together. It means everyone is going to feel like.
We call it the current in the suburbone
because that's what it feels like.
It feels like the connectedness that exists between all beings, we agree on that, right?
That there's an interconnected, this web of life is something that connects all of us that we are connected to.
You mean the trees outside and the birds and the bees and the creatures in the ocean and everything.
There's something that connects us, this universal force that connects everything.
Okay.
Well, in an under a state of consciousness, you're infinitely more.
aware of that. So anything that that you know like throwing the pebble in the pond,
everything that makes the rip holes, everything's going to feel it. And that's where we
learn through Mesa, we learn to be firm and we learn to hold the light and to be firm and to
hold the space. So whoever is in the passage or going through the difficulty gets
supported than that. It's the best of everyone's ability to create
Does that make sense?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's interesting to hear it in the context that you're saying.
As someone who has apprenticed and been in this particular environment for such a long time,
it has such experience, it seems that on some level, modern day science, which is awesome,
they have no way to measure that.
And so they just leave that part out.
Like, this doesn't matter.
Like, even though it could be intoxicating,
for you, like we're not going to measure that because we don't know how.
So you're not going to get the results or, you know, there's no way to do it.
How do you manage what you can't measure?
There are people actually studying it.
Okay.
There are people studying it.
And they are, there's people, whether they're anthropologists or biologists or psychiatrists
or scientists and some other, the neuroscientists is doing a great job of looking at neuroplasticity
and altered states of consciousness and how that affects.
you know, not just the person experiencing, but the people around.
And so you can do a different level of scientific measurements.
You can't really measure their blood or their blood pressure or things,
the things they really want to be looking at, you know, something very measurable.
You have to use a different yardstick when you're working with non-ordinary states
and a different concept of how you're going to be measuring what's happening there, you know?
Right, okay, let's move to, you know, where we were starting to head to, why are we talking about things like projections and transplants and countertransference and the non-in states of consciousness?
And, you know, we've done some really good definitions, and I want to talk about some very common dynamics that happen to people who are working in the space.
So I'm talking about the guides, people who've trained to be a psychedelic guide.
I'm talking about the researchers who are sitting with people in.
They've received permission to do research projects.
Also the clinicians, the researchers, the guides.
You know, this information is for ritual leaders, for everybody who's in the position.
Okay, and we're going to talk about two of the biggest things to look for.
And on one side, you know, here we are back to the Buddha in the middle way.
Too tight and too loose.
Okay.
On the one hand, we have care too much.
Okay, care too much.
The urge to rescue, save, the urge to not abandon people, the longing to get the power of healing other people, caring too much.
In that, to care too much is ignoring the self, caregiver burning.
focusing so much on fixing
rescuing, saving, healing others
that you're not taking care of yourself
where you don't have a balance in life
for your own well-being, physical, emotional,
creative, spiritual, etc.
Is that okay?
Yeah.
That's a problem.
It's a problem.
And it needs to all ritual leaders, caregivers,
clinicians need to look at, do I care too much?
Now there's an appropriate time to invest caring in,
especially when you're launching something
where you will be putting a lot of time and energy
into something to get its roots down, you know,
to dig the hole and put that in and water it and fertilize it
until it gets its roots in and starts to grow, okay?
But cares too much.
Would you agree that's an issue?
The psychedelic space right now.
Yeah, it's...
And I think that so far,
it does seem to be that
the idea of apprenticeship
has given way to the idea of certification.
Like, you can get a certification without
apprenticeship.
And it's, you know, it's, it's interesting.
And I would say that that leads to these ideas of care too much or care too little.
There's no experience involved.
There's a book which you're reading someone else's ideas of what may happen or what could have happened.
But you're not, you don't have the authority figure saying you're not allowed to talk right now.
You're not allowed to do anything but watch.
And you're lucky to get to do that right now.
So just do that.
That's a classic. I live training in psychology, medicine, psychiatry, oh, the sense, you know, is, you know, for me, the example I always use about you want to be a lifeguard and you want to read a book. Can you imagine only reading a book on water? You know, you read all the books written on water, okay, and pools, okay? But then how do you be a lifeguard? You actually have to learn how to swim properly. And then on top of learning how to swim properly. And then on top of learning how to swim.
properly you can be a very good swimmer but still not know how to help somebody in the water
how to do the right thing you know so you then you have to do your lifeguarding right i mean i
learned to swim i did my red cross whatever so long who knows you know but um both my children
you know it's one of the first things i did when you're i was swimmer so get them a few months old
in the water so they start young they don't have an opportunity to get scared of it
and i mean you have to have a healthy respect for water
you know and there's a time when fear of it in all the way
feet high is a normal healthy reaction
yeah you'd be scared of the water in a pool and
and so they did all their swimming lessons up to bronze medallion
and then my daughter would decide it together
like so she could be a lifeguard in summer camps and she was
and now my little ones my granddaughters
are fabulous little swimmers they're like motor boats
okay they put them in the water and they're pull up
They're going to be fabulous little swimmers.
And so you learn by doing it.
They learn to swim by getting, I learned to scuba dive by yes, taking the tests and reading the books and writing because you have a written exam.
It's like driving.
Can you imagine getting driver's license with driving a car?
You might call.
Right.
No one would think that would be, but you, you know, to get your driver's license here in Canada.
You do a written test and then you do your driving test and you actually have to pass both of them.
So you do need to know what a red, light, yellow light, cream light, who yields on which side at the stop sign and, you know, all of these things that you learn from the book.
But then you actually have to manage driving the car in traffic and parking and all those other things.
So we can look into everyday life and say, well, yeah, it's normal that there's a learning part.
of it and then there's the experiencing
part of it.
And yet somehow in non-ordinary
states, that's kind of sort of
being left out
in some, in some
but not all of what
we're seeing in
programs being developed.
Okay?
And
it's just a really
interesting, interesting
situation. So on the one side
we have care too much. And
all the vulnerabilities, internal vulnerabilities and longings that lead to that.
On the other side, we have care too little.
Okay.
Now, sometimes at the heart, this can be a self-protective mechanism
that comes usually from issues of engulfment.
It's just us.
Okay, the same way caring too much usually comes from issues of neglect or abandonment,
insufficient attention to the self that you then learn to not pay attention to yourself and you give it for others.
So care too little can usually stem from engulfment as a child in its culture, society, in this
schoolyard, feeling that what's going, you have to protect yourself and put up a kind of a wall
so that you don't let anything in. So caring too little in the non-ordinary state can become a problem.
where stuff such as countertransference can walk for you and the next thing, you know, you're kicking the sitter who asked, who is demanding for things.
So, you know, you always find a way to accommodate, but even if it's saying, no, we're not, we can't do that, but let's try doing that this way.
Okay.
No, you can't kick your sitter.
We're going to hold these pillows for you.
Okay.
And you can try kicking those, or how about if you're going to be able to you?
going your back and you start stomping your feet on the floor and banging your arms and letting
some sound out, you know.
So it's finding a way that's supportive to get that energy out without it doing anything
on anybody else.
Healing of inadequacy is often underneath caring too well.
Care too little because if I open up and try, I won't be adequate.
I won't be able to do it.
I won't know what to do.
so I push it away and I care too little.
So these are the two more common of the things that I see in these situations.
Now the care too little, and I can't tell you if it's a care to little or care to them,
I certainly look like it care too much.
It looks way too much like a care too little is if you look at the,
now, Jules Evans always said out to him, his most recent.
All of you, please do watch the clip of Bill Maher's movie Rules from last week on the actor,
forgetting his first name, Perry, his death from the pedin overdose.
And he actually hits the name right on the head in that clip.
Okay, and what he has to say about what's happening.
And here's a text.
the doctor who was serving him and prescribing him wrote to another doctor, these two doctors,
who were supposedly prescribing him things. And one of the texts says, let's see how much this moron can pay.
This is tragic. It is so far beyond disrespectful and unethical that it is criminal.
of these men will be charged with criminal acts.
The very thing they're supposed to do
is care for their patients in a healthy,
appropriate way, not too much,
so that they, you know,
destroy themselves or being appropriate
with their patients, but not too little,
that they disregard their health and their well-being
to such a severe extent
that they take that position of
It's all for me and what I can get out of this situation, whether it's money or power or some other rule for me.
This level of arrogance, is it narcissism?
Is it?
What is it?
So these are the two, and they can come from many different things.
As I said, it can come from inadequacy as much as it can come from arrogance, caring too little.
having involved no no no you see somebody fall on the sidewalk no no no somebody else
take care of it okay so it can come from arrogance it can come from self-centeredness or
greediness and it can come from vulnerability and inadequacy no so we're really important dynamics
to look at as we go forward in in this kind of current era you know of psychedelics and end
gems is how to find our way ethically and responsibly to ourselves to the substances that we are
working with. I can only speak for myself. The plants that I work with are heritage plants.
They are protected by the United Nations. We consider them sacred. They are only used in ritual.
They're not ever used in any other way. And looking on the flip side of it, and
of psychedelics, we can see that they're genuine, good scientist, researchers, and clinicians
who are really trying to find a way that these substances can be used for benefit, for health
and well-being.
And then there's that whole other thing that's happened.
That's about money and greed and me, the big hero, who's the healer.
and that makes many of us really concerned that all of that is going to shut everything down again.
I mean, I don't necessarily that it would shut us down,
but that would be a huge tragedy.
If the selfishness of a few,
or the arrogance or the greed of a few,
can prevent the benefit.
for the many.
Yeah, if history is the,
if past relevance behavior
is the best predictor of future behavior,
then that's probably on the horizon, on some level.
Well, fingers crossed.
The thing is, is
maybe more patience is required.
Right.
You know, people,
I don't know whether some people just don't believe
me when I tell them that it took 17 years of working with Health Canada to obtain Section 56
exemption. And there was many different challenges of many different countries. It wasn't just
obstinence in the corner of, you know, there was many different. There was challenges with the
situations in Brazil and then the Brazilian government and the interference of the American government.
And there was layers and layers. There was the unfortunate and.
preventable death of an indigenous elder who was served, you know, I think we talk about that at some point,
who was served by an Ecuadorian shaman who didn't, who hadn't been properly coached on what is okay in our culture and what's not okay.
You can't tell people stop taking the medications.
That's where participant or visitor screening is so essential.
It's so essential.
And again, back to what Belmar had to say.
who, who, no, it's Matthew Perry, right?
Who, knowing Matthew Perry's story in which he published a book talking about it,
about how deeply addicted he'd been to other substances, you know,
who would offer him more substances, you know, in such a cavalier, uncairing, selfish way.
And so this is where paying attention and understanding all the layers that are necessary,
for these anthragens and psychedelics to be able to go forward,
whether it's in the spiritual, ritual setting,
or whether it's in the therapeutic, clinical setting,
the research setting, there needs to be an impeccability.
There needs to be a standard of care.
There needs to be ethics.
There needs to be accountability.
And I get very, unfortunately, sadly, unpopular by saying there has to be
consequences. There has to be consequences. You know, it's really uncomfortable for a lot of people
to talk about the problems. If we look down, we can see there's been a cover-ups about ethical
problems. There's been cover-ups about problems in the research protocols. There's been a lack of
full disclosure about some things, right? Yeah. Well, you know, that's not going to wash. That's
where it's sticking. It's sticking
because of those things.
If everybody was honest with their research,
if they were honest with the problems
that they were facing, if they were
honest about, oh my God, this happened
and we're now looking at it and we see that
we need to do this, this, and this
to ensure that that does not happen
again. Right?
Yeah. If we see that, we can go,
oh, okay, the industry is going to
correct itself. But if we see simply cover-ups and more cover-ups and lack of accountability,
lack of consequences, until it makes the community or the government enforce consequences
because they themselves have not governed themselves correctly. I don't know what do you think
about that.
It's a hard job.
Sometimes I feel like we just don't have the proper tools to thoroughly understand what's
happening in these states and that we're not sure who is being healed.
If you don't have the right training and maybe you're not aware, like let's say for
an example, in a hypothetical, an individual.
an individual is sitting with someone who may have had like a traumatic sexual experience
and that person just got divorced.
Is that person in a state to be helping that person,
especially under an altered state of conscience?
I don't know.
Well, yes, yes, they could be.
If they're aware, there's two things in place.
If they're aware of their own situation and if they have ethically the ability to step back
and say, hmm, am I the right?
person to be doing, should I be asking a colleague?
So if that thing is in place, and the second thing that needs to be in place is colleague
support.
Being able to say to a colleague, okay, I have this situation, give me some feedback, what do
you think?
And then listening to what the colleague has to say, which may be, you know what, honey,
step back.
Yeah.
This isn't the right moment for you.
you serve for the higher good if you step back,
knowing when to step back,
knowing when to hand over.
This is essential in ethics.
Yep.
Look at President Biden.
Okay, it's a little persuading.
I don't know who went in the back door.
I don't have a chat with him, okay,
or who he was on Zoom with.
Okay, but you know what?
He, maybe the moment was the right.
moment. We don't know, but he did the right thing. He knew when his own personal ambitions had to
take back seat for what was best for the country. What was best for the country was for him to recognize
that his health is frail, that he needs to take care of himself. And let's finish out his term.
And I'll love someone younger and stronger with all that vim and vigor to go in and fight the good
fight for their
principles and their platform.
Right? Too bad the other party
was doing the same thing.
Oh dear. Maybe I shouldn't
see that publicly.
Up here, up north
in Canada, it kind of looks like that.
It might be a different higher good and everyone
too, you know.
But that ability to have the
ego death of stepping aside,
stepping back, because it's a big ego
death.
You know, just say, no, I've got to
step back, somebody else
needs this step forward, or I need to hand this over.
That takes courage, that takes dignity, dignity, courage,
integrity.
These words seem so slim to find these days
because ego and arrogance and self-importance,
that's just put it all over the umbrella of self-importance.
It is taking so much space, and so dignity,
and courage and integrity, those three things are so important right now.
And if our community and our government is seeing that,
or your government or the governments around,
if they're seeing integrity and courage and dignity,
then they're probably going to get on board with what we're doing.
But if they see arrogance and they see wild claims and they see cover-ups,
of course they're not going to trust.
Yeah.
Respect and trust are decreased.
Each time we find out that there's been a cover-up, a lack of disclosure,
of what's important to disclose.
Obviously, you don't let everything hang out.
Right.
You know, I'm just a diamond place for that.
Is it making some sense, what I'm saying,
that those three qualities are what's essential?
I'll share an autobiographical story.
You know, in 2010, after like 10 years of having a relationship with the office
people's substance and a first name basis with the directors and senior staff.
And I realized that I reached the end of the road and most of our board and members have reached
the end of the road with our then Brazilian affiliate.
it was just in the beginning a different culture, different language, not knowing the language, a new thing, and, you know, people hiding things from us and covering things up.
But over those first few years, things became obvious and more so and et cetera, and then try to deal with them and try to bring ethics in and try to set up situations in which stuff can be managed and kind of none of it worked.
And so reach the end of the road where thank you for all the good things, but can no longer.
company. And that's the attitude that I think we all need to have when we come at the end of the road
with something, a business situation, and really good. Thank you for the good things. This is gorgeous,
I have the an enviable task of going in sitting in the office with the director of the office
control substance and saying, we're closing with our affiliate. I'll be going back to herself,
find a new affiliate. And so I basically had legal counsel prepare me as a
if I was going on the stand in front of, you know,
judge and jury.
Because who knows what hung in the balance.
Who knows how we were going to take this?
But I had no choice.
I had to do it.
And I had to do it in person.
I made my appointment.
And I go in and we do our greetings and everything.
And I say, well, I'm here today because, you know,
over time, we've become aware, serious ethical challenges, you know.
and just
you can't
kind of longer a company
we've tried all the things that we can try
as there was dependency use of cannabis
and cannabis use
a big problem in that particular branch
which we've always been single sacrament
I am and single sacrament
is what Minister Neal when he created
the Sankabang he said yes
he said about cannabis yes this is a power plant
that needs to be respected
but you don't put it in this community
doesn't belong in the San Antonio.
That's the Institute of Manchester.
You don't mix those plants.
And so we're very clear on that,
and I've been very clear with that on the government for the get-go.
So I sit there, and I feel like I'm basically down to my underwear.
Okay, that's how vulnerable I'm feeling.
Okay, I have nothing to stand behind except my own personal integrity,
and the Code of Ethics that our board had promised to follow.
And I'm thinking, you know, they may take all our application and just rip it up
to say no.
At least I had to do it, you know.
So I'm sitting there like vibrating with all of this.
And she looks at her staff and she says, put your pencil stamp.
And she said, this will be known as courage.
She said, I can't thank you enough for doing this.
You absolutely did the right thing.
You know, and now we know we can.
really trust you. When they finally granted the, when they granted the exemption, they granted
it in principle of 2006. And that's what they took to me at the time in 2006. We're granting
this because we trust you and we see who you are. Right. We see who you are. And therefore,
we're trusting this. We're, you've brought us all the science. You've brought us all the facts.
You've done everything you can do. Okay. And I would go humble.
asking. I wasn't suiting them. I wasn't being rude to them. I wasn't being arrogant with them.
I was going humbly asking, okay, with all the science and all the facts.
When it was, when it was finally granted in 2017, I get a phone call from a senior
policy manager and the husband says, hi, he identifies himself. I have a great pleasure
of telling you that the assumption is me.
You will be...
Nice.
Yeah.
And he says, I want to remind you, I can only find out for 17 years.
It hit my guest seven years ago.
And I watch and step, I step, everything, congratulations.
And so I want to see that all the people out there who think that, you know, just because they took some substances, you know, and here's a perfect example of projections.
and thank you, Mark Davis, for your good message.
All good vibrations back to you and yours.
Here's the perfect example of the people who,
when I was talking about bias projection
and psychological projections,
the people who take substances
and they have fabulous experiences.
I don't question that.
They may have indeed, they take it three times, ten times.
They now assume that everybody is going to have those.
experiences because they don't have the apprenticeship.
And they go out and start serving people, encouraging people.
We do not proselytize or solicit in the Sanford Banu.
It is against our principles.
It is the exact opposite.
It's like the old goos.
You've got to come and sit at the gate.
We don't even open the door until we figure out who you are and whether we're going to open the door.
Okay.
And so that's how serious it is.
This is the unconscious projection.
I had a fabulous experience and saw whatever, and now everybody I served it to is going to feel the same way and it's going to imagine the same thing.
We should be, you know, putting LSD in the water so everyone can have these fabulous experiences.
Okay?
No.
That's projection.
And the lack of apprenticeship, true apprenticeship, working humbly with elders.
you know
we have the great blessing of people
in our membership
and often in senior membership position
as elders have come
from long-term apprenticeship
in indigenous traditions
so it could be firekeeping
it could be pipe
pipes rituals
and it could be you know
different aspects of sweat lodges
all these beautiful indigenous
teachings
say, hmm, I got to stand by the elder for four years just holding his fight with his feather and passing and observing and years and years of being an apprentice, you know, and you will find this in Buddhist and Zen, in indigenous.
You'll find this in all the old traditions, this apprenticeship, where you have to respect the chain of command, what Nasky calls it, the elder.
the mentoring the teachers.
You have to inspect them and you have to be humble and learn.
Okay, and ask questions.
And that's all I'm gonna say about that.
It's an amazing story to think about the trials and tribulations.
And that's what makes, often makes or breaks something,
is the willingness to continue to find the way.
The obstacle is the way is what they say sometimes, right?
Yes.
Yes.
I think of how many generations of women fought to get the vote.
Yep.
Equal rights.
I remember going into a meeting in Brazil with the elder women of the line we were still connected to.
And I'm sitting with three of the most senior women in that line.
Okay.
And I'm telling them, are you aware that this year,
after 26 years of the women of Brazil fighting in the courts, 26 years, they thought to have equal rights, and the law finally got changed.
So no longer is the man under law, the head of the family.
Well, under the law, a woman could not make a decision for herself or her children.
If she wanted to, like, go back to school or change their job or, you know, she wasn't allowed to.
The man had to make sense now.
Probably in a lot of families, they didn't observe that, but it was still law.
And they say, they were amazed.
No, the law are changed.
The man's not the head of the family.
Very patriarchal still.
And so when we think of all the years that people have fought for, you know,
we can go into story after story after the civil rights movement in your country,
how many, years, decades, centuries, still being fought?
Still being taught.
And so this instant enlightenment, this instant, I'm a healer, this instant, I'm going to, you know, the whole world is going to, psychedelics is going to heal everything.
It's like, nope, that's not my experience.
There's some people who should not be taking them.
There's many people who should not be taking them.
For many different reasons, other techniques of non-ordinary states of consciousness will suit them better.
You know, by the time I came to the Santo Daini, I had already been, what, 30 years in transpersonal study.
And, you know, I was, you know, in the ashram at age 21 and with the Buddhists and the three-week silent retreats and all of this, training, training, training, and then five years transpersonal trainings.
And only then was I ready to start drinking my year.
only then was I ready after decades and decades of spiritual training, transpersonal training.
Then I was ready to start.
So maybe we have to practice lifetimes before we're ready.
Yeah.
Who knows?
You know, who knows?
Well, it's been grand.
Fabulous.
I hope that, you know, a few times I looked at your face and I was like,
I don't know.
Or just that.
You have a sad face and thought, we'll say a thought, a face, an inspired.
Thank you.
I'm used to the facial expressions that you make now.
I was like, oh.
It's a challenging topic.
It is.
Would we be serving the community if we didn't discuss it from time to time?
I prefer meaningful.
Yeah.
It is not our place to inform,
educate, and encourage.
I'm not condemning anybody.
I hope that I'm informing,
educating, encouraging people.
Please, if you feel called
into work in the substances,
really look deep inside of yourself.
Make sure you get a good ethics training.
Make sure if you get, you know,
experiential work and non-ordinary
States. Make sure that whoever your teachers are that they are living the principles that they're
trying to teach you. And it's not then sit down on question them. Yeah. Sit down on question them.
Don't just need. I don't want to get a bad mark. Yeah. I often think of the question mark as like
a sive, you know, just cuts things away. And so the more questions you have, like the more you're
kind of cutting away, more reasoning. Yeah. You're actually,
Being in courage and dignity and that's what you're doing.
And watch out for the people that project on you when you start asking questions.
Oh, yeah.
So interesting.
You know, personal favorite is the patriarchy.
Like, how dare I question men about men stuff?
How dare you?
Yeah.
Therefore, I must be aggressive and a bitch and pump these things we call strong for men.
No, no.
I think, I won't tell you who called me that,
but somebody pretty well-known in the Oahuasca community,
told me the Margaret Thatcher of the Santo joining.
I don't know whether it be offended or find it hilarious.
I usually find it hilarious.
Yeah, yeah, that's the only way to see it, I think.
Yeah, hilarious.
Take the good things.
Yeah.
Hello.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's been grand.
It's always a pleasure.
Thank you.
Such a great host.
Ask such good questions.
Make such a inviting and welcoming space for your guests and your listeners.
So I'm going to wish you a beautiful rest of your day.
See you next month, hopefully.
And I think you should post a picture of the view from your home or your backyard.
especially if it's got some of those giant redwoods in it.
You don't have to show anything that, you know, is too personal that discloses your personal location.
I really think you should give people a slicing your new vibration.
That's a good idea.
I think I will.
It's the rolling hills and the big trees and, you know, just a just such a welcoming, playful atmosphere that is,
I can feel
I get goosebumps
when I think about it
so I know I'm in the right spot
I know that area
because of course
all my years of training
with San Grop
was always north of San Francisco
up in Napa Valley
and you know
It's so much history here
especially in the ideas
we're talking about
like I can't help
but smile
when I walk outside every day
just say thank you
well
please share it a small
glimpse
with us. And I give you a big hug and a beautiful.
Absolutely. Right back.
Okay. Until the next time.
Okay, everybody. For those listening, thank you so much for hanging out with us today.
Do yourself a favor and go to the links below and check out Dr. Jessica's books.
They're phenomenal. If you enjoy the conversations we have been having, I can't recommend
these books enough. They are like cartography for the mind and they have helped me in so many ways.
And she is an incredible gym that's helped lots of people. And she's put it all in these books.
A large part of her ideas are in these books, and you can learn a lot from them.
So I would encourage everyone to go who's listening in the sound of my voice and pick up a coffee.
So that's all we have for today, ladies and gentlemen.
I hope we have a beautiful day.
Aloha.
