I have the absolute pleasure of sharing this conversation with Neil Gehani, a community advocate for breaking down mental health stigma in Asian communities, as well as a founder of mindlumen.health, a platform designed to ethically match seekers and facilitators for psychedelic therapy.

I have to thank Neil for showing up and having the courage to openly share how a series of Mdma and psilocybin-assisted journeys led him to break down a lifetime of barriers and walls he’d built up in himself that started when he was dropped outside military boarding school at the age of 4 back in India and took him to making it big in Silicon valley.

I learned a lot from Neil, and saw a lot of parallels in my journey, that I hope resonate with you to.

Enjoy this free-flowing, beautiful and heart-centred conversation.

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In this episode, I have to thank my friend Elijah Whaley for being brave enough to join me in helping me explore and make sense of a recent experience I had at a festival.

It started in the savannah of the Australian outback, where encountered a pride of lions and a pack of wolves that got me to question my nature, which led me to talk with a variety of spirit animals about their role, the nature of evolution and the circle of life. It very much felt like the Lion King had taken acid.

Just to be clear, this was all happening in my imagination, and no animals were hurt in the making of this experience.

I wanted to speak with Elijah about this as he had initially introduced me to the notion of meeting spirit animals and felt he could help provide a new perspective, which he didn’t disappoint with.

It’s a wild story, and at times have trouble fully expressing the experience fully, so ask for your forgiveness in advance.

I now have greater clarity on what this experience was trying to show me, and how to integrate it into my being moving forward. Thank you, Elijah.

Now, let’s get to the savannah…

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Today I talked with Dr Prash Puspanathan about a recent clinical trial he participated in with DMT.

Prash is a practising psychiatrist and has been a long-time advocate for the responsible use of psychedelics in the medical field in Australia since way before it was cool. He is also the co-founder of Enosis Therapeutics, a VR company working to make psychedelic integration therapy more accessible.

In this episode, he talks about his motivation to become a psychotherapist, the ordeal he went through during the trial to heal some grief he had experienced since the loss of his father, the important work of integration post a session like this and how this experience as a participant has given him new insight as a therapist himself.

I learned a lot from Prash and believe he sets an incredible example of how we can all approach these substances, as a therapist or as a patient, with the degree of respect and reverence they deserve.

Put on your lab coats and get out your clipboards as this is a great story to study.

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This is going to be a relatively light-hearted and fun conversation, about a very profound and in some ways very serious topic. Ego Death.

In other words, the experience of dying before you die. To those who get to experience it, it can be one of the most transformative experiences in life, and I can certainly attest to that.

It certainly gave me first-hand evidence that:
1) There is likely something after death, and
2) There is something everpresent behind everyday waking consciousness.

This episode was recorded IN the Psychedelic Closet with my guest remaining anonymous, under the pseudonym George.

The story is also unique, as I was present during the journey creating a new dynamic in the conversation. We do our best to recount an extremely intense, confronting, confusing and life-changing experience.

It was a great opportunity to reflect on how this experience that happened more than 10 years ago influenced my and my guest's life and how it gave us a healthy dose of respect for psychedelics and how it changed our perspective on life.

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Anyone who has experienced psychedelics has likely also asked what now? What do I do with these new insights?

This question of integration is a big one, especially for those seeking to heal and transform themselves through these experiences, and that’s why I’m excited to bring you this conversation with Cameron Quin.

Cameron will share his first experience with Peyote, and the journey that led him to drastically rethink, reimagine and remake his life to allow others to experience the growth and transformation he has experienced.

Cameron Quin is an Australian serial entrepreneur who’s been on a deep journey of inner transformation and growth, recently launching Henosis where he helps individuals integrate the profound learnings from their psychedelic experiences.

As a disclaimer, we do touch on the topic of suicide and addiction in this episode.

What I love about this conversation is that Cameron and I both agree that the psychedelic experience is showing us, that we create our reality.

Acknowledging this responsibility is what integration is all about, and we begin to unpack how we can do that in this episode.

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This is a special episode as it’s the first time we explore a psychedelic-like (altered state) experience that isn’t induced by an external substance or entheogen.

Elijah Whaley will share his experience with his introduction to Shamanic Journeying which led him to find one of his spirit animals. This opens up a larger conversation about how these practices have helped him take his inner journey of transformation and discovery to a whole different level.

Elijah is a Serial entrepreneur, community builder and communications expert, who has a long history as a meditator and Psychonaut, and more recently as a neo-Shamanic practitioner.

I’ve since started my journeying practice and have found it has allowed me to tap into something deep, primal and extremely powerful that I didn’t know I was missing until I had it. A childlike ability to dream and marvel.

Elijah helped me open my eyes to the potential of just how magical and mysterious this world is, and hope it does the same for you.

In the episode we discuss this book by Sandra Ingerman & Hank Wesselman: Awakening to the Spirit World

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I’m very excited to share this conversation with Steven Farrugia with you. When I set out on my journey to start this podcast, one of my goals was to bring back a little bit of mystery, wonder and magic into my life, and hopefully that of my listeners. This conversation did exactly that for me, and I hope it does for you too.

Steven is the founder of the not-for-profit called ShareTree, where he works with organisations, schools and communities to improve mental health and wellbeing through character development and relationship building.

In this conversation Steven talks about how a message he received during a meditation sitting under the stars, kickstarted a quest to find the answer to the questions “Who am I, and Why am I here?”.

This quest takes him to the jungles of South America where he has his first psychedelic experience, which he shares with a degree of vulnerability, lucidity and clarity that makes you feel like you are right there with him.

We also touch on some of the insight that emerged from his experiences with psychedelics, including what it’s like to listen to your heart, how this impacts parenting, and how we can approach these experiences with the respect and intention they require.

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It’s not often that you get to talk to a therapist, who can bring both a deep personal, experiential lense and research-backed scientific lense to a conversation on psychedelics.

I’d like to introduce you to Ieesha Nyeshiahn, a transpersonal psychologist, who many years ago became a little disenfranchised with her profession.

This kickstarted started a trip around the world that landed her in the Mexican desert learning the way of the sacred toad from the indigenous tribes. She is now working with other therapists and research institutions to help explore how this powerful medicine can help heal people from a range of psychological challenges.

We explore one of her first experiences that opens up a door to a conversation about integration. Specifically how critical it is to cultivate your ability to deeply listen to life, ourselves, nature and others to hear the truth.

This notion of returning to truth using the sound of the gong as a metaphor has helped me re-orient myself to my centre ever since we had this conversation.

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