Ep. 198: Opening Up To More Magic & Purpose Through Psychedelic Medicines (feat. Sofiya Skakri)

Each time I have the opportunity to do a podcast with someone who fills my heart up with joy and inspires me to dig deeper into my mission . I have a blast .

And , this being said , today's guest on the show is a woman who , although I only met recently , has become a fast friend of mine , and in that we found a lot of commonality in what we love and how we serve in the world .

From her intro into psychedelic medicines such as ayahuasca , to how she's taken the wisdom she's gained from these experiences and found ways to serve it to the world . This episode is one that is sure to leave any of you who are paving your own path in life with the confidence and courage to keep going .

So , without further ado , please help me in welcoming my dear friend , sophia Skakri , to the show . Sophia , I am so excited to be joined here today by you For all the listeners listening . Like I mentioned in the intro .

Sophia and I met through the world of Instagram and we became fast friends and it's just so amazing to meet people that live such a different life but you find so many commonalities with you know , we live in different parts of the world , you know or different parts of the country anyway and but we share this love for self-development , holistic health , plant

medicine and especially cannabis and all these other things , and Sophia has done so many different things to improve her wellbeing , improve her life , be of service and all these things . And we're going to get into all of that . But before we get there , I first want to know how are you doing today ?

You know , any day I get to podcast with someone who's also a battery charger , someone whose smile lights up the room , is a good day for me , because that , for me , is my favorite part of life is connecting with other people and , you know , hearing their stories and finding commonalities and finding things that I've never even heard of before that allow me to

expand my reality . That's the most fun that I could possibly have in life , so I am having a blast .

I was like I got to get you on the podcast , you know , and it's been so cool to chat in the meantime and , you know , establish so much rapport and see so much of what you're doing and just find common ground , you know , with this idea of psychedelics for personal and spiritual growth , for transformation and healing .

And speaking of psychedelics , I'd love to know right , because you know , a big part of this show is also like how did you find your way into psychedelics ? Because they were not the mainstream , because they were honestly very dangerous to connect with for a long time , considering the laws and things like that .

You know , how did you find your way into psychedelics ? Was this something that you know you were open to for the majority of your life ? Did it come later on in your life ?

Yeah Well , you know , honestly , my first exposure to psychedelics was as a teenager , in a very recreational sense and not in a sacred or special container , and a little wild and recklessly , and they were fun . It was fun and I probably had some breakthrough experiences that I was not aware were breakthrough experiences at the time . And then fast forward .

I kind of put all that aside . And then about Um , and then about 10 , 12 years ago I was doing my yoga teacher training and my uh , my teacher there expressed that she had been to , uh , an ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica and we talked about it a little bit .

She thought that it might be something that I would be interested in because we had a lot of common interests . And , um , I knew immediately that my interest was peaked . Um , the hair stood up on the back of my neck , I had got chills and I was like this is something I need to check out .

But I also knew that that was not the time and it took about five years for me to be able to align into the right time and space and find the right person to serve , and um , and so what was this ? Maybe 2019 , I think , was my first sit with ayahuasca and I , you know , I'd had a little bit of .

I dabbled a little bit with psilocybin since then um , you know , in the interim , but not much Um . So my first big , real deep dive into psychedelics in a more healing container and in a focused sense , with , like , an actual intention behind it , was to sit with Grandmother Ayahuasca in 2019 .

Immediately , it was one of the roughest experiences I'd ever had in that moment , but I was also filled with such gratitude and wonderment that I wanted more and immediately started sitting with more medicines and attending every ayahuasca ceremony I could , and immediately inserting myself into a place of service , because I just wanted to be part of it .

I wanted to be part of it , I wanted to learn more , I wanted to literally present myself , to be of service to not only this medicine but these medicines and and I've had a longstanding relationship with Santa Maria , or cannabis .

Again , that relationship has woven in and out from recreational to medicinal to an abuse medicinally , where I wasn't really being conscious of how I was using this medicine , and circling right back around .

To now we're in a better place and we have a more attuned relationship with the medicine of Santa Maria and I treat her with more respect and as a sacrament and not a drug .

And it's just such a beautiful transformation to be able to shift the perspective when you really see and dive into what these medicines can do and what they're capable of and their history , their rich history of how they are used as a sacrament and in more of an entheogenic sense , as opposed to this , you know , numb yourself sense .

I tried MDMA at a rave , which was really fun , and also , you know , it illustrated to me something very powerful , which was it showed me something was going on with my dad , but I didn't know what that was until I got home .

I was in Vegas when this happened and when I got home I had realized , or my dad had informed me , that he got diagnosed with cancer .

So it was very interesting because then I was in the middle of like 50,000 people , like you know , having a good time All of a sudden , because I had never felt this medicine before , all of a sudden I just felt a really deep feeling to my dad Not my mom , specifically , my dad and I'm close to , you know , very close to both of them and it was just very

interesting , like that was the first time that I had been like whoa okay , that was more than just having a good time partying , you know .

And so then , you know , because of that experience , when I tried mushrooms the first time , I kind of understood like okay , these are getting into a realm that I've always known existed but I didn't really give much awareness or attention to which I now call the realm of spirit or the realm of God .

But it's interesting to see how even those experiences back then you know they were fantastic , I don't regret them or whatever but how even back then I was having certain experiences where I was seeing a little bit more to the full picture but I wasn't ready to kind of like , you know , really like invite myself into that world .

And then , you know , getting into a lot of the more spirituality and intentional you know living and everything I've got over into the past like eight years , it's amazing to see how the medicines have opened up more . For me it's almost like you know , if you haven't passed ninth grade you can't go ahead to 10 .

But maybe if you're a really smart , genius kid you can hop a couple grades . So it's kind of like that where I don't know if I ever felt ready for some of the biggest experiences I had , but because I had them I can understand or imagine that I was ready on a spiritual level .

But at the end of the day , back when I first started doing them , I wasn't ready to see the full picture . If I had seen the full picture then or experienced more , it might have freaked me out . It might not have been the right time , I might have got traumatized , whatever might've happened .

But it's amazing how those sides of the of the medicines can show themselves exactly when you're ready . It's kind of like when the student is ready , the master will appear Very interesting .

And almost every time I take them I'm not the same again . I'm more of who I really am and less of who I thought I was . I'm curious does that experience happen to you as well , like more of who you really are , less of who you thought you might have been ? Going into that experience ?

It's these moments , it's these , like magical little sprinklings from the medicine , that remind you of who you are and what you're here for and how to do what you do .

You know , cause I don't know about you , but I often experience these moments of um , of doing something , like creating something , or or going through the steps of doing something and not knowing , like I have no idea how I knew how to do that or even like to be able to explain it to you , but I know how to do it and I did it .

And here it is , remembering this thing that I did in some other , you know , lifetime , some other timeline and some other century , but I don't know how I did that .

Like when I was a kid , you know , there was a lot of things that I couldn't do that well right , like I wasn't a good skateboarder like a lot of my friends were . I was okay at biking and rollerblading , but my friends were way better than me . But you know , again , at that age I didn't realize .

You know , my parents were very cool with letting all the kids hang out at their house and so I always had 20 , 30 kids that were around , that were always looking to hang out , you know , and chill and do whatever .

And it wasn't until I got older and I started to get into school and things like that that I realized , oh , that's not the way that everyone is .

And then , especially since meeting Rachel and I've been with her for seven years now , you know , since meeting her and you know , of course , when you're in an intimate partnership , you get to , you know , you get to really , like , take your armor off and , you know , get curious about how people .

You know who people are and how they live their life up until when they met you and so , like just hearing her upbringing of all the anxiety she had around making friends , that was kind of put on her from her mother because her mother had challenged making friends because she moved around a lot when she was a kid .

So because of that experience her mom had , you know , her mom was always very worried that she wouldn't have friends . So the things that she would say to her and things that were from a really good place of intention , but how those things played out in Rachel's life then allowed her to believe , oh my goodness , like what if I don't have friends or whatever .

And it's just interesting to realize those thoughts have never entered my head . Many other times I've been like , oh my God , what if I'm never good at this or whatever . But with that one area of my life it's almost like I came into this world already with that stat up like cranked up if you're playing a video game .

So it's interesting how those things happen . And since I've tapped into podcasting and coaching or whatever , it's almost like the feeling I get intuitively is almost like ah , I'm back where I've been for many , many lifetimes . Like this is all I've ever been .

You know , is this role and I feel very comfortable in it and , of course , like every lifetime , I imagine anyway , it changes a little bit in what you're doing or the vocation you're doing or how you communicate or whatever . But it feels like communication to me is something that has been like hundreds , if not thousands , of lifetimes deep at this point .

So yeah , I totally feel that .

But just realizing so many of the learned programmed ideologies around different aspects of life , and as I'm realizing these really programmed notions that are not necessarily the way that they should be , could be or need to be now Maybe they were necessary a while back but things have changed Anyway so I'm realizing all of these patterns and learned ways that I'm

really having to unlearn and reprogram myself , and that's been fascinating and challenging .

I found people , like you know , other guests I've had on the show that made me not feel so alone in it . But you know , even the idea that we must age as the years in our life go by is something I've been getting into . Like why do some people look so young as they get older while other people look older even when they're young ?

Like why does that happen ? And I think I told this story a couple of weeks ago on the podcast , so forgive the listeners but I'm going to tell it again .

There was this experiment they did in like the 90s the CIA did , where they took people that were in like their 70s and 80s different ranges of , you know , failing health , walking with walkers or canes or whatever and they made a simulated town that was set in like 1937 , something like that .

So you know , for these people , when they would have been in that town , they would have been like in their prime 20s , 30s , etc . So when they put them back into this town , where the TV shows , the furniture , the cars , everything was as if it was 1937 . It was sometime in the 30s .

But when they did that they realized that all of a sudden these people stopped walking with canes or walkers . They started being able to sit in positions they weren't able to sit in for years and they didn't have to do anything . They wasn't , they weren't going to rehab , whatever . All of a sudden they just started de aging .

So it's very interesting to think about . Like even that level of programming is still programming , that we must get older as we age . And you know how it's played out in my life . You know , with some things that are a little more approachable , because that one still , I got to wrap my head around .

But you know again , like things like having to pay taxes right , taxes are actually voluntary but most people just go along with them because the next person says go along with them and that person's dad says go along with them . So we don't really question these things . You know how to run business and what to do for a job .

You know the whole age-old myth of just get something that you know will give you money but then realizing most people don't really live a life worth living , in my opinion anyway , when they choose that and having to break through that you know metaphorical ceiling and whatnot , all these things I feel like the world is going through a lot of those shifts right now

. I mean healthcare look at how much that's been decoupled in the last four years . I mean that alone is insane , let alone all the other areas . We can look at the food supply . We can look at , like I said , the online stuff . We can look at finance , with crypto coming in and whatnot .

It feels like almost everything is having a toss up right now and it's really fun . It's a great time to be alive , but it is a big wave to surf and it's challenging to find safety in that . You know , like that's like kind of the argument , if you will , for me anyway . Why do the things I do to make sure I'm grounded every day ?

Because it's a wild world out there . But yeah , I totally agree .

And I find that so much of the work with these medicines , with these entheogens , is to first of all clear out . Clear out all BS , like just get rid of it , and then you can like really sort through and pick through and clarify what's what and what's going on .

And so once you're able to kind of sort through the debris of the clutter , so to speak , these medicines can really help you , particularly ayahuasca , but lots of them can really help you discern the questions of what is the purpose of my life ? Why am I here ?

One of the biggest answers that I keep getting in nearly every ceremony , no matter what it is , and for five years now , is so simple you don't have to be right , you just have to be love . All comes back to love . It just comes back to being love , being compassionate , finding grace and , fuck , being right .

And so I talked to him about when 2017 , I found a podcast called the positive head podcast with this guy , brandon Beecham great podcast that introduced me to so much amazing stuff . But one of the quotes he would always say is love is the answer . Now , what was the question ? And it's so true , right , like that really is it .

And those are the kind of things that , like , you can hear and it's like fun . Like that really is it . And those are the kind of things that , like , you can hear and it's like fun . You know , like even me saying it now , it's like fun and I get it logically .

But when you're in a psychedelic experience and that dawns on you and you're like it's all love , it's hilarious to you , and that hilarity can turn into tears , it can turn into all different types and shapes and sizes and whatever , but at the end of the day , it's so true .

You know , rach and I were driving down to Virginia probably about a month ago , and you know I'm a big fan of hermetic law . You know hermetic principles and whatnot . They really helped me .

They're like you know , good governing rules of the universe and you know the one as within , so without right , and the whole idea that there is no objective reality that quantum physics talks about . So Rachel , you know , she was kind of in her own world in the passenger seat and she goes there is no right or wrong .

So if you want to be right , you're wrong . And I was like that's a good statement . You know , it's like one of those , like haikus in a way , but it's so true because really , like how I took that in , is there is no objective right or wrong . Right or wrong don't really exist .

They exist in this illusion , this dream , as some might call it , that we that we quote unquote live in Right , that we're visiting , that we're dreaming into existence . In this dream , yeah , duality is perceived as real Right , subject , object , black , white , up down , hot , cold , all these things .

But in reality they're all like , if you look at hot and cold , for instance , that's the same spectrum , they're just opposite polarities . So at the end of the day , it's not really a duality , it's more of like a differentiality between two opposing poles .

And so if you look at , like , the idea of oneness , well , if our truth is oneness , then how could our truth also be somethingness ? You know , which is like what I think of this realm as so that whole idea of , like you know , there is no right or wrong , so if you want to be right , you're wrong .

It's so true because at the end of the day , like , if I love the color blue , right , and my favorite color is blue , and I say , sophia , my favorite color is blue , and you go , cool , my favorite color is purple , right , that's beautiful .

Right , because we're both right for our subjective view of this dream , where the challenge comes is when I think , no , I have to convince Sophia that the best color is blue . That's where things get kind of weird , right .

And so you know , again , I have a lot of compassion for a lot of people in the world , because I remember when I was in that state of consciousness where I thought I had to argue my subjective truths to believe them more .

But at the end of the day , I'm at a point now where I understand that if I truly believe something like if I believe I'm going to throw out a random example here , right , because I have a lot of flat earth friends . I don't dive into that whole thing , but it's a trigger , happy subject , so I'm going to mention it .

So it's like , if I believe the earth is round , right , and a friend of mine believes the earth is flat , well , if I really believe the earth is round , I shouldn't need to argue my point whatsoever . If anything , I should actually be excited to hear why he thinks the earth is flat and we should be able to have a great conversation around that .

That isn't based on trying to change each other's minds , but it's based in curiosity . But I think the challenge happens when , say , if I believe the earth's round and he believes the earth's flat , and I go no , you have to believe the earth's round . Oh , you have to believe the earth is round .

That shows me that I don't really believe the earth is round and that somehow my safety is wrapped into my identity as someone who believes the earth is round .

So in a way , if that comes up for me , I get to thank that person who displayed an opposing view , because they just showed me where I didn't really believe my own truth that I was trying to state as my objective truth .

So that's one of the things that I've really come into understanding , and I fall out of it from time to time , right , and I remind myself , cause life is just a big series of remembering and forgetting again . But yeah , I love that idea . It's it's so true to exactly what I believe as well .

from this book , disappearance of the universe , which I highly recommend to anyone who loves this kind of stuff . But you know , in there they talk about that there's really just one dreamer . They call it the son of god . Could easily be the daughter of god gender is interchangeable there .

But you it's kind of like a part of God dreamt a dream in which there was no God , or that there was something else other than God put it that way , it's a better way to say it and that part of God forgot it was dreaming , but it's still God , and God is also still where God's at . And this dreamer has made a very convincing reality .

Right , because this is the ego's realm now , this other than God .

Right , that created the ego , which is finiteness when God is infiniteness , and so , like , when you think about it , there's only one dreamer , but it's making it very convincible by making us think there's 8 billion , so odd , different dreamers here and all these different animals and different life forms and whatever , but really it's just one dreamer .

Dreaming this all into existence , then isn't the point of being here , in this experience , since we are here so we got to imagine it's for some kind of good reason . But I would imagine anyway and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this that the beauty of life , or this experience we call life , is actually the differentiality , is an understanding .

There is no objective right or wrong , and that even like you know again , if I think blue is the best color , am I right or wrong ? Well , I mean , subjectively that could be right , but objectively I'm wrong , because other you know dreamers or other illusions of the dream could think that you know there's a different color . That's the best color you know .

So it's interesting to see that , like I've really tuned into just how beautiful all the differences are , even in politics , for instance , which is like a big thirst trap and I don't play in that field because it just takes a lot of energy . But it is kind of beautiful to witness people fighting for what they feel is right on both sides .

And again , I understand the hero's journey , I understand the fact that even though I may not enjoy politics , I'm grateful someone else does . They found some kind of love in it . I don't pretend to understand it . But they do , and that's all that matters . You know , I don't need to , you know , understand why they , why , why they do , and I don't .

You know , I just follow my fun , you know , and that's like I think , as simple as it can get just follow your fun , that's what kids are doing . You I've ever found anyway .

We chose this reality , we chose everything about this reality , and there's no real point in searching for how to get to heaven . This is heaven . We just have to figure out how to see it that way . Like , how do you shift your perspective to be in heaven right now ?

Because we are in heaven on earth Just doesn't always look like it or feel like it , but it's . You know , you're the divine creator of your own reality and , yeah , we are experiencing heaven on earth right now . We chose this 100% .

The analogy I give here is kind of like um harry potter and the sorcerer's stone if you've ever seen that movie , where harrid brings him to diagon alley and so they go into the wand shop and he's still trying to wrap his head around this idea that he's a wizard , so he doesn't see his own power yet .

Right , very similar to a lot of us before we've gone on this waking up journey . So they hand him these wands and he's like I don't know , just doing this with it and shit's blown off the shelves . It's chaos , you know , but again , like that's his power , right ? And I think that's where a lot of us are at before we become conscious of it .

Is that we'll say why does our life suck , or why am I getting these terrible results in life , not realizing that we're the one cast in the one . We just haven't realized how to do it , intentionally and consciously .

Yet , and until we take accountability for all the perceived negative stuff which , again , I don't really believe is anything objectively negative but the things that maybe we don't like in life . You know . This was when I had my Kundalini awakening , when I took full accountability over the fact that the job I was working at I didn't like I was staying there .

No one was forcing me to be there , I could leave at any point , but I didn't feel empowered enough to go out on my own yet . So I was blaming them for keeping me at this job , when in reality it was just I didn't want to take accountability for the fact that , like it would have to be me recognizing that I had kept myself there .

But once I recognized that I also got all my power back because I realized , well , if I've been keeping myself here , I could go anywhere .

And so I think that's kind of what we're going through in the world right now it feels like is a lot of people are waking up to that where some people haven't yet , and it's creating a certain type of divide in the way .

And I think that's beautiful too , because , for all we know , the people that aren't waking up , that's their perfect lifetime this time around . You know , maybe not everyone's meant to wake up this time .

I mean , I think it would be silly to think everyone's meant to at one time , and maybe we've gone through millions of lifetimes where we've been completely asleep , you know , drinking the fluoride , doing whatever it is right .

So I always have compassion for anyone in their journey , because you know , even people that you know maybe could be classified as asleep or not awake or whatever , they can give you a lot of wisdom and in that , when you get that wisdom and you wake up , you can revert back some back to them and potentially help them .

And so it's this beautiful reciprocity that Ram Dass talks about , of all walking each other home and just beautiful . You know that's what you're talking about . Like it just comes back to love every time . Just love everyone and see the God in them to love every time just love everyone and see the . God in them , you know . See them all as God in drag .

Yeah , you know , it's been really beautiful though , witnessing um friends and acquaintances waking up , if you will , and realizing that , like they , not only they don't want to continue the grind that they've been in , just because , like it's the JOB that they had to have to pay the bills , and but you know they're really like tapping into more of their creative

side or what they're . You know what more of a calling is for them , instead of , like punching the clock to get the paycheck .

And it's been so lovely not only to hold space for people as they figure these transformations out , but to like witness them literally walking through it and making these changes of like quitting the corporate job , quitting the teaching at a university so that you can , like grow the apothecary and make the tea blends and , you know , roll handmade incense and like

develop these , these beautiful creations that , like we're , really we're . We're here to create . We're not here to work a nine to 12 , like nine and a half job , punching a clock and collecting a paycheck . And you know this , this world is way too beautiful to be sitting inside and not paycheck .

And you know this , this world is way too beautiful to be sitting inside and not creating . We've got so anyway . It's .

It's really , as such , an honor and a privilege to be able to witness and hold space for these people as they move through these transitions of life and and like give up , surrender to what their passion is , to what their calling is , and really like go out to be their truest , most authentic selves , you know , and leave the , the corporate J-O-B Not that there's

anything wrong with that and there's a certain need for that but that is not my place . And it's lovely to be part of the movement of shifting into the more you know , back into the creative realms .

But when I was 16 , 17 , and I found cannabis and then I started getting into conspiracy theories , I started to realize , oh , there are other people that are very different from the people that I've met so far in my life , and I'm grateful that I did have a lot of friends that were like that .

We were just all young and we didn't really know where to look , you know . But once I tapped into that , I found a lot of my friends that I'd grown up with were into that kind of stuff .

And you know , I'm grateful that I'm still very close with all my childhood friends , like you know , except for maybe a couple here and there that just , you know , did their own path or whatever . We've all stayed pretty close .

But at the same time , like you know , I've witnessed , you know and again , this is just my interpretation of what they've told me but you know , I've witnessed a lot of them just choose like I'd just rather just go get a paycheck and come home and play video games , and that's okay . Like I don't judge that , you know .

Again , that's perfectly divine for this lifetime for them , but it's allowed me when I've seen that the feeling it brings up in me , that I don't pretend to think is their feeling right , it's just like what it brings up in me is like whoa .

Like every time I see someone do that , even if it's the perfect decision for them , it reminds me of how much that's not what I want to do , what I want to do .

And when I find people like you or my buddy , aaron Abkey , or Christopher August or any of these people that I , you know , resonate with a lot and hang out with a lot , it's like this is exactly where I parked my car , like exactly what has been for me . And I think that's why I like psychedelics so much .

And I'm interested to see if you found this link to , because this is just a theory I have . But you know , like for a lot of people , psychedelics are very terrifying . Why ? Because they kind of throw up everything you thought reality is . But for those of us that have always had an inkling that this is not what things are supposed to be like .

I find that we actually find some sort of safety within the uncomfortability of psychedelics , because we're getting to embody and experience everything that we've already known . We haven't been , but maybe we haven't seen exact evidence in the world yet , and maybe we start to find other people that are like us .

But , you know , we find like safety there where other people feel very unsafe in that realm , and I think that when you look at like entrepreneurship , for instance , that's a very like psychedelic experience . Right , I need to make a thousand dollars by tomorrow . How am I going to critically think and make that happen ?

Right , like there's a lot of things that will come up in a psychedelic experience that you didn't know were going to happen . And so I find this interesting link between entrepreneurs and psychedelics , versus like people that maybe work for someone else and the lack thereof psychedelics .

Have you found a link between people you know that enjoy psychedelics , also being someone who's paving their own path , or entrepreneurship , or in some way shape or form living their life very differently than most people ?

So I mean , there's a lot more to it than that , but that's like the first thing that hits is , like every one of those people , classes of people , categories of people , we're all risk takers . We're willing to , like , take a risk , do the , do the .

You know the edgy thing like not do the normal thing , and and there's a certain comfort in that , you know , Although you know , in that realm .

As far as psychedelics go , I find that it's maybe pushing that edge and learning to navigate the discomfort is a more colorful and somatic experience of meditation 100 you know , because you can also get that experience in , like sitting in meditation , but it's just going to look different and and feel different probably .

But you know , yeah , you can absolutely get to those points of discomfort and like that's where you navigate , like how do I like , how do I become comfortable with this uncomfortableness ? And it's very similar in psychedelic spaces .

You know , how do you become comfortable with that discomfort , whether that discomfort is facing this shadow , this darkness , this demon , this , whatever it is that you're facing , or the physical discomfort of , like you know , having to purge either Northern or Southern , and you know just the discomfort of realizing body aches that are like moving through you , which is

sometimes how you purge is , you know , it may not come up or out , it might move through in different ways . And so , yeah , there are those aspects of discomfort . But this grouping as a whole are bigger risk takers , I think , and are ready to like jump off the cliff and figure out if the bungee cord is attached halfway down .

Like I've , I've been aware that I enjoy intense things in life , and this is not like an ego , like I enjoy intense things , just something that I've realized over time and other way I would say it is I find some semblance of enjoyment touching hot stoves , or rather figuring out for myself just how hot a stove is .

You know , someone may tell me , hey , that one's a hot stove over there . I'm like , okay , let me go see how hot . And sometimes I'm like , yeah , shit , that was really hot .

But sometimes I'm like it wasn't as hot as I thought it was going to be , you know , and I think , like that curiosity , right To be like , nah , I mean , you told me that , but I don't know that yet . I think that's like the ultimate curiosity stemming from God .

Because if someone else I mean , look at the people that do firewalks , right , like , is fire hot ? We , most of us would say yes , will fire burn you ? Most of us would say yes , but what about the people that can do a firewalk and not get burned ? Right , like what's going on there ?

Now , again , we can understand , based on what I think most listeners of the show understand with Joe Dispenza stuff and whatnot , that we can create a reality .

But at the end of the day it makes you like realize at least it did for me and I imagine for you and many people listening as well that like if I thought fire was gonna burn me no matter what my whole life , and then I find an example that it doesn't every time , then how do I know that even if I ate that food last year that I'm not gonna like it

right now ? How do I know that you know trying combo isn't actually going to be a really enjoyable experience for me ? How do I know that five of me ODMT is going to , you know , be a challenging or good experience , like based on what someone else told me ?

Like that's not really for me anyway a good way to go through life , and I understand some people feel safer just to kind of taking what someone else has done and figure it out in life and going with it and that's fine , right , perfectly divine . It's all great spirits down for whatever , as Paul Cech says .

But at the end of the day , like I find that the people I love the most are the people like , nah , let me see how hot that is . You know another way I would say it is like the heretics . You know the people that are like I'm going to do things differently just because it's what I feel is true to me .

I I didn't have any friends growing up that had an issue with working at these kind of jobs you get as a teenager and whatnot , and I definitely did .

I found ways to teach guitar and do anything I could to make enough money that I didn't have to work a job , because it just felt like soul crushing to me and I ended up forming a whole belief system that I had bad work ethic , that something must be wrong with me .

And then , years later , when I gained some , some wisdom , I was like , oh , thank god I never bought into those myths too much and thank god I just kept going on my own path , because it definitely has paid off for me .

But it is interesting to see how those things happen over time and to see how we shift and to see , like you know , where in life , like even if a stove is hot , like sometimes we got to figure out how hot it is for ourselves . So then we can share our , our experiences with other people .

Because I think , like , if we think about you know God , and why God would even have an experiment like this whole world , I got to imagine it's because God is an adventurer , you know , and even if God is in oneness , god's like well , what's something this like you know ? Because , again , any experience is valid in the eyes of creators .

So I feel like that's , if you know again what I choose to believe and I know you do too , because you already mentioned it like if we're all God , then really we're all adventurers in disguise , you know .

So it makes perfect sense why so many of us want to try different things in life and especially why people that want to try a lot of different things would find psychedelics because there's no objective anything there . It puts you in the experience of , like the statement of there is no objective reality . It actually allows you to experience that truth .

It's really cool .

And so , you know , even though that divinity , that divine is within us , should always be curious to like learn something new and like figure something out , or , like you know , just always be filled with wonder and awe and seeking to learn . You know , just , there's just always something new to learn , whether it's about yourself or about the world around you .

And to be filled with wonder and awe and curiosity creates a magical landscape for you to traverse you know 100% .

You know semblance of that and that is like so true . That's why I say follow the fun , like . I think people may think I'm being a goofball when I say that , and I am , I'm a goofball at heart , but but it's true , like based on what I found . Anyway , I don't pretend that it's objective reality .

Maybe for someone it's not , but for me , like , every time I followed what's truly fun for me . You know , like , what's truly fun , what's truly rewarding . I always end up in the right places with the right people doing the right things for me , and my logical brain has no way to explain it . You know no way to explain how I got there .

You know no way to understand how choosing that led to this , but I just after a while , just can surrender and be like well , it's done it every other time . What's the same won't do it this time and that amount of surrender , which wasn't easy for me as well .

You know , a lot of my astrological chart is Virgo , so it's like very like , you know , structured and whatnot . But as I've let a lot of that go , you know it's really opened me up to a totally different you know lease on reality that I can't imagine living my life without now .

So it's really cool to think back to that time and you know , realize how trying to you know take out the trying like you know , the first 16 , 17 years of my life I was trying to be an adult and then , since then I've been trying to get unadulterated , you know , trying to come back to the mind of a child but have the body of a man that can drive a

car and do fun , shit you know , car and do fun shit .

In fact , I've bought so many copies of that book to give people because I just need it to be in so many people's hands .

So anytime someone finds one like that , I'm like yes , I'm going to download that . So Polish in the Mirror . I got that written down .

And then he starts getting visited by these two ascended masters who were walking the planet at the same time Jesus was , and they start relaying all this stuff to him that is based on A Course in Miracles . So for anyone who hasn't read A Course in Miracles , it's like a much easier way to understand what A Course in Miracles are .

I mean even Aaron , my buddy who teaches it , or my buddy Mark who teaches it . You know they're like dude .

The reason we love Disappearance is because people can read A Course in Miracles like the entire way through and have no idea that it has to do with forgiveness , and so Disappearance kind of like it's kind of set in language of today a little bit easier to understand what they talk about is one of the things I love in there is they don't try to say this is

the only path , and that , for me , grinds my gears so much when I go to , like you know , some spiritual teacher or I was a part of a certain organization for a couple of years that I got into because I love researching stuff , I love diving into different philosophies and whatnot .

But what really started grinding my gears was when they tried to seem like they were the only path that could get you back to God . And oh , by the way , this path costs $100,000 to get there . I'm like , yeah , I'm good with that , you know . So you know again , when I can read , yeah , it's just so silly .

But when I can read books where they're like , hey guys , let's be real , there's a lot of ways to get back to God . There's infinite ways . What we believe is that A Course in Miracles and these teachings are maybe the quickest way to get back there . I was like , okay , I'm entertaining that , I can be open to that .

Because again and they say , buddhism is very similar they say Buddhism is the closest besides A Course in Miracles . But they say the challenge , which is very interesting . And I feel like people like Ram Dass got this . You know , there's been people on the planet while we've been alive that have understood this for sure .

But when you hear about someone like a Jesus or a Buddha . These people are non-dualistic . They're completely back to oneness , even though they're appearing in the dream of separateness or somethingness . So at the end of the day , their whole thing is they're not gonna buy into the dream Other people's limiting factors or whatever .

They're not going to let that influence them . Their whole thing is hey , follow the Holy Spirit or your higher self , back to God . That's their whole thing . And so basically what would happen is that someone like a Jesus or Buddha would walk on the planet . Most people would think they're fucking insane , they'd get killed , right .

And then some amount of years later someone would be like I think that guy knew what he was talking about . Then , from a dualistic point of view , they tried to create a religion out of it and then in that religion a lot of people would get confused and whatnot .

So you know , it's very interesting when they said all that in the book , because it made perfect sense to me , because this whole thing of you know , oh , there's good things , there's bad things , right , or even the . You know I'm not a big fan of AA , because what does it do ? It makes all the worldly pleasures seem more real .

There's this real thing called alcohol and it's really a thing and you can never go back to it because you're powerless to it . It's like I don't like those spells being cast around me , so I've chosen other paths for myself .

But it helped me see kind of my own mindset of like no , I'm taking the middle way , like that's been one of my core values for years and that's the way that a non-dualist would look at it . One of the reasons Jesus drank wine is because he didn't let it consume him . So it wasn't a big deal for him to have a couple sips of wine at dinner .

He didn't let it lead him into alcoholism or he didn't think that if he had a sip he wouldn't be enlightened . You know these are all dualistic points of view that are put on human beings that we take in and then we think they're truth and gospel when they're not , because we're the dreamer . So whatever we dream into reality is the reality .

But we haven't really understood that power yet , so we're still off gassing on other people . Well , so and so says in Buddhism we're not supposed to get intoxicated . Because X , y , z , it's like no Buddha never would have said that , because that makes the dream real .

That's someone who thought they understood what Buddha was saying , then trying to teach from a dualistic point of view , a non-dualistic teaching , you know . So it's so interesting .

I know they they , whoever they are , you know would prefer it be more , like , you know , a week to two weeks , but that's just not really feasible in my world . Um so , anyway , I find I don't think that it affects my experience that much , but I'm not really 100% sure .

But I can say I have gone very deep and have had very intense experiences , and I've also had lighter experiences , and some of that depends on the medicine , some of that depends on the set and setting , and some of that depends on , like , how much I drink . Did I drink this much ? I drink that much , you know , and did I drink once ?

Did I drink three or four times , you know so , and some of those times that I maybe had more to drink , I probably had a lesser experience as opposed to having you know so . So I'm curious , like , what are your thoughts on that ? And again , like I've , I've heard both sides of it , you know so . So I'm curious , like what are your thoughts on that ?

And again , like I've , I've heard both sides of it , you know like the refrain from for as long as possible , and some that I've even experienced with the shaman smoking cannabis during ceremony not sharing with the participants , but you know they themselves smoke and you know .

So I'm like I'm sure it can be different for you know , they're just different thoughts about it , but I'm just curious , like what's your thought on it ? What have you heard about it ?

Do you believe you're going to be a bad child if you don't refrain for a month beforehand ? Because if so , abracadabra , you just created the dream in which you're a bad kid for not refraining right Now .

You know , I do think that it makes sense to me why you'd want to , overall , do a detox and make sure you're being very conscious and aware of what you're putting into your body before you go sit with medicine .

But to me , you know , we can't have it both ways , and what I mean by that is that either cannabis is also a plant put here by God , and aka it's divine , or it's not right .

So , at the end of the day , I personally believe that God put this here for us to utilize , to remember ourselves , to come into deeper union with our true selves , our higher selves , etc . And so , at the end of the day , I think it comes down to personal responsibility , right ?

Like , are you someone who's smoking a lot and staying up late and playing video games ? And because you stay up late and you play video games , you're eating shitty food . And because you eat shitty food , you wake up feeling like shit .

And because you wake up feeling like shit , you're going to drink more coffee , like that's where it can get damaging , but that's no fault of cannabis , right ? That's the patterns that people are playing out with it .

You know , I've talked intimately about this with Hamilton Souther , who , in my opinion , is like the best person to get this information from , because I'm no expert on ayahuasca , but he definitely is . I mean , he's drank over 10,000 times , so he's a good kind of you know field tester of this , and he said the exact same thing .

He was like it all depends on what people believe . You know , he said the reason that a lot of these traditions say refrain from cannabis . He's like you got to understand cannabis is not part of their culture . So for 1000s upon 1000s of years they haven't included cannabis .

So they're like don't fix what's not broken , just don't include it because we don't really know about it . You know , we know what's going to happen if you do exactly what we tell you to do and you drink the exact medicine we brew , we can have a good idea of what's going to happen . We know how to bring you back things like that .

But if you start adding other stuff into that equation , we're no longer experts on how to help you through that . No-transcript . Stay up till three in the morning , play video games and eat pizza rolls or whatever you know like . There's too much like confusion there , I think .

But there's also the santo daime approach to ayahuasca , where they actually connect with cannabis while they're doing ayahuasca . And that's what Hamilton's a fan of . You know , hamilton , his way of putting it was I'm a fan of it when it calls for it . He's like you know , he told me straight up .

He was like listen man , when you come down here , he's like yeah , you better believe we're going to hit a lot of buttons because I know you can handle it and I know you aware of what can happen when you mix different medicines together , so you're going to take ownership over that if something really weird happens , you know .

And at the end of the day , you know , he said the same thing . He's like listen man , I . I believed that myth for a little while . And then I started meeting different shamans when I was in my training and they were just like , where'd you get that idea ? Like we don't have any opinion around cannabis because it's just not part of our culture .

And that's when he realized , oh , this isn't like you know , because the way it's purported is like oh , these spirits don't dance well together and all this stuff . It's like guys , that's human beings , from their low level of consciousness of competitive nature and whatnot , projecting how plants would be based off of what they understand human nature to be .

It's kind of like when people say aliens are going to come here and destroy the earth . It's like guys . They're way more evolved than we understand that that's because our level of consciousness is still in . We must beat down the person that believes in something different . So we then project that out Like well , if we're that , they must be that .

It's like , no , they're not . That you know .

So that's my feeling on it is , of course , be aware , you know , if I was sitting with a practitioner who was like hey , refrain , then I would , because I'm playing in their sandbox and I'm going to follow their rules , based on the fact that I'm entrusting them with my you know my psyche and whatever , so I'm going to play in their box , but at the same

time , that's kind of why I seek out people that are not like that , you know . That's why I like Hamilton so much . That's why to go through what happens when you do , and are you also aware of what you're doing , why you're doing and what you're looking to get from it .

If so , then yeah , these medicines can dance beautifully together , but at the same time , there are things to be aware of . So that's my opinion on it personally .

So , uh , you know , and I do follow that , but I don't find that cannabis has that particular effect for me personally , but I also have a very deep and long sustained relationship with this medicine , you know . So , anyway , I was just kind of curious .

Those are like the top three , or like I'm waking up with a hangover , or like I'm these things and they're blaming cannabis for it . I'm like I've never gotten any of that . Now , again , if I eat a 200 milligram edible right before I go to bed , yeah , I'll wake up with a little bit of like whoa , I'm still high , but I don't feel hungover at all .

I don't feel like my frequency is lower . Typically , I'll ask these people like well , what's your diet like ? How are , how are you sleeping ?

You know all the basic questions and 99% of the time there's always an outlier , but 99% of the time I'll get like well , you know , I went to bed at two in the morning and I only slept four hours , but that's normal for me .

And I'm like and you think cannabis is the thing giving you that feeling Like it's just like I think a based on biochemistry and things like that .

But but yeah , like I think , um , overall , like if you think about all the things that they tell you to avoid with ayahuasca , you know , animal products being one , cannabis being one , obviously any like antidepressants and pain pills and things like that , I think anything pharmaceutical is at the top of the list . Like , definitely do not do that .

That's actually like a danger , like you could actually die with those interactions .

Animal products that one is interesting for me too because you know , again , like I understand the myth , right , the theory that they have , which is like , hey , like everything you're connecting with has consciousness , so like , if you're eating like traumatized things and things like that , you're going to have to go through their shit , which definitely feels real to

me . But I also know the fact that , like for me , I'm a polar type of metabolic typing diet , so I do not work well on a vegetarian diet . Now , if it's vegetarian with eggs and milk , I can do that just fine , I can do that fine .

But also , like I end up just really eating eggs and milk , I don't really do any of like the grains and whatever , because a lot of the mess with my stomach and maybe that's not grains , maybe it's just the way they're grown in this country , even if they're organic , yada , yada , because I understand if you go to Italy and whatnot , you don't get that effect .

So there's a lot I don't know , but for me , one of my best friends , jason Ganzuk really amazing medicine worker as well , one of the smartest guys I've ever met he's like hey , man , I , 100 plus times I , I sit with people through the experiences .

I have a lot of different clients that literally have tried going vegetarian for a month beforehand and he said it becomes like a , which is worse right , like if someone is going on a diet that's not right for their metabolic type and so they're getting stressed out , they're malnourished , their mineral count is down , and now they're going to a foreign country where

the diet is going to be different , the , the microbes are different and their mineral content is down . So they don't have a lot of minerals from which to charge the mitochondria to create ATP , and now they're going to do a crazy medicine or a three day or four day ceremony that depletes their minerals farther . What is worse , that scenario ?

Or someone that maybe you know has a little bit of milk or eggs or maybe even a little red meat , but make sure their minerals are up , so when they go down there they're not like trying to pour from an empty cup .

So that's , like , I think , where a lot of the intricacies are , and I think that's the challenge I've had with some of the different centers out there that are like nope , this is the way to do it for everyone . I'm like that can't be accurate , based on what I understand from quantum physics that there is no objective reality .

So for me , I always say like to people , or for myself anyway , I just say like , do your best , forget the rest . You know , like , at the end of the day , do your best to follow the guidelines .

But also like , be true to yourself , like if you're feeling like malnourished as hell , if you're feeling like you're getting sick or whatever , and you understand that milk will help you or eggs will help you or whatever , just do your best .

You know , make sure you're getting an organic pasture raised , these animals , if you're going to eat them , you know they had a beautiful life up until the moment the bow was pulled or whatever . Like that . You know that's going to be much different than like eating store-bought meat . You know for sure . You know .

But again , like I like I said like when , if I'm playing in their sandbox , I always do my best to follow what they say because I respect their lineage .

You know I'm not going to go out there and be like I know better than them or whatever , but that's why I found that I really enjoy shamans like Hamilton that are like yeah , man , be true to yourself , like if you know what works well for you , just do your best , get the best quality of everything you know .

Make sure you sleep really good , make sure you got positive relationships in your life , like make sure , like your foundation is solid and the rest shouldn't matter all too much , you know . So that's my , my , my theory on it .

Hopefully we'll get to do one in person when we get to meet up and give each other a big hug in person . But I want to make sure yeah , I'm so excited , but I want to make sure I give you ample opportunity to tell people where they can find you . I know you have some different offerings as well . You have a whole apothecary you run .

You've sent me some of your products , which are fan flippantastic . By the way , the CBD event everything was so amazing and I highly recommend to anyone who's looking for some really love grown things and to be able to supercharge your space . You know , especially if you're doing medicine , your space and these kinds of things .

Sophia's got so many amazing things to offer . So where can I send people to find out more information on that and for them to connect with you ?

Alchemy Incense LA is more about the products that we curate and cultivate , but I make ceremonial cacao , which is a recipe I worked on for a couple of years while making cacao for ceremonies and then I started marketing it because people liked it so much .

I make Amazonian sananga , which are the medicinal eye drops , which is a beautiful medicine I really developed a relationship with and then learned how to make , and I actually make and serve that medicine quite a bit .

And then my business partner and I have an abundance of gardens where we grow as much as we can organically and we make organic herbal teas , medicinal teas , incense hand rolled , prayed over Reiki , infused incense , um , for an assortment of things .

Uh , we also teach incense classes , workshops on how to make your own incense , and we do a little um incense kits . So we made a how to video so you can order a kit and do it yourself at home if you can't come to us . Um , yeah . And then , uh , pre-rolled smoke blends as well as just , uh , the loose blends themselves .

I like the loose blends personally because then you can mix in your own other herbs of choice , which is my preferred way and that's actually one of the things I love to offer is I do um , a sacred smoke ceremony , which is involving one of the herbal blends and usually infused with cannabis , but sometimes not .

But , yeah , and then I do shamanic healing sessions , which are a blend of it's an intuitive blend of acupressure , energy work , sound healing , chakra alignment and , yeah , it's just kind of a mixed bag of what you need that day and what's going to come through it . There may be some light language involved .

I will probably do a tobacco prayer and a Shakapa clearing as part of that practice . Anyway , yeah , I'm just available for sound healing sessions , private ceremonies , I serve combo and I also serve the sacred toad medicine of Mexico , which I will not say yes .

What is the one piece of advice you would suggest to them or be able to offer to them , to allow them to use the proper discernment in understanding if these medicines are right for them at this particular time in their lives ?

So , yeah , really listen to it and don't just succumb to go into some ceremony because your friends are going like go , because you were called to experience that medicine for healing or for whatever it is that you're looking for . So the other bit of advice I would really recommend on that is research who's serving you ?

There are a lot of fly-by-night people who don't really know what they're doing , who are brewing medicines up in their kitchen without really knowing proper protocols , and sometimes you might be okay with that , but there are a lot of things that can go wrong , and so I really highly recommend knowing who is serving your medicine and getting information on them from

people who have experienced their work before and check them out .

There are a lot of things that can go wrong or be handled inappropriately in a ceremony that is not properly contained and not properly facilitated , and that sort of a situation can cause more damage than good , so really want to be make sure that your server has integrity and knows what they're doing .

It's like if you haven't learned to deadlift 400 pounds yourself , or you've only done it once , you probably shouldn't be coaching other people on how to deadlift 400 pounds . You know , like there are certain things you're going to want to go . Do you know there's degrees you might want to get or things like that for the weightlifting side ?

For this you're going to want to learn from certain lineage holders . You know certain things that are really important to understand in working in the medicine . You'll want to understand how to hold space . You know you'll want to understand how to deal with trauma that comes up and all different sorts of things . So I love that piece of advice , sophia .

Make sure you check out the show notes notes where all the websites that she listed , along with her Instagram and everything , is going to be connected so you can go check it out , send her a message , tell her how much you love the episode and if you guys did love the episode , we'd love a five-star review .

It keeps the show reaching new listeners , just like you , which we are so grateful for . So , wherever you guys are in the world , I hope you're all having the best day ever and always remember may the source be with you . Peace for now .