Hello and welcome to another episode of in my
experience with yours truly Christine Degento
This podcast is a space where I speak from lived
experience The moments that shaped me challenged
me and changed the way that I understand myself
in the world The awakenings the breakdowns the
moments that cracked me open asked me to stay
present be embodied and be honest with myself.
I share my stories not to persuade or define
truth for anyone else, but to offer perspective,
to explore the gray areas we don't often have
language for, to slow things down and listen
more closely to what's happening beneath the
surface. You'll hear solo episodes where I reflect
on my own initiations, spiritual gifts, and the
systems that try to define me. And conversations
with guests who have walked strange, beautiful,
and sometimes painful paths of their own and
come back with wisdom to share with us. I invite
you to take what resonates, leave the rest, and
trust your own experience as valid. Thank you
for being here. This is In My Experience. Before
we jump in, I just want to introduce today's
guest. I'm sitting down with Aaron French from
Natural Heart Alchemy for a conversation that
spans over a two -part series. Aaron's been doing
this work for over 25 years, starting with communication
with the spirit of his grandfather and it really
opened into a lifelong relationship with mediumship
and listening beyond the veil. What I love about
Aaron is how grounded his work is. He has a background
in science, but he also works deeply with Taoist
and Tantric teachings and the Akashic Records.
The way that he holds all of that together feels
very calm, clear, and human. Through Natural
Heart Alchemy, Aaron offers Akashic Records readings,
ancestral healing, and mediumship sessions. And
his work tends to bring through really precise
messages while he is also helping people feel
regulated and supported in their bodies. Not
just expanded, but actually resourced. In this
conversation, we talk about the Akashic records
and the Akashic field, mentorship and community,
shamanism, plant medicine, and even dragons.
how the myth and symbolism shape our perception
and memory. I'm really grateful for this conversation
and for Erin's presence. And I'm excited to share
our conversation with you. Let's dig into it.
Welcome our first guest to the show, Erin French.
Thank you for being here with us. It's such a
joy. Thank you so much. Thank you. Erin and I
have known each other for about, I'm coming on
three years now, I would say. We did the first
round of the Akashic Holographic Mastery with
Amy Belair, and that's how we met, right? Yeah.
Amy's so fantastic, and that was such a deeply
immersive, almost year, whatever it was, nine
months, year, whatever it was. It was eight months,
yes. Eight months. It felt like a year for me,
right? It was so deep. you know, becoming friends
in that forum where we met a couple times a week,
some weeks, and then dropped deeply into reading
other people's Akashic records. Even, you know,
even then, like, not specifically knowing any,
quote, details about each other's life, we were,
you know, collectively going into the Akashic
field together, and therefore, like, just learning
who you were as a soul. And then only later,
only later, you know, months later, even a year
later, like learning more details around like
the day to day, but like who the fuck cares?
Pardon my French, because the soul connection
is there of resonance of like, oh, this person
is here with me and this journey at this, you
know, doing this thing that I'm doing. And therefore
like we're friends. Yes, absolutely. And luckily,
right, we have being part of that type of group,
we have access to each other and we would kind
of bounce things off of each other. I don't know
that you really needed my guidance much, but
I sure did ask for yours. We all do though, you
know, I was just working with somebody here in
Pisa who is, I'm down in the Sacred Valley in
Peru. who is sort of a teacher herself and she
was sort of appalled for wanting some support
from me and I was like no no no like we all need
support from each other we all have our blind
spots that we can't see no matter quote where
we are on the journey and no matter how much
support we can offer others no matter how much
we consider ourselves a leader a teacher a mentor
or whatever like all that's irrelevant like we
still have our own work to do and we still have
our blind spots and our parts of ourselves that
you know I need you to uncover and not my other
you know friends and colleagues who can like
see me with with your fresh eyes and not from
my blind spots. Absolutely. And it's such a,
it's validating and grounding to seek advice
from other healers. Every healer needs a healer.
So much so, so much so. Like grounding and validating
and also, you know, especially with the Akashic
field, receiving the grace of like, for me, it's
like a mist of like angelic higher energy, just
like when I'm any caution just like Flowing floating
misting all around me and also the other person
I'm working with and just surrounding me with
that sort of eternal guidance of all things That
just naturally puts everything in deep perspective
and naturally Creates an environment where the
smallness of maybe some situation in my life
in any given moment Just dissolves naturally
easily spontaneously So much fun. It's magic,
right? The magic that we can access ourselves
and the beauty of everyone's capability of doing
that. I think what I valued learning in that
class so much particularly working with several
other people in the class having those readings
and we would give one person a reading, but each
one of us would take our turn and things would
connect in ways that was extremely validating.
So that was, you know, if you are out there and
you have been. wanting to hone your gifts and
tap into the akasha the frequency field the subconscious
of the collective consciousness to receive any
kind of information that you would like for your
soul or your purpose your intentions or guidance
in any way it happens i mean it's sometimes i
feel like people look at it like oh that's when
i really need help but it's something that you
can access at any time for even the smallest
things and really it's I feel the more connected
that I have worked to achieve with this field
the more connected I am every day I don't have
to sit and tune in and have silence and have
all of the um have the environment just how I
need it that insight just comes now so it's absolutely
yeah it's so fun to to think back at you know,
myself and all of us, how not nervous per se,
but like tentative, hesitant to fully speak our
insights and our truths that we're coming through.
Thinking back to that, now I just smile with
like some tenderness of like, yeah, you know.
it's like we didn't from one perspective you
know we learned some things of course but from
one perspective like that wasn't what we learned
wasn't important it was just like deepening into
the trust with each other of who we were who
we are in every moment and skipping to today
like yeah we learned you know i've learned from
that and other sources like okay here's methods
quote you know methods and this is how you're
supposed to connect to the Akashic field and
etc. Yeah as you say too I don't do any of that
ever these days. I mean I'll make sure that I'm
grounded and connected and my space is clear
and those things which are just you know good
basic energetic energetic hygiene but in terms
of the specific prayers or sequence of connection
no I just connect and you know in sessions now
too it's kind of funny I say to people kind of
I say it kind of for to make it seem like it's
something I say like, okay, I'm going to close
my eyes now and connect up and, and it'll be
about a minute. I always say like, it'll be about
a minute before like I start speaking from that
place. I kind of laugh every time and I might
stop saying it. I'm not sure because it's always
like, I don't know, two seconds, five seconds,
zero seconds. I'm just right, you know. Yes.
I say a minute because it gives me time just
to sort of land and integrate myself and like
give words to what you just received. It's always
almost always you know just okay within a few
seconds of like okay it's so clearly coming through
we're just right there. Here's a question for
you like do you see the Akashic Field as a library?
No absolutely not yeah I don't not at all. So
you know still so many people like I'm so deep
in it now that I'm like you don't know what this
Akashic field is but um still so you know the
majority of people I talk to still even people
who come to me for readings you know even even
if they pay money and book a session with me
they still like okay but what is this you know
and now I mostly see the Akashic field as like
an asteroid belt of density of energy a frequency
of information right you know it's like okay
if there's no time because there's not and there's
in all space and all time is here now and all
the imprint from every human and every other
being in this realm across all time is still
here. Yeah. So where in the here it and so I'm
like okay for me it's like this this frequency
band that there's a density to it where all this
information is and it's like to me like in like
an asteroid belt in the energetic field. Yeah.
Does that resonate with you at all? I'm curious.
Like a paint test tape or a disc or all the technology.
that we've had to record things, right? I heard
recently that scientists have some measure of
proof, I believe, or else I wouldn't have been
reading about it, that there was, what they determined
is black holes, the outer ring of a black hole
contains all of the information of whatever has
passed through it. And when I heard that, I was
like, oh my God, of course it does. You know
and in some level even the even quote the white
space or the empty space between in some way
contains also contains all the information but
maybe just in a way that's more diffuse and harder
to tune into. So these places of density like
is it a black hole scientifically or even I'm
saying this this you know asteroid belt which
is just air quotes of the Akashic field this
dense band of a frequency that's sort of in our
realm but also maybe on the edges of it whatever
that means because it's all here. you know, when
there's places of more density, that's just where
it's easier for us to go and pluck out the threads
that are relevant to us in the here and now.
And it's interesting that you're describing it
as having density because I, I mean, we talk
about that all the time, the frequency and all
that frequency vibration. It's all there is,
right? Well, it's when I previously, when I was
working to tune into the Akasha, when I was learning
under Amy, a lot of the time what I would experience
is my ear would be like tadadadada like tapping
bubbles and it would be like pressure it's like
if your ears are popping you know and I'll get
my sinus would pop my leg left my usually my
right side it just kind of goes click like on
the inside I I can't describe that I think that
is my body's physical response to tuning to that
frequency like my it's it's just For whatever
reason I guess Claire sentience is Very strong
in me and my body registers energies around me
whether I sharpen my discernment to them or not
is still in question, but I Do recognize that
I feel that shit so And then you know for me
part of you know backing up for me for my history
like I first learned I was a medium Like over
25 years ago when my grandfather passed away
and threw a whole story of circumstance I didn't
know he had died until like nine months later
but right when he passed there was this week
when I was You know telling my friends and I
journaled this I was like thinking about him
all the time and when I got home I needed to
go see him and he lived, you know states away
and and then you know It was really at this intense
period of connection with him that I at the time
I was younger and just scientific minded and
didn't I was like, oh, I'm just thinking of him
right now a lot. And then later I learned he
passed. And it was when my dad told me later
he passed. And I was like, wait a minute, dad,
wait, when exactly did he die? And it was exactly
back when I had had that feeling. And because
of that disconnect, I was like, oh my goodness,
he was talking to me. It was clear the way it
all worked out in my circumstance. So I've been
talking to and then my great -grandmother came
to me years later Really intensely and like I
had a like an 18 month like long I'll say a conversation
with her and I realized how my ancestors were
like controlling me in certain ways and wanting
to live out their ancestral unmet Carmas with
me and I with her I had to it was so strong I
realized I was being controlled by her by her
unmet needs so I had to devise my own method
of I'll say exorcism in a strong way, but untangling
that and allowing her to, to, to release me from
her control. Yes. So like, that's how I started
all this really. So now, you know, even when
I'm going up into the Akashic field, like the
first, when I'm opening up into the higher realms,
the first band I enter is the ancestors. And,
you know, when I'm working with somebody, like
if they want to, so that's a realm where like,
if the ancestors want to speak on behalf of this
person I'm working with, then they'll like push
their messages to me. And I don't have a choice,
you know? And then when I go just past that and
tune my radio just for to pass that, then I get
into this whole band of angels and spirit guides
broadly. It's a big category of beings that,
you know, spirit guides, angels and beyond that
we all have all around us. And then it's just
past that where I enter the Akashic field. So
that's my sort of, and I don't think that's universal
for everyone, but for me, that's the path that
I go through astrally to get to these realms.
Makes sense to me. That's how I see it also.
I'm not quite, I don't see, I don't see spirits
not even necessarily in my inner vision. um often
so that's not i'm not quite but i do i feel it
that same way i feel it that same way um frequency
wise yeah so like the information and then now
there's so with with this global ascension that's
occurring right now there are so many other beings
and other categories of intelligence and life
forms that are emerging for us. So I have friends
who are very deeply seeing, you know, fairies
of various types, you know, there's different
names for fairies broadly across the globe. And
I'll just use that as a category of like, there's
a whole range of beings that are sort of fairy
beings. Exactly, the whole range. And then I
have other friends, you know, just talking to
one yesterday who was deeply immersed with the
mermaid. and I have a few friends globally around
the world that are like, oh, now I'm deeply connected
and receiving intelligence from the mermaids.
And then for me personally, it's dragons. The
dragons are so deeply emerging. And what they're
telling me is like, as the earth rises, as we're
rising up. you know they're not emerging as much
as we're we're at this time again coming up into
the realm of frequency where they have always
inhabited yeah like we're we're joining them
once again and they're like oh you can see us
now kind of thing like oh welcome let's hang
out with you as you as the earth and us individually
raises our frequency so fun it's so much fun
right now to be alive it is right i'm sure you
have gone down those wormholes of dragons in
history, depicted in art that have been covered
up and concealed and changed and altered. I love
this so much. Thank you. They've been giving
me these messages. you know, dragons globally
have been perceived in different ways and different,
you know, and there's dragons all over everywhere
of different levels and ages. And, you know,
they've showed me like dragons. They're like,
okay, like there's a, right now there's mostly
two that talk to me. There's a sky dragon and
an earth dragon that talk to me pretty regularly,
but they're like, we're just two. There's as
many types of quote types of dragons as there
are like types of humans globally. And if you
talk to, you know, human. you know, somewhere
across the globe, they might have a different
image than from you, but we're still all the
same frequency of dragoness just like you're
all humans. Yeah, I don't know where I was going
with that. I was going... You were saying different
levels, the different types. Different levels
and types. When I was driving earlier, I was
thinking about the difference between reptilians
and dragons. And I was like, absolutely not.
Dragons are sacred. So different, entirely. And
even, I'm going to say, across cultures, there
have been many, many representations. And I'm
going to call them, just generically, my word
is going to be snake -like dragons. So there's
been these more cosmic snake creatures. That's
a coddle. Quetzalcoatl and the Chinese and Eastern
versions of serpents. And for me, what I've been
shown in that intelligence is that those are
actually a deeper, primordial, more ancient version
of more origin level being that are more cosmic,
more beyond Earth. Those have come from an intelligence
beyond this realm, but are part of this realm.
And for me, dragons. and what I've been shown
is that dragons are not necessarily a direct
descendant of those but a newer incarnation on
this earth realm but when I say newer they're
still like beyond beyond beyond even the oldest
gods that we can imagine that they're still ancient
and ancient but newer relatively than those original
serpent dragon beings that were part of the origin
story you know in the west also Ouroboros right
similar Yes. Yes. And I think both of us too,
also very interested and drawn towards shamanism,
understanding that death is part of life and
all of the circle and all of the... I think you
and I had always been, especially in the group
that we were in where we met, you and I were
always very more aligned with understanding the
darkness in all of us and understanding the darkness
without fear and without... judgment, it's more
of like understanding for the propulsion of like
where we need to go. Like we're not looking,
we're not looking back and pointing fingers.
It's more like, you know, what can we learn from
this? And you can't be afraid to look at it because
then you're not going to learn from it. And it
is here for us to learn from. So, yeah. Right.
Like all things just are. Yeah. And when we,
you know, like you mentioned shamanism, when
we You know, I'll just say like one very simple
definition of shamanism I'll just make up on
the spot would be like shamanism might be from
this perspective just deeply connecting with
the physical world and the earth and the elementals
of this place and time that we're in to connect
to the spiritual totality of the universe. I
just made that up, right? So some version of
that where we're using our body and the earth
and the physical tools of this realm to then
transcend the bridge. the bridge yeah and and
when you do that right you don't know what's
going to emerge you don't know where you're going
to go if you know where you're going to go then
actually you're not doing the practice then you're
imagining it right because you know when you
open the door to the mystery what emerges is
what emerges and and there's So there's an infinite
possibility that we could say goes from light
to dark to say it that way. It goes from one
direction to the other, which are actually the
same. Yes. And it's a totality. So if you say
like, oh, anything on this realm is bad. Anything
over here is good. Well, then immediately already
you're actually not entering truth. You're limiting
entering a filtered version, which then becomes
artificial. And then that creates. yeah that
creates a twist in the in the threads of space
and time that creates actually knots which creates
more karmic problems difficulties challenges
use that language as we go down down down the
road right absolutely backing up backing up i
for a second where i wanted to where you mentioned
all of the you know i'll specifically think about
like the like the european images of dragons
yeah the mythologies of dragons and how they've
been carried through time Yes. I was thinking
about that yesterday. Why do you think it's beyond
my comprehension that people would not believe
that they were real? If you look at historically
where they've been depicted through many different
cultures over such a long span of time, why would
you think they weren't real? Because that well,
you know that was an intentional so the keepers
of you know way back, you know in lost time like
this this Diminishment of the realization of
the truth happened deep deep deep deep Many many
many thousands of years ago and and they hid,
you know, not just dragons But these elemental
truths that were being suppressed in the children's
fables Mm -hmm. That's how they kept them alive.
They're like, oh no we're going to tell these
stories but we're going to also pretend that
this is make believe and therefore they wouldn't
be prosecuted and stamped out they were allowed
to continue because the stories were just told
as being this is a children's tale that has no
truth and therefore the powers that be that were
in charge of suppression would let them survive
through again many thousands of years yeah you
look clearly with open eyes and receive you know
for me personally when i received the transmissions
from these realms that were emerging into dragons
and beyond It's not just dragons, but all of
these children's mythologies actually are like,
oh my goodness, they're containing this vibration
of deep, deep truth that is not present or else.
And certainly it's been simplified and twisted
in certain ways, but the deep, deep truths actually
are the open secret that emerge clearly once
you open up to higher frequencies. And so like
with dragon lore, like one thing that's very
common across cultures from my perspective would
be this view that, you know, dragons exist, you
know, at the ends of the ocean or maybe like
deep in a cave or on top of a mountain in these
really, quote, distant, inaccessible places.
And what the dragons have shared around me is
like, yeah, the truth in that is that we are
living in the vibration that's between this realm
and the realms beyond. So deep in a cave or deep
across the ocean or whatever, high on a mountain
is a symbol of being on the edges of this realm.
which is true they actually exist on a frequency
band that's right here but it's just beyond the
previous three -dimensional constricted version
of earth and for me they are the boundary so
for me it's like imagine you know a boat in a
water floating or an iceberg or something where
half is beneath the water and half is above the
water yeah and for dragons it's like half their
frequency is in this realm entirely and half
is in the realm beyond and they're sort of floating
on that they are the guardians of that boundary
And so then the other piece that I think I wanted
to bring forward about dragons is their fire,
their breath of destruction. You know, there's
these stories of, you know, in these stories
from the era of like knights and maidens that
needed to be saved. Like those stories are about
purity of heart. If you're going there with anger,
which is, you know, difference and distinction,
if there's any clarity of like this and that,
good and bad or anything like that, those those
knights in this story that would go and like
find the dragon would get burnt up by the fire.
But when a knight would have like the pure heart,
he would be able to be, you know, either quote
kill the dragon, but really even see the dragon
as even see the dragon as goodness and co -exist
with them. And that's because the fire of dragons,
this is what the dragons are telling me, the
quote fire of dragons is simply the breath of
flame from the realm beyond, which is not pure
of the frequency of the next realm. You get burnt
up by it. You cannot exist there until you've
raised your frequency into frequency of what's
next. Yeah. The fire is the fire of, you know,
from one perspective like non -duality and the
union of all things. Again, when you're there
with anger and difference and distinction, you
get burnt up by that and you cannot survive anymore
in that. Yes. Isn't that kind of a fun way to
see it? Yes, yes, and it makes a lot of, it makes
so much sense. I know I've had my own connections
with an earth dragon, I would say. Like she's
very, very, very deep in the earth and she is
awake and she is patient because she could just
get up and it would fuck shit up. But she is
being patient and she is being calm and she is...
So that's, I sometimes connect with her and I
feel very empowered in my breath and in my perseverance.
So it's like what you, you know, very, it's my
good friend to connect to when I need a little
bit of... heart energy. I mean, they live so
long, you know, I've shown I'm sure that there's
different ages of dragons, but even the new ones.
So like the two that connect to me regularly
are relatively young, but they're like, no, we're
we're still like, Atlantis Lemuria are like recent
for them. Like, they're so old that like those
events are like, oh, yeah, those were just little
like blips. And they go way back lost in the
midst of times. Yeah, like their patience level.
Our lifetimes individually are just such a little
snap. Their timeline is so vast. Patience to
us is because it's simply just a blink. So they
have all the time in the world for our little
lifetimes to like come around to like hanging
out with them. They're like, oh yeah. And they've
seen this rise and fall. They've seen civilizations,
you know, even those two that we're aware of,
I'm just gonna use these two that many of us
know about, you know, Atlantis and then before
that, Lemuria, you know, those even were. very
far apart, relatively, and there is collapses
in between those. And they've seen the rise and
fall of those. And I've been told, you know,
numerous other cycles like that with civilizations
that are names don't exist for me. Doesn't matter
there's like and it also doesn't matter. It's
sorry to say not in a heartless way, but like
to us It doesn't matter. It's the idea. It's
the understanding of how it rose and fell That's
all we really need to know and the rising, you
know again, who knows but what i've shown is
that the rising that we're just now entering
in the very infancy steps of entering Is the
energetic wave that we're riding now is beyond?
The the density beyond the expansion of either
of those. So any stories we have heard about
Atlantis or Lemuria or about the, you know, the
fantastic, magical, mystical ways that those
beings and civilizations survived and existed.
anything we've heard there will be child's play
to us as we move forward into this new age. What
we're entering is beyond that in because you
know there's waves and waves and there's you
know smaller waves of time and bigger waves of
time and this upswing is a bigger wave of time
that's going to carry us quote farther whatever
that means like I can't even comprehend what
that might be because it's like beyond this dimensional
geometric form to say I don't know yet but we
can you know this awakening we can all feel those
of us who are awake can feel this wash of expansion
and it's like overwhelming for so many people
it's it's fast it's strong it's harsh you know
if people who are hanging out are being knocked
over by this wave of awakening people are you
know people left and right are being just smacked
around until we choose to wake up in a line with
the energy of the way, because there's no other
choice for us. Yeah. Yes. Yes. We way. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. It's I just had a thought. Let me
see if I can. Yeah. No, I think it's gone. Oh,
well, speaking of Having thoughts leave our heads
and kind of change the subject to rewiring our
thoughts and choosing to Align with things and
believe things and trust our intuition you and
I both share another thing in common, which is
plant medicine and I I am much less experienced
than you I would say but What are some of your
takeaways? How long have you been working with
plant medicine in your life? What are some of
your major takeaways that you would say to someone
who has experienced anxiety, depression, trauma
in their life, and they've never worked with
plant medicine? How would you elevate or pitch
that to them? I mean, first, depending on how
deep in the anxiety, depression, worry this person
was, I would make sure in the conversation and
make sure in the relationship that there was
a baseline of trust and understanding before
I would push into this. But let's just assume
that this is a friend that we have a deep level
of trust and understanding and we can go forward
with this conversation of like, hey, here's some
ways of expansion. I mean, broadly these beautiful
allies are part of this earth realm here specifically
for for human awakening and also many other beings
but they are tools of transformation that were
offered for us from this perspective by the universe
for us to they're like shortcuts they're like
cheat codes they're like wormholes for us to
see who we are you know of course I'm sure anyone
listening to this podcast and anyone who's awake
spiritually understands some version, you know,
there's different ways to say this, but that
we are all born and choose to be born here on
earth because we are cut off from the collective
understanding that we are God in all things and
universal consciousness. And that's, you know,
from one perspective, that's the reason that
we choose to be born here on earth is to feel
the smallness. This is how I'm showing this is
like, we choose to feel the smallness of earth,
so that the joy and the rapturous orgasmic connection
of coming back into universal consciousness,
that like whoosh is like a roller coaster ride
or like like a rush beyond belief. And there's
no other realm in the universes that I've been
shown that allow this type of disconnection and
reconnection. It's a rush for our souls. This
disconnection, we have all our pain, we have
all of our traumas and all the things that are
difficult for us that we all live through in
our own ways. those are there to show us the
level of darkness. And it's like riding higher
on a roller coaster so that when we come back
in connection with the universe and all things
and eternal love, it's that much longer of a
ride for us to get back to all things. So that
all said, plant medicines open the doors. And
when I say plant medicines too, I also include...
include the psilocybin mushrooms as part of that.
You know, it's like we see plant medicines and
I'm always like, I'm not ignoring you fungus,
like love you too. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, no,
totally included. All these natural allies that
we have are there to, for me, I say like open
the gates of consciousness and allow us to travel
more freely to see the reality of all things
as they are. still from the perspective of wherever
we are in connection to our ego. So we still
see them self referentially, but it opens doors
and gives us a wider view than we've had before.
And so, you know, I first did mushrooms in college.
Some friends of mine, you mentioned Joshua Tree,
I went to school in San Diego, and some friends
of mine were like, we got some mushrooms, we're
going out to... Joshua Tree. And I'm like, yeah,
man, let's go. And so we took mushrooms and all
went out individually by ourselves, you know,
separated out onto the rocks and Joshua Tree.
And, um, you know, had a beautiful afternoon
night of a deep journey. Yeah. And I've never
been the same, you know, I've never been the
same. It was like a deep reset, even back that
I can remember specifically, like it reprogrammed
my mind. I felt like I was reset into clarity
and openness and purpose but not in a I need
to get it done way but in just a deep alignment
with the universe way and it's not been every
year but I've tried to I've told myself and there's
been years when I haven't but like almost every
year for years I would like I need to do mushrooms
at least once a year you know sometimes it'll
go a couple years and I do them and okay just
to get the clarity and direction of like opening
things up yeah then and then and then since that
it's really been in the last five years that
I've been doing medicine work beyond psilocybin
in a very specific journey of exploration. And
for me, it might be different from some other
people. And the medicine has even shown me like
this was on purpose. These medicines are intentional,
but I've gone through, I had a guru back in the
early, early 2000s. I sat with Ram Dass back
in the late 90s. um I've been on a spiritual
journey that beyond plant medicines um for decades
yeah so I've done really intense spiritual work
of various types across traditions for for many
many many years and through that I've had my
own awakenings beyond plant medicine that now
that I'm doing the medicine more more deeply
has allowed me perhaps to see it from a different
view than someone who's coming in still deeply
in their shadow deeply in their traumas yeah
um and and from that I just have so much appreciation
for the power of these tools um the power of
these allies you know they are like everything
is a spirit going back to shamanism I mean one
of the deep fundamental beliefs that I think
needs to occur in some way if you're going to
work with these medicines is that you know they're
not just a plant or a mushroom they are a spirit
they're an energetic intelligence that has its
own life air quotes they have their own intelligence
across time and space and they are here specifically
to help us they are you know they are absolutely
allies and but each ally you know a mushroom
the way you know psilocybin works is very different
from peyote is very different from ayahuasca
is very different from wachuma is very different
from you know, the other allies that we have.
So there's different threads and flavors of how
they work with us, but they open the gates and
show us who we are in ways that, you know, I
did it with meditation and it took decades and
it's not different. It's just, they can show
us who we are in ways that can cut through time
and space. then I'll say like we still from my
perspective we need to also do our own individual
work outside of the medicine. So there's a bunch
of people that I disagree with but there's still
a lot of people that that say and I hear this
and I've talked to people and they say no you
know like ayahuasca in particular is my path
that's what I do and there are people that only
do that and don't do other work to integrate
beyond the ayahuasca and for me personally I'll
just you know say like for me that's a big red
flag big cautionary tale and from my perspective
my bias when I see talking to people like that
what I see is it's easy to again get sort of
wrapped up and have a say this some delusion
and sort of misperceptions if we don't go back
and then do our own integration work on our own
Yes, integration is like more than half of it,
I would say, probably 75%. 25 % is partaking
and relating with the spirit of the medicine,
having your experience, getting the insight,
and then you have to integrate that every day
after that, continuously. So that's like the
work actually that comes after, in my opinion.
Sometimes not even I mean since it's before sometimes
I've gone into plant medicine journeys with different
intentions and also with no intentions or expectations
and it's like obviously Well, so I went in with
intention and expectations the first second time
third fourth time I said obviously I don't know
what I'm looking for. I need you to show me So
I'm just here for you to show me you know and
that's when it really took off but so it's sort
of like having an open mind just like being um
surrendering for the spirit to show you what
is needed because you can trust that they will
they'll give you what you're ready for but they
won't give you what you're not ready for so sometimes
it's like do I even need to do this? It's funny,
at my most recent retreat, one of the other participants
was sharing in, you know, after our ceremony,
and she was saying that when she was sitting
with the medicine, she was asking, what is necessary?
And then she's like, is this even necessary,
what I'm doing? Do I even have to take this medicine?
Is that necessary? And it just like really went
into this tailspin of like, what is necessary?
So it kind of makes me laugh because she was
she thought it was funny. But I had a very fast
spiritual awakening and I suddenly had abilities
that though they are my abilities, they weren't
they weren't trained for and they were not. supposed
to come on board that quickly and at that time.
So it was very disabilizing, but it was also
the validation that I received from plant medicine
was I was able to see the same way. Like I looked
up in the sky and I saw the grid lines and I,
you know, I could see sometimes I would notice
people's faces changing a bit. Maybe they had
an entity in them, you know, and they would start
to come out and I would see that. So it was validating
for me experiencing plant medicine because I
had never done that before and had a spiritual
experience of being able to see and sense three
different dimensions, thinking I'm crazy, right?
And then... slowly calming down, doing Reiki,
grounding, all this stuff. And then within a
year, I did my first plant medicine experience.
And as soon as I was in the journey, I was like,
wow, this is what I felt like. This is the type
of stuff that I saw. This is the level of hearing
that I had. So I'm not crazy. And like, but then
I was like, was I drugged? And I was like, no,
no one drugged me for a month. You know what
I mean? So I was like, you know. I love that
so much though. I love that story because again,
what you're sharing is that you had the awakening
first and you went to all these realms and then
the plant medicine confirmed where you were.
Yes. Because it's like, you know, there's to
be really clear, you know, these plant medicines
do take us, allow us to go out into realms of
consciousness that are not, for many of us, normal,
quote, everyday levels of consciousness, especially
when we're not fully awakened. And yet, it's
also really important to know from my perspective
that they don't take us anywhere that we cannot
go and don't go naturally as humans by ourselves.
yes really like they just open doors and we you
know without the medicine we can and do go as
humans everywhere naturally this is our birthright
is to expand and be alchemist of energy across
all space and time so i actually really love
that you know and you mentioned something really
quickly earlier that your waking was really quickly
and maybe not meant to happen in that way and
i'll just offer the the the counterpoint that
of course he was meant to have in the way because
it did i'm gonna pause here wrap up part one
In part two, Erin and I go deeper into plant
medicine, embodied integration, shamanic perspectives,
and the role of myth and symbolism in consciousness,
including a really interesting exploration of
dragons and how our perception of them shapes
memory and meaning. And if this first part resonated,
you're definitely going to want to join us for
part two. It builds on everything we started
here and opens into some really rich territory.
Check out the show notes for links on how to
contact us. Until then, take care. Thanks for
joining in our experience.