UNVEILED: exploring psychedelics and spirituality

Peg and I have been on hiatus since February.  I think we now have a much clearer vision for Unveiled.  We will invite different guests who interest us to talk about whatever is engaging them at this time and then "Unveil" the energies, the creative motivation and the events that have brought them to this place.  As well, we hope that Unveiled can be a catalyst towards the formation of a spiritual community.  In this episode, Peg is "unveiled"

After a few months break, we're back to talk about a fairly significant shift in our lives that has taken place over the past few years.  About 4 years ago, we began to read about the use of psychedelics to treat some serious mental health issues like PTSD and the anxiety associated with having to face a potentially life-threatening disease.  Then one of our very own community had to walk this challenging path and psychedelics were instrumental in her emotional recovery.  We begin to tell Laurie's story as a way to introduce this very exciting and complex topic.

Hi, Peg and I continue our conversation about why we consider Internal Family Systems (IFS) as one of the best models out there for working "inside".  Recorded ala social distancing from Peg's garage (read: NOT a recording studio), we had a very personal talk about how the IFS framework has helped each of us live out our values more consistently...hope you enjoy.   Dave

In our podcast today Peg and I explore a model of therapy that I learned back in the 90s - I still see it as the most useful model for living a congruent and happy life.  As well, Peg gives us an update on Run4Water's efforts to help with the Covid crisis in Ethiopia.  

Peg and I have been on our own personal spiritual journey since neXus stopped meeting a few years ago.  One of the emerging new developments have been a re-examination and a re-embracing of our Christianity.  While I have happily shed some of the more hurtful elements of my own Christianity, I am finding that concepts like "The Kingdom of God" are so rich with meaning for my life today...and they work for me because they contain language and symbols that have personal meaning for me.  In this episode, we talk about this process within us and how it looks in our life today. We are also trying to learn a format for this podcast...do we want to be unstructured and just riff on topics as they arise, do we want to be heavily themed and do we want to include interviews with other people, exploring their lives and experiences.  So, please give us feedback on how you think we are doing. Dave

Hi, Dave and Peg are back with a new podcast.  Our first episode features the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a powerful story of trauma and healing.   It's good to be back.

Here is Episode #2 where Dave and I discuss Pete Holmes' book Comedy Sex God and his HBO Series "Crashing". It is his personal story of leaving Evangelicalism and finding a new way to be human.  We start by riffing on the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Adele Lafrance is a clinical psychologist, research scientist, author, and co-developer of emotion-focused treatment modalities, including Emotion-Focused Family Therapy. https://dradelelafrance.com/   Dr. Adele LaFrance https://psychedeliclove.org/ Also check out www.Gatheringgroups.ca  to access our plant medicine retreats in Canada.  thanks  Peg Peters

Rev Dr Jessica Rochester is an ordained Interfaith Minister with a Doctorate in Divinity. She is the Madrinha and President of Céu do Montréal, a Santo Daime Church she founded in 1997 in Montréal, Canada. From 2001 to 2017 she worked with Health Canada to achieve the recognition of the Santo Daime as a legitimate religion and the right to import the Santo Daime Sacrament for ritual use.  https://www.revdrjessicarochester.com/ Also check out www.GatheringGroups.ca to learn about our sacred mushroom retreats in Canada.  Peg Peters    

The Psilocybin Connection: Psychedelics, the Transformation of Consciousness, and Evolution on the Planet-- An Integral Approach by author Dr. Jahan Khamsehzadeh. https://psychedelicevolution.org/   also check out www.GatheringGroups.ca to access our in-person medicine retreats in Canada.  Peg Peters    

Tom Riedlinger is an author, occasional artist, researcher, and licensed mental health counselor. He has written and lectured extensively on psychedelic plants and the psychology of religion, with an emphasis on mystical experience. A Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and former Associate in Ethnomycology at Harvard Botanical Museum, Tom holds a degree in psychology from Northwestern University and in theological studies with a major in world religions from Harvard Divinity School. His published works include The Sacred Mushroom Seeker: Essays for R. Gordon Wasson, and chapters in Hallucinogens: A Reader (edited by Charles S. Grob), Entheogens and the Future of Religion and Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In (both edited by Robert Forte), Psychedelics and Spirituality (edited by Thomas B. Roberts), Sacred Mushroom of Visions (edited by Ralph Metzner), Fly Agaric: A Compendium (edited by Kevin Feeney), and Psyche Unbound, a Festschrift for Stanislav Grof compiled and edited by Rick Tarnas and Sean Kelly. Tom also has published articles in The Entheogen Review, Gnosis, The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, the MAPS Bulletin (with Timothy Leary), Medical Hypotheses, Psychedelic Monographs & Essays, Shaman’s Drum, and other periodicals. His current writing projects include an autobiographical account of his own psychedelic faith journey, Finding God in a Godless Universe, and Sacred Mushroom Stems & Pieces, a companion volume to The Sacred Mushroom Seeker. Tom and his wife Beverly Jean Jenden-Riedlinger, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and fellow graduate of HDS, share an interest in the psychology of religion, including entheogenic spirituality, mystical experience, and a branch of religious studies called theodicy. They live with their cats Sazarac and Theo in Olympia, Washington. Peg Peters is the host and can be found at www.gatheringgroups.ca  

Rueben George the səlilwətaɬ leader and grandson of Chief Dan George reflects on the unfolding impacts of colonization and what it means to embrace spirit. Rueben's book is called It Stops Here. Check out his website https://twnsacredtrust.ca/   Peg Peters is the host and runs GatheringGroups.ca   

Stephen Gray is a teacher and writer on spiritual subjects and sacramental medicines. He has worked extensively with Tibetan Buddhism, the Native American Church, and with entheogenic medicines.  His latest book, How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World is an amazing collection of authors and thinkers who are brought together in this amazing collection.  • With contributions from Christopher Bache, Zoe Helene, Dennis McKenna, Martina Hoffmann, The Dank Duchess, Jamie Wheal, Grandmother Maria Alice, and others.   Check out Stephan here - https://www.stephengrayvision.com/   I'm your host Peg Peters- check me out at www.Gatheringgroups.ca  

The use of entheogens, or psychedelics, is out of the closet today. LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and other medicines once associated only with the counterculture are now being legally studied for their healing properties. But as Rachel Harris shows, the underground use and study of psychedelics by women dates back to the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece. Harris interviews the modern women elders carrying on this tradition to gather their hard-won wisdom of experience. We explore the Any reader interested in inspiration, healing, and enlightenment will find here a wonder-filled narrative packed with provocative and perhaps life-changing insight.      check out GatheringGroups.ca  Peg Peters

Don Lattin has been writing about altered states of consciousness since the 1970's.  We explore is his latest book book,  God on Psychedelics: Tripping across the rubble of Old-Time Religion.  http://www.donlattin.com/     Peg Peters is an ordained minister and runs a group psychedelic model called www.GatheringGroups.ca    

Dave Phillips is a therapist and trainer for TheraPsil and Peg Peters is an ordained minister and together they are exploring psychedelics and spirituality.   

Dr. Richards was a Lead Psychologist on an innovative, simultaneous group administration high-dose psilocybin trial with cancer patients at the Bill Richards Center for Healing in Rockville, Maryland. This cutting-edge, purpose-built psychedelic medicine clinic—located in a busy outpatient oncology center, is the first of its kind in the world, and may serve as a prototype for future Sunstone Therapies clinics nationwide. He currently works with Sunstone Therapies.  Rev Peg Peters of www.Gatheringgroups.ca  and www.psychedelicjesus.ca   

Valeria McCarroll, PhD, MFT, is a teacher and a cosmic aesthete. Formally trained as a psychedelic guide, she is faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the Integral and Transpersonal Department, where she teaches on psychedelics. Valeria stewards a contemporary body of offerings, Somadelics℠, a visionary path for the transformation of trauma. Offering embodiment practices that weave together insights from tantra, psychedelic medicine, social justice, and visionary cosmology, Valeria synthesizes her history of study and practice as trauma therapist and somatics teacher into an offering which illuminates an integrated path of awakening that cultivates a sense of resilient purpose in the face of a planet in crisis.   Her article can be found here. -  Rev. Peg Peters, is the host and works with www.Gatheringgroups.ca to provide transformative experiences through a group process.   

Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D., is professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University and a former visiting scientist at Johns Hopkins. The coeditor of Psychedelic Medicine and the author of Psychedelic Horizons, he has spoken at international conferences on psychedelics, consciousness, and psychedelic science. He lives in Sycamore, Illinois. Books by Thomas - https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/thomas-b-roberts/862752/   Peg Peters is an ordained minister and founder of www.GatheringGroups.ca a group model for psychedelic spiritual transformation.   

Hunt Priest is an Episcopalian minister who was a participant in a psilocybin study involving religious professionals at John Hopkins University. His life was change and as a result he started Ligare which is an open network of people who desire legal and safe access and believe that Christianity and other existing religious traditions offer paths for preparing, experiencing, and integrating mystical experiences, including those occasioned by sacred plants and compounds. Also check out www.Gatheringgroups.ca Peg Peters