New Podcast, Follow me at Riancarnation

I've made a new podcast in getting out regularly Come join me at Riancarnation! 9 episodes out so far. I'm on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or at riancarnation.libsyn.com

This episode is brought to you by my homework! I wrote a paper on Shamanic Drug Tourism in Latin America, and had the opportunity to chat with Chris Casuse on this topic. Chris has done work with indigenous communities in Peru, and recently in Huautla de Jimenez in Oaxaca. Working to empower these indigenous communities, Chris is working on a Mazatec historical archive project, looking to become the most comprehensive of the Mazatec culture. He's done work in Peru in helping to build a community centre and ceremonial space for people of the region. Though the medicalization of psychedelic substances is really important in the treatment of many issues plaguing the world right now like addiction, depression, PTSD, anxiety and more; we need to ensure that the indigenous communities who have brought awareness of these substances to the western mind are given benefit. Often tourism can be destructive to these regions and cultures, so new ways to engage in this kind of tourism is needed.

I sat down to talk with Stephen Gray at his nice home in East Vancouver. He released the book Cannabis and Spirituality in 2016, and is a main organizer of the Spirit Plant Medicine Conference in Vancouver. He's a previous student of Chogyam Trungpa, and has been a frequent attendant of Native American Church ceremonies. This episode is from before the 2017 SPMC, being reuploaded to my show (hence why Ep02 is after 03)

This episode is with Mary Porter, founder of the Looking Glass Peyote Church in Oregon. This is the first church in North America to run under Pre-European Contact Law, and is able to give certain Schedule 1 substances to people of any race, such as San Pedro, mushrooms, and peyote cactus. Peyote requires a DNA test previous to use (I made a mistake and said San Pedro instead of peyote in the beginning my apologies!) I sat down with Mary the night before the Spirit Plant Medicine Conference where she was one of many excellent speakers. Mary will have a podcast of her own coming out soon as well called "Mirror Mirror," and has been on The Entheogenic Experience and Psychedelic Salon Podcasts if you want to hear more from her! Hear me fail to understand the way neurons work in the intro! This was a fun episode.