Transcending paradigms at the intersection of science, spirituality and psychedelic medicine
In eclectic conversations navigating psychological growth, psychedelic spirits and everything in between, Onaya welcomes wide-ranging guests from neuroscientists and musical healers to Shipibo curanderos.
Subscribe now on your favourite platform:
-
In this episode of Onaya's In & Through podcast, host Dr Simon Ruffell is joined by Matthew "The Spider" Morton: professional bare-knuckle boxer and student of naturopathic medicine, and currently taking part in Onaya's Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme. Matthew is also part of Athletes Journey Home, working alongside Ian McCall to support fighters and athletes recovering from traumatic brain injury and addiction through plant medicine.
The story Matthew shares here begins in childhood sexual abuse and, by twelve years old, heroin and crack addiction. He describes a life built on chaos until he found bare-knuckle boxing: what he calls the purest, most primal form of the sport, and the discipline that began to provide a home for the impulsive nature he'd never previously been able to channel. Now three and a half years sober and off the psychiatric medications he was once prescribed by the handful, Matthew credits microdosing psilocybin, structure, and his devotion to his Christian faith with rebuilding his mental, physical, and spiritual health from the ground up.
Simon and Matthew trace the arc of this journey in detail: the random Instagram message that led to a flight from Newcastle to a retreat in Colombia; his first ayahuasca ceremony with Athletes Journey Home; and the shift in perspective he brought back with him, from a harder-edged, conditional view of love and loyalty toward something closer to presence and acceptance. They discuss why he believes athletes in particular, whose careers leave a legacy of concussions, impulse dysregulation, and unprocessed trauma, stand to benefit from natural medicines and sacred plant medicines, and how microdosing has changed his relationship to his own body and instincts inside the ring.
The conversation also moves into Matthew's current chapter: training in naturopathic medicine, using his own psilocybin practice as a year-long case study, and preparing to return to Colombia to volunteer and begin integration coaching at the retreat that changed his life. Throughout, Matthew is candid about skepticism from old friends, the pull of self-sabotage, and what it actually takes to keep choosing a different "frequency" to live your life to.
LinksMatthew Morton: BKB Fighter Profile
IG: @matthewmorton
-
In this episode of Onaya's In & Through podcast, host Dr Simon Ruffell is joined by Liam Hackett MBE: entrepreneur, charity founder, executive coach, and founder of the HALI Foundation: an evidence-led organisation for psychedelic education, policy reform, and public dialogue on sacred plant medicines. Liam is also a graduate of Onaya's inaugural Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme, from our very first cohort, and this podcast features detailed reflections and practical discoveries from his subsequent journey towards covering psychedelic preparation, integration and transformation in his offerings.
Liam spent 18 years building Ditch the Label into one of the world's largest youth charities, reaching over 180 million people and partnering with brands including EA Games, TikTok, and L'Oréal; work recognised with an MBE from His Majesty the King. That journey brought him face to face with the root causes of harm, stigma, and disconnection, and eventually to plant medicine, which he describes as holding "just the most enormous potential to really tackle those root causes" in ways conventional systems have failed to reach.
Simon and Liam trace the arc of Liam's path: from founding a youth charity at 15 to the slow, seed-planting encounter with psychedelics that eventually called him to leave Ditch the Label and begin what he describes as "the second mountain." They explore the psychospiritual territory of that transition; the shamanic death, the collapse of the familiar road ahead, the art of surrender; and what it has felt like to move through it with intention.
The conversation turns to the work Liam is building now: HALI Foundation's mission to bridge the gap between academic research, Indigenous wisdom, and public understanding; and Liam’s private coaching practice with founders and high achievers navigating the dissonance between outer success and inner misalignment. Together, Simon and Liam explore the shadow of money in plant medicine spaces; greed, shame, under-charging, and the spiritual bypassing that can lead practitioners to reject the very systems they are needed inside; and make a case for energetic exchange as a practice of awareness, boundaries, and contribution rather than transaction.
This is a conversation about what it means to bring business acumen into the service of healing, to stay grounded while walking an uncertain path, and to go back into the world (rather than retreating into another retreat) as the actual work.
-
In this episode of Onaya’s In & Through podcast, host Dr Simon Ruffell is joined by Dr Ido Hartogsohn, Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program for Science, Technology, and Society at Bar-Ilan University, and one of the leading contemporary thinkers on psychedelic set and setting.
Dr Ido Hartogsohn’s research explores how context (the intricate confluence of psychological, social, cultural, and technological forces) profoundly shapes psychedelic experience. Together, Simon and Ido trace the historical development of the concepts of set and setting, from their mid-20th-century origins through to their place in today’s therapeutic renaissance, and consider how different eras have framed psychedelics: from 1950s ideas of optimization and performance to the contemporary focus on trauma and mental health.
They also explore the idea of “collective set and setting”: The broader cultural narratives, media environments, and shared expectations that shape individual experience, and how intention itself is never purely personal but always formed in relation to the worlds we inhabit. Drawing on his background in Science and Technology Studies and media ecology, Dr Ido Hartoghsohn offers parallels between digital media environments and psychedelic environments, and how both can be understood as mind-shaping technologies.
Dr Ido Hartoghsohn is the author of Technomysticism: Consciousness in the Technological Age (2009), American Trip (MIT Press, 2020), and Mind Changing: Notes from the Psychedelic Renaissance (2025), and writes widely for both Israeli and international media, including Haaretz and The New York Times, on psychedelics, technology, and culture.
This is a conversation about maturity in psychedelic culture, the responsibilities of researchers and practitioners, and what it might mean to take seriously the subtle architectures that shape both individual and collective experience.
LinksDr Ido Hartogsohn’s research profile
American Trip (MIT Press, 2020)
X: @hartogsohn
-
In this episode of In & Through, Dr. Simon Ruffell is joined by Jade Shaw, teacher, researcher, and guide in out-of-body experiences (OBEs), astral projection, and the dream state, for a conversation spanning neuroscience, Tibetan Buddhism, shamanism, ADHD, why out-of-body experiences are not the same thing as lucid dreams (Jade’s had well over 300), and what is technically involved in teaching people how to navigate the further reaches of human consciousness.
“We tailor techniques to the way you perceive reality. So if you're more visual, are you more audio? Do you feel like you sense energy? And so there are techniques that would specifically work more best for you if you're a more visual person. If you can't visualize it all, then maybe more of the logical techniques and tools might help.”Opening what becomes a generously technical discussion, Jade shares how childhood OBEs and a chance encounter with Robert Monroe's classic book Journeys Out of the Body led her to abandon a dance career and return to university to study transpersonal psychology. She explains the key differences between lucid dreaming and OBEs, and what five years in a Tibetan Buddhist temple taught her about consciousness transference, an advanced practice used to prepare for death, help stuck souls move on, and, in the Dalai Lama's case, consciously choose whether to reincarnate.
Host Dr Simon Ruffell draws on his own training with the Shipibo in the Amazon rainforest to spotlight the prejudicial limitations that Westernised research all too often places on extraordinary experiences and entity encounters when it calls into question their veridicality, which leads to a wider discussion of ways that Western researchers have been known to go about getting to grips with the realness of spirit contact. Jade and Simon then reflect in particular on the experiences of Harvard psychiatrist John Mack's research into alien abduction, with Jade sharing follow-up insights gleaned at a private Esalen gathering of ex-government officials exploring non-human intelligence through astral projection.
Jade and Simon also cover intention, mindfulness, neurodiversity, harm reduction, and the moving stories of students whose OBEs changed the course of their lives. The episode concludes with a walkthrough of Jade’s current six-month study at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which tracks the transformative effects of OBE practice in 200 participants.
Thought-provoking and satisfyingly precise, this conversation is an excellent opportunity to engage directly with practicing OBE exploration. For the OBE-curious, Jade has developed an introductory three-step guide.
Links
Jade’s websiteInstagram: @jadeshawofficial
-
“Ibogaine has a very unique capacity to intelligently, uniquely, and sentiently reveal a reality to the individual which affirms the concrete reality of human divinity.”
In this episode, Dr Simon Ruffell is joined by Bryan Hubbard, CEO of Americans for Ibogaine, a policy strategist who has played a central role in advancing the medical development of Ibogaine in the United States.
Bryan shares the story behind the landmark passage of the Texas Ibogaine Initiative, signed into law by Greg Abbott in June 2025. The initiative allocates $50 million directly from the Texas state general fund, matched by a further $50 million from a consortium of universities, private hospital systems, and a drug developer, to support clinical research aimed at securing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Ibogaine as a breakthrough therapy for trauma, addiction, and other neurological conditions.
Bryan recounts the two-year journey that led to this historic milestone, which began in Kentucky when he served as chair of the state’s opioid commission and launched the original Kentucky Ibogaine Initiative at the state capitol in 2023. After the project was transplanted to Texas, it culminated in what is now the largest single public investment in psychedelic medical research and development in history.
Together, Simon and Bryan explore the broader movement now forming around Ibogaine in the United States. Especially, the importance of ensuring that Ibogaine’s direct relation to Iboga and to Bwiti communities in Gabon is respected, in step with the Global North’s recognition of its restorative potentials. With the creation of Americans for Ibogaine, a coalition of researchers, policymakers, and citizens is working to expand access to Ibogaine across multiple states as legislatures prepare to convene in 2026.
The conversation ranges from the practical realities of bringing psychedelic medicines through regulatory pathways to the deeper humanitarian motivations behind the work. Bryan describes an emerging movement that is at once empirical, political, cultural, and spiritual, seeking new responses to addiction, trauma, and the generational challenges affecting American society.
“You know, we can help ensure that people can live. It's a whole different thing than helping them actually live a life in which they can thrive. You know, we've got to start emphasizing thrive as much as we emphasize survive.”
This episode reflects on what it takes to move a vision into legislation, and how the convergence of science, policy, and public will may help reshape the future of mental health care in the United States.
Links
Instagram: @w_bryan_hubbard
-
In this episode, Dr Simon Ruffell is joined by Rory Lamont, a former professional rugby union player who represented Scotland in two World Cups and earned 29 international caps, playing for Glasgow Warriors, Sale Sharks, and Toulon.
Rory’s story is one of profound rupture and transformation. After years of injuries and repeated concussions, he suffered a career-ending leg break during the 2012 Six Nations. The loss of his career and identity, alongside multiple surgeries and pharmaceutical interventions, precipitated a deep physical, psychological, and spiritual crisis that brought him to the brink.What followed was a journey that took him far beyond the world of elite sport, including to Costa Rica, where he encountered the plant medicine Iboga. In this conversation, Rory speaks candidly about that experience: confronting his past, reckoning with the impact of his previous lifestyle, including the volume of pharmaceutical drugs inherent in being a professional rugby player, on his body and mind, and undergoing what he describes as a profound spiritual re-awakening.
Together, Simon and Rory explore themes of soul loss and retrieval; experiences that can echo what we might clinically call trauma or PTSD; and the possibility of healing when parts of ourselves feel too unsafe to remain. They discuss the contrasts and complementarities between Western medicine and Indigenous traditions, the role of diet and detoxification, and the importance of community in recovery.
Inspired by his own healing journey, Rory went on to co-found CAIM, a health and wellness retreat centre in the Scottish Highlands, offering breathwork, meditation, , and spaces for deep personal restoration.This conversation celebrates how collapse can be followed by reconstruction, the recognition of identity beyond performance, and the growing dialogue between science and spirituality in our collective understanding of health.In this episode, Dr Simon Ruffell is joined by Rory Lamont, a former professional rugby union player who represented Scotland in two World Cups and earned 29 international caps, playing for Glasgow Warriors, Sale Sharks, and Toulon.
Rory’s story is one of profound rupture and transformation. After years of injuries and repeated concussions, he suffered a career-ending leg break during the 2012 Six Nations. The loss of his career and identity, alongside multiple surgeries and pharmaceutical interventions, precipitated a deep physical, psychological, and spiritual crisis that brought him to the brink.What followed was a journey that took him far beyond the world of elite sport, including to Costa Rica, where he encountered the plant medicine Iboga. In this conversation, Rory speaks candidly about that experience: confronting his past, reckoning with the impact of his previous lifestyle, including the volume of pharmaceutical drugs inherent in being a professional rugby player, on his body and mind, and undergoing what he describes as a profound spiritual re-awakening.
Together, Simon and Rory explore themes of soul loss and retrieval; experiences that can echo what we might clinically call trauma or PTSD; and the possibility of healing when parts of ourselves feel too unsafe to remain. They discuss the contrasts and complementarities between Western medicine and Indigenous traditions, the role of diet and detoxification, and the importance of community in recovery.
Inspired by his own healing journey, Rory went on to co-found CAIM, a health and wellness retreat centre in the Scottish Highlands, offering breathwork, meditation, , and spaces for deep personal restoration.This conversation celebrates how collapse can be followed by reconstruction, the recognition of identity beyond performance, and the growing dialogue between science and spirituality in our collective understanding of health.
Links
-
Tree Carr is a dream worker, TEDx speaker, and the author of nine publications, whose work spans the thresholds of death, dreams, and consciousness.
A transpersonal psychologist with a focus on altered states, dreamwork, and psychedelic-assisted therapy, Tree is a graduate of the Alef Trust and a CPD Crossfields Institute Certified Death Doula. She teaches at the College of Psychic Studies, The Psychedelic Society UK, and has tutored lucid dreaming at the Royal College of Art.
In the 20th episode of In & Through, host Dr Simon Ruffell and Tree explore the numinous beginnings of Tree’s journey into these liminalities, initiated by a near-death experience at the age of four, a pivotal moment that shaped her lifelong orientation toward liminal states and unseen worlds.
This conversation then explores Tree’s work as a death doula, the specificities of supporting people at the end of life, and how death work is inseparable from questions of meaning, presence, and consciousness. They explore dreams as vital explorations of consciousness, discussing why dreaming has held such importance across Indigenous cultures worldwide, and why reconnecting with the dreamscape is especially necessary in the contemporary Western world.The episode also unpacks the concept of the tem “witch” as a practitioner of magic, wisdom, and embodied knowledge, and why reclaiming and redefining this term matters as magic begins to reawaken in the British Isles. Looking toward the future, Simon and Tree also discuss AI and its role in the evolution of consciousness, debating whether it could be a powerful tool for good or ill, depending on human intention. This episode concludes with reflections on interconnectedness, integrity, and the importance of hope in the face of global challenges.
Links
Tree’s websiteLucid Dreaming Course: Exploring the Dream Realms (starts 19 January 2026)
Sessions and Services with Tree
Technomancy: Tech Magic and Spells for the 21st-Century Witch (Out May 2026, available now for pre-order!)We are delighted to offer a 15% discount to Tree’s community to take part in Onaya’s 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training (Next Start: 24 February 2026) with the code: TREECARR15
-
Darren Le Baron is a world-renowned educator in ethnomycology and psychedelic studies, based between the UK and the Caribbean. A grassroots community activist with a background in creative arts, organic horticulture, and permaculture, he is a programme curator of Breaking Convention and the creator of the Shroomshop, a mushroom cultivation initiative that engages local communities, schools, and businesses while reconnecting people to fungi as teachers, healers, and allies.
In this conversation, Darren Le Baron and Dr Simon Ruffell explore the cultural, spiritual, and communal significance of mushrooms, with a particular focus on African traditions and Indigenous practices. Darren traces the deep historical roots of psychedelic use across Africa, reframing psychedelics as ancestral technologies that have long supported healing, ceremony, and the transmission of knowledge across generations.
The conversation weaves together history, spirituality, and lived experience, highlighting the role of mushrooms in both personal transformation and collective wellbeing. Darren speaks to the importance of maintaining balance across physical, psychological, and spiritual planes, and how respectful, intentional engagement with psychedelics can help restore harmony within individuals and communities alike.
Together, Darren and Simon reflect on the contemporary psychedelic renaissance, examining both its promise and its challenges. Darren offers a grounded critique of extractive or commercialised approaches, while advocating for the ethical interaction of traditional cultural knowledge with contemporary scientific research. Central to this vision is education, community empowerment, and honoring the lineages from which these practices emerge.
This episode also explores psychedelics as agents of spiritual journeying, facilitating connection with ancestors, access to higher knowing, and deeper self-understanding. Through his work, Darren reminds us that mushrooms are not only medicines for individuals but catalysts for cultural reverence, resilience, and collective healing.
Links:
Darren’s websiteNext Shroomshop learning opportunity (12 January 2026)
Instagram: @darren_le_baronDarren Le Baron has gifted the Onaya community a 50% discount on his Psychedelics in Africa webinar series, with the code: ONAYA50 (Expires: 31 Jan 2026)We are delighted to offer a 15% discount on Onaya’s next 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training, a live, taught, accredited course led by Dr Simon Ruffell and Dr WaiFung Tsang to Darren’s community.
You can find out more and sign up with the code: DARREN15
-
Herbalist and teacher Nathaniel Hughes works at the intersection of intuitive plant communication, traditional healing lineages, and contemporary Western herbalism. Founder of Ruskin Apothecary and author of several books on relational herbal practice, including ‘IntuitiveHerbalism’ (2014), ‘Weeds in the Heart‘ (2018), and ‘Wild Enchantments‘ (2024), Nathaniel’s path bridges early training in organic chemistry with a deep commitment to experiential, spirit-led plant study.
In this conversation, Nathaniel shares his transition from academic science into a more embodied, animist understanding of the vegetal world shaped by apprenticeship, personal revelation, and an openness to plant intelligence. Together, Nathaniel and Dr Simon Ruffell consider how herbalism has been marginalized through colonial and reductionist histories, why conventional scientific models struggle to capture the complexity of human–plant relationships, and how reconnecting with ancestral approaches can restore a sense of reciprocity and reverence.
This episode also explores the ethics of respectfully engaging with Indigenous science, the nuances of cultural appropriation, and the resurgence of interest in traditional healing practices, emphasising the importance of cultivating direct experience, listening beyond the measurable, and honouring the relational field that plants invite us into.
Nathaniel is a practitioner, writer, and educator at The School of Intuitive Herbalism, advocating for an herbalism rooted in humility, curiosity, and deeper connection with the living world.
Ways to engage with Nathaniel’s work and to learn from plants directly: Insight Herbalism’s WhatsApp Group for event notifications
-
Herbalist Rebecca Lazarou (Laz the Plant Scientist)’s research interests encompass plant and fungal medicines, herbalism, pharmacognosy, quality control of plants, cannabis and psychedelics, ethnopharmacology, neuroscience, holistic therapies, ethnobotany and botanical quality control, entheogens, healing, and wellbeing. In this episode, Laz shares her journey from a prophetic dream in her teens to a career dedicated to the study and preservation of medicinal plants, blending rigorous scientific inquiry with reverence for ancestral knowledge.
The conversation touches on the marginalization of herbalism through colonial and patriarchal histories, the importance of re-integrating these ancient practices into a modern context guided by respect, curiosity, and care, as well as how herbal medicine works in harmony with the human body, why reductionist science often misses the bigger picture, and how reconnecting with the intelligence of plants can inspire both personal and planetary healing.Rebecca is a scientist, writer, and speaker working at the intersection of ethnobotany, pharmacology, and culture. With a Master’s in Medicinal Natural Products and Phytochemistry, she has conducted research at Kew Gardens, serves on the board of the McKenna Academy, and advocates for democratizing access to plant-based medicine and education.
Research and writings
Instagram
Shop
-
Sam Lee's work is a testament to the power of traditional songs and ritual to speak to modern audiences.
A Mercury prize nominated singer, composer, folksong interpreter, passionate conservationist, song collector and creator of live events, Sam plays a unique role in the British music scene. During a stint as a burlesque dancer, he stumbled across traditional British folk song and embarked on a mission of song collecting, eventually spending years recording songs from Gypsy Traveller communities that continue to face societal oppression and persecution.
Sam also released a novel, The Nightingale: Notes on a Songbird (Penguin 2023), a product of his ongoing Singing with Nightingales project where he performs live night-time concerts in the British countryside.As a change-maker in the music industry, he is a co-founder of Music Declares Emergency and the pioneering artist to work with leading environmental charity Earthpercent to whom proceeds of his newset album 'songdreaming' will be donated.
As well as his experiences with ayahuasca, Sam's passion for igniting and rejuvenating tradition in the modern world struck a chord with Onaya's work and anchored an important and nourishing conversation.This podcast is part of Onaya’s Breaking Convention series, spotlighting speakers at the intersection of science and spirituality in the run up to the conference.
-
Is consciousness a side effect of brain activity, or a basic property of all things? Is the universe aware of itself? What do Indigenous philosophies and theories like panpsychism have in common? Why is psychology blind to its huge limitations? And can dieting master plants show us what it's really like to be a bat?
Dr Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a philosopher, specialising in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics, and in fields relating to panpsychism, pantheism, and altered states of consciousness.He lectures at The University of Exeter where he is a lead on the new Master’s programme in Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine, and Culture, the first of its kind in the world. Peter is also co-director of Europe’s largest psychedelics conference, Breaking Convention; author of two books, and co-editor of Philosophy and Psychedelics (Bloomsbury 2022); and the speaker of a popular TEDx Talk on ‘Consciousness and Psychedelics’.
*** We are now recruiting for the next cohort of our 6-month accredited Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme, beginning in April. Use the code 'INTHROUGH10' for a special 10% discount. ***
This podcast is part of Onaya’s Breaking Convention series, spotlighting speakers at the intersection of science and spirituality in the run up to the conference.
-
Psychedelic history has a complex relationship with queerness. In 1966, Timothy Leary declared LSD a "cure for homosexuality”, and the use of psychedelics in so-called 'conversion therapy' reinforced the pathologising of queerness for years.
Times have changed, as gay and transgender rights movements intersect heavily with the world of psychedelics, but injustice and exclusion remain.
Dr. Matthew X. Lowe is a research scientist, educator and advisor, specialising in human brain function and behaviour across a range of topics in cognition, perception, mental health, psychedelics, and cannabis use. Nowadays, his focus is on marginalised and underrepresented communities in psychedelic research.
Having previously worked as a scientist at MIT, Harvard, and Stanford, he leads research at Realm of Caring, and Unlimited Sciences, two non-profit organisations focused on cannabis and psychedelics, respectively. He is also a Scientific Advisor and Lead Educator for the Oregon Psychedelic Institute.
-
Navigating the shadows of transformation, this multi-perspectival conversation about psychedelics’ therapeutic applications moves though Satya’s personal story to the division between science and spirituality; also covering the shadow aspects of working with plants, the challenge of collective healing in a time of crisis, war and peace, and the future prospects of humanity.
Satya describes herself as a consciousness activist, working with different modalities to bring together traditional rituals and contemporary techniques, including firewalking, vision quests, and plant medicines.She has spent many years based in the Amazon rainforest, working extensively with ayahuasca, and is now involved in many projects across the globe.
-
Mareesa Stertz is a filmmaker, storyteller, artist, and community organiser dedicated to fostering collective healing and transformation.
As a co-steward of the Global Psychedelic Society and co-founder of Lucid News, Mareesa has been building platforms that destigmatise, educate, and build community around psychedelics. Her film work includes producing and hosting the documentary series The Healing Powers (of Psychedelics and Other Mindful Practices) and Damanhur, both streaming on Gaia TV and Amazon.
She has shared her experiences on international stages and through teaching, workshops, and retreats, and is developing a large-scale immersive art project for Burning Man 2025.
This conversation covered:
the journey that led to her first documentary in Peru
the prevalence of burn out, repression of emotion and storytelling in Western culture
truth vs fact
the information contained within stories
Onaya’s work and the difficulties of translating from Indigenous paradigms
the hero’s journey, and why it shows up again and again in our stories
Jung’s concept of individuation
the challenge of compassionately reframing trauma and hardship
and other topics.
-
Dr Vanessa León-Sulca is a Medical Doctor and Psychotherapist of Quechua lineage, with expertise in combining Ayurvedic traditional medicine and ayahuasca.
Having first pursued careers in politics and finance, she was forced into a profound healing journey of her own. Since then, Vanessa has immersed herself in the shamanic traditions and Andean cosmology from her native Peru.
She has also written on the historic trauma of colonisation in Peru from a psychotherapeutic perspective and is conducting ongoing research in this area, and has dived into the fascinating modality that is Ayurvedic medicine from India: the main topic of this conversation.
Ayurveda is one of the oldest healing traditions in the world, grounded in spiritual teachings and a practical, holistic approach to health, and containing pancultural concepts like working with the four elements.
Simon and Vanessa dived into these aspects, considering how they might be integrated into our cultural understanding of health and sickness.
Vanessa León-Sulca is one of many experts on Onaya’s 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme.
-
We spend a third of our lives asleep, immersed in richly altered states of consciousness that have been valued by traditional societies throughout human history, but dismissed or ignored by mainstream Western culture.
Swimming against this tide, Maria Nazdravan is a dreamwork facilitator, writer, and trainee integrative transpersonal and trauma psychotherapist, specialising in working creatively with imaginal and body-based interventions. She also runs the Dreamwork Circle, a supportive space for regular group sessions to foster self-discovery and transformation.
Simon and Maria explore her passion for helping others learn the symbolic language of the unconscious and foster healthy relationships with their dreams, through different perspectives offered by Freud, Jung and their followers, as well as Gestalt therapy, depth psychology and shamanic traditions.Maria Nazdravan is one of many experts on Onaya's 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme, where we're currently offering a special 20% discount until the next cohort begins on 16th January, with the code 'HOLIDAYGIFT20'.
-
Carlos Tanner has been studying the science and art of plant medicine in the Amazon Rainforest for twenty years.
He currently works as the director of the Ayahuasca Foundation, a non-profit organisation he founded in 2009 in Iquitos, Peru. They organise healing retreats and educational courses led by Indigenous Shipibo healers, to help people in need of healing or those interested in learning ancestral healing traditions of the Amazon.
Since 2017, the Ayahuasca Foundation has collaborated with Onaya Science at the Riosbo Research Centre in the Peruvian Amazon, looking at the effects of ayahuasca retreats on mental health, spiritual wellbeing, personality and nature connectedness, and biological changes.
In this episode, Carlos spoke to Simon about:
His life story through the American Dream, addiction and a near-death promise to God
A calling to the jungle to train with Shipibo healers in the Amazon, and the establishing of the Ayahuasca Foundation
The essence of shamanism and the preservation of Shipibo culture
The misunderstood concepts of ‘energy’, ‘faith’ and ‘placebo’ in ancestral and Western medicine
Healing as an art form, as well as a science
The divergence of different ancestral spiritual traditions
... and a range of other topics.
Carlos Tanner is one of many experts on Onaya’s 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme.
-
Dr Beatriz Caiuby Labate is a Brazilian anthropologist based in San Francisco. She has a Ph.D. in social anthropology, and is the author, or co-author or co-editor of twenty-eight books and many peer-reviewed articles, focusing on the study of plant medicines, drug policy, shamanism, ritual, religion, and social justice.
She is Executive Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and serves as Public Education and Culture Specialist at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), amongst other roles.
In this episode, Simon and Bia explored:
frustrations with academia and the story behind Chacruna
psychedelic justice and the work of the Institute
building bridges and mending fences
the commodification of psychedelics
tokenistic representation of Indigenous people
anthropology and the role of social science in understanding psychedelics
building partnerships and the importance of unlearning
why cultivating diversity of perspectives is so essential
Bia Labate is one of many experts on Onaya's 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme.
-
With challenges to the so-called psychedelic renaissance, do we now need a ‘psychedelic enlightenment’ that changes not just ourselves, but our culture?
Alexander Beiner is an author, journalist and facilitator focused on bringing new ways of seeing and being from the margins of culture into the mainstream.Last year, Ali published a bestselling book, The Bigger Picture: How Psychedelics Can Help Us Make Sense of the World (2023), and now writes a popular Substack with the same name.
He is an executive director of Breaking Convention, Europe's longest-running conference on psychedelic medicine and culture. He was also one of the founders of Rebel Wisdom, a popular alternative media platform that explored the cutting-edge of systems change and cultural sensemaking.
This episode focused on how we might use psychedelics in the effort to fix our systems and change our cultures, exploring: Ali's background and early fascination with altered states; crisis, meta-crisis, and the need for systems change; ‘E-Cognition’ and cultural frameworks that shape our thinking; the problem of false insights under psychedelics; the need for discernment and collective interpretation; 'saving the world’ vs changing culture; artificial intelligence and the prospects of an animist revival; AI interactions as entity encounters; Shipibo perspectives on progress and technology; and other topics.
Ali Beiner is one of many experts on Onaya’s 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme. Find more information and enroll on our next cohort here.
-
“The Earth is a huge field of sentience..."
Dr Isa Gucciardi holds degrees in cultural and linguistic anthropology, comparative religion, and transpersonal psychology. She has spent over 30 years studying spiritual, therapeutic, and meditative techniques, working with master teachers of Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Sufism, as well as expert indigenous and shamanic practitioners from around the world.
She has trained thousands of students in Depth Hypnosis, her therapeutic model that blends elements of ancient wisdom and contemporary psychological thought, alongside her unique programmes of Buddhist Psychology and Applied Shamanism. She also lectures at UC Berkeley and internationally.
In this episode, Isa and Simon discuss the influence of her unusual upbringing in Hawaii; the common stream running through different spiritual traditions, and their different layers of orthodoxy; the idea of Jesus as a curandero, and the possibility that he spent time learning in India; attitudes towards psychedelics within Buddhism; companionship and resonance between different plants; the fallibility of shamans and dangers of glorifying indigenous cultures; the dark sides of shamanism compared to the ethical framework of the Dharma; impermanence, interconnection and the place-based teachings of the earth; and other topics.
Dr Gucciardi is one of many experts on Onaya’s 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme. Find more information and enroll on our next cohort here.
-
“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” ~ Gustav Mahler
From Simon's misadventures with a not-so-traditional Shipibo treatment for tinnitus, to the connection between spirituality and madness, this episode is a ride through all things weird and wonderful at the fringes of spiritual scholarship with Julian Vayne.
Julian's obsession with group ritual practice began within the Western Esoteric Tradition when he was 16. Since then he has worked in ceremony with practitioners from many different lands and lineages, as a senior member of the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros and widely recognized as one of Britain’s leading occultists.
Today, Julian is the author of books, essays, journals and articles in both the academic and esoteric press, including Getting Higher: The Manual of Psychedelic Ceremony (2017). He sees his work as part of the process to help re-imagine an earth-centered, non-dogmatic, open-source spirituality.
Julian is one of many experts on Onaya's new 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme, which Simon outlines at the start of this episode. Find more information and enroll on our next cohort here.
-
“Knowledge is just a rumour until it’s in the muscles.” ~ Proverb from the Asaro people of Papua New Guinea
In this episode, Simon talks to Dr Esme Dark about the special interplay between felt intuition, embodied knowledge and psychedelic experience for facilitating healing and transformation.
Esme Dark is a psychedelic and somatic therapist with over 15 years of experience working as a clinical psychologist, including a decade of refugee mental health work in Australia, Thailand and the UK. She works as one of the core trial therapists as part of the Clinical Psychedelic Research Lab at Monash University, having supported participants through the largest psychedelic trial in Australia to date, exploring psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat anxiety. Esme also has a private practice offering in-person and remote services.
Dr Dark is one of many experts on Onaya's new 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme. Find more information and enroll on our next cohort here.
-
"These are smart people: bright, hard-working, truth-telling and funny, and they have this whole approach to the living world that's off the charts compared to ours.
They have lots of knowledge that we won't even recognise. We're ready to rip it off if we can make remedies with it, but actually taking them seriously, in terms of what they say about how they know things? No way!"
Jeremy Narby is a renowned anthropologist, author, and advocate for indigenous knowledge systems, particularly in the Amazon. His influential book, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge (1998), explores the parallels between shamanic visions and molecular biology, proposing a connection between indigenous knowledge and our scientific understanding of DNA.
He has conducted extensive fieldwork with indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, advocating for their rights and the preservation of their traditional knowledge. His involvement with NGOs like Nouvelle Planète supports sustainable development and highlights the importance of indigenous perspectives in addressing global environmental challenges.
-
How can we develop models of psychedelic-assisted therapy that incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, and acknowledge that we heal together in community - models that have cultural safety at the forefront, that are accessible and of benefit to Indigenous peoples and Westerners alike?
IPAT is an Australian organisation dedicated to this mission, acknowledging the Indigenous wisdom that has underpinned the use of plant medicines for thousands of years, and Indigenous peoples globally as the knowledge keepers in their use.Here, IPAT co-founders Jem Stone, Kirt Mallie and Dr Bianca Sebben present Simon with IPAT's vision for a safe and healthy cultural ecosystem of psychedelic usage, navigating obstacles and facilitating intercultural synergies. All three are experts on Onaya's new 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme.
Jem is a First Nations woman of mixed heritage, a cultural Educator, wellness practitioner, trainer and co-founder of IPAT; Kirt is a Mualgal man, an Indigenous therapist, cultural educator and spiritual counsellor; Bianca is a clinical psychologist with a special interest in complex trauma, dissociative disorders and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
-
Dr David Luke has been teaching the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience at the University of Greenwich for 15 years. He is also a Lecturer at the Alef Trust as Programme Leader of the Professional Certificate in Psychedelics, Altered States and Transpersonal Psychology, and tutor on the MSc Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology.
In a wild and varied research career, he has focused on transpersonal experiences and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including thirteen books, most recently DMT Entity Encounters: Dialogues on the Spirit Molecule (2021).
Here, Simon and Dave discuss the more extreme end of psychedelia, how they can alter our understanding of reality and connection to nature, and the future of the psychedelic movement in light of transpersonal experiences that are hard to explain within a Western scientific framework.
Dr Luke is one of many experts on Onaya's new 6-month Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme.
External podcast appearances
The Drug Science Podcast (113)
Dr Simon Ruffell explores the psychological impact of ayahuasca and the Shipibo people's plant medicine traditions, discussing the dangers of drug tourism, the ayahuasca diet, and the cultural evolution of DMT from shamanic use to mainstream media.
The H-Hour Podcast
Dr Simon Ruffell and Dr WaiFung Tsang explore the healing potential of ayahuasca, its impact on mental and physical health, and the blend of Indigenous wisdom with modern scientific research.
Unfollow the Blind Leader
The language of nature: weaving poetic reflections on nature and transformation with Dr Simon Ruffell's insights into merging Western psychiatry and Amazonian shamanic healing.
The Lucas Rockwood Show
Dr Simon Ruffell explores ayahuasca's traditional Amazonian use, its potential in modern mental health treatment, and the challenges of its ceremonial versus clinical applications.
Accidental Gods
Plant teacher medicine: this episode bridges modern science and ancient plant wisdom as Dr Simon Ruffell goes on a journey through Peru, blending cutting-edge research with Indigenous traditions.
Seeking - Sony Music
A conversation about the psychedelic renaissance with Amanda Feilding and Dr Simon Ruffell.
Isn’t Life Curious?
Explore the science and philosophy of ayahuasca, with conversations on the booming psychedelic retreat industry and the team's immersive research on ayahuasca in Peru.
The Psychedelic Leadership Podcast
Dr Simon Ruffell discusses how Onaya Science's research on ayahuasca in Peru merges ancient healing wisdom with modern science, unlocking new insights into trauma, epigenetics, and mental health.
The Drug Science Podcast (12)
Dr Simon Ruffell explores the psychological impact of ayahuasca and the Shipibo people's plant medicine traditions, discussing the dangers of drug tourism, the ayahuasca diet, and the cultural evolution of DMT from shamanic use to mainstream media.