Psychedelics have gotten pretty popular these days, and there’s a lot of information as well as charlatans out there. We’re going to discuss the basics, benefits and risks associated with Psilocybin Assisted Therapy. There is a difference between taking Magic Mushrooms and hanging with friends, versus working with them and putting intention into transforming your life for the better. This talk will help educate you on how to look at Psilocybin as a transformative healing tool for improving your quality of life.

The latest scientific research and data is demonstrating that Psilocybin Assisted Therapy can

Treat Anxiety & Depression
Treat Addiction
Help with replacing habits that do not benefit with one's that do
Treat OCD
Enhanced creativity and openness
Spiritual and Existental Insights
Improved mood and well being
Enhance mindfulness and emotional processing
Neuroplasticity
Reduce fear of death
It's important to note that while these potential benefits are promising, research and data on Psilocybin is still a relatively new and experimental treatment. Research is ongoing, and the therapy itself is not yet widely available. Additionally, Psilocybin is a controlled substance and should only be administered by trained facilitators in a controlled setting as part of clinical trials or research studies. Furthermore the therapy should always be conducted within legal and ethical guidelines, with a focus on patient safety and well-being.

Topics We'll Discuss:

What is Psilocybin / Magic Mushrooms
Background on Magic Mushrooms
What is Anxiety?
How Anxiety impacts the mind and the body
Measurements / Dosage
Safety
Potential Benefits & Risks
Intention Setting
Preparation & Integration
Tools, skills and modalities for using psilocybin for treating anxiety
The Process
This is a free online event

Learn more about us at www.brooklynbalance.org

About Us:

Brooklyn Balance aims to be a supportive companion in your psychedelic journey—from beginning to end. A journey starts the moment you decide to have a psychedelic experience, and having the right preparation and tools is essential for a transformational and positive outcome.

With that in mind, we help you prepare for your journey by setting conscious intentions aligned with what your desired outcomes are. We offer tools you can tap into during your journey, and integration coaching to help you bring the psychedelic experience into your day-to-day life.

Transcript:

00:01:25):

Cool. Hector, New York. I'm not sure where that is, but I'm imagining that's upstate, central. Cool. Yeah, one of my favorite parts. I love the Finger Lakes. Awesome. Yeah. Experience with ketamine now, psilocybin. Great. And can everyone see that my screen is shared or should I say, can anyone not see the shared screen? Great. Cool. I'm going to assume that all technical stuff is in a good position and we might have some people entering in late. If they do, I'll just be letting them in. But otherwise I'm going to begin. Yeah. So welcome to utilizing psilocybin for alleviating anxiety. My name is Joshua Jupiter. I'm the founder of Brooklyn Balance LLC. And yeah, I'm really excited to be here and giving this talk to everyone. Thanks for being here. Thanks for waking up early and turning on your computers or your phones.

(00:02:59):

So to start out, this talk is intended to provide an educational framework to both individuals receiving treatment as well as facilitators. Topics include processes such as harm reduction and safety while working with psilocybin as a tool for healing, transformation and therapy. While you may already be familiar with some of this information, we ask that you maintain a beginner's mindset disclaimer. This presentation does not encourage or condone any illegal activities, including but not limited to the use of illegal substances. This is not a substitute for mental health or medical services. This is not a substitute for medical, psychological, or psychiatric diagnosis, treatment or advice. And one thing I'd like to also add on is that this is, it's a safe and legal space. So no one is here with the intention to trying to sell or buy anything that might be an illegal substance. Everything here is just informational. And if anyone happens to get a DM from somebody and doesn't make them comfortable, just please let me know and I'll remove that person.

(00:04:31):

Starting out. There is a lot coming out about psilocybin used as therapeutic medicine in conjunction with therapy. So I very much like to say, when you're checking things out, use your discernment, go slow and be safe. It's really better to approach this type of work slower than faster. So what we're going to talk about today, what is psilocybin? I'll give a brief background on psilocybin. We'll talk about safety, contraindications, risks, and then we're going to talk about anxiety modalities for alleviating anxiety and working with psilocybin for anxiety. And we're also going to talk about integration as well if you're able to and if it's safe, if you're not driving, if you have a writing utensil and a piece of paper available, having that standing by would be great. You will need it for later.

(00:05:43):

So a little bit about me, founder Brooklyn Balance, LLC. I'm a psychedelic integration coach and facilitator. I have various certifications and professional trainings through TAM integration maps, psychedelic support, and more. And fun fact is that I am a native New Yorker, born and raised and bred in Manhattan. And now I've lived in Brooklyn for about 14 years now. So some background on me, who is this person talking to me about anxiety and ps? So in 2003, three, I had my first life-changing psychedelic experience. It was with LSD and it was quite profound. Around 2008, I had graduated with a degree in film production. That was also the time where the economy collapsed and I began to suffer debilitating anxiety attacks, couldn't leave my bed. I had trouble breathing, I had a lot of stomach issues, the whole shebang. I went on SSRIs and I was on SSRIs for about eight years, maybe nine. When I stopped taking the SSRIs, I moved more into exploring with psychedelics with my therapists as well as with community members. In 2020, almost four years ago now, I got burnt out from film production. I pushed pause and I began to pursue a new path. So I was a producer or I can still consider my ego producer at times. This is a photo of me where I was working on a job at Paramount Studios.

(00:07:42):

So today I founded Brooklyn Balance, LLC. I've done the maps trainings, like I mentioned before, the TAM integration, 12 month certification program. TAM integration is an excellent, excellent resource. Highly recommend 'em. Highly recommend Daniel Shankin. And I now work doing full-time, psychedelic integration. So it's a photo here on the upper right of me at the MAPS conference, me and Rick Dolin. And then this is my cohort that I studied with for a year. And it's great because we're still in touch and we collaborate a lot, a really great group of people. So just a little feedback, some kind words that people have shared about working with me. This one person worked with me and they found relief with their depression. They've been off SSRIs for about almost a year now, and they're doing quite well. And then one of my favorite lines here is other than an emergency appendectomy in 1995, I don't think anything has impacted my wellbeing so much.

(00:08:59):

So I really appreciate those words. So some background on psilocybin, and I'm going to start off with just setting the tone and reading this quote from Christopher Busch, from LSD In the Mind of the Universe, from ancient times men, women have gathered under the night sky and taken substances that helped them commune with their inner being and with the life that turns through all things, they have sat in prayer, in silence, seeking healing and guidance so they could return to their lives, better people, and more aligned with the deeper currents of life. Because these substances opened them to the spiritual dimension of existence, they were called sacred because they healed the wound of forgetting who and what we truly are. They are called medicines from before written history began. The sacred medicine path has been one of the many spiritual paths human beings have taken to find themselves each other and the divine. And one of the things I like to say and why I start out with this is my approach to a lot of this work. I view myself as a bridge between the spiritual and the science. So I really like to learn about the science, talk about the science, refer to the science, and I really do enjoy bringing in a lot of the spiritual elements in it as well. But I find myself not too far on the right and not too far on the left.

(00:10:41):

So what are psilocybin mushrooms commonly known as magic mushrooms or shrooms? There are fungi. They grow naturally all over the world and humans have been using them for thousands of years. They're a classic tryptamine, psychedelic whose mind altering effects can last two to eight hours. And the amount of time, of course, depends on the dose, the person, many various factors. Psilocybin is a schedules one substance. So it is believed to have no medical value based by the government at this moment. They grow naturally all over the world. So for context, it would be incredibly difficult to overdose on psilocybin for mushrooms. For that to be considered over 2.6 pounds of dried mushroom would have to be eaten, which is almost 2000 times a typical therapeutic three gram dose.

(00:11:48):

Psilocybin itself is biologically inactive, but it quickly gets to cell losin, which creates the mind altering effects similar, which bear similarities to other substances such as mescaline, DMT and LSD. So just brief timeline, just love giving a little background on things in case anyone's new. Like I said, some of you may have already a broad knowledge of psilocybin, but I like to talk about just the background as well, that psilocybin has been around for thousands of years. So in the caves in Northern Algeria dating back to 5,000 bc, there are drawings that reflect the use of them and dating to 1000 BC Central American cultures built temples for mushroom gods and carved mushroom stones. So here's a little photo of them over here on the right.

(00:12:48):

In 1914, there was the first experience documented in a scientific science publication of intentional psilocybin mushroom ingestion. And it details descriptions of visual effects, uncontrollable laughter, and joking. So 110 years ago, 1953, amateur Mycologist r Gordon Watson visits OCA to witness a mushroom ceremony. And then he returns again two years later to photograph Maria Sabina ceremonies. And he as well participates later on. A bit passed there in 1958, Albert Hoffman isolates psilocybin and publishes the synthesis of it at Sandoz Pharmaceutical. The next year he publishes the synthesis, sorry, synthesis. And then two years later, Sandoz begins to make two milligram pills of psilocybin. Eight years later here in the USA, the staggered Dodds bill makes possession of psilocybin and psilocin illegal, followed by the comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention Control Act in 1971, which made it a schedule one substance.

(00:14:16):

So bit of the history, where are we today, right? Where are we going with studies and science and the medicine and all that good stuff. So a lot of headlines. And so we have one here from CNN Neurotherapeutics, and we're seeing that psilocybin can be used in conjunction with therapy for helping with mental health disorders. There's what are some positive effects of psilocybin that we're seeing? We're seeing that psychedelics can help you feel more connected with nature. And the research is showing that we're seeing that the effects of psilocybin on the hip, cannibal neurogenesis can help eliminate fear or help alleviate fear. I don't think I want to use the word eliminate because there's always going to be some fear. And then we're seeing that psilocybin can be used for anxiety disorders as well. Down here on the lower left, this is one of my favorite images. This is an FMRI scan, and one is on the left is the regular brain with a placebo, and on the right is with psilocybin. And it reflects all the new neuro pathways that are being created in the stimulation from psilocybin in the brain when it's taking its effect.

(00:15:54):

So with proper guidance, we're seeing that psilocybin may alleviate cluster headaches, depression, anxiety, increased mindfulness and feelings of interconnectedness, increased relationship with nature, spirituality, the universe, it may increase creativity and cognitive flexibility, promote neuroplasticity. Neurogenesis may be helpful with substance abuse and addiction, including alcohol and tobacco, and it may help alleviate PTSD. So this is probably my favorite study that was conducted in 2010 by David Nutt, A Neuropsycho pharmacologist. And it's a study that talks about the harm caused by substances focusing on society. And so as you can see up here, alcohol has the most detriment to society while magic mushrooms are on the very bottom.

(00:17:05):

And so right now at this very moment, there are hundreds of scientific research studies underway about the benefits of psilocybin as well as other psychedelics that are mentioned here such as MDMA, ketamine, cannabis, and all sorts of other stuff that are actually not mentioned on here. I learned about a really great study about ayahuasca last year. That was pretty awesome. I'll have to get that one. So if you're new to psychedelics, if you're new to psilocybin, it's important to learn about the risks and the contraindications. So here is a list, it's not a full list of risks and contraindications, but to briefly mention, there's a behavioral risk hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, also HPPD for short, you can have a challenging experience. It's contraindicated for borderline personalities. Schizophrenia, if you take warfarin, digoxin, lithium can create seizure risk. If you're on an SSRI or an SNRI, there is risk of blunting and serotonin syndrome. And then serotonin, generic migraine medications are contraindicate as well as antipsychotics, and there can also be a risk of contamination. I see a question in the chat from Mitch. How long does it take to get trained to be a facilitator? It's a great question.

(00:19:05):

Yeah, I don't have a specific answer for that. I guess it just depends on the person when they're ready. And we can talk more about that too at the end of the talk as well, or I'm happy to chat with you after as well. Are there contraindications for benzos? Good question. I'm not a hundred percent sure based off of which particular benzo. One thing I do know is that something like Ativan will stop psilocybin from functioning in the brain. It's like an emergency cutoff switch. It's not something I recommend to do unless it's an emergency. And if you are on benzos or other medications and you're not sure, I recommend taking a consultation with Ben malcolm@spiritpharmacist.com. Ben Malcolm is a doctor. He has a great reputation, very credible person, and he's a doctor. I'm not. And he can give really great information to you about that. And why is borderline personality a risk?

(00:20:34):

I can say there's various reasons. One reason I can think of is that it might create a challenging experience. So challenging experience is a bad trip freaking out, which can lead to trauma, which can lead to other difficulties with a person such as being institutionalized or having a spiritual crisis. These are all very extensive things to talk about if considering to work with psilocybin. And it's a big reason why I say go slow and use your discernment when exploring this work. Carol, what about gabapentin? I don't know about gabapentin. I'm happy to look into that later. Feel free to circle back with me about any of these questions later. I'm happy to help out.

(00:21:41):

Potential side effects, disorientation, lethargy, giddiness, euphoria, joy, visual hall, hallucinations, synesthesia, perceptual distortions, mystical experiences. So there's some interesting side effects that kind of add to the experience. And then there's also some bodily side effects such as pupil dilation, increased heart rate, decreased heart rate. So if you ever stood up too fast and you get lightheaded, that can happen with psilocybin. And so you want to move slow and be careful, hold onto something or have someone hold your hand. Same thing with increased and decreased blood pressure. Are you at risk of a heart attack or for your heart slowing down to slow rate? So being aware of those things. Your body temperature can fluctuate. You can get really cold, you can get really hot and nausea. Yeah, some people get very nauseous and some people vomit. Those are potential side effects.

(00:22:53):

And then suitability for use. So if one is considering working with psilocybin in conjunction with therapy, therapy, what are the variables? How is your state of mind? How is your mental health? Are there any expectations, unrealistic expectations, willingness to engage in therapy? What resources and support are available? So let's say someone does have a challenging experience. Who is there for you? Who is there to help you? All things to consider cultural considerations and understanding. Can you relate to the facilitator? Can the facilitator relate to you? Is there a significant cultural difference? Maybe there's a language barrier, understanding uncertainty. That's a big one. Something might happen, nothing might happen. And then what about a tolerance for destabilization? Because some people can get destabilized from psychedelics. So how might that person or how might you handle that?

(00:24:08):

So moving into anxiety, what is anxiety? The brown paper bag. I tried that. I don't really think it worked. So symptoms of anxiety. And this is not a full list, so if anything's missing or you'd like me to know, if there's anything, feel free to put in the chat as well. But this is just a list I've put together. Apprehension, tension, uneasiness, persistent and excessive worry, intrusive thoughts, fatigue, palpitations, GI problems, fear, depression, nervousness, blocking love like closing ourselves, hiding ourselves, taking, lurking the shadows almost sometimes impending doom. Oh my God, oh my god, something's going to happen. Increased heart rate and shallow breathing types of anxiety. So agoraphobia, I don't want to go outside. I'm afraid to go outside. I can't go outside. I know a lot about that from when I was having my debilitating panic attacks. It was really hard for me to leave my apartment during that time.

(00:25:36):

Anxiety due to medical condition. So if get a diagnosis or you're on something and deaf anxiety about deaf, thinking a lot about it, Mitch asks, will you share the slides after? And will there be a replay? Yes to both. I can send out the slides and a recording will be sent out. I put it on Vimeo and I put it on my website as well. And so then there's generalized anxiety, just various types. Panic disorder, selective mutism, which I've learned can be just more common with children or younger people, just really just quiet, can't talk. But it can also be in conjunction with social anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety, social phobia, and in substance induced.

(00:26:44):

So for example, I was once prescribed Valium about 12 years ago for an injury from a car accident, and I took it for way longer than I should have. And when I stopped taking it, I started to get anxiety, I started to feel tightness in my chest, and I started to feel panicked and stressed and tight and tense. And so I learned I had to wean myself off of it slowly. And the doctor was like, that shouldn't be happening. I was on it for a short time. But I like to say everyone is different strokes for different folks, and I like to just view myself a bit more sensitive with medications like that.

(00:27:37):

So how does anxiety affect the body? So there's increased levels of cortisol, increased levels of adrenaline, stress, illness, autoimmune diseases, upset, stomach, diarrhea, constipation. Put a one in the chat if any of this resonates with you. As I'm going through, I'd love for everyone to just share more about their own experience and how we might all be able to relate to each other. Insomnia, difficulty sleeping or even an emoji, right? It's like chest pain, lightheadedness, headaches, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, decreased libido, like, oh, I'm not feeling it. Muscle aches, and then higher risk of coronary events. So yeah, if you've ever seen a movie or something where someone gets all angry and then it leads into them having a coronary event, stroke or a heart attack.

(00:28:49):

So how can psilocybin alleviate anxiety? To start out, I'd like to look at the science. So here's a great study that was conducted by NYU Langone and it's about psilocybin assisted facilitation for patients that have cancer. And so what they did was they had 80 participants, half in a control and in half with psilocybin in conjunction with therapy integration over six months. And by the end of the study, it was shown that the people that had received therapy in conjunction with psilocybin assisted facilitation significantly improved, not just anxiety as well as depression, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, OCD and somatization. And so yeah, this was featured at the MAPS conference in Denver last May. And yeah, I just really enjoyed I learning about this. Feel free to take a screenshot. I will also be sending this out so you can use it as a reference, but it's also online as well. Easy to find.

(00:30:35):

So in another NYU study, it was focused on anxiety induced by cancer patients as well. This one was longer. Some participants participated for three years as a minimum and others for four and a half. So there were 16 participants, and they all received psilocybin facilitated therapy. And with the study showed that there were reductions in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, demoralization, and death anxiety. That was reflected in the first and second follow-ups. Also to add, this is a summary of the study. If you'd like to read the full review of it, you can find it online. I can also share it later as well if anyone is interested. So the study showed that there was promise with psilocybin facilitated therapy and hoping it showed long-term relief from cancer related psychiatric distress.

(00:31:48):

In another study that was done with John Hopkins, and this one was done earlier in 2016 by Ron Griffiths, who recently passed away, was a real benefit to the community. It was really wonderful getting to see him back in May. Yeah, so research conducted with 51 patients showed people suffering cancer related anxiety and depression, found considerable relief for up to six months from a single large dose of psilocybin. Six months after about 80% of participants continued to show clinically significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety with 60% showing symptoms in remission into the normal range. 83% reported increases in wellbeing or life satisfaction. And they were given one high dose and one low dose. And I am not sure, but I believe that there was two weeks to six weeks in between the doses.

(00:33:09):

So there's always space in between. It's never really done back to back to days or the next week. Yeah, actually I hear about retreats in Jamaica where people do three journeys in a week. My opinion on that is that it doesn't really give enough time in between to integrate. So moving into modalities for anxiety. So yeah, I'm a fan of omi, OMI for somatics and in conjunction with psilocybin. So OMI is an experimental therapy and it's largely about what's present at the moment and what's in the body, the body being the key focus. So as we start to move in modalities and more therapeutic approach, there's more of a focus on the body. And that's because the body is a resource and it holds information and it has all this data in it, and it's just processing that data all the time. So there's memories, there's beliefs, there's trauma, it's all held in the body. So OMI looks into mindfulness, non-violence, unity, organicity, and mind body wholeness. And so it's a practice of really just allowing the body and to allow the mind to relax and from that, seeing what the body needs, wants calling in or releasing.

(00:35:02):

And so another item is and stands for acceptance and commitment therapy. So what's interesting to me is that this model is very specifically used to the best of my knowledge for psychedelics. And it helps give the clients, it gives them a modality where the client can maybe see things differently or shift into things where they might feel more connected and get more invested in the work that they're doing to go deeper. And it's also about recognizing flexibility that one has or may have that we don't already recognize. So it's a lot about pivoting and going from one side of the to the other and looking around at different things.

(00:36:10):

So one example could be a person who is experiencing depression and less likely to make judgements of complex situations that, and they might tend to see things in black and white, so good and bad. Someone might only be looking at good and bad, I'm good at this, I'm bad at that. And there's so much in between, really the good and the bad or the high and the low. So Joshua Schultz, SD says, act helps clients embrace their demons and follow the hearts. When we have more flexibility, we can value more of what we're able to do and we can feel more inner strength as to how we can approach things and look at things differently.

(00:37:06):

Yeah, enact is a little complicated and this is just a very brief share about it. So it's okay if you don't completely get it. So the inner directed approach when working with psilocybin, allowing what's true or what's natural to just come and naturally arise. So being experiential, having emotional engagement, encouraging imagination, restructuring, cognition, transference. There might just be reflecting, going on between the client and the facilitator. There might be mirroring, there might be energy exchange as well, subconscious tendencies, psychodynamic the body, compassion for self and others, transpersonal and spiritual imaginal exposure. So a lot of this is more just allowing things to naturally happen, encouraging imagination, encouraging the body to be, and deepening more into a spiritual element as well, but all science backed as well.

(00:38:31):

Yeah. So put a one in chat if you agree with this quote, thoughts are not real, they're just ideas presented to you. Or put a one in chat if you've heard of that before or if that resonates with you, anybody. Okay, great. Cool. Yeah, I'm happy you say that, right? Yeah, and to reference, Stacy Ellis is a clinical psychologist and I've learned a lot from her. I really enjoy listening to her courses. When it comes to thoughts relating to our idea self and others thoughts may be correct or incorrect, they may be clear, distorted, confusing, or focused.

(00:39:27):

And so when we start getting into our thoughts, we're thinking things. And if we're thinking we ruminating, thoughts, paranoia, fear, part of the brain that is attributed to that or that's doing that is the amygdala. So when we start to label things, it helps reduce activity and the amygdala. So when we're going into a psychedelic experience, many thoughts are going to come up, a lot of emotions are going to come up, and there's going to be just a lot of reflecting and things happening. And so I like to encourage ease, and I like to encourage just allowing. And sometimes things come up where we can get a little scared or startled. So an example may be like, have you ever heard a noise in another room? And you're like, what is that? I don't know. And maybe you get a little startled, you get a little fearful concerned. And then you saw, so you went into the room and you took a look and you saw, oh, your cat knocked over something or the dog did something, or the wind. So what happened?

(00:40:44):

Type in the chat or feel free to just, someone is welcome to unmute and just say what happened to you when you went and saw what had happened after you heard that noise. I'm curious if Jesse has any thoughts, but I'd like to encourage other people as well. We could also just totally have a shy audience, or everyone's driving a car right now. Okay. Relief. Yeah, you felt relief. Cool. Yeah. Thanks Jesse. Yeah, you felt relief. You realized it was nothing to be concerned about. It was nothing to fear. You were safe. Yeah, Emily, knowing where it came from instantly calms your nervous system. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for sharing. So if you brought a pen and paper, now is the time to have it. I'm going to just open up for a short exercise and I'm going to just share about the shaha meditation. I apologize if I'm not saying that correctly or in the correct accent of it, but shaha means peaceful, abiding, or tranquility.

(00:42:16):

It can help stabilize the mind, cultivate awareness, help calm faults and emotions. So does anyone here not meditate? So if you don't meditate, I'm just going to just share a little bit about this meditation, what it looks like and how it may benefit you for labeling and reducing anxiety. So we take a meditative posture, we sit up straight, and there's an invitation. I'm not going to start just yet, I'm just demonstrating and explaining. So take a spine, straight or relaxed position and an invitation to close the eyes or soft gaze to the floor. And then just breathing in and out slowly. And when we reach the top, holding it for just a moment, and then down to the bottom, letting it out and taking a pause as well. So it looks like breathing in 3, 2, 1, up to the top of the head. Hold it in for a moment out and going down and pausing and repeating.

(00:43:50):

And just like up 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, down. And I'm going to show you a practice that I've learned and that I do that can help with labeling. So if you have your paper and you have your writing utensil, I invite you to draw four squares together like this. So just four boxes. And this is going to be short. I know this is a talk, and some of y'all might not be able to do this, but there's plenty more talking after this. There's a lot more to share. But this is just something I'd like to invite in for a bit of a practice at the moment. So you make your box like this, and the top two are attraction, bottom aversion on the right future and on the left past. And so while you're doing this meditation, if you notice that you're thinking about something in the future that is favorable, that is attractive, that is pleasant, you put a.in the upper right box. If you notice you're thinking about something in the future that is an aversion, avoidant, anxious, oh my God, I'm dreading doing this tomorrow. Put a.in the lower right box. If you notice that you're thinking about, oh, yesterday I went to the spa and it was so great and I had so much fun with my friends, you put a.in the upper left.

(00:46:08):

And then if you're thinking about, oh man, last week it was such a rough week, I had such a rough time and it's really messing me up today. You put a.in the lower left. Any questions about that? And so yeah, it's called the mindfulness matrix. And as you're doing the meditation, as you notice your thought and you are like, oh, future attraction. Oh, past attraction, but a dot, and then so on and so forth for a version. So I invite us to take a moment to do this. You're welcome to turn on your cameras or leave them all, and I invite you to just step into the meditation and we'll just take a minute to just see what happens. I'm going to set a timer, so I'll guide you along the way. Yeah, so if you're able to, and if it's safe for you at this moment, if you're not driving or you're not going to get in trouble at work, take a meditative posture. I like to lengthen my spine, but not too much so that I'm hurting it. And I just feel like my vertebrae one on top of the other and begin to breathe in through the nose slowly. 3, 2, 1, hold, and then down deep towards the belly, releasing slowly, 3, 2, 1.

(00:48:27):

And if it feels comfortable, your eyes are closed or soft. Gaze to the floor. And just try this for a moment. See what happens. And put a.in the box where your thoughts might be.

Speaker 2 (00:49:31):

Cool.

Speaker 1 (00:49:33):

Yeah, coming to completion, settling back into the room. Settling back into the talk. Yeah. So invitation to share. Please type in the chat or feel free to raise your hand. I can call on you or unmute yourself if you were able to do that in the past two minutes, blank. Okay. Yeah. So some questions that I wrote here, what did you notice during the practice? What box got the most dots? How did you feel when you labeled your thoughts? What was easy? What was challenging? Yeah, so me, baba, I'm sorry if I'm saying your name incorrectly, blank. So great blank. Jesse says, future both attractive and aversion. Great. Nice noticing Devin. I noticed that I wasn't always sure whether every thought was about the past or the future. Yeah, interesting. Yeah. And since Steven says center, Jesse says, I've heard future focus can be related to anxiety and fat and past focus can be related to depression.

(00:51:10):

I can agree with that. Yeah, I can agree with that for sure. I am personally not, I don't really like to, when it comes to labeling and boxes, we can very easily start to put a diagnosis in that can become our personality. So if we go to the doctor and the doctor says, oh, you have depression, we start to believe it. We're like, oh my God, I have depression. The doctor says I have depression. And it's like we don't need to believe it. We can just be present to the moment and just say, Hey, I'm dealing with a challenging situation right now and I'm going to move through this. Yeah, I'm so glad people were able to participate in this. Thank you. Jordan says, first time encountering the mindfulness matrix, really believe in that maximum labeling reduces amygdala activity. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Thanks Jordan. So our thoughts, we make a thought real by focusing on it, it will cease to exist if we stop entertaining it. So I'm going to try to play a video, and if you don't hear the audio, please let me know, but I have the subtitles on.

Speaker 3 (00:52:55):

What do you mean choose? We don't understand. Choose the, I get it all very cute. Whatever we think of, if I think of j Hoover, j Agar, Hoover will appear and destroy us. Okay, so empty your head. Empty your head. Don't think of anything. We've only got one shot at this. Anything? No, I didn't choose anything. I couldn't help it. It just popped in there. What just popped in there? I tried to think, no. What did you do, Ray? Oh shit. It's the state pop marshmallow, man.

Speaker 1 (00:54:31):

Okay, so what happened there? Has anyone never seen Ghostbusters?

(00:54:43):

Right? So his mind thought of this thing and they were told, clear your mind and his mind just went to this random childhood figure that in the past was so nice and delightful and this God has turned that image into a monster to destroy New York City. So our thoughts can manifest things and things can become psychosomatic or we can get in our mind about things. So reading this quote again, we make a thought real by focusing on it will cease to exist if we stop entertaining it. So anxious thoughts might look like worrying that is uncontrollable and creates distress. Worrying that affects your daily life, including school, work and your social life. The inability to let go of your worries. Tendency to frequently worry about many things such as your job or health, minor concerns such as a regular errands and tasks.

(00:56:05):

Put a one in chat. If you can relate to any of those things, I would probably put 10 of those in the chat for me in certain parts of my life. Yeah, so the mind. Yeah. Thanks for sharing, Bradford. The mind will attract what it is in harmony with. So one of my favorite quotes is, or I say it all the time, my vibe attracts my tribe. So when it comes to the relational asking ourself, do I keep attracting a certain type of person in my life? So have we ever gotten into a romantic relationship with the same person over and over? And we keep wondering, why do we keep meeting the same person? And then we're like, oh, we're here again and then we break up. Or even with friends, why do I keep making the same type of friend?

(00:57:19):

Yeah, and our thoughts influence how we are and how we think. And our thoughts will vibrate out to other people. And other people will see that. And so let's say someone's just too nice or perhaps has low self-esteem, they may be more attractive to a narcissist because a narcissist knows that they can take advantage and pray on someone who's just really nice and not as confident. So when we think something like I am not worthy, we may feel, I feel worthless thoughts and feelings and we can reframe our thoughts. I learn and grow every day. I feel helpful. I feel excited and hopeful to expand.

(00:58:27):

Just shifting our perspective. The next slide, shifting our perspective. So mushrooms have a way of opening the subconscious and mind allowing for the ability to shift the way we look at things. By combining different tools, skills, and resources, we can utilize that to our advantage for changing the way we think and look at ourselves as well as others. Instead of, I'm a mess, we can try, I'm human, I can't do this. I can do hard things. Why is this happening? What is this teaching me? So thinking more from a different perspective and how our actions and thoughts impact what we do and what happens from it.

(00:59:26):

Instead of, my friends are probably angry or unhappy that I'm not going out tonight. You could try. My friends are happy that I'm taking care of myself tonight. So yeah, put a one in the chat. If you've ever gotten so much anxiety that you just have to leave a party, cancel plans, stay in, not respond to a text message, not respond to a phone call, because we just don't have space, we don't have capability. So what do we need to do? We need to care of ourselves. And sometimes other people don't understand that, and sometimes they do. And it's easy for our thoughts to run away with judgment. Oh, my friends are so angry. But if we think, Hey, I'm taking care of myself, my friends love me, my friends care about me, they appreciate me taking care of myself, cool, I'm neurotic. You could try.

(01:00:24):

I'm particular and attuned to my needs and I can take care of myself. So might get a little jittery or might get in our heads, or we might need things to be a certain way. We're just a little particular and we know what works for us. And maybe we're flexible with some things over here and maybe we're not as flexible with some things over here. And we like things to be a little bit of a certain way rather than just being like, I'm neurotic. I am too rigid. You could try. I am working on being more flexible.

(01:01:04):

I'm bad at yoga. Well, guess what? There is no bad or good in yoga. I do my best. And if you do ever hear from a yoga teacher that says, oh, you're good at yoga, get out of here. Because yoga mindset is just there is no good, there is no bad. It's all yoga. We're all just trying. We're all just doing. Even if it is just like Shavasana lying on the floor or child post, I'm not good at playing the piano. I just recently started putting effort into playing the piano and intend on practicing to improve or I never put any effort into playing the piano. So how can I be very skilled at playing the piano if I never practiced the piano?

(01:01:59):

So, so we can shift our thoughts and we can look at those things and we can look at some other things that we can do for alleviating anxiety, deep breathing, journaling, CBT, exercising, socializing with friends and like-minded friends or friends that love us and accept us for who we are. Not friends that are judgmental or are going to give us a hard time or crap on us. Limiting caffeine, getting a good night's sleep, resting, establishing boundaries. So getting a little deeper into the work, what triggers you? How do you respond to triggers, fight or flight? Reparenting as a tool, what do you need? This is something I say to my clients.

(01:03:10):

If I'm with them in ceremony and there's a moment of confusion, I might just simply say, what do you need? And just pause and just listen. I'm giving space to what this person might actually need at that point. And even asking ourselves at that time, like, Hey, I'm on the subway and I'm noticing this, this and that. What do I need? Oh, I need to just step off the subway and it was too crowded for me. I'm going to wait for the next one. Internal family systems, highly recommend knowing your yes and your no, right? So put a one in the chat. If you're a people pleaser, you'll say yes to doing something you don't really want to do, right? Yeah. Thanks for sharing, Jesse. I was a people pleaser for quite a while, myself, better understanding consent. So giving, taking, accepting, and allowing. I like to refer to the Betty Martin wheel of consent. I'll probably be doing a talk on it maybe in February or March.

(01:04:24):

Communicating your needs and better understanding sovereignty. And so when I say sovereignty and better understanding it, understanding that we are sovereign, we are responsible for our decisions. And when we choose to do something, we take ownership with that choice. If we say yes to something and we really meant no, it's like it's okay to change your mind. You have sovereignty over yourself or something like that. Tracking patterns, recognizing chaos. So yeah, put a one in the chat if there's a lot of chaos in your life, a lot of franticness, hecticness, maybe work is really crazy. If you work in commercials or in film production, there tends to be a lot of chaos. So recognizing chaos. And we can get very used to chaos and we can become dependent on chaos. And we just get really used to that feeling. And we can get so into chaos, in the chaos. And particularly if it comes from a young age where we might not trust love and we might just get more fearful, like stillness and quietness may cause fear.

(01:05:52):

Knowing that you have agency and understanding what was normal in your development, how are you producing any patterns? Yeah, any patterns that have come from your whole life. And as I mentioned before, it's like why do I keep attracting these type of friends or relationships or people in my life? All those patterns and noticing things that we do. So what we change in the body will change our mind. So yeah. What's something I always worry about? Money, health. Yeah. What do y all worry about? I'd love to see some things in the chat about that. Does anyone worry about money, health, the rent being raised? Climate change, politics, health, yeah. Anything else?

(01:07:02):

Health and retirement. Yeah. And we're living longer and longer today. Yeah, definitely something I can feel anxious about. Worried about covid. Cancer debt. Yeah. Thanks for sharing. So worry gives us a sense of traction and it gives us a sense of familiarity. So we get really used to it. We're just worried about it because that's what we're used to. I'm just always worrying about money, I'm worrying about my health. And the mind just gets so used to that. That's what begins to drive it. And we may just begin to just focus heavily on that one thing and that might just create more anxiety fixating on it. So what is it like not to worry, it's like we're not worrying. We might not be familiar with not having something to worry about. So our thoughts might go to different places. So moving on into getting a little deeper into the work, embracing the younger version of self.

(01:08:16):

So a lot of the way we are today is from our childhood. Very early on, as soon as we're born, our brain is like a sponge and we're just taking in all the energy around us. So what's interesting is that the amygdala, the part of the brain for fear has no sense of time. So any trigger of a past experience will activate the amygdala. So when we get triggered and we get a physical response and tightness in the chest, that's from patterning from way in the past and new patterning can develop too, but it's all stuff from when we were younger. And a way to help alleviate anxiety is practicing presence and being present. And so if we ever look at how a child is, a child is very present to the moment, they're very into now, they're like, what am I doing now? I'm having fun playing with this toy. Like, okay, I'm done playing with the toy. I want to go to the movies. Okay, I'm done with the movie. I want to do this.

(01:09:32):

I don't often hear a lot of past or future talk from very young children. They're just very in the moment playing their games in the school yard, having a ton of fun. I don't have kids. So some of y'all might think different things, and that's okay if you do. And I never worked with kids either in any guiding capacity. This is all just thoughts and research and opinion. So psilocybin can assist with untangling wires in our mind. So our thoughts in our mind, they can get tangled and psilocybin can help untangle 'em and gain clarity. Psilocybin can help a person get data about themselves. It can help understand how we organize ourselves, help our state of mind to allow reaction, be vulnerable experience how we are behaving in the world. And many people function as if what they're experiencing is real. We process through stages and stages before things come to consciousness. So what one may think they're seeing may not actually be there.

(01:11:03):

And not literally visually it's like, oh, this person is looking at me in a weird way. They must be thinking they don't like my clothes or they think that I am ugly. We might be making those things up when they're not actually true. So if we can entangle our thoughts and change the way we look at things, we can change our beliefs about ourselves that have blocked us from taking in certain emotional nourishment and may create unnecessary suffering, therefore allowing more space for trust. If you don't trust anybody, you're not going to have healthy relationships. Look to who can be trusted and it will heal the pain.

(01:11:57):

So reaching closer to the end of this presentation. The last thing I'm going to next up is just touching upon integration. But before getting into that, it's vitally important when considering working with a facilitator, what is their state of mind? A facilitator's state of mind creates an energy, an aura, and that energy in the aura affect the client. If you're looking to work with somebody, it's going to affect you if they come in and they're sad or if they're in a state or a mood. So it's a lot about being a conduit and just a hollow bone. So being aware of what's your energy and what's someone else's energy. And being aware that a facilitator's energy should not interfere with your process. So being mindful of judgment projection and just how they're showing up and how they're behaving when they're working with you.

(01:13:12):

So for the sake of time, well, I added this, I'm not going to get too into this, but what I want to touch upon with this is the aspects of divine feminine and masculine and masculine and having balance with it. On the left there is the unaware wounded feminine bottom left, the aware and empowered feminine. And then on the right, the unaware wounded, masculine in the bottom right, aware and empowered masculine. And so we as people, as humans, are always navigating different polarities. There may be times where we're more in our wounded masculine, we might be times where we're more in our empowered masculine and noticing that are we too in our empowered masculine, do we need to go more into our aware feminine because we're just so manly man? And there might be times where we're just feeling more light and graceful more in our aware feminine.

(01:14:44):

And so I like to bring an element of utilizing these aspects, but navigating the polarities as to where we are with our thoughts, with our emotions, and with our day to day as to where we might need to shift energy to. Did something happen at, are you a manager? Did something happen at work? And you noticed you were bullying an employee, but it was all subconscious? How can you take more awareness to that? How can you step more into the aware and less micromanaging and just talking with more love and compassion to the employee and communicating in a way that helps productivity in everyone being, yeah. So I'm going to move on from this. I could probably talk about this all day and I'll share, the slides will be shared, so it will be here to reference to, yeah, I spoke about this, right? Healthy, balanced, human of integrity, power, and wisdom.

(01:15:57):

Are you more healthy or are you more sick and fearful and finding the polarity with that? Where do you need more balance? So yeah, allowing and accepting. So I made this page this morning last night at 2:00 AM I live in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. And there was an incident in my building and at 2:00 AM and I was woken up and I couldn't fall back asleep. And I found myself becoming anxious and I found myself getting inside my head about what was happening. And earlier this morning while I was taking a bath, I noticed that I was just fatigued a bit. And a thought came to me about not sleeping and wanting to control, going back to sleep. And I just said to myself, maybe this is how I'm supposed to be. And when I said that, I recognized that, oh, maybe I'm supposed to be fatigued, maybe I'm supposed to be tired.

(01:17:13):

And as soon as I thought that, I felt a relief because what I noticed is sometimes we can get exhausted and even more overwhelmed from fighting, trying, doing. So I like to take notice that I like to surrender and just allow and accept sometimes. And it helps me just come to presence. And it might just take me to being in the exact place I need to be not thinking about what should have happened or where I need to be, just the now. So I popped that in last minute. Yeah. So working with psilocybin or any psychedelic to note, it's not a silver bullet, it's not a cure. All it, remember we talked about risks and contraindications in the beginning. It's also something might happen. Nothing might happen regardless of substance or not focusing your attention on these therapeutic modalities will be to your benefit. So everything that I've just shared and more like you can do and still see improvement with yourself if you focus on the work, psilocybin may just be an extra tool in what we're doing. Jesse says, I got covid yesterday and surrendered, and now I'm not freaking out about getting back to work and tuning in here. Awesome. Love that attitude. Thank you, Jesse, appreciate you being here. Appreciate you sharing that. Yeah. So some questions asking, if you're considering this work, why are you choosing to work with psilocybin? What other parts of your life are you focusing on improving to better yourself, your quality of life? What are you calling in? What are you releasing? How are you practicing? Keeping it sacred?

(01:19:17):

Staying with the breath. So yeah, doing this work, things might come up, especially in ceremony, might become upsetting or overwhelming. And that's an indication that the body might need to release something. So encouraging your body to release that in a nonviolent, non-sexual consensual way, staying with your breath using emotional release, somatic practices will help with that. And then fully experiencing and finding release through it instead of avoiding is a path for healing. So integration, Aladdin, Integra, I make whole. I renew, I repair, I begin again. Reprocessing, reinhabiting, re embodying, reassociating, restoring, releasing, reclaiming. So if you're considering doing this work, some elements for integration I like to mention are creating rituals in your everyday life. Meditation, yoga, dancing, prayer, lighting, a candle, journaling. Those are all rituals. It's just what's the frequency that it is being done. Somatic and movement practices. I like to do five rhythms. I do it once or twice a week and community. And now I'm in the five rhythms community where I have friends and we hang out and we see each other. I'm also a part of the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society as well. And those are places where I meet like-minded people. I also highly recommend Tam integrations. Integration circles every Wednesday night, 9:00 PM Eastern. Yeah, TAM.

(01:21:23):

Ecology, spending time in nature, arts and crafts, singing, writing, and creating a plan for the future. What baby steps are you putting in place for yourself? New experiences and insights, processing what's new for you and traveling. Yeah, touched upon this more. Wellness, spa, sauna, massage, breathwork, acupuncture. Does anything need more grounding or discharging? How do we want to eat? Are you able to eat well and nourishing foods? And yes, continuing with therapy and some of the benefits of integration, upgrading your software. So Josh, in the past I referred to as like Josh 1.0. Josh today I referred to as like Josh 2.0 because I'm very different today. The Josh you saw in the photo in the beginning was a very different Josh from today.

(01:22:29):

Yeah, increased felt sense, debriefing, difficult, challenging experiences, processing emotions, releasing, breathing, translating and applying new insights, embracing and adapting to changes of identity, ego, world culture, non-linear, sorry, and amplifying felt sense. Networks enhanced capacity for observing self, increased self wisdom, enhance compassion for self, making sense of potential generational trauma and epigenetics. So down the road, this is a list of a few of the studies that are currently being done and they include, but not limited to creativity. O-C-D-P-T-S-D, anorexia, alcoholism, depression in Alzheimer's disease, mood, post Lyme's disease treatment, microdosing, opioid use disorder. Yeah, I also, I recently did a talk on microdosing as well as a more basic psilocybin assisted therapy talk and an MDMA talk. So those are all accessible on my website as well. And then I talk about some of the studies in those as well. So yeah, go slow. Less is more.

(01:24:09):

Give yourself time to integrate the process likely will continue to unfold for days, weeks, months, even years after. I'm still integrating my first psychedelic experience from when I was from 20, 21 years ago. So be aware of chasing peak experiences. Yeah, I want to go to Burning Man, I want to do ayahuasca, I want to do San Pedro, I want to do 5:00 AM DT, I want to do all that stuff. Be aware of that. Transformation is possible with determination and time, with or without substances. And I assure you about substances can just, I like to say are just an additional tool. They're not for everybody. And I like to say this works even without the medicine itself.

(01:25:07):

But when it comes to the medicine, trust the medicine, surrender to the process, receive what comes up, some recommended readings, the Untethered Soul, which is now on Spotify. Audio, audio books, undoing Perpetual Stress by Richard O'Connor. Your Body Is Your Brain by Amanda Blake is a great read. And then Freedom from Your Inner Critic talks more about Thoughts, Jay, early and Bonnie. Yeah, so that is it for the talk. We can open up to a little bit of time for q and a. But yeah, I do offer free 20 minute discovery calls. You can schedule them on website. If you just want to talk, we can talk. If you want to learn more, you can learn more. I'm just like, I'm out, I'm available for that. And yeah, you can email me also at josh@brooklynbalance.org. Yeah, thank you so much for being here. Yeah, any questions? You can raise your hand and unmute yourself or you could type in the chat. Go for it. Jordan.

Speaker 4 (01:27:02):

Hi. So I was wondering, do you have any thoughts on going into an experience on using high CBD cannabis to alleviate nausea and anxiety just before the experience with psilocybin? Yeah, I was just wondering, would you have any thoughts on that? Because something like I've recommended to people before their first experience or whatever, that it can help. But I'm also curious as to, for an anxious individual, if they have sensitivities that interplay between general anxiety and the experience and what can be done to lessen those effects.

Speaker 1 (01:27:58):

I don't have any knowledge about that. I personally do take CBD once in a while to help me sleep. I no longer consume cannabis. Maybe once a year I'll take a gummy. When I was in college, I consumed a lot of cannabis and now it just makes me paranoid and anxious. But I gave it a quick Google and there seems to be some interesting articles here that talks more about it. If, am I hearing from you that your intention is to lower nausea with using mushrooms?

Speaker 4 (01:28:45):

Yeah, especially like CBD, but also to help general anxiety going into the experience as well, so that it's not an experience that is overwrought with anxiety or that kind of fear.

Speaker 1 (01:29:02):

So I have a lot of thoughts on this, but in short, my first thought is to try doing something like emotional freedom technique EFT. Have you heard of that? No, I haven't. Yeah, it's a somatic practice. It's also known as tapping, and I won't get too into it now, but that something I do do with my clients when we need to get more into the body or ease, tension. I can also suggest, depends everyone's different, but I can suggest breath work as well. Do you do breath work?

Speaker 2 (01:29:57):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):

Yeah. And I can also recommend emotional release. And so something as simple as shaking, shaking out the tension, shaking out the anxiety, shaking out fear. You ever see little kids stomp their feet, have a tantrum from screaming to a pillow? That's all emotional release. And that's a way of moving energy to come into more of the present. And so doing that even for two minutes can make a big difference. One of my favorites is the hand screen.

Speaker 2 (01:30:44):

You hit

Speaker 1 (01:30:45):

The hand over and you blow and you shake. And when you shake, you move your hips too. So those three things are things I can think of that are not substances or supplements in that regard. There may be some other data out there about it, but those three things are what come to my mind. And if you're specifically looking at for cannabis, CBD, there seems to be a number of recent articles on Google from this year and last year that talk a bit about it. I could also suggest trying to connect with a cannabis society or cannabis organization, or maybe even Reddit that might be able to give some feedback about cannabis and CBD specifically. But I personally do not at this time.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):

Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:31:56):

Thank you. Yeah, thank you for the question. Great question. Anyone or anything else? Cool. Well thanks so much everybody. We went three minutes over our scheduled time. If anything else, feel free to reach out. I will be emailing the slides as well as a recording of this talk. And yeah, you'll also be added to my newsletter and if you don't want to be, just let me know or unsubscribe. Cool. Thanks everybody.