Over the course of my life, I’ve cultivated quite an intimate relationship with both addiction as well as depression. 

For whatever reason, be it karma, genetic predisposition, the environment I grew up in, I seem to have been born with, or perhaps acquired, what I call an “addictive personality”. 

I struggled with depression on and off throughout my late teens and early twenties and also found myself grappling with cocaine addiction, addiction to stimulants, alcoholism, obsessive compulsive disorder and an extremely disordered and addictive relationship with food, primarily in the form of binge eating disorder and bulimia. I had chronic obsessive thoughts about my body weight, food, what I should or shouldn’t be eating, how much I shouldn’t be eating and then eating too much and wishing I hadn’t. 

I’ve been on quite a healing journey these past 15 years of my life. At the very core of my quest for my own healing was a strong determination to help others who we’re struggling like I was. I felt so alone in my struggle; so  utterly disconnected. 

I started reading books from spiritual teachers, particularly by Pema Chödrön who I still consider to be one of my most cherished Dharma teachers in my life, who opened a doorway of light within my heart to seek out my healing by coming out of my dark, isolated cocoon and reach out to connect with other human beings in a heartfelt way.  

The moment I heard that Michael Pollen was coming out with a book about psychedelics, I knew it was the time to make my move, go public and come out of the ayahuasca closet. I had been patiently waiting, listening and praying for a sign to let me know the time was right and I knew this was exactly it. 

The release of “How to Change Your Mind What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence” speaks volumes to a newfound cultural openness to psychedelic research that is too valuable to continue to be ignored. 

We will look back on this moment at some point in the future and recognize the magnitude of importance it has, marking a distinct moment in time within the larger framework of this cultural psychedelic renaissance that is currently underfoot, and now moving above ground at a much swifter pace. 

Psychedelics are finally no longer taboo and the propaganda campaigns advocating the “war on drugs” from the 60’s are finally fading in the distant past. 

Massive and growing subsets of the population are highly interested in the science and the research behind psychedelics and their use to help treat a wide range of pathologies plaguing our culture, as well as exploring their use as incredibly valuable tools to explore the dimensions of our consciousness. 

The people who work closely with psychedelics understand just how important these tools are to help us understand our psyche, our subconscious mind, and our consciousness. It’s no small statement when Stanislav Grof, M.D, who’s lead over 4000 LSD psychotherapy assisted sessions wrote in his book LSD psychotherapy:

“…it does not seem to be an exaggeration to say that psychedelics, used responsibly and with proper caution, would be for psychiatry what the microscope is for biology and medicine or the telescope is for astronomy.”