UNVEILED: exploring psychedelics and spirituality

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Houman Farzin has recently started the first legal treatments of physician-supervised home-based psilocybin-assisted therapy in Montreal, Canada. He is a lecturer at McGill University medical school, where he earned his medical degree and trained as a family physician. Check out Dr. Houman's music here - https://open.spotify.com/artist/2fXgrHYdakpvTIGHpNSz30?si=32GB_FtVRtC-Ui8fZQNGRQ also check out www.Gatheringgroups.ca for online group work to prepare you for plant medicine journeys. hosted by Peg Peters

Leor Roseman is a postdoc at the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, where he also received his PhD and MRes; under the supervision of Dr Robin Carhart-Harris and Prof David Nutt. His research interests are diverse and cover neuroscientific, phenomenological, therapeutic, and psychosocial aspects of psychedelic use. Currently, Leor is investigating relational processes and group dynamics in psychedelic rituals. His main line of research is examining the potential of psychedelics for peacebuilding. This podcast is hosted by Peg Peters, Founder of GatheringGroups.ca an online resilience course to prepare people for group journeys.

Dr. Sandra Parker is a Registered Psychologist living in Vancouver who, for over 30 years, has helped people turn toward their inner experience with compassion. Her new book, Embracing Unrest: Harness Vulnerability to Tame Anxiety and Spark Growth, which invites people to tune in to “unrest”: a spike of nervous system activation that heralds vulnerability. We talk about how psychedelics and especially group work can help us regulate our nervous system prior to any active medicine session. hosted by Peg Peters check out www.GatheringGroups.ca for information on group work.

Four Arrows (Wahinkpe Topa) aka Dr. Don Trent Jacobs is faculty in the School of Leadership Studies at Fielding Graduate University. We talk about the kinship or indigenous worldview in contrast to the dominant worldview and how trance-based learning or altered-state knowing (psychedelic) is essential to restore in our modern world if we are to heal as a species and restore our connections to ourselves, others and the biosphere.

Dr. Erika Dyck, Professor, Canada Research Chair in the History of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan explores the cutting edge research in the 1950's and 1960's that was happening in Canada using psychedelic therapy. Her latest book, The Acid Room: Psychedelic Trials and Tribulations of Hollywood Hospital explores the story of more than 6000 supervised acid trips, as part of the burgeoning (and controversial) field of psychedelic psychiatry in Vancouver Canada. https://www.amazon.ca/Acid-Room-Psychedelic-Tribulations-Hollywood/dp/1772141860 for group integration work check out www.GatheringGroups.ca Also check out www.TheraPsil.ca peg peters

Dr. Darcia Narvaez, professor of Psychology at Notre Dame, talks about her new book, Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth. We explore the insights that this worldview framework has to offer those interested in using plant-medicines to help bring balance healing to our world. https://darcianarvaez.com/ https://www.kindredmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/Worldview-Chart-Starry-Sky-12-2021-FINAL.pdf For more information on psychedelics and the Canadian court challenge to gain legal access to these healing medicines check out check out https://therapsil.ca/ check out my website for resources on group-work and integration - www.GatheringGroups.ca Peg Peters Host UNVEILED

Dr. Mark Haden, was the Executive Director of MAPS Canada (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) for 10 years and now is the Vice President of Business Development for Clearmind Medicine. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health. He is one of the top drug reform policy experts in Canada and is an outspoken advocate for creating accessible programs for psychedelic therapy. https://markhaden.com/?page_id=7 https://therapsil.ca/

Dr. William Richards is one of the God-Fathers of the psychedelic movement having conducted thousands of sessions with patients throughout his 60 years of research. Bill is a psychologist in the Psychiatry Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Bayview Medical Center. He has agreed to be an expert witness in the Canadian Charter Challenge case on behalf of Therapcil and the cancer patients who are seeking legal access to this medicine. This conversation is absolutely amazing. check out the Johns Hopkins psychedelic research center here - https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/ also go to www.therapcil.ca to donate to the Charter Challenge

Dr. Ingrid Pacey is a psychiatrist who was trained in the therapeutic use of LSD in the 1960's. She shares her personal story of her first psychedelic experience and how that changed her life. She talks about LSD, MDMA, mushrooms and Holotropic breathwork, her training with Stan Grof and why these substances are so key at this moment in history.

Dr. Bruce Tobin, is a retired psychologist and president and founder of Therapcil. He shares his own personal story of how he used psilocybin to treat his depression and cancer diagnosis and why he believes these substances are such important tools for therapists. check out www.therapcil.ca

Thomas Hartle has terminal cancer and was the first Canadian to legally use psilocybin (magic mushrooms) to treat his end of life anxiety with a therapist. He was granted a Section 56 exemption from Health Canada two years ago. He says the one time treatment changed his life and gave him a contentment and a joy that he has never had before. He is joined by his hospice worker John Simpson who has journeyed with Thomas for the past few years. They tell the story of transformation and how this treatment could help thousands of other Canadians who are suffering. Go to www.Therapcil.ca to donate to the Charter Challenge. Peg Peters is the host of his podcast series.

Jim Doswell is a former federal treaty negotiator with First Nations in B.C, Canada. who applied for a ministerial exemption to use psilocybin to aid in his therapy for PTSD. This is his story. Jim Doswell is now on the Board of Therapsil helping give leadership. Check out www.Therapsil.ca to donate to help with the Charter Challenge

'Tell me what you fear and I will tell you what has happened to you' DW Winnicott. Charlotte Jackson is a registered clinical counsellor working in Vancouver and is advocating for the rights of Canadian patients to gain legal access to Psilocybin for therapeutic use. Charlotte Jackson can be found at http://www.charlottejackson.ca/about To donate and support this Charter Challenge please check out. https://therapsil.ca/

Laurie Brooks, a mother of four, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and heard about a cutting edge new treatment for end of life anxiety. Laurie and her therapist, Dave Phillips, join us on the podcast to talk about the changes she experienced from this amazing therapy model that they want made available to all Canadians. Check out Laurie's Blog - https://www.lauriesplace.ca/ Also go to https://therapsil.ca/ for more information on the Charter Challenge.

Canadians in medical need do not have safe, legal, equitable or timely access to medical psilocybin and psilocybin therapy. This urgently needs to change. To solve this, patients are taking the federal government to court. Today on the podcast we have Paul Lewin, https://lewinsagara.ca/lawyers/ a lawyer who is helping head up a Charter Challenge case on behalf of end of life cancer patients in Canada who are seeking legal access to Psilocybin for end of life anxiety through a doctor. If patients have the "Right to Die" in Canada shouldn't they have the "Right to Try" mushrooms as a way of relieving their fears and anxiety. Check out the website below to donate to help this court case. https://therapsil.ca/

Another little twist of focus as Peg and I begin to talk about what a Christian faith could look like AFTER we've walked away from Christianity. How can we have a Christian spirituality without capitulating our core values? And, can magic mushrooms actually be seen as a ritual in this sort of church community? These are just some of the questions and topics Peg and I explore. Also, check out Peg's new webpage, www.psychedelicjesus.ca

We were so excited about our first "guest" interview. Jodi is a long time friend of us both and my teaching partner training therapists in safely using psilocybin in therapy. She is a gifted therapist with specialties in eating disorders and working with women toward experiencing their inner power and connection to the divine feminine. She is a wife, mom and grandmother. She has sooo much wisdom to share and we hope you enjoy this conversation a much as we did.

In our second podcast of season 2, we unveil Dave's journey from traditional to psychedelic therapist.

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

On this podcast Dave and Peg discuss the growing number of people who identify as “Spiritual but not Religious”. These folks are looking for a place to connect and share their lives. Could Nexus 2.0 fill that gap and help people integrate the deep healing that is happening with plant medicines?

In this second episode of our series on psychedelics we feature part of an interview with Francoise Bourzat. She is the author of Consciousness Medicine: Indigenous Wisdom, Entheogens, and Expanded States of Consciousness for Healing and Growth. Trained both as a Shaman in Mexico and as a therapist working with the researchers at UCLA, Francoise is one of the most experienced guides in the world.

In our third episode in the series on psychedelics we feature an interview with Dr. Bill Richards who is one of the lead researchers at Johns Hopkins university leading the team doing Psychedelic clinical trials for the past 20 years. He also developed the official playlist used for these trips. We explore concepts of spirituality and how plants have been used for thousands of years to alter consciousness and provide wisdom and healing.

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

In 2004, a number of us formed a faith community called neXus. We were trying to reformulate, deconstruct and critically examine our Christian/Evangelical spirituality. We had a good run, eventually ceasing formal services in 2017. During that time, a number of songs came to be very important to me and Peg...we thought we would take a look at a few of these. We decided to start with Brandon Flowers' (The Killers) anthem Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas. We actually planned for this to be a 20 minute conversation and it morphed into an hour long experience for the both of us. As during our first encounter with this anthem, we were struck with the idea of coming to terms with our own mortality, and therein finding, among other things, life. I hope you enjoy. Dave

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

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

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

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

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