94: Facing the Shadow

In shamanic culture facing the shadow means confronting the issues pushed down and away from the light. Psychospiritual maturity is the ability to stand in the presence of yourself and see what traumas influence your behaviour. Someone who knows that well is consciousness researcher, writer and podcaster James W. Jesso, author of "Decomposing the Shadow: Lessons from the Psilocybin Mushroom". Jesso has faced his own shadow, and come out the other side. Join Jesso and experiential journalist Rak Razam as they talk about the use of psilocybin as a healing modality, and the counterpointing McKenna-flavored 'cosmic mushroom' paradigm. Is the psychological model for psilocybin more useful for global culture in need of spiritual healing? What about the reported ability of psilocybin as a language catalyst? Or for neurogenesis and improving interconnectivity in the brain? How does that affect language, syntax and symbolism, and the physiological basis of our consciousness? If language comes from the necessity to convey information, is our language evolving to help map the realms entheogens take us to? Is the mycelium network connecting us to larger networks of consciousness across space and time? For more info see: http://www.jameswjesso.com If you want to experience an authentic and integral ayahuasca retreat in Peru, join author Rak Razam in Peru on an ongoing series of intensive ayahuasca retreats with curandero Percy Garcia, and in April 2015 a 3-shaman tour with Percy, Ron Wheelock and Borku Cafuk: http://www.aya-awakenings.com/retreats This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.