What Meditation Misses: Circling, Psychedelics & Tantric Awakening | Andrew Venezia

Andrew Louis Venezia is a meditation and Circling teacher, coach, and writer based in Amsterdam, whose work presents Circling and related practices as a path of Tantric awakening and integration. After experiencing a life-changing encounter with Awakened Interbeing during a retreat for his Master's degree cohort, Andrew embarked on a three-year research project exploring the intersection of relational practice and awakening. It was during this period that he discovered Circling.He has since dedicated his life to weaving Circling together with the classical Tantric paths of Vajrayana Buddhism and Nondual Shaiva Tantra, as well as modern, embodied approaches to psychological wellbeing. With more than a decade of teaching and deep engagement with many approaches to growth, healing, development, and awakening, Andrew has come to see this as the most integrative path available — one that meets the head, the heart, and the body at once, and allows for a seamless, nondual expression of form and formlessness, self and other, awakening and embodied life.He recently released "What It's Like to Be You" — a book that unpacks Circling through the lens of Tantric awakening, available for free on his website.In this conversation, we explore Andrew's early mystical experiences and how meditation helped him integrate them, the relationship between psychedelics and meditation, what Circling is and why we practice it, and the Tantric view of transformation — and why Andrew believes it is the most skillful approach for the world we are walking into.We also get into mistaking states for realization, taking awakening off the cushion, authenticity and paradox, Awakened Interbeing, and how Circling and meditation complement each other, whether Circling can reach a wider audience and contribute to meaningful societal change, and how Circling can help us have better political conversations.A rich and wide-ranging conversation at the intersection of meditation, Circling, psychedelics, and Tantric awakening — for anyone ready to go beyond solo practice into something more relational, embodied, and comprehensive. 🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES 🔗Andrew's personal site Get Andrew's book "What It's Like to Be You" — free What is Circling? — Artem Zen Beyond Spiritual Idealization with Delson Armstrong Uptrusting social network🕰️ TIMESTAMPS 🕰️0:00 - Introduction3:11 - Early experiences of awakening, meditation, psychedelics, studying integral, and discovering We Space practice and interbeing14:45 - Navigating spiritual experiences as a child21:54 - Mistaking states for realization27:44 - Integrating spiritual experiences through meditation35:08 - Psychedelics vs meditation47:11 - Being an integrationist and taking realization off the cushion52:32 - What is Circling and why do we practice it?1:01:38 - Authenticity, paradox and construction1:06:05 - Navigating resistance to Circling1:07:45 - Awakened interbeing — integrating Circling and meditation1:16:28 - A moment to recollect and recalibrate1:18:10 - What is a Tantric view and why Circling is a Tantric practice1:25:50 - Is Circling a fringe practice or does it have potential to become mainstream?1:34:52 - The challenge and promise of Circling1:39:10 - Towards an integral world and how Circling can help us have better political conversations1:43:02 - Integrating truth and love through Circling1:47:43 - Final thoughts*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast *Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional