Faces of 5: Stories with Substance

Naran describes returning to 5-MeO-DMT with chad after a previous experience in a less-than-supportive container left him terrified of both the medicine and life itself. That early experience initiated a two year journey of constant fear, panic, disregulation. Even hearing the medicine mentioned could send him into panic, yet he knew that avoiding it was not resolving what had been opened.Naran reflects on the original experience as ending in an overwhelming contraction despite it being a profound state of liberation. He says that contrast was deeply destabilising and the facilitator was not able to hold him adequately. For roughly two years he lived with reactivations, fear, and a sense of being hunted by something he could not escape. Although he had tools and resources, he says that although they soothed him, they did not resolve what remained unfinished.What allowed him to return to the medicine was a different context: a gentler, more gradual approach, one-on-one contact, time with the facilitator, and a stronger sense of safety and connection. He describes the first session with chad as giving him courage, and the second as the real crossing—meeting the fear, feeling it fully, and finding safety within it. He says that the completion accomplished in that process was due to a softening, a growing trust, and the sense that he could finally stop.He now speaks about fear as a teacher that calls him forward rather than something to avoid. That shift shapes how he works with others: with empathy, with safety, and with a willingness to stay with whatever is happening. He says the return to 5 with chad taught him the power to relax into intensity, to soften reactions, and to gently unravel contractions rather than turn away from them.__________chad charles is a practitioner, educator, and mentor specializing in 5-MeO-DMT. Since 2016, he has worked exclusively in this field, developing a practice-based understanding of these experiences through direct facilitation, practitioner training, and ongoing research. He works one-on-one with individuals in therapy-assisted contexts, supports people around the world through integration calls, and guides practitioners through mentorship and training. A large, detailed body of documented sessions since 2020 informs targeted research initiatives, with a focus on clarity, precision, and lived data. His private practice operates in Toronto and Montreal. Learn more at chadcharles.net

In this episode, chad speaks with Carly Rae about the 5-MeO-DMT sessions they did together beginning in 2018, and how those experiences fit into the larger arc of her life. Carly Rae now lives in northern British Columbia with her partner, where they have bought 80 acres and are building a retreat centre. Her work has expanded into women’s health and equine therapy, and she describes her current life as something she could not previously have imagined for herself.Looking back, Carly Rae says she first came to this work during one of the hardest periods of her life, in the aftermath of a highly publicized tragedy that involved her brother. She describes her initial intention as wanting to “rewire” her brain after experiencing depression and suicidal ideation for the first time. Rather than bringing immediate relief, her first 5-MeO-DMT session (also her first guided psychedelic session) opened a much harder process. She says it brought patterns and repressed memories to the surface and that life became more difficult afterward. Even so, she sees that difficulty as necessary.Over time, she says the multiple sessions helped remove layers of amnesia, and bring her into contact with both deeply personal material and broader patterns of repression and violation. She describes the early sessions as feeling like she was being forced into submission, while later sessions showed her that the same experience did not have to come through terror and intensity but rather surrender. She speaks about learning that the same medicine, over time, could also be experienced through bliss, and about choosing not to return to the same old patterns of being “hammered by life.”Carly Rae also reflects on the importance for her of doing this work privately with a man. She says the sessions were deeply vulnerable and intimate, and that being held by a man through such intense experiences helped reshape how she relates to and trusts the masculine. She connects this directly to material around sexual abuse that surfaced in the process. Eight years later, she says the words “all is well” have stayed with her throughout everything, and that 5-MeO-DMT remains one of the greatest gifts in helping free her mind and soul.____________chad charles is a practitioner, educator, and mentor specializing in 5-MeO-DMT. Since 2016, he has worked exclusively in this field, developing a practice-based understanding of these experiences through direct facilitation, practitioner training, and ongoing research. He works one-on-one with individuals in therapy-assisted contexts, supports people around the world through integration calls, and guides practitioners through mentorship and training. A large, detailed body of documented sessions since 2020 informs targeted research initiatives, with a focus on clarity, precision, and lived data. His private practice operates in Toronto and Montreal. Learn more at chadcharles.net

In this episode, chad speaks with YZ about her first 5-MeO-DMT experience. Despite prior work with meditation retreats and other psychedelics, she found those insights did not last. What remained was an intuitive pull toward a different kind of encounter—one grounded a contemporary context, and one-to-one support.YZ reflects on her hesitation around traditional medicine settings, particularly the tension between lineage, tourism, and authenticity. She was drawn instead to an individualized format, where the presence of the guide became central the experience. For her, that relational support allowed something deeper to unfold—something she could not access in a group setting.She describes the session as profoundly paradoxical: both terrifying and deeply peaceful. Through the metaphor of an ice cube melting into water, she captures the shift from a rigid sense of self to something more fluid and expansive—losing form, but not essence.In the aftermath, YZ speaks to a lasting change in how she relates to herself and the world. What had once been conceptual became directly experienced. She describes less judgment, greater fluidity, and a new baseline in daily life—framing the experience not as an endpoint, but as the beginning of an ongoing process.________chad charles is a practitioner, educator, and mentor specializing in 5-MeO-DMT. Since 2016, he has worked exclusively in this field, developing a practice-based understanding of these experiences through direct facilitation, practitioner training, and ongoing research. He works one-on-one with individuals in therapy-assisted contexts, supports people around the world through integration calls, and guides practitioners through mentorship and training. A large, detailed body of documented sessions since 2020 informs targeted research initiatives, with a focus on clarity, precision, and lived data. His private practice operates in Toronto and Montreal. Learn more at chadcharles.net________Timestamps:00:00 Introduction & How YZ Chose 5-MeO-DMT04:44 From Traditional Lineages to Modern Containers07:35 Power of One-on-One Guidance & Support10:23 Paradox of Terror and Infinite Love14:55 Seeing Love in Everything After the Session18:06 Actualization of Prior Spiritual Work & Behavioral Shifts23:13 Self-Love as Love for All That Exists Within You25:44 The Ice Cube Metaphor: Identity Melting into Vastness29:44 Bravery, Empowerment, and Deeper Truth32:18 Sharing the Ineffable & Guidance for Others35:50 An Ongoing, Never-Ending Journey