PT554 – The Hero's Journey: Finding Your Story in Psychedelic Healing, with Mareesa Stertz
Oct 8, 2024
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Mareesa Stertz, a filmmaker and co-founder of Lucid News, dives into her personal journey of healing through psychedelics. She shares insights from her seven ayahuasca trips, revealing how she discovered the impact of 'little t' traumas. Mareesa discusses the Hero’s Journey as a method for self-awareness and the importance of storytelling in healing. She also introduces her artistic projects, including immersive Sphinx installations for Burning Man, aimed at fostering deep connections and meaningful experiences.
Mareesa Stertz reflects on her extensive experiences with ayahuasca, ultimately recognizing the subtle yet profound nature of psychedelic healing rather than expecting dramatic breakthroughs.
She emphasizes the importance of community support, illustrating how connections within psychedelic circles foster emotional growth and belonging during one's healing journey.
Drawing parallels to the Hero's Journey, Stertz highlights how life crises serve as catalysts for transformation, enabling individuals to articulate and embrace their stories of resilience.
Deep dives
The Journey of Self-Discovery and Storytelling
Marisa Sturtz shares her personal journey of exploring storytelling through film, emphasizing her realization that she has a meaningful story to tell. She initially struggled with self-doubt, believing she wasn't a storyteller even though she had a background in theater and video journalism. Her transformative experiences with psychedelics inspired her to document her self-discovery process, particularly focusing on her challenges with ayahuasca. Through her research, she uncovers the concept of 'little T trauma', shedding light on how pervasive yet often overlooked traumas affect people's lives.
Redefining Psychedelic Experiences
Sturtz provides an honest perspective on her experiences with ayahuasca, stating that, despite numerous attempts, she did not have the breakthroughs others spoke of. She describes these experiences as frustrating and likens the effects to food poisoning rather than spiritual revelations. However, she recontextualizes this by suggesting that the medicine consistently works, albeit in subtle ways, as it gradually chips away at the emotional barriers built from stress and unprocessed experiences. This insight reinforces the idea that healing through psychedelics is often a slow and complex journey.
Community and Role Models in Healing
Sturtz emphasizes the importance of community and healthy role models in the healing process. Reflecting on her past, she notes a lack of emotionally balanced influences in her life and recognizes the impact this had on her journey. The connections she found within psychedelic communities provided her with a sense of belonging and support, crucial for personal growth. Through her work with the Global Psychedelic Society, she aims to foster spaces for open dialogue and community building, highlighting that sharing stories of struggle can greatly benefit those still grappling with their challenges.
The Framework of the Hero's Journey
Sturtz draws parallels between personal transformations and the structure of the hero's journey, positing that life crises can serve as initiation points for growth. She discusses how this framework, identified by Joseph Campbell, resonates with many people's experiences, particularly within the context of psychedelics. By creating a storytelling framework, she helps others articulate their journeys, focusing on who they were before a significant event, what that event was, and how it changed them. This model empowers individuals to see their struggles as vital to their growth, promoting resilience and transformation.
Art and Healing at Burning Man
Sturtz reveals her ambitious plan to bring the Sphinxes from 'The NeverEnding Story' to Burning Man, viewing this project as a chance to create an immersive, transformative art experience. The installation will encourage participants to confront their self-worth and personal narratives while embodying the concept of emotional intelligence. By facilitating interaction between the art and visitors, the project aims to enhance communal experiences and individual healing. Through this endeavor, Sturtz hopes to develop a culture that celebrates healing, inviting collaboration from various artists and performers to contribute to the mission.
In this episode, Joe interviews Mareesa Stertz: lead of strategy/communications at the Global Psychedelic Society, co-founder of Lucid News, and filmmaker, currently finalizing her second feature film, “Confessions of a Psychonaut.”
She discusses her path to wanting to create the film: how she always felt like something was wrong with her but didn’t know exactly how to start her healing path, how seven ayahuasca trips didn’t give her the breakthrough experience she wanted, and how she realized over time that she didn’t have a hidden moment of trauma to overcome, but rather, lots of “little t” trauma – something that a lot of us have, without necessarily knowing it. She saw the true power of people sharing their stories of becoming healthier, and has found that aligning our stories to the classic framework of the Hero’s Journey and Carl Jung’s concept of individuation is the perfect formula for self-awareness, growth, and finding more meaning in life.
She talks about:
How the Hero’s Journey makes sense of the abyss, and how the abyss helps us to see how much we’ve been programmed
Her formula for a good story: who you were before the event, the event, and how it changed you
Her Sphinx project, where she aims to bring giant sphinxes (from “The NeverEnding Story”) to Burning Man, as a way for people to determine if they are “worthy”
Her “Talk Box” art installation, which involves strangers meeting in a confession booth to engage in meaningful conversations based on a wheel of questions
The power of group coherence and how much stronger a healing container can become over time
and more!
Stertz is offering a course on finding where the Hero’s Journey is in each of our lives: “Emerge: A Journey of Self-Authorship” begins on October 29. Click here for more info.
