Life is a Festival

Does your inner world sometimes feels like a squabbling family, always reacting to the outside experience and to itself? You’re not alone. In fact there’s an entire style of therapy that specifically seeks to bring harmony to our Internal Family Systems. As part of the inner work I undertook over this winter, I had the honor of working with IFS founder Richard Schwartz. After a series of sessions, we recorded this podcast to share what we learned together. On the show Dick explains the Internal Family Systems model, from the way our different “parts” interact, to how our fundamental Self can create harmony and healing within the system. We explore the process of IFS healing and the shamanic experience of unburdening core wounds. We discuss the unique and potent pairing of psychedelics and IFS and why this model is so helpful in intimate relationships. Trained as a systemic family therapist and academic, Richard Schwartz developed Internal Family systems in the 80s. He is also the founder of the Center for Self Leadership, now called the IFS institute and the author of a number of books and papers. His forthcoming book “No Bad Parts” comes out this year. IFS Institute: https://ifs-institute.com/ TIMESTAMPS :06 - Dick gives his “parts” a prep talks and describes “parts,” the “Self,” and the “8 Cs of Self Leadership” :11 - Hindu Mythology, the Odyssey, and inner children :19 - Three different kinds of parts: exiles, managers, and firefighters :23 - The process and goals of IFS therapy :37 - Unburdening wounded parts :45 - IFS and psychedelics :56 - IFS in intimate relationships

To succeed as artists, the muse must find us working, but how do we maintain the play and passion that lit our creative fire to begin with? Today’s guest, the delightful Autumn Skye, is a luminary in the Visionary Art world and a true artist of the creative life itself. On the show we discuss Autumn’s artistic childhood and how she developed her craft. We talk about the gap between vision and ability, light and shadow in the Visionary Art world and using art as a tool for weathering difficult times. All along the way, Autumn models the whimsy and play that breathes life into her paintings and shows us how to find balance in creative work. A self-taught artist, Autumn lives and works in the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. She teaches and exhibits worldwide and is passionate about supporting other creators in the Visionary Art world and beyond. Links Website: https://autumnskyeart.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/autumnskyearts/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autumnskyeart/ Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AutumnSkyeART Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/autumnskye Artique Artists’ Cooperative: https://artiquebc.ca/ Timestamps :07 - An artistic childhood :12 - The balance of work and play in creative endeavor :19 - The gap between vision and ability :27 - The light and shadow in visionary art :37 - Art as a tool for difficult times :41 - The Artique Gallery and community of artists :46 - How to avoid deadening the creative process :55 - The dance of play and work

This week the Life is a Festival Saturday Club continues with the second installment of Healing New Age Narcissism. Alex Ebert, enigmatic frontman of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros returns with his ideas for “Refestivalizing Spirituality.” On the show Alex gives us a robust history of the dark side of New Age thought from the Law of Attraction to the Power of Positive Thinking to the Secret. We talk about the problems with Burning Man and the liberating power of celebrating death. Finally we discuss how we can refestivalize our spiritual culture through communal effort. The show also features insight from returning panel guests and members of the audience. Turquoise shares her thoughts on partying with a purpose, Arjuna provides a parallel history through the Human Potential Movement, and Jamie Wheal reads from his forthcoming book Recapture the Rapture. Alex Ebert is a musician, activist, and increasingly a philosopher. He is best known as the lead singer and songwriter for Ima Robot and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. He won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for the film All Is Lost in 2014. Check out his instagram where he is increasingly posting interesting and hilarious social commentary. Links Alex’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alex_ebert Timestamps :09 - The most philosophical emoji is the shrug :15 - The permissiveness of a naked parent :20 - The history of New Age Narcissism :32 - The shadow side of Burning Man :45 - Alex’s ideas for refestivalizing spirituality :51 - Turquoise shares about pulling into purpose with a party :55 - Arjuna provides parallel trajectory of Human Potential movement 1:01 - Alex talks about celebrating death: “Yes my destruction!” 1:15 - Jamie Wheal talks about the connection between narcissism and nihilism 1:23 - Jazz, who built the Burning Man temple in 2015 shares the power of humor 1:29 - Jamie shares a reading from Recapture the Rapture

The Life is a Festival Saturday Show on Clubhouse is heating up! This week, Jamie Wheal joined in place of Alex Ebert who had a tooth infection, but we ended up getting Alex too! We also had a guest appearance from the psychedelic luminary Erik Davis, as well as musician and community leader Turquoise Sound. On the show we define narcissism and bemoan the worrying prevalence of dark triad personality types in transformational communities. We speak of the importance of history and eldership and extol the virtues of public criticism and humor. Alex gives us a brief history of the Power of Positive thinking and then we open the floor for questions. Jamie is the bestselling author of Stealing Fire, his upcoming book is called Recapture the Rapture and you can hear his show by the same name on Clubhouse on Friday’s at 1pm pst. This Saturday at 10am PST, we’ll do Part 2 with Alex Ebert where we’ll learn how to go about “refestivalizing” spirituality. Timestamps :12 - Have you ever wondered that you might be a narcissist? :22 - The importance of history and eldership from psychedelic academic Erik Davis :29 - Turquoise Sound asks about dark triad personality types and Jamie reads from Recapture the Rapture :40 - Erik Davis extols the virtues of public criticism and humor :45 - Alex Ebert shares a history The Law of Attraction :55 - We open the floor for questions

I’ve gotten a lot of requests through the Life is a Festival survey to interview large-scale installation artists. Well, today we’re going to hear from one of the biggest: Daniel Popper, the South African creator of Tulum yogis and Boom shamans. On the show we go deep into Daniel’s creative process and what it takes to build big art. We discuss instagram culture, Disney World, and building with bronze. Finally Daniel offers his advice to young artists. Daniel is a multidisciplinary installation artist from Cape Town. He has produced iconic sculptures for festivals around the world including Electric Forest in the US, Boom Festival in Portugal, Rainbow Serpent in Australia, and Afrikaburn in South Africa. His next big upcoming project is the ‘Human+Nature’ Exhibition at the Morton Arboretum in Chicago this April. Links Daniel Popper: https://www.danielpopper.com/ Daniel Popper on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielpopper/?hl=en ‘Human+Nature’ Exhibition: https://secretchicago.com/human-nature-morton-arboretum/ Life is a Festival Survey: http://bitly.com/festival-survey Timestamps :10 - How Daniel starting making large-scale art :14 - Daniel’s creative process :22 - How to get started making big art :26 - Why has Daniel’s work captured people’s attention now? :35 - What medium is next for Daniel to explore :40 - Advice to young artists

As the Psychedelic Renaissance heats up, people are experiencing spiritual emergence left and right. At times like these we need a healthy dose of a healthier dose. Luckily Dr. Molly stopped by the Life is a Festival Club on Clubhouse to share her wisdom. 
 On the show we talk about harm reduction, pseudo-shamanism, and the unfortunate prevalence of bad medicine. We discuss how to prepare your body before a psychedelic experience and how to manage a difficult integration after. We talk nootropics, nutrition, and the current understanding of neurotoxicity. Life is a Festival favorite Jamie Wheal stops by to caution against ontological addiction and we go into an hour of wide-ranging questions from the room. Dr. Molly Maloof is a physician, an entrepreneur a medical advisor, a Ketamine practitioner, and a Stanford lecturer. She has advised over 42 companies throughout the world and has lectured extensively. You can catch her with Dr. David Rabin on the Psychedelic News Hour on Fridays at 11:30 am PST on ClubHouse. Dr. Molly is also the first person I ever interviewed for this podcast! If you’re on iPhone, you can stop by the Life is a Festival Clubhouse and chat with our community on Saturday mornings. Links Dr. Molly: https://drmolly.co/ Psychedelic News Hour: https://www.psychedelicnewshour.com/ Dr Molly on Life is a Festival: https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/dr-molly How Silicon Valley rediscovered LSD: https://www.ft.com/content/0a5a4404-7c8e-11e7-ab01-a13271d1ee9c Integration resources: MAPS Psychedelic Integration List: https://integration.maps.org/ Psychedelic.Support Community Directory: https://psychedelic.support/community-directory/ TRIPP Network: https://trippnetwork.co.uk/ Timestamps: :13 - Harm reduction for macrodosing in 2017 :20 - Be careful about pseudo-shamanism and bad medicine :24 - Cleansing and preparing your body before a psychedelic experience :32 - Molly discusses her own experience with spiritual emergence :41 - Molly shares her advice for me :46 - Nootropics for stress and anxiety :51 - Exercise for mental health :55 - Is MDMA neurotoxic and is Ketamine-assisted therapy right for my Mom? 1:02 - Jamie Wheel hops on to talk about ontological addiction 1:14 - Questions 1: How do we integrate when we don’t have a therapist available? 1:20 - Question 2: Neurotoxicity of ketamine? 1:26 - Question 3: Additional thoughts on neurotoxicity of MDMA 1:28 - Question 4: Are ketamine clinics safe? 1:34 - Question 5: What helps focus and concentration? 1:39 - Question 6: Psychedelic wellness for hospital staff and those who can’t afford it 1:50 - Question 7: How to think about the general building blocks of wellness

The great LSD psychiatrist Stanislav Grof referred to the collection of cognitive, emotional, and spiritual disturbances that can follow a powerful psychedelic experience as a “spiritual emergence.” He saw this an evolutionary crisis rather than a mental disease. So how do we know if we are in a soul’s initiation or simply a Sisyphean loop of our tormented mind? Like many of us in this difficult pandemic winter, I have been going through my own dark night, so I called up one of my favorite iboga experts, Dr. Joseph Barsuglia to understand how to navigate my experience. On the show, we discuss initiation through the lens of the powerful plant medicine iboga and the Bwiti tradition in Africa. We explore where it might be appropriate to turn to psychotropic medication for stability during protracted healing. We also talk about how to understand the liminal space of transformation and when healing is complete. Finally we review various ways to find refuge and solace in these difficult times. Joseph is a PhD neuropsychologist and was the Director of Clinical Assessment and Research the former iconic ibogaine facility, Crossroads Treatment Center. Trained with MAPS and initiated in the Bwiti tradition in Gabon, Joseph advises on psychedelic medicine and alternative healthcare. He first appeared on Life is a Festival with his partner Tricia Eastman on episode 41: “Iboga, the Mount Everest of Psychedelics.” Joseph Barsuglia: https://www.josephbarsuglia.com/ MAPS Integration List: https://integration.maps.org/ Psychedelic Support: https://psychedelic.support/community-directory/ The Aware Project: http://awareproject.org/ “Iboga, the Mount Everest of Psychedelics” - https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/tricia-eastman-dr-joseph-barsuglia Life is a Festival Survey: https://bit.ly/festival-survey Timestamps: :10 - Neuropsychology in the context of psychedelic experiences :18 - Initiation through the lens of the plant medicine Iboga and the Bwiti tradition :36 - When in a protracted initiatory experience, is it wise to use psychotropic medication to cope? :54 - When is our healing process over? 1:05 - Other ways to find refuge and solace in difficult times

The image of the QAnon Shaman in the United States Senate is the perfect symbol of how unfortunate members of the psychedelic community have fallen down QAnon trapdoor during this pandemic. Today on the show Erik Davis, renowned psychedelic author and wizard of the weird, returns to Life is a Festival to address the worrying trend of “conspirituality” and what we can do to inoculate ourselves against it. On the show we discuss the metaphysical mud that can flow in psychedelic experiences. Erik acknowledges his ethical responsibility to help foster discernment and shares tools we can use to protect ourselves and each other. We explore our own vulnerabilities to conspiracy thinking and discuss the practice of “withering self-observation.” Finally we rap about the evolution of the Life is a Festival philosophy for these difficult times. Erik is journalist, author, and public speaker. His is best known for his works Techgnosis and High Weirdness, as well as his essays on Burning Man and the human potential movement. He is also the author of Burning Shore, a sub stack that I high recommend subscribing to. This is his second time on the show after his appearance extolling the virtues of psychedelic weirdness on episode 23, Keep Psychedelics Weird. Links Burning Shore Substack: https://www.burningshore.com/ High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BT6DBKT Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information: https://techgnosis.com/ Keep Psychedelics Weird: https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/erik-davis The Emergence of Conspirituality: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537903.2011.539846?journalCode=cjcr20 “Conspirituality” by Jules Evans: https://julesevans.medium.com/conspirituality-the-overlap-between-the-new-age-and-conspiracy-beliefs-c0305eb92185 Timestamps :11 - Metaphysical mud and extremist rabbit holes :20 - Ethical responsibility to strengthen discernment :31 - How to inoculate yourself with an inner superhero team :48 - Recognizing your own vulnerabilities and having compassion for others’ :59 - The practice of “withering self-observation” 1:10 - How life is like a festival in difficult times

Today on Life is a Festival I am honored to share the delightful and mesmerizing voice of one of Europe’s most renowned storytellers. Jan Blake has been tellings stories around the world for 35 years and has recently been going through a transformational process herself! Our conversation unfolds through six stories, beginning with “Abiyoyo,” Jan’s favorite tale as a child and ending with “The Keys to the Devil’s Kitchen” for her ancestors. Along the way we talk about why folk tales are transformational, we touch on mythopoetic masculinity, and we explore whether it is possible to become lost in a story. Jan specializes in stories from Africa, the Caribbean and Arabia, and she has been performing myths and folktales for 35 years. In addition to performing in every major storytelling festival worldwide, Jan has been the Storyteller-in-Residence for the Hay Literary Festival, the curator for Shakespeare’s Stories at the World Shakespeare Festival, and the recipient of the British Award for Storytelling Excellence. Jan is also performing in the upcoming Gathering of Stories event organized by my friend and the host of the Mythic Masculine Podcast, Ian McKenzie. It’s is a two day live streamed festival that brings together storytellers, musicians, and poets from around the world to provide new insight and perspectives for tending the soul of the masculine. You can register for that at https://bit.ly/g-stories. Also if you have yet to fill out the short Life is a Festival audience survey you can do so here: https://bit.ly/festival-survey Links Jan Blake: https://www.janblakestories.co.uk/ Jan on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janblakestoryteller Gathering of Stories: https://bit.ly/g-stories The Fisherman: A Tale of Passion, Loss, and Hope | Jan Blake | TEDxManchester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAV6eXaS6dk Stories 1. Abiyoyo 2. Nyar Opoku 3. Who Suffered the Most? 4. The Fisherman: A Tale of Passion, Loss, and Hope 5. The Odyssey 6. Keys to The Devil’s Kitchen

The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk, is a seminal work in the field of trauma studies. I had the privilege of interviewing Bessel last year for The Psychedelic Therapy Podcast, which I host for Maya, a software platform that supports psychedelic practitioners. To start 2021 on a hopeful note, I wanted to share that episode with you. On the show we discuss Bessel’s work with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and their clinical trials for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Bessel explains how early attachment wounds can actually be more difficult to treat than acute trauma but that psychedelics can help reimprint the feeling of being a lovable child. We also talk about why we get can addicted to our own trauma and we review other psychedelic compounds. Bessel is an author, researcher, and sought after public speaker. In addition to founding Boston’s Trauma Center and his popular books, Bessel is also the Principle Investigator for MAPS’ MDMA trials at its East Coast hub in Boston. If you have 5 minutes to support the show, I would be so grateful if you could fill out a short survey. It will be invaluable for the next chapter of Life is a Festival! LINKS Life is a Festival Podcast survey: https://bit.ly/festival-survey The Psychedelic Therapy Podcast: https://www.mayahealth.com/podcast Bessel van der Kolk: https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/ The Body Keeps the Score: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748 The Faces of Phase 3: Principal Investigators in MAPS’ Clinical Trials of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD: https://maps.org/news/bulletin/articles/427-bulletin-winter-2017/6957-the-faces-of-phase-3-principal-investigators-in-maps%E2%80%99-clinical-trials-of-mdma-assisted-psychotherapy-for-ptsd TIMESTAMPS :07 - Bessel’s first experience with psychedelics :12 - The iconic American image of the veteran with PTSD :16 - Why psychedelics and trauma. :21 - How psychedelic practitioners can work with trauma :29 - Psychedelics and ancestral trauma :34 - How we get addicted to our trauma :38 - Attachment wounds vs acute trauma :46 - MDMA therapy and psychodrama therapy :58 - Ketamine as a trickster molecule 1:10 - Bessel speaks directly to psychedelic therapists