Two weekends ago, I attended a mini psychedelic retreat featuring a shamanic ceremony that was hosted in the Lake Michigan area. Our group included nine strangers from different walks of life: a Fortune 100 C-Suite male executive of 10 years who recently learned he has an incurable disease that will rob him of his sight and is now on a nomadic journey to find himself, a woman who was so introverted that she wouldn’t leave her house during the pandemic, a couple struggling to save their marriage, a school teacher, psychologist and someone who just lost a relative.
We quickly saw behind the mask each of us wore along our respective journeys in life, raising the collective comfort level. And that’s before the psychedelic experience even began! In less than 48 hours, we bonded over our shared expression of humanity and vulnerability – becoming a close-knit tribe of sorts. The very next day after a healthy meal, walk along the beach and connecting with nature, the group really came together. A professional guitarist playing incredible ambient riffs and female vocalist with a beautiful voice serenaded us.
There was crying and healing in that space afterward. We all had soup and gathered around a fire. None of us miraculously shifted and changed, but we gained considerable insight and vulnerability had showed up as we traveled a path of healing and working together as a small group. It was a great experience that would have been as powerful with or without psychedelics. My biggest takeaway is that this psychedelic retreat turned out to be much more about humanity and community. The medicine just allowed for an expansion of those elements.
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