In today’s episode, Joe sits down with Andy Frasco, a touring rock musician with the band, Andy Frasco and the UN. In the show, they cover what is it like to be a touring rock musician with drugs so available and how to live more healthfully in the space.

3 Key Points:

1. Andy Frasco is a talented, touring music artist a part of the band, Andy Frasco and the UN, as well as a podcast show host. Andy uses psychedelics to help cope with the anxiety that the rock star lifestyle brings.
2. Psychedelics open us up to the possibility that everything we know is wrong. Finding truth and clarity for some people is hard, and people resort to alcohol and other harmful behaviors to suppress the painful reality we live in.
3. Cocaine and uppers only keep a rock star up for so long. It keeps you awake for the partying, but it suppresses all the stresses of the lifestyle. Psychedelics and meditation can help with the balance needed in a stressful, lifestyle of traveling and fame.

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Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes

Intro

• Joe attended a bunch of his live shows and was able to catch up with Andy in his hotel room while he was in town
• Life is tough for a traveling entertainer, so the healthier they are, the better they are to perform for their audience
• Andy Frasco’s World Saving Podcast

Micro-dosing

• Microdosing is typically 6 weeks on, two weeks off, dosing every 3 days
• 1/10-3/10ths of a gram (of mushrooms) is the typical microdose
  • Once you feel it, it's more of a macro-dose
• Paul Stamets has made mushrooms popular

Mushroom Evolution

• Mushrooms did not leave a mark on bone structure, so it's hard to tell if they actually made a difference in human evolution
  • Drugs have been around for a long time, and people in the past have definitely used them
• There are studies of mushrooms helping to grow nerve cells and brain neurons back
• We are only 50-100 years in on science
  “(Psychedelics) open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.” -Terence McKenna
• Joe says he's been to a therapist a bunch of times, and he says he has enjoyed it
  • Joe’s main form of therapy has been Breathwork
  • His most intense experiences have been just as powerful as his Ayahuasca experience

About Andy

• Andy says he is open about taking psychedelics, he takes mushrooms, he doesn't really use cocaine
  • He says he feels more anxious when he isn't taking them than when he is
  • He says he gets really anxious on weed now as he gets older
• Psychedelics show us a lot of truths
• “We are all trying to figure out life, it's hard. Psychedelics help us create a better relationship with our mind.” - Andy
• Andy says he has been anxious his whole life
  • He has had very scary panic attacks
  • He became addicted to sex as a crutch for his anxiety
  • He woke up one day, and sex didn't give him the thrill anymore
  • Andy started in the music industry because rock stars get the chicks
• Teen years are just about being super insecure about everything
  • Shame is a huge influence on our relationships with other people
• “The majority of effects from drug use for people are good.” - a quote from Carl Hart, a Psychology Professor who studies drug use
• Andy's first psychedelic experience was an 8th of mushrooms at 18 years old

Rock Star Lifestyle

• Andy says he used to be really into coke because he just had to stay up for the shows
  • But he says he doesn't take anything anymore that feels like speed
  • He was coping his exhaustion with drugs and alcohol
• “When you're in a band you're the party for one day of the year in that city.” - Andy
  • Life for a rock star can't just be the 2 hour show, the trick is figuring out how to be mindful for the other 14 hours of the day after the party
  • The lifestyle is really hard, its very common to use drugs, sex and alcohol to suppress it
  • Humans were not designed for this
• Andy has begun using transcendental meditation to help with this lifestyle
• He also mentions having his first DMT experience recently

Links

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About Andy Frasco

Andy Frasco, a Los Angeles, CA native singer, songwriter, band maestro, entrepreneur, party starter and everyday hustler, tours with his band, “The U.N.” The music has elements of Soul, Funk, Rock and Roots and the shows have been described as orchestrated chaos, an overall great time. Frasco average 200+ dates a year, touring the country dozens of times, creating a loyal following everywhere he goes.

In this episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to cover questions from listeners of the show. They discuss topics that include psychedelic use for exorcisms, cluster headaches, athletic performance, processing grief and more.

3 Key Points:

1. There are a few examples where psychedelics are used to increase athletic performance. Psychedelics can also be used to help realign those who are using sports as a form of distraction from internalized issues.
2. When eliminating variables for psilocybin consistency in mushrooms for therapeutic use, freeze drying helps. But there are so many variables in mushrooms versus synthesized psilocybin.
3. When addressing the sustainability of the Toad, according to the data, there isn't a real difference between 5-MEO-DMT from a toad and synthesized 5-MEO-DMT

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes

Kratom Warning

• Joe brings up an issue that was brought up to him by a physician from the Wholeness Center, Dr. Craig Heacock, out of Fort Collins, CO
• Dr. Heacock warns about Kratom
  • It is safer than opioids, but it can be physically addictive and getting off of it can be horrible
  • Kratom withdrawal closely imitates opioid withdrawal
  • The receptor site activity is the same as opioid pills

Using Psychedelics for an Exorcism

• Kyle thinks of shamanic uses for plant medicines, and with the idea of purging and spiritual emergence, working in non-ordinary states can exacerbate these states and maybe help with this kind of work
• Joe and Kyle go into writings from Stan Grof, explaining the physical appearance of those going through LSD psychotherapy or breathwork, and how it assimilates to an ‘exorcism’ of releasing the bad
• The purging during a psychedelic experience may feel evil, or alien
• Joe and Kyle say, do not perform an exorcism, leave it to the trained people

Treating Cluster Headaches with Psychedelics

• Cluster Busters is an organization for the research on cluster headaches
• LSD works for some as well as oxygen treatments work for others
• We know a lot more about migraines than cluster headaches
  • The migraine is where neurons in the brain start misfiring and create a firing storm

How can Psilocybin Mushrooms be Standardized in Production for Therapeutic Use?

• Joe says the practical solution is to have a really large amount of psilocybe cubensis, all blended up, and then split in even doses
• There are potency differences between species, strains, etc
• There are so many variances with mushrooms versus synthetic psilocybin
• Freeze drying also promotes close to 0% loss of psilocybin when drying mushrooms

Psychedelics and Athletic Performance

• There may be psychological blocks that are getting in the way of a person reaching the peak performance of their genome
  • It could be trauma, or psychological blocks
• Athletic performance could be a distraction from what you're really here to do
  • Athletes have a lot of dysfunctional behavior
  • Psychedelics may show us our bad behavior and help us align
• Kyle says he had this passion to snowboard and dedicate his life to snowboarding, and then he received a message in journeywork that told him snowboarding is simply a hobby and he needs to focus his life on other things
• “Sports are a great way to cover up our emotions” - Joe
• Kyle mentions tow other episodes that cover similar topics
  Ben Eddy
  Shane Lemaster

How to get the Ball Rolling on Psychedelic Liberty

• Start a club
  • Joe says he’s been incubating a Psychedelic Club in Phoenix
• Clubs are great for harm reduction

Is There a Humane or Conservative Way to Harvest the Toad Without Disrupting its Habitat?

• Joe says yes, roadkill, pick them up off the road
• If you touch a living one, there is a chance you'll be doing harm
  • Even touching the toad can transmit harmful fungus to them
• According to the data, there isn't a real difference between 5-MEO-DMT from a toad and synthesized 5-MEO-DMT

How Psychedelics Might help with Processing Grief

• Kyle says when he thinks about grief, he thinks about trauma
  • Psychedelics may be really beneficial when treating trauma
• Kyle says he loves breathwork, because it creates the container to process things and even just simply cry
• Kyle recommends a really great book on grieving, The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise by Martin Prechtel
• Our culture does not contain grief very well
• A lot of people internalize it instead of breaking down and letting it go

Links

Use code PSYTODAY at Onnit for discount on all products except fitness equipment
Get a 30 day free trail at Audible

About Kyle

Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

About Joe

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

In this episode, Kyle sits down with Jac Harrison, a grammy nominated music producer. Kyle and Jac talk about music as therapy, how DMT mimics the near death experience, and how Jac produces music based on frequencies of mystical experiences.

3 Key Points:

1. Jac shares his story about his near death experience, and how DMT has been a therapeutic option for him to cope with his crippling anxiety and PTSD.
2. Jac is a music producer, who uses frequencies from mystical experiences to produce music. His music helps people with addiction, sleep issues, anxiety, and more.
3. Music is not an FDA approved medicine, but if there is music that tricks your mind into thinking you have taken a medicine, then it should be an option for those suffering.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes

About Jac

• In 2008, Jac was newly married with a baby on the way
• He needed a new job, and accepted one with Whole Foods Magazine
• Around 2011, the owner of the company became ill, and gave his company to his daughter, who was awful
• Jac said that he knew something had to change
• He started his music career, went under a lot of stress, and went through a divorce
  • Everything started to go okay with his music career, money was pouring in
  • His first album was Musicians Collection Project
• He had a ton of anxiety after the divorce, and had high blood pressure
  • He took some cold medicine, on top of his blood pressure medicine, totally forgot about it, then decided to have a glass of wine with a friend
  • The next thing he knew, he was in an ambulance getting his chest pounded on
  • They told him he was in and out all night, and practically died
• After this near death experience, he felt amazing!
  • But the feeling of greatness only lasted about 3 weeks, and then his anxiety came back, and it was crippling

A Synchronistic Event

• Jac says he doesn't believe in magic or witchcraft or any woo woo
• For his 39th birthday, he was working a trade show
• He ran around his hotel in Las Vegas, screaming that he felt he was going to die
  • He didn't know how, but he could feel it
  • Everyone thought he was crazy
• Moments later, was the shooting right outside of his hotel
  • It was the Las Vegas shooting
• He does believe in coincidence
  • He had this overwhelming feeling that something bad was going to happen, it was his intuition

Understanding the Experience

• After trying to figure out what this all meant, he took a 2000mg bar of chocolate to blast off, trying to relive his near death experience
  • He said, there was a lot of frequency, and as a musician, he felt like he could mimic it
  • His first album, and first song on the album, Relief, was about his experience when he died
  • His music is found at MindToyBox
  • Each song he did after that, catalogs the DMT experience he had
• “An old projector TV, I had one for a while, it was great. The light came on and told me I needed to change the bulb. I changed the bulb and saw in a new and clear way forever. That's what DMT is like.” - Jac
• Kyle says that when he attended COSM for the DMT Spirit Molecule release party, Rick Strassman was there and said that the idea that DMT comes out of the pineal gland is just a hypothesis, and people took it and ran with it as truth

Frequency for Healing

• After he smoked DMT, he heard this humming, and so he started humming and recording it as a frequency for the album
• He took opium, and then figured out the frequency that substance performs at
  • He wrote music, based on the mathematical equation on how opium works and releases
  • He says it has helped others detox off of opium
• Jac cant take mushrooms because he is allergic, so he takes DMT
• Jac worked with a man who had gone through a ton of trauma, he had gone through combat
  • He kept reliving his combat trauma when he would try to go asleep
  • He smoked DMT, and really relived the experience, and was able to let go of it after that
  • “Your mind is a bitch.” - Jac
  • “If you can lock onto a memory, and dissociate it with something, and re-associate it with something else, Every time you can go back to that memory,you can relive it in a way that it's tolerable, and get over it.” - Jac
• Jac says without this, he would not be able to function, and he would be institutionalized
• Jac’s music is Alex Grey’s form of art creation
• It is made to go with journeywork experiences
  • It is supposed to mimic taking a pill, so you don't need to take the actual pill
  • It is supposed to guide people when taking different psychedelics
  • His tracks match the frequency of specific psychedelics

Malta Hypogeum

• The Malta Hypogeum, the oracle chamber, is a cave with naturally occurring frequencies
• Raymond Reif is an underestimated person in history
  • He beat cancer using frequencies in the 30’s and 40’s
• “If we're not going to someone to get drugs for something that we need drugs for, and solving our problems using plant based medicines, music therapy, and frequencies, we are much better off.” - Jac
• Jac came across psychedelics when trying to treat crippling anxiety
  • Kyle is the first person he has told this NDE story to
• Alzheimers is not a neurological problem, it's a perception problem
  • Psychedelic medicine should be used for research to treat cognitive health problems, PTSD, alzheimers, etc
• “If the earth gives us something for our body, we should be able to take that at the same time we are able to take modern medicine.” - Jac
• Jac says that he started doing this type of work as more of an Atheist, and after the psychedelic experiences, he says he has become more spiritual

Intuition

• Jac says that his intuition and discernment came after his near death experience
  • Kyle says that this happens after mystical experiences, we become more in tune with what is going on around us
  • “I believe that we have something in us, that is triggered, when we have a fear of death.” - Jac

Final thoughts

• Jac recommends Relief as the first track for listeners
• He extends himself to people who are heavily anxious, have severe PTSD, or depressed, to come to him, and he will make music for them
• He said that this is not medicine, but if there is music that tricks your mind into thinking you have taken a medicine, then it should be an option for those suffering

Links

Website

About Jac Harrison

Having spent most of his adolescent life medicated to treat ADD/ADHD, Jac developed a dependency on the medications and could not function without them. When he stopped using them, his anxiety was so bad that he was diagnosed with PTSD in 2009; so he took his love for music with his understanding of mathematics and developed music to help himself get off all the medication. Mind Toy Box is the result of his work.

In this episode, Kyle and Joe sit down to explore psychedelic integration. They cover different frameworks, resources and benefits of integration and coaching services.

3 Key Points:

1. Integration is commonly confused as post-session only, but it includes pre-session, self care, and really begins at the point you decide to engage in self-work.
2. It is important to remember the GPA framework when determining where you are at in the integration process, G - grounding, P - processing, A - action.
3. Psychedelics Today offers many resources to assist with the integration process; Navigating Psychedelics Online Course (and Live Course), Coaching and Integration Calls, and books, Trip Journal and Integration Workbook.

Support the show

• Patreon
• Leave us a review on iTunes
• Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc
• Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community.

Navigating Psychedelics

Show Notes

Updates

• Kyle will be attending the ACISTE Conference this November
  • He is speaking and doing a breakout session with Michelle Hobart
  • Kyle is going to present on using technology for support with spiritual emergence
• Kyle and Joe will not be offering any major workshops until spring.
• They will be attending a conference in Exeter UK - Psychedelics and Philosophy

Psychedelic Integration

• Kyle says his near death experience shows up in his life everyday
• Integration is not only post session, it is also pre-session
• Integration, at its root means bringing parts together into wholeness
• Joe says you don't need support to do integration, although it is helpful
• Kyle's analogy of a psychedelic experience as a big hallway with a lot of doors, and a ton of magical stuff, even scary monsters, are coming through the doors and wandering through the halls
  • The goal is to realize and say “this is a part of me” and learn to be okay with all of the stuff in the hall
• Self care works until it doesn't, and that is when integration comes in

Integration Framework

• Kyle uses a framework and asks, what is your GPA?
  • G - grounding, post session, how are we getting re-connected to ourselves?
  • P - processing, once energy feels stable and centered, how can we process the material? It could mean journaling, therapy, body or somatic work, breathwork, yoga, etc.
  • A - action, moving it forward, breaking the leanings down into goals of things to work on
  • Kyle says that these things do not need to be done in order necessarily, but its a good framework to check in after an experience and see where you're at
• Joe reminds listeners of 'pre-hab', that preparation can make a world of a difference and weigh a lot more than post work in a lot of cases
• “Life is integration, call your mom, pay your rent.” - Joe
• Joe mentions the quote that “the opposite of addiction is connection”
• Climate change can bring up a lot of existential dread, the connection piece, and other topics can be addressed with psychedelic integration

Resources

• The Psychedelics Today, Navigating Psychedelics Course is a great way to learn more about integration
• We offer two books, the Trip Journal and the Integration Workbook
• We also offer Psychedelic Integration coaching calls and services
• You don't need an integration coach all the time, but for someone to just be there helps
• If you have a retreat planned, integration and coaching can really help mitigate the risks
• Integration within the psychedelic community is somewhat understood
  • Kyle says he gets tons of emails asking for medicine sessions
  • Psychedelic Integration and coaching services do not include medicine or guiding or providing of medicine, its simply pre and post session guidance
  • Psychedelics Today does not suggest underground or illegal psychedelic sessions/therapy and makes a significant effort to be ignorant of underground work, there are legal options to choose from

Links

Psychedelics Today

About Kyle

Kyle’s interest in exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness began when he was 16-years-old when he suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident. Waking up after having a near-death experience changed Kyle’s life. Since then, Kyle has earned his B.A. in Transpersonal Psychology, where he studied the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness by exploring shamanism, plant medicine, Holotropic Breathwork, and the roots/benefits of psychedelic psychotherapy. Kyle has co-taught two college-level courses. One of the courses Kyle created as a capstone project, “Stanislav Grof’s Psychology of Extraordinary Experiences,” and the other one which he co-created, “The History of Psychedelics.”

Kyle completed his M.S. in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in somatic psychology. Kyle’s clinical background in mental health consists of working with at-risk teenagers in crisis and with individuals experiencing an early-episode of psychosis. Kyle also facilitates Transpersonal Breathwork workshops.

About Joe

Joe studied philosophy in New Hampshire, where he earned his B.A.. After stumbling upon the work of Stanislav Grof during his undergraduate years, Joe began participating in Holotropic Breathwork workshops in Vermont in 2003. Joe helped facilitate Holotropic and Transpersonal Breathwork workshops while he spent his time in New England. He is now working in the software industry as well as hosting a few podcasts. Joe now coordinates Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork workshops, in Breckenridge, Colorado.