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Maps Of The Mind

John is helping people on their path to insight, healing, and growth.

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🍄 Emotions need somewhere to go

Hi Reader, Welcome to this edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 Emotions need somewhere to go I was in Berlin last week, visiting friends. On Sunday afternoon service at a place called the Church of Interbeing. For much of it, forty or so of us sat in a large ring around the outer edge of a circular carpet. The theme was the field of love. There was music, connection exercises, shared space. At one point, we all stood. Everyone turned inward, hands facing toward the centre — a quiet...

about 7 hours ago • 3 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 Songs That Become Part of Our Lives A few days ago I picked up my guitar and started learning a song. It was the version Johnny Cash recorded of In My Life. I used it over the photo slideshow at Mum's funeral. I’d heard it a dozen times while putting everything together. On the day itself, it quietly filled the room while decades of memories flickered across the screen. This time, I wasn’t at the funeral.I was sat at...

7 days ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 The Loving Rock A few months before Mum died, a friend recommended the book Walking Each Other Home by Ram Dass. It's a dialogue between two friends on love, death, and the spiritual path, with guidance for the end-of-life journey. I'm familiar with Ram Dass' work, but I hadn't read this one. There's a section in it called Guidelines for Being a Loving Rock for the Dying. I bookmarked it and returned to read it whilst...

15 days ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 Love is Sacred It’s been a while. As some of you have guessed from my silence, my mother passed away. She departed at the end of May, just over two months ago now. I've been quiet since. It’s been the greatest loss of my life, and I wanted to step away and slow down. But alongside the grief, I also feel incredibly fortunate that I still carry such a deep well of love for Mum. Over the last months, I've been discovering...

23 days ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 How We Meet What Happens The last couple of newsletters have been about setting. The space. The person in the room. There's another part that matters just as much. How we meet what's happening. ⸻ As my mum’s in palliative care, I’ve been seeing this up close. She knows she’s moving toward the end of her life.Toward that final transition. And what’s struck me is the way she’s approaching it. Not with panic. Or constant...

4 months ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 The Person in the Room Some of the nurses who come to see my mum feel different the moment they walk into the room. They slow down.They give their full attention when they ask a question.They patiently listen to the answer. Others… it’s more of a checklist. Pain?Bowels?Medication?Next.It feels like they're just ticking boxes, getting the job done. Same job. Same tasks.Very different experience. It’s not just what they...

4 months ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this edition of the newsletter. 🍄 Tending The Space Over the last couple of months or so, since my Mum has been homebound, we have been slowly re-shaping her room. A new bed. A different mattress. Tiered bedside tables, to hold everything within reach. Creams, oils, medicines, all with their place on them.A special water bottle that hangs from the bed.Different pillows and cushions for different purposes. Other small things like a phone holder and a new heat bag. The...

5 months ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, It’s been a little while since I last wrote. I've had other priorities in this period whilst we’ve been figuring out carer schedules, nurse visits, and syringe drivers. Alongside that, I’ve been learning what it actually means to show up for someone day to day. 🍄 Holding Space (At Home) Lately, I’ve been thinking about how life can prepare us in ways we don’t expect. For years, I’ve sat with people in altered states. Holding space, watching breath, listening without trying to fix....

5 months ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 When life has other plans Last time I wrote you, I said Session Soundtracks was coming soon. That’s still true. But not as soon as I’d hoped. I've needed to support my mum more recently, as a carer and a son, and meanwhile on what feels like a totally different track, my band played its first gigs on the last two weekends. As well as the practicality of everything involved, I've had an unusual mix of feelings...

7 months ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 The album stole the steering wheel Music is one of the most powerful tools in a psychedelic session.In some ways, it's more important than the substance. And yet many people are out there coming up… slightly wobbly… scrolling Spotify with shaky hands. No judgment, I’ve made session music mistakes too. Once, a friend and I queued up Oxygène by the French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre at the start of a...

7 months ago • 1 min read