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...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Happy New Year! Best wishes for 2026 and beyond! Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 Books For The Spirit An old friend messaged me recently and asked for my top go-to recommendations for spiritual books. He's not someone I expected to go down that road, but he’s now five months alcohol-free, and open to exploring something deeper. He said he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for, just something meaningful, not too heavy, and spiritually...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 Through the Portal Some years fly like lightning. They flash and burn and excite and move us. Others are more like low fog. They quietly roll in and never seem to lift. Some might seem like an uphill struggle, a long sisyphean slog where we don't seem to go anywhere. Maybe this year was big for you.Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it hurt.Maybe it healed. Maybe you're still unsure what it was or what it means for you....
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🎄 Ghosts, Psychedelics, and the Spirit of the Season It’s been a few weeks since I last wrote. I hope this finds you well. As we move into the heart of the holidays, I wanted to send a quick message with season’s greetings, and a little reflection inspired by the spirit of Christmas… and psychedelics. 👻 Scrooge and the Three Ghosts In Charles Dickens' classic, A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts....
2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍂 On Patience, Family, and Showing Up It’s Thanksgiving in the US today. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers there! Even though I’m not there, I’ve been thinking about family and how funny it is that the people we love the most can be our most difficult relationships. This week, Daniel from Tam Integration shared that old Ram Dass line again: “If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family.”...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 Can you hear yourself think? Earlier this year I was mid-solo-session when the building fire alarm went off. Sudden, loud, confusing. Not the best vibe. Heart rate up. Thoughts scrambling. Was something actually on fire? Was I gonna have to evacuate tripping in my slippers? I made a note of the time. Then I tried to remember: Has this happened before? Was it fine then? It had happened before, and after checking my...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 Anniversaries of the Soul Recently I've spoken with a couple clients who are around the one-year mark since a first psychedelic experience. One just passed a year since her first MDMA journey. She took time to look back and reflect, and spoke about it with her parents on the day. We spoke about it too. I asked her what the biggest lesson from them was. She told me that it was that life isn’t a race or a...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🌑 Ritual Objects:What We Bring With Us 🪨 I just got back from Berlin again. This time it was for the Occulture esoteric conference, an event I’ve been attending as a volunteer since the first edition in 2018, when I had just landed in Berlin. It’s a fringe festival of sorts. A mix of philosophy, performance, and off-the-beaten-path spirituality. The kind of space where you’re encouraged to explore the weird edges of...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Welcome to this week's edition of the Maps of the Mind newsletter. 🍄 Growing Pains: When Psychedelics Stretch You Have you ever come out of a psychedelic experience — or even a few days or weeks into the afterglow — and started to wonder: “Did I go too far?” “Was I too intense?” “Was that really me?” You’re not alone. This kind of vulnerability hangover is common. I recently spoke with someone who had a beautiful, revealing journey… and afterwards, in a more open state, they...
5 months ago • 3 min read