Reflections
Contemplative essays on the inner life: ceremony, surrender, fear, connection, and the quieter lessons medicine work leaves behind.
Guest Post
The Boundless Ocean of Universal Love
By Marwan • Published June 13, 2026A journeyer's reflection on his 5-MeO-DMT journey into the boundless ocean of universal love: the dissolution of the ego, the return to the heart's true nature, and how to understand it in the language of Sufi and Buddhist mystical traditions.
Befriending the Darkness
By Sagan Bolliger • Published July 29, 2024As I followed my feet up the trail into the night, shadows closing in on me from either side, I began to feel the fear growing inside me. What strange and unknown things could be peering out at me from the shadows? Though I felt scared, I found that inside of me there was an even greater force: a deep curiosity and longing even to meet the source of my fear that I had so long been running away from.
The Meaning of Ceremony
By Helena Zhu • Published April 30, 2024When I went to Chengdu, my hometown in the Sichuan Basin below the Tibetan Plateau in China, the most grounding thing I did was the most spiritual thing: I prayed with three incenses, then another three for my mother and another three for my grandmother.
The Beauty of Resistance in Psychedelic Experiences
By Sagan Bolliger • Published October 1, 2023In our line of work there’s often a lot of talk about surrender: that the right way to approach medicine work is to fully let go of our desire to control our circumstances and soften ourselves to receive whatever the medicine wants to give us, but it has struck me that in all this emphasis on surrender, that there’s something important missing.
A reflection on fall
By Helena Zhu • Published October 30, 2022Nature has a quiet way of reassuring us of the cycle of life. The first rain after weeks of sunshine sighed release–the first water that stopped holding on as clouds, quenching the soil and washing everything it touches.
