Cultivating Connections

This was our second interview with Dr. Rick Strassman Author of DMT; The Spirit Molecule and The Psychedelic Handbook.

We interviewed DR. Rick Strassman again following his recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast and his release of his new book 'The Psychedelic Handbook'

Check out our YouTube page for video clips from this interview! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZvApgMamf1wtfZo4Wmxmxw/videos

In this episode I talk about my best friend Hunter’s suicide and the guilt from my inability to act on the warning signs he exhibited before his suicide. I also talk about an experience when/where I overdose and with no one home but my brother, I left my life into his hands to deal with. But after all the shame and guilt I love this community here and I’m so grateful for everything that has transpired in the past to get me here today.

This episode is really important to us. We discuss drug education reform, alternate perspectives catalyzed by altered states of consciousness, the importance of one’s relationship to substances, and holding a reverence for sacred substances.

Today we talk with Matthew Simpson author of the book, Worth The Fight: Acting for a Better World, A Guide to Spirituality, Psychedelic Medicines and Overcoming Trauma, and host of the podcast Worth The Fight. Matthew has done work for Veterans for entheogenic Therapy INC. Matt has been an advocate for proper integration of psychedelic experiences. Some topics we discuss include psychedelic integration, pre frontal cortex, and drug reform. Hope you enjoy!

In this episode we talk with  Tom Morano, he's a very close friend and the third member of our little ritual we do on Sundays, we talk about our experiences with him and his own life experience and his relationship to psychedelics and other substances. 

We interview Sam, a very close family friend, about her past drug addiction and her ayahuasca experience that ultimately helped her get clean from opiates and cocaine similar to Rory’s story. 

On this episode we have our good friend Gina join us to tell us about her experiences. We talk about rituals, psychedelics, mental health and more. Many thanks to Gina for being open and sharing with us, it was an absolute pleasure and definitely my favorite episode to record so far.  

If anyone else listening wants to share their experiences and connect (either on or off camera) with us send us an email. We would love to connect! Thanks for listening.

I've been getting a lot of questions on social media asking me about what the psychedelic experience provided me with, and questions about how it helped changed my behaviors and views on life. So I decided to record a 15 minute episode where I talk about it in depth, and go over what else has helped me get off and stay off illicit drugs. Thank you for listening!

I missed the ritual this week and wasn’t sure how it would affect me. Honestly, it was a blessing simply for the fact that I learned how much this ritual provides for me.  We also want to let people know that if you have a story you'd like to share, a story about mental health, addiction, depression, or psychedelics, that we would love to have you on our podcast to talk about it. Please send us an email at cultivatingconnectionsvt@gmail.com. Thank you for listening!

Ryan missed our ritual this Sunday and we talk a bit about how that has affected us, we also talk about how important rite of passage is for the transformation of one's life, especially when confronting adulthood. If we can get our society to understand how important rite of passage is and if we can educate the youth about it, then we believe it could be massively impactful in the way of the world, and for everyone's future.

We talk about the human relationship with altered states of consciousness, wether endogenous or exogenous. This weekend we took part in a cold water immersion, with breathing techniques that gave us introspection to the capabilities we as humans have. 

Today we discuss the power of ritual, and we talk about why people in todays society don't incorporate rituals into their lives more often. We also talk about the impact it has had on both our lives and the lives of people connected to us.

In this episode we get a new addition to the podcast, our dad an M.D. Psychiatrist who will be a consistent member on our podcast in the future. In this episode we get his perspective on how our ritual has affected his life, and talk about an experience in our ritual that was transformative for him and us all, thank you for listening.

We talk about relapse and the state of mind one can be in before they make the decision to relapse, in this case it is conveyed through Rory's own personal experience. 

In Podcast number 7, We talk about accepting our responsibility to heal/change ourselves and how reliying on external sources handicaps our ability to do so

Check out this recording of Ryan and I talking about death and experiencing the overwhelming fear that literally took over and obliterated our ego, and how we are going to find value in it. 

Today, I talk about losing my best friend at age 18 to suicide, my behaviors afterwards which were very hurtful towards others and detrimental to myself, and how they shaped me into who I am today, Im grateful for it all and I hope you can relate to it - Rory

I talk about my fear of embracing others pain/emotion for my actions and Ryan sheds some perspective on the situation - Rory 

This episode my brother and I express our gratitude towards each other and relive some powerful memories that shaped our relationship today. We now have our website where we share out group ritual structure. If you're interested check it out at cultivatingconnectionsvt.com  Thank you all so much for your support!

Today my brother and I get deep when we talk about my past overdoses. We discuss the shame that we felt in the past and how it's shaping our present life in a positive way. Thank you all so much for listening, we appreciate the chance to express ourselves and encourage you to reach out to us if you can relate to what we talk about. 

In this episode Rory and I discuss behaviors and how they can serve either to connect us or to disconnect us from each other, ourselves, and the present moment. We use examples from our own lives to highlight the importance of understanding our intentions behind our behaviors. We have been making a conscious effort to cultivate more behaviors that connect us, while reducing our reliance on disconnecting to cope with discomfort. Thanks for tuning in, and enjoy. 

Hello, my name is Ryan. My brother Rory and I decided to create this podcast Cultivating Connections as an attempt to create more connections in our lives. Most of our lives we have been disconnecting from ourselves, and others. This has led us into depression and substance abuse problems. We have realized at the core of our problems is our inability or unwillingness to connect. Most of our behaviors serve to disconnect and distract us from the moment. Our goal through this podcast is to cultivate a deeper connection with our emotions and intuition and at the same time cultivate deeper connections as brothers. We hope we can connect with some listeners out there as well. In this intro, we talk about why we decided to create a podcast and some of the things we will talk about here. Thanks for listening.