Dave Hodges is the founder of the Church of Ambrosia, an interfaith organisation that believes magic mushrooms and cannabis are divine sacraments which facilitate connection with God. Zide Door, the religion's first church, in Oakland, California, has more than 100,000 members, who pay a $5 fee – allowing them to buy unregulated, tax-free sacrament…

Jez Hughes is a healer, author and founder of shamanic school Second Sight Healing. Since his early teens, he suffered a series of seizures and panic attacks. He believes this was an initiatory illness to connect with the spirit world. He has mostly trained with the Wixarika community of Mexico, who use the psychedelic cactus peyote as their sacram…

Harry Pack is a visionary artist whose work is influenced by his own psychedelic experiences, and unexplained mysteries. His kaleidoscope pieces, which feature a cast of elves and UFOs, invite the viewer to ponder an infinite realm that exists in tandem with our more volatile world. Harry tells us about experiences in which he was led to suspect he…

Seth Ferranti did 21 years in federal pen for selling large amounts of weed and LSD after two years on the run following his initial arrest, during which time he elaborately staged his own drowning in an attempt to throw police off the scent. But he accidentally did it on the wrong side of the river – the one which flows into a dam and therefore wo…

Is passively receiving a pill, even a psychedelic one, ever truly beneficial? Writer and neuropsychologist Andy Mitchell presents his new book 10 Trips, and speaks of how the new reality of psychedelics is characterised by hype around the current incarnation of them as mental health antidotes. Andy had issues with addiction in his late teens, and s…

Do we know which psychedelic is best for the brain? Neuroscientist Manesh Girn, the self-styled 'Psychedelic Scientist', riffs on his experiences with 5-MeO-DMT and explains why he, unlike many other researchers, is entirely up front about his own experiences with hallucinogens. We also discuss the dubious claims that psychedelic use can bias scien…

Is psychic surgery really a thing? Explorer and Qigong practitioner TeDeVan Kurzweil, once described as a 'wandering Jewish mystic', tells us about his trip to Havana to visit a machete-wielding surgeon named Jorge Goliat, who was recently featured by the Daily Mail. Kurzweil details how the doctor performs rudimentary surgeries while allegedly dri…

Will science be able to predict what will happen in people's psychedelic trips? Neuroscientist Zeus Tipado tells us about his ongoing research examining the possibility of recreating specific psychedelic experiences. He declares that it is pseudoscientific to make claims of interdimensional travel or visions of real aliens while on psychedelics; co…

What happens when the trip doesn't stop? Journalist and researcher Ed Prideaux tells us what happened when his acid high never subsided. Instead of people's faces and clear blue skies, he would see geometric patterns and melting features. This went on for years. But, curiously, the condition known as hallucinatory persisting perception disorder eas…

Are healers chosen? Davina Mackail pursued the shamanic path after a near-death experience after suffering severe altitude sickness in Tibet and then arriving in Lhasa, the capital, which seemed like heaven. Then, she says, teachers began appearing in her life, and she later trained in Peru to serve ayahuasca and San Pedro according to the indigeno…

Why is the Wixarika tribe of Mexico more open to sharing peyote with outsiders than the Native American Church? Musician Diego Perez Lombardini, the only 'mestizo' person to hold a position in one Wixarika religious organisation, gives insights from years supporting the community and undertaking a series of pilgrimages. He discusses the threats to …

What's the best way to have possibly the most intense and short-lived psychedelic experience possible? Psychedelic facilitators Victoria Wueshner and Joel Brierre, who run the Tandava retreat centre in Mexico where they serve 5-MeO-DMT, explain their protocol and how to avoid the many shysters in the space. Until relatively recently, most of those …

What's the most important thing after a psychedelic experience? Integration. And of course this may consist of a hearty, healthy meal, cuddles, a walk in nature, or a call with your mum. But within psychedelic spaces, there is a growing recognition that one-on-one therapy sessions with a specialised coach tends to be the best way forward, especiall…

What do you get if you feed psilocybin mushrooms with 5-MeO-DMT laced water while they're growing? A little-known psychedelic named psilomethoxin, according to co-founder of the Church of Sacred Synthesis, Ian Benouis. The US army veteran is one of the leaders of the psychedelic Texas church formerly known as the Church of Psilomethoxin. Back in Ap…

Is there a good part to a bad trip? Some suggest that any challenging experience is an opportunity to grow and that self-growth clues may be illuminating (and that is indeed true), but some experiences can be seriously destabilising for people and certainly should not be idealised. Tough experiences may instil fears that prevent people from continu…

Is it really so surprising that people on the conventional political right are interested in drug policy reform? Conservative Member of Parliament Crispin Blunt says its more about freedom with responsibility, or cognitive libertarianism. When he joined the Tory party in the UK, it had a torch of freedom as its logo. 'If you're unwise enough to exe…

How can you even satirise a hallucination? Dennis Walker, aka the Mycopreneur, is a comedian, writer and podcaster who went from teaching high school students multimedia to producing his own hilarious videos that are now taking him across the world, speaking and performing at all manner of psychedelic and fungi oriented events. He tells host Mattha…

How can we decolonise psychedelics? Educator and medicine woman Charlotte James and host Mattha Busby discuss the contested history of magic mushrooms, the impact of the west on indigenous communities and the colonisation of Europe. They both recently visited Huautla de Jimenez, the remote southern Mexican town of legendary healer Maria Sabina, as …

Have we always got high? Historian Mike Jay, author of books such as Mescaline and his latest, Psychonauts, discusses how psychotropic drugs have been used for thousands of years, often for religious purposes, and that drug use is a fascinating lens for studying and understanding different cultures. The 50-year failed global war on drugs and the im…

Can psychedelics save a failing relationship? Sarah Tilley is a psychedelic-assisted couples therapist who long delivered her work without the aid of any entheogenic plants. Once she started, she began to see much improved outcomes, delivered at far greater speeds. We discuss how MDMA-assisted couples therapy was one of the initial frontiers of psy…