Sex, Drugs, & Soul

97. Microdosing for Healing: How Mushrooms Can Rewire the Nervous System with Kayse Gehret

Kristin Birdwell Season 4 Episode 11

In this episode, I am joined by Kayse Gehret to dive into the transformative world of microdosing for healing — from psilocybin’s subtle power to its impact on nervous system regulation and emotional resilience. Kaycee opens up about her personal journey using microdosing protocols to move through a seizure disorder.

Together, we explore how psilocybin can support those navigating anxiety, grief, and the slow unraveling of trauma.

From dream work to community integration, Kayse and I shed light on how healing nervous system dysregulation through microdosing can open the door to deeper intimacy, creativity, and connection with spirit.

Whether you’re curious, cautious, or already journeying with plant medicine, this conversation invites you to tune into your body’s intelligence and the whispers of your soul.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome & playing in the dirt 
02:30 – Kayse’s origin story: from seizures to psychedelics
05:00 – The nervous-system magic of microdosing
07:10 – Beyond psilocybin: Amanita & San Pedro medicine
08:30 – Emotional & spiritual shifts people experience
09:50 – Intuitive vs structured dosing
11:00 – How to begin safely if you’re nervous
12:20 – Building the Microdosing for Healing community
14:00 – Intention setting & the frequency of feeling
16:10 – Human Design, energetics & mushroom medicine
19:30 – Integration & dream work
22:30 – Recurring dreams & reconnecting with the wild self
26:00 – Big myths & misunderstandings about microdosing
30:00 – Can microdosing help reduce pharmaceuticals?
31:10 – What people come to heal – from anxiety to fertility to faith
33:00 – Mushrooms & grief as a path to connection beyond death
36:40 – Beautiful client story of ancestral communication 
41:40 – Training the next generation of microdosing guides
44:40 – Egypt downloads & divine feminine activations
49:20 – Grief as a gateway to spirit connection
53:00 – Lightning round + final medicine message: 

Connect with Kayse:
Website: https://www.microdosingforhealing.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/kaysegehret/

For all the peptide goodies, join me on Ellie MD.
https://elliemd.com/kristinbirdwell

Support the Pod:
Venmo: @hillbilly-healer
PayPal: @KristinBirdwellLLC
CashApp: $KristinBirdwell

Connect with Kristin:
Website - https://www.kristinbirdwell.com/
Instagram - http://instagram.com/kristinbirdwell_
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@sexdrugssoul

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Kristin:

Welcome to Sex, Drugs, and Soul, the sacred sensual space for wild ones, truth tellers, taboo dancers, and revel with soul. I'm your host, Kristen Burble, best-selling author, mystic, country gu, and professional line blurrer between the profane and the profound. For years I thought I had to choose to be the good girl or the wild one, be spiritual or sensual, polished or powerful. But I've learned the magic lives in the both hand, in the mess, the mystery, the mischief, and in embracing our messy humanness. This podcast is where healing gets real. Self-discovery gets juicy, and shame gets kicked to the damn curve. Whether I'm flying solo or vibing with fellow speakers, healers, experts, and pleasure revolutionaries, we dive deep into the beautifully messy intersection of spirituality, sexuality, and self-expression. Because your body isn't too much. Your story isn't too messy, and your truth, that's holy. Hi guys, welcome back to Sex Drugs and Soul. Today I have on Casey Garrett, a microdosing for healing expert. So welcome.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Kristin:

Yeah, and I kind of want to dive in. I usually ask every guest like what's turning them on in life right now or what's making them feel the most alive, like in or out of the bedroom. It doesn't have to be like solely that, but I like getting a feel for that.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm gonna say I've been in the dirt a lot lately. So very far out of the bedroom lately. Yeah, I've been I've had my hands in the dirt most of the day when I'm not here on the screens. So yeah, I just bought a new home and I've been yeah, having a blast planting. I love that sewing new sewing new life. Yeah.

Kristin:

Cool. Yeah. Um, I a friend of mine like digs, um, or he runs this ranch out in Wimberley. And um, so I've done like the sifting through the dirt before and like finding arrowheads, and like it's so grounding. Like, I love to put my feet on the earth and my hands in the earth, and yeah. Um, what you planting out there, girl?

SPEAKER_00:

All kinds of stuff. It's fascinating though, like prepping the soil, like that part. I was like, oh, that's gonna be the boring part. Like, I just want to get to the flowers and the plants and the veggies and like the fun stuff. The actual like digging in has been so fascinating. Like, you would not believe the stuff that you turn up from humans over the eras. I'm like, um, so yeah, I would have loved to have found some arrowheads, but yeah, no such luck. I just found a little plastic. There's a lot of plastic. Yeah.

Kristin:

Like, I'm thinking bones.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like, the previous eras were a lot more interesting. They had arrowheads and we have Tupperware. Yeah.

Kristin:

That's a kind of our evolution, huh? Um well, I would love to ask you, kind of like switching gears a little bit to steer more in the microdosing direction. Um, I'm curious, like if there was if there's an origin story or what the origin story is, like how you got into this world, or like was there a moment of like initiation that opened up this pathway? Kind of like how did you get started in this realm or field?

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for the opportunity. Yeah, I was in the healing, I just my whole career. So I started very young. I got my first Reiki attunement when I was 19. That was my first modality, and I went into the healing arts for many, many years. And I had, of course, heard of psychedelics for healing and and spiritual growth, but I had a grand ball seizure disorder. So growing up, I was very hesitant to do anything that was gonna kind of rattle my already shaky brain in any way. Um, so I was never did drugs, never did any kind of especially psychedelics. And then over time I met someone who introduced me to the concept of microdosing, which I had never heard of before. And this is just taking teeny tiny doses of magic mushrooms subperceptually. Nothing's gonna happen, you're not gonna trip it, your brain's not gonna go anywhere. And I didn't really know what to anticipate because at the time I didn't really know anybody who had done this practice before as a practice. And among other things I started, I felt a lot of cognitive benefits, energetic uplift, just felt really good, lots of creativity open up, intuition open up. And after a few months, I was like, I haven't had an aura, I haven't had an inkling of a seizure. I wonder how long this is gonna go on. And so yeah, and so I've now since worked with other people that have severe nervous system dysregulation to extreme healing effect. Um, so after that, I was like, wow, there's really something to this that's pretty magical. And so during the pandemic, when my studios, I had healing art studios in Northern California, and when they got shut down for a long time and longer and longer, I decided to bring this work forth online. It was a way to be together and stay connected and offer healing. And so we did two pilot groups of people microdosing together. And that was 2020. And fast forward, we've built an international community today around it.

Kristin:

Cool. I love that. I've had some pretty profound journeys, like even from micro microdosing. I love that. How um, because I think a lot of times when people think of um microdosing, it is for like like the longevity or the productivity hacks or you know, creativity boosters. So I love hearing that like something that you know beautiful transpired just from microdosing. Like I had heard like a story maybe from like Paul Stametz, you know, back in the day where maybe someone you know cleared their stutter from like a hero's journey dose. But like to have that just from the microdose is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was him. It was it was Paul Stametz clearing the stutter. Yeah, I love his story because he shared that. I mean, he's been like he's been singing the song for since the 70s, right? He was always like the kooky guy in the mushroom hat. People are like, who is that guy? What is he talking about? And now he's like a celebrity, right? It's so funny. Um but he, yeah, when he was in high school, he had a severe stutter. And for years he would say the psychedelic journey he did with psilocybin healed his stutter. And in more recent years, when he shares the story, he realizes now it didn't necessarily heal his stutter, it healed his nervous system, which was what created his social anxiety. And by healing that, and that's exactly it's such a beautiful demonstration of how microdosane works because it works at the root level of the nervous system and your symptoms effortlessly go away because they're just manifestations of that nervous system dysregulation.

Kristin:

Cool. Um I'm curious, is your protocol or what you recommend the same as his or different, or does it vary like person to person?

SPEAKER_00:

It varies person to person, but I did for myself when I was first starting out, I did a variation on his protocol, which is Paul Stamets tends to recommend consecutive day dosing and then take a couple days off. So we call it four, three or five, two. A lot of people in my community do that just because that's what I taught for many years, but now it's much more individual. So some people do every other day dosing, some people do um one day on two days off, which is called the Fat the Fatiman protocol. And it really depends on which medicine you're working with. Like my jam is mushrooms. I love psilocybin mushrooms. They'll always be my kind of foundational medicine in our community, but we also offer and educate people on many different medicines too. So depending which mushroom you're working with or which medicine you're working with, your protocol will vary depending on which medicine.

Kristin:

Okay, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Like what other medicines do you think the two that we're right now, in addition to psilocybin, we're working with most is Aminata muscaria, which is the cute little red mushroom with the white dots, which is also a mushroom. It's an Alice of Wonderland mushroom. And it's it's a beautiful mushroom, it's just very, very different in effect than psilocybin. And lately we've been working well out with Wachuma, which is also called San Pedro, which is a cactus. Beautiful, beautiful medicine. And that can be microdosed as well.

Kristin:

That's so cool. I I just uh was having a conversation not too long ago about, yeah, I guess they were microdosing like even like LSD or um stuff like I was like, whoa, I didn't realize that you could microdose it or put that in like a such a you know, that amount. Because I feel like when I think of that, I get a little like nervous and like, oh, the time commitment, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

That's one of the other things that people love about microdosing. They're like, I don't have eight hours to kind of do this thing. Yes.

Kristin:

Yeah. Yeah. Um I'm curious, are the um, I know you mentioned like nervous system like dysregulation or regulating the nervous system through these like different protocols. Um, and does that include like I guess do people see shifts like emotionally, physically, spiritually, or emotionally and spiritually, I guess is what I was more curious about.

SPEAKER_00:

All the things, all the things, yeah. I mean, we always invite people to share what they're hoping to receive, like how they're hoping to feel, where they're trying to get to um emotionally, physically, spiritually in their lives. But the beauty of microdosing is when you come for one thing, you're likely to get that, but also all of these other things too. So pretty much from what I've noticed, people tend to experience the cognitive benefits first and the energetic benefits, like within the first few days. They're like, I'm just sharper, I'm clearer, I'm more together, I'm just knocking stuff out without a lot of drama and angst. I don't have to like will myself anymore to get things done. Um I have a calm uplift and I'm just clear, like I'm more me. And so it's ironic because a lot of people have some hesitancy to feel out of it. You know, I think they think it's gonna be like a cannabis type experience where they're kind of a little like different, and this actually brings you home to yourself more. Like you're more you, you're more strangely in control of yourself and noticing of yourself than you are when you're not dosing.

Kristin:

Yeah, I I love macrodosing. I don't know if I follow a set protocol really. I just kind of like listen, you know. I'm kind of like the winny word one. Don't listen to me. Listen to her because I just have like some chocolates in there, they melted. Like I don't know. You know, it used to be that at one square was this, but now questionable. Um, I don't even know where I was getting off with that, I guess. Maybe it's a question.

SPEAKER_00:

We call you an intuitive doser. She's an intuitive doser.

Kristin:

Oh yeah, I guess I was gonna comment. I'm like, yeah, I guess, you know, today's weed is like different than the weed I grew up in, where I feel like I could have like a puff and like just function, but today I don't even smoke because I'm like that'll ramp up my anxiety. Whereas with mushrooms, like kind of what you're speaking to, I don't feel that anxiousness. I just feel like more with it or creativity, um, like a natural Adderall in a way, maybe uh without that like hyper like stimulant type of feeling. Um, I'm curious, like if there's someone, like what would be your advice to like go to for someone that's maybe a little they want to begin in a safe and aligned way, but they're a little nervous, like any kind of tips for dipping their toe or that's all that's all of my people.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's most of my clients. You just describe them. Yeah, I mean, I work with a lot of people who would describe themselves or like I'm really normal, like I'm a really normal person, and I the they would not have imagined they would be working with psychedelics, you know, at 60. What am I doing? But we do, it's it's people from all backgrounds, all ages, all over the country, other countries sometimes. And so the community is nice. I kind of created the community as a, like you said, like a really easy way for people to dip their toes in and just learn. You don't have to begin, but it's like you could just come in, it's really accessible, it's just month to month, and you come in and you can come to the live gatherings online. They're all done online virtually, and you can just listen to people's stories and share and ask questions. There's always microdosing guides there from around the country to answer everybody's questions, and so it builds your confidence very quickly, far more than like reading a book or doing research on the internet when you can just sit and hang out and listen to people who are practicing.

Kristin:

So true. Um, I feel like we learn so much through stories. That's a beautiful offering to like go listen in and no pro, yeah. I love that. Um, how yeah, what create what sparked that? Or like how did you um create that community or when did that idea come through?

SPEAKER_00:

It was created like everything we've created, just mycelially through the doing. It's like, yeah, it's how everything has grown. So I did our first groups um back in in 2020, 2021. And everybody who did those groups wanted to stick together. They wanted to keep going, they wanted to keep practicing, they wanted to stay together. And so I created for in the beginning back then, we just did one, we called it our community call. We would just have like an alumni call with all the groups, and then with each each passing group, it just got bigger and bigger. And then once last year, thankfully, we have a beautiful sourcing partners that enabled us to open up sourcing direct to people online that we know, we collaborate with and we trust who operate with utmost and make medicines with utmost integrity so they're able to source people. So now people can come in, learn, educate, and be supported by us and receive medicines from them.

Kristin:

Awesome. Yeah, that's good to know because I had a girlfriend one time where we were ordering from somewhere and like they got confiscated somehow. And um, she had she was a little nervous. I guess her butthole was a little glitch going to pick up a notice, you know. So it's good to know. I'm curious. Okay. Um, I know that intentionality plays like a big role with like the macro or the hero's doses. Does intentionality play as big of a role like with the micro doses?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, absolutely. The way we love to frame it when people start their practice is instead of asking them what's wrong with you, like check the boxes or circle what's hurts, what's wrong, I talk with them about how they want to feel. Like, how do you want to feel in your life ultimately? Because a lot of intention setting, the way we have historically done it, is very small. You know, we want to get this thing, we want to have a relationship, or we want to have this thing. And part of the magic is the medicine is like as you grow and as you heal, you'll attract very different circumstances into your life, right? And so as you change your vibration frequency, life will match that. And so it's really beautiful to set your intention and hopes for how you want to feel and create and expand in your life, but then also leave room for nature and spirit to kind of come in and create that architecture for you of how it's become. So it's been years now, and I can see over and over again, people have their intention met, but it's never in the way that they thought it was gonna be. It's often far better. Yeah.

Kristin:

Surprise and dilatony. Um, I think that that's important too, and like I love that focus on feeling because I want to say, like, if I want XYZ or the partnership or whatever it is, it's like I'm hoping to feel differently when I have that or have, or there's something on the other side. That's how well that's my underlying goal, I think. Um, and then I also love what you said about leaving space for the universe to provide for you. It just reminds me, like I was had so many like different, you know, calendar blocks at one point. And you know, because I guess I get the couldn't the desire to control it. Like, um, but I'm like recently within the last few months, I've like opened up a lot of spaciousness because I it's like, okay, I want to allow some room for God or universe to surprise and delight me. Like, if I'm not allowing the spaciousness for that to occur, what can you know? It's kind of like shooting myself in the foot. Or like, I don't know, asking that. And so I noticed um somewhere that I'm like, do you use human design when you're working with people to I do, I do.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I've studied human design. I'm a mental projector, a 3-5 mental projector, and I've studied projector hood for the last four years. Um, and I love to, I would not consider myself a human design expert. I know them and love them and consult with them when needed. But I love for all of my clients, especially my one-to-one clients, I run their chart. I run their astrology chart and I run their human design chart because so much of working with mushrooms is energetic medicine. And so I love to kind of get an energetic blueprint of people to help support them because everybody, while you're microdosing, is going to be supported by doing different lifestyle things, adjacent to their microdosing practice. And so I love I find human design because it focuses so focuses so much on individual energetics, it's really beautifully insightful for microdosing.

Kristin:

That's cool. Do you find any like patterns come through for different types? Or is it and because I'm a manifestor and um I didn't know if they're like manifestors like geared towards this way or you know, or if you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So manifestors, projectors, and reflectors are all non-sacral beings. And so we have a lot of empty space in our designs, which is beautiful in that we tend to be really open to channeling, spirit, intuitive, you know, open to empathetic, creative. Um, but we also absorb everything. We're very sensitive to environment, we're very sensitive to energy. We need a lot of downtime, we need a lot of solo time to be in our own energy alone. And so knowing that, like learning that alongside microdosing practice, as you come more into yourself and you explore your own energy and your own feeling, your own energy becomes stronger and clearer to you. It becomes more and more important to be in alignment and give yourself the gift of kind of living life differently than other people. Um, whether that's sleeping alone occasionally, so you can be in your own energy, to just carving out more spaciousness in your day, giving yourself days where you can just be in your PJs. All my manifestor friends have PJ days. Seriously, they just yeah. They just do. They need it, they need it. So yeah.

Kristin:

Yeah, I've I've learned to like just not beat myself up about those anymore. I used to feel like some like guilt around that. I'm like, no, I'm recharging my batteries. I now I'm like, it's my sacred horizontal time in bed, usually with lots of snacks. Um, I love that. It's kind of like a way, it's like, how can I best support myself like through this journey and outside of? I know I find it like an interesting. Lens to look at the world. I would not consider myself to be an expert or anything either. And then I know I mentioned like or touched on like intentionality a little bit. I guess like the integration piece. Like how what does that look like like in your community or working with you? How does that help, you know, make the magic land, I guess, with people?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Oh, I love that term, make it the magic land. That's exactly what it is. Exactly what it is. Yeah, I think most people in Western culture focus on integration support and activities like journaling or writing or tracking ourselves or tracking our data and how we feel a day to day. For some people, that's absolutely wonderful and supportive. But there's a whole lot of people, I've worked with them, they're like, do I have to journal? Do I have to meditate? Like, do I have to do these things? And no, it's it's similar when we're coming up with integration practices, they'll be different for each person. And so some people start microdosing, they have beautiful dreams, big, beautiful dreams. And so, like in my microdosing training programs, we spend a whole session teaching people dream, the basics of dream work. So that when you have a lot of people start dreaming these very um common dreams, but they're like, what does this mean? And it's like you see these same dreams over and over again. So that's a beautiful form of integration that we're just not used to in our Western culture, but very, very powerful. Other things that are just more nature, a lot of times we center our integration practices, just providing an excuse for people to be on the earth, out in the dirt, out on the trails, um, biking. Some people, depending on their energy, need a lot of vigorous activity. Like I had one client who she loved to microdose and go spin class.

Kristin:

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Other people, there's no way they would want to do that, but it she just thrived with that because she had so much energy come up to move very powerfully. She had a very somatic experience with the medicine. Other people love to just do very gentle in yoga with practice. And so everybody's integration practice is different. And it doesn't have to be necessarily mental. That's a surprising to people. Sometimes it's somatic, sometimes it's creative, harnessing your creativity, writing, doing art. Um, it's anything, anything that helps you, like you said, have the magic land in your body. That's exactly it.

Kristin:

I love that it's like not, or there's more, you know, outside of the mental portion, right? I feel like so much of my life. I'm like, please get me out of my head. Um, you mentioned dream work. I'm like, can we go down this little aisle for a second? Yeah, I'm so curious about it. Like I took a course on lucid dreams, um, and I've had like some interesting, like, or just like questioning certain dreams, right? Or are getting curious about like, I'm like, what are you trying to teach me? Subconscious, or what are you trying to show me? I'm curious, like what kind of things do you um teach people or or discover about dreams? Or and I have like a particular one like, what if the same person keeps showing up in your dream?

SPEAKER_00:

Is that happening to you? Yes.

Kristin:

I'm like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, sometimes I'll say sometimes spirit is very obvious. Sometimes people share their dream, and like, well, if you're dreaming about the same person, it's because you're have a connection with that person. Our entanglements, our energetic entanglements with people, transcends space, geography, time. And so sometimes when you have um this energetic entanglement with a person, it can come up and resurface in in dreams. And so it's beautiful. We've seen so many different dreams in practice in our for in our six-week program. It's usually within the first six weeks people sort of dreaming up a storm. And common ones are people from their past, they have recurring dreams of people from their past. Oftentimes it's kind of closing a loop for them and bringing closure and kind of completing a circle, lots of reclamation dreams, forgiveness dreams. Um, also a really fascinating one that many, many people have had a variation of is they dream of a house and they have it's their house in all different forms, and wild animal. Sometimes it's multiple wild animals, or it's a wild animal, comes into the house and is like tearing around the house inside. It's it's so interesting how many times people have had some form of variation in that dream. And that is a representation of you reconnecting with nature, you reconnecting with your wild, your instinctual animal self. And sometimes it's gonna disrupt your little suburban life, right? It's gonna shake you up and rattle you out of your complacency, your familiarity, our kind of domesticatedness here in the West to rewild us a little bit and kind of tap back into our instincts again. So that's been really fascinating how often that one plays.

Kristin:

That's cool. Um, that's really neat. Um, do you suggest like people dream journal? Is that like the daily thing?

SPEAKER_00:

Or they can, yeah. So one of the guides in our community, Linda Sampfire, she's a dream expert. And we created the specific dream class that she teaches because I was bugging her so much with clients that finally we were like, we were like, we should just have you teach. Um because it's so many people were dreaming, and she was like helping translate, you know, for people and help help bring insight to their dreams and integration to their dreams. And so she teaches a class with other microdosing guides now to um help people initiate their dreams, the things you can do to kind of bring dreams forth and also to help remember your dreams, because that's another common complaint. People wake up and they go, I had one, and it slipped, it slipped away. So different practices people can do to both bring their dreams forth and also remember them. Yeah.

Kristin:

Yeah. Oh, I think I feel um, unless it's, I don't know, a more charged one. Yeah, I can remember it like right when I wake up. So I'm like, try to when I can, or if it landed or if it was a significant one, I try to notate on my on my phone because it's like the thing within reach. Um, I mean, or writing it down.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, voice notes are great because yeah, a lot of times when people try to do the the dream notebook, which can be effective for some people, but they're like, oh, I'll just write a few words and it'll all remember it from the few words. And then people wake up and they're like, man ace, I don't remember anything.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

It wasn't quite enough to jog. So voice notes are great. A lot of people just use their voice note feature.

Kristin:

That's a good tip. Um yeah, I I think that trains are so fascinating. I love it. Um, I want to say, oh, yeah, I was gonna ask you if there are any like myths or misunderstandings that you would like to kind of dispel or clear up for people in the in the space.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for that opportunity. There's a few, a few common ones.

Kristin:

They're all of them, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The the there's a few big ones that I hear constantly. So a big one right now is people think they can't start microdosing if they're on other medications and pharmaceutical medications. So a lot of times people think they need to get off of all their other things before they can work with earth medicines. No. There's very few cases where you will want to pay attention to and be careful, um, perhaps taper, but the that far and away, yes, you can. And so most people don't do that or that. We support people to learn more about that. But the other thing people think is you have to microdose similar to an antidepressant. Like once you start, you keep microdosing, and they kind of think it's an apples to apples. Like, I'm gonna replace my antidepressant with mushroom microdosing. I'm gonna have to keep doing it to get the impact that we're having. Not true. Not true. The goal of microdosing is so completely different in that the mushrooms are really just unlocking your own innate potential to heal. It's not the mushrooms doing something to you, it's the mushrooms shifting things for you so that you can do the healing that you've always been capable of doing. So it's a very different approach than Western pharma medications. And so when people ask how long will I microdose, it's gonna be different for each person, but ultimately the goal of microdosing is to not need to microdose at all. Like I never, I cannot microdose for many months at a time, and I never ever concerned, I'm never concerned that my seizures are gonna come back. So those are the main two, and then I said the last big one is I get a lot of people who are very either high profile or they have a lot of responsibility, they have a lot on their plates, and they're like, I cannot be weird. Like, I can't be that person who's like suddenly having a weird episode of some kind, right? And the whole boardroom is like, what is she saying? Right. So I get that a lot. Like, I I can't I want to do this, I'm curious, but I can't be off my game at all. And so those people, microdistin's really nice. We just start off really extra gentle, extra small, and people very quickly realize like, not only am I not off my game, I'm like way more on my game when I'm dosing. And it quickly becomes funny because a lot of the people who are most worried and hesitant about that when they do have a big public speaking engagement or they're recording an album, they're like, I have to dose that day. Like I need my dose that day because I know I'm gonna be much better than I would have been. So yeah, those are the big three.

Kristin:

Oh, love that. I'm curious. Have you seen a trend um towards people doing microdosing and getting off of pharmaceuticals? Not that that's okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Many, yeah, and I've seen a lot of both. So some people come in with the intention. They're like, most of the time it's like I'm on an honest medication. I guess it's helping me manage things, but I certainly don't feel great on it. I'm kind of, yeah. And so I would love to feel better in my life. I'd like to move beyond managing symptoms and actually feel awesome again, uh, feel joy again, feel hopeful again. Then we've had other people who they start microdosing and they just kind of decide that they want to taper off because they start to feel better. And they're like, I don't think I need this anymore. Probably the most I've seen that, I've seen that a lot with heart medication. I got a lot of people who were on like blood pressure medications and heart medications that just were able to come off. Um, but they didn't need them anymore. They were getting monitored along the way, didn't need them, and also ADHD medications, which is interesting. And two, it was kind of an effortless thing where people were like, oh, it's been three weeks and I haven't touched my ADD medication. Um and they noticed that in hindsight. So it's a lot of both, but some people find it's it's the few the rarest cases, but we've also had a case where people came in and their antidepressants weren't working for them. And after they worked with mushrooms, they started working for the first time. They actually reached a new set point in their healing that their medications actually started working.

Kristin:

Wow. That's cool. Um I'm curious too about really curious, about common things. People come in uh wanting to heal.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it's so diverse at this point, which is so fun. I would say back in 2020, 2021, it was a lot of depression, anxiety, mental health concerns. You know, during the pandemic, a lot of people were like, I've been leaning on the wine a little too much, just the stress of life increasing. And so it was a lot of mental, emotional things, but now it's so diverse. So lots of physical symptoms, headaches, nervous system conditions, women's reproductive health, PMS, PDD, um, things like that, fertility, lots of TBI, concussions, accidents, anything, anything tied to nervous system healing, psilocybin is almost always going to be uh supportive of. Um mental health continues to be, especially this year, mental health um issues, um, emotional, like building emotional resilience and capacity for change is huge. And also there's more and more people coming who are openly exploring their spirituality. Oh, yeah, yes, it's been so lovely to see because it's a big part of my life and my practice. And so more people are coming and saying, I lost a loved one, I'd love to reconnect with my ancestors, my lineage, lost loved ones in my life, or just connecting to my angels, my guides, and source. So that's been really beautiful to see and witness people move through that path as well.

Kristin:

Yeah, I'd say that that's kind of grief or losing loved ones is are that's like the number one thing I feel like uh mushrooms help me with uh in both a macro capacity and in a micro capacity. In fact, I was surprised by how profound the revelation was in a way smaller of a dose. Just like one or two like little capsules versus like buckle up buttercup type of experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's wonderful. Can you share more? I'm curious.

Kristin:

I'm telling you about both. Um, so the first one, I my dad died in 2013, and I just kind of had uh thought I was at a new emotional baseline. I'm like, okay, this is how much joy I can have or experience in life with my dad not in my life. I'm like, I guess this is this is it. Um, and I had a mushroom experience where I felt like I astral projected and connected with his spirit and like I could almost smell him in a way. And then had this moment, like, oh my god, how did I ever think you abandoned me? Like you've been here the whole time. And then I was like crying and laughing. I'm like, how preposterous that I even thought that. And like it was like such a good release, and um, it was like a reset button on joy. And then I like came out and went on the porch the next day, and then I just like noticed like the interconnectedness of everything or of life, and I'm like, oh, I'm part of this. Um, but like watching like a hummingbird, you know, come and you know, sit on a little flower or get a little nectar or something. And then recently it was in what was it, April, May? But I had lost a friend in February, and then this was like super micro dose, but I was near the ocean, I was kind of like reminiscing um or like looking at some photos, and it kind of had led to this uh embracing of my country outlawness because he used to, you know, I read a text message of his. It's like, I can't wait to catch up in that 903 voice. And I was like, I do have a 903 voice. And then I was like, I put on Outlaw Women by Hank Williams Jr. And then I was just dancing and then and then uh thinking about all these things that I'd kind of like put away. I'm like, oh, we can't we can't own that, or we can't, you know. So it felt like very much like reclaiming of different pieces of myself. Um and it was beautiful um and very healing. And so I kind of feel like he kind of helped lead me to that in a way. And I feel differently about death now than I did with my first go with like the big grief at first.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I mean, we've been doing this work across cultures, across times this humans for so long. There's an inscription in a Greek temple that's thousands of years old, and above it it says, if you die before you die, you won't die when you die. Oh, and that's speaking to what you just shared. Yeah, it really once you touch into this infinite that we are everlasting, we are part of everything, and we go on. Our spirit and our energy goes on, it's unshakeable. And everything after that is very, very different. We lead our lives with a different consciousness ever after. So yeah.

Kristin:

Definitely that. I mean, my grandma just recently passed too, and I was like, all right, grandma, Nana, how are you gonna communicate to me? I'm leading from the sign. Um, and so there definitely has been that element too of like, yeah, it's definitely opened up different possibilities, I'd say. Um, but I love that here that people are coming in like with the intention to explore that consciousness or God or whatever it is. Um yeah, I I love that. Any um specific stories that you care to share or that you have the you know consent to share or oh, so many.

SPEAKER_00:

So many. Um are you what are you most interested in?

Kristin:

Yeah, any of those um yeah, connect into it all or expanded awareness or acceptance type of thing. I love like the consciousness piece or element or okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I I know what you'll love. Yeah. So I had this this case was um, we'll just call her Dana. Call her Dana. Not her name, but we'll that's her name today. And Dana was one of those people who came in and we were on our intake call, and she was this sweet, devout Christian. She was from Iowa, and I was like, Do you know what I do? Do you know what we're doing here? And she was like, I think so. Maybe I think so. And just from the start, she had this temperament that I've learned that mushrooms love. There's very specific qualities of people that mushrooms I know they're gonna have, they're just gonna take off and have a gorgeous experience. And one of those is gratefulness. Like just those people who move, we all have them in our lives, right? That are just like the loveliest, softest creatures, and they just lead their lives wherever they are with a sense of gratefulness and acceptance. And this was this was Dina to a T. And I so I had very high hopes from the beginning. And her goal was she had lived a very dutiful life. Like she was the good wife, she was the great mother, she went to church, she did, but she really set herself aside for all of her life. And so her intention and how she wanted to feel in her life was more expansion. She wanted to just feel a bigger sense of life than she had up until this point. I think she was in her 60s when she first started. And she'd had a really close relationship with her parents, particularly her father. They'd passed away many years ago. Um, and so that was her intention, and she began, well, right from the first days, like she became, she was, she was in one of our six-week group programs, and week over week, like we all were so excited for and also kind of jealous of Gina. It was every week she would have this profound interaction with nature, or she would have this beautiful interaction with people, this great expansive opening, powerful dreams. Every week she had a new dream that was extraordinary. And she came, so maybe we're heading into the fourth week, and I was out in my garden before that call, and I felt a male presence come in, and it said, Tell her it was me. And I was like, Okay. And it was connected to, I was like, it's connected to, it's connected to Dana. I said, okay. And so I just kind of set it aside. We had the call. And she shared that since we had last met one of those tornadoes that happen in the Midwest that don't actually touch down all the way, but kind of just spiral in the air. Well, they had one of those come in and it didn't touch her entire home, her entire yard. There was just one tree where this thing came in and spiraled and it took clean off one tree, one single tree that was at the center of her yard. And she came to this call and she was, you could tell she had been crying and she was really upset. And she shared that this had happened in her yard, and she was so devastated because her father had planted this tree with her many, many years ago. And this was her connection to him. And I was so I was just sitting there listening to her story and gave her space and then shared what had happened to me. And it was her father's way of coming in and meeting her intention. She wanted a bigger life. And she she ended up losing this tree. Like it was cut off in such a way it was meaningful that it was him, like unmistakably him. But she also had to take this tree out and plant all new life in her life. And she can't she used this space to create a whole new, like bigger expansion. And just it was such a beautiful demonstration of you, we set our intention, but what spirit can bring in is so far beyond anything we could have ever imagined. And sometimes things happen to us in our lives that, you know, from our ancestors in the spirit world, they're just trying to get our attention.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

They're not, they're not, you know, what we conceive as a problem or devastating is actually them communicating with us. And it was, she's just had been extraordinary. And so since that time, she's gone on to travel to a lot of special places, sacred places, sacred sites around the world that I I don't know that she would have ever traveled to prior in her life. And she's had really incredible connections to spirit, connections to her loved ones, extremely beautiful spiritual openings when she's gone to these other places in the world. So that's yeah, that was that's a beautiful case of what's possible.

Kristin:

That's so beautiful and got me emotional. And it might be unlike I had a full like chill truth bump sensation go through my body. That's such a beautiful story. I know that now you started uh like facilitators can train with you, right? Or become a facilitator. Like let's speak about how that came about, or and I'm curious about about it too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so that too kind of grew out of what was just organically happening. So people started um in our six-week program five years ago, and a lot of people would come through that, and by the end of like six weeks later, they would go, I think I want to do this. Like, I think I want to do this. Is that crazy? No, no, and so it was just kind of naturally happening that people were called to this work, had tremendous amazing healing, and then of course just naturally wanted to share it with others. And so this has just been happening naturally for a long time. And they would participate in the programs and just have a com it be in our community. But it was time this year. Um, I spent most of February in Egypt, and I had some powerful, powerful guidance come through on that trip. And one of them was to that it was time to really guide other guides to continue to hold space for our community, but also to to hold space and um provide more um structure for for guides to really train in this in this work. So we started that this summer. Yeah. So we're on our second cohort right now. We'll have our third cohort uh begins January 20th in 2026. And it's a 12-week program and specific to becoming a microdosing guide. So it's been fun. Like so far, people have come. Sometimes we have people who have had a medicine practice of their own for some time, but they're called to do this professionally. Other people are in corporate. It's been really interesting. They're in corporate in very different fields, just feel kind of summoned to learn more about this work. Then we have a lot of clinicians coming in, lots of psychotherapists and doctors who all their patients and clients are asking for this work. And so they're feeling like they want to educate themselves to at least be able to be informed and educated enough to share and support it.

Kristin:

Love that. I'm curious. I'm gonna look into it. Um, I feel like I've had some profound shifts that of course, yeah, love to share in certain ways. Um, and I'm curious about your Egypt downloads. I had a pretty powerful one. I went in May of last year, and and there were definitely, you know, some micro doses involved at different temples and sites. And um, I'm curious, like, did any of the specific sites have a you know, land with you more than the others?

SPEAKER_00:

Or definitely. It was really extraordinary. I mean, I knew it was gonna be extraordinary, but it surpassed even my great expectations of it. And it started like the night I got there. I remember lying in my bed all jet lagged in Cairo and feeling spirit come in. And I wasn't on anything, by the way, nothing the entire time. It was like I knew it was gonna be a journey in and of itself. Um, and it was, and I could feel kind of spirit come in and start to open me. I could feel my third eye open, I could feel this energy moving through me on like a cellular level, and I was like, okay, here we here we go. And each temple I went to, um, there was a new lesson and a new opening along the way, which thankfully I did take notes. I'm not always the best at taking notes, but I did take notes um of the teachings and the openings in each place. Um, but far and away, Dendara and Abydos were yeah, those were the the final two of this particular journey. I mean, I went other places after that, but it was after those two that I had this tremendous sense of like um that this is complete.

Kristin:

And yeah. Love it. How about I would say Dendera, and um, it was like a cool, like playful energy, or like maybe the importance of playfulness, and had a moment where I, you know, I left a crystal in in like a little crack of one of the birthing chambers, and it felt like so I was gifted something to birth into the world. Um, it was beautiful, and then definitely filet or ISIS, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

Kristin:

That one. I didn't even really know that much about ISIS or I'd read it, you know. I kind of went, I was like, I like going into some places sometimes where I'm like, I don't have my my preconceived idea or notion about what's gonna transpire. I don't really know what this, you know, um, person or God um is geared towards or leans in a way. And so I went there and I just felt like I was gonna have rocket to the moon, like I could barely speak when we were in the Holy of Holies and like we had done like a meditation, and we'd only taken like one or two micro dose capsules, like it wasn't enough to like have this kind of experience come through. Um but yeah, it was all I could do to to form syllables and to like say my intention for how I wanted to interact and be in the world post Egypt. And um, I was like, oh yeah, I guess I gotta be very clear and intentional with what's coming out of my mouth. I don't want to overpromise because I've got to deliver on this. Yeah, it was very beautiful. It felt like an activation or some kind of a kundalini away. It felt like something, I was like vibrating head to toe. And I like involuntary like sounds kind of came out of my mouth too. She my teacher um said that it kind of reminded her of the Harry Matt Sally scene in the diner. I was like, Oh, there was no faking then though.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful, yeah. It's it's a powerful, the land there is so extraordinarily powerful. I encourage people to go, like, even if you don't have any interest in, you know, you don't need to know the history, you don't need to know the gods or goddesses, like the land itself just offers you initiations and healing and activations. It's it's pretty extraordinary.

Kristin:

Yeah, I was kind of like, I'm like, okay, when were the last time my tin toes on this soil? Like thinking about that. Because there was always a pool there, like kind of like wrapping it back or tying it back to like dreams too. Like whenever I when I took that lucid dreaming course, I was like, okay, whenever I come to my plan, is I want to go see the pyramids. And so that's whenever I came to for the first time within that time frame. It was like, oh, and I went and like kind of flew around the pyramids, and it was like very cool. Uh for some reason, like Egypt has always called me, but I didn't know yeah, why or even exactly what all transpired, really, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00:

Now you know. Now you know, yeah. I mean, I think that the goddesses have have had so many names across time. You know, when my guide first now in hindsight, like my I have one primary guide. Sometimes people have multiple guides and angels have a whole band. I just have one, I have one very strong voice guide. And now in hindsight, like I can see that she's she's she's never not been there. It's so obvious in my childhood. There's it's so laughingly obvious now that I know her now, but it was really mushroom practice started to open me up. And a lot of times people ask, like, what do you think are the things that opened you up the most? And it was mushroom practice for sure, but it was it was how mushrooms allowed me to process grief. I think that grief is one of the primary, it's a very dense, heavy energy that we carry our own grief, but also grief and our lineage over time. And once we work with mushrooms to metabolize that grief, and just a lot of people are taken aback by how much they cry when they work with psilocybin. They're like, I didn't even know it was physically possible to cry that much. But you just feel liberated and and free and lighter after. And that's what I think is that thinning that allows spirit to come through. So spirit's always with us, and our loved ones are always with us. It's just we need to kind of attune ourselves to be able to hear that frequency. And so once you do um once I journeyed, that was the first time I saw my guide. And then once I moved, interestingly, I moved geographically from California to Florida. And once I made that geographic move where I was in a different energy, my connection to her completely blew up into it's just an open channel now. Like she's she just comes in whenever she wants to now. Um, but she was the one, she was like, it's time, yeah, of year and year and a half ago. She was like, it's time to go home for you. And I was like, Oh, Greece, because I'm of Greek lineage. And she was like, No, no, no, no, my home. My home. And it was there that I came to see like the the gods and the goddesses, and I think why so many women go to Egypt and just have these unbelievably expanded openings, is we have known these spirits and guides throughout time and lifetime. We're all connected, they've been different forms and different faces at call different things over history, but we share this kind of bodily knowing of them.

Kristin:

Even if we can't, we don't have the you know, story to associate with it, like it's in our bones type of thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly.

Kristin:

Yeah, love that. Um, I have a quick little lightning round um that me and okay. Yeah. Let's see. Okay. See if there's anything that I yeah. Okay. It says mushroom that best matches your vibe right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I would say today probably amenita.

Kristin:

Okay. Yeah. That's the red and white one, right?

SPEAKER_00:

The yes. Yeah. The cute red and white one. Yeah.

Kristin:

And then it says most underrated healing practice.

SPEAKER_00:

Breath.

Kristin:

You're the second person that said that today.

SPEAKER_00:

That's your sign.

Kristin:

Maybe that's your I'm like, okay, I hear you. Um, and then the a song that shifts your energy instantly.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I am totally Gen Xer and I love the cure.

Kristin:

Um, one thing that medicine keeps whispering to you.

SPEAKER_00:

Lots of things. Let me choose. One of the things Spirit reminds me over and over, it came through powerfully when I was in Egypt, but ever since, especially working with women, is whispering that to remind us that we have always, always been chosen. There's never been a moment we were not chosen. We came here. Chosen, right? I mean, think about it. So many of us spend our lives like waiting to be chosen.

Kristin:

Yeah, that makes me cry too. Because I was just at a um like a sisterhood kind of like self-love body painting event um on Sunday. And uh one of the things we did this like devotional undressing practice, and like one of the things I was like, okay, I'm shedding this idea that I can't be fully chosen, or and so that you even just saying that like the synchronicity there is pretty cool and alive. Um it lands. Anything else that you want to share with people or oh, just gratitude.

SPEAKER_00:

Gratitude if you are still with us listening. Yeah, thank you for yeah, I know I appreciate it so much. It's so this is the most powerful thing we can do right now is women sharing. Women-to-woman sharing, it changes everything. And so just yeah, thank you for the opportunity to share and hang with you and your audience, yeah, and connects. Yeah, I invite anybody who is curious and wants to learn more, um, please step in. Yeah, we're super happy to support.

Kristin:

Awesome. Thank you for being here, love, for listening with your whole heart, for listening to the very end, and for walking this wild path with me. If today's episode stirred something in you, whether a giggle, a tear, or a full-body yes, don't keep it to yourself. Share the magic, leave a review, drop me a note, or send it to a fellow sacred rebel who needs it. And remember, your story is sacred, your desires are divine, and your mess is part of the masterpiece. Keep showing up, keep feeling it all, and keep turning your life into poetry. Until next time, stay wild, stay tender, and stay true to that beautiful soul of yours. All my love, Krista.