E23 | Simon Yugler | Psychedelics, Myth, & Soul: Otherworldly Healing & Cultural Repair
Here is an audio version.
A video version can be found below.
In this episode, Simon and I explore the evolving landscape of the so-called "psychedelic renaissance," delving into the soul-revealing potential of these powerful medicines and the importance of approaching them with respect, reverence, and an initiatory orientation. We discuss the dangers of reducing psychedelics to mere mental health tools within a “business-as-usual” mindset, rather than honouring them as sacred guides for reconnecting with Soul.
Simon reflects on some of his personal journey—growing up in the U.S. and sensing a profound soullessness in the culture—and how psychedelics eventually played a key role in helping him access Soul, confront grief and shadow, and tap into deeper layers of the mythic. We explore the aliveness of myth and its power to reconnect us with our deep selves. We also discuss how psychedelics, when approached with reverence, can catalyze meaningful personal growth and spark collective transformation.
Throughout the conversation, Simon invites us to reflect on our relationship with psychedelics, Soul, land, myth, inner authority, and culture. He emphasizes both the complexity and necessity for cultural repair, the vital role of grief in culture-making, and how psychedelics can help awaken an animistic consciousness that honours reciprocity with the wild world.
Find Thematic Show Notes Below
TICKETS TO ROOTS OF RESILIENCE
Connect with Simon:
Book: Psychedelics and the Soul
Substack
Website
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WHR Instagram
Coyotei Counsel Instagram
Tei’s Instagram
Email - whr.link@gmail.com
Thematic Show Notes
Soul-Revealing Potential of Psychedelics:
“Psychedelic literally means ‘soul-revealing,’ a necessary distinction that sets our compass squarely in the direction of this inner domain.”
Psychedelics as Abreactives and Readiness for the Shadow:
“Psychedelics are abreactives, meaning that they bring to our conscious awareness whatever unconscious material has the most unconscious energy around it.”
Cultivating resilience and readiness is key to facing what arises, especially the challenging and unprocessed aspects of self and world.
Rekindling Myth and Animistic Perception:
“Myths are alive—take a step toward a story, and it will take a step toward you.”
The importance of beholding the land and seeing it not just with our eyes, but with an open, mythic mind.
Psychedelics can help us see the world through the lens of myth, where everything has a story to tell.
Decolonizing the Mind and Navigating the Psyche:
Trusting the psyche's natural processes allows for deeper mythic experiences.
IFS parts work helps navigate unhelpful thoughts and feelings, especially when working with psychedelics.
Initiatory Framing in Psychedelic Healing:
Psychedelics must be approached with an initiatory context, respecting ceremony and ritual.
Without this framing, we risk repeating the same cycles of disconnection.
“Unless we bring that framing of initiatory process and rites of passage to psychedelic healing work, we run the risk of repeating more of the same.”
Grieving in Community and the Necessity of Cultural Repair:
There is a need for communal grieving as we face the immensity of the challenges in our time.
Leadership, Humility, and the Amplification of Psychedelics:
Psychedelics amplify all aspects of leadership, for better or worse.
Authentic leadership must be grounded in humility and integrity, especially in psychedelic spaces.
“Power in an integrated, initiatory context is achieved through authentically earning it, a task that is recognized, facilitated, and therefore trusted by the community.”
Reciprocity with the Otherworld:
Visionary gifts require reciprocity with the unseen powers of the world.
“Vision requires us to be in reciprocity with the powers of the Otherworld if we want the blessings of these experiences to actually stay with us.”
Ecological Consciousness and Animism:
Psychedelics can reawaken our fractured kinship with the natural world and help restore ecological consciousness.
“A defining condition of modernity is our unraveled kinship with the natural world.”
Hope as Trickster and Embracing Incompleteness:
Hope is a trickster, pushing us to embrace the unknown and the incomplete parts of ourselves.
“Healing is a process of wrestling with our incompleteness until we find the blessings therein.”