Sex, Sacred Medicine & the Psychedelic Patriarchy
Sexual assault and misconduct among shamans has long plagued the plant medicine shamanism community, resulting in prolonged physical and emotional trauma for ceremony participants, rather than healing. But is it “wrong” for a shaman to sleep with a ceremony participant? When do accepted cultural behaviors transgress into sexual addiction and predation? And is it all okay if the participant indeed wants to have sex with the shaman?
Beyond the misconduct of individual shamans & medicine facilitators, how is it possible to address pervasive sexist attitudes in the greater culture? From the Amazon basin to the Psychedelic community, how can men and women address patriarchy and sexual predation in a way where male leaders hold themselves accountable and experience appropriate and meaningful consequences for misconduct, in a way that doesn’t perpetuate victim shaming or professional pariah-hood for women who speak out?
I sat in with a panel of leaders in the psychedelic & shamanic community to discuss the importance of a code of ethics in ceremony spaces during a live video panel.
Meet the Speakers
Jan Engels-Smith
Jan is a credentialed healer, teacher, author, and the founder of LightSong School of 21st Century Shamanism and Energy Medicine. LightSong is a school recognized for its integrity and its inclusive and versed curriculum in shamanism. Jan’s mission is to provide excellence in energy healing and education and to support personal growth for well-being, adapting ancient healing techniques to contemporary life in the 21st century.
Jennifer Sodini
Jennifer is an innovative, intuitive, creative entrepreneur that has worked in conscious media for the last 5 years. Jennifer is the author of the forthcoming Amenti Oracle series (illustrated by Natalee Miller), which is being published by Running Press in Spring of 2019. She believes strongly in the power of the heart, intuition, and dreams – and that by becoming fluent in the language of these three faculties of experience, a limitless reality is possible. She’s going to share with us today how we can attain fluency in dream language, as well as how to connect the language of dreams with the language of our heart and our intuition.
Tricia Eastman
Tricia is a pioneer in the psychedelic renaissance, integrating ancestral technologies with modern protocols designed to address the ailments of the”western mind”.With honor and respect to traditions and right relationship to the medicines, along with psychological and harm reduction best practices, we have the tools to use these powerful medicines for transforming ourselves, the nation, and this planet. This is the path of neo-shamanism, and we are going to explore whether it might even be a new path of awakening.
Oriana Mayorga
Oriana is a volunteer, researcher, and longtime advocate of psychedelic medicine, drug policy reform and supporter of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Her undergraduate research that she presented on “The Perceptions of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy” in the College Student Population at the
Association for Psychological Science Conference has been presented at various conferences. She has worked with the Drug Policy Alliance and DanceSafe. Oriana seeks to become an above ground psychedelic psychotherapist, as well as continue to participate in harm reduction and drug policy initiatives.
