What is your position on sacred reciprocity?

Most indigenous in the Americas are believed to have arrived via a land bridge between present-day Alaska and Siberia. We work on land aboriginally settled by the Pericu, a lost tribe of people that is believed to have actually been Australian Aboriginals who migrated to the Gulf of California via boat. Sadly, the colonization of the area in the 1500s by the Spaniards and later the Jesuit missionaries led to the complete disappearance of aboriginal populations by 1900. Today, the Nahuatl, Mixteco and Zapoteco languages are the top remaining indigenous languages spoken, all of which originate from other Mesoamerica regions.

The mushroom medicine itself was "discovered" by the West after a New York banker named Gordon Wasson betrayed the trust of Mazatec sabia (wise-woman) Maria Sabina. The Mazatec culture was severely disrupted as a result of the banker returning to the US and publishing his findings in Time Life magazine. Prior to this point, it was reserved only for the elite in mysterious rituals dating back thousands of years.

We strongly believe in being in ethical right relationship with ancestral medicine and the indigenous who protect it. The indigenous have protected these medicines for millenia. We owe them an enormous amount of gratitude. Many of these communities no longer have the ability to self-sustain given the eradication of their lands and wild animals. As such, their labor, art, and medicine are among the last trades they can make to obtain basic needs like food while keeping their culture alive. Sadly, their cultures are disappearing and it is our duty as Western allies to help them protect their ways as they integrate with the modern era.

To fail to recognize the role of the indigenous in a program that works with psychedelics is a red flag. It is important to understand that this is not a political issue. It is an ethical care issue. Anyone working with these medicines who does not have the courage, humility, or respect to be in sacred reciprocity with the indigenous may have other issues in their Blind Spot as a coach, facilitator, or provider that may impact your safety, experience and growth as a client. Even if you do not work with us, you need to keep this in mind for your own well-being.

All LMS programs may be coupled with microdosing depending on individual circumstances.

We also recommend an indigenous-led, indigenous-blessed, or an indigenous-conscious ceremony experience and can help clients identify and distinguish between safe, trusted facilitators from unsafe, “plastic shamans” who are not in ethical relationship with the medicine or the indigenous (which means they may not be in ethical relationship with you!). We know what to look for and can help macrodosing clients take care and succeed in their efforts in working with the medicine.

For microdosing clients, the client self-administers the medicine through an ancestral-aware container that the coach helps to co-create with the client.

How do you practice material sacred reciprocity beyond prayer and recognition?

We maintain an indigenous-conscious program and donate a portion of the program cost to the Indigenous Medicine Conservation fund, an indigenous-led organization working to protect and preserve these vital biocultures.

If you are considering working with ancestral medicine, it is important to be in right relationship with a sustainable, ethically-harvested source of the medicine and those who have cultivated its use for millenia.

You may or may not feel called to work with us. If you don’t, please consider making a donation to one of these communities anyway. If they disappear, they are gone forever.

To support indigenous medicine cultures, please visit The Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund