Deep Fix

In the verdant pastures of my youth, I read the New York Times from cover to cover, with a keen predilection for the political section. I listened to the “Pod Save America” bros back when they were called “Keepin’ it 1600,” long before they devolved into the Fox News of the Left. I marched and volunteered when I could, and amidst the intoxicating fumes of my addled mind, I even toyed with the unrealistic notion of a career in political strategy.

Who wants to come to Costa Rica the first week of May? Discover a New Model for Psychedelic Therapy. This year, the non-profit I co-founded is pleased to offer a novel Natura Care Integration Program. The idea is to take everything innovative and important from our core addiction program—a highly supportive environment with a focus on integration, nature immersion, and counseling—and provide an offering for the general public.

I recently taught a workshop on embodiment for a few hundred people that went surprisingly well. I attribute part of my success to the advice of Rick Rubin on Ezra Klein’s podcast, where he describes a brief visualization he performs before every public appearance. In the exercise, Rubin imagines their higher Selves floating above them in vast, open space, guiding them to unearth their most profound insights and engage in a conversation that would benefit anyone who listens.

It never ceases to amaze me how frequently I encounter people who profess to be the prey of narcissists. I, for one, never deny anyone their experience. Sicko narcissists do exist in our world; I was the victim of one as a 5th grader. Perhaps the ultra-individualism of the contemporary Western World serves to produce more narcissists than ever. And yet, as therapy-speak seeps into every corner of our culture, the term “narcissist” has become an all-purpose label to describe your ordinary jerk.

Alive most before the sun rises, I wake with energy. I know I must leave my apartment now. Two stretches, one prayer, a spot of tea, and a kiss on Grace’s sleepy cheek—I’m gone. The surfboard fits in the car. I ride a short guy, sleek, quality, the type that took me fourteen years of patience with the Pacific to earn. It never gets that dark at night in the Bay (light pollution) so dawn in Oakland is especially bright. At this hour, though, it’s yet dark enough to feel sly. Quiet enough to feel alone.

Though it may seem like this week’s newsletter only pertains to men, I believe it’s profoundly relevant to everyone. And, I hope, potentially beneficial to each and all. I write today to announce the formation of Sons of Now. Included below are a few sections I pulled from the group’s description, along with some of my current opinions on masculinity. I’m excited to hear yours, and hopefully, my pitch is worth your time in its own right.

1.Are we getting trauma entirely wrong? Alex Beiner, one of the co-founders of Rebel Wisdom, wrote a banger essay about how the mainstreaming of trauma is changing culture. He specifically focuses on the research of Dr. George Bonanno, who wrote The End of Trauma. Bonanno argues that humans are extremely resilient, and only a minuscule number of people truly experience PTSD after a traumatic event.

Last month, I spoke at a fundraiser for our addiction and psychedelic non-profit. When my colleague introduced me, he told the audience that I was about to celebrate seven years of continuous sobriety. The small room erupted with cheers. It’d been ages since I attended a proper recovery meeting, at least one that I was not facilitating, where this sort of reception is the norm. But this was a fundraiser, not a proper recovery meeting, so I was filled with a strange mixture of emotions.

After spending the last two years Zooming-from-home in your boxers, enjoying quality time with your kiddos, or picking up water coloring (and lowering your blood pressure by forty points in the process), maybe you’ve sworn to yourself never to return to your stale office keyboard again. Said another way, our pandemic culture has fundamentally asked us to reevaluate the possibility for engaging in more meaningful work in our lives.

The progress I have made in my recovery serves as a testament to the current treatments available for addiction and, more importantly, the advancements on the horizon. I underwent medically-assisted treatment and detox, followed by hardcore AA, a Buddhist approach to recovery, and ultimately, through unexpected twists of fate, discovered the transformative power of psychedelic plant medicine in the Amazon rainforest.