1. What Disassociation Is Disassociation is the act of stepping out of the body - the soul leaving the vessel to escape unbearable pain. It begins in childhood, when the nervous system faces realities too overwhelming to integrate. Without agency or protection, the psyche retreats into the mind’s upper chambers, leaving the body to survive on instinct. What begins as a mercy becomes a prison. The adult body still holds the memory of danger, and the consciousness remains suspended, unable to...

Colorado understands informed risk. We hike fourteeners, ski backcountry, camp in remote places, and accept that nature is powerful and not safe in the way malls are safe. The point isn’t danger for its own sake. The point is responsibility, preparation, and respect for the terrain. The regulated entheogen model treats this very differently. It’s like fencing off a national forest and saying, “We’ve trained gatekeepers to open the gate for you, for a fee.” Once inside, you’re on your own. The...

I’ve walked alongside dozens of people as they came into awareness of repressed early childhood trauma and began the long work of integration. This is often how it unfolds. As children, we are dependent. We cannot afford to fully perceive the reality that those entrusted with our care may have had harmful intentions. The truth is too destabilizing. So the psyche does what it must. It represses. As adults, we have more agency. We are better equipped to face what could not be faced then. But to...