Recently I was posting something on a site called Retreat Guru, and I had to mark which category my retreat belonged to. Of course, it didn’t quite fit into Yoga, or Meditation, or Plant Medicines, or Breath Work, or any other category. And yet the psycho-spiritual somatic practice of CONTINUUM includes all of these elements and more.

I was amazed to see how many categories there were for plant medicines and altered states related to imbibing substances. Working in this way in a therapeutic context has become quite popular. Many therapists are being trained to work with each one specifically, whether it is Psilocybin, MDMA, Ayahuasca, Cannabis, or San Pedro, and the list of psychotropic compounds is only growing. Other kinds of clinicians as well are being trained to support people healing from PTSD, or other unresolved trauma. Many of these substances are going through rigorous trials to become legal for this purpose, which is great news!

I think the increase in popularity has to do with the growing urgency for people to find ways to get ‘unstuck’ from the places they feel traumatized, confused, dishonest, lost, and perpetually trapped. As well as a call to come home to the soul by breaking down the barriers in the subconscious mind that are held in the body as armor and defense against one’s sentient feeling body and thus one’s access to power, agency and grace.

I have seen firsthand how powerful these medicines can be for people who really need them, and I have also seen where they can be yet another trap.

I respect these planet medicine teachers and have assisted clients in the past with these same substances, and would be open to doing so again if this felt like what was most needed. I have also sought them out for my own personal healing work as well and walked with particular plant medicine teachers at times — and those relationships have evolved to where this has become no longer true for me. While I respect other people’s choices in how they engage, for me, relying on these substances in large doses as a mediator to my soul has evolved to be more of a hindrance than a helper.

What is true for me is that in these times of profound acceleration, environmental instability, and uncertainty, is that we must take our health, our healing and our inner stability into our own hands. And discover how to participate in liberating ourselves from where we feel chronically inauthentic, dis-empowered and stuck in old trauma imprints.

Accessing the wisdom of my body and my heart is the direct access to my soul. This is also what opens the pathways that restore a coherent connection to my executive functioning and higher brain centers. Thus, the unified experience of, “I am the medicine” and “my life is my ritual”. Rather than imbibing a substance; it is the quality of my presence, my love, my touch, my breath, my choices, and actions that are the ingredients inside of the alchemical laboratory of transmutation.

By working directly with our core wisdom centers, we can enter into the somatic mystery school within. We can empower ourselves with the neuro-chemistry that is required to be resilient, awake, and available as co-creators with Life. We can ignite our own inner apothecary of potent vital forces to charge the Cerebrospinal Fluid. Which in turn lights up and nourishes the Pituitary and Pineal glands (master endocrine glands in the brain) in such a way that we can discover from the inside how to participate as conscious change agents within any aspect of our lives… and our world at large.

Though these more subtle practices DO NOT appear to be popular these days, I actually have lots of company here. In that, the ancient mystery school yogas of Egypt, Greece, India, and Tibet knew about working with the core energy centers as the way to advance and evolve consciousness.

Now we have the modern day neuroscience to measure the impact of these subtle yogas on healing and restoring one’s vitality, regulating one’s emotions and creating an inspired environment to reignite one’s path of service and precious connection to all of life.

Sounds great – right?

But in case you were wondering HOW do we practice this exactly? What takes place on a Continuum Retreat or immersion?

Well… (here is my attempt at the ineffable ‘nutshell’)- Through precise breath practices that include intimately relating with provocative sounds, touch, embryological movement motifs and concentration; we grow the potency of our life force to vivify our subtle core and empower higher brain states and heart coherence.

Once we have a strong and coherent field of energy, we allow the energy to guide each of us as a group, very much akin to the way a shamanic medicine journey would unfold. Only the medicine we are imbibing is our own dormant vital life force intelligence that is now activated and flowing through our systems as bio-intelligence.

As each of us gives ourselves greater and greater permission to be here, as we are, and to allow whatever needs to unwind or unfurl in our own re-wilding process, we give everyone else permission to dive deeper, expand wider and grow taller. That is the beauty and power of having a group field — we can co-create the safety to go exactly where we need to go to liberate ourselves.

In this We way, you can reclaim your body/mind and heart from past traumas, abuse and mis-use of your life force…and embody your sacred potential and birthright as a true human being.

So… as you know- or maybe this is your first time hearing about it- I have a LIVE RETREAT coming up on August 7-11! I can only accommodate 16 wondrous humans for the upcoming UNADORNED CONTINUUM RETREAT in Hawaii, so if you are interested, please reach out! There are only a few spots left and early bird registration ends on May 27. The link is on the home page.