Oh yeahhhhh @Ian McBride , legendary story man!

@Ian McBride I just also realized that I might have misrepresented myself, since this was a thread on psychedelics I used "substances" to mean that. Which is sorta dumb and when I re-read it I was like girl you looking like you pretending to be sober that's weird. SO let me re-phrase, between 17-40 I did no psychedelics or other non-cannabis substances - I am practically made of THC and other cannabinoids, marinating steadily from age 13 to now. So I have never got my life together just want to make that CLEAR!

I am SO SO sorry @Stephan Kerby I hope something miraculous happens

My name is Kim, I am from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and spend some time every year in Canada. I came into this community because I am fascinated by and grateful to 5, love to learn and conduct research, and felt an authentic and humble energy emanating from Kerby and Amber. I am recovering from a spinal cord injury, and in 2022, when the injury was at its worse, I started shoving small-ish amounts of mushrooms and LSD in my mouth almost every day, in hopes of working through what I was told was an impossible predicament. I had to have surgery as part of this recovery, but psychedelics (including 5 post ACDF C4-C7) have helped me keep some hold on LIFE during my darkest hours, survive the surgery, and now seem to be helping me build my body back post-op. I am hoping to learn anything I don't know, to learn to re-assess the things I think I have already learned, and to be grateful for where I am.

Thanks for the support and I like Dr. Joe's meditations and writings but have not delved into his story. Will do now, thank you.

Hi @Jeremy Hardy and @Stephan Kerby oh wow this is so kismet I am in love with my life WOW. I am from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and I am a scholar who has been working with the Garinagu/Kalinago/"Carib" people for most of my life, in many capacities, across the eastern and western Caribbean, within their modern and historical territory. The word "Carib" might be understood by some as a colonial slur - but it's more complex than that. I will choose to use the term "Carib" going forward for reasons given to me by the Vincentian communities themselves (sorry I am an academic and had to drop a terminology justification in case you are too 😂😂😂). Ok here's the story... As a young child in St. Vincent, I was exposed to information about Carib ritual use of Yopo, a substance made from the bark of a tree, blown into the nose through a Y shaped device. I have been fascinated ever since. I have also been trying to find evidence of Carib use of it for a while in the contemporary context, but never have. Recently, I read a Double Blind article that explained what you stated here, and I was able to make the links between my chidlhood fascination with Yopo use on my island, and my seemingly out-of-nowhere obsession with 5-Me0-DMT. Carib economic and socio-political life is so exciting to me, especially in terms of how they view territory, particularly when it comes to water. They emanate from the Orinoco River Basin in modern Venezuela, and considere(d) much of the waters and islands north of there to be part of that same territory. I have now found writings that indicate that the Caribs purposefully planted Cahoba on the islands (like their "capital" island St. Vincent), in order to have access to their ritual substance when they were travelling (travelling was basically their entire lifestyle). A friend of mine is an archaeologist who works on unearthing and understandings ritual objects called Zemis that I am also fascinated with. So I do wish to embark on a little something when I head home to St. Vincent next month... I have a team of hikers and the National Forestry Division ready to head out with me to see if we can locate any Cahoba trees in the forests of the island from Carib times, I plan on getting into conversations about Zemis, maybe heading down to the Orinoco now that it's a bit easier to get into Vene.

Hi @Derrick Carter yes I am trying to learn a bit myself! I enjoy Richard Rudd's philosophy generally and am a fan of Human Design. From my understanding, Gene Keys is Rudd's interpretation of Human Design principles. I lean into both.