Book 3 of Tales of Aurduin, The Alchemist and the Eagle, comes to a stunning cliff-hanger conclusion this week with chapter 36, "The Gathering." Pulled by a mysterious force people from across the world of Aurduin gather in the center of the world at Jeaniaurduin with the certain knowledge that the God Child, Miraanni, is about to return from her year's embodiment within the earth. The religion formed in her name, The Tal, expects that she will return to lead them into battle in the already-escalating holy war against the Jolao Empire. However, no one could expect what happens when she re-emerges with an gift for an unlikely recipient ...

I hope you've enjoyed this past year+ of sharing The Alchemist and the Eagle. We'll continue with the final book of the series, The Fifth Temple, with more audiobook chapters between interview episodes.

This week we take a deep and detailed dive back into the topic of entheogenic religion and psychedelic spirituality with author, Matt Zemon, who is also the executive director of the Council on Spiritual Practices. Matt's here to share all about his new book, Ordinary Mystics: Psychedelics, Faith, and the Reclaiming of Direct Spiritual Experience. We cover a lot of territory from the primacy of spiritual experience with entheogens, what the law, Constitution, and courts have to say, examples of churches claiming their religious freedom rights such as the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen here in Ashland, and others. We also discuss how and why protecting and supporting entheogenic religious freedom became a passion for Matt. You can learn more about him and his books at his website, www.mattzemon.com.

And for those who want to explore this topic more, I've got an entire playlist at the Entheogenic Evolution YouTube channel dedicated to in-depth conversations and talks on this: Psychedelic Churches, Religions, and Spirituality

And ... coming up on Wed Nov 18th 4-5:30 pm Pacific time, Mindscape Psychedelic Institute is hosting me for a conversation about 3 short-acting and powerful psychedelics, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and Salvinorin A. To register for this free online Zoom event, use this link here

My guest this week is Alan Romano, LCSW, who is an author and certified psychedelic therapy provider in Florida. He's here to share about his new book, Healing Beyond the Limits of the Isolated, wherein he develops and explores his novel approach of Functional Systems Regulation Theory. As his book has many interesting and provocative details and accounts of his own, often trying, experiences, I spend a lot of time asking him to share more about it here with the podcast audience as well as how it helped inform his approach of FSRT. You can learn more about Alan and his work at his website

I've got a lively conversation for you this week with my 3-way with Hewkii and Flammeus, who invited me back on their show for the third time. We cover a lot of territory with music, ontological questions about dreams vs reality, identifying what "spirituality" is, how nondual experiences on ketamine are different from nondual experiences with 5-MeO-DMT, how truly strange and bizarre Salvia divinorum and the Zipper of Reality are, and why I dream of Robert Smith of The Cure giving me props for my music. Enjoy!

My guest this week is Brad Sterner of Inekawa healing center and foundation where the focus is on transformation and nondual self-realization via ayahuasca. While ayahuasca is more commonly associated with Amazonian shamanism, spirits, and alternate realities (dualism), for Brad, it's all about nonduality. We dive in deep in our conversation about how and why this is a different approach to this ancient psychedelic brew. You can learn more at Inekawa.org

Also in this episode I have a reminder about my upcoming talk on Saturday, Oct 3rd with Ancestral Spirit Tribe in Austin, Texas - join us for the live event either in person or via live-stream from their Facebook and Instagram pages.

And lastly, we have a brief update from fellow Mindscape Institute instructor, Sarah Knapik, about her current offerings of low-dose bufo with Altar of the Heart Church in Oakland, California.

My guest this week is author, philosopher, and environmental lawyer, Tam Hunt, here to share all about his newest book, The Hippies Were Right - About Consciousness and Everything Else. We had fascinating and wide-ranging conversation about consciousness, reality, ontology, phenomenology, panpsychism, AI, Burning Man, 5-MeO-DMT, and so much more - truly an episode for those who are interested in the fundamental questions about consciousness, what it is, how we can study it, and how it can be explored. You can learn more about Tam and his work at his website, www.tam-hunt.com

We cover a lot of territory in this week's interview with Internal Family Systems therapist and author, Joshua Pritikin, discussing his new 460+ page book, Religion Unburdened by Belief: The Way of Open Inquiry. Having entered both the worlds of IFS and psychedelic experience only recently in life, Joshua was inspired to create an engaging book that asks big questions about human experience, exploration of the mystery of being, and pathways for doing so without dogmatic beliefs that ultimately impeded open inquiry. As a regular attendee at the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen, the Santo Daime church here in Ashland, Oregon, which served ayahuasca ("Daime") as a religious sacrament, Joshua dives deep into the question of how religious experience can be facilitated by psychedelic use without falling in the belief trap. We invite you to listen in on our extended conversation in this episode ...

The other month I was contacted by Jonas who was inspired to share his story of post-5-MeO-DMT energetic challenges here on the podcast in response to my oft-repeated comments that people are going into experiences with 5 inadequately informed about the potential challenges. Jonas wanted to make his experience available here on the podcast so that others might learn from his experience and understand that regardless of how a session with 5 goes, the post-session process can be extremely difficult, as has been the case for Jonas - big thanks to Jonas to be willing to share!

Reminder: this Wednesday is my second free webinar, "The Foundations of Integration with 5-MeO-DMT" - register for this free event at www.martinball.net/webinar, and see you on Wednesday, 3:30-5 pm Pacific time