Hi! My name’s Drew
I first tried psychedelics in October of 2018 and the main lesson I took from that trip was that the same love given to others could be sent inward.
The profundity of that insight led me to begin treating psychedelics as a regular practice, at times tripping more than once a week.
In April 2020, COVID was in full swing, I was an essential worker, I had just gotten dumped and I had big questions. I took just shy of 1mg of LSD (9.5 tabs for the curious) in search of answers - and it didn’t help! As I was coming down, I decided to watch The Midnight Gospel on Netflix. The series ends with the main character in an ambiguous death-like state (his “universe simulator wobbled”), where he sits down next to Ram Dass and asks to interview him. Ram Dass simply replies:
“Be Here Now. Just Be Here Now.”
Upon hearing that, the stream of thought stopped and everything I learned in church growing up suddenly made sense. I intimately understood the transcendent nature of love in relation to death. Come to learn about Ram Dass and he also started out as an academic before being “turned on” to psychedelics by Timothy Leary, which led him to India, where the grace of a saint (Neem Karoli Baba) freed him of that method. What’s really far out is that Ram Dass left his body about 5 months before this happened!
Since then, I have taken on a regular meditation practice and got certified to teach Göm in the Kagyü lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in June of 2023. Through that training, I was able to rediscover and begin resting in the spacious, already-present nature of mind as first revealed to me by psychedelics. It’s true what they say - all paths up a mountain lead to the same peak - and that’s where I’m trying to go! Who’s with me?
My Approach
“Love Everyone and Tell the Truth” is a famous pith instruction given to Ram Dass by his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. While at first seemingly self-contradictory, those six words are a genuine prescription for a meaningful life.
Honesty
Many spiritual spaces are dominated by superstition and dogma. By remaining grounded in reality and remembering not to take our own views too seriously, it’s possible to approach some kind of capital-T Truth with one another.
Humility
As a natural result of honesty, both with yourself and others, a sense of humility arises. Through practice, this humility can be cultivated and shared. Its outward expression is love.
Helpfulness
In Sanskrit, the word seva translates to selfless service. As you progress along the path, humility paves the way for the desire to relieve the suffering of all beings, bodhicitta. Hanuman is particularly exemplary of this.