The Shadow of Scientific Legitimacy
Compass Pathways - the psychedelic phamaceutical company likely to bring its synthetic and proprietary psilocybin analogue (“COMP360”) to market next year - recently shared in an investor presentation that their prescribed treatment is estimated to cost between $50,000-$65,000 for a total of three sessions spread over a year, with about 88% of the cost attributed to the medicine, their patented molecule that mimics the psychoactive ingredient in psilocybin mushrooms.
In other words - within this clinical model - individuals or insurers are expected to pay around $20K per journey.
If your eyes are popping out of your head right now, you’re not alone!
After years of organizing, advocating - and finally attaining - scientific “legitimacy” does the reward mean turning one of nature’s most exquisite gifts into a manmade, patented, for-profit, absurdly priced molecule? Does mainstream “success” mean limiting access to healing by restricting it to the dwindling fraction of Americans who have gold-standard health insurance? Have we been so fixated on winning the scientific approval of earth medicines that we’ve overlooked its consequences?
Compared to high dose psilocybin journeys, so far microdosing has received far less attention, research funding and studies…. And can I confess something?? Every time a new microdosing research study “fails,” or is determined to be “inconclusive,” I breathe a quiet sigh of relief.
Not because I don’t “believe in science” (I do) - not because I don’t “believe in evidence” (I do) - but because as soon as science “proves” microdosing “works” by its standards and definition, the pharmaceutical companies will move in to synthesize, control, restrict, gate-keep, attempt to acquire, patent, profit from, and create a dominant narrative that earth’s sacred medicines are just another mental health intervention designed to treat our conditions via billable codes.
As someone whose life has been personally, profoundly transformed by earth medicine practice in every way - physically, mentally, energetically, emotionally, spiritually - it haunts me that humans might ruin the opportunity nature is extending us. That our hubris and unwillingness to look beyond our present understanding or existing frameworks will prevent so many people from accessing the healing and transformation that I and so many of my colleagues have been blessed to experience.
I’ve been supporting individuals and groups in microdosing earth medicine practice full-time since 2020, preceded by more than two decades in the healing arts, including bodywork, energy work, intuition medicine, hypnotherapy, yoga, meditation, Reiki and many more modalities. Nothing has brought me such an extent of healing in such a short amount of time than sacred mushrooms, and I know now that a big factor why my results were so immediate was that I had been working on my healing for a very, very long time before I met the medicine. It was never “just” the molecule. I’ve seen this same pattern reflected across thousands of clients as well; the medicine has an ability to activate, enhance and integrate everything we have experienced… seeing and breathing life into every small step we have taken toward our healing. It’s not the passive experience of simply taking a pill — it’s a partnership between species, one living being to another.
For centuries, humans have been exerting our dominance & will over nature - insisting the earth conform to our demands and preferences… here to serve us. I see us exerting this same will over the medicines - centering ourselves and favoring our methods… taking what nature has perfected across millennia and trading it for a synthetic numerical molecule, a sad, sterile knock-off to the sensual aliveness of the real, wild, radiant thing.
In my experience and view, sacred earth medicines will never be simply a pharmaceutical or drug - they are not a “tool” for us to use…. If anything, they are the teacher, and WE are the tool. We earn our seat - the privilege to be taught & shown - by participating in our own growth, development & evolution.
Like all wise mentors, they teach us, call us forward, reveal truth, and see us in our greatest potential. At our human best, they help us deepen into our maturity, our character and integrity, support us in our alignment, and strengthen our capacity. They invite us to discover ourselves, know ourselves, and embrace our individuality. At our best, they help us become more whole, healed, sensitive, loving, compassionate and grateful, and we become an expression of nature itself… creating beauty, modeling generosity, sharing artistry, and offering more benevolence to our world.
While our modern medical frameworks may see us as a condition, a collection of symptoms, a diagnosis… nature sees us as so much more: an original imprint of energy and light, a unique frequency, and potential forged over infinite lifetimes. If psychedelic pharmacology is seeing a person through the lens of modern man, earth medicine guideship is borrowing the perspective of the natural world.
What is the alternative to the modern, corporate, molecule-centered models, COMP360, and multi-million dollar ad campaigns?? Who will serve & support the millions of people who lack adequate health insurance, a medical diagnosis, or billable codes?
An organic, decentralized, mycelial, and feminine-led eco-system of guides developing:
Community-based, nature-connected models
Gentle starts to practice with microdosing, education, care & human guidance
Peer-to-peer circles & harm reduction knowledge
Sacred, spiritual, individual contexts for practice beyond conditions & diagnoses
Group programs & familiar frameworks
Trusted & transparent cultivation & skill-building
Reciprocity & exchange models
Accessible education & community sharing
Trust borne through relationship, depth of experience, and personal ethics
Circular, shared leadership favoring collaboration over competition
Resources, training and mentorship that invite self-empowerment & individuality
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2027 promises to be a watershed year for the earth medicine field, with millions of Americans stepping into intentional practice for the first time. With scientific evidence being our modern society’s gold standard for “proof” that psilocybin heals, the blessing of mainstream legitimacy is that millions of people will now have the assurance and evidence so many have been waiting for.
We’re about to open the door for our society: but who will meet them on the other side?
Starting in February 2027, I’m calling in 20 visionary earth medicine guides, facilitators, coaches and therapists to comprise COUNCIL - the first advanced mastermind & high-level business strategy program exclusively for our blossoming field. We welcome underground, above-ground, hybrid, and clinical practitioners — the individuals building the marquee practices, leading programs, and model platforms in the field.
Inside the eight-month program, we will be developing your entrepreneurship skills, refining your vision, calling you forward in your voice & leadership skills, firing up your confidence, strengthening your conviction, and helping you create the strong, resilient structure to support your expansion.
Let’s lock in, stick together, and build in a way that summons our ancestors, stirs spirit, centers nature, and breathes vibrant life & humanity back into the way we live, heal and grow.
A lot can happen in a year, and 2027 may very well be one of the most important moments in our personal & collective evolution, a year that offers us a quantum leap in our ability to seed the foundations of our world’s future, as well as our own.
— If the offering of COUNCIL calls to you, I invite you to learn more HERE and APPLY to express your interest. Begins February 15, 2027. 20 Seats only, 8 VIP & 12 Standard.
