Set the Setting: February 2024

Meme Drop, Set the Setting Playlist: No Fucks Given, Director of Social Justice, Catch me IRL in Denver, Photo Drop

Meme Drop

I had at blast at Gem and Jam, a music festival in the middle of Tucson’s annual Gem and Mineral Show! I was there with my MAPS coworkers, delivering our festival workshop: “Psychedelic Coming Out Stories: Embracing Identity and Transformation.” As a team of psychonauts, we hold space for festival-goers to deepen their understanding of the role that psychedelics have played in their lives, and to encourage them to develop their own “psychedelic coming out stories” to share with their loved ones.

The other great part about last weekend was getting to spend quality with my coworkers — bonding over our love for:

• Wompy bass music (Daily Bread was there! Of The Trees and Jantsen were great too!)

• Doing drugs (yes, the people at the drug company do drugs - don’t act like you’re surprised)

• Having a positive impact on people’s lives (witnessing the breakthroughs among participants is incredibly rewarding)

• Calling it a work trip!

Partying with MAPS coworkers is a fantastically enjoyable, enriching and safe experience because we’re all masters of drug testing, dosing, harm reduction, and set and setting.

At the end of day 2, we found someone having a difficult trip and were able to get him to the on-site medical team. I wish I could send him a greeting card:

Good luck, Bobby - wherever you are! We really wish you didn’t puke in our car, but most importantly we hope you’re safe.

Sincerely, your friends at MAPS: Devon, Steven, Vinny and Rudy

Set the Setting Playlist: No Fucks Given

Do you love angry laser noises, glitchy dubstep and screamo drops? No? Well fuck right off then! This month’s “No Fucks Given” playlist will have you wondering “omg, is Steven ok?”

Look, there are a lot of positive things in my life but it’s not rainbows and cupcakes all the time. January ended up being a really hard month for me, between work frustrations and my remodel in its “hell phase.” I’d tell you more but it’s been so frustrating and depleting that it doesn’t serve me to write out all the details.

This playlist exists for letting out frustration. One of my less-than-ideal traits is that I bottle up my anger - only to have it explode when I reach my boiling point. I mask my dark emotions; I pretend they don’t exist (while it’s probably manifesting in my body in some form of injury or disease). I struggle to recognize when I’m engaging in emotional bypassing, rather than confronting my emotions head on. This playlist is a commitment to allow myself to feel the full range of emotions, which is essential to living a full human experience.

Don’t feel bad for feeling angry - as long as you have a healthy way to process that anger. Don’t bottle it up; pretend you are an angry laser and PEW PEW PEWWW! Bonus points if you can identify which track spawned the “No Fucks Given” moniker.

Director of Social Justice

I was promoted at work! My new title is Director of Social Justice.

In working with my leadership team, I crafted a title that reflects my bold, sharp and clear focus for myself and MAPS as an organization: psychedelic healing for all. I inherently believe in a future world that is fair, equitable and just, though we are not on that path currently - and MAPS has a lot of work to do ahead. I believe psychedelics offer humanity a path forward where we can elevate our consciousness. And in doing so, we can manifest social justice outcomes: the equitable division of resources, opportunities, and privileges in society.

The timing of my promotion fell on the same day that the FDA has accepted our "New Drug Application” with priority review. The FDA announced they will have a decision on our psychedelic-assisted therapy protocol by August 11th. That’s big news, y’all.

Rick and Natalie were chatting at All Hands about the adage: “Love your job and you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s wrong, actually. If you truly love your job, you’ll work every day of your life.

Thank you to Oakland Hyphae for putting me on the Psychedelic Community Leaders You Should Know List!) I appreciate the recognition and I will take a moment to pat myself on the back. But no time to dilly dally! I’m even more fired up and hard at work.

Catch me IRL in Denver (Feb 15-18)

I’m going to be making a trip to Denver to attend a legal psilocybin retreat at Ceremonia Circle, a 508(c)(1)(a) non-profit church in Denver, Colorado. Even as an experienced psychonaut, I’m always a little nervous venturing deep into my inner cosmos. The guided preparation calls for intention setting have called me back to my skillset of psychedelic surrender and non-attachment.

I’m particularly excited to be in ceremony with Austin and Chu Chu, facilitators of Chinese descent. I personally feel more comfortable with fellow Asians in my ceremony. I have summarized the research on the impact of racial matching on my website; racial matching does have a positive impact on “therapist credibility” and “working alliance,” although the data shows the shared attitudes and values (attitudinal similarity) are just as impactful. That is, race is not the only thing that matters.

I hope to be in a place to report back on my experience in next month’s post! Blessings abound. Aho!

Photo Drop

Clockwise from Top Left:

• Running into Alex at Barry’s - in matching On shorts that we both bought using Sahra’s holiday discount code!

• With my new friend Adyson; I delivered the DEI keynote at Tango’s CKO in Seattle

• Bauer gave me an oracle card reading, he said more cuddles were in my future

• I got to spend quality time with Erik during my trip up to Seattle! Not pictured… the times I got to see Jeff, Steph, Cadie, Lisa, James, Alex and Oliver

Also not pictured in this month’s photo drop was the Monster Jam truck rally with friends, the crow pose workshop with Lester, a tennis day with Contini, and a double bday night out (HBD Armando and Vicky)! I’m so grateful for YOU (yes - you!) in my life.