My work with psilocybin began in 2020 not as a spiritual calling, but as a scientific inquiry. I was searching for evidence-based solutions to help a family member struggling with addiction, and I immersed myself in the emerging research on psychedelics - particularly psilocybin - and their capacity to interrupt entrenched cycles of suffering. What I encountered was rigorous, compelling, and deeply hopeful: a growing body of science suggesting that these compounds can catalyze profound psychological healing, increase cognitive flexibility, and foster lasting behavioral change.

What I did not anticipate was how quickly this scientific exploration would evolve into something far more expansive.

Between 2020 and 2022, as I began developing microdosing protocols and supporting others in their psychedelic journeys, I found myself standing at the intersection of neuroscience and spirituality. Again and again, I witnessed people report experiences of deep connection - encounters with what they described as higher powers, spiritual guides, ancestral presence, or a sense of sacred intelligence woven through nature itself. These were not abstract or metaphorical accounts; they were embodied, emotionally transformative, and often life-altering. Over time, these experiences were not only shared with me - I began to live them myself.

By 2022, it became clear that this work could not be held within a purely clinical or scientific frame. That year, I founded Church of Our Earth, a spiritual organization grounded in earth-based traditions, particularly Paganism and Taoism, and dedicated to honoring psilocybin as a sacred sacrament. The Church was created as a sanctuary for spiritual seekers, psychedelic pilgrims, and those longing to reconnect - with the natural world, with their inner lives, and with a sense of meaning larger than the individual self.

At the heart of my work is a core belief: that humanity is currently facing two intertwined existential crises. The first is environmental degradation, rooted in our cultural tendency to “other” the Earth - to treat nature as a resource rather than a living system of which we are an integral part. The second is social isolation, born of the ways we increasingly “other” one another - across lines of identity, ideology, and difference - leading to profound disconnection, loneliness, and fragmentation.

I believe psilocybin has unique potential to address both.

Research increasingly suggests that psychedelics can enhance feelings of social connectedness, increase emotional empathy, and deepen one’s sense of belonging within the natural world. In lived experience, I have seen psilocybin soften the boundaries of the self, dissolve rigid narratives, and restore a felt sense of kinship - with other people, with ecosystems, and with life itself. In this way, mushrooms do not merely treat individual symptoms; they invite a reorientation of consciousness - away from separation and toward relationship.