S2E7: Psychedelics and Accessing Consciousness

For millennia, humans have turned to psychedelic plants to expand perception and access realms beyond ordinary consciousness. This episode follows that lineage, from Indigenous ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon to the secret rituals of ancient Greece, revealing how these substances once served as powerful spiritual technologies. We begin with the extraordinary story of Don José Rubio, the Colombian elder who used ayahuasca visions to help locate four missing children in the jungle, and we hear from author Brian Muraresku, whose research suggests that the foundations of Western spirituality, like other belief systems around the globe, may have been influenced by psychedelic sacraments.We then turn to the modern moment, where psychedelics are reemerging as tools for healing. Marine Corps veteran Juliana Mercer describes how guided sessions with ayahuasca and psilocybin helped her process decades of trauma, while Yale researcher Dr. Ben Kelmendi explains how these substances open windows of neuroplasticity that can transform mental health when nothing else has worked. Throughout, a deeper theme emerges: psychedelics don’t just heal. They reconnect us to an ancient way of knowing, one that blurs the boundary between medicine and the mystical, and invites us to remember what humanity once understood.Thank you to our Sponsors!Visit Schedule35.co and use code “TAPES” for 15% off your order.Get 15% off OneSkin with the code TAPES at https://www.oneskin.co/TAPES #oneskinpodVisit Quince.com/tapes for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit happymammoth.com and use code TAPES to get 15% off your entire first order.Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/TAPES! #honeylovepod.Get 40% off your entire order at Lolablankets.com by using code TAPES at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.Visit Graza.co/TAPES and use TAPES to get 10% off your order.Use code TAPES at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #adVisit Tonetoday.com and use my code TAPES to get 20% off your first order.Visit FactorMeals.com/TAPES50OFF and use code TAPES50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're sharing a special preview of an exclusive Backstage Pass Ask Me Anything episode featuring Alex Andersen, the animal communicator from episode 5. Alex answers listener questions about how to tap into a telepathic relationship with your pet, how do animals think about philosophical questions, which animal makes Alex "starstruck" and so much more.To hear the full episode, and access all upcoming AMAs with Ky and our Season Two guests, subscribe to The Telepathy Tapes Backstage Pass. You’ll get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and access to our private Discord community. Visit www.thetelepathytapes.com to sign up.Thank you to our Sponsors!Visit Quince.com/tapes for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit happymammoth.com and use code TAPES to get 15% off your entire first order.Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/TAPES! #honeylovepod.Get 40% off your entire order at Lolablankets.com by using code TAPES at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.Visit Graza.co/TAPES and use TAPES to get 10% off your order.Use code TAPES at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #adVisit Tonetoday.com and use my code TAPES to get 20% off your first order.Visit FactorMeals.com/TAPES50OFF and use code TAPES50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if plants aren’t silent at all but communicating in ways we’ve simply forgotten how to hear? In this episode, we meet Nina, a non-speaking teen who says she’s been telepathically connected to plants since birth. She offers herbal remedies no one taught her, identifies health issues her family hasn’t shared, and describes plant communication as naturally as breathing. Her accuracy forces everyone around her to rethink what plants know and how they share it.We also hear from indigenous elders, herbalists and experts who say this isn’t new. Mycologist Paul Stamets explains how fungi and trees send messages through the “wood wide web.” Herbalist David Winston shares moments when plants spoke directly to him and indigenous teachers from the Tsimshian, Lakota, and Kuntanawa nations describe plants as relatives, healers, and living intelligences who pass on wisdom across generations.Across all these stories, a simple idea takes root: the natural world may be far more aware, more connected, and more communicative than we’ve been taught. This episode asks us to slow down, pay attention, and consider that the plants around us might have been speaking this whole time.-Join The Telepathy Tapes Backstage Pass to get ad-free episodes, never-before-heard interviews, behind-the-scenes documentary footage, and access to our private Discord community.This is your invitation to come closer. To help shape what’s next. To be more than a listener… to be a co-creator of this paradigm shift. So if you’ve felt moved, if you’ve felt seen, if you’ve felt the call—subscribe today and join us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetelepathytapes.supercast.com.Thank you to our Sponsors!Visit CBDistillery.com and use promo code TAPES for 25% off your order.Visit Quince.com/tapes for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit happymammoth.com and use code TAPES to get 15% off your entire first order.Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/TAPES! #honeylovepod.Get 40% off your entire order at Lolablankets.com by using code TAPES at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.Visit Graza.co/TAPES and use TAPES to get 10% off your order.Use code TAPES at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #adVisit Tonetoday.com and use my code TAPES to get 20% off your first order.Visit FactorMeals.com/TAPES50OFF and use code TAPES50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re excited to share that we’re having our first-ever Black Friday sale: enjoy 25% off your first six months of any Backstage Pass tier now through November 28th. The Backstage Pass includes ad-free episodes, full access to The Telepathy Tapes Test Library, AMA episodes with Ky and guests from our new seasons, our thriving Discord community, members-only merch, and so much more. Join the Backstage Pass here: https://thetelepathytapes.supercast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re sharing a special preview of an exclusive Backstage Pass AMA with Dr. Jeremy Chapman, child and adolescent psychiatrist and Medical Director of the SSM Health Treffert Center. In this conversation, he dives into your most thought-provoking questions — from how savants might collaborate with leading scientists, to what actually happens in the brain when “the veil” lifts and new forms of perception appear. To hear the full episode, and access all upcoming AMAs with Ky and our Season Two guests, subscribe to The Telepathy Tapes Backstage Pass. You’ll get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and access to our private Discord community. Visit www.thetelepathytapes.com to sign up.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Animal communication moves from theory to lived experience. A non-speaking teen, Trevor, spells intimate details from his therapy horse, knowing about deaths, emotions, and conversations no one told him. Animal communicator Alex Anderson recounts the moment her own horse “spoke” to her for the first time, a shocking experience that launched her full-time work helping people understand the inner worlds of the animals they love. Danish National Team rider Emily Koenig works with communicator Ditte Young, whose insights from a pony lead to an unexpected arthritis diagnosis that changes Emily’s path in the sport. Cambridge biologist Rupert Sheldrake shares research suggesting animals can sense human intention, like dogs waiting at the precise moment their person decides to return home. And interspecies communicator Anna Breytenbach describes telepathy not as sending messages but as stepping into a shared field of awareness.We also hear the now famous story of elephants who walked miles to mourn conservationist Lawrence Anthony, gathering at his home and returning again on the anniversary of his passing.Across every story, a single idea emerges: connection does not require words. And if communication can move through attention, emotion, and presence, then maybe consciousness is wider, more relational, and more ancient than we assume. This episode asks us to listen beyond language, to each other, to animals, and to the living world itself.-Join The Telepathy Tapes Backstage Pass to get ad-free episodes, never-before-heard interviews, behind-the-scenes documentary footage, and access to our private Discord community.This is your invitation to come closer. To help shape what’s next. To be more than a listener… to be a co-creator of this paradigm shift. So if you’ve felt moved, if you’ve felt seen, if you’ve felt the call—subscribe today and join us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetelepathytapes.supercast.com.Thank you to our Sponsors!Visit rocketmoney.com/tapes to cancel your unwanted subscriptions today.Visit Quince.com/tapes for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit happymammoth.com and use code TAPES to get 15% off your entire first order.Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/TAPES! #honeylovepod.Get 40% off your entire order at Lolablankets.com by using code TAPES at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.Visit Graza.co/TAPES and use TAPES to get 10% off your order.Use code TAPES at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #adVisit Tonetoday.com and use my code TAPES to get 20% off your first order.Visit FactorMeals.com/TAPES50OFF and use code TAPES50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this bonus episode, we visit the Archipelago event held by the Treffert Center - the first and largest gathering of savants in the world. We meet two incredible born savants: Tony DuBlois, a completely blind musician who learned to play the piano at age two and now plays over 23 instruments. And Grant Marnier, an artist whose medium is also his muse - he crafts intricate paintings using recycled materials, most notably, puzzle pieces.Thank you to our Sponsors!Visit Quince.com/tapes for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit happymammoth.com and use code TAPES to get 15% off your entire first order.Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/TAPES! #honeylovepod.Get 40% off your entire order at Lolablankets.com by using code TAPES at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.Visit Graza.co/TAPES and use TAPES to get 10% off your order.Use code TAPES at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #adVisit Tonetoday.com and use my code TAPES to get 20% off your first order.Visit FactorMeals.com/TAPES50OFF and use code TAPES50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last week we wondered if ideas can be downloaded. This week, we ask if talent can be, too. We meet congenital, acquired, and sudden savants whose gifts in music, math, art, and memory appear without training. A psychiatrist’s lifelong work reframes savant syndrome as brilliance to understand, not a flaw to fix. A London artist renders city skylines from a single flyover. A man wakes from a head injury seeing moving geometry and piano compositions. A woman in crisis prays and begins drawing sacred forms with professional fluency that did not exist the night before. Alongside researchers, we explore synesthesia, lowered brain filters, and a provocative possibility from a modern theorist of consciousness. If knowledge can be accessed rather than taught, are savant skills a clue that the mind is an antenna as much as a machine? And if so, what else might we be able to tune in?-Join The Telepathy Tapes Backstage Pass to get ad-free episodes, never-before-heard interviews, behind-the-scenes documentary footage, and access to our private Discord community.This is your invitation to come closer. To help shape what’s next. To be more than a listener… to be a co-creator of this paradigm shift. So if you’ve felt moved, if you’ve felt seen, if you’ve felt the call—subscribe today and join us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetelepathytapes.supercast.com.Thank you to our Sponsors!Visit Quince.com/tapes for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit happymammoth.com and use code TAPES to get 15% off your entire first order.Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/TAPES! #honeylovepod.Get 40% off your entire order at Lolablankets.com by using code TAPES at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.Visit Graza.co/TAPES and use TAPES to get 10% off your order.Use code TAPES at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #adVisit Tonetoday.com and use my code TAPES to get 20% off your first order.Visit FactorMeals.com/TAPES50OFF and use code TAPES50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re sharing a sneak preview of a subscriber exclusive episode featuring renowned medium, Laura Lynn Jackson, answering listeners' questions about her life as a medium, tips on how to hone your own "sixth sense", and - for the first time - she describes her journey with a nonspeaker to The Hill.To hear the full conversation, and access all upcoming AMA episodes with Ky and our Season Two guests, subscribe to The Telepathy Tapes Backstage Pass. You’ll also get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and access to our private community. Visit our website, www.thetelepathytapes.com, to sign up today!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The mystery of inspiration begs the question: is the universe conscious and using us to create a vision of it’s own? We turn to the mystery of inspiration. Bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love; Big Magic) offers a provocative idea: that creativity doesn’t come from us, but to us. Ideas, she argues, are conscious entities—knocking at the doors of our imagination, looking for human partners to bring them into the world. Legendary music producer and author of The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin echoes that sentiment, describing artists as “antennas” tuned to a universal current, catching downloads that must then be shaped by craft and discipline. And Emmy-winning showrunner Liz Feldman (Dead to Me) shares her own uncanny experiences of creative lightning striking, when a fully-formed story seemed to arrive out of nowhere.Together, their perspectives point toward a paradox at the heart of all creation: effort and surrender. Inspiration demands our labor, yet it also requires letting go of control, trusting that we are not the sole architects but collaborators in something bigger.Threaded through these conversations is my own story—the moment when I tried and failed to launch The Telepathy Tapes as a film, surrendered it back to the universe, and only then discovered that it wanted to live as a podcast. That surrender, painful as it was, became the gateway.So are ideas conscious? Do they choose us, and the way they want to enter the world? In this episode, we follow the breadcrumbs—from mystical intuition to neuroscience—to ask whether creativity itself might be the clearest evidence that mind isn’t just a product of the brain, but part of a larger field of consciousness still waiting to be understood.-Join The Telepathy Tapes Backstage Pass to get ad-free episodes, never-before-heard interviews, behind-the-scenes documentary footage, and access to our private Discord community.This is your invitation to come closer. To help shape what’s next. To be more than a listener… to be a co-creator of this paradigm shift. So if you’ve felt moved, if you’ve felt seen, if you’ve felt the call—subscribe today and join us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetelepathytapes.supercast.com.Thank you to our Sponsors!Visit CBDistillery.com promo code TAPES for 25% off your entire purchase.Visit Quince.com/tapes for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit happymammoth.com and use code TAPES for 15% off your entire first order today.Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.Visit Graza.co and use TAPES to get 10% off your order.Get 15% off OneSkin with the code TAPES at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpodUse code TAPES at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #adVisit FactorMeals.com/TAPES50OFF and use code TAPES50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for 1 year. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.