After a profound and intense awakening experience in 1998, Daniel Shankin dove deep into his yoga and meditation practice to stabilize his realization in his body and the world. He began teaching in 2002, and took over leadership of his neighborhood yoga studio in 2004. He’s directed several teacher training programs and taught on the faculty of even more.
His work evolved into a coaching practice based on deep inquiry, and the cultivation of clarity, resilience, and heart. With the recognition that our true nature is vast and generous, wise, he strives to encourage his clients to find their own innate goodness and boundless strength.
In 2018 he founded Mt. Tam Psychedelic Integration, a community based organization focused on approaching psychedelic preparation and integration as a true spiritual practice. Tam integration offers circles, meditation classes worldwide.
In this episode, Daniel shares about ...
- His early spiritual realizations and the challenges of oscillating between touching into enlightened states and recognizing his "crap"
- How difficult it is to heal self-hatred
- Becoming a coach to help people who are getting their asses kicked by their own shadows
- The fact that our psychedelic visions rarely survive first contact with reality
- Integration as the art of the possible
- How people tend to repress their natural needs and need support unearthing and reclaiming their creativity and other deep-seated gifts and desires
- His "depth bias" – if you're coming to him for help with superficial aspects of your life, he's not the coach for you; but if you want to "reach into your guts and pull out demons and brush them off and let them fly and turn into angels", he's all in!
- How people desperately want to be seen as humans, not commodities
- The fact that while there are many formal processes one can use with integration clients, doing is much less important than simply being present and embodying empathy and compassion while allowing clients' insights to naturally emerge
- The six streams in Buddhism and how medicine work can lead a person into a "hungry ghost" realm if they are grasping for a psychedelic experience to 'fix' them but lack a concept of self-love
- His perspective on training to be a psychedelic integration coach and the importance of having the dedication and discipline to study under someone who will support you as you grow in your capacity to hold space and guide clients through their integration process
- How training to be a psychedelic integration coach also reflects care about your own development - why wouldn't you want to train?
- Navigating a world from the place of the heart - what's it like to walk a path of releasing fear?
- How he's gotten clients and grown his business by showing up consistently for 20 years and finally embracing having a 'brand'
- The notion of "psychedelic assisted coaching" to help us go deeper within, find self-compassion and integrate disparate parts of ourselves
- How his business is built on giving and goodwill
- The power of integration circles and mutual support – it's a web where everyone gets value and support through everyone else – it's not about him
- The guru model has played out – the sex scandals, guru worship, patenting, etc. that were happening in the yoga scene ten years ago are now happening in the psychedelic scene
- An integration circle is a space of practice – it's a meditation community, not a "woe is me" support group
- Psychedelic integration is new, and we're all exploring and discovering different models together
- His passion about and efforts towards ending the drug war - dismantling oppressive systems of control that are poisoning the planet and the people who live on it
- You can do what you want! Follow your true passion! "Figure out what you want to do and figure out how to pull it off" Psychedelics may help! ;-)
Resources
Daniel's websites:
https://sitaramdas.com/
https://tamintegration.com/
Free gift! https://tamintegration.com/beth-gifts/ Meditative preparation for a day of mushrooms -- a free email class. When you sign up for this mini email course you’ll get daily lessons on how to cultivate a happy, calm mindset that will support you in a psychedelic journey. You’ll get about 7 emails with a video and some links and instructions for a simple yet profound practice.
Daniel's psychedelic memes: https://psychedelicnft.xyz
Download Beth's free trainings here:
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Integrating Psychedelics & Sacred Medicines Into Business: https://bethaweinstein.com/psychedelics-in-business
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