Dr. Tom Garcia

Come to the fire

sacred

Native American Hallucinogenic Plants

My Return to Psychedelics

Hallucinogenic mushrooms grow in a natural environment. Mushrooms containing psilocybin.

Psychedelics. Seems like suddenly everyone is talking about them, on social media, in books and magazines, articles and medical journals. Last year at the end of 2022, psilocybin mushrooms became legal in Colorado.

My earliest experience with psychedelics was in the 70’s. I was a teenager then—mushrooms, peyote, mescaline, and LSD were part of the drug culture. My friends and I were lost boys–wild, reckless, and dangerously naive without guidance, structure, or safety. Small wonder we survived that time.

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What Does Sacred Mean?

sacred place Chaco canyon ruins in northern New Mexico
Chaco Canyon in Northern New Mexico

The wind was so fierce that I couldn’t keep a fire and so cold that I couldn’t sit still. It whipped wildly through the canyons and across open fields as if the spirit of the place had broken free.

In the pitch-black night I walked away from my camp along a narrow dirt road. Deliberately veering off the road, I stumbled through a choke of bushes and brambles descending into a dry river bed. I knelt down in the soft, cracked soil, thankful for respite from the incessant wind.

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Spiritual Inner Voice

spiritual inner voice concept Dr. Tom Garcia preparing fire for fire ceremony in Colorado
Dr. Tom Garcia prepares a fire ceremony to help others listen to their spiritual inner voice

Listen For the Spiritual Inner Voice That Whispers Your Name

How often have you been too proud to ask for help because you couldn’t admit to yourself that you needed it?

Or you were unwilling to open yourself to another for fear they could not hold your tender heart?

Or you stoically hid the pain of what you judged as failure, ashamed to acknowledge or even talk about it?

How many times along the way have you buried the memory of fear and shame, hoping to never see them again? How many times?

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Shamanic Healing Energy

Dr. Tom Garcia shamanic healing energy with with smoking coals in container and feather
Dr. Tom Garcia shaman walking in preparation for fire ceremony healing

What Is a Shaman?

“What is a shaman anyway?” asked a friend who is a PhD psychologist. “It sounds kind of scary, maybe you should tell people what that means to you.”

It was many years ago, out of the blue, that my inner voice said, “You’re a shaman.”

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