Pathway 02 — Psychedelics & Science
Pathway 05 — consciousness & spirituality
When the ceremony doesn’t end
What happens when a psychedelic or plant medicine experience doesn’t resolve — and the line between spiritual emergency and psychosis becomes impossible to see clearly? Mariya Garnet convenes indigenous healers, psychiatrists, and those with lived experience to map the terrain no single tradition has fully charted.
● 1 module
● 13 lessons
● 3 hours 30 minutes
● All levels
Mariya Garnet
Integrative Practitioner · Facilitator
course overview
“The psychedelic renaissance has opened a door — but it has not yet built a map for what happens when people can’t find their way back. This seminar is that map: indigenous, psychiatric, and personal perspectives held together in the same conversation, because no single framework is sufficient on its own.”
what you will learn
Understand the clinical definition of psychosis and how it overlaps with — and differs from — spiritual emergency in psychedelic contexts
Hear first-hand how indigenous Shipibo healers interpret and respond to states of acute disorientation following plant medicine ceremonies
Explore Lee Kaiser’s lived account of navigating psychosis, hospitalization, and integration across three distinct episodes
Examine Dennis McKenna’s reflections on La Chorrera — the nature of delusion, set and setting, and what the experience ultimately taught him
Identify key screening, harm-reduction, and integration practices for facilitators working at the boundary of medicine and mental health
Participate in a cross-paradigm dialogue between psychiatric and traditional frameworks — and understand why neither alone is enough
course sYllabus
free preview — Module 1 · Lesson 4
watch free
Dr. Yarissa Herman Defines Psychosis
Dr. Yarissa Herman — clinical psychologist, researcher, and harm-reduction specialist — opens by doing something rare: a psychiatrist who immediately acknowledges that what Western medicine calls “psychosis” is understood entirely differently in Shipibo and Aboriginal traditions. She then walks through the clinical landscape — delusions, hallucinations, substance-induced episodes, and the diagnostic complexity of psychedelic-triggered states — with precision and humility. A clear-eyed, 11-minute entry point into the course’s central question.
aprox: 11 minutes
about the instructor
Mariya Garnet
Integrative Practitioner
Mariya Garnet works at the intersection of psychedelic-assisted practice, integration support, and cross-cultural dialogue. Deeply committed to ethical facilitation and safety in psychedelic spaces, she has been instrumental in building bridges between indigenous healing traditions and contemporary mental health frameworks. This seminar grew out of her work with Lee Kaiser and her wider conviction that the psychedelic community urgently needs honest conversations about crisis, harm, and healing — the kind that don’t flatten complexity into a single paradigm.
Integration support
Psychedelic facilitation
Spiritual emergency
Cross-cultural dialogue
Harm reduction
guest contributors
This course brings together an unusually broad panel of voices — each speaking from their own domain of knowledge about what it means when a psychedelic experience extends far beyond the ceremony.
Dennis McKenna, PhD
Ethnopharmacologist · McKenna Academy
Dr. Ranji Varguese, MD
Psychiatrist
Dr. Yarissa Herman
Psychiatrist · Clinical Perspective
Kyle Keller
Psychotherapist
Lee Kaiser
Wildlife biologist
Enrrique Melendez
Vegetalista
Lloyver Yui
Ceremony Facilitator
this course in context
membership access
living library — join the tradition
Three ways to begin
This is not a course marketplace. Every path into the Living Library connects you to 50 years of serious inquiry — and to the community of people carrying it forward.
course access + community
$500
one time, no renewals
→ This course — lifetime access
→ Private community forum — lifetime access
→ $500 credited toward Lifetime Membership
most popular
living library – annual
$399
per year – All 5 Pathways
→ Unlimited access to the full course library — all 5 pathways
→ All future courses at no additional cost
→ Private community forum
→ Live Q&A with instructors and guest experts
→ Brainforest Café early access
one time – best value
living library – forever
$1999
one-time · no renewals, ever
→ Every future course — free, forever
→ Lifetime live webinar & Q&A access
→ Private community forum — permanent access
→ Brainforest Café early access
→ Your membership in the lineage — for life
Already purchased this course? Apply $500 toward Lifetime Membership — your permanent home in the Living Library.
A percentage of every membership directly funds scholarships for Indigenous students and ensures traditional knowledge holders have access to this community. This is a condition of how this institution operates — not a marketing feature.
“The entire biospheric community of species is conscious, and seeks to advance the evolution of consciousness through collaboration and symbiosis.”
— Dennis McKenna, Ph.D. · President and Principal Founder
