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Welcome to Tricycle Day. We're the psychedelics newsletter that eats its own dog food. These emails taste surprisingly earthy. 🤨

99.99% of psilocybin facilitators will tell you mushrooms changed their life.

(Shocker. Why else would they willingly sign up for a job most people assume is illegal and frequently involves sitting in silence for six hours straight?)

But “life-changing” feels so big and unwieldy. We want specifics.

So for today’s newsletter, we asked our network of licensed psilocybin facilitators: How has your own psilocybin use shaped you as a facilitator?

They spill their guts after the jump.

It’s never been easier to try ayahuasca.

A few clicks around the ol' world wide web is all it takes to book yourself for harrowing plant medicine ceremony deep in the jungle.

But whether you’re actually ready for one… hmm, that’s a little harder to google.

So take this free 9-video course first. It walks through the neuroscience, the risks, what the experience feels like, and how to integrate what comes up.

And it ends with a guided self-assessment designed to give you an honest answer about your readiness. (Only works if you’re honest, too.)

Every single facilitator who contributed to this article considered personal experience the foundation of their training. Clayton Ickes, who committed to this work after a high-dose experience in 2013, doesn’t see a workaround: “I'm not sure how somebody could really be a facilitator without deep personal experience of this medicine.”

Adam O'Neil frames it as something his clients are owed: “I firmly believe a facilitator needs to have an authentic, personal, and respectful relationship with the mushrooms. Full stop. I believe in order to work with clients across the full spectrum of needs and backgrounds, they deserve to know about our personal relationship with mushrooms.”

There may be some facilitation skills you can only attune from the inside. Jim Hoeffler points to a few: “Understanding the need for building trust in the facilitator, mindful preparation of the client, acknowledging the client’s fear of the first experience, and cultivating a safe container are all key components of the journey one learns by doing.”

Then there’s the empathy factor. These facilitators can recognize what their clients are going through because they've been there. Amy Charlesworth, a military veteran who describes psilocybin as having saved her life, says: “I've sat in the same places many of my clients find themselves. I know the intensity, the vulnerability, and the quiet courage it takes to show up for this process.”

Char McKendrick had to find her way back to herself before she could hold space for anyone else. With mushrooms, she was able to do that: “Psilocybin helped me reconnect with feeling after years of numbness and dissociation. It taught me how to take up space, to truly breathe, and to meet myself with compassion.”

And when things get confrontational, it helps to have weathered the storm yourself. Angela Bean has battle-tested the tools she pulls out for her clients: “Experience helps a guide offer better grounding techniques, such as specific breathing exercises or music shifts, because they know what those interventions actually feel like from the inside.”

The more these facilitators have been through, the more they seem to agree that personal experience teaches humility over expertise. For instance, Kate Schroeder learned to stop glorifying intensity: “Insight doesn't equal change, and intensity isn't the same as effectiveness. Some of the most meaningful shifts come quietly, and often unfold well after the experience itself.”

Char’s lesson in humility came from how non-linear her own healing journey has turned out to be: “Through cycles of falling apart and rebuilding, and learning to meet my growth edges with care, I've developed a deep respect for this process.”

The benefit of staying humble, of course, is that there’s always something to learn. Benjamin Dancer makes humility sound like fuel: “It's like passing through a portal, using psilocybin. So every time I facilitate I'm using all the energy from the portals I've passed through to hold the space for my client.”

Microdosing works better when you're not figuring it out alone. Spaces is an expert-guided online community with live integration calls, courses, and guided practices to support your wellness and personal growth.

If we're climbing Everest, we're not hiring a Sherpa who’s never scaled it before.

By the same logic, we're probably not booking a facilitator whose most intense psychoactive experience was a strong cold brew.

So yes, we’re with the facilitators that personal experience matters big time in this work.

But we’ll also go out on a limb and say clinical skills matter too. You know, things like recognizing when someone is out of their window of tolerance and needs help regulating, or screening people for contraindications and knowing when it’s safe to give them medicine in the first place.

Not saying it’s impossible, but we've yet to meet someone who downloaded that knowledge from 5 g’s in their living room.

Get you a facilitator who can do both.

Thanks to David M. from Buffalo, NY for submitting this week’s question. 🫠

Reply to this email to shoot your shot. If it’s a juicy one, we may select it for a future issue.

That’s all for today, Cyclists! Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.