Five years ago, if you had told me spirits were real, I would have laughed. Today, my ancestors visit me often. I spent most of my life trapped in the scientific worldview that we are material beings and that we are alone in this dance of the cosmos. I leaned heavily on science to help shape that view. Like most of us, I didn’t see any visual evidence, and therefore I concluded that the spirit realm was a fantasy. Two major shifts over the last few years changed my view. The first was diving deep into plant medicine, and the second was studying the world from an animate perspective with…

I hosted this beautiful tree in a month-long Noya Rao plant diet. A plant diet is a commitment to ingesting a plant or tree for a period of time to get to know the spirit of our plant friends. These plant dietas are common among the Shapibo tribes of Peru and a cornerstone to developing our relationship with the plant world. It’s a time of reflection and communion. During the diet, we spend as much time as possible alone or in nature. There are two types of diets, one is in isolation in the jungle, and the other is at home—this is called a remote diet. These remote diets allow…