This is a 26 minute long audio piece and over 4.000 words written version by Mattha Busby a freelance journalist who wrote this article for Vice and attended our Entheogenesis event to report on our church.
Category: Texas
Today’s guest is the awesome Ian Benouis, former West Point graduate, US Army officer, Blackhawk helicopter pilot, and combat veteran. Ian is now a civil rights lawyer fighting for religious exemptions for churches using psychedelics as a sacrament and the founder of the Church of Psilomethoxin.
He is Patient Number One at the Mission Within which treats special operators with PTSD, TBI and addiction using iboga and Bufo in Mexico. Ian has been helping wounded veterans for over 9 years. Listen as we discuss the legal obstacles facing religious organizations attaining exemptions for psychedelics sacraments, the unique synthesis of psilomethoxin, and musings on where the war on drugs is headed.
Ian Benouis, Co-Founder, Church of Psilomethoxin
Greg Fonzo, Co-Director, Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin
Alex Dominguez, Texas State Representative
Amy Rising, Veteran Healthcare Advocate
Ethan Rocke, Journalist (moderator)
Ian Benouis is a West Point graduate, former Army officer and Blackhawk helicopter pilot who participated in Operation Just Cause in the Republic of Panama.
He is patient number one, General Counsel at the Mission Within spearheading the veterans treatment program where over 350 Navy SEALS and other special operators have been successfully treated with iboga and toad (5-meo-dmt) for PTSD, addiction and TBI.
Phil is a former jailer and police officer in Texas for 13 years who found natural healing through yoga, cannabis and other earth medicines. We cover PTSD, suicide, childhood trauma, the War on Drugs, asset forfeiture, police reform and funding, and what needs to change in Texas and nationally going forward to reclaim our country. […]
When a soldier brings back trauma from the battlefield, there’s no single reliable way to help them integrate back into society. Everybody needs a different approach. For Ian Benouis, he rediscovered the power of plant medicines after his exit from the military and as he was working his way through law school. It led him on a path to introduce other veterans to plant medicines by organizing trips for them and as a lawyer activist working with a number of plant medicine organizations and churches.
Dave and Jason are combat veterans and twenty plus year career soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively and then after retiring received medical disability for their service.
They are both advocates and activists in Texas for natural healing with cannabis and other psychedelic medicines.
Dave and Jason share their personal healing journeys, insights and visions in to the decriminalization, medicalization and legalization of cannabis and entheogens in Texas and nationally.
Sam is a combat veteran who served two tours of duty as a marine in Afghanistan in the Helmand province, the center of worldwide opium production.
He went to Peru for an ayahuasca dieta and Mexico for other medicines.
Sam talks about his personal healing journey and how he would like to see the medicines available and integrated in to society. He offers a vision for veteran healing using the National Park System.
Carol Gilson and Jordon Stanford join us to share what is like to give thousands of people ketamine treatments along with therapeutic support.
We talk about the future of ketamine and psychedelics in America and how we can integrate them in to society.
They share some of their own personal journeys and what the psychedelic retreat center of the future could look like.
Bryan shares his experiences serving in the military as a Forward Observer and Blackhawk Helicopter Crew Chief in Iraq.
He tells his story of returning from combat with PTSD and using alcohol, opiates and pharmaceuticals to treat himself and finding a higher and deeper path with natural plant medicines (cannabis, mushrooms, dmt and 5-meo-dmt).
Bryan tells us how we can move forward to deliver full medical and spiritual freedom in Texas and the US.
Ian Benouis 