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: United States
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.
Greg and Ian talk about how the Church of Psilomethoxin came to be and our upcoming Entheogenesis event and what the future holds for the church.
Welcome to the Psychedelic Conversations Podcast! Episode 78: In this episode we discuss Ian’s background, what brought him into this work, what psilomethoxin is and how it is developed, the effects of psilomethoxin on the brain and body, the importance of protecting the medicine, how to become a psilomethoxin church member, working with veterans using this medicine, harm reduction advice for using iboga, Ian’s thoughts on the medical module, observations on the psychedelic renaissance and so much more!
Greg Lake, Benjamin Moore and Ian Benouis are interviewed by Meagan Lynn at Cannadelic in Miami in 2023. We cover science, religion, legality, human optimization and veteran healing.
The conversation around Psilomethoxin and its official church continues with one of the church founders and entheogenic religious freedom lawyer, Ian Benouis. We dive into the history of entheogenic religious rights (and rites), the burgeoning movement to create legally recognized entheogenic churches, psilomethoxin, and some of our other favorite molecules.
After interviewing two other founding members of the Church Members of Psilomethoxin.com, the first Church of the Universal Sacrament, Captain Hugh T Alkemi, D. Div. talks to Ian Benouis about the chemistry, science, spirituality, legality and the alchemy of mushrooms that contain Psilomethoxin and how to use them for spiritual-religio healing and creativity.
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)
Over 44 veterans per day (16,060 per year) take their lives daily by suicide, as they are unable to reintegrate back into society, scarred by the horrors of war and violence. They suffer from trauma, depression, anxiety, Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and panic attacks, while also dealing with physical injuries. These numbers get magnified by the addition of civilian lives lost due to similar traumatic events and mental disorders, as suicide comes at the top of the leading causes of death in the U.S.
This book is a deep dive into the definition of religion under the First Amendment in light of the sacramental consumption of entheogens, the nature of the primary religious/mystical experience effectuated through the sacramental consumption of entheogens, and the ever-developing historical record evidencing world-wide use of these sacraments in ancient times.
Ian Benouis 