Category: War

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.

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!

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.

Though synthesized in 1965 by ortho-vanillin, the late Sasha Shulgin wrote: “These active compounds are made by the mushroom so they really are natural and yet they never have been observed in nature. I’ll give you even odds that if you put spores of a psilocybe species on cow droppings loaded with 5-MeO-DMT you would come out with mushrooms containing 4,5-HO-MeO-DMT. This way you avoid a 10 step synthesis by growing a psychoactive mushroom that contains no illegal drug.”

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.

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.