This July I had the opportunity to join our faculty for our second-of-the-year, four-day, experiential training. It was a beautiful thing.
Going into our “training” I was told how transformative it would be, how beautifully we hold the sacredness of ketamine—a western medicine—and how poetry, nature, and ceremony would help build a deeply connected community. I was not disappointed, and as I have in other group settings in which I’ve been hosted, or hosted myself, felt the power of something bigger take over. But It was on the plane ride home that the power of what we—the training participants and faculty—helped co-create, hit me. The following day I crashed, needing to recharge my life force, after holding space with colleagues for four days. We were all transformed. It was beautiful.
I’ll be up front that our training is not-inexpensive, especially for those impacted by the racial wealth divide. We are trying to address this challenge so that what PRATI offers is inclusive and accessible to all people. One step that we have taken is to make scholarships available for our KAP Trainings based on financial need, BIPOC or other marginalized identities, and a commitment to serving disadvantaged communities. The process is working, and it can be improved. We owe a big shout-in to May KAP Training alumni Ellie Zuiderveld for her generous $5,000 donation to our scholarship fund.
And, let’s be honest, scholarships are just bandages. Helpful, but more often than not, cosmetic. They won’t get near to addressing the underlying disease of a dominant cultural belief in a hierarchy of human value, or healing the associated wounds of separation and othering. Nor will bandages address our disconnection with nature and the resultant fires and floods now traumatizing communities of life on this planet. We need a different way.
As a non-profit organization, we are working to nurture a new approach to mental health that illuminates a pathway for individual and planetary healing. We recognize that psychedelic medicines have the ability to uncover our Wholeness by removing the veil of our constructed, separate self. In our July training, we introduced the idea that we are all radicles—embryonic seed roots, filled with potential, able to see with new eyes. We asked the question of what it would look like if we were able to plant these seeds—that are us, this is you—and help foster transformation so that a healed inner world could be reflected in our outer world. The question seemed well received; the idea started to stick.
At PRATI, we are united in our purpose: Restoring Connection to the Sacred: Self, Community, Nature, and Spirit. This is purposeful work built at the speed of relationship. We invite you to learn more about us, to join with us and to support us. We welcome your thoughts and ideas about how together we can help transform our inner and outer world to support health and wellbeing for all of life.
Jamie Harvie
PRATI Executive Director
