April 17 & 18, 2026
Spring Awakening
The Forge, 2636 Huron St, Los Angeles 90065
10% discount on tickets when you sign up!
If you’re interested in the power and potential of psychedelics to heal ourselves emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, this is an event you won’t want to miss.
Speakers
Exhibits
Music
Connections
UNLIMITED
Personal Invitation from the Founder
Dear Colleague, I’d like to personally invite you to attend Spring Awakening 2026.
We need each other. The Psychedelic Institute community is expansive. Spring Awakening 2026 is a platform for the most knowledgeable practitioners, psychologists, researchers, doctors, and facilitators.
Spring Awakening 2026 brings together the leading authorities, experts, and experienced practitioners from all over the world offering you the most current and up to date data, research and applications.
If you’re new or experienced with psychedelics and want to learn more about how to harness them to change your life or if you’re a professional and would like to network and expand your expertise, this is the perfect event for you.
I hope to see you at Spring Awakening on April 17th!
Paul Karasik, Founder — Psychedelic Institute
Speakers
Adam O’Neill
CEO & Founder | Conscious Entrepreneur & Explorer
Adam O’Neill is a Los Angeles–based real estate developer, entrepreneur, and lifelong seeker at the intersection of business, community, and human potential. With over $750 million in transactions and hundreds of projects across Greater Los Angeles, he has achieved a 35% average IRR while creating housing for working families. Guided by spirituality, curiosity, and mindfulness, Adam views development as an act of service—bringing vision into form, creating spaces that nurture well-being, and fostering connection between people and place. For him, success is measured not only in returns, but in the lasting harmony between communities, the built environment, and the human spirit.
Alexander Howe
Herbalist/Traditional Healer
Alexander “Bush Ninja” Howe is a passionate herbalist with over 20 years of experience. In 2011, he traveled to South Africa, spending eight years since then backpacking, teaching practical herbalism, and learning from traditional healers and Indigenous communities all over the Southern African continent. During this journey, he earned the nickname Bush Ninja, and discovered the powerful South African pharmacopoeia, including Kanna. After pandemic, he felt Kanna’s time had come for the West. Inspired by stories of healing, support for addiction, benefits for depression, and joyful communal use, he created Mamma Kanna to share this medicine with the world while supporting the San and Khoi-Khoi peoples who carried the knowledge through time.
IG: @The_BushNinja & @Mamma.Kanna
MammaKanna.com
Aluna Lua
Media Company Co-Founder
Aluna Lua is the co-founder of the psychedelic media company Ascension Arts and head coach of The Plant Spirit School. She works as a ceremony facilitator, performing artist and integration coach. Lua is from Brazil and has been an ally for indigenous communities for over a decade. She specializes in the medicines of Hapé, Kambo and Cannabis and is based in Los Angeles, CA. She provides psychedelic peer support at Burning Man through the Zendo Project and offers trainings, retreats and mentorship for sacred space holders. As a passionate entrepreneur, brand designer and creative director, Lua also supports artists and healers to launch their sacred offerings, develop their artistic gifts and become creative professionals of the renaissance.
Avens O'Brien
Co-Founder & VP of Operations-Advanced Mycology
Avens O’Brien is a psychedelic educator, entrepreneur, activist and advocate. She co-founded Advanced Mycology with Judd Weiss in 2021, and is the VP of Operations as well as the head mycologist for their Shrüm products. She won the Battle of the Agar at the 2022 CA Psychedelic Conference. In 2024, she taught Mike Tyson how to grow his own shrooms! Over 20 years ago, she began lobbying and activism for ending the drug war, and during that time has facilitated, guided and “trip-sit” for countless first psychedelic journeys for friends & clients. Her enthusiasm for psychedelic experiences has her regularly experimenting with new compounds, contributing content for social media, podcasts and DoubleBlind Magazine, and advising friends and strangers about risk-reduction and enjoyment-maximization on over a dozen psychedelic substances.
@avensobrien on social media
avens@advancedmyco.com
Chad Sonkin
Head of Sales-Conscious Counsel
Chad Sonkin is Head of Growth at Conscious Counsel, helping wellness entrepreneurs build legally protected, sustainable businesses.
Drawing from his background with high-growth startups like Bird, Cloud Kitchens, and Edge Theory Labs, Chad brings a mix of strategy, clarity, and real-world experience to founders who want to grow without exposing themselves to unnecessary risk. Known for his relationship-driven approach, he supports studios, coaches, therapists, and retreat leaders in getting the right agreements, trademarks, and systems in place so they can scale with confidence. Chad’s mission is simple: make legal support accessible, practical, and actually empowering.
Christian Rasmussen
CEO/Owner- Amentara
Christian is the owner of Amentara (formerly MN Nice Ethnobotanicals), the largest Amanita muscaria retailer, wholesaler and importer in the country. After Amanita healed his brain while going through a grueling benzodiazepine withdrawal, Christian formed MN
Nice to bring Amanita to the states. He’s collected thousands of anecdotal reports
about amanita healing everything from anxiety, insomnia, and depression to more
complex physical issues like neurological late-stage Lyme disease. He is dedicated
to educating about the mushrooms’ healing, spiritual, and practical potential, and
giving people access to what he believes is the most iconic, yet most
misunderstood mushroom in the world.
Email: christian@amentara.com
Courtney Close
Retreat Leader – Founder, Hummingbird Church
Courtney Close is the founder of Hummingbird Church, established in 2020, dedicated to helping others access safe, ethical, and well-held ceremonial spaces. She stewards both the logistical and spiritual foundations of the church and its retreats, ensuring experiences are offered with care and integrity. Working closely with the Hummingbird Church team, Courtney helps create immersive, heart-centered environments for healing, collaborating with musicians and practitioners.
IG @hummingbird_church
FB www.facebook.com/hummingbirdchurch
Dr. David Wiss
Knowledge Producer
Dr. David Wiss is a mental health scientist and registered dietitian nutritionist. He founded Nutrition in Recovery, a group practice based in Los Angeles, CA, and the Wise Mind Nutrition mobile app. As a clinician and researcher, Dr. Wiss has over a decade of experience working one-on-one with patients and has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Wissis dedicated to challenging the status quo and being a part of the solution to the mental health crisis. IG: @drdavidwiss
Dekker Dreyer
Publisher-MNTL
Dekker Dreyer (aka Phantom Astronaut) is an audio / visual artist, host, educator, and current publisher of MNTL: The Mind Expansion Digest on substack. Former Immersive Media Subject Matter Expert and educator at both University of Maryland and Columbia College, Dreyer has been called a VR Pioneer by MovieMaker, NPR, and Entrepreneur. He holds post-graduate certificates in eastern religions, ecology, and social psychology with his creative work centering around folklore, nature, technology and the subconscious.
Mntl.substack.com
Diego Alfonso
Medicine Facilitator
Diego, originally from Colombia, has dedicated his life to working with traditional medicines. He believes that serving others is his true purpose and has gained profound insights through his experiences with these traditional practices. Driven by a deep sense of gratitude for the knowledge he has received, Diego is committed to sharing the wisdom of traditional medicines with his community, extending his knowledge and support to others.
Contact Info: Instagram @AinyHealing
Jaz
Trauma Healing Specialist, Plant Medicine Facilitator & Healer
Jaz is a Los Angeles-based healer and plant medicine facilitator with over a decade of experience, specializing in trauma recovery. For the past five years, she has focused on MDMA group therapy, guiding individuals through transformative healing journeys. By blending traditional practices with modern technology, Jaz offers a holistic approach to trauma healing, helping clients reconnect with their true selves for lasting change.
Jeffrey Ringer
Guide, Artist & Facilitator
Jeffrey Ringer is a heart-centered guide, artist, and facilitator who embodies Divine Masculine love through presence, compassion, and authenticity. Unapologetically real, he shares his own struggles and stories to create safety, trust, and deep connection. For over 25 years, Jeffrey worked as a visionary entrepreneur in photography, marketing, and advertising before following the call to support spiritual growth and healing. He is the author of Breathe in the Beauty and is writing My Journey of Self-Love… Emotionally, Physically and Spiritually. Certified in trauma healing, Tantra, IFS, MDMA-assisted therapy, and sacred psychedelic practices, Jeffrey co-facilitates heart-centered workshops with his partner Rebecca Smith at their Studio City sanctuary, Agnes Tree House—offering transformative, playful, and deeply respectful experiences rooted in love and integration.
Agnestreehouse.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092723310805
agnestreehouse@gmail.com
818.822.5644
Jennifer Estevez
Medicine Facilitator & Creative Strategist
Jennifer Estevez is a medicine facilitator, integration coach, and conscious business consultant based in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Raised by spiritually minded pragmatists, her work bridges Western psychology, science, and systems thinking with shamanic and ceremonial traditions. Drawn to Huachuma, she spent a year brewing and sitting with the medicine before serving others and continues her studies in Chavín with Maestra Cecelia and Raúl, lineage keepers of the ancient temple. She has apprenticed as a Tabaquera with Ernesto García Torres and integrates Jungian psychology, somatic experiencing, and IFS to support grounded, sustainable integration of ceremonial work into daily life.
www.jenestevez.com
Judd Weiss
President-Advanced Mycology
Judd Weiss is an entrepreneur pioneer devoted to making the meaningful power of psychedelics more accessible.
In 2021 Judd formed Advanced Mycology and created Shrüm, the world’s first consumer friendly mushroom grow bag, making it radically simple for anyone to grow their own shrooms.
A passionate psychonaut for the past 3 decades, Judd now focuses on Xüm, chewable Metocintablets, and future products on the bleeding edge of psychedelic access.
Kat Angelica
Founder-HeARTsong Wellness
Kat Angelica, founder of HeARTsong Wellness, is an art medicine healer and Reiki master dedicated to guiding others on journeys of self-discovery and transformation. Partnering with Shaman Sand – a skilled practitioner of ancestral healing and sacred ceremony – they weave together art, energy work, and shamanic tradition. Together, they create safe, inspiring spaces where participants can explore inner realms, connect with spirit, and unlock possibilities for healing, growth, and creative expression.
Kat Walsh
Founder-Trip on This
Kat Walsh is a host, storyteller, and DJ known as Kat’s Meow. She’s the founder of Trip OnThis, a psychedelic media platform created to speak to everyday people, helping recreational and at-home explorers stay safe, informed and curious. Her work is rooted in joy, curiosity and the courage it takes to go after our dreams. Whether she’s behind the decks, on the mic, or sharing a story, Kat’s focus is on sparking connection and reminding people that their wildest visions are worth going after.
@lifewithkatwalsh on IG & TikTok
Katherine Tomlinson
Ceremonialist and Therapist in Training
Katherine Tomlinson is a graduate student in Integral Counseling Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a psychedelic facilitator, educator, and integration specialist, as well as the founder and coordinator of the Integral Psychedelic Community. Her work focuses on preparation, harm reduction, and post-experience integration across a range of psychedelic medicines, with particular attention to ethics, relational dynamics, and cultural context. Drawing from nearly two decades of experience in psychedelic communities, academic training in psychotherapy, and field research, she bridges clinical, ceremonial, and community-based perspectives. Katherine’s approach centers psychological safety, informed consent, and meaning-making, supporting individuals and groups in translating altered states into grounded insight, embodied change, and sustainable growth.
https://katherinetomlinson.org/
@integral.psych3delic on Instagram
Kayla Silber
Augmented Reality Artist and Author
Kayla has loved the arts for as long as she can remember, exploring everything from drawing and dancing to singing, acting, and writing. After earning a BFA from the University of Maryland, she built a successful career as a creative director and taught herself animation, becoming one of Los Angeles’s pioneering augmented reality artists. In January 2024, Kayla unified her artistic disciplines into Rosie & Raven, an augmented reality children’s book designed to spark wonder and reignite a love of reading. The book earned a Moonbeam Children’s Book Award and was named one of Oprah’s Favorite Things 2025.
Learn more at www.elev8reality.com and @kaylafineart
Social handles:
Kevin Thorbahn, B.S.
Founder-DreamMind Institute
Kevin Thorbahn, B.S., is an experienced psychonaut and trained psychedelic guide with over 160 hours of supervised DMT practice through the IDMT Project (Instituto da MoléculaTriptamina). He has over 25 years of experience cultivating and working with ethnobotanical plants and fungi. With a background in Biology and Chemistry and 15 years in the biotech industry focused on molecular biology and genetics, Kevin blends science with traditional plant wisdom. He is the founder of DreamMind Labs and the nonprofit DreamMind Institute, dedicated to educating communities on responsible cultivation and relationship with medicinal plants and fungi in compliance with Colorado law.
Kyle Stewart
President-Fractal Elephant Consulting
Kyle Stewart has over 18 years of personal experience with psychedelics and more than a decade as a consultant in the psychedelic industry. Once caught in a cycle of addiction and gang affiliation, Kyle’s life was transformed by the healing power of psychedelics, inspiring a journey devoted to service and helping others heal. He now works with multiple brands, providing in-depth technical, business, and distribution expertise, as well as marketing support. Through his work, Kyle bridges personal experience and professional insight to guide the growth of the psychedelic field and empower others on their path to transformation.
Elizabeth Cano
Bruja and Spiritual Guide
Elizabeth is a bruja and spiritual healer with 27 years of experience in brujería and energy work. A certified yoga teacher and mentor to new Brujas, she guides soulful journeys using candle magic, limpias, plant medicine, and intention-based rituals.
@layogibruja
Loretta Gold
Clinical Psychotherapist & MAPS Trained Psychedelic Assisted Therapist
Loretta Gold is a UKCP-accredited Transpersonal Integrative Psychotherapist and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapist, specializing in trauma, integration, and somatic healing. With a diverse background in art therapy, psychiatric work, and psychedelic therapy, she integrates multiple modalities to support individuals on their healing journeys. Loretta has worked in both private practice and clinical settings, supporting clients with complex trauma, addiction, and mental health challenges. She is trained in psychedelic-assisted therapy and provides one-on-one therapy, combining transformative healing with tailored integration support. Her compassionate approach empowers clients to achieve profound, lasting change.
Lucas Gerler
Speaker & strategist
Lucas Gerler is a strategist and speaker exploring consciousness, psychedelics, and systems-level change. His work is informed by profound personal adversity, including near-death experiences and periods of psychological struggle, which led him toward meditation, ethnobotanical practice, and the study of religious and cultural traditions as containers for sacrament and integration.
He is affiliated with Panacea Plant Sciences, which in April 2024 filed Panacea Plant Sciences, Inc. v. Garland et al., a federal lawsuit challenging the DOJ and DEA over administrative procedure issues related to controlled-substance rule-making. Lucas is also the founder of LiquidGold Consulting and LiquidGold Financial, and the creator of BIG Law, a justice-oriented legal advocacy concept examining how expanded awareness can inform structural reform.
Michael Cindrich
Cannabis and Psychedelic Attorney, Litigator
Michael E. Cindrich is a California attorney with almost twenty years’ experience in criminal and civil litigation, including the litigation and trial of dozens of misdemeanor and felony cases while a Prosecutor for the San Diego District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Cindrich is best known for being a fierce litigator and one of the top cannabis and psychedelic attorneys in California. He has successfully won “Not Guilty” verdicts on several high profile cases, and had dozens of cases dismissed for lack of evidence, illegal search and seizure, and in the interest of justice. Mr. Cindrich successfully argued illegal search and seizures by law enforcement resulting in multiple felony cases being dismissed during the pretrial phase. Mr. Cindrich has also advised and consulted with thousands of entrepreneurs in numerous aspects of business law and regulatory compliance in the cannabis industry.
Paul Karasik
Founder-Psychedelic Institute of Los Angeles
Paul Karasik brings decades of experience in the world of psychedelics. He was a member of the early psychedelic community in New York and California, which included such luminaries as Timothy Leary and Ram Dass.
Paul co-founded Thompson’s Ranch, one of the first alternative communities in Joshua Tree, CA. His ninth and most recent book, published in 2024 is “Getting High on Leadership: The Leader’s Guide to Higher Consciousness”. Paul also has over 20 years of business and management consulting for many of America’s largest corporations including Meryl Lynch, Blackrock, Fidelity, Taylor Made Golf and Detroit Tigers. Paul and the Psychedelic Institute of Los Angeles are dedicated to making information and safe access available to anyone and everyone who is seeking to awaken their consciousness.
Rebecca Neisler
Psychedelic Researcher
Rebecca Neisler holds a degree in psychology and neuroscience from the University of Florida and focuses her work on altered states of consciousness. She explores the intersection of neuroscience, perception, and psychedelic experiences, with a special interest in the visual phenomena of fractal patterns. Rebecca has a passion for psychedelics both in and outside the academic field. Her presentations highlight how psychedelics affect sensory processing, pattern recognition, and meaning-making, opening conversations that bridge science, art, and lived experience. She is dedicated to fostering dialogue that makes neuroscience approachable, engaging, and relevant to personal and collective transformation.
Robert T. Rush, Esq.
Attorney and Policy Advocate
Robert Rush is an attorney and policy advocate whose work bridges law, science, and individual liberty in the evolving landscape of psychedelic and drug policy reform. He operates an independent practice, representing scientists, facilitators, healing centers, entheogenic churches, advocacy organizations, non-profits, and emerging businesses.
Rush is also the founder of the Rights and Reason Project, a public-interest initiative dedicated to advancing cognitive liberty, evidence-based drug policy, and constitutional accountability within administrative and criminal law. His work emphasizes the intersection of civil rights, cognitive liberty, and individual and scientific freedom, challenging administrative overreach and seeking to ensure that public policy reflects reason rather than fear.
In 2024, Rush co-led the groundbreaking challenge against the DEA’s proposed scheduling of DOI and DOC – one of the most consequential administrative hearings in modern drug policy. His broader practice includes advising on business development, risk management, cannabis and hemp law, and the development of equitable frameworks for emerging natural medicines. Rush regularly speaks on law, policy, and science at the forefront of reform, working to create a rational and humane legal system that honors both empirical evidence and individual rights.
www.rightsandreasonproject.com
rrush@rrushlaw.com
Sagar Tiwari
Founder & Investor
Sagar Tiwari is the Founder & CEO of Blue Modern Advisory, an AI Consultancy building proprietary datasets and growth engines for large healthcare and financial service enterprises. He is also a huge advocate for psychedelic medicine, volunteering for multiple organizations in the space include MAPS, Beckley Retreats, Odyssey PBC, and KCLA.
Sagar specializes in the intersection of AI and psychedelics, teaching clients and communities the power of leveraging psychedelic frameworks to get more out of AI.
Sebastian Siegel
Acclaimed Director, Speaker & Therapist
British-American acclaimed director and author Sebastian Siegel works in transformative consciousness through mediums of storytelling in film, psychotherapeutic practices, and immersive meditative experiences.
“Sebastian Siegel is a dexterous and original director, his movie is transcendent storytelling at its best.”
—Alex Grey
“[Sebastian Siegel’s] Grace and Grit will shake you, and maybe even awaken you in some way. This movie is a must-see, especially for anyone interested in love or consciousness.”
—John Mackey, Founder Whole Foods
www.DeeplyConscious.com
www.SebastianSiegel.com
IG @SebastianSiegel1
Dr. Sharnael
Naturopathic Doctor, Author, Speaker, and Podcast Host
Dr. Sharnael is a naturopathic doctor, author, speaker, and host of the Dr. Sharnael TrueTVpodcast, specializing in plant medicine integration, epigenetics, frequency medicine, trauma healing, and consciousness studies.
She teaches that miracles are not random events but the result of biological, emotional, and spiritual alignment.
Having traveled to 54 countries for research and teaching, she brings a global perspective to holistic health and human potential.
Author of seven books, including The Science of Miracles and Grandfather Iboga, she empowers individuals to take radical responsibility, transform trauma, and live in true divine alignment.
www.drsharnael.com
Shaun Ranko Meraya
Xaman
Shaun began his healing journey with conventional methods like counseling, NLP and Yoga. His life and healing journey took a profound leap forward in his first weekend of Ayahuasca Ceremony and continued to do so with all of the plant-based medicines he was blessed in working with for many years following.
His numerous travels to the Amazon jungle & his intensive dietas with Master Plant teachers have enabled him to learn from the plant spirits directly and have taught him the Sacred ways of the indigenous tribes. Shaun’s heart-centered work is offered with the intention of helping our families & community at-large to heal and honor our interconnectedness to all Beings.
shaun@divineguidance.me
Sky Karasik
Sky Karasik is a passionate member of the psychedelic community. As a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with a BA in Communications and minor in Gender/Sexuality/Women’s studies, she is drawn to issues that involve helping people through embracing individual experiences. Her own personal experiences have led her to understand that psychedelics have the potential to address many of the negative social and spiritual aspects of life that plague our culture today. Having worked in media in the cannabis industry, Sky brings an understanding of the complexities of distribution and access.
Suzi Kalypso
Priestess and Founder-Temple of Eden
Suzi Kalypso is a passionate advocate for the decriminalization and sacramental use of entheogenic medicines, particularly 5-MeO-DMT (Bufo). As the Priestess and founder of the Temple of Eden, a nonprofit entheogenic church in Los Angeles, she offers group and private ceremonies, facilitator training, harm-reduction seminars, community healing events, and free integration support. Drawing from her own journey of trauma, recovery, and transformation, Suzi guides others through shadow work and “dark night of the soul” experiences from an astrological and spiritual perspective. Dedicated to awakening the Divine Feminine and Masculine, she envisions a hopeful future through the healing power of sacred medicines.
310-912-0490
Instagram: @thetempleofeden
Teresa Kearney
Vice President of Sales for Panacea Payroll
Teresa Kearney is the Vice President of Sales for Panacea Payroll. Panacea is solely focused on providing Payroll, HR and Timekeeping to the cannabis and psychedelics industries. Teresa earned a B.S. at Indiana Univ. of PA and completed graduate study at Texas A&M Univ. While residing in multiple states in the US, she has worked in a variety of fields, such as, education, mental health, microwave TV transmitter sales, pharmaceutical research product sales, to name a few, before landing in the payroll industry. Teresa had been in payroll 8 years before applying her well-rounded skill set to the alternative health industry for the past 6 years.
Social media handles:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-kearney-62a45619/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/panaceapayroll/
Twitter – @PanaceaTeresa
Youtube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njMRoOoFHZw
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/PanaceaPayroll/
Tony Piazza
Ceremonial Facilitator & Founder-Trinity Activated
Tony Piazza is a former U.S. Navy Veteran turned ceremonial facilitator and founder of Trinity Activated, a healing platform integrating breathwork, frequency medicine, and sacred plant ceremonies. Following a near-death experience that catalyzed a profound spiritual awakening, he has spent years apprenticing with shamans and facilitating hundreds of ceremonies with medicines including changa, ayahuasca, bufo, and ibogaine. His work emphasizes integrity, safety, and deep preparation and integration. Anthony teaches a grounded, reverent approach to service that bridges ancient wisdom with modern responsibility.
Zipporah
Zipporah-Tantra Therapist & Cannabis Coach
We are thrilled to welcome back Zipporah – Somatic Tantra Therapist, Conscious Cannabis Coach, and internationally recognized psychedelic facilitator, as a featured guide at Awakening 2025. With years of experience leading transformational ceremonies, Zipporah weaves tantric wisdom and psychedelic integration into potent journeys of healing and awakening.
Her workshop, Psychedelic Tantra, is an immersive experience designed to awaken life-force energy, release emotional blocks, and activate higher states of consciousness through ritual, breath, tribal jungle beats, and embodied practice. Participants will walk away with tools to reconnect with their bodies, harness kundalini energy, and access clarity, creativity, and expanded states of love.
www.instagram.com/zipporah.thehighpriestess
To learn more, search for Zipporah on Sacred Eros
Matthew Dunehoo
Journalist, Content Creator
Matthew Dunehoo is excited to be back for his fourth Awakening conference! He began covering the psychedelic landscape as a journalist and content creator for the media company Psychedelic Spotlight (RIP) in 2020. He has since continued his advocacy for education and dissemination of information about psychedelic medicine, holistic wellness modalities and curiosity for human consciousness and interdependence across a number of projects, including the MINDBEND podcast, and his work with Warriorside, a storytelling training cohort for veterans and first responders based in San Diego.
Rob Sanchez
Founder & Podcast Host, Apartment 113
Rob Sanchez has 13+ years in the cannabis industry starting as a cultivator before building cannabis business software. He judges cannabis competitions as a Certified Ganjier and promotes high-quality cannabis and community. Rob is the host of the Apartment 113 Cannabis & Psychedelics Podcast and writes for Fat Nugs Magazine. He’s an advocate for psychedelics after working with them in macro and micro doses for many years. He’s passionate about sharing the stories and projects happening in the Psychedelics space as the industry picks up speed.
Instagram: @apt_113
Linkedin: rob-sanchez-apt113
Musicians
Danny Santos
Healer, Master Astrologer
Danny Santos is the visionary healer and astrologer behind Santos & The Crystal Visions. A master astrologer, his work explores the divine connection between the 12-step recovery model and the 12 signs of the zodiac, offering a spiritually integrative approach to healing. In 2023, Santos was blessed by the Shipibo Tribe in Peru to serve Ayahuasca through the Lopez/Mahua lineage. He is a certified breathwork instructor, Reiki Master, sound healer, tarot educator, and trained psychic medium through the Los Angeles Spirit Academy. His work has been featured in Bustle, The New York Post, The National Alliance on Mental Illness, and on Lisa Rinna’s podcast, “Let’s Not Talk About The Husband.” A proud graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Santos volunteers with the Los Angeles Midnight Mission and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and performs music throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
Ganesha Atom Rose
Ganesha Atom Rose is a global troubadour and healer. Originally from Southern California, he grew up living and traveling through the Caribbean and Europe with parents steeped in spirituality and healing. He currently resides with his family in the Yucatán, MX where he founded the venue and healing space, “Ganesha’s Lounge.” There he hosts and creates with artists and healers sharing the ancient practices of devotional music. His musical collective, “The Beautiful Noize,” brings the audience along for an experience where they open to sacred sounds and vibrations from the heart. Weaving the Yogic tradition of Bhakti Kirtan, to indigenous music from South America and Africa, he brings a wide array of musical stylings to craft a transformational and unique experience in relatable and powerful ways. Come dive into the depths of the subconscious and spirit world for a powerful self discovery.
Greg Gilman
GREG IN GOOD COMPANY is L.A.-based rock n roll full of heart and soul, whose music is deeply inspired by his psychedelic and spiritual experiences. “It’s Americana meets country meets rock & roll with moody hooks, heartfelt lyrics and creative songwriting,” raves Music Connection. “If you like upbeat Americana music, you’ll love Greg in Good Company.” Listen to his latest album “Quiet Days and Quiet Nights” wherever you stream music. Find GIGC on YouTube and follow him on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook:
@GregInGoodCo
Melissa Ladybug
Melissa Ladybug is an indie-psychedelic artist blending Mediterranean magic with jazzy grooves, jungle rhythms, and cinematic sensuality. Her whimsical yet sultry sound evokes a poetic dreamworld where myth, mischief, and melody entwine. Think Lana Del Rey meets Aurora on a tropical fantasy island.
Instagram:
@melissaladybug.music
Milo Gonzalez
Milo Gonzalez is a guitarist born of a multi-generational family of artists and musicians native to Venice Beach. With his mother being a rock vocalist, and his step father being a founding member of the renowned hardcore punk band Black Flag, Milo grew up around heavy rock music. Inspired to play both electric and acoustic guitar, Milo discovered a deep love for flamenco and classical guitar music, finding it’s dark, emotive, and aggressive qualities alluring and similar to that of his rock roots. Milo has developed a unique and hard to define style of music that derives as much influence from legendary guitar virtuosos such as Paco De Lucia, and Vicente Amigo, as it does from rock/metal/psychedelic legends like Black Sabbath and Radiohead.
IG: @milogonzalezmusic
Milognzlz@gmail.com
Paul Karasik
Founder-Psychedelic Institute of Los Angeles
Paul Karasik brings decades of experience in the world of psychedelics. He was a member of the early psychedelic community in New York and California, which included such luminaries as Timothy Leary and Ram Dass.
Paul co-founded Thompson’s Ranch, one of the first alternative communities in Joshua Tree, CA. His ninth and most recent book, published in 2024 is “Getting High on Leadership: The Leader’s Guide to Higher Consciousness”. Paul also has over 20 years of business and management consulting for many of America’s largest corporations including Meryl Lynch, Blackrock, Fidelity, Taylor Made Golf and Detroit Tigers. Paul and the Psychedelic Institute of Los Angeles are dedicated to making information and safe access available to anyone and everyone who is seeking to awaken their consciousness.
Samantha Sharman
Samantha Sharman is a musician, performance artist, and immersive world-builder exploring embodiment, erotic sovereignty, and creative expression. Through her flagship project FEmpress, she blends house + R&B music, ritual burlesque, and cinematic storytelling to create experiences that reconnect audiences to their bodies, emotions, and pleasure.
She is the Co-Owner of Enchanted Collective, a femme-run creative sanctuary producing immersive music and art festivals while expanding into a creative agency and record label.
Alongside her public work, Samantha offers erotic education, sensual activation, and professional dominatrix services rooted in consent and energy awareness. She integrates power exchange with tantra, energy work, and somatic healing to support surrender, shame release, and full self-expression—treating pleasure as a sacred, transformative force.
Kyle Nicolaides
Kyle Nicolaides is the author of Thank God For Depression and former lead singer of rock band Beware of Darkness, where he had a top 5 hit, amassed 35m streams, and appeared on Conan and Rolling Stone. He’s said the shift from playing in front of 40,000 people for ego to playing in a medicine ceremony for 25 for service and healing has been one of the most meaningful parts of his life. Now he performs healing music with his partner Marcie, engages in live speaking, is deep in book promotion, and is currently writing his next book.
Don't Miss Out
Vendors, Reserve Your Space Today!
Day 1: Professional Development
Friday, April 17
TIME
LOFT EAST
LOFT WEST
INSIGHT ROOM
SANCTUARY
10:00 AM
Success in the psychedelics industry requires more than vision—it demands a strong business foundation. This pre-conference session will outline the critical back-office elements every entrepreneur must address, from business structure and compliance to bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll. Led by Teresa Kearney, Vice President of Sales at Panacea Payroll, along with Adam O’Neill, a business strategist, the discussion will cover essential operational and financial considerations. From financial systems to growth strategies, they’ll share insider tips to help attendees avoid costly mistakes and fast-track success.
Vice President of Sales at Panacea Payroll
CEO & Founder | Conscious Enterpreneur & Explorer
This is a 2-hour workshop exploring the emerging field of psychedelic-assisted therapy. We’ll cover essential safety protocols, various medicine paths, and the ideal skills & space requirements for conducting sessions. We will explore the psychological, energetic and emotional qualities of what it means to hold space as a “healer”, including the basics of client-provider boundaries, container & expectation setting, money-matters and provide insights into the challenges, responsibilities of leading with an open heart. If you have ever wondered, “is holding space as a psychedelic healer for me?”, this workshop is for you. Join us to gain a comprehensive overview of this transformational work.
Founder, Psychedelic Institute
In this introductory session, Anthony Piazza shares his personal journey from a life-altering near-death experience to years of dedicated ceremonial service with sacred medicines. Drawing from lived experience and hundreds of hours in ceremony, he offers a grounded, reverent approach to working with changa as a sacrament rather than a substance. Changa is a smokeable herbal sacrament created by blending plant materials with DMT and harmala alkaloids. Participants will explore the spirit and intention behind the medicine, preparation practices for both facilitator and participant, and the importance of safety, integrity, and energetic hygiene. Anthony will also cover foundational principles of trauma-aware facilitation, creating safe containers, and supporting meaningful integration. This session is designed for those called to serve responsibly, honoring the plants, the lineage, and the people they support. The focus is not technique alone, but presence, humility, and right relationship with the medicine.
Ceremonial Facilitator & Founder—Trinity Activated
Begin by learning about LSD from many angles, including history, introductory neuroscience, energetics and more. Move into applications, contraindications, dosage guidance (micro, low, mid, high), routes of administration, client examples, and supportive protocols around safe administration. Next arrive into layering with other medicines, breakout discussions on how to work with clients, Q and A, and more. This workshop is geared towards therapists and facilitators with working knowledge of medicine administration and a desire to better understand how LSD exists within the framework of intentional and conscientious exploration.
CCH, MBA
NOON
This talk explores what modern Huachuma facilitation looks like when traditional Andean wisdom is held alongside contemporary scientific, psychological, and ethical frameworks. Drawing from years of apprenticeship with Indigenous knowledge keepers as well as training in Western modalities, Jennifer Estevez speaks to the responsibility of adapting ceremonial practice for modern contexts—without dilution or extraction. The focus is on integrity, accessibility, and sustainability: honoring lineage while meeting the real needs of people living and integrating medicine work in today’s world.
Medicine Facilitator & Creative Strategist
The rapid rise of Hapé in the psychedelic movement carries both profound healing potential and serious responsibility. When this sacred medicine is used without proper training, cultural context, or ethical grounding, it can lead to trauma, dependency, and cultural appropriation.
This 2-hour initiation guided by Aluna Lua is designed for ancient wisdom seekers, practitioners, facilitators, integration coaches, medicine guardians, students of Sacred Tobacco or anyone who is called to work with Hapé as a sacred ally rather than a recreational tool.
You will receive an overview of Hapé’s medicinal properties, Indigenous wisdom and traditions, contraindications, harm reduction principles, trauma-informed facilitation and ethical medicine sourcing.
You will have the opportunity to witness a live facilitation demonstration by Lua, ask questions directly and leave this exclusive experience with a solid foundation to cultivate your relationship this Hapé safely, skillfully and with integrity.
Media Company Co-Founder
A Comprehensive Overview of the Law and Documentation Required.
This workshop provides a practical legal roadmap for establishing a psychedelic sacrament–based religious organization in the United States. Led by an attorney actively litigating against the DEA to secure the legal right to use ayahuasca sacramentally, this session explains how federal drug law intersects with religious liberty protections and what courts and regulators evaluate when reviewing exemption petitions.
Participants will learn the legal foundations that make such exemptions possible, including how courts analyze the sincerity of belief and religious practice. The workshop breaks down the core organizational documents typically required to form a functioning religious entity, including statements of doctrine, sacramental policies, membership standards, clergy roles, and governance structures, and will demonstrate how to draft these materials to demonstrate legitimacy and consistency.
A significant portion of the program will address compliance, including screening protocols, health and safety procedures, recordkeeping practices, import and sourcing issues, and the diversion prevention measures authorities expect to see. Attendees will also gain insight into the exemption application process itself, common government concerns, and strategic considerations.
Designed for spiritual leaders, organizers, advocates, and anyone interested in the entheogenic use of plant medicines, this workshop translates a complex intersection of constitutional law, federal drug policy, and nonprofit governance into a clear, document-focused framework for building a defensible and responsibly structured psychedelic church.
Attorney and Policy Advocate
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2:00 PM
How to Become a 5-MeO-DMT Practitioner is a 2-hour introductory workshop led by Priestess Suzi Kalypso, founder of Temple of Eden and creator of its 6-month 5-MeO-DMT Facilitator Training Program. Suzi is a ceremonial educator and guide known for her lineage-aware, ethics-first approach to practitioner training.
This workshop offers a grounded, educational overview of what responsible 5-MeO-DMT facilitation entails, presented for informational and spiritual development purposes only. Participants will explore practitioner integrity, energetic literacy, psychological considerations, ethical responsibility, and legal awareness surrounding this work. The session will clearly distinguish between personal use, facilitation, and professional practice, emphasizing consent, safety, and long-term integration.
Suzi will also outline the structure and intent of the Temple of Eden training, including preparation, screening, integration frameworks, lineage respect, and legal take-out considerations for operating responsibly in modern contexts.
This workshop is ideal for those feeling a sincere call to understand this path with clarity, humility, and accountability.
Priestess and Founder—Temple of Eden
How to Work with Amanita
The ceremony opens with a living sacrament: a small serving of Amanita Muscaria as a symbolic eucharist, followed by a Blue Lotus anointing of forehead and heart. The room softens immediately, as if a shared threshold has been crossed. What follows is not a sermon but a transmission—myth, memory, and mystery woven into something deeply familiar. Midway through, Mitzi speaks to the quiet awakening of the divine feminine, rebalancing inner worlds. As the Amanita deepens, the gathering culminates in a guided meditation and collective channeling of Tara. Many leave feeling held, clarified, and gently realigned—participants in a living, modern mystery.
CEO/Owner, Amentara
An Experiential Deep Dive for Professionals, Practitioners, and Passionate Plant People
Kanna is a powerful legal herb that is sometimes called "Bushman’s Ecstasy". It can be used in a variety of applications, both individually and in therapeutic situations. Kanna is a potent but safe and gentle medicine perfect for managing everyday depression, combating addictions, preparing for and synergizing psychedelic experiences, and can also be used in psychedelic integration and aftercare, especially following compounds that deplete serotonin. This will be an hands on workshop offering experiences to meet the herb itself, try traditional consumption methods, the pure extract powder, as well as our unique and delicious honey elixir. Caution: you may walk away from this presentation in a state of heightened euphoria!
Herbalist/Traditional Healer
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4:00 PM
Who are we? Why are we here? Psychedelics offer a key to answering these profound questions. Used ethically, psychedelics allow us to unlock the true identity and allow us to situate that identity in time and space, enhancing agency and free will through the experience of ego dissolution. At the end of this workshop you will have a greater sense of purpose and a stronger sense of agency in your practice as a facilitator, whatever your modality, and you will learn practical skills in meditation, mudras, and affirmations that you can apply in your work.
President of the Institute of Collective Consciousness
This 2-hour professional development masterclass is designed for coaches, facilitators, healers, and guides who feel called to work with cannabis as a conscious, intentional tool, without abandoning the modality they already hold mastery in. Rather than teaching a one-size-fits-all approach, this training explores how cannabis can be ethically, safely, and skillfully integrated into existing practices such as coaching, tantra, breathwork, somatics, yoga, bodywork, meditation, or spiritual guidance.
Zipporah’s approach is simple: cannabis is NOT the work. It serves as a transcendental tool that can profoundly deepen the work you already do; on all levels, both internally and externally.
This 2-hour masterclass is an informational exploration designed to support practitioners in understanding how this medicine can be worked with in a grounded, mature, and ethical way, in service of healing, awakening, and real transformation.
Tantra Therapist & Cannabis Coach
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Day 2: Conference
Saturday, April 18
TIME
LOFT EAST
LOFT WEST
KITCHEN
MUSIC
10:00 AM
Microdose Panel
Kyle Stewart
Morgan Bhairi
Moderator: Matthew Dunehoo
DMT: The God Molecule (panel)
Suzi Kalypso
Kevin Thorbahn
Moderator: Dekker Dreyer
Art Activation
Sam Sharman
11:00 AM
Mushroom Church: How to Work with Amanita
Christian Rasmussen
CEO/Owner-Amentara
Mitzi
Psychedelics & Creativity: The Artist’s Journey, Guided by Spirit
Kayla Silber
Kat Angelica
Kyle Nicolaides
Moderator: Matthew Dunehoo
Art Activation
Melissa Ladybug
NOON
Psychedelics & 12 Step Recovery
David Wiss
Yeshaia Blakene
The Miracle of Empathogens
Katherine Tomlinson
Sebastian Siegel
Moderator: Loretta Gold
Art Activation
Miles Tanner
1:00 PM
Keynote
Judd Weiss
Hermeticism
Rob Sanchez
Art Activation
Danny Santos
1:30 PM
Keynote: Psychedelics for Recreational Use
Avens O’Brien
Fractals and the Mind: Visual Phenomena and Psychedelic Consciousness
Rebecca Neisler
Psychedelic Researcher
Art Activation
Danny Santos (cont)
2:00 PM
Cannabis as a Psychedelic
Moderator: Scott Von Heldt
Keynote
Art Activation
Samantha Sharman
2:30 PM
LSD and Psilocybin in Neurodegenerative Healing
Jeffrey Ringer
Guide, Artist & Facilitator
Keynote
Art Activation
Samantha Sharman (cont)
3:00 PM
Ayahuasca: The Mother of Personal Transformation (panel)
Shaun Ranko Meraya
Courtney Close
Diego Alfonso
Moderator: Danny Santos
Healer, Master Astrologer
Women Sex & Psychedelics
Zipporah
Kat Walsh
Moderator: Sky Karasik
Art Activation
Milo Gonzalez
4:00 PM
Navigating the Current Legal Landscape
Michael Cindrich
Chad Sonkin
Robert Rush
Moderator: Lucas Gerler
Ibogaine (panel)
Jaz
Sel Sarkin
Tony Piazza
Moderator: Sky Karasik
Art Activation
Ganesha Rose
5:00 PM
How to run A Successful Psychedelic Business (panel)
Moderator: Adam O’Neill
Legal Update: The Road to Freedom of Consciousness
Christian Rasmussen
Judd Weiss
Alexander Howe
Moderator: Dekker Dreyer
Art Activation
Paul Karasik
6:00 PM
Cacao Ceremony
Joy Alegria
Cannabis Ceremony
Monique
Art Activation
Kyle Nicolaides
7:00 PM
Hape Ceremony
Salvador Chalchihuitzilli
Sound bath
TBA
Art Activation
Aluna Lua (30 min)
8:00 PM
Candle Magic Ceremony
Elizabeth Cano
Bruja and Spiritual Guide
TBA
Art Activation
Greg Gilman