Download In this episode Kyle sits down with a close friend in the psychedelic space, Lucas Jackson. They have shared many experiences such as Near Death Experiences, leading breathwork workshops, and other similarities. They cover topics such as the Near Death Experience, Ayahuasca experience, Breathwork tools, and accepting death, finding meaning and integrating these exceptional experiences. 3 Key Points: Exceptional experiences are not always euphoric and light, they can also be dark and cathartic and make it difficult to transition back into ‘real life’. Lucas explains his Ayahuasca experience as his darkest and hardest. He felt alone with no help, no one to talk to to help understand it, he felt as if he actually died. But this gave him a realization and acceptance of death. The key to making it through and putting understanding to the dark experiences is having the right tools, such as a community of understanding people, practices such as breathwork, yoga, meditation and just simply coming back to the breath. Support the show Patreon Leave us a review on iTunes Share us with your friends – favorite podcast, etc Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community. Navigating Psychedelics Trip Journal                                              Integration Workbook             Show Notes About Lucas Lucas' interest in psychedelics started in high school, the books that he read then were influential He had a near death experience at 19 He came down with a lung issue and was in the hospital for 2 months and in and out of different stages of consciousness After that experience his interest for psychedelics and breathwork grew Lucas describes it not totally as a single NDE but more as being so close to death for an extended period of time He says it wasn't mystical and great, coming back to ‘real life’ had some dark qualities Revisiting a Dark Past Lucas says he wrote stuff down when he was in the hospital with a breathing tube and couldn't talk and one day he went through it all and it was very dark and cathartic When he went through and read his past writings, he said that he felt sympathy for the ‘him’ that wrote it He says it is hard to remember the person he was before his experience and illness Breathwork After he dropped out of school, he started up a farm in Vermont and then toward the end of that he started to feel restless and there were synchronicities that led him to breathwork He heard that Stan Grof was going to be doing a talk at a local bookshop and he met Lenny and Elizabeth Gibson He ended up doing breathwork training in New York He explains the experience as more powerful than what he would have imagined He said he wanted to tell everyone about it after the first breathwork experience Kyle says its common with any exceptional experience, people want to run and tell the world Lucas says the sitting was just as powerful as the breathing It's not often that you have someone sit at your side for 2-3 hours giving you full attention Lucas says that his GTT training was supposed to take 2 years and he thought he was going to get through it in 2 years no problem and he is in his 5th year doing the program and he loves the pace Kyle says that part of the training in breathwork is doing your own work Lucas says with this kind of work, you don't get through it and you're done, It's a continuous process Robert Anton Wilson’s ‘maybe’ logic helps Lucas with being okay with not knowing He had a few experiences where he went through a ‘death’ feeling, and then he would let go and blast through this ‘light’ and then feelings oneness and wholeness Ayahuasca Lucas went through the ‘death’ experience and thought it was actually real, he felt complete void and nothingness That experience haunted him for years His ayahuasca experience was really about the purge, letting go of absolutely everything James Fadiman The remoteness of the experience was what