The Jewish Psychedelic Podcast

The NYU–Johns Hopkins Religious Professionals Study explored the effects of psilocybin on clergy from diverse faith backgrounds, including rabbis, ministers, and imams. Participants reported profound spiritual experiences, with many saying the sessions deepened their sense of vocation and connection to the divine. It has become a landmark in understanding how psychedelics might intersect with spir...

Podcast Episode: Revelation and Return — Religious Professionals Share Their Stories From the Hopkins Trial The  NYU–Johns Hopkins Religious Professionals Study  explored the effects of psilocybin on clergy from diverse faith backgrounds, including rabbis, ministers, and imams. Participants reported profound spiritual experiences, with many describing a deepened sense of vocation and connection to...

Rabbi Zac speaks with Dr. Marc Aixalà, author of “Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness” a telecommunications engineer, psychologist, psychotherapist and certified Holotropic Breathwork facilitator specializing in supporting people who face challenging experiences with expanded states of consciousness. They discuss what psychedelic integration can look lik...

Natalie Lyla Ginsberg, Global Impact Officer of MAPS and co-founder of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit, speaks with Rabbi Zac about the potential and challenges of creating Jewish psychedelic community in this moment. Along with other collaborators, Natalie hosted the Aravah Festival this past October, a Sukkot-themed celebration in Mendocino, CA.  Natalie Lyla Ginsberg Biography: Natalie Lyla Ginsb...

Rabbi Zac speaks to Dr. Roman Palitsky, Director of Research Projects for Emory Spiritual Health and a Research Psychologist for Emory University School of Medicine. Zac and Roman discuss the launch of a joint research project between Emory and Shefa, Jewish Journeys, the first population study of Jewish attitudes, practices, and needs towards psychedelics, generously funded by Common Era. Dr Roma...

This episode is apart of Awakening Consciousness: Shefa’s High Holiday Beit Midrash Session Four with Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed Hitorerut: The Call to Awakening Source sheet here. More from Dr. Hellner-Eshed here. This podcast is offered as a free community resource by Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support. If you feel moved to donate to support this work, ⁠⁠⁠⁠you may do so on⁠ our website⁠.⁠⁠ Our intr...

This episode is apart of Awakening Consciousness: Shefa’s High Holiday Beit Midrash Session Three with Victoria Hanna Seal Us in the Book of Life: An Embodied Prayer Practice More from Victoria Hanna on Instagram here. This podcast is offered as a free community resource by Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support. If you feel moved to donate to support this work, ⁠⁠⁠you may do so on⁠ our website⁠.⁠ Our...

This episode is a part of Awakening Consciousness: Shefa’s High Holiday Beit Midrash. Session Two with Rabbi Ami Silver Life Breathing Through Us: A New Paradigm for Teshuva Source material here . More of Ami's teachings here. Listen to Ami's podcast "Awakenings" here . This podcast is offered as a free community resource by Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support. If you feel moved to...

This episode is apart of Awakening Consciousness: Shefa’s High Holiday Beit Midrash Session One with Rabbi Dr. Art Green Awesome Rebirth: Approaching Rosh Hashanah Source sheet here. Art Green’s website here. Hosted by Ami Silver

In the memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and all those innocent lives who have been lost, Rabbi Zac shares some of his psychedelic torah to end this year and look out to the next. This podcast is offered as a free community resource by Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support. If you feel moved to donate to support this work, ⁠⁠you may do so on our website . Our intro and outro music is an excerpt of the so...

Rabbi Zac speaks to Robert Ansin, CEO of Healing Hearts Changing Minds , about his experience of awakening to love and unity after high-dose psilocybin experiences, and his commitment to support marginal communities in the psychedelic field. Robert Ansin Biography : Massachusetts-born entrepreneur Robert Ansin has always been driven by two passions: to innovate and to give back. After attending th...

Rabbi Zac speaks with psychologist, author, researcher and podcaster Dr. Hillary McBride. Zac and Hillary speak about the notion and practice of embodiment, connecting with Divinity, and working with psychedelics  as means of coming into relationships with one’s body. You can read more about Hillary's work and buy her amazing books here. Dr. Hillary McBride's Bio: Hillary McBride, PhD, is...

Rabbi Zac speaks with Dr. Leor Roseman, a leading interdisciplinary psychedelic researcher. Zac and Leor speak about the potential for healing through psychedelic use from many perspectives--the role of visualization, the experience of “breakthroughs,” and the importance of groups and communities in healing work. Dr. Leor Roseman's Biography: Leor Roseman is a Senior Lecturer and Psychedelic R...

Dr. Rachel Yehuda, one of the world’s foremost experts on epigenetic trauma and psychedelic-assisted therapies, joins Rabbi Zac for a conversation about the significance of the Jewish story as a foundation for processing ancestral traumas. They speak about Rachel’s upbringing, the history of trauma research, and the future of MDMA-assisted therapy. Dr. Rachel Yehuda Bio: Rachel Yehuda, PhD, is an...

Lineage! Archaeology! Secret psychedelic histories! Drug policy and tikkun olam! Rabbi Zac receives the  Purim wisdom of altered states by Mitchell Gomez, executive director of DanceSafe , a nonprofit health education and harm reduction organization based in Denver, CO. This podcast is offered as a free community resource by Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support. If you feel moved to donate to support...

Once a year, Jews are invited to expand their consciousness with the aid of a sacred psychoactive substance to dissolve the binary boundaries between human existence. What other special states of consciousness exist within the Jewish mystical tradition? How are they integrated into daily life? Are they congruous in any way with psychedelic experiences? Rabbi Zac explored these questions and more w...

In this month’s episode of the Jewish Psychedelic Podcast, Rabbi Zac is joined by Dr. Steven Radowitz, chief medical officer of Nushama Wellness in New York. Rabbi Zac and Dr. Radowitz talk about the Jewish mystical tradition and healing, how ketamine therapy is utilized at Nushama, and the role of aesthetics in creating safe and supportive containers for a psychedelic experience. This podcast is...

Content Warning: This conversation will touch on topics of kidnapping, terrorism and violence including murder. In 2002, Tamara Pearl learned that her brother, Daniel, had been abducted and murdered by Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. For over twenty years, she has worked with this personal “waking nightmare” as an inquiry into the nature of evil and how individuals and communities create containers of heali...

On this episode of the Jewish Psychedelic Podcast, Rabbi Zac speaks with riter, journalist, editor, consultant, educator, and guide to all things Jewish-Psychedelic. Madison speaks about her family and growing up with Ram Dass, her psychedelic journey to Jewish spiritual practice, and what she things are the most important happenings in Jewish psychedelic space. These stories and more can be found...

On this episode of the Jewish Psychedelic Podcast, Rabbi Zac is joined by Rabbi Yosef Goldman, composer, prayer leader, educator, and singer. Yosef’s new album of Jewish music, “Abitah,” will be released on Rising Song Records on September 21st. The conversation delves into the profound connections between music and Torah, creativity as a Jewish practice for healing, and spiritual connection, cele...

Throughout millennia, Jews have explored individual and communal consciousness through a variety of techniques and traditions. More recently, Jews have played an outsized role in the “psychedelic renaissance” as researchers, practitioners, and advocates, including prominent leaders. A surge of interest in these substances creates an opportunity to reflect on non-ordinary experiences in Jewish life...

Psychedelic science, focused mostly on the medicalization of certain psychoactive substances, has also inspired new perspectives on the science of spirituality and consciousness. What aspects of psychedelic experience are worthwhile to examine from a scientific and/or spiritual perspective? How if at all can spiritual experiences and their effects be measured? What outcomes should be linked to exp...

At a time of great diversity of backgrounds, commitments, and identities, many of Jews are still carrying the wounds of religious and cultural traumas of being “not enough” or “too much” in some significant way. How can deep self-love and acceptance heal and transform our relationships with lineages and traditions which once brought us pain? How can walking the path of a Jewish mystic deepen our a...

What is a “psychedelic experience” or an “expanded state of consciousness”? How do we understand these phenomena, both psychologically and spiritually? How can Jewish people begin to integrate the concepts and practices of “transpersonal psychology” into their own healing work and spiritual development? In this community conversation, we are joined by Dr. Ido Cohen, Psy. D, to learn about the hist...

A conversation between Shefa's founder and CEO Zac Kamenetz and Bob Otis. What does it mean to regard plants as sacred, or even as a “sacrament,”, and to create community with entheogenic plants as a necessary means for helping facilitate connection to sacred Divine presence? We welcome Bob “Otis” Stanley, Senior Pastor of the Sacred Garden Community Church, to speak about his path toward sacr...