Plant Medicine and Psilocybin

Some might see Brigitte Mars, our session’s lead participant, as a vestige from a lost age, a world once defined by The Whole Earth Catalogue, communes, and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. But those who would dismiss her as some curio are making a big mistake. The wisdom she channels goes back well before the Sixties, before the French-Canadian folk remedies of her grandmother, to the ancients themselves. In short, Brigitte is a Boulder treasure when it comes to natural healthcare.

Natural healthcare embraces a whole life-enhancement spectrum for which Brigitte is nationally known with her fifty years as an herbalist and some twenty books on the subject, from natural healthcare to natural first aid. Our focus piece is a one-hour video (click: Healing Addiction Naturally) which was chosen to not only illustrate just one such application i.e. that of healing addiction naturally, but to showcase the immense respect she has for the power of plant medicine. (Our formal session will be followed by Brigitte’s guided walk-around through our garden highlighting some of the wonderful edible and medicinal plants right in our own backyard.)

That respect extends also to Brigitte’s equally-prominent role as a psychedelic sitter. Yes, with the decriminalization of psilocybin in Colorado, Brigitte has become quite well known for providing a safe setting in which to administer this holistic medicine to address everything from trauma relief to boosting structural and functional neuroplasticity to reducing the anxiety and depression that often accompanies the terminal patient (as we discussed in MM 10/4/21 Psilocybin: Postcard From The Edge, with the Scientific American article "A Journey Beyond The Fear of Death").

We may engage in a wider discussion to compare and contrast natural healthcare and pharmaceuticals as one may reasonably conclude the two approaches work best as complements rather than competitors i.e. “natural” does not automatically mean safer or better, and pharmaceuticals are indispensable for many conditions. Yet there is an unsettling feeling that the healthcare industry has been largely commandeered by commercial interests. Watch the ads and you are a target. Watch Brigitte and you are a human being.

Peace: perhaps an integrative approach can leverage lifestyle and botanicals for prevention while using drugs when evidence and risk/benefit justify them.

Please note the following RSVP Policy for Member Monday: RSVP sign-up opens up at 11:00am on Fridays via the City Club weekly Newsletter. Seats are first-come, first-served: the first 14 secure a spot at the table, the last 3 on the couch. Cancellations must be made 24 hours in advance or the standard Social Lunch rate applies.