On a recent vacation, I was stopped in a traffic circle by a woman I had read about in an e-book. I pulled up to her car and calmly told her about my book, The Psychedelic Exhales: How I Learned to Relax and Enjoy Life at a Massive Psychedelic Retreat in the Bay Area, and she visibly brightened.
It was just one of the warm responses I have received from readers who have struggled with stress and anxiety as a result of a weekend at Shambhala Meditation or at Freight & Salvage, two of America’s best-known psychedelic retreats. According to the next e-book I’m working on (although I’m not quite sure how to incorporate that) the themes of the book are: what happens when a multimillion-dollar media organization (I’m CEO of The New Inquiry) travels with a young professional woman to a hippie commune in the California mountains for a three-day retreat, how that experience changed me and how it taught me how to relax.
I want people to have that same experience and to follow it through. Most of the time, they don’t know what it’s like to say no to huge responsibilities — and yet they need the space to not only disconnect from the frenetic pace of life but to connect and heal.
In an email exchange in June, I asked my friend Caitrin Oglesby, the executive editor of New Inquiry, to write a review of The Psychedelic Exhales for American Magazine. I’m really glad Caitrin agreed.
We’re excited to hear about readers’ experiences with these retreats and encourage anyone to consider one. Thanks again to my friend Caitrin Oglesby.
We are currently accepting submissions for the next edition of The American Magazine. Tell us about your experiences at Psychedelic Retreats.