Kai Wingo - Women and Entheogens
Filmed at Breaking Convention: 3rd International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness, 10-12th July, 2015
0:03
I am KY Wingo and I decided to use my
Buckeyes
0:12
story as a way to to explain how magical
0:18
the entheogens are working with us and
0:22
working with women especially because we
0:28
have a limited time I'm going to start
0:30
my journey with Buckeyes uh as I started
0:34
to get into a path of spiritual journey
0:39
I started studying metaphysics and and I
0:46
heard that there was a folklore that
0:49
said if you keep Buckeyes in your pocket
0:51
that you'll always have money in your
0:53
pocket and this was a time where I was
0:55
on a path looking for my way in life
0:58
close to turning 40 I decided that this
1:02
spoke to me and it was interesting
1:05
because as a child growing up in Ohio in
1:07
the United States this is the state of
1:09
the Buckeye the Buckeye State and I
1:12
always found them as a child but I
1:13
realized it had been awhile since I saw
1:16
Buckeyes so I thought that this was
1:18
something that was for me something that
1:20
spoke to me and I looked for Buckeyes I
1:22
spoke to different people met different
1:24
people and they all led me to different
1:26
places but what I found mostly was there
1:29
there was a disconnection with nature
1:32
for me as much as I thought I was
1:33
connected with nature I couldn't
1:35
identify the trees if they didn't have
1:37
Buckeyes underneath them so it was a
1:40
challenge and for some reason this
1:42
challenge led me to a man at the farmers
1:46
market who sold mushrooms somebody told
1:50
me you need to look for the month of the
1:51
mushroom man he can tell you where to go
1:54
so that sounds very auspicious and it
1:58
sounds like something I should go to and
2:00
when I found them he was a very happy
2:03
smiling man at the market maybe because
2:06
he had a line of people buying
2:09
wonderful mushrooms from him but he told
2:11
me he would bring them to me and all as
2:15
well as he dropped them off to me but
2:19
the thing that happened that was so
2:21
crazy and unexpected was that I ended up
2:25
at his mushroom farm and I invited my
2:28
whole family because that sounded like
2:30
something just very strange and and
2:32
wonderful so we went to the mushroom
2:35
farm and we saw a tour of different
2:38
mushrooms oysters shiitakes and he told
2:41
us all about how to grow them and how
2:43
they were helping the environment and it
2:47
was very interesting but just to spice
2:50
it up I guess my dad decided to ask what
2:53
about the psychedelic mushrooms so so he
2:59
asked her very pleasantly you don't want
3:01
to be caught with them but studies are
3:04
showing that the same parts of your
3:06
brain that lights up when people are on
3:08
psychedelic mushrooms coincides with the
3:11
parts of the brain that lights up when
3:12
people are in deep meditation or in
3:15
church and so that spoke to me and I put
3:18
that in the back of my mind because that
3:20
was definitely spiritual the next week
3:23
at work my coworker invited me to a
3:26
psychedelic lecture which I didn't know
3:29
was a psychedelic lecture he just said a
3:30
mushroom lecture and I said hmm you know
3:33
this was my coworker he he was a
3:35
capoeira instructor I was an African
3:38
drum and dance instructor we were all
3:40
working in a safe and drug-free schools
3:42
department in Cleveland School District
3:44
so so I went to decided to go to this
3:48
mushroom lecture because I knew that was
3:50
something important I'm just at a
3:52
mushroom farm now here's a mushroom
3:54
lecture and it did turn out to be a
3:56
psychedelic lecture and it showed me how
3:59
our ancestors were involved with with
4:02
mushrooms and how they use them to to
4:05
get into these different realms and make
4:07
and and and use them for rites of
4:10
passage and and and other different
4:14
things which was really just excited me
4:17
so I went back to the mushroom man I
4:18
said you know I just found out
4:20
even more great news about mushrooms and
4:24
he saw my excitement he said you know
4:26
you should think about growing mushrooms
4:27
and you need a book by Paul Stamets
4:29
growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms
4:32
it's the mushroom Bible everyone has and
4:34
if they want to start their own mushroom
4:36
farm something interesting to me is
4:38
sound like a big project you know not
4:40
something I expected for this spiritual
4:42
journey that I was on but interesting
4:45
enough but I did decide to keep studying
4:49
keep looking for information about how
4:52
is changing our ecosystem how it's
4:56
changing different people with drug
5:01
problems and just different things just
5:03
amazed me next thing I know I ended up
5:06
the FT mushroom festival and Telluride
5:09
Colorado where I was able to actually
5:13
not only get the book but I had the man
5:16
Paul Stamets there to give me
5:19
information and I and I brought that
5:21
information home and I just thought it
5:23
was so interesting that all these things
5:26
were happening so fast that this just
5:29
must be the right path for me but
5:32
unfortunately my family and my friends
5:35
they did not understand that path
5:37
so it was something that that revealed
5:43
personalities that showed me who people
5:46
really were and I just saw that as
5:49
something very interesting because I had
5:54
not taken not one psychedelic mushroom
5:57
but yet it changed me in so many ways
6:00
that I was able to see people who they
6:03
were and I was able to actually learn
6:05
from growing these mushrooms because I
6:08
started a I started a group we started
6:11
studying we started growing mushrooms
6:13
and and of course we just give them away
6:16
because I I was giving into everyone's
6:19
else thoughts about how mushrooms might
6:22
be a bad choice so I just wanted to make
6:24
sure I eased up on this very slowly and
6:27
carefully and
6:29
and it was something that was an anomaly
6:33
anomaly I'm sorry I'm a little nervous
6:38
here but I do appreciate you all for for
6:42
being patient for me so so on this
Mushroom Farm
6:46
journey I decided to to stay with it I
6:54
ended up getting a divorce I ended up
6:57
getting and I also ended up getting laid
7:09
off the office of safe and drug-free
7:11
schools no longer had grants and instead
7:14
of reapplying to the school in a
7:16
different department I decided you know
7:18
what I'm going to take my destiny in my
7:20
own hands and I started the Buckeye
7:24
mushroom farm so it was very interesting
7:34
that these things just worked out I just
7:37
happen to live near a neighborhood
7:39
called the Buckeye neighborhood and so I
7:43
said hey it must be a reason for that
7:47
and I also decided to start selling
7:51
mushrooms at the mushroom farm I mean at
7:54
the farmers markets I got into a whole
7:57
totally different career of course with
8:01
a different group of people now I'm
8:03
dealing with people who thought about
8:05
local food who thought about sustaining
8:08
energy who thought about how to do
8:12
things differently instead of working
8:14
this nine-to-five every day and so I
8:18
just I was just amazed at how these
8:20
mushrooms changed my life and I and I
8:22
actually studied for a few years before
8:26
I actually decided to partake of
8:29
mushrooms and have an experience my
8:33
first experience was very different and
8:36
unique my mother was my sitter
8:42
only because she hid her nervousness so
8:45
well and I while I sat in the basement
8:51
I took a five grams because I had the
8:54
the same protocol that Muthu talked to
8:57
you about and I saw beautiful lights and
9:01
colors and shapes and everything that I
9:04
had heard of and I'm sitting there going
9:07
wow this is what they're talking about
9:09
these are the shapes this is so amazing
9:12
the next thing I know I heard if you
9:15
think that's something we really have
9:18
something to show you
9:24
unfortunately that just scared me out of
9:26
my skin so I don't want to be here
9:32
anymore
9:33
they you know they backed up off me but
9:35
I learned that it was something that I
9:39
still thought that I was ready for I was
9:42
ready for something different I was
9:44
ready for a change in life and I didn't
9:47
know that when I really got it what I
9:49
was going to get but I decided to go in
9:53
again and push the envelope see what I
9:56
could do next time if I could stay with
9:58
it you know if it's something for me I
10:01
would definitely surely know and it was
10:03
for me seven grams nine grams later I'm
10:08
looking for other people to share this
10:10
with and there were no one there was no
10:12
one I could share it with because of my
10:15
community who also gave in to him and
10:17
gave in to the the stigmas attached to
10:21
mushrooms so I went on another quest
10:24
looking for women looking for women like
10:27
myself in the States and I found that
10:34
there were very few in my community and
10:36
so when I when I did go to the NCO genic
10:40
conference I decided to talk about women
10:42
and entheogens
10:43
and what I found was that women wanted
10:46
to talk about that even more than at the
10:50
time
10:51
and so they did approach me I decided to
10:56
start a group called women and
10:58
entheogens we're on Facebook if you
11:00
would like to look us up and the
11:05
response was wonderful women from all
11:07
over the state somehow joined this group
11:10
they had lots of questions lots of
11:13
stories to share and what I found was
11:15
that with each journey I learned more
11:18
about myself which each journey that
11:20
they shared with me I still learned more
11:23
about myself so of course the next step
11:28
was to have a conference and the
11:30
beautiful part about that is that so
11:33
many women spoke up and I got the chance
11:39
to meet them I had been reading about
11:42
the history of psychedelics in the
11:45
United States and I got to meet some of
11:48
these wonderful people as I went and
11:51
looked sought out different people one
11:54
of the people I sought out with Carolyn
11:58
Mountain girl Garcia some of you might
12:01
be familiar with her she was on the bus
12:05
further and with the merry band of merry
12:10
pranksters with Terence Mckenna
12:13
and that history I was just so outdone
12:16
that this was possible for me and so
12:19
when she said she would be at the
12:21
woman's visionary Congress I knew that
12:23
was somewhere I wanted to be as well as
12:26
when I was at the mushroom festival and
12:28
tell you why I was able to meet hidden
12:32
mountain who was also part of the
12:37
women's visionary Congress this is a
12:39
picture of me at the mushroom farm these
12:41
are austere mushrooms it's a wonderful
12:46
thing about waster mushrooms is that
12:48
they grow so fast and they're able to
12:50
change different organic material into
12:54
something that they can digest that
12:56
they're able to clean up oil spills so
12:59
if you heard of if you heard of Paul
13:02
Stamets he was
13:03
challenged with the with cleaning up an
13:07
oil spill he was actually in a contest
13:10
where they had other different large
13:12
businesses that use different ways of
13:15
cleaning it up that was challenged also
13:18
to use their different ways some of them
13:20
used chemicals some of them used other
13:22
things well the thing that worked the
13:24
best was the oyster mushrooms because
13:26
they were able to eat them ether oil and
13:31
digest it the mushrooms were allowed to
13:33
grow when the mushrooms grew the bugs
13:36
came to eat the mushrooms bugs attract
13:39
birds when the birds came they brought
13:41
seeds now instead of a big stinky pile
13:45
of oil we had an oasis oasis of life
13:49
growing from from something that you
13:53
think that nothing could come from this
13:57
is a picture of me at the women's
13:59
visionary Congress to my right is hidden
14:01
mountain and to my left
14:03
Carolyn Garcia I find the in Theo genic
14:07
people like no other
14:08
are the are the warmest most people who
14:15
are able to see like no because the veil
14:18
is lifted I believe they're able to see
14:20
through all the [ __ ] they can see
Change Your Mind
14:24
exactly who you are and if you know and
14:27
so that's what I just really love about
14:29
entheogens and I think that this is a
14:31
way that that we can change things
14:34
because changing your mind is the way we
14:41
can get rid of poverty it's the way we
14:44
can get rid of hunger because there is
14:46
no food shortage really there is there's
14:51
no shortage of space for people to live
14:53
but if we buy into that illusion then
14:57
we'll then we'll actually make that
15:00
bigger you know make it a bigger problem
15:03
because we give it our energy but once
15:05
we understand it it's all an illusion we
15:08
can really make a difference that's how
15:10
you can change things so it's great the
15:12
people in my neighborhood are growing
15:14
local food
15:15
and trying to get people to buy into
15:17
that but until we change our minds I
15:21
don't think much will happen but
15:22
entheogens is a way we can do that this
15:26
is a picture I don't know who who grows
15:29
these but this is psilocybin mushrooms
15:33
growing and this is something that
15:37
anyone can do in the privacy of their
15:39
own home which i believe is so important
Mushrooms
15:43
because we have things like people
15:45
traveling traveling to Peru and Colombia
15:49
in different places but people in my
15:54
community might not be able to afford to
15:57
do that as well as when the tourists go
16:00
to these different places sometimes you
16:01
have the problem of them raping the land
16:03
them not giving back so the babies are
16:07
taken of the iboga plant and now it's
16:11
it's in the it's challenge now is it
16:15
could be gone in a few years we might
16:19
not see the iboga plant but with
16:21
mushrooms I can take one single mushroom
16:24
and grow hundreds of pounds of mushrooms
16:29
just by cloning it or I can gather the
16:32
spores and have an unlimited supply of
16:35
mushrooms and I can grow it with things
16:38
that are resources that are around me
16:41
leaves trees straw anything organic
16:44
which means I can go to the basement and
16:47
find blue jeans you know anything that I
16:50
anything that you can think of you can
16:53
grow mushrooms from so I think that this
16:56
might be the way to go and I think this
16:59
is the one of the first ways that we use
17:01
mushrooms because mushrooms did not need
17:04
to be processed any type of way all
17:08
chemically so you didn't need a pot you
17:10
didn't you didn't need fire you could
17:12
just pick the mushroom and actually eat
17:14
it and have an experience
Hoop House
17:19
this is a picture of the hoop house that
17:22
just maracas miraculously appeared I
17:28
never knew that I could get a hoop house
17:30
I didn't have much money I worked for
17:33
the Cleveland School District but
17:36
somehow all I had to do is make a couple
17:39
of steps and things were open things
17:42
things went my way so there was a grant
17:45
that was available to get the hoop house
17:47
put up as well as a grant available that
17:50
I was able to use one u.s. dollar to get
17:53
a lei to get a lot a piece of land to
17:57
put this hoop house on these are the
18:01
beautiful I'm Anita muscaria the
18:04
funniest thing about mushrooms are
18:05
they're all around whether we notice
18:07
them or not so I was amazed to find in
18:13
my next-door neighbor's house I'm Anita
18:16
muscaria and I must have driven past it
18:19
so many so many times but in Ohio where
18:23
the altitude is you've noticed that
18:25
these are yellow and not red like the
18:27
normal I'm Anita muscaria were used to
18:30
but these are definitely around
18:34
everywhere this is my lab which I'm very
Mushroom Lab
18:40
proud of I got a group together
18:43
basically we had to build a box we put a
18:46
squirrel cage motor on top so that the
18:49
air can flow through the HEPA filter
18:51
cleaning 99.9% of all the pollen and
18:55
dust and things out of the air and then
18:58
we had a sterile environment that we can
19:01
grow mushrooms with so so basically this
19:05
was my first investment as a as a
19:07
mushroom farmer and it didn't take a lot
19:10
of money it didn't take a lot of years
19:17
in US university or college it just took
19:21
some time and some discipline and
19:22
wanting to do it and next thing I know I
19:26
was
19:27
I had like a the biggest laboratory that
19:31
I knew of in Cleveland so so there's not
19:37
much competition for me in Cleveland
19:40
there are no mushroom farmers in
19:43
Cleveland except you except me and I
19:47
have the first and only mushroom farm
19:48
that actually grows commercial mushrooms
19:51
now the thing about it is of course I
19:54
cannot grow psychedelic mushrooms I can
19:59
only grow the gourmet and medicinal but
20:03
it does not stop me from teaching and
20:06
encouraging others to do this to do the
20:08
same okay so that's the end of my
20:13
slideshow
20:15
I don't think we're doing questions are
20:17
we
20:24
[Applause]
