Emcee

Cameron was born in Kansas City, MO and moved to Minneapolis in 1993. He graduated from Minneapolis North High School, and considers himself a Northside native. He is a father, community organizer, podcast moderator, radio personality, world traveler, amateur psilocybin cultivator, and advocate for the decriminalization of plant-based medicine. He’s here to share my personal experience with psychedelics for the promotion of mental, physical, and spiritual health well being. As a menu option to help fight depression, a guide for esoteric knowledge, and a bridge to strengthen community. 

Cultivating a Relationship with Fungi

Stig Mycelia is a self taught cultivator and lifelong student of psychoactive fungi. He has a primary focus in the exploration, cultivation, and relationship building with “exotic” psychoactive fungi. It is his mission in life to cultivate a relationship with any and every psychoactive fungi he comes across while maintaining a low tech approach that is hands on and personal to develop accessible approaches to working with otherwise “difficult” fungi. He is an educator and advocate for the fungi often overlooked by the broader and mainstream psychedelic culture, having direct experience in the cultivation of several distinct species across multiple genera and many localities and lineages from across the globe. His approach and philosophy of life is one rooted in nature and the natural world, of connection and relationships, and to the pursuit of happiness. 

Understanding the Multidimensional Set & Setting

Founder of MycoSymbiotics, William Padilla-Brown is a MultiDisciplinary Citizen Scientist practicing social science, mycology, phycology, molecular biology, and additive manufacturing. William is passionate about the myriad uses of cannabis, especially its psychoactive resin. William is constantly in the mix of Contemporary Ritual in a nuanced modern Urban Shamanism, spending his time vlogging for social media, writing, contributing for Fungi mag, researching, rapping, singing, and loving his Beautiful Lady Lydia and their son Leo. William holds Permaculture Design Certificates acquired through Susquehanna Permaculture and NGOZI, and a Certificate from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences for completing their Algal Culturing Techniques Course. William wrote the first books in English on Cordyceps cultivation. William regularly teaches k-12 classes around the United States, for universities including Cornell’s Small Farms Program, private clubs, and events, as well as offers private consultations. In 2021 William’s research has been sponsored by MUDwtr, and affiliated with Mydecine, Oxford Nanopore, MiniPCR, ExtractCraft, and OmegaBiotek. William and his work have been featured on Fantastic Fungi, VICE, Buzzfeed, The Verge, Outside Magazine, Civil Eats, Public Goods, The Book “One Earth” , and much more.

Psychedelic Considerations for Spiritual Activation

Kayla Felten, MSW, LICSW (she/her) has been an advocate for religious trauma and spiritual abuse survivors throughout her career, which has brought her to psychedelic assisted psychotherapy work as an additional focus to support those in the process of reclaiming inner peace, relational harmony, autonomy, pleasure, and identity. Kayla was initially invited to facilitate support groups for survivors of spiritual abuse due to abuses of power taking place in plant medicine and yoga contexts. This work allows her to bring her focus full-circle in taking inventory of the spiritual power dynamics in the therapeutic relationship, particularly when inviting medicine into that relationship. As a clinical social worker, I am able to provide Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy for individuals, as well as offer KAP groups for those seeking support as they navigate their own unique path to inner peace and relational harmony. Kayla currently offers KAP and integration support at the Institute for Integrative Therapies (iit-mn.com) and offers integration circles for trauma survivors with the Reclamation Collective.

Psilocybin and its Place in Nature (Virtual)

Dennis McKenna has conducted research in ethnopharmacology for over 40 years. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, and was a key investigator on the Hoasca Project, the first biomedical investigation of ayahuasca. He is the younger brother of Terence McKenna. From 2000 to 2017, he taught courses on Ethnopharmacology and Plants in Human affairs as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. He emigrated to Canada in the spring of 2019 together with his wife Sheila, and now resides in Abbotsford.

Since 2019, he has been working with colleagues to manifest a long-term dream: the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy, a non-profit organization founded in the spirit of the ancient Mystery Schools and dedicated to the study of plant medicines, consciousness, intelligence in nature, preservation of indigenous knowledge and a re-visioning of humanity’s relationship with Nature. Dr. McKenna is author or co-author of 6 books and over 50 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Psychedelic Business: Self Sufficiency & Personal Protection

Reggie has over a decade of political campaign experience ranging from city council races to presidential elections. On the West Coast Reggie worked on a local level to replace police with guidance counselors in Oakland public schools with the Black Organizing Project in West Oakland. More recently he managed the western and southwestern state campaigns with Color of Change PAC that turned the state of Nevada blue. 

Reggie has consulted with the largest mushroom cultivators in the world. He has worked with the largest cultivators in The Netherlands and has recently advised in the establishment of the largest commercial mushroom farm and state of the art testing lab in Jamaica.

Over the past two years, Reggie has established Oakland Hyphae which hosted the Psilocybin Cup, The Oakland Psychedelic Conference, and The California Psychedelic Conference which were the most impactful psychedelic events in that time span. He is a co-founder of Hyphae Labs which is leading the industry in psychedelic mushroom potency testing. Reggie has also founded Hyphae Nootropics offering adaptogenic medicinal fungi from Cordyceps to Lion’s Mane. Reggie is a strong advocate for who he calls, “the little guy” or the “legacy plant medicine workers”. It is Reggie’s goal to create barriers of entry to prevent big money interest groups from the same industry take over they did in cannabis. Ultimately he aims to protect the legacy plant medicine workers from corporate vultures.

He also has over 10 years of domestic experience in the US cannabis industry. Reggie is a member of the Advisory Board for Decriminalize Nature and is active and passionate in The Movement for Black Lives and an abolition of the police state.

Decolonizing philanthropy and Indigenous reciprocity in the psychedelic space

Joseph Mays, MSc, received his Master’s in Ethnobotany from the University of Kent upon researching responses to globalization by indigenous Yanesha of central Peru. After graduating with biology and anthropology degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University, he conducted an ethnobotanical survey in the Ecuadorian cloud forest and published a medicinal plant guide for the Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve. His conservation work emphasizes how cultural-conditioning influences approaches to biocultural sustainability, and the importance of ground-up structures that emphasize local agency and challenge conventional philanthropic models in attempts to support Indigenous autonomy and biodiversity. Joseph is Program Director of Chacruna’s Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas (IRI), where he conducts research and builds connections with Indigenous communities throughout the Americas to support Chacruna’s mission of increasing cultural reciprocity in the psychedelic space. Joseph’s activities as IRI Program Director include raising unconditional funding for 20 Indigenous community organizations with strict adherence to the parameters determined by its partners, presenting at conferences and universities and publishing articles that explore reciprocity, biocultural conservation, plant medicines and Indigenous rights, and engaging with Indigenous and local stakeholders on their own terms to provide on-the-ground support and ethnographic and audiovisual materials.

Psychedelic Society of Minnesota: Serving a Diverse Community of Psychonauts

Jessica Nielson, PhD, is a neuroscientist and psychedelic researcher at the University of Minnesota. Jessica is the principal investigator of the first psilocybin clinical research study in Minnesota, and is the Executive Director of the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota (PSMN).

Cannabis as Ritual

Poe Yoni is a budding herbalist, poet and hand-crafter. She follows Spirit when it comes to self expression and creativity. In the Summer of 2018 she released her first collection of poetry Before the Jade Grew which was created using paper she made by hand. Poe Yoni opened Pyoni Apothecary during Black History Month of 2021. Pyoni Apothecary is a space where she sells Herbal Medicines in order to connect people to the healing they are seeking.

Psychedelics: A Journey Through Grief and Loss

Kristen is a psychedelic assisted psychotherapist at the Institute for Integrative Therapies (IIT). Her work in mental health began with Children’s Therapeutic Services and Supports (CTSS), assisting children and families in forming closer bonds with one another. Upon graduating, she began out-patient psychotherapy with a specialization on gender identity related concerns, as well as working through grief and loss.

Death is not an aspect of life, that Kirsten sees as the end, but as a transitional part of our human experience. She advocates for the incorporation of healthy conversations about death, and about the emotions that can be attached to it. Kristen is also a certified end of life doula, holding space for dying persons, and their loved ones. One aspect of working with psychedelic medicines that Kristen is passionate about, is the use of psychedelic medicines, in end of life care, and how they can tremendously benefit persons who are struggling with death anxiety, or coming to terms with a terminal diagnosis.

One of the main intentions of her work in mental health, is to assist individuals with feeling less alone in this world, and finding peace from within, so that it can be spread externally in one’s life. Through the process of Ketamine Assisted Therapy (KAP), it is her hope that those who have struggled to find something that works for them, are now able to work through some of the aspects of life, that may be blocking them from reaching their personal goals.

Mushroom Cultivation

Myco-Operative is a start up Mycological Research company located in North East Minneapolis. Recently Myco-Op has been assisting in the first U.S. grown Beefsteak mushroom! (Fistulina Hepatica). Myco-op has been culturing Minnesota mushrooms for cultivation and preservation purposes the last few years. Myco-Op is also exploring new ways of mushroom extractions for supplemental purposes. 

Tapping into Your Desired Reality

Yahsmene Butler is an intuitive healer, creator and self-proclaimed philosopher committed to discovering the exact process of how one’s thoughts manifest into reality. Through practices like EFT Tapping, meditation, visualization, subliminal programming, rituals and more she believes anyone can harness their limitless potential to consciously manifest their desired reality.

Sacred Symbology of the Womb

Sophie’s work centers on weaving webs of divine feminine wisdom into our cultural consciousness. Currently, Sophie hosts women’s circles and is in the process of opening Tap In, a restaurant & community space that explores ways to breathe spirit into community.

With time, Sophie is building the experience to guide mushroom ceremonies with the intention of connecting with and healing both the physical and energetic womb.