About Us
Missions, Visions & Ethics
Our Mission
To educate, advocate, and create community around the healing and transformational power of psychedelics.
Our Vision
We provide support, resources, and a safe container for those seeking guidance in healing, spiritual growth and personal development through psychedelics. We serve to foster the development of an informed culture that respects indigenous lineage, scientific research, harm reduction principles, ethics, and personal responsibility in the intentional use & facilitation of psychedelic medicine.
Ethical Framework:
Physical Safety:
- We aim to provide a peaceful, respectful & considerate container. Differences of opinion are to be addressed with courtesy & curiosity. Please check all judgments at the door. Our events are sober and we encourage accountability for body, mind & emotions. We ask to not use this container as a space to purchase or sell illicit substances of any form. We will do our very best to choose physical locations and provide digital offerings to include equitable access to communities with disabilities.
Psychological safety:
- We engage with mindfulness & care for each person in our community respecting their unique experiences & perspective. The trained professionals that are part of the group will help us facilitate a trauma informed space. We honor the unique challenges & trials each one of us has faced upon our path with equanimity. We are careful with language, holding an intention not to direct, be accusatory, “Fix”, counsel, or even provide “advice” unless it is directly requested. Should a circumstance transpire where a community member feels another society participant has breached their personal safety in a direct & purposeful manner - we will offer a mediative committee to hear & provide discretionary feedback in a safe & non-confrontational way ensuring the privacy, safety and sovereignty of community members is upheld.
Confidentiality & Privacy:
- What is shared in any container whether it is in person, zoom, meetup, forum, etc. is to be honored, respected, and held in confidence unless given direct permission to be shared by participants. We encourage prefacing before sharing to ensure consent of topic matter shared. All recordings of workshops, meetings, events & offerings will require 100% consent for participants to be featured in the recording. Consent can be withdrawn at any time. While confidentiality is of top concern for the safety and security of all participants - we invite the growth of our membership through attraction & referral to welcome & encourage more perspectives to engage with in our community.
Transparency:
- We support radical honesty and authenticity in our sharing. We invite and encourage intimacy & vulnerability in sharing, honoring the speed of trust & comfort that feels right for you. We also welcome unfiltered feedback on how this organization may better uphold our mission, vision, values, and ethics that form the foundation of our society. We also ask our professional members to not falsely represent experience & skill set in a manner that extends beyond their individual scope of practice – utilizing our network to support community members who are uniquely trained to provide assets and resources for community members in need of support. We encourage collaboration and ask the spirit of mutuality & respect be honored in our containers and exchanges. As we encourage community building, we also ask that there is a clarity and mutuality of intentions if & when approaching a member for meeting outside the society container. Please do not mislead or utilize a desire to share in psychedelic fellowship as a guise for romantic intentions & opportunities. We hold honesty & transparency sacred for the safety & well-being of all members of our community.
Trust:
- We encourage the earnest and patient building of trust through establishing authentic relationships built on the honoring of values & perspective. We welcome critical thinking when receiving information from this group. We support questioning & curiosity before integrating insights as fact. We encourage the coming forward to share when trust has been breached by any member of this organization to ensure we are maintaining a safe & supportive environment. In the future – We envision creating a pathway toward endorsement of practitioners and psychedelic professionals who we support in the offering of services based on experience, education, credentials, and reputation.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion:
- The Psychedelic Society of Asheville honors, uplifts and celebrates BIPOC representation & engagement within the community. We will strive to provide greater access points and support structures for equitable participation. We lovingly embrace our LGBTQ+ community and are dedicated to hosting a safe, welcoming & progressive environment for participation & engagement. We will seek to actively engage members of these communities to participate in this experience. Prior to each of our gatherings – we will take a moment to offer a Land acknowledgement for the Indigenous culture native to this sacred land. In all paid events a portion of the proceeds will be given as land acknowledgement reparations to native origins. We are dedicated to hosting both in person & virtual events for maximum engagement opportunities within our community.
Professional Relationship:
- We strive to honor and respect all manners of dress & personal representation. Yet we encourage upholding a sense of presence & decorum in all communications & interaction. We allow others to share fully & deeply without interruption. Yet conversely, we ask that each participant strives toward brevity to allow for maximum participation by the community. We are not here to fix, change or counsel – only offering “I” based perspectives, insights & opinions. Gatherings are not a space to solicit for business offerings unless mutually beneficial to the whole & of vetted integrity. We encourage the sharing of skills, wisdom and insights as appropriate and related to the dialog & experience at our events.
Self-Care:
- We recognize the catalytic nature of psychedelics as a step in one’s journey that also requires devotion to a continuum of body, mind, spirit & emotional care. We encourage a devotion to continual personal work for growth & development. We champion pathways of healing & well-being at the center of our work. We welcome participants to take care of themselves as needed at all events including restroom breaks, water, spaciousness, and the right to come & go as one pleases.
About The Founders
DANIEL POLK
Founder
Daniel Polk is a Certified Medicine Guide and Integration Coach. Formally, he trained in expanded states of consciousness through the School of Consciousness Medicine, completed training in the Hakomi Method of somatic mindfulness psychotherapy, studied Internal Family Systems Therapy for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy, and trained in Presence Based Coaching®️. Based in Asheville, NC. Daniel is dedicated to supporting others through their deep emotional and spiritual journey work. His holistic approach focuses on our relationships with Body, Mind, Spirit, Community, and Environment. Daniel strives to embody the three qualities of Wisdom, Creativity, and Love. He is supported by his loving fiancée, two cats, and a therapy dog.
EHREN CRUZ
Co-Founder
Since experiencing a life-defining psychedelic rebirth in 2008, Ehren has pursued the mindful study & use of sacramental entheogenic compounds as a cornerstone of self-actualization, spiritual growth & servant leadership. Over the past 14 years, this path of inner discovery has evolved through a life devoted to Ceremonial practice, high performance training, transformational event curation, and psychedelic facilitation. To date, he has facilitated over 90 high dose 1 on 1 psychedelic journeys. Ehren Cruz is a Historian & Anthropologist, Third Wave Psychedelic Certified Coach (CCP1), CTA & ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), Master Ceremonialist, Trained Harm Reductionist, Loving Husband & Proud Father of 3 Little Ladies
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Daniel Casciato
Co-Founder
Daniel Casciato has explored altered states of consciousness for over 20 years. He was raised hunting and fishing in the woods of Southwestern Pennsylvania- where the oldest human settlement in North America is found. Ancient, indigenous wisdom still beckons him. Dan’s transformational work is rooted in nature, animism, ecology, and myth. His academic training is in psychology, neuroscience, and mechatronic engineering. He is also a classically trained artist, permaculturist, and father.
Sarah Levine
Co-Founder
Sarah Levine is a psychedelic practitioner whose passion is in helping others safely prepare for, navigate, and integrate transpersonal experiences. She is a Certified Transformational Recovery and Psychedelic Integration Coach with Being True To You. She Co-founded Group KAP (Group Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy), where she facilitates in-person ketamine workshops for groups of people while exploring novel frameworks for integrating psychedelic therapies into society. Sarah has worked with over 300 clients as a Psychedelic Guide with Mindbloom, a virtual ketamine clinic where she has helped transform lives all over the country. She is Tripsitters trained, trauma-informed, and is a certified herbalist who studies and practices Western Herbalism, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Having concentrated in Ecopsychology at Prescott College, her work supports others in reclaiming a connection to the natural world and considers psychedelic states to be a catalyst for enhancing our sense of relatedness and belonging to our wild, resilient planet.
