From Trauma to Unity: Ayahuasca Lessons on Forgiveness, Healing & the Illusion of Separation
Interview By Brandi Fleck
This is a transcript of the conversation between myself, Brandi Fleck, Host of the Human Amplified podcast and Dr. Richard Grossman on how ayahuasca, unity consciousness, and the principle of “trust and forgive” can transform trauma into healing and personal growth.
In this compelling conversation, Dr. Richard Grossman joins me on the Human Amplified podcast to explore how plant medicine — especially ayahuasca — can open the door to deep trauma healing, expanded consciousness, and personal transformation. Drawing on decades of experience in acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and Amazonian shamanism, Dr. Grossman shares the profound lesson of “trust and forgive,” his insights on the nature of reality versus illusion, and practical guidance for safely engaging with plant medicine. We also discuss the importance of integration, red flags to watch for in ceremony leaders, and how unity consciousness can help us live more fully in the present moment.
Keep scrolling to read the entire conversation. If you’d rather listen than read, you can do that here, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts. Or, watch the YouTube video below.
Tap here to watch this interview instead.
What Does Being Human Mean?
Brandi:
What does being human mean to you?
Richard:
How many hours do we have? I actually did a little bit of homework on that. I thought about it and came up with a list, which I think each one of these is important.
To be human is to self-reflect and to self-correct, to remember where we came from—not just biologically, but historically—to face where we've gone wrong without flinching, and to commit to doing better in the future. To know that we were born, we live, and we die, and that the time between is astoundingly precious.
To search for what is real in us beneath ideas, culture, and belief. To find that still place, untouched by mind, and to center our lives around that deepest love within. To have compassion and mercy. To ask the hard questions of ourselves and not to turn away from the answers we may discover.
To make amends and to take responsibility. To know we are of the Earth—formed from it, living through it—and that we’ll be returning to it someday. To live with heartbreak, not so much as a burden, but living through it, returning to what it is inside, to let it pry us open and not close us down. To recognize ourselves when we look into the eyes of another. To listen to the quiet guidance of the heart even when the world shouts otherwise.
To know that healing is possible, even in the times of the deepest wounding. To be able to say, “I was wrong,” and to mean it. To be able to recognize, “I was right,” and to mean it.
Brandi:
Wow, that is beautiful. I think that's one of the most thoughtful, thorough answers I've ever gotten over the years. Thank you for that.
Richard:
It's big. Like I said—how many hours do we have to dive into each one of those? There's a lot of meaning in there.
From the Earth to the Stars: Our Cosmic Connection
Brandi:
One of the things you said that really stood out to me was that we are of the Earth and we return to the Earth. I think that's really interesting.
Richard:
Yeah, and actually that goes a little bit deeper because every element on the Earth was created in stars.
So we are of the stars, and we will return to the stars someday.
With over 40 years of experience in acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and natural health care—and two decades immersed in the healing traditions of Amazonian shamanism—I’ve dedicated my life to helping others transform trauma into personal growth. My work spans continents and consciousness, blending science and spirit in deeply grounded, practical ways.
I’m based in Los Angeles, California, and I’m the author of Trust and Forgive: The Medicine of Your Life, a reflective guide built on half a century of clinical insights, ceremonial leadership, and lived exploration. Far from prescriptive, my message invites listeners to find their own way back to joy, peace, and inner truth.
Drawing from my background in sound healing, plant medicine, and traditional Asian wisdom, I reframe trauma not as a permanent wound but as a catalyst for awakening. Through my HeartFeather platform, I guide spiritual travel experiences and share teachings that remind us of the value in slowing down, listening inward, and embracing the walk rather than the Lambo ride to self-discovery. I’m passionate about expanding access to healing modalities beyond pharmaceuticals—making ancient tools accessible to modern lives for people navigating anxiety, disconnection, or burnout.
Brandi:
I’m excited about the conversation we’re going to have today that spans many topics, including but not limited to having patience in the healing process, plant medicine, and anything else that comes up. So Richard, welcome to the show.
Richard:
Thank you so much, Brandi. It's a pleasure to be here.
Beyond the Bio: Heart-Centered Healing Work
Brandi:
Before we dive in completely, what else do you want listeners to know about who you are?
Richard:
I think if I were to say what else people should know about me—what’s missing in the bio—is that I do one-on-one online consultations and shamanic therapy. I also like to share myself with people, to share my heart, to share love. I think that's the core. I have a Substack that I post to regularly, and a few other things out there. I enjoy connecting this way.
Brandi:
Wonderful. We’ll make sure all those links are included in the show notes.
The Science of Stardust and the Roots of Unity
Brandi:
Let’s go back to what you were saying about being of the Earth also meaning we are of the stars. Tell us more.
Richard:
Well, this is reality—it’s not airy-fairy stuff. The universe formed somehow. How? Nobody knows. According to physicists, we’re within a very brief time before it began, which is many millions of years back. Maybe less—I’m not up to date on the numbers right now. But at one point there was nothing, and then there was the universe.
How, why, where—nobody knows yet. We can have philosophies, create religions, assume. But in that moment of creation, our universe formed. It first formed into gas, and the gas coalesced into stars. The stars exploded, creating some metals and other elements—it was originally just hydrogen, I think.
This process of nuclear fusion inside stars continued until elements floated through creation. When they came into the gravitational pull of a star, they formed planets. Every element on Earth was formed in stars. And since every atom in us comes from Earth, we are from the stars.
I think Joni Mitchell said it: We are stardust. That’s not an analogy—it’s truth.
Unity Consciousness: Beyond Separation
Brandi:
I really love to think about that. And this might be quite a leap, but thinking about us being of the stars takes me straight to unity consciousness—we are all one. Is there a connection there?
Richard:
It’s so interesting to consider this. When we coalesced into the Earth—and I’m using “we” consciously—we eventually became dinosaurs, plants, fish, whatever. Then evolution happened over a few billion years.
Suddenly, we’re walking humans—thinking humans—who can make decisions and judge. We’ve evolved into separation: You are you, I am me, they are them, that’s a dog.
But is there not a unity between us all that’s hidden? Rumi said, “My heart and your heart are one and the same.”
At the level of heart—not the pump, but the love within—there is no separation. The separation is what can be called illusion or maya. It happens via the thinking mind or brain. I can see you as Brandi on one side of the country, you can see me as Richard on the other. But at the level of soul, there’s no time, no space, and no separation.
That reality is so challenging to get to—it’s not obvious. People will say, “That’s airy-fairy, new-agey stuff,” but I’m not the first to say this. The first probably said it thousands of years ago. You can go back to Egyptian esoterica and find the same concepts, even if they didn’t mention suns, stars, and stardust. They realized there’s something within that’s pure and perfect, beyond thought, space, and time.
Why the Truth Is Hidden
Brandi:
Why is that hidden or so hard to see?
Richard:
That’s such a good question. The easiest answer is—it’s hidden so we can find it.
I don’t personally believe in a God who’s a string-puller, giving challenges or rewards and punishments. That doesn’t make sense to me. I go into this in my book. But finding that inner truth is the most beautiful thing a human can do.
We’re not talking about the idea of love within—we’re talking about love within. Not the idea of God within—but using the force of our spirit, consciousness, mind, and focus to explore that inner landscape.
Plant medicines can be incredibly valuable here because we rarely go there naturally. Life is full of distractions: wake up, coffee, brush teeth, shower, work, breaks, meals, television, sleep—rinse and repeat. There’s no time for inner searching unless we create it.
That’s why traditions speak of going into the desert or mountains for years of focused spiritual retreat. Plant medicines aren’t a shortcut, but they speed the process.
Brandi:
Is finding that love—that unified heart space—the same as finding ourselves?
Richard:
Yes. And it’s also the same as finding what enlightening beings call God.
I once heard a poem that said: “If I say God is only within me, I’m neglecting the rest of creation. If I say God is only outside of me, I’m putting God to shame.” You can’t have that separation. And again, by “God” I don’t mean the religious idea of God. Some call it Source, Creator, or Atman.
Trauma, Fragmentation, and the Path to Integration
Brandi:
I think this is all related to healing trauma—which might seem like a big leap—but as you’re talking, I’m thinking about integration as part of healing and fragmentation as part of being wounded. What are your thoughts?
Richard:
I think that’s a really good way to put it. Trauma is ancient. In the Bible—somewhere in the Old Testament, in the Torah—it says, The sins of the father are vested upon the children and the children’s children to the fourth generation.
I think “fourth generation” is extraordinarily optimistic. I believe we’re living at the endpoint of a chain of trauma that goes back even to pre-humans. It’s known that if I’m traumatized and not healed, I’ll pass that trauma on to my children and those around me—not consciously, but unconsciously.
Trauma by its very nature is constrictive. You can see it in a dog that’s been abused—it hides, it doesn’t want to be seen. If this chain of trauma goes back far enough, it’s the cause of war, suffering, greed, guilt—so much of what’s going on in the world today.
I can’t think of any culture or time period in history that lasted long without conflict. I’m not a historian, but if there are any, they’re rare.
Healing the Trauma of Ages
Richard:
Here we are now, in this moment—which is the most precious time a human being can have because we’re alive right now. And we have the possibility to heal the trauma of ages.
That’s what my book Trust and Forgive: The Medicine of Your Life is about—healing this traumatic chain of ages. The beautiful thing is, I don’t have to go into past life therapy and pick apart every single past life I may or may not have had. I can go directly to that source within—with total acceptance and forgiveness for everything I am and everything I’m not—and release the chains of trauma.
Not all at once, of course. I make it sound easy, but it’s one of the most difficult things a human being can do because it takes great courage.
If I’m sitting—and I’m a firm believer in sitting practices—and suddenly I have a vision of suffering and pain, my natural tendency is to pull away from it, make it go away, or figure out who caused it and seek revenge. That’s the part of us that’s still unevolved.
Meeting Trauma Instead of Fighting It
Richard:
We’ve evolved a lot, but we haven’t finished yet. This can happen in plant medicine ceremonies—it’s not uncommon. How I meet it determines if it becomes a healing experience or leads to further trauma.
If I have a vision, flashback, or memory—whether personal, cosmic, or from the collective unconscious—and I fight it, I’m essentially making my right hand and left hand fight each other.
But if I meet these things over and over, I get better at it. Those places inside me—because the only place these things truly exist is inside me—begin to heal.
As Rumi said, The past does not exist. The future is but a dream. The karma is within me. The maya—the illusion—is within me.
The only way to heal it is not by externalizing it onto an enemy but by taking full responsibility within myself—to meet it, forgive it, release it, and trust the process, even when it gets really scary.
That’s where “trust” came in—related to an experience I had on my first ayahuasca journey.
A Life-Changing Ayahuasca Vision
Richard:
This was over 30 years ago. I took the medicine—it was strong—and I was with someone competent and good. At first, it was beautiful: fractal light shows, geometric patterns, delicious breaths, sublime music.
And then, in an instant, I found myself in what appeared to be a Nazi death camp, in the line of people scheduled to be executed in ovens or gas chambers.
It was one of the most frightening and amazing experiences of my life. I knew I wasn’t physically there, but I didn’t know what would happen if I reached the gas chambers. I was stuck—couldn’t move my body or change the scene.
After what felt like anywhere between two seconds and a thousand years, I cried out to the universe, What do I do here?
A message came—maybe as a voice, maybe as a feeling: Trust and forgive.
I was offended. How do you forgive something like that? How does a woman forgive rape? How does a child forgive abuse? These things are very real. I argued with the voice, saying, No, I can’t. This is too horrible to forgive.
Finally, I asked, How do I do that?
The answer was simple: I trust the experience as it unfolds in the theater of my mind. I trust that it’s an inner experience—not a current, real-time trauma.
And I forgive by releasing every single connection in my neurological and physical system to this impression—these scars (sanskara, in Vedic thought) upon the soul that carry from lifetime to lifetime, or even from second to second.
When I stopped fighting, judging, and analyzing—and took a slow, deep breath—the whole thing dissolved into the unreality that it was.
Forgiveness in the Place of Horror
Richard:
That wasn’t the end. I went through 20 more equally horrific “going back in time” experiences that night.
Years later, I was in Poland, near Auschwitz. My friend and I debated whether to go. At the last minute, we took the exit. It was a horrible day—cold, rainy, and windy.
When we arrived at Birkenau, the death camp, I walked through the front gate and thought, This is my vision. I know this place.
I spent the entire day walking through it—in forgiveness. Not forgetfulness, but forgiveness. The actions can never be forgotten, but I don’t have to carry hatred and anger in my heart because that only hurts me and those around me.
Forgiveness as an Ongoing Practice
Brandi:
When you said that to forgive, you have to release all those neurological connections—and once you did that, you relaxed—how do you actually make the release happen? And did you have to re-release when you were there in person?
Richard:
The idea that there’s one release and you’re done is a beautiful idea—but it has no basis in reality.
You can’t expect to go to one ayahuasca ceremony, see a therapist once, get Rolfed once, or do Qigong for a day and think you’re healed. Trauma release takes dedication—almost like a full-time job.
When I was there again, I would go into the barracks, sit down, feel my heart breaking into pieces, and breathe through it until those pieces dissolved.
Every place I went, I repeated that. It was one of the most intensely powerful—and yes, beautiful—experiences of my life. To be in a place that horrific, and in some way—at least in my own heart—create spaciousness where there wasn’t before.
Forgiveness allowed me to release my trauma, and I believe in some small way, it helped release trauma for those who had been there and for the future.
Was it the release? No. There’s still trauma happening in the world. But inside me, it created space that made me more open, more loving, and more capable of doing my work.
Bit by bit.
Plant Medicine Is Not an Easy Fix
Brandi:
No easy fixes.
Richard:
Yeah. All these things are paths. You know, a lot of people feel like plant medicine is going to be an easy fix—they’ll just do it once and everything will be finished. But all these things are paths.
Brandi:
And a path with a beginning and no end.
Richard:
A beginning and no end. Yeah.
Where Do the Broken Pieces of Trauma Go?
Brandi:
I heard you say that as you were there releasing, you breathed, you felt your emotion, you felt the heartbreak, and you did that until all the pieces were gone. This makes me think of the concept of integration in trauma healing, which is also related to that unity consciousness we were talking about.
Where did those pieces go? Did they go back into you? Did they go away somewhere? What happened?
Richard:
I’ve used this phrase before—they return back to the unreality they always were.
Does anything going on in my head have reality? Could I take one of those pieces out of my head and show it to you? I can’t. It exists here—in my gut, my heart, and my head—as a pattern, as a congestion of life energy that at some point was chosen to be there.
When it’s released, it doesn’t go anywhere—because it didn’t exist in the first place. It was part of the dream, the maya.
Buddha means “awakened one.” What did he awaken from when he sat for 40 days under the Bodhi tree? He awakened from the same dream we’re all in—the illusion that what’s inside our mind has reality. And here’s the tricky part: as long as I think it has reality, it does. I’ll manifest it into the world.
That’s why I prefer the word enlightening to enlightened or enlightenment. Enlightening has no end—it’s a continual process of waking up from the dream.
Acceptance as the Core of Integration
Richard:
If I had childhood trauma—and I did, as most people have—it still exists until I release it. Memory is illusion.
Good memory has a purpose—you remember to change the oil in your car—but those haunting images from trauma are different. Waking up from the dream is releasing them.
Buddha was attacked by armies of demons—so fierce they’d make Lord of the Rings look like child’s play. He didn’t fight or pick up a sword. He sat unmovingly until they returned to the unreality they had always been.
I’m not sure if this matches how integration experts talk about it. I did my ayahuasca work and training before the word integration was even used. Back then, “integration” after a ceremony was just, “How are you doing? That was intense.” That was the extent of it.
Now, I think integration has to be acceptance—and not giving the mind’s messages enough credence to act upon them for at least a month or two.
Practical Wisdom After Ceremony
Richard:
The practical messages after a ceremony—unless they’re sensible—should wait. This is how I finish my ceremonies:
Exercise more.
Meditate more.
Eat better food.
Be kind.
Get out in the sun.
Walk in nature.
Don’t change your job. Don’t tattoo your forehead. Don’t make big life changes right away. Wait to see if those so-called cherished “downloads” still make sense in the reality we live in.
Brandi:
Okay, I feel like this was a complex concept we just discussed. If it’s okay with you, I’d love to invite our listeners—if they have questions about what we just talked about—to put those in the comments on the video or show notes. Maybe we could address some of those in the future.
If I could ask a follow-up about reality versus unreality—Is the unreality the consciousness that we tap into with our heart space, or is that the reality?
Reality, Unreality, and the Heart Space
Richard:
Good question. It’s a little more complex because the heart can also contain a lot of “gooky” emotional stuff—especially if you’ve got trauma. That has to be released and relaxed through as well.
In Chinese medicine, the spirit resides in the heart. Consciousness resides there too—not just in the heart, but it’s a main center for it.
Going back to stardust and the creation of the universe, that infinitude of reality exists within. “God is within” is not just a nice idea—it doesn’t mean “within the pages of the Bible.” God is within.
Purification and the Ayahuasca Purge
Richard:
One of the beauties of ayahuasca—and the thing most people say they don’t want—is the purge. You drink the medicine, suddenly you don’t feel well, everything’s going wrong, and the demons are walking around in your belly. Your heart feels like it’s made of lead. Then, all of a sudden, you’re throwing up—and what comes out is all that stuff that was inside you, whether you knew it or not.
Afterward, it’s in the bucket—no longer in you. There’s still more inside, of course. You can’t do it all at once. But purification is an active process.
The love I speak of—call it Love with a capital L, or God with a capital G—exists outside of time and space, in the exact moment of now.
Fine-Tuning Into the Present Moment
Richard:
It’s like an old shortwave radio—you have two dials. One gets you close to the station, the other fine-tunes it. Fine-tuning into the moment of now is how we get past the gunk into capital-R Reality.
The exact moment of now is where love, joy, peace, consciousness, strength, power, beauty—all of it—exists. It’s beyond thought, outside of time and space.
If I’m thinking it into existence, it’s just more gunk. It might be nice gunk, but it’s still gunk. That exact moment of now is the same now from which the universe was created.
Now is constant. Time moves through us—Rumi said, We don’t move through time, time moves through us.
That moment of now is the soul. It’s the spirit. It’s God within. It’s unchanging, eternal.
Practical Guidance for Exploring Ayahuasca
Brandi:
Let’s pivot into more of the practicalities of plant medicine. You’ve mentioned ayahuasca—you’ve told us your story of going through it yourself and some of the vivid memories you confronted.
For someone who doesn’t know much about it, what do they need to know? And when is it okay to use plant medicine like ayahuasca?
Richard:
Good questions. It’s a bit tricky, because I’d say learn as much about it as you can—but a lot of the information out there isn’t good, especially if you’re learning from teenagers on YouTube or TikTok.
I think curiosity comes first. Hopefully, this conversation will engage some curiosity in people. Then comes learning more. Then maybe wanting to experience it. And from wanting it comes choosing a ceremony to sit in—and that’s where it gets controversial.
Choosing a Safe and Trustworthy Ayahuasca Ceremony
Richard:
When I started, the options were limited—go to Peru, go to Iquitos, go to the jungle. Now, you can go to Brazil, you can go to a church service down the street, or you can go to someone who went to Peru for a couple of months, came back with a “diploma” saying they’re certified to serve ayahuasca—and they’ve barely started shaving, wherever they shave.
Due diligence is really important. Learn about the person guiding the ceremony. Do they have a background in a traditional culture? They may not be carrying the tradition exactly, but is their background rooted in something real? Or did they go to a festival, drop acid, and decide they’re a shaman?
No offense to festival-goers, but you want to find people who are grounded. Talk to ceremony leaders. If they’re too busy to speak with you, it’s probably the wrong ceremony. I personally have a conference with everyone who wants to join my work.
Trusting Your Intuition Before Ceremony
Richard:
Another thing—how do you feel when you approach the work?
If you’re not afraid, there’s something wrong with you. Fear is normal. But there’s also an intuitive yes or no. An intuitive yes can carry you through fear. An intuitive no might also take you through fear—but sometimes fear convinces you that a no should be turned into a yes. That’s how people end up in poorly held ceremonies.
In the U.S., ayahuasca is still considered illegal except in a few churches. So let your awareness be your guide.
A valuable step before seeking ceremony is the dieta—a simplification and purification of everything you put into your body. A mind influenced by drugs or alcohol doesn’t make good decisions. A body filled with artificial ingredients and poor food choices won’t make decisions from a place of purity.
Take a couple of weeks to cleanse—physically and mentally. Reduce stimulation from 21st-century life. Take a break from social media. Then, tune into your heart—the still small voice.
Commitment Changes Everything
Richard:
There’s a poem—often attributed to Goethe but not actually his—that says: When one is committed, there’s no hesitancy, no chance to draw back. But when one is uncommitted, there’s hesitancy, confusion.
Once you commit, all manner of providence moves to make your commitment take form. That takes trust, because it might not happen instantly. But your inner radar starts looking where it wasn’t before, and connections happen—you might notice someone with clear, shining eyes who carries themselves beautifully, strike up a conversation, and find out they just came out of ceremony.
But—be careful.
Red Flags in Ayahuasca Guides
Brandi:
What are some other red flags to look out for?
Richard:
Someone overly full of themselves. Not always, but sometimes this includes changing their name to something grandiose. Some do it for anonymity or because they like a new name, but others do it for ego.
Avoid people who:
Are unapproachable or brush you off when you want to talk.
Give you a negative gut feeling.
Are worshipped by their community in a cult-like way.
I’ve seen “great” ayahuasca leaders surrounded by acolytes massaging their hands and washing their fingernails. That’s a red flag.
Work with someone you like, trust, and feel is running a clean ceremony. Talk to people who’ve been working with them for a while. If you hear about inappropriate or strange activities—like ceremonies turning into virtual orgies—walk away.
And watch out for flattery. If someone says, “I’ve been waiting for you for a lifetime,” that’s a five-alarm fire. It happens more than you’d think in the jungle.
Thoughts on THC, Psilocybin, and Other Plant Medicines
Brandi:
There’s also plant medicine like THC and psilocybin that’s popular right now. Do you have thoughts on those?
Richard:
Yes—possibly controversial ones.
I’m not a big fan of THC as it’s used now. Many people use it as a numbing or escape agent. If you have a legitimate physical reason—like severe pain—it can be a good medicine. But as an escape from emotional pain, it doesn’t give you tools to heal; it just pushes the pain into a dark corner.
I haven’t smoked marijuana in decades. I grew up in Southern California, so I did when I was younger. But now I see people who wake up, roll a joint or hit their vape, do it a few more times during the day, and repeat this daily. That won’t lead to the kind of healing ayahuasca can bring—it doesn’t have the purge, the confrontation, the cleansing. It’s more like wrapping the pain in a cotton ball so you don’t feel it.
And yes, I know a lot of people love it—that’s just my opinion. They don’t call it “dope” because it makes you smart.
Brandi:
(Laughs)
Richard:
Psilocybin mushrooms are a good medicine, but not in the same category as ayahuasca. There’s no purge, and the force isn’t the same. They tend to be less scary—though not always. I work with psilocybin for people who can’t take ayahuasca because of medications or overwhelming fear.
Research shows psilocybin can be highly effective for depression and brain health. That’s promising. But eating mushrooms to go to a party? Not a healing modality—unless you’re terrified of parties and want to face that fear.
Other Emerging Medicines: DMT, MDMA, and More
Richard:
Smoking DMT or 5-MeO DMT is popular now, but to me, these are too fast, too short, and too intense to offer the unfolding beauty and learning that ayahuasca does.
MDMA, however, I see as super valuable for trauma survivors. It can bring someone into a state of “trust and forgive” rapidly, gently, and elegantly. That can be powerful for trauma release.
More medicines will come—science is learning more about the brain and how these substances work. There will always be people trying to develop the “next big” plant or semi-plant medicine.
When to Choose Meditation, Therapy, or Mindfulness Over Plant Medicine
Brandi:
You’ve said some substances aren’t helpful if they numb or if they go too far too fast. When should a person rely on meditation, mindfulness, or therapy instead of plant medicine like ayahuasca?
Richard:
That’s a really good path—and I’d say most people are too messed up to do it effectively without it taking the rest of their life. Plant medicine can take a lifetime too, but in a different way.
Numbing agents can be beneficial if what you’re numbing is so overwhelming that you literally cannot function. That’s different from not wanting to face something.
If trauma is so intense that you’re non-functional, something like THC might help you make your life workable—ideally while you also seek other healing paths. The goal should be not to rely on the numbing agent forever, but to use it while making deeper changes.
Does that make sense?
Writing Trust and Forgive: The Medicine of Your Life
Brandi:
That makes total sense. Thank you for clarifying that.
And Richard, is there anything we haven’t talked about today that you think is important to share?
Richard:
Read my book.
Brandi:
I want to!
Richard:
Yes. Talk about integration. For the last 10 or 15 years, I had this idea for a book rattling around in my brain. Fifteen years before I wrote it, it was already rattling around. I’d sit in ceremony and hear: Write your book already. What are you waiting for? Why are you taking so long?
Then COVID hit. I found myself basically a prisoner in my beautiful space here in the mountains—which, honestly, was not a bad place to be “imprisoned” during COVID. Combined with insomnia, I’d wake up at two or three in the morning thinking, This is horrible, I want to sleep. And then I’d hear: Write your book.
At first, I resisted—I don’t want to write a book, it’s cold. But finally, I just started getting out of bed and writing.
The first few words were really hard. But over the course of some years, my stories became the book. My philosophies and ideas became the book.
Everyone I’ve spoken to who’s read it so far has gotten a lot of value from it. I’ve even seen people in my community—or in other communities—carrying it around like a bible. It’s not a bible, but it’s a really good guidebook.
It’s rich with experience and practical understanding of what it means to trust and forgive, and what it means to be a human being in a traumatized world.
Where to Find Richard’s Work
Brandi:
So the book is called Trust and Forgive: The Medicine of Your Life. Where can people find it, and your HeartFeather platform, or any other work?
Richard:
Right now, you can get it through the HeartFeather platform or on Amazon—in Kindle, hardcover, and softcover formats.
HeartFeather has a mnemonic that people never forget. In Egyptian cosmology, when a human being dies, they stand before Osiris, who takes their heart and gives it to Maat. She places it on an old-fashioned balance scale. On the other side of the scale is a feather.
If your heart weighs more than the feather, you don’t get to move on. If your heart weighs less than the feather, you’re admitted into the heavenly realms.
The heart of a dead person contains all their cares, fears, concerns, and traumas—everything they didn’t heal in their lifetime. In Vedic terms, these are sanskaras, the scars on the spirit.
One night, I had a dream and this vision came to me. I thought, Heart Feather is the perfect name for this work. May your heart be lighter than a feather.
Brandi:
Nice. Well, the links for all of those things will be in the show notes or the description on YouTube.
Richard, thank you so much for coming on the show today and for the work you’re doing in the world.
Richard:
Thank you so much. This was a delightful conversation, truly.
Join the conversation!
Feel free to share your own experience and let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
Related Posts
Hi, I’m the founder of Human Amplified. I’m Brandi Fleck, a recognized communications and interviewing expert, a writer, an artist, and a private practice, certified trauma-informed life coach and Reiki healer. No matter how you interact with me, I help you tell and change your story so you can feel more like yourself. So welcome!
Find More on the Blog
Topic
- Black and BIPOC
- FAQ
- LGBTQIA plus
- Nashville
- Seattle
- UFOS/UAPs/ETs
- abuse
- acceptance
- accepting
- addiction and recovery
- afterlife
- alopecia
- angels
- animals
- anxiety management
- art
- astrology
- awakening
- body work
- cancer
- career
- channeled
- coach
- communication
- community
- confidence
- consciousness
- creator
- crystals
- dance
- dating
- death
- disease
- divorce
- education
- emotional health
- energy work
- entertainment
- expert advice
- faith
- family
- fitness
- gender
- ghosts
- grief
- gun violence
- healer
- healing
- holistic wellness
- home
Recent Blog Posts
Explore More on the Podcast
Latest from the Podcast
Shop My Socially Conscious, Playful Art
