“If a law is unjust, a man* is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” – Thomas Jefferson
Organic Inquiry is grounded in the researcher’s lived experience and personal story. I share mine in part to orient the research study, and in part to catalyze the transformative process Organic Inquiry inspires. The unfolding research process began years ago after realizing I was pregnant during a psilocybin trip. That experience led down a rabbit hole that evolved over time into a doctoral dissertation, and the healthy birth and still birth of my identical twin daughters. Through piecing my life back together, it became clear I was not alone in at the intersections of Psychedelic Therapy, Spirituality, and Midwifery Theory. There was incredible transdisciplinary relationship between them – and so, it was time to define an emerging field.
Never one to envision a theoretical PhD, I sought instead a collaborative project, one that reflected the path of psychedelic healing and community building that nurtured me through the darkest and most difficult days. Legally, it’s impossible for me arrange a psychedelic ceremony or integration circle and study the outcomes, as useful as that would be for research, policy, and maternal health. So instead, I arrange a women’s circle among a cohort that can connect anonymously, but deeply: motherless daughters navigating motherhood, who draw upon their psychedelic experiences and spiritual practices to orient their lives toward something sacred. Through our connection I imagine we will demonstrate how the laws of prohibition are unjust, and in so doing, may expand the public’s concept of “unjust” laws.
Some stories feel too difficult to tell. Stories with baggage, the kind that comes rolling through the door with bulging suitcases and bursting zippers, tattered handles and faded stickers speaking of long lost adventures. If that’s what we want to call them, these collections of traumas, these wounds and their weapons of choice. Adventure? That may sound offensive to the onlooker, but to the one navigating the trauma, it might be a necessary perspective.
If it were possible to bear all of our traumas individually, it’d all be an easier fare, I don’t doubt it. But as it is, this story is not an easy one, and as such, it must be shared. I invite you to follow along as this story and research unfolds.
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