SIGN-UP BEGINS
Sat, Aug 1
FORMAT
Virtual + LA In-Person
FIRST GATHERING
Sun, Aug 30
WHY WE CHOSE THIS BOOK
Healing that returns us to ourselves and to each other.
Dr. Nicholas Powers writes that medicine taken with therapy can heal a person, but medicine taken with a movement can heal a people. That conviction mirrors our own: mothers heal in networks, not in isolation. These are the threads we will follow together.
Generational Healing
How racialized and intergenerational trauma lives in the body and how communities reclaim the tools to release it.
Reclaiming Roots
Psychedelic and plant traditions have deep Black and Indigenous lineages. We read to remember whose wisdom came first.
Access & Equity
The Drug War, policing, and gatekeeping pushed our communities to the margins of this renaissance. We discuss what equitable access requires.
Integration as a Way of Life
Beyond any single experience: how insight becomes practice, and practice becomes community care the heart of our MotherNet vision.
Afrofuturist Joy
This is not only a book about pain. It imagines liberation, dignity, and joy as our inheritance and dares us to build toward it.
Motherhood at the Center
We read as mothers and caregivers: what does it mean to break cycles for our children, and to mother a movement?
THE READING JOURNEY
Five gatherings. One season of growing from below.
Each circle blends discussion, reflection prompts, and community practice. Come as you are no prior knowledge needed.
Sun · Aug 30
Opening Circle - Unpacking the Body and History
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Reading: Part I (including Foreword and Introduction).
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Core Theme: Examining how intergenerational and racialized trauma physically stores itself in Black bodies. We discuss how Western, white-dominated spaces disrupt a person’s "embodied experience of safety" and look at the deep need to reclaim ancestral roots.
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Key Question: How does the book challenge the traditional, Western clinical model of psychedelic therapy?
Sun · Sep 13
Part Two — Deconstructing the Systems
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Reading: Part II.
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Core Theme: Shifting focus from individual bodies to systemic infrastructure. This section dissects the violent legacy of the War on Drugs, aggressive policing, and mass incarceration. We will break down the concept of "psychedelic exceptionalism" (protecting "elite" drugs while criminalizing others).
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Key Question: In what ways have drug policies intentionally functioned to suppress collective healing and consciousness in Black communities?
Sun · Sep 27
Part Three — Reclaiming Joy and Altered Consciousness
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Reading: Part III.
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Core Theme: Moving past systemic oppression into radical joy, Afrofuturism, and ecstatic release. This part explores how Black culture has historically accessed altered states through rhythm, community, and expression outside standard Western paradigms.
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Key Question: How can radical joy and cultural ecstatic release be utilized as forms of political and psychological resistance?
Sun · Oct 11
Part Four — Utopian Politics and New Humanism
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Reading: Part IV (including the Conclusion).
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Core Theme: Transitioning from collective healing into actual societal revolution. We look at "utopian politics"—how to scale community wellness, build alternative networks of care, and step into a free, independent Black humanism.
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Key Question: How do we translate personal psychedelic insights into actionable, community-based political organizing?
HONORING THE LINAGE
Elders & women of color shaping this movement.
Each gathering opens by honoring a woman whose work made this conversation possible the mycelium beneath our bloom.
MW
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST · RESEARCHER
Pioneering researcher on racial trauma and psychedelic-assisted therapy; wrote the foreword to our season's book.
MS
MAZATEC CURANDERA · ANCESTOR
The Indigenous wisdom keeper whose velada ceremonies the modern movement was built upon honored as ancestral elder.
RD
WRITER · FOUNDER, BLACK PEOPLE TRIP
Creator of a community devoted to education, harm reduction, and safe spaces for Black women.
HW
CO-FOUNDER, FIRESIDE PROJECT
Healing-justice practitioner and cultivator of beloved community in psychedelic peer support.
CJ
CO-FOUNDER, THE ANCESTOR PROJECT
Educator centering sacred reciprocity and anti-racist practice in psychedelic spaces.
JG
Jamilah R. George
RESEARCHER · ADVOCATE
Scholar advancing equity in psychedelic science and trauma care for communities of color.