S2 | E10 Christopher Solomon

S2 | E10 Christopher Solomon

I'll be honest — Salvia was a plant I'd never tried and mostly knew through the lens of chaotic internet videos. So this conversation with Christopher Solomon cracked something wide open for me. Christopher came to the States from Johannesburg at fourteen, studied psychology and finance, and spent years in a database job he found soul-crushing before finally following the thread that had been tugging at him since high school: a deep, ongoing relationship with Salvia divinorum. We trace his whole arc in this episode — the bizarre early experiences, the moment an "intrusive" inner voice told him to meditate first and changed everything, the female salvia entity who told him she'd always been there, and the day a small dose seemed to dissolve a physical lymph node that had stumped his doctors. From there we get into the real heart of his work: low, titrated doses, somatic awareness, and treating the plant as something that demands silence, stillness, and respect. Christopher shares how Salvia affects the default mode network more than any classic psychedelic, why it pairs so well with meditation and somatic therapy, and how he guides clients through Zoom sessions for everything from crippling anxiety and depression to inflammation, arthritis, GI issues, and insomnia. We also talk honestly about the contrast with ketamine — reverse tolerance versus addiction, "diminishing returns," and the importance of listening when a medicine tells you to back off. Whether you're a curious psychonaut or someone exploring gentler tools for healing, I think you'll come away seeing this plant in a completely new light. Christopher Solomon is a somatic Salvia guide, teacher, and inventor of a pipe that aids in the mindful exploration of Salvia Divinorum. Incorporating lessons learned directly from Salvia and as a student of somatic psychotherapy, Christopher is pioneering techniques to use Salvia as a therapeutic tool for guided self-healing, meditation, and introspection. Christopher lectures about the proper, intentional, and therapeutic use of Salvia, offering a blend of scientific, esoteric, and therapeutic perspectives. He also cultivates a medicinal Salvia garden for use in his therapeutic practice with clients. His main goal is to teach people how to use Salvia for themselves in a manner that is supportive, informative, and empowering. He has a B.A in Psychology from the University of Texas at Dallas, and received his training in somatic psychotherapy from the Hakomi Institute of California. You can find Christopher at salviahealings.com and through his community, the Somatic Salvia Network, at somaticsalvianetwork.com. Special Guest: Christopher Solomon. Support The Permission Slip [https://patreon.com/mattkosterman]

S2 | E9 Dr. Katie Simons, PharmD, Clinical Pharmacist, Transpersonal Hypnotherapist, Psychedelic Medicine Facilitator and Coach

Katie Simons came to the healing world the long way around. With a doctorate in pharmacy from Idaho State University and ten years inside the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System — working in internal medicine, medication safety, and eventually as a patient safety manager — she had every credential the western medical world could offer. And then COVID happened, and the whole thing cracked open. In this conversation, Katie and I trace her origin story from pharmacist's daughter to closeted psychedelic explorer to full-time medicine guide and hypnotherapist now based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her first psychedelic experience — an epiphany on MDMA at a Phish show in her early twenties — cracked open a question she couldn't put back: Is this how happy I could actually feel? That question lived quietly alongside her professional life for years, until burnout, a divorce, and a first encounter with ayahuasca in 2022 collapsed the compartmentalization for good. We get into the pharmacology of psilocybin and MDMA — including a remarkably clear-eyed look at the actual risks (and frequent fearmongering) around drug interactions with SSRIs and SNRIs. Katie brings her clinical background to bear here in ways that feel genuinely useful and grounding, not alarmist. We talk about harm reduction for solo journeys, what to look for (and watch out for) when seeking a facilitator, and why psychedelics aren't a replacement for the inner work — they're a tool that breaks the chains, but you still have to walk out of the cave yourself. We also explore somatic breathwork, hypnotherapy, and the subconscious belief systems that keep the nervous system locked in survival mode long after the original wound has passed. Katie's framework for what healing actually means — not the absence of hard feelings, but access to choice — is one I keep turning over. And I get honest about my own stumbling blocks: the addiction to suffering, the pressure to perform as someone who's "done the work," and the places where my own nervous system still has the wheel. This one goes deep. I'm grateful Katie was willing to go there with me. Special Guest: Katie Simons. Support The Permission Slip [https://patreon.com/mattkosterman]

S2 | E8 Luke Lindstrom, Conscious Channel and Intuitive Healer

I first crossed paths with Luke Lindstrom at a Paul Selig workshop last fall, and from the moment we started talking I knew I wanted to get him in front of a microphone. Luke is 28 years old, grew up outside of Detroit, and by his own description was barely functioning by the time he finished high school — isolated, angry, lost in pornography addiction, and cycling through therapists who never asked the right questions. What turned things around wasn't a prescription or a traditional talk therapy breakthrough. It was a somatic therapist in Texas named Steven Terrell who looked at Luke in their very first session and said, simply: you are so angry. That moment of being truly seen cracked something open. From there, Luke's path wound through Loyola University, Sivananda yoga, a deep immersion in the channeled teachings of Matt Kahn, and eventually his own emergence as a conscious channel — someone who describes the experience as a kayaker being guided by a stream, personality and divine intelligence meeting somewhere in the middle. He's built a YouTube channel and social media presence around that work, and he posts multiple times a week. What I find most striking about Luke isn't the channeling itself — it's the lived honesty he brings to everything adjacent to it. He talks openly about pornography addiction and the years it took to genuinely resolve it, not through white-knuckling but through learning to meet himself with love and curiosity. He talks about being 28 and never having been in a romantic relationship, and he doesn't frame that as a wound — he frames it as clarity. He believes you can't receive a real partnership until you've stopped needing one to feel whole. We also go deep on his day job as a peer support worker in a mental health residential facility, and what it's taught him about stigma, humility, and the razor-thin line between stability and homelessness. Luke's perspective on the unhoused people he encounters — both at work and around his Old Town neighborhood — is one of the most grounded, unsentimental expressions of unity I've heard on this show. He's not theorizing about oneness. He's making friends with the guy outside the grocery store. We also touch on Ho'oponopono, Paul Selig's attunements, somatic body work, the chemical imbalance myth, antidepressants, judgment as a form of avoidance, and the way pain in the body just wants to be acknowledged. A rich, wide-ranging conversation recorded on Valentine's Day — the first day of the Fire Horse in the Chinese calendar. Felt auspicious. Special Guest: Luke Lindstrom. Support The Permission Slip [https://patreon.com/mattkosterman]

S2 | E7 LeRoy Gordon, Fitness and Yoga Instructor, a Reiki Healer and a Men's Group Leader

LeRoy Gordon's life reads like no one would believe — Cabrini Green housing projects to Walter Payton High School, college athlete to police officer, pro wrestler on Canadian and international tours to yoga teacher and men's circle facilitator. In this conversation, LeRoy opens up about growing up without a present father, enduring physical and emotional abuse, and the core wound of needing to be seen that drove everything from his athletic pursuits to his relationship patterns. We dig into how he almost joined the Navy SEALs out of sheer restlessness, how a CM Punk sighting at a WWE show finally gave him permission to chase his childhood dream of pro wrestling, and how the pandemic brought that chapter to a close and cracked open a new one. LeRoy shares how Landmark Forum was his first real taste of sitting with other people and processing what he'd been through, how an MDMA ceremony on his birthday helped him finally connect with his mother in a three-hour conversation that changed everything, and how ayahuasca and men's group work took him even deeper. We also get into his experiments with polyamory and how the radical communication it demands made him a better partner across the board, his recent ADHD discovery and how it reframed decades of restlessness and relationship patterns, and how Reiki, tarot, and yoga have become the unexpected through-line tying it all together. LeRoy is now leading his own men's circles, teaching yoga at Fourth Movement Studio in Logan Square, and building something that bridges the worlds of physical transformation and inner healing — and this conversation is a front-row seat to how he got there. Bio LeRoy Gordon is a fitness coach, yoga instructor, and men's group facilitator in the city of Chicago. After over six years of working the professional wrestling circuits of the US and Canada, LeRoy shifted his focused from his physical pursuits to healing his heart and mind with the help of men's work and plant medicine. He has led men's circles for nearly five years. He hopes to guide and inspire men to be the most open hearted and authentic versions of themselves so that they may continue the work of reducing harm and helping our communities thrive. Email: Leroygordoncoaching@gmail.com [Leroygordoncoaching@gmail.com] Instagram: /royflashgordon Threads: /royflashgordon Substack: https://sovereignsols.substack.com [https://sovereignsols.substack.com] Special Guest: LeRoy Gordon. Support The Permission Slip [https://patreon.com/mattkosterman]

S2 | E6 Wendy Perkins Shoef, ADHD Microdosing and Neuro-Pleasure Coach and More

In this episode, I sit down with Wendy Perkins Schoef — ADHD coach, microdosing guide, and neuro pleasure coach who specializes in working with solo entrepreneurs. Wendy shares her remarkable origin story: raised by a single Catholic mom in LA, navigating an ADHD brain through college and careers spanning real estate, biometrics, and web development, before finding her true calling after a divorce sent her on a journey of sexual self-discovery and eventually into orgasm coaching and nervous system work. We dig deep into her holistic framework of Goal, Set, Setting, and Intention — the foundation she uses whether she's helping a client build their business, choose a microdosing protocol, or regulate their nervous system. We talk about the differences between psilocybin and LSD as microdosing tools, why LSD is a "non-specific amplifier," and how the right substance choice depends entirely on what's going on in your body, mind, and environment. We also get into the profound connection between sexual energy and creative energy, the jaw-pelvic floor link, yoni dearmouring, the stigma around prostate work for men, and harm reduction resources for those exploring psychedelics. Wendy also opens up about parenting her son Max, who was born with a brain injury, and how that experience has deepened her understanding of the nervous system and shaped her approach to her work. About Wendy Wendy is an ADHD microdosing and neuro-pleasure coach, researcher, and co-host of the Psychedelic Revelations podcast. She works with brilliant, creative, capable people who are also a little bit fried—navigating chronic stress, ADHD, burnout, or all of the above. The ones who’ve read the books, tried the supplements, made the to-do lists, and yet still feel tired but wired, overthinking everything, spinning in place while their responsibilities grow by the hour. Wendy’s approach is rooted in a core belief: your nervous system is sacred, pleasure is a birthright, and ADHD symptoms are signs of a dysregulated nervous system—not a broken brain. Through microdosing support, nervous system regulation, embodied practices, and a BIG helping of tech support, she helps people remember their own divine intelligence and step back into who they truly are so they can make the impact in the world they’re meant to do. Her work blends research, lived experience, and a deep reverence for the body’s wisdom to support transformation that actually lasts. Website: https://thesuccessdoula.com [https://thesuccessdoula.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendygoesdeep/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendygoesdeep/] Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesuccessdoula [https://instagram.com/thesuccessdoula] Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thesuccessdoula [https://www.youtube.com/@thesuccessdoula] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesuccessdoula [https://www.facebook.com/thesuccessdoula] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wendygoesdeep [https://www.tiktok.com/@wendygoesdeep] Special Guest: Wendy Perkins Shoef. Support The Permission Slip [https://patreon.com/mattkosterman]