Eric’s journey with psilocybin began in 1999 shortly before he became a student of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. Through direct experience and studying sacred mushroom practitioners like Maria Sabiana, he soon began to understand these mushrooms as a sacrament. In 2003, through his connection with the Rasta community, Eric took his first pilgrimage to Jamaica where he established multiple long-term friendships. These relationships eventually led to Eric and his Jamaican friends offering the world’s first public psilocybin retreat, MycoMeditations in 2013. It was here he met Omar who came as a guest to the retreat. Omar soon began to assist in facilitation of retreats and the two began a relationship that continues to evolve in service to sacred plants and our human family.

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In 2015, Eric and his wife Courtney were arrested for providing access to psilocybin through no cost, supported ceremonies in his local Kentucky community. In 2018 after successfully completing thirty-two months of probation, Eric and his family moved to Jamaica to focus solely on offering retreats. Despite this work being highly impactful, and fulfilling, the company began moving toward a more clinical model than Eric had originally intended. In 2020, Eric decided to return to his spiritual and communal roots. Exiting the retreat that he founded, Eric and family returned to Kentucky, where with his wife and friends, co-founded Psanctuary, the sacred mushroom church. Psanctuary seeks to create a non-hierarchical, decentralized spiritual community that provides greater access to sacred mushrooms under the protection of the US Constitution.

 

With several ministries offering supported access to terminal patients through it Psacred Passage ministry, as well as the recovery, veterans and queer communities, Eric and his team continue to advance his mission of equitable access to psilocybin in spiritually oriented container. His involvement on the board of DPS is an expression of his continued support of the African Diaspora.