Under the awe-inspiring dome of Red Lightning at Burning Man, a truly extraordinary event unfolded. Amidst the swirling desert winds and the soft hush of shared intention, the DaVinci Dialogues created a sacred, participatory space. This wasn't just a panel of experts—it was a portal. A co-creative invocation. A ceremonial gathering where each voice added to the collective resonance. The invitation was clear: step into the unknown, bring your whole self and reflect deeply on the question at the center of it all.
What does the Second Psychedelic Wave mean? And how do we surf this wave not as individual thrill-seekers but as a unified, awakened collective—moved by integrity, intelligence, and heart, all working towards a common goal?
As participants settled into the dome, the space came alive with story, vulnerability, and vision. Four central figures—Ashley Booth, James Oroc, Meriana Dnkova, and Rak Razam—offered their hearts and insights, sparking a dialogue that felt less like a discussion and more like a rite of passage. They reminded us that personal transformation is a journey that requires patience and integration and that each step is a part of the process.
We're the scouts for society... We're holding space and sharing the tools. The transformation comes from within.
Ashley Booth opened a gentle yet powerful channel between science and spirit. A former atheist with a deep academic background in the sciences, Ashley described how her worldview was irrevocably changed by one profound psychedelic experience. In just a single hour, she transitioned from certainty to surrender, from intellectual detachment to spiritual awakening, underlining the transformative power of psychedelics.
Her story wasn't just about personal transformation but about the deep responsibility that comes with revelation. She spoke of how we often try to communicate these insights too forcefully, forgetting that language must meet people where they are. Rather than preaching or persuading, she suggested we must listen—deeply and compassionately. Her metaphor of the psychedelic ambassador was grounded in humility.
In one hour, I was no longer an atheist. I had to completely change my worldview.
Ashley's approach is to offer—not to impose. She encourages us to see ourselves as gardeners, not missionaries. Our task is to plant seeds of curiosity and trust that when the time is right, those seeds will bloom.
For her, the true revolution isn't about changing minds through argument. It's about opening hearts through presence. And that, she reminded us, is a quieter, longer, but far more powerful process.
At first, you want to go out and share this with the whole world… But the ego needs time to integrate the experience.
Next, James Oroc stepped forward with a contemplative gravity. Known for his seminal book Tryptamine Palace, Oroc has long stood at the crossroads between mysticism and science. He shared his own story of transformation through 5-MeO-DMT—how it shattered not only his identity but the very framework of his atheism. At first, like many initiates, he felt the urgent impulse to evangelize. But time taught him that integration takes patience, emphasizing the long-term nature of personal growth.
His tone was both cautionary and encouraging. He reminded us that these experiences, as profound as they may be, are not shortcuts to enlightenment. They are doorways to long processes of unlearning, reconfiguring, and reentering the world from a more grounded place.
Rather than focusing on divine beings or mystical symbols, Oroc called for language that could serve the scientifically minded. His work reframes the psychedelic journey through models of consciousness resonance and quantum theory—grounding the ineffable structures the modern mind can grasp. Still, he emphasized that these are only tools. The real work, he said, is facing the ego, recognizing its grasp, and learning how to soften it.
He left us with the image of the ego as a fragile filter that shields and imprisons us. And psychedelics, in their deepest function, strip away that filter to show us the boundless terrain of who we truly are.
At first, you want to go out and share this with the whole world… But the ego needs time to integrate the experience.
Meriana Dinkova brought a grounded warmth into the space. A psychotherapist and seasoned ayahuasca guide, Mariana's work lives at the threshold where ancient wisdom meets modern psychology. Her voice carried the knowing of someone who has sat through thousands of human transformations—and learned to honor each one with care.
She described her work in Peru, facilitating journeys alongside Indigenous shamans. Rather than treating science and tradition as opposing forces, Mariana weaves them together. She emphasized that medical work is not just about catharsis but context, structure, and integration. Without that, even the most profound ceremonies can leave people lost.
We're not just healing trauma—we're growing wings.
She painted a vision of healing that moves beyond "fixing what's broken" to embodying our most whole, most soulful selves. In her view, proper integration is not an endpoint—it's a launching pad. Once wholeness is remembered, the next step is contribution: how do we serve others from that place?
She also named a powerful truth: that many Indigenous healers possess spiritual and psychological skills that exceed Western comprehension. They don't just sing—they navigate inner dimensions, untangle family trauma, and rewire emotional patterns. These are not soft skills. They are advanced, intuitive sciences born of centuries of practice.
It feels like we're returning to five-bar galactic Godhead consciousness… We've had species PTSD since the fall from unity consciousness.
Finally, Rak Razam entered like a cosmic bard—part historian, prophet, and poetic transmitter of the ineffable. With a born storyteller's charisma and a cultural theorist's precision, Rak offered a sweeping overview of humanity's psychedelic evolution. He traced a mythic arc from the 1960s LSD revolution to today's soul-focused plant medicine movement, suggesting that each substance has opened a different layer of the collective psyche: mind, heart, and now spirit.
He invited us to see this Second Psychedelic Wave as a trend and a planetary correction. A sacred response from Gaia herself to help realign humanity with its source. He spoke of his path—from ayahuasca pilgrimages to working with 5-MeO-DMT, from documenting underground ceremonies to founding a legal research NGO in Mexico.
It's a deep broadcast from deep source… and we're being tuned to receive.
He described this process as a kind of vibrational attunement, suggesting that consciousness is seasonal, cyclical, and evolutionary. The tools, the teachers, and the experiences arrive just when we need them, and they don't belong to any one culture or lineage. They are here for everyone, in service of remembering.
Rak's message was clear: we are not meant to stay on the mountaintop. We are meant to come back, to embody, to co-create.
From Counterculture to One Culture
As the dialogues unfolded, one of the deepest themes to emerge was that the psychedelic movement is no longer a counterculture. It is becoming the culture. The spirit of rebellion is giving way to a spirit of integration.
Energy is now less about opposition and more about construction. It is less about escape and more about embodiment. It is less about transcending the system and more about redesigning it from the inside out.
We're not a counterculture anymore. We are one culture. One species. And we're doing this together.
This new wave is marked by compassion, not resistance. It seeks unity, not fragmentation. It honors the past while birthing the future. And most of all, it recognizes that this work is not individual but relational. It is ecological. It is global.
Circles Within Circles: Lighting the Flame
As the official dialogue closed, ceremony took over. Facilitator Justa Magic led the room into a meditative ritual. Small groups formed around candles and rose quartz, each circle becoming a node in the network. Participants were asked to gaze into the flame and ask themselves:
"What has been ignited in me today?"
For some, it was a memory. For others, a question. For many, a deep stirring in the bones is a call to rise, serve, speak, and heal. There were tears, laughter, silence, songs. The dome had become a cauldron. And from that heat, something sacred was born.
Final Reflections
The Second Psychedelic Wave is not about drugs. It is about remembrance. It is not about escaping reality. It is about transforming it. It is not about isolated experiences. It is about shared awakening—layer by layer, circle by circle, flame by flame.
We are the manifestation of the source inside the hologram it created. A great game. The sacred container. Life.
The flame has been lit.
The question now is: how will we carry it forward?