Books
In a Perfect World - Vol. 1
5-MeO-DMT
This book is a collection of edited transcripts from the interview series:
IN A PERFECT WORLD PODCAST (2009-2019) A regular series of “experiential journalism” podcasts exploring the evolution of the new global paradigm. In a Perfect World will chart the meetings, musings and collective dreamings of gonzo reporter Rak Razam amongst the cultural creatives of the global tribe, the Ultraculture of the 21st century. These recordings are raw snatches of Beatnikian immediatism, unedited downloads from the tribal journey of remembering... Come anchor the vision and spark the new paradigm alight...
Aya Awakenings
A Shamanic Odyssey
Your first book is always your baby, and this is my experiential travel memoir that birthed my voice onto the world stage. Three months in Peru sitting and drinking ayahuasca with over two dozen curanderos or shamans of the Amazon, learning about their culture and the way they see the world. Ayahuasca is a visionary medicine, it can heal, astound, and reveal an energetic ecology all around that communicates and calls us to be part of it. It opens up the heart, and the soul.
The Ayahuasca Sessions
Conversations with Amazonian Curanderos and Western Shamans
This book is an in-depth collection of interviews with the curanderos or shamans, and the western practitioners and spokespeople for the medicine of ayahuasca. A companion to the travel memoir book, I interviewed these experts to craft an overall sense of the ayahuasca milieu, and it can be read as a stand alone introduction to the people who practice the art of shamanism in the modern age, learning how they were initiated, how they work to help heal their patients, and how they connect to the interdimensional ecology plant medicines opens up.
Documentary Films
Shamans Of The Global Village
Episode 1 – The Sonoran Desert Toad
The powerful natural psychoactive of 5-MeO-DMT was central to my Aya film, and became the centerpoint for episode one of the ongoing documentary series Shamans of the Global Village. With more and more westerners experiencing earth based shamanic medicines, I realized the role of medicine person was transforming in the 21st century, and this series attempts to document that.
Shamans Of The Global Village
Episode 2 – The Peyote Cactus
When we were invited to attend the ancient Huichol people of Mexico’s peyote pilgrimage in 2018, we had no idea of the sacred journey ahead. The marakame or shaman was an elder of his tribe who had been collecting and working with the hallucinogenic cactus peyote, or hikory as they call it, since a child. The challenge here was to accompany their three day pilgrimage to Wirikuta, the holy land of the peyote, across the desert and the land, praying, sacrificing, purifying along the way.
Aya Awakenings
I started out adapting my book into a film narrative for the documentary Aya: Awakenings, retaining the power of the written memoir by using actual excerpts. In this way the “script” was actually a truncated overview of the central moments of the book, using voice over narration to match the visuals and action presented. It created a unique audio-visual spell for the senses. I produced and helped co-direct that film as well, realizing the power of my network to help crowdsource footage and resources, and make the project come alive. Watching this is as close to the ayahuasca experience you can get without drinking the brew itself.
