Mindbloom Cover Letter

An Unsuccessful Attempt to Change Horses In Midstream

To the folks at Mindbloom-

I read about Mindbloom and was excited by the idea of a company using psychedelics to help people overcome issues and realize their full potential. Psychedelics have been instrumental in my life since college. I had the typical liberal arts education but was always drawn to the esoteric and unusual corners of academics. Coming of age in the bleeding edge of the emergence of computers and technology, I did most of my research the old fashioned way, reading books, consulting indices and footnotes and then going to find the books and articles mentioned in bookstores and libraries and friends’ collections. Much the same way as one prospected for music in those days. So, I read Huxley and Leary and Alpert and Burroughs and De Quincey and Castaneda and Harner and the McKenna brothers. Later, once the internet had fully bloomed, I got to fully explore the full tangential corners of these interests. Following my curiosity wherever it led me and it led me all over the world.

These readings also coincided with extensive reading in philosophical and religious texts from around the world. I studied political science and philosophy. I did not do the foreign language so ended up with a degree in political science with the equivalent of minors in philosophy, English and sociology. I almost had enough credits for the equivalent of a minor in religion as well. I went off to study applied philosophy in graduate school.

During these same years, I also began to experiment myself. Once I decided that I wanted to do this, I spent a year preparing myself and making sure my frame and set were right. My initial forays were careful and cautious. They were also more for expansion and enjoyment. As I traversed these realms I sensed that there were much larger possibilities than I imagined for personal growth and healing. I knew, of course, about the uses that shaman and other practitioners could perform, but did not fully understand the potential for a twenty something person to explore their own psyche and work on their own injuries and damages from past experience. As a very young child, I had been pretty terribly sexually abused by a family member. I don’t think I really even knew that until I took psychedelics a few times. It was in there, but buried deeply. Once I became aware of it, I pursued information and confirmation from family members and found that it was indeed true. Up until then, I had mostly tripped with friends and lovers. But once I had this information, I mostly took my journeys by myself and in larger doses, to try to prise all the information and pain loose from my subconscious memory. It was harrowing and extremely cathartic. Probably not for everyone and probably, in retrospect, safer done with a guide, but I was young and determined. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to muck around in that territory with an audience.

Once I was through much of that territory, I returned home and began to care for my grandmother as she was dying. Taking care of her also meant taking care of my uncle who had been my abuser. He had been in a catastrophic car accident when I was young, in fact that is what ended my abuse, and been under the care of my grandmother ever since. Taking care of Grandma meant taking care of Jim. This included bathing him. This was no small task, but the “treatment” I had done on myself made it possible. The deep compassion and forgiveness I had found for myself in the process translated into an ability to have compassion and forgiveness for my abuser. It was hard to do, but it was powerful in the extreme. Soon after all of this I began regularly talking to groups of young men and explaining my experience and that while it was hard to do, it was important that they admit to themselves things that may have happened to them and that they find a safe way to talk to those who loved them about their experiences. As the years passed and things like FaceBook happened, I often spoke openly about my experiences of abuse and shame. A lot of people reached out to me to thank me for talking about such a taboo subject, particularly a lot of men who were always taught not to talk about such things.

After those early years of intensive exploration and healing, I journeyed less frequently but still a couple of times a year to touch base or around significant events. And honestly, because it was always enjoyable even when it was hard. The gifts one comes back with, the taring of life’s scales, are of immense value to me. Having things put in proper perspective is impossible to overrate.

Much of the work I’ve done in my life has been in service to others. Much of it is now far in the past. The closest to coaching has been the years working in Natural Living helping people find the vitamins and herbs to live a healthier life. And as a specialist training others to run their departments and gain and maintain the knowledge to help customers live a healthier life.

I have spent a lot of the last two decades raising a child and trying to make sure that the compassion and passion I feel in life are present for them every day. Though they have made decisions I was not thrilled about, they seem to be moving toward a future full of promise. They are approaching the age where they will launch into the world to write their own story. Like they haven’t really been writing it all along.

And that leads me toward launching into a new career that more closely fits my passions and will reconnect me to the process that was crucial to my development all those decades ago. Certainly those experiences have a lot to do with the art that I create on a daily basis. It can be seen at Dog In Tow Photography on Instagram.

I look forward to speaking with you,

Sincerely,

Guy Clark