My family moved frequently from one side of the world to the other when I was a child, instilling in me a wanderlust that drives me to this day. I have always been an explorer- riding freight trains across the US, touring with musicians in South Africa and Jamaica, photographing gang members in Atlanta, and climbing rooftops in the night with graffiti artists in Mexico.

I lost my mother to cancer when I was a teenager. Desperate to heal the unresolved grief that haunted me for years, I eventually sought out two of the most powerful psychedelic medicines on the planet- and they changed me forever. I decided to devote my life to helping others, training and learning. My medicine work has taken me from clinics to jungles and I have worked closely with doctors, therapists, and tribal leaders. In the early years of my path, I was guided by teachers from the Huichol Indian tradition. In later years, I was initiated into the Bwiti spiritual lineage in Gabon, developing a close personal relationship with a plant medicine called iboga, often described as the “Mount Everest” of psychedelics. I am known in the Miobe Missoko Bwiti tradition by my name, “Minanga.”