'We need to listen to Indigenous people:' Community leader reflects on the use of mushrooms
DENVER — Sovereign Oshumare loves giving hugs, which is fitting considering all of the work they do in the community. Oshumare leads meditation groups for LGBTQ+ people, consults with companies entering into the plant medicine industry and acts as Co-Ecosystem Director for SPORE (The Society for Psychedelic Outreach, Reform and Education). Their advocacy for psychedelic medicine is driven by their passion for connection.
Oshumare sat down with Rocky Mountain PBS to talk about their journey with psychedelics, specifically psilocybin, a compound in "magic" mushrooms. According to recent studies, psilocybin that has been found to relieve symptoms of depression, addiction and anxiety — something Oshumare is familiar with.
“Mushrooms gave a voice to anxiety for me. As an inventor and creator, in some ways I get in my head and let anxiety run me,” they said, explaining that microdosing mushrooms gives them the ability to process and release their feelings without trying ignore or numb them. “I was able to see my anxiety and look at it, and ask questions like ‘why am I anxious, and what purpose is it serving?’”
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Beyond helping with mental health issues, Oshumare says microdosing mushrooms has helped them develop a spiritual practice as well. “For me, psilocybin gives me an awareness that I’m co-creating with something that’s larger than me,” they added saying that the slightly altered awareness from psilocybin has changed their perspective about society in general.
“The world tells you in very direct and indirect ways what success is, what achievement is, what happiness is. It feeds you a story. I feel like with psilocybin, you question some of those things,” they said.
After the passing of Proposition 122 in November, making magic mushrooms legal for therapy in Colorado, Oshumare worries that access will be taken away from people in the communities of color that have been using mushrooms for medicinal and spiritual practices for generations.
“We need to listen to Indigenous people, that’s what we need to do. We all need to be doing that period. That should be the end of the sentence, and I don’t know why it continues to run on.”
For Oshumare, it’s about healing all communities on every level, even though micro dosing mushrooms obviously isn’t for everyone.
“How can we create something that honors reciprocity, that honors indigenous people, and Black folks and people of color? How do we heal the pain that exists in whiteness? How do we heal scarcity based power that whiteness uses as a power source? How do you do that?”
Dana Knowles is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at danaknowles@rmpbs.org.
Julio Sandoval is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at juliosandoval@rmpbs.org.
On Thursday, December 15th, from 12 to 1 p.m., Oshumare will be part of Community Circle, an RMPBS virtual panel focusing on the medical and spiritual effects of microdosing mushrooms. Click here or below to register for the free event.
