Essence Merging with Dr Colleen Quinn

The fastest way to change your life might be the slowest breath you take. Natasha Joy Price sits down with psychologist and author Dr Colleen Quinn to unpack Essence Merging, her new book on presence, love and the kind of connection that makes ordinary life feel sacred rather than rushed and numb. From Tantric “gaze with breath” to the idea that every moment can become a love lesson, we talk about what it really means to merge with the moment without losing yourself. 

Colleen shares the turning point that led her into breathwork: a prolonged pneumonia that became a near-death wake-up call, a stark look at legacy and relationships, and a surrendered prayer to be “loved in every moment”. From there we get practical, listener-friendly guidance on conscious integrative breathwork, why slow breathing helps the nervous system feel safe, and how focusing on inhale and exhale can quiet mental chatter. We also explore the overlap between breathwork, meditation and psychedelic therapy through the lens of the default mode network, neuroplasticity, stress response and emotional regulation. 

The conversation goes deeper into psychedelic-assisted healing and the importance of intention and integration. We discuss MDMA, psilocybin and ketamine, what current research suggests for PTSD, grief and addiction, and the difference between a hero’s dose, a psycholytic dose and microdosing. If you’re curious about breathwork for healing, meditation for presence, or psychedelics and trauma recovery, this is a grounded, compassionate listen. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a balm, and leave us a review with your biggest takeaway.

Dr Colleen Quinn

www.EssenceMerging.com

YouTube channel, Essence Merging - Colleen Quinn PhD showing the practice of slower integrative breathwork. Please see link to a 5 minute step-by-step guide here if you would like to watch it. 

https://youtu.be/HiHkw_9UiVo?si=g7svd_Flx2mcml8J 

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/featherlight

License code: ZTXJPK8BA5WMLKSF

My new novel The Red Magus has recently been published in conjunction with the Unbound Press.  An entralling mystical adventure set across time and space, where past and current lives converge.  Find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

A call to action to help us keep spreading the spiritual ripple xx

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Welcome everybody to a new episode of Balm to the Soul. I'm your uh host, Natasha Joy Price, and I'm a lawyer, I'm an energy healer, I'm an author, and of course, I'm a podcaster. And we have a lovely new guest today who I'm excited to talk to. And her name is Dr. Colleen LaQuinn. So welcome, Colleen. Thank you so much for supporting the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Well, thank you, Natasha. And I just want to applaud you for this mission to inspire people and give a bomb because there is an epidemic loneliness and disconnectedness on our planet. So anything that reminds us that we are connected, we are all one. We all have the same universal experiences, and that's what really binds us. So I'm grateful for your work. Thank you.

What Essence Merging Really Means

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, thank you for saying that. Absolutely true what you've said. There are now, I think there are about 160 episodes that people can download free. All sorts of people passionate about what they do. So fascinating. And like you said, it you know, it it makes us feel very connected if you're interested in all of what we're talking about. So um, yeah, lovely. Now we're going to talk about your new book, Essence Merging, which will be released at the end of this month. Published by Vanguard Press. So um let's start with the title, Essence Merging. What does that phrase mean to you, and why is it the perfect name for your story?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

You know, it actually came to me uh in a breathwork session. I was breathing with my breathwork partner, open eyes, and eyes really in Tantra are the window to the soul. It's the first level of connection in Tantra. Tantra is far more than, you know, it gets this big wrap around sex, but it's really a devotion to life in every form, to every face of God. That's what the premise of Tantra is. And the first level is gaze with breath. Breath is always the entry to our soul. And in this breath work, this particular breath work, I realized that we are fully human, but we are also fully energy beings. And they seem to be opposites, but that's what we call a non-dual truth. And there's lots of evidence in quantum physics to support that. And at the at the beginning of life, before the Big Bang, all forms of life were together in unity, in harmony, as the one. We were all there, unique manifestations of the one. And our hearts, our souls, our DNA knows that. That's what we're really all longing for is that union. And when we're in that state of union, we feel bliss, and we call it love. But what it really is, is the synergy of that union. So gazing in my breath work partner's eyes, soul to soul, so deeply, and you have this unconditional love, this full union just from gaze. I realized I could take that into every moment of my life, and then everything becomes a sacred conversation. Whether it is with a human being, a plant, a rock, cutting a lemon, folding laundry, it elevates life beyond the mundane to sacred. And every moment of our lives is a love lesson. Taylor made for us. So I want to show up to love and get the full richness of that lesson and all that life has to offer. And that's what essence merging is. You lose yourself, you merge with the moment. Lovely.

Synchronicity And Why The Book Arrived

SPEAKER_01 7:01

That's really lovely. It's a lovely way to think, isn't it? To be really present and be like you say, everything's a gift, everything's amazing, everything you know, just to be grateful for where you are in the present time. That's really lovely. So, what inspired you to write the book now?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

What yeah, Natasha, I for five years I devoted myself to breath work, and every time I got back in my ego, I would run back to my mat to lie down, and I felt often like I was in a dark cave. I know there's a doorway in here somewhere, but these voices need to quiet down. I have to find it, find my way back to that true nature that we all have. And these miraculous things would happen. Nature would bend lots of experiences with butterflies that I talk about in the book. They would fly revolutions around me and my husband, or me and my breath work partner, or they'd land on my finger, on and on. Lots of bending of reality. I think when we're open to these synchronicities, love, who created all of this material form, bends reality to to speak with us, and and which is great. Um, but I and I said to Love, this is all really cool, but there's gotta be something bigger than me and butterflies. And I got a resounding message to that I needed to write this down, that I needed to share it, that it would be inspiring, and that it could play a role in this collective awakening that I know of two ancient traditions as well as astrology that have all predicted this time in our human history. It started at the beginning of the winter solstice of 2019, right when COVID was emerging in China. And that was the first labor pain, the first squeeze. Growth only happens from an uncomfortable place. So we all felt that across the board, right? Independent of socioeconomic status, we were all had to go indoors and be with ourselves. And I personally feel like we're in the second squeeze now. I don't know about you, Natasha, but me and all of my spiritual tribe are getting these love squeezes right now. But the prediction is it'll take about 50 to 55 years, and at the end of that, two things will be different. One is that feminine energy will rule, so that's not to say women in leadership, but that compassion, benevolent energy, good for the whole. And two, maybe not that the awareness that we are all actually one, but that we are all connected. So I'm super excited to be here for this love revolution, even though it is rigorous. I I'm just so jazzed because I didn't think I'd get to see it in my lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah, absolutely. I always talk about being compassion crusaders, which I feel is like a very similar sort of, you know, we've got to be comp kind. We've got to be compassionate, we've got to, you know, um, we've got to to be kind to each other, basically. That's sort of so I'm right on board with what you're saying, absolutely. So tell me also, because I'm an author as well, and I I feel very much like a lot of my book was channelled. Sometimes I read back on bits and think, I don't even recognize that. You know, where did that come from? What's your process of writing? Did you did you feel that a lot of it just flowed through you from some other source?

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Great question, Natasha. I purposefully would not sit down to write almost every time until I did breath work or meditation because I really felt that this wasn't me. I don't I don't take any ego in this, and and if my ego filtered in, that would lessen it. So I wanted it to flow through me, and I really feel that this is a mission of love to play a role. And yes, uh, you know, there's a lot of editing, you know, in writing. And every time I reread it, I'm like, wow, that's good stuff. I I get inspired. So I don't, I seriously don't take any credit. It there's a genius playwright who writes these fabulous stories of each of our lives, takes this intricate interest in each one of us. I couldn't make up anything as good as the great playwright. So grateful to have be called to put the pen in my hand, right? Yeah, absolutely.

A Predicted Love Revolution After 2019

SPEAKER_01 13:27

And I found that mine was I didn't start page one to page whatever it is. I started in the middle, and then this scene emerged, and I thought, what am I gonna do with that? And it sort of played like a spiral. It was so fascinating to sort of see how it evolved. Um so it's an interesting process, isn't it? It's it's when you feel that, you know, how these how these writings come into being. It's it's fascinating, really. And like you say, you know, we can't take any credit, they're coming from somewhere for a reason. So um amazing. Amazing. So um, talk to me about breath work. I'm not very good at breath work cleaning. I I struggle with breath work, and I just feel like I have never breathed properly my entire life. It's quite a strange thing. I've tried many things in my spiritual path. I've done this for 20 years. I've done so many different modalities, but breath work I struggle with. Um so talk to, but I know how um powerful it is. So talk to me about breath work. How did you get into breath work?

Writing As Channelled Work

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah, great question. So um it, Natasha, it was my second near-death experience. Life life gives us what we need. Love never gives up on us, we'll keep knocking on the door of our heart. So I had pneumonia for 10 months. My lungs were bleeding, I was struggling to get air into my lungs. I and that poetic irony is not lost on me, right? When they did every test of every autoimmune disease, they're like, this is a common strain of pneumonia. It's not, we don't understand why you're not getting well. And I was negative for every single one, very sick still, but in that moment, I knew I would be well. And the mind is a powerful creator, right? Once the mind believes, then it sends those signals to every cell. But in that moment, I took a stock of my life that I hadn't taken before. And I realized I helped a lot of people in psychology, but who had I really connected with? Who had I made those legacy connections where that love is going to become infinite and eternal? Who would show up to my funeral? And I felt that I fell woefully short. And I fell onto the ground in my room. It was dark, it was at nighttime, my husband's braced in the kitchen for the news, and I'm prostate sobbing, sobbing my eyes out. And my only request was, and because I felt I was living on borrowed time. So my request was let me be loved in every moment. Because I realized that's that's all that matters. That's all that's worth creating. It's all that when we utter those prayers from a very stripped-down, surrendered place at the end of our own strength, those are the prayers that are always immediately answered. For me, for everyone I've ever seen. I think love wants us to realize that it's a co-creation. You can't bang your head on the against the wall and think the wall is coming down. It's always a co-creation. So, in short order, life had me going across the world to Costa Rica to this embodiment retreat, this beautiful, amazing shaman who is really like my dedication for writing the book. And he taught us breath work. And he rested in the knowing that once we knew the technique, he he was he would not be needed because you'd have that direct conversation. So I would like to, I'm curious for you, Natasha, what types of breath work have you tried? Because I'd like to maybe explain what works best for me and how and how to do it. Maybe it would help you in your journey.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, I don't know that they were specific, I don't know the specific names of them, but um I did six uh sessions with one lady, incredibly cathartic. I did release so much. Um, I just really found it difficult. It it's very, very strange when she's saying you need to breathe out and I'm breathing in. I just I I just couldn't quite get my head around it. It's a very, and I'm very conscious that that probably means I need to do more of that. Um what you struggle with is often what you need to be doing.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Right. That's that's one story you could wrap around it. I I will say I've tried many types of breath work, and none of them have worked for me except conscious integrative breath work. So many types of breath work are very fast-paced. I get lightheaded. Uh, it's a physiological thing. I can't, I really get lightheaded. It's not gonna get me to the place of my soul. No. Interestingly, um, I don't know if you've heard of Dr. Joe Dispenza.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yes. Oh, yes, I have, yes.

Near-Death Illness And Breathwork Begins

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Okay, well, all of the breath work he has people do, and I've been to many of his retreats, is that slow, conscious, integrative breathing. And there's some benefits of it. So physiologically, it's gonna slow down your nervous system, activating that sympathetic, relaxed state. Very important for your body to feel safe and for any surrender to happen. I I'm a certified breath worker, and I find that people that have trouble with the surrender, um they they don't have, they they can't get to their soul. But if you can just stay out of your head and focus solely on the inhale and exhale. And so, what I would recommend, and what I often do for people to start, is a chakra type of breath work. So it's slow and integrative. I'll explain that and then I'll explain the chakra part. So, with the slowness, you're gonna start in your lower abdomen, you're gonna let your abdomen rise up. You're gonna be taking this very slow, and you're gonna, with that breath, you're gonna take the energy up your spinal cord. You're pulling that energy up, and so it starts with the abdomen, the ribs come out, you're pulling that energy up, up, up, into your throat, into your pineal gland. So it's a very, very slow breath in through the nose. There are no gaps. So once you get to the top and you've pulled that energy up to your pineal gland, you're gonna let it fall out. There's no forcing because then you can get tetanny and you can get um like claw hands. Nobody wants that. So you just let it fall out, and that exhale is gonna be longer than the inhale. When you get to the bottom and there's no breath left, no gap, the next inhale. The key is to get lost in the act, stay out of your head, the slower the better. In um India, they have this term called Samiti, and that is when your breathing becomes so slow, and you're in such an energy state that you almost don't need to breathe anymore. And and there can be long pauses actually between breath, but and at that point, your energy body has released from your physical body, and it magnetically naturally merges with the collective energy, which is that wholeness. Wow. Well, and what's even more wow, I get very excited talking about that.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

It's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Well, I don't know if you've heard the term kundalini.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

So when we're pulling that energy from the base of our spine, we're actually there's crystals in our cerebral spinal fluid, so that gets pulled up to the pineal gland. Now, right next to the pineal gland are our ventricles. That concentration of crystals starts to massage the pineal gland, and what happens is the DMT that lays dormant in our pineal glands gets released. Now, do you know what DMT is?

SPEAKER_01 23:07

I do, I don't.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Tell me. DMT is the very same ingredient that makes certain mushrooms magic. Ah, okay. It lays dormant in our pineal gland, but when it when we are and simultaneously, our energy being is in harmony, and you have these vivid trips that rival psychedelics, uh trips. Oh, you very vivid, or you can get auditory downloads or somatic experiences where you feel held by love. I mean, the stories, everyone is unique, but the trips are quite amazing. When your energy body has left your physical form and you're in that state of union, that DMT gets released, it comes into your cells, and it's sending a message to the 70 trillion cells in your body, all is well. And then what happens is your the amount of interstitial fluid that your cells hold becomes greater, and then the ability to amplify a higher energy field becomes greater. So I ask you with all that bliss and joy and well-being, why wouldn't we run to the mat every day?

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Absolutely, it sounds amazing. I am going to try that. Absolutely. One thing I do run to the mat for every day is meditation, and I know that you do as well. You do meditation as well as your breath work.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

I do.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

They are different, they're very different.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

So can I talk about how they're the same and how they're different?

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Absolutely. Yes. Carry on.

A Breathwork Method You Can Try

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Well, okay, so meditation, breath work, and psychedelics all do similar things in our brain, which the first thing that they do is They shut off the default mode network. Now, that is a network that we have found on functional MRIs that maps onto Freud's construct of the ego. It is, it's what gets us sleepwalking through life. We look, our brains look for the shortcuts, you know, what's predictable? What what is known? How can I zone out and numb out? Our brains kind of want the easy way. It shuts that down, and that's in our um forebrain, but our midbrain is where the pineal gland is, which is often thought of as the seat of the soul. We know that all three meditation, breath work, and psychedelics, if done consistently, will make permanent positive changes in our brain. So I can share some if you'd like. Yeah, absolutely. So our our prefrontal cortex is right here, and it's our focus, our ability to be in the moment. And that gets stronger. Our left prefrontal cortex, which is the where all the positive emotions are, that gets stronger and bigger. Our amygdala, which is what releases fear, stress, fight or flight, that actually shrinks. We know on MRIs, most of us have like 11 well-groved uh channels, neural networks going. That's that default mode network. Well, these expanded states light up our whole brain. So our whole brain is now in more communication, which allows us greater flexibility to solve problems, plucking from the quantum field of possibilities that just right solution. And finally, it uh quiets down the mental chatter in the brain. Really, like there's no downside. Yeah, but but they are different. So I'd like to take a moment to point out the differences.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Okay.

DMT Kundalini And Energy Union

SPEAKER_00 27:48

So meditation, I have found it is a radical dropping into the present moment. So when you can do it, it's easiest to integrate because that's what being fully alive is. However, if you still are in uh the world of your head and your ego has a constant diatribe going on, it's it can be painful. Like five minutes seems like an hour, and you're like, oh my god, it's so loud up here. When is this gonna end? So what I encourage people is save meditation for when you're a little stronger in your true nature. Okay. Now, psychedelics are wonderful because they will shut down that default mode network, they will get you into your soul. My caveat with psychedelics is two things. First of all, I believe that these mushrooms are enlightened beings, they'll lay down their life for you to have an enlightened experience. What a beautiful gift. However, they will also give you the experience you want. So if you're going at it recreationally, you're gonna get a recreational experience. If you go in with a spirit guide, you will have a spiritual healing. But if you are not well versed in surrender, which is the biggest block for going deep in any of these modalities, you're going into your own soul and it can feel traumatic. It can feel some people talk about a bad trip. There probably is no bad trip, but if you're not prepared, it can feel traumatic. So that's the one thing. The second thing, I live in Baltimore where um most of the research comes out regarding psychedelics. Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins is responsible for most of that. And we have a pretty vibrant psychedelic community. They've been very helpful for my spiritual journey. And I know many, many people, they're not addictive. So that's great. They should not be a Schedule One drug. That was all political. That was all political, they're not addictive, but many people chase that wonderful journey and don't spend the time to integrate what they were given. Yeah. I I had one journey that I talk about in my book that I did somatic experiencing therapy for a year after that one journey to get all of that energy fully out of out of my body, that stuck, stagnant energy. Because I asked for a nervous system reset and I I got one, but but healing's not a one and done, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:00

No, no, it's and it's hard work healing. It's not a quick fix, quick fix. You know, I'm I'm an energy therapist, so I've spent 20 years looking at my emotions, releasing them, etc. I've come from it by way of meditation. So I think as I've got older and done 20 years of meditation, I've got more focused. For sure. Absolutely could feel the way that I evaluate things change. I'm also very, very visual, anyway. I get all sorts of visuals, and I have no mind shutter at all. And it was almost like I don't know how long I've been doing it, um, but it was like it just suddenly disappeared. So, but I've done it for a long, long, long, long time.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Um so tell me about psychedelics though. Are they is it always made from mushrooms? Is it always a natural a natural substance that you're taking?

Meditation Breathwork And Psychedelics Compared

SPEAKER_00 32:06

It it's always a natural substance, except for LSD, is a chemical form of the natural substance. Right. But even MDMA, which got a bad rap back in the day when it was ecstasy and people were taking it in the middle of a club, not a good idea. Um, but mdma is made from the sassafras tree. So even things that people thought were chemical or were were not natural, they are. And what's really amazing about MDMA is that it's a heart opener. So it's very similar to breath work when your heart is open and you're hovering over that experience, and I didn't talk about this, with the eyes of love, but fully feeling it. So you're up here seeing it, fully feeling it, but you're looking through the eyes of love. And what universally happens, and this is very common with MDMA as well, is that the coin that we attach to the story around the trauma gets flipped. So if I carried the story, so I'll just give you an example. Um, my younger brother died when I was 27. I carried the story for three years that God was wrong. No way should a young boy be taken from a mother with bipolar disorder, and I know better than God. And if I ever am happy, I'm dishonoring my brother. Well, Natasha, how do you think that story made me feel for three years? Terrible. Terrible. I was it turned into reactive depression. Chronic reactive depress, grief turned into chronic reactive depression. After three years, now this wasn't with psychedelics, but I had one of those surrender prayers. God, just take the hardness off my heart. I can't carry it anymore. I was at the end of my strength. Well, the coin flipped in that moment. And this I I saw that I was so lucky to have this life in my life, my brother Eddie, who was so selfless, so funny. What a love example! And I got to know him for his 15 years here. How lucky was I?

SPEAKER_01 34:51

It really helps you to see the benefits of traumas that are happening. It helps you to, like you say, flip it and see it in love. It's a blessing, you know, if if you can find that shift in perspective perception.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Well, and the beauty of psychedelics and breath work is that I talked a little bit about how visceral the experience is, and auditory and uh visual, all of it. So you have this like noetic knowing of it. It's not just that you shifted your perspective, it's like you lived a new experience with it. You it's like you're rewriting the software of your computer. It's like there's a Jewish saying, What's truer than truth? The answer is experience. When you experience it and it's so real to you, it becomes unrefutable. And that is the real beauty. So back to the psychedelics, different psychedelics are um the best treatment for different sort of disorders. So for PTSD, MDMA is definitely the best. For end-of-life grief, for alcoholism, um, we're finding for eating disorders, for depression. Um, well, not depression, sorry, not depression, eating disorders, alcoholism, end-of-life grief, it would be psilocybin mushrooms. Right. For depression, it's ketamine, which is that version of MDMA. They give it for people that can't get over their depression. And Natasha, what's amazing? I'm a psychologist. Every psychological treatment, like our best ones, have an effect size of like 0.40, and we're really excited. Like, oh good. And most Western medicine drugs for these things are barely above chance. So chance is 0.05, they're like 0.07, 0.10, our treatments 0.40. These um psychedelics range from 0.80 up to like 1.4. Like everybody is getting better. What's amazing, take psilocybin with um alcoholism. You could have a journey with a healer, a guided journey, and you will not need another journey for six months, and the rates are 0.80 that you are not going to be drinking alcohol because it's so powerful. We have nothing that rivals that. No.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

So this is what what you they call microdosing, where people have a small amount on a regular basis. That's every six months or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Well, microdosing is different. So okay. When you are in one of these research studies, or so ketamine, at least in the United States, is legal. So I wanna um this, I'm so glad you brought it up. There's two schools of thought. There's this school of thought where they're gonna give you what we call a hero's dose, and in psilocybin, that would be five grams. So you're like shooting up, it's like an inward journey, and that um healer or therapist is not gonna do a whole lot more than hold your hand. There's very little talking because it's an inward journey. Now, what we have found is that that exp and then and then you go to therapy for however long to process what happened on that inward journey. Right. Those effect sizes are actually not as great as the psycholytic dose. So the psycholytic dose would be about two to three grams, where you're certainly having that full experience, but you can you're more conversational. And so when you're trained as a therapist, um, and I've had the training, although I've never felt that I had enough training. I think some people do it with a lot less training than I've had, but um when you uh are the therapist and you can dovetail it with some experience, with some therapies like somatic experiencing, where you're really getting them to track the sensations in their body, or internal family systems where you're getting them to track the voices in their head, and it's more conversational, and you can work through these sensations to complete what needed to be completed and release that energy, that is actually more powerful than the hero's dose. So there's psychedelic, is that hero's dose, psycholytic is about three grams, and microdosing is very different. That's about 0.4 of a gram. And what's fascinating about these mushrooms is unlike other drugs that are addictive, the longer you take it, the less you need. So you we if you first start microdosing, you might start at 0.4 of a gram. But if you stuck with it for, I don't know, 10 months or a year, you might need less than 0.2 of a gram. And and what that's doing is it's really quieting down that default mode network. You're not gonna have the visuals or see the trails or anything like that, but you're just gonna have a deeper sense of presence. Yeah. And that now the one caveat to that is because it's dropping you more into your soul, if you have unresolved anxiety or depression, you might feel that greater. So these things you definitely want to use a coach or a guide, yeah. Um, but they are enlightened beings and they are taking you right to your own soul.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

So, do you think, you know, uh just for exploration, if people just want to work through emotional, there's not particularly any trauma that they know of, they just want to work through any negative emotions that they're holding on to. It is a good process, the smaller dose that you can then talk through what's happening. Is it almost like you know, like energy healing? I would say to people to have a past life aggression or whatever, and what they see, we then deal with, because that's something I do. Um, and it's just a way of processing uh beliefs and perspectives that they're holding on to. Would you say that this sort of therapy could just be used as a way of working through as an energy healing as well?

Psychedelics For Trauma Grief And Addiction

SPEAKER_00 42:33

For sure. Yes, and and I my bias would be because MDMA and ketamine are heart openers, I think that that would be even stronger as a microdose than psilocybin. Um, psilocybin is going to quiet down those voices and get you more into the moment. Um, and that's really where you need to be to do that heavy work. And of course, I love breath work because breath work gets you in that safe place where you're hovering over the experience and you're still feeling it, but you feel safe and you can see it through love. So Dan Siegel is a very famous neurobiologist, and he said, all three meditation, breath work, and psychedelics bring us here. So, whatever you need to do to meet here, let's meet here. Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating, Colleen.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

I I I really didn't know much about um psychedelics at all. Energy healing, I've done for the last 20 years. Breath work I struggle with, but I didn't know much about psychedelics. So it's been a pleasure to talk to you, and it's so fascinating. We could be here all night, really. My questions about it, but fascinating, really fascinating. So thank you. Thank you so much for joining me. It's been really lovely to speak to you. Um to hear about your book coming out this this uh month, so the 30th of April, it will be available, Essence Merging. So um look forward to seeing that.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Um yeah, I talk about the psychedelics in there a lot, and as well as breath work and meditation. And um, yeah, it's available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the platforms, and I really am envisioning that it could play a role in uh people's deepening to merge with their own moments of their lives. I I feel like if we can come to the moments of our lives with an open heart and more vitality, we realize just how precious every single moment is, and that's the only way to do this ride, really.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Yeah, absolutely. And I love the way you talk about through the eyes of love. That's a beautiful way of putting it. Um, and I I absolutely believe you're right there. That's that's a wonderful way for us to move through life, isn't it? Amen, amen. Thank you so much for coming on. It's been um a pleasure to talk to you, and of course, I will put all of Colleen's details under the episode and all about her book. Um so thank you again, Colleen. It's been a pleasure. Um, Natasha. No problem at all. So if you've enjoyed listening to Colleen, Colleen and I having a chat, um, please like and share. You can subscribe to the podcast. You can pay a subscription every month, which I think is less than two pounds, and you get additional episodes with all sorts of information. Um, so there's so much. There's a library of information. Um, if you're interested at all in any sort of energy work or authors or channelers, so please have a look. Um so thank you very much, and I will speak to you soon.