Find Your Rite of Passage

Life is a Festival #18: Life Rites with Max Carver & Ari Andersen

A festival can be a rite of passage and a rite of passage can be a festival.

Tomorrow is my birthday and so this week on the podcast my guest is myself. Or rather I am sharing my friend’s podcast.

The podcast is called Life Rites and my episode comes out on Monday. It’s a new podcast started by my former producer Ari Anderson and actor Max Carver about Rites of Passage in the modern world. On the podcast Max and Ari explore the stages of the Hero’s Journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell in his famous book, The Hero With A Thousand Faces.

I was honored to be one of their first guests sharing my story of embarking on the Mount Everest of shamanic journeys, the psychedelic medicine iboga which I took as part of an initiation with the Bwiti people in Gabon.

On the Life Rites podcast, I share my journey from the very first invitation to adventure, through my 10 days of silent meditation, also called vipassana, to writing in Bali, a speaking tour on masculinity in Australia and suffering a broken heart (and broken ego) in India. I finally make my way to Gabon in the Congo Basin for 10 days of shamanic ritual which is the climax of our tale.

I hope you enjoy the story of my life as a festival! My deepest thanks to Max and Ari for creating this excellent new podcast, be sure to check it out.