Healing Veterans with Plant Medicine
Life is a Festival #108: Jesse Gould (Heroic Hearts)
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With the rapid fall of Afghanistan, veterans in our communities need our care and support now more than ever. So I called up Army Ranger Jesse Gould who supports psychedelic healing for soldiers to talk about his experience and what we can do to help.
On the podcast Jesse explains the complex reactions veterans are feeling about the end of operations in Afghanistan. We discuss PTSD and why both the causes and healing of trauma are more complex than many realize. Jesse explains how ayahuasca and other psychedelics help to repattern hyper vigilance and an overactive nervous systems in soldiers returning from war. We discuss his nonprofit, Heroic Hearts, which takes veterans to ayahuasca ceremonies for healing. Finally we discuss how serving communities makes life more like a festival.
Jesse holds an important voice for military veterans in the psychedelic community and beyond. A former Army Ranger with three tours of duty in Afghanistan, he is the Founder and President of the Heroic Hearts Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit pioneering psychedelic therapies for veterans. Jesse works to spread awareness of plant medicine as a therapeutic method and has spoken globally about psychedelics and mental health. He is best known for his own inspiring battle with PTSD and his recovery through psychedelic therapy.
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Timestamps
:10 - The veteran response to the fall of Afghanistan is complex
:17 - Jesse’s history in the military
:28 - PTSD in the context of a war setting
:40 - How Ayahuasca repatterns hypervigilence
:47 - How Jesse learned to integrate his ayahuasca ceremonies
:53 - How serving community makes life like a festival
1:00 - The model of the nonprofit Heroic Hearts
Graphics Designed by Andy McErlean
Audio Engineering by Trevor Coulter
Theme song ““Peculiar Colors” [Manjumasi]“ by dj atish