Fire Hose or Garden Hose? Psychedelics vs Dreamwork with Darren Jakubec, MD

Our guest has hosted hundreds of patients on ketamine-assisted psychedelic trips and has gone on a few of his own, yet his experience is that dreamwork can be even more profound. In this show, a replay of a popular show from August 2024 Katherine talks to Dr. Darren Jakubec, an emergency-room anesthetist who runs a pain clinic in northern British Columbia.

Jake talks about his history with dreaming and inner work and then gives an example of working a dream with a pain clinic patient. He describes his experience with a ketamine clinic which he ran for several years, describing psychedelics as an inner work accelerant which uses much of the same language as dreaming.

After the break we take a dream share from Steve Popp, co-host of the “In the Garden” program which precedes the Dream Journal on Saturday mornings on KSQD. The dream features powerful spiritual themes which leads us into Jake giving his analogy about psychedelics vs dreaming which he summarizes as fire hose vs garden hose. We take a second dream from Elizabeth from Bellingham WA of a chaotic car trip with a problematic loved one.

Books mentioned during the show: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, and various work by Gabor Mate. He also mentions the Curable app for dealing with chronic pain.

BIO: Darren Jakubec, M.D., is trained in family medicine and in anesthesia and lives and practices in northern British Columbia. Darren has been a dreamworker for 12 years and practices dreamwork in his pain clinic, in his ketamine clinic, in the emergency room, and in the hallways and rooms of the hospital where he works.

Contact me to get in touch with my guest.

This show, episode number 330 was broadcast September 27, 2025 as a replay from a show recorded during live August 3, 2024 at KSQD.org, community radio of Santa Cruz.

Intro and outro music by Mood Science. Ambient music new every week by Rick Kleffel. Archived music can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick for also engineering the show and to Erik Nelson for answering the phones.

The Santa Cruz Festival of Dreams will be at the Museum of Art and History October 10-12, 2025! Information at FestivalofDreams.net Follow us at our FB group page HERE or follow #KeepSantaCruzDreaming on FB and IG.

SHARE A DREAM FOR THE SHOW or a question or enquire about being a guest on the podcast by emailing Katherine Bell at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow on FB, IG, LI, & YT @ExperientialDreamwork #thedreamjournal. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams go to ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The Dream Journal aims to: Increase awareness of and appreciation for nightly dreams. Inspire dream sharing and other kinds of dream exploration as a way of adding depth and meaningfulness to lives and relationships. Improve society by the increased empathy, emotional balance, and sense of wonder which dream exploration invites.

A dream can be meaningful even if you don’t know what it means.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM. Catch it streaming LIVE at KSQD.org 10-11am Pacific Time on Saturdays. Call or text with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or email at onair@ksqd.org. Podcasts are available on all major pod