Truth, Love and Psychedelic Healing with Michael Ryoshin Sapiro

Jan 5, 2026

Michael Ryoshin Sapiro, an ordained Zen Buddhist monk and clinical psychologist, dives into the transformative power of truth and psychedelics. He discusses intergenerational trauma and how ancestral wisdom shapes our experiences. Sapiro elaborates on truth as a healing medicine and the importance of self-love and compassion. He introduces the concept of the COST stance for approaching difficult inner work and emphasizes integrating nondual experiences into daily life. Through his insights, he encourages fostering kindness and community service as a path to collective healing.

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INSIGHT

Ancestral Presence In Healing

Ancestors transmit both trauma and resilience; sessions often include ancestral presences that can be engaged therapeutically.
Michael encourages forming a relationship with ancestral parts to ask what they need and co-heal.

ADVICE

Use Medicine For Information, Not Spectacle

Focus psychedelic work on the information it reveals, not on the flashy experience itself.
Use session material to identify core beliefs and life changes that promote healing and thriving.

ADVICE

CO S T: A Stance For Difficult Sessions

Adopt the C.O.S.T. stance: Curiosity, Openness, Surrender, Trust when approaching difficult inner material.
If dysregulated, first apply grounding interventions before resuming exploration with those attitudes.

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Truth, Love and Psychedelic Healing with Michael Ryoshin Sapiro

Dr. Michael Ryoshin Sapiro, PsyD, is an ordained Zen Buddhist monk, clinical psychologist, psychedelic psychotherapist, and author of Truth Medicine: Healing and Living Authentically through Psychedelic Psychotherapy. A Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and longtime meditation teacher and researcher, he works extensively with special operations veterans, first responders, and others on the front lines of trauma and service. His work weaves Buddhism, depth psychology, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy into a path of personal awakening for the sake of collective transformation.

In this conversation, Mike explores truth as a form of medicine—touching on intergenerational trauma, shame and shadow, self-love, nondual awareness, and how psychedelics and meditation can help us live more coherently, compassionately, and wholeheartedly.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:15 Intergenerational trauma and ancestral wisdom
00:08:19 Truth as medicine
00:11:39 Psychedelics, information, and, integrating the message
00:16:15 Yoga, truth, and, nonviolence in the inner terrain
00:19:30 Family, culture, and, the deeper levels of truth
00:24:21 How we run from the truth, shadow work and Jung
00:36:07 Self-compassion before and beyond the medicine
00:39:09 Ego death, nondual states and spiritual emergency
00:46:25 Training mind, body, and, heart and building awareness
00:55:28 Hope, faith, and, showing up with kindness
00:59:53 Wholeness and the spectrum of balance
01:05:21 Final thoughts

New Thinking Allowed Guest Host Leanne Whitney, PhD, is a depth psychologist and transformational coach based in Los Angeles, CA. She is the author of Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali and currently serves as Executive Director of Center for Transformation and Integration. Her website is https://leannewhitney.com/

To learn about Leanne Whitney’s Transformational Coaching Certification Course with an emphasis in Somatic Integration Therapy, please visit: https://transformationandintegration.com/courses

Producer: Elena McNally
Editor: John Hartmann
(Recorded on October 20, 2025)

To order Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali by Leanne Whitney, go to: https://amzn.to/2QY3tS2

To order Michael Ryoshin Sapiro’s Truth Medicine: Healing and Living Authentically Through Psychedelic Psychotherapy , go to: https://amzn.to/3K1D2Zv