Berkeley’s psychedelic rebbe is ready for the first Jewish cannabis retreat – The Jewish News of Northern California

A few years ago, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz of Berkeley was a novice to psychedelic substances. But after a life-changing experience as a subject in a Johns Hopkins study of psychedelic experiences in clergy, hes now a leading voice in a growing movement to normalize the use of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) in the practice of Jewish spirituality.

In 2019, he told J., Someday, I see a space, maybe in the East Bay, where people can have safe and supported psychedelic experiences individually, and then integrate those experiences in a community that is invested in the application of mystical experiences with other people. This is total science fiction because it doesnt exist.

It does now. Or at least, it will for a few days later this month. Kamenetz is seeking applicants to participate in a trial run of what such a space would look like the first Jewish psychedelic cannabis Shabbaton, to take place July 22-24 at Urban Adamah, the Jewish farm in Berkeley.

The Shabbaton is a program of Shefa, the organization Kamenetz founded in the early days of the pandemic to advocate for the use of psychedelics to heal personal and intergenerational trauma in the Jewish people.

Cannabis isnt usually thought of in the same category of psychedelics as LSD or psilocybin, but it does have the benefit of being legal in California.

There are questions of what is a psychedelic, Kamenetz told J. In this instance its a shorthand for not only the substance but the setting.

In psychedelic parlance, the setting refers to the physical and social environment in which an experience takes place.

The event will begin Friday night with Shabbat candle lighting and a breath work ceremony to ease people in, Kamenetz said. Working with breath can be psychedelic itself, mood and mind altering.

The participants up to 25 of them will then spend the rest of Shabbat together on Saturday. After Shabbat ends on Saturday evening, they will begin a cannabis ceremony that will last five to six hours. Its BYO weed, but Kamenetz and his collaborators who include experienced facilitators from the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness are offering suggestions of strains available from your local dispensary.

Were being thoughtful about this. Its not like just smoking a joint on your couch and watching TV, Kamenetz said. And afterward, on Sunday, people will start talking in groups about what they encountered and experienced. Were hoping that the Jewishness of the setting and the programming will have some impact or shift on peoples desire to make their psychedelic experience or life more Jewishly rich.

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Berkeley's psychedelic rebbe is ready for the first Jewish cannabis retreat - The Jewish News of Northern California