In this episode, Joe and special guest, Court Wing, interview Tommy Aceto: former Navy Seal and trauma medic, NCAA athlete, Michigan State Champion Wrestler, and now, psychedelic advocate and ambassador for the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition.

He discusses his journey from childhood to wanting to become a SEAL, and the toll that military life and its programming can take on a person: how a life built on high levels of endurance, deprivation, and constantly surviving in a fight-or-flight mindset often manifests in Operator Syndrome, chronic pain, depression, and addiction. Veterans are seeing the potential of psychedelics to rewire their brains and allow them to process pain differently, by allowing them to feel emotions they were trained to turn off: “You’ve got to feel to heal.”

Aceto discusses:

• The affirmation and approval many who join the military seek, and how that often translates into needing to stay at certain levels of risk to truly feel alive
• The similarities between soldiers and professional athletes and high performers
• Dealing with chronic pain, and how forcing movement is often the best tactic
• The Controlled Substances Act and how opioids became a business
• Why the most important thing vets can do today is to tell their healing stories

and more!

Links

Givetogivefoundation.org

Vmhlc.org

Imdb.com: Vision Quest

YouTube: Journey – Only the Young

Martinpolancomd.com

The Breakthrough Therapies Act

Royalsreview.com: Remembering Mike Sweeney

The Controlled Substances Act

Holotropic Breathwork: A New Approach to Self-Exploration and Therapy, by Stanislav Grof & Christina Grof

Psychedelicsandpain.org

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, by Johann Hari

Si.com: The Ugly End of an All-Pro Career, the Uglier Start of a Life After Football

Dolenlab.org

PT311 – William Leonard Pickard – LSD, Fentanyl, Prison, and the Greatest Gift of All: The Natural Mind

The Rose Of Paracelsus: On Secrets & Sacraments, by William Leonard Pickard

Humboldt.edu: Sue Sisley

Book links are affiliate links, meaning that Psychedelics Today will receive a percentage of the sale.