The True Light Of Darkness

Storytelling and visionary medicines are fundamental aspects of the human experience. The latter takes us to places beyond ourselves, into realms of the mind unplumbed, unfathomable, and often unpleasant. The former allows us to share such experiences with each other. It unlocks personal experiences from the individuated shell and releases them into the collective, whereby we can learn from them together.

From the author of Decomposing The Shadow: Lessons From The Psilocybin Mushroom (2013) comes a captivating and vulnerable exposé into the dark recesses of the human psyche. This book follows James W. Jesso as he recounts in three of his most turbulent and dark experiences with visionary mushrooms. Through story, he takes us along as he travels through depression, self-loathing, inadequacy and feeling unable to love, and out the other side into confidence, courage, and inspiration.

From daytime trips with friends gone sour, beyond a night rife with psychotic breaks, and into the watery confines of facing depression in a sensory deprivation tank, The True Light Of Darkness is a vehicle of insight on what it means to ask to be broken in the hopes of finding wholeness.

His ability to re-create the journey in compelling detail, combined with his own observations made during and later while integrating the insights is accurate, savvy and sensitive. He directly confronts his deepest demons: self-loathing and being unable to love with courage, candor and even a sense of humor. A welcome addition to the mapping of consciousness.”

– James Fadiman, Ph.D., Microdose Researcher and Author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic and Sacred Journeys

Jesso gives language to the highs and lows, the mystical intuitions and the transmissions from within, but he crafts the delivery in an everyman style that you can relate to, and you will certainly want to read.”

– Rak Razam, Writer/Producer of Aya: Awakenings