About

My guest today is Zac Kamenetz. Zac is a rabbi, community leader, and aspiring psychedelic chaplain based in Berkeley, CA. He holds an MA in Biblical literature and languages from UC Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union and received rabbinic ordination in 2012. He is also the founder of the Shefa Foundation, for Psychedelic therapy grounded in Jewish spirituality. He was part of a psilocybin study that dosed clergy of various traditions with psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in psilocybin mushrooms. This conversation is not only exploring new territory like judaism and psychedelics. Zac and I talk the future of psychedelic therapy, in Zac case that could be jewish psychedelic teraphy, with a “jewish set and setting” as Zac describes it. We talk epigenetic trauma and experinces, the new openeness towards religions and psychedelics and why there might be the new health clubs shuls one day. Zac and I talk about how non-jewish people, like me, should start talking to other non- jewish people about the Holocaust, and how psychedelic insight can contribute to this: the recognition and the embracing of pain, guilt and responsibility. I did not expect the conversation and the podcast with Zac would turn into a psychedelic integration session. For me. But the german and jewish history is something that has been on my mind since forever. And now it is time to bring it back as a result of a psychedelic experiences. https://www.shefaflow.org/ https://2021.jewishpsychedelicsummit.org/