Dear Flying Sage Friends,
I am wishing that all of you reading this have smoothly landed into 2024.
Today, I want to provide a recap of what 2023 looked like for us. I wanted to reflect on the challenges and the wins! The difficult moments and the times where it felt like things were smoothly sailing. In this edition I discuss our community stats from 2023, the connections we created as well as some key personal moments for me.
The Wins
Taking Flight
On multiple occasions, mentors and advisors on my path have asked me the same question…
“Is The Flying Sage flying yet?”
Despite having fairly steady growth over the last couple years, I have always been reluctant to say yes. For a long time, a lot of the growth was dependent on the hours I was putting into the organization and as such, it did not feel to me like we were in the air just yet.
I am really happy that now, that appears to have changed… and here’s why…
The community has really started to take on a life of its own thanks to consistency and the solid support from many people showing up to help steer The Flying Sage to towards it’s mission.
Although there is a lot of work left to do, it almost feels like we’ve pushed a big boulder to the top of a mountain and now it is starting its slow descent down the other side.
A slow and bumpy free fall…until the next mountain appears on the horizon I’m sure…
The Breakdown
In January of 2023, we were hosting about 5-6 events per month in Vancouver. By the end of the year, we started offering 4-5 events per week.
In 2023, we issued 2,282 tickets in total and ran 156 events. We also launched our first virtual events.
We recorded and published 9 podcast episodes through The Flying Sage Podcast.
Reached about 150 contributing members in our Membership Platform.
Hosted our biggest Cold Plunge Challenge yet with over 240 people signed up and 75 people completing all 11 weeks of the challenge.
Co-hosted, Afterglow in Denver, our largest event to date in collaboration with Psygaia all while attending the largest psychedelic conference in history, Psychedelic Science.
Created our first Wizard Boxes
Hired our first two contractors, Usama & Gabi who have been helping out a lot.
Attended the second annual Canadian Psychedelic Summit
Launched our Community Leader Program, inviting ten facilitators in Vancouver to join us on our journey of growth and transformation.
Added new guides to our practitioner of psychedelic guides.
We donated $500 to MAPS Canada to support psychedelic research.
Launched a Psychedelic Business Mastermind.
Launched our first Psychedelics 101 Course.
Joined forces with the Vancouver Psychedelic Society to form one organization.
The Magic of Group Containers
Something in particular that really stood out to me this past year was the magnitude of transformation resulting from shared experiences that I witnessed in the community. In particular, it became clear that when people attending our events already knew each other, they were able to go deeper into the experience as a collective.
I have always understood group experiences of altered states to have particular benefits over individual sessions but it was truly special to witness this unfolding in community.
It’s one thing to be in a group setting with people you don’t know. I would argue this comes with it’s own benefits compared to solo work.
But it is another thing entirely to be in a group setting with people that are part of your community. People you have journeyed with before. People that have been vulnerable in a past circle and shared authentic parts of themselves. People that have offered you a ride home after an event. People that have invited you over to dinner to meet their partner and discuss life. People that have previously facilitated a ceremony for you but are now journeying alongside you. People that have offered their shoulder to cry on.
Being surrounded by true community means you can actually go deeper into these transformative processes. You can surrender more into the experience because you feel safer among friends than among strangers.
This is at the essence of what we are trying to achieve with The Flying Sage community and it is amazing to see it unfolding.
The Challenges
We have yet to witness any significant adverse experiences in our community but that does not mean we have not faced challenges.
Despite being thousands of miles away from the major wars, the struggles faced by our global community have been felt immensely. Our interconnectivity has been revealed time and time again. For many months now, war has been become an increasingly significant part of the human reality. Such a stark contrast to the privilege with which we get to explore in our community here in Vancouver. A contrast of freedom and safety.
Zooming into our little bubble here in Vancouver, here are some challenges we face with growing The Flying Sage…
Dosing: Everyone is unique when it comes to medicine consumption. Although The Flying Sage only works with microdoses, we are still very cautious and attentive to people’s varying needs. After running many microdose events now, we recognize that roughly 5% of people will be especially sensitive to medicine. It’s been a slight challenge to navigate these differences and make sure everyone feels safe with their dose
Bad Actors: Over the past few years, we have had to ask two individuals in the peripherals of the community not to engage further due to safety concerns from other members of the community. Although these conversations can be a bit challenging, the real challenge comes with creating a fair and responsive system that can carefully navigate these interpersonal situations. This is something we are working on now.
Scaling Events: Events take a lot of energy to plan. Especially when our focus is 90% in-person. It’s something that we have developed a really good system for but we can always get better. It’s been a challenge thinking about how best to increase our event offerings. How many events is too many events? How can you maintain authenticity and connection in containers as they grow past 100 people?
Other Key Moments
Here are some other key moments from this past year for me personally…
Helping Hands: Simply witnessing more experienced and senior members of the community reaching out to support others in need in significant ways. Forms of support that would not exist without the community fabric we have co-created.
Tearing Up: During our New Year’s ceremony, I had a few beautiful moments where a lot of emotion came up recognizing the vision of The Flying Sage materialize before my eyes. The power of authentic relating. The privilege to be in this amazing city. To heal together. It’s amazing to have those emotions held so thoughtfully.
The Afterglow of Afterglow: Driving home with Louis and Jack after organizing our first epic conscious rave in Denver! What a journey that was.
Hiring Gabi: Getting to a point to hire our first Community Manager is a huge milestone. I am very grateful for this.
Gratitude
Speaking of gratitude, everything I listed above would not have been possible without the amazing support from the wonderful humans that make up our community. In no particular order…
All of our valued members (Mushroom, Sage and Wizard)
Brittany Ostash, Cassie, Laura Rose, Ping, Matthew and all of our other event volunteers
Kol for your keen devotion to the mission and being of support
My partner Gabrielle for her endless support and care
Max for your support with video!
Mehran for your friendship, trust and generosity
Our generous sponsors!
Damian Durda for your endless generosity
Frank and Frank for bringing some turtle wisdom to the community
Marcus for supporting with our first Wizard Boxes
Kiem, Mark and Ivan for your helpful and timely advice
My mom for always supporting and coming our to a few Expansion Seminars
All the brave people who participated in our Cold Plunge Challenge
Gabo for his consistent support and energy as our most engaged Community Leader
Doron and Tricia for your constant love and support
Valtteri for the saunas and chats
All of our Community Leaders
Rea for creative support
Jasmyn, Kaan, Navin, Ian, Brendon, Perspectiv, Abneet, Aravind, Bettina, Tara, Eda, Masa and all the other facilitators that have chosen to collaborate with us this past year…
Thank you so much! 🤍
Farewell Until Next Time
I hope you have enjoyed this first of The Flying Sage Journal for 2024. If you would like to read more things like this, please consider subscribing and sharing this with a friend. Also, please check out my new personal website here with a lot of new offerings I have.
I would LOVE to hear any feedback you have on this newsletter and what I have shared. Please feel free to reach out to me directly: michael@theflyingsage.ca
With psychedelic love and gratitude,
- Michael 🤍
Love you brotha! Nice recap and epic year!