The Cowboy Psychotherapist

Dear Listeners,

Welcome back to Psychedelic Wisdom – a Mind Body Health & Politics production. This publication features insights gleaned from thousands of psychedelic experiences of healing, creativity, connection, and consciousness expansion. I invite you to become a monthly subscriber or, if your budget allows it, a founding member.

As a member of our tribe, your financial support will help sustain my team as we continue to provide bold, unabashed interviews on topics that require careful handling. In this installment, I interview Tommy Lewis Pool – a brave and compassionate healer from West Texas – who shares his story of personal awakening with the help of psychedelic medicines, despite the strong stigma they carry in his neck of the woods.

Tommy came to us as a listener of this program. He heard our call for healing stories and felt compelled to join our growing tribe – sharing his journey publically for the first time. While the idea of psychedelic medicine is gaining broader acceptance in some pockets of the country (thanks in part to our efforts) it remains taboo in other places like Texas. Putting legal issues aside, even discussing the healing potential of psychedelics can carry heavy social consequences in certain professions.

Tommy is a psychotherapist and addiction specialist with approximately 30 years in the field working to heal others, and credits his early psychedelic use for his career path and life purpose. I was especially moved by his description of the sense of “oneness” he feels with all those he works with – even young children and psychiatric patients experiencing psychosis.

With our nation as divided as it is today, we need hundreds if not thousands of unifying healers like Tommy. I applaud his courage in sharing this story and invite my listeners to reach out to him to offer additional encouragement. He can be reached by email at tommylpool@gmail.com.

Stay tuned in, and thank you for listening and/or reading.

Wishing you Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

Listen to the entire interview free of charge, or read the summary highlights for subscribers only below:

We are all singing with you -Tommy Pool

Transcript

Dr. Richard Louis Miller: Welcome to Mind Body Health & Politics. The mission of Mind Body Health & Politics is to enhance your mental and physical wellbeing and encourage community. And what I mean by encouraging community is that I believe that human beings are basically friendly tribal animals. And when we associate together in small enough groups, where we know everyone, either by face or name, we are cooperative and collaborative. That may be the best way for us to associate in small enough groups. There are also within us a very small percentage, who are not cooperative and collaborative. They're predators. They are motivated by power and greed. And it's our job as the friendly, cooperative, loving collective to make certain that these people do not take control, as they have in many countries of the world. 

Witness the Russian Revolution in 1917, in which a very small group calling themselves the Communist Party took over the country and maintained control for decades. They maintained control for so long that people were born within their totalitarian regime, and they died within that regime knowing nothing else. But when the wall came down in Berlin and then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics broke up, that came to an end, except for one big country named Russia, which we still have to deal with.

But what about in our country? What about those of us who represent the 95% or even higher, who are friendly, cooperative, and loving – what do we do about the predators, the power-hungry in our country? What do we do about the fact that for the first time, perhaps, in all of American history, our Capitol was besieged by insurrectionists? And we're now in a situation where the predatory group are attempting to convince the public that that never happened. Or, perhaps, it was just a group of "patriots" trying to do a patriotic act by storming the Capitol. What's resulted is a division in our country that is very painful and causing a lot of problems. 

All thinking people need to consider this and consider what we're going to do to maintain the Democratic Republic that has been our experiment for well over 200 years. Are we going to maintain it or are we going to turn into some form of totalitarian, fascist state with a dictator, instead of a president? I would like to hear from you about this. I'd like to know your thoughts. Send us an email and share some of your thoughts on this very important topic.

And now, to our interview. Today, with us is Tommy Pool. He's coming to us from Lubbock, Texas. Maybe he can shed some light on what's going down in Texas. He's going to share some stories about his life that I'm sure you're going to find interesting. Welcome to Mind Body Health & Politics, Tommy.

Tommy Lewis Pool: Thank you. Thank you, Richard.

Dr. Richard Louis Miller: So, what's going on in Lubbock, Texas?