Are Psychedelics the Shortcut to Enlightenment?
Why We Need to Stop Leaning on Tools and Start Awakening the Power Within
It’s hard to miss the shift happening in society right now. Everywhere you turn, there’s a growing conversation about psychedelics—their power to heal, to awaken, to connect.
They’re being hailed as a path to enlightenment, a way to transcend the limits of the mind and body, and to feel the oneness of all things.
And while there’s no denying the incredible breakthroughs these substances can offer, it raises a deeper question: Are we leaning on psychedelics as a crutch to shortcut the path to self-discovery?
The truth is, enlightenment doesn’t come from the experience alone. It comes from what you do with it.
It’s the integration. The reflection. The action. The willingness to face yourself without judgment. THAT is what leads to real transformation.
It’s like dreaming of being a basketball star and waking up expecting to have all the skills magically downloaded into you overnight...
…it doesn’t work that way.
True mastery, whether on the court or in life, comes from consistent practice, deliberate effort, and the ability to learn from both successes and failures.
Yes, psychedelics can dissolve the illusion of separation, showing us that we are infinite beings, interconnected, and part of something much greater. They can give us a glimpse of the vast potential that exists within us.
They can spark creativity, open the heart, and disrupt the logical mind’s tight grip on reality. They can offer a new perspective, one with possibilities and profound interconnectedness, one you may not have been able to see until the trip opened your eyes to it.
But the experience itself is not the transformation.
It’s merely an invitation.
Let’s stay on this basketball analogy for a moment. Imagine you have a vision of yourself as a professional basketball player. It’s been a dream of yours, but you’ve never thought it could actually be possible. Then, during this profound experience, you gain a deep, undeniable knowing—holy shit, this is possible for me.
That vision is powerful, but what comes next is what truly matters.
You now have to seek out a coach, practice every day, learn the game, refine your skills, and constantly integrate and iterate. The dream doesn’t just become reality on its own, and the vision doesn’t magically solve all your problems.
It’s what you do afterward—the work, the commitment, the dedication—that makes the transformation real.
Another example is when someone goes to a psychic, and the psychic tells them they’re going to find love, achieve great success, make a lot of money, or step into the spotlight. What the psychic is reading is a possibility—a potential future that could be true.
But there is a catch they don’t tell you about: it still requires physical action on your part to bring it to life. The problem is, hearing this can sometimes create a sense of complacency, making you think, I don’t have to do anything; it’ll just happen.
The issue is that so many people chase the feeling of the vision over and over again, instead of doing the work to bring it into their everyday lives. They chase the high of the trip—the grounded sense of knowing, oneness, or clarity they believe they can’t access without it. Or they seek external validation from others, like a psychic telling them, “You’re destined for greatness,” or “You’re a star.” It feels good in the moment, like a hit of reassurance, but it becomes a cycle of dependency.
They’re chasing the feeling instead of doing the work to embody the reality. The high of being told you’re special, or the temporary sense of connection during a trip, doesn’t mean much if you don’t integrate it into who you are.
Validation and clarity from external sources might spark something, but they won’t sustain you.
That sustainability comes from within—through the daily, often unglamorous work of becoming the person who doesn’t just hear they’re a star but lives it in their actions, decisions, and presence every single day.
And if this is you, it’s not your fault. You’re not taught how to actually do this on your own. You don’t get the full tools for integration. And without them, you’re left with an incredible experience that you don’t know how to translate into real change.
It’s just like thinking that saying an affirmation in the mirror every day is going to undo all the programming and beliefs you’ve taken on in your life. Sure, it can be a piece of the puzzle, but it’s not enough on its own.
It’s just not how the brain works….
Ayahuasca, psychedelics—it’s the same thing, just wrapped in a different costume. They’re tools in your toolbox, not the solution. It becomes something you chase instead of something you embody.
Without the work to ground those revelations, they remain abstract and disconnected from the reality of who you are and how you live. The true magic isn’t in the tool—it’s in how you use it to transform your habits, beliefs, and actions. Otherwise, it’s just another moment of clarity that fades as quickly as it came.
Now, let me be clear—I’m not here hating on these things. If you feel called to explore them, then go for it! Nothing is inherently good or bad; it just is.
These tools can help you access deeper layers of yourself, gain clarity, and unlock new perspectives. They can offer incredible insights and breakthroughs, but they’re not the thing that’s going to fix everything or transform your life on their own.
That work still belongs to you.
These tools are meant to support your journey, not carry it for you. The real danger lies in mistaking the tool for the power itself, in believing that the transformation you seek exists outside of you rather than within.
YOU ARE THE POWER.
Because the real truth is you don’t need any of the “tools” to access it, you have the ability to access it all on your own.
Psychedelics are just one way to access what’s already within you. But the key is that it is WHAT IS ALREADY INSIDE OF YOU!
The real magic happens when you realize that you don’t need anything external to step into your full power.
I see it too often people are jumping from one form of escapism to another, depending on what’s trendy or socially accepted at the time.
First, it was hustle culture, where your worth was tied to how busy you could be. Then came meditation, marketed as the fix-all for stress and disconnection. Now, psychedelics are being hailed as the new answer to enlightenment and healing.
But they’re all the same—just different flavors of the same pattern.
These are subtle but powerful ways of giving your power away, handing it over to something outside of yourself. Whether it’s hustle, meditation, psychedelics, affirmations, or external validation, the common thread is this: you’re outsourcing your clarity, connection, and worth instead of cultivating it within.
The issue isn’t with the tools themselves—it’s with the dependency they create.
The experience becomes a crutch, something you keep returning to for guidance or relief, instead of learning how to access your own power, intuition, and alignment every single day.
True empowerment doesn’t come from jumping to the next trend. It comes from breaking the cycle of external reliance and realizing that everything you’re searching for is already within you.
The tools are just that—tools—not the source of your transformation.
YOU ARE.
The psychedelic experience isn’t meant to be the end-all. It’s meant to show you what’s possible—a glimpse of what lies within you.
But it’s up to you to take that knowing and turn it into action, to build the skills, the habits, and the mindset of the person you’re becoming.
Transformation doesn’t happen because of the trip—it happens because of what you choose to do next.
The real shift happens in the days, weeks, and months that follow. It’s what you do with what you’ve seen, felt, and understood.
It’s in the conversations you have, the choices you make, the fears you confront, the limiting beliefs you dismantle, and the courage to finally face what you’ve been sweeping under the rug for years. It’s about taking those profound realizations and turning them into a lived experience—one step, one choice, one moment at a time.
Transformation isn’t a destination you arrive at. It’s a process you embody.
The real work starts when you come back to your everyday life, grounded in your human experience. It’s about showing up as that version of yourself, not just during a peak moment, but every single day. No substances, no shortcuts, just you, fully stepping into your power. That’s where the magic really happens.
Can you carry that oneness into your relationships?
Can you remember your humanity in moments of frustration or fear?
Can you honor your body, your emotions, and your journey without bypassing the lessons they offer?
The real work is awakening to your uniqueness—your innate creativity, your individuality, and what makes you you. It’s about coming back to yourself and learning to love all the parts of who you are.
The human experience isn’t about needing something external to access your divinity. The point is to awaken to the power that’s always been within you.
That said, for some—especially those deeply rooted in logic and structure—these tools can play a crucial role in kickstarting the journey. They can help disrupt rigid patterns, spark curiosity about the world and your place in it, and open doors to new perspectives that might have previously felt out of reach.
In my coaching sessions this is exactly what I help my clients do every single day. I teach them how to see the world differently—how to uncover the lessons, growth, and miracles that exist in every moment. I teach them how to use the day-to-day experiences of life to access exactly what they need to shift, grow, evolve, and become the person they’re meant to be. I do this with nothing external, only using the present to uncover and transform.
Life isn’t happening to you; it’s happening for you. This is the basis of my practice.
Every experience, every person, every interaction is designed to support your growth and evolution. The problem is, most people don’t know how to play the game of life—and that’s exactly what I teach: the rules, the strategy, and how to truly master it.
Everything. And I mean everything. Is offering you something. Every moment holds a lesson, a gift, or an opportunity to propel you forward, but only if you know how to see it, dissect it, and understand it.
In my experience, the real shift doesn’t happen during the meditation, the trip, or the morning routine. Those are moments of insight, but they’re not where transformation takes root. The true shift happens in the day-to-day—in the hard moments, in the overcoming, in the implementation. It’s in addressing the old wounds you’ve been carrying, in sitting with the emotions you’d rather avoid, and in choosing to grow through discomfort instead of bypassing it.
The magic isn’t in escaping life to find clarity; it’s in learning to live fully, to embrace the challenges, and to see every experience as an integral step in your evolution. That’s where the game is truly played—and where you win.
So many of us fall into a victim mentality, believing that life is against us, that it’s random or unfair. But the truth is, life is constantly giving you exactly what you’ve asked for—you just haven’t learned how to decode the way it communicates. There are no such thing as coincidences.
Once you know how to dissect its language, you start to see the bigger picture, to recognize how life is always working in your favor, even in the challenging moments.
This is the real meaning of empowerment. It is learning to see the world through this lens, where every setback is a setup for growth, every challenge is an opportunity, and every moment is infused with purpose.
I get it, this sounds cliché. Everyone says, “It’s all a lesson,” but the difference is you don’t have to wait for hindsight to make sense of it all. You can learn to see the lesson in the moment, as it’s happening. This shift doesn’t just give you clarity—it reduces stress, burnout, and frustration.
Instead of staying stuck in negative emotions, you can process them in real-time. Feel the emotion, identify the lesson, and shift into action—all in seconds.
It’s not about dismissing what’s hard or pretending everything’s fine with a “could have been worse” attitude. It’s about genuinely transforming how you experience life, making real, actionable changes as they unfold, not after the fact.
When you start to see life this way, everything changes.
You’re no longer reacting—you’re creating. You’re no longer surviving—you’re thriving.
And that is how you master the game of life.
But the true transformation happens when you learn to access those states on your own—when you tap into that openness, creativity, and connection in your daily life without relying on a substance.
The real test is life itself. Life is the true meditation.
If you can only find peace and clarity while sitting on your meditation pillow but spend the rest of your day as a stressed, raging mess, it might be time to ask yourself:
How can I bring that sense of stillness and balance into every moment of my life?
What is every trigger trying to show me?
If I’m a match to experience it, what does that reveal about what I’ve created—and how can I learn from it to create something new?
How could the emotion that’s coming up be reflecting how I’m treating or being toward myself?
What would change if I approached this situation with curiosity instead of resistance?
These questions aren’t about blame; they’re about empowerment. They invite you to reflect, understand, and take ownership of your inner and outer worlds—because when you do, you unlock the ability to shift them both.
Meditation isn’t just about the time you spend in silence; it’s about how you show up in the chaos, in the challenges, and in the moments that test your patience and resolve. The goal isn’t to escape the stress but to learn how to carry the peace you cultivate into everything you do—so that life itself becomes the meditation.
Enlightenment isn’t about escaping reality; it’s about embracing it fully. It’s not about suppressing emotions or chasing constant happiness. We came here to experience the full spectrum of being human—and that includes all the emotions, the highs and the lows, the joy and the pain.
It’s about recognizing that you are, and always have been, the source of the power, creativity, and connection you seek. It’s not something external to be found—it’s something within you, waiting to be realized.
The magic isn’t in the tool itself. If you want to use it to kickstart your journey, to spark curiosity, or to break old patterns, that’s great. But don’t turn it into a crutch, relying on it to provide what you already possess.
The true transformation lies in your ability to embody the lessons, integrate the insights, and show up as your most authentic self—consistently and unapologetically—every single day. That’s where the real magic happens.
And That Brings Me to Intuition
We all have intuition. And not just in the way of a gut feeling or a passing thought.
Intuition is a tool—a powerful, innate ability that I believe is one of the most important tools we possess. And like any skill, intuition can be trained, refined, and mastered.
It’s not reserved for the psychics of the world; it’s available to all of us. But, just like learning any skill, we have to understand how to use it effectively.
Your intuition can guide you, you can ask it the right questions, provide clarity, heal, and even quantum leap your life into new levels of possibility.
We’re all familiar with physics and the laws that govern the physical world. But what if I told you there’s another set of principles, just as real but far less understood? Something energetic, something deeply connected? What if I told you that telepathy and intuitive knowing aren’t just sci-fi concepts? They’re real, and they’re accessible to everyone.
I haven’t personally listened to the Telepathy Tapes yet, but I know they’re all the rage right now. What if I told you we could all do what those incredible autistic kids are doing? Would you believe me?
I know it sounds wild, but I’ve experienced it myself.
Cutting back to 2021, after my awakening (if you’re curious about the details, you can check out the first episode of my podcast) but in short, I had a life-altering realization. This awakening completely shifted how I saw life and propelled me into my own healing journey, reprogramming my beliefs, following my dreams, and ultimately transforming my life. And a huge part of that transformation was learning to tap into my intuition.
Now, if you’d told me five years ago that I’d be doing what I do now—and talking about intuition—I would have thought you were crazy.
I was following this girl on Instagram who was posting about a course she was offering. The course was all about intuition. Something about it caught my attention, even though I didn’t fully understand what intuition really was. I had this strange, unexplainable feeling—a pull, a calling, like, “Okay, if there’s still a spot open tomorrow, I’m going to sign up for it.” It made no logical sense, but I couldn’t shake it.
The next day, she posted that the course was fully booked, so I figured that was it. But later that night, she posted something like: “If someone out there was thinking about taking this course but saw it was full and decided to let it go, message me. We can open up a spot just for you.”
When I saw that, I froze. I knew it was for me. I messaged her and she opened up a spot just for me, and that’s how I ended up in this intuition course.
Now, this wasn’t just any course. It was about intuition, yes, but it went so much deeper than I ever could have imagined. It was about learning to use your intuition to access parts of yourself you didn’t know were there. To channel your higher self, source, read thoughts, uncover limiting beliefs, find your purpose, read energy, and learn how to read different parts of the body.
On the very first day of the course, I was able to tap into my intuition and use it in ways that blew my mind. It wasn’t just me, either. It was everyone in the class. This is something we all have the ability to do. I’m not special. We’re already using our intuition every single day—we just don’t know how to recognize it, listen to it, trust it, or how to really speak to it.
What I’ve learned is that accessing and using your intuition isn’t reserved for a select few. It’s part of our birthright. It’s a tool we’ve been given to navigate life, to heal, and to grow. Once you learn how to access it, it can completely change the way you live your life, just like it changed mine.
With love and gratitude,
Stephanie