329-SYNCPodcast_MelissaOsorio

Jenny Swisher: [00:00:00] Welcome friends to this [00:01:00] episode of The Sink Your Life podcast. Today I’m joined by my friend Melissa Osorio. She’s the bestselling author of Hidden Memories, which I’m sure we’ll touch on today. She’s a mental health ambassador and a psychedelic therapy advocate. This is a topic that interestingly just keeps popping up for me in my own personal migraine and chronic pain journey and something that I’ve been sort of researching myself.

And so for her to cross my path and for this to be her area of expertise, we actually had the chance to connect a week or so ago. Um, and so I got the chance to sort of ask her some questions and, and learn more about this, just one-on-one. And I can’t wait for my listeners to hear this ’cause I think this is sort of.

Cutting edge. Honestly, it’s, it’s just now sort of hitting mainstream topics. Doctors like Dr. Sarah Gottfried is talking more about the use of psychedelics. Dr. Mark Hyman is talking more about the use of psychedelics in healing, and you guys know that I am a huge, um, advocate of what I call the fundamentals of hormone balance.

And one of those fundamentals is really just understanding our traumas and navigating that journey and how much. It really does play a role in our overall physical health, [00:02:00] and so I’m excited to kind of make these connections today with Melissa. So Melissa, welcome to the show if you would. Hi, share with my listeners, like who you are and what you do.

Melissa Osorio: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here and as you mentioned, I, I happen to. Really stumble and fall very deeply into an area that, um, is growing tremendously the last few years, which is psychedelic assisted therapy. Um, I say I stumbled and then fall deeply in it because it was unexpected.

Um, however, my life path led me there, uh, and. My own life was without a doubt, um, change and saved by psychedelic assisted therapy. So that, um, as it normally happens, you know, when we find something that is so tremendously helpful, life changing to us, then we’re inspired to, to really follow that path and share with others.

And that’s how I ended up here today.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Yeah, [00:03:00] absolutely. I think, you know, I say this often, but I, I love that the guests that I have on the show tend, you know, typically they’re here because of their own struggle, right. I know that’s the case for me when I’m, when I appear on other podcasts, they’re like, well, how did you get into hormone health?

And I always say. Very unfortunately, through my own journey and my own struggle. So, you know, above all else, that’s what matters most. This is, this is your, this is something that’s helped you heal. So let’s start with sort of just the basics. ’cause I have a feeling that a lot of my listeners are like, huh?

Like, when she says psychedelics, does she really mean psychedelics? Like, what, what are you talking about? So, let’s just start with understanding, like what, how would you define, um, psychedelic therapy?

Melissa Osorio: So, psychedelic therapy is the use of. Psychedelic substances for therapeutic purposes. Now, let me break that down a little bit.

Uh, the ones that I really specialize in and that have been the most transformational for me are natural psychedelic medicines. So they’re plant-based. Uh, the main one, uh, that has been very transformational is called ayahuasca. I’m sure we’ll talk a little bit more in [00:04:00] detail. Uh, there is also mushrooms, which are more commonly used.

Um, however, psychedelic therapy is not, let me go. To the festival and take some mushrooms with me and let me take some mushrooms and go dancing. That that is not what we mean by psychedelic therapy. So intention while you’re doing it is super important. Setting where you doing it is super important. And your mindset, right?

Like where are you in your mind? Are you wanting to just party? Are you ready to transform your life? Are you wanting to transcend some patterns of behavior? So those acts. Aspects are all very important. So what psychedelics do in a quick, simple, scientific way is they, uh, help you rewrite your brain. And in rewriting your brain many times, you’re able to, uh, recall experiences from your life that perhaps you have disconnected from.

They’re completely absent from your conscious awareness, or you [00:05:00] remember them, but you disconnected the emotions away from them. So there is not that emotional pull, but you have these memories that are random. You don’t know what you remember them, and that is because you disconnected the emotion. Uh, because it hurt.

So psychedelics allow for an environment in your brain and in your body where the activity in the fear center of your brain decreases and the activity between your rational brain and your memory center increases. So you’re able to see life from a different perspective, from a more expanded perspective with less fear holding you back.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah, the first time I ever heard about this, um, as far as, you know, psychedelic therapy was, well first, I, I, Dr. Like I said, Dr. Sarah Godfried has been talking more and more about it and how she thinks it will be soon finding its way into medicine, um, but also. I, I was listening to a, I think it was a Luke story podcast.

It was a really long episode where he went into his own personal story with Ayahuasca. And to be honest, [00:06:00] when I was listening to it, it was almost hard to believe like it was, it was almost like, I was like, is this, is this guy like off his rocker? Like what’s going on? He was talking about how I. You know, he had, he had memories during his experience of childbirth and these like, and these different things that he had experienced that he sort of processed in that, in that therapy.

So I’m excited. I, I’m excited to just dive into this with you. I know you have your own personal story with this, so could you tell us more about sort of what you’ve experienced as far as how it’s healed you and, and, and the changes that you’ve made with it?

Melissa Osorio: Well, I used to be, uh, a hundred percent skeptic, uh, to anything that was extraordinary.

I couldn’t explain with science or with my rational mind. Anything that even resembled a miracle, uh, will trigger me like miracles didn’t exist. Uh, you know, that’s, that was my own thought process, right? So I was very methodical and rational in my life, and that got me into trouble a lot. Um, and it also allowed me to stay alive, [00:07:00] right?

So every, every aspect of our personality has a side that is a positive side and a negative side if we label it that way. So, on the positive side, it made me very driven. It made me very much, uh, you know, experience oriented. Uh, I, I got far in life. Because I was very, you know, determined and, and rational.

But on the opposite side, where that took me was to a very empty place where I was searching for who I was based on outside perspectives. So approval from the outside success was measured just like the war me world measures there, right? Like. Money, beauty status. So I was measuring myself, um, you know, against those very high standards my entire life.

Um, and then it got to a point where I spiraled down, uh, almost to rock bottom. And in that point I became desperate enough to try something that was really uncomfortable for me, and that was psychedelic assisted [00:08:00] therapy. So when I go to that point where. You know, it was a mom. There was a moment in my life where I had been drinking nonstop every day, at least one or two bottles of wine, but still said I had no issues.

Right? Um, I was completely alone, no friends, uh, disconnected from my family. I was traveling the world to this amazing hotels and beautiful locations, meeting random people, trying to make them friends, um, not really living according to my values. So I was trying to fill my life with. External and it got so painful at one point that I realized.

I was going nowhere, like I was really at the end of a rope. And in that moment of desperation, like us humans, we have often two choices, right? There might be many ways that the choices show up, but it’s really two avenues. One is to continue going down the path you’re on, and the other one is to change path.

And it sounds super simple, but making that decision is, [00:09:00] is it, it takes time, but once you make it, you know it’s immediate, right? Change happens in an instant. It doesn’t happen in. You know, in a long time. So finally I got to that point and I decided to fly down to Costa Rica to a place that I had heard about in the past from different friends.

And, you know, I was very much involved in the Tony Robbins world. So people were talking about it there. And, um, yeah, so I go to this place in Costa Rica. I, I flew directly from Vegas. From being up to no good. Right. So I, I didn’t, I didn’t look, look at any recommendations before drinking Ayahuasca, what I was supposed to do.

Um, and I got there and very quickly I. I realized that my arrival there was important. It was important for me, and I felt at peace for the very first time. Of course, I didn’t know what was about to come right, but I knew I was in the right place. Um, and I followed that, and then I went full in, into the experience.[00:10:00]

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Yeah. I, um, I love that you’re sharing just your, you know, where you came from with this, because. I have a feeling what what really resonated with me was when you said, when you hit rock bottom, right? That’s, that’s when you had nowhere else to go. Like, and I resonate with that on so many levels because for me, as I mentioned to you in our personal phone call, like I’ve been struggling with chronic migraines, again, dealt with them in my twenties, di dealing with them now.

And I literally feel like when I say I’ve tried everything, I mean, I’ve tried everything, right? And I feel like I’ve seen all the neurologists, I’ve done the surgeries, I’ve done all the different like medical interventions I put in air quotes, right? Like all the different things and. For some reason, like this, this area of psychedelics is intriguing to me because I, that’s where I am as far as my chronic pain.

It’s like I’m in a place where it’s like, well, um, I’ve tried all these other things, like, how about plant-based psychedelics? It’s like, maybe this is something that I need to, to venture into. It’s, it’s so interesting how the world works. I’ve mentioned this on the podcast before. Um, I, when I, I was very reluctant to start this podcast in [00:11:00] 2021.

Um, in fact, my brand company that I work with was like, you gotta have a podcast. You, you know, you gotta, you got so much knowledge, you gotta share it. And I’m like. I don’t know. But what’s interesting is 350 episodes later, the people that have crossed my path for this podcast have shaped so much of my own personal health journey.

And so what’s so interesting is, you know, you and I chatted last week and then I had another gal that I spoke to on just a little pre-chat who also is, um, into this sort of different angle, not psychedelics, but trauma informed therapy and has written books on the topic and. And going deeper. And so I had both of your conversations back to back, and then today I have both of your interviews back to back.

And so it’s just interesting how the world works, right? How the universe works here. But, um, when you said that, it really resonated with me because I think, I think a lot of us, especially women who are listening to this podcast, we can definitely resonate with the idea that. You get to a point where maybe, like you said, you feel like you’re not really living according to your values, or, I find that women often live for other people before we live for ourselves, [00:12:00] right?

Like we wanna, we take care of other people, or we, we kind of just, you know, even just follow what our parents want us to do. Even from a, an earlier age, like there’s not, um, I can see this sort of transformation happening in a lot of the women that I’m surrounded by in my community, sort of in the midlife era.

Of like, where, wait, wait a minute. Like, um, is this really the life that I wanna be living? So I just wanted to call attention to that because also in my conversation with this other gal, um. We were talking about migraines and she said, you know, migraine tends to be, she was talking about chakras and she was talking about the root chakra, and she was talking about the fact that, you know, a lot of times it is tied to some form of trauma that just hasn’t been resolved.

That hasn’t been addressed. So I would love for you, you know, like I said, a lot of my listeners probably aren’t familiar with this idea of psychedelic healing, but also when, when we say ayahuasca, they’re probably like, what is she talking about? So can you also just share with us like. What is Ayahuasca?

Maybe explain that it’s a guided thing. Um, and then I’d like to go deeper with that.

Melissa Osorio: So, um, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Dr. [00:13:00] Gabor Mate, but he’s an an expert on trauma and the subject and he talks about, um, you know, trauma in a very interesting way. I actually quote him in my book and he mentions that conditions that plague humanity now, like for example, autoimmune diseases or migraines, you know, it’s not that the person has them, they.

Autoimmune diseases, the migraine, they are really just representations of what’s going on inside the body. So it’s a body trying to deal with something. And I do share very much the opinion of, of the person that you just mentioned, the gal you just mentioned, where many times the ailments that are reflected in our body, they’re coming because something inside is out of balance.

And yes, that lack of balance can come from, you know, from your community, what you eat, the environment that you’re in. Of course, that environmental environments they affect, but very, very often they really come from unprocessed emotions [00:14:00] linked to traumatic or difficult experiences. So to go back to, you know, why psychedelics are so powerful, um, let’s talk about for a second about talk therapy, right?

So, in talk therapy, we go to a psychiatrist or psychologist. We talk for, you know, one hour a week for 10 years, and we are retelling our story and looking for different angles and trying to get out of it with her head with psychedelic assisted therapy. You’re not doing that. What you’re doing is bypassing your conscious brain and going straight to the subconscious and more importantly to your body.

So your body is, um, a library that has stored every single experience you’ve ever had. Um, so those experiences are stored in the form of emotion. And when the emotions that are not processed, because you go through something really difficult, especially during childhood. ’cause during childhood, [00:15:00] we have very few tools that we have developed to deal with, you know, hardship.

So when the emotions are not processed, then they get stuck in different parts of the body and that reflects afterwards with symptoms. So ayahuasca is actually. You know, an incredibly, uh, beautiful and powerful, uh, plant. So it’s made up of two plants, a vine and a leaf, and they are combined together. Uh, so they work separate.

They wouldn’t do anything. They were combined together. Um, you know, so they work. And the reason why they were combined together, which I always like to briefly drop it in there because I find it’s fascinating, is, you know, imagine there is. Hundreds of thousands of different plants in the Amazons, um, perhaps millions.

And these Amazonian tribes actually. We’re told, they say by other plants that by mixing these two specific, a vine and a leaf that we call ayahuasca [00:16:00] today, this plant will be healing. So mix they work when they, you just take one or the other, the stomach actually breaks down the components, so they don’t do anything.

So ayahuasca, two plants is boiled into a thick type of brew or tea that you take in small shot glasses. Um, and the way that the, that the medicine works, as I mentioned, is that it will help you bypass your conscious brain. It will help you bypass your conditioning so you can really start seeing things from a different perspective.

So, um, psychedelic, the, the actual origin of the word is to reveal, um, you know, to reveal the psyche. And that’s exactly what they do. You start looking at. Past experiences from a different perspective. You perhaps for the first time, look at yourself for, for who you are, you know, whether that’s good or bad, right?

Like whatever label we put on it. But psychedelics would show us, uh, who we [00:17:00] have become and who we have become, comes from. The experiences that we had usually in early childhood where we had to develop, say, an alternate way of being or an alternate personality, a people please or an empath or an angry person or a controlling person, not to be in pain anymore.

Uh, so we develop all of these sort of personalities that become who we are, but they’re not really who we are at our essence. So plants like ayahuasca help us see that. And, you know, a typical ayahuasca session. Will be, uh, you go into an organized group center retreat. Um, and their tradition is super important.

So traditionally, you know, they carry the lineage, um, teachings and when they sit with the medicine, when they share the medicine, they’re bringing all of that as well as the teachings from nature and, you know, from the universe really. And you sit with this cup and you put your [00:18:00] intention in it, right?

It’s always about your intention. You drink it, and then you pretty much relax into it. Now, I don’t wanna mislead the listeners, uh, that this is a dreamy experience. It’s not. Drinking Ayahuasca is not for the faint of heart. However, it is for those people that want more for themselves and that are courageous enough to do something out of the ordinary to to get it, you know?

So the process with ayahuasca is also very purgative, like physically, which is another of the beautiful healing aspects of ayahuasca. So, for example, with migraines or things like that, you know. There are a lot of toxins in our body. There are a lot of stuck emotions in our bodies, in, in our tissues, in our brain, in our organs.

So what ayahuasca does when you drink it is almost like liquefies. All of that, takes it out, pulls it out from your organs, pulls it out from your cells, and once it, [00:19:00] it pulls everything that you don’t need anymore, then it becomes very nauseous and you purge, uh, very often, you know, from your mouth. And, uh, and it’s not a regular perch.

It’s not like, you know, I had an indigestion and I perch. This is really, uh, a healing type of experience and it can be very intense. But ma you know, magically enough, when you’re purging many times, you know what you’re purging. You know, if it’s guilt, you know, if it’s shame, you know what it is that is coming out of your body and oftentimes you feel a lot better afterwards because that is out of your body.

So. Ayahuasca is very, very healing. Not only for the psyche, but also for the body.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. So, so there’s someone with you, right, like through the journey and um, I. Mentally, like, it’s interesting ’cause I’ve been, I’ve been reading more on ayahuasca, I’ve been reading more on ketamine, I’ve been reading more on all these different things and I’ve heard different experiences.

I’d love for you to share with us whether it’s your own experience or just obviously [00:20:00] you’ve walked people through this as well. Like what have you seen come of these things and what does it look like, like to see someone going through ayahuasca? Like they, they drink this, they purge and then what? Like when, when it’s all said and done and they kind of come to, right, like what, what experiences have you seen people have?

Melissa Osorio: I’ll give you a specific example. Um, you know, the way that life had it, I’m now one of the integration teachers at the center where I first went to drink medicine, to drink ayahuasca. So I can tell you what I observe there. I mean, I know my experience, but now I’ve been there enough that I have seen, you know, thousands of people go through and there is a pattern of healing.

Now, before I say that, I wanna say that. Is the 90% of your experience, and I’m not exaggerating, I don’t feel, is dependent on where you go to. So you have a beautiful plant and you have you and you co-create that reality of your ceremony, of your treatment with the place that you’re at and [00:21:00] the people that are holding that space.

So ayahuasca is not only to be taken lightly, it’s not to be compared to mushrooms or to ketamine is very, very different. So it’s not to be taken lightly, it’s to really, um, you know. Do your research. I recommend two places in my book. And, and then I also say, but don’t take my word for it, right? Like, I’m, I’m saying my experience there was beautiful.

The place where I work at is called Arrhythmia. It is beautiful. You know, people are welcome to send me a message on Instagram and I can tell them more specifics. Um, you know, I always answer about Ayahuasca, about the center. Um, if we have any discounts available, I’m happy to share all of that with people.

But I ask them also to do their own research regardless. So every place has different ways that they do the medicine, and it’s also very much because of the tradition that they follow. So the tradition that I have really participated more in is the Colombian tradition of Ayahuasca and the place that I have drank [00:22:00] the most Ayahuasca Inn is arrhythmia in Costa Rica.

Arrhythmia has a format that I really like. It’s four ceremonies in one week, uh, which I love because I have seen people go and do one ayahuasca in one center, pop up in the US or pop up in somewhere in South America, and sometimes I don’t get great results. Sometimes they get good results, but they’re not transcendental, they’re not life changing.

So what I have seen with these four ceremony system is that the life transformation from a person that arrives on a Sunday and lives on a Sunday, just seven days is outstanding. It’s, it’s beyond understanding. And that is because, you know, we often say that one ioas a session is comparable to 10 years of therapy.

And that is honestly not an exaggeration. So people come in and they’re carrying different burdens, uh, whether they don’t know what to do with their lives or someone died, they’re going through a divorce. Um, you [00:23:00] know, they, they have an addiction. They have a physical ailment that they want to have help with.

So they come in and they drink ayahuasca and. Not an easy process, and it brings out really everything that they need to see and dissolve in order for them to end up where they wanna go. Right? So after they drink the medicine, um, there many times there is a. A, a space of peace and calmness and understanding and compassion and love.

Uh, but that is not always the case, right? Because, you know, sometimes you drink the medicine, ’cause I’m talking about four, four kind of ceremonies set up and the first ceremony is just purging. You’re going to a bathroom a lot, you’re vomiting. The second one is, you know. Emotional perch. You’re crying.

You’re crying about things that you already knew and nothing seems to be like releasing. But then when you continue in the process, by the time that you get towards the end of the week, then the [00:24:00] medicine has a way to really wrap up the week for you. And the results are magnificent. You know, like people, uh, in this particular center, they use statistics a lot.

So arrhythmia runs with a lot of statistics because they have seen now about 18,000 people come through there. It’s the largest center in the world. It’s the only center that’s medically supervised. Um, so they have the statistics to prove how transformative the experience with ayahuasca can be. And it’s somewhere around 70 something percent.

Say that if they came in with suicidal thoughts or with an addiction, they’re not struggling with that. Six months later, and I, I believe it’s somewhere, it’s a running number, right? Changes every week, 92%, uh, in the six months survey say that that was the week that changed their lives. So Ayahuasca is deeply, deeply transformative when done in the right setting with the right facilitators in a safe space.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Well, I think, um, [00:25:00] one of the things that I, that just keeps coming to my mind is, I’ve referenced often on the podcast is this idea that the body keeps the score. It’s a great book called The Body Keeps the Score. Mm-hmm. Um, we’ll link that up along with your book in the show notes. Um, but I think, I think this is something that is just, I mean, of course not navigated right now in the modern medicine space and, um.

The more I get into my journey and the more I know my, my journey is very specific, but everybody has their own specific journeys. And I think the more the, the, the older I get, and the more I I hear of things like this, the more I’m intrigued that this is perhaps the missing piece to so much of our healing as people and, and in our generations.

Yeah. Go ahead. You were gonna say something? Say something.

Melissa Osorio: Yeah. And I mean, you’re, you’re absolutely right. So as humans, we are an species with amnesia. So we, we find what is helpful for us. Then something happens where, you know, governments, the 1%, whoever decides that they want to make money out of it. And we [00:26:00] forget originally that it was free and originally that we were connected to it and now we disconnect.

We go to chemicals that mimic the effects of the plants and we call the plans alternative medicines, when in reality they were the original medicine. Mm-hmm. You know, the Tylenol you’re holding is not. The original medicine, the plants that you can put in water and stew and put on your skin and drink, those are the original medicine.

Yeah. So now people are coming back from this amnesia cycle and they’re remembering that we are meant to be connected with nature. That we’re meant to be connected with ourselves, that what’s going on in our brain and what’s going on in our body is not disconnected, that we’re one organism. So now we’re starting to rediscover the plants as healing allies for us as humans.

Now, with this rediscover of plants as healing allies, uh, we’re facing a lot of interesting resistance, right? Uh, specifically from governmental. [00:27:00] Institutions, uh, and very much so from the pharmaceutical, the tobacco, and the health alcohol industry. Now, it doesn’t, you don’t need a, a master’s degree to kind of figure out why that might be the case.

You know, yes, there is risks that can be associated with the substances if they’re not taken in the right setting. But can we not say the same thing about antidepressants and alcohol? However, one is illegal and the other one’s illegal. So the red tape comes to in to be in, in place. Um, because if plants heal us.

Then we don’t need medications to accompany us our entire life. We don’t need to numb our pain with alcohol. We don’t need nicotine to feel at ease, right? So anything that is truly healing hasn’t been allowed to surface. But people like with s like the ones that you’re having right now, people are starting to question it, like they’re starting to question it.

They want to continue to put their lives and their [00:28:00] health blindly in the health, in the, in the hands of a system that is perpetually just keeping people stuck and sick. Absolutely. And this is not to blame the doctors, right. This is not to blame, you know, the medical system. It has been just a decline.

Yeah. From where we used to be to where we are now. Yeah.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. And I love that you just said, you know, why is plant medicine considered alternative medicine? Like true, right. It’s what the earth gave us. Right? I, I find myself saying often, like, what if things really were that simple? And it’s just so interesting that like, you know.

We have everything that we need, right? Like I, I have women in my inbox every day. This is such a random example, but it’s what’s popping to my mind. I have women in my inbox every day asking for, you know, non endocrine disrupting skincare, and I’m happy to share, right? Those types of things. But at the same time, like my two daughters deal with very dry skin, and guess what works really well?

Coconut oil. We just use coconut oil on the skin, right? And so it’s like sometimes we, we really want these like complex things. Or even in my case with the migraines, if you get desperate enough in the pain [00:29:00] I’ll take anything, I’ll take, you know, I’ll take an IV of whatever medication you have to get rid of the pain.

It’s like, at the same time, you know, we really want to make sure that we, we, we look to the, the simple things that the earth provides. First, I would love for you to share, you know, share, share more with us about your book. I mean, obviously we’ll link it up in the show notes. It’s called Hidden Memories.

Um, tell us more about that.

Melissa Osorio: Yeah, so you can find the book on Amazon or Audible. Um, Amazon in English and Spanish and in Audible are narrated in English, and it’s called Hidden Memories. Discover what’s blocking you from life and love and, um, it’s truly, it. It is a piece of my heart and it’s a, it was a labor of love, um, because as my story went, I, as I mentioned, I did everything.

I could to be happy. Uh, but I was deeply unhappy. And it turned out that for me, my own happiness started very early. And it started with my childhood and experiences there that we are [00:30:00] extremely, extremely horrific and damaging to me, uh, that involve sexual childhood abuse for most of my childhood, since I was three, until I was 16.

And. Those memories were completely absent from my conscious awareness now. I’m sure people hear this and they’re like, what? And that was my, that was my exact reaction. So when this memory started to come back, every cell in my body knew they were real, but my brain didn’t understand how they were real.

So I went myself in a quest for knowledge. The first book I read was actually The Body Keeps A Score. And he explains a lot of this in the book, but the book is not just about that, but it gave me clarity about it. And then I went in my own. Search with other books and literature, and I decided that I definitely wanted to be one of the people in the world that will talk about this openly because I couldn’t find a single book that will explain it to people in detail.

So they understood that this [00:31:00] is a psychological technique that the brain, thankfully. Thankfully it has to protect us for our own survival. So most of us carry some sort of hidden memory. Sometimes the cases are extreme like mine and other times they’re not. Other times it’s bullying in school for six months.

Um, usually for hidden memories. It has to be something that happened more than once, and it happened early in life, or at least started early in life. Um, and it created just like a cycle of dissociation. So in my book, the backbone of my book is my story, um, but I call it a marriage between. Uh, self-help book and a memoir because of course, like we love reading stories and listening about, you know, people’s journeys.

Uh, but I also wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just about me, but that the person who’s reading it or listening to it can relate, can actually get value out of it. So there is a [00:32:00] lot of, um, very easily explained complex information about trauma. How it gets stored in the body and the brain. Also, trauma that we carry from our ancestors, from our parents, uh, as well as how psychedelics I.

Uh, can help scientifically. And also it shows you the journey of my own discovery of memories and my own experiences with psychedelics. Um, so yeah, I say it’s a beautiful book for anyone that’s interested in just, you know, diving a little bit me a little bit more into who they are and into maybe who they don’t know they are, and bring that to light and learn more about psychedelics too.

Jenny Swisher: That’s amazing. And I just wanna, I wanna thank you for that because I think, you know, here I am, I think, you know, a lot of the people who follow me in my community, they, they count on me to deliver sort of the, the up and coming, um, information, right? Like, uh, and so for me personally, like to just be hearing more about psychedelics, but honestly feeling afraid of it.

Feeling like, oh, well this is something that’s like illegal. [00:33:00] I have to go to some other country for this is something my doctor would never be behind. This is something that, there’s all these thoughts that have been in my mind. For the last year, even though I’m learning more and more about it and becoming more and more intrigued.

So I love that you’re stepping into this space as sort of like this intermediate conversation of like, let’s make this easy to understand so that people can understand their access. Right. And understand that this is, um, this is something that even, you know, when you see, like, like I said earlier, when you see doctors doing it themselves, there’s something to it and.

Um, there’s something to this for sure, just based on your story and the things that I’m hearing, I’d love for you to share. Um, one thing I wanted to ask you about, well, one thing I wanna mention is, you know, you keep talking about this idea of like, sort of like hidden memories or suppressed emotions or suppressed traumas.

And one thing I wanna mention to, to my listeners, we talk a lot about just hormone health in general. We talk about survival, right? Your body’s always gonna prioritize survival over everything else. At the end of the day, that’s what’s happening, right? When we talk about the body keeps the score, the body is always gonna find a way to keep [00:34:00] you going.

Right? To outrun the bear, to, to keep outliving, right? And so, um, the, the bad things that happen to us, which we identified on episode like four of this podcast, we, we interviewed someone about the topic of trauma. We talk about things like big T trauma and little T trauma, and how we all have these sort of.

Uh, similar experiences while not the same, um, we have experienced similar types of traumas on the emotional side. All of it is experienced in this way that our brain tries to protect us from, and that’s something that you have mentioned multiple times. And I, I, I just wanna call more attention to that because I.

I think there are people probably listening who are like, well, this is really interesting, but this doesn’t apply to me. Right? Like, I’ve never experienced high level trauma or whatever, whatever you wanna say, right? Like people try to categorize themselves, or I’m not a chronic pain sufferer, or I’m not this or that.

And it’s like all of us to some degree have have varying, um, trauma experiences, but perhaps that in itself, that sort of denial is, is, is, is, is in and of itself exactly what we’re talking about, which is this sort of [00:35:00] blockade from the brain to keep you protected.

Melissa Osorio: Yeah, and I, and I’m, I’m gonna make it like super, like clear, right, according to what I, what I experienced.

So if you will have asked me four years ago how my childhood was, literally my answer was, I had a happy childhood. I mean, it must have been fine. Because I’m here and I don’t remember it. So if I remember it, it will have been bad since I don’t remember it. It’s probably good. And it’s the total opposite.

So how often do we actually meet people or talk to people, or even if you haven’t paid attention before, pay attention. Now, ask yourself, do I remember my childhood? Or are there a couple of years or seasons? That I don’t remember, but my cousins remember like we lived in this house, but I don’t actually have memories of living on that, on that street.

All of these little details, right? So lack of memories from childhood are one of the biggest telltales [00:36:00] that something happened that was difficult enough for your brain to protect you from it. Now it could have been something real serious. Like sexual abuse. But it also could have been something, and let’s not say less serious, but maybe that you will perceive as not such a big deal.

Like maybe your parents were working all the time and you were home alone by yourself taking care of yourself or your siblings, and that created an environment of unsafety, of abandonment. That also becomes a hidden memory. You separate yourself from the experience and the emotion. You almost don’t remember those days.

It’s almost like they just pass by you. Another thing that is super important is I didn’t think I had a, any sort of trauma. I had never been to a psychiatrist in my life. I had never taken any substance other than alcohol. Before I went and drank ayahuasca, so I thought I was okay, however, I was displaying my entire life.

All these random and odd behavior patterns [00:37:00] and emotions that I didn’t have an explanation for. So that’s another thing I ask people to pay attention to. Do you have patterns of behaviors that keep on repeating? Are you a people pleaser? Do you, are you with an abusive partner? Do you have, you know, an inability to connect intimacy with partners or to keep relationships?

Are you a constant war with people? Everybody’s against you at work or against you in your family? All these patterns of behaviors, they’re not who you are, they’re just coming from somewhere. And finding the root is how we are able to become aware of what’s causing them and heal them. Um, you know, illnesses.

Another big thing, right? We think that we just have these autoimmune diseases, you know, these eczema, these migraines, um, these depression, this anxiety. But in reality, diseases that have no medical explanation, they’re coming from somewhere. So those are just like three of the, you know, signs that people can look for, uh, [00:38:00] about hidden memories and.

You know, if I, if I had a, if I had given someone a million dollars and they will have said, Melissa, raise your hand. If you were e ever sexually abusing your childhood, I will have lost, you know, a million dollars. ’cause my answer will have been incorrect four years ago. But today, knowing what I know, I have put together all the dots of my behavior, my health issues, and I have become a spokesperson for this because I used to be the person that said nothing ever happened to me.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Well, my final question was gonna be what do you wish more people knew? But I have a feeling that those three things are what you wish more people would know. I wrote them down to, for you guys as a recap, do I remember my childhood? What patterns of behavior, uh, do I find in myself? And any illnesses that are coming about, right?

We, we talk here on the show even about. This new concept of, um, or I guess science is finally recognizing that autoimmune diseases are popping up more and more for women over the age of 40. And perhaps this mind body connection, perhaps this trauma [00:39:00] connection into, um, who we’re becoming in sort of our second era of life plays a huge role.

Right? So this is amazing. Any, any final thoughts before we wrap up today?

Melissa Osorio: I’ve enjoyed our conversation very much. As I mentioned, I, you know, I really, uh, make myself available to, to talk to people. Um, I’m not, I am not the hippie type, I’m not the overly spiritual type. When I, when I express about the subjects, because I really wanna reach the heart of people that are like I used to be.

Right? Maybe going through the motions, but not finding. Um, fulfillment, happiness, love, you know, intimacy, whatever that is. So people can contact me, uh, on my Instagram. It’s Melissa Osorio remembers. I know you’re gonna put the link and, um, if they read the book or listen to the book, uh, they can find it, Melissa, and they can put the title of the book, hidden Memories in Amazon or Audible, and contact me and let me know if they have any questions, if they have any [00:40:00] concerns.

I’m always available.

Jenny Swisher: Excellent. Excellent. Okay, you guys, as always, we’ll have all of that linked up for you guys in the show notes. Um, you know, I just, I just started following Melissa myself on Instagram. I’m excited to learn more and more about this. I’m gonna follow her advice of doing more research on my own just to see, um, you know, what kinds of things can unfold for me.

So, I would love for you guys to grab a copy of the book. Again, I’ll link it up for you in the show notes. Melissa, thank you so much for your time with us today. I hope we can connect again soon. Um, but for my listeners, we will check in next time. Have a good one. Bye-bye.

Melissa Osorio: Thanks. [00:41:00]