Benjamin Forest, a retired U.S. Air Force officer, now works as a psychedelic coach, speaker, and author. With a background in computer science and systems engineering, he spent 25 years in strategic military roles, including deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. His transformation began during a guided psilocybin ceremony that he says radically changed his life. Forest shares his journey in his upcoming book, Trip of a Lifetime: The Psychedelic Guide to Healing, Loving, and Living, which will be published in September 2025.
Unexpected Miracle
Forest’s life took a dramatic turn at age 47 when he tried magic mushrooms for the first time. It was a curated, high-dose psilocybin ceremony aimed at psychological relief—but what he found was far more profound.
“After a lifetime of depression and spiritual struggle, I am at peace,” he recalls. “Before psychedelics, I thought I wanted to die, but what I wanted was to live. For the first time in my life, I feel love for myself, for others, for the divine.”
“All I wanted was psychological relief,” he explains. “I wasn’t looking for the divine. But what I found was the most profound spiritual experience of my life. Afterwards, I felt transfigured mentally, physically, emotionally. I was born again. It may sound strange to use this language, but to me… psychedelic ceremonies truly are my church.”
He was looking for relief from depression—but what he found was revelation.
“Either I saw God,” he says, “or my mind is capable of creating an experience of God that is beyond my comprehension. I can’t fully describe it, but… I witnessed the divine and my life hasn’t been the same since. That was the most powerful emotional, physical, and spiritual experience of my life.”
Firsthand Experience of the Divine
Forest’s encounter with the divine is part of a long tradition. For thousands of years, humans have turned to psychedelics not to escape reality, but to encounter something more real. Indigenous peoples of the Amazon have long used ayahuasca ceremonially to commune with plant spirits. In ancient Mexico, Mazatec shamans prayed over psilocybin mushrooms, calling them the flesh of the gods. In the Andes, San Pedro cactus ceremonies opened hearts and offered visions. Even in ancient Greece, initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries drank a sacred brew believed to induce direct contact with the divine.
This spiritual dimension continued into the 20th century. The 1962 “Good Friday Experiment” at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel tested psilocybin on theology students during a church service. Nearly all reported profound mystical experiences—unity, awe, timelessness, and deep sacredness. Follow-up studies confirmed those moments as among the most meaningful of their lives.
Although Trip of a Lifetime is primarily a self-help book for those curious about psychedelics, it often doubles as a spiritual manifesto. Forest writes:
“Ego death means losing one’s sense of self, dropping the trappings of personal identity. It is the conscious knowing of non-egoic consciousness. You are aware, but not there.”
He continues, “While this mystical phenomenon sometimes presents through meditation or even spontaneously, psychedelics provide the most direct path to this placeless place.”
A Guide to Psychedelic Transformation
Forest’s website, www.benjaminforest.com, makes a bold claim about his debut book: “The First True Guide to Psychedelic Transformation.” It embraces classic self-help tropes—overcoming adversity, universal principles, client stories, and end-of-chapter exercises.
At a deeper level, the book reads as a spiritual calling. In the preface, Forest writes:
“Our own liberation is the greatest gift we can offer to those around us. We are connected below the surface like a mycelial network, where the healing of you becomes the healing of all.”
He quotes Ram Dass: “The only thing I can do for you is work on me. And the only thing you can do for me is work on you.”
While some readers may find the spiritual tone unconventional, Forest’s writing avoids dogma and self-righteousness.
What People Should Know About Psychedelics
At the end of our interview, Forest was asked: What’s the one thing you want people to know about psychedelics?
“That they are a true and genuine spiritual tradition, with a history going back thousands of years—long before Christianity or Buddhism.”
In the book’s introduction, he writes:
“Modern society and science are just now catching up with what ancient and indigenous people held sacred for ages.”
And now, he adds: “It’s time for all of us to hold them sacred.”
Trip of a Lifetime: The Psychedelic Guide to Healing, Loving, and Living publishes in September 2025. Learn more at www.benjaminforest.com.
