Wake Up to Life with Michael TaftWake Up to Life with Michael Taft
Deep Fix
Alex Olshonsky and Michael Taft talk about psychedelic-induced turning points, Hindu tantra, and how non-dual meditation supports people in 12-step recovery. The conversation shifts from wild experiences to very practical ways of recognising awake awareness in the middle of ordinary life.
1:11:34•11 Dec 2025
Wake Up to Life: Michael Taft on Psychedelics, Non-Duality and 12-Step Practice
Episode Overview
- Meditation can meaningfully support people in 12-step recovery, even without a guru or “enlightened wizard” figure.
- Showing up consistently for practice and community is a powerful asset, especially in addiction recovery settings.
- Radical surrender during intense psychedelic experiences can permanently shift one’s sense of self, though it may be deeply challenging.
- Non-dual approaches that welcome emotion and everyday life may be more sustainable than trying to shut down feelings or escape the world.
- Recognising awake awareness is less about special techniques and more about repeatedly learning to notice what is already present.
“Instead, you recognise all of experience is inseparable from the awakeness. And so there's nothing to get away from.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between host Alex Olshonsky and meditation teacher Michael Taft leans right into that question, blending psychedelic war stories, non-dual wisdom and 12-step grit in a surprisingly down-to-earth way. You’ll hear how Michael’s path into teaching was shaped by time with a charismatic Indian guru he describes as an “enlightened wizard,” and why that left him hesitant to step into the role of teacher himself.
The turning point came when friends in Los Angeles asked him to teach meditation to a 12-step group that met every week.
He quickly saw “the way that I could be helpful without being an enlightened wizard,” simply by showing up consistently and sharing practical practice instructions with people in addiction recovery who, as he notes, “do show up… again and again and again.” Michael also talks about a life-changing “heroic dose of LSD” in the Japanese mountains that forced a radical surrender.
Faced with what felt like annihilation, he chose to let the “demons eat my soul,” and says that moment flipped a switch that has never unflipped. From there, he moved into Hindu tantra and powerful energy work to stabilise the changes those trips had stirred up. For anyone curious about how meditation can support recovery, Michael’s explanation of non-dual 1 and non-dual 2 is central.
He contrasts approaches that try to escape the messy world with those that recognise “samsara and nirvana are the same thing,” and argues for emotion-friendly, life-embracing practice rather than shutting feelings down. He emphasises awake awareness as something already present, more like learning to recognise a familiar face than chasing exotic states.
If you’re wondering how psychedelics, non-dual meditation, and 12-step recovery can all sit at the same table, this episode might give you plenty to chew on—what if your own awakeness has been here all along, waiting for you to notice it?
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