profile

Unwind

Tomorrow at the Chalice! Howard Rheingold

Published 3 months ago • 5 min read

YOU ARE INVITED!

Howard Rheingold Visits the Chalice

OCTOBER 1, 2025 - 7PM

​

​

​

​

​

I first met Howard when I worked at a smallish Internet company that wasn't going to be evil (I'm sure that's going fine). I was teaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (tuned for engineers). I was also facilitating Design Thinking for flagship client engagements, among other very fancy and glamourous projects. One of the employees who started the same day as me was meeting a professor, and it was suggested I join.

Count down to 2025-10-01T23:00:00.000Z​

Then, I got the lore. This guy has unmistakable bright painted shoes, and you can't get him for office hours in a building or chair. The secret handshake is to join his daily walks. Be prepared with good shoes and cardio conditioning; he walks fast.

Howard

Over the next couple of years, I was able to learn from Howard and work with his daughter on the Google Design Garage, which became a sought after executive experience among the C suite of many top tier companies being courted for large deals.

Howard formed RheingoldU, where we talked about the implications of storing memory in devices as an extension and amplifier of mind, the fragmented facets of online persona psychologies, media literacy syllabi for Stanford, cooperation theory, behavioral economics, the dynamics of social networks as a Commons, and more. We even published a book on peer learning called the Peeragogy Handbook.

It was a good, weird time with excellent humans.

video preview​

After a decade of sadly infrequent hikes with Howard and his dogs, I mentioned that I was making a trip to sit with the great grandmothers on rematriated land in East Central Peru. He then gave me what remains some of the best advice I have ever heard for life (or large amounts of Ayahuasca). It was given to Howard by Terrance McKenna in Hawaii:

"If you get stuck, sing."

I was very familiar with Howard's artwork including installations for Pataphysical Slot Machines in his backyard, his connection to the earlier days of Burning Man, and his editing of the Whole Earth Catalog.

I never thought of him as a psychedelic person or elder.

In hindsight, this oversight on my part was ... unconscionable.

Howard is bringing himself, his shoes, and his artwork to The Chalice this week, and I hope you will join us the Alembic or online.

Tanya and Suz are organizing a walk in gratitude and reflection on October 4 at 10AM with Vision Walkers Collective.

We hope you can join us!

This is part of the Vision Walkers Collective Medicine Walk. The Medicine Walk is happening across the globe to build a community of gratitude and reciprocity around medicine traditions.

We are organizing a local walk in Oakland, and we would like for you to join us! We will meet at the Huckleberry Staging Area and walk the Interpretive Loop. There is a clearing at the top where we will have a brief reflection circle.

There is no cost to participate, but if you are inspired to pay it forward so others may benefit, you can make a donation to some great non-profits doing work in the field to expand access to medicine work and training.

About the Huckleberry Loop

​

​

Please carpool

Huckleberry self-guided nature path, a 1.7-mile loop, traverses a wide variety of terrain and is maintained to minimum standards. The path descends into a mature bay forest, follows the contour for about half a mile, and then ascends to the botanically rich upper trail. Because of the fragile nature of Huckleberry Preserve, dogs, bicycles, and horses are prohibited, except that dogs and horses are allowed on the Skyline National Trail. Jogging is discouraged.

If you are looking for a less challenging or more accessible trail, you can join another walk at VWC.

Staging Area:
​7087 Skyline Blvd, Oakland, CA 94611​

​

End-of-year Fundraising Campaign

Please consider donating to the Women's Visionary Council.

Every contribution preserves the wisdom of elders, cultivate resilience, and foster inclusivity in psychedelic communities. If you believe in this work, please consider making a donation today.
​

​

Psilocybin for Low Back Pain Study

We want to find out if psilocybin, combined with supportive therapy, can help patients with chronic low back pain cope with their pain more effectively.

You may qualify for this study if you:

  • Have chronic low back pain
  • Are between 25 and 80 years of age
  • Have tried at least 1 different treatment for back pain
  • Are able to travel to Stanford (Palo Alto) and UCSF (San Francisco)
    ​

​
​

​

ReMaps is enrolling their next group retreat!

Pre-mapping begins Dec 15th for their 7 day group retreat in Colorado January 20 -27

REMAP offers an advanced, evidence-informed approach to chronic pain coaching and psychedelic medicine to promote lasting relief from a variety of chronic pain conditions.

CRPS

Fibromyalgia

PTSD-related chronic pain

Spinal Cord Injury

Non-specific Low-back Pain

Neuropathic Pain

Cluster Headache or Chronic Migraine

Trigeminal Neuralgia

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Peripheral Neuropathy

Long Covid or other IACI

Stroke Recovery

Phantom-limb Pain

Radicular Pain

Pelvic-floor Pain

Traumatic Brain Injury / Post-Concussion Syndrome
​

Unwind

Bodywork - education - design - consulting

Our body holds more than tension; It holds stories waiting to be heard. At Unwind Oakland, we honor the body as aguide and storyteller by embracing the language of ethical and attuned touch.We value inclusive, co-created experiences wherejoy is sacred, fear is companioned, and humor is transformative.Through psychedelic integration bodywork and Ketamine-Assisted Therapeutic Myofascial (KATM) Bodywork, we work alongside you in your journey toward deeper connection with yourself and others as fellow Earthlings. Committed to doing our own work and deeply knowing this terrain, we strive to meet the unique needs of our clients with expansive approaches to psychedelic care. Here, you are invited to explore to restore, integrate, and fully inhabit your embodied experience—changed, yet whole.

Read more from Unwind

Here's how to connect with Unwind As Unwind is looking for a new, bigger, and more flexible space, we are also updating our addresses in the digital realms. email us at bookunwind@pm.me email us at hi@bookunwind.com Visit our website at bookunwind.com Find us on Bluesky The search for more ways to Unwind The vision for 2026 is to have space for collaborative care practitioners including ketamine providers as well as classroom space for Unwind Learning. In addition, we have formed Liminal...

2 months ago • 3 min read
WVC Logo

Day of RememberingPresented by the Women’s Visionary Council Saturday, November 1 | 1:00 - 5:00 PM PDT Susannah Cahalan, author and journalist, will speak about her book, The Acid Queen, a revelatory biography of Rosemary Woodruff Leary. Alicia Danforth, clinical psychologist and researcher, will speak about her recent scholarly work on neurodiversity-informed approaches to psychedelic work. Roger Walsh, professor of psychiatry, philosophy, anthropology, and religious studies, will speak...

2 months ago • 1 min read

Something exciting is unfolding. The Unwind space is ready to grow. We are currently exploring a larger space that can hold more of what supports you most: deeper rest, richer connection, and opportunities to learn and explore together. Before we take the next step in the lease process, I’d like your perspective. What would make this new space feel like a true home for your bodywork and integration experiences? Here are a few areas to reflect on: Location: Which neighborhoods or areas feel...

3 months ago • 2 min read