Mareesa Stertz is a filmmaker, storyteller, artist, and community organiser dedicated to fostering collective healing and transformation.
As a co-steward of the
Global Psychedelic Society and co-founder of
Lucid News, Mareesa has been building platforms that destigmatise, educate, and build community around psychedelics.
Her film work includes producing and hosting the documentary series The Healing Powers (of Psychedelics and Other Mindful Practices) and Damanhur, both streaming on Gaia TV and Amazon.
She has shared her experiences on international stages and through teaching, workshops, and retreats, and is developing a large-scale immersive art project for Burning Man 2025.
This conversation covered:
- the journey that led to her first documentary in Peru
- the prevalence of burn out, repression of emotion and storytelling in Western culture
- truth vs fact
- the information contained within stories
- Onaya’s work and the difficulties of translating from Indigenous paradigms
- the hero’s journey, and why it shows up again and again in our stories
- Jung’s concept of individuation
- the challenge of compassionately reframing trauma and hardship
and other topics.
*** We are now recruiting for the next cohort of our 6-month accredited
Psychedelic Mentorship Training programme, beginning in April. For more information and to find out how to enroll, visit
Onaya's website and use the code 'INTHROUGH10' for a special 10% discount. ***
What is In & Through: The Onaya Podcast?
In times of political, ecological and psychospiritual crisis — the only way out is In & Through.
Join Onaya as we welcome some of the most interesting people we know, to discuss eclectic topics from psychedelic medicine and Indigenous ways of knowing, to spirit entities, the meaning of dreams, and singing to the plants.
Your main host is our founder Dr Simon Ruffell, a psychiatrist and research psychologist with a PhD in Amazonian ayahuasca and a student of Shipibo curanderismo.
Onaya is dedicated to bridging the gap between traditional indigenous knowledge and modern science, including a not-for-profit research arm that studies ayahuasca and other Amazonian plant medicine practices.
We offer one-to-one support, consultancy and accredited courses that combine shamanism and biomedical science to facilitate holistic individual and collective healing.
For more information, please visit https://www.onaya.io/ or join our mailing list.
*** For a special 10% discount to our 6-Month Psychedelic Mentorship Training, head to our website and use the code 'INTHROUGH10' ***
Co-producers: Robbie Redway and Caspar Montgomery
Music: United Freedom Collective