Ashley Lukens: Radical Remission, Psychedelic Medicine and Thriving on Cancer

What if the tumor trying to kill you could actually heal you? And what if the boring policy details around psychedelic access matter more than the mystical experiences themselves?

In this episode, we speak with Ashley Lukens, cancer thriver and co-founder of Clarity Project, Hawaii's leading psychedelic advocacy organization. Ashley holds a PhD in Political Science and has spent over two decades advancing environmental justice, food sovereignty, and now psychedelic medicine access. After receiving a premonitory vision during an ayahuasca ceremony just ten days before her stage II brain cancer diagnosis in 2017, Ashley has integrated psychedelic medicines into her healing journey alongside conventional treatment.

Ashley shares her radical reframing of cancer through the mantra "I heal my tumor and my tumor heals me"—a perspective most cancer patients struggle to imagine. We explore how psychedelic medicines helped her work with the nine key factors in Radical Remission, particularly around trusting intuition, finding purpose, and becoming CEO of her own cancer care. We also dig into the unglamorous but critical nuts and bolts of psychedelic access: cost structures, insurance coverage, banking regulations, and implementation frameworks that determine whether cancer patients can actually access these medicines or just read about them in headlines.

This podcast is brought to you by Healing Cancer Journeys, a non-profit organization providing education and community for people exploring psychedelic medicines in their cancer journeys. You can find us online at www.healingcancerjourneys.org or follow us on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Substack where our handle is 'healingcancerjourneys'.