Welcome to the BCSP’s interview series highlighting the perspectives of Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Social Media Fellows. Please note these interviews describe the experiences and perspectives of the fellows and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BCSP.
Q&A with Solei Sarmiento
Solei Sarmiento is a Master of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School, where she studies integrative spiritual care through the lens of Mesoamerican traditional knowledge. Her work explores how ancestral practices can support individual healing and inspire organizational and systems-level transformation. She holds a B.A. in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley, where she researched daily awe, contemplative ecological pedagogies and prosocial behavior. As director and co-founder of the nonprofit Sunflower Sutras, she co-creates projects with Indigenous elders, scholars and artists that weave storytelling, traditional knowledge and research to cultivate new forms of learning and leadership. She is committed to bridging research, ancestral knowledge and community practice to advance collective well-being. You can see her work from the fellowship at @sunflower.sutras.
BCSP
Tell us about your Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Social Media Fellowship project. What was your favorite part of the project? Did you learn anything that surprised you?
Solei Sarmiento
The Sacred Medicines online conference–a collaboration between Sunflower Sutras, the Confederation of Amazonic Nationalities of Peru (CONAP) and International Consciousness Research Laboratories–served as the focus of my fellowship’s storytelling work. The project aimed to amplify Indigenous voices and explore ethical, decolonial approaches to psychedelics through thoughtful multimedia storytelling.
We structured this fellowship project in two interconnected phases. The first phase focused on the lead-up to the conference: We connected with elders, Indigenous young leaders and conference facilitators through interviews, while contextualizing the conference through educational carousel posts on decolonial research methodologies. The second phase highlighted select material from the conference itself—shared with the elders’ permission—including their reflections, as well as insights from participants on how the conference influenced their research, psychedelic practice or journey reconnecting with ancestral traditions. These narratives were shared via short-form videos and carousel posts, offering both intimate stories and accessible frameworks for understanding.
Through interviews, profiles and poetic carousels, we explored what bridging looks like in practice: how to uphold reciprocity, navigate cultural complexity and challenge extractive patterns while working across worlds. My favorite part was revisiting and editing footage with the elders, seeing how it connected with conference conversations and witnessing the collaborative energy this storytelling generated. It was especially meaningful to highlight voices like Ruro Caituro Monge, an Andean midwife, and bring perspectives on midwifery and community health into dialogue with broader audiences.
My favorite part was revisiting and editing footage with the elders, seeing how it connected with conference conversations and witnessing the collaborative energy this storytelling generated.
BCSP
What motivated you to apply for this fellowship? How does your personal background or lived experience inform your interest in psychedelic storytelling?
Solei Sarmiento
This project was co-created with Francisco Lopez Rivarola, co-founder of Sunflower Sutras. My motivation for applying to this fellowship grew from the meeting point between my training in contemplative sciences—where I first witnessed Western and Indigenous wisdom traditions in dialogue—and my desire as a Mexican-American to reconnect with my ancestral traditions. As a cognitive scientist in the field of contemplative sciences and chaplain-in-training, I see great beauty in cross-disciplinary, relational and culturally rooted knowledge-making.
This project emerged from two questions we saw resonating across many communities. First: How do we bridge Indigenous knowledge with Western hearts in ways that honor depth, context and reciprocity? And second: For people of color living in “in-between” identities—mixed-heritage, diasporic or mestizo—how can reconnection with ancestral traditions happen ethically, respectfully and with care?
Through conversations with elders and mixed-heritage scholars, we learned that navigating this terrain requires humility, relational accountability and a willingness to sit with ambiguity. Many emphasized that reconnection must arise through dialogue, consent and reciprocity—not through simply consuming traditions, but through showing up in ways that honor the communities who hold them.
From the outset, we were conscious of the long history of extractive research. Those of us in the new generation of contemplative researchers and psychedelic chaplains seeking to bridge Western and Indigenous knowledge systems must reckon with this history and move with great care, humility and respect.
The conference we were documenting centered Indigenous elders and their teachings, and with their permission, we felt a responsibility to share insights at the heart of the gathering. Motivated by the ongoing lack of Indigenous and BIPOC representation in the psychedelic field, we saw educational storytelling—before, during and after the conference—as a powerful way to honor and amplify these voices, helping shape a more ethical, inclusive and culturally grounded psychedelic landscape.
BCSP
Do you see multimedia/social media posts playing a different role than traditional media in shaping public understanding and engagement in the psychedelic landscape?
Solei Sarmiento
Social media plays a distinct role in shaping public understanding by enabling direct engagement, interactive dialogue and broad accessibility. I believe that it has a unique way of fostering conversation and community. In the psychedelic space, dominant narratives often prioritize scientific or legal frameworks, sidelining traditional knowledge and relegating the sacred, lived traditions of Indigenous communities to merely “a folkloric experience.” Through this media project, we aimed to counter that mindset by highlighting traditional knowledge systems as central—not peripheral—to understanding these medicines and imagining how the movement might evolve.
Because Indigenous perspectives have often been underrepresented on social media due to technological, accessibility and cultural barriers, we believe that amplifying their voices can meaningfully shift how the public perceives these traditions, bringing them closer and demystifying them in ways that even traditional media often cannot.
At the same time, these perspectives must contend with the realities of the digital landscape: noise, polarization and heightened risks of misrepresentation, especially in an era of AI-generated content. Our project asks: How can sacred knowledge be shared online without flattening its depth?
Despite the limitations of shorter-form content, social media remains a powerful entry point, one that can spark curiosity, inspire ethical reflection and create space for respectful engagement. Its visual, narrative and experiential forms invite a level of relational learning that traditional media alone rarely achieves.
BCSP
How do you work to create educational, balanced and ethical content while engaging audiences on controversial or misunderstood topics?
Solei Sarmiento
We approach this work by leaning into nuance rather than avoiding it. Bridging Indigenous and Western epistemologies is challenging given the legacy of pain and distrust. One of our guiding principles is approaching the work without a predetermined agenda—staying as faithful as possible to the messages and intentions of elders and collaborators. Media can serve as a bridge when crafted with care, collaboration and feedback. This process also involves acknowledging and unweaving colonized patterns in our own thinking and practice, ensuring the content fosters understanding without reinforcing harmful structures.
BCSP
What multimedia project (or creator) has moved you lately, in the psychedelic space or otherwise?
Solei Sarmiento
The recently released documentary Cobra Canoa, about Alvaro Tukano, one of the elders we worked with, beautifully demonstrates how to document living Indigenous traditions while honoring their depth and vibrancy. Directed by Enio Staub, it is an inspiring example of ethical storytelling. Outside the psychedelic space, I am drawn to @nowness on Instagram, which collaborates with global artists to communicate the beauty and complexity of the everyday through visual storytelling. I am inspired by creators who weave together intricate narratives through beauty, curiosity and ethical care, unafraid to engage with nuance.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.