162: Gerry Powell – How Plant Medicine Can Change Your Life

"I'm not a thought leader, I'm not woke, I'm a guy that's a cheerleader for a plant."
- Gerard Powell
Hello, my friends! Welcome to another episode of OnkenRadio (previously NION Radio), where we explore the body, mind, and soul of the creative entrepreneur. It’s my goal to help you take your creativity, business, and life to the next level. I’m so glad you’re joining me on this journey! 

Episode 161 last week was about my experience with plant medicine down in Costa Rica at a fantastic wellness resort called Rythmia. The resort provides a full-on body, mind, and soul cleanse using plant medicine as the instrument for change, and I believe it’s an excellent place for personal development. To learn more about plant medicine from a scientific perspective, check out the book, How To Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan — it shifted my whole outlook on plant medicines.

In today’s episode, I chat with the founder of Rythmia, a great place to do ayahuasca for the first time. Gerard Powell is a fantastic guy who’s been through tremendous change in his life. Gerard went from selling his company for $94 million (and not being the most decent human being) to having a life-changing experience and creating the haven of Rythmia for others to enjoy life-changing experiences too. Gerard (Gerry) has brought over 8,000 people through Rythmia and seen an extraordinary amount of miracles and remarkable healings, which I’m excited to share with you!

Here’s a quick taste of some of Gerry’s wisdom you’ll hear:
“You still have to do the work. Anybody who tells you that [you] come to Rythmia and have a good time [is] lying. It’s hard work. It’s relentless here; you can’t escape it. In other words, you’re at lunch or at breakfast with people talking about the same thing and [being] pointed [to look] back at yourself, and then you go to a metaphysical class and [again] the answer is you. Next, in the ceremony, the medicine’s pointing back to you [too]. You can’t get away from it.”
- Gerard Powell
In this episode, we talk about Gerry’s story, the spiritual side of plant medicine, and how you can connect to the world around you. I really enjoyed my time at Rythmia and especially enjoyed the opportunity to chat with Gerry and go deeper into what makes Rythmia so unique.
Who Is Gerard Powell?
Gerry’s beautiful and hilarious take on his story is best experienced in his book, Sh*t The Moon Said: A Story Of Sex, Drugs, And Ayahuasca, which I’ll summarize here for context. 

Gerry became a business mogul and constantly chased money, thinking it would make him happy. It didn’t. 
“I got to the point where I had amassed enough [money] to last [a] couple lifetimes, [but] my life was a wreck. I was [miserable], a drug addict, a sex addict, an alcoholic, a misogynist, chauvinist, a wife-beater — just a terrible guy and greedy on top of the whole thing. I hated people. I hated my own life. I [even] tried to commit suicide a couple of times. Finally, I got pushed into rehab and discovered metaphysical stuff through Agape. My life started to get turned, but I was in such bad shape that [the changes] weren’t nearly enough.”
- Gerard Powell
Through a series of circumstances, Gerry ended up doing plant medicine in Costa Rica, starting with iboga. After one night with iboga, everything changed for Gerry, but his ayahuasca experience told him to open a center called “Rythmia.”
“The medicine told us, ‘This is what you’re gonna do.’ It told me not to [open up a strip club] and that I would have to [open Rythmia]. She said it would be the hardest but most enjoyable thing I ever did. She told me what to buy, even where to buy it, and what to pay for it — to the penny. My offer was about 40% of the asking price, and it was accepted, which is crazy!”
- Gerard Powell
In Gerard’s entire life, he had never listened to anyone, and he’d made a life out of telling everyone off — and now he was listening to the medicine on everything. Every single thing,