“The main skill I have learned, which is essential and necessary today, is learning to tell the truth” – East Forest.
Written and published by the Isra team – At the beginning of the year, Isra was going to interview East Forest online for the podcast, but they had to postpone it due to connection problems. Luck brought them together at the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference in Denver, Colorado. It was there that Isra took the opportunity to interview him in person.
Who is East Forest?
“Psychedelics show me that there was more, much more, and I needed a very strong medicine to break through my shell and my mind, and it just showed me the possibility“ – East Forest.
East Forest is a public advocate for combining meditation, technology, and psychotropic substances as a path to spiritual growth. Trevor Oswalt, or East Forest, creates dreamy electroacoustic landscapes influenced by classical, electronic and avant-garde backgrounds.
Taking his musical nickname, East Forest, from the German translation of his last name, Oswalt has created more than just an avenue for his musical endeavours: he has carefully constructed a complete worldview that positions music, spirituality, and natural experience in sharp relief to the all-too-common messy, stress-filled lifestyle. Working as an innovator in yoga, meditation, and holistic arts, he has manoeuvred his skills as a musician to facilitate the integration and exploration of mind, body, and soul through the “technology” of his aural compositions. , to build extraordinary holistic experiences that generate personal change. He regularly collaborates with several internationally recognized masters, such as Elena Brower, and creates commissions for greats such as Deepak Chopra.
East Forest interview by Isra Garcia about meditation, psychedelics, concert ceremonies, psilocybin and how to take people through an unforgettable and transformative inner journey
From his Pacific Northwest home base of Portland, Oregon, and his travels worldwide, he has come to understand and explore a connection between sound and spiritual replenishment, between choosing a healthy lifestyle and developing emotional well-being. Each aspect of this philosophy finds Oswalt constructing a comprehensive guide to creating sustained balance with the world. His music is infused with diverse sounds that reflect an approach to life that prioritizes experience and harmony over consumption and conflict. Through this, he offers listeners an inner door, in the words of Charles Eisenstein, to a more beautiful world than our hearts tell us is possible.
“Making something out of nothing is integral to feeling sane.”
Isra writes: “Let me tell you a bit about East Forest. He’s a disrupter and pioneer in experimenting with music and the combination of meditation technology and psychotropic substances as a pathway for a spirit of spiritual growth. We’re also DACA for its great electroacoustic dreamscapes influenced by classical electronic and Avant Pop backgrounds, for the software is an adjuster of cooperation and the spirit of the gift.”
Disrupt Everything Podcast: East Forest
“I like to make music that brings people inside” – East Forest.
Isra García interviews East Forest, a multidisciplinary artist, producer and guide of psychedelic psilocybin ceremonies. It is an interview about his life, work, habits, skills, creative process, the use of psychedelics and their impact, how he creates his music, his struggles and challenges, the influence of Ram Dass, his learnings and experiences giving concerts around the world and the essential steps on your inner journey.
“We cannot fall out of this thing called love“
Listen to the interview here:
Index of contents – and what you will learn in this episode with East Forest
- Introduction
- Latest albums and what they have in common and what they don’t.
- Significant milestones in the life of East Forest.
- What brought East Forest to Psychedelic Science 2023?
- How psychedelics have impacted East Forest, his work, and the changes he has gone through.
- The shell he had to break in his mind.
- The changes it has gone through.
- Stages of altered states of consciousness that East Forest has identified.
- Your creation and creativity process.
- The best skills needed to navigate this world and how he had developed them.
- The East Forest Inner Path, how it started and what you’ve found useful.
- Learning by creating soundscapes for himself and thousands of people.
- How East Forest enters states of flow.
- Dealing with time.
- Key conscious practices.
- The story behind Meditation for Chaotic Times.
- Your first 60-90 minutes of the day.
- About rituals and routines.
- How East Forest creates its ceremonies.
- East Forest’s most challenging decision and why and how to choose.
- How to deal with stress.
- The experience has helped him get closer to his essence.
- East Forest’s version of psychedelics.
- The biggest lesson after leading ceremonies for other people is.
- The main conclusions of the recording of «Music For Mushrooms: A Soundtrack For The Psychedelic Practitioner».
- East Forest’s recommended best practices for professionals and users.
- How he tests his music.
- Working on the remixes for the Ram Dass album.
- What was his relationship with Ram Dass, and what had he learned from him?
- Greater personal struggles.
- Which was the biggest compliment he received.
- Rapid fire questions.
- Final reflection.
East Forest’s question for you, the listeners: “What’s something you could do less of?“
Podcast show notes and resources
- East Forest’s website.
- Psychedelic Science 2023.
- Music For Mushrooms: A Soundtrack For The Psychedelic Practitioner.
- Meditation for Chaotic Times (album)
- Can’t Fall out of Love – song.
- Burren with Peter Broderick – album.
- Headwaters – album.
- Still Possible – album.
- Grandmothersphere – song.
- Ram Dass – the album.
- Reworks Ram Dass – album.
- Possible – song.
- Ten Laws w/Est Forest podcast.
- Bayo Akomalofe – interview.
- Est Forest Tour dates.
“We are all struggling with this collapse, and this change that is occurring, and our feelings of pain, sometimes mixed with hope and excitement, despair, confusion, anxiety. And I think I’m just processing that through music.” – East Forest.
Listen, download, and subscribe
Listen and subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Ivoox, Castbox FM, Player FM or RSS. You can even access the video channel and view the web series. And you can also listen to the podcast here.
You can also listen directly from the Disrupt Everything podcast series homepage.