What if the ancient rituals surrounding death were never simply about mourning?

As the nights draw in and we enter the season traditionally associated with the dead, the ancestors and the unseen world, cultures across the globe have long recognised a time when the boundary between worlds becomes thin.

Join ethnomycologist, educator and psychedelic researcher Darren Le Baron for a fascinating journey into the hidden connections between death, ancestral traditions, psychedelics, mythology and altered states of consciousness.

From the ancestral altars of Día de los Muertos in Mexico to Fèt Gede in Haiti; from European Samhain traditions and ancient mystery systems to initiation rites, funerary ceremonies and encounters with the spirit world, Darren explores the remarkable similarities that emerge across cultures separated by time and geography.

Why do stories of descent into the underworld, death and rebirth, communion with ancestors, spirit encounters and ritual transformation appear again and again throughout human history?

And what role have plants, fungi, ceremony and altered states of consciousness played in humanity's attempts to communicate with — or understand — what lies beyond ordinary perception?

Drawing on historical research, ethnomycology, mythology and his own experiences researching traditional communities across Africa and beyond, Darren will uncover some of the forgotten, transformed and sometimes obscured meanings behind our rituals and symbols of death.