Sunflower Congregation Statement of Beliefs and Founding Documents

(as amended, October 2025)

SECTION ONE

            This document is the sacred text of Sunflower Congregation.

Introduction

The Sunflower Congregation is a non-denominational spiritual community that has been founded to foster personal growth for practical benefit, to develop deep personal connections with and knowledge about the mystical and the divine, and to serve as a conduit for improving the world in which we all live for the greater good of humanity. We, the members of Sunflower Congregation, share sincerely held religious beliefs and are organized as a non-profit church under common law.

We within the congregation believe that people who possess true connection with and unshaken knowledge about and respect for the divine become able to recognize their interconnected existences and become aware of their inseparable attachments to all living things. Once we accept and intuitively know that we are all connected as one energy, our perceptions and actions change in a meaningful and lasting way, we come to love each other, love God, and love all of God’s creation and we become more effective leaders and collaborators. Accepting this, we the human congregants grow as individual members and grow as a collective. It is of tantamount importance to the members of the Sunflower Congregation that we help speed humanity’s movement toward acceptance of these universal truths as much of humanity has unfortunately drifted far away from the divine and as a society we have suffered tremendously as a result.

Sunflower Congregation Overall Philosophy

It is important to us as members of the Sunflower Congregation to explain that dogma, ritual, and religion as commonly practiced more often serve as barriers to the discovery of truth than as aids to spiritual growth. We instead respect that spiritual growth is a personal journey that, when undertaken with intention, will ultimately lead you to the universal truth that we are all one and we are all divine. For this reason, dogma and ritual are not an important part of our religious practice. Rather we encourage reflection and meditation both as individuals and in groups with the guidance of other church community members. We encourage and expect congregants and potential congregants to make use of spiritual aids by partaking of entheogens, healing herbs, and foods, and by establishing practices such as hatha and kriya yoga, affirmative prayer, and guided meditation that enhance their connections with themselves, each other, and the divine. We do provide structure for those who are initiating, and we do regularly host meetings in person and use electronic means to set intentions and integrate our common experiences. Our members communicate with church leadership and amongst each other regularly for education, mentorship, guidance, and support. We provide regular integration opportunities and host communal services for seekers and members alike.

We have no intention of adapting, culturally appropriating, nor reinventing spiritual practices that have been developed by indigenous nations, nor do we intend to criticize, study, analyze, nor teach contemporary philosophy. Rather we believe in exposing our members and all sincerely interested non-congregant seekers to the universal truths common to all religious practice. We are constantly learning about and enhancing our familiarity with divine devices, aids, and guides to speed the transmission of these truths and we read voraciously. We believe the best learning experience is for the seeker to spend time with us within the church, feel our energy, and come to know our connection to the divine on a real, intimate, personal level. The rituals and ceremonies we offer are presented with this intention. Many of our meetings, conferences, rituals, and electronically distributed materials are available to members and non-member seekers alike as we recognize there are many who would like to do their own reading and learning prior to committing to formal membership and formal connection to the Sunflower Congregation. Our doors are therefore literally and figuratively open to all who are sincerely curious and engaged.

In addition to reading about the goals of religious and spiritual practice our sincerely held belief is that experience of our divine nature is solidified and consecrated best when we have a complete knowing, feeling, and understanding of and about all that we have read or imagined. God’s creation, our universe, provides tools to achieve knowing that cannot be achieved by intellectual analysis alone. It is expected that our membership will take advantage of these tools to come to fully realize and know the divine within. These tools are known as entheogens; these are ingestible, inhaled, and insufflated substances that provide deep knowledge of the “God around” and the “God within.” Religious and spiritual practices such as fasting, kriya yoga, meditation, affirmative prayer and breath work are also used in the same way as these entheogens to achieve this goal. These practices while valuable are ultimately secondary to the necessity of experiencing the divine directly through ceremonial use of the entheogens themselves.

Regarding entheogens we see ourselves as true custodians of Mother Earth’s health and bounty and we believe that Mother Earth’s entire creation is manifest for our potential benefit to guide us all on our personal journeys to become aware of our own divinity. No part of Mother Earth’s bounty is to be avoided nor is any part of Mother Earth’s bounty inherently bad. The Goddess serving as “custodian” for Mother Earth has been referred to as Pachamama in certain indigenous traditions and we, the members of Sunflower Congregation, believe in the concept that this one God(dess) is within us all, this one God(dess) is indeed inclusive of Mother Earth and in reality the universe itself and because we are all connected to the divine and are all an essential part of the divine it is our calling to revere Pachamama. This concept can be taken further; as God is within all of us then by definition human ingenuity is truly divine energy and the modification and reworking of Mother Earth’s bounty so long as it is done with intention and with respect for Pachamama herself is merely an expression of the God within and is not morally wrong but is in reality a means for the human spirit to potentially help others commune with their own divinity. Practically speaking this means that products made from the energy within us as individuals and from energies stored within the Earth, the Sun, and the universe are themselves entheogens. These products are considered sacraments in our religious practice and are equally sacred whether organic, inorganic, derived from the Earth itself, derived from the animal kingdom, or created through intentional human intervention.

Sunflower congregants are invited to achieve alignment with the God within through experimentation and ongoing work with all our practices. Unlike many visionary religious movements and unlike many organized traditional religious practices we recognize each human as an individual and recognize the duality that while we are all one and we are all Gods and Goddesses on one level we are also individuals and we recognize that as individuals we may find certain religious practices and certain entheogenic experiences to be in greater alignment with our attempts to commune with the divine within.  In other words, some ceremonies involving entheogens may be more personally effective than others. We therefore offer ceremonial practices involving many lineages, many entheogens, and many formats all to enhance the spiritual experience of our many congregants and sincere seekers. We offer guidance, support, and mentoring throughout this process. We avoid dogma and ritual unless necessary and beneficial for the safety, support, and collective benefit of all.

Fundamental Spiritual Beliefs

Each of us has God within us and we are all connected; we are all part of one living universal and eternal entity.

It is possible to transmit energy across time and space for the collective benefit and entheogens are invaluable aids to this process.

While we are all one, we also possess individual identities and therefore commune with the divine within best when we work in alignment with our individual identities.

The sunflower itself is an appropriate model for universal truth. While the flower is one unit, each petal and each seed possesses individual strengths and a unique energy and therefore each must be treated and respected as an individual.  Excessively strict adherence to ritual and dogma interferes with our abilities as individuals to discover and work with the God within.

Custodianship of Pachamama is our divine duty and pervades the practice of our religion. It is our divine duty to care for and maintain equilibrium within Mother Earth. We recognize that humanity has moved dangerously close to permanently disrupting this equilibrium. We recognize that entheogens have sacred properties that encourage us to cooperate with each other to maintain Pachamama as a sanctuary.  These properties are in addition to those which help us commune with the God within.  It is not possible to know this on a conscious, subconscious, and etheric level without exposure to the entheogens.

A Spiritual Model for Sunflower Congregation Initiates

In researching online, in print, and in conversation with numerous religious and spiritual leaders we find our core values align closely with the stated goals of many religious practices already in existence. We align closely with the spiritualism movement, and our beliefs are quite compatible with the true and unadulterated teachings of many great spiritual leaders upon which major world religions have been based. In fact, we, the members of Sunflower Congregation allow but do not require membership in, baptism into, and communion with other religious practices as we believe that most, if not all, religious practices offer tools that can help the individual become closer to the divine within. We find that a religious movement is most effective when it allows respect for the culture, family, and community practices one was born and raised into.

Those seeking to learn more about our inclusive philosophy and how our lack of dogma works in practice are encouraged to read about Unity (www.unity.org), an organization which shares many of our moral and ethical values, and those interested in our emphasis on the value of entheogens to personalize and universalize the spiritual experience are encouraged to read about the Native American Church and its branches to learn how entheogens have been used by that church for decades in a safe and sustainable way.

Unity and the Sunflower Congregation

While some seekers are born into strong religious traditions and connections many sincere seekers do yet possess a spiritual foundation and are not familiar with how our church might work for them as individuals. Fortunately, a model already is in place. We would like to mention again Unity. This movement has existed for over one hundred years and presents itself as an answer for people who consider themselves spiritual yet not religious. Unity congregants have published many spiritual texts and writings that we as members of Sunflower Congregation believe may be useful to seekers who are unfamiliar with the concept of spirituality. Perhaps you are a seeker yet are jaded by the imperfections and occasional hypocrisies of world religions. Perhaps you already believe our congregation has something valuable to offer but you would like to be grounded in the basics of spiritual practice first. Where to start? Knowing a bit about Unity may comfort you that religion and spirituality have been an essential part of the human condition since our creation, may comfort you that religion and spirituality hold an essential place in our modern science-based world, and furthermore, knowing about Unity may comfort you that spiritual experience in the absence of religion is still every bit as meaningful and in reality more personal, more meaningful, and far closer to the source than religion in the absence of spirituality. Though Sunflower Congregation is a bona fide religious organization, a church if you will, you do not have to be a religious person to recognize and accept the values we espouse.

Some of the words and sentences that follow are teachings from Unity writings and are offered with the greatest respect and admiration.  Again, the central tenet of Sunflower Congregation’s beliefs is to take advantage of all available resources including entheogens, intentional study, breathwork, hatha and kriya yoga, healthful diet and exercise, and affirmative prayer to develop as close a personal relationship with God and with Pachamama as possible.  Unity teachings and writings can be very helpful in guiding these efforts and are therefore presented here.

What Are Unity Teachings?

Unity is for people who might call themselves spiritual but not religious. It is for those who sense the depths of their own being and celebrate the awareness of a power greater than themselves.

The teachings in Unity bring together ancient wisdom with new interpretations of what it means to be alive and human. Unity inspires different ways to think about the force of love and intelligence that many people call God.

Unity has no dogma. Its founders were reluctant even to issue a statement of beliefs. They wanted to remain in constant exploration. Throughout the years, they pulled together teachings of Truth that flow through all the world’s great religions. Later, leaders of Unity boiled them down to five basic principles:

1. God is all there is and is present everywhere. This is the force of love and wisdom that underlies all of existence.

2. Human beings are divine at their core and therefore inherently good.

3. Thoughts have creative power to determine events and attract experiences.

4. Prayer and meditation keep us aligned with the one great power in the universe.

5. It is not enough to understand spiritual teachings. We must live the Truth we know.

The Unity vision and our vision align in that we both seek to advance global spiritual awakening and transformation.

Our Values align with those of Unity. These are:

Inclusiveness. We are an inclusive, equitable culture of oneness.

Inspiration. We inspire and awaken people to the Divine within.

Innovation. We seek continuous improvement in all that we do.

Creativity. We create meaningful services that have extraordinary impact.

Community. We are a community of collaboration, growth, and accountability. We work together to support each other, and we set ego aside.

Service. We serve.

Affirmative Prayer is a central tenet of the Unity religion and the religion of Sunflower congregants. When most people think of prayer, they think of asking God for something. Not so within the Sunflower Congregation.

Rather than begging or beseeching God, affirmative prayer involves connecting with the spirit of the God within and asserting positive beliefs to achieve the desired outcome. Affirmative prayer is not a novel concept, it is a universal truth; after all Jesus taught “…..whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” If, for example, one was to pray traditionally, one might say: “Please God, help me find a job.” By contrast, an affirmative prayer might be: “I am now guided to my right and perfect employment.”

Affirmative prayer reflects the certainty that we are each being led to our highest good, despite any temporary appearances. Metaphysicians know that thoughts transmit energy, and this energy attracts other energy of the same frequency. Whether you are conscious of it or not, your thoughts are transmitting energy that is attracting more of the same. When you remain focused on your intentions, you will draw those things into your life. As a seeker you need not believe this central tenet to join our Congregation. We know the truth will reveal itself in the end. Very soon after the moment of bodily death this fact will be revealed so why not learn to die before you die? At Sunflower Congregation we recognize and affirm that entheogens bring us closer to this realization and therefore closer to universal truth.

Per Unity author Rosemary Ellen Guiley, “Affirmative prayer…sets into motion the forces that enable us to manifest what we pray for.” She adds, “Prayer is ineffective when it is accompanied or followed by negative thinking, or the endless repeating of affirmations. We must put power and intensity into our thoughts, change our thoughts, and believe in the guidance we are receiving. If we spend energy on negative beliefs and feelings, we will get negative results, even if we and others pray daily for us. For example, if you pray for a job and then complain to others that you have no job or can't find one, you are undermining your prayer.”

By using an affirmative prayer approach, we can visualize and plan with faith that the power of God is continually blessing our lives with unlimited possibilities. Affirmative prayer leads to an awakening of our spiritual selves. In faith, we pray to give thanks in advance that the Universe is meeting our every need. It cannot be emphasized enough how helpful work with entheogens is in creating the conscious and subconscious trust necessary to achieve the benefits of affirmative prayer and of making spirituality in general the guiding force in our lives.

Foundational declaration of the Sunflower Congregation

To be clear, though we are all one and we are all God our individual bodies just like individual seeds and petals and leaves have individual needs and react differently to sacraments and ceremonial intention. For this reason it is critical that we see all entheogens as equal in the Congregation’s eyes. To maximize the availability and efficacy of the entheogenic experience necessary for seeking and enhancing spiritual growth we favor the broadest possible exposure to indigenous and contemporary sacraments including those organic sacraments derived from plant and animal sources as well as those that are created through conscious and inspired human intervention. God is within all of us and God’s creation can manifest itself through human spirit and intention. God’s abundance shall not be restricted by geographic, political, financial, nor climatologic factors but only by the ingenuity of the God within.

SECTION TWO

Statements of legal structure and organizational principles

I.               The name of this organization shall be the Sunflower Congregation.

II.             The Sunflower Congregation is a non-denominational congregation of people who share our values. We run a healing ministry and provide counseling and support to our members so they can integrate our ministry into their lives as spirit directs them. We hold spiritual classes and services, worship in music, dance, and song, share personal professions of faith in action, and provide education.

III.           We respect human creations such as the scientific method, organic and inorganic entheogens created with the assistance of human ingenuity, and we respect democratic government. We honor and respect studying with, learning from, and cooperation with non-member researchers, scientists and lawfully elected leaders so long as these professionals and leaders are working in communion with higher law and are in general agreement with our values. We respect secular and spiritual traditions such as meditation, hatha yoga, and kriya yoga that enhance our bodies’ and minds’ abilities to commune with the divine.

IV.          We seek to grow our membership so long as seekers and potential members profess a sincere desire to learn about and adhere to our religious principles. The church shall receive as members those who have accepted our spiritual and religious principles and agree with and align with the doctrine of this church. The only absolute requirement for membership is a sincere request to join with harmonious intention.

V.            Fundamental to our traditions is the truth that, as children of the Creator we are entitled to the freedoms of thought, religion, education, assembly, opinion, speech, movement, our sacred rights of worship, methods of healing, and our lifestyle and security within our lands and communities, insofar as that freedom does not prevent others from likewise enjoying the same freedoms. We believe that men and women have been endowed with intelligence enough to govern themselves in such a manner as to guarantee to themselves these freedoms, to establish just and right ways to deal with each other, to maintain a tranquil and secure domestic life, to provide for defense of these rights when needed, and to insure for ourselves and our posterity the blessings that our culture, traditions and teachings bring. Accordingly, we exercise the right of self-determination, a right that has been guaranteed by international and domestic law, to form this Sunflower Congregation, an organization comprised of individuals whose lineages may or may not descend from federally recognized tribes or bands and whose ancestries may or may not be considered native or indigenous to the lands where we choose to exercise our religious traditions. It is our expectation that lay government will proactively accommodate our rights to religious expression.

VI.          This church is self-governing. Final authority shall reside in the membership. The membership shall elect, appoint, and/or approve Sunflower Congregation’s officers and leadership and direct its officers and leadership to maintain and uphold our values. Our leadership is charged with holding meetings to plan, brainstorm, and suggest organizational changes that may be required from time to time.  Initial leadership shall consist of the founders, patrons, patronesses, and founding board members.

VII.        The officers of this church shall include its founders and its founding board members and future board members.

VIII.      Sunflower Congregation recognizes that fasting, dietary modification, yoga practice, and temporary abstinence from certain pleasurable activities and practices can often enhance spiritual growth. There are no absolute requirements upon our membership to embrace all these practices, but we do strongly encourage strengthening attachment to spirit and optimizing our bodies and minds.

IX.          Sunflower Congregation is a modern spiritual growth organization and uses all methods of communication including, when appropriate, social media, video and audio blogs, and printed materials to spread sacred messages and community offerings.  The congregation does not charge members to partake of its sacraments. All monies collected from membership are considered donations used for sustaining our infrastructure, paying our staff and consultants, providing meals, supporting research, animal husbandry, stewarding the growth of sacred plants, roots, and trees, and meeting regulatory requirements. Scholarship opportunities and charity offerings are woven into the fabric of our works for our membership and the public at large.  Donations may be tax deductible as the church is incorporated as a non-profit organization in the state of Florida and sanctioned through IRS code 508c1a as a faith-based non-profit organization.  Receipts are provided to donors as per federal regulations.

X.            We believe in and will educate others concerning separation of church and state, yet we will be in compliance with appropriate IRS regulations, common law, Congressional Acts, and, when available, judicial precedent so long as these efforts are in compliance with higher law. The church will be maintained as an officially recognized non-profit entity in hopes of maximizing the receipt of donations of time and financial resources from our membership and in alignment with our mission to put spiritual growth in front of material gain.

XI.          We will provide opportunities for ordination and training regarding our doctrines and values to those members who believe strongly in our mission to the extent they wish to become facilitators, elders, leaders, officers, counselors, clergy, board members, and shamans themselves.

XII.        At the time of its founding the Sunflower Congregation is observant of the following sacred holy days:

a.     Winter Solstice

b.     Spring Equinox

c.     Earth Day, April 22

d.     Summer Solstice

e.     Autumnal Equinox

XIII.      Sunflower Congregation shall be governed by its board and run as a non-profit corporation. Officers serve at the pleasure of the board. The Congregation will affiliate with advisors as necessary to fulfill our mission.

XIV.      As the congregation grows, it is understood our formal compendium of bylaws and practices will be developed further to guide our leadership and memorialize duties and qualifications for leadership and appointed positions within leadership. Our board of directors shall guide leadership and appoint qualified people to achieve the Congregation’s goals. The founders specifically authorize the codifying of bylaws and the creation of policy manuals to cover such items as operational details, job descriptions for all positions in the church, and the conduct of various ceremonial efforts. Legal support for the State’s lack of jurisdiction over the Congregation’s spiritual practice, philosophy and organization derives from the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and both state and federal Religious Freedom and Restoration Acts. Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Numerous court actions support the principles of non-interference of the State with the practice of religion and substantially limit the State’s jurisdiction on these matters. The founders recognize however the need for some degree of structure through lay regulation and will be creating appropriate non-profit faith-based entities to prevent theft and diversion of donations and to ensure no individual is allowed to take advantage of the power and structure of the church for personal gain.

XV.        The Board, Sunflower Congregation founders, and its Officers are authorized to take necessary actions to develop the church and its mission. Each calendar year, a full and complete account of the actions taken shall be made available upon request to all members in electronic format. The Board meets when appropriate to discuss current issues, seasonal traditions and plan for future events. All significant financial transactions shall be reviewed by the Board or its designee(s). Our bylaws will further memorialize these processes.

XVI.      The safety of our members and the security of our sacraments are of tantamount importance to church leadership and practices regarding these are addressed in separate documents.

Specifics of our beliefs and practices

      i.         Entheogens are central to our religion as it is not possible to experience and realize the divine within without them. These sacraments are shared in some of our ceremonies and rituals in the context of a sacred and earnestly held religious belief and are never distributed for use outside of our ceremonies.

    ii.         All plant-based and animal-based substances and, in addition, all entheogenic substances derived from human ingenuity are sacraments and central to our religion. We believe that as we humans are manifestations of God our human creations are also holy sacraments.

   iii.         It is necessary to practice with many entheogenic sacraments as humans are individuals with individual genomes and individual experiences which require an individual approach to spirituality. It is of tantamount importance to us that we offer as many approaches to communion with God as possible. We believe that as we humans are manifestations of God our human creations are also holy sacraments.

   iv.         Excessive ritual and dogma may separate the individual from God and are therefore discouraged.  Meditation, hatha yoga, kriya yoga, and taking the time for personal reflection and integration are encouraged.

     v.         We are all divine.

   vi.         We are ultimately all one. Everything in existence is a part of a higher power that unites us as one organism. Our membership and all of life itself is sacred and imbued with the power of God. Our apparent individuality can be thought of in simplistic terms as leaves are to a tree or petals and seeds are to a sunflower with the tree or the sunflower being existence itself and its leaves, petals, and seeds being individual elements connected to the whole.

 vii.         We take care of each other and support each other as we should considering we are all one.

viii.         We grow our religious practice by offering membership to all who are sincerely interested in our way of life regardless of ancestry.

   ix.         We hold all Pachamama’s bounty as sacred, plants, minerals, and animals alike.

     x.         We value clean water, open sky, and harmonious living with the natural world. All plants and animals, whether entheogenic or not are revered and possess teaching qualities. All our part of the one holy universe.

   xi.         We care for and value our Earthly bodies by placing value on healthful food and regular exercise, yoga practice, meditation, and affirmative prayer.

 xii.         We offer for our members and seekers to continue practicing the cultural traditions into which they were raised including religious traditions so long as they are not out of alignment with our own. So long as these beliefs and traditions bring more heart-centered connection to the divine we conclude there is not one tradition that is superior to the next.

xiii.         We allow only those with the sincere intention of developing their connection with the divine to participate in our ceremonies.

 xiv.         We believe in the safe practice of our religious principles and conduct appropriate screening and medical evaluation to ensure our members and invited guest seekers are safe.

  xv.         We hold our sacraments (entheogens and icons) dear and do not allow non-members to remove our sacraments from church lands and/or church dominion. Senior designated church leaders are responsible for transport, harvest, and delivery of entheogens.  Currently only select facilitators, elders, founders, and founding board members possess these rights and responsibilities.

 xvi.         We hold our religious practices and ceremonies to be of a spiritual nature and encourage our membership to seek help with psychosocial and medical issues from designated lay professionals when appropriate. We do not practice medicine nor offer formal therapy.

xvii.         We insist that all our traditions and ceremonies are open only to people who are able to fully consent in their participation. We understand this must be obtained prior to participating in certain rituals and ceremonies as some of our ceremonies cause the participant to experience a non-ordinary state of consciousness which may render contemporaneous consent impossible.

xviii.         We collect funding only for purposes specifically authorized under common law in the context of the running of a non-profit faith-based organization.

 xix.         The conduct of our leadership meetings and the nomination and training of our leadership is separately addressed in our bylaws.

  xx.         We encourage potential members who possess no formal experience with spirituality to learn about unity.org and to also talk extensively with our membership so they can feel confident joining our church is an intentional and sincere gesture.

 xxi.         We celebrate five sacred holidays.

xxii.         We organize rituals and ceremonies for our membership and address their conduct under separate cover and under the guidance of our board and leadership. As is the case with many established religions we offer specific ceremonies to celebrate marriage, transition, celebrations of life, ordaining of elders and leaders, coming of age, and initiation into the church in addition to regularly scheduled ceremonies to allow our membership and seekers to experience the divine within. We believe life is a ceremony and sacred events in life shall be celebrated through either personal reflection or ceremonial ritual. We strongly encourage our membership to participate in our ceremonies regularly. We believe that our ceremonies, rituals, and sacraments are necessary components of our lives and worship.  In addition to our ceremonies, we offer pan-ceremonial integration on a regular basis.

xxiii.         We provide guidance and integration to members and seekers as part of our divine mission.

xxiv.         Sunflower Congregation may develop quasi-independent chapters with their own leadership structure and independent boards to fulfill our mission and the process for developing such chapters will be addressed under separate cover.

xxv.         The earth is a living entity with many given names. Mother Earth (Pachamama) holds all the elements together and sustains all life.

xxvi.         We believe each human has a sovereign right to choose what they do in their life so long as their practice(s) do no harm to another nor infringe upon another’s freedom of expression.

xxvii.         To walk with Sunflower Congregation is to walk with love, humility, gratitude, respect, acceptance, forgiveness, faith, honor, and charity.

xxviii.         It is our right to support and admit all members of named and unnamed lineages, tribes, bands, or other indigenous and non-native peoples worldwide as we see fit; Sunflower congregants are united by common cause and belief and not by genetic blood lines. We are all one and we are all God.

xxix.         It is our constitutional right to worship with all Earth-based entheogenic sacraments, organic and inorganic, whether these exist solely as the result of divine human ingenuity or have been found in their natural state on Earth since prior to recorded civilization.

ENTHEOGENIC SACRAMENTS

The Sunflower Congregation will make use of numerous entheogens to bring our membership closer to the divine.  We list and describe many of these in the paragraphs below to help seekers and members understand the mechanisms of actions for these sacraments and their traditional uses.  This list is by no means comprehensive as we believe all of God’s creation and all human ingenuity shall be available to our membership and as we have stated earlier as individuals we need to work with our own bodies, minds, and spirits to select ceremonial practices and entheogens that speak to our individual spiritualities.  Our statement of beliefs may be amended or extended as necessary when novel sacraments and ceremonial practices of potential value to our membership become known to church leaders and its board.

A.        AYAHUASCA

         Ayahuasca is a mixture of Amazonian herbs capable of inducing altered states of consciousness, usually for 4 to 8 hours after ingestion.  The experience can range from mild stimulation to an extremely immersive visionary experience. Ayahuasca is used primarily as means for shamanic communication, usually at a ceremony under the supervision of an experienced guide or teacher.

            The main ingredient of ayahuasca tea is a climbing vine (Banisteriopsis caapi).  Secondary ingredients within the tea may include chacruna (Psychotria viridis) and chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana) two plants containing a relatively high content of the psychedelic substance DMT (dimethyltryptamine) within their leaves.

            No one knows for sure when humanity first started drinking ayahuasca tea. The first known contact with the West occurred in 1851, through Richard Spruce, the famous English ethnobotanist. When we consider the comparative archaeological evidence of the native use of the plant, it seems that the consumption of this plant sacrament dates back at least two millennia.

            Quite unique to ayahuasca is that its effects depend on a specific mixture of two plants (Banisteriopsis caapi) and either chacruna or chaliponga depending on the region. It is unknown how and when the mixture of these two plants was discovered by Native Americans, although many tribes and shamans have their own mythical stories explaining the origins of their spiritual ceremonies.

            The main active ingredient of chacruna or chaliponga is a neurotransmitter found in all humans that plays a key role in unusual states of perception. This neurotransmitter is called dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, and is found in the brain, blood, lungs, and other parts of the human body. There is strong evidence pointing to the pineal gland ("the third eye" in esoteric traditions), located in the center of the brain, as being the main source of naturally present human-derived DMT. In addition to being found in humans, DMT can also be found in all mammals and in a variety of plants.

            The use for religious / spiritual purposes of ayahuasca has its origin in the ancestral traditions of the native people of South America. It has been used in religious ceremonies, shamanic healings and therapeutic practices for thousands of years. In many ancient cultures the religious use of entheogens has been standard practice since the earliest days of mankind.

            Experience tells us that the use of sacramental ayahuasca drink within an appropriate spiritual context, far from being a dissociative experience is, on the contrary, an activity beneficial for healing, evolution, connection with the divine.  Ayahuasca is often referred to as the grandmother and plays a central role in Sunflower Congregation ceremonial gatherings.  Ayahuasca can reveal eternal and universal truth.

B.        SAN PEDRO cactus and MESCALINE

            San Pedro cactus, also known as wachuma, a word that can be translated as “to be without a head, to cut one’s head, to cut rational thought, to cut the ego” offers you the possibility of living a newly connected life of healing and change, making it a central component of the many shamanic ceremonies.

            San Pedro can open the subconscious which facilitates feeling your power through an open heart.  A San Pedro ceremony is an inward journey that elicits deep insights into yourself and the universe helping you to heal, to grow, to learn and awaken.  This in turn assists us in reaching higher states of consciousness, enhances creativity, and tends to dissolve preconceptions and elicit fresh perspectives on reality.  Mescaline, the main ingredient in San Pedro is known to foster compassion and gratitude and is being studied as a potential treatment for psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, PTSD and addiction.  Mescaline is also found in peyote cacti.  This plant sacrament has a long-standing tradition of legal usage in North America by the membership of the Native American Church.  Out of respect for the Native American Church and in awareness of Mother Earth’s limited ability to provide large quantity of peyote for sacramental use our church relies upon San Pedro and human ingenuity to source its mescaline sacrament.

            About one to two hours after consuming San Pedro, the active substance mescaline will become palpable and will reveal itself to the user.  The effects can then last for eight hours or longer.  These effects include extreme visual, sensual, and light sensitivity; you will be able to see and feel every ray of light and even ‘see’ people and things.

            Lost memories can return, and you can hear sounds and see things that come from afar. San Pedro can strengthen and patch up interpersonal bonds by gaining a newfound emotional fluency and ability to express own emotions.  The sacrament can also help one to identify the struggles of others, increase personal sense of universal understanding, and provide connection to yourself and others to work out suppressed and learned patterns, triggers and limited beliefs.

C.        PSILOCYBIN

            Psilocybin mushrooms are perhaps the most ancient and sacred sacrament on planet earth.  It is our belief that psilocybin mushrooms have been consumed by man for tens of thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands of years.  We believe that psilocybin mushrooms allowed early man to commune with the spiritual realm, whereby early man received information downloads that allowed him to better survive on planet earth by building communities.  There is evidence of ancient use of psilocybin mushrooms spanning essentially the entire globe.  Psilocybin mushrooms are found on almost every continent, and their use by humans has transcended time, geographic location, and culture.

            Mushrooms are known as the internet of nature.  They are social beings, capable of awareness and consciousness.  Like our brain they build a neurological network with information sharing membranes.  Mycelial membranes can react to change and collectively and have the long-term health of their environment in mind.  Of the thousands of mushrooms existing all around the globe our ancestors and modern scientists have identified several dozen that have unique combinations of healing talents, which improve our health.  For our purposes psilocybin mushrooms bring us closer to divine consciousness in a gentle manner that speaks to many of our members more softly than ayahuasca and with more emotional impact than San Pedro.  These mushrooms are being studied by lay researchers as potentially offering treatment for depression, PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, cluster headaches, and cancer-related or other end-of-life psychological distress. When combined with appropriate counseling and integration, they can help manage smoking, alcohol, and cocaine addictions.

            The compounds in psychedelic mushrooms have mind altering effects similar in some respects to mescaline and DMT.  The chemicals have a structure very similar to the structure of serotonin, a chemical messenger with important roles in our brains and digestive systems.  Because of this similarity, psilocin (the active derivative of psilocybin) can bind to receptors in the brain that are meant for serotonin.  It is our belief that the chemical structure of psilocybin was designed by source to allow man to commune directly with it via the serotonin receptors.  Psilocybin offers humans a means to communicate with nature and the etheric realms that is not available to any but the most skilled yogi and meditative thinkers.

            The term “mystical experience” has been coined by modern researchers to describe the high dose psilocybin experience.  To date, researchers have been unable to pinpoint exactly what causes and what exactly is the “mystical experience.”  We believe the “mystical experience” is a paradigm in which the person consuming the psilocybin mushrooms communes directly with the spiritual realm, thereby escaping a logical or scientific explanation for the experience.

            Factors that can determine whether a ceremonial journey is rewarding or jarring and unpleasant are ‘set’ and ‘setting’.  A person’s ‘set’ (or mind-set) includes their mood, disposition, thoughts and expectations.  A person’s ‘setting’ is the specific place and social situation in which they take this plant medicine.  Psilocybin should be taken in a ceremonial setting in a calm and familiar place or else in nature itself.  Our psilocybin ceremonies comport with other ceremonial traditions surrounding the ingestion of natural entheogens and are structured in such a way as to allow the participant an optimal opportunity for safe interaction with the spiritual realm.  As with all other natural entheogen ceremonies, the psilocybin ceremony begins with a prayer and a blessing of the sacraments. 

D.        5-MEO-DMT (bufo)

            In Central and South America, 5-MeO-DMT is most often sourced from Anadenanthera peregrina (yopo) and Virola theiodora.  It’s found in higher concentrations in the milky white venom of the Colorado River Toad (Bufo alvarius) which is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.  The “toad sacrament” as it is sometimes called is the most acutely powerful entheogen and can be used ceremonially to turn the seeker into a believer with near certainty.  Naturally sourced and engineered 5-MeO-DMT alike show great promise in the treatment of problems of unease common to the human condition. A single inhalation of the substance has been shown to greatly improve general well-being and mindfulness as well as reduce the symptoms of psychological disorders.  Typically, the experience a person has after insufflating or inhaling 5-MeO-DMT, is described as feeling unified with the universe or some holy, transcendent "other."  A sense of oceanic boundless love can be realized.  There can be an emotional release and surrender that overwhelms the individual and a sense of particalization or dissolution into the fundamental energies of the universe.  5-MeO-DMT has been called the “God” molecule.  This sacrament is highly effective at facilitating appreciation for the importance of achieving and knowing enlightenment and is central to Sunflower Congregation religious practice.

            Bufo toad secretions containing 5-MEO-DMT and human engineered 5-MEO-DMT alike allow members to appreciate direct contact with Source.  The experience is perhaps the most sacred of all natural entheogenic experiences.   5-MEO-DMT opens the participant up both spiritually and energetically, allowing the person to completely cleanse their negative emotional attachments to their past.  After the ceremony, the crown chakra of the participant will be opened.  During the two weeks following any 5-MEO-DMT ceremony, participants should avoid negative energies and influences to maximize their integration of the experience.

            An opening prayer and blessing commence our Bufo ceremonies.  The participant then sits on the ground and recites a specific prayer tailored for the Bufo experience.  The participant takes a deep breath then empties their lungs of air.  The participant then inhales the smoke from the Bufo pipe which is lit and held by the designated church facilitator.  Once the participant has fully inhaled the volume of Bufo, they are laid down on the ground.  It is very important that fellow ceremony participants and our facilitators watch over the Bufo ceremony participant as sometimes the process can be very intense.  Once the participant is fully awake from the Bufo experience, they are allowed to walk around while monitored by facilitators.  In many cases members report almost immediate permanent transformation by this unique connection with the divine.

E.        RAPE (also spelled Hape)

            Rapé (pronounced rah-PAY) is a sacred shamanic tool for clearing intentions and paving the way for detoxifying the body. Rapé stimulates the nervous system, enabling the body to become more receptive to all levels of communication.  Rapé has been used by healers in the Amazon basin for thousands of years. It is a complex blend of plants containing at the very least finely pulverized mapacho tobacco (nicotiana rustica); this tobacco is crushed into very fine powder and administered through the nostrils with a special blowpipe.  Once ingested, the powder causes blood vessels in the brain to dilate. This leads to increased blood circulation, and consequently, to increased focus and intuition.  Rape is a nootropic agent that can help our seekers and members understand abstract concepts such as the meaning of life, the concept of God, and complex philosophy with a clarity not otherwise attainable without years of contemplative meditative practice.

Rapé brings immediate focus and opens mind space for your intentions to flourish. It helps release emotional, physical, and spiritual illnesses and eases negativity and confusion, enabling a thorough grounding of the mind.  Just as Shamans have done for ages, you can use Rapé to re-align with your energy channels and with your higher self.  This ancient medicine intensifies your connection with the world and the universe.  Rape is frequently used to enhance and strengthen the effects of other sacraments and works especially well in conjunction with psilocybin for spiritual growth and with cannabis for advanced meditative practice.  When used in combination with these sacraments rape is offered only in a safe monitored setting in the context of a religious ceremony. Rape can also be used as a precursor to other sacred ceremonies and can be valuable to help calm the nerves and ground so that the sacred ceremony can be of the greatest possible value to our members and seekers.  As a product that is widely available to the lay public rape can be removed freely from church grounds and used for private meditative purposes.

How do we use Rapé?

            This warrior medicine from the Amazon is blown into your nostrils with a pipe called a “kuripe.” Sitting down in a meditation the participant will state or think of a personal intention and speak or imagine a sacred prayer inviting this sacrament into their life. The herbal powder containing sacred tobacco and other plants is first blown into the left nostril representing death, then into the right nostril representing re-birth or life. During this experience, which lasts for approximately fifteen minutes, focusing on the intention is key and one seeks to let go of everything else.  A mediative state of mind and body takes you out of your mind away from negative, worrying thoughts into your  positive emotions of bliss, grounding and relaxation.

F.         SACRED CACAO

What is Sacred Cacao?

            Cacao is a plant native to Central and South America that has been used historically by the Aztecs and Mayans in ritualistic practices. Its scientific name “theobroma cacao” means “food for the Gods” and cacao is thought to have been sent from the heavens as a gift to mankind.

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            Most cacao that you come by today has been processed and roasted in such a way that most of the spiritual benefits are lost. Ceremonial cacao, however, is cultivated and prepared in the traditional way so that it retains the spirit and strength of cacao and can be used in ceremony.

Why does Sunflower Congregation use Sacred Cacao?

            Cacao can open the heart and allow you to connect with yourself and others in a deeper, more loving way. Very gently the plant enables you to connect with your inner spirit and wisdom, allowing for more profound meditation and to focus more on the present moment; its remedying properties work on your mind and soul.

            You will become aware of things that have been keeping you from living the life you love and receive strength in letting them go. This plant will help you find mental clarity and balance.

G.        KAMBO

            Kambô is the secretion of the giant monkey frog (phyllomedusa bicolor) that has traditionally been used by various indigenous tribes in the Upper Amazon region. It is a powerful cleanser of the body, mind, and subtle energetic bodies, detoxing deeply on a cellular level and rejuvenating the entire being.

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            Through the cleansing and transformative powers this sacrament offers us limiting energetic ties and cellular dissonance that you may be holding within can be cleared whilst removing stagnancy and creating a healthy space that is fertile ground for growth, empowerment, and abundance to flow freely.

Kambo typically induces vomiting and purging and its ceremonial use is carefully monitored by experienced facilitators under the guidance of a shaman or elder and only following a screening process approved by the Sunflower Congregation founders and board.  While there are no specific lay regulations prohibiting its transfer off church grounds, we have chosen not to allow this and only to provide Kambo in the presence of an elder, facilitator, or shaman trained to do so.

H.        CANNABIS

            Cannabis has been used widely throughout the world as a sacrament and continues to offer great value to the seeker today.  Cannabis is used in the context of Sunflower Congregation ceremonies to relax the mind and body especially toward ceremony end and to enhance the spiritual connections brought about by other entheogens including psilocybin and rape.  Ceremonial cannabis is stored and offered by Sunflower Congregation using the same care, handling techniques and attention used for all other consciousness altering entheogens.  Only seekers and members authorized by lay regulators are allowed to remove cannabis from church grounds and only their personal cannabis may be handled outside of the ceremonial container.  Congregation owned cannabis is handled only according to strict attention to protocol established by the board and is inventoried and transported only by founders, founding board members, elders, and facilitators in the same manner as our other powerful sacraments.  Off church grounds all members are required to follow lay regulations associated with cannabis use.

I.         KANNA

            Kanna (sceletium tortuosum) is often used as a mild heart opener and mood enhancer in a similar manner to how we use cacao to commence ceremonial practice especially when the seekers or members are new to entheogenic experiences.  Kanna is typically served as tea or ingested as a powder and is offered during certain initiation experiences.

J.         SASSAFRAS and its derivatives

            Sassafras is used traditionally in Native American practices as a sacrament and health tonic and has been used throughout the Americas as a flavoring agent.  Human ingenuity has enabled the transformation of sassafras into entheogens such as MDA (methylenedioxyamphetamine) and MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine); these two substances can greatly enhance the spiritual value of ceremonial practice.  These entheogens are strong heart openers and are handled with extreme care and attention to security following strict protocols to prevent unsafe use and diversion and are only offered following strict screening protocols developed by Sunflower Congregation leadership.  Current ceremonial practice is to offer these healing sacraments in small group settings along with small amounts of psilocybin and occasionally other entheogens to create a warm, positive spiritual experience.  These universally ecstatic experiences often catalyze later exploration of deeper universal metaphysical truths; they guide our members toward partaking separately in the powerful religious experiences offered by sacraments discussed earlier, such as ayahuasca, San Pedro, spiritually dosed psilocybin, and 5-MEO-DMT, that are so necessary to connecting fully with divine energy.

Sassafras and the entheogens derived from it are invaluable aids that open seekers and new members to the myriad possibilities and infinite opportunities for spiritual growth our Congregation provides.  It is impossible for some seekers to explore the divine within unless they have been relieved of trauma and fears that prevent them from realizing their true potential.  Many of our elders and facilitators are experts at guiding seekers and initiates to higher levels of consciousness using sassafras derivatives in conjunction with meditation, hatha yoga, kriya yoga, and breath work.

            In conclusion our Congregation’s desire is to open spiritual and etheric realms to as many seekers and members as possible and it is of tantamount importance to us that we provide a full range of entheogenic sacraments to our membership.  While we are all one, we are also all individuals and our Congregation recognizes different ceremonial containers are required to enhance connection with the divine as strongly and for as many people as possible.  This listing of frequently used sacraments is by no means comprehensive.  As stated earlier, all entheogens are spiritual tools whether of plant origin, animal origin, or existing solely as expressions of human engineering and ingenuity.

ACCOUTREMENTS

Founder, Prophet, or Teacher

            Sunflower Congregation has been founded by Andrew and Ivy Larson under the patronage of Gail Ingram.  Three other founding elders have been involved and continue to be involved since inception and this small group has worked together to formalize Sunflower Congregation’s religious practice.  All six of these people are founding elders and are authorized to facilitate all ceremonies and transport, inventory, and protect sacraments to the full extent provided for under separate church documents.  It is expected that many additional people will be designated or ordained as elders as the Congregation grows and these people will also provide ceremonial facilitation and be empowered to assist with inventory and protection of sacraments.  The church will also designate shamans and facilitators who are authorized to handle sacraments and are authorized to conduct ceremonies with some restrictions.  The board will develop policies for the formal designation of elders, shamans, and facilitators.

Gathering Places

            At all times, as approved by the Board of Directors, Sunflower Congregation will retain at least one retreat center where sacred ceremonies will be held, where business of the organization will be conducted, and where sacraments will be securely maintained.  The Congregation will be conducting ceremonies and retreats at various other properties throughout the United States as approved by its elders and board.  In the event membership and participation in Sunflower Congregation ceremonial practice continues to grow, the organization may acquire, lease, or secure additional retreat centers, as approved by the Board of Directors in order to provide maximum healing, spiritual development, and safety to its members and participants.

Keepers of Knowledge

            The elders of the church and its leadership team will impute knowledge regarding ceremonies, safety, and spiritual development to the members and participants. The primary keepers of knowledge will be the elders and facilitators conducting our sacred ceremonies.

Ceremonies and Rituals

            The sacred ceremonies conducted by Sunflower Congregation shall be undertaken in accordance with the dictates of the specific elder, shaman, or facilitator conducting the specific ceremony.  As we do not believe in excess ritualism nor dogma, we do not insist our elders, shamans, and facilitators follow one particular format or protocol.  All ceremonies must be conducted safely with proper screening of the participants, and all ceremonies must be conducted by leaders (elders, shamans, and facilitators) working in allegiance with the church.  Moreover, all ceremonies shall be conducted in sacred places on grounds approved by church leadership.  The basic structure of sacred ceremonies at Sunflower Congregation should include the following:

a.     Opening Prayer.  This should include a prayer of protection and a request for divine guidance.

b.    Serving of the Sacrament.  This should include an offering of the sacrament, receipt of the sacrament, and consumption of the sacrament.

c.     Integration.  Following the ceremony there should be an opportunity for members and seekers to discuss their experience and share their learnings with fellow participants.  This is essential to spiritual collective growth and integration should be directly facilitated by the shaman or elder conducting the ceremony.

            In conjunction with the ceremonies and rituals which are held from time to time there will also be held a monthly integration meeting, the purpose of which is to assist members and participants in integrating the spiritual insights gained during ceremony into their everyday lives.  This practice assists members and participants in affecting positive changes in their lives and consequently raises the vibrational frequency of the world at large.

Preparing for Ceremony

            Before entering a religious ceremony, it is important to prepare yourself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually with the intention of love, protection, high vibration, positive energy and intimate prayers for healing and transformation. These following guidelines and questions support our members and ceremonial participants in this phase before the actual ceremony. The questions listed here help members and ceremonial participants reconnect more to themselves and can assist in identifying their intentions more clearly.

Setting your intention

            Coming into any ceremony involving the consumption of entheogens as a sacred sacrament, it is essential to bring something with you. YOUR intention plays a crucial role in the entire process. Remembering what brought you to explore and heal in the first place can re-center you.

Intentions are nothing more than responses to questions you have had coming up within yourself. These intentions are very important for the actual ceremony and in the days, weeks, months and years following to adopt new lifestyle habits that enable you to continue to grow, heal, and thrive.  Setting intentions align with the religious practice of affirmative prayer.

            When our intentions are clear, when we are sure about what we want, we give the universe full permission to deliver these things to us. When we focus on what we don't want, the universe is likely to deliver us more of the same drudgery that led us to want to transform our day-to-day reality. Clarity of your objective, of your purpose and intention, will enable you to experience profound healing beyond your wildest expectations.

When setting an intention for this work, you may like to contemplate the following questions:

What is it that I want to realize for myself? What would be my ideal outcome? How would I like to feel?

What is my main aim or objective? Think about this in terms of what you want (not what you don't want).  This aligns with the previously mentioned concept of affirmative prayer.

What is my purpose for wanting to do this work? Be sure that it is an authentic purpose, not simply wanting to check an experience off your bucket list.

How does this purpose look and feel to me? Try to imagine it in your mind, write it down or draw it out.

            Setting your intention includes the mindset! Your intention of the journey's mindset is defined as the emotional and psychological state of your approach and experience. An intention is like a prayer; it is a statement of one's motivation or direction. Your intention directs your journey and communicates to our Higher Self what it is that we are seeking.

            You can support the process of setting an intention by journaling, making art, playing music, singing, or writing as a way of expressing what is coming through. Try to write every morning. Read through old journeys (if you have journeyed before) and reflect on how far you have come. Explore wounds, painful memories, and issues, and be emotionally open. If you are not a meditator, begin a simple daily practice of mindfulness. Take ten minutes to focus your attention on your breath then journal. Record your dreams! Uncover your subconscious.

What does a Sacred ceremony look like?

            We always offer entheogens exclusively in a sacred ceremonial setting.  We respect the sacrament as a living being, as our teacher, and believe in its sacred properties. Therefore, we create sacred space before we perform our ceremonies. The number of participants is limited to allow comfort and safety for all.

            The sacred ceremony room or outdoor setting is decorated with candles, and an altar is typically placed in the middle of the room, or outdoors, with sacred symbols and elements.  Recorded music is played during ceremony with live instruments such as drums, flutes, guitars or resonant bowls often complementing the music. Participants have individual mattresses or other place settings that provide personal space and security during the entire ceremony.  The elder, shaman, facilitator, and designated assistant facilitators keep the space safe by holding space and always being available to guide each participant’s divine experience.

           
            Before the sacred ceremony each participant is prepared by a silent meditation. This preparation enables the participants to move from the thinking mind into the feeling body, calming the thoughts and being clear on their intentions.  Each participant receives a personal smudging with sage to clear the aura.

            Once participants have shared intentions with the group, we open sacred space by calling in the spirit of the sacred sacrament.  After this sacred space is opened the sacrament is then ingested.  Some ceremonies require multiple ingestions.

            Facilitators make sure the ceremony space is kept clean, regularly smudge the room, and in general work to keep the space warm and comfortable.

            After several hours the ceremony is closed by saying a prayer thanking the spirit of the sacred sacrament. To conclude the ceremony fresh fruits, nuts, soups, and chocolate are served to the participants to celebrate each individual’s journey and to ground them back into their bodies.

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​            After participants have rested everybody returns together in circle to share experiences and hold integration. 

Mental and Emotional Preparation

            In expanded states of consciousness, we are granted access to domains beyond our normal ego structures. The veil that lies between our conscious mind and the vast ocean-like realm of our unconscious becomes more permeable. Because expanded consciousness gives us access to these normally elusive layers of our minds, a journey should be thoroughly prepared before entering the ceremonial space. We can do this by becoming familiar with the ways the mind functions.

            We also want to become familiar with the content and flavor of the emotions that arise in our body and awareness. The more in touch we are with the way the states arise within us, the more profoundly we can engage with expanded states of consciousness.

            To best engage the preparation process on the level of the mind and emotions, we begin by bringing mindfulness to our immediate experience. For most people, the thought of going inward to explore unknown territories of the mind will trigger apprehensions. Facing the unknown with some apprehension is a normal response. Having an intention can mitigate this apprehension.  With intention there is now a purpose and a greater meaning to the divine experience.

            Just like in everyday life, expectations are the root cause of disappointment. Although we live calculated, scheduled, and, for the most part, predictable lives, we are usually under the illusion that we are in control of many things. At any given moment, disruption to our routine and predictions can incur massive frustration and loss just because it's unexpected. On the other hand, experiences we look forward to and build up in our minds often underwhelm us because they are different from the image we constructed beforehand.  Expectations can precipitate disappointment.

The answer to having a constructive journey?  Have an intention but no expectations.  Let go and surrender to the divine experience.

Spiritual Preparation

            "The spiritual path is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path, most people just don't know it."

Marianne Williamson

            Step back and look at your current lifestyle. Where are there pockets of negative energy that you can reduce or eliminate in preparation for your journey? The spiritual preparation for a healing experience involves clearing your mind and your energetic space. Spend more time in quiet solitude. Get out into nature as much as you can to breathe and connect with Earth.

            You can create an altar in your home to support your spiritual connection. An altar is a shrine, table, cabinets, shelf, or platform on which spiritual or religious objects and images are placed together in a way that invokes a sense of the sacred. When spiritual objects are brought together in a particular arrangement, they create a unique field of energy that represents and reflects those who participate in its making.

            Preparing for a ceremony can involve observing a period of silence. Listening to the inner self quiets the mind. Consider practices such as meditating, watching the breath, hatha and kriya yoga, or focusing your senses on a divine object. A quiet mind can also be obtained through reciting prayers, mantras, or sutras.

Spirit inventory

Questions to ask yourself and journal about when considering membership in the Sunflower Congregation include:

Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person?

Did you have a religious upbringing?

If so, did it impact your life negatively or positively?

If not, what has shaped your relationship with spirituality?

Do you believe in a God, many Gods, or no God at all?

Do you believe that life is sacred?

What is your relationship with the elements, or the local rivers and mountains? Do you consider yourself to have faith?

How do you express your gratitude?

What do you value most in your life?

How do you connect with your essence?

Who are you when you are not doing anything?

Are you comfortable simply being with yourself?

Are you comfortable simply being with someone else?

What do you think happens when your body dies?

Do you relate with the terms pure being, God, source, awareness, emptiness, open presence, transcendence, great mystery, or the divine?

Do you make space for the power of pure being to be felt?

How does this presence inform your life?

Do you have a spiritual teacher?

Do you belong to a spiritual community?

What role do you believe spirituality plays in humanity?

Do you gather with others to meditate, pray, sing, or do acts of service?

What rituals or spiritual practices do you perform?

How do you celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or significant deaths?

Which spiritual or inspirational books do you love?

Where do you put images of spiritual teachers, meaningful objects, or special photos?

Do you meditate, pray, or spend time in nature?

Do you include times of silence and quiet when you are by yourself?

Do you take time for spiritual or personal retreats?

Integration

            It has been said that a ceremony can be equivalent to several years of psychotherapy. This inevitably changes your perspective on life, self, identity, and purpose. However, this rapid and profound shedding can leave us sensitive, vulnerable, and can be a lot to process all at once. With guidance these lessons can be applied to our daily lives in a powerful way.

            Integration, in large part, is the process of absorbing and digesting this raw material and incorporating it into your new heightened level of consciousness. This inevitably changes your perspective on life, self, identity, and purpose. We can grow into showing up as our true whole and soulful selves. We begin to cultivate a way of being that is in touch with what really matters.

Monthly pan-ceremonial integrations are available.

These powerful experiences enable you to

•           share authentically your current state of being

•           reinforce what you were able to integrate since the ceremony

•           discuss what you are still struggling with 

•           listen to fellow journeyers and their stories and ways of integration

•           share insights with each other

•           implement lessons gained into everyday life

•           nurture a connection to your soul and to the sacraments

•           connect to your truth

•           be part of a like-minded, like-hearted caring community

Structure of Organization

            Sunflower Congregation has the following leadership structure within its organization. Details regarding the rights, duties, and responsibilities of these leaders are available under separate cover.

Patrons and Patronesses.  Provide financial and logistical support to the organization.

Founders.  Set the tone for our religious practice.  Created the Sunflower Congregation Statement of Beliefs and Founding Documents.  There are six founders including our original patroness.

Board members.  Responsible for general and administrative oversight of the organization, general oversight of affiliated organizations, and for oversight of safety guidelines and standards.  Note that most board members will be ordained as church elders whereas others may serve on the board as members and be elected or selected for ecumenical roles; these board members would typically possess professional skill sets of high value to the church.  The specific nature and duties of the Sunflower Congregation board are detailed in our bylaws and other church documents.

Founding Board members.  Those board members who are also founders may call themselves founding board members.

Elders.  Authorized to conduct ceremonies and protect, inventory, and transport entheogens.  The founders and founding board members are all elders.  Elders have the highest level of rights and responsibilities within our organization.  Elders often lead ceremonies.  Elders have all been members of the church for at least one year prior to being ordained as such.  All founders, patrons, and patronesses are also elders.

Shamans.  Authorized to conduct ceremonies and provide entheogenic sacraments in the context of their own ceremonies.  Not authorized to inventory and transport Congregation sacraments but may use Congregation sacraments on church grounds to provide to church members and seekers.  Many shamans may provide their own sacraments and would therefore be individually responsible for their protection and security.  Shamans are typically guest ceremony leaders who provide on an occasional basis specific divine experiences using tools and techniques they may have developed prior to any interactions with the Sunflower Congregation.  Shamans are vetted by the church and are offered protection by our church for their works when they are perfoming their works under our authority.

Facilitators.  Conduct Sunflower Congregation ceremonies.  Facilitators work under the guidance of church elders.  Facilitators are typically senior church members with a strong interest in the church’ principles.  Facilitators are distinct from shamans in that facilitators have full protection from our church but are expected to only practice with church sacraments in a manner consistent with our church principles.  Specific rights may vary depending upon Congregation needs and logistics.  In general, facilitators will on occasion be required to protect and transport sacraments to ceremonial locations but will never solely be responsible for maintaining inventory.

Assistant facilitators.  Assist facilitators with maintaining safety and order during events and ceremonies. These are interested church members, and “assistant facilitator” is not an official title and does not in and of itself convey specific rights nor responsibilities.

Members.  All ceremony participants and anyone who is exposed to our vision, events, or works are encouraged to become members of the church.  Seekers are offered participation in ceremonies and attendance at events and integrations when appropriate for short periods of time, but regular ceremony participants must ordain as members.

The board as a whole and the founders as individuals have the authority to ordain and appoint elders, shamans, and facilitators.  There are additional processes for designating and approving facilitators and these may change from time to time and are documented under separate cover.  Elders subscribe fully to all church principles and are intimately involved in the propagation of the Congregation and are all fully aware of all church practices.  Elders must have been members of the church for at least one year prior to being ordained.  Shamans are experts at providing ceremonial space of their own preference but may limit their practice to only one or several entheogens and are not necessarily schooled in all details of church practice.

Appearance and Clothing

            During ceremony, members and participants are expected to follow a special dress code reflecting unity and respecting the sanctity of the sacred ceremony.  The individual shaman, elder, or facilitator conducting the ceremony designates dress for that ceremony.

Propagation

            Sunflower Congregation engages in online awareness and community outreach to make people aware of our retreats and our mission.  To that end the church will maintain a website and will from time to time utilize social media pages, text-based and email-based newsletters, etc.  In no event should anyone affiliated with Sunflower Congregation pressure nor coerce others to join nor are we charged with convincing others our beliefs or way of living is superior to or better than anyone else’s.  We acquire members and participants by attraction rather than promotion.

Substance Handling and Records

            Sunflower Congregation shall maintain very strict requirements as it relates to substance handling and records keeping.  Our goal is to completely prevent any legally controlled substances from being diverted away from religious to non-religious use.  To this end only elders have authority to inventory entheogens.  Sunflower Congregation entheogens are never allowed off church lands unless in the possession of an elder or facilitator who has possession of the entheogen for defined religious purposes. No member of the church regardless of rank is authorized to transport, sell, or donate entheogens for non-religious purposes. Additionally, the Board of Directors will enact an appropriate record keeping system and designate safe storage practices whereby all mind-altering substances are accounted for and secure at all times.  These systems and practices are subject to modification based upon the needs of the church and details are maintained and memorialized by the board in separate documents.

Screening Procedures

            All ceremony participants will be required to complete a medical questionnaire and participation waiver providing consent for participation.  These documents must be completed while participants are in their ordinary state of consciousness.  All participants will be screened by an elder, shaman, or facilitator before being allowed to sit in ceremony.  All participants pledge to participate in integration following ceremony.