All posts by westhillwhistler

Microdosing

The Secret Diary of A Microdoser #8

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I ripped open my shirt and bared my chest. My body immersed fully in dance. No holds barred. Loose. Wild. Free. Without any care as to what I looked like to the rest of the crowd who stopped and stared at this bearded old freak. Somehow, I knew in my heart that my father was dying at that very moment. His masculine energy rode the sound waves of a psychedelic guitar riff and penetrated my body. This was his parting gift to me, filling my mind and lifting my soul, as he journeyed through the ether on his final adventure. 

Psychedelics have been used throughout history to honour, remember and indeed communicate directly with our ancestors. Here I found myself vaping DMT in the moment of my father’s passing. Interacting with his spirit, perhaps by chance, perhaps by destiny, as he travelled through a psychedelic maelstrom, gifting me the energy that he no longer needed. One last selfless act, so characteristic of the man, or maybe his worldly energy was simply superfluous to his needs as a new type of wind now filled his sails. 

It was the last night of Shambala music festival 2024 and I was watching the mighty Ozric Tentacles, a band that I hadn’t seen since the Manchester Megadog in 1998. But I never could have predicted, never could have imagined that this would have been my experience of my father’s death. That I would meet my father’s spirit in a realm that I happened to be visiting at the same moment in time, unlocked by the DMT key. 

As I walked away from the gig, I received the call that confirmed what I already knew. I went with the flow of friends but hung back from the crowd. Let it land. I processed the power of the experience that he had been through and I had witnessed and acknowledged the gratitude, love and peace that formed my memory of him. 

A short while later, we arrived at our destination, an art installation called The Dancing Fountain, where it took me a few minutes to fathom that this rhythmic flow of water was the personification of my father’s spirit after he had survived inter-dimensional travel. The realisation dawned on me that he was using this medium to announce his arrival in a state of pure freedom. 

With the DMT pen never far from my lips, I stood amazed, stunned with wonder. I witnessed his joy in the explosion of droplets, pulsing and springing from the Fountain as he span, jumped and danced one last time. 

But how was all this possible? The answer is quite logical. Our consciousness is the fruit of the universe in the same way as a mushroom is the fruiting body of a mycelium. Our modern western culture tends to view the universe as brutal and unthinking, a product of chaos and the random interaction of forces, elements and energy. As religious structures lose credence, undermined as much by their own institutional fallibility as by our increasing intelligence and captured knowledge base, we’ve fallen into a habit of viewing our species as separate from the universe, an accident of evolution. Freud has a lot to answer for in that respect. But it is not the case. Life is the flower. Education is the pollination. Conscious thought is the fruit. If we follow the same pattern we see in nature and delve deeper, we see that the neurological pathways of the brain form the fibre of that fruiting body. Compounds such as tryptamines (which include neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and melatonin alongside related agents such as dimethyltryptamine, psilocin and bufotenin) are the fructose, the sugars, the energy of our consciousness. 

By increasing those levels for brief moments in time, I’ve learned many lessons from psychedelics over the years. But Dimethyltryptamine has been the greatest teacher of them all. Through using it in meditational practice, I’ve realised what is the thing behind all the different thoughts we have on a daily basis. The answer? A Thought. I, like you, am a Thought. And, if you follow the same logic, it is those Thoughts, themselves from a Thought, that danced together in the spirit realm on the night when my father passed from this world to the next. 

Harnessing the medicinal power of DMT has allowed me to remotely view “Ray”, discuss with other Thoughts his attributes, his faults, his reasoning and his motivations. Those drivers have been distilled over the years, purified by psychedelics. I have aimed ridiculously high in the past and fallen way short as a result. Painfully short. In younger years, I was never happy to have reached the moon when aiming for the stars. And yet when it came to my spiritual goal, I could feel myself making the same mistake all over again, the writing was on the wall. But, for the record, here it is: I aspire to be an angel. I don’t mean this in the Christian sense of the word. Nor the financial. My definition of an angel is an “Agent of Positive Change”. I thought, once again, my name was on the dressing room to the stage of disappointment. However, what continually surprises me is that, strangely, I achieve this most days, and perhaps there’s a chance that I’ve just achieved this with you. 

Thanks for reading. 

With Love,

Ray, Brighton, 2025

For back issues visit Instagram.com/SDOAM.TheRayman or substack.com/@sdoamtherayman 

Brighton Life, Patio bar

Gull About Town: November / December 2025

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The winter skies may be as grey as a gull, but life is looking up for your food loving scavenger as she roots around the bins of some of the latest openings in town.

Just a stone’s throw for her own roof top in West Hill, Patio is a new wine bar on the corner of Upper Gloucester Road and Surrey Street from Luke Williams of Vine Street Tap fame and Nathan Moseby of The Joker and The Geese. A carousel of excellent guest chefs each month are playing with delicious pickings sourced from the best local producers, growers, farmers and food hubs (Shrub, for example) with wines from local Titch Hill. Its opening menu of Jersey oyster, lemon and dulce mignonette, mussel escabeche, toast and lardo, liver parfait, heart skewer, cornichon and rosemary, finished with Brillat Savarin honey toast meant little leftovers to rifle through, but says much about how this cool little wine bar is setting out its intentions.

When news of the opening of Mare, the new Brazilian-Italian culinary adventure from Rafael Cagali in Church Road, Hove reached your gull, she hit a thermal and sped straight down to the back of its kitchen to tuck into the discarded native lobster claw tartlet with ginger and caviar, the leftover salt baked beetroot, mackerel and chervil, the bits of carabineros prawns and peppers with Moqueco sauce, and morcels of choux bun with fig leaf ice cream and fresh figs. The bill is enough to make a bird caw, but Cagali’s rep as chef/owner of two Michelin starred Da Terra, and career which has taken him through The Fat Duck to Simon Rogan’s Fera, is a welcome elevation to Hove’s growing food scene. 

Flat Iron, London’s latest mass market foodie gift to Brighton opened last month to queues around the block as news flew of free beef being passed along to waiting open mouths like baby gulls in a cliff-top nest. But in a week of new openings in Ship Street, your gull let the crowds eat steak and tottered to Taro, a less assuming new Japanese to peck at its bento boxes, freshly made sashimi and warming bowls of ramen. 

Staying with the taste of Asia, she hopped to Namo, the new grown-up Thai nurtured at The Eagle, and now standing proudly on its own. Already featured in BBC Good Food’s 20 Best Places to Eat and Drink in Brighton, your gull predicts that this one will fly.

But as with every bird, what comes up must also come down. And it’s with a heavy feathered heart that the news reached your Gull about the closing of The Set, her favourite restaurant for so many years when it held court in the Artist’ Residence Hotel in Regency Square. Its current home at Café Rust is where the Gull family will be for Christmas dinner, picking at the fried chicken with gravy & trimmings which include Aligot, merguez stuffing, creamed mustard cabbage & butter roasted maple roots, a glorious finale from Dan Kenny, one of Brighton’s chef legends. Great Uncle Gulliver still regales the teen gulls with his tales of the rich bin pickings at the back of Dan’s house in Ho Chi Minh city where he lived for two years before moving to Brighton to work at the Gingerman.

Brighton, Brighton Life, Co-op

The fight for the soul of Seven Dials by Amr Tabari

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When I first moved to this country in 2014, I was desperately homesick. Everything made me cry. If I went shopping and saw something unfamiliar, like avocado hummus, I cried. If it was too cold, I cried. Every reminder of how far I was from home was enough to bring tears to my eyes.

I remember one day, sitting in Latina Deli Café, just around the corner from Albert Road where I lived at the time. Adelia, the owner, served me a cappuccino and asked, “Do you want anything else?” What I wanted to say was, “Yes, I want to go home.” But instead, I stayed quiet, holding back tears. She must have noticed, because she gently tapped my shoulder and said, “If you need anything else, I’m right here for you.”

That moment stayed with me. Latina Deli Café became more than just a café. It was a place of comfort, connection, and community. It was my anchor.

So when I learned that Co-op was evicting Latina Deli Café, I felt a duty to act. As Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “Actions are judged by their intentions.” My intention was simple: to show Co-op that Latina Deli Café isn’t just a business, it is part of the community’s soul.

Latina Deli Café represents something bigger. It’s cosmopolitan, bringing flavours of Portugal, Spain, and Latin America to Brighton. It’s where strangers become friends, where conversations flow, and where people leave feeling a little lighter.

I also knew the reality. Co-op had acted legally. They bought the building and had the right to evict. But legality doesn’t erase responsibility to the community. My mission was to make them listen.

So I upgraded to LinkedIn Gold and began contacting Co-op’s leadership directly. I emailed their CEO daily, commented on her posts, and made sure the executive team knew what was happening in Seven Dials. At the same time, I organised a community action, not a protest but a gathering, where I gave a speech announcing that I would boycott the Co-op store in Seven Dials.

This activism came at a cost. Online, I received abuse and suspicion, even from some within the campaign. While I expected to give and receive love, I encountered animosity and doubt about my motives. But I didn’t let that stop me. My record in Brighton, from volunteering with homelessness projects to helping keep our parks and squares clean, speaks to my commitment to the community.

Throughout, I stayed in close contact with Adelia. She guided me with wisdom, correcting me when I needed it, and helping me deal with hostility constructively.

Then something remarkable happened. On the day Adelia announced she felt heard and respected by Co-op and was organising a farewell party. I received an invitation to meet their senior executives in Manchester. After weeks of persistent emails, some strongly worded, they were willing to listen.

I travelled to Manchester with a presentation of ideas. I urged Co-op to invest in Seven Dials, to engage with the community, to repair their reputation, and to show they could be more than just a corporate presence. I suggested partnerships with local charities, Brighton & Hove libraries support, and a number of community initiatives. To my surprise, they were receptive. And yet, not everyone in the local campaign welcomed my efforts. I was told I was “campaigning on my own,” when in reality, I was simply staying true to my values. 

As a proud British citizen of Palestinian heritage, my approach reflects my culture: to act with integrity, to fight for community, and to speak up when something feels unjust.

The question remains. The community doesn’t want independent shops like Latina Deli Café to disappear. But Co-op has acted within the law, and they are here to stay. Do we keep fighting them, or do we take a pragmatic approach, ensuring their expansion aligns with the community’s needs and values?

For me, the answer lies in dialogue, accountability, and realism. Co-op must show genuine commitment to Seven Dials. And if they do, perhaps we can embrace them, not as a faceless corporation, but as a neighbour who has finally learned to listen.

At the end of the day, a difference in opinion does not mean a difference in love for this community. Shops, corporates and businesses come and go (sometimes forever) but what stays is Seven Dials and its people. The community and its spirit are here to stay. 

Brighton Life, Sian Berry

Sian Berry – November / December 2025

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Why are so many people joining the Greens?  

To say it has been an exciting month for the Green Party would be a dramatic understatement. At the time of writing, we now have 130,000 Green Party members, and an unprecedented rate of new people deciding to join our growing movement since the summer. Our excellent, and now hard-pressed social media team is keeping up the pressure, adding a new ‘record numbers’ graphic almost every day announcing another milestone reached. The most recent was that Greens overtook the Conservative membership count. In Brighton and Hove alone, we have over 3,000 members now, and everyone is so welcome to our united and energised team.  

All our members are delighted at the way our brilliant new leader, and my former colleague in the London Assembly, Zack Polanski, has proved to be the kind of effective communicator that political movements dream of. But what Zack is communicating, a hopeful vision for what our country could look like, has always been at the core of what the Green Party stands for. Zack is not saying anything new in terms of Green views on obscene levels of inequality and the awfulness of the rising cost of living, but he is saying it very, very well.  

In our new party political broadcast, Zack articulated what we have long been saying as a party: other kinds of politicians want us to blame each other for the problems they themselves have caused, but we should be looking to blame instead the very wealthiest people who have hoarded money, power and corporate influence at the expense of our communities, public services, and planet. Why is it always put to us that we must face ‘hard choices’ that affect our public services and working-class communities, while multimillionaires and billionaires get off scot-free, not even being asked to contribute a little more in taxes on their extreme wealth?  

The need to right this long-term injustice is a message that is at last getting through to people in our communities. People are crying out to hear this from the Government, or any opposition party, but the Greens have been the only political team to significantly soar in the opinion polls after our conference, a sure sign that people are fed up of mundane and dismal political messages and love to see a party with confidence and fire in its belly.

Against a backdrop of inflamed tensions across the country and awful intimidation targeted at asylum seekers, our new leadership team was emphatic in its conference speeches: migrants and refugees are welcome here. Our unashamed inclusivity, our willingness to argue that migration is this country’s superpower is what is setting the Green Party apart from the rest and is why so many people here in Brighton and Hove are joining us too.  

My constituents’ steadfast commitment to standing up for the rights of marginalised people in our city is just one of reasons I am so endlessly proud to represent Brighton Pavilion, From the rights of refugees, to speaking up for trans and disabled people, Brighton has always had strong values for standing on the side of the oppressed. I am proud to be a member of a party that does the same.  

And unlike other parties, we are not funded by the fossil-fuel lobby or corporations that want to dictate what we can and cannot say. We work only for the best interests of the public – long and short term – and we work in ways that are bottom up and led by our members. If you join us, from day one you can make a tangible difference, contributing to writing our policies, running for office, adding your ideas to the momentum we are gaining. At the next general election, I cannot wait to see a new wave of Green MPs – who I know will be hard-working, dedicated public servants, because they are already hard-working, dedicated local leaders and campaigners.  

As part of our recent boost in publicity, Greens have been accused of no longer caring about the environment. But we have never been a single-issue party and have always drawn the links between effective climate action and social justice. I joined the Greens 24 years ago exactly because of the party’s strong social policies, including a basic income and respect for marginalised people. Climate breakdown is being drastically accelerated by wealthy countries, billionaires and mega corporations but will disproportionately impact those who have done the least damage. Greens are committed to protecting everyone against food insecurity, health crises and extreme weather, not just those who can pay the most.

There are also hundreds of thousands of high-paid green jobs to be created in the rapidly growing green economy. Expanding the rail and bus network to help us all get around, building a resilient renewable energy network that will lower our bills and bring real security, green agriculture to meet food needs and protect nature. There are long-term jobs to be had, and Greens want to create them. 

A recent poll on voting intention for the next general election put Greens level with Labour for the first time ever. This is a huge achievement showing that it is worth voting Green wherever you live. As thousands more join us every day, what has always been true is coming to the forefront: the Green Party is the party to vote for if you want a government that stands up for everyone’s rights, invests in communities, does not cut but funds welfare properly, acts on climate change and builds a future fit for us all. As Zack brilliantly said in our broadcast: “let’s make hope normal again.”   

Cuttlefish Casting, Phoenix Arts Space

Editorial – November / December 2025

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It’s coming up to Xmas. You can tell,if only because there’s that idiot picture of that idiot dog on the cover. Xmas is all about tradition. And it’s lovely, but there’s always the question of what to get them. The question of presents. 

A few years ago, I bought My Fine Wife an Air Fryer for Xmas. It was that year everyone either bought or was given an air fryer. Has anyone still got theirs? And has anyone who has still got theirs still use it? Didn’t think so. Anyway. 

Actually it was the perfect present. It was a nice big thing in a nice big box, it came with all manner of attachments and a little sachet of dust that you could pour over it to save it the trouble of gathering dust itself. It was quite expensive and I got some serious brownie points – mostly for the size of the box. About a week later, quietly and without fuss, I took it back to the shop and got my money back. The perfect present. Big time brownie points… and your money back. 

Buying presents for a loved one is always a bit of a mission. What do they need? They need nothing. How many bright red Triumph Spitfires can you drive at any one time? We don’t do presents any more. We give each other ‘experiences’. A ticket to go and see that. A trip here, a visit there. Making memories. So much nicer than an idiot kitchen gadget, even one where you get the money back.

Anyway. This year I had a birthday, and My Fine Wife gave me ‘cuttlefish casting’. No, me neither. I know she gets her hair done at a place called Cuttlefish, but how can I say this? If you were going to buy me a present that had something to do with hair, you wouldn’t need much wrapping paper. 

“Cuttlefish are a chunky squid-like creature with a well-developed head, large eyes and mouths with beak-like jaws. They have a fin that runs around their body, eight ‘arms’ with suckers plus two tentacles around the mouth. Cuttlefish are extremely variable in colour, but are usually blackish-brown, mottled or striped”.

The cuttlefish casting was at the Phoenix Art Space, that large possibly unattractive building near The Level by St Peter’s. I must have driven past that place a thousand times – last week alone – but I’ve never really taken much notice of it. But there’s loads of fantastic stuff that goes on there. Like cuttlefish casting. 

Cuttlefish also have a ‘cuttlebone’ which they use for buoyancy. You probably know them from when you were a kid and your Aunt Sadie had a budgie called Twinkie and she used to give it a cuttlefish to eat. Well, a cuttlebone. 

Cuttlebones wash up on shore. They’re white and oblong shaped. One side is hard as bone, the other is soft like polystyrene made of chalk. You make a shape in the soft side, fill it with molten pewter and that’s the casting. 

The class, led by Anna Watson, was easy and fun. It was loveky to spend the day doing something new, something creative. 

I decided to make a ring. I like rings. That was straightforward because I could just copy one of my other rings for size. Loved it. (It’s the one below, next to the dual prong ring). A bit of rubbing down, a bit of filing, a bit of shining. Loved it. Buoyed, I decided to make My Fine Wife a ring. Well, this was all her idea. So I made her a ring. And then another. 

Reader, both rings fitted her like, well, rings. I’m not sure who was more surprised: me, her or the cuttlefish. One thing I do know though. More brownie points than a warehouse full of air fryers.  

l https://phoenixartspace.org/learn/courses-at-phoenix/