THE ALCHEMY INSTITUTE TRANSFORMATIONAL COACHING TRAINING AND BUSINESS BUILDING PROGRAM

A 1 to 2 year, 750 to 1,500 hour Transformational Coaching, Healing, Creative and Expressive Arts + Spiritual Counseling Training Program

Graduates will study and major in 5 different areas including

1. Mythopoetic, Vedic, Hellenistic + Psychological Astrology,

2. Global Herbal Medicine, Ayurveda, Western Nutrition, Integrative Therapies and Technological Therapeutics

3. Ashtanga, Hatha, Meridian and Chakra Informed Yoga

4. Eastern and Western Literature, Art and Film Studies

5. The Intuitive, Imaginal, Erotic and Energetic Arts

Ethos

Ok y’all, this might get a little long, so just bare with me, and read it all, cuz I only say what I mean, capiche? The Alchemy Institute was born of night while listening to Lofi hip hop/chill beats, like so many babies I’m sure, conceived and forged in the fires of Mount Doom, over years of stumbling into the recesses of the human spirit and psyche. It is the one training to rule them all. And perhaps you, reader, are a part of our fellowship.

It’s about to get alchemical up in here so if you can’t stand the heat then you need to get out the kitchen babes.

We’re talking Art.

We’re talking Creative Actualization.

We’re talking Depth Psychology expressed through Performance.

We’re talking Astrology.

We’re talking Plant Spirit Medicine.

We’re talking Ancient Greek and Eastern Philosophy and Spirituality

We’re talking Essences.

We’re talking Rewilding.

We’re talking Archetypal Psychology.

We’re talking Tantra.

We’re talking Queer Eye For the Straight Guy meets the Socratic Method of Inquiry.

We’re talking’ Ayurveda and Ayurvedon’t you dare.

We’re talking yoga and chi gong and breath work/meditation, oh my.

We’re talking Art, Comedy, Film and last but not least: a proven business strategy to sign high-ticket clients while working part time, giving yourself time to create art, volunteer and make the world a better place.

It needed to happen so I made it happen y’all.

Call ya girl Chuckie because this ain’t Childs play ok?

So who am I?

Well hello, my name is Jeff and I’m the founder of The Alchemy Institute and East Meets West.

I started this program because of my passion for spirituality, performance and visual arts, the healing arts, astrology, comedy, philosophy, literature, herbs, self-development and all the best stuff the world has to offer.

I was depressed and struggled with a variety of health issues for most of my life, growing up in Boston, until I was somewhat accidentally dosed with LSD at a music festival at the age of 19 (big Alex Mack vibes!). During this experience I began to see energy and spirits animals and as a result of that experience I dropped out of the conventionally “good” college I was going to (Tufts), came out of the closet and was cured of deep existential anxiety and dread. I began to have frequent synchronistic experiences, started reading Jungian Psychology and tried to tap back into my love of art, but struggled with health problems and a severely out of whack circadian rhythm.

My intuition led me to re-enroll at St. John’s College in New Mexico, a school where you read classical philosophical and literary texts, including and emphasizing original mathematical, scientific and historical texts - Einstein, Newton, Woolf, Hawthorne, Plato, Homer and all the others. I was particularly in love with Greek texts, Plato to be specific, and always thought it might be interesting to explore some of the more esoteric aspects of Platonic texts and Greek thought generally.

Upon graduating I began to explore the use of psychedelics again, having countless experiences that defied my rational understanding of the world. In 2013 I had a very intense experience that broke down my skepticism around both psychic phenomena and an after-life, quickly followed by an experience seeing the chakras and inadvertently fixing a friends painkiller addiction, at which point I stopped doing psychedelics (except for 1 last not as interesting time) at the behest of my dead grandmother who came through a psychic with her same name (Milly) to tell me that I needed to stop.

I began to explore the yoga world around this time and yikes, just yikes. All I can say really!

In 2014 I began serious training in herbal medicine, followed by trainings in Sound Meditation, Ayurveda and Astrology and I’d already done a few yoga trainings and would continue to do others. I was fascinated by it all so much that I began to produce an event called East Meets West which brought together teachers from a variety of healing traditions for a weekend conference which I hosted until 2017, at which point I began to work with people doing 1-on-1 coaching utilizing all the skills I was trained in.

Beginning in 2018 I started to focus on business building and sales principles, learning how and how not to build your business, wading my way through the gross online-marketing world till I found people who I resonated with and who didn’t use manipulative sales tactics. I ultimately knew that I wanted to help other healers, therapists and coaches learn these tactics because it’s the thing that they struggle with the most - feeling like it’s ok to charge a lot of money and feeling comfortable putting themselves out there. It’s hard to do and I’ve struggled with it myself so I know that pain, and I also now know how irrational, self-harming and harmful to others it actually is, too. If I can help people get their gift out there, be proud of it and learn to generate a sustainable income, my Taurus sun/Capricorn rising-self will have done it’s earthly duty!

So here’s the deal y’all, after years of studying and practicing as a coach and healer and after receiving a lot of clear intuitive signs, It has become apparent to me that the time has finally come to put a training program/school together, and somehow thealchemyinstitute.com was avail so here we are (working on switching the domain name over to that soon!). There are many things that I love to do but if teaching and learning and growing aren’t involved I’m not interested. I didn’t think I would start a school all by myself, and I’ll certainly have some help of course, but life doesn’t always go as planned. In a sense the essence of this training program is a reflection on fate and circumstance, coming to terms with the great responsibility that should but rarely comes with great power in this world. I know that I’m here to help people step into their power, to see that nothing is unattainable, and also to help them wield that power and knowledge so it doesn’t consume and corrupt them. I was very close to naming this The Xavier Institute because though I identify as a mix between Jean Grey/Jubilee and Gambit, I know my role is a bit more akin to Professor X, at least for now.

And I am, indeed, looking for my X-men.

Don’t worry I don’t usually sound so dramatic, but I do need to make clear to you that underneath all the fun and hilarity and softness and healing is a dead serious and uncompromising moral integrity that has a bone to pick with the superficiality of the world of wellness and spirituality, and I am quite honestly a little desperate to find people who don’t feel at home in any of the currently existing institutions, schools or communities.

Who want to be a part of a community that’s as deeply committed to doing the work to dismantle unfettered capitalism and patriarchy and racial injustice as it is to having fun.

Who believe there is hard work to do but who want to work smarter and not harder.

Who believe being in joy is a fundamentally revolutionary act and who wish to focus on the building of bridges where they are possible as much as we can without losing site of their boundaries.

Who are willing to examine their biases and seek to understand them to the point that they can become beacons of understanding and compassion.

Who want to become the thought leaders that actually speak new, creative truths into existence and who do their due diligence in deciding where and when to speak that truth.

Who are willing to engage every facet of their mind, spirit, soul and body to reawaken the beauty that is sleeping in the collective psyche, begging to be kissed.

Who want to be a part of a spiritual community of people who understand memes and don’t wear all white and think that the 90’s were the best decade (not required but encouraged) and who lead pretty normal lives in a lot of ways even if we all probably have our own unique weird diet, a community that has common beliefs-ish but in a non-dogmatic way that is always open to revision and that are as minimal and provisional as possible to keep our aim at a more just, peaceful and fun world both steady and true.

And of course, who want to study and understand and contemplate the relationship between the intuitive, astrological and herbal arts, and want to learn the core competencies of them for their own well-being and in order to serve others at the deepest levels.

In my opinion all the subjects we will study not only can but should coexist, and I think we can gain immensely more value from becoming acquainted with the basics of each than we can from necessarily just studying one particular discipline. In particular I don’t view the study of astrology as being separate from the study of herbs - we are made of stars, babes, don’t get it twisted like Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton did in the 1996 hit Twister, ok

And look y’all, we’re going to learn some real ass astrology, not some bullshit you watched for free on YouTube which is probably ok honestly but definitely ain’t going to give you the level of depth and insight this program will. I have quite literally searched high and low for the best information and teachers out there and this program is a synthesis of over 15 years of the best education available in each discipline, so when you finish you will, as you should, feel that you are standing on the shoulders of giants. For real. You aren’t getting unexamined corporate mcmindfulness here, party people. You’re getting cutting edge stuff that’s going to differentiate you from all the $27 life-coaching course certified coaches out there. The coaching industry has had no real standards and that buck stops here. 75% of coaching ends up being psychotherapeutic in nature, which I know from experience and independent research, so you will actually be trained to recognize and work with psychotherapeutic tools. Coaches who aren’t trained to do so are just expensive friends, babes. #realtalk

We contain multitudes. We should be fascinated by it all. The education I’m offering should be as universal as the alphabet. But we live in a world where true science has been corrupted, in part because of the shallowness and deceitfulness of spiritual leaders and teachers who have given spirit a bad name. When I say this was born in the fires of Mount Doom I really do mean it - I’ve been deceived by more abusive spiritual teachers, shamans and authority figures than I care to count and anyone I involve here will have been tested by me in many ways before being allowed to participate as a teacher or student.

Look y’all, most people and institutions are deeply for sale and essentially corrupt. We have moved so far away from our natural rhythms that we can’t hear the earth or spirit anymore, despite the fact that she gives some pretty good and clear guidance that leads to the only true form of joy possible if only we’d care to listen. This training, above and beyond and before anything else, will teach you how to listen to the earth, how to talk to plants, how to listen for the signs and symbols and synchronicities that will lead you down the path of your alchemical magnum opus. It may not always be easy, but that’s why we’ll have community, because there is strength in numbers.

I have modeled this training partly on my college education at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, both in terms of curriculum and in terms of teaching philosophy. We will read original source texts whenever possible and teachers are just teachers, reading texts alongside you, not gurus or gatekeepers. Teachers who teach skills will be proficient in those skills but sometimes will only be just a little further down the road than the student, and group learning will be encouraged and facilitated in many instances. The literary discussion group will be primarily led by students generating their own questions related to the material and will be merely assisted by the tutor.

This training program is as much about learning tools and skills to help others as it is an opportunity for personal self-edification. You can only take someone as far as you have gone yourself so get in and buckle up babes because we’re going to be doing some wild ass, daring work in self-development. As such, this training is really for anyone interested in living a more fulfilling life, not just people who care to work with individuals in a 1-on-1 capacity.

This is also for people who fart.

It’s for people who laugh.

It’s for people who give people the benefit of the doubt.

It’s *not* for people who are sanctimonious, who hold dogmatic views of any kind or who embrace the idea of cancel culture without reservation.

It’s for people who would like to have money and power but who only want those things in order to help and uplift other people, and who believe that we should be working toward equitable distribution of wealth and power.

It’s for people who are only willing to work with people who have life-affirming missions or who are truly capable of making changes in their lives to become better people.

If the work of our institute changes culture at large, it will be through careful and slow deliberation of who we choose to work with. We believe the tortoise always wins the race, and that we’re not doing our work for this lifetime alone. So yes, if you don’t have strong Buddhist predilections, this truly might not be the best fit.

This is far, far more than just a training. We are creating a new spiritual and wellness industry. Shhh, don’t tell anyone. And our goal is not growth. Our goal is to follow signs and to have as much time to chill and laugh and eat good food along the way, and also to work hard to lift each other up and help our people. No but seriously, please only tell people who you think are literal angels and who you’ve never had a second thought about, people who are kind and compassionate and fun, who were probably outcasts in high school and who don’t care what people think about them. If someone’s primary mode of being is “no but” rather than “yes and”, it is not a fit.

Yes yes, y’all, we’re doing improv comedy together as a part of it. Why? Because it’s the fucking best, duh. No really, it is. It’s a life skill. It’s useful in so many ways. It will get you out of your head. You will find your unique brand of funny and your sense of humor. You will touch and appreciate the surreal and you will taste of nature’s best medicine, truly. You will bond with your cohort in a way that you can’t really describe, in a way that most adults forget exists but is, in my opinion, the best way to bond with others. And you will get used to being on screen and going off the cuff, which you will then do in your business regularly, getting clients as you show who you truly are while you continue to open up to your true expressive self.

Which brings us to the readings. I believe that we are all creative and that we are meant to express ourselves just about as often and as uniquely as we possibly can. And I believe that a certain intellectual rigor can give people the tools they need to not only learn to express themselves in their business better but in their art, and that this will lead to an overall richer quality of life and a healthier populace overall. I believe that our words and our thoughts create our reality and that the more elaborate our linguistic skills, the richer the fabric of existence becomes. In addition, part of our mission is to encourage a high degree of scientific curiosity, integrity and understanding of the subject matter whenever possible, in order to foster more acceptance of the subject materials and the practitioners of those materials in the world at large (without any particular attachment to whether or not that is achieved).

Perhaps the biggest reason for reading classical works of literature is because if you don’t it’s hard to understand where we’ve come from. There is a decided emphasis on Greek thought, philosophy, astrology and culture in this program for many reasons. The Ancient Greeks existed at the intersection of myth and science, and the question of how to reconcile spirit and matter, fate and free will is the lifeblood of Greek drama and philosophy. In recent years we’ve also begun to translate Ancient Greek Astrology which is incredibly rich and contributes massively to the understanding we have of what the Greek psyche was. But of course we can only speculate what life was like, and this is partly the reason to investigate it, because the very act of trying to discover anything will be ever-undermined by our fundamental inability to be certain of anything. To study the Greeks is to meditate on the rainbow of unknowable but highly possible truths, and the study of Hellenistic and Jungian/Mythical Astrology will glisten like a jewel in the minds of those who would search their psychological roughs for meaning, purpose and peace. As Socrates says, the only thing we can know is that we know nothing at all, and while the institute doesn’t have a mantra yet, that would be perfectly suitable.

There is good evidence that psychedelics played a large role in the Eleusinian mysteries and that the proverbial doors of perception were more open to the Greeks, contextualizing initiatory, shamanic and psychedelic practices in western culture in a way that has hitherto been largely ignored and which needs to be understood and appreciated as psychedelics re-enter the collective consciousness. As a culture we are beginning to open the psyche back up to exploration, and a good portion of our program will be dedicated to dream interpretation, psychic development and learning to listen to and therapeutically apply and meditate with plants, animals, stones and spirit. Psychedelic substances are just particularly strong plants - all the other plants have psychological and physiological effects, too, and we will explore the therapeutic applications of hundreds of them, taking into account astrological considerations and indications. This particular aspect of the training is the alchemical gold and worth the cost of the training alone.

Music, dance, painting and film are also incorporated and students are asked to compose a work of art at the end of the semester related to any of the subject matter studied in a particular semester. Works will be judged by resident institute trolls, of course, for creativity and technical proficiency. Art is life y’all. You aren’t going to look back on life and wish you’d bought more animals on the black market unless we’re talkin’ tigers and you’re Joe Exotic. You are going to look back on all the fun and cool things you created and connections you made. We’re living myths y’all and I’ll be damned if you’re going to go out without creating stories that are worth sharing. We are all creative beings in some capacity and not tapping into that is like living in a house with no electricity like a little Amish Bopeeperpretzel WELL GUESS WHAT IT’S RUMSPRINGA LITTLE MISS INNOCENT GET READY 2 SIN.

Ultimately I am interested in producing theatrical productions, books, music and films, and also in doing speaking engagements and performance art on stages, and I’ve learned the ins and outs of event production and I’ve met many of the major festival producers all over the world, so I would particularly love to find people who are interested in both healing arts and the performing/visual arts, because those are the visions I’m most excited and equipped to help make come to life in the long run. As a coach you will become financially independent with enough time and money to create art (not necessarily overnight but certainly in time, and quite potentially way faster than you might think), and it would be wonderful if in some capacity we might come together to create something larger than anything we might have created individually, though of course we may all have unique visions and a particular goal already in mind. For me personally the ultimate goal is to create some kind of interactive theatrical art that is psychologically introspective, partly improvised comedy that facilitates healing and transformation for the audience, ideally one day as a kind of group therapy that could involve the use of psychedelics. And I’d love to find and cultivate other artists interested in creating similarly meaningful and transformative art.

If this program calls to you, you’ll know. It’s going to help you in all kinds of practical ways, beyond what many can imagine, giving you the ability to sign clients for $10,000 to $32,000 a year or more, but the money isn’t the point. We’re going to learn to relax, to slow down, and to sit in our strength and self-worth, to sit in our spiritual essence in a way that isn’t naive to the shadow and the dark, and to get fundamentally comfortable with whatever it is that we’re meant to do. Odds are if you find yourself in the program that you’re meant to have money and resources to do more in the world, but that must truly be a side effect of your following your passion and your intuition to join.

And if you’ve read everything here and would like to be considered for the program, please fill out an application form, but please know that acceptance into this program will be largely given to intuition and divination rather than any kind of logical assessment of potential student accomplishments or character traits.

Curriculum (Subject to Changes)

1st Year

500 class hours + 250 at home hours

Module 1: Western Hellenistic Astrology 101

Module 2: Tropical Vedic Astrology 101

Module 3: Astrological, Mythopoetic and Archetypal Psychology 101

Module 4: Western Herbal Medicine and Essences 101

Module 5: Ayurvedic Lifestyle Practices 101

Module 6: Principles of Tarot 101

Module 7: Depth Sexuality 101

Module 8: Western Nutrition and Integrative Protocols 101

Module 9: Therapeutic Skills and Focalizing 101

Module 10: Energy Work, Chakras, Shamanic Practices 101

Module 11: Business Building

108 hours Vinyasa Ashtanga, Chakra and Hatha Yoga (2 mornings a week)

108 hours Qi Gong, Breathwork, Dance and Meditation (2 mornings a week)

20 Hours Western and Eastern Classical Literature Book Club

50 hours Practice Coaching

Group Business Coaching with Jeff

Private Coaching once every other week (pods of 3-4 individuals will work together to coach each other, study and learn each other’s astrological charts and constitutions, recognizing transits, synastry connections, etc.)

Extensive Required Reading

Final Creative Project

Public Speaking and Tedx talk preparation

Reading List 1st Year:

Week 1: Herman Hesse - The Glass Bead Game

Week 2 - 3: Carl Jung - Selections from The Essential Jung

Week 4 - 5: Freud - Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis

Week 6: William James - Psychology

Week 7: James Hillman - Revisioning Psychology, A Blue Fire

Week 8: Homer - The Odyssey

Week 9: Homer - The Iliad

Week 10-13: Plato - The Republic, Symposium, Phaedrus, The Timaeus, Apology, Crito

Week 14: Aristophanes - Clouds

Week 15: Aeschylus - Prometheus Bound

Week 16: Euripides - The Bacchae

Week 17: Sophocles - Oedipus The King

Week 18: Nietzche - The Birth of Tragedy

Week 19: Manly P. Hall - The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Week 20: Chapman’s Homer

Week 21: Virginia Woolf - On Not Knowing Greek

Movie Nights

Federico Fellini - 8 1/2

Brazil

Ingmar Bergman - The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander, Wild Strawberries, Persona

David Lynch - Mullholland Drive

Bunuel - The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Un Chien Andalou

The Rules of the Game - Jean Renoir

Jodorowsky - The Holy Mountain

Max Ophul - Letter From an Unknown Woman

Johnson - The Three Faces of Eve

Godard - Breathless

Gus Van Sant - A Sea of Trees

Kurosawa - Dreams

Darren Aronofsky - Pi

Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life

In the Mood for Love - Kar-wai Wong

Dark City - Alex Proyas

Dogma - Kevin Smith

I Heart Huckabees - David Russell

Richard Linklater - Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Waking Life

Orson Welles - Citizen Kane

Coaching Certification Astrology, Herbs, etc. Reading List Year 1 (more to be added) :

Chris Brennan - Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune

Demetra George - Asteroid Goddesses

Vasant Lad - The Yoga of Herbs, Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing, Textbook of Ayurveda 1,2,3

Liz Greene - Every Book She has written or coauthored

Richard Tarnas - Cosmos and Psyche

Ryan Kurczak - The Art and Science of Vedic Astrology Part 1 and 2

Matt Wood - Earthwise Herbal Volume 1

David Hoffman - The Complete Herbs Sourcebook

David Frawley - Ayurvedic Astrology

Sajah Popham - Evolutionary Herbalism

Many more to be added…

MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

T H E  V I B E

The Alchemy Institute isn't a just an educational platform. It’s not just trainings and events.  It's a vibe.  It's a wave length.  It's a common set of principles that animates everyone at the event, and that changes people's lives while they are with us.  We can't really describe it, but it's based around being and doing good, loving comedy, dreaming enormous, being calm, listening to music, and a love of living in this modern world while engaging with our alchemical and arcane past.  Our kind of people are fun, curious, urban, young at heart, sexy, vibrant, healthy, loving, fierce, determined, passionate, larger than life kind of people.  And even if you aren't, you are still welcome.  Let us show you a few things.

T H E  P E O P L E

The people here come from many vocations, including wellness practitioners, yoga teachers and students, life/business/health coaches, social impact entrepreneurs, and even staff from tech companies - anyone interested in leading a more meaningful, healthy life is welcome to explore.  You'll fit in here if people want to be your friend, if you love connecting with others, if you can't stop learning new things, if you love art, philosophy and the history of thought, if you are cool as fuck and unapologetically following your passion.

T H E   T E A C H E R S + C O A C H E S

Jeff is the primary teacher but will feature a number of guest teachers as well. Having produced many events in NYC and San Francisco, Jeff has come to know countless practitioners and teachers and will only feature teachers who he would choose to learn from. Some of his past event speakers have come from the Tibet House, Airbnb, The Rubin Museum, CBS's hit show Survivor, and have included many artists, yoga, nutrition and wellness school and studio founders, along with teachers from various wellness and mindfulness traditions.