Confessions of a Chocolate Shaman

In 2018, I was invited to give a keynote at TOA, a major tech conference in Berlin. While there, I was invited to join a sacred cacao ceremony. I’ve been a lifelong chocolate lover (dark chocolate, of course), so the idea of a ceremony based around cacao was irresistible and so I went. I loved it. People drank liquid cacao, tapped gongs, then spun around in a meditative circles. The idea of a ceremony based not on drugs like ayahuasca or psilocybin but on relatively benign substances like cacao or chocolate appealed to my sense that we humans have all we need for happiness, freedom, and connectivity innately inside of us which we can access if we only get out of our own way and let ourselves feel what we are evolutionarily designed and have socially evolved to feel.

After returning to New York, I decided I wanted to start leading cacao ceremonies just for fun. I looked around for places where I could learn how to do it and quickly realized that none existed. (Who would have guessed that chocolate shamanism was an entirely DiY activity!) That’s when I decided to educate myself and start putting together my own ceremonies, inspired by the spark of what I’d experienced in Berlin but mostly new and different based on my philosophies and imagination.

When I was ready, I started telling organizations inviting me to give tech and healthcare conference keynotes that I wanted to also lead cacao ceremonies in the night. My friend and New York’s best (at least in my view) chocolatier, Maribel Lieberman, helped source single-origin cacao from her original home country of Guatemala for the ceremonies. It was all just for fun, but people loved it. They appreciated a group of people allowing each other to just stop for a moment to feel a sense of place in the world, of connectivity to themselves, nature, and each other, and of the freedom to move and be with loving abandon. It was a bit of a secret second life for me, but I was outed when a Psychology Today columnist, Cami Rosso, joined one of my ceremonies at the NextMed Health conference in California and wrote this wonderful piece on me and the experience and then when Joe Rogan asked me about my secret chocolate shamanism during one of my interviews on his podcast.

A few people asked me if it was okay if they started running cacao ceremonies of their own based on what they’d learned in mine and asked if I’d share my principles. Of course, I was thrilled to do so. One of these people even asked if I would ordain him (communion chocolate bar, anyone?)! Because I’ve seen my ceremonies give so much joy to so many people, I decided that the best thing for me to do was to post my principles and the organizational framework for my ceremonies so that people can take these ideas and run with them in whatever healthy direction they want. Call it an exponential joy strategy.

There is nothing inherently more sacred about cacao than any other substance, at least in my view, but there is sacredness in everything and everyone if we recognize that basic reality. If we treat the world around us in that fashion, cultivate gratitude for each other and all of life, and celebrate the wonder of it all, our world has the potential to become a happier and more delicious place.

With all of this as background — and with a large dose of self-mockery and joyous amusement — here are the principles of the “Metzl School” of chocolate shamanism:

The “Metzl School” of Chocolate Shamanism

Sacred cacao ceremonies celebrate life, community, and inner/inter-connectivity. They can be carried out in many different ways. The “Metzl school” is merely one of them. It is a dynamic process aspiring to continually grow based on new ideas and participatory feedback.

The core principles of “Metzl School” sacred cacao ceremonies are:

1. Cacao is not more inherently sacred than any other substance or object. There are no inherently sacred mountains or plants. Nothing is sacred if we don’t think of it that way. Everything is sacred, however, once we recognize it as such. Recognizing that core truth can change the way we perceive the world around us and live.
2. Having said that, cacao has been used for ceremonial purposes for at least 3,500 years.
3. We choose to recognize the sacredness of cacao as a representation of everything, but could just as easily be holding a sacred water ceremony.
4. In recognizing the sacredness of the cacao used in our ceremonies, we are recognizing the contributions of all the people who played a role in bringing it to us – those who planted the seeds, tended the plants, extracted the cacao, paved the roads… (AJ Jacobs wonderful book, Thanks A Thousand: A Gratitude Journey is a nice example of being mindful of all the people who have brought a simple pleasure (in this case a cup of coffee) to us.) This human chain is essential to the sacredness of the cacao. It is impossible to recognize the sacredness of cacao without recognizing the sacredness of the nature and people who made the cacao we are consuming possible.
5. Cacao is not a drug. A cacao ceremony does not celebrate the psychoactive properties of cacao. It’s not the same as an ayahuasca ceremony or a magic mushroom journey. The drug is not the cacao, but each of us freeing ourselves to feel what we feel, celebrate life, and joyously come together as a community. Whatever state you would like to achieve, you can achieve it yourself, without psychoactive drugs if you get out of our own way.
6. Having said that, cacao has wonderful health and cognition-enhancing properties.

The elements of a “Metzl School” sacred cacao ceremony include:

1. Introduction by facilitator/shaman welcoming participants and making the key points articulated above;
2. Moment of silent meditation so each person can set their own intention for the ceremony;
3. Distribution of cacao/chocolate for each person to hold next to their heart during guided meditation, but not yet drink;
4. Guided meditation led by the facilitator (e.g. imagining the universe from the perspective of its widest reaches to people together for the ceremony, imagining the community coming together to plant and grow a cacao plant, etc.);
5. Invitation by facilitator for people to drink cacao/chocolate, with guided instructions facilitating the mindfulness and full bodily awareness of the experience;
6. Sound healing (by an invited sound healing practitioner);
7. Facilitated escalation of movement by participants following a progression of musical beats going, over time, from very slow to very fast; at each stage the facilitator guides people to move a little more until the high energy and rapid beat of the music become exhilarating;
8. Bringing participants together into a circle of love, connectivity, appreciation, and trust; rubbing hands together and connecting energy;
9. Closing benediction and charge to participants.

All of these elements can be fluid and changeable and are subject to dynamic evolution and growth. Facilitators are encouraged to experiment and seek input from participants, sharing encouraging ideas with other facilitators.

Any aspiring facilitator/shaman can be “ordained” into the “Metzl School” of chocolate shamanism by:

1. Agreeing to the core principles above;
2. Agree to (loosely) follow the organizational principles described above;
3. Learning about cacao, chocolate, ceremonial experience and music, etc.;
4. Reading materials from the designated reading list and contributing to that list as appropriate (this, this, this, this, this, this, and this are a start);
5. Developing a personal model for guided meditation;
6. Agreeing to learn from and share learnings with other members of the community:
7. Determining their own source for cacao or chocolate (or use this);
8. Developing their own music playlist which processes from slower to faster beats (or use this)
9. Identifying a local sound healer or other musical/healing guest to join ceremonies:
10. Get free online ordination if seeking to perform any official duties requiring documentation;
11. Agree to a short interview process with existing “Metzl School” practitioners to answer the following questions: 1) Why do you want to be a cacao/chocolate shaman? 2) Why do you want to do it using this approach? 3) How do you believe you can best support this community? 4) How do you feel this community can best support you? 5) How can we all best grow together?
12. Agree to mention that they are part of this tradition when leading ceremonies;
13. Seek opportunities, as appropriate, to recruit others as facilitators and guides.
14. Suggest improvements upon and/or additions to these ideas and this post by contacting me here.