Podcast Summary: Let's Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari

Episode: Mushrooms, the CIA, and Energy Alchemy, Oh My!
Host: Kristin Cavallari
Guest: Christine Thompson
Date: November 25, 2025

Episode Overview

In this thought-provoking and deeply honest conversation, Kristin Cavallari welcomes Christine Thompson—executive advisor, spiritual strategist, and former aspiring intelligence operative. Together, they dive into Christine’s unique approach, blending business strategy, energy work, neuroscience, and mysticism to help high-powered leaders and visionaries realize their fullest selves. The discussion journeys through Christine’s winding career path, her intimate experiences with plant medicine (psilocybin/mushrooms), the lessons of chaos and transformation, and practical wisdom for anyone exploring higher consciousness and personal alignment.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Christine Thompson’s Evolving Career and Identity

The Work Defined:

• Christine describes herself as a “business strategist in the human condition,” integrating business strategy, psychology, neuroscience, and what she calls “modern mysticism.”
• Her clients are influential individuals facing turbulence, seeking optimization, or exploring legacy and visionary impact.
• “It's combining business strategy, who we are as human beings, and how to understand ourselves more deeply so that we can do what we're meant to do... with joy and fulfillment and impact and influence.” – Christine (02:00)

Career Path:

• Christine considered a CIA career in college, trained in counterintelligence and hostage negotiation, but chose authenticity over subterfuge:
  • “I realized...you have to pretend to be who you’re not in order to be good at it. And...at what point do I lose myself?” (09:20)
• Transitioned from management consulting into high-level business, ultimately becoming SVP of a multi-billion dollar family office by 25, working behind the scenes in ventures like Formula E.

Skillset:

• Deep training in diverse modalities: energy alchemy (apprenticed in India), Amadeus healing (Ecuador), negotiation, multiple languages, and cross-cultural immersion.

2. Tools and Approaches for Transformation

Energy Work & Nontraditional Modalities:

• Christine references her apprenticeship in energy alchemy and "old world technologies," blending them with modern psychology and neuroscience.
• She stresses the need for customization: “It's a very specific, unique expression that each person has.” (02:10)

Plant Medicine:

• Offers plant medicine (notably psilocybin) only to clients “willing to let go of what you think you've known” and “renegotiate how you've perceived yourself.” (04:27)

3. The Path to and Through Plant Medicine

Readiness & Guidance:

• On deciding who is a candidate: “Do you have the ability to let go of what you think you've known? …to redefine who you are fundamentally?” (04:27)
• Cautions against seeking an “easy button” to fix trauma with plant medicine:
  • “If you find yourself believing it's an easy button, I would hold off.” (21:57)
• Urges thorough preparation and sometimes a trauma-informed guide: “Without the skill set… entering that space… can exacerbate some of the issues…” (22:21)

Should You Journey Alone?

• While some have profound solo experiences, Christine generally recommends a guide for those with trauma or deep intentions:
  • “If someone has a specific intention and they believe they're gonna be facing off with some difficult things, I do think it's a good idea to have a guide.” (23:36)
• Psilocybin, in her method, is described as gentle—building gradually, often with loving, awe-inspiring experiences.

4. The Spiritual Experience — Letting Go, Lessons, and Awe

Facing the Unknown:

• The greatest transformation comes from surrendering control and embracing the unknown, a theme driven home by a physical moment in the session (a camera falls):
  • “Embracing the lack of ability to control is actually the portal to the magic... True transformation can't be anticipated.” (35:00)

Common Messages from Mushroom Journeys:

• “Everything is connected.”
• “Everything comes from love.”
• “Awe is healing to the human nervous system... a full engagement with the present moment.” (42:05)
• “The experience of awe... instantly eliminates depression, anxiety, fear in the moment of now.” (42:31)

Integration is Key:

• Powerful journeys must be integrated back into daily life to be transformative:
  • “You don’t have these experiences just for it to exist in a silo... How are we practicing these themes?" (43:00)

5. Other Transformational Practices and Wisdom

Facing Darkness:

• Joy and fulfillment are built on a willingness to face grief, pain, and the “darkness of the cave”—literally and metaphorically (Christine spent four days in a pitch-black cave).
• “If you try and numb the pain, you are also equally numbing your capacity for joy.” (46:31)

Everyday Practices:

• Journaling (Morning Pages from The Artist’s Way), meditation (using Waking Up app by Sam Harris), and especially daily gratitude.
• Meditation redefined: “The point of meditation is to come back to your center 10,000 times in five minutes... you're never an expert... always a practitioner.” (55:23)
• Gratitude and reframing challenges: “What if I knew this was medicine? … How is this helping me become the version of myself that I’ve dreamed about?” (57:44)

Dealing with Triggers & Alignment:

• Rather than resisting triggers or chaos, Christine uses them as opportunities for self-growth and alignment.
• Making decisions from alignment: “Does it bring you closer to yourself or farther from yourself?” (65:38)
• In relationships, prioritize integrity and growth over short-term desire: “Short-term bliss for long-term fallout.” (70:05)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On letting go of control:
  "You have to come into a positive way of seeing, letting go of control and letting go of the fact of needing to know. So embracing the unknown... is actually the portal to the magic." – Christine (35:00)

• On facing discomfort in journeying:
  “If you can trust and know that this is for you. This is your medicine. It is your job to figure out how and why.” – Christine (26:05)

• On integrating psychedelic insights:
  "You don’t have these experiences just for it to exist in a silo. They are meant to bridge back to our daily life.” – Christine (43:00)

• On alignment:
  "Does it bring you closer to yourself or farther from yourself?" – Christine (65:38)

• On what to take into life on Earth:
  “You can trust yourself. Anything that is happening in your life, you can trust that this is part of your evolution.” – Christine (61:25)

• On chaos:
  “What if we knew that chaos is an initiator of perspective... that wouldn't be possible without the unexpected?” – Christine (74:01)

Important Timestamps

• 01:23: Christine defines her unique work as a “business strategist in the human condition.”
• 04:17: Differentiating tools used with clients; how plant medicine is selected.
• 05:34: Christine’s near-path into the CIA, counterintelligence, and language training.
• 12:08: Rise to SVP of a multi-billion dollar family office, Formula E, and learning energy dynamics.
• 15:34: On right timing for plant medicine and entering a state of willingness.
• 21:57: Cautioning on plant medicine for trauma—“it’s not an easy button.”
• 23:36: Should psilocybin be done alone or guided?
• 27:05: Christine describes her first psilocybin experience and its emotional impact.
• 35:00: Transformational lesson: embracing the unknown.
• 42:05: “Awe is healing to the human nervous system”; key lessons of psilocybin.
• 46:31: “If you try and numb the pain, you are also equally numbing your capacity for joy.”
• 55:23: Meditation is about returning to center—"never an expert... always a practitioner."
• 65:38: Advice on alignment—“Does it bring you closer to yourself or farther from yourself?”
• 74:01: The value of chaos as an engine for growth; reference to her upcoming book, Alchemy of Chaos.
• 75:20: Book pre-order info and upcoming website/social channels.

Final Thoughts and Takeaways

• Personal evolution isn’t linear—embracing chaos, allowing mystery, and letting go can be portals to profound growth.
• Plant medicine can be a transformative tool, but the real magic is in the integration and openness, not the substance alone.
• Self-trust, honest alignment with one’s inner voice, and practices like journaling, meditation, and gratitude are foundational.
• “You can trust yourself. Everything is happening as part of your evolution.” (61:25)

Where to Find Christine Thompson & Her Book

• Book: Alchemy of Chaos, pre-order available on Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble (Release date: April 7, 2026)
• Website: atlasoforion.com (Coming soon)
• Instagram: @christinethompson (She’ll be posting more soon!)

Episode packed with vulnerability, wisdom, and inspiration — a must-listen (or read!) for those on the path of self-discovery, transformation, or spiritual awakening.