Pavel Dmitriyev

Pavel Dmitriyev
Born	(1979-03-10) March 10, 1979 Tashkent, Uzbek SSR
Nationality	Russian
Citizenship	United States
Occupation	Founder of Mycomysticism Hypnotherapist and Educator Philanthropist Author
Organization	American Academy of Hypnosis (Founder) Mushroom Church Inc. (Founder)
Website	paveldmitriev.com mycomysticism.org

Pavel Dmitriyev (born March 10, 1979, Tashkent, Uzbek SSR) is the founder of Mycomysticism, a religious movement registered in the United States. He is also a philanthropist, author, and founder of the American Academy of Hypnosis and the Mushroom Church in Florida, USA. Dmitriyev is a hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner, educator, and creator of the "Hypno-Coaching" educational program. He has been working in the fields of hypnotherapy, NLP, and personal development for more than 20 years.

In November 2023, Dmitriyev registered Mushroom Church, Inc., in Florida as a religious organization. The church's practices center on the ceremonial use of entheogens within a spiritual and religious framework, in accordance with protections established under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Early life and education

Pavel Dmitriyev was born on March 10, 1979, in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, to Mikhail Dmitriyev, an engineer, and Natalya Dmitriyeva, a criminal lawyer. One of his father's four patented inventions was demonstrated at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy in Tashkent. Both of Dmitriyev's grandfathers served as military officers and died in the line of duty.

In 1995, following a period of personal and family difficulty in the post-Soviet environment, the Dmitriyev family emigrated to the United States, settling initially in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1998, while hospitalized for an abdominal hernia related to his interest in power sports, Dmitriyev had a formative experience under anesthesia that he describes as his first encounter with a reality beyond ordinary consciousness. This experience sparked a lasting interest in psychology, hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming, and altered states of consciousness.

In the years that followed, Pavel began studying indigenous spiritual traditions involving the ceremonial use of entheogens, which would later inform the foundation of Mycomysticism.

Career

In 2004, Dmitriyev completed training with Richard Bandler, a co-developer of neurolinguistic programming, and received an NLP practitioner's diploma.

In 2005, he studied clinical hypnosis with Gerald Kein, a student of Dave Elman. Following his training, he opened a private hypnotherapy practice in Miami. That same year, he founded the American Academy of Hypnosis in Florida and began teaching hypnotherapy.

Over the following years, Dmitriyev built a reputation as a sought-after hypnotherapist serving a private clientele in South Florida.

In 2019, he launched the "Hypno-Coaching" educational program, which found a substantial audience across the Russian-speaking world.

In 2020, Dmitriyev traveled to Ecuador to study indigenous Amazonian spiritual traditions. He subsequently supported the development of retreat centers in jurisdictions where plant-based ceremonies are legally conducted, led by indigenous shamans and curanderos from lineages with centuries of unbroken ceremonial knowledge.

In 2023, Dmitriyev founded the Mushroom Church, Inc. in Florida as a religious organization whose members practice Mycomysticism. The church conducts ceremonial use of entheogens at designated centers in jurisdictions where such practices are permitted by law.

The American Academy of Hypnosis

The educational community around Dmitriyev centers on graduates of "Hypno-Coaching," the flagship program of the American Academy of Hypnosis. The program comprises twelve sequential modules covering hypnotherapy techniques, regression methods, holistic approaches to client work, as well as business management and marketing for private practitioners.

The program's stated goal is to equip participants with the skills to build a professional hypnotherapy practice. Participants who complete the required coursework receive a certificate from the Academy.

Dmitriyev describes the foundation of participant progress as working through subconscious patterns, early-life influences, and cultural conditioning. The introductory portion of the program is distributed free of charge.

The program was developed in 2019 and has since attracted a large alumni community across multiple countries.

Research and practice

Between 2020 and 2023, Dmitriyev undertook an extended period of study with indigenous communities in Ecuador and Mexico, focusing on ceremonial traditions involving sacred plant medicine. He worked primarily with the Kichwa and Tsachila peoples of Ecuador and the Mazatec people of Oaxaca, spending sustained periods in each community under the guidance of traditional ceremonial practitioners.

During this period, Dmitriyev began examining the parallels between his clinical hypnotherapy background—particularly work with altered states of consciousness, subconscious patterning, and regression techniques—and the ceremonial frameworks he observed in these indigenous traditions. His interest centered on understanding how structured ceremonial experience, within an established spiritual context, relates to processes of personal transformation and the resolution of deep-seated psychological patterns.

He documented his observations in Encyclopedia of Ayahuasca and Amazonian Shamanism, published during this period, and subsequently in the Mushroom Manifesto, which became the foundational text of Mycomysticism. Dmitriyev has stated that his approach draws on indigenous ceremonial structure while maintaining a clear distinction between spiritual practice and clinical intervention, emphasizing that ceremonial work is not a substitute for licensed medical or psychiatric care.

Mycomysticism

In 2023, Dmitriyev registered Mushroom Church, Inc., in Florida as a religious organization whose members practice Mycomysticism throughout the world. The church's ceremonial practices involve the religious use of Sacred Mushrooms within a framework that its members believe to be protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). This position draws on the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal, which held that the government could not prohibit a religious group's sincere sacramental use of an otherwise controlled substance without demonstrating a compelling interest under RFRA.

Mycomysticism centers on what its followers describe as direct personal encounters with the sacred during ceremonial practices, facilitated by trained guides within the community, along with shamans from different traditions. Within the tradition, these encounters with the divine are understood as experiences of personal meaning, purpose, and inner transformation.

The tradition holds that Sacred Mushrooms have served as a bridge between humanity and the divine since the earliest stages of human consciousness. Mycomysticism positions itself within a broader lineage of entheogenic spiritual practice, drawing parallels with the ancient Siberian shamanic use of mushrooms, the Mazatec velada tradition, the Native American Church's sacramental use of peyote, and the Santo Daime and União do Vegetal churches' use of ayahuasca. Dmitriyev has described Mycomysticism as a contemporary expression of this ancient relationship between humans and sacred fungi, adapted for a modern global community.

A central tenet of Mycomysticism is that the ceremony itself is only part of the transformational process. Dmitriyev suggests that preparation and integration together constitute at least half of the work with sacred plant medicine. Before any ceremony, participants engage in structured preparation that includes subconscious work, spiritual reflection, and clearing of psychological patterns—drawing on techniques rooted in Dmitriyev's hypnotherapy background. After the ceremony, a guided integration process helps participants make sense of their experience and apply its insights to daily life. Dmitriyev regards this framework of preparation, ceremony, and integration as inseparable, and considers the neglect of preparation and integration to be one of the most common and consequential mistakes in contemporary psychedelic practice.

Beyond ceremonial retreats, the Mycomysticism community organizes festivals in various countries, bringing together practitioners, musicians, artists, and speakers for multi-day gatherings that combine ceremonial practice with art, music, lectures, and communal celebration. These festivals serve as both cultural events and opportunities for community members to deepen their connection to the tradition.

The foundational text of Mycomysticism is the Mushroom Manifesto, authored by Dmitriyev and regarded within the tradition as a work of spiritual revelation. The tradition also recognizes a set of guiding principles, known as the Commandments of Mycomysticism, that outline ethical responsibilities, community conduct, and the practitioner's relationship to the sacred.

Ceremonies are conducted at designated retreat centers in jurisdictions where such practices are permitted by law, led by indigenous shamans and healers from lineages with centuries of unbroken ceremonial knowledge, alongside trained community guides. Participants undergo screening prior to ceremonies, including a review of medical history and psychological readiness. Those with contraindicating conditions or active medical concerns are referred to qualified healthcare providers. The community emphasizes that ceremonial practice is a spiritual discipline that complements, but does not replace, conventional medical or psychiatric care.

Philanthropy

Since 2020, Dmitriyev has supported indigenous communities in Ecuador whose traditions involve ceremonial plant medicine. In the Sacha Wasi settlement of the Kichwa people near Puyo, Ecuador, he funded the construction of a school, ten residential homes, and a small medical clinic, along with the electrification of the community and the establishment of a center offering English and Spanish language classes. Among the Tsachila people, he supported the construction of forty residential homes and several traditional ceremonial structures.

In Mexico, Dmitriyev has organized humanitarian missions to Huautla de Jiménez in the state of Oaxaca, the homeland of the Mazatec people, whose ceremonial use of psilocybin mushrooms was first brought to international attention through R. Gordon Wasson's 1957 Life magazine article on the healer María Sabina.

Bibliography

Dmitriyev is the author of several books, with translations into English, Spanish, and Armenian. Selected publications include:

• The Profession of a Hypnotherapist
• Holistic Mind Therapy
• The Healer's Bible
• Encyclopedia of Ayahuasca and Amazonian Shamanism
• How to Survive at the Summit of Wealth
• A Major Victory (personal essay on confronting illness)
• Concentration Camp Planet
• How to Write a Business Book in Two Weeks Without Losing Your Mind
• Why So Poor?
• A User's Manual for Life
• The Self-Help Hell, or Encyclopedia of Schizoterica
• Mushroom Manifesto
• Murderous Mothers

• Author page on Amazon

External links

• Personal website
• Mycomysticism
• Pavel Dmitriyev on Instagram
• Pavel Dmitriyev on YouTube