Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristin Johnston. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kristin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

A profoundly spiritual, life altering experience with plant medicine in 2012 was the catalyst for what eventually grew into a mission for helping people expand their mind, reclaim their power, and transform their lives.

2 years prior to the experience I had enrolled in what some might call a “modern-day mystery school.” It was a 3 year program of study exploring various wisdom teachings with a heavy focus on energy medicine and the healing arts.

At the time the program was called the Healer Training Program, otherwise known as HTP.

However, at this point in my life healing others wasn’t really on my radar, simply figuring out how to heal myself was the primary objective – a destination that had been eluding me for years. I hated to admit it, even to myself, but I had been struggling with a serious addiction for quite a long time. The school was destined to play a major role in my recovery.

While I was in the school I learned a great deal about myself and even more about psychology and the human condition. Through various books and teachings, I had been introduced to a dimension of awareness that gave me insight into why I was the way I was, and ultimately provided me with the insight I needed to make necessary changes to myself and to my life.

I reached a point 2 years into the program where I could no longer cling to my old behaviors and at the same time evolve into the person I was becoming, so I decided it was time to kick the addiction. This is what lead to me to iboga, or ibogaine; a profoundly psychedelic plant that grows in Africa thats used as a ceremonial sacrament and healing medicine.

From what I had read, iboga was known to disrupt the patterns of addiction in the brain, and temporarily reset the brain to a pre-addicted state giving an addict the opportunity to create new patterns of belief and behavior. It was exactly what I needed.

What I didn’t expect was for iboga to deliver a a visionary experience that would alter the course of my life forever.

At one point during my vision quest with iboga I was laying down quietly with my eyes closed, and observing something unknown as it was beginning to take shape. The object began to resemble a brightly colored yellow paperback book. As I studied the cover, 3 bold black letters began to arrange themselves down the front face of the book. First the letter H, then T, then P.

The letters HTP hovered over the cover, suspended vertically down the books surface for a brief moment until they began to move again.

I watched the letter H turn into the word Heal.
The letter T became the word The.
And the letter P became the word People.

As soon as the words became legible, a crown of people appeared around the book chanting, Heal the People! Heal the People! The vision became so intense that I sat up, and looked at the woman providing the medicine for me and told her, I think I just saw a book that I’m supposed to write.

As I mentioned earlier, the program I was currently enrolled in was also called HTP, only the HTP stood for Healer Training Program.

There was no possible way that in my current state of consciousness I could have conjured that vision. In that instant, I realized something majorly substantial had just taken place, and for the possibly the first time in my life I felt a legitimate reason for my existence.

This experience lead me even deeper on a personal quest to figure out what awakening and healing in the modern world truly means.

Writing the book and starting my current business was one way of sharing with the world what I’ve learned along the way.

Kristin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My work in the world continues to evolve as I continue to evolve. It feels like an ever expanding expression of the discovery of Self.

What I’ve come to realize is that what you DO matters little in comparison to who you ARE.

If you develop a connection to the essence of who you are, that truth is ultimately what gets communicated through all that you decide to do.

My goal for both life and business is to provide an opportunity to explore Self at the deepest levels possible.

I do this in my studio, Blackinton Arts in Attleboro, Massachusetts by hosting workshops with various teachers that encourage attendees to explore themselves through various spiritual practices; yoga, meditation, breath work and other various mediums of art.

I also channel this energy into a variety of artistic mediums. My current favorites being oil paintings, pastel pet portraits, and one of a kind custom jewelry.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I was fortunate enough to have been born into the arms of my current business partner; my mother.

Our story, throughout both life and business, is a really beautiful example of what awakening to higher degrees of self awareness can do for a relationship, and ultimately provide to the world.

For a long time, she and I existed on seeming polarities of the human spectrum. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye, so to speak.

My mother, a realist viewed the nature of reality from a fixed perspective. The material world was her realm of comfort. If she couldn’t experience it with her 5 senses then it simply didn’t exist. Her focus was primarily on the physical, tangible world and I on the other hand was much more of a dreamer. Ideas, visions, and the pursuit of spiritual attainment were much more my speed. In our earlier years, her life seemed to be embodied, and mine seemed detached. Truly, we couldn’t have been more different.

Somewhere after the birth of my daughter the dynamic of our relationship began to shift. Getting married and becoming a mother provided me the experience of more serious responsibility and brought my energy slightly more “down to earth” while simultaneously, some major life events were opening my mothers mind to the possibility of a spiritual dimension. So, in my 20’s I was getting grounded and in her 50’s she was ascending. It was really an interesting dynamic.

Today, she and I co-operate our business Blackinton Arts, a center for healing & art in Attleboro Massachusetts. Not only that, we’ve become the best of friends.

Our perspectives may have expanded, but our energetic tendencies haven’t changed and thats actually what makes our business work the way it does. Her experience with worldly endeavor ensures that things run smoothly “on-the-ground” while my spiritual and creative pursuits attract those who are seeking what we have to offer.

This partnership is only possible because instead of seeking to change one another, we sought to understand each other more and in doing so our innate gifts and talents are able to support each other.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think learning how to pivot is essential to the success of a business. Not only business, it’s essential to a life of authenticity, and one that you actually enjoy living.

There have been many times we’ve had to learn to pivot.

We opened a huge studio from scratch right at the end of 2018 and spent over a year building up our event list and clientele, right before the entire world shut down in 2020 during the covid pandemic. We were forced to shut our doors for months and limit our class size to 8 participants.

Talk about learning curve.

In 2022 we decided we didn’t really need such a large studio space and I wanted to shift focus to incorporate more of what really brought me joy which was expressing myself through art. We found a more perfect location and changed our name from Quantum Health & Wellness to Blackinton Arts. This move gave us a lot more time and freedom.

I think when you’re first starting out, at least for us, we didn’t really know exactly what we wanted until we learned what we didn’t want which is so often the case in life.

I have been more productive in the last year than I ever was managing such a large studio. It was one of the best decisions we could have ever made.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Blackintonarts.com
• Instagram: KristinJohnstonArt
• Facebook: Blackinton Arts

Image Credits
Mike Johnston