The Pause. Intention, The Use, and The Integration
I feel I need to qualify the statements I am about to make; moreover, clarify before you read any further. I think when you accept the invitation to use psychedelics everyone should make it their own. Fuck, you ultimately are the one who should know what’s best for you. Right? And of course lean into the most appropriate content to make an informed decision before you do anything. I also think that you need to have the most appropriate guide, and therapist to support you in answering any questions and help clear the thoughts you are having.
So without continuing to add confusion or contractions.
I say that to say this. There is no wrong way to work with psychedelics…BUT if you aren’t consciously engaging in the work with psychedelics… Well… ugh… umm. You might just… uh get a bit of whiplash to say it lightly.
Alan Watts the writer, philosopher, and all round respected scholar of Asian and eastern spiritualties once said this about psychedelics,
“If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope, he goes away and works on what he has seen.”
I share this because in most recent times I have been witnessing an influx of stories of people simply going bigger, doing more and honestly falling into some dangerous space regarding their mental health and their grasp on reality. And so I want to introduce, revisit and kill a horse? By engaging in appropriate measures of when to take another dive again.
The importance of intentional use of psychedelics no matter what set and setting you are doing this work in is vital. Whether your running around naked at Burning Man, (I won’t do that with all the dust and cooler evenings) or exploring your inter working of your consciousness, you need to do this purposefully.
What factors are involved in it depends?
1. Know your own relationship with addiction. This does not mean you should not follow your instinct for another session but that you might be honest with yourself about the role of addiction or simply “wanting to get high” that is playing itself out in your process.
2. Consider your intention. Are you doing energetic work and staying on top of your process? Are you participating in a community? Or are you hoping to heal deeply rooted traumas that you might need to face on your own time. Might it be wise to sample more slowly and carefully?
3. The particular medicine is an important factor. Factors here are the intensity of the medicine, the duration of the experience, and how easily you come back to your life.
4. Consider exactly what you are working on. For instance, one of us cancelled our participation in a medicine workshop because we realized we were working on being able to stay present during difficult communications. We realized that the embodied insight from three months before had not fully settled into our body—and knew even more that another dive could have helped avoid the difficult feelings that were being worked through.
5. Do not be afraid to give yourself more time.
Acknowledging when, how, where, and why you considering and going to do psychedelics is a great internal questions to ask.
Please learn more about the proper ways to prepare, use, explore and integrate your psychedelic experiences by going to healingsoulsllc.com and check out The Psychedelic Psychologist on your preferred podcast platform.
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