Psychedelics have a tremendous power to heal the mind and help to rid the behaviors and habits that don't serve our truest potential as evolving human beings. It is estimated that 30 million people in the United States alone use psychedelics, which seems to indicate the growing acceptance of such substances for helping individuals treat their depression, anxiety and even addiction.
However, just as alcohol and tobacco are commonly abused in today's society, psychedelics can be taken advantage of as well. As a psychedelic activist who is traveling down the very challenging road of shamanism, it was hard for me to admit that I was actually one of those people who regularly abused psychedelics.
Psychedelics help some of the more psychically attuned individuals to see a world that they can feel and sense with their heart, but cannot always see with their physical eyes. I believe this is why I fell in love with their power; psychedelics gave me the key to see what I always knew was there.
But over time, I became more comfortable in the psychedelic realms than in the three-dimensional reality that we, without a choice, have to live in for the span of our lives. In turn, my anxiety and depression only got worse. Just like the smoker who is miserably anticipating their next cigarette break, I was miserable until I got my next fix of psychedelic "therapy."
Integrating both worlds
It is important then, for psychedelic users to find balance between both the physical and non-physical worlds. If we are using psychedelics as an escape, we will never be satisfied with the teachings we receive, and we won't get the healing we are looking for in the first place. It is good for us to take a break and learn how to integrate our epiphanies into our every day practice.
I've spent a total of 4 months in isolation in the Amazon jungle working with plant medicine, specifically Ayahuasca. Although my journey was very rough in the jungle, the most challenging part of my whole experience is having to come back and integrate what I had learned into the concrete world. This has been a huge struggle for me. I went from 3 or 4 Ayahuasca ceremonies a week to nada, zip, cold turkey. I had to eventually learn that I didn't need the Ayahuasca to heal. Psychedelics are only tools, but we have to put in the work to attain the vibrational frequency in our daily lives. I left the jungle in July of this year, and I've learned how important it is to keep one foot in the physical realms, and the other in the spiritual.
No matter what kind of psychedelic you use (however I would recommend only sitting with plant-based medicine), write down your experience in as much detail as you can. In the following days, go back and re-read your experience and meditate on it and practice it in your life. This will get easier and easier the more you are able to sit with yourself and focus on your breath.
I believe that psychedelics are powerful sacred tools that will help humanity move forward as a conscious whole, but in order to change the world, we must first go inward and change ourselves.
Need help?
If you have sat with the medicine of Ayahuasca, and have found it challenging to integrate, please watch this short video I made to explain what you might be going through and how you can help yourself. If you need more help or just need someone to talk to, you can email me at macey.a.tomlin@gmail.com. I'm always here to lend a helping hand or listening ear.