There is no doubt (at least in my mind) that psychedelics are a very interesting area to look at both for personal growth and for psychological and emotional healing. However, it is also possible for things to go VERY wrong during a psychedelic journey or trip. Or at least appear to have gone wrong in any case.
You can take some steps to enhance your experience and massively reduce the potential to have a bad time. These are quite well documented and I will summarise them in a moment. I’m also going to share a technique that I believe to be absolute gold when preparing to take psychedelics, whether for the first time or as an experienced psychonaut.
OK, so here are some things that you may wish to consider before taking part in psychedelics. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, guide or suggestion to use psychedelics. However, if you are planning to use them, this might give you some pointers to have a safer, more relaxed experience that will therefore enable you to go deeper. Please look further into all of these aspects if you are drawn to:
SUBSTANCE – Once you have decided which substance you want to use, make sure you are actually getting what you want. If you are acquiring the substance yourself, it makes sense to get hold of a test kit. These days, there are accurate test kits available. Of course, if you are using a natural plant substance from a cactus or mushroom, this step may not be necessary, so long as you have grown or are certain that you have correctly identified the plant of course (if you aren’t sure, don’t take it or this journey could be your last!!!)
If you are taking part in an organised event, such as an Ayahuasca or San Pedro ceremony, then do your research and ensure that you are working with a practitioner with good credentials. Trusted recommendations are the best here, or many centres have an online presence, including reviews.
SETTING – This is all about the physical and social space that you are going to use. If you are in an organised ceremony, retreat etc, this should be taken care of for you. If you are creating your own experience then a peaceful space, where you feel safe and comfortable is a good idea. This can be indoors or outdoors, or you may choose both within the same journey. In this case, it’s a good idea to start off indoors and, once the trip is established, decide how you feel about heading outdoors.
Socially, make sure that anyone you are sharing the experience with is someone that you trust and get on well with. If this is your first experience, make sure that you are with at least one other. If they are also journeying with you, they will ideally be experienced. Another option is to have a sober “Sitter” there with you – again, someone who you feel calm and trusting with.
Music can enhance the atmosphere greatly, as you will have a very heightened perception of music and it can really stir your soul. Some people even experience synaesthesia (when one sense, such as hearing is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight, so seeing colours and patterns as music plays, for example)
SET – Short for mindset, this is about making sure that you are in as good a place mentally and emotionally as possible. It is great to have some time before the journey for self-reflection and think about any intentions for the experience. It can be good to journal your thoughts.
Also, it is important to make sure that you don’t feel rushed in any way. Ideally, you will have at least a day following the trip where you can just relax and reflect on what you experienced, without obligations.
So, now is where I want to add something extra. Psychedelic experiences can be VERY emotional. They can bring old, forgotten memories and even ancestral patterns and past (or concurrent) life experiences into your consciousness.
Whether you believe these to be real or metaphorical, they can still have powerful, psychological effects.
You may also be shown and have to face your darkest fears and shadow self. For the unprepared, this can be the trigger for a miserable experience. However, within this can lie the most powerful opportunities for personal growth and healing.
This is where real alchemy can occur.
Although often beautiful, what you are shown can be hard to handle at times. Therefore, it pays to have a way, or several ways to process the powerful emotions and thought patterns that come up.
My personal favourite is EFT – aka Tapping. I am an experienced practitioner and trainer of this modality. It can be used incredibly simply to prepare for and enrich psychedelic experiences.
Briefly, EFT can be described as a form of psychological acupressure. Focusing on specific feelings, thoughts and memories while tapping on acupressure points can have profound effects. If you’d like to find out more about EFT, you can visit my website here - https://eftnow.co.uk/eft/
EFT and other tapping techniques are very effective at releasing difficult emotions stored up from past traumatic events (both “big T” and “small T” traumas). As these are lurking in most people’s subconscious minds and impacting on their life in all manner of subtle and not-so-subtle ways, they can often come up to be faced in a psychedelic journey. This is especially the case in a plant spirit ceremony, where people are often looking to clear the effects of past trauma.
By applying tapping to your feelings and thoughts before your psychedelic journey, you may already have cleared away some of the stuck emotion, old thought patterns and beliefs about what happened and what that meant about you. This can then lead you to be able to go deeper during the journey, with more compassion for yourself and less likelihood of it being difficult.
In this way, great self-forgiveness and emotional healing can potentially occur.
Another reason to use EFT while preparing for a psychedelic experience is to explore and potentially release any pre-trip anxiety that might come up. It is very common to feel anxious before these experiences, as you are heading into the unknown. I wrote a post a few weeks ago with a video on anxiety, which you can check out here - https://steemit.com/psychology/@eftnow/two-quick-ways-to-reduce-anxiety-and-panic-attacks
Personally, I use tapping DURING psychedelic journeys. I find it an amazing focusing tool to ride the waves of the experience and have felt (and seen!) waves of emotion and feeling leaving my body. However, I am very comfortable and experienced with the process.
I’d now like to share how I have adapted an idea from Terence McKenna, relating to “hacking” your trip. I and the people I’ve shared this with have found it to be very funny and useful while getting energetically ready for a ceremony. I have also seen it bring up huge emotional responses, which I was there to support with at the time, so only use it if you are in a good emotional place, or supported by an experienced tapping practitioner.
This process is all about voicing the worst things you can think of about yourself and your life, which might come up during the trip. By doing this while tapping, you can discharge their grip over you. It’s best to do this with a thick slice of humour and a twinkle in your eye – definitely not taking yourself too seriously.
This is an example as a tapping round – NOT an EFT script, as tailored EFT scripts are completely pointless. You can make up your own, in your own words for a much better effect.
So, here is my example (the letters by the side represent the tapping points)
KC – “Even though I’ve been an asshole and done some shitty things, I accept myself completely!”
TH – “I’m an asshole”
EB – “I can’t believe I said that to them”
SE – “If they could see what I’m really like….”
UE – “No-one would want to spend time with me”
UN – “I’ve been a selfish prick”
CH – “Being pathetic”
CB – “Small minded and weak”
UA – “Letting people down”
Wrist – “Doing mean things”
KC – “I’ll never learn, just the worst person/husband/parent etc EVER”
In case you didn’t notice, I was giving a voice to very negative and emotional thoughts. It is even more effective if you get really precise and specific.
It might seem counter intuitive to say such “BAD” things. However, when you do it while tapping, a strange thing happens. They lose their emotional charge!
This means that they are less likely to cause you trouble during your journey or ceremony. You can keep going until you feel that you’ve done enough rounds and you feel somehow lighter, clearer or even buzzing when voicing those thoughts.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER - You need to take full responsibility for your physical and emotional health while tapping on your own. The techniques are experimental and while they are usually very gentle and some people appear to have experienced excellent results, it is not possible to know in advance how an individual will respond. As with all practices, whether complementary or normal medical/psychological, results can never be guaranteed. You are not recommended to ignore any medical advice and your primary care giver is always your GP or healthcare provider.
Also, Please note that I never source or suggest specific psychedelics for people. I offer my services as a psychedelic integration practitioner as a safe and supportive way for people who have made their own decision to explore psychedelics to integrate their learnings and make positive changes in their life. I am listed at http://www.maps.org/resources as a psychedelic integration practitioner.
If you’d like to read my previous post about psychedelic integration, you can find it here - https://steemit.com/spirituality/@eftnow/psychedelic-integration-how-to-make-the-most-of-visionary-experiences-in-your-life
This article is far from a complete account of how to prepare for a psychedelic journey. I’ve only scratched the surface of how useful and effective combining tapping with psychedelics could be. Whatever you take from this, I highly encourage you to do your own research and make the right decision for you.
For research into psychedelics, you may wish to check out https://www.erowid.org
Wishing you health, wealth and freedom.
Sam
EFTNow
Picture 1 is downloaded from Deposit Photos with full usage rights. I have usage rights for the tapping points blue man picture