Integrating the Psychedelic Experience

A trip that has not been integrated is just hours wasted.
I very much resonate with that statement because the reason for undertaking such a journey is usually rooted in improving our current state in life. Be it to deal with a difficult situation such as a traumatic experience that happened to us or just simply getting closer to achieving our maximum potential as a human being. Either way the fruits to be picked lie in extracting insights from the psychedelic visions we encounter. There is nothing wrong with doing psychedelics just for the fun of it but it is not going to be discussed here.

The fact that we are in a psychedelic renaissance just further emphasizes the importance of knowing how to properly use psychedelic substances to achieve the desired outcomes. While Ketamine clinics are opening left and right and legal psilocybin therapy is getting closer and closer, a paradigm shift in treatment of mental health is about to happen. Author Michael Pollan who is well respected in the mainstream and scientific community recently wrote a bestseller on the science of psychedelics. Furthermore big news outlets commenting objectively on the advantages of microdosing are a sure indicator of psychedelics finding their way back into society. With the rising number of people being able to seek these alternative methods for mental illness or personal growth it will be more and more important to educate on how to have a productive trip.

Plenty of people who use psychedelics report to be more open, creative, emphatic, happy or generous. Some even managed to stop stuttering, heal their treatment resistant depression or treat PTSD. Francis Crick won the Nobel Price for deducing the double-helix structure of DNA based on his experiments with LSD. This and many other such occurrences show the objective usefulness of psychedelics. I personally was apathetic, cynical and spent my life exclusively inside until my first experience with psychedelics made me interested in nature and appreciative of music, art and overall gave me a lust for life. Instilling a set of goals for my life that years later to this day have stayed with me.

There is a substantial body of work of altered states from researchers in the 50s and 60s like the literature of Stanislav Grof and many novel protocols that are being developed by startups right now. Nevertheless the information is cluttered and at times contradictory. This is why this guide is important as it summarizes the most important aspects about integrating psychedelic experiences into our life.

As we will be focussing on the integration of a psychedelic experience and how to get the most out of it by applying it into daily life, there will be many topics that can not be covered. This guide will not or at most just briefly discuss how to navigate the experience itself, how to use set & setting or detailed information on specific substances.

This guide is in no way encouraging the use of drugs. It merely serves as a piece of information to reduce harm and maximize personal growth.

The science of altered states in not yet sophisticated enough to fully understand what is happening to us when we take psychedelics. Nevertheless Robin Carhart-Harris during his studies at London’s Imperial College shed some light on the inner workings of the brain on altered states of consciousness. He found out about the so called Default-Mode-Network which is activated in our normal waking consciousness and shut off on psychedelics. Carhart-Harris suggests it is the physical equivalent of our concept of the ego. This would explain the notion of many people on psychedelics who finally feel separated or freed from their ego. Insights on this topic could be interesting in the context of integration. If we could somehow find ways to replicate this brain pattern in our everyday life this could help us integrate our experience on a level different from the rational mind.

Another discovery of his shows that during the psychedelic state, the brain is forming an extraordinary amount of connections throughout other brain networks. Harvesting this phenomenon of interconnection in our lives even after the trip could be beneficial too. And indeed there are many methods to achieve these states of consciousness without drugs to help facilitate the integration process. Most notably there is meditation but this is just the tip of the iceberg. More on specific methods for psychospiritual integration later.

Integrating a psychedelic experience can be roughly split in three stages, pre-trip preparation, actions during the experience and post-trip integration, the latter usually being the most extensive.

Preparation

Forming an intention might be the single most important thing before undergoing a psychedelic experience. Even more important than the substance of choice or the dosage. To know where the journey should go is crucial.

“There is no favorable wind for the sailor who doesn’t know where to go”
— Seneca

To come to an intention that is valuable to oneself it makes sense to sit down and thoroughly think about ones life. What bothers me? What would I like to see changed? What would I like to achieve and what is hindering me from achieving it and why?

Then depending on the intention it is crucial to decide on the most effective way to travel. Although it might be hard to clearly categorize I would argue there are three distinct ways to have a psychedelic experience. Each coming with its advantages and disadvantages.

1. Introspective: Here everything is focused on our own mind. The setup of the whole experience is so that there are no distractions whatsoever and we can indulge in absolute self examination. As a result this way of traveling usually provides a lot of insights about life in context to oneself. Just as there will probably be astonishing revelations there is also the same possibility for undistracted focus on the ugly parts of life and ourselves. While this can lead to a difficult experience it should be welcomed as those kinds of experiences are usually the most valuable ones. To undertake an experience like this the setting is usually based in a save and closed environment. External stimuli should be reduced to a minimum by turning off the light and even using blinders. There should be no social distraction so human interaction should be limited to situations where contact with the guide is really necessary. For acoustic stimulation music can be used but it is important not to listen to suggestive music such as vocal songs where the content of the music already comes with a set of associations. Better are instrumental songs, music in a foreign language or shamanic singing. While in such a setting personal insights will most probably come even in the low dose area, the special controlled environment allows exploring the further distanced depths of the consciousness on even higher doses. With this particular way it is tempting to overanalyze what is happening and getting our ego too involved. So it is important to make sure to let go and let the experience evolve. It is tempting to overthink but remember not to reflect on what happened until after the experience!

2. Explorative: This way of traveling can help regaining a sense of the child like creative who interacts with his environment in an explorative way. Often accompanied by uncontrollable laughter coming from deep in the stomach causing the face muscles to even hurt after a while. It can have a profoundly healing effect on our soul. The pure beauty of the nature enhanced by the visual effects of the substance is almost sure to reconnect the person with natures unity and the artistic wonders of life. Experiences like this often include friends who partake in the psychedelic experience adding a social dimension to the journey. This can lead to a feeling of companionship and being understood while sharing the experience. The stimulation of the outside world specifically natures playground makes it fitting for such an experience to take place at visually pleasing open but quiet locations. To further the explorative character of the experience even „toys“ can be brought along such as balls to play, colors to create art or instruments to play. Music can also stimulate the experience in fantastic ways although the specific choice of the song is not as important as with an introspective trip. The dose taken here usually lies between the low dose and the medium dose area.

3. Ceremonial: This special form of experiencing a psychedelic varies very much depending on the cultural background. However a unifying factor will be the cultural heritage that through music, shamans or specific tradition will give the person partaking a structure to rely on. This can lead to an added feeling of emotional safety and confidence. The group setting of such ceremonies usually provides good integration practices where every participant can share his experience with the group. This kind of journey can be useful for people who want a very experienced guide usually in the form of a shaman to take control over the course of the ceremony and accompany them through the depths of their consciousness.

Having said that set & setting will not be discussed here in any comprehensive way I nevertheless want to give brief instructions on parts of that topic because of its importance. Having a guide or trip sitter is always beneficial no matter if one wants to undertake an introspective or explorative journey. In any case there should be a trusted and in the best case experienced person that will hold space for you and can keep an eye on the known reality that you have just left. This will provide more confidence and allow to let the psychedelic do its work inside oneself. This will in consequence prove valuable in the integration.

Another aspect influencing the quality of what to integrate into every day life is the choice of the substance. Even though mystical experiences have been proven to be substance agnostic in the sense that every psychedelic substance can under the right circumstances induce a mystical experience, it is still important to keep in mind a couple specifics. Think for example of the difference in the probability of meeting a godlike entity on LSD compared to the direct audience with god that 5-MeO-DMT usually provokes.

The most obvious measure by which to choose the substance will be the duration of effects. An Ayahuasca experience that lasts around eight hours will provide way more guidance and understandable insights than the ten minutes that vaporized DMT will bring. Even thought the substance is the same being Dimethyltryptamine the outcome varies vastly based on the duration. There are also substances achieving deep and intense experiences while other tend to be more superficial. Think for example the difference between 2C-B and LSD. Even though both can trigger highly positive changes in life LSD tends to be more heavy on the mind. There is the tough love of the self analytical Ibogaine or the all encompassing love that MDA creates. Substances can carry a heavy baggage of associations through expectations or one could use a novel research chemical that has almost no such baggage. There are many other attributes by which one can categorize the substances and even the descriptions given here do not do justice to the actual complexity of the topic. That is why it is best to thoroughly research the properties of the compound in question.

During the experience

As we have seen in the preparation part, the integration of a psychedelic experience is not merely limited to reading notes during post-trip integration. Rather it begins with the preparation but also during the experience there are things to keep in mind.

There are simple ways to preserve some of the valuable information from the experience. Although not all of them will be suitable for your particular way of traveling it is useful to know about them.

1. Notes (Obviously): Having notes that you can look at after the trip are the most information dense source we can get our hands on when trying to make sense of the experience rationally. Thats why it is useful to have a pen and paper next to you or close to your location. It is not necessary to write down every single thought, insight or describe every vision that could come to mind. Key insights and visions that are infused with a noetic sense of importance should on the other hand be written down or sketched in any case. There is also the even more convenient way of telling your guide to keep notes during the experience. He will readily list the things you ask him to write down but also report on things he notices like the feelings that your gestures convey, potentially meaningful behavior, words that you uttered or anything else worth noting. That way you can stay in flow and don’t need to open your eyes and jot down notes in the heat of the moment.
2. Audio recorder: Just like with written notes, an audio recording device will also be capable of retrieving key information from the trip to facilitate integration. With this method though you don’t have to put up with remembering how the mother language of your ego was functioning but you will be able to just use your voice (if still possible). This device will potentially be easier to use. Here you can also give it to your guide and let him do the controlling.

These direct primary sources from a different reality, a mystical experience will absolutely prove valuable. I personally have been able to turn my life around into a more conscientious, motivated, live affirming person through the notes and my interpretations of trips that go back many years.

Post integration

Now we will come to the most important part of putting the wild visions and thoughts of a psychedelic experience into use. After the effects of the particular substance you happened to choose wears off, the real work is starting.

I want to preface this section with the integral concept of the afterglow. It is the state of mind usually lasting up to a couple weeks where the effects have worn off but a feeling of openness, of inspiration, of having seen the fabric of reality, having really understood what love is or whatever sublime sensation persists. It is a state that I subjectively can only describe as active neuroplasticity. Research has shown that psychedelics trigger the brain to form connections to brain networks that are usually not connected. One can truly feel how these connections are forming and communicating. All the techniques and methods described now for integrating the experience into your life should start immediately after the journey and should preferably be concentrated on the afterglow phase to achieve maximum results. This is the time where you can actually resolve negative experiences or even trauma. Here you can reach your highest potential and change everything that stands between you and your growths. It is a time where there are almost no psychological limits usually created by every day habits and routines.

Researcher Medel Kaelen at the Imperial College London describes this in a methaphorical way: “Think of the brain as a hill covered in snow, and thoughts as sleds sliding down that hill. Well-travelled neural networks form…. In time it becomes more difficult to glide down the hill on any other path. We should think of psychedelics as temporarily flattening the snow. The deeply worn trails disappear, and suddenly the sled can go in other directions, exploring new landscapes and, literally, creating new pathways.”

People get out of their psychedelic experience more loving, empathic, mild and tolerant. They become less neurotic, angry, fearful and anxious. Some manage to resolve their trauma, stop their livelong problem of addiction or conquer their ego that until that moment had sovereignty over their body and mind. But how do we make sure to get the best out of our journey? There are many ways but we will start with the most obvious.

1. Reviewing notes: Equipped with a malleable mind and a brain full of new ideas you look at the notes and somewhat cryptic hieroglyphs you jotted down earlier. Rereading the notes and expanding on the themes will bring back concepts that were forgotten in the storm of ideas during the experience. There will be connections between the concepts you experienced and your everyday life. They may be metaphorical. They may be as clear as „Straighten yourself out, fool!“. Possibly it will get clear only after weeks or even months. But there will be profound insights scattered in there and it is crucial to extract them and make them conscious in your everyday life.
2. Social integration: Often it will not be enough to just think about the ideas in your own head without leaving that space. It is important to give the process of integration as much room and as many dimensions as possible. And one of those is the social dimension. Talking to close ones about the whole experience is very effective in putting an order to the experience. Event though it can’t be expressed by mere words, the attempt of doing so will give the journey a chronology that makes it easier to extract key insights. Very valuable can be a group setting where every participant can share their story and talk about it with each other. If these social connections are made impossible because of stigma or any other reasons it is also helpful to exchange ideas and share the journey with like minded people on the internet. Lastly a therapist is a great way to analyze the experience and your psychology in context to it. Trained professionals are used in the reemerging psychedelic therapy which is by far the most efficient process to use psychedelics and integrate them. If there is no access to a specialized psychedelic therapist there is the possibility to find psychologists working with the same spectrum of ideas that come up during a psychedelic experience. Looking for psychoanalytical therapists based on the psychological school of Jung, Reich or Gestalt should get you to a professional trained in the ideas experienced through psychedelics. Even though simply asking about the therapists opinion on psychedelics would yield the most direct insight, this might be uncomfortable for some because of the legal status and stigma attached to them. Either way the therapist does not even have to be specialized in that at all. The value that lies in the usual psychotherapeutic change of perspectives usually suffices to help make sense of ones thoughts and feelings.
3. Altered states of consciousness: There are a variety of non-ordinary states of consciousness that can be induced without the use of chemicals from the outside of ones body. Meditation is a common example of achieving a different state of mind through the use of focus and breathing. The practice can help to almost mimic feelings from a psychedelic peak and creating them in every day life. Not only is it exciting to discover these new profound places. But it can help with the integration by revisiting the psychedelic place over and over again. All this while transitioning ideas and concepts from the abstract seeming psychedelic world into the every day reality. This continuous process of integration through altered states can be called reconnecting.

Reconnecting

The truth we get served on psychedelics rarely has its roots in rational thoughts. It is an inexplicable source of transcendental wisdom delivered in a holistic way maybe by tuning into a specific vibration. However the knowledge comes into existence. It is not through reasoning or the use of our ego. This is exactly the reason why it only seems to be possible to reconnect with the psychedelic realm by approaching the matter through the same vibrational wavelength. Like meditation, dreams or any other way that alters the state of the mind. Scientifically speaking any action that shuts down the Default-Mode-Network (the ego) letting our true nature shine through will be fitting to reconnect. There is nothing more helpful for the integration process than learning how to access the wisdom we received earlier on the peak of a psychedelic experience.

To reach this state of mind certain methods can be used.

Mediation being the most obvious one is also the most popular one for a reason. There is absolutely no equipment needed. No special place so no budget required. There is also no limitation concerning the human physique or any other restrictions. Meditation is a valuable tool to dive into oneself circumventing the ego and exploring the states that we were allowed to have a taste during our psychedelic journey. It is important to mention though that with meditation as with everything else it takes time to learn. One has to practice observing ones thoughts without identifying with the ego because we are so used to listening to it. A recent study on meditation has shown that even a couple days of meditation can lead to a positively changed brain activity.

Another less known technique focusses on hyperventilation and stimulating music. It was developed by Stanislaw Grof the leading psychedelic therapist. After LSD was made illegal in 1968 he came up with an alternative way to get into the collective unconscious by accessing a non ordinary state of consciousness. He called it holotropic breathing and to this day it is still being practiced by many therapists and mental health workers. Although it is usually done with a sitter it can also be practiced alone. Some people breath up unresolved traumas, happy childhood memories or whatever else lies in the individuals unconscious which can be expressed by childlike laughter, or crying or anything else.

There is another state of mind that must be mentioned when wanting to reconnect with the psychedelic experience in order to integrate it bit by bit into our daily live. It is characterized by a loss of sense of time, by effortlessness and being here in this moment. It is called flow and recently got more and more attention by the scientific community and especially by the tech companies in the silicon valley where efficiency and creativity matter most. Usually the flow state is triggered by doing the activity we are into the most on a difficulty level that is both not too easy and not too difficult. But there are also some activities that have an intrinsic proclivity to facilitating the flow state. These being yoga, slack lining, juggling but even gardening. Still it is best to just choose the thing one already has a passion for, to achieve flow. For me this is skateboarding and caring for my garden. For someone else this might be playing football.

When we think about the effects that psychedelics can have on our mind and on our awareness then being in the moment and a sense of effortlessness is just one of them. With the dissipation of the ego there also comes a sense of being one with the world. The feeling merging into some kind of hive mind. Many people have the feeling that it is the most fundamental and natural form of consciousness. It is featured in numerous anecdotal reports on the internet and literature. This sensation is perceived as so valuable, healing and profound that it would be a shame if we would only get the pleasure of experiencing it during the couple hours after ingesting a psychedelic substance.

Luckily there are ways to harness the healing potential of that state of mind in everyday life just like we can cultivate our ego-less self. Again with the help of meditation one sooner or later arrives at the place of being one with the universe and experiencing its profound effects. More specialized approaches may be observed when participating in a modern day rave with the repetitive music of the techno genre and stroboscopic lights at play. This ancient practice probably goes back to the Elysian mysteries 200 BC where psychedelics were thought to be ingested in festival setting of dancing and earthly delights. Unfortunately this is not the most reliable method. Other ways to achieve this could be certain activities that promote the feeling of being a community or a team rather than an individual. The sport of rowing facilitates that feeling in a specialized way because of its rhythmic repetitive movements and the importance of the team working in synchronicity. This together with a spiritually trained mind can lead to such an experience.

Besides the states that embodied thinking activities can bring us to, there is another way. By creating something from our deepest inner truth with only intrinsic value. This way of integration is commonly called art and it features many different ways of expressing itself. Doing this we act out and concretize specific notions that linger in us since the psychedelic experience and by manifesting them through the use of art we make them a part of us. Draw the entities that you have collided with in the DMT hyperspace. Do creative writing or poetry on the freedom felt on LSD. Whatever it is we can express this psychedelic journey and in consequence make use of it and extract its truth in our daily lives.

There are some other ways to achieve non-ordinary states of consciousness like the partly newly emerging technology triggering certain mind states. Also as a means of reconnecting we can use our senses. Sometimes a random smell in our everyday lives can bring us back to the moment we realized that we are all one. Likewise it is possible to harness the experience inside a musical piece that you listened to on the peak and days later listen to again to bring yourself back to that place. There are numerous ways to reconnect but the most valuable we have discussed, reaching further would go beyond the scope of this guide.

The key to changing our mind with the help of psychedelics lies in the intention and the focus to really self examine how ones own mind has reacted with the psychedelic substance. Observing unconscious materials rising up and categorizing them so that we can use our tools to integrate them in our daily live is the most efficient way to fulfill our potential as human beings. In the end every journey is different and every person will extract a different truth out of the experience. That is why it is important to truly listen to what is happening inside oneself and not jump to conclusions based on personal expectations.

We have learned that proper preparation will be valuable later on. Especially appointing the specific things we want to change and setting an intention that reflects what we hope to get out of the experience. At least just as important is to be weary of the experience while it happens and preserving key information for later to deconstruct. The real work when using psychedelics always starts after the effects wear off and we start integrating. We can use all these wonderful tools that we humans have been given. Art, getting into different states of consciousness and reconnection, to transition the energy and truth of our personal experience into our daily lives.

The psychedelic renaissance is happening right now and because of societies scientific and weary approach this time it has a shot at succeeding. More and more people will see the value that such experiences bring to their health, to their creativity and to their life in general. Until the responsible use of psychedelics will merge into our society, knowledge and information on how to get the most out of an experience will become all the more important. I wish for everyone to explore their psyche in a healthy and responsible way to resolve personal problems and grow to our full potential!