Therapeutic Usage Guide for Psychedelics
This is a guide for the therapeutic usage of psychedelics written by Kent Love. For more of my teachings or guidance packages visit https://thefungiant.com
There are two links to guided meditations in this guide:
One meditation is for entering a psychedelic experience. It will help you have a healthy and helpful journey – https://youtu.be/0Q78g1ThoD0
The other meditation is for the integration process. It is to help gain awareness of the deeper layer of consciousness where our beliefs, judgements, values and desires are. I call this layer of our consciousness the mind-body state – https://youtu.be/qiCKLfl8_L4
This guide is broken into three parts before, during and after. Intention/motivation is before. The
setting and immersion is during. The integration is after
HOW PSYCHEDELICS FUNCTION THERAPEUTICALLY
The classic psychedelics temporarily down regulate a system in the brain called the Default Mode Network (DMN). This system is managing how areas of our brain are communicating with each other. This is connected to what we call the ego (our identity, idea of self, how we label and categorize). When this system is less active different areas of the brain are more free to communicate with each other. The most important communication that happens here is the communication between the deeper emotional parts of our brian and the higher level functioning prefrontal cortex parts of our brain.
This increase in communication allows new pathways and new ways of processing ourselves and our lives. It allows our emotional side to form new ways of connecting to our ego.
This is why these medicines are so powerful. The ego is there helping us go through life in a comfortable routine sort of way. It is also preventing us from moving through and beyond past traumas and negative learned behavior. The psychedelics disrupt this process and open the door for healing and growth.
DOSAGE
Dosage is something you are going to want to do some research on. The dose we take should be dependent on our intention. The therapeutic dose is above microdose (0.1-0.3g) magic mushrooms) but below heroic dose (5g and above). We want full immersion but we do not want to totally disconnect for our typical state of consciousness. This is a guide on therapeutic usage. The recommended dose is in the middle about 1.5g to 3g for magic mushrooms.
INTENTION AND MOTIVATION
Intention can be summed up as what we would like from the experience. The more someone puts into the intention the better the odds the experience will have desired results. The motivation is more complicated. It is something that needs to be explored from within.
Intention
This could be something like I want to stop benign so anxious or II want to find more purpose in life. It is just a simple description of how you would like to grow or heal from the experience.
The intention is just what you are looking to get out of the experience. Your intention should be inline with what these medicines help with. This type of therapy is good for breaking psychological patterns and increasing our connection to ourselves, others and everything else. We can come up with our intention anytime ahead of the experience. It is only the motivation side where the timing matters..
Try to sense the significance of the experience that is coming. We can sense a period of transition ahead of time. So if you feel anxious or uncertain this is a good thing. This is the power of transition. The ego fears change like it fears death. Just think of that fear as an energy that will help you grow and transition when the time is right. Do not think of it as a death, think of it as a rebirth.
Motivation
This is going deeper into the Intention. We want to connect to the feelings involved. Try to see why we have this intention. The idea is to try and connect what is going on inside of us before the experience. This primes our mind to make the connections when the ego is no longer
preventing this.
Ask questions about your intention like: Why do I want this? Why do I feel the need to use this medicine to help with it? What are the feelings involved? When are the earliest connections I have to this?
We want to do this just prior to the experience. We can be thinking about it ahead of that but within the same day before the experience we want to really go into this. Try to connect to this deeper aspect of our intention prior to the experience but not directly leading into the effects. Right before we enter the experience it is best to do a meditation. There is a link at the top of the page for a guided meditation to listen to right before the effects kick in.
SETTING AND IMMERSION
Setting
The setting is the elements surrounding the experience. Where you are going to be, who is there, what you will be doing. My recommendation is laying down in a place you are comfortable and feel safe with some music. I would use a blindfold to encourage an inner journey guided by the music.
As far as a trip sitter (someone there as support) this is a good idea for anyone new to this. Some people may not need a trip sitter. Personally I like to be by myself. But I would say it is a good idea to at least have someone that you could reach out to if necessary. Talk to them ahead of time and let them know. They should know to not interrupt you but instead just be there to tell you you are safe if you need to hear that.
Music can be the guide on an inward journey so select some positive healing music without vocals to distract you. Headphones are good so there are less outside distractions. Having some positive soothing music selected and ready to be played for emergencies is a good idea. Some music that will guide you to a positive place if things get dark. Have that
preselected music handy as insurance against a traumatic experience.
Immersion
Growth comes from the growth zone which lies between the comfort zone and the destructive zone. This is the case for most growth but especially true for psychological growth.
We have a broader growth zone in the psychedelic experience. But we still don’t want to push it
and end up in the destructive zone where damage is being done.
The two main precautions I recommend for preventing a trip to the destructive zone. One is a trip sitter that will say simple kind loving things to you if you end up in distress. Maybe rub your shoulder or give you a hug. The other is positive, calm, soothing music that will guide you to a less stressful place. Have this music preselected and the trip sitter ready to play it if necessary.
The best technique to lower stress while immersed is practicing acceptance. If we
choose to accept rather than resist, the experience will not go into the destructive zone. This
may be easy to say but may not be that easy to do. So the other precautions are a good idea. Bringing your attention to your body and your breath is always a good aid to acceptance. When we accept how we are feeling the feeling can move through us. When we resist the feeling it can get stuck in us and feed on itself.
It is good to meditate leading into the experience. Take the medicine then after maybe 10 or 20 minutes practice meditation until the immersion takes place.
Here is a guided meditation that is specifically tailored to entering a psychedelic experience: https://youtu.be/0Q78g1ThoD0 I recommend listening to this as
you are preparing to enter immersion. Twenty minutes before the effects kick in. You can also play this during the experience and it should help you get to a healthy positive place if things are
getting dark..
We want to recall the experience as it is tapering off at the end. We don’t need to figure out what it was all about. Just recall what was experienced so it will be remembered better. .
Journaling about the experience and discussing the experience are other good ways to hold onto the experience and make the most use out of it. So try to do this in the days following the
experience.
INTEGRATION
Integration is the way we process the experience. The experience has opened up new connections within us and the integration process is about utilizing those new connections. This part of the process is totally dependent on what took place in the experience. Although there are a few general guidelines that can help you figure out how to do this.
First thing to make clear to yourself: It is a mistake to think that the substances or that some external stimulus was the cause of what was experienced. You must acknowledge that what you experienced was aspects of what you are. This may need a new definition of what you consider yourself to be and if that is the case that is what you want to do.
First we accept that the experience was aspects of what we are and then we use that information to grow and evolve. There is a simple rule on how to do this. If we experience negative harmful sides of ourselves then we can use the awareness of them to know where we need to heal. If we experience beautiful positive sides of ourselves then we use that information to know what we want to connect to more inside of ourselves and our lives. So the negative is useful information about where we need healing and the positive is information about what we
need more of in our life.
We want to see how the experience connects to our everyday lives. The experience gives us amplified views of what is always there. This allows us to see our everyday life more clearly. The amplifications give clarity that the typical ego processing hides from us. So keep this
in mind and find the connections between the experience and your everyday life.
One very important thing people need to know about the psychedelic experience is that there are no bad trips, only wasted ones. Sometimes these medicines give tough love but it is still love we just need to see it as that. The harder experiences offer more healing power if the right integration and support is in place. The hard experience has given you access to something that is really holding you back in your life. Just keep in mind that the harder the experience the longer the road to integration will be. A truly difficult experience could take years
to properly integrate.
A useful trick to help with the integration process is to bring positive awareness to yourself. If you experienced something about yourself you do not like, do not put yourself down!!! That would just make the negative side stronger. Feel good and positive about having the awareness. Feel good about the opportunity to grow and heal. The positive or negative framing will determine how healing or helpful the awareness is. So be kind and compassionate
to yourself. Feel positive and proud of becoming more aware, no matter what the awareness is
of.
Practicing mindful meditation is probably going to do more for you then taking any medicine ever will. You should already be practicing this if you are trying to heal and grow your
inner world. In combination with each other mindful meditation techniques and psychedelics have a strong synergy. The meditation in the integration process will be very rewarding.
Here is a link for a guided meditation technique that I use during the integration process:
https://youtu.be/qiCKLfl8_L4
The approach of this meditation is bringing awareness to the deeper side of our consciousness that I call mind-body state. This is the place at the back of our consciousness that is a mix of our mind side with our body side. The mind side is our concepts, meaning and
stories we tell ourselves. The body side is our feelings and emotions. The mind-body state is where these are mixed into each other. This is the place in our consciousness that is closely linked to what we call beliefs, judgements, values and desires. These are a mix of our mind and
body. They are concepts and stories that have connection to the body so they have a feeling side as well.
By bringing awareness to the mind-body state we can see ourselves more clearly. This allows us to make big shifts in how we feel and perceive ourselves and everything else. This technique is very effective in the integration process. Microdosing can also be useful and work
synergistically with the integration and awareness technique.
As far as the timeline for the integration process there is no blanket timeline. It is about the healing and growth process. The experience may have created an instability in your psyche
and you want to become stable before entering another experience.
To see where you are at in the integration process see where you are at emotionally. We want things deep down to come to the surface. Then we want to fit them into ourselves in a harmonious way. We will go into a place of instability and use that instability to grow. If you are
still feeling the instability then there is more integration to do. If that instan=bility has shifted into
deeper healthy awareness and stability then you are far along the integration path. Integration is part of the process and if we create more instability before we have healed then this can put us into the destructive zone. So do not enter another experience if you still feel
unstable from the last one.
Microdosing during integration
Microdosing during the integration process can be a great tool. This helps because it can prevent the ego reaction that can follow the experience. Our walls and defenses will come back
over time and sometimes they can come back quickly. This reaction is to protect us from the vulnerability that the experience has exposed. We need to protect ourselves from being hurt but this can also keep us from growing and healing. Microdosing on the higher end (0.2g – 0.3g for magic mushrooms) can keep the strong ego reactions at bay long enough for us to grow and heal.
When we microdose we do not want to take the dose too consistently because we will form a tolerance. One day on one day off. One day on two days off. Four days on three days off.
These are all regimens to prevent tolerance that you can use.
Adding lion’s mane to your magic mushroom microdose is a good idea. This will help increase the brain’s ability to form new pathways, build new connections and remove old pathways. A stack of 0.2-0.3g magic mushrooms, 1g lion’s mane and 100mg niacin is a recommended stack created by Paul Stamets.
Keep in mind that following the experience there will likely be a period of instability and micro doing can increase that. This also increases the potential benefits but can make some types of performance more difficult. We will likely find ourselves more emotional and aware. So
you might want to start with lower does at first to make sure you can perform whatever duties you need to perform at. Things that are more creative will likely be enhanced by this period of instability.
To all the souls brave enough to take this trip you are loved and supported. Feel and know that on your journey.