Integrating psychedelic experiences into daily life

[Plotinus]

From Jeff Warren's account of his experiences at an ayahuasca (DMT) retreat:

THE POET DALE PENDELL has a term for the practice of sacred plant use: the poison path. The poisons first victim is certainty; it weakens pre-existing worldviews and self-conceits. This can be terrifying, and liberating, and desolating, sometimes in that order. Especially ifas in my casethe plant continues to confound our hopes and expectations. In the end, the psychedelic seeker must depend on her own capacity to discriminate, to artfully integrate the lessons and visionsand, sometimes, lack of visionsinto her life. If you have a good shaman you dont have to do this alone. Part of the shamans craft is to work creatively with plant energies as they interface with our own. Though the shaman keeps the energy moving, so much depends on individual context. It is not a case of taking your medicine and being handed the truth. This may be what Westerners seek, but it is not what the shamanor the medicineoffers.

Read the whole thing: http://maisonneuve.org/pressroom/article/2011/apr/29/tourists-consciousness/

This weekend I took magic mushrooms for the first time in many years. I had a very positive experience and felt that I was able to get some questions about the current course of my own life/decisions answered.

Inevitably, though, after coming down from the euphoria, I find myself struggling to integrate the new understandings I arrived at into my actual day-to-day.

So question for fellow psychonauts: how do you use what you learn under the influence?

 

[djonkoman]

I've only used truffles once(the weaker version of shrooms without real visuals, wich is stll legal here) and ofcourse weed, I didn't get any visions/realisations during the trip but got a lot of good ideas the few days after
I didn't have any problem incorporating it, since it only confirmed what I was already thinking/doing but stimulated me to continue on the right path and keep better to my own thinkings/ideas
same with weed(I consider weed a mild hallucinogen in the sense that it gives good ideas and insight in yourself and opens you up, I have changed quite a lot since being a stoner, in a very positive way, to me at least)

 

[Nosferatu]

What psychedelics teach doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with our fucked up modern society. Then again everything they teach is already in side you so it really depends on user and experience. But they tend to make me and alot of people think daily trivial things are less important, which i still think is true, but am I biased because Ive done psychedelics and use cannabis alot? You have to try and balance your physical life and your spiritual life 50/50 to be as healthy as possible IMO. Phychedelics(well mainly THC) makes me want to part from this crazy society and focus on eating completely natural and being self sustaining from my surroundings and only working for my family and what we NEED. People are so materialistic and self centered these days we should have mandatory phycedelic ingestion!

But in the end all these plants do is let you venture deep into your mind(and maybe even into the cosmos), wait, are the cosmos within us then? I dont know, I wonder if we ever will. All I know is definitely use these plants, but too much and you'll go down the rabit hole and never come back, which can't be your duty in life. My dad has natural DMT trips in his sleep that are identical to the "space venture" ones I read on Erowid. And he's never done drugs not even weed. So these plants aren't the answer they are only guides to knowledge we contain within already, a shortcut if you will. I once had a trip that made me realize all people are a different expression of myself materalized as a separate ego, and we were all just cellular functions of a cell(Earth). Was that true, probably not, but at the time it was all I knew, so at that moment it was indeed true.

 

[crawdad]

freaky, Nosferatu ive pretty much said everything you said in a single conversation about this before. so, i totally agree.

best part was your first sentence as it relates directly to this topic. "What psychedelics teach doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with our fucked up modern society." the revelations experienced/gained may only be personal and have no relevance to "daily life" as it relates to interacting...but that's not to say it wont make a difference in some way.

for me, i do change but i would not say i change direction entirely. its more of a realigning yourself into the direction you were already going but now its more clear, more direct, further along, see more in front of you then you did before, etc. im not a new person, i just have better glasses now.

that's my take on it.

 

[Plotinus]

its more of a realigning yourself into the direction you were already going but now its more clear, more direct, further along, see more in front of you then you did before, etc. im not a new person, i just have better glasses now.

I think that's a wise way of looking at it, thanks. And in my case that's mainly what happened.

I think part of what I'm struggling with is that I realized while 'under the influence' that a big part of the reason why I have hesitated to pursue my current career aggressively is fear of what others will think of me. Unfortunately, after the fact that fear is still very real, and hard to shake.

So I did more clearly see the way forward for myself, but I feel like I was left without the outlook I need to be successful. I seem to be in need of a shaman of my own.

 

[crawdad]

this is purely my opinion so i dont say it with certitude of purity in its effectiveness for all, in other words...ymmv.

i see the search for shaman as a search for yourself. there is no better compass in this world then the one that is in your head. just continue to meditate on things (even outside of sessions) and id be willing to bet the journey will have a rewarding destination even if its slightly different than what you think it should be.

best to you.

 

[jeffp]

Any revelation I've gotten from plants is more of a *remembrance* than anything new. Good point about plugging in so much and relying on plugging in that you go down the rabbit hole and end up without a zip code. I once read a good line - think it might have been Richard Alpert - "drugs can open a door but they can't give you a room to live in."