Psychedelic Integration
After decades in the shadows of prohibition, psychedelics are back, this time not as the focus of reckless experimentation, social protest, or moral panic but as promising and empirically validated therapeutic agents.
Stan Grof, the renowned Czech psychiatrist and early LSD researcher, wrote in LSD Psychotherapy (originally published in 1980, reissued in 2001) that psychedelics “used responsibly” would prove to be for psychiatry “what the microscope is for biology and medicine or the telescope is for astronomy,” because of their capacity to amplify otherwise hidden psychological processes.
Psychedelic integration encompasses all facets of that all-important qualifier, responsible use, as well as maximizing the benefits of the journey.
Psychedelic integration encompasses all facets of that all-important qualifier, responsible use, as well as maximizing the benefits of the journey.
To use psychedelics responsibly entails attention to the classic three elements: preparation, session, integration. To say that integration is the most critical of the three is accurate but does not detract from the importance of preparation. Preparation includes practical preparation, such as determining whether, how, and with what catalyst psychedelic exploration would be warranted and safe. Not everyone is a good candidate, and not every so-called medicine guide is qualified, ethical, or adequately trained. Questions of legality remain, although increasingly some psychedelics are effectively decriminalized in many jurisdictions. And given the sometimes-excessive enthusiasm in the psychedelic space, there is the urgent need to recognize that psychedelic use entails not just great promise, but also significant potential perils. Safety is paramount.
Attention to “set and setting” is also vital. “Set” refers to the intention, expectations, and mindset that the potential explorer brings to the experience. “Setting” encompasses considering the place, situation, and container for the experience. Is the location private and protected? Can a lack of distraction or interruption be reasonably assured? Is the person who will be guiding or “sitting” for the experiencer both familiar with the medicine being undertaken and able to offer a spacious and non-directive way of being with the process, with a commitment to healthy boundaries in relation to touch and, most especially, leaving sexual expression out of the equation? Is there a focus on creating the optimal opportunity for the experiencer’s “intrinsic healing intelligence” to come forward and guide the experience? These, and other facets of the experience, are all essential elements of ensuring that the session will be optimally supportive.
The expanded or non-ordinary states mediated by psychedelics often facilitate new perceptions, awareness, or previously repressed memories. The period immediately afterward, before the aperture or lenses of perception have fully returned to their usual set point, is an ideal moment for work to stabilize what has come forward. It is a time ripe for healing and harmonizing the disparate aspects of the self, to connect the dots and allow more flow and a sense of renewal and expansion of the experiencer’s psychospiritual potential.
After the session, integration is especially imperative when difficult traumatic material has surfaced, but even when the content is less charged, it is crucial to take time to reflect on the meaning of the experience. What is the teaching and guidance offered, and what is its significance for the experiencer’s inner life and psychospiritual growth and development? How do the insights and revelations of the session fold into the experiencer’s relationships, community, environment, and self-care practices? These domains, along with behaviors, values and feelings that may have been revealed are all “grist for the mill” in the integration process.
After the session, integration is especially imperative when difficult traumatic material has surfaced, but even when the content is less charged, it is crucial to take time to reflect on the meaning of the experience. What is the teaching and guidance offered, and what is its significance for the experiencer’s inner life and psychospiritual growth and development? How do the insights and revelations of the session fold into the experiencer’s relationships, community, environment, and self-care practices? These domains, along with behaviors, values and feelings that may have been revealed are all “grist for the mill” in the integration process.