Post Ceremony Reflection: Integration

Many people come to sit with Ayahuasca or any psychedelic to have an experience. They come to see the visions they've heard from other people who have done it, the purge, the ordeal, the divine connection and spiritual transcendence that comes from experiencing psychedelics. They feel the call to have these experiences for themselves in order to improve their lives. Some report amazing, life changing experiences right after experiencing the psychedelic, others claim that they got nothing out of it. Then they go home and continue their lives like they were before the experience and/or go to the next psychedelic, seeking the ultimate experience. People forget one important element in a psychedelic experience and that is INTEGRATION! It means to make whole, to put together the nuggets of wisdom and insights from the experience, the emotions, thoughts and feelings together to make sense out of it all. They think that just having an experience will transform their lives. It is during integration after the experience that changes happen and not necessarily during the experience. While you're on your journey, you're absorbing the downloads of a higher realm and way more than often doesn't make sense at all right then when it's happening. Integration helps unpack the experience throughout the days, weeks and months after the experience where everything, like a tetris game, starts to fall in its place. It is an integral part of any psychedelic experience and with the help of an integration coach, a group or community it is how you do it properly. That's not to say that you cannot do it with out a coach or a group, you can definitely do it yourself, through journaling, meditation, self care, etc...but having these assets by your side, it makes the whole psychedelic experience more meaningful and transformational. Once you have done the homework of putting it all together, then you're ready and open to explore other psychedelics more conscious, grounded and aligned with your higher self and the life ahead of you.

Aho!