What a Journey or Ceremony Looks Like

7:29 minutes

No matter what psychedelic medicine you journey with, it’s important to know that there is work to be done before and after your journey to make sure you are safe, and truly receive the benefits from the medicine.

What I’ll be sharing is an overview, and there is more specific information in my free guides about psilocybin and MDMA journeys .

Let’s start with the work required beforehand. 

Logistical Planning

It’s important that you invest time in self-education to learn which psychedelic medicine is best for you. If you are working with a professional guide or sitter, you’ll need to make sure they are a good fit for you. If you are not working with a professional, then you will need to find a trusted friend to fill that role.  And of course, you will need to know where will it be, schedule time off of work, and arrange for childcare if necessary.

Get Your Body Right

You have to make sure your vessel is primed and ready to receive the medicine. There are some medications that don’t work well with psychedelics, and you’ll need to work with your doctor to taper off of those if you are ready to. You also need to have some form of movement practice you enjoy and works for your body, and be eating relatively well. This means reducing processed foods as much as possible, and increasing whole foods, especially in the week and days ahead. You may need to reduce or eliminating the use of other drugs if they are a regular part of your lifestyle, including alcohol and caffeine. Diet and exercise can be a tricky subject in a culture that shames many different bodies - do your best and don’t be afraid to journey if you’ve had some junk food.

Set Your Intentions

Intention setting is an essential part of preparing to work with psychedelics. The process of defining your reason and what you hope to get out of your journey helps your psyche to organize itself. You can do this by journaling or working with a talk therapist, or both. Because we don’t know what the journey will bring, intentions are different than goals. They aren’t firm, but more open ended like “release anxiety and fear” or “have more self compassion” 

Now let’s talk about the journey itself.

Journeys, or ceremonies, can either happen in a group or alone. Historically, group use has been done in communities, where people know one another well and are very connected in many facets of their lives. In our modern times, there are some psychedelic medicines that tend to be used in group ceremony. These include ayahuasca, san pedro, and peyote. These tend to have more of a spiritual setting and ceremony, including the use of traditional songs, and are more likely to be outdoors. 

Solo use is more common for psilocybin, mdma, and ketamine. Psilocybin does have a history in more spiritual ceremony, whether a group or solo. The amount of spirituality in the use of these medicines is more variable today. Introspective sessions with these medicines look like wearing an eye mask and using a curated playlist that directs the energy of the medicine to go within the self. Sometimes there is a guide directly in the room, and sometimes they are nearby to hold space until they are needed. 

Ketamine is the most medicalized of all of the psychedelics, and is often used in a clinic and given via IV, or it can be prescribed by a physician and taken sublingually (under the tongue) to be used at home alone. 

I personally advise working with psychedelic medicine in a solo ceremony with a guide first, rather than attending a group ceremony with many people you don’t know. The group ceremonies can still be wonderful and if you feel called in that direction - go for it. There are simply more variables and I hear of more negative experiences happening in these contexts. Also, please don’t do MDMA with a stranger or a new romantic partner. The bonding hormones that these medicines release can have ill effects when in the presence of someone you aren’t sure you want to bond with yet. 

After the journey comes integration.

In Western societies, we are taught that the medicine does the work and we can just sit back and let it happen. However, for psychedelic medicines to be truly effective, they need to be used in conjunction with other practices such as: talk therapy, journaling, somatic therapy, bodywork, yoga, meditation, etc. This extended work with what you have learned while using psychedelics is called “integration” and it is how the real benefits enter your day to day life. 

While you won’t know exactly what you’ll need until after you’ve had your journey, you will want to have some rough plans ahead of time to make sure you aren’t scrambling to find resources afterwards. It’s good to have a balance between three things: introspection, embodiment, and external support. 

Introspection

Plan to devote time alone to revisit your experience and process it. This can look like journaling, contemplation, recording audio notes to yourself, etc. 

Embodiment

Moving your body and receiving bodywork both help in supporting change and neuroplasticity. Your brain is in your entire body via your nervous system. Movement often allows deeper insights to come to the surface. 

External Support

Make sure you have someone trusted to talk with after your journey.This could look like a friend, therapist, or a psychedelic integration coach or group. If you don’t have anyone in your life that has worked with psychedelic medicine, finding a group or resource that has some experience is essential. 

So who can work with psychedelic medicine safely, or who should work with them? We’ll review that next.