As we have seen, an enlightening psychedelic experience is often followed by a period of peace and well-being, free of symptoms, free of anxiety or depression.
Authors such as Piaget, Kohlberg, Villegas, Maslow, Naranjo, Erickson, Wilber, Nelson, and even Freud have spoken of phases or stages in the evolution of consciousness: from birth to the establishment of an autonomous personality and its subsequent transcendence as we continue our spiritual and moral development.
A good integration, focused on maximizing the benefits of a psychedelic experience, entails using those experiences to hasten our ascension to higher structures by taking advantage of these transitional structures precipitated by a non-ordinary experience.
In the transcendent schools, we aspire to climb the mountain of enlightenment and reach powerful non-ordinary states of consciousness that allow us to open ourselves to realities beyond ordinary experience.
Psychedelics can and have been used to induce experiences of the divine in both its immanent and transcendental forms.
Psychedelics allow us to achieve, in just a few hours, the same states that we could reach after several years of meditation.
If Zen meditation, Tibetan Buddhism, and Eastern philosophies became so popular, it was precisely because of the temporary nature of the psychedelic experience and the desire of many of these seekers to reach the more permanent stages of a higher spiritual development.
Many traditions, like Theravada Buddhism, Yoga, and Taoism, speak of the importance of the body as a vehicle of transcendence. In this idea, the body is the temple in which the spirit can dwell and through which we achieve enlightenment. After an experience in non-ordinary states of consciousness, the body is a territory to return to and ground, somewhere we can land, after having navigated across the more subtle dimensions of our psyche. The body is both a tool that allows us to enter the psychedelic dimensions and the anchor that ensures our safe return to the physical dimensions.
Although each psychedelic experience is personal and its content is specific to each individual in that particular moment of their lives, some greater universal themes often manifest in one way or another. Issues such as life and death; coming face to face with insanity and the fear of losing control; intense emotions of anger, fear or sadness; and spiritual revelations and ecstatic experiences are all elements that frequently appear in psychedelic experiences.
In between the expressive and projective techniques, tarot cards can be a useful tool for interpreting different aspects of the experience and the subsequent states. There are many different decks that can be used, from the classic Marseille tarot to modern reinterpretations, such as the OSHO Zen tarot or cards that represent certain archetypes, deities, or power animals.
Again, the point of these quotes is only to demonstrate how far psychedelic assisted therapy ("PAT" as it is called in the journal JAMA Psychiatry) departs from what we have known as the medical specialty of psychiatry in the mental health profession. I've never heard any member of an EMHC treatment team suggest tarot cards for the treatment plan of an NGRI patient!
(More to follow...)
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