Welcome back to Have a Good Trip, fellow journeyers!
In this episode, we’re embarking on a guided tour through the diverse
and sometimes enigmatic landscapes of the psychedelic experience.
When you journey with psilocybin,
a multitude of inner worlds and states of consciousness can unfold.
Let’s explore what can happen during a trip and how to navigate this terrain.
Depending on the form you’ve consumed it in and your own digestion,
the medicine can take anywhere from 15 minutes up to 90 minutes to kick in.
You’ll usually feel it come on slowly and reach a peak within 2-3 hours,
once again dosage dependant.
While you’re waiting for it to come on,
ask yourself, what do you want to do?
I often like to journal,
relax and have music from one of my playlists playing, and just BE.
If you’re outside you may wish to go for a little walk,
but just be prepared you may want to be in privacy when you start feeling the medicine.
The Many Facets of a Psychedelic Journey:
A psilocybin trip can be a kaleidoscope of experiences,
each unique to the individual and the set and setting.
Here’s a glimpse of what can unfold during your journey:
- Visual and Auditory Enhancements:
A common hallmark of a psychedelic experience is heightened sensory perception.
Colors become more vivid, patterns dance,
and the world seems to come alive in a symphony of visual and auditory sensations.
You might find yourself marvelling at the intricate details of everyday objects or being entranced by the beauty of nature.
The stereotypical “I’m going to hallucinate and see a dragon”
is very rarely a reality and most likely originated from 1970’s USA Government “anti-drug” propaganda.
As we are in the constant process of hallucinating our reality,
it is my belief that when we are taking psilocybin,
we simply have access to more of what is already here.
- Ego Dissolution:
Ego dissolution is a pivotal and profound aspect of the psychedelic experience.
This term refers to the moment when the boundaries of the self blur or dissolve entirely.
You may lose your sense of identity and merge with the universe, experiencing a profound sense of interconnectedness with all life.
Ego dissolution can be both liberating and transformative,
leading to a greater understanding of the self and the universe.
The feeling of ego dissolution can often come with a lot of emotional release,
because we are often very attached to our identity, and often we use parts of our identity as a mechanism to feel safe.
Some of this can be related with our beliefs around what is possible for us in our lifetime or how the world works, what love is etcetera, and the experience of true ego dissolution is a complete shattering of what we thought was true so that we can experience what is true.
You can experience that you are in the truest sense of the world, an absolute divine being – a spiritual being having a human experience.
In my experience the feeling of ego dissolution is so expanded and limitless that truly anything is possible, and is both the most liberating feeling I’ve ever had, and the most earth shatteringly scary thing I’ve ever experienced. What is scary is letting go of everything I thought I knew. An entire life’s worth of beliefs about myself and the world shattered. In an instant. Profound.
Ego dissolution from a human perspective is really about having the physical experience that you are not separate from the love that you seek.
- Profound Insights:
The psychedelic journey often leads to deep and profound insights. As your Default Mode Network starts to shut down, it’s as if a curtain is lifted, revealing the mysteries of existence. You might gain a clearer perspective on your life, relationships, and the nature of reality. These insights can be life-changing, providing a new lens through which to view the world.
This is where the statement comes from: You have everything you need within. You have all the answers within. You are the universe experiencing itself. - Practical Insights:
You can also access clear and practical insights about your life. Journeying with psilocybin can be like getting a birds eye view of yourself and your own life.
The medicine can help you to identify and see where you are operating out of alignment with your soul’s truth, and your highest potential.
This can include things as simple as how you can show up differently as a parent, or partner, or as big as helping you to overcome an addiction and seeing all the ways you seek to meet your needs through distracting yourself with a substance or something filling the void.
Studies have reported that 80% of people addicted to smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol were able to overcome their addiction with just one psilocybin journey.
As I shared previously, I have been addicted to so many different things in my life, and psilocybin has played a huge role in my life in helping me shift away from these patterns of distraction. - Emotional Release:
Psychedelics have the capacity to bring buried emotions to the surface. You might experience intense waves of joy, grief, sorrow, or even catharsis as suppressed feelings are released. This emotional release can be a potent form of healing and catharsis, allowing you to confront and process unresolved emotional baggage.
One of the main ways that mushrooms helped me early on was to help me connect with my emotions. I was someone who could remember the last time I cried because it was once every two years. As I journeyed deeper with the medicine, it helped me to unlock so much of my capacity to feel all emotions, from angry to happy to sad, and this expanded capacity to feel has stayed with me – now I don’t need mushrooms to access my emotions. - Time Dilation:
The perception of time is even more fluid during a psychedelic journey. Moments can stretch into what feels like hours, or hours can pass in what seems like minutes. This distortion of time can lead to a profound sense of being in the present moment, free from the constraints of the past and future. - Mystical or Spiritual Experiences:
Many individuals report experiencing mystical or spiritual encounters during a psilocybin journey. These can range from a sense of unity with a higher power to feeling connected with the universe on a deeply spiritual level. Such experiences often lead to a profound shift in one’s sense of purpose and spirituality.
I find that the medicine teaches us humility through showing us that we are the same as everyone else at our core. We all feel deeply, we all feel pain, we all bleed red, and we all desire to feel unconditional love. We are all One. - Challenging Moments:
Not every moment of a trip is blissful. Challenging experiences can arise, leading to feelings of fear, anxiety, or confronting unresolved issues. These challenging moments are often opportunities for growth and self-discovery. By confronting and working through these difficult emotions, you can experience profound healing and transformation.
A journey will only ever bring up what is already there. Anything you have been suppressing, pushing down or avoiding is able to arise during your journeys.
Let your emotions flow. Let yourself surrender to the medicine of feeling and the abundant flow of life. Know that it is ok – and necessary – and a gift, to feel your emotions.
Life is a felt experience, not a thought experience. We measure our fulfillment by how we feel. Full FEEL ment. The depth to which you can access your pain is the depth to which you can access joy. It’s all connected.
The only way out is through. The same as in life. Remember that if you find yourself experiencing a challenging moment.
I’ll be sharing more specific tips in a later episode to help you in these moments. - Overwhelm, confusion & fear:
As one’s reality starts to dissolve, it can be normal to feel a sense of fear, or overwhelm or confusion.
This is a normal experience to have. If you can, surrender and accept the confusion or overwhelm. Allow it to be there.
If things are feeling too much, it can be a good idea to ask your facilitator or trip sitter for support, or if you’re alone, to call a friend. - Elevated states of Play and Joy: Access to your child like state:
Tripping can be super fun! I’ve witnessed people laugh uncontrollably for 6 hours straight!
The medicine can often help you to access your child-like state and access everything you’ve been desiring and suppressing, and for a lot of people in a modern western society, Play and laughing is something that’s been forgotten and lost in the busy-ness of hustle, grind and responsibility.
You may also experience physical symptoms that are all normal:
At times, the medicine can have a purgative effect. Usually from what I have noticed it is only those who hang on tightly to control who feel the need to throw up. And that is also normal and ok. Your body is attempting to let go in whatever way it can.
If you need to vomit, just let it happen. Remember the resistance to what is, is what creates a more challenging experience.
Bloating
An elevated and or variable temperature, sometimes feeling hot, then feeling cold;
and an elevated heart rate.
This is all normal and can be navigated by using the grounding breathing techniques.
If you feel concerned, share your concerns with your support person, or call a friend if you are alone.
The nervous system integrating
At the time after the peak of your journey as you’re starting to come down and land is when your nervous system will be integrating the expansion you’ve experienced. You’ve been in a sympathetic dominant state: feeling a lot, accessing your fears, adrenaline, excitement… and now it’s time to help your body down regulate into a parasympathetic state.
Imagine that your nervous system is like a long piece of string running from your head to toes inside your body. Over time the string has gotten tangled, and knotted.
The psilocybin journey has just unknotted the knots and removed the tangles, and with that there is a need to dispel the energy of that out of the body.
This means supporting your body to unwind, slow down, and relax even more, and often during this time even more insights and emotions can come up for you to experience.
Burping, farting, lots of energy moving through the body and feeling like you need to move your body in different ways, cramps, needing to go to the toilet, an elevated or variable heart rate, emotions coming through, wanting to be touched and held, are all normal experiences.
Here are some ways you can support yourself through this landing experience:
Ask for what you need from the person supporting you. They’re here to be here for you! I often ask to be touched around my shoulders or hugged and usually it helps me to release even more emotion, and feel more grounded in my body. Plus who doesn’t love hugs 🙂
Ground your body by drinking water or your favourite herbal tea, and eating some nourishing light food, like fresh fruit or a clean homemade vegetable soup. I also like to treat myself with some chocolate sometimes (unlaced with mushrooms!!).
Have a shower, go to the toilet, get some fresh air.
Journal and let yourself process the experience. If you can’t yet write clearly, record audio notes on your phone or a video.
Share the love and call someone you love: I’ve had some of the deepest most meaningful conversations at this stage of the journey and it’s really helped me to integrate and process more of the insights and embody it all, because I’m allowing myself to be witnessed by someone else in it – even if via video or audio call.
These are just some of the things that can be experienced… it would be impossible to list everything because the mushrooms essentially just help you open yourself up to the infinite possibilities of the human experience, something that is very exciting and expanding to experience.
After your journey you’ll likely want to rest, or go for a dip in the ocean or a fresh spring, or if that’s not accessible to you maybe sitting outside, laying on a nice bit of grass, watching the stars or you could even just have a bath and go to sleep.
Check in with yourself and really honour your needs in this time. It’s important to listen to what your body and soul are asking for as these will be experiences that will further help you come back into your body completely and ground and feel regulated.
It can be a bit more difficult to sleep the night of the journey if you’re still feeling a little ungrounded, so just repeat the guidance above as I’ve shared: have a longer bath, a longer shower and ask for more hugs. Do whatever you need to do to get your body relaxed.
In summary, let the medicine do its work, and let go. It’s truly a magical feeling to surrender.
In the next episode I’ll be sharing with you what you allll want to know: How to Avoid a Bad Trip.
Journey Well fellow traveller.
