What is clear from our years of practice, is that the brain on psychedelics facilitates observation without evaluation in a powerful way. We have seen people have breakthrough moments of what life could be like with a clear differentiation between observation and judgment during psychedelics, and then through post-trip reinforcement, have integrated this novel thought process into their daily life. One frequently quoted philosophical statements is “The ability to observe without evaluation is the highest form of intelligence.” If this is true, then psychedelic drugs absolutely have the ability to enhance higher intelligence in a single trip.

How This Process Works

Some guides find it useful to shroud their techniques in mystery, with the goal of enhancing the subject’s mystical experience. We have found that explaining the techniques and why the techniques work facilitiates the process. Once the techniques and the science behind them are explained, the user can understand why this approach works, leading to an understanding and expectation that the process will work. Each of the areas below are fertile ground for additional personal study, with or without the use of psychedelics.

Personal Narrative

We each have personal narratives about our lives. These are the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, how we became who we are today, and where we are headed. Personal narratives strongly impact feelings of well-being and are one way in which humans make sense of the experiences of their lives - through constructing narratives, we construct meaning.

Our personal narratives are often inaccurate, both subjectively (e.g., our assessment of why we are who we are today) and objectively (e.g., our recollection of the facts of our formative experiences). As humans, we appear to engage in a process where we gather a data point about ourselves and our lives through experience and then integrate that information into our personal narrative. But once that data point is integrated, our new version of the personal narrative impacts how we recall and interpret past events, reshaping both our subjective interpretation of the past as well as our factual recollection of past events. For example, if one win’s an important swimming event in their late teens, they are more likley to believe the were a good swimmer in their early teens and is more likely to recall having more objective successes in early life in swimming, such as recalling (incorrectly) winning earlier events.

There are three critical points for personal narratives. First, in practice, personal narratives distort objective facts to match the subjective story we tell ourselves, for better or worse. Second, personal narratives change throughout our lives, although as we become older, the refinement of our narratives tends become less impactful. And finally, psychedelics have the potential to disrupt our personal narratives, at least temporarily, by temporarily changing how our brain functions. These three facts combine to allow users of psychedelics to fundamentally change their vision of themselves (and of the world) by re-interpreting facts in a manner that advances personal growth.

Approaching a psychedelic experience with the intention of changing one’s personal narrative is one of the most effective way to rapidly change one’s lives. Years of repeating self-help mantras, talk therapy or reading books and articles may never change one’s self-perception the way a single, well guided psychedelic trip may be able to do. So starting with the intention of changing one’s narrative and having the expectation that change will occur is critical for an effective psychedelic trip.

The Importance of Language

Closely related to our internal narative is the internal dialogue in which we all engage. The language we use in our own heads impacts significantly how we view ourselves and our overall emotional state. Changing this internal dialogue in adults is tricky. Some adults can learn the great impact of internal dialogue and immediately start making changes using principles of self-acceptance and self-love to immediately impact their lives. Other cling to internal dialogues that serve them poorly, often because they wrongly believe the dialogues are serving them well.

For example, some believe that to be successful, one’s internal dialogue must be highly critical, always pushing one self to do better. Whether one may have greater job performance or academic performance in the short-term due to negative reinforcement is not clear, as some highly successful people do use highly critical internal language to motivate themselves. What is clear, however, is that people who have a consistent internal language of acceptance and love report greater happiness, an increased sense of connection to peers and the world at large, and an overall sense of higher achievement.

Finding a tone in one’s internal dialogue that suits what one want to accomplish in life is the ultimate goal. For most people, we believe that an internal dialogue that focuses on love and self-acceptance, but includes a realistic but kind and non-judgmental voice when we fail to live up to expectations, serves us best. Many people struggling with depression, anxiety or generally life dissatisfaction would be very well served to give their minds a vacation from self-criticism. All of us would likely benefit from leaving feels of shame at the doorstep.

The psychedelic experience provides a remarkable window to objectively observe one’s own self narrative. At even relatively low doses, one’s sense of self becomes less focus and rigid, and one’s level of acceptance increases. During this window one can begin to reform the language used with oneself, and some people have reported an absolute reset of the language they use, emerging from the psychedelic trip with an entirely new vocabulary in their internal dialogue. Post trip focused work is critical to cement these changes.

Living in the Moment. A Refined Approach

Virtually every study on happiness report that two factors have the greatest impact on happiness: (1) the amount of time living in the moment and (2) the quality of one’s social circle/support circle. Psychedelics can probably assist on both counts, but here we focus on improving happiness by an emphasis on immediacy. Overall life satisfaction requires a balancing of enjoying the here and now and making long term plans. However, in popular culture there is often a misunderstanding that immediacy and long term planning are in conflict.

We strongly advocate setting goals and making short term, medium term and long term plans. Set aside a time each week to set goals, make plans, evaluate progress and be on the path to living the life you want to live. But also try to live in the moment by enjoying each moment for what it is. For example, if one’s goals include getting a promotion at work and getting a promotion requires significant overtime, there is absolutely no conflict between achieving one’s goals and living in the moment. What is critical is that one focuses on the pleasure of doing the overtime.

The key here is that one views each moment of life as something worthy of cherishing. One need only watch a Zen monk do a daily chore to see the potential of finding peace and tranquility in washing dishes. The critical path to happiness is not what we choose to do, but how we do them. We recommend reading articles on the Zen way regardless of spiritual outlook, because they wonderfully capture the joys of living in the moment. A fine, short article on this can be found here. But much of the Zen approach can be boiled down to proceeding in life at a deliberate pace, doing each task well, focusing solely on the task at hand, and doing every task with a gentle smile on your face.

The psychedelic experience can be effective at helping people focus on immediacy during the trip and for around 72 hours after, in part by inhibiting the default mode network in the brain, as described below. Around 72 hours after the effects of the psychedelic are no longer overtly felt, your brain returns to its normal state. During the trip and the 72 hours that follow, one can practice immediacy with the goal of burning in new behavior patterns at a time your brain is most open to change.

By viewing the psychedelic experience as a path for change, one may find a new personal narrative of their life story, a more helpful internal voice, and a focus on Being Here Now that can result in greater happiness, increase ability to achieve life’s goals, and greater life satisfaction.

Observation without Judgment

One of the most important skills one can learn in life is observing without judgment or evaluation. This concept arises repeatedly, and once you understand it you will be surprised how often people of insight and influence reference it. It is a central concept in business negotiations, a tenant in Buddhism, a tool in Non-Violent Communication (NVC or Empathetic Communication) and a core principle in experimental science. Marshall Rosenberg, the creator of NVC, describes observation without judgment in his typically folksy manner here.

Observing without evaluation/judgment means making a factual observation without adding any interpretation or inserting facts you do not know to be true. For example, saying to one’s self “I’m not good at being punctual” is an evaluation, whereas saying “I was late three times to work last week” is an observation. You may also observe without evaluation in non-statistical terms. For example, saying “I wish I wasn’t late to work last week” is also an observation. Either you preferred to be late the same, more or less than last week, making it a factual statement. Nonetheless, you will need to have good self-awareness to ensure this is a true factual statement. Perhaps a more accurate factual statement might be, “I wish my boss hadn’t noticed I was late three times last week”. So we try to stay as close to statistical factual statements as possible when observing, and when delving into personal views and preferences, we do so with skepticism and care.

An important note is that you never know another person’s internal mental state. So the statement “my boss would prefer me not to be late” is never an observation, it’s an evaluation (or sometimes referred to as a diagnosis). The statement “My boss told me he prefers me not to be late” is an observation.

When one learns to observe without judgment, one removes their own bias from the equation. One will also likely find themselves feeling a closer connection to others in this world. Perhaps most importantly for the purposes of self-improvement, observation without judgment will likely lead to greater happiness and enhanced self-love.

Note, you do not need to abandon all judgment and evaluation in your life to make great progress. You simply need to be aware of the difference between observation and judgment/evaluation and apply each mindfully. For example, you may find yourself angry that your boss yelled at you for being late three times at work last week. One way of thinking would be “I am angry I was yelled at. Even if I was late, my boss shouldn’t have been angry and me and shouldn’t have yelled at me. And I should have stood up for myself.” This statement combines a factual observation (I am angry I was yelled at), with judgment statements (should and shouldn’t). And even the factual observation “I am angry” is likely unrefined, as anger is often an inarticulate description of a more complex underlying emotional state.

The same events could be considered in a two-step process. The first involves observation: “I was late three times last week. The third time I was late my boss said ‘Why are you always late?’. This statement was made in a louder tone of voice than typically used in everyday conversation. When this happened I felt my face become flush, and my pulse increase.” This may end the observation. But you don’t need to stop the analysis there. Next you might add some of your value system to the equation: “ I want people to rely upon me. I want people not raise their voice when speaking to me. I want to express my personal boundaries when I feel others have crossed them.” By doing this type of analysis, you have clearly identified observable fact and personal preferences, and have done so without judging yourself or judging your boss. Next, you may choose to add action items: “I plan not to be late next week. I plan to communicate to my boss that I did not live up to my personal expectations for timeliness and plan not to do so again. I plan to request my boss not raise his or her voice to me, even when displeased.”

Oddly, people are often able make great strides using observation without judgment/evaluation while dealing with third parties, while finding it almost impossible to do with themselves. Almost everyone’s personal narrative consist largely of observations and judgments. Re-defining the narrative (and the internal dialogue) to include fewer judgments may be virtually impossible for some. For many, even attempting to remove judgments from a personal narrative may feel offensive, like an attempt to strip one of self-identity. However, starting by removing blaming language and negative judgments from one’s internal story line may feel more palatable, and is a key first step in finding deeper happiness.

Many people find that observing without judgment become automatic while on psychedelics. This facilitates taking a hard look at one’s self, while maintaining self-love and respect. It also demonstrates the type of thinking, including the internal language used, when one is observing without judgment, and has the potential to facilitate this thinking in day-to-day living, Some report being shocked at finally understanding what it means to really simply observe, and return from this foreign land with insights that immediately impact their daily happiness and well-being.

The Four Step Process

We have found a four step process to be most effective in effecting change and personal growth while using psychedelics.

Step 1. Before the trip identify the specific area of growth desired.

Step 2. Conduct pre-trip in-depth reflection and analysis on the specified area of growth.

Step 3. During psychedelic experience focus work on the desired personal growth.

Step 4. After the trip, focus on integration of insights through further reflection and refinement.

Each of these steps is described below.

Step 1. Identifying the Area of Growth Desired

For someone unsure on what areas of growth to focus upon, we have found it useful to define four areas of personal work: The Past, The Now, The Future and Spiritual Discovery.

There is overlap in each of these areas, but we have found working through these buckets, people are often drawn to one category, and choose to focus their attention accordingly.

The Past

The Past is broadly defined as any experience or condition that has lead you to where you are today. This may be your history with your family of origin (your caretakers and original social group), abuse history, history of loss or abandonment, or any other events or interactions that have helped shaped your life and your self-perception, for better or for worse.

For many, clearly understanding the past is deeply challenging. Consider the years of talk therapy people choose to engage in trying to better understand how they got to where they are. In our experience, it’s not necessary to have a perfect understanding of your past before undertaking a psychedelic experience — you just need to do enough work to broadly understand what you believe has been influential on the development of who you are today. More specifically, most people will likely want to identify what elements in the past you believe are holding you back today or that you want to come to peace with.

The Now

Focusing on The Now turns the emphasis to what’s alive in oneself today. Some will find focusing on the past to be less efficient than cutting to the chase and asking direct questions about the current state of affairs. The inquiry isn’t one of why you are the person you are today, rather the focus is simply on who you are today and what you want to refine.

The Future

Goal oriented people in particular may find focusing on where they want to be more rewarding than reflecting on the past or even the present. Understanding The Future means reflecting upon one’s values and desires to determine what life they want to live in the future. The focus on the future often looks at life achievements, such as relationships, lifestyles and other more tangible goals. In contrast, if one finds themselves feeling depressed frequently and wants to change that, we would place that in the bucket of The Now; in short, if there is something you could immediately change (in that case, the future is now!).

Spiritual Growth

While Spiritual Growth may play a significant role for anyone focusing on The Past, The Now or The Future, some find a specific focus on spiritual growth to be the most effective way to effect spiritual enlightenment, and the techniques we use in these cases are in some ways unique from those applied to the other paths.

Note, we use the term spiritual here broadly, and include any focus on the spirit or soul, as opposed to attention on the material or physical. This includes all religious paths but also encompasses most mindfulness practices. One of the most famous psychedelic experiments (the Good Friday Experiment) showed that religious people could experience profound religious experiences facilitated by psychedelics. Similarly people seeking personal enlightenment, regardless of religious orientation have found psychedelics to be a pathway to self-actualization, a deeper connection to mankind or the universe and a deeper understanding of one’s self and one’s relationship to the ethereal.

Using this Guide After Identifying the Area of Growth

Once you have identified the area of growth you intend to focus upon, you may direct your attention to the subsection of the article that is applicable to you. For example, if you want to focus on Spiritual Growth, you can skip or quickly skim the materials on The Past, The Now and The Future.

Step 2. Pre-trip Reflection on the Area of Growth Desired

The Past

Each of us have a narrative about our past. To make sense of who we are, we formulate stories about how we have become the people we are today. These narratives are based upon our perceptions of the past, but seldom based on objective reality. We unconsciously simplify, distort, mis-remember, over or under-emphasize events in our past to provide ourselves with a relatable story of who we have become.

Your truth is not The Truth….

Studies have shown again and again eyewitness accounts of events are shockingly inaccurate. Not surprisingly, people are also horrible at accurately recalling their own past, making systematic errors, which together form our own narratives on how we view our lives. Your truth is not the truth. This is often hard for people to accept. If you find yourself to be a skeptic around this point, please read everything you can on how the human memory works… you will be convinced of this point.

These errors in our personal narrative may serve us well or serve us poorly. Truth is ultimately extraordinarily hard to obtain, and endless hours of talk therapy can result in little clarity, and more importantly, little improvement in the personal condition.

We don’t suggest ignoring objective reality, we simply suggest that when recounting your internal narrative of your life, much of the “objective reality” simply isn’t accurate. And most importantly, understanding the factual events of your past are less important than creating a narrative around your past that serves you well today.

In pre-trip reflection, your goal is not to have a deep understanding of your past, but to attempt to understand the narrative you have created for yourself around your past. Do you view yourself as a victim of others? Do you believe that you were powerless in the past? Do you believe you had power to avoid mistakes, but failed to do so? Do you believe you are on a path to greatness? Do you believe you can accomplish anything you choose?

Do your best to understand as clearly as possible your narrative about the past. Then consider which elements of that narrative serve you well today. Spend some time each day to write down a summary of your internal narrative - it may be two or three paragraphs or several pages. Just do your best.

Then circle in blue those aspects of your narrative that you believe are serving you well today. Circle in red those stories that are holding you back from being the person you want to be. Each day spend time reflecting upon your narrative, and refining your description of it. Again contemplate each statement you make about your narrative and whether it serves you well today.

By the day of your trip, you should have a clearly defined understanding of the story you are telling yourself about your past, and what it’s doing for you today.

The Now

Pre-trip work involves taking inventory and asking yourself what’s going on for you right now, and identifying what you would like to change your life. It also includes feeling gratitude for that which you’d like to retain. Taking a self-inventory can be a challenging process if you feel your life is not where you want it to be. Proceed without self-judgment. Be factual. Don’t attempt to give reasons for where you are today (neither assign blame or credit to yourself or others), simply observe.

Specifically ask yourself whether your life is in alignment: Are the key areas in your life consistent with your fundamental values? Is your job, physical condition, eating, relationship with intimate partners, friends and family, relationship with intoxicants each consistent with your value system. Again be factual, and non-judgmental.

The answers may immediately be obvious upon first glance: one’s romantic relationships are not optimal, one’s job is going poorly, goals aren’t being achieved, one is feeling loved and connected to their support system, one is feeling blessed for finding internal strength, etc.

For people with quick answers, the key is to keep digging deeper. For example, if a romantic relationship feels unfulfilling, try to delve into what are your values about what a romantic relationship would need to look like to make you happy, why the “wants” in the relationship are not being met. Ask yourself, without judgment, why the relationship is continuing (it is serving you in some way to remain in the relationship). Write all the answers down. Refine them. Do as much work as possible pre-trip to answer these questions, but keep an open mind to changing the answers following gaining insights during the psychedelic experience.

Some may not have a clear understanding of their current situation. Tthere may only be vague (or possibly intense) emotional feelings. Perhaps life isn’t as happy or fulfilling as desired, but the observer lacks a clear understanding of the causes discontentent. If this is where you find yourself, dedicating a psychedelic experience to understanding the root causes of the unhappiness, without trying to change anything, may be an exceptionally valuable use of time. Spend as much time as need to develop theories about what is going on, refine the theories and write them down.

Here, meditation will likley be valuable in developing theories as to why your are in your current feeling state. Before the meditation session think about the issue at hand, and then clear your mind as you meditate. When thoughts inevitably enter your mind, remember what they are, but attempt to again clear you mind. After the meditation ends, take notes on what has been entering your mind, and reflect upon whether they help shape your views on understanding what is influencing you in the way you want to change. Revise your notes. And retain an open mind going into your psychedelic experience.

Whenever possible during this process take ownership for everything in your life, good and bad. Do so without any value judgment. By doing so you are taking a critical step in achieving ultimate empowerment. Accept that which you cannot control, but be slow to cede control of anything.

The Future

The Future is focused on goal setting. Identify clearly what you want to achieve and who you want to be. Compare where you are today with where you want to be, and begin to identify the steps you will need to take to achieve your goals. Follow any of the many goal setting methods you can find online, like this one. Review daily for the week before the trip, refining each day as needed.

Spiritual Growth

The path to spiritual growth begins by identifying your intention, whether it to be to understand your creator better, to better understand one’s own nature, to focus on losing attachment to worldly matters, or to find a spark of deeper meaning beyond the material world. Once you have begun to focus and refine your intention, establish a daily practice leading up to the trip of simply deeply focusing on your intention. If you pray or meditate, do so daily. During prayer, be simple and direct in your prayer, and focus upon that element of spiritual growth that you desire.

During meditation, follow your customary path. If you practice Koans, focus on a single one that has eluded you. If you practice concentration meditation (following your breath, counting, etc.) or if you practice Shikantaza, continue your daily practice in the same form a usual. Regardless of the form of meditation you engage in, before and after each session reflect upon what spiritual growth you seek…. do you wish to have a deeper understanding or move closer to enlightenment? Do you wish to improve your daily practice, with deeper and more challenging mediation? Do you seek a clear mind in your daily life? Or perhaps acceptance of the impermanence of all things? Regardless of the answer, your task is to simply focus each day, before and after meditation, on the specified area, and each day attempt to form a more prefect vision of what you hope to achieve.

Step 3. The Psychedelic Experience

Intentionally: Mind set and Setting

The concept of “set and setting” is a key component in directing a psychedelic experience to accomplish personal growth. Set can be viewed as your mindset. This is what you are bringing to the table… including everything from your mood the day of the trip, your intentions for the trip, your general attitudes toward personal growth and your baseline personality.

Setting refers to the physical environment of the trip. Where you do it, with whom you do, the music, temperature, aromas and all other stimuli to your senses.

Before your trip you will want to carefully curate your “set”. That is the fundamental purpose of this guide. By identifying your areas of growth, you not only focus your mind on an area of change, but you critically are preparing your mind to view the psychedelic experience as a growth opportunity.

Before ingesting psychedelics you will also want to ensure that your setting is optimized for your desired experience. You may find our guide to Preparing for a First LSD Trip to be helpful, even if you are experienced with LSD. Critically you will want to clean and uncluttered environment. If possible you may find a safe outdoor space to be a desirable place to experience your trip. We find it ideal to use the last few hours of a psychedelic experience to reconnect with the material world and those we have shared our experience with. We often do this by reconnecting as a group and enjoying food and drinks. Our Favorite Foods On LSD covers some of the food we most enjoy, and we often have twenty or more small servings of different foods and drinks to enjoy during any one experience.

As always you will want to make sure you have pure LSD (tested from a reliable source) or high quality mushrooms. You will want to make sure your personal safety is ensured. You will need to know and trust those with whom you are sharing this experience. And you will need to communicate to each person present your intentions and goals for the trip, and communicate any boundaries and make any requests from these people while you are entirely sober.

We choose to ingest a modest dose for the first growth-oriented experience. The ideal dose may depend on the user’s familiarity with psychedelics, but we consider 125ug the default starting point, and adjust up or adjust down depending on individual circumstances. Weight/size does not seem to have a significant impact on dosage. If you are unfamiliar with LSD doses, review this article on LSD Trip Stages/Phases and typical dose experiences. For those unfamiliar with splitting doses, here is an article on Volumetric Dosing.

The Past

Have your notebook handy, so you can review the statements about your history that serve you well (circled in blue) and those holding you back (circled in red). Now apply the following steps:

Recall The Past. Without reference to your notebook, begin by recalling the past from a fresh point of view, recalling the events of your past in a factual, and emotionally neutral way. While in a psychedelic state, many people find they can revisit past memories clearly, and even those that are normally painful one may be able to recall with no or greatly reduced pain. If anything begins to feel too painful, stop what you are doing and take a break, changing your location, music and area of mental focus.

Accepting The Past and Removing Its Power. Accepting that The Past has occurred, and is now in the past. Understanding that The Past does not have power to control the now. Only your choices today impact The Now.

Forgive and Let Go. If you feel pain around the past (as we likely all do in some way), the next step is to forgive those that have hurt you in the past and to forgive yourself for any shame or guilt you are feeling. This ultimate step is the most powerful way to regain control over The Now. If you hold on to anger, resentment or other similar emotions, toward others or toward yourself, your defense mechanism only hurts yourself. Remind yourself that letting go of anger does not mean that you will allow others to hurt you or that you will repeat mistakes of the past. You may forgive those that hurt you while seeking legal recourse against them. Forgiving and letting go simply means you will replace emotional pain with healthy boundaries around behaviors.

A New View of the Past. Finally, think about the past in purely positive terms, including all events that have occurred. Deeply content people usually see all events of the past as combining to make the person they are today, and accept that events that brought pain and grief contribute to today’s strength and resilience. The positive and happy moments also contribute to today, and should be welcomed with deep gratitude. This phase is about reinforcing a positive mental attitude, because study after study has identified positive attitudes as a prime contributor to personal happiness, and the brain on psychedelics is primed to be directed toward healthy attitudes.

A note on reframing. There is a slightly different approach that can also be included in this process, typically replacing the “accepting the past…” phase. Some people have found success in psychedelic therapy employing a device called “reframing”. Reframing takes several forms, but the one with which we are most familiar involves subjects recalling painful experiences but change key elements in their recall of the event, such as their response to an physical or verbal attack, and focusing on the positive emotional feelings associated with the changed factual pattern.

Repeated practice of doing this, especially while under psychedelics may well produce a long term change in the emotional feelings associated with the event, whether or not the actual memory is actually altered. A more nuanced approach involves simply re characterizing the event emotionally in ones mind without changing the facts during recall. For example, viewing a traumatic event as a positive learning experience, or finding other positives that have resulted from the event, and associating positive emotions with the new perspective. We do not actively employ these tools, and would encourage those interested to do additional research to understand exactly how these may best be employed, and any risks associated with such techniques.

The Now

During the psychedelic experience, it is time to revisit The Now. Instead of focusing on the work you’ve been doing, start by doing an internal diagnostics… ask yourself what is going on in your life that you would life to change, or what are you feeling that is not what you want to be feeling. Start by focusing on your body and emotional state at the very moment you are doing the internal review, and then expand your field of vision to be a bit broader to the day, the week and the month, but no more.

You may find that what’s alive in you is quite different from what you anticipated while you were in a non-psychedelic stage. Reflect for a moment on whether this is an important insight: have you found a deeper root of discontentment in your life, and if so, spend the session working on it. It may be closely related to what you expected to experience and perhaps you have simply refined your understanding of the issue. Or it may be entirely unrelated, in which case you may choose to work on it, or go back to what you did you pre-trip. There is no wrong answer there - either will lead you down a productive path.

Once you have an issue you intend to focus on, ask yourself why are you in the situation you have found yourself to be in, why you are making the choices you are making or why you are feeling the feelings you are feeling. It is absolutely critical that you do this analysis without self-judgment or shame. Use your rational, objective voice to answer the question. In virtually any situation that is occurring in The Now, try to take full responsibility for what is going on. Once you view your life from a perspective of personal responsibility, you have taken the first step in effecting change.

Some may find it challenging taking responsibility for situations in which they feel powerless. And many situations can be viewed from a perspective of helplessness. For example, one may wish they were taller, and point to genetics as the primary cause of their issue with their height. But it’s unlikely that the issue in their life is how tall they are, rather it is likely their own feelings around their height (which they are capable of changing). Or perhaps they may believe that it’s other’s reactions to their height that is holding them back in life, but again, one needs to reframe the inquiry in a manner in which they do have control. Usually this means asking is there another way to achieve what they want, given an unchangeable fact or is this an area where one needs to work on acceptance access what is joyous in any situation.

When doing this analysis, in addition to taking responsibility for the area of focus, one should also ask, in an objective manner, how their behavior and attitudes are serving them well, and in which ways they are serving them poorly. For example, during a psychedelic trip, one may start the trip feeling unsatisfied with their progress at work. They may during the trip begin by asking why they haven’t achieved the career success they desire, while refusing to change jobs or take other actions to help move up the ladder. During the trip they may come to the realization that they have stayed at the same job because the work is easier, the location of the office better, or some other entirely reasonable reason to stay. The trip may reveal that the need for advancement is more present than the need to continue to enjoy these benefits. Or the trip may reveal that the choice of staying, and forgoing advancement is the better option, and the person may find peace with accepting the status quo. In either case, the revealed wisdom will serve the person’s personal happiness well.

For example, one might find themselves living in pain over something that has happened in the past. Abuse survivors sometimes find themselves living with daily anxiety triggered by past abuse; the unconscious mind may have developed obsessive mental algorithms designed to keep the person safe from future abuse.

A special note on addition.

Those struggling with addiction often find psychedelic experiences to be extraordinarily helpful. Addiction is often closely related to obsessive or recursive thinking. Psychedelics give the mind a break from traditional thought patterns and have been shown repeatedly in studies to promote new patterns of thought.

The smoker may alcoholic may suddenly view drinking in a clear light for the first time, and be able to stop with little challenge. Lifetime smokers have found great success in giving up cigarettes after a psychedelic trip, although physical addition symptoms take some time after the trip to disappear.

For those wishing to abandon an unhealthy habit, it is advisable to focus clearly both on what the addiction is costing you, and what giving up the addition will bring to your life. Again, unlike many treatment procedures which rely on shame, psychedelic therapy relies upon cost/benefit analysis. Once your brain understands in a clear, rational manner that your addiction is causing you harm, you have taken an important step in breaking the thought pattern associated with addiction and begun to replace it with a more healthy thought pattern. Your post trip work will be vital in avoiding returning to an unhealthy thought algorithm, as discussed below.

A special note for survivors of abuse

For those who are dealing with the pain of past abuse, or are currently living in an abusive situation, psychedelics may open a new path. Of all issues that may be addressed through psychedelics, abuse survivors and those subject to ongoing abuse may face the most challenging path. For this reason, one should only address such emotionally charged issues with the assistance of a trained psychedelic guide, whose is formally trained in assisting abuse victims overcome trauma or exit abusive situations.

For past abuse, often the mind’s self-protective thought patterns and hyper-vigilance interferes with the full enjoyment of one’s life. Reflecting on whether re-living the pain of the past serves one well is a useful exercise, and many will find the psychedelic experience either allows them to let go of the current damage past trauma is bringing into life, or allows the person to live more comfortably and with deeper acceptance of the defense mechanisms that have been adopted by the unconscious mind to cope with past abuse.

For those suffering a current abusive situation, taking personal responsibility for the situation may be challenging or sound offensive. However, accepting responsibility for remaining in an abusive situation is the first step in effecting change. One who is truly helpless can never change their situation, but fortunately almost everyone has the ability to empower themselves to change circumstances, but many find the path almost unimaginable prior to a psychedelic experience.

The Future

Manifesting the future you desire begins by reflecting upon the goals you set during your pre-trip work. During the psychedelic experience you will again reflect on these goals and ask yourself if these are indeed the places you wish to focus your energy upon.

You may suddenly realize that what seemed very important a short while ago, seems less important upon reflection during your trip, while other areas of growth now seem critical. If this occurs, use this time to deeply reflect upon your priorities and gather as much information as you can on who you are and who you want to be.

If your pre-trip goals remain important to you, or if you have identified new goals, spend some time asking yourself what in the past has held you back from making progress toward your goals. And reflect carefully upon how your life will be improved upon achieving your goals. Never forget, that there are rational reasons you may have not made as much progress as possible toward your goals in the past. For example, you may have enjoy other aspects of your life more than doing the work required to achieve your goals. Take a moment to accept these choices and accept the consequences of these choices. And then change your focus on forming a vision of how your choices in the future will help move you toward your goals. Be as clear as possible in envisioning yourself moving toward your goals, including clearly seeing the likely obstacles you will face and see yourself overcoming these obstacles, Focus especially on personal limitations you envision, such as lack of drive, ambition or confidence, and see clearly the path forward in which you have the appropriate level of drive/ambition and confidence to achieve your goals while maintaining the balance you desire in your life.

Psychedelics are unlikely to result in an overnight achievement of critical goals in your life, but they may give you the insights on how to motivate yourself, to clear your mind of distractions and to see limitations that have held you back in the past. But psychedelics may also show you that goals you once thought were important are non consistent with the person you wish to be. In either case, these are just food for thought, to be digested over the coming weeks, as discussed below.

Spiritual Growth

If there is one area where people report remarkable change from a single psychedelic experience, it is in the area of spiritual growth. View your trip time as precious. During the early part of your psychedelic experience, as a time to relax and open your mind and body for what is about to occur. Reflect upon your desires for spiritual growth, whatever they may be. Envision your mind and body as a medium for your spirit to connect with your creator, with the universe or with whatever spiritual power you have been drawn to in your life.

As you start to enter the peak phase of your psychedelic journey, further relax and let go of conscious thought to the extent you are able. During the peak phase do not focus too much on your spiritual journey. You may find insights during this phase, but most importantly, enjoy it’s beauty without over-thinking it. If you happen upon enlightenment while in a peak phase, consider yourself one of the fortunate few, but many find this part of the journey to be disorienting, or find themselves easily distracted from their goals. This is fine and natural, so simply enjoy the ride.

Once you are coming off of the psychedelic peak, begin to ease back into reflecting upon your spiritual path. If you find yourself distracted, take a bit more time to ride the wave of psychedelics, but after some time passes, return to your period of reflection. Attempt to connect with your spiritual path through your emotions and by way of physical sensations in your body.

Step 4. integration of Insights Post Experience

Once you’ve completed your psychedelic trip, it is time to reflect upon what you’ve learned and choose what you would like to integrate into your life.

Step One. Reflect without Action

The most important point is to take no overt action on any perceived learning or revelations for at least 72 hours and ideally at least one week, unless your health or safety is at imminent risk. People find themselves with great revelations during a psychedelic trip, and decide to quit a job, leave a marriage, or make other important life decision and impulsively act on the revelation immediately after the trip ends. This is a profound mistake.

On LSD inhibitions are lowered, and your brain works in novel ways. The voice of reason is hushed. This is wonderful for thinking out of the box, finding new creative outlets and breaking habitual thought patterns. However, it also allows objectively bad ideas to seem reasonable. While it is important to approach a psychedelic experience with an open mind, it is critical to re-assess the insights that have occurred to you during the trip for a minimum of three days after the trip, and ideally a full week. If after the period of reflection you remain convinced the action is required, make the change.

Step Two. Write Down Your Insights and Action Items

As soon as possible after your trip has ended, or even as your trip is just winding down, take notes on what you discovered and any changes you would like to make in your life. Summarize your trip, including your emotional states throughout the trip.

Every day for at least a week revisit and refine your list. You may find yourself expanding your action items or deleting items entirely. This is a natural part of the integration process. Those who meditate may find insights continue to pop into their heads during and after deep meditative states. As usually, allow the thoughts to pass through your mind, but after meditation jot down what you remember and spend time reflecting upon these notes to see if there are additional insights there.

Step Three. Reinforce Healthy Thought Patterns

While you should take no outward action immediately after your trip (like quitting your job or ending a relationship), you should immediately start to reinforce healthy thought patterns and watch like a hawk for the return of unhealthy mental processes. For example, if you find yourself thinking in less judgmental terms post trip, reinforce this behavior consciously, and if judgmental thought processes begin to return, consciously try to nip them in the bud.

Without post trip reinforcement, you are likely to return to your pre-trip state quickly. So this is the critical time to start burning in new ways for your brain to function. People who are battling addiction often find that for a day or two post trip their addictions seem to have magically disappeared, only to be disappointed when the addictive urges return as strong as ever a few days later. For anyone battling addiction or depression, it is critical that one is mindful of obsessive thought patterns, and consciously choose to stop the pattern when it attempts to reemerge. Techniques such as learning new skills or undertaking a new active hobby can be effective in re channeling your brain’s energy into a healthy new pursuit in the days following the trip. Just be mindful not to decide to undertake a new, risky life endeavor or make any major life change during that first week post trip.

Step Four. Incorporate Your Learnings into Your Life

Once your are a week out from your trip, it’s time to start reinforcing your insights through more significant life changes. Psychedelics do one thing remarkably well…. break habitual thinking. But the challenge is to resist reforming the unwanted habits.

The two keys to breaking old habits (mental or otherwise) are in theory simple: Repeat the new, wanted behavior while avoiding the old, unwanted behavior. In practice, both of these steps are highly challenging, so you need to give yourself every advantage to succeed. The psychedelic experience will give you a magical window to jump start this process… but the window may last as little as 72 hours before you feel drawn back into old behavior. So what can you do?

First, to the extent possible, make changes to as many old habits as possible, good and bad for a few weeks. You can return to healthy habits after a few weeks, but the goal is to break as many patterns of behavior as possible during this period. If you always drink coffee in the morning, try tea or a different breakfast. If you never work out, introduce a daily walk into your life, or if you are a daily runner, try joining a gym and working with free weights and a stationary bike for a bit before re-introducing running. Don’t watch your favorite TV shows, instead go out with friends or go to a movie theater or do anything that is as different as possible from your normal routines. Don’t introduce new unhealthy habits, just find healthy and appealing alternatives to your daily routine.

The purpose of this shake up is not to change your life entirely. Your focus will remain on changing the specific items you contemplated before and during your trip. However, our brains often have unconscious associations between the unwanted mental or behavioral activities, and begin daily routines. If you want to give up smoking, for example, there are hundreds of daily associations you’ve made unconsciously with cigarettes. Your morning coffee, talking with a friend on the phone, watching a certain TV show may all bring back conscious memories or subliminal associations with smoking. By changing as many habits as possible you are using a shotgun approach to break these associations.

Second, start new associations with positive habits. Whatever you have focused on changing, replace the old habit, routine or way of thinking with a new, rewarding routine. Those who have battled addiction are prone to certain mental processes that feed addiction. In all likelihood, if you are trying to overcome an addiction, you will find yourself with a new addiction shortly. Make sure it’s a healthy one. The best replacements involve a broadly focused area of interest. Rather than replacing a smoking addiction with a running addiction, think more generally about a fitness addiction, or better yet a wellness addiction, including eating healthy, working out and meditating.

If you are battling negative thought patterns, replace the cycle of self-doubt or criticism with a cycle of gratitude and appreciation. Start each morning by thinking of one person you are grateful to, and communicate that to the person. Think about one thing you are proud of, and feel that sense of pride throughout your body. Every time you notice your thought going to a negative place, jump back to your place of gratitude and pride.

Regardless of the change you want to incorporate into your life, the algorithm to do so is the same: remove any habits that are contrary to your goals and replace them with habits that advance your agenda. Make the new healthy behavior your new norm. Make sure your internal dialogue, and your internal narrative are consistent with the new healthy behavior.

The Science of Psychedelic Enlightenment