SunnyNewDay

doesn't mean people's past un wellness and trauma carries over into their practice. everyone has their own issues. I don't see how you think any one field of study is immune to this or more concentrated in this one. if anything people's breadth of experience in healing themselves aids them in helping others. I have never heard anyone make this claim before that this field attracts unwell people and insinuating that because of this much therapy being given is flawed or not helpful. if anything I've heard people complain about their therapists not having any sort of real life experiences or problems/obstacles they have overcome and coming off naive. This is untrue. You're not shoving anything under the rug by taking medication. It's how you're holistically integrating the medication into your healing process. It isn't about the medicines themselves but how they are used. Stuff comes up while one is seeing a therapist and pharmaceuticals can help allow for this to occur without the person become re traumatized or having their nervous system in a constant state of fear among other things. Just popping a pill and ignoring your problems is a way many shove their problems under a rug and it occurs because the mental health systems just aren't as developed as they could be with an abundance of therapy out there for helping people figure out what they're carrying around. Some of it also comes down to personal responsibility. It takes courage to look under the rug and that is what therapy addresses. How many people have shoved their issues under the rug and tried to transcend them by taking up a spiritual/meditative/yoga practice or doing a bunch of psychedelics? Seen this apply proportionately in this domain as well. it comes down to how each individual uses the resources they been given, not the resources themselves.

I had the same viewpoint at a point in time after having been through therapy several years ago and building up my confidence and doing a lot of self work and spiritual work... then came the explosion of repression from my blind spot with psychedelics and the eventual integration that therapy has basically been a godsend in healing from. be careful swearing off therapy and underplaying the vital role it plays in this work for tackling emotional issues.

That's not true at all, the part about working through your trauma while on mood medications, essentially what you're saying. You're just repeating jargon and dogma from psychedelic/spiritual communities. Healing is different for everyone and medications are very helpful for many while facing and going through them.

What are you basing this assumption on? I disagree. Don't know how you could possibly know whether that is true or not. If anything I've seen a lot of spiritual spheres attracting unwell people (including myself) which has just ended up in spiritual bypassing and mental/emotional problems being passed off as "the dark night." Also lots of unqualified and unethical people giving advice they are not qualified or experienced enough to be giving due to their approach and lack of ethical structure and safety systems around it. At least with therapy there is more of a safety net and it's empirically been seen to improve people to a point. The goal isn't to solve everything in therapy and I think it's good to be doing stuff outside it as well but it is a way that gets people stronger, unstuck and reclaiming some of their power to do more of the healing on their own. It serves a purpose of feeling acknowledged and having someone give a second set of eyes on your art usually leads to much deeper and inspiring creation.

Compassionate, unshaming and sees their patients first as a human being, not "symptoms." Depends on what one is working through also. People go to therapy for all sorts of stuff so what makes a good therapist will usually depend from person to person. I think a lot of people will try to do spiritual bypassing instead of doing the hard work with a therapist and diving into all the emotional problems one has keeping them from forming a healthy ego and healing.

somatic experiencing therapy (peter levine), other kinds of body based therapies and breath work are much safer, MDMA as well through an experienced therapist is quite safe as well. there are a lot of unforeseen problematic side effects when it comes to releasing stored up emotions with psychedelics. you can re traumatize yourself and cause psychotic experiences which only make healing more difficult. add to that a layer of existential stuff which from my experience only confuses when it comes to healing. stick to safer alternatives and be careful about people proselytizing their chosen medicine as a magic pill "1 ceremony is 10 years of therapy" "people leave completely healed". I fell for that once with people deep into Ayahuasca. while promising, psychedelics are risky (especially the really strong ones like any of the DMT based medicines. be very, very careful) and there just isn't that infrastructure and systems established to catch, treat vulnerable patients, and see them through to a grounded place with integration. It isn't just taking a medicine and ta da you're healed. MDMA is just starting to develop a safe and ethical healing approach system around it, not just 10 people taking a fuck ton in one room together with no screening or any sort of intake.

Thanks a bunch for the advice. I woke up just now having slept for about 2.5 hours and I felt I was back in a psychedelic trip with the visuals and altered consciousness. It is visually beautiful and an interesting experience but I would prefer to keep this when only taking a substance or doing a meditation retreat. It's uncomfortable integrating a daily nightly trip that briefly lasts.

I had an incredibly scary trip over the summer which really affected me. I've recovered a ton and am doing much better but I'm experiencing some problems with sleep now. I've worked a lot with a transpersonal type therapist to help integrate it which has helped a ton. A lot of irrational worrying went away and a ton of clarity /wholeness/peace has returned since which I'm really grateful for. My days are mostly positive and getting more productive. About a month ago I got off some meds cause I was feeling pretty good and grounded. They sort of numbed me a bit so I wanted to see if I was strong enough without them since I was doing better. One of them helped with sleeping but left me feeling a bit like a zombie in the morning. Anyways I have some anxiety when it comes to going to bed. I will lie down and start to get sleepy but then have this sort of fear/tension in my body arise and as I get drowsier it sort of jolts me awake. Another scary thing is I get closed eye visuals. They have gotten incredibly vivid at times such as patterns, flowers art, etc and a couple times when I was feeling scared all sorts of scary faces formed in them... I didn't like that at all. Most of the time they are usually just a sense of depth and flutry lights like if you look at a light and close your eyes. My thoughts will feel "louder" as well sometimes and I'll just be jumpy from my sensory/thought experience being kinda wacky and feeling sort of "spacy." It's scary and it used to only happen occasionally at night when I'd feel tension building up but it's been happening more often recently and after a few scary experiences when going to bed I'm sort of anxious at bed time now cauae of this. I think that only adds to it. On nights I feel calm this stuff is less present and not an issue. My sleep schedule is skewed and I'm now going to sleep early in the morning and sleeping most of the day. Has anyone experienced this before? How did you treat it?

Solipsism is a dangerous trap, be careful everyone.

seems like there are limits to what we can personally experience from a certain point of view while incarnated as a human

Is it possible to micro-dose pure mescaline crystals?

Do not do psychadelics on SSRIs!!!!!

Any tips for cleansing a room or flat? Also how to remove anything you think is feeding on energy from the root chakra?

avoid 100%

I'm really sorry to hear... you can get through this!!

This is one thing I'm still figuring out. I'd say it's not giving into what's going through your head. I can really relate to this. Even if there are a million other things you want to think through about it won't help the situation. OCD is actually a really serious disorder that I think is made light of due to pop culture. Seeing a therapist helps a lot clear up whatever thoughts you are ruminating on.

I like how his best friend alien has the most alien name ever

I think we can say psychedelics and therapy each have their own role and neither needs to be held up as the solution for an issue that may have multiple ways of solving. I've tried psychedelics and I've tried therapy and for me I think therapy is the better choice overall along with meditation and breathe work. The bad trips from psychedelics I experienced were brutal and then coming home with a lot of the same ways of thinking and a lack of self love made it really hard to do anything with what I experienced. In some ways it maybe was some tough love and got me back in therapy which is good but it was so brutal I wonder if there was something else I could of tried which was more gentle and able to teach me in a far less traumatic and psychotic way. I think I'll have a better understanding in the long run. I will say this... psychedelics can be very dangerous and life shattering whereas therapy will be much gentler and easier to integrate.

I would be very careful with ayahuasca. I regret drinking ayahuasca and should of started with something much more loving and calming. I fooled myself into thinking it was something I could handle and make me feel better but I have been pulling myself back together for six weeks after doing 4 ceremonies. I can't really beat myself up for that though because from the research I had done at the time it felt like it was the right choice. It has triggered a massive amount of psychotic problems, ocd, mood swings and paranoia in me recently where I started to believe delusional stories about myself and all sort of crazy stuff even a month after taking it like I was back in the terror trip which happened during the final ceremony. I've also found who you do it with can have a major impact and the people there aren't necessarily equipped to help you handle what comes up. I felt really abandoned and misunderstood by some of the people at the retreat and while I think they are good people and their intentions are to help I don't think a lot of these retreats are equipped to deal with everything that comes up. Talking about it in therapy has helped clear this up and integrate what has happened and released a lot of stuff and bring back clarity to my thinking and who I feel I am. If you have any history with mental illness (especially to do with manic/obsessive overthinking) of any sort I'd be careful taking ayahuasca. I'd say it's for mentally strong people with a high degree of self love for themselves and others and with experience tripping on psychedelics. I was not this going into the ceremonies.

What to do if going through a dark night or spiritual emergency?

what if the pursuit worsens a mental illness? Is it okay to back off and take it slower?

It can drive you to insanity. That's what I've felt like at times after taking ayahuasca and it's made me face some absolute horrible feelings and thoughts but I've also seen the parting of the clouds so I'm 50/50. I'd say not worry about the frivolous stuff in your opening post and more about your own well being while pursuing, choosing proper techniques, taking it slow, etc. You don't have to rush anything... just pursue gently and prioritize self love and acceptance.

I've been experiencing delusions and feel sometimes like I'm losing my mind and my appetite for food has gone away, lots of fear and it's really hard to love myself right now. This is after doing psychadelics at the end of June and I've been going through this since. Is this what awakening is? This wasn't something I was experiencing before, I felt stable and grounded before. I can hear a slight silence in my head and my body sensations are just more intense and I don't understand any of it. I think I'm going through a dark night of the soul. Will this eventually calm down and have my mind normal again? I'm going to try to do a self love visualization to get me feeling hope again.

My mind is suffering and I'm experiencing false memory ocd, psychosis and really intense pacing/anxiety. Surely taking medication for the absolute crazy stuff will allow for me to actually process everything and make sense of it all because it is making me feel like I'm going insane.

I understand this but what is he talking about (sadghuru) when he says healing?