Why setting intentions ahead of taking psychedelics is important. A practical guide

When choosing to work with psychedelic medicines first decide if you are going to take a spiritual or 3D world question to the medicine. To a certain extent it doesn't matter the direction. The medicine will reveal to you what you need to let go off and continue to do so as to be able to get closer to where or what you want. To this end It's important to have an intension This is the 1st leg of a 4 cornered process. 1st corner: Intension & preperation of mind body & soul. 2nd: the medicine & trip 3rd : intergration 4th: the work I'll go into detail below on each of the corners.

1. Identify the problem you would like to go away or change. It's important to identify 'why' you are sitting with a medicine. Without a 'why' you are in some senses choosing to stay where you are, or too fearful to engage fully. It's important to remove your block. There are ways to call forward your why. I encourage people to go in with a view of getting an answer to a problem that they want to get rid off. Go in with a solid question, test the medicine. This technology is wiser than we'll ever be. Your brain can't play tricks with it. But your brain can play tricks with you. 1.1 Prepare mind body and soul by thinking about the nature of the problem, how long you've been experiencing it, what outcome you would like after the medicine. Begin Cleanng up your diet, stop drinking alcohol, eating meat. Eat less, drink more water and drink some herbal cleansing teas, coconut water. cleanse your colon. In some cultures people even stay away from having sex. Connect with water, meditate while showering/ bathing, drinking. This is also a good time to connect to your 'why' if you don't have one, ask the water to reveal a question, you'd be surprised at the results. 1.2 . Have at least 3 cleansing baths before sitting. A cleansing bath has sea salt / Epsom salts. You can add a little coconut water, any moon water you may have, florida water. Make sure to pour the water over your head aswell. All the time meditate on your intentions or ask the water to direct you to the question.

2. The medicine & trip. The medicine gives insights into a story you hold that does not serve you, it cleanses and clears this data from certain timelines and organs and points at things you need to do, stop doing, ways to see, ways to behave, how to interpret and understand in the 3D world. 3 Intergration. Is a thorough look and examination of what you saw, felt, did and was done to you. What did they mean in relation to the question you went in with. Integration with a sitter, guide or therapist is a great way to thoroughly examine themes, by referring back to the intension you start to understand the work that was done in the medicine realm and what you have to do in the 3D world.

4 The Work. This stage is often missed out because its rather hard. It calls for an active engagement with ones shadow and how we manifest these. The ways in which we hold and do fear, loss, greed, self hate, lack of care, disregard. The work is taking all that we've learned in integration to open the doors of our perception and behaviour and react differently in the 3D world. This takes understanding that the medicine has cleaned and left us stronger and wiser so we have the power to be different. 'the work' is realising that when you are triggered, the cleansing done by the medicine gives you time, insight and power to be different in the moment. You won't always catch yourself in the moment, but you'll get better the more vigilant you are. Slowly slowly you'll release that emotional energy you held prisoner all this time. Here's an example of what I am talking about. I once sat for someone who was anxious about an approaching family occasion because a sibling would undoubtedly end up accusing their parents of all sorts of improprieties, upsetting the mother to tears, the father to anger and my client to the rescue. She'll have to tell off the sibling, even forcing them to leave the family home on occasion. She felt that she could never relax around her family. She felt dred and anger about a childhod marked by having to be always good, as he was bad. Having to be the adult because the sibling behaved like a child. In the trip she learned to let go of so much of the anger and pain from her body. She learned that she was held and was loved by nature and her family. Her special love relationship with nature held her. She saw many instances where her fear of conflict arising brought the conflict forward. How she unwittingly controlled the situation and family dynamic, how wounded her sibling was, how unsympathetic she often was. All this was teased out in the integration. For her 'the work' was to lean further into her work and joy with plants, acknowledge its love and the exchange and bond between them. The harder work was her catching herself and stopping her habitual behaviour that escalated and sometimes caused family upsets. By continually watching, letting go of her fear and stress reactions. The family dynamics began to change and family get togethers could be whatever they turned into. They sometimes went well and sometimes did not, but she used these occasions to exorcise a behaviour pattern that fed her anxiety. She would not always succeed and she would often forget 'the work' this is because these unhelpful energies that we hold prisoner can be illusive They lurk in the shadows, we hold them so tight that we imagine we need a sledge hammer to remove them, but in my experience we need the opposite. It is we that hold these energies prisoner in us. Through observation, with apologies, thanks and love we can release them a little at a time, each triggering situation at a time.