Resident agony aunt the Self Help Hipster has some words of wisdom for a reluctant Ayahuasca adventurer.
Dear SHH,
“All my friends have started doing ‘plant medicine’ ayahuasca ceremonies and are encouraging me to try it too. But all my previous experiences with psychedelic drugs have been bad – I get really paranoid and freaked out – and so I’ve decided not to do it. But my friends all say they have got so much out of it and that it’s not like other ‘drugs’ at all. Plus you take it in a totally controlled environment, and are guided by a shaman. Am I missing out? Maybe the fact I’m resisting it so much means I would actually really benefit – or would I just be giving in to peer pressure?”
Dear Fear of Psychedelic Flying,
Being a twenty-something psychology teacher of other twenty-somethings, living in the country (Holland) world-renowned for legal ‘plant-medicine’ (marihuana), I know a thing or two (or twenty) about drugs.
And sweetheart, if an Ayahuasca ceremony induces tripping, spiritually-oriented or not, you’re not going to like it one bit. People who have bad trips on one psychedelic substance often have a similar bad reaction when they try other psychedelics. Different psychedelic drugs may take (only slightly) different roads in terms of neurotransmitters and brain areas, but the induced effect, however intense, is usually the same.
Your friends say the experience is not like other drugs and that may be true. From what I understand it is taken in a controlled environment, with a purposeful intention. But from a neurological perspective it works the same as other drugs. And my philosophy when it comes to drug-like experiences and potentially freaking out on them? Just Say No.
Plus, what I get from your brief description is not resistance to spiritual awakening. This sounds like knowing what you should and should not do in order to get in touch with your inner self. And there’s no reason that what works for your friends is also going to work for you.
I’d recommend trusting your intuition and finding your own way. But peer pressure is real, and hard to overcome. In a now-famous experiment by Solomon Asch, a subject/participant got together with a group of people (all actors) to answer some easy questions about the length of different lines on a page. When the group he was in unanimously choice an obviously wrong answer, the participant went along with the rest in 75% of all cases, assuming they must have got it wrong and that the group was right.
The trap here is that you assume that they (your friends) are right and you must be seeing it wrong, but when it comes to this highly individual psychedelic experience, I think you know the right answer for you.
You can find spiritual growth in so many different activities, you know. Of course there are shamans, chakra clearing sessions and energetic healing, but with awareness there is also insight to be found in simple stuff like journaling, meditation, yoga, juice fasting, or even spending a day out of town without Wi-Fi.
Sending love on your freak-out free spiritual travels,
SHH
www.theselfhelphipster.com
@selfhelphipster
