Playing open mics has even led to paid gig as a solo act—an experience I’d never imagined before starting The Artist’s Way. Two years ago, opportunities like these weren’t even on my horizon.

In the time since I first picked up The Artist’s Way in early 2023, my world has expanded. It’s brought me into creative communities. It’s got me in touch with local scenes that I didn’t know existed—the types of communities I would love to read about but wasn’t really in touch with. It has also deepened what was probably my first love from a young age: music, and put me back into touch with that in a really beautiful way.

Whatever this has been for me over the last two years—process, journey, or something else—it’s not only reconnected me with music in a special way but also deepened my understanding of how creativity, creative endeavors, and communities can truly change lives. They can open up worlds, change our experience of life, and make them more enriching, fulfilling, and connected.

Which brings me to why I’m writing this blog post today—because today we are opening doors to Inspiration Alchemy, an offering that is like a guided community tour through The Artist’s Way. 

Inspiration Alchemy builds on the course’s powerful framework, bringing it into a psychedelic-friendly atmosphere with two core collaborators who are deeply involved in the worlds of creativity and psychedelics—two creative badasses: Daniel Shankin of Tam Integration, someone who I’ve admired for a number of years now, for his work and how he shows up. And Jake Kobrin, a visionary artist and educator who I’ve aware of since we both worked on different Truffles Therapy psychedelic retreats in the Netherlands in 2018, and who’s work I’ve become more acquainted with and impressed by recently.

It feels like a special moment to now be making this offering to help others embark on their own creative journeys and see their own worlds expand.

But I digress. Rather than give you all the details about Inspo Alch, I want this to be a personal blog post to give you an understanding of my own journey.

So I’m going back five years, an unassuming but pivotal moment in my story.

A Jam Session That Changed Things

Sometime in 2019, when I was still residing in Berlin, A few of the guys I played Ultimate Frisbee with every Saturday at Treptower Park invited me to bring my guitar to and play a few songs with them at the Noisey rehearsal rooms. I wasn’t expecting much, just a bit of fun. 

As we played through a few covers—some guilty pleasures like Blink-182 and other pop rock songs—I realized I hadn’t been in a room with a full band for what must have been about 10 years.

As we started playing, something inside of me just came alive. It felt like something expanding, something opening up, something reawakening.

After we left the rooms to roam down the grimy Warschauer Straße, I realized just how much I’d missed simply playing music in a room with other humans.

Between the ages of 13 and 21, through high school and university, I was pretty much always in one band or another. When I left the UK and started country-hopping for the next 8 or so years, though I played a lot of music, I never settled long enough to find those bandmates.

Through that time, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it and how much that experience brought to me. Not only the playing itself, but the experience of being in the moment of a dynamic and loud creative act.

That day at Noisey Rooms brought something back to life that had been dormant.

I never actually played again with those frisbee guys. But the deed had been done, I had been reminded of something.

At the time, I still considered myself a creative person. I was writing regularly and had been through some creative processes. I’d gotten into a good writing habit, and I was able to publish and share regularly from a heart centred and intellectual kind of place.

I’d started a blog, which, after some years, developed into Maps of the Mind, where you read this today. It was a hobby slash side hustle which had grown into something which brought professional opportunities. It was through putting my thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences into form and sharing them with the outside world: that alchemical process of creativity.

But this was a whole different thing. Music touches something else, something special, something that transcends language. That experience in Berlin got me thinking about how I could bring it back into my life more fully. It planted a seed.

Finding Healing and Growth Through Creativity

When COVID hit, personal and professional challenges pushed thoughts of playing or connecting creatively with others to the back seat. But I did start recording in my bedroom. I made my first bedroom demo in years, a sloppy GG Allin cover. More bedroom recordings followed. In 2022, during another wave of COVID, another Ultimate Frisbee musician friend introduced me to Weekly Beats, a 52-week project where people post a new original recording online every week for a year. I published maybe 30 tracks that year.

By late 2022, I’d left Berlin in search of a new direction and returned to England. It felt like the perfect time to start a new course, so I asked my brother to gift me The Artist’s Way for Christmas.

The Artist’s Way is a 12-week creativity course that combines reflective exercises with two core practices: morning pages and artist dates. Morning pages are three daily pages of stream-of-consciousness writing to clear mental clutter, while artist dates are weekly solo excursions to nurture your creative spark. The program’s structure and exercises encourage participants to reconnect with their creative selves and overcome blocks like self-doubt and fear of judgment.

It felt like a good time to dive into a course, and I asked my brother for a copy of The Artist’s Way for Christmas.

The Artist’s Way was a book I’d heard mentioned a few times by people I followed. One of them was Steve Pavlina, a personal blogger whose creativity course I’d done before which had helped me make strides with my writing, blogging, and developing my first online course, The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer.

I was excited to dive in and I started on January 1st 2023.

Week by week, I began making meaningful strides in this area of my life.

Amongst dozens of exercises which are assigned on a weekly basis, there is one where you make an action plan based on your creative dreams, no matter how silly or unrealistic they may seem. 5-year plan, 1-year plan, 6 months, one month, one week, today. And you have to commit to going through with it.

Inevitably, stuff started happening for me, and in something like week 8 I was putting my name down at an open mic and nervously working my way through a Ty Segall cover and an original from lockdown. I was back the next week, and the week after, and when back in Berlin, played there. Now I just see whats going on everywhere I go.

And so, the world of music communities around the world opened up to me, something that’s been such a big part of my life in the time since. I love being in the environment of being around other musicians, playing and watching, with people who I can have great conversations with about music. I love that I can show up to a place in a t-shirt and people sometimes actually know the band on the t-shirt that I’m wearing. It’s so nice to then be able to have that conversation.

Beyond The Music

It wasn’t only music. The book and its exercises helped me confront doubt, self-criticism, and negative self-talk. The inner child work also gave me insight into where those doubting voices came from—early critics in my life, well-meaning or not, whose words had lingered. I realized how those voices of doubt and judgment had been subtly holding me back. They weren’t conscious; they were just part of my being.

It was like meeting with myself again. It helped me see creativity in a new light.

One of the things I noticed was how closely creativity is linked to healing. It’s no surprise to me that The Artist’s Way is used by therapists or why art therapy exists. Creativity isn’t just about making art or writing poems. It’s about understanding ourselves, expressing what words sometimes can’t, processing emotions, and making meaning of experiences. In some ways, it feels like a core human need—maybe even a purpose, like connection or movement.

That’s one of the reasons why I think The Artist’s Way is such a powerful framework. It provides tools not only to reconnect with creativity but to heal parts of ourselves we might not even realize needed tending.

It’s also given me concrete practices that are now part of my life and supportive on a personal well-being level, which, in turn, helps with creativity.

The Practices and Tools That Have Changed Things

The Morning Pages

One of the core practices is the morning pages: three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing. This has become part of my life.

I don’t do it every day and I don’t always do it in the morning, but I won’t go a week without doing it at least once. It doesn’t go far from me. It’s just too useful. 

Writing three pages helps me clear my mental clutter and bring clarity. In many ways, it’s like a psychedelic practice—it helps me connect with what’s important to me, tap into deeper levels of mind, and bring focus and clarity in moments of uncertainty.

Walking

Another simple but big practice that has been integrated more into my life has been walking.

Even something as simple as walking more has been transformative. One week, the course asks you to take a brisk 20-minute walk and observe how it shifts your consciousness. That simple exercise stuck with me. Since then, walking has become a regular part of my routine. In fact, I’m dictating this now while strolling through a park in Hanoi. Walking has been shown to foster well-being and even enhance thinking, as many studies and books highlight.

and that simple exercise stuck with me to the point that I’ve incorporated more walking into my life since. A simple habit that has changed my daily experience of the world in a positive way.

This is one example of these small deliberate acts that can open doors, and give small shifts that add up to larger shifts.

With these small but cumulative insights, the process has overall deepened my understanding of creativity as a force for transformation. It’s connected to well-being, connection, and fulfilment. It’s changed how I approach my days.

The Artist’s Date

Alongside the morning pages, The Artist’s Date is the other core practice; a solo weekly excursion to do something fun that inspires and nurtures our creative consciousness.

This is about allowing ourselves to do fun and enjoyable things for ourselves. No duty or workaholism. They are about having experiences that bring inspiration, awe, and wonder into life. Moments that fuel creativity.

One of my favourite artist dates was going to see Titus Andronicus, a New Jersey rock band on MDMA where I shook a personal hero’s hand. Another was a psychedelic trip where I took time to read through and muse upon The Basic Principles in and expanded and altered state. These experiences are treasures to me. The practice of the Artist’s Date has helped me carve out space for meaningful and exciting moments in my life instead of letting weeks or even months go by without doing anything interesting or creatively inspiring. 

Collaboration and the Birth of Inspiration Alchemy

In the year and a half since I finished The Artist’s Way, I’ve reflected on the changes I’ve experienced so far. Rather than hitting some end point, I’ve realised this is just an ongoing process, much like the process of personal growth and healing. It’s not some endpoint I’m heading for; it’s something that just continues expanding and unfolding. Which to me is much more exciting and interesting. 

Because I’ve experienced what is possible here, the idea of sharing this process, bringing it to the people in the psychedelic communities and supporting them through it, has kept coming up. When I was going through the course, I shared something about it with a psychedelic Signal Group I’m in, and Daniel from Tam, who had done the course himself some years before, dropped a comment like, “Don’t do it without me.”

As someone whose work I admired for years—that sounded like an invitation that I’d be a fool not to try and answer. I reached out to him about it, and he connected the dots with Jake, an incredibly talented who has not only experienced his own transformation through the course firsthand but is an experienced educator who has been guiding groups through The Artist’s Way for years. 

With Daniel’s grounding influence, Jake’s artistic expertise, and the renowned artists on board, I think we’re creating a space where transformation honestly feels inevitable for those who show up.

So I think what we’ve got here is something special that has the potential to be deeply transformative for all who get involved, and in its ripples, the world.

That for me, is the definition of a meaningful project.

As we open registration today, I’m feeling a mix of emotions; excited, optimistic, and hopeful, and grateful to be in a place to invite other people into this journey.

Reconnect with Your Creative Spark Through Inspiration Alchemy

Inspiration Alchemy is your chance to experience the transformative framework of The Artist’s Way in a whole new way. Over 12 weeks, you’ll be guided step by step through the course, enriched by live sessions with guest artists and creators, a vibrant and supportive community, and tools to help you overcome creative blocks and ignite your passion.

This course isn’t just for professional artists or creatives—it’s for anyone looking to bring more inspiration and flexibility into their life. Creativity permeates everything we do, from taking a new route home to cooking up something fresh in the kitchen. If you’re looking to make space for creativity in your life, this course is designed to support you.

The course starts February 10th 2025  and runs for 12 weeks with live sessions every Monday at 8pm EST.

Why Join Now?

Registration opens today, and we’re offering an exclusive Black Friday discount: $400 off through Thanksgiving weekend, plus an extra 10% off with the code MAPS. This is an incredible value for a course packed with inspiration, tools, and community.

Ready to take the leap?
Explore Inspiration Alchemy now

The post From Berlin to Hanoi: How The Artist’s Way Has Changed My Life appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

We need to utilise other methods in our preparation and our integration for these experiences.

Different methods can help set us up for insightful experiences, and then maximise benefits and keep us on a path of learning and growth. There are many, and some popular ones include: mindfulness, yoga, breathwork, and nature immersion.

Another one of the big boys is journaling. 

This is because journaling can help with self-reflection, emotional processing, and integrating insights.

As such, journaling is one of the best things one can do to support their psychedelic-assisted growth. 

So, how does it work? What are the benefits? And how can you get started today?

In this blog post, I will be talking about the benefits of journaling and how they work synergistically with psychedelic processes. Then I will be offering you a few different journaling methods to support your psychedelic-assisted growth. I will also add a few tips on each so that you can start journaling today.

My intention with this blog post is to highlight the benefits of journaling in the hopes that you might be inspired to try it yourself and to give you some concrete examples of things that you can do so you can get started today.

Let’s dive in.

Benefits of Journaling and Psychedelic Processes

Writing pen to paper forces us to slow down. Simply by taking the time to write out our thoughts and feelings, journaling offers us the chance to be aware of what makes up our inner world. We can see things from inside ourselves, quite literally, on the paper in front of us, giving us an increased awareness of them. And with that, we also have an opportunity to reflect on them. 

By allowing us to see what is on our minds and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, journaling might even be considered psychedelic — if we are going by the literal meaning of the word: mind-revealing. 

As such, it is an excellent tool to synergise with our actual psychedelic experiences. 

Journaling can be a way to integrate a more reflective and aware way of being in our days—what we might call a psychedelic way of life. It also helps clear the mind—like mental decluttering—and has been shown to have emotional effects such as reducing anxiety. Both of these effects are also going to be beneficial when we are in the preparation stage of our psychedelic experiences.

After our experiences, journaling can help us in our integration as well. Beyond documenting them, writing about our experiences gives us a chance to further unpack them, dig out insights,  and solidify them. With insights unpacked, we also have an opportunity to make plans and move forward in the integration process.

To summarise, some of the benefits of journaling related to psychedelic use include:

• Promotes self-awareness
• Enhances awareness of thoughts and feelings
• Provides opportunities for reflection
• Aids in clearing the mind and reducing anxiety
• Helps in planning sessions and logistical details
• Assists in documenting experiences and unpacking insights
• Facilitates integration of insights
• Facilitates further reflection and planning for integration

Journaling Methods to Support Psychedelic Processes

Ready to start journaling?

Here are a few different styles of journaling that you can try today.

1. Free Writing (Basic Journaling)

This is the most basic. In the simplest terms; put pen to paper and start writing.

To gain a better understanding of yourself and your emotions, try not to focus only on things that you have done or things that you see, but write about your thoughts and your feelings.

Write about what is on your mind and use that as a starting point to write further reflections and observations.

Write about your feelings. You can write about your feelings in the moment or in different situations or significant moments in your day or life. You can write about any instances where certain feelings were triggered. 

And it is as simple as that. It does not matter if what you write is petty. It does not matter if it seems boring or nothing special. Just the process of writing will help get things out and that process will help you to reflect and introspect.

One way of incorporating this method is the morning pages. The morning pages, as originally described in The Artist’s Way—Julia Cameron’s classic book on creativity— are three full A4 pages of longhand journaling each morning. Again, about anything. Just get pen to paper and write until you fill the pages.

I have found this three full pages method to be an extremely useful practice. If I have something niggling away at me or I feel like I have too many things on my mind, I find that taking time to sit down and write my thoughts out is extremely clarifying, improves my emotional state, and gives me some actionable items to move forward.

Tips for starting a free writing journaling practice: 

• Get a nice pen and journal or pad that feels nice to write with. This will help make the process more enjoyable.
• Keep the journal private so that you know that it is a safe space for you to be able to fully express yourself without fear of judgement or any kind of repercussion from anyone else.
• Remember to write your thoughts and feelings, not just objective facts.
• It can be helpful to ask yourself questions. Think about questions that a coach or therapist would ask you. Or use them to direct them back to your values.

2. Writing Letters

Often, the difficulties or problems we have in our lives come from our relationships. As social creatures who have evolved with the need to successfully socially engage to survive, it is no surprise that relationships can be the source of difficult emotions.

Sometimes in our psychedelic experiences, insights may come to us about our relationships with others. Or it might be the case that our intention for an experience is a relational issue that we are looking to process emotions around and resolve.

Writing letters to other people can be hugely helpful in supporting these processes.

The beauty of the exercise of writing letters to other people is that you have a safe space to express your emotions without necessarily having to send those letters to the people you are writing them to. 

Just the process of writing letters can help us to become more aware of our feelings and offer a lot of therapeutic value. This can be done both in preparation and integration of an experience, depending on where it is most relevant for each person. In both cases, it can again help to process emotions and gain mental clarity. 

Tips for Writing Letters to Others

• It is usually most useful to focus on people you have some difficult emotions around.
• Be completely uncensored. If there is anger, if there is pain, if there is frustration, allow yourself to feel it, and express it in the letter. Remember, you do not need to send it to them. Just let it out, and put it down on paper. 
• If you decide that it would be good to send the letter or message you have written, you might like to make some revisions. Go back once the heat is off and think about your wording and how you would like to communicate. You might consider something like non-violent communication.
• Consider using the following questions as prompts for your letter: What would you really like to say to them? What would you like them to know? If you were going to die next week, what should not be left unsaid?
• If you want to share anything from your letter in person, you can use a bulleted version of your letter for reference.

3. Writing Letters to Self

Writing letters to yourself can also be a very useful exercise.

By somewhat externalising ourselves and seeing ourselves as another person, we can get a different perspective on our problems and a new level of awareness around them.

Often it is hard for us to have perspective on our own problems because we are too close to them. It can be the case that if somebody else were to come to us with our problems  —the exact same ones—we could easily dole out the perfect advice and tell them what to do.

As the quote goes:
“Wisdom is the ability to take your own advice.”

Letters to self can also be a means of exploring your inner dialogue by writing letters to different aspects of yourself—for example, the inner child, the inner critic and your higher self. This way of seeing ourselves as made up of many separate selves or parts, and communicating with them, is fundamentally the same as popular and effective psychological techniques used in parts work and Internal Family Systems. 

Letters can also be written to our past and future selves. This can give you a chance to reflect on your journey and to look forward. 

Tips for Writing Letters To Yourself

• When writing a letter to your present self, try imagining it is a good friend. Consider: What do they (you) need to hear right now? What advice, encouragement or support would you offer to someone in your situation at this moment? 
• If writing a letter to your future self, express your hopes, dreams and intentions.
• When writing to different parts of yourself, such as your inner critic, consider making the letter a dialogue. Ask the part what it wants and write responses from it. 

Trip Reports

Writing trip reports is, I would argue, an essential aspect of integrating psychedelic experiences. I would not say that everyone needs to do it, but I will say that most people would likely benefit from doing it.

Firstly, trip reports are great for documenting your experiences and your journey over time. Beyond that, the process of writing them offers a chance to revisit and remember the experience, refresh the memory, and consolidate it further, along with any insights and lessons. 

Writing reports also offers a chance for further emotional processing. It is not uncommon that I will be brought back to tears when I am re-listening to the playlist and writing up my report.

Tips for Writing Trip Reports

• Start with basic objective details: setting, dosage, people present, time of the session, etc. 
• Write an open-ended report about your subjective experiences. Write about thoughts, feelings and perceptions.
• Allow yourself the freedom to further reflect and riff on anything that comes up.
• If you listened to music during your experience, try listening to the same music again when you are writing your report. It can be extremely effective in taking you back to the experience.

Final Notes and Tips

I hope this gives you some ideas and concrete examples of ways that you use journaling. However, it is not always easy to get started. Common barriers to journaling include perfectionism, self-censorship, or lack of time. To combat these, I will finish with some final tips:

• Allow your journaling to be imperfect. Allow it to be rubbish.
• You do not need to read your entries back. Remember that by putting pen to paper, you are doing it. The process itself will be helpful. 
• Allow yourself freedom of expression. When you are writing, do not think about sharing your deepest feelings or forbidden thoughts with anyone else. Keep your journal a free space where you can say absolutely anything
• Start small. Try to find the time in your daily, weekly, or monthly routine when you can do it. 

Final Thoughts

Journaling can increase self-awareness, improve emotional states, and facilitate introspection and reflection. For these reasons, it can be a great synergistic practice to pair with intentional and growth-oriented psychedelic exploration.

I have found journaling to be one of the most transformational and supportive practices to use alongside psychedelics, helping to bring about more valuable and beneficial experiences and also aiding in their integration. 

I hope this post has inspired you to try journaling and given you some useful prompts to get started today.

Stay safe. Keep journaling.

The post 4 Journaling Methods to Boost Beneficial Psychedelic Processes appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

“When you get the message, hang up the phone.”

He was not referring to literal phones, but the use of psychedelics as a tool for spiritual exploration. 

Watts went on:

“For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope; he goes away and works on what he has seen”.

Watts’s point was that although psychedelic drugs can be a helpful way to open up the mind and experience new ways of thinking, they should not be used as a crutch or a substitute for true spiritual growth. Once you have learned something from the drug experience, it is important to be able to let go of the drug and integrate the insights into your everyday life.

Watt’ phrase is commonly quoted in conversations about the frequency of psychedelic use, and generally means ‘don’t trip too often’. Put the phone down, and focus on the message you’ve received.

Overuse of psychedelics is possible. It is possible to become psychologically addicted, use psychedelics as an escape, to spiritual bypass, and otherwise harm oneself from overuse. It can be good to consider taking a break, and Sam Woolfe wrote an excellent article exploring this topic: When Should You Take a Break From Psychedelics?

But on the other side of the coin, when is it a good time to pick up the phone again?

In this article, I’ll be exploring when you might consider tripping again. I’ll look at some factors we can consider to make an informed and conscious choice about when, and how you might do that. I’ll look at the integration of previous experiences, refresher journeys, lower doses, growth through discomfort, and honestly looking at our motivations.

My intention with this article is to offer an alternative viewpoint, not encourage you or anyone to take psychedelics. I hope to keep the conversation around psychedelics broad, as I believe a multitude of perspectives helps us to arrive at a more balanced perspective. 

Please don’t ever be pressured into taking psychedelics, and proceed with care and caution.

With that said, let’s dive in…

Integration of Past Experiences

The first thing to consider is your integration, or lack thereof, of any previous experiences.

Integration is a bridge that connects insights gleaned from your past encounters with your present self. It’s a process of assimilating, digesting, and applying wisdom gained during your inner voyages.

If you imagine integration as the process of tending to a garden. Just as you wouldn’t plant new seeds without nurturing the existing blooms, it’s best to nurture your psychedelic insights before inviting new ones.

Properly integrating past experiences is key. Don’t rush to pick up the phone again until you’ve processed your previous experiences and made efforts to integrate them. Try to resolve any significant things which have come up, or at least make some significant progress on them.

If there is a theme that keeps coming up during your psychedelic journeys, and you don’t seem to be making any progress on it, then it should be an indicator that continually picking up the phone isn’t helping with this. You might want to change your strategy for how to integrate this. 

Consider seeking further education, support, a coach, or some type of accountability, on this.

For example, if you keep getting insights into the importance of your physical health, yet fail to integrate and make relevant changes to your diet or go for your intended regular runs, then you might make further efforts before journeying again. You might try something new; signing up for a class instead of doing solo workouts, trying meal prep plans, asking for help from a friend, or hiring a coach.

If, however, between psychedelic sessions, you notice progress, and each one helps to further cement the learnings and offer new insights, then it’s a sign that the continued sessions are supporting you in your growth.

Some of our most profound experiences can take a lifetime to fully integrate, but that doesn’t mean we must wait a whole lifetime to re-engage with psychedelics.

Even if you haven’t 100% integrated a previous experience, have you made progress with any learnings or lessons? Then you may well be ready to embark on another journey.

Refresher Journeys: Rekindling Fading Wisdom

Just as the embers of fire require a gentle nudge to reignite their brilliance, sometimes the insights from your past journeys can benefit from a refresher journey.

This is where the concept of refresher journeys comes into play. 

Life moves pretty fast, and any wisdom gained from your psychedelic experiences can fade surprisingly, and sometimes disappointingly, quickly.

A refresher journey can help you touch base again. It’s like rekindling the fading embers of insight.

You can think of these journeys as revisiting a cherished book—one that you’ve read before, but each time you pick it up, you uncover new layers of meaning. Similarly, by reconnecting with the psychedelic experience, you rekindle the wisdom that may have faded into the background of everyday life.

Refresher journeys, or revisits to the psychedelic realm, can be a way of deepening your understanding. They can breathe new life into insights that may have grown faint.

I often receive useful reminders, bringing me back to old lessons that are helpful to remember: the importance of relationships, my family, following my heart, and living with honesty and integrity. They pull me back to my centre, and my values, and help me to relocate my North Star. It’s a continual process.

If you choose to embark on a journey again, you can honour the progress you’ve made while still allowing yourself the chance to touch upon old truths and delve deeper into the realms of consciousness.

The act of revisiting is not necessarily a step backwards. It can be a step forward and a reawakening of the insights that have the power to help light your path forward.

Lower Doses: Gentle Reconnection with Insight

When we talk about revisiting psychedelic experiences, it’s also important to remember that experiences can vary widely, and a key consideration is dose. 

Picking up the phone again need not be a high-dose affair. A refresher journey, or a revisit to psychedelic realms, might be on a lower dose. 

Lower doses can act as gentle reminders, guiding you to revisit the realms you’ve previously explored. 

Some people think that ‘bigger is better’ when it comes to psychedelic dosages. But dialling back the dosage isn’t necessarily a downgrade. Sometimes it’s a strategic move. Using lower doses to reconnect with past insights is a gentle nudge rather than a full-on conversation.

Lower doses can also help to continue processing higher dose journeys, and ‘finish thought processes’ – as one friend put it – that began in recent experiences.

It can be like a dialogue with your own wisdom, a conversation that echoes the lessons you’ve learned while inviting you to deepen your understanding. By choosing a lower dose, you’re not stepping away from the journey; you’re opening yourself to other ways of engaging with psychedelics.

You may also wish to try different styles of sessions, seeing if the experience has something different to offer you when you change your activity and setting.

For instance, mini doses can become your companions during activities that typically wouldn’t involve altered states—running, journaling, nature walks. These micro-experiences can infuse ordinary moments with extraordinary insights.

Also, if you’ve become fearful of psychedelic experiences, perhaps due to a difficult experience or otherwise, lower doses can help to reconnect to psychedelic realms with a greater feeling of safety.

This can help to re-establish trust and build a healthier relationship with psychedelics. This can be a good stepping point if you’d still like to explore higher doses of psychedelics again in the future.

Growth Occurs Outside The Comfort Zone

It’s common to hear that you shouldn’t journey with psychedelics when you’re not feeling good.

It is common to hear messages of caution and restraint, and for good reason. 

On the other side of this, there is an alternative viewpoint. A perspective that encourages you to consider journeying when you might be feeling resistance to it.

Consider this our deepest growth often stems from confronting the shadows we’d rather keep hidden.

Those uncomfortable truths or emotions, the ones we tend to run from, often hold the key to healing and transformation. When you dare to venture into territories that cause unease, you embark on a journey of self-discovery. These are moments that can catalyze monumental personal growth.

Uncomfortable truths serve as mirrors reflecting back the shadows of ourselves we’ve yet to acknowledge. They guide us to areas of our psyche that require attention, care, and understanding. By journeying into these shadows, we not only learn about ourselves, but we also embrace a path of healing and self-evolution. It’s a process of peeling back layers, revealing the raw core of who you are, and giving yourself the chance to rebuild stronger and wiser.

It can be more comfortable to avoid psychedelic journeys when there is something uncomfortable lurking in our unconscious. Yet, consider that growth comes from confronting them.

Sometimes tackling a problem head-on, even if it’s more challenging in the short term, can yield greater long-term benefits. Just as an uncomfortable conversation can lead to resolution, facing your hesitations around psychedelics may unearth insights that transform your life.

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek”
– Joseph Campbell

Now am I saying that if you’re scared to journey, then you should do it?
Absolutely not.

I am saying it is wise to look at your resistance…

Look at Your Why: Confronting Fear with Honesty

Fear can be a powerful deterrent. It can also be overblown. It’s easy to let apprehension drive decisions, steering you away from the unknown territory of the psychedelic experience. But what if your fear is a smokescreen, an avoidance mechanism keeping you from confronting deeper, unresolved issues?

If you are feeling resistance, consider why.

Is it because you genuinely think you could be doing yourself some harm? That you don’t have a sufficiently safe setting?
Or is it because you are afraid to face something uncomfortable about yourself?

Do you know that it will actually serve you, but you’re avoiding it because you know there might be a few bumps on the road? 

Being honest with yourself is essential in this process.

When it comes to examining your reasons for avoiding a trip, take a close look.

Is any reluctance stemming from a genuine awareness that you wouldn’t benefit, or is it your own resistance to confronting your reality?

Asking these questions, as well as considering the other points in this article, can help bring about clarity on whether it is a good idea to plan a session, or if you’re better off waiting a while.

Final Thoughts

Of course, deciding to take psychedelics again is a complex topic. There are no simple criteria to judge when you should or shouldn’t. 

When you think about when you might want to pick up the phone again, take into careful consideration your approach and your why.

Take a look at your integration of previous experiences, consider if you’d benefit from a refresher on your wisdom, and what dose would be appropriate. Look at your reasons why, or why not, and consider if they serve and benefit you. And of course, consider that you may well still need a break from psychedelics.

Stay safe, journey well.

The post When Should You Pick Up The Phone Again? Factors to Consider the Right Moment for Reengaging Psychedelic Exploration appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

When it comes to integration—the part of the psychedelic process after our experience where we try to consolidate any perceived benefits—remembering our psychedelic experiences can be a crucial part of the puzzle. Remembering helps us to reconnect to the experience and make it a part of our being. It helps to reconnect us with insights, impressions and important truths we may have encountered.

In this blog post, I will explore remembering as a part of integration. I will look at the benefits of remembering, its role in processing, and how it can help reconnect us to our experience more deeply. I will also look at a few different methods for remembering and recalling the experience so that by the end of the article you will already be able to begin this practice.

My intention with this post is to highlight the importance of remembrance and recall in the psychedelic integration process, and to give you ideas and tools on how to do this so that you may maximise the benefits from your experiences.

Let’s dive in.

Reconnecting with the Experience

When we remember an experience, psychedelic or otherwise, we reconnect with the thoughts, feelings and perceptions that arose during that experience. This is true whether remembering is through spontaneous or active recall.

In the context of psychedelic integration, this is relevant when we consider psychedelic integration as being able to carry over some of the wisdom and insight from our psychedelic experiences into our day-to-day lives outside of the experience.

Deep personal truths can become crystal clear to us in the psychedelic state. And those realisations about what is true and deep and important to us are not things we want to forget easily. Most likely, we want to hold onto them and carry them with us as we re-enter our normal lives. The act of remembering is a way to bring parts of them back into our psyche and our being.

Processing Experiences

Reconnecting with aspects of the experience through remembering can also help with processing. This can be especially important and helpful when we have had very dense psychedelic experiences that have contained huge amounts of content and information. Experiences may have had a high amount of emotional arousal or even crept over into being overwhelming. Those experiences, if left unprocessed, can result in other problems if they continue to exist unresolved in our psyches. Unresolved issues can lead to a manifestation of problems in other areas; mentally, behaviourally and physically.

By being with our memories in a state of remembering or recalling, we can touch the experience again and allow further opportunities for processing.

When experiences are fully processed, there is less ambiguity and more clarity around them. This is where we want to be when moving into action with our integration: beyond processing and ready to move into the deliberate and active part of the integration process.

Keeping The Experience Alive

There is a saying that says the moment someone dies is not when their heart stops beating or their body physically ceases to exist, but that it is the last time anyone ever thought of them. As long as people keep thinking of a person, some part of them is kept alive.

This is relevant in the context of psychedelic integration because, for deeply meaningful experiences, we want to keep them alive. Even though an experience may have finished, it can be seen to continue to live on in spirit, if it continues to influence us through our memory of it. 

Although our psychedelic experience may have ended and the pharmacological effects have worn off, we can keep it alive by recalling it, revisiting it, and remembering it. This helps to keep the experience as part of our being—rather than some thrilling experience we once had and then forgot about and that had no meaningful influence on the rest of our lives.

If there is some truth that has been revealed to us, some knowledge that has been transferred—some revelation or realization—we want to remember that and we want it to inform how we live. When we are living in full alignment with that, then in terms of psychedelic integration, we can consider that a success.

Integration Begins Immediately

This remembering process can begin even before a session is finished. It can begin after the peak, on the end of the downslide, when you are into calmer waters. Here you may already begin recalling and reflecting about what has happened at the peak of the experience. In what is often a calm, quiet, and meditative state, this is a good time to stay with your experience and begin integration by processing and reflecting on the content of the experience.

In this regard, the integration process can be seen as starting as soon as somebody begins coming down from their peak. At this time, it is highly important to stay with the experience as best as possible, and not be in a rush to leave psychedelic states or for the session to end. This means not rushing to go back to mundane things, but staying with yourself and the waves of experience that are still coming. Allowing whatever you have experienced to fully sink in. By allowing it to sink in, it can more easily become part of our mind and our being.

Methods of Remembering and Recall

There are many different ways of remembering and recalling to aid psychedelic integration. Here I will share a few.

Recalling Through The Senses Meditation

One means of aiding recall is a type of guided visualization exercise. This works by systematically going through each of the five senses, and recalling what you can. 

If you have an experience that you would like to remember, psychedelic or not, you can practice this now as you read. Begin by taking a breath and calming your mind. Then, move through the five senses.

Sight

Remember what you saw; the environment, things in the room, people that you were with, any visions or visuals that you may have experienced. These might have occurred in dreamlike psychedelic states, deep recesses of the mind, or the depths of inner or outer space.

Smell

Remember what you smelt. Were there any scents or smells in the space? Can you recall the smell of the mushrooms or the ayahuasca brew? Call all smells back to mind. 

Taste

Are there any tastes you remember? This is not usually a prominent source of memories, but maybe you can recall the taste of the mushrooms or the ayahuasca brew. Recall any tastes that you can.

Touch

Remember what you touched. Was there something that you were lying on? Were there any materials around? Recall as many details as you can and hold them in your mind.

Sound

Remember what you heard. Bring to mind any music that was playing and hear it in your head. Were there any sounds from nature or the environment around you?

When you have gone through the five senses, some of the experience should be back with you and you can move on to a final step.

Feelings 

Finally, can you remember how you felt? What were the most prominent emotions?

Sit with any emotions that come up and allow them to go wherever they may go. Allow them to enter into your being, and notice how you feel physically—the somatic sensation in your body.

This is an important step because meaning is usually accompanied by some kind of emotional content. Emotions can be a doorway through which we reconnect to key moments.

Expressing the Experience Creatively

Expressing the experience creatively via art or music can also be a great way to reconnect with it. A simple way can just be doing doodles with pen and paper. You may bust out some colours or crayons, or you might try a poem. Whatever method, just try to somehow capture and express some essence of your experience.

Revisiting Recordings

Another method of triggering recall is by revisiting any recordings that were made during the session. This can include audio recordings, photos and videos. Listening or watching back can work wonders to reconnect with the version of you that was having that experience. Preparing necessary recording equipment in advance can be useful for these means. 

More simply, you might revisit any notes that you have made with a pen and paper. Reading back over these notes can be a very simple and effective way to reconnect with the experience.

The Role of Journaling

Journaling can be an especially effective and impactful way to integrate an experience.

As part of many of the groundbreaking psilocybin studies done at Johns Hopkins, participants were required to write up a trip report in the form of an open-ended narrative. They were required to do this the same day of their experience, in the evening, and to bring it for discussion the next day. After learning about this and trying it myself, I was surprised by how beneficial it was and made this an unmissable part of my integration process. I do not write it on the same day but always schedule it for the day after.

The process of journaling about an experience after it has happened is helpful because it can help to unpack dense or content-rich experiences. In the act of journaling, we may find little nooks, crannies and crevices of the experience that we had completely forgotten about. This unpacking of the experience can help to facilitate and deepen any understandings that may have arisen. It is generally good practice to capture the experience whilst it is still fresh, either that evening or the day after.

Recreating The Context

Another thing to consider when it comes to memory recall is context-dependent memory. Context-dependent memory refers to the phenomenon whereby it is easier to recall memories when the context of the original experience is replicated somewhat.

In terms of psychedelic experiences, this could include, for example, parts of the setting. This might be done by listening to the same music or revisiting smells. It could also be the clothes you wear or how the space is decorated.

If you had any type of pre-session ritual, you might also revisit that. If you went for a run and meditated before, then to re-create that you might go for a run and meditate, and then simply smell some mushrooms. In some cases, you might even take a low dose to help connect with the psychedelic state and any associated insights.

If you are proactive in setting up your experience for easier recall, you might prepare a specific incense or blend of essential oils to be smelled during the experience. You will then be able to use them to help trigger memories in the future. 

Proactive Integration

Remember to Remember

We know the truth and the insights; we have learned something profound. Remembering to remember can be the tricky bit. Sometimes we just forget to remember our lessons.

Proactive ways to help retain a memory include scheduling periodic sessions to revisit or reflect upon an experience. This could be, for example, one month later, or on a monthly or yearly interval. You might create routines or rituals to support this. This could be a moment of recall at the end of a daily meditation session, or spending a day out in nature once a year, potentially assisted by a mini dose. It can be useful to put these events in calendars or set reminders so that we remember to remember. This type of proactive integration can be hugely valuable in maintaining a connection with a psychedelic experience and its insights over time.

Visual Reminders

Another way of supporting memory is by having associated visual reminders in your environment. For example, if you made a piece of artwork or drew a mandala based on your experience, you might hang it up somewhere in your home where you will see it often. It could also be an item that you find in nature which represents the experience in some way, or a house plant or a piece of art that was prominent or significant during the experience. 

You Can Not Remember Everything

After a deeply impactful or meaningful experience, it can be natural to want to remember every last detail. In reality, that is unrealistic. Although it is helpful to make an effort to remember the experience, it is important to accept that some aspects of it may be lost. Realistically, you are not going to be able to remember the entirety of the experience in perfect detail for the rest of your life. 

Accept that some details may be lost over time and that that is okay. That said, if you are actively recalling and revisiting meaningful experiences, fewer details will be lost, recall will be better, and this will reinforce the integration of those experiences. 

Final Thoughts

“Remember, remember” is not just for the 5th of November. It goes for our psychedelic experiences too.

Remembering can help to facilitate the processing of dense or overwhelming experiences and maintain a connection with the transformative aspects of a psychedelic experience over time. It can help to integrate profound insights and perspectives into daily life and it can allow for a deeper reflection on any lessons gained.

I invite you to try recalling your experience after your next psychedelic session. Try taking some time, even if it is just a couple of hours, to write up a report of your experience the day after. See for yourself what comes of it and if or how it deepens your process. If you already have an experience you would like to recall, try it today!

Do you practice remembering important experiences? Which of the techniques do you find most effective for recall and integration? Is there anything you read here that you would like to try? Leave your comments below. We look forward to hearing from you.

Stay safe, remember well.

The post The Power of Remembering: Enhancing Psychedelic Integration appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

Some psychonauts even have some level of pride around taking big doses. And while I certainly appreciate the benefits of a high-dose session, they are not the be-all and end-all of psychedelics.

Micro, mini and low doses-tiny to small amounts of psychedelics-can also bring a lot of value and benefit to our lives. It’s an area of psychedelics I’ve come to appreciate more over the last couple of years as I’ve expanded my repertoire beyond classic high-dose journeys.

Whilst high doses plunge us into deep journeys where it’s best to just lay back and take the ride, mini doses offer us the chance to explore activities and have other types of experiences.

Whether it’s psilocybin shrooms or LSD, in this mode, psychedelics can act as an enhancer, enriching and deepening our experience of other activities.

What type of activities? I’m glad you asked.

In this blog post, I will offer 6 types of activities that you may like to try with microdoses or mini-doses. We’ll look at nature connections, creative experiments, mindfulness, physical activities, learning, and social experiments. I’ll dive into each and offer you some ideas to help you get started. Then I’ll end with a couple of key considerations for your explorations.

And yes, I’ve tried them all!

As ever, I hope that this will help you to have more fruitful and beneficial psychedelic experiences.

Let’s get started…

1. Nature Connection

Time in nature has been shown to have many benefits on mental and emotional well-being. Adding a pinch of psychedelic to nature time is a classic combination for good reason: the benefits and enjoyment can be increased with a small dose.

The expanded awareness from a small dose can help us tune in more fully to our natural surroundings and deepen our appreciation of them. Connecting with fresh air and greenery can be rejuvenating and restorative. And something about nature can help us tune into the majesty of the natural world, the wonder of the universe, and the mystery of life. That sense of awe can be a key catalyst in positive psychedelic experiences.

The grandness and scale of nature can also help us to get a perspective on things. And, if we’re struggling with something about ourselves, in its unwavering presence, we can always rely on nature to fully accept us as we are.

You might explore parks, nature trails, national parks, or botanical gardens. If you’re heading out for the day, be sure to take the basic necessary precautions.

2. Creative Experiments

Engaging in creative endeavours or experiments can be an enjoyable activity whilst in a different state of awareness.

If you’re painting or working with crayons, you might have a deeper appreciation or joy at seeing how the colors fall onto the page, or how they mix together. I have loved seeing the ink spill from a pen and onto paper, seeing the lines appear before my eyes, like magic, to form an image.

If you’re a musician, you might like to experiment with your instrument.

Lower doses can be great for ideation, too. You might have new perspectives and insights bubbling up for your creative work. If you have a topic or project you’d like to expand your thinking or ideas on, take a pad and paper, and invite in any and all ideas. I’d recommend not to put a limit in this ideation stage: don’t judge your ideas, or put limits on them with voices like ‘that’s unrealistic’. Just allow your mind to explore.

You might try brainstorming under these loose topics:

Way to improve your social life/finances/health
Ideas for your next – song/poem/performance/drawing/piece of art/birthday gift

Your level of dose will affect the level of your ability to use specific tools, so take this into account. If writing is hard, you might dictate or speak directly to ChatGPT and ask it to summarize your thoughts for you.

If using paints or colours, just remember to take care of your setting so you don’t make too much of a mess.

3. Mindfulness Meditation

Why not combine psychedelics with another consciousness-expanding technology? I’m talking about meditation or breathwork.

A mini-dose can help us start at a slightly more expanded state to begin our meditation and may help to experience something deeper in our sit.

One study done in Switzerland, and documented in the great film Descending The Mountain, had long-term meditators take a dose of psilocybin and meditate in their monastery in the mountains. Their rates for peak experience were higher than in any other study! Though this study was done with high doses, I think it illustrates the potential of combining psychedelics with meditation.

Lower doses can also help us go deeper into other meditative practices like loving-kindness, tonglen, RAIN, or self-inquiry.

Breathwork can be used to intensify an experience, and has the added safety measure that you stop doing it if it’s getting too intense for you, and allow your experience to calm down again.

Take into account that it may be difficult to retain your focus whilst on a dose, so don’t be hard on yourself if you find it extremely hard and your mind keeps walking off.

4. Physical Activities

Of course, this comes with the usual caveat of being careful. But some physical activity with psychedelics can be a wonderful combo.

Yoga, much like meditation, is traditionally a spiritual discipline that can be paired with psychedelics. I once went to a yoga class on a mini-dose of LSD and it was a truly beautiful experience. I was incredibly present throughout the class with a great awareness of all my movements and breath. Even a few sun salutations can help to ground and become present.

You might also try tai chi. The wonderful flowing movements can help to loosen up, move energy, and find a greater sense of ease and peace. They can also help to tune into our bodies and breathing and enter a greater state of presence.

Depending on the person and the dose, psychedelics can also bring about increased levels of energy. Last year, I got quite into mini-dose runs. I take the dose and after 30-60 minutes, when I feel that surge of energy as it’s coming on, I lace up, put my headphones on, and head out. I’ve done 10-mile runs on LSD, feeling very present with running movements and flow of my breath. After a post-run bath and a lie-down, I’ve felt blissful in my body.

A mini-dose can increase awareness of the body and breath, and this can be utilized when considering any physical activity. Just remember that more complex movements may bring their own set of coordination challenges!

5. Learning and Study

Beyond using our bodies, what about our minds?

Reading philosophical or thought-provoking literature can be a great exercise on mild journeys. When exploring intellectual ideas, we may get new perspectives, a deeper understanding, or an enhanced contemplation of them. We may be open to a wider range of interpretations, seeing many ways to read the words. We might consider meanings on different levels; macro-micro, global-local, and societal-personal.

You might not read a whole treatise on ethics or society but just start with some great quotes. You can find some from your favourite philosophers or schools of thought. For example, the Buddha, Kierkegaard, or any intellectual you like.

You can also revisit some of your old favourite quotes. Reading and saying them out loud in an altered state of consciousness can help them enter your psyche more deeply.

Another way of taking in intellectual information is listening to podcasts. I sometimes like to combine a few of the ideas from this article and go for a long walk in a park with a good podcast. Podcasts you may enjoy could be around any topic. They could be dharma talks or interviews with spiritual teachers, conversations on creativity, personal growth, or any topic you’d like to explore more deeply.

6. Social Interaction

As humans, we are social creatures. Social interactions then, can also be worthy of experimentation.

Micro and mini-doses can help us to feel more connected to the people around us. This deepened connection can then act as something of a bridge to other people’s islands, enhancing our perspective-taking abilities, and helping us to see things from their vantage point.

You might try engaging in meaningful conversations with friends or loved ones. Conversations can become more than words. With the right dose and setting, they can even evolve into what feels more like a dance of souls, words penetrating a deeper level of interaction.

The psychedelic effects can help to heighten empathy and understanding during interactions. It can help to tune into and speak from the heart. This can help to deepen understanding and acceptance, and ultimately strengthen relationships and deepen bonds.

If you feel like trying something different and your company is into it, you might also try role-playing. You can play out imagined scenarios of certain interactions that one of you is nervous about, like a job interview or a difficult conversation that needs to be had. You might even try taking on the role of the person who will be opposite to you, to get insight into their headspace. I’ve done this a few times with a friend, and it’s been an enlightening (and fun!) experience every time.

Remember that when doing exploring social interactions on psychedelics, finding your own personalized and appropriate dose is important. As for some people, certain low doses may make them feel more agitated or irritated. Clearly, this won’t help to have an empathetic conversation!

If exploring this option in a one-sided format – with one person on a psychedelic and the other not – I’d suggest not doing it on the sly, but letting the other person know that you are on a psychedelic! That can help to keep a space open for understanding if the conversation becomes more challenging than anticipated, and the allowance of stepping away and taking a break.

With this in mind, it’s important to remember to be mindful of people’s boundaries and allow space when needed. Having a quiet room, or some agreements around the session can be helpful to create a safe space.

Considerations for Micro and Low-Dose Experiments

When considering your adventures in small doses, remember the importance of a safe and comfortable setting for you and any company you may have. This will vary for different people, so be honest with yourself and your company about what you are comfortable with and capable of. Some people may feel fine in public parks, for example, whereas others may find this setting to be uncomfortable. Some people may find talking to be easy, whereas others may find it very challenging.

If at home, create a conducive space for your experience. Try to create a clean environment and have any supplies you may need ready, like pens, colours, or instruments,

After your experiences, taking some time to reflect on them can be useful. You can highlight for yourself any key lessons or insights and make a plan to incorporate them into your daily life moving forward.

Final Thoughts

Exploring the realm of micro and mini doses of psychedelics can truly enrich our lives. Compared to higher doses, these smaller amounts have their own unique benefits. When used in this mode, they can enhance and enrich our experiences.

They can take our ordinary activities to new heights, deepening the connection we feel and intensifying the overall experience. They can help deepen our appreciation of nature, increase mindfulness, improve our relationships, and enhance our efforts to learn, create, and be present in our bodies.

Working with lower doses can also help to develop a healthy relationship with psychedelics, building the confidence to work with progressively higher doses – if that’s something you wish to explore.

Overall, I think it’s good to balance micro, mini, and larger doses. Working with psychedelics at the levels and in a rhythm that best suits you. If exploring psychedelics at the lower levels, then why not consider combining your dose with one of these activities?

If you already dose in this range, what are your favourite activities to explore with psychedelics? How do you spend those lightly bathed experiences? Did I miss something? Let me know.

Wishing you safe and wonderful experiences!

The post 6 Activities to Try on Micro to Low Doses of Psychedelics appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

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Combining LSD (enhanced creativity and imaginal powers) and MDMA (radical love and emotional safety) to heal complex trauma (#cPTSD) ft. Ideal Parent Figure Protocol

Understanding Complex Trauma: More Than Just Events

You know how we have these negative incident traumas that cause us to develop fear-based emotional learnings?

These events are tangible and specific, making them relatively straightforward to process and resolve. But then there’s complex trauma. It’s not about a single big incident or even a few big incidents, but rather the accumulation of a series of incidents over many years. 

Often, it’s not even about something that happened, but things that did not happen, like emotional neglect. Something like your mother not being attuned to your needs or not getting enough physical touch/affection in your early years or your father not being as present. Such psychological malnourishment stunts our development in many tangible and intangible ways, and since none of us had perfect parenting, we are all affected by these issues of lack, to varying degrees.

Ideal Parent Figure Protocol: Tapping Into Innate Reservoirs of Love

Before I delve into my candyflipping experience, let me introduce the Ideal Parent Figure (IPF) protocol which unexpectedly shaped my experience in a beautiful way.

This protocol involves imagining an ideal set of parents that are perfectly suited for you — deeply attuned, present, caring, affectionate, etc.

The Ideal Parent Figure protocol is more than just an exercise in imagination; it can be a beautiful journey into the depths of our own innate capacity for love. This practice enables us to tap into our existing, perhaps untapped, reservoirs of love and affection. 

By envisioning the perfect parental figures, we don’t just create a fantasy; we awaken and mobilize the deep-seated love and nurturing instincts that reside within us. Through this process, we can channel this awakened love towards the parts of us that have long yearned for it — the neglected, the unseen, the unacknowledged. It’s like directing a healing stream of compassion and understanding to the corners of our psyche that were left barren in our formative years. This internal flow of love helps in filling the voids left by what we lacked and forming a new, healthy internal working model of secure attachment. 

Candyflipping: Magical Synergies

In my personal healing journey, I’ve been delving into the potential of altered states to facilitate the healing of complex trauma.

Particularly intriguing to me is the exploration of synergistic combinations of substances or modalities that might work in harmony to unlock deeper healing. Having processed the explicit, more accessible memories of hurt, I recognize that the journey is far from complete. There are subtle rigidities and tensions that linger in my being, manifesting not just physically but also in my relationships. These subtleties hint at unresolved, deeper aspects of trauma, possibly rooted in the implicit and non-verbal realms of the psyche.

Consequently, I turned to a combination of LSD and MDMA, a pairing often referred to as ‘candyflipping.’ This combination is reputed to be safe and synergistic, potentially offering a unique therapeutic landscape. I could imagine the magic of combining LSD’s boundless creativity with MDMA’s heart-opening warmth for an exercise like the Ideal Parent Figure (IPF) protocol. It felt like having the perfect tools at my fingertips for some serious emotional alchemy.

Trip Report: Nourishing Emotional Landscapes

I went into my session without any specific intentions or plans. I started with 100ug of LSD, intending to take 150mg of MDMA after two hours to align their peaks. The initial part of my LSD trip felt random and chaotic. But when MDMA entered my system, the chaos subsided, and the experience became grounded and centered, like a deeply attuned teacher calming a rowdy classroom with love and gentleness.

My mind spontaneously initiated the Ideal Parent Figure process. I started reliving my childhood, intuitively filling up the holes in the parenting I received. It almost felt like it was happening to me, not something I was consciously doing. LSD opened up my mind’s creative floodgates, making the imagined ideal parents in the IPF exercise come alive in vivid, almost tangible detail. It was like painting with an expanded palette of emotional and imaginative colors. Then, enter MDMA, the perfect dance partner for LSD in this journey. MDMA really turned up the volume on feelings of love. It’s like it opened a door in my heart to let in big, warm waves of unconditional love that just kept flowing. More importantly, it allowed me to attune to the needs of my neglected parts and then be with them in ways they needed someone to be. 

For me, the dominant feeling during the trip was that of security and stability. I felt radically safe, protected, and seen, which led to a lot of somatic release. As I felt safer, I could relax and let go of body tension I didn’t even know I had. The imaginal work wasn’t just a mental exercise; it was actively transforming my emotional and physical responses. It was as if each release was a physical manifestation of a psychological burden being lifted, a sign that the parts of me that had been holding onto these tensions, perhaps as a response to past traumas or unmet needs, were now able to let go. This process was not just about imagining a safer, more loving environment but actually experiencing it in a way that my body recognized and responded to. It reflected the profound interconnectedness of mind and body, and how imaginal work can bridge the two to facilitate deep healing.

Elaborating on the Ideal Parent Figure Protocol

I believe having role models of what healthy parenting looks like is valuable in the Ideal Parent Figure (IPF) protocol. For me, books, stories, and movies were invaluable resources in this quest. These mediums often present diverse portrayals of parental figures, offering a rich array of examples of loving, supportive, and nurturing parents. As you explore these stories, you may find certain portrayals of mothers or fathers that resonate deeply with you, almost as if they’re filling in the gaps left by your own experiences.

Moreover, engaging with these stories does more than just provide examples; it also helps you develop a heightened sensitivity to your own needs. As you empathize with characters and their relationships, you begin to better understand your own emotional landscape. You start to identify what kind of support, affection, and guidance you needed but didn’t receive. This understanding is key in the IPF protocol, as it guides you in imagining ideal parents who can meet these specific, previously unmet needs.

I find it important to clarify that the Ideal Parent Figure (IPF) protocol isn’t about replacing, competing with, or correcting your actual parents. It’s a thoughtful imaginal exercise that also helps you develop a deeper empathy for your real parents, understanding their limitations and strengths. The experience not only allowed me to experience ideal parenting but also helped me connect more deeply with my actual parents, especially my father. It gave me a deeper understanding of our relationship. I could also allow myself to feel and cherish the gifts and love I have inherited from him.

In a way, the IPF protocol serves as a bridge to access the love you did experience from your parents and others in your life, even if it was imperfect or sporadic. And then redirecting that love, focusing that energy in a more attuned and intentional way towards parts of yourself that missed out on it.

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Find more from Theo at his website Untangling Self or on Twitter.

The post Combining LSD & MDMA: Candyflipping to Heal Complex Trauma appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

Many people will tell you that it can. And not only that, but that it has already changed theirs.

Most people who know me know that I typically expound the benefits of larger doses, but I always like an experiment, and if that experiment includes psychedelics, even better. So I thought I’d give it a fresh go, and I recently finished a month of microdosing psilocybin.

In this post, I’m going to share a report of my experience. I’ll also share my protocol, how I incorporated it into my routine, and overall what I experienced during the month, including positives and negatives.

Let’s dive in.

My Motivation and Previous Microdosing Experience

Honestly, I didn’t have a specific intention for the microdosing month. The experiment came about because I wanted to incorporate taking Lion’s Mane mushrooms into my routine (a mushroom touted for a whole host of health benefits). Lion’s mane are regularly taken with psilocybin as part of the now fairly well known ‘Stamets Stack’. So I thought ‘why not give it a go’?

I’ve done microdosing experiments before with LSD to positive results. I’ve also experimented before with micro and low doses of psilocybin, but never consistently or on any kind of regimen.

As the results of microdosing are subtle, it’s hard to pinpoint what’s working exactly. And so far, there is no solid science that tells us that microdosing is more than a placebo.

That said, there is a whole, whole lot of anecdotal evidence that reports on the positives.

The best way to find out if something works for you is to try it yourself.

So, that’s what I did.

My Protocol

Here’s a high-level look at how I conducted the microdosing experiment. I’ll go into more detail on each below.

• 5 days on, 2 days off
• Taken in the mornings with mushroom coffee (including lion’s mane, chaga, and cordyceps)
• Part of my morning routine
• Kept a log

5 days on, 2 days off

I dosed Monday – Friday and took weekends off. This is the pattern of famed mycologist Paul Stamets’ microdosing protocol I mentioned before. The main difference is that I didn’t take niacin, where Stamets’ recommends this. I typically work Mon-Fri so this fit in with my working schedule.

Served With Morning Mushroom Coffee

I incorporated my microdosing into my morning routine. Y’all know I love a good morning routine.

My morning routine for this period was:
– 3-5km run
– Shower
– 10 minutes Box Breathing
– Smoothie
– Microdose Mushroom Coffee whilst reading
– Start work

I would weigh out my dried and ground mushroom dose the night before and put it in a mug with a teaspoon of mushroom coffee. I’d cover the mug and leave it on my sideboard so it would be waiting for me the next day.

I used Mushies mushroom coffee. On weekends when I wasn’t microdosing psilocybin, I still took lion’s mane by way of their capsules and extract tincture.

Keeping a Log

I kept a log during the period. Y’all also know I like to keep drug logs.

I made a makeshift table in my bullet journal with columns for:

• Day and date
• Dose
• Strain
• Time taken
• Notes on the experience (with timestamps where relevant).

Notes on the experience included anything that seemed notable, and if nothing, just a few words about how I felt the day went. This included things like ‘good mood’, ‘productive day’, ‘tingling sensations’ etc. I included timestamps where they seemed relevant, like ‘tingling sensations’, so I could see how long after taking the dose I felt them.

Days 1-4: Finding The Dose

I generally have a higher-than-average tolerance for psilocybin, so I started with a decent dose of 0.3 grams of JMF psilocybin mushrooms.

I planned my first microdose day on a day when I had flexibility regarding my work schedule, just in case it was a bit high.

It was a good idea. I felt a slight tingling even before I had finished my coffee and thought ‘hmmm’. I then noticed the floor moving on a bathroom break not long after.

I knew that I’d taken more than a microdose and wouldn’t get much of the work I’d planned done, so I got comfortable, lay down, and put some music on my headphones. I did find it annoying as I had work I wanted to do, but there was nothing for it.

It wasn’t a real trip (basically level 1.5), so nothing major to report on. I just lay there listening to music. It was light enough that once it worn off, I was able to work in the afternoon.

The next day I scaled right down to 0.03g. I didn’t want to have to skip work again! It was a productive day.

On the third day I went up to 0.04g and reached a threshold experience. I was surprised that I could feel something from so low a dose, but it was unmistakable.  I could feel tingling sensations through my body, a slight sense of discomfort, and I needed to pee more often (which I’d experienced on threshold doses of LSD).

On day four I went down to 0.03g and had a good day, so I settled on this for the rest of the month.

My Experience

Positives: Good mood, positive, productive, focused

Overall, I had a good month. Most days I have notes which read ‘good mood’, ‘productive’, ‘positive’ and ‘good focus’, or some combination of those words.

To sum it up I would say I experienced good focus, good mood, general feeling of being upbeat and positive, and forward flowing with motion.

Microdosing by its very nature is very subtle, so it’s hard to say if I would’ve felt like this anyway, but regardless, those are the results. In general, I’d say these are typical of my days, but maybe not quite as noticeably. A friend of mine says he notices his microdose days more towards the end of the day when he reflects back and thinks ‘that was a good day’. So it could be something like that.

This fits in with a lot of the anecdotal reports and the general gist of Ayelet Waldman’s microdosing memoir: ‘A Really Good Day’, if not as radical.

On a smaller note, I also found it easier to make good decisions on a small level, such as making healthy food choices when shopping in the supermarket. That connecting-to-the-big-picture psychedelic effect.

Negatives: Anxiety

I did experience some unwelcome anxiety on two of the days.

One was on a travel day at the end of the month when my train was delayed multiple times as I was heading to the airport. I got fidgety and worried I might miss my flight.

Whilst this is understandable, I would say that I don’t usually feel this level of anxiety in this situation. I would guess that without any dose, I would’ve been more composed. This time, I did some box breathing via a guided audio on my phone which helped cool me down, if only a little.

There was another morning when I read an email that a payment processor was closing my account because of the nature of my business. I don’t normally go into my inbox in the mornings but I needed to get something out of there and the email caught my attention.

As I already had money sitting in that processor’s account, I found this stressful and worrying as I wasn’t sure if this would cause complications with getting said money out. It derailed my morning a bit and put me a bit out of whack.

Again, this would normally be stressful but I think the microdose intensified this. I was actually sweating! I’m not uber cool but I don’t think that would be my reaction on a normal day. It was only a few hundred bucks, not a huge sum.

Aside from my first days when finding my dose, these were my only two negative experiences in the month.

Final Thoughts

My conclusion from this month is that microdoses of psilocybin can intensify my present mood.

If I’m focused and positive, more so. If I’m anxious or worried, more so.

This fits in with psychedelics’ effect of state amplification, though I do find it surprising this happened on so low of a dose. It might have been due to a build-up of subtle effects over the month.

Overall it was a positive month. Even if it was nothing I would personally call groundbreaking, I have continued to microdose on carefully selected days in the meantime.

I would like to add that people experience microdosing very differently. A lot of people report that it lowers anxiety, or helps with depression. Or any other host of effects. This is just one man’s report.

If you’re curious, I would say, try it for yourself!

–

If you’re looking for a good source of mushrooms, I can recommend Mushies. I really enjoy their mushroom coffee!
Use code MAPS for 10% off!

The post One Month Microdosing Psilocybin: My Report appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

Meet Kristi, a member of The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer.

The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer is my flagship program for using psychedelics for healing, insight, and growth. In it we go step-by-step with preparing for, setting up, navigating, and integrating meaningful psychedelic experiences. I’m reopening The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer for new members next month!

If you’ve been looking on and are curious to join, here’s a transcript of a conversation I had with Kristi, a member who joined in the last opening, earlier this year. Kristi shares her experience of the program, how she went from frustration to transformation, and how she is passing on what she’s learned to people shes facilitating for. Read on to find out how you can unlock the power of psychedelics for your own journey…

–

John: Where were you before the course versus where you are now?

Kristi:  I was frustrated, before the course. I had done several ayahuasca retreats and had been doing my own journeys with psilocybin and I wasn’t getting the journey that I wanted.

I saw all these other things happening [with others] and I knew the potential for the psychedelics and the medicine. And so I started Googling and looking for information about how to get there, how to create or make this journey happen. Or how to deepen it. And I came across your course the night before it started. And just signed up. It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for: a complete guide to journeys.

I went through the course. I had my journey planned for right when the course ended. And I went through everything that we went through in the course, step by step. It was basically a road map to get to where I wanted to go. And the journey that I had right after that was 180-degree difference. It was night and day from my previous journeys. I visited past trauma, I had forgiveness, experienced love and beauty. It was amazing! 

I dropped right in and used all the tools and everything you taught us in the course and had a really deep and insightful and valuable journey, that I’d been looking for, through all of these experiences, and finally, I had reached it. And it was all because I did everything you taught us and everything we learned.

J: Amazing. It’s so wonderful to hear. And great work. I’ve said it to people before, but, I mean, like you said, you did everything. Not everyone does.

K: I mean, I really wanted that experience. It was very important to me to go deeper and get there. And I did everything from the clearing to meditating to our inner resources, self-care, and just, yeah, all of the things.  And it all came together.

J: That’s amazing to hear. I don’t know. It seems weird to say, but like, congratulations…!

K: Thank you. *laughs* Pat on the back.

J: I  shared with you about it before, but I know. Also, it’s just really great when you’re like searching, searching, searching. I’ve had that also. I mean, like coming out of experiences. Like, it’s just really kind of disappointing, and then it’s great when it lands. When it comes through.

K: Yeah. I was like, “Finally. Oh, my, oh, my God. Finally. This is what it’s like.” Cause I would see and hear people having all these experiences and I’m like, “This is beautiful.” And I like what I’m seeing, but I’m not getting anywhere. I’m not growing.

I’ve had a couple journeys since then and they’ve been great. The last one I did recently, it took me a little longer to get into it. I just kept thinking, ‘Remember your training. Remember your training,’ and then I just tried to relax and breathe, and then I was like, I got there.

J: Amazing. You’re on a great path.

K: Yeah. It feels much different for sure. Like my journeys before,  and now. it feels different. I feel like I’m just learning so much otherwise, searching for more information on psychedelics and really trying to expand my knowledge with everything, integration, and all of that. So the course for sure kind of kickstarted that, to where I now feel like I’m learning about psychedelics in general, about journeys, and then continuing myself.

J: Amazing. Is there a place you’re hoping to get to or at the moment or you’re just, like, devouring information? And curious?

K: Yeah I mean, even before I took the course, I kind of just fell into facilitating. I had a friend who wanted to journey, and so, I was like, “I’ll sit for you.” And he’s like, “Okay”. And then he had a really profound experience and started sending people. So I’m kind of in this, doing it for myself but also to help with my facilitation and help other people. Well, this has actually come into play with my facilitating. I’m using these tools and everything we learned in the course, passing them on to the people I’m sitting for. And it’s really helping. I can see the difference.

J: That’s amazing. I didn’t realize you’d already started facilitating. It’s almost like in tandem with your process. You’re meant to do it apparently.

K: It’s been a really cool process for sure. And just something I fell into, but it was something that I had been wanting to do, and so it’s all just kind of coming together. Very synchronous.  That’s been really great. They’re also passing on some of the techniques and things.

J: What was or has been your biggest win from taking the course?

K: I would say obviously knowing that, like all of this, everything I learned, works. I have seen it. I have experienced it. I have seen the change and the results. And that was my biggest motivation and the biggest takeaway as well. But also just being in the course, it’s such a safe space. You can ask whatever you want, you can say whatever you want. Share your experiences and you’re with a group of like-minded people who are all doing the same thing, searching for the same thing. Everybody might be in different areas with their experience, but everybody’s coming together to learn and everybody has their own insights and wisdom and experience to kind of help you along with learning. And that was something I really enjoyed, was just talking to people in the class and seeing where they are, what helped them, what they’re doing. And that was really valuable. Even still, it goes on. I mean, people are in the signal group all the time, asking questions and getting feedback, sharing trip reports.

And I know, especially even when I went on my journey, I had sent a message that I was going into it and I got so much support and love and just affirmation about it. I took it with me on my journey. It was really, really special.

J: It’s beautiful to hear. And I think almost everyone says chatting to the people or having some other people is a favorite part. Yeah. And also you’re contributing in the signal group. Like I asked you if you if I could share your wisdom in my newsletter.

J: What was your favorite part of the program?

K: I really enjoyed the group calls and the additional things you brought in, like the music experience and the mini-class we had on that. And the guests, with Sam (Gandy) like all of those played a part and I really enjoyed them. But yeah, overall, the group calls I think were my favorite. To talk to people and see where they are and realize I’m not alone.

Just knowing that there are other people who are in the same spot as I am and trying to learn and trying to navigate this, and having that validation of I’m not the only one thinking I’m doing it wrong or trying to get something out of this.

J: We will have more opportunities for that. Some more guests and other experiences. More to come.

J: What would you say to someone who was on the fence about signing up for the course?

K: Oh just do it. If you’ve come across it and you’re thinking about it, you’ve looked for it for some reason. I would say it was 100% worth it. You know, there’s no reason not to, if that’s something you’re searching for. It has been so beneficial not only in my own journeys but with assisting other people’s journeys. I was looking at a lot of other courses and nothing else fit. They were all about integration or coaching or something else. And this was the only one that I found that was exactly what I was looking for. It was how to create your journey and basically a road map of how to do it. Step by step, from preparation to integration and everything in between. It was exactly what I needed and wanted, and I got so much out of it. Invest in yourself! You’re worth it!

J Amazing. I’m really happy to hear that.

K: It was funny. You actually came up in my journey, my last one, and it was just like “John is a genius, John is so smart for creating this.” I was just like, Yes, yes, so smart. But yeah, it was pretty interesting, it came up that way.

J: Oh, wow. That’s s incredible to hear. I don’t know what to say. Very kind of you to say.

K: I think just the way you present the information and you’re so passionate and patient and you just, you let people say what they need to say, no matter how long it is. *Laughs.* Just accept it and answer questions in a very delicate and knowledgeable way.

J: Thank you so much for your kind words. It’s been super enjoyable. I mean, I really enjoyed speaking on the calls and getting to know people. People like you. It’s great. So thank you for joining.

K: Yeah. Yeah, I’m glad I did for sure. Spur of the moment decision but…

J: You know I’m really glad you did. It’s funny because when you said that, I was thinking. It was lucky. I’m really glad you did. I think technically you signed up after the deadline.

K: Oh, did I? I did it at like 11 or midnight my time. So probably past it on your end.

J: Right. Okay. Great that the link was still open. Not that much of a genius – I couldn’t get the link to close at the time it was supposed to.

K: That’s a technical difficulty, but it worked out!

–

Thanks to Kristi for her time and for having this conversation.

The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer opens its doors again next month, September 2023.

If you have any questions about the program, go ahead and email me at [email protected]

Key Program Details

The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer is a step-by-step program that teaches you how to prepare for, set up, and integrate meaningful psychedelic experiences to help you harness personal insights, access healing states, and accelerate your personal growth.

Core Program

• 25+ Pre-recorded video lessons
• Access to a private CPE Signal group
• Workbook, templates, and extra resources

If you join in the next opening you will also be part of a cohort that has the chance to be supported with live calls to work through the program in 6 weeks. This will include:

• 6 Weekly live community calls
• Weekly meditation, journaling and practical planning exercises
• Weekly emails to stay on track

Dates for Live Calls

All calls are at 7pm UK time / 2pm EST / 8pm CET on:

Dates coming very soon!

Live calls for all CPE alumni continue on a monthly basis throughout the year.  This is a chance to ask me any questions you have and connect with the community.

Bonuses

There are a whole bunch of bonuses, including:

• Quarterly workshops in 2024 to learn and connect in community
• Guest masterclasses and experiences on topics like neuroscience, research, setting, and music.
• Living database of music playlists for psilocybin, LSD, MDMA and ketamine (Periodically updated)
• + more

Price

$497

This is the final time I will be offering this program for $497 before the price goes up, so if you’ve been thinking about it, this is a good time to join.

Course Page

The post Transformative Journeys: How Kristi Unlocked Healing and Growth Through The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

MDMA can help bring about a more relaxed, open-hearted space, which is an ideal state, or set, to enter a psilocybin journey.

There are a few members inside our The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer community who have tried this combination and it has been giving pretty good results, so I thought I’d write about it as part of MDMA month on the blog.

In this blog post, I’ll cover the potential benefits of this combination and offer suggestions on dosages and timings, as well as share some experience from members of the community and myself.

Benefits of Combining MDMA and Psilocybin

I first heard about this combination given serious credence in the book Psychedelic Psychotherapy by Coleman. An excellent read, which I highly recommend btw.

Coleman mentions that leading with a dose of MDMA before a psilocybin journey can help ‘soften the entrance’. The general positive atmosphere and reduced fear response that MDMA provides can set the perfect stage for entering a psilocybin experience, where darker material may arise from deep in our psyches. This allows us to be more open to such experiences.

As such, this combination can be helpful for working through traumatic material or engaging in shadow work.

Safety Considerations

Combining MDMA and psilocybin is generally well-tolerated and if you’re not contraindicated for either, the combo is as safe as taking each substance individually. If you’re clear to take both and in general good health, the main thing is to be psychologically prepared as these can be intense and challenging experiences.

It’s advisable to try and sample batches of each substance before embarking on a significant journey. Potency can vary between batches. As always, remember to prepare your setting carefully and cautiously.

As usual, follow standard best practices for MDMA.

Dosages and Recommendations

Prevailing advice online suggests starting with lower doses of each substance because of the synergistic effect of combining.

However, I’d say it depends on your level of experience and your intentions for the session.

For experienced psychonauts going for a psychedelic therapy style session, for example, I think closer to a standard dose of both can be considered. For example, if your standard for MDMA is 120 mg, then 110 mg. Because if you’re taking MDMA, you want it to work its magic.

If you’re new to psychedelics but have experience with MDMA, I would suggest starting with a standard dose of MDMA and a conservative dose of psilocybin, equivalent to the level of experience you’re after (mini/low/medium/high dose), with an option for a psilocybin booster.

If you’ve tried psilocybin but not MDMA, I’d suggest starting with a conservative dose of MDMA, and considering a booster. Then, when you reach a point with the MDMA where you feel ready to dive into more psychedelic waters, then dose the psilocybin.

One final consideration is that whilst you might fast before a psilocybin journey, you might not want to do this before a session with MDMA as it could potentially result in stomach cramping.

Timing Options

There are a few different ways you might time your dosing. Here are a couple you might consider.

1. MDMA ~70 minutes before Psilocybin

The standard recommendation for timing I would offer is the one Coleman offers in Psychedelic Psychotherapy.

This means dosing the MDMA approximately 70 minutes before the psilocybin. This is so that the journeyer can utilise the effects of the MDMA to have a softer entry into the psilocybin experience.

An alternative to this is to dose MDMA first and then, once you are feeling the effects, dose psilocybin. This ensures that you are in the MDMA space for the entirety of the come-up and entry into the psilocybin space.

One thing to note is that the effects of MDMA last a shorter time than psilocybin. (3-5 hours compared to the 4-6 of psilocybin). So this combined with the fact you’re dosing MDMA earlier will mean that the MDMA will wear off before the psilocybin, and the later part of your psilocybin will be without the MDMA.

I think this is fine as typically the most challenging part of the psilocybin experience is the coming up, and the first one to two hours. Typically the most challenging or pressing material to be negotiated will arise here so that’s where the MDMA’s effects will be most appreciated.

However, if you would prefer the MDMA for the whole psilocybin experience, you can take a booster dose of MDMA to extend it. The standard is half the initial dose ~90 minutes after. You might like to pre-weigh that booster dose, have it ready, and set a timer just to make it easier to navigate during the middle of your trip.

However, if you would like them to last the same generation at the same time you can dose the take a booster dose of MDMA at some point. You might like to send you the 

2. MDMA ~20 minutes before psilocybin

Another option, recently suggested by a colleague, is to take MDMA first and then psilocybin about 20 minutes later.

Due to the differences in onset time, both substances’ effects will hit you at once, with both peaks hitting at the same time. 

The come-up will be more intense and I wouldn’t recommend this to novices. However, one upside I have heard from this approach is that there’s less opportunity for you to be stuck in your head. The journey just gets underway and takes you in.

So if you find that you have a tendency to be a bit stuck in your head or find it difficult to when you’re waiting for the effects of substances to kick in, this might be suitable for you. It might also be useful if you find it difficult to let go and fully immerse yourself in the experience. This way is equivalent to jumping into the deep end of the experience. I’d recommend considering a sitter for this option.

Other Timing Options

The other options are then taking both at the same time, or taking the psilocybin first, and then the MDMA later. 

Taking Both Simultaneously

Taking both at the same time means that the psilocybin will likely start slightly before the MDMA, which I don’t really see any point in. One upside, however, is that it’s easy and straightforward. You just take everything and then wait. No synchronizing timings, no clocks needed. As one of my friends calls this no-nonsense approach: ‘JBI’ – ‘Just Bosh It’.

Psilocybin Before MDMA

The final option of course is taking the psilocybin first and then taking the MDMA later. I don’t really have any experience of this myself or from people that I know so I’m not gonna comment on it or recommend it here. 

Experiences from the Community

This approach has been experimented with by a few members of The Conscious Psychedelic Explorer community, as I mentioned before. They have reported that taking MDMA before embarking on the psilocybin experience helps them feel more clear and connected to the heart center.

Here are a few comments:

“I feel the combination really helped me surrender to my experience. I encountered some really hard and traumatic past experiences in my journey and I think the MDMA opened and softened my heart allowing me to resolve these things from a place of forgiveness and not judgment or guilt or shame. […] I noticed my heart rate pick up with the MDMA, and just reminded myself to relax and focus on my breathing.”

“I have tried that combination with good results. MDMA is a gentle way into the shrooms (less turbulence perhaps) and then, you don’t get the rough comedown from MDMA because you are still high on the psilocybin”

“I definitely came in a state of focus, calm and readiness. As for me both substances kicked in together (peak) it was overwhelming but mystical.”

My Experience

This combination is not one I have experimented with much personally. I have found it pleasant on the couple of occasions that I have done it, and they were helpful. I followed the Coleman timing on dosing, which I found to work well and ease the entry as planned.

However, I have had more experience combining MDMA with LSD. Probably the first five or six times I took LSD, they were all combined with MDMA. In my research and preparation for those experiences, I read online that taking MDMA first can be a good idea as it helps to get you into a positive mindset and a positive state, which is a good place to enter the psychedelic journey from. So, in that respect, a lot of the same principles apply. And I have to say, it worked very well. I remember being with friends and getting into a good space with the MDMA first. Then, there would come a point where I felt ready for the LSD, feeling good and prepared, and then we would dive in.

Because of the success of the initial session, that approach actually became my modus operandi for my first year of psychedelic explorations. Those experiences were formative, mind-expanding, and treasured moments. It wasn’t until about a year into my psychedelic explorations that I actually journeyed with LSD alone.

However, I believe those early experiences helped me build a solid relationship with psychedelics, providing positive first encounters and setting the stage well for future experiences. Of course, it was always combined with a good set and setting—I was in safe, private spaces with close friends.

Final Thoughts

I hope this post is helpful, informative, or useful in some way. If you’re considering hippie flipping, then as usual, take good care, factor in your setting, and follow a solid preparation. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Best of luck out there.

The post Combining MDMA and Psilocybin: A Guide to Enhance Your Journey appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

MDMA and live music: Now we’re talking.

Concerts, gigs, shows. Whatever you call them. MDMA can heighten the experience beautifully.

The combo is a popular choice because it goes down so so well.

As the psychedelic revival continues to grow, much talk on the use and application focuses on the idea of using psychedelics in a medical or clinical context. While some argue that psychedelics are only good when used for treatment or healing, I believe in cognitive liberty. 

Citizens should have the freedom to alter their minds as they choose. That includes taking MDMA for enjoyment, fun, therapy, and mental health interventions.

I am a huge believer in using both classic and non-classic psychedelics for healing and therapeutic purposes, and at the same time, going to gigs on drugs has been one of my greatest joys in life.

So I wanted to write a blog post to help others have some amazing and memorable experiences. This post will contain some tips to help you make the most of your experience. Of course, many drugs can be enjoyed with live music, and most of the tips here will apply across the board. I’m just keeping on theme for MDMA month on the blog.

We’ll go in three sections, in chronological order: 1. Pre-show, 2. During, and 3. After.

Let’s ago!

1: Pre-Concert

Before getting into concert specifics, follow these standard MDMA best practices to help ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience.

1.1: Prepare Doses

Save yourself the hassle of fumbling with tiny crystals while you’re out and about. Pre-weigh your doses and have them ready to go in capsules. I generally like to dose before entering the venue if I can so I don’t have to think about any security checks, but in my experience, those are usually pretty lax.

1.2: Create a Basic Schedule

Timing the dose well is key. This prevents the need for redosing, or not being high when the band plays.

To time well, knowing the stage times is crucial.

Reach out to the band on Instagram or Twitter, contact the venue, or arrive early to find out, where stage times might be posted around. Otherwise, you might ask the sound guy or whoever is at the merch stand, as they’re usually wise to this info. If you can’t get this info before, you can make a best guess. Based on doors opening, how many bands are playing and recent gigs at the venue. 

Once you have the stage time, you can work backward to create a basic schedule and plan your time of dose accordingly.

I typically aim to be up and feeling the effects about 15-30 minutes before the band I am there to see steps on stage.

For example, say I’m seeing the Oh Sees, and they’re on at 9:00pm.

I like to dose on a more or less empty stomach, and MDMA takes about 80 minutes to kick in on said empty stomach. So I’d make a basic schedule that looks like this:

5:00 Dinner
7:15 Dose / Leave
8:00 Arrive venue
8:00 Opening band
9:00 Oh Sees

1.3: Essential Packing List

Make sure you have any important items with you. Here’s my standard packing list:

• Wallet
• Keys
• Phone
• Earplugs (I’ll usually use these for opening acts to save my ears)
• Chewing Gum
• Water (note that some venues won’t allow you to take this in)
• Weed vape

Make your own with items you’ll need or want and know where you’re keeping them for the show.

1.4: Scouting the Venue

It can help to get familiar with the venue before the concert.

You might find out if sections are standing, or if seating is unreserved or reserved and choose your ticket type accordingly. This can help avoid the stress of searching for seats while under the influence.

1.5 Cloakroom and Jacket Considerations

To ensure maximum comfort during the concert, consider the cloakroom options. Some venues offer cloakrooms or garderobe where you can store your belongings for a small fee. Some don’t. Again, you might try and find this out before, but if you can’t you’ll need to be prepared for both scenarios. 

If it’s not available or practical, you might wear lightweight clothing and keep your valuables on you.

I’ve just placed my jacket in a corner or on the stage at some shows and picked it up after. If you do this you might take an old jacket so that you won’t be too worried if it disappears (it has happened to me once!).

2: Navigating the Concert Environment

2.1: Scouting the Venue on Arrival

When you arrive, familiarize yourself with the venue. Knowing the layout and key locations will help you feel more at ease and in control of your surroundings, help allow you to fully immerse yourself in the concert experience.

Here’s a few basics:

• Locate the toilets: Knowing their location will save you time and prevent any unnecessary wandering around in search of them. Also good to have this knowledge when MDMA might increase your need to use the facilities.
• Identify water sources: Staying hydrated is obviously important, especially if you’re going to be dancing or sweating. However, sometimes the bar queues are a joke. So you might like to keep a small bottle on you. One trick I use is hydrating from the bathroom taps if they’re accessible and clean. If you’ve been able to bring in an empty water bottle you can top this up there. It can also be nice to splash water over yourself to cool down.
• Explore the outdoor area: Fresh air and a change of scenery can enhance your experience and provide a brief respite from the crowded concert environment. Also can be a good spot to meet up with friends or take a breather between sets.
• Other places: Places to sit down: Good to know in case you need it.

Also good to familiarize yourself with the entrances, exits, and any other noteworthy features or spaces. 

2.2: Empty Your Bladder

I like to do this directly before the band I wanna see cause y’know, I don’t wanna go in the middle of their set.

2.3 Finding Your Spot In The Crowd

If standing, where are you gonna stand for the show?

This is entirely up to you, but if you’re with friends you might like to briefly discuss it before.

Will you attempt to stay together? Will you maybe lose each other in the crowd? Some people like to be closer to the action, some people prefer to be in spots where its less crowded. You may also split up and reconvene later. Some clarity on this can be useful though.

For most gigs I like free reign and then to catch up with friends again after. If you like to be close to the front, one trick I’ve found that works well is to wait until the band starts playing, and then just move forward to the pit. It helps prevent the old sliding past people and then just stopping awkwardly infront of someone.

If you’re close to someone in the crowd who’s bothering you for whatever reason, I’d suggest moving to another spot sooner rather than later.

If you’re in unreserved seating, you might like arrive early and claim your spot.

When choosing or booking seats, you might consider if you’d like to be close to the aisle for easy access and not having to trample and squeeze past people when you wanna get out.

2.4 Placing Your Attention

Where you put your attention can massively change your experience. It’s consciously filtering the intake of your setting.

This might be from watching the band, closing your eyes and tuning in to the sounds of the music, taking a panoramic of the light show, or watching a particular band member. If there is a band member whose energy you’re vibing with, try and get in a spot where you have a good clear view of them. Or just remember to keep your eyes on them.

3 After The Show

3.1: Establishing a Meeting Place

Designate a meeting spot for easy reunions with friends. Make sure it’s a location that everyone can find without difficulty. You might choose somewhere inside or outside the venue.

3.2: Planning Transportation

Don’t leave yourself stranded in an unfamiliar city late at night and high. Figure out your transportation options before, then plan your transportation to the degree that you’d like to., considering timings and availability of options.

3.3: Preparing for After the Concert

If you’re heading home after the concert, have your preferred food, drinks or whatever else you’d like ready and waiting for you. 

Final Thoughts

Some of my favorite and most memorable life experiences have been at concerts, with substances, and in a combination of both. That includes being obliterated in a tornado of Ty Segall’s guitars (2-CB+MDMA), feeling universal love with Sigur Ros (1p-LSD), and rocking out to the Oh Sees (MDMA – yes that example was from last month).

I hope this guide will help you to have some incredible and joyful experiences, too.

Remember basic safety, plan your schedule, pack the essentials, and navigate the concert environment like a pro. With these tips, you’ll be well-prepared to have an awesome time. 

If you have questions, feel free to reach out. I’m here to help you have an amazing concert experience!

Stay safe, and best wishes out there.

The post Practical Tips for Going to Concerts on MDMA appeared first on Maps of the Mind.