As anyone who has had them knows, entheogenic (psychedelic), empatheogenic, or any mystical experiences reveal a deeper plain of existence. It can help you go underneath your everyday fear, judgment, and defensiveness to reveal your lovable and loving core. The return from these mystical experiences can be jarring. Was it simply a fun or interesting experience? Or can I integrate this deep, inarticulate, and ineffable insight (“in-sight”) into this surface reality?

What do I do now that I’ve seen holy ground?

Psychedelics create an opening for transformation, but are not transformation

“Having spiritual experiences is the not the same thing as living life spiritually. The important thing is not altered states, but altered traits of behavior. Does it change your life? Even the Buddha continued to sit. While drugs appear to be able to induce religious experiences, it is less evident that they can produce religious lives. Unless the experience is joined to discipline, it will come to naught.” - Huston Smith

Have you ever wanted to bring something back from a psychedelic experience and live it in this material world? Transformation does not happen automatically. Neal Goldsmith wrote that “psychedelics are not cognitive development—or enlightenment—in a pill. Psychedelics can trigger insight, but behavior change takes time, and in this culture, such realignment is often harder to sustain than we acknowledge.” How can you bring forth the depth of truth you discovered and embody it in your daily life? Simply clinging to oceanic experiences will hinder spiritual progress quite as much as clinging to anything else.

After a psychedelic experience there is a tremendous possibility of learning and change. The neuroplasticity that happens in a journey to let go of old stories and relearn healthier ones. But the opening is not the same as the path. To produce change, you still have to take the path.

The work begins after the journey ends

Origin stories determine how we organize our lives. The explicit ones that matter, it’s the hidden and unconscious ones that control us. Psychedelics can “interrupt” stories about yourself and the world. After a psychedelic experience there is a tremendous possibility of learning and change. The work of transformation is here, discovering our poor assumptions and untruths and creating a different point of departure. Neuroplasticity is the opening to interpret old stories and relearn. But afterwards, we still have to write a new script for ourselves. And then live it out.

Spiritual direction can help you bring deeper meaning to your mystical experiences. It may give you the courage to make decisions based on those inner truths. It may give you the commitment and accountability to align your actions and live differently.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you; if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” - The Gospel of Thomas

If you would like to integrate your psychedelic experiences into your life, I recommend an initial three spiritual direction sessions, one month apart. As you will see, the meaning of your journey will change over time as you slowly come back into the default world. After that, you may decide to continue with spiritual direction to continue updating beliefs and habits and committing to the actions you want to see in yourself.

That, not the trip, is the work of transformation.

For more information:

I am part of Ligare, an organization integrating Christianity and other existing religious traditions with sacred plants and compounds.