PREPARATION

                                           Preparation 

The preparation concerns work the client has to do, work the facilitator/coach/therapist has to do, and work they have to do together.

Work for the client:

The preparation work has a physical, mental and spiritual component.

The main aspects of the physical and mental preparation are: cleansing and relaxing. For the spiritual preparation: focusing on the spiritual dimension.

Work for the facilitator/coach/therapist:

• To gather ample biographical information about the client:

individual post-natal: from early childhood to present life circumstances; peri-natal; ancestors; the information has to render for the facilitator/coach/therapist a clear picture who the client is as a person;

• To gather ample information about the history of the psychopathology of the client;
• Based on the biographical material and the psychopathology the facilitator/coach/therapist is able to formulate a hypothesis about the issues the client is struggling with, how the resolution could look like, and his/her spiritual quest, in case this exists;

• To inform / teach the client how to cleanse his/her body and mind, how to relax, and how to focus on spirit;
• Psycho-education related to the journey itself: information about the substance, possible effects, duration, and all other practical aspects. 

Work for both the facilitator/coach/therapist and client together:

• To discuss the hypothesis the facilitator/coach/therapist has extracted from the biography and psychopathology and to come to a consensus;
• Based on the achieved consensus, work out the INTENTION for the JOURNEY.

The PREPARATION phase can start 3 days or 3 months before the journey.

Work for the CLIENT

1) Physical preparation

It consists on one side of cleaning the body, on

the other side of learning to relax the body.

Cleaning:

– diet, perhaps fasting

– use of certain herbs

– certain physical exercises

– breathing exercises

– and more, depending on the specific needs of

the participant

Learning to relax the body:

– learning to recognise tensions in the body, and how to release them

– Hatha Yoga

– relaxation exercises

– breathing exercises

– and more, depending on the specific needs of

the participant

2) Mental preparation

Cleansing the mind:

– be truthful, be honest with yourself, be humble,

be grateful;

– pay attention to dreams, write them down

– if memories surface, pay attention, write them

down

– pay attention to synchronicity

Quieting the mind

– relaxation exercises for the mind: mindfulness, meditation, breathing as anchor for the mind

– learning more anchors for turbulent moments in

the psychedelic journey

– and more, depending on the specific needs of

the participant

3) Spiritual preparation

For whomever has a spiritual quest, practice,

affiliation:

–   work out the spiritual biography

–   strengthen the spiritual connection

• meditation
• read sacred texts
• pray: prayer opens the channel for grace

Physical & mental & spiritual preparation – open, free energetic channels for healing

Work for the FACILITATOR/COACH/THERAPIST

It is important that the facilitator/coach/therapist has a wide range of knowledge about different systems of reference concerning the body, mind and spirit, not as an eclectic exotic collection of data but as a coherent congruent whole, with an overarching or underlying, depending on the angle, concept about what unifies all of them.

• Wide range of reference about somatic, psychological and spiritual models concerning both psychopathology and health, Western and non-Western: contextual childhood good enough/deprived development, separation/individuation, trauma’s and traumatisation, epigenetic transmission of trans-generational traumas, ancestral glories and losses, peri-natal aspects – the basic matrices, COEX, previous lives influences; multiple bodies: physical, energetic, mental, spiritual; healing modalities, including salutogenesis (Aaron Antonovsky) and positive psychology (Martin Seligman) a.s.o.

• Practical tools: multiple, corresponding to the different theoretical models

• The facilitator/coach/therapist has to be open, flexible, empathic, knowledgeable, and familiar with psychedelic substances from own experience

Distilling the intention

The intention is of crucial importance, as it is the aim for undertaking the journey into an expanded state of consciousness, the compass for navigating the ocean of the expanded consciousness, the anchor during turbulent stretches, and the criterion to assess if the aim of the journey has been accomplished.

To help participants to crystallise their intention is

a science and an art.

The intention is fine tuned to the deepest layer which the client can reach in his/her present state of consciousness development in concert with the most profound understanding which the facilitator/coach/therapist can reach about the need for healing / transformation of the client.

The intention is obtained from recognising in the noisy biographical and present life data, with its apparent randomness, incongruence, absurdity, implausibility, the main themes in the client’s life.

Underneath the noise is music. This music the facilitator/coach/therapist should be able to hear, and make the client recognise it.

Life has, in spite of appearing sometimes as a “tale full of noise and fury told by an idiot” (William Faulkner) a concealed coherence, conferred by red threads running through it, informing choices and decisions.

These red threads have to be identified and find a concise expression in the INTENTION.

As already stated above, the intention is the aim at the start of the journey, the compass during the journey, the anchor when the journey looks perilous, and the criterion to assess after the journey the degree to which the aim has been achieved.

A well formulated intention comprises one or more main themes running through the life of the client, his/her present predicament, what needs to be changed/transformed, what changed/transformed during the journey, and what the task of integration is after the journey.

Thus the intention is the fulcrum uniting past, present and future. It confers past, present and future coherence, wholeness.

INTENTION carries in it a VISION, which will later be the focus for INTEGRATION.

There is an arch from the biography to the intention, from the intention to the journey, from the journey to the integration and from the integration to the life from then on.