Take the Guided Psychedelic Experience
The Road Less Traveled
“Will you commit to yourself?” I asked.
“I’ve never been asked that question before.”
“I know, neither have I. But I’m asking you now. Will you commit to yourself?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep…” came the evasive reply.
That’s when shit got real.
This kind of inquiry during a guided psychedelic experience, opens a conversation that leads to powerful insights into our core commitments–and what we do to avoid being accountable to ourselves.
The gift of working within the experiential field of plant medicine is the depth of honesty that we can access. It’s like a truth serum.
As the conversation becomes more lucid, the level of clarity reached is beyond ordinary. The exchange itself is a moving experience and the benefit goes to everyone–including me as the guide.
The influence of plant medicine works in a way that draws us into a supportive partnership to get to the heart of what has emerged before us. The question of commitment–to ourselves–is a compelling point of entry. The inquiry reveals where we’ve given away our power. It shows us where we’ve been afraid to put our own well being first. We begin to see where we’ve sold ourselves short.
Other important questions come to light: How willing are we to commit to our physical and emotional health? To our spiritual work? To really look at what stands in our way–and what we have stood in our way.
Are you willing to put a stake in the ground and tie yourself to it as a metaphorical commitment to yourself and what you value in life?
Are you willing to not know where such a commitment will take you, what it will ask of you, or what it will cost? To not know is a powerful place from which to look and is often uncomfortable, especially for control freaks (and we’re all control freaks).
Are you willing to trust the way and follow where it takes you? Trust such as this is the road less traveled.
The choices may seem obvious at first glance, but they’re not. We’re invested in what we’ve created and who we’ve become in the process. It might feel risky to even look, because our entire identity is on the line.
The risk is real. We risk who we think we are, what we think we are supposed to do, what we think we will lose, and what others will think of us.
It’s a colossal mind f*ck, if you think about it.
It takes courage to look beyond our carefully constructed persona to see who we really are.
We’re afraid that who we might find underneath the makeup isn’t who we thought we were.
Then what?
Where do you turn? Who do you tell? What do you do?
It’s a challenge to question our self image and its foundation, when the entire edifice of our lives is based on what we believe we’ve made of ourselves. Things can get a little shaky.
It can be unsettling, disorienting…and revelatory, when we begin to unearth the conditioning, examine the myths, and shed light on the contradictions we’ve been given about who we are, who our God is, and what our lives are for.
But we haven’t torn down the house or burned our bridges. We’re just looking, poking around until we touch a live nerve and get a jolt that snaps us awake.
It takes a certain commitment to examine, without flinching, what you’ve created in your life and who you’ve become. To not judge as good or bad, but to see clearly, maybe for the first time. To appreciate who you are, as well as to reevaluate your course.
Oftentimes our “greatest advances we have judged as failures and our deepest retreats we have evaluated as success.” We have to ask who’s doing the judging and evaluating? The ego, perhaps.
The medicine journey is just the beginning.
When we’re deep in I listen with you and for you, like a giant radio antenna. I pick up your signal and mirror back to you what I’ve received. It may be an acknowledgment, a personal reflection, or a really great question–one you’ve needed to ask yourself.
The questions are always your questions–the ones you’ve been asking or haven’t been able to ask. This is where we do our best work together, in a deep and revealing conversation.
The support of an experienced guide on the psychedelic journey is of great value because you’re in uncharted territory and it helps to go in with someone who’s been there. Someone who has traversed the terrain and knows the way–into the woods and back out again.
An integral part of the journey is what I call, “bushwhacking.” There will be plenty of bushwhacking to do to find your way, to know your way. You’ll be the one to do it, but you won’t be alone.
This is just one wave in the course of a single psychedelic experience. And with each wave you visit a different aspect of your life, or a different aspect of yourself.
In a very real sense, you see yourself as like you never have before–your shadow and your light. Don’t take anything too personally; just take a step back and look. What you find may surprise and delight you. There can be refreshing ease in the looking, and an opportunity to see yourself in a new light.
The guided psychedelic experience is all about getting real and seeing where “real” takes us.
If you’re wondering whether such an experience is for you, reach out and let’s talk.
source: https://drtomgarcia.com/psychedelics/experience/guided
Dr Tom Garcia 
Leave a comment