What is Integration when it comes to Ayahuasca?
Integration of Ayahuasca Experiences is different for everyone but, can be described at a high level as integrating the lessons received in ceremony into your practical life. Often this mean changes in lifestyle, jobs, relationships and patterns of thinking.
While these will be different for each person we can, at a high level, describe a set of activities to guide out integration experiences. In this article, I will talk about these areas to focus your efforts on.
What’s the problem?
The basic problem of integration is that the lessons we learn often seem easy in the context with which we have received them. Another way to say this is to say that while we are in the jungle or in ceremony we often think we understand the lessons and will be able to implement them. Upon returning to our normal lives we find that we feel disconnected from these lessons and fail to make any progress with them once back in the ‘real world’.
What’s the solution?
Post Ayahuasca Dieta:
The dieta you did prior to drinking should be followed afterward also. Your shaman can recommend how long for however, it is common to do this for 2–4 weeks afterward.
The DMT in Ayahuasca is still in your system after you drink and maintaining this will ensure that’s its lessons are given time to settle in.
It’s my opinion that the DMT in Ayahuasca is still at work allowing new neural pathways to form based off of your experiences and that you can support these by giving some time for these new patterns to get ‘engrained’. Science is starting to show some evidence for this recently also.
The Spirit of Mother Ayahuasca is still present with you after drinking as well. Actually, for many people she never really leaves as shown by Dr. Rachel Harris’s book ‘Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety’.
Meditation practice:
A daily meditation practice pairs so well with Ayahuasca. In essence, it does a similar version of ‘lowering the egos strength’ and allows us to have a ‘still’ moment in our day and days after drinking Ayahuasca.
In my own meditation practice I find that regular practice allows me to get back to a mental space where I feel connected and often things in my life seem clear and I can make good decisions. As I mentioned meditation is lowering the ego’s strength and this allows us to keep it in check when the real world is causing it to more deeply embed itself.
I would take this a step further and say that you should develop a meditation practice even before drinking Ayahuasca. This will help you get deeper in ceremony but, also aid you afterward in integration. Meditation sometimes takes a few months to get the hang of also so starting sooner rather than later is always a good idea.
A good place to start learning meditation is through an MBSR course which is free and has a supportive community on Facebook.
Spend time in nature:
A daily dose of nature can often make us feel grounded. Depending on your situation this could be packing out a room in your house with many indoor plants to meditate and spend time around or of course this could be simply going to a park to walk around and feel the grass between your toes.
Many people find that they appreciate plants and their ‘different intelligence’ much more after having been to the Amazon and of course Mother Ayahuasca herself is from a plant — being the Ayahuasca Vine. This connection will have more significance for you once you have drunk Ayahuasca.
Find a community:
The experiences on drinking Ayahuasca can be world view changing and as such it may be difficult to discuss these things with the people in your life who have not experienced it (yet hehe).
Finding a community of like minded plant medicine users can help you have access to people who know what you are ‘on about’ when you discuss seeing jaguars and healing of childhood trauma and such:)
Try to find in person contact if you can but, if online is preferable then both Facebook and Reddit and my site are able to connect you to the world of Ayahuasca users.
Take care of your body:
We humans are made up of a mind, a body and a soul. By drinking Ayahuasca we have done a lot for the mind and soul but, don’t neglect the physical body. It is also one of the levels in which we experience the world and needs to be shown respect and maintained also.
Yoga then is a perfect aid to integration from this point of view. On top of that it also contains breath work and meditation practices which can be fit into the one physical practice. It’s as if they knew what they were doing! Hindu culture has been tackling the same problems of existence for thousands and thousands of years. As such it is has very refined practices in this regard.
Book time with an integration specialist or find existing philosophies with answers to common questions with spiritual integration:
Often times there are difficulties in integrating which need an experienced guide to help us process and understand in a helpful way. This helps us from getting stuck when encountering unfamiliar situations and problems.
There are two ways of doing this in my experience, the first is to speak with an integration specialist by booking an appointment. These are mental health professionals who have experience with psychedelic healing and are familiar with the landscape for those integrating Ayahuasca. You can find a list here on the maps website.
My personal favorite is to find spiritual texts from ancient religions like Buddhism and Hiduism and start reading or listening to them either directly or through someone — eg sages and gurus. The world opened up by psychedelics is often similar to the beliefs held in these religions and their texts and lessons can be very helpful in avoiding some common pitfalls.
An example from my own integration is nihilism. This is a common after effect of psychedelics but, in a Hindu world view is made irrelevant with the addition of ideas of reincarnation and karma. These perspectives, in my opinion, neutralize the effects of a nihilistic point of view.
There are many such examples. Hindu culture, in one form or another ranges from between 8000–22,000 years old (depending on who you ask) and as such serves as a much older and more refined approach to similar problems we face in integration.
A good example of this transition in integration is Ram Dass or Richard Alpert who, after using psychedelics including Ayahuasca, for 6 years transitions into Hinduism. Many of his talks can be found on You Tube and can help to connect you to s community also.