28 Important Questions to Help your Choices Around Plant Medicine
As the wave of psychedelics and plant medicine ceremony is cresting, we are also at a new height of capitalist consumerism, spiritual commodification, and quick fixes. As much as you might be curious about working with psychedelics or plant medicine, it’s important to be aware that many people, particularly westerners, aren’t spiritually savvy enough to ask the questions that will keep them safe as they explore deep spiritual places or peak experiences and here’s why…
These days most of us know to search carefully for a therapist. We know to look at their training and years of experience because if we are going to be vulnerable with them, we want to ensure we are in safe hands. And yet, it’s not the same with plant medicine ceremonies. Many folks are heading into situations out of curiosity and with a Guide who may have sat in the jungle for 3 weeks or done anywhere between 1-100 ceremonies and yet has no training at all in spiritual healing practices or counselling. They have no idea about trauma, mental health, contraindications, and no idea at all about how to deal with heavy or chaotic energies, ancestral curses, or unwelcome spirits that may enter into a space such as a plant medicine ceremony.
Let me preface this next paragraph by saying that the majority of people, like 98% who attend plant medicine ceremony come out way better than when they went in, and their lives have been improved dramatically. In my own experience, I have sat hundreds of times and have received profound healing and transformation. At the same time however, I have also spent 10 years working with the 2% of clients returning from ceremonies where they have had traumatic experiences. Some examples include: being sexually violated by the “shaman”, having old trauma surface and not having skilled support available, being spiritually attacked but intruding energies in the space and the Guide not knowing what to do, where other participants who weren’t screened properly have had psychotic breaks, being in ceremony where other participants have left and hurt themselves, and even where poor guidance from facilitators has led to a participant taking their own life after not being able to integrate multiple ceremonies.
Although I’m excited that some mainstream regulation is happening, that people are being trained so we have more safety, I’m also saddened that psychedelics and plant medicine will become another white capitalist cash-grab and the mystery and spiritual healing, as well as the Indigenous and Ancestral wisdom available will be lost. In the meantime though, people are heading into ceremony in higher numbers than ever, and I felt compelled to share this blog in the hopes that it will empower you to ask questions and make well thought out decisions.
The thing to be mindful of when considering a psychedelic experience or plant medicine ceremony, is that you are going to get vulnerable! You will be letting go of a degree of control, and that could lead to either profound healing or a potential nightmare. If approached well however, plant medicine ceremonies and psychedelic experiences can be life-changing – even if some of them are really difficult! And if you want those experiences to actually bring change into your life, then you are going to have to digest and integrate them effectively and that will require having experienced and grounded support to do so.
Here’s a list of considerations and questions for you to ask both yourself and a potential plant medicine facilitator or psychedelic Guide. I hope this will help to empower you and allow you to question and research psychedelic guides or plant medicine facilitators - those same people with whom you are potentially placing yourself in a vulnerable position.
INTENTION: aka SET/MINDSET:
Your intention and mindset have a profound impact on your experience. Think of your intention as the rudder on your boat and the reference point during your integration phase. When in the experience you may not be aware of the intention, but correlations between your experience and the intention will show up later. It is ideal if your Guide can help you craft your intention and has a process for doing that.
Questions to ask yourself:
What is my reason for going to ceremony?
What is it that I am seeking, yearning for?
What do I want to heal?
I think the teachings of Maria Sabina, a Mazatec Curandera from Oaxaca, Mexico give us wonderful guidance when it comes to setting intention. Maria provided healing ceremonies (Velada) with the Psilocybin mushrooms for her community following in the footsteps of her grandfather and great grandfather. Sadly in 1955, she was duped by Gordon Wassan and his wife who stole spores of her mushrooms in a story of extraction, cultural appropriation, bioprospecting, and colonization. She was always very clear though that we attend the ceremony for healing and not out of curiosity.
“It’s true that Wasson and his friends were the first foreigners who came to our town in search of the Ninos Santos (mushrooms) and that they didn’t take them because they suffered from any illness. Before Wasson nobody took the mushrooms only to find God. They were always taken for the sick to get well. It was difficult for me to explain to them that the vigils weren’t done from the simple desire to find God, but were done with the sole purpose of curing the sicknesses that our people suffer from. But from the moment the foreigners arrived to search for God, the Ninos Santos lost their purity. They lost their force; the foreigners spoiled them.” - Maria Sabina
CEREMONIAL SPACE: aka “SETTING”
As well as your intention (mindset) the ceremonial space or setting has a profound impact on your experience. The container is best when in a quiet, undisturbed place, ideally close to nature, and has been mindfully created as a sacred space. It’s also helpful if your Guide has a relationship with the land spirits there and has received permission from them to work in this way.
Questions to ask yourself and your guide:
What do I need in order to ensure that I am physically comfortable?
Are there accommodations in place for my potential temperature fluctuations and bathroom needs?
Has the space been cleaned and cleared from previous clients or ceremonies?
DETAILS, PREPARATION, AND INTEGRATION
When we are going into a vulnerable situation, it’s perfectly natural that our mind and ego resists and therefore craves control. Having all the details clearly laid out for you will help with any trepidation or resistance that might come up.
Questions to ask yourself and your guide:
How many days/weeks do I need to prepare and what’s involved in that preparation process?
Does the Guide take me through a thorough and holistic health screening and preparation session?
Has my background or trauma been considered and shared?
Is now the best time for this considering I’ve recently been through a big emotional upheaval? Would waiting a few months be a wise choice?
Is this particular medicine right for me?
How much will the experience cost and what forms of payment are expected?
How long will the journey be and are there accommodations in place should it go longer, or I need a longer period to settle and come down afterwards?
When it comes to integration, a good rule of thumb to remember is the 20-80 split! This means that ceremony is 20% of the process and what follows, your integration is the 80%. What’s great about plant medicine ceremony is that it clears the path and restores flow. Being in a ceremony is about allowing and holding space for the Medicine to do the work through you. Afterwards however, as you move forward it’s crucial that you show up and do the integration work as a way of honouring yourself, honouring the Medicine, and most of all avoiding psychedelic bypassing.
Questions for you and your guide:
What am I going home to and should I book some additional time off work?
What’s the process for re-entry and how will you support me?
What is available for me as far as integration goes?
Do I need to find an integration coach or a therapist to work with?
THE MEDICINE:
Not all plant medicines are right for all people. Research the medicines you are thinking about and once you’ve decided, speak to a psychedelic therapist or a reputable Guide and ensure they have checked out all contraindications.
Questions for your guide:
Where is this medicine from?
What’s in it exactly? (Sometimes plant medicine is a mix as plants)
How was it made and how did it travel here?
Is it connected to a Medicine Lineage, which one?
Once you have all this information be sure to do a deep dive and research as much as you can. Just because the Medicine might come from an Indigenous tribe in the Amazon doesn’t mean that it’s safe or OK. Be mindful that your colonized mind and any romanticizing or fetishizing about “shamans in the jungle” doesn’t get in the way. Finally, if the Medicine does come from an Indigenous tribe, find a way to use your privilege and contribute financially to the original keepers of the Medicine.
YOUR POTENTIAL GUIDE-FACILITATOR:
It’s extremely important that you have plenty of information about the person who will be leading the medicine ceremony. Holding space for another is not about “doing” it’s about “being” so it’s important you have a good sense that this person is able to hold the ship steady even if you are all over the map. Although the physical space you are in may be ideal, if the facilitator does not know how to hold a spiritually and energetically safe container, then the whole ceremony can become unsafe. It’s their job to be the grounded roots so that you can let go. The deeper the roots, the deeper and safer your journey.
Bare in mind that in many traditions around the world, a healer apprentices for around 7-8 years minimum. This includes the old religion healers and Druids from the Western Isles and Europe. Someone going to another country for a few weeks and then being “called” to serve the Medicine does not make for a safe person.
Questions to ask your guide:
How long have you been on this path of working with the Medicine plants or psychedelics?
How long were you doing your personal work with the plants before starting to lead ceremony?
If this person has a website and has not acknowledged who their teachers are, then it’s OK and important to ask for details
Who did you do your training with?
How long was the training? What was involved in the training?
Are you now connected to particular lineages?
And an important question, which I have written more about below:
How is your relationship with your teachers today?
Are you financially contributing to reparations for your teachers or Indigenous peoples? (if their teacher is Indigenous)
Some important considerations about choosing a Guide:
It’s important to explore deeper rather than just taking things at face value. Although a website might share the potential Guide’s training, there are some important things to know and consider. For example, sometimes people take a workshop or attend a few circles or ceremonies with a teacher to do their personal work and then decide they would like to be a facilitator and hold ceremony. So, they set up a website and add these workshops as “training” - but it’s not training, it’s personal growth! Don’t get me wrong, their personal growth IS essential and plays just as much of an important role as being a trained Guide, but it’s not training. They have not received specific instruction or practice in how to be a Guide from their teacher, and that’s important to know.
Secondly, relationships in general can be tricky, and not all student-teacher relationships work out well. There can be many reasons for this. Just because you see that a person has taken a workshop or apprenticeship with a teacher doesn’t mean that their teacher might recommend them or that they have their teacher’s permission to have their name on their website, or share certain teachings, rituals, or practices. In fact, sometimes people put their teacher’s name on their website simply to look reputable and leverage their teacher’s reputation. You should be able to call the potential guide’s teacher to get a reference. (Just a side note that if you see my name on a person’s website saying they have trained with me, you have full permission to contact me and ask about them.)
BUILDING YOUR FOUNDATION:
My final thoughts are related to you having spiritual resilience and a foundation so that you can care for yourself energetically, develop your own relationships with Ancestors and guides from the unseen realms, and a deep connection with your intuition. Having these in place will help you to be safe and grounded in your decision-making and not be distracted by shiny objects or slick advertising. A good place to start with plant medicine ceremonies, shamanism, and animism, is learning to journey. Check out Doorways to Animism is my 5-week online foundational program that covers all of these skills as well as an introduction to working in reverence with plant spirit medicine. If after having that foundation, you want to dive deeper and explore plant medicine even further, check out my year long immersion, the Quintessential Revolution Animist Apprenticeship.
In the meantime, stay safe my friends
In sweet connection,
LittleBird