Some Tools & Methods for Entheogen Use into the Future.
As much as one prepares for plant journeys one needs to observe post ceremony social isolation or minimal social contact at least for 2 to 3 days if not a week AFTER a ceremony. This was standard in Mexican traditional Velada ceremonies for good reason-one is open after the experience and can sponge-absorb others or environmental energies shortly afterwards that can be detrimental if they are disturbing energies.
Further to this, people should adopt the use of strengthening and energy fortifying-protection medicines after an entheogen (visionary plant) ceremony for the same reason. These classes of medicines: cleansing opening strengthening and protection are indispensable for a positive healing process in traditional society. See these two papers for more on this:
- Sobiecki, JF. Psychoactive Plant Medicines as Perturbatory Learning Tools in the Initiation Process of South African and Upper Amazonian Traditional Healers. Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs II: 50 Years of Research, Conference Proceedings. In Press. 2018
- Jean-Francois Sobiecki. “New Perspectives on the Therapeutics of Traditional Psychoactive Plant Medicines from Southern African and Upper Amazonia”. EC Pharmacology and Toxicology 4.2 (2017): 38-39
I would encourage that into the future that health authorities promote the employment of psychologists in tandem with ayahuasca or mushroom use as a standard. Plant assisted psychotherapy.
To be healthy as a society we need to address emotional intelligence-we are not taught how to engage or manage negative emotions and are as a result emotionally stunted as a society – with many adults not having healed or knowing how to console their inner child-emotional memory. Inner child acknowledgement methods are crucial for well-being and should be taught at schools.
The intention with medicine is really half the alchemy – if not more. All things are based on relationships and how one engages the other (plant, person, universe etc) will affect the outcome. This is why we pray on medicines; it establishes an intention.
Jean-Francois offers post entheogen integration counselling and strengthening cleansing and fortifying African plant medicine treatments: phytoalchemist@gmail.com
