Psychedelics have been used as sacramental tools for transcendental healing for thousands of years. For many in the Western world, the idea of psychedelics as a medicine for healing sounds contrary to the dangerous hallucinogenic drugs we were warned about. But, evidence shows us that psychedelics have tremendous healing potential.
You might be surprised to find that transcendental healing via psychedelics is more accessible than you think. That being said, there are certain considerations to make for someone wanting to use psychedelics for transcendental healing. We’ll take a look at what exactly transcendental healing is as well as 7 tips to thoughtfully and safely use psychedelics as an integral part of your journey.
What Exactly is Transcendental Healing?
If healing is a benefit you want to unlock with psychedelics, perhaps the best place to start is by thinking about what transcendental healing actually is. According to the dictionary, transcendental refers to:
“things that lie beyond the practical experience of ordinary people, and cannot be discovered or understood by ordinary reasoning.”
So, for someone seeking transcendental healing, they’re not going to be looking for a certain pharmaceutical drug to correct a chemical imbalance in the brain, but would rather access a spiritual realm or presence—something beyond comprehension—that’s going to contribute to potential health benefits.
Whereas modern medicine focuses on alleviating symptoms, transcendental healing focuses on the root causes of the issues. It’s a more holistic approach that links physical and mental health to spiritual wellness.
Traditional medicine works on the conscious mind, and the focus is usually to take deliberate action to fix a specific condition or ailment. For example, someone might take their morning dose of SSRIs (antidepressants) to balance the chemicals in the brain and thus reduce the symptoms of depression. Then they may take additional medication to deal with the antidepressant side effects, such as sleep aids for insomnia or constipation medication.
Alternatively, transcendental healing focuses both on the conscious and the subconscious. While the goal might be the same (in this case, to reduce the symptoms of depression), transcendental healing will treat elements of the mind, body, and spirit while focusing on other aspects the sufferer isn’t even aware of.
Using Transcendental Meditation, which has some of the same features as what we’ll discuss below, military personnel who suffered from PTSD were able to benefit from significant improvements. The practice was founded by the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and incorporates things like self-realization, which is facilitated by normal thinking being “transcended” into a state of pure consciousness.
While transcendental healing with psychedelics obviously involves a different process, it works in a similar way, by reaching novel states of consciousness and unlocking access to your subconscious.
Why Do People Use Transcendental Healing?
Before we look at the process, it may be helpful to understand why people might choose transcendental healing over other common modalities. While each reason is dependent on several factors and vary from person-to-person, transcendental healing becomes an attractive option for three main reasons:
- If someone has been working with conventional treatments but realizes that there are larger underlying issues or recurring symptoms, they may be interested in transcendental healing with psychedelics.
- If someone is dealing with a treatment-resistant condition (from either a medical or mental health standpoint) and they’re unable to find relief with other therapies, transcendental healing might be an alternative worth trying.
- For some, relying on medication for any length of time can lead to problems or complications. The side effects may be too overwhelming, dependency may occur, or they may feel that their current treatments are impairing their quality of life. In this case, a single transcendental healing experience with psychedelics may provide the long-term relief they’re seeking.
How to Use Psychedelics for Transcendental Healing
Anything that involves accessing the subconscious also typically involves lots of processing. For many, the reason using psychedelics for transcendental healing is so attractive is because of how much is uncovered in the psyche—in such a short period of time.
What normally takes months or years in therapy can be discovered in an afternoon or weekend, and the following steps can help you do this safely and effectively.
That being said, and perhaps as a word of caution, the psychedelic drug experience can end up being difficult. If your aim is to use psychedelics for transcendental healing, you need to not only be sure of your “why” but also feel strongly compelled to have the experience despite the potential for discomfort to arise. Below are seven steps to effectively use psychedelics for transcendental healing.
1. Set an Intention
Setting an intention is the first step in the process, and it’s important because every additional step will build off of your intention. Your “why” is like your anchor or north star throughout the experience. Before you get to any of the other parts of the process, it’s crucial that you are firm in your intention, especially if healing is your motivation.
Along with setting an intention, you should be prepared to work towards achieving it. You shouldn’t feel forced nor should you impulsively participate in a Peruvian ayahuasca ceremony because someone you follow on Instagram did it. You should genuinely feel called to the experience and have an authentic reason (intention) for doing so.
When it comes to your intention, the more specific and personal, the better. Here are some things to think about to get you started:
- Where do you want to be in life?
- What is holding you back?
- Are there limiting beliefs that are getting in the way of what you want to accomplish?
- Does your behavior reflect your goals and values?
- Is there a specific medical condition you want to treat?
- Is there something in your past that you haven’t come to terms with?
- What parts of yourself do you need to let go of to step into a new version of yourself?
2. Choose Which Substance to Work With
We’ve explored how to do this in another article, but once you have a solid understanding of what your intention is, you’ll want to narrow down which substance is best to meet your healing goals. Since transcendental healing is the focus, you’ll want to connect to spirit. Therefore we’d recommend that you use the natural psychedelic substances (psilocybin, ayahuasca, peyote, san pedro, iboga) as they’re directly connected to the spirit of the plant world.
3. Supplement With Other Practices
Familiarizing yourself with altered states of consciousness through other methods can help to establish an initial connection with source/spirit/God/the universe. This can and should be incorporated well before your experience with psychedelics as these practices will help you stay grounded and will end up contributing their own insights during the preparation process (especially when it comes to setting an intention).
The psychedelic experience is a deep inward journey and looking inward prior to the ceremony itself can be helpful. Your “ceremonial work” will begin the second you commit to sit with psychedelics (i.e. before the actual experience).
That is to say, you’re likely already on a path towards transcendental healing as you already made the choice to read this far. Once you make the commitment (mental or verbal) to this journey, you’ll likely notice that old patterns and thoughts arise in a particularly noisy fashion. This is because your ego knows what’s in store—an ego death, or at least an interruption to its sense of identity—and it’s fighting back with everything it’s got.
Realizing that the old ways in which your ego has been operating are coming to an end, the ego will do everything it can to keep things status quo. Incorporating these practices will help you quiet your ego as you prepare for the psychedelic experience.
If you’re new to transcendence, here are a few things you can try incorporating:
- Transcendental Meditation (or any type of meditation you feel comfortable with)
- Mindfulness
- Mindful eating
- Journaling
- Creative pursuits (drawing, dancing, etc.)
- Communing with nature
- Shadow work exploration
- Breathwork
- Yoga
4. Prioritize Set and Setting
With an aim of transcendental healing, it’s important to be in the right state—both physically and mentally—to access long-term benefits. Set and setting are important for any psychedelic experience, but even more so when it comes to unlocking all of psychedelics’ healing benefits.
Either on your own or with the help of a guide, mentor, or connected psychedelic community, it’s important to go into the experience knowing how (and be willing to) surrender to what comes up.
You’ll want to be in the right headspace to examine your shame and guilt and be open to whatever may come up (no matter how difficult the topic). Some trepidation and nerves are normal but if you’re in an unhealthy mental place, considering postponing the experience until your mindset is where you want it to be. Never feel rushed or forced into having one of these experiences; the opportunity will be there when you are truly ready.
Your physical “setting” is equally as important—especially if you’re taking psychedelics on your own or in a small group. Safety should come first, which means taking all necessary harm reduction steps to ensure that your environment is free of dangers/risks.
This includes being confident about the dose you’re taking, that you won’t experience any unintended drug interactions, and that you have a sober trip sitter available.
5. Seek the Support of a Guide or Trip Sitter
While it’s certainly possible to access transcendental healing on your own, your journey and healing will be more effective with the support of someone experienced in this area.
Not only is a guide or trip sitter available to ask questions to or share concerns with, but they’ll also help you develop a framework to plan your experience and integration process. They’ll have a solid understanding of how the substances work and will let you know how to best prepare before actually ingesting them.
This background information will help prevent you from getting caught off guard during the experience. Your guide or mentor will arm you with tools and practices to use if and when the experience gets challenging.
And considering you’ll likely be exploring realms that are new to you, you will have someone to help you understand energy dynamics and the basic unwritten laws of the universe.
This preparation, and the experience itself, can be a lot to take on—especially if you’re focused on your healing. Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Click here to schedule a discovery call with us today.
6. Use Psychedelics Ceremonially
When it comes to transcendental healing, ceremony is important because of the power it holds. In ceremony, there are certain traditions, practices, and ways of working with the substances that have been honed in over thousands of years.
With full appreciation of their sacramental power, shamans and facilitators have shared their knowledge and wisdom for millennia—there are healers running ceremonies around the world presently.
It’s important to seek a ceremony that is facilitated by someone who is reputable and experienced. There are a lot of variances between practitioners, and some will be far better suited to facilitate transcendental healing.
An experienced trip sitter can be helpful here, too, providing you in depth information so you can best decide. They’ll be able to help you find the best ceremony/retreat for your needs. It’s also important to note that there is a spectrum of legal and illegal options. Though it is up to you to choose the option within your own risk tolerance, we will not recommend illegal options to you.
7. Integrate
True transcendental healing isn’t a one-off thing. You’ll unlikely unlock the door to healing during your experience, but then you’ll have to continue walking down the path that it leads to. Some have related the transcendental healing process to that of a spiral staircase; it is not a linear path and you may not see where you are going, but you are slowly rising with each step.
The integration process means taking the insights and learnings from your experience and putting them into practice. No one said it would be easy, but it’s definitely worth it.
This is one of the primary ways in which we serve our readers—helping them implement the realizations experienced in ceremony into everyday life. If you’re looking for help with integration, we encourage you to schedule a consultation with us today.
Trust the Process
It’s likely that if you’re reading this article and are interested in using psychedelics for transcendental healing, you’re already on that journey. Congratulations on taking the first steps towards healing naturally with plant medicines.
If we could offer some final advice, it would be to be open to whatever arises during this process. You will never be shown anything you can’t handle.
Humans have a more intricate relationship with plants than commonly believed, and our relationships with psychedelics is no exception. Universal intelligence is embedded in these plant medicines and you can trust that you’ll be shown and taught exactly what you need to be. This might not always be related to your initial intention either, and that’s okay.
Your expectations might not align 100% with your experience, but you can rest assured that you will receive exactly what you need. And that’s what transcendental healing is all about.
