Psychedelics, Memory, Healing and Independence

[zezt]

Often when you hear of psychedelic healing, you hear that someone remembered something and then this simple experience of remembering--inspired with psychedelics--has a dramatic therapeutic effect on them. Here is an example of this:

Addiction, Despair, and the Soul: Successful Psychedelic Psychotherapy, A Case Study (1)
Introduction:
In 1965, the U.S. Senate began hearings on LSD, a remarkable and alarming drug. As the polarized testimony about lives ruined and lives saved by LSD began, The Spring Grove Experiment, a CBS (4)News documentary film, hit national television. The emotional intimacy of psychotherapy and a breakthrough LSD experience for a young alcoholic patient beamed into the living rooms of America. Thirty-three years later, we set out to examine this man's life and discuss with him and his family what made that LSD treatment a success. Our goal is to understand the complex process of successful psychedelic psychotherapy. We decided to interview him and his family to highlight the drama and meaning of individual experiences that dry scientific reporting overlooks. We sought clinical wisdom in a careful review of the essential elements in a successful psychedelic treatment.

Arthur King was one of two patients whose story dramatically unfolded in the film...Arthur King was one of the first of 69 alcoholics from this ward chosen over the next two years to participate in the LSD psychotherapy study...sessions with Dr. Unger were very good because we hit it off right away. And he was very easy to talk to and I trusted him and that was the way the program had come down. Always leading up to the actual LSD experience...And what he did he also prepped you. Dr. Unger said whatever you see don't worry about it. Don't get excited. Reach to it; go face everything that you see when the day of the session comes. They took a great deal of time to prep you so that you were not terrified of the whole thing... That you would accept whatever you saw. If it looks bad, go with it. If it looks good, go with it, but don't fight it. Don't try to come out. Don't try to say that this is horrible. This is too much because all kinds of things show up and time disappears. You know you don't have any time so that is how the program kind of came out. I developed a rapport with Dr. Unger...I trusted him and knew that he was looking out for me and my benefit...I trusted him completely."

Richard asked, "The rose would respond to what you were feeling?"
Art said, "Yeah. They had one single rose. And I don't know how to explain how to say what happened...But I did find out something which I never did go into with anybody and once I found that out everything changed."
Richard asked, "What was that?"
Art said, "I don't want to go into that. I never told Jean. I never told anybody."
Jean said, "Well let's hear about it."
Art: "No. No. That's my personal."
Richard: "There was something like an insight about your life?"
Art: "The way this thing works with the mind if you have something that bothers you, you put it in the back of your mind and you don't think about it. But it affects everything you do. ...You do certain things in your life based upon that problem and that clouds or shields or screens your philosophy, your way of life, your quality of life, and you filter everything through that. But once you see what it is, you find out it wasn't any real big deal... It was something that was carried forth and once I saw that, Christ, that's what's been worrying me, That ain't no big deal."
Richard: "You had never seen that before the session?"
Art: "No. Never looked in that area. Never spoke about the area with Dr. Unger. Never! It was something you were avoiding everywhere. Everywhere! Never had thought in my own mind that there was any kind of problem. But once I saw it everything was gone. Just in that one session one-day. ...I'm looking at it as an adult. There were times when you were very emotional. Yes. That was connected with what was...very unhappy…very! …Thinking about things in the past and very unhappy. Very, very miserable! But then I came to that point everything cleared up."
Richard: "So you came to a point where you were able to accept it?"
Art: "Yeah, but in very symbolic terms. Very symbolic terms rather than an out-and-out thing...And then afterwards I realized what happened...The next day. But in the middle of the session it cleared up and it was like a peace. It was so strange. Jean knew right then."
Jean: "It was like Dr. Unger and I had got right to the doorway...and Dr. Unger said, 'Look at him.' and I said, 'It's over!' I could see. Just like peace. That he was so at peace with himself."
Art: "And near the end of the session, Dr. Unger said, "Oh by the way, look at the rose.' And the rose was blooming! Of course there were other things. See they played music. The Lord's Prayer and everything is heightened. Everything is you know. Barbra Streisand is a great singer. With the LSD, Barbra is fantastic! She's in another universe!"
Art described more of the process of the session: "Dr. Unger would say certain things during that day--during that twelve hours. He was mostly watching something that he had no idea was going on [in my mind]. You know, in the sense of what I was seeing, but he knew when to come in and help and to drift me back to where he wanted to go, and I think that was part of the thing. I think that is where all that testing comes in the beginning and the conversations and everything else. Even like the inkblots and all...but it is like the key in this treatment is knowing, really knowing, the person that you are with. See it's not a mechanical thing. That's what I am saying. It's showing caring!"
Art continued: "You were feeling the time as if it were no time. When he said, 'Oh it's been twelve hours.' I said, 'What?' There was time, time disappears and everything in the universe, you feel a part of everything in the universe including live trees and animals and everything. You see the universe!" One of the consequences of the session for Mr. King was that his thoughts of his future changed significantly: "See I had a plan [when I left the hospital]... I'm not going to be a prison guard. I'm going to be an accountant...So I left the prison and I got a job as an accountant. I didn't make hardly any money...I went to school at night and did exactly what I said I would do. I said I'm going to be an accountant and then I'm going to be a supervisor." Another consequence of the LSD treatment was his continuing sense of serenity. Richard asked, "What about that feeling of peace? Did you ever find yourself reflecting back on that over the years?"
Art: "Yeah, for a long while after the session. I would kind of just do, as Dr. Unger would say, 'Sometimes you just got to be.' You don't have to be in Baltimore. You don't have to be a father. You don't have to be anything, you just have to sit in a certain time and just be!" We discussed why Mr. King thought his treatment was a success. He described five important aspects of the program that were essential for him: (1) He "dried out" for a month on the mental ward before the treatment ever began with Dr. Unger. (2) He knew Jean and his three boys had enough money to survive while he was in the hospital. He had accumulated enough sick leave on his job as a prison guard so that Jean received his paycheck during the entire hospital stay. Art felt he was not distracted by outside concerns. (3) He trusted what he called, "the proper people" and was serious about trying to get well. Because of his trust in Dr. Unger, he was able to surrender to the process. (4) His one session was a breakthrough for him. Although he never told us what he realized about his life-what changed his life-evidently the LSD allowed him to step outside his usual world-view. He looked back at something very difficult in his life and realized that it had become the filter through which he saw everything else. Art let his conflict go. He made a decision that this would no longer be a focus in his life. (5) Mr. King had a plan to change his life, when he returned home. This plan included further education and a better job. (6) He received a good education about alcoholism while he was in the hospital that allowed him to understand the destructiveness of alcohol in his life..."

Now all of this is VERY The main things I get from reading about this are how important it is to be enouraged to go with visionary experience, both eyes open and closed in a safe and loving set and setting. How how you feel literally has an affect on your very observation, as is shown with the rose experience! And how remembering something you had forgotten but has in some way been drastically affecting your life can, when remembered symbolically, have an profound spiritual healing effect on you.

Obviously Michael, I am truly hoping you will reveal your knowledge about this for us here so that we can begin to learn how to create similar set and settings to help us in deep healing ways.

First let me ask these questions: WHY should a repressed memory have such deep impact on one's life which you are not even aware of?

How do you think is best ways of coaxing forgottem memories in a psychedelic session. For me personally, I had a truly terrible time at school from day one, and there are large parts of my young years--say through my early pre and teen years I have forgotten. Sometimes I will search online for pop chart songs of those years, and I will get memories which feel a bit deeper than normal memories. So I am wondering is a combination of photographs from those times and music from those times might prompt repressed memories? What do you think? And why do you think the combined use of the visual compliment of a flower--a rose--helps to deepen this epihany, as it did for this guy?

I hope you help with this for these very important reasons, Michael. I feel that your presence online is really important, because our communities need help with understanding the real healing potential of psychedelics experience. After reading the above article, I was curious how much psychedelic therapy is, and found this--I think it's from same article:

“The Real Value of Truly Effective Treatment
Arthur King received 35 hours of individual psychotherapy, which included one high dose (450 micrograms) LSD session. What would such treatment cost today if delivered in the public sector? At a fee of $60 per hour for the psychologist (35 hours = $2,100), $25 per hour for the nurse (15 hours = $375) and $8,400 for one month in a public hospital, his treatment would cost $10,875 in 1999 dollars(9).”

THAt much! So how would you calculate the cost now Michael in 2011? I am assuming it would be even far higher than tyhat. Not many people on low income or benefits, or NO benefists could in any way shape of form afford such a cost! Even if the argument that--or guilt-trip was eg: 'well how much do you value your help...? Do you realize how much conventional therapy costs in the longer term...? we have overheads you know...?' etc etc. STILL not many could even FIND that sort of money, and many many people are already in debt, and money problems can GIVE stress........SO. What we need is this. There is no threat to professional psychotherapy because people with money will be able to afford it, but what is desperately needed is for people who cannot afford to be able to acquire as much information as possible to be able to do these kind of healing from themselves. I am hoping that is your vocation Michael--to help our communities with this?
In traditional culture healers refuse to take any money for spiritual healing especially. So all people, like I say, need as much help as they can from healers like yourself to be able to independently provide the best kind of healing for themselves and others.

 

[MichaelVipperman]

I assume this is addressed to me... unfortunately I'm really busy today so I don't have time to respond in depth.

Two quick observations then:

1) The psychotherapeutic setting outlines "best practices." It is not the be-all and end-all, nor is it accessible to everybody. I wish it were accessible to everyone, but the cost of trained professionals alone is far too high for the majority of people. I therefore do not insist that nobody ever take psychedelics outside of this context... but I do suggest that, for your first experience at least, you should try to approximate the "best practices" to the extent that you are able in your situation. For example, if you can't get a therapeutic dyad of one male and one female highly trained guides, maybe you can get a loving friend to act in that capacity instead. There are myriad concerns and particulars here, of course... a guide needs to know what they're doing... but the point is that it doesn't need to be a monetary or institutional arrangement. In fact, the monetary or institutional nature of the arrangement will often detract -- it's just that they produce reliability, and thus tend to come to define "best practices" even if the actual ideal might be a healer of the sort you describe, who would never ask for money (but to whom you ought to give a gift in thanks once you've received healing).
Here's my article on the subject: http://michaelvipperman.wordpress.com/2 ... erapeutic/

2) My "vocation" is primarily as an artist. I research, I write, I think, I design and I spread whatever information I suspect may lead to positive transformation of those who come into contact with it. I have also trip sat people, and have provided support to people who have gone through spiritual emergencies. I am willing to do these things, and have done well at them. However, my "vocation" is more artist than guide. Through my writing I hope to help people learn new and better ways of living, and to expose them to diverse sources of information.

 

[BrainEater]

thums up.. the truth has to be told. :wink: :arrow: :!: :?:


peace

 

[zezt]

Michael, I would respond to your reply later. I am just hoping when you have time you can reply in more detail to more of the OP, thankyou. Just to say that by 'independent' I am basically encouraging self-help---ie., just the person taking the trip. Yes I can see the value of having sitters, but there again--how many people would be willing to. So I think it is very helpful to explore ways of doing this self-healing alone. Many of the trips I described in the book I mentioned are solo, and there were powerful benefits. But if there is to much fear-mongering that doing this by oneself is 'not welcomed' that will add to a bad set and setting, whereas I feel real empowerment for individuals is to encourage respectful use of psychedelics in a healing context alone, and/or with sitters. I am aware there is a book out by James Fadiman, but he empnasizes sitters also----------------See, Michael, this should also be considered, when someone can afford a therapist there is a certain annonymity that can be had whereby deep issues are shared and your professional relationship is under the oath of trust and confidentiality. With 'friends' you may not be assured of this, and also WANT for them to see your real personal shit so that could act as an inhibitor to full expression---just to mention tthis important point.

 

[MichaelVipperman]

Having somebody responsible watching over you your first few times is absolutely crucial; anybody who suggests otherwise is profoundly irresponsible and should not be heeded.

That said, once you've had a few intense trips, a solo trip can be a great thing. Having people around is for safety. It's not so much that they're necessary for your benefit, but that if things take an ugly turn it can be REALLY ugly if there's not somebody there to deal with the situation.

Note that those people don't need to be sober... a group experience can be a good first time, and is the way most people start taking psychedelics (it's the way I started, and I don't regret doing it that way). The important thing is just that your co-trippers have been to scary places before and are grounded/centred enough that they'll notice if you're freaking out, and can prevent you from hurting yourself if it comes to that.

I intend to write articles on group trips and solo trips, and on natural settings, artistic settings and religious settings. Just that the setting article I wrote first was the psychotherapeutic one, because it's the gold standard for first experiences. Group trips are the next best option if, like most of us, you can't afford to hire guides for extended periods. Solo trips are for experienced trippers only.

As for memories, it seems you have the right idea... for one thing that they're powerful, but also I get the sense that you're aware they tend to be exaggerated (what Grof criticizes as Freud's overemphasis on biographical explanations).

For bringing them out, yeah, associations and symbols. Dramatic improvisation with a partner can also help... roleplays and whatnot. Yoga, breath work and massage (even just dynamic pressure) can all also help to release emotions that have been instantiated physically in your musculature. So if you've got tension in your shoulder or leg or whatever that seems to be connected to some traumatic memories, you can get a partner to apply pressure to that area of your body while breathing deeply and meditating on it, going into without judgement whatever feelings come. Crying, laughing and screaming are all totally okay.

For associations, when Leo Zeff did psychedelic therapy with someone he would have them bring photos from their childhood, photos of parents both as remembered when young and recently, loved ones (past and present), etc. They'd bring a stack and he'd sort through to pick out the ones he expected to be most useful, and then he'd have the tripper study each photograph in turn after dosing: they'd get to the end of the stack of photos, and then lie down and put on the headphones, and the drug would come up. Pretty cool method... never tried it myself.

Does that help?

 

[zezt]

As for memories, it seems you have the right idea... for one thing that they're powerful, but also I get the sense that you're aware they tend to be exaggerated (what Grof criticizes as Freud's overemphasis on biographical explanations).

For bringing them out, yeah, associations and symbols. Dramatic improvisation with a partner can also help... roleplays and whatnot. Yoga, breath work and massage (even just dynamic pressure) can all also help to release emotions that have been instantiated physically in your musculature. So if you've got tension in your shoulder or leg or whatever that seems to be connected to some traumatic memories, you can get a partner to apply pressure to that area of your body while breathing deeply and meditating on it, going into without judgement whatever feelings come. Crying, laughing and screaming are all totally okay.

For associations, when Leo Zeff did psychedelic therapy with someone he would have them bring photos from their childhood, photos of parents both as remembered when young and recently, loved ones (past and present), etc. They'd bring a stack and he'd sort through to pick out the ones he expected to be most useful, and then he'd have the tripper study each photograph in turn after dosing: they'd get to the end of the stack of photos, and then lie down and put on the headphones, and the drug would come up. Pretty cool method... never tried it myself.

Does that help?

lol, well it was surprising. Cant remember if I mentioned Grof regarding this question above, but I was going to say something--'I dont mean memory as going back into the claimed perinatal memories, and even in past lives', as I was thinking of just-memories like that guy's case I mentioned was about. He remembered something tyhat had profound affect on his very self-destructive habit. This remembrance was so personal he would even tell his wife! But the fact was that his FORGETTING of it somehow had had an effect on his and was also somehow connected to his alcohol problem, so to me this is a big thing. And I was more inquiring as to what this could be? Hwy is it we forget things that MAY somewhere have an effect on us we dont know about. This is quite a disoncerting idea---because we do not remember everything, but we have had past traumas. And if his case and some others I have read where remembering stuff has releasing healing effects, then to KNOW about this, and how to encourage it, would be empowering. I have blocks of my life I cannot remember, and yet get a feeling-sense ordinarily if I listen to music from past years which were crucial years, so I was wondering if you have heard any psychedelic therapy that would do that? I already have read about The Secret Chief and him showing photos. That actually can be very truamatic for me---One time I borke down crying seeing this school photo of me--this 'innocent' kid lol

But I like to know whats going on. Asking questions, and am curious why such memories forgotten when remembered can have such dramatic effect.
I saw this powerful Ytube video which they removed--it was a woman who had been raped. She had tried all kinds of therapies to help her resolve the trauma, and she was chosen to take part in an MDMA study. it was with MDMA where she became able to REMEMBER parts of the ordeal she had suppressed which was a major healing factor for her.

Having somebody responsible watching over you your first few times is absolutely crucial; anybody who suggests otherwise is profoundly irresponsible and should not be heeded.

That said, once you've had a few intense trips, a solo trip can be a great thing. Having people around is for safety. It's not so much that they're necessary for your benefit, but that if things take an ugly turn it can be REALLY ugly if there's not somebody there to deal with the situation.

Note that those people don't need to be sober... a group experience can be a good first time, and is the way most people start taking psychedelics (it's the way I started, and I don't regret doing it that way). The important thing is just that your co-trippers have been to scary places before and are grounded/centred enough that they'll notice if you're freaking out, and can prevent you from hurting yourself if it comes to that.

I intend to write articles on group trips and solo trips, and on natural settings, artistic settings and religious settings. Just that the setting article I wrote first was the psychotherapeutic one, because it's the gold standard for first experiences. Group trips are the next best option if, like most of us, you can't afford to hire guides for extended periods. Solo trips are for experienced trippers only.

Well with respect Michael, I think your demand and lack of compromise in your first paragraph is not empowering for people who would NOT have any access to psychotherapists nor to sitters. it is not encouraging but creates a fear. It would be better if you compromised and warned of possible dangers, and then said ie, but if after all this you still feel the need, please remember to ...a, b and c etc. This could be a recommended low dosage, etc. I mean SOME peoples first trips like mine are with people yeah, but in terrible settings, and I had not even been TOLD what the little half a tab was---yeah I was naive. But that trip was still very powerful despite all that. A second trip had me in a heavy argument with another tripper, and later blamed for not shutting a door and a little kitten being savaged, and then I was sacked from the job with these people I had tripped with. So that was AWFUL. And THESE were the last days of supposed 'Peace and Luuurve maaan'!

 

[MichaelVipperman]

Psychedelics are serious business. Any explanation of them needs to heavily emphasise that.

Would you consider it disempowering to insist that people not drive solo their first time in a car?

Continuing with that analogy, your first time driving also shouldn't be with a drunken asshole who will try to distract you and make you crash.

Also, small doses don't prepare you for intense trips. It's just not the same experience at all. The other night a couple friends and I took turns taking changa... the woman who went first, when she broke through she started screaming at the top of her lungs and writhing/flailing around. Because I'm familiar with psychedelic experience, I wasn't freaked out by it and was able to remain calm while keeping her safe and keeping her from breaking anything. Had I been some random friend, well meaning but totally lacking in experience, who knows how I might have reacted, and whether I could have made the situation worse?

It's very unfortunate that not everybody has access to qualified sitters, and I wish that weren't the case. The best I can do though is to detail what constitutes a qualified sitter, and provide advice for potential sitters so they understand what they're in for. Tripping without people capable of providing adequate support is just outside of what I can endorse, and I'm going to continue to strongly caution against it. If somebody chooses to go against my advice (possibly because they don't know anybody who could provide the necessary support), fine, I hope other bits of advice that I've written will be useful to them.

If somebody is in the situation of not having anybody they could trust to provide emotional support for them during and after a psychedelic experience, a trip could actually be very destabilizing for that person, revealing the toxicity and superficiality of their relationships, and further alienating them from what social supports they have. That's a road to suicide, and I will not pretend it's all well and good.

 

[zezt]

Well yeah, like I explained my second trip was VERY like that, and I was so depressed after I must have gone to bed for two days--I cannt remember it very well that bit but I was very upset, and I have found similar very ignorant unthinking behaviour from others in other recreational tripping. Really no respect for the magnitude of what psychedelics is all about. So this shit will be happening all over, and which is why I like you want to empower people to respect psychedelics and become independent of psychotherapy, and even to encourage self-healing. I respect you man but I am really seeing a lot of hysteria from you regarding this solo tripping. If you feel that way then you do, but I dont. That book I mentioned Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanacatl, which I have raved about everywhere--its edited by Ralph Metzner--goes into great detail in the first large part of the book all about the history of psychedelics and psychotherapeutic procedures etc etc, however my favourite part is the trip reports at the end which include SOLO tripping where people have very dramatic healing experiences. We do not get Metzner or anyone writing frantic discalimers at the begining, or at the end warning people not to try this.

 

[MichaelVipperman]

As I said, I'll do an article on solo trips sooner or later, and it won't be "hysteric" or "frantic," although it will stress that they're for people who've already had intense experiences and know how to roll with them.

Even if the majority of solo trips are fine, the negative consequences of the wrong person taking them at the wrong time with no supports/fail safes can be pretty dramatic. That's what other people are for... a fail-safe in case something goes wrong. You don't want the neighbours calling an ambulance for you or something when you start screaming or become convinced that you're dying. If death trips weren't so bloody common maybe my perspective would be different. But I've had enough intense experiences to be REALLY grateful for having support from warm, loving people... without that, things might have ended very differently.

The trouble is that when somebody is inexperienced it's easy for them to not take this stuff seriously enough. After all, they've never been freaked out by anything, they know how to keep it cool, they know not to play in traffic, etc... and then the world around them starts disintegrating and everything they thought they knew goes out the window. Having someone around who knows what's up can mean the difference between a beautifully transformative experience and a traumatic hospital visit. Emphasising the importance of support is a way of stressing the power of the experience and making sure it isn't taken lightly. If someone decides to go against my advice and have their first trip solo, so be it... but maybe because of the way I've framed it, they'll be inspired to take extra precautions.

Even when I have a solo trip, I always arrange for people I can call if I need someone to talk to. Without that it can be so incredibly isolating... just knowing there are people thinking about me and that if I really needed company it could be arranged might be enough, so I don't necessarily need them to be physically there. But I'm only even comfortable with that because I'm fairly experienced tripping and know that I can roll with an overwhelming experience and come out alright.

 

[zezt]

Yes, I see what your saying is people who have no psychedelic experience --that that could be a danger for them, because it is such a powerful and strange journey. OK, sure, maybe so. But I suppose I was more meaning peoples who have had psychedelic experience but not with the deeper intent of healing.
I just think it is important to emphasize the love which is these deeper dimensions. It is unfathomable love. People who have had NDEs and OBEs talk about it. Yes I am not talking about fluffy wuffy love, and that there can also be hellish experience, but I get irritated (not with you) with people who paint a paranoid of life and deeper realms like for example David Icke, etc. For so long us people from various belief systems have been made to distrst ourselves, and fear our depths (even from Jungian psychotherapeutic theories) etc. I want to undo all of that for myself and others.

 

[entheogenresearcher]

Have you ever experienced healing of physical or psychological issues as a result of tripping on entheogenic drugs?

(I ask this as a part of my ongoing research on entheogens in spiritual practice. Replies can be quoted from in my upcoming research paper. See entheogenstudy.org if you are interested in being more broadly interviewed about your entheogen practice.)

 

[Abej^a G.]

For example, I've stopped drinking every day (thanks to Ayahuasca). And smoking (thanks to Kambo and LSA).
(In my first ceremony of Aya, I've also unlocked about my fears)

if it can be considered as a healing (maybe yes..), I'm trying to annihilate my selfishness

 

[entheogenresearcher]

Abeja: Maybe this is too personal, but what kind of fears did ayahuasca help you unlock?

I like your last point - I guess we can say all spirituality is a kind of healing.

 

[Abej^a G.]

yes! I too think so about spirituality and healing

well, about me, it's simple: in the first ceremony just before to vomit, I said to me: "I want only respect", and this, I would never have thought, too busy to have blinders;
after that I say, "but if you don't respect not even yourself...", (after this I vomited)

less or more, "but if you don't respect not even yourself", how to say, I want respect, but I am the first who don't respect myself

believe in me my friend, this concept opened me a door