Medicine & Metamorphosis: Psychedelic Integration
July 12, 2024
Blog author, Michael O’Neill, is co-facilitating Weaving the Threads of Consciousness: Integrating Psychedelic and Peak Experiences with Linda Nicholls at the Haven on Gabriola Island, November 7-10, 2024.
Before the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly, a caterpillar eats and digests so much food it molts right out of its skin (this process happens 5 times for a monarch before it goes into a cocoon).
After these moltings, when it is finally time, the caterpillar goes into a chrysalis and liquifies itself, turning itself into a caterpillar soup. The special imaginal cells previously carried dormant in the body of the caterpillar slowly metabolize the cells of this slurry into a butterfly and it emerges from the cocoon on its own time. If forced to come out of the chrysalis too early, the organism dies, its life wasted in the hurry to be what it could have become.
Likewise in our own psychospiritual journeys, no matter whatever stage of growth or transformation we are in, the most important process is to thoroughly metabolize. Without integrating what is in us already we can neither grow nor transform; we stay small or stuck in a liminal space, or even sabotage what we could have become.
It’s natural to want to take in more; for survival reasons we are wired for accumulation, to notice novelty and newness, attracted to the beautiful, the profound and that which feels good, stimulating, interesting. We are also watchful of what is painful. Medicine activates all this, each time we take medicine we get massive hits of dopamine, serotonin and other hormones; part of our survival system will be looking for more opportunities for that. Going back for more medicine is often the easier choice. Easy.
Digesting the experiences medicine delivers, whether profound, difficult, confusing, disorienting, confronting, overwhelming or simply mysterious can often be challenging. We have entered uncharted psychological terrain, which is hard to navigate without a guide or a travel partner. We subconsciously resist using our ego to dismantle our ego. We just don’t have the time or space amongst the demands of obligations and tasks in our daily life. It feels like too much work for our tired minds to reflect and dig and integrate. Hard.
We all know that consuming more without digesting what is already there leads to indigestion, discomfort, lethargy, perhaps constipation. So how can we navigate this bind? One solution is a workshop like the one we are offering, Weaving the Threads of Consciousness: Integrating Psychedelic and Peak Experiences.
Tap into the resourcing power of community, shared practice, skilled guides, time away from the ordinary and access the support of the land to digest and metabolize what is in you already to help you move steadily towards the next stage of transformation on your unique path.
About the Program & Author/Co-Facilitator with Linda
Weaving the Threads of Consciousness: Integrating Psychedelic and Peak Experiences (November 7-10 at the Haven on Gabriola Island) is for those who have participated in any number of psychedelic or transformative explorations and know there is value to be had by going deeper into the depth of that experience. Many of us tend to go to yet another ceremony and let the value of the previous one become buried beneath the shroud of time and other responsibilities. This experiential retreat will pull the threads you already carry to the surface and weave their gifts deeply into your everyday life. Learn more.
Michael O’Neill is trained as a somatic and psychedelic therapist and carries a Master’s degree with a specialty in psychedelic integration. Michael’s practice is grounded in many years of serious meditation practice and training in multiple healing and initiatory modalities across several traditions. He is passionate about group and embodiment work and transformational work in nature. He lives in an off-grid community in the Kootenays and is devoted to supporting people’s transformation so we can all live in a more beautiful and life-serving world.