Adventures Through The Mind

Psychotherapist Marc Aixalà of ICEERS explains what psychedelic integration is, and what it isn't.
Marc offers some metaphors to help psychedelic integration, his seven dimensions of integration, and outlines why each of these has to be custom tailored to the needs of the individual person.
Marc also offers us his perspective as to why integration is not psychotherapy, and why it should end once the person no longer needs a practitioner. Finally, he makes the case that preparation matters even more than integration, because psychedelic healing is a process, not an event.
 
(00:00) What is psychedelic integration?
(01:46) Metaphors, dimensions, and needs
(04:47) The seven dimensions of integration
(05:49) Why integration isn't psychotherapy
(08:17) Why integration should have an end
(10:43) Preparation matters more
(12:54) Healing is a process, not an event
(16:49) Outro
This is a clip from 'An In-Depth Exploration Of Psychedelic Integration | Marc Aixalà', Adventures Through The Mind 202.
👀 Full episode here
Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts, or watch it on YouTube
🙏 Support the podcast
Become a patron on Patreon
Make a one-time donation
Related episodes
Integrating Ayahuasca Experiences (and psychedelics in general) | Mijal Schmidt ~ ATTMind 183
A Jungian Approach To Psychedelic Integration | Maria Papaspyrou ~ ATTMind 104
Connect with Marc
Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness (Marc's book)
ICEERS | Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Services
Connect with me
Instagram
Newsletter
Telegram
LinkedIn
Bluesky
Substack

What is it actually like to take ibogaine? Jonathan Dickinson, CEO of Ambio Life Sciences and author of Ibogaine and the Bicameral Mind, takes us inside the flood dose: why you can't stand up for hours, why it's closer to a waking dream than a psychedelic trip, and what the people he's treated say they saw.
We also get into the book's big ideas (Lacan's "the Real" and Julian Jaynes's bicameral mind), why the benefits can arrive even when nothing seems to happen, and the real medical risk, including deaths.
🌀 Show notes and links
📚 Jonathan's book and work: jonathandickinson.ca · Ambio Life Sciences: ambio.life
 
🍄 Sponsored by Amentara, lab-tested Amanita muscaria and other herbal extracts. Use code ATTM22 for 22% off your first order.
 
🥰 Support the show and join the community: Patreon · other ways to support · newsletter
Huge thanks to my $23+ patrons: Ian C, Eliz C, Dan G & Andreas D
 
Episode Breakdown
(0:00) Opening
(0:52) Ad
(1:34) Interview Begins
(4:11) What ibogaine is, and where it comes from
(7:12) An oneirogen, not a psychedelic
(14:03) Inside a flood dose
(20:22) Visions, hallucinations, and false memories
(26:35) Nobody says ibogaine is easy
(35:19) Lacan, the Real, and why discomfort heals
(44:33) The bicameral mind
(56:04) Ad
(57:14) No, I think it gets weirder
(1:06:46) What to believe about what you saw
(1:15:22) Ancestors and the realm of the dead
(1:19:52) Leo Zeff, the Secret Chief
(1:26:06) Patreon Thanks
(1:28:04) When nothing happens, and it works anyway
(1:38:28) The medical risk, and people have died
(1:40:25) Leaving the country, and what it costs
(1:48:49) Follow up links
(1:52:05) Outro

Justin Townsend of MycoMeditations explains the "golden shadow" and why psychedelic facilitators need to be well-trained to hand that projection back rather than take it on.

The dark shadow is the unsavory stuff we don't want to admit to: the shame, the disgust, the fear. The golden shadow, however, is the beautiful stuff about ourselves: our strengths, our creativity and our capacities for success. However, the golden shadow can get buried and projected just as much as the dark shadow.
The way it shows up is as a kind of intense admiration for someone else. Putting them up on a pedestal, viewing them with all these beautiful qualities of ourselves that we're unable to see in ourselves. This could be a retreat leader, a therapist, a celebrity, or a guru.
In this clip from episode 170, Justin walks us through how projection of the golden shadow can happen in psychedelic therapy and the problems that his can cause for both the participant and the facilitator when that facilitator is not ready and willing to refuse that projection and instead help their participant integrate it. 
 
CHAPTERS
(00:00) What the shadow and the golden shadow are
(01:39) Spotting the projection, in retreats and in public
(02:14) The facilitator's job, and how followers build a guru
(04:31) Slow boil: how good people become the villain
(6:54) Outro
***This is a clip from 'The Business and Practice of Psilocybin Therapy in Jamaica | Justin Townsend ~ ATTMind 170', Adventures Through The Mind Podcast, episode 170***
FULL INTERVIEW
Listen on iTunes
Listen on Spotify
Watch in Video
Read the show notes
SUPPORT THE PODCAST
🥰 Support ATTMind and join the community on Patreon 
Other options
Toss me a tip on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=383635S3BKJVS
Buy some merchandise:  https://www.jameswjesso.com/shop/
More Options: https://www.jameswjesso.com/support
Connect with Me
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jameswjesso.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-w-jesso-64361812b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/attmindpodcast/
Newsletter:  https://www.jameswjesso.com/newsletter
Substack: https://substack.com/@jameswjesso
Telegram Channel:  https://t.me/jameswjesso

This episode is going to explore the state of the psychedelic movement right now — the money, the policy, the ethics, and the stories that are not getting told.
Specifically, we are going to be exploring what is actually happening across the so-called psychedelic renaissance: the for-profit pharmaceutical track, city and state level decriminalization, the unregulated market selling products that mostly do not contain what they claim to, the biopiracy question that almost nobody in mainstream media will ask about, and why one of the field's most trusted journalists says psychedelics are a relationship rather than a cure. Our guest is Shelby Hartman.
What You'll Learn About:
🌊 The three waves of psychedelic research, from the 1950s through Nixon to the arrival of for-profit "corporadelic" pharma
🍄 Why almost nothing sold as a "gray market" psychedelic is legal, and what an independent lab actually found inside mushroom chocolate bars
🧭 How to vet a coach, facilitator, shaman, or space holder, and why anyone can call themselves one
🌿 Biopiracy, iboga, and the Bwiti — how plant medicine and the knowledge around it get taken without reciprocity
⚖️ Who will qualify for legal psychedelics, who can afford them, and who feels safe on a clinical couch
🔬 Whether the double-blind randomized trial is even the right design for studying psychedelics
📰 What a journalist chooses not to publish, and why not every medicine wants to be found
🌀 Episode Show Notes and other Relevant Links
 
📚 Check out Shelby Hartman's book The DoubleBlind Guide to Psychedelics: A Road Map to Tripping, Microdosing, and Beyond
USA: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-doubleblind-guide-to-psychedelics-a-roadmap-to-tripping-microdosing-and-beyond-madison-margolin/331fec74d7e84ffe?ean=9781648291791
CAD: https://www.indiebookstores.ca/book/9781648291791/
 
🍄 This episode is sponsored by Portier Supplies. Use promo code ATTM10 for 10% off your order.
 
FULL TOPICS BREAKDOWN BELOW
...
SUPPORT THE PODCAST
🥰 Support ATTMind and join the community on Patreon
🎧 Sub and Review on Apple Podcasts
🎧 Sub and Review on Spotify
👁 Watch and Subscribe on Youtube
*** Huge thanks to my patrons on Patreon!
In particular, my $23+ patrons; Ian C, Eliz C, Dan G & Andreas D
 
Other options
Toss me a tip on PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=383635S3BKJVS
Toss me a tip on Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/jameswjesso
Buy some merchandise: https://www.jameswjesso.com/shop/
More Options: https://www.jameswjesso.com/support
Connect with Me
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jameswjesso.bsky.social
Twitter/X: https://x.com/jameswjesso
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-w-jesso-64361812b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/attmindpodcast/
Newsletter: https://www.jameswjesso.com/newsletter
SubStack: https://substack.com/@jameswjesso
Telegram Channel: https://t.me/jameswjesso
Integration Coaching: https://www.jameswjesso.com/jesso-private-skype-sessions/
...
Episode Breakdown
(0:00) Ad - Portal Box
(0:31) Opening
(1:15) Introduction
(3:50) Interview Begins
(4:42) Three waves of the psychedelic renaissance
(10:13) Gray market products and unvetted coaches
(18:57) Biopiracy and indigenous reciprocity
(24:43) Who gets access, and on whose terms
(31:08) The research track, and what counts as evidence
(37:30) What's going well, and what she can't call yet
(41:28) The cannabis cautionary tale
(44:13) Ad - Portal Box
(44:58) What legalization cost growers in Canada
(48:38) Why DoubleBlind started
(52:54) How the coverage changed, and the stakes now
(59:08) Ten years of staying off the algorithm
(1:02:40) Psychedelics are a relationship, not a cure
(1:06:39) Tools, or living beings
(1:07:42) Patreon Thanks
(1:09:52) Renaissance, revolution, or media fad
(1:12:11) What a journalist chooses not to publish
(1:15:37) The questions no one will answer for you
(1:19:22) The DoubleBlind Guide to Psychedelics
(1:24:21) Follow up links
(1:26:14) Outro

In this Adventures Through The Mind micro, I explain what MDMA is and why it makes us feel love.
I explain why MDMA is an entactogen rather than a classic psychedelic, and how it floods the brain with serotonin. I also discuss how it raises our sense of safety, lowers our sense of danger, and drops the emotional boundaries we normally hold, which is what made it work in couples therapy. Finally, I cover the PTSD research, and why MDMA with someone new can leave you holding an intimacy you have not earned.
(00:00) What MDMA is, and how it works in the brain
(06:25) Love with a capital L
(11:02) Safety, danger, and the boundaries that drop
(14:36) Why MDMA worked in couples therapy
(18:14) The intimacy trap, and MDMA for PTSD
(21:41) Outro
This is a clip from 'Psychedelics in Research & Practice | James W. Jesso', Adventures Through The Mind 200.
👀 Full episode here
🙏 Support the podcast
Related episodes
Entactogens, MDMA, and Bringing New Love Drugs To Market | Matthew Baggott ~ ATTMind 177
MDMA for Couples | The Love Doctor, Charley Wininger ~ ATTMind 138