For most people plant ceremonies provide beneficial experiences. As perception alters, consciousness expands and world-views change, they heal and grow. Even fear or terror states, brought about by ‘shadow encounters’, usually process themselves to adaptive conclusions. For some people though, the aftermath of ‘shadow encounters’ can be profoundly disturbing, especially when dissociated traumatic material is activated, but not processed, as they experience debilitating symptoms similar to PTSD and feelings of confusion, helplessness and overall tension. This talk will focus on ‘how to move forwards’ after ‘encountering the jaguar’. It will address unprocessed traumatic states, created earlier in life but brought to the fore by the use of psychedelics. It will look at the difference of dealing with such ‘dark times of transformation’ in indigenous cultures and our own and into therapeutic integrative approaches, based on the premise that the aftermath can, with appropriate help, be a time of development and transformation.
Filmed at Breaking Convention 2017 – 4th International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness University of Greenwich London, June 30th-July 2nd 2017
