The Big & Dandy Integration Thread

[nearjat]

Welcome to the Big & Dandy Integration Thread!




Discuss trip integration topics such as:

• What does it mean to integrate a trip into your life?
• Is integration necessary?
• How does one go about integrating their experiences?
• Whatever else you can think of!

Original Post:
For the first time today I actually asked myself, what does it mean to properly integrate a strong psychedelic experience? It seems like it's frequently used without any expansion to explain away why someones having trouble after tripping.

But what does it mean? To me, it's just finding a way to live your life peacefully in line with whatever you feel was "revealed" after a trip. I'll leave my personal opinions about "revelations" aside for now.

Soooo, how do you do it? Is it always a good thing to meld something like this with your daily life, or should some things be rejected?

 

[Ismene]

I don't know whether I integrate a psychedelic experience at all. It's a beautiful and wondrous aspect of being alive but I think trying to link it to more mundane aspects of life is a little demeaning to it. It's a few holy hours off from all the other shit that you have to go through - that's how I view it.

 

[KingBlueTwista]

Unfortunately I have yet to encounter any personal revelations while on psychedelics. If you want an answer during a psychedelic experience must you ask a specific question?

So as far as integration is concerned, all of the truths that have been unraveled before my third eye have been other-wordly, or at least not applicable to this particular reality. I guess you have to approach the experience with a healthy mix of skepticism and open-mindedness in order to discern what is valuable, true and applicable. And only you yourself can decide what that ratio should be.

 

[allium]

Integration is a very intuitive term, and I always assumed that everyone understands basically the same thing: Thinking and interpreting - the details of this processes is different for everyone, but if you abstract away from details, you may see a lot of similarities.

Psychedelics greatly affect mind and perception, and I get a lot of strange and unusual feeling, sometimes I get thoughts, and sometimes I get questions. The process of intergration mostly consists of answering to the qeustions. Not every questions comes directly from psychedelic experience, they can be like "Why did I feel this way during the trip". Then I try to find answers to the questions, I reconsider my views, I connect and associate things together and sometimes I get deeper understanding of myself.

I would say that psychedelic experience is a metaphor, and the process of understanding this metaphor is interpretation. Or(if you like this saying) psychedelics open the door during trips, and interpretation is walking through the door.

 

[nearjat]

Thanks so far guys, good input.

I agree with Ismene to an extent, that most of my trips aren't really relevant to day to day living in any way. But sometimes I get very grounded realizations about the way I'm living my life. Usually in the form of a very difficult experience actually

 

[ParappaTheRapper]

Integration Period

I just searched a little, and unless I missed something, realized there is no big and dandy -Integration Period- Thread.

What are some of peoples' favorite ways to smooth out integration periods and/or get the most out of a trip by transitioning to everyday reality while still taking the lessons back with you?

It could also be interesting if people shared how/ what they like to do the day after specific drugs.



-Writing and reflecting on lessons. Observing old thought patterns. Cannabis/Nitrous Oxide/ or Alcohol. Having some good meals with proper exercise. Vitamins.

 

[MyExcuse]

I honestly believe the best way to integrate any experience into daily life is to just make the experience part of daily life.

Take from that what you will. Food can be psychedelic too, if you use it properly. Why limit the psychedelic experience to only the times you use hallucinogens?

The "psychedelic" state of consciousness, or any state of consciousness caused by drugs is only one sub-type of conscious experience. Imagine all of the different types of "filters" one can put on their consciousness, whatever the catalyst may be, in order to change their perspective.

All we know are our senses, and contrary to popular belief, the exploitation of those senses is the sole purpose of your conscious existence. You, as the conscious executor of decisions for your body, are in full control over what perceptions you will have day in and day out. If you subscribe to the notion that what you experience when not on drugs is normal, baseline, usual, acceptable, then you will limit yourself to that experience at all times. If you accept that what may have been considered normal prior to hallucinogen usage is paltry compared to what is possible, your sober experiences begin to become alive and full with variations on a theme.

That's all conscious experience is, variations on a theme. The main theme is what nature has provided you, society and culture create new theme's which you adopt as you age. Variations on the themes simply involve a temporary change in cast, in lighting, in setting and placement of objects - A grand theater production put on for you and you alone! How wonderful the mind is to provide you with something, that while mind-boggling and awe-inspiring, is so biologically simple to render the entirety of human consciousness as metaphysical substance completely invalid and to dash away any last bit of doubt that we are nothing but self-aware meat.

It is truly a shame that some people take away any other message. How grand and glorious it is to know that Jesus was human, Buddha was human, Muhammad was human, and many other religious leaders! How wonderful it is to realize that all human experience is purely a biological function which we can positively influence at a whim!

Friends, integration is not a task you take upon after an experience. Integration has already happened, it has already begun and been completed by the time you decided to post in this thread and read this reply. What you may have thought was infallible, subconsciously at the least, has been proven to be dynamic. Why else would you continue to use something so utterly shattering to the "safe" and "stable" conscious meta-processor provided by nature? Why would you seek ways and suggestions on how to integrate such experiences into this daily recognition of such an inbred "sober/natural/base-line" processing?

Your mind has been challenged - Think about that will you?

 

[ParappaTheRapper]

^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_iq2VpBtKo

Anyway, there are an infinite amount of responses to these thoughts. So instead, I will explain my own. I honestly cannot imagine a new user to psychedelic drugs benefiting from your response, which was the target audience of my thread. To provide a database of information.

Enlightenment more than likely would have lead to a contribution, in my opinion.

 

[Spacemonkey5000]

This is something i relly nedd help with, been trippin way to much for a couple of years now and it´s really starting to catch up to me.


Usually i work out several times per week but some long lasting injuries has been putting me on the shelf for a few months now, also ive been out of work so im starting to get really depressed about life.


Been tripping almost every weekend all year on various 5ht2a drugs and mxe coupled with a bunch of weed and n20.


I really need to stay sober for a few months and just let everything become normal again.

 

[jaurk]

I have heavy heavy ++++ experiences, so I feel like I don't want to trip for like 3 weeks minimum afterwards.
Whereas all of my lower level trips I want to do it again in like 2 days.

I'm still digesting my trip 2 weeks ago, can't quite figure it out though, need to trip again

 

[twelvesevndi]

this thread may be of some interest to you, OP

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/archive/index.php/t-433210.html

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

What are some of peoples' favorite ways to smooth out integration periods and/or get the most out of a trip by transitioning to everyday reality while still taking the lessons back with you?

Integration is something I'm still no good at. Most trips are recreational/spiritual refreshers with the same ole psychedelic spiel (nice to know but not take too seriously) or euphoric appreciation of raw existence. The truly meaningful ones, I only end up integrating them randomly after some event in sober life makes the lesson just click (I'm not sure whether I merely learned stuff that was already forming in my subconscious and would have happened eventually anyway, or if it wouldn't have been possible any other way).

 

[Roger&Me]

What is "integration" anyway?

Its one of those things where everybody's definition will be slightly different. For me personally, it is the process of coming to terms with this alien experience, not as something alien, but as a fundamental part of the self. In some sense, this is a never-ending process. My own process of integration involves reading and studying psychedelic pharmacology, history, and cultural anthropology. The bigger the network within which I am able to rationalize the experience, the less alien it seems.

 

[zn13bt]

What you may have thought was infallible, subconsciously at the least, has been proven to be dynamic.

Thank you for writing this. This is the basic message that all psychedelics teach, over and over again, in their variety of ways.

 

[ParappaTheRapper]

^ I don't get it?

-But, in retrospect, I probably should have called this the Day after thread. I guess I was just thinking back to earlier years in tripping and spending a lot of next days, if around a computer, googling how to get the most out of acid the next day maybe...Watch just the right movie, with the right meal, try to prolong the effects as long as possible with the right pot with the right vitamins and the best lighting. Things like that. If that makes sense. *not the mesages so much, as the effects themselves. Which will be different for everyone. But I could still see how more stereotypical messages might be exactly what some people need too. It all depends on the situation....I never seem to word these things correctly.

The other thing I was getting at might just be more personal for myself. I find myself very very quickly, and predictably, falling into set patterns. Or routines, or systems. However, you want to look at it. And tripping is one of the few things that breaks these. To the point where, a trip will break a pattern in my life, and I can literally watch it reform over the next couple of days. So, for me, a large part of non-recreational trips, is getting to see the routine and set ways I'm currently in, by watching them disintegrate and reform.

 

[Survived Abortion]

-But, in retrospect, I probably should have called this the Day after thread. I guess I was just thinking back to earlier years in tripping and spending a lot of next days, if around a computer, googling how to get the most out of acid the next day maybe...Watch just the right movie, with the right meal, try to prolong the effects as long as possible with the right pot with the right vitamins and the best lighting. Things like that. If that makes sense.

I know what you mean, but I don't think you should try to control it to this degree. You will intergrate a trip as and when it happens. Our collective existence unfolds unpredictably moment to moment, but this unpredictability should be embraced rather than eradicated. I keep having to learn that attempting to exert too much will or control over the external 'now' only results in profound misery. I must learn to surrender this unbalanced control, which is born of ignorance, so that I'm experiencing every moment with mindful intent and bare recognition.

I think Never Knows Best explained it perfectly:

Integration is something I'm still no good at. Most trips are recreational/spiritual refreshers with the same ole psychedelic spiel (nice to know but not take too seriously) or euphoric appreciation of raw existence. The truly meaningful ones, I only end up integrating them randomly after some event in sober life makes the lesson just click (I'm not sure whether I merely learned stuff that was already forming in my subconscious and would have happened eventually anyway, or if it wouldn't have been possible any other way).

I think it truly is like this in all cases, for everyone. You cannot force the intergration to happen, it will happen as and when it should, usually at a time that you would least expect it to. Sometimes it has taken me many months after a trip to 'get it'.

I've found that the complexities of happenings in everyday awareness are the perfect substrate to catalyze the gurglings of subconscious remnants from unprocessed trip experiences, so as to erupt to the surface in a moment of gestalt clarity. I remember reading in "The Cosmic Serpent" by Jeremy Narby that he found insights came to him when he 'defocalized' on apparently normal things. The thing is, we do this naturally everyday anyway - it's called daydreaming.

The process of "integration" is always happening, since we are always trying to make sense of our experiences, even the ones we have minute to minute when we are not tripping. It's just that in certain moments - triggered by the 'correct' co-incidence of a particular thought pattern and a simultaneous event - our brain waves shift pattern and we receive a burst of insight and subsequent resolution from loops of subconscious thought.

 

[PsychedelicDoctor]

I find art to be extremely beneficial during the trip or after to express those ineffable truths and make some meaning out of what you experienced before it is just coded and loses significance.

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

-But, in retrospect, I probably should have called this the Day after thread. I guess I was just thinking back to earlier years in tripping and spending a lot of next days, if around a computer, googling how to get the most out of acid the next day maybe....

We could change the title if you'd like. But anyway, there's nothing special I do the day after, it's usually just a normal day.

 

[Shifty38]

I always do a couple of things. First, I like to cook a meal for whom ever I've tripped with - just my way of saying thanks for spending a very precious experience with me (its usually my wonderful lady but I've cooked for friends too). I also find it very relaxing and I can get creative.

Second, I try to pay attention to things. To look and feel. Frequently I find that I have periods where I am drifting through life on autopilot. Tripping is a very useful way of making sure I remember to look around me. This was a lesson I learned after my second trip and now I try to appreciate even the smallest things that happen to me - good and bad. For example, washing up the day after tripping is always a pain. In our house, this is made doubly difficult by our hot water boiler which generally refuses to work, leaving only cold water. However, I now embrace the cold fresh feeling of the water, and the lovely clean smell of the bubbles. Moreover, the sun shines straight through our kitchen window and onto the draining board. I always make sure I place a glass in the path of the sunlight so I can see all the beautiful colours being refracted.

There are lots of other things I could write but I'd end up going on and on ...

Cooking and looking, two things I love after tripping and two things I love when not tripping

 

[Jesusgreen]

I have heavy heavy ++++ experiences, so I feel like I don't want to trip for like 3 weeks minimum afterwards.
Whereas all of my lower level trips I want to do it again in like 2 days.

I'm still digesting my trip 2 weeks ago, can't quite figure it out though, need to trip again

^ Personally I think this is the biggest trap I've come across in my psychedelic use. "Hmm, I can't figure out the puzzle! Guess I need to trip again!" - but in my experience tripping again just puts you back to square one again. I find the lasting benefits of each trip are only there if I really do give myself enough time to integrate it fully and understand all the messages presented therein. Once I've done that, I'm free to trip again, but if I haven't, the next trip teaches me nothing new.

Now as for how to go about it, act! The trip is the thinking part, so if you're still sitting around trying to figure out the grand puzzle you're probably missing an answer that was right in front of you all along. Do something about it.

Trip give you new ideas? Get creative! Write, paint, draw, program, speak - whatever you feel is the best canvas for your ideas, use it.

Trip bring up problems and issues in your life? Combat them now, no matter how hard or scary it might seem the trip is just showing you they're there and you need to deal with them to move forward - e.g. if you're anxious as I was, get out, change your surroundings, force yourself out of your comfort zone - if you're depressed, find new hobbies, cut bad influences out of your life. Most importantly, whatever the issues are, don't stagnate, work on the solution 24/7 until it's done!

Was the trip a purely recreational blissful ride? Bask in the afterglow, write a trip report, share the experience with friends and use the positive energy of the afterglow to boost your day to day life - take time to get some work you've been putting off done, celebrate with your family/friends/lover, and/or give something back to other people/nature in some way!

Etc