Some practical info for your
psychedelic experience
Expectation management
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It is likely that you will not get the experience that you expect. Expect to be surprised.
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Don't believe (all) the stories; because it is both essentially impossible to put into words and hard to sufficiently respect the highly individual nature of the psychedelic experience, other peoples accounts of their experiences are rarely anything like the way you experience yours. As convincing as their accounts may sound. Also; negative experiences tend to get less public attention.
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Magic truffles are not a magic pill and most likely will not cure your problem. Let alone in one or two sessions (and claiming to do so is likely illegal in the Netherlands). But they can be a great support in your efforts to make an invaluable step towards personal growth.
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You will most likely have to make active changes in your day to day life to maintain the benefits of your experience (but you may find that those changes turn out to be easier than you think and very fun to make :).
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It is possible that some symptoms you struggle with may be gone for a while after your experience.. but will likely slowly return in time (probably with a slightly different quality). This is why we focus on developing a healthy relationship with them rather than on getting get rid of or treat them.
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Even a beneficial experience may be very difficult at times.
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Your preparation can often determine at least as much of the lasting positive outcomes of the experience as the chemistry of the magic truffles. Be prepared that that this may feel like hard work.
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Your trip may be a purely physical experience with little or even no particularly strong emotions; or you may have a purely emotional one with little else going on, it may be a purely cognitive one with very little noteworthy emotions or physical experiences, or you may have a very spiritual experience. Likely it will be a wonderful mix of all of these. Don’t try to predict what you will get and know that all types of experience can be equally beneficial.
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There is no guarantee that you will have a 'mystical' type of experience nor are they necessarily crucial for helping you with your specific problem.
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Know that Dutch medical law does not provide a licence to treat mental of physical health symptoms using psychedelic substances. Medically we cannot treat your problems, but we can support your personal process of growth by guiding you in your exploration of the relationships you have with your mind, your body and your environment.
Our 6-day program
..generally looks something like this:
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Day one: we meet for about 3 hours of preparation and an optional (connected) breathwork session
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Day two: the first psychedelic experience day, we will be with you until your experience is over
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Day three: we meet for about 2 hours of integration of the first and preparation for the second experience
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Day four: we meet for about 2 hours of integration of the first and preparation for the second experience
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Day five: the second psychedelic experience day, we will be with you until your experience is over
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Day six: we meet for about 2 hours of integration and preparation for returning to your normal life
Practical preparation
Some things you may want to bring to our retreat, though none of these are essential:
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Headphones (preferably with a cable; we will also bring one)
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Eyemask (we will also bring one)
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Notebook (because you will get a lot of new information that is often easily lost)
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Meaningful objects (anything that you has meaning to the process you want to engage with, think of childhood photos or an object that can help you connect to your theme)
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Loose fitting, comfortable clothes (you want to be able to move freely and add and remove layer to adjust your temperature)
What you can do to help your experience:
because you will benefit from having as little load on your digestive system as possible when you consume the truffles,
we will strongly recommend that you:
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Have a light meal the evening before your experience; no or little meat, no or little oily, fried food.
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Do not consume alcohol, cannabis, other drugs or use painkillers, sleep or mood altering medication.
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Consume light media; no heavy movies, news, books, social media, phone calls that weigh heavy on your mind and heart.
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Skip breakfast or have as little as possible as early as possible (>4h preferably)
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Not to drink coffee or black or green tea in the morning (or as little as possible as early as possible if you need some)
We also recommend buying some light and tasty snacks and food for after your experience so that you do not have to navigate the streets and a grocery store after your experience if you do not want to.
Great things to buy are juices, fruits and nuts, avocados, dark chocolate (not too sweet), crackers with some nice spreads like hummus, fresh veggies and ingredients for a light and easy to prepare diner. Drink enough water and do not use alcohol, cannabis or other drugs on the evening after your experience.
What the psychedelic day may look like
Though we tailor our approach and our program to your specific situation and your needs;
We will likely come to you around 10 or 11 in the morning.
We will check in with you to hear how you feel and if there any last questions you may have before diving in.
While we do, we set up our laptop with the music, headphones, prepare the truffles and chairs so we can sit comfortably with you.
Then, when we and you feel ready, you consume the magic truffles and lie down on your bed.
We may give you a short meditation to help you turn inwards while we wait for the substance to start its magic.
When the psychedelic experience starts.. we simply follow where it takes you.
We will sit with you, available when you need us for emotional support, to help you go to the bathroom, help you with questions or insights that may come to you, get you some tissues or water if you want some..
And if you do not need us we will just sit there, perhaps write or meditate. As we are the two of us, one may occasionally take a bathroom break, make some tea, perhaps take a short break.
After about an hour we may check in with you to see if you want a top-up if that is what we agreed to do.
We will stay with you till both you and we feel that your experience is sufficiently over and you are comfortable to being left alone.
This is usually after 4-6 hours but this varies, sometimes it varies a lot.
If you need a longer time to come back to earth one of us may need to leave to attend to an appointment but at least one of us will make sure to stay with you till you are safely back, even if this means staying the night.
We will not leave you on your own till you and we both agree that you are ready to be alone.
Our approach
We have been deeply inspired by the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) approach to psychedelic assisted therapy of not using a cognition focused model of psychotherapy but one focussed on working with the subconscious. Just as MAPS, we base our way of supporting your journey strongly on the two psychotherapeutic models called IFS (Internal Family Systems) and Hakomi (Hakomi mindfulness based somatic psychotherapy). What these models share with each other and what sets them both apart from conventional models like CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is that they do not aim at understanding your behaviour in order to help you manage your actions but they aim at investigating the subconscious drives and beliefs that govern our behaviour from just beyond our awareness. So we will not be diagnosing your behaviour, pathologize or try to teach you how to manage the way you behave. By connecting to and investigating the subconscious messages of your system you will get a first hand account of what is happening and alive in your system and why.. instead of a (however well-informed) interpretation from us or any other specialist.
Because our subconscious mind communicates through body sensations, emotions, memories, images and imagination that is what we will be focussing on. The magic truffles, because of their psychedelic power of connecting us to the subconscious mind, greatly magnifies the potency of this approach. Interestingly, once you can connect deeply to what is alive in your subconscious mind and get your first hand account of what is alive there, driving your behaviour and your feelings, insights and understanding tend to come naturally and almost as a by-product of this approach.
And this is effective; IFS is evidence based, is growing steadily and so is the scientific support for its principles. And the results of the MAPS trials speak for themselves.
Apart from amplifying our supportive work, the magic truffles also bring their own unique kind of support that is still barely understood by (at least western) science. This introduces a mysterious element that forces and/or allows us to let go of some or all of our preconceived ideas and knowledge and humbly adjust to the process as it unfolds. This may allow the process to heal in ways that we alone cannot.