A Short Guide to Psychedelic Integration
Psychedelic experiences are not complete without integration.
Note: Our upcoming May retreat is almost full! Only ~3 spaces left. Will you be one of the final voyagers to hop aboard this majestic journey to the oasis of Kumankaya, Mexico? Apply now to reserve your space on this profound adventure with Ayahuasca, Bufo, and your soul family from May 26th - June 1st.
When it comes to psychedelics, remember:
Integration is absolutely indispensable.
In terms of actual long-term change in your life, integration is often more important than the on-retreat work we've all done.
Integration refers to the process of actually enacting and embodying the lessons, shifts, and learnings you received on retreat.
It's an ongoing, never-ending process of truly being and expressing your deepest truth, love, joy, and wisdom, in an ever more skillful and artful way, in day-to-day life.
15 Signals of Effective Integration
In practice, genuine integration tends to look like:
Being a light unto yourself and others
Getting your life-foundations in order: Family, relationships, money, home, health, career
Following your heart’s truest joys and callings
Speaking your truth (especially when it's not comfortable)
Holding space for yourself and others
Practicing love and kindness toward all
Mastering wise communication
Channeling your realizations into creativity
Doing spiritual practices ongoingly (the ones that resonate with you)
Opening to new opportunities
Being a leader
Continually stepping out of your comfort zone
Making your home a sanctuary
Practice non-knowing to see the Divine Mystery in everyone and everything
And so on.
It's crucial to be gentle with yourself in this process.
Non-Judgment: One of the Biggest Integration Shifts
One of the biggest shifts you can ever make is to be truly accepting, non-judgmental, and compassionate *toward yourself*, in all situations, no matter what life looks like.
The paradox is that you're already whole and perfect as you are. You are a beautiful poem and child of God, *and*…
Simultaneously there is endless room for becoming ever more authentic, skillful, artful, and unadulterated in expressing your true being.
The ‘Slingshot Effect’: A Common Experience
There's often a ‘slingshot effect’ post-retreat that I know many people tend to experience:
It's common to have old patterns rapidly reassert themselves immediately after a retreat.
This is okay, it's completely normal and expected.
The key is to *see the old patterns through new eyes*.
Just witness and feel the patterns from your new fresh perspective.
(Or from the perspective of no-perspective.)
Bring awareness into them.
Awareness alone will do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Awareness alone will start to shift your relationship with those patterns.
Addictions: Bringing Nuance and Sensitivity to Habit Change
An all-or-nothing, "I must go cold turkey" approach often does not work for cutting off toxic patterns or addictions in our lives.
Often there are deeper karmic knots that have to unwind themselves more slowly as we bring ever greater awareness into a pattern and witness it with compassion.
We never really know what a given ‘addiction’ is protecting or propping up within our psyche.
This is why we must tread carefully when dissolving and transforming addictions:
If you cut an addiction off ‘all at once,’ it’s very likely that the underlying mechanism will simply pop up in another destructive form, since the deeper wound has not been fully addressed.
Hold everything that appears in Loving Presence.
To the best of your abilities.
This will gradually heal it all.
Love is the final medicine.
Love heals and harmonizes all.
Try to approach this process with lightness and a sense of fun.
From one perspective this work is a serious matter with great implications for all beings…
And from another perspective it's all completely weightless, insubstantial, a laughing matter, light as a feather.
Move toward a balance between the warrior (who takes the mission seriously) and the trickster/fool (who laughs at it all).
Get Your Fundamental Life-Foundations in Order
I know I mentioned this earlier but it bears emphasis:
Get your financial house in order.
Do work to heal and revive important relationships.
Show the people who matter most that you love them and are there for them.
Carve out a career direction that balances alignment, impact, income, and potential for growth and advancement.
Formulate a long-term plan and vision.
Clean up unhandled affairs such as unpaid debt, taxes, physical and digital clutter.
Get organized.
Bring some basic structure and scheduling to your life.
Tell the truth.
Be punctual and reliable.
Do what you say you’re going to do.
Be slow to anger and rich in kindness.
Cultivate universal love.
Be honorable, humble, inwardly noble, and in service.
These foundational principles will serve you well.
If you get this stuff right, your level of life-mastery will already be greater than ~95% of people.
With Love,
Jordan Bates
Apotheosis Co-Founder & Retreat Facilitator
If you feel a sincere heart-calling to experience a world-class psychedelic retreat with a robust integration program included…
If you feel a calling to experience Bufo and Ayahuasca in a safe, wisely-held context including a robust preparation & integration program…
If you feel called to experience Apotheosis’ unique integration of mystical truth-realization, community connection, *and* grounded, integrated mastery of human life…
Consider joining us in Mexico from May 26th – June 1st, 2024, for our next Apotheosis Retreat.
Only ~3 spaces left.
If you know in your heart and soul that Summer of 2024 is your moment to dive deeper into the Divine Mysteries of Life…
Now is the time to apply, hop on a call with us, and reserve your space:
If you’ve applied previously you’re welcome to simply go ahead and book a call with us:
If you want to get a vivid taste of Kumankaya Healing Center…
Be sure to watch this video.
Kumankaya is the best place I know of in the world to experience Bufo and Ayahuasca.
Thank you for reading.
May you be blessed.
With Love,
Jordan Bates & the Apotheosis Team
About Apotheosis
Our mission at Apotheosis is to assist in creating a more beautiful world by guiding people through deeply transformational experiences. Having first emerged within HighExistence, our retreats have now served 140+ people from dozens of countries.
Our signature approach—which incorporates true community, unique psychedelic ceremonies, grounded life mastery, Divinity-reconnecting modalities, a myriad of workshops, and a robust preparation & integration program included in the cost of a retreat—distinguishes us as a high-integrity provider of once-in-a-lifetime transformational experiences.
Consider joining our next retreat with Ayahuasca and Bufo—May 26th to June 1st in Mexico.
Author Bio:
Jordan Bates is a dad, husband, space holder, men’s coach, entrepreneur, investor, rapper, course creator, blogger, truth lover, co-creator of Apotheosis & HighExistence, and author of four books. He coaches men and women to master their finances, save their relationships, build their legacy, and greatly reduce their suffering. Learn more about his work here.
What People Say About Apotheosis:
“The expectation I had was that I was going to pick up a few meditation techniques and get a bit better at yoga, and instead my mind was blown. I went so much deeper than I thought was even possible and there were so many more things I had to explore that I didn’t even know were there. It was legitimately life-changing. Nothing short of that.”
— SHAWN, 37, APOTHEOSIS PARTICIPANT, USA