I have been noticing patterns in the reactions of my various clients. One is that after the psychedelic journey, clients report that there seems to be a buffer between them and the challenges of their worlds. Instead of being thrown by every pleasant or unpleasant occurrence or difficult relationship or situation, there is a buffer. They are not thrown. They feel more steady, more stable. One client reported being able to separate psychologically from her distraught boyfriend and her troubled 8-year-old son. She wasn’t experiencing any toxic dependency anymore. Another client reported feeling a bit removed from her daughter who suffered from suicidal ideation and had recently had an incident. This may not sound nice, but it meant that she was able to be present and effective with her daughter rather than depressed. She didn’t feel like overeating sweets. A creative director I was working with said that after the journey he felt smoother, like things just didn’t bother him to the same degree. In his role which entails a lot of responsibility, high stakes, a lot of personalities, and a lot of ever-shifting factors, this sort of smoothness was a revelation for him. He hadn’t experienced this sort of surfing through life’s dramas before.
A buffer is a space between the dramas of your life and your reaction to them. This is crucial to being able to actualize change. If you have even a moment between the event and your habitual response, you can make a choice. You can decide what response would be more effective to run. You are empowered to choose your next move rather than riding a train that feels out of your control.
This perspective shift, even if temporary, allows you to see yourself experiencing your world - which can make you the artist of your own living art project. With psychedelics, it isn’t a thought. It is an experience.