Entheogenic Alchemy: Integration, Meditation, & Expanding Conciousness
Turning Psychedelic Insights Into Embodied Awareness
Humor, Integration Meditation, and Spiritual Alchemy
What Is Entheogenic Alchemy?
Entheogenic alchemy is a type of psychedelic integration meditation that symbolizes using the 7 stages of spiritual alchemy for inspiration when meditating before or after a psychedelic experience. From my own experiences with alcohol addiction, I've realized how much a sense of humor also helps us with integration because it promotes a healthy dose of joy and peace continuously.
Since experiencing such a profound benefit from meditation in my life after I stopped drinking alcohol, I wanted to share what worked for me after my own entheogenic experiences. Over a period of time requiring some intentional growth, meditation and humor became a way to establish peace and joy in my life.
My personal experience with sobriety makes me believe we all already possess the right tools we need that can help each one of us. Some may just need a little help recovering that part of themselves that we lost when we were addicted.
The Alchemical Journey
Spiritual alchemy is an ancient philosophy that uses the metaphor of turning metals into gold to achieve spiritual enlightenment. It's a process of transformation that involves breaking down ego, self-doubt, and other limiting beliefs to reconnect with one's natural state. This is where we draw our inspiration from before or after an entheogenic experience.
The spiritual alchemy process described in 7 stages:
1. Calcination: A purifying fire that breaks down ego and other limiting beliefs
2. Dissolution: Observing oneself, both positive and negative qualities.
3. Separation: Separating authentic thoughts and emotions from conditioned ones
4. Conjunction: Allowing unconscious thoughts to surface for conscious awareness
5. Fermentation: A stage of rebirth that involves the death of old thoughts and beliefs, and the birth of a higher self
6. Distillation: A stage of purification that involves looking for inner peace in daily life
7. Coagulation: A state where the universe is no longer separate from the inner mind, but rather a reflection of it
The Power of Humor
Laughter is truly a powerful medicine. Laughing stimulates the vagus nerve and activates both frontal lobes, integrating the brain's hemispheres and boosting creative problem-solving. Laughing is also one of the best stress relievers!
Humor in the context of Entheogenic Alchemy acts as a:
- Liberator: Freeing us from the shackles of rigid thinking and egoic identification.
- Transmuter: Facilitating the transformation of heavy, dense energies into lighter, more refined states.
- Catalyst: Speeding up the process of insight and understanding.
- Coating: Smoothing the often-challenging journey of self-discovery.
How Did I Get Here?
Several years ago, I used to live a completely different life. A life full of relentless alcohol and drug abuse. Too many close calls with police. Severe depression. Rampant addiction. Self destruction. Undiagnosed disabilities. Reaching rock bottom. Going deeper than rock bottom. Climbing back up. Getting knocked back down. Holding on. Letting go. Doubting. Believing. Falling off the path. Getting back on the path. Forgetting and remembering.
There's no doubt, profound awareness can be initiated and cultivated from our entheogenic journeys. The most lasting impact however, is using this lens of consciousness to cultivate meditation, mindfulness, shadow work, integration, creativity, playfulness, unity & love into what I call Entheogenic Alchemy.