Truffle ceremony or psilocybin therapy?
In trip therapy we use individual truffle ceremonies as psilocybin therapy. It has a lot to do with each other. The biggest difference between therapy under the influence of psilocybin-containing truffles and a truffle ceremony alone is the personal preparation and that the truffle ceremony initially resembles talk therapy. The customer's goal plays a major role in the approach.
The goal of customer Stijn
With Stijn's approval, we may share his information without his surname. After booking a psiloflora ceremony at the Psychedelic Loft location in Schiedam, I asked Stijn what his goal was.
I want to do it as spirituality: self-development.
From this answer I concluded that the main goal was not necessarily therapy and I suggested exploring the meaning of spirituality. I had asked whether Samadhi fits his idea.
Thanks for the film link, I have just watched the first part with great interest!
The day of the ceremony
On the day of the ceremony, before we started we had a good conversation about spirituality, reality and perception, among other things. After Stijn was ready to take the psychedelics (psiloflora), we continued to talk until the effects of the psilocybin started to peak. After this there was a long time of introspection. During landing we started talking again about the experiences and about wanting to understand everything about people.
Still therapy?
Although the approach seemed mainly spiritual and experiential, you will soon read further that this session actually had a largely therapeutic effect. This happens more often and often makes a truffle ceremony even more valuable.
After the ceremony
The days after the ceremony we had email contact about the elaboration of the session and these are the beautifully expressed answers.
Ask: How was your sleep and what were you able to write down about the session?
I did sleep well, not much (only about four hours), but it was enough and it was nice to leave Schiedam in the morning light.
I haven't written anything down yet, but wanted to do so here 🙂
So in the beginning there were the typical hallucinations, the beginning of the trip! When I then lay down on the couch with my eyes closed, it became very intense, mentally and emotionally very deep (heavy) and also physically. My body often had small shocks, I sometimes felt very hot and sweated a lot, and had a lot of pain in my stomach (vomiting) and my heart. It was also a tough rollercoaster mentally and emotionally. But in between there were also moments of insights and acceptance of a lot of things. So although during the experience the overwhelming feeling was that I couldn't let go, afterwards it turned out that a lot had been let go 🙂
The conversations with you afterwards were also very enlightening, I learned a lot and left illusions behind.
Immediately after you left I had to find my way a bit. But after half an hour it went well and I found my peace and contentment (serotonin, aaah). It took a long time to fall asleep, but afterwards it turned out that I actually didn't need much sleep.
Now I feel more settled in myself, peaceful and calm with more self-acceptance. As far as I'm concerned, mission accomplished!
So thank you very much for supervising the ceremony. I'll definitely tell some friends about it. Maybe there will be a sequel. Maybe not. I don't know, but it's probably written somewhere what it will be 😉
The day after the previous message there was a follow-up response:
I remembered more details and have described them below. It still provides important nuances and other accents.
This morning I woke up nice and early again. I feel my body, mind and emotions more deeply and everything feels more relaxed. So today I am even more satisfied with the result!
The new version of the story:
When I lay down on the couch with my eyes closed, the hallucinations that I first saw on the external visual level now continued on the internal level. I saw all kinds of shapes and colors that often changed at a very fast pace and sometimes moved very slowly or disappeared. So there weren't really the classic thoughts anymore, I was no longer thinking about sentences and words, but just watching a huge indescribable visual spectacle. At one point you asked me if I understood what was happening, and I said no. I wasn't concerned with that either: I was just contemplating it all, like an audience member in the theater. That was quite fun, but also very intense. The music also played a role in this. At a certain point the music became very abstract (at least I think so) and it became almost just some tones, pulsations, vibrations. This also continued on the visual level: one time – and I think the music stopped for a moment – there were no visual stimuli and I just looked into a black void. When the pulsations of the music started, there were also visual sensations, for example like Lego blocks moving through space. So here there was a feeling that what I heard was very much in line with what I saw, auditory and visual stimuli flowed into each other.
At a certain point my body started to react very strongly. It felt like a strong cleansing was happening, like my body wanted to throw out a whole bunch of stress. I felt a lot of fatigue being pushed out and sometimes my body would jerk a little as if the tension in my muscles was being pushed out. I was also sweating a lot, almost like I was in a sweat lodge. But that also felt like toxins were being sweated out. I also felt a lot of pain in my stomach and often felt like vomiting. (I've also been having a lot of stomach problems lately, with acid reflux. So now there was probably just a lot of purging going on.) And a lot of pain in my heart, sometimes it was so bad that I feared I was going to have a heart attack get and would die. I also thought that would be really bad for Marcel so I hoped it wouldn't happen. Maybe that also gave me the feeling that I couldn't let go properly. Although a lot was let go in this whole process. It was also very intense on a mental and emotional level and it was a real rollercoaster and a lot was let go. There were also moments of insights and acceptance of who I am in between. The latter was also accompanied by strong feelings for my father and mother, who also accepted me more as I am. The music also played a role here, and at the end there was, for example, a piece of music where a woman sang, more classical music. That felt very comforting, as if I was being placed in the warm arms of my friends who loved me and cared for me.
At the beginning of that intense period you told me that it was good to go inside and so I continued to do so even though it was very intense. But I still had the feeling that something good was happening and that was clear afterwards, because I felt how calm and relaxed I had become.
There was also the occasional feeling of dying and being born again, although that was more of a feeling than really a visual or sensory experience. Even afterwards, something lingered: the feeling of being able to (have to) start my life again. Everything could take a new turn and it all depends on my choices. Making decisions is not really my strong suit, so at one point I was struggling with that: what should I do now? Also about simple things such as which bed should I lie in, should I eat now, should I make dinner now, should I take a shower? But after a while it became clear to me that something always happens: at some point I am in a certain bed, there is food and time to shower. Things happen the way they are supposed to happen and it is now easier to just deal with it.
Conclusion
Stijn completely surrendered to the experience and it is that surrender that produces the best results. Letting life happen the way it should happen can bring us so much. I would like to thank Stijn enormously for his trust and willingness to share his story.
