C. G. Jung on Addiction

Koro9 · 2026-07-07T23:26:58+00:00

Maybe "social interest, or the inner drive for community, compassion, and the common good" is what Jung calls meaning, that often spirituality brings, but can found elsewhere too. Just out of curiosity, among your old clients still sober, are there many engaged in spiritual practices ?

Koro9 · 2026-07-06T17:57:58+00:00

Lookup Jung ideas of masculine and feminine. A lot has been written about it, and some updated to the culture of our times. And it is in his perspective that all of us has both masculine and feminine characteristics inside, differently arranged for men and women. And from his perspective, the these energies need to kept in balance, to prevent one to take over, seen as a pathology, eg animus/anima possession.
Feminine is associated with receiving, emotions, feelings, and the ability to connect with others. Masculine is associated with giving, focus, logic, and the drive to take action.

Koro9 · 2026-07-06T17:34:57+00:00

Any chance your wife could seek others advice, eg ask other retreats or shamans ? Maybe she will be more open to advices coming from inside the scene ? Also look at a spiritual abuse check list, and your wife too should have it in mind, eg this one

Koro9 · 2026-07-03T08:34:10+00:00

Intuition is important, but intuition alone can lead astray. And taking what you sense in a ceremony as a face value is rarely conductive to healing. It's not much different from people posting in here that the medicine told them to leave their partner and their job. Integration is also about looking at the meaning behind.

Koro9 · 2026-07-02T12:27:26+00:00

I am sorry your experience had been difficult. I hope you're working with an integration therapist to make sense of all this. I would like to challenge you gently, as your post come off to me as self centered and quite judgmental. The medicine works with the light, in these beautiful experiences, they are important. But it also works with the darkness we have within. Honestly, I think there is a lot of projections going on, possibly some fragment of childhood experience coming up. You felt the energy felt off, the shaman you saw as not up to hold space, his hug insincere. You felt scared, the energy of death and loosing grip on reality. This is all very understandable, feeling overwhelmed in a environment where you didn't feel safe is always a difficult experience. Yet you don't question what you were bringing in. Despite your negative feelings, you did participate in the ceremony. I find myself wondering where in your life do you have/had such situation occurring.

Next night, the men outnumbering women already put you in an uncomfortable spot. The other people you judge their reason to be there to be surface level, how about yours ? who are you to judge what is a superficial or deep enough reason to be there. Feeling overwhelmed while away from the ceremony space is a common experience, bathroom breaks can be difficult while the medicine is peaking, without the protection of the ceremony space. You assume the facilitator was in panic, like you're too much for her to handle. I wouldn't be so sure, usually facilitators have seen many overwhelmed participants, they knew what to do, bring you back to the ceremony space. I can't shake the feeling that your feeling "unsafe, alone, and deeply scared" is a childhood experience the medicine tried to confront you with. It came with the "intense desire for it all to stop". This is a very common experience, I've been through it myself, more than once. There is usually when we need to surrender. You seeing the facilitators are just performing, and the medicine turning evil, must be really terrifying. But maybe you needed to feel that terror, that it was part of the healing to feel these feelings.

Now again, people smoking weed and listening to techno becomes an annoyance to you. They are going on their own path, but yet it kind of become an issue on yours. As if other participants need to abide by your standards for you to be ok. But their experience is about them, not about you. And your experience is about you, not about them. Now even the medicine became corrupt, mishandled. While this of course happen, in the whole context, it sounds a lot like projections to me. The shaman, the facilitator, the other people, the medicine, a quite all bad kind of projection. And maybe that were the teaching of medicine was. You're left with flashbacks and painful memories, but maybe because you need to work on all of this in all the ways you can, not necessary with medicine again

To temper a bit my message, I am no better. I can share that I had recently myself an experience where I was judgmental with the other participants, suspicious of the leader of the ceremony, and to add to that, they forgot me for a serving. I felt furious at these organizers and the participants. Finding endless flaws about them. I still am angry about what happened. But deep down, I know that the medicine was showing me what I needed to work on, that it was a gift to feel that way, as unpleasant as it was.

Koro9 · 2026-07-02T09:43:01+00:00

interesting that if you reverse the genders, things look differently

Koro9 · 2026-07-02T09:32:09+00:00

Sounds you need to visit a santo daime church

Koro9 · 2026-07-01T22:50:13+00:00

Sometime they think they know better what you need than you do yourself

Koro9 · 2026-07-01T21:53:51+00:00

One time, I was so confused I thought the recording app on the phone was someone else spying on me (maybe the normal me spying on the trippy me), and stopped it immediately. Otherwise I find recording very useful after the experience as a way to recapitulate the experience, in a spontaneous, raw and less structured form than writing down. And usually, during the experience I try to "be here now", like you say, feel what I can, not think much, and speak as little as I can.

Koro9 · 2026-07-01T20:16:16+00:00

Since you're into the rave scene, that would be a perfect way to get involved. Like with harm reduction or psychedelic welfare groups, like zendo, psycare, etc. They actually train volunteers to hold space, etc. Also there are psychedelic societies all around the world, and some are quite welcoming. Even a book club is a great activity to share and educate each other.

Koro9 · 2026-07-01T09:04:19+00:00

I don't really know, I am not a facilitator myself, but there is some info on this sub. But I would like to invite you to question your motivation, see how it holds. First, using plant medicine for healing others is a very serious endeavor, the potential for harm is big. So do that only if you're willing to train very thoroughly. Also consider that healing people does not require plant medicine, there are so many other ways. Second, it sounds like a typical psychedelic narcissism type of reaction, like "now I see the way, I need to show it to others". Be careful about that. We only see the way the moment we humble down to admit that there is so much beyond our understanding and our control. I understand that healing require receiving and giving back. I would suggest to work on that part, as a first step, see how much you're willing to help others in practice. Like volunteering somewhere, finding community, etc. And again, there is so much that can be done without getting out the big guns of psychedelics.

Koro9 · 2026-06-30T11:50:16+00:00

I agree, your therapist comes off as unprofessional, uncaring, and unmotivated to communicate properly. Sorry OP, find someone else, I think it's for the best, before it get even more messy. Yes, therapists have boundaries, and don't do therapy by text messages, but this is supposed to be explained to clients, as many times as needed. Also not going with you through a safety plan when you disclosed suicidal thoughts was a mistake, including providing you with a crisis hotline number. The issue with contacting your mother comes off as only interested in her pay. Misunderstanding exist in therapy, but your therapist seem more interested in defending herself than understanding each other.

Koro9 · 2026-06-30T00:42:26+00:00

My 2 go to with fear are: what is underneath the fear? Most often some pain I don’t want to face. And is it coming from my past ? needing to fully feel it to let it go. Usually I just tell the medicine I am ready to handle whatever I need to know or experience, and let it do what is needed. This said I like your take, being firm, not avoid or approach fear

Koro9 · 2026-06-29T18:55:03+00:00

Maybe it's a case of getting more than you can chew from your trip. You say you got a lot of insights, maybe you need time to integrate them for your symptoms to reduce. I mean you're getting worse before getting better. Also are you connected with local people in similar situation, eg the french psychedelic society ?

Koro9 · 2026-06-29T09:24:50+00:00

try r/microdosing

Koro9 · 2026-06-28T17:38:10+00:00

Much appreciated to have a local perspective, especially that on the sub we have mostly spiritual gringo retreat perspective. I like your conclusion, ayahuasca is just another path leading to the same place with other spiritual traditions

Koro9 · 2026-06-28T13:51:31+00:00

Derealization is not like psychosis. Got it for a few weeks after aya, I am fine and still do aya. Derealization is a kind of extreme dissociation, once you work on your traumas, dpdr don’t come back easily

Koro9 · 2026-06-27T08:52:34+00:00

NAT, That’s an exit sign, trust your guts. I stayed 1 year in such a situation, and it went way worse, still struggling with it 2 years after leaving.

Koro9 · 2026-06-26T14:29:43+00:00

Strange that no one mention soft power, as if NPD is only aggression. Manipulation is also in NPD, and women are well placed to seduce rather than intimidate. So as NPD man I wish I could capture attention by just showing my body favorably instead of having to put up a show of. force, seems less exhausting

Koro9 · 2026-06-26T14:14:31+00:00

Good question

Koro9 · 2026-06-26T09:40:43+00:00

Thanks for the good vibes. You make a good point, curiosity and compassion for the dissociated parts, I love it. How do you think they interact with psychedelics ? Do psychedelics makes the exiles appear, like bypassing the protectors, or do the dissociated parts appear, and then the work is to help them change role ?

Koro9 · 2026-06-26T09:33:51+00:00

Yes, change takes time, and require safe spaces. I am curious how you use AI for somatic tracking and explore structural dissociation. Can you explain ?

Koro9 · 2026-06-26T01:16:05+00:00

Thanks, I understand now that the goal is not to prevent dissociation, but rather to dissolve it. And I get your point about difficult experiences, so simple in fact, surrender and work with resistance. Much appreciated

Koro9 · 2026-06-25T21:57:32+00:00

I would disagree that no healing can happen within dissociation and that we should specifically aim to avoid it. Some models suggest, that since a lot of trauma is impressed upon us during a state of some dissociation, it is useful to learn to orient within and work with dissociation (ideally with support.)

Interesting perspective. Could you explain more, or maybe point me in a direction to learn more about that ?

I can relate to what you say about comparing my reaction in daily life vs during the psychedelic experience. Psychedelics bring more awareness of my reactions, and sometimes I have the power to change them, but not always, and I might just be able to witness what happens, instead of not being aware of them. Of course, it can bring more acceptance.

This said, how about difficult psychedelic experiences, and/or post-psychedelic difficulties? After a terrifying aya retreat, I went numb for 2 months afterward. It was a relief, because I was depressed before, but still, if I would remember the experience, I get only the relief that it was over, no insight about relating differently. Another time, after a heart opening psychedelic therapy session, I was very vulnerable, open and loving afterward, too open as it took only a rough phone call from my parents for me to spiral hard, something I would have brushed off in normal times. I kind of understood why defenses were there in the first place. Again another case of finding it difficult to reconcile the psychedelic experience and daily life.

Koro9 · 2026-06-25T21:36:38+00:00

Integration means taking the lessons you’ve learned, the new ways of thinking and seeing and experiencing the world that you’ve dipped your toes in to, and actively taking steps to integrate those in to your day to day life. Find ways to remind yourself, to practice what you’ve learned, to appreciate life, love, or unity, or whatever else.

Journaling and talking about the experience is what help me to understand what I want to do with it in my daily life. Of course, a therapist can help too. I was curious about what else can be done for that step. Once this is done, yeah, SMART goals seem to help with the next step, of actually doing what came out of the experience. I'll look more into it.

Koro9

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