On emotions, therapy and the psychedelic experience

One of the ways I find best to look at emotions is to compare them to food and our digestive system. Like food, emotions are organic material that require processing (or digestion) by the body. Also like food, some emotions are more complex than others and subsequently require more effort and time to process.

If a certain food contains ingredients that cannot be digested, it creates a blockage somewhere in the body, which in-turn, interferes with further digestive processes. Similarly, if emotions aren't processed properly, they are stored somewhere in the body, and continue to adversely impact a person's ability to process their emotional world.

Like with food, we generally develop an ability to process more complex emotions as we mature. It is therefore, why traumatic emotional experiences that occur during early childhood are often so hard to overcome. At the time that they occur, we simply do not possess the tools to digest what needs digesting. These emotions are subsequently stored, fester, resulting in long-term emotional issues.

In a therapeutic setting, much of the deeper work is focused on trying to connect to these traumatic childhood experiences; to feel, hold space and to expunge the emotional blockages; with the end goal aiming at returning the body back to ‘normal’ emotional functionality.

The problem with such work is that many of these experiences occur at ages that we don't remember, or that we've cognitively suppressed. The work through our defenses to access these experiences can be arduous and often futile.

And, unless the emotion is completely worked through (cut at the root), it will continue to re-surge and affect emotional functionality.

You see the problem here...and the challenges faced in such therapeutic endeavours.

For me, psychedelics offer a modified approach to this problem. The ability to bypass ego using these substances creates an environment where much more of my emotional experiences are available. The sensations associated with each experience can also be felt more deeply.

My significantly enhanced mind-body interaction during these states can also allow for a connection with the physical location of each blockage, which in-turn can help with their processing and release.

With some psychedelics (such as Ayahuasca) a connection to the actual traumatic experience may not even deem necessary. The vine spirit has been know to locate and grip the emotion at its core (without conscious help from the participant), and force the digestive process to take place (it has happened to me).

Granted, experiencing old, painful, childhood emotions, under a psychedelic setting, with no defenses/ego, can be a harrowing experience. But the rewards generally speak for themselves.

Not to mention the time, money and energy saved on trying to outsmart your defenses...in order to free yourself…

Thanks for reading :)