New Aion

Approach

Carl Jung applied scientific rigour to mystic wisdom. His alternative psychology provides a framework for psychedelic integration. Only now are its most profound messages coming to light

Evan Roth, ‘Landscapes’ at Wavelength: A Momentary Spring, Beijing Times Art Museum till 1 July

‘The years when I pursued my inner images were the most important time of my life. Everything else is derived from this,’ opens Jung’s masterwork The Red Book.

Leading psychedelic voices say Jung’s established, if exotic, psychology provides an explanatory framework that complements and legitimises the visionary psychedelic experience. Yes, your trippy bullshit is of significance after all.

‘Godfather of Psychedelic Therapy’ Dr Stanislav Grof writes in his definitive work LSD Therapy ‘The only psychiatrist who systematically explored and described many of the transpersonal phenomena we see is Carl Gustav Jung.’

But, “It seems unlikely Jung took psychedelics” writes my Vital tutor Johanna Saponnen in Philosophy of Psychedelics (out now in paperback). Her extensive mapping of Jung’s work comes to mixed conclusions. The acclaimed early 20th century psychologist cautioned fellow intellectuals against the mescaline trend in his correspondence. But his interest seemed piqued by LSD just before his death in 1965 aged 85.

Jung believed delving into our imaginations, instincts and personal mythologies – using techniques he bastardised from alchemy and mysticism – was fraught in itself. Which is possibly fair enough.

“It seems unlikely Jung took psychedelics”

Whether Jung had his wings or not he certainly seemed to know his way around the astral plane, and beyond. Interpreting plus integrating dreams and visions, primeval male and female forces, kabbalistic mental alchemy, re-enchantment, re-storyfication, ‘ancestor work’ the importance of a spiritual practice and – yes – ‘the shadow’ were Jungian tropes. 

He said nature could ‘make us unconscious’ and warned of its potency. Jung was even into embodiment, stressing the importance of a daily yoga practice. He essentially converted to mysticism (despite doggedly maintaining an empirical attitude) after a premonition of the First World War. A spiritual crisis provoked by conflict between his scientific and spiritual sides drove him into isolation. 

“The only psychiatrist who explored transpersonal phenomena is Carl Gustav Jung”

Therein he painted and drew, as opposed to wrote, The Red Book an illuminated train of thought manuscript exploring his most conceptual hypotheses. Jung was so conscious of its obscurity that he only showed it to a handful of confidants. This definitive work of human endeavour was finally published in… 2020. 

It’s not your average mash-up era comeback. And before you conclude the bookish-seeming Jung mustn’t have done his own shadow work, turns out he was a shall-we-say ‘photo polyamourist’ and college jock who swerved penury by marrying an heiress to the IWC Swiss watch dynasty.

What Goddess encounters really say about your lifestyle

Therapy

Those visions and messages from the deep reflect real-world events, relationships and consequences

Wangechi Mutu, ‘Yo Mama’ showing at Intertwined, the New Museum, NYC till 4 June

How do Jungian interpretations of trip reports actually play out in therapy rooms?

Naturally we’re all smug that canonised psychologist Carl Jung – arguably the most famous one after Sigmund Freud and y’know, Jordan Peterson – dignifies the visionary aspect of psychedelic experiences.

Jung’s relational depth psychology explains the personal relevance of dreamlike imaginary narratives in his masterworks including Man and His Symbols and Archetypes of the Unconscious.

But waxing lyrical on your entity encounters is a far cry from a typical talk therapy session.

“It’s not always good to start diving into the archetype that penetrated their body midway through a ceremony”

I asked Vital lecturer Dr Ido Cohen how he uses Jung’s psychology to help patients make sense – and use – of psychedleic experiences.

“It’s important to meet people where they are,” says the accomplished Jungian analyst and scholar of indigenous shamanistic practices, “So I think first I want to listen. I want to listen to where they are, what the actual capacity, is and what the need is.”

Ido, also a scholar of indigenous shamanistic practices, explains: “I have patients who I worked with for years without talking about anything like I have today. You can also have someone specifically psychedelic related, who comes back from retreat really raw and are very, very open, or very, very scared or something. So it's not a good time for them to start diving into like the archetype they saw that penetrated their body midway through a ceremony. That's not what they need right now.”

Jung related mental health to our inner conflict with subconscious yearnings. Poignant visions from dreams or the waking ‘active imagination’ were messages from our deepest instincts, he believed.

But it’s the emotional content, and the compulsions they stir, that bear most relevance.

“I'm not dismissing the image: act it, treat it as though it's real. But my game is curiosity”

Those encounters with the Goddess evoke more down to earth matters. They present as deeply profound because they are wrenched from the collective unconscious, where that which is undeniably bigger-than-us dwells.

“To give you an example: I worked with this young man, lovely young man, riddled with anxiety and low like low self esteem, had a strong Saturnian father, went to ceremony, came back and he's like, You don't you don't understand what happened to me!’,” says Ido. He continues, “I was like, ‘What happens?’ And he paints this scene, where he was on these mountains… and he was a wolf running with a wolf pack. He's describing this to me in vivid detail. I asked him one question: ‘How was it? How did it feel, to run with wolves?’ He said, I've never felt so strong. I have never felt so capable. I've never felt so much in my body. And I've never felt so free’.”

The subconscious demands we confront said urges. Not by actually going feral in the woods with the pack, tempting as it remains.

“You were a wolf. Consider your wolf self”

But instead by transitioning from the being we are, to someone a little more like the one up on the that mountainside. 

“You were a wolf. I'm totally down with that. I'm not dismissing the image: act it, treat it as though it's real,” says Ido Cohen, “But my game is curiosity… to have you consider your wolf self.”

You Must Respect the Circle of Life to Drink Ayahuasca

Space

It’s a mistake to believe psychedelics shelter us from the realities of existence, says The Temple of Light’s Deanna Rogers

From ‘Carmézia Emiliano: The Tree of Life’ at MASP till 11 June

“Life in the jungle is hard. So there are different rules.”

Thus speaks Deanna Rogers, facilitator at The Temple of the Way of Light in Peru. It’s a Shipibo tradition retreat centre where Bruce Parry and Jeremy Narby like to settle in for a brew and a therianthrope chit-chat.

Deanna is also trauma-healing hierophant Dr Gabor Maté’s shamanic bat-woman for his own ceremonies. 

“We think of these healers as peaceful, enlightened beings,” says Deanna, who compares this convenient simplification to a Jungian ‘shadow’ interpretation of a more complex reality.

“But they're human and… they view it like a warrior culture,” she continues, “It’s not about peace and love. That element is there. But for some of them, it's very much about, like… ‘We're spiritual warriors. We go in there and go to battle’,” she explains during Vital’s special lecture series on Jungian shadow therapy. 

Deanna has studied with Shipibo curanderos in Peru for over a decade.

“Westerners come here thinking you can heal everything with peace and love”

Including in Iquitos with a tabaquero shaman, specialising in spiritual energy field defence type stuff, which is obviously sweet. “A total character,” she says, “So, I asked him one day, I don't know if it's good for my diet [pre and post-plant medicine fast], but last night I killed someone in my dream’.” 

The tabaquero threw her an animistic curve ball: “He just laughed at me and he's like, ‘Yeah, westerners come here and they think that you can heal everything with peace and love. But sometimes you need to kill things in order to just put them back in their place.’ I was like… ‘Okay…’”

Lecture host, Vital founder Kyle Buller illustrates Deanna’s point with a gory anecdote.

“Sometimes you need that edge. You need to be the killer. To have that really tough, direct, clear energy”

He describes a Peruvian shaman unsheathing his machete to decapitate a snake; despite protests from his Western voyagers. “Apparently he responded, ‘You must respect the circle of life to drink ayahuasca’.”

There’s a ‘piece’ here, as a therapist might say, about perspective. “How it's been shared with me,” explains Deanna, “is sometimes you need that edge. Sometimes, you need to be the killer. Sometimes you need to have that really tough, direct, clear energy.”

Boundaries can be far more complex to establish than those animated CBT videos makes out. And the Sociopath Next Door, to quote the book, ‘thrives in decorum.’ Which takes fortitude to breach.

“My father Timothy Leary was not a pacifist”

Perhaps this is what Ernst Junger, Germany’s greatest First World War hero and coiner of the term ‘psychonaut’, was getting at when he refused to completely condemn militarism. “My father was not a pacifist,” says Zach Leary, son of Dr Timothy and MAPS podcast host, whenever he gets the opportunity. 

More on the arch and impenetrable art of holding Space:

Lower doses better for shadow work say Jungian therapists

Medical

‘Psycholytic’ techniques with more practicioner involement are making a comeback – and suit lighter trips, claim experts

‘The Psychedelic Eye’ by John Lennon (for it is he) at Kingham lodge sculpture park

Challenging shadow work is best attempted on lower doses of psychedelics with therapist guidance, say Jungian experts – in contrast to current wisdom.

Dr Scott Hill’s Confrontation with the Unconscious is considered the definitive text for using  Jungian psychology in psychedelic therapy and integration. 

Speaking in Vital’s Jungian shadow therapy lecture series, Dr Hill questioned the modern-day orthodoxy for high dose sessions: “Low doses allow us to be more conscious in the experience,” he says.

While recreational MDMA users will tell you “less is more,” the modern-day psychedelic therapy circuit believes in high doses, with ‘non directional’ interaction between therapist and patient.

But “People who keep coming back for high doses may struggle during integration,” Dr Hill continues, “Their experiences are so big – the ‘godhead experience’ – that they struggle to integrate into mainstream reality, and keep wanting to go back.”

Dr Hill says mild doses can still trigger archetypal awareness for example. And he believes experienced users can access and navigate meaningful psychedelic states with lower doses.

“High doses might avoid dealing with the shadow. Maybe that’s why they can disappoint”

Just like many Peruvian shamans believe one becomes more alert to ayahuasca as use increases. (And claiming you’re ‘sensitive to the medicine’ has become a Western humblebrag).

NY-based clinical psychologist Dr Gita Vaid believes intra-muscular ketamine injections can be artfully choreographed to create a specific experience for the patient. 

“High doses might actually be an attempt to avoid dealing with the shadow work. This is why psychedelic experiences can sometimes initially feel disappointing,” she says, “But it’s through the integration process where diamonds of insights can be mined and used for growth.”

Could a skilled therapist lead the complex shadow integration that will truly satisfy patient need?

“What is holding space? Is it just making sure someone's safe or is there a process going on?”

Dr Vaid proposes a re-examination of the ‘psycholytic’ therapy style featuring more interaction between your inner healer, and the outer healer sat alongside.  

“There’s a lot of platitudes in the psychedelic space – I don't even know what we're talking about anymore. What is holding space? Or what's in that umbrella? Is it just making sure someone's safe? Or is there a process going on? And how does one define that?” 

Are we just lame duck ‘shamans’ sitting there not even pretending to commune with supernatural intelligences?

“Frameworks will start emerging to evolve and grow the field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy”

What divides the psychedelic guide from the friendly barman or hairdresser, says Dr Vaid?

“What constitutes the ‘psychotherapy’ part of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy? We don't really have the systems, the language, vocabulary or theoretical frameworks,” she says, “which I'm hoping will start emerging to actually distinguish, differentiate and get more sophisticated – evolve and grow the field.” 

Dr Vaid admits a lack of ambition isn’t limited to the psychedelic sector: “You even hear psychiatrists talking about sleep and exercise, which to me wouldn't constitute psychotherapy in the first place.”

More Medical articles here on New Psychonaut:

Revenge of the Shadow

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Integration

Just when you thought it was safe to step into the sunshine – the Shadow’s back! With its sidekicks Golden Shadow, Collective Shadow, Cultural Shadow, Anti-Shadow and your Anima alone knows what else…

‘Memorabilia’ by Luna Ikuta showing at Wavelength: A Momentary Spring, Beijing Times Art Museum China till 1 July

Thought integrating ‘the parts of you that you’re most ashamed of and keep hidden’ was the trickiest part of Jungian shadow work?

You may be unsurprised to learn that the cycles are just beginning.

There’s the ‘golden shadow’.

This includes the silver linings that inevitably accompany the regular shadow’s negative traits.

Plus perhaps more importantly the agreeable and positive aspects that we’ve smothered. We might suppress compassionate urges to appear indifferent (hard and cool in other words).

"We take the collective shadow and make it our own”

Sounds reasonably clear-cut.

Yet be wary of discriminating between the golden shadow and the murky, original one. “The ‘positive vibes only’ culture is anti-shadow,” says says Jungian analyst Dr Ido Cohen, lecturing in Vital’s shadow work lecture series, "what might be happening that oppresses the shadow?”

That’ll be ‘the collective shadow’. It’s the one who also nailed Christ to the cross, and willingly elects dictators. "We take the collective shadow and make it our own,” Dr Cohen expands. 

“We can absorb the collective shadow, or become numb to it,” adds Dr Portal. Likewise we might celebrate our outsider status; just as psychonaut heads like to do. Should we attempt union? Or consolidate independence? 

“What does integration look like?” says Dr Ido Cohen, “Moving away from these systems and creating something new? Or is it taking pieces of the experience and carrying forth?”

British christian ecologist Paul Kingsnorth has a stark view on navigating shadow work. ‘Sacrifice and surrender are at the heart of faiths,’ he points out, ‘Nobody wants this. But maybe it’s what we have to do?’

Serving up more Integration articles here on New Psychonaut:

Kool-Aid Corner #19

To finish: trippy clippings, merry pranks, and psychedelic student life

Gaika, ‘Convo 2.2 Complex Confessional’

Graph of the Week

There’s no healing without clearing. Nor chanting. Spirits neither

Zuzanna Sadowska, social anthropologist and PhD candidate at the Polish Academy of Sciences speaking at Breaking Convention 2023

My bookshelf weighs a ton

Notable new purchases for the occult library. This week: The Golden Bough by James George Frazer – new full edition

It’s pretty new and I got it for Christmas but it’s £14.99 from Waterstone’s

The forst full version of the Victorian pop-anthropology classic has all the most triggering ideas in one volume. The Golden Bough continues to outrage audiences, as it pricks the Western world’s lack of humility. Not only by illustrating how indigenous customs reflect timeless values, but also by suggesting rituals we label ‘savage’ are played out in cultures who consider themselves eminently more civilised.

It’s where Robert Graves found divine inspiration for The White Goddess, René Girard gave Fraser props in Things Unsaid Since the Beginning for the World. Lovecraft seized on its air of intefatigable, ancient ambivalence his mythos. Wittgenstein wrote a book deploring its colourfully gory naturalistic nihilism, and The Golden Bough appears on Colonel Kurtz’s bedside table in Apocalypse Now.

Fraser bottled it back in the day, but this collection features his punchline – Christ’s crucifixion was basically a human sacrifice.

Editor Robert Fraser’s based at my own alma mater, University of London’s Royal Holloway College (RHC) – described as “a party university” by one of my Vital tutors (yes indeed). Despite its non-intentional reputation RHC, nestled in leafy Surrey, attracts thrusting minds like sex and drugs researcher Alex Aldrydge plus Vital lecturer Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner, joining the likes of Dystopia author Gregory Claeys (who taught me Victorian philosophy).

Into the Unknown?

Approach

Virgin voyagers come to psychedelic specialists for advice on what to expect. Break them in gently with a mock psychedelic ceremony

Casa Organica, Mexico City

“Some people don’t know enough about set or setting,” says Dr Kyle Buller, while lecturing his Vital students on the reality of providing a psychedelic integration therapy service.

Edgelords like us might consider it borderline basic to bust out the tarot cards.

But this is the general public we’re taking out to the edges of consciousness here. It’s probably a good idea to ease them into the whole tripping thing kind-of gradually. 

Kyle’s trade secret solution? A mock min-ceremony.

“You can run, say, a thirty minute breathwork session to find out what clients are comfortable with,” he advises the seasoned transpersonal therapist, cannily.

Sensing out what trippy vibes a virgin voyager’s into – and which they’re decidedly against – could make the difference between them bathing in transcendent bliss – or suffering a total bummer.

How much woo-woo does the client fancy during their experience on a scale of one to ten? Perhaps world music reminds them of their dad? Does incense give them a headache? “Some people simply don’t like those strong smells,” says Kyle.

And may their taste be better suited to a jungle retreat than a western clinic? All this even before we get on to the hugging or not thing.

“A set-up of a ceremony is also a good opportunity to show them how to breathe through difficulty, how to intensify the experience, how to titrate it”

Nervy initiates might just answer ‘I don’t mind’ when asked what their preferences might be, whether they’re deciding which exotic plant medicine to choose from, or how to set out their lounge before a Bloombox-style at-home medical experience. 

But their subconscious might be more assertive, once unleashed. And decide it’s really triggered by classical religious music like an Arvo Part composition say, when you didn’t even twig it was a christian jam.

Or they may seriously not like being touched when they’re coming up, and dislike even a supportive pat on the shoulder.

“A set-up of a ceremony is also a good opportunity them show to breathe through difficulty, how to intensify the experience, how to titrate it,” says the seasoned transpersonal therapist and Vital course leader. 

Easy on the sacred tobacco.