“Are we going to take drugs here?” The first time someone invited me to go into a plant medicine ceremony, I wasn’t sure what to think:
“Is this even legal? Is this some kind of cult?”
And later, I started to understand that I had all sorts of different predetermined ideas about plant medicine that were very much built upon the Western idea that these substances are drugs and that they should be avoided.
In fact, my perspective was so biased that I unfairly believed that people who went into plant medicine were addicted to drugs. Unfortunately, I had a low opinion of everything about plant medicine, purely because of what I had been conditioned to believe from society.
Thankfully, I learned that plant medicine is so much more than a drug, and that there is a big difference between it being a drug and a healing practice. The true difference does not lie in the substance itself, it lies in the intention with which we are taking it.
How to tell your plant medicine is a drug:
Intention is what matters.
When we take a psycho-active drug such as psilocybin mushrooms, as an example (these are also known as truffles and are legal in the Netherlands), we take it to escape our current reality, as we would if we were drinking alcohol: we go party on a Friday night to forget about our life, to forget about our worries, to disconnect from the stress and obligations of daily life.
And even if drinking alcohol isn’t necessarily about trying to escape – it can often be about trying to have a good time, to enjoy, and relax. Drinking alcohol has the intention of: “I wish to experience this; I wish to feel this way; I drink this to have a good time with my friends.”
It is an anticipation on a certain outcome, which is simply to have a good time.
And just like people use alcohol as an escape or relaxant, many people will also turn to plant medicine to achieve the same effect. When this happens, plants are no longer a medicine – they are a DRUG.
And this is not how plant medicine can ever be used.
Plant medicine is used to look within.
Plant medicine is about healing and finding connection
Plant medicine is used to look within.
While drugs and alcohol are often about disconnecting from reality, plant medicine is about finding connection with what is real.
It’s about finding deep healing through that connection – connecting with what has been living inside of us that we haven’t been able or willing to see yet. Perhaps this is a past pain – something that happened in your life that you didn’t like and that you put away, like an old memory or traumatic experience.
Plant medicine can help us connect with the parts of ourselves that are staying small or playing it safe. It helps us see the truth of a situation, and the truth of our potential.
It can even help us face an unconstructive habit so you can understand the truth of why you are unconsciously doing that.
Maybe plant medicine will even reveal to you why you are neglecting your health by taking certain substances or getting lost in porn or Netflix.
Plant medicine helps us face the sometimes uncomfortable truth of what is real.
Taking plant medicine is about walking hand-in-hand with creation itself – it is impossible to be put into words; it has to be experienced.
Learn how to surrender to plant medicine
When we take a plant medicine, we need to be willing to be as vulnerable as possible so that we can allow the healing to happen. If we try to control an outcome too much, we will block the plant medicine from being able to heal us.
In order to allow this vulnerability, we need to learn to surrender.
When you take a plant medicine – close your eyes and ask the medicine what it wishes to offer us. Be willing to:
- …listen to what it has to say to you.
- …face whatever it exposes to you.
- …make difficult choices because of its guidance – such as giving up a habit, belief, or outlook on life.
When we truly surrender, we remember that we are part of the universe: we are part of the plants, the animals, all that lives, the Great Spirit.
Plant medicines are our greatest healers and teachers
In a plant medicine ceremony, we are sitting upright, around the fire, and allowing the plant medicine to work with us – hand-in-hand. We allow the feelings and visions that come up; we don’t walk away from them no matter how uncomfortable they are. We don’t escape them – we let it go through us. We are thankful for it – regardless of what it is that comes up.
And then we do the internal work by saying, “What is a new perspective for me?”
In the end, all healing is about finding a new perspective.
That is how we work with the medicine. Yes, it is work sometimes – not by working hard, but by being vulnerable and real.
We take plant medicines to heal and grow. When this is our intention, plant medicines will be our greatest healers; our greatest teachers.
Plant medicine helps us face the sometimes
uncomfortable truth of what is REAL.
What’s your intention?
If you’re taking plant medicines to escape your reality, to relax, to have fun or let loose – you’re taking drugs. That’s all there is to it, my friends.
But, if your intention is to expand, to look within, to find presence and connection, to heal – then you are truly taking a plant medicine.
Taking plant medicine is about walking hand-in-hand with creation itself – it is impossible to be put into words; it has to be experienced.
And in order to experience it, you have to let go of all of your ideas of what it is.
To let go of all your fears about plant medicine.
To just step up and come forward. To go into ceremony with all that you have, which is, in the end, only your heart.
Trust and enjoy the process.
This is your invitation…
If you’ve been waiting for a sign to go into ceremony, here it is. This is your invitation.
Join me for a plant medicine ceremony – learn more at TruffleHealing.com.
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