What is Psychedelic Integration?

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

— Steve Jobs

The term “integration” is somewhat ambiguous in Western culture, but is generally utilized to describe the period following a psychedelic experience - days, weeks, months, and even years - that involves (1) making sense of the experience and (2) applying its lessons to everyday life.

However, while research attests to the essential role integration plays in the maintenance of the long-term psychotherapeutic gains that can be achieved with psychedelics there is no standardized model or process of integration. To make things even more confusing, a wide range of definitions of integration have been put forward, characterized by an even wider variety of integrative practices, historically without models or guidance as to when and why particular integration practices might be chosen. Due to this lack of structure, integration is often only briefly mentioned in books, articles, and by the media despite its widely cited importance to retaining benefits and working through psychedelic experiences. Often, integration is mentioned as an afterthought and presented as a suggested list of activities an individual can engage in after their psychedelic experience.

It is sometimes said that Indigenous peoples do not have the same need for formal integration because psychedelics are utilized within the community and with a more holistic worldview or because psychedelics are already more integrated into the Indigenous cultures that utilize them. In contrast to Indigenous cultures that have a tradition with psychedelics, Western participants may not possess adequate cultural references to comprehend complex, abstract, and symbolic content that often emerges with psychedelics, necessitating therapeutic support throughout the process, including during the integration stage. Thus, making integration that much more important.