facebook script image
psychedelic navigation

Let’s consider psychedelic navigation around our vast sea of consciousness. What is our latitude? our longitude? How do we chart a course?

I been slowly reading a book called Longitude by Dava Sobel. It’s about how the desire to sail the seas inspired innovation in clock making. Timekeeping is required to measure longitude, I’ve discovered. Latitude is easy. On the northern hemisphere, you can simply measure the angle between the horizon and Polaris, and you’ve got your latitude.

But longitude has no such star. To figure out your longitude, you need to know the difference in time between where you are and the Prime Meridian, which is currently in Greenwich, England. About every four minutes is a degree.

 

 

What does this have to do with psychedelic integration? Well, first of all, it’s nice to learn some simple physics every once in a while to balance out the metaphysics. Happy to learn a little more about the place I live.

But it got me thinking about navigating around the vast sea of consciousness. What is our latitude? our longitude? How do we chart a course? I’m guessing that if I asked a hundred psychonauts, I’d get a hundred answers, and If I wrote this next week, I might even have another answer. but I’ve been chewing on it for a few weeks, and this is what I’ve come up with.

Ethics are our latitude. Ethics are universal really, unchanging. We don’t hurt people, we don’t steal things. It’s uncomplicated. There is a reason why every decent spiritual practice and religion has ethical standards. Especially practices that produce changes in consciousness. The yoga sutras for example, have yama and niyama. One is expected to spend a great deal of time contemplating them in order to stabilize one’s consciousness and prepare it for meditation and samadhi. We want compassion, non-violence, humility to be in our default mode for when things get weird. This is what helps us take our ‘yoga off the mat’ as they say. And we all know that Robert Anton Wilson famously referred to our psychedelic work as ‘Chemical Yogas’.

 Longitude is perhaps a little more personal. This is where our personal commitments and intentions line up. We may be in it for therapeutic reasons, or ceremonial, or for a deeper connection to our loved ones. Even for fun or curiosity. It’s really up to you, it’s just helpful when it’s consciously chosen.

What we have is the intersection between the personal and the universal. What the cosmos asks of us and what we ask of the cosmos.

Maybe next week, we’ll delve into how we can move skillfully through our open sea. We’ve actually been working to answer this question for years. You can explore this in our mini class Meditative Preparations for Psychedelic Journeys

If you have other ideas about how to chart this big globe of the mind, I’m happy to hear it.

 

Whenever you're ready, there are a few ways Tam Integration can support you:

 

1. If you're looking for community integration support, you're welcome to join our circles. They are free and donations are accepted. The time and dates are here.

2. If you're looking to learn more about psychedelics, their conscious use, and your place in this new field, I'd recommend starting with our immense archive:

Our Online Recorded Conferences: Get access to over 200 hours of recorded content from a wide array of leaders speaing about all aspects of psychedelic research, practice, and theory. Your first month is only $1   Enjoy connecting with the larger community.

3. If you're looking for a deeper exploration of  psychedelics, and want to make them a greater part of your life, you can explore our courses and trainings:

→ Create Your Own Integration Circle: A multi-step system for creating a high-quality newsletter and 6-12 pieces of high-performance social media content each week. Join 1,000+ students.

Meditation for the Journey: Meditative approaches to more conscious psychedelic use, and how to more confidently sit for yourself, your family, and friends. Join the February 2023 Community.

Mentorship for Psychedelic Professionals: If you want to become a leader in this new wave of psychedelic culture, mentorship can help dedicated students and professionals grow into this burgeoning field. Set up an intro call here.

4. Promote yourself to 13k+ subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter

1 Shares
Pin1
Reddit
Flip
Share
Tweet