How to solo journey?

Two different answers. Which is yours?

The question: “How to solo journey with psychedelics?” To me, sounds a lot like asking: “How to drive a car on my own?” In one word: CAREFULLY.

In more words: If you have to ask how to do any one of these activities solo, perhaps it’s better you don’t engage with them by yourself quite yet. For your first few times in the driver seat of a car or of an altered state experience, you may want to have a more experienced fellow next to you to show you around, and to be of support should things get real. Because they might.

When people ask: “How to journey on my own?” more often than not they really ask: “How to guarantee I have a successful experience?” AKA avoid a bad or challenging trip.

Asking for guidance to avoid a challenging trip is much like asking: “How do I swim so I never drown?” One way to avoid drowning is to stay bone dry and never go near water. But that’s hella boring. So here are two answers.

(Answer 1) To minimize chances of drowning, become a really good swimmer. Learn in a pool before jumping in the ocean. Know the currents. And, in the open sea, have a lifeguard watching out for you. Similarly—before jumping solo into the ocean of altered state, consider training with more experienced altered state explorers and guides. Once you’ve gained sufficient experience, go explore.

Just like we don’t teach people remotely how to swim—because we cannot remotely help them in case of a challenge—I intentionally don’t widely give prescriptions on how to solo journey. The confidence to do so better rest on a level of readiness and/or enough experience. Which is where a deeper answer lies, at least for some of you. Bear with me.

(Answer 2) Some never pauses to ask “How to solo journey?” Some just dove-in head first, as naturally as a baby who takes to swimming fresh out the womb. I, as many reading, am in this camp.

Dutch people teach kids how swim in freezing cold water, with their clothes shoes and backpacks on.

I used to live in the Netherlands (en ik spreek Nederlands) where they literally throw fully clothed first graders, with their 🎒school backpacks on, into a pool of very cold water. Sounds sadistic? The Netherlands is famous for its canals which freeze in the winter, and people of all ages can skate on them. Throwing fully clothed children with their backpack on into freezing water is meant to teach them to swim (and not go into shock) should they walk on a frozen canal and the ice broke under them. Dutch people don’t just teach kids how to swim in their swimsuit in lukewarm water. These people mean business. They teach kids, in real world conditions, how not to die.

My learning path with mushrooms was more like the Dutch way of teaching kids how to swim. From the first time I got my hands on mushrooms, over two decades of dancing with them through life, it was me and my m&m: mushrooms and music. 🎶 As far as dosage went, early on I threw myself off of a cliff into the stormy waves of a cold open ocean 🌊, with a lot more than a backpack strapped to my back. It taught me to swim, alright. And I know this was my path to walk in order for 42 to be born. To tell you that I advise anyone else to follow in my footsteps? Absolutely not. Things got way real.

So yea, I intentionally don’t focus on prescribing set, setting, and dosage, because that is just the dress-up. Every amateur can prescribe that. Medicine is but a conditioner. The real real is how to detangle the knots that will rise to the surface.

What does one do when trauma arises? How does one move stuck energy? What to do if one finds themselves in resistance—or worse yet—what to do if/when looping? This is where the focus lies. If you feel the confidence to take on that exploration—blessings on your journey, darling. Prepare properly, make the time and space, be in conversation with self and the medicine about dosage, have an experienced loved one check on you, at least upon closing. Be sure to close well. Upon closing, call yourself to your body and to the present moment. And I cannot say this enough: integrate well.