People say it's only common sense, once you know it...

Maybe that applies here. Numerous times on the nexus have read things along the lines of; you need to integrate your experience. Awhile back it was suggested that taking a week off work so that beginners have the time needed to integrate their first breakthrough would be good.

Slight side topic: It's been said that people should integrate their shadow. Relating to Carl Jung and the shadow. I understand what the shadow is but integrating it? Is it not integrated in me already?

Feel like I have no idea how to do this or what it means exactly?

Let's choose another word. Integration means processing. These experiences, both the shadow side and psychedelic journeys bring to us a lot of information. DMT in particular can give you so much information all at once. It can feel like it's just a blur. It can take time to 'process' all that information.

For me, with DMT, there are no reference points. No signs and it always seemed like the information was given to me with a language I am not familiar with. No landmarks. But somehow a message does come across.

Let me give you a personal example of how integration has worked for me in one instance. During a DMT journey I came back to this reality and had this phrase in my mind. Blaring almost and somehow I had no idea why I was thinking it. It seemed to be uploaded or implanted into my consciouness, for lack of a better way to describe it. It said "Expand your language!". It seemed important to me, yet I could not tell why it was important. I will tell you I think about this every single day. So what does this message 'Expand your langauge' mean. I have been processing/integrating this for years now.

I have figured out pieces of what it means to me personally. I tried learning another language. I tried expanding my vocabulary. I tried many things. Ultimately what I have come up with is to speak to myself and the world in another way. Approaching life in what to me is another language. This is where I am at with just this one message, and I have received quite a few over the years. As I mentioned, I am still integration/processing this. There really is no clear cut answer to this question of what 'expand your language' means. DMT creates far more questions than answers.

I guess at the end of the day that is the point. The mind wants to find solutions to questions and cannot. It loops out trying to figure out what it all means. Watching all this occur in me gave me some valuable information. That one phrase I received changed the way I was thinking. The mind enjoys puzzles. I love watching it try and figure it out. It's actually quite amazing! Question, Question, Question....... and then suddenly I am on the outside looking in in awe at what it does. Now I am in awe of watching all this occur. It just goes on and on. Infinite!

That is what I love about DMT. It knows just what to say. It knows just how to present something for your mind to keep busy with a puzzle that has no solution. I think this integration thing is highly personal. I could go on for hours with many more examples of this. The endless questions that have endless answers. It is quite beautiful! Watching the shadow side can be beautiful as well. My greatest teachers come from this place and I give them gratitude!

Good luck with your integration! Seems to me you are already doing it.

Hey Daft Monkey,

there are at least a small handful of threads (if not more than that) that I have seen here on the Nexus Forum over the years that are rather enlightening discussions about just exactly what you are asking here.


Use the "search" feature located in the upper right-hand corner just below the banner (next to the "active topics" feature) and search away! You will be amazed at what you can find on this forum!

Meanwhile, this thread here is as good a place to begin as any. I thought it was a very well thought out thread by those who have participated in it so far.

Best of luck to you!

P.S. Keep in mind that some integrations can last a lifetime or perhaps more. I began my entheogenic journey a little over 35 years ago and I am still processing a lot of it to this very day. The most important thing is to stay calm, enjoy the infinitesimally small amount of time we get in this form and be grateful.

Thanks for the replies both very helpful. Will definitely make better use of search.

Incidentally or not, shortly after my post smoked 5mg freebase. Some faint closed eye visuals then at the very end the word "fumarate" came to me loud and clear no reason. But this DMT

After doing my homework this word alone was relevant to how I'd been storing my DMT.

Amazing that even a tiny amount can get a message across.

Integration means different things for different people.

For me it means when I hit baseline again. That being the place where it all sits just fine, the questions don't bother me and all is okay.

Then come the different levels. Where I think I've integrated, then comes the next phase, then the next. My baseline will become more and more solid, lower frequency and more earthly as time goes on. A year or two after I thought I had hit baseline and integrated I realise how lost I was... how little I had understood. Perfect hindsight is a marvellous thing.

It's a long journey that means so many different things for different people.

I guess the only thing that matters is how we integrate these things for ourselves. The meaning I have taken will most likely not apply to anyone else, others meaningful experiences are little more than alien riddles to me as well.

We are truly alone in this journey, even though we take part together.

Adding to this conversation:

https://wiki.dmt-nexus.m...h_and_Safety#Integration

I may add to this later, as this is a subject of particular interest and attention for me.

But simply put, integration for me is simply putting into effect the vision of the perfect life that psychedelics give me. It is a long involved process of learning to love,to learn how to be quiet enough to listen to the still small voice in my heart that knows the right way to do everything.

It is aligning my actions with love and my thoughts with understanding.

It is understanding that all this is impermanent and ultimately meaningless but that I will not live to see it fall, it is my world in which to live.

And that^^^^^, right there, is why I love null24 so much!

This thread has been cleaned up. This is an important topic and there is a lot of great info here. Let's try to avoid the bickering and keep it useful from here on out.

Believe it or not helping people integrate psychedelic experiences is actually a thriving business. Google "psychedelic integration" and literally hundreds of individuals and groups will pop up. A lot of it looks fairly dodgy in the life coach kinda way, but the open groups look pretty interesting, and MAPS maintains a list of professionals doing this work.

Erowid also has a list of integration tips as part of a whole basics vault jammed with information on approaching these experiences.

Lastly, I stumbled across a great article on the subject recently:
Intention Setting and Integration: How to Make the Most of a Psychedelic Experience