Grofians Unauthorized
Discussion Group
Grofian Peyotists
The Preparation Period - Part I
The following excerpts are from
LSD PSYCHOTHERAPY. Grof, S. 1980
ISBN 0-89793-166-1
http://www.promind.com/bk_lps.htm
--excerpts from Chapter 4:
"A very important element of the preparation is the development of a trust relationship between the guide and the client. The ability of the subject to let go of psychological defenses and surrender to the experience, which is crucial for successful outcome of the session, is directly proportional to the degree of trust in the sitters. Trust is thus the single most important prerequisite of safe and effective psychedelic therapy. In the most general sense it is of great relevance to the course of any . . . session; however, there are certain specific situations in which the element of basic trust plays a particularly crucial role. Any work on the roots of one's distrust of other people and the world at large is critically dependent on the quality of the relationship between the experient and the guides. Similarly, the ability to face the experience of ego death in all its complexity and depth usually requires good external grounding in a dependable therapeutic situation. In view of the importance of the relationship between the guides and the client, the preparation for a session should not be just a one-sided flow of information but should give the subject a chance to get to know the future sitters. Ideally, instead of being a conventional exchange of cliches, the preparation period and the therapeutic process should represent a genuine human encounter." (pp. 127-128)
"Another important part of the preparation is to inform the client briefly of the range of experiences that can occur during the session, such as perceptual changes in various sensory areas, reliving emotionally relevant experiences from childhood, sensations related to diseases and operations, elements of the death-rebirth process, and various transpersonal phenomena. Since many of these are beyond the conventional frameworks, it is useful to encourage the client to give up intellectual analysis during the session and focus on the experience itself. Otherwise, reason can become a powerful obstacle to exploring new areas of experience. The intensity of psychedelic states also deserves notice; it is important to prepare the client for the fact that the dimensions of the experience will probably be beyond anything that he or she has ever faced before or could even imagine in the usual state of consciousness. Although no words can adequately communicate the intensity of a high-dose . . . experience, such a warning can save the candidate from shock and panic during the session.
It is essential to discuss in advance several situations that are the most frequent sources of difficulty in . . . sessions. The first of these is the 'experience of dying,' which can be so dramatic, realistic and convincing that the subject can easily mistake it for a real physiological emergency. This is particularly true for the confrontation with death that occurs on the perinatal level; it may be associated with many acute biological signs that can alarm not only the subject but also an inexperienced sitter. The drastic changes of color, seizure-like motor activity, projectile vomiting, profuse sweating, and fast thread-like pulse that accompany the experience of dying can be very convincing as indicators of physical crisis, and may contribute to the failure to recognize its symbolic nature. There exists another type of confrontation with death that occurs on the transpersonal level. It does not usually have the same heavy biological emphasis or the form of a violent life-threatening assault. The major focus of the transpersonal form of confrontation with death is on the relative ratio between attachment to the world and the desire to leave it. As a process it is much more subtle, and tends to have the quality of relatively free decision-making. It is primarily the perinatal encounter with death that presents problems in the sessions, and it should be discussed with the subject in advance. It is important to convey that the perinatal experience of dying occurs in the context of the death-rebirth process, and that total surrender to it is always followed by feelings of liberation, whereas struggle against it prolongs the suffering.
The second frequent problem in . . . sessions is the 'feeling that the experience will never end or that permanent insanity is imminent.' A special instance of this state is the no-exit experience. It is of critical importance for the subject to know that the fastest way out of this condition is to accept the content of the experience. No judgements about the outcome of the session made while it is still in progress should be considered valid assessments or predictions; they should be treated as part of the experience. Thus, paradoxically, accepting that one will stay in the hellish experience forever leads to its termination, and total surrender to permanent insanity results in a move to higher sanity. As in the case of the death experience which frequently accompanies the fear of psychosis, fighting the specter of impending doom and insanity prolongs the unpleasant state and keeps the subject in the sphere of its influence.
The third most common source of panic is the 'fear of becoming homosexual.' It is usually initiated by feelings of very authentic identification with representatives of the opposite sex. A male subject can experience not only an authentic female body image, but also a very genuine sense of what it feels like to be pregnant, to deliver a child, or to have a vaginal and clitoral orgasm. The less frequent equivalent experience in the female usually does not involve a sense of having a masculine body, but male psychological characteristics. It is necessary to reassure the subject that this is a very unique opportunity to gain access to the experiential world of the opposite sex. It will ultimately strengthen the sense of one's own sexual identity rather than cause a homosexual transformation. Another source of homosexual fears can be sudden feelings of physical attraction to the sitter of the same sex. These can usually be deciphered as transference of early sensual feelings toward the parent of the same sex. The deepest source of homosexual panic in a male subject seems to be the emergence frightening birth memories; in this context the vagina appears to be a murderous organ and the individual cannot imagine ever approaching it again as a source of pleasure.
Various physical feelings that can occur in . . . sessions should be mentioned here. On occasion, they reach sufficient intensity to present real problems. . . . Nausea, vomiting, headaches, various muscular pains, suffocation, painful cramps of the uterus or the gastrointestinal tract, increased motor activity, and other physical manifestations in LSD sessions are always of a psychosomatic nature. They are associated with important psychological material and experiencing them fully is of great therapeutic value." (pp. 131-133)
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