psychedelicpassage

Our network of guides has experience working with all types of psychedelics, including MDMA, LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and DMT. Most often, clients choose to work with psilocybin. This is a typical preference because mushrooms tend to be much more easily accessible. Clients are also more inclined to work with psilocybin because it's a natural product, meaning there's very little risk of adulteration. That, coupled with more mainstream media attention onto psilocybin, is why clients most frequently work with mushrooms.

We wouldn't say there's a top pick in terms of a drug that'll elicit the "best" experience. We think that all psychedelics can contribute something unique to our human experience and that your choice should depend on your specific intentions for healing and past experiences with psychedelics.

Generally though, because of the predictability around determining dosage and length of peak experience, psilocybin mushrooms tend to be the most 'beginner friendly' and the easiest to assess potential medical contraindications with. If you'd like more info, check out our guide on How to Choose The Right Psychedelic Substance: https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/a-guide-on-how-to-choose-the-right-psychedelic-substance/

We also recorded a podcast with Dr. Giordano that explores the nuances of how to choose the right psychedelic substance for you: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2yF9C8aSRkeB5N8ut2IoWz?si=f83d475089d84f87

Clients generally source from four different categories: 1) friends, family, people they personally know 2) growing their own medicine with a mushroom cultivation kit 3) finding a US-based online microdose retailer and 4) local stores, churches, and delivery services. It's worth noting that the local stores, churches and delivery services tend to be located in decriminalized areas like DC, Ann Arbor, and Oakland. More of these online and local vendors are popping up daily, and a quick Google search may help you identify your sourcing options. It's also worth noting that states like Colorado are passing legislation that includes communal gifting of psychedelic medicine, which will also increase accessibility.

Though we can't help with sourcing directly, an important part of harm reduction is making sure that the substance you have is the substance you think it is. That's why we suggest testing medicine using something like Qtests (https://qtests.org/ref/3/) to verify the amount of psilocybin the mushroom contains or a reagent kit for testing synthetic medicines. Additionally, we provide clients with harm reduction resources on how to source safely via a Sourcing Guide we sent to those who book a consultation call with our Concierge Team.

The process is different for everyone, especially in states where there is no regulatory model. I think the first step here is to determine how you want to serve in this capacity. What I mean by that is that there are different tracks to accessing psychedelic care: the clinical model, international retreats, state sanctioned models, underground facilitation, etc.

Each of those tracks has different training and education requirements to become a facilitator. We have an article on How to Become a Psychedelic Guide, which offers more detailed insight! https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/how-can-i-become-a-psychedelic-guide-or-facilitator/

You are absolutely right that practitioner abuse is a serious issue and, unfortunately, every line of service has a shadow side--even psychedelics. We even hear stories of therapists and psychiatrists engaging in sexual relationships with their clients or otherwise behaving unethically. One part of the issue is that psychedelic-related services have been unregulated for many decades, primarily offered through illegal "underground" services. There was also no regulating body to monitor facilitator practices.

Due to the potential legal risk of psychedelics, privacy was at the highest priority in the underground landscape; sometimes more so than the values of transparent practices or systems of advocacy for abused individuals. In the past, this not only made it extremely difficult for individuals to report instances of facilitator abuse in an effective way, but also made it difficult to identify abusers and bad actors in the space. What's crazy is that you hear about this type of abuse being perpetrated even in the MAPS trials.

Hopefully as psychedelic-related services become more mainstream and available, there will be commonly agreed upon ethics and standards of practice (a code of conduct) as well as more transparent systems of advocacy and support which will hopefully not only minimize instances of abuse, but weed out bad service providers. Even as state licensure becomes available in legal markets like Oregon and Colorado, the training requirements are minimal and lack any sort of a human component. Meaning the state's regulating bodies aren't screening potential facilitators for psychological issues, alignment of morals, or even a basic check of human reasonableness like an interview.

Another big factor here is the power dynamics at play. Often the clients seeking this type of work are suffering from mental/emotional illness meaning they are already in a vulnerable place and then you add in a psychedelic medicine that further increases vulnerability. That coupled with a facilitator who's "holier than thou" creates an environment that is ripe for facilitator abuse. This is why it's so important to vet your facilitator before engaging them for services. We actually recorded a podcast episode on this topic that you may find interesting: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ABv0KF8k6lMTpicCip5ro?si=tZEyWda7Rbu9x5bLVNWhYw

Interestingly enough, this is one of the reasons why our facilitator network is structured like it is so that PP serves as an independent body that can moderate the network of facilitators who all have their own private practice. So in addition to vetting facilitators to gain admittance into the network, we're also tracking their performance in real time to ensure that our internal code of conduct and ethical standards are being upheld. Although we can't guarantee outcomes, we can ensure that any facilitator that fails to uphold those standards will be dropped from the network.

There’s a lot more that goes into therapeutic psychedelic use besides just sourcing. In fact, many clients of ours have access to medicine, but don’t feel comfortable taking it without guidance.

Most clients seeking services like ours are desiring to work through personal, mental and emotional issues that have been suppressed for a long time (i.e. anxiety, depression, PTSD, addiction, etc.). The idea of releasing and confronting these parts of ourselves can be very intimidating, and often too uncomfortable to bear without external, professional support. Plus the logistics behind how to actually go about using psychedelics to heal and overcome these diagnoses are very unclear to most clients.

Our network of pre-vetted guides take clients through preparation and integration, as well as the in-person ceremony. Not only are they helping clients manage expectations, get clear on personal intentions, and determine logistics like dosage, setting, and other medication management, but they’re also helping clients hold themselves accountable for keeping up with their healing intentions, even after the actual psychedelic journey has concluded. We have an article that details the full psychedelic therapy process (https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/the-psychedelic-therapy-process-a-step-by-step-guide/) which, as you might note, is far more involved than simply consuming a psychedelic substance.

If you read our testimonials you’ll see that most people seeking to engage with these substances frankly have no idea what they’re doing without extensive guidance and support.

We also have a podcast episode and transcript that discusses the role of a psychedelic guide in more depth: https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/what-is-the-role-of-a-facilitator/