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Please consult your doctor and other medical professionals before trying ANYTHING in this article or the video that brought you here. I am very serious about this, when it comes to the practices listed here you must approach them responsibly.

The Shadow of Shadow Work

Shadow work is the most misunderstood concept in all of pop culture psychology. Both fortunately and unfortunately Carl Jung, the mind behind shadow work, was a genius. His writing is complex to the point the average person often misinterprets his writings. While that may sound pontifical, it is true. After years of working with clients and encouraging them to read Jung, I discovered most of my clients failed to finish entry level books from Jung. Most even have trouble reading Murray Stein who attempted to offer Jung in a more digestible way. This led my clients asking me to interpret Jung rather than have them read him directly which I obliged. Upon encountering this I realized I should start to do this within the online media hemisphere. Shadow work is one of the many Jungian subjects that has fallen victim to widespread misinterpretation. It has become a game of telephone where people who have only learned about Jung from online resources are now disseminating Jung. There is nothing wrong with this however today’s article serves as a much more experiential and logistical unpacking of Jung.

 

Peter Kingsley who is one of the world’s leading writers on Jung agrees with me. His book Catafalque convincingly argues that not only do people misunderstand Jung but most Jungian psychologists have ironically ruined his work. I also agree with this sentiment after having unsuccessfully worked with Jungian psychologists myself. In essence, shadow work itself, grew a shadow. Most do not speak about shadow work but rather a bastardization of the process from a lack of personal experience or direct contact with Jung’s ideas. Academics do not allow the mystical side of shadow work into their assessment by ignoring that portion of Jung because it isn’t “academic” whatever that means. They also often lack any direct experience of the unconscious due to their intellectualization of Jung’s work. On the other side of the isle lie people willingly blowing their minds with insane amounts of spiritual practice and even psychedelics but they lack any direct consumption of Carl Jung’s more scientific and grounded side. Jung was both mystic and scientist in one, thus we have to present him as such.

 

Eventually I decided I wanted to present Jung to the world for the modern reader. Half of the battle in understanding Jung is in properly interpreting his writing style. He is so heavily influenced by ancient sources of information that it causes his writing to read… well ancient. He combines this with a rather scientific thinking mind that gives his expression a very tricky translation. Modern eyes struggle to make sense out of his sentences not just due to language deficiencies but this unique style of his writing. Here is an example of an average single sentence from Carl Jung:

 

“The archetype is the introspectively recognizable form of a priori psychic orderedness; these images must be thought of as lacking in solid content, hence as unconscious, and they only acquire solidity, influence, and eventual consciousness in the encounter with empirical facts.”

-Carl Jung, “Synchronicity” p. 140

 

In short academics understand his language but fail to have the spiritual and metaphysical backing Jung wrote from. Likewise the mystics and spiritual seekers lack the academic immersion to understand his scientific vernacular. I am presenting this so viewers understand why I claim shadow work is misunderstood and simultaneously don’t think I am being a pompous know it all. I am actually incredibly ill equipped to read Jung myself having not gone been apart of academia however I am simply wild enough to sit and wrestle with his writings for at times days straight just to make sense out of a single sentence. This article is an attempt to scratch the surface of Jung by introducing a thorough beginner’s guide on shadow work. I want to unearth Jung for the modern person. His work changed my life and I fear most will not see the value in what Jung offers if they do not understand him.

The Shadow (The Unseen)

What is the shadow exactly? This is the most simple definition Carl Jung provided:

“The thing a person has no wish to be”

-Carl Jung: Collected work 16, para. 470

 

This is the only direct and simple quote from Jung explaining the shadow. Jung was attempting to give the most direct explanation to what the shadow is with a simple sentence. Realize that once we dumb an explanation down to a single sentence we reduce away the substance however I believe this sentence captures the elevator pitch of what a ”shadow” is. The shadow is everything you wish you weren’t and thus you suppress it away inside of your unconscious mind.

 

The shadow is not “evil”, it is not “bad”, it is simply the traits of yourself that you are ashamed of to the point of unconsciously hiding them. If you are aware of something you do not like about yourself, it is NOT in the shadow. The shadow implies:

 

Unseen, hiding in your shadows where the light of your consciousness has not yet shined on. The goal of shadow work is to make the unseen parts of yourself seen.

 

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

-Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 99

 

This quote is a symbolic explanation of human transformation. We often think of enlightenment as achieving a state where we are good and humble. Yet if we enlighten something it literally means to shine a light on an object. What are we shining a light on? Our unseen darkest parts. The shadow is completely unknown to the user, it is NOT the things you are already aware of. This is highly important in understanding why shadow work must be done. There are things about yourself that lead to deception, greed, self destruction, hate, envy, powerlessness, and other poisonous psychological dispositions. These happen unconsciously from the shadow. Shadow work is not about fixing your bad traits, it’s about enlightening the unseen forces that control you.

 

“. . .the shadow belongs to the wholeness of the personality: the strong man must somewhere be weak, somewhere the clever man must be stupid, otherwise he is too good to be true and falls back on pose and bluff. Is it not an old truth that woman loves the weaknesses of the strong man more than his strength, and the stupidity of the clever man more than his cleverness? Her love wants the whole man . . .”

-Carl Jung, Civilization in Transition

 

This is one of my favorite quotes from Jung. Not only do we secretly wish to reveal our shadow, others want to see it as well. You find this often in romantic relationships. A healthy partnership encourages us to disclose who we are in our darkest moments. This allows the unseen aspects of ourself to safely come out in ways that we do not even understand ourself. This only happens when we feel safe and respected which usually only happens in the confines of a close partnership or relationship. This often allows us to relieve parts of the shadow if done properly. Every woman I have been romantically involved with loved the worst sides of me as much as the best sides even when they those sides of me were hard to handle because they understood me. Shadow work is similar but instead of a man or woman shining their light on your shadow, you do it yourself.

The Golden Shadow (Positive Shadow)

The shadow is everything of who we are that we hide away. This very much includes our best traits. The golden shadow is a term later coined by Jungian Psychologists who built on top of Jung’s work. The golden shadow is the key to shadow work.

 

“…shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors…If it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was the source of evil, it can now be ascertained on closer investigation that the unconscious man, that is his shadow does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses etc “

-Carl Jung: CW9 paras. 422 & 423.

 

Here we can see Jung points out that our shadow is not just the inferior and evil sides to our personality but also the best parts of our hidden personality. Inside our shadow is some of our highest creative potentials and appropriate reactions. As a simple example, how many of you reading this have a hard time speaking up for yourself in appropriate ways? This is from something repressed in your shadow which you must shine a light on. You have to trace down into the depths of your shadow the string of trauma that leads back to the origin of why you became that way. Your highest potential can only be saved from going into your shadow.

 

However the golden shadow is much more than simple self betterment ideals. When I started unveiling my own golden shadow I found sides to myself that were so enlivening I was utterly shocked. For instance, I never considered myself a creative individual or an emotionally empathetic person however once I dove into my shadow and brightened those aspects to me my creative works blossomed. This article and my new YouTube channel are examples of this. None of these realities were a potential before my shadow work.

 

Jung states many times over that there is more good in the shadow than bad. However the bad which exists far below your consciousness is indeed incredibly combustible. The more you ignore your shadow, the more it is liable to blow up in your face. Shadow work is one part transmutation, one part revelation.

 

We transmute our darker sides into positive avenues.

We reveal our hidden talents to the world.

The Treasure Hidden in Your Cave

The real you was cover up long ago, piled under years of life’s rubble. Painful experiences in life, societal programming, and even your genetics have masked the truth of you you are. Your truest self is the treasure hidden within and the truth shall set you free. Before shadow work I was an extremely confident and strong willed man. I had a successful powerlifting coaching business and was known for squatting and deadlifting insane weights. I was clean cut, well spoken and intelligent… or so I convinced myself and others I was. Anyone who got close enough would see the opposite. Underneath my strength was years of weakness rotting away at my soul. Childhood trauma had left me reactive and aggressive to the point I almost lost my coaching business in a public fiasco that was embarrassing and painful. Most of my relationships were transient at best and I failed to maintain any sense of security. Now at the time I had no awareness of this truth. I like many others believed it was the world which was corrupt, not myself. My closest people could see parts of my shadow but I failed to see it. We all do, that is why it is the shadow.

 

After doing shadow work my entire life changed. My strained relationships with my parents improved to the point my father told me I would “lead him into his death to teach him my ways.” My friendships became established on love and connection rather than utility and passing pleasure. I became confident with my lack of confidence, if that makes any sense. Every weakness of mine became a strength because I accepted them as apart of me. Who I am today is a man I am proud of and to my surprise it is a man I have always been yet hid away. Deep in your darkest cave is the hero of you waiting to return home.

Your Darkest Cave (Personal Unconscious)

In order to access the shadow we have to understand where the shadow is located and how to reach it. We need a map! The shadow is located in what is known as the “Unconscious”.

The “Personal Unconscious” is the unseen, automatic parts of our self. The parts that works without thought. According to modern day cognitive science, it is estimated over 99% of your daily actions are carried out unconsciously. You do not beat your own heart or think while you drive down the road, you just do it. You do not think before reaction (even if you believe you do) because even if you do, you are choosing from a pre determined set of reactions given to you by your upbringing. Someone born in a rural part of Japan to a poor family compared to someone born into a luxurious family of America will have completely different sets of pre determined life reactions. Where one automatically chooses bravery in a situation of financial turmoil the other chooses scarcity not because of their conscious decision making but because of how their life experiences, genetics and upbringing have shaped them. These choices were never yours because they were programmed unconsciously. A child doesn’t have the ability to step back and think about what is being programmed into their mind, they simply absorb the world around them and keep that avatar they created for life unless they do unconscious shadow work. That is the unconscious shadow at play. It is far larger than the conscious mind and it rules your life decisions even when you believe it is “you” making those decisions.

 

The unconscious is the reservoir of all unconscious activity.

The shadow is the personal portion of your self identity that lies within the unconscious.

Think of the unconscious as a pool. A pool of both your identity and your psychological complexes and traumas that shape and define your total self.

Think of the shadow as a hidden you. The shadow is the personal hidden you that emerges out of this pool of the unseen hiding in the dark waiting for it’s chance to trigger.

 

The terrain of the unconscious is invisible because psychological phenomena are invisible. However is is filled with content that will create an outline of it’s reality which you can start to trace. Every trauma, every lived experience is stored within your nervous system. You will see as you explore your unconscious mind nothing is forgotten and it is all stored inside of this reservoir we call the unconscious. This is why we must face it because the body keeps the score. Without your consent you are constantly controlled by this shadow, unconsciously living out it’s learned behaviors with only one option of reprieve, to shine a light on it.

Our Darkest Cave (Collective Unconscious)

The reason Jung and myself prefer the term unconscious to subconscious is because “sub” etymologically implies “below” or “under”. It insinuates “below your surface” if I say subconscious. The unconscious is not below anything as it is not local to anywhere. Much of the unconscious mind is actually within the world itself. You might ask, how our minds could possibly be within the the external world but simply examine reality to see the truth of this.

 

What is a female or feminine characteristics? You would say that your feminine characteristics are only found in your mind but that is clearly not true. My female dog has feminine patterns of behavior. Plants have male and female characteristics of reproduction and function. Men even carry feminine characteristics themselves. The feminine is a collective archetype that is expressed across all of nature. A blueprint if you will. You are not feminine, nature itself is expressing femininity through you. The feminine exists inside all of nature and coalesces with your individuality. If you claim feminine patterns of behavior and even function exist only to the human mind and body then how is it in plants, animals and even the mechanical operations of the realities we build? My computer has a male part that plugs into a female outlet which symbolically mirrors these feminine and masculine characteristics. We have designed our world to unconsciously mirror our very nature. However let’s flip that statement upside down.

 

The world has designed us and therefore we design our world to mirror the nature of reality.

 

Beauty is another example. Is beauty actually in the eye of the beholder only? Or does it rise from a relationship between the experiencer and the outside world? Would a feeling of beauty overcome us if we weren’t seeing something beautiful? Beauty is a pattern of reality that nature built into itself to emerge out of the relationship of the rose and the eye which sees the rose. There can be no beauty without the rose yet likewise there can be no beauty without the eye. Beauty sits smack dab between the sunset and the watcher of the sunset. Without physical content beauty has no vessel and without a perceiver beauty cannot be seen. Beauty isn’t a choice, you do not choose to find something beautiful. It happens to you. It is a pattern of nature to draw the experiencer closer to objects just as disgust repels us away from objects. You don’t decide fecal matter (poop) smells bad, nature does it for you. You cannot say these psychic phenomenon are happening only inside of you because they coalesce between the collective and the individual. Between the internal and the external.

 

The more you examine your “subjective individuality” you will realize it is impossible to draw a boundary where you end and the collective begins. If you were raised in Singapore vs Ecuador, would your favorite foods still be your favorite foods? Did you choose what you find beautiful or did your experiences that coalesce with nature’s programming and the outside world help influence you?

Reality is “transjective” meaning it is neither fully subjective nor is it fully objective. It is both!

 

It is impossible to distinguish where your lines of you end and the world begins. This means your mind is partially in the world. Your ancestors fears of snakes and spiders live inside of you. Your culture’s beliefs formulate your mind’s framework for processing reality. Your experiences with others affect your experience with yourself. This is what Jung calls the:

“Collective Unconscious”

So to recap, we have the:

Personal unconscious: The unseen aspects of us directly related to our persnal experiences.

Collective unconscious: The unseens aspects of us tied to the world.

 

You have both a personal unconscious and a collective unconscious that make up the ENTIRE unconscious mind. You do have subjective experiences that only you have gone through however you likewise have experiences that were past on to you in some form, either genetically or culturally. I share this with you to express the most important truth of shadow work. When you venture into your darkest cave, you also venture into humanity’s darkest cave. You will find fears, traumas and even positive traits that were never “yours” to begin with. In actuality they are yours but you just aren’t aware of it yet.

 

When I was years deep into my shadow work process I kept coming across a fear of insanity. During some of my most intense shadow work journeys I would have an overwhelming fear that I was going to wake up in a mental institution. I had no reasoning as to why this fear seemingly existed inside of me as there was no tangible source to it’s creation. My other fears were much easier to trace to their roots, yet this fear was overwhelming and omnipresent. After years of investigation I found a family secret that no one in our immediate family spoke of. I cannot go into details as I don’t know how comfortable some of my relatives are with my sharing of this information but I actually had an aunt who fell into a deep psychosis after self injury. To this day she resides in a hospital. I had no mention of this to me as it was extremely traumatizing to my mother and family members. This all happened before I was born and was never spoken of in our family circle which is common for family trauma. These fears were passed down to me genetically and stored deep within my autonomic nervous system. My family’s trauma became my trauma without a single instance where I was even exposed to this trauma or story of what had happened. That is how real the collective unconscious is. You can find crippling fears or psychological complexes down there which have no relation to your direct experience.

The Unconscious Breathes

Earlier I mentioned a rose as a symbol of beauty. The rose presented itself to me as my own personal symbol during my transformation journey. I became obsessed with roses to the point of planting 7 rose bushes around my house, I wore a rose necklace and even got a large tattoo of a rose covering my left hand. I never understood precisely why but roses became an obsession of mine. However one day in a rather vulnerable conversation with my mother I found out the name of our family member who had experienced this deep trauma I mentioned above was Rose. I did not know this when the rose became symbolic in my mind with beauty. That is how alive the unconscious is. If you listen carefully to what exists within the quietness of your soul, you will transmute pain into beauty. The name of our family’s pain has become a symbol of beauty and hope to me. While I can never erase what she went through, which is more horrible than you can imagine, I can at least take her pain which exists within me and transmute it into beauty. I believe the unconscious is alive and leads us. It encourages us with hope and symbols from beyond comprehension to help improve the situation we all find ourselves in. I write this article knowing that some of Rose’s pain is remedied by the fact I can now help others on their personal journeys. I have never met this woman and yet across time and space I feel a bond with her in ways words fall short to explain. I intimately know her pain because that pain lives inside of me. The goodness I do into this world blossoms like a rose out of that pain and the unconscious leads me on this journey.

 

My unconscious guided me to heal the wounds embedded into our familial line. This unconscious is neither only me nor is it only the collective of the world. It is some kind of in between space that our conscious minds interface with. The world works in mysterious ways that transcend our understanding but one thing I will go to my grave certain of is that the unconscious is like a mother. It is alive and always guiding us if we are able to listen. Only the quietest minds will hear, yet if you are brave enough to answer the call you will transmute pain into beauty.

The 4 Steps of Shadow Work

Shadow work is a straight forward 4 step process that requires time and discipline. Below is the exact process I have found to work for anyone seeking total transformation. This aligns deeply with the exact process Jung went through himself. It is not a process that a traditional therapist can lead you through however I do recommend for most people to have some kind of mentor during this phase. It is the hardest thing you will ever do if you truly access your unconscious mind at it’s deepest levels. You must find an anchor to ground you. Someone who has gone through the darkness themself. Your highest guidance will be found within but it helps to have a guide on the conscious side as well.

 

Step 1: Meditative Mind

In order to properly and safely access the unconscious, you must transform your mind into a meditative one. A meditative mind is a stable mind which is able to face it’s fears without spiraling into anxiety or psychosis. Most individuals who attempt to access the depths of their unconscious to meet their shadow are refrained from doing so by their own unconscious mind. Your unconscious won’t let you down their very far without a stable mind because it knows you aren’t ready for it. I had two years of DILIGENT meditation practice before attempting anything on steps 2-4. Most people will take even longer if I am being honest. I meditated every day twice a day without missing a single session for 2 years straight. I started my meditation journey on day 1 with ten minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. Eventually I got up to 30-60 minutes in the morning and 30-60 minutes at night. Some days I would meditate for over 4 hours. You don’t need to go to these lengths however I want to drive home that meditation is serious training. If you think you are trained, I dare you all to sit eyes closed for an hour straight and see if you can even sit for ten minutes, let alone actually meditate for an entire hour. You will quickly discover you can’t last. It is vital to realize your mind is untrained and if you are foolish enough to think the contrary, good luck and stop reading here. Point that hubris towards a simple self help article because my approach IS NOT FOR YOU. This approach is not for the faint of heart or lazy. It is for hero’s who want to slay demons. A true hero requires years of preparation to journey on his final mission.

 

What is a meditative mind precisely?

I want to define this with exact goal markers so you can have an idea of what to aim for. Reach these benchmarks to know you are on a proper path of stabilizing your mind.

1. You can sit in meditation for 30 minutes straight without wandering thoughts and getting lost in the mind. You can direct your mind to conscious contemplative thoughts or to sitting with the breath. If you have any mind wandering at all, you are not there. There is a difference between mind wandering and awareness of thoughts. It is ok to have awareness of thoughts during this 30 minutes however you cannot get lost in these thoughts. This is critical for shadow work because if you get lost in the unconscious you can end up staying there. Wandering thoughts are when your mind goes on it’s own tangent without control.
2. You can meditate through pain. Ice baths work as the best litmus test. Consult a doctor before trying this. Use a thermometer and get water to 39 degrees and be able to sit there without anxiety or pain overcoming you for 3 minutes straight. Start with 50 degrees, when you begin this process. Most can barely last a minute at full body immersion in 50 degrees. Ice baths arise aggressive fight or flight responses in the nervous system causing huge rushes of adrenaline and pain reception to encourage you to get out of the water. This is actually why you will often find men are worse at cold exposure the first time compared to women. Men generally respond to trauma with unconscious increases in fight or flight reactivity compared to women. Men’s nervous systems often respond more severely causing a cascade of pain and adrenaline to release in the body in response to the ice water as a survival mechanism. I have given many people their first ice baths that are actually controlled with temperature and women are generally better at this but not always. Make sure to use a thermometer. Most people don’t realize how hard it is without professional equipment to get water below 45 degrees. This litmus test helps us analyze both your fight or flight response (not everyone’s response is the same) as well as your ability to consciously control your reaction to it. I have seen navy seals freak out in 20 seconds of exposure and on the other hand I’ve witnessed mothers who have never gone through trauma that can sit with mild discomfort for 2 minutes their first time. If it is easy, find something that is very challenging like sauna or anything you want to quit instantly upon initiating. Learn to push through your barrier of pain via relaxation and surrender rather than using grit. That is what ice baths teach. Surrender, not toughness. You must learn to stay calm under pressure for shadow work. Shadow work is surrendering to what lies beneath.
3. You have awareness over your daily reactions. Once you find yourself catching your reactions to situations before the reaction happens you can rest assured your mind is meditated. This doesn’t mean some reactions, I mean ALL of them. Simply drive down a chaotic city street and watch to see if you react or go to a family dinner with talks on politics. You will know if you are reactive. I am not kidding about this section.
4. You can control your mind into an altered state with only the breath. Combining breath work and meditation is critical for an intro into altered states of consciousness. More on this in step 3 however the primary bench mark here is to ensure you can both upregulate and downregulate the mind. Up-regulation means to increase the activity of to the point of an altered state of consciousness and sustain that. This is done with fast breathing techniques like Wim Hof method or Kriya Yoga that awaken your mind to more information and deeper contemplation. Downregulation of the mind is decreasing activity of the mind through slow breath like Nadi Shodhana or box breathing. Both must be able to be maintained for 15 minutes after the initial breath work without doing more breath work. This is a sign you can sustain higher states of mind without external influence.

 

Step 2: Altered States of Consciousness

The unconscious mind cannot be accessed consciously, at least not fully. An analogy that helps understand the conscious mind:

The conscious mind is a fixed spotlight in a large dark room. Normally your “spotlight” (conscious mind) is fixed and unmoving only shining light (awareness) on one area of your large dark room (your mind). The unconscious is happening around the spotlight, in the dark areas of the room without your awareness or control.

However you can move the spotlight of consciousness to the darker areas if you make your light flexible. This is done through altered states of consciousness. It allows the spotlight (consciousness) to start aiming in other areas of your dark room (mind).

This flexibility is actually the danger of altered states of consciousness. If you make consciousness too flexible it can break. That is why I must say firmly that you should not do anything of what I am about to offer you without the supervision of a medical professional in a controlled legal setting. We are going to explain how to make your light flexible which comes with a risk.

 

What is an altered state of consciousness precisely?

A perceptible change in the pattern of reality. Breath work for example, makes your perception of reality different which is an altered state of consciousness. Meditation is also an altered state. These are what I call “soft” altered states of consciousness. Now if you do an hour of breath work straight as is common in holotropic breath work than you can induce a “firm” altered state of consciousness to the point of complete psychedelic experience. The same goes with meditation. Both meditation and breath work have a spectrum of strength to the altered state of consciousness that is induced from these activities. Dreams are also altered states of consciousness. In fact dream interpretation is one of the most reliable ways to speak to your unconscious mind and do shadow work. However dream interpretation is extremely complex and that will have to come in a future article.

 

Soft altered states of consciousness

Dreams

Light Breath work (10-30 minutes)

Light Meditation (10-120 minutes)

Contemplative prayer

Active imagination

 

These are completely sober ways of inducing “soft” altered states of consciousness. You can increase the intensity of breath work and meditation to the point of firm altered states of consciousness yet they require years of practice and time that is unlikely for most of you to do on a regular basis to get the full spectrum of access to your unconscious mind. This is actually a huge benefit to meditation and breath work. You can modulate your intensity of experience. For some folks 10-20 minutes of breath work and meditation is enough, you can do minor shadow work with these techniques and see some good progress.

 

However I am here to say that you CANNOT access the full depth of your unconscious mind without firm altered states of consciousness. This is not debatable, it is fact. Anyone who has done psychedelics or intense fasting will know this to be true.

 

I would be lying if I told you that the transformation I have achieved in my own journey was something I thought to be possible with just meditation, dream analysis and breath work alone. Unless I wanted to move into a monkhood where they center their entire life around these practices, I could not achieve even a portion of my transformation that psychedelics offered me. Even at 2 hours a day of meditation and breath work I wasn’t close to reaching the level of my unconscious that psychedelics offered access to. Now with that said I need to state something.

NO ONE AND I MEAN NO ONE SHOULD DO PSYCHEDELICS OR PROLONGED FASTING WITHOUT AT MINIMUM OF A YEAR OF SERIOUS MEDITATION AND BREATH WORK PRACTICE WHILE ALSO CONSULTING A DOCTOR IN A LEGAL WAY TO ADVISE AND GUIDE YOU THROUGH YOUR JOURNEY.

Firm altered states of consciousness

Prolonged fasting (7 days plus)

Psychedelics (only plant based)

Holotropic breath work (a form of psychedelic experience)

Extreme unconscious somatic therapies (kundalini, elemental exposure, etc)

 

Start with meditation and breath work first. Then if it calls to you, psychedelics are the next safest option on this list. Ensure you get a medical professional and it is legal where you are located. At the bottom of this guide will be detailed information on responsible psychedelic usage and combining it with shadow work.

 

Step 3: Learning The Language of Creation (The Unconscious)

Once you have ventured into the darkness of the unconscious through an altered state of consciousness, you must learn to speak to it. The unconscious speaks not in words but in symbols. If you do not learn symbolism you will never learn how to interpret your shadow work. The unconscious is alive and will send you symbolic messages. It does so every moment of your day, you just don’t notice it. Day dreams, fantasies, sleep dreams, thoughts, mental images and even emotional resonances with physical reality are all produced by the unconscious. An example is this:

I had a recurring dream for years of a woman always in my basement or lower portions of my house. She was always hidden away in a dark room crying. A beautiful brunette woman who had scars covering her face. She was often crying in my dreams. She would speak to me about her pains and troubles.

 

At first I didn’t understand what these dreams were but as I studied jungian psychology and symbolism I realized she was me. She was what is known as a man’s “Anima” which is man’s inner feminine. She was the parts of me I had neglected for years due to trauma and societal programming. In dreams she would come to me speaking symbolically to teach me how to heal “her” (myself). As I went through my own journey of healing she progressively appeared more and more beautiful in my dreams. In the present day she now appears to me completely healed and beautiful while also always being presented as my “wife” in my dreams. She is a symbolic representation of the inner marriage I went through allowing myself to come into deep relationship with my inner feminine. This doesn’t mean I went around getting pedicures or doing activities that have become synonymous with the feminine characteristics of females. It means I started connecting to my emotional, nurturing and receptive sides of my psyche. My unconscious mind created equilibrium in my psyche by speaking to me in my dreams symbolically. I simply listened to “her” and she showed me what I needed psychologically in my life.

 

The unconscious speaks in symbology so you pay close attention. When you have a dream of standing over a bottomless giant black cavern that you jump into causing you to wake up in an extreme panic… you listen. This was a real dream of mine. If instead my mind simply spoke the words: “Hey Brendan you are going to go on an inner transformation journey that will leave you feeling dark and confused.” That wouldn’t hold the same weight as jumping into a giant bottomless black abyss does. The unconscious uses symbolic images and feelings to convey what words fall short on.

 

Psychedelic experiences are exactly this! All of your visions, what materialists call “hallucinations” are very real. They aren’t literally real (at least usually). They are symbolic and speaking to you through art. They are painting you a personally curated play to interpret poetically, not literally. If you start to take your visions literally you will get lost. Symbolism is your map of the unconscious.

 

Step 4: The Seasons of Shadow Work

Everything in nature cycles. The seasons flow from the dead of winter to the bloom of spring. A woman’s menstruation cycles in 28 day periods. Men’s hormones cycle in 24 hour periods. The sun and moon cycle through phases. The stars cycle around us. Snakes cycle their skin, butterflies cycle their metamorphosis. Everything works in cycles, shadow work is no different. It is vital you understand two facts regarding step 4.

1. You must pace yourself according to your life stability.
2. You cannot do this in one go. This is a multi year process that spans a lifetime however the bulk of this work can be done in the first 4 years. Why 4? That is how long it took me. I went at a rather extreme pace and wanted to transform in large ways, so for some of you it can take longer or if you don’t go as far then perhaps it can be faster.

Some of you work 9-5 jobs and have families. Some of you are living in isolation with no concerns of wellbeing or life responsibilities. Depending on where your life is and how much you can tolerate you will find your pace differs from others. However this pace must be set by you. Jung himself went deep into his own unconscious which is where his famed “red book” emerged from. During the time periods he would venture deep into his psyche he would lock himself away in Bollingen Tower, a personal castle he built in the nature side of Switzerland. He isolated himself to be alone and do his inner work or focus on his writing. If you have read the “Red Book” you will see first hand how… mad… and well genius that book is. A true testament to the visions of the unconscious mind. Jung’s life work is his golden shadow expressed outward and I highly recommend getting a special edition of that book with the images if you can afford it.

 

I isolated myself for my own journey as well. I left my home town of San Francisco California and moved to the country side of rural North Carolina. I purposefully did this exactly as Jung did to allow focus on my transformation. As I write this very sentence I stare outside my window on a partially cloudy spring day at the nature surrounding me. It has been two weeks since I have left my home for more than my walks with my dogs. I go weeks without going into the small town near me. I have been here nearly 3 years now and only this last month do I finally feel ready to reemerge into the world. I doubt my transformation is over as cycles always continue. However I can tell the bulk of the hardest parts are behind me and my time in the world is now ahead of me. While I don’t have a castle, this home is my bollingen. I would recommend you find your own special space if you venture into your psyche. It doesn’t need to be a large cross country move, just a place you can be alone and contemplate what you find in your cave.

How to Do Shadow Work

Anything written in this section should be utilized only after consulting with a healthcare professional.

The actual process of shadow work is individual and it isn’t easily explained with language since mental activities are intangible. However what I will attempt to do in this section is explain the journey of the process of shadow work from both the experiential side as that is really the only thing that matters with shadow work. Science is a great framework of understanding but experience is the great teacher.

 

The Journey Into Your Cave

In order to access your shadow you need to do the following:

1. Calm your mind (meditation or closed eye breathing)
2. Go into an altered state of consciousness (breath work or other legal somatic practices, legal psychedelics, etc)
3. Either consciously or unconsciously create visual and mental imagery
4. Asses the story your mind created

Now there are many ways of performing this. I will list a beginner, intermediate and advanced example of my own shadow work.

 

Beginner Shadow Work Journey

Sit in a meditation posture for 2-5 minutes slowing your mind down with some calm controlled nasal breathing. You can listen to music that is instrumental only. It is very important to be clear of outside influences that are language based, so no words! You must be alone and in isolation. Dark rooms or very isolated areas of nature are best. Ensure you are in a safe environment and above all else without any distractions or noises that would interrupt the experience.

 

Perform at least 10 minutes of breath work that is very active. I recommend Wim Hof breathing which he has a free YouTube video publicly available. Use the advanced (green video) not beginner (blue video) option. In my opinion his more “advanced breath work” is rather entry level. This is just a beginner intro to shadow work so nothing more intense is needed. Perform breath work eyes closed with an erect spine in meditation posture. You do not need to be in lotus or any fancy meditation position with your legs. Simply be erect with the spine straight and body relaxed in a chair.

 

Immediately after finishing the breath work you are to perform an active visualization which some call “active imagination”. This simply means to start fantasizing a visual story or experience in your mind and simply analyze what comes up. Now the problem with doing this free hand is you will not really know how to comfortably do this unless you are very artistically inclined. Jung had an extremely creative mind so this was easy for him. It takes practice for others, so instead I recommend following a guided active imagination or visualization meditation. Just search on YouTube or another source for “shadow work meditation”. There are free ones out there however we have specific breath work and active imaginations/shadow work meditations in our library for members. What you can do is use either our videos or you can find free ones on YouTube. To properly do this create a playlist on YouTube with the Wim Hof breath work placed first in the que and then place the shadow work meditation after. This will allow you to play the two videos in a row without any pause or needing to open your eyes to touch your phone. This is all to be done eyes closed.

 

Recap:

-Create a breath work and shadow work meditation playlist.

-Sit in meditation posture performing both in a row.

-Analyze the visualizations meaning after

 

Now in our intro to shadow work and archetypes meditation we use what I call a “the house visualization”. This is a known archetypal theme to explore your mind. You create a house in a closed eye visualization process and imagine yourself exploring the rooms of this house. In this meditation I use a lot of symbolic unconscious noting to ensure you can project onto the visuals with your unconscious mind. This allows your mind to unconsciously show you what is deep inside of your psyche. What you must understand is that everything your mind produces in these visuals no matter how random it may seem has meaning to the unconscious. It is just a matter of properly interpreting it. Now keep in mind you are lightly in an altered state since this is entry level shadow work however you can still have rather deep experiences doing this. I had many profound shadow work experiences doing this exact protocol before exploring deeper access to altered states of consciousness. After you are finished with this visualization you are to process what your mind created. The KEY is to not force your imagination. It must be automatic as this is actually how your mind produces unconscious projection of the shadow. If it is consciously forced you will not see much of your shadow. Whatever you see is a symbol of something. For instance in a rather deep moment of the house meditation I was performing years ago I came across my younger self in a room with a blue door. He looked slightly down and indifferent. When I asked him why he was down he said he just didn’t care much about playing outside. I kept asking what he meant by this and he just kept repeating “I just don’t really care.” He had a baseball in his hand that he was lightly tossing around on the ground rather apathetically. After the meditation I came to the realization this was a manifestation of my younger self who fell out of love with baseball. This was nothing to do with baseball but rather my lack of personal passion in the world. It was showing me that I never replaced my early childhood passions and hobbies with anything else that allowed me to play as an adult. I had grown up only to work and not play. It was a sign that my unconscious mind wanted equilibrium through learning to participate in play and enjoy life again. I was very rough on myself and felt that if I wasn’t always working or striving for results I would no longer be useful to others. This stemmed from a fear of abandonment. Which I later traced to issues with my mother. This is a small example of how deep these simple visuals can go. You have to interpret them symbolically and understand why you are seeing what you are seeing.

 

Symbolic Translation

Younger self = my inner child

Baseball = my passions and hobbies

Indifferent/apathetic attitude = my lack of enthusiasm for life enjoyment

Aloneness in a “blue” door room = my childhood has been left behind and unattended to

This is just an example of what can happen. Sometimes these visions are straight forward, other times they are complex. What I will say is to ensure you give yourself over to this process and let go. The more you tap into your emotionality without any conscious resistance, the more it will allow the unconscious mind to express.

 

Intermediate Shadow Work Journey

Anything written in this section should be utilized only after consulting with a healthcare professional and only when legally authorized in your area.

If it is legal and safe in your area, consume a moderate dose of THC. I prefer smoking a dry herb vape as edibles can be very risky. THC is an amazing psychoactive component to unleash the unconscious mind. 30-60 minutes of breath work can also achieve similar results if this is not legal or safely advised by your doctor to perform.

 

This next step will sound strange to some folks who aren’t spiritual but you must do this. Set a prayer and intention to be protected spiritually and mentally during this process. Never do this without doing so. More on this below in the psychedelic section.

 

Once you are in an altered state of mind, sit in meditation. Adding in 10 minutes of breath work here can synergistically boost this process. Repeat the same steps as above however this time I recommend doing your active imagination free style without any guided meditation. You can use a guided meditation but make sure it is something well vetted and serious. Many of the online meditations are very amateur.

 

Freestyle Active Imagination

When doing a freestyle active imagination I recommend utilizing guidance from an imaginary figure in your mind. Create a figure who you return to on a regular basis. Name this figure. If any of you have spirit guides this is the time to use them. Anything works, it can be a deceased family member, an ancestor, or even a “god” or “deity”. My figure’s name is Zara. I see them in many of my visions to be a guide for me. Now I want to explain that when you do this, more than likely you will actually have archetypal patterns fill these imaginal figures with life. What i mean by this is these won’t just be imaginary figures. You will be speaking to the archetypal patterns of nature itself. I explain what I mean by this in our Shadow Work meditation for members. In short these “archetypes” are patterns of reality similar to the Anima and Animus I mentioned earlier. They are patterns or characters we act out from nature itself. I will create an article and videos on this in the future. You will communicate with these archetypes through your figures you imagine. It is even possible to commune with other spirits through this imaginal figure. You aren’t actually encountering these spirits or archetypes directly. Instead you are creating a symbol they can embody to speak to you through the character. Your thought forms will be a vessel for your mind to speak to the collective unconscious.

 

For instance the “wise old man” is a very real archetype or “blueprint” of an experience many humans have had. For thousands of years humans have experienced “wise old men” as leaders in their communities which has implanted the fabric of humanity’s genetic memory with this archetypal pattern. In essence what I am saying is that the “wise old man” is a pattern of reality that is embedded inside of you. We access these archetypes to pattern our actions and thought processes. To some degree, humans don’t have archetypes, archetypes have us. We are created from an archetypal reality.

 

For instance motherhood happens to women, it is not something they create. As soon as a woman is pregnant, the archetype of the mother figure starts to manifest in her hormones, in the foods she craves, in the mannerisms and habits she starts to adopt. This is an archetypal pattern of nature expressing itself through the woman. She has no choice over this. It happens automatically because archetypes control us to some degree. Men have the father acting through them. People have the “wise old man” or “the jester”. These are behavior patterns that arise out of the collective DNA and collective mind of humanity which expresses themselves through us. We can interact with these archetypal patterns through shadow work and you will see to some degree they are alive. They are the framework to the human mind and when we interact with them they can teach us things.

 

Likewise I personally believe spirits or information can contact us by our opening of the mind’s eye. For instance, I have had prophetic messages sent to me about a friend’s health problems. I was told of a heart condition he was going to encounter long before he had issues with it. I actually thought I was going crazy when I first was told this information but low and behold a couple weeks later my friend ended up having heart issues. I was even instructed how to help him overcome this problem. He did exactly as I was told and from this circumstance we became best friends. His name is Darius and we openly speak about this situation that brought us together. Whether we are actually accessing spirits or somehow tapping into implicit data stored within the ether of reality itself, this style of shadow work in altered states of consciousness is beneficial and filled with information.

 

When you create these imaginal figures you are opening up a symbolic reality to allow the unconscious mind to project onto. These imaginal characters can lead us. Ask your character to guide you on a journey to show you what you need to see. Play music, get into an emotional state and allow yourself to express your mind artistically during this journey. Ask questions like:

“Why do I constantly avoid confrontations with my father?”

“What caused me to be so closed off from romantic relationships?”

“Why am I so afraid of water?”

These questions will simply be answered by you imagining the figure giving you or showing your the vision itself. It helps to have a lot of meditation practice leading up to this. When you are finished you will have a completely different perspective on reality.

 

Advanced Shadow Work Journey

Anything written in this section should be utilized only after consulting with a healthcare professional and only when legally authorized in your area.

Advanced shadow work is the same as the step before but this time you go nearly fully unconscious. The only way to do this reliably is with psychedelics. However because they are illegal in some areas and can induce psychosis, I wanted to ensure I wrote up a thorough guide explaining how to approach these ONLY if it is both legal and under medical supervision in your area. Below you will find a complete short guide book to psychedelia and the unconscious mind. Please make sure you have spent years performing other styles of shadow work before building up to this.

Responsible Guidance on Psychedelic Usage

Responsible psychedelic usage: The advantages and disadvantages

I am not encouraging ANYONE to take psychedelics. I am simply stating what I have found to work for me and I have no idea what is best for you. You must consult a medical professional before trying psychedelics and you must do them in a legal and safe way under the supervision of a medical professional.

I would be remiss if I didn’t start this paragraph with encouragement to those of you who are reluctant about the safety and efficacy of psychedelics to watch the documentary “How to Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan. He lays out a very informative argument as to why psychedelics are not just safe but effective in healing your mind from situations ranging from extreme medical diagnosis to suicidal ideation. He does so in a responsible way without downplaying the risks. Please watch this documentary before deciding one way or another on psychedelics.

 

Psychedelics are illegal in many places and if I am honest with my opinions and research, I have been led to believe this is because they are so effective at creating positive change in the collective human psyche. This dramatic change causes humans to protest against centralized power structures and war mongering governments. The “war on drugs” started in America in the 1970s during the Vietnam war precisely because the psychedelic community started protesting war and killing. This of course was not good for business or politics centered around the government and military industrial complex. These systems thrive off of submission to the mainstream narratives that allow us to disregard human life and turn a blind eye to both our young men and women as well as other young men and women dying over superficial resources and land. It is nearly impossible to take psychedelics and not want to start professing love to the world. This is what happened in the 60s and 70s leading Nixon to start his “war on drugs”. Mind you plants are not drugs however pills inside of pharmacies ARE DRUGS. The irony of the statement “the war on drugs” is absurdly self evident. Every year millions of people world wide are hospitalized from doctor prescribed drugs and on average over 106,000 people die per year from prescribed drugs in just the US alone. Ironically from the years 1997-2022 there were only 28 total deaths from psychedelics in England, Wales and northern Ireland combined. Here is the study to back that up:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278584624002458

 

Psychedelics are literally by scientific fact safer than nearly every prescription drug in the realm of mortality risk. Let’s not appeal to data though. Just ask a nurse how many times they have seen someone come in from the streets overdosed on mushrooms vs alcohol or prescription drugs. How many women have you heard about being abused from alcoholics vs psychedelic users? You are more likely to call up your dad and tell him you love him than hurt someone on psychedelics. Society is brainwashed into believing psychedelics are these horrendous “drugs” that cause mayhem when in reality it is alcohol and actual drugs sold by doctors that cause these problems. Right this minute I can go buy alcohol and become apart of the 178,307 people who die yearly from alcohol in the US. Now with that said this does not mean there are no risks. There are risks with psychedelics and I actually think the psychedelic community does not respect psychedelic usage enough.

 

What are the risks of psychedelics?

Psychosis is the largest risk of psychedelic use. While it is still incredibly rare (you actually have a more likely chance to die in a car crash than reach a state of psychosis from psychedelic use) it still must be mentioned. If you are irresponsible with psychedelics you can temporarily or permanently break your mind. The way to minimize this risk is with proper help from a medical professional who is legally allowed to administer these. Centers all around the US/the world are opening up with professionals who will help guide you through these experiences. Below are the rules which I recommend for responsible psychedelic usage to my friends and family. These are what I have found to work for me. Pass this off with a doctor first and see what they say.

The rules of psychedelics

1. Plants/Nature only. I personally stay away from all “drugs” including psychedelic drugs like ketamine or MDMA. Drugs = synthesized in a lab. Plants/Nature = found in nature. I realize some drugs may have benefits but you are no longer mixing your consciousness with a species of plant or organism that has undergone the same evolution of nature that your body and mind have gone through. Mushrooms have been curated by nature itself over millions of years which connects mushrooms directly to the same intelligence you are formulated from. They are nature’s medicine. Ketamine on the other hand is created in a lab and is literally by definition a drug. This means we have no backing to it’s substance or origin. Ketamine is a strange intelligence that is disconnected from nature and while it may provide benefit, it has much more risk than plants which have been tested in indigenous tribes for thousands of years. My argument has nothing to do with whether or not people find success in ketamine usage or with other drugs. I am simply stating you are taking a larger risk. Plants are connected to the collective unconscious of nature itself, drugs are not.
2. Indigenous testing. Has the plant gone through thousands of years of testing from indigenous tribes using it without risk of birth defects, cancers, psychosis, tumors or disease induced by these plants? Ayahuasca, mushrooms, huachuma, etc have all gone through thousands of years of testing and are still used in tribes today without high risks of side effects. On the contrary just watch a commercial for an SSRI and listen to the laundry list of side effects they cause in people. Indigenous people are proof of efficacy and safety.
3. Understand the basis of the plant. Every plant medicine has it’s own feel and while trips are both unique and dependent in part on the consciousness of the user, you are also interacting with the consciousness of the plant or medicine directly. This means the very nature of the plant and how it is grown will affect how the trip is “colored”.

• Mushrooms are interconnected fungi spanning in some cases as far as 2000 square miles. When you take mushrooms you often “feel connected to everything.” The interconnected nature of mushrooms shines through in its actual feeling during ingestion.
• Ayahuasca is a vine in the darkness of the amazon jungle that reaches up towards the light through the canopy of trees. Ayahuasca trips often feel dark with you reaching for light at the end of your “rebirth tunnel”. Again the plant’s effects mimic it’s nature.
• Huachuma is a cactus grown in the bright sun of the Andes Mountains. It is high up and sunny but can also handle rainfall. Huachuma often feels much more “light” and “bright” than Ayahuasca.

 

You get the idea. These plants have a symbolic resonance matched to their environment no different than a human does. If you grow up in San Francisco California you have a different flavor than if you grow up in Tokyo Japan. Plants work the same and you best believe they affect the landscape of the psychedelic journey. Research which you think is right for you and understand the importance of TRUE set and setting.

 

A proper mindset for shadow work with psychedelics

Now taking mushrooms and going to a festival is fine, however that isn’t shadow work. Shadow work should be done with a deep intention and mindset to transform yourself. This will make the journey challenging to say the least. What you ask the plant to show you, will come about. These are the rules for shadow work. Do not gloss over these because you have not heard this much depth on set and setting before.

 

Set (Mindset/intention) and Setting

“Set” refers to your mindset going into the trip. However this is a rather antiquated platitude from the 60s out from Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) and Timothy Leary’s work from Harvard during their psychedelic experiments. It has yet to be updated with any new information regarding the practicality and phenomenology of this ambiguous term “set”. This is what is truly happening during psychedelic experiences:

When you consume psychoactive substances your brain’s default mode network and cross communication between the hemispheres of the brain are disrupted causing the conscious mind to be temporarily altered or disabled. This both changes the patterning of reality as well as leaves the unconscious mind highly active. Just as dreams seem very real, so will psychedelic experiences. They are VERY real, but not in the way people assume. They are symbolically real. It is speaking to you in art with visuals and inner “knowings” that lead you to life changing realizations or the processing of stored trauma. I don’t deny that at times you can even come across other living intelligences during these experiences however everything you see is being processed through your own personal filter of the unconscious. This means what you program into your brain leading up to your trip will manifest the framework of interpretation, understanding and even what you see during your experience. You can literally program your autonomic nervous system to have a more beneficial experience by creating the correct mindset going into this journey. This is what a “set” is when using psychedelics. You are setting your mind to produce an experience that is intentional and beneficial rather than random. It is not enough to just say a few words before you start. You must have a goal that you visualize well before your journey. Every single psychedelic journey I choose a specific goal and outcome before hand.

 

“Setting” refers to the environment you are in while immersing into the psychedelic journey. This means both internal and external environment. By internal environment I am referring to your body composition. If you are in a fasted state for instance vs a fed state, the psychedelics will hit much harder. During mushroom trips I find an equivalent dosage to feel about twice as strong on an empty stomach compared to a full stomach. Likewise the kind of food you are eating is reported by some to make a difference. I have not first hand experienced this enough to make a definitive statement here however logically it makes sense. The main idea you will hear is to not eat meat that has been slaughtered or killed in inhumane ways going into the trip. The animals fear will be inside of you. Likewise your general health can make differences in outcomes with your trips. External environment is equally important. I always recommend nature with loving people around you. Have someone you feel very safe around be with you as your anchor. Be immersed somewhere with beauty and the natural environment being safe away from water, heat stroke, etc. Obviously do this with a professional there as well. These slight changes go a very long way for a more harmonious journey especially when you are doing shadow work. Now here is the most important part for shadow work, make sure you have an alone space. You will know exactly when you need to be alone and do not be afraid to go there! I find that the first half of a psychedelic trip is usually my introspective alone time that leads to a crescendo of breakthroughs. The second half is my fun time where I either sob tears at what I have found to be the deepest truths of my soul or I play and dance with friends. Every trip is different.

 

How to create the perfect mindset

Let’s build on top of this old platitude of “set”. Sit down and meditate before consuming any psychoactive substance. This will help shift your conscious mind towards the Alpha brain wave state which actually allows you to program and influence your mind. Once you feel relaxed and open, initiate a prayer or affirmation for exactly what you want to achieve from this experience as well as any boundaries you have for the experience. This includes both psychedelic boundaries as well as spiritual ones. This is a prayer I used (paraphrased) on my 33rd year birthday. Mind you I’m immersed in western spirituality so please overlook any language that doesn’t resonate with you. You do not have to be spiritual at all in your intention setting.

 

“Father, please show me where I am blind to my actions. Show me all of my downfalls and where I fail to be loving to others. Show me what I need to see to be reborn on my 33rd year just as christ was reborn on his 33rd year. Show me who I must become and how I can finish this transformation to venture back into the world and help those who seek guidance. I command protection from all negative influences, spirits and psychological complexes that do not serve my highest purpose. I command guides to watch over me and lead me on this journey. I disavow and do not permit any negative influences into this space of healing. My house and garden around me are mine. Only those with the intention of love and goodness are allowed into my presence and only those sent directly from my father. I surrender to you father.”

Now while this is a rather poetic spiritual way of setting an intention and mindset I want to point out some themes. The first being that “spirits” and entities are real. If you don’t believe in them, don’t read Jung because his entire framework of archetypes expresses the very real notion of god and spirits which shape our reality. You must protect yourself wisely during these journeys because you are opening up to the realm of the unconscious which is where all spirits exist. I will never again (made the mistake) sit in a ceremony with myself or anyone else who does not say this out loud for me to hear. Other’s who join you in psychedelics can affect you.

 

Now you will also notice I commanded things rather than requested them. Ensure you command always. You have complete sovereignty and power over yourself. It is vital you create rigidity in your boundaries rather than asking. You do not ask strangers to stay out of your home, you demand it with locks. The mind is no different. Likewise I also pulled in symbolic resonance to Christ and “father” (god). You do not have to pull from spirituality but I promise you it is worth praying to ancestors, guides or some kind of psychological archetype you look up to. Even if it is your father or mother. Use their consciousness which is embedded into your deep psyche to help create a space of safety within your mind. Finally notice I very specifically laid out a clearly defined goal for this entire journey. I wanted to cement a later part of my long multi year transformation and I didn’t ask for love and laughter. I asked to see my deficiencies and I sure got that on this trip. Other psychedelic journeys I have asked to connect to nature and god, I also received that. Whatever you ask for, will come about. How that happens is up to you unconscious but if you are doing shadow work then I recommend requesting some kind of task or challenge you want to overcome or understand in your mind:

“Ancestors please show me what parts of my shadow I should face to heal from my past.”

“Grandmother let your consciousness lead me through a journey to connect to my inner child and heal the wounds I received in my youth.”

Be specific and have this goal planned out before the journey!

 

Psychedelic type and dosages

This is highly personal and should be decided with your medical professional. However I find psilocybe cubensis mushrooms to be the safest and easiest first time psychedelic. I do not recommend the more intense ones like Ayahuasca and personally I have never tried Aya myself as I really just don’t feel it is necessary for me. Psychedelics can easily become a wine tasting event for those who don’t respect them as a serious tool for transformation. I personally stay with psilocybin (mushrooms), amanita (a more rare mushroom), THC (weed), huachuma (San Pedro cactus) and LSD (acid). These days I hardly do psychedelics besides some low dose mushrooms here and there however during the height of my shadow work I was using higher dosages more frequently on an as needed basis. If you use psilocybin mushrooms I usually recommend moderate dosages to start and honestly I found no benefit to high dose psychedelics. I have gone as high as 7 grams of a penis envy strain of mushrooms and I am extremely sensitive to mushrooms so for some people that is like taking 10 grams. I have full visuals at 3.5 grams and can hardly control my body most trips around those dosages. In the realm of mushrooms I have found this to be a GENERAL dosage chart:

 

0-0.5 grams: microdose with no perceptible effect but can be used to help change your mind unconsciously. You genuinely won’t feel anything but it can be used in microdose protocols very effectively.

0.5-1.5 grams: Very Low dose with no visuals but somatic experiences inducing a feeling of connectedness, lightness and warmth or lethargy in the body. Effective for light shadow work and meditation enhancement yet little to no access to the unconscious mind. Complete conscious control over the body and motor function. Nearly impossible to have a bad trip.

1.5-3 grams: Moderately low dose with minimal to no visuals but deeper somatic experiences and more access to the unconscious mind. At 2.5 grams + you can have full eyes closed visuals in sensitive individuals and partial eyes opened visuals. Moderate to high access of the unconscious mind and very useful for shadow work. You have full to nearly full motor control and good lucid awareness while still having deep access to the unconscious. 2.5 grams is my preferred dosage for shadow work.

3-4.5 grams: The moderately high dose with larger opened eye visuals and very deep somatic processing. Your body will feel like waves of energy are flowing through it at times. You will more than likely see visuals and you will feel moderately to highly connected to the unconscious. You can even have full psychedelic hallucinations at this dose if you are sensitive. One of my most intense trips was on 3.5 grams however it was also on an empty stomach which doubles the effects in my experience. This dosage is amazing for deep transformative shadow work when you want to push it and be riskier. This is the highest I go after years of experimenting higher. This is the dosage where “bad trips” can happen but not to the point of catastrophic. Honestly the bad trips end up being the best ones if you have proper integration methods.

4.5-7 grams: The hero dose. This is a dosage I no longer use mainly because I just couldn’t integrate what I experienced at these dosages. I would have profound realizations that felt as if I understood everything there is to know in the universe yet I wasn’t able to “bring it back”. You will have profound visions to the point of reality completely morphing over your eyes. I only recommend laying down blind folded at these dosages and if I am honest I just don’t think these dosages are useful for most people (more on this below). You will blast off into hyper space.

 

Now it is worth mentioning there is a sizable spectrum of tolerance from individual to individual. I have some friends that can play guitar on 5 grams of psilocybe mushrooms with a tab of LSD added in. If I consume 3.5 grams of mushrooms I can hardly process normal reality. Everyone is different and it is best to start low and slow with guided medical supervision.

 

Shadow Work and Psychedelics

Now performing actual shadow work on psychedelics is difficult to say the least. If you set an intention to see and process your shadow you will be confronted with the dark aspects of yourself. You really wont have to do much other than to lay blindfolded on a bed or just hang out in nature. Even with eyes open your mind still start to percolate out the content needed for your growth. How it choses to process this will be up to the psyche however your mindset will hugely influence what comes up. I recommend you have a friend/medical professional with you but also have an alone space to go to for the exploration of your unconscious mind. After the trip is over ensure you are prepared to process and integrate what happened over many days. I recommend no work or large activities for at least 24 hour (preferably 48 hours) post psychedelic trip. Spend this time journaling, contemplating and processing what went down. I keep active logs of all of my psychedelic trips and what my mind was trying to show me during these experiences. Sometimes it is obvious, other times it is ambiguous. However if you contemplate long enough the answers and understanding will come.

 

Remember it is always symbolic. Even if you receive literal messages, understand there are layers of truth to all unconscious symbols. In the documentary “How to change your mind” which I recommended above you will find a man who saw himself as a baby being strangled by the umbilical cord of his mother during birth. It is very possible that actually happened however my assumption is that was actually a symbolic message from his psyche that his relationship with his mother is choking him. Even if it did actually happen, there is a high probability that those images were more than just physical reality but tied to a mental reality he needs to process. Whether or not is is a claustrophobic relationship with his mom is only something he can decide but you can tell his mind only interpreted the message as literal which is the biggest MISTAKE I see psychedelic users make. There is always a symbolic reality to everything you see during your trips and to be honest it is almost always only symbolic as that is actually more real than mundane events. Physical happenings often can hold less weight than our mental realities. Symbolism is the key!

The Pathless Path

Shadow work is much more than a psychological modality. It is a journey of transformation and the path of this journey will be dark, not because it is unjust but because you will start to carve out your own path. You know you are on your path by simply gazing down only to discover there is no path beneath your feet. Any path that is already carved out is someone else’s. There are no others who can show you the way, your heart is the only compass.

If you ever need support on your journey I am here for mentorship. I do not offer my path but the tools to help you carve out your own. I provide both individual and group coaching. Our website also has resources for members who wish to guide their own journeys including on going programs as well as tons of private content for further evolution of your personal transformation. I am here to help and if any of you need support on your journey, Unity is a place where you may find that support. We have many mentors who can help you on your own journey, all of whom are vetted personally by me and many of them who originally came to me for their own transformation. I wish you all speed and power on your journey of self creation!

I love you all.

“The acceptance of oneself is the essence of the whole moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life. That I feed the hungry, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ — all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least among them all, the poorest of all the beggars, the most impudent of all the offenders, the very enemy himself — that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness — that I myself am the enemy who must be loved — what then? As a rule, the Christian’s attitude is then reversed; there is no longer any question of love or long-suffering; we say to the brother within us “Raca,” and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide it from the world; we refuse to admit ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves.”

–Carl Jung, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”