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The 5-MeO-DMT journey is one of the most profound experiences a human can undergo. It involves a temporary shattering of one’s individual identity, which can lead to an experience of absolute and infinite consciousness. Though this can be a beautiful and healing experience, not everyone is ready for it, and for some, it can be harmful, even leading to psychosis or trauma. Before you say yes to this experience, ask yourself: is now the right time for such a profound journey? What are you seeking? Are you at a point in your life where you can go through a possibly challenging or destabilizing journey?

Read everything you can about this molecule - its history, how and why people use it, how to prepare for it, how to integrate it, and the types of adverse events that people experience. We recommend starting with F.I.V.E. and Erowid. If you know others who have worked with this molecule, check in with them about their experience. How was their experience? How did they prepare and integrate? Is there anything they wish they’d known?

Preparation is a crucial part of any 5-MeO-DMT experience. Preparation is what will allow you to make the most of your experience. It will help you feel safe enough to fully surrender control during the journey. And it will provide a foundation for you to reflect on and grow from after your journey. A good facilitator will have a preparation process that lasts from weeks to months. Preparation can include intention setting; calls with the facilitator(s); journaling; meditation; therapy; and much more. Preparation also includes thinking about what your integration process will look like and creating space for that process to unfold.

5-MeO-DMT can cause loss of consciousness, which may lead to bodily injury or even asphyxiation which can result in death. The guidance and care of an experienced facilitator is extremely important in this process.

Vet, vet, vet! Vet your retreat! Vet your facilitator(s)! You are entrusting another person to support you throughout one of the most profound and impactful experiences a human can possibly have. You are entrusting them with your physical body when your spirit is elsewhere. You should devote the same diligence to the vetting process as you would the process of vetting a brain surgeon.

Generally speaking, there are two interrelated parts to the vetting process: (1) Are they ethical? (2) Are they sufficiently skilled? Regarding ethics, beware! There has been a rise in unscrupulous practitioners in recent years. We recommend you start your vetting process by reading the articles in our Guide to Psychedelic Citizenship devoted to this subject. Many of the same questions will help you determine if your prospective facilitator has sufficient skills. For additional support with this inquiry, visit the F.I.V.E. website.

During a 5-MeO-DMT experience, you may lose control of your physical body, it is important that you are in a place where you can be safe at all times. This will include a private space that is well cushioned.

Are you in a place that is safe to scream? Are you near water where you are in danger of drowning? If your body goes dynamic, do your facilitators have a protocol to keep your body safe?

Take a minimum of three to seven days after the experience without regular everyday life stressors such as work or triggering relationships. Set yourself up for a soft landing back into your daily lives.

Think about enlisting the support of an integration specialist, therapist, or seek out an in person or online integration circle. An individual can choose to do their integration on their own but choosing to find a support system who intimately understands the 5-MeO-DMT experience is highly recommended. Try to find someone who is trained to support you in getting the most out of your experience, while also helping you to navigate the road ahead and any challenges that arise.

As you integrate, give your mind permission to not be able to “understand” the experience. The peak mystical experience is often “ineffable,” beyond that which the mind can comprehend. Devoting too much energy to trying to consciously comprehend that which cannot be comprehended may result in obsessive thinking, confusion, loss of meaning, and may even be destabilizing.

Reactivations occur in approximately 15 to 20% of participants. These are anything from a faint glimmer of the 5-MeO-DMT experience to a full-blown journey. Lasting anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, they generally occur between 2:00 to 4:00 a.m., or in moments of stillness such as during meditation or breathwork.

Reactivations can be understood as reverberations of the experience. If you’re prepared for them, they can provide another opportunity for your consciousness to re-connect with and process the journey, even offering deeper insight and healing potential. But if you’re unprepared, reactivations can be challenging and destabilizing.

A 5-MeO-DMT experience can potentiate other substances for following days to months after the experience. During this timeframe, beware of working with other substances and consult a professional before doing so.

The skyrocketing interest in 5-meo-DMT is one factor that has pushed towards extinction the Sonoran Desert Toad from which this molecule comes. Fortunately, the 5-meo-DMT molecule can be synthesized, and the experience with the lab-made molecule is virtually indistinguishable. We’ll be blunt: Save the toads! Go synthetic!!

You should always thoroughly research a prospective facilitator. This research should include internet research, publicly available court websites for current or past lawsuits, and asking trusted friends and community members.

Some facilitators may be licensed professionals such as therapists, doctors, nurses, massage therapists, and social workers. Many of these professionals must maintain active licenses, and their licensing authorities keep databases — some of which are available online — about sustained allegations of misconduct. Before deciding on a facilitator, learn their disciplinary history.

A psychedelic facilitator should not have sexual contact with someone for whom they have facilitated a psychedelic experience. This includes sexual contact DURING a psychedelic experience as well as AFTER that experience.

A prospective facilitator should also be willing to tell you whether they have ever done so in the past. If they have, this is an abuse of power and a major ethical transgression. This is true even if the facilitator tells you that their client initiated the sexual contact.

In Warning Sign #2, we addressed sexual contact, and explained that there is no circumstance when sexual contact is ever okay with a facilitator during or after a guided psychedelic experience. In this Warning Sign #3, we address non-sexual contact during a guided experience. Your facilitator should initiate a detailed discussion with you — at least one day before the experience so you have some time to reconsider your agreements— about the physical contact with which you’re comfortable during the journey.

For example, they should ask you if you’re okay with hand holding, shoulder touching, and hugging. They should promise you, in writing if you prefer, that the agreements you make on that day will be held sacrosanct during the psychedelic experience. In other words, during that experience, you are incapable of moral consent, and therefore, a request from you for physical contact not agreed upon beforehand is meaningless, and the facilitator should tactfully refuse it. Likewise, a facilitator should assure you that they will not attempt any physical contact that you did not consent to beforehand, regardless of what arises in the moment during the journey.

Because psychedelics have been illegal for over 50 years in many places, there is a dearth of research on who should or should not consume them. Scientists are starting learn about contraindicated medical conditions and medications, but the research is still in the early days. Your facilitator should affirmatively raise this with you, should be aware of the latest research, but also be very frank with you about the limits of their Western medical knowledge.

If you mention a particular medical condition such as a heart condition, an ethical facilitator would acknowledge the limits of their own knowledge and potentially refer you to a medical doctor for further discussion. Of course, be wary of someone who is not a medical doctor dispensing purported medical knowledge.

Even if your facilitator isn’t a clinician, they should have done some form of trauma-informed training and have knowledge of how adverse childhood experiences might affect a person’s behaviors and beliefs. If you are a person of color and/or LGBTQIA+, your facilitator should have training and experience working with people of similar identities and supporting them in the processing of trauma that people with those identities often experience. Regardless, some people may feel more comfortable working with a facilitator who shares aspects of their identity.

There are more adulterants than ever in psychedelic substances. If you are procuring the psychedelic substance you’ll be taking, the facilitator should insist that you test it. If the facilitator is procuring the substance, they should have personally tested it and be willing to test it in front of you if asked. Dance Safe is a great resource for drug testing!

A variety of medical and mental-health emergencies may arise during and after a psychedelic experience. Your facilitator should understand this, have a detailed plan in place for how they respond to such emergencies and be willing to share that plan with you in detail. As you review it, think through the plan’s thoroughness and likely effectiveness, and consider discussing it with a medical professional.

Your facilitator should also be open with you about any past adverse events events that have occurred, how they resolved, what the facilitator learned from those events, and what if any changes they made to their safety plan as a result. Be wary of any refusal or reluctance to discuss these topics in a thorough and forthright way.

No one heals you but you. A facilitator may support you in your healing process, and some facilitators may share their insights with you and offer reflections or even advice. But ultimately you and only you have the power to heal yourself. It is a red flag if a facilitator does not acknowledge this humbly and wholeheartedly.

It should also be concerning if they describe themselves as a shaman and are neither Indigenous nor have they trained with an Indigenous person who has authorized them to use the term shaman. At a minimum, this is cultural appropriation. It may also suggest an inflated sense of their own role in the healing process.

There are many pathways to becoming a facilitator, and having mental health licensure or having trained with Indigenous communities are not the only routes. However, facilitating with psychedelics involves being responsible for vulnerable individuals with a spectrum of potential concerns, ranging from medical to spiritual to psychological. This requires a comprehensive understanding and preparedness to deal with a variety of reactions, traumas, and emergencies. A facilitator should have completed a rigorous training or apprenticeship that involved significant supervision and feedback from a mentor.

Even after a facilitator completes their training, they should still be part of a community of facilitators from whom they can continue to learn and who can hold them accountable if needed. In other words, use caution around a “lone wolf” facilitator who has no peers, no community, and is not part of any system, however informal, for accountability and continued learning.

As you do your due diligence about your prospective facilitator, trust your intuition. If something feels off, then it probably is. Even if you can’t quite articulate what seems awry, honor that voice inside of you.

If you have a personal or family history of mental health challenges or are on prescribed medication, consult with a medical professional before taking psychedelics.

Psychedelics are powerful tools. Treating them with reverence can reduce risks and lead to positive outcomes.

Do research before taking a psychedelic. Learn about dosage, length of experience, risks, and contraindications. Erowid is a good starting point.

Always test your drugs to make sure they are what you think they are. Start with DanceSafe!

Your set and setting will play an important role in your psychedelic experience. Set is your inner world. It includes your personality, beliefs, history, and current emotional state. Cultivate a calm, equanimous mind in the time leading up to your journey, using whatever practices are right for you. This can include time in nature, meditation, yoga, journaling, making art, and speaking to people you trust. Be aware that past trauma can arise, and be prepared to go through a potentially challenging yet healing experience. Setting is your external environment. It includes your physical location (indoors or outdoors; at your home or someone else’s; at a show or in ceremony; camping; the art on the walls or the objects you have with you); what you’re listening to; who you’re with (e.g., friends, a therapist, a shaman, a guide); the lighting; the smells; the weather/temperature. Think through each of these elements carefully, with an eye towards creating an environment that will foster trust, acceptance, and psychological safety. Avoid public settings.

Do not journey at a moderate to high dose without a sober friend nearby who can provide a supportive, grounded presence.

If you do go solo be sure to also have the Fireside Project app downloaded or/and our number saved to your cell phone. 62-FIRESIDE/623.473.7433

Make sure you have access to basic needs such as water and a restroom. Wear comfortable clothing. Have a blanket nearby.

Changing the playlist or volume of your music, adjusting the lighting, adding or removing a layer of clothing, or going outside/inside can radically change your experience.

Before your journey begins, discuss boundaries and intentions with those who you’ll be journeying with. If you have a sitter, create an agreement with them stating if they indicate something that is happening needs to stop (for safety purposes or otherwise), you will abide without question.

After your experience, take it slow in returning to the busy-ness of life. Share your experience with those who you journeyed with or others who you trust. Find ways to remain connected with and unpack the experience in ways such as expressive arts, journaling, meditation, or time in nature. Avoid making major life decisions in the immediate aftermath.

“Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.”

From the end of the Civil War until the mid-1960s, many states created a racial caste system designed to continue the subjugation of Black people through so-called Jim Crow laws. When two federal laws invalidated many Jim Crow laws, the Nixon Administration responded with the War on Drugs, starting with the Controlled Substances Act. As explained in Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, “Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you are afforded scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow.”

There is a demand for mind-altering substances in nearly every society throughout the world. When some of these substances are made illegal, individuals and groups will rise to meet this demand and sell these drugs illegally, creating a black market. When demand for these substances is high, these organized criminal groups become incredibly wealthy and increasingly well-armed, and come into conflict with police, civilians, and other criminal gangs. During the prohibition era in the 1920’s and 30’s, prohibition gave rise to mobsters like Al Capone and strings of deadly violence between rival bootlegging gangs. In recent years the Drug War has empowered the notorious drug cartels in Mexico, Colombia, and the United States, leading to death tolls that number in the hundreds of thousands. 

Nixon convened a commission to develop evidence that cannabis was harmful: “I want a goddamn strong statement on marijuana. Can I get that out of this sonofabitching, uh, domestic council? … I mean one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them.” When the commission found that cannabis was as safe as alcohol, the Nixon Administration buried the report.Item description

Congress’ decision to make the mandatory prison sentence for crack cocaine 100-times longer than for powder cocaine is further evidence that the War on Drugs is nothing more than a war on Black people. In June 1986, Maryland basketball star Len Bias died of an overdose of alcohol and powder cocaine. Yet Congress falsely blamed crack cocaine for Bias’ death, then passed a law making the minimum prison sentence for crack 100-times longer than for powder cocaine. Worse still, this law was applied in a discriminatory way. Even though whites and Hispanics formed the majority of crack users, Black people constituted more than 80% of the defendants sentenced under this law. Although the 1986 law was amended in 2010, the law was not fully retroactive and the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine is still 18:1. Click here to learn more.

Criminalizing drugs just forces people to buy them from unregulated, unscrupulous sources who cut them with potent substances like fentanyl. According to the CDC, fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for adults ages 18-45 in the United States, killing 40,010 Americans. It claimed nearly twice as many lives as car accidents, suicide, COVID, and cancer. If you are going to take drugs, TEST THEM FIRST!!! You can buy cheap, effective testing kits from our wonderful friends at DanceSafe.

The DEA announced in 1984 that it would be classifying MDMA as having no medical use. An administrative judge within the DEA examined the evidence and concluded that MDMA did in fact have medical use as an adjunct to psychotherapy. The DEA rejected the finding of its own judge and classified MDMA as having no medical use. Perversely, this classification precluded scientists from conducting further studies to explore MDMA’s medical use.

One of the many lies of the “Just Say No” campaign was a study supposedly showing that MDMA puts holes in your brain. Turns out, the researchers screwed up and used the wrong substance: “We write to retract our report . . . following our recent discovery that the drug used to treat all but one animal in that report came from a bottle that contained methamphetamine instead of the intended drug MDMA,” admitted the study’s author.

Federal law classifies all psychedelics and cannabis as having no medical use, but there has never been any evidence to support this classification. Fortunately, however, the dam is breaking. FDA clinical trials are showing psychedelics’ myriad benefits, including as treatments for PTSD, depression, anxiety, cluster headaches, and for addiction to opioids, alcohol, and tobacco, and the prohibition on federal cannabis research is eroding. Beyond that, more than two dozen states have legalized cannabis for recreational and/or medical purposes, and numerous jurisdictions have decriminalized small amounts of all drugs or certain subsets of them.

As John Lennon said, War is over if you want it! That’s true about the War on Drugs, too! There are myriad ways for you to get involved. You can encourage lawmakers in Washington to adopt the recently introduced bill that’s even more progressive measure than Oregon’s Measure 109. You can contact California legislators and encourage them to pass SB519, which would decriminalize small amounts of psychedelics in California. You can volunteer on a campaign to decriminalize drugs wherever you live, or get your own measure on the ballot! You can donate to organizations like Drug Policy Alliance that have been fighting the drug war for years. You can fight the propaganda by sharing accurate information about drugs. You can support MAPS and Usona, two nonprofits that are conducting exciting psychedelic research, or nonprofits like the the Ancestor Project and POC Psychedelic Collective, which focus in part on undoing the harms caused by the War on Drugs.

Some jurisdictions have decriminalized psychedelics and other drugs. But what Oregon’s Measure 109 does is truly revolutionary: it creates a regulatory infrastructure for state-sanctioned psilocybin services. After the Oregon Health Authority begins receiving applications for licensure on January 2, 2023, people who have lived in Oregon for two or more years and who are 21 and older will be able to take a state-approved facilitator training course, obtain a license from the state, then facilitate psilocybin experiences in an approved psilocybin service center.

Part of what makes Measure 109 so revolutionary is that psilocybin facilitation will not be confined to the medical model. In other words, you don’t need to go to a doctor and receive a diagnosis to receive a facilitated psilocybin experience. You don’t need to have depression, anxiety, or a disorder of any kind. You can have a facilitated psilocybin experience for spiritual exploration, personal growth, or to connect with nature. It’s entirely up to you!

Outside of Oregon, psychedelic therapy must be administered within the medical system by mental health professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, or social workers. Under Measure 109, any Oregonian with a high school diploma who meets certain criteria may be eligible for a license to manufacture psilocybin products, operate a psilocybin service center, facilitate psilocybin services, or test psilocybin products.

Starting on January 2, 2023, licensed psilocybin service centers may legally operate in Oregon, and under the supervision of a licensed facilitator, may offer psilocybin experiences for anyone aged 21 or older, even if they don’t live in Oregon! Plans for some of these retreat centers are already in motion, including retreats by Synthesis Institute and InnerTrek.

The War on Drugs has preyed upon people of color. They’re more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, harshly sentenced and saddled with a lifelong criminal record. For example, nearly 80% of people in federal prison and almost 60% of people in state prison for drug offenses are Black or Latinx. To begin undoing some of these injustices, Measure 109 does not preclude people who have certain convictions for the manufacture or possession of cannabis or psilocybin to apply for licenses under Measure 109. In this way, people who have been victimized by the War on Drugs may begin to reap some of the benefits of legalized, regulated psilocybin facilitation.

You read that correctly. Once Measure 109 goes into effect, Oregonians who meet certain criteria will be able to apply for a license allowing them to manufacture psilocybin mushrooms. To learn more, read the text of the measure or visit the Oregon Health Authority’s website.

Measure 109 created the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board, which is in the process of drafting recommendations to the Oregon Health Authority on the implementation of M109. Once that process is done, the Oregon Health Authority–the state agency responsible for implementing the law–will decide whether to adopt or modify those regulations in draft rules. OHA will schedule Rulemaking Advisory Committees that will meet to discuss the draft rules, and then a public comment period will follow (April and November of 2022). OHA will host public listening sessions to hear from the public (the next sessions will be scheduled this summer). All of the OPAB’s meetings are open to the public. To attend the meetings, read the text of the law, or sign up for their highly informative newsletter, visit the OHA website. We’ve gotten to know some of the good folks who are working on the implementation of Measure 109, and we’re confident that you’ll all be blown away by their heart, their intelligence, and their desire to make Measure 109 a success.

On the same day that Oregon voters adopted Measure 109, they also adopted Measure 110, which decriminalizes small amounts of all drugs. Both measures become operative on the same day–January 2, 2023. That’s less than a year away! All of these substances remain illegal under federal law.

Your integration process begins before your psychedelic experience. Set an intention for your journey: Why have you decided to take this journey? Why now? What do you hope to learn? What do you hope to find? Or let go of? Cultivate a calm, equanimous mind in the time leading up to your journey, using whatever practices feel authentic for you. This can include time in nature, meditation, yoga, journaling, making art, dancing, and speaking to people you trust.

Take time after your journey to process and explore. Avoid returning to work for at least a couple of days, if possible. The more time, the better.

A healing process is unfolding within you. What do you need in this moment to support you on your healing journey? Learn to listen to that voice inside of you. Trust it. Let it guide you.

Maybe you need time alone or in community. Maybe you need to draw, dance, journal, meditate, do yoga, or sing. Maybe what feels right is time in nature, on a trail, or in a body of water. Listen to your needs and how they may change from moment to moment.

You may be in a highly sensitive, tender state after your journey. Treat yourself with kindness and gentleness. Be thoughtful about what you allow to enter your mind and body. Try to avoid social media, the news, and the like. Eat nutritious, unprocessed foods and drink plenty of water.

Integration happens at its own pace. Healing is seldom linear or predictable. Insights and healing may occur quickly, or they may take years or decades. Be patient with the process. Trust that things will unfold as they are meant to.

Did your intention manifest during your journey? How? Explore these questions in the days and weeks following your journey in the ways that feel right for you. Sometimes not having the experience you expected to can offer great insights and blessings in disguise.

Consider processing your experience with others who were part of your journey. You may find that these connections help keep the light of your journey alive within you for months or years.

You may feel yourself letting go of old habits and patterns that were not serving you well. You may notice yourself creating newer, healthier habits. This is part of the process.

You may have received powerful insights and messages during your journey about major changes you may want to make in your life. This can include changes to your job or your relationships. Consider sitting with these for at least a few days or weeks before acting on them.