“Intentions:” Now, there is a word that has taken its fair share of abuse ever since a 10th-century French abbot named Bernard de Clairvaux coined the following phrase: “The road to hell is paved with good intention.”
In today’s article, we are going to show you exactly why the following phrase should be discarded not only from the sphere of psychedelic and holistic healing but also from general conversation.
While Clairvaux’s phrase bears weight and value in some situations, it gives one the idea that, for example, setting an intention to change, or be better, is not only without value but that it is also “wrong” to set intentions unless you follow up on them: a damaging belief. Without an intention first, there can be no change.
The phrase would have been better stated as “the road to stagnation is only ever paved with the best of intentions, yet no action.”
Why Are Intentions So Important in Psychedelic Therapies?
An “intention,” as interpreted within the sphere of psychedelic plant medicines like ibogaine, DMT, ayahuasca, psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA acts as a guide to a part of your psychological or spiritual life on which you wish to gain insight on through the above plant and animal medicines, commonly referred to as “teacher” medicines.
To put it more plainly, an intention can be any of the following:
- Aiming to unearth or develop certain characteristics in yourself.
- An outcome you would like.
- A specific experience you wish to have during the psychedelic journey.
- A “request” to gain certain insights into your life.
Ideally, your intention should be thought of daily with some care and profound thinking in the time leading up to your scheduled treatment.
It will be the first of many steps you take in your healing dialogue with, for example, ibogaine, one of the most powerful teacher plants we use here at Tabula Rasa Retreat
Setting a clear intention will stand as a demonstration that you are taking your commitment to healing with seriousness.
It also has the effect of opening your mind and heart to what matters deeply to you; attuning you to the things inside you want to fix.
It should be said, though, that just as everyone is different, the healing outcomes and what each person needs to work on can vary from person to person.
Things an Intention Should Not Include
To further help you in the process of setting the right intention, we have included tips on how not to go about them
- Don’t go for a direct conditional requirement, such as “Either I get to see/experience/know _____, or my psychedelic medicine didn’t work.” This is not how plant medicines will function, especially not ibogaine. With biological and molecular intelligence all its own, it will often show you what you need to see more than what you want.
- cling on to expectations. You may have had friends who have undergone ibogaine treatments or used other psychedelic teacher plants in their healing journeys who may have shared their experiences with you. Know that your experience will not be anything like theirs.
- Don’t prescribe yourself a specific lesson, such as “_____ is what I need.” The sacred wood from which ibogaine is extracted is truly that which “knows” what you need and will bubble up what your subconscious presents as most urgent. More correctly, you can and should state what you would like to experience/feel/gain insight into.
The idea is that, once you have found the true intention that resonates with you, you should just as quickly let it go. Do not fixate on it, and open yourself up for whatever will be revealed, knowing you have already opened the first door to a healthy relationship with your psychedelic medicine.
Why Such a Focus on Intentions?
The first thing an intention will do for you is it will help you to “show up” for the healing process; to take a long, hard look inside yourself.
As with any kind of therapy, there are no quick and easy answers that any specialist can give you unless you are willing to do some digging first; much in the same manner, psychedelics and teacher plants act in the same way. They are like a mentor, a friendly guide.
What a clear intention will do is it will inform the psychedelic medicine what to look out for.
Try to think of an intention as a section you have highlighted from the text of your life. In this way, you are also telling your body and mind’s innate healing capacity what you feel matters most to you now.
A great intention will also function as an anchor during your psychedelic journey.
It is common while under the influence of psychedelics such as ibogaine that some things you will see will make you fearful, anxious, or overwhelmed.
While the general advice is to sit with it to see where it goes. Know that if you bring the intention back to your conscious thought by repeating it, it will often help redirect the psychedelic experience once underway.
Also, reminding yourself of the intention can help you make sense of what you are seeing.
This is because, sometimes during your psychedelic ibogaine session, the things you will see/experience will not appear to be directly connected to your original intention. By reminding yourself of it, those same images or sensations will gain a new light and may be better understood.
If your mind is the paint, ibogaine the brush, and you the painter, then your intention is the frame that holds the finished piece to be interpreted.
After your treatment session, during the integration phase, when you make sense of what you have learned in relation to your life, it is useful to adopt the following mindset: “if given my intention of _____, why was I shown what I saw/felt/learned? What is it trying to point me to?”
Words Matter
To help you think of the clearest intention that will best serve you, rather than suggesting what to write, we have included three additional points to consider.
- Language: words matter, especially when setting intentions, and any phrase or question that has excessively negative wording should be rewritten in a more positive way. For example, rather than asking: “show me my darkness/pain,” you would be better off stating something more positive, like “What is the nature of my darkness/pain, and how can it show me the way to the light/peace.” Also, you might want to keep it in the present tense, related to your current situation.
- Be Specific: remember that an intention is not a guarantee of what you will experience and try making it as specific and clear as possible, such as: “_____ is what I’d like to work on now. Could you show me something about that?” Or then try something like “would you help me see/discover_____?”
- do not just skim the surface of your issues. To illustrate this point perfectly, thinker and holistic physician Gabor Maté says: “The question should not be ‘why the addiction,’ but ‘why the pain?’” The addiction is no more than a symptom or manifestation of the deeper unease it seeks to pacify.
Should I have a Different Intention Each Time I Try Psychedelic Healing?
When you first step into a river, you are confronted with flowing waters. This means that when you step into the river a second time, the waters you meet are entirely different, and therefore, you are not, in fact, stepping into the same river. This is true even if you stand in the same spot.
Kai Whiting and Leonidas Konstantakos, “Being Better.”
As Whiting and Konstantakos explain, the original phrase belongs to the Greek Stoic philosopher Heraclitus and is: “We never step in the same river twice.”
For this very reason, it is unwise to use the same wording for your intention a second time around, as you will no longer be the exact same you were before it, and so your actual needs may have changed.
You can, however, create another one around the same theme. Say, if your problem is addictive impulses in general rather than tied to a specific addiction, you can explore a different aspect of the theme. Conclusions
Thankfully, due to the ground-breaking work conducted by many incredibly astute and forward-thinking scientists and ethnobotanists in the last three decades, psychedelic therapy is, at last, getting the chance and notice it has always deserved.
As discussed, it is wise to set an intention that addresses a specific issue as a framework both before and after your treatment.
While you should be specific, you would do well to let go of your intention once the journey starts and be open to what psychedelic medicine has in store for you.
It is advisable to keep your intention positive and related to the present moment.
In life, as in holistic plant therapies, we should keep our expectations at bay, and learn to go with the flow
Should you be struggling with any kind of trauma, addiction, or mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, contact us at Tabula Rasa Retreatand we can advise you on which therapy may be best suited to your specific issue.
For further information visit www.tabularasaretreat.com or call PT +351 965 751 649 UK +44 7961 355 530