Spiritual Needs
People undertake psychedelic medicines for a multitude of reasons. One of these may be identified as a need for meaning or connection. We can think of this as a spiritual need.
In addition, given that the psychedelic experience is often so unusual and commonly consists of an experience the person has never had, they may frame it in terms of a spiritual event or crisis.
Defining Spirituality
The word spiritual has different meanings for different people. It may be defined within a religious context, concerned with what one considers sacred. It may be tied to seeking a purpose or meaning in life that is greater than the mundane aspects of being human. It may relate to themes of life and death, and one’s relationship to death. For others, it may be linked to the idea of awakening or liberation, freedom from suffering or being attached to worldly things.
While we could address spiritual needs under meaning-making or values, we have chosen to make it a separate category given its specificity, complexity, and the frequency with which spiritual concerns arise.
Defining Spirituality
The word spiritual has different meanings for different people. It may be defined within a religious context, concerned with what one considers sacred. It may be tied to seeking a purpose or meaning in life that is greater than the mundane aspects of being human. It may relate to themes of life and death, and one’s relationship to death. For others, it may be linked to the idea of awakening or liberation, freedom from suffering or being attached to worldly things.
While we could address spiritual needs under meaning-making or values, we have chosen to make it a separate category given its specificity, complexity, and the frequency with which spiritual concerns arise.
Health Professional Tip
Health professionals need to ensure that they are aware of their own biases, beliefs, or spiritual orientation and that they can manage those that are different from their own. In addition, it is important that they do not impose their own beliefs or opinions on the client. Given the increased suggestibility of people during and following psychedelic experiences, it is important to uphold their right to freedom of thought and religion.
Integration and Spirituality
Commonly, clients can enter a peak or mystical state during the psychedelic Medicine Session that they then feel the need to integrate into everyday life. For some, this is extremely challenging if such an experience is discordant with their view of self and previous beliefs about spirituality. For example, someone who has grown up in a particular religion has a psychedelic induced realization that everything is sacred and not limited to the church. This new realization could be in conflict with previous beliefs.
Integration then is aimed at how clients come to terms with such a challenge and reconcile their previous beliefs with what has been perceived as profound, anomalous, and mysterious. Health professionals can conceive of this as consistent with working with any other belief or view. Should clients wish to put these new beliefs into practice, part of health professionals’ work will be to support this process in cognitive, emotional, and practical ways.
Reflection
How would you engage your client in a conversation about spirituality? How would you ask and frame this in order to lean into the conversation?