Integration Is Key

The biggest misconception I hear about psilocybin work, and psychedelic work in general, is that the medicine itself is the key to healing. The experience does play a part, but in my view the real work is the preparation beforehand and the integration that follows.

Integration is what happens long after the journey ends, well past those first few weeks. It lives in the practices people build afterward: the newly learned habits and small behaviors, whether that is meditation, steadier care of the self, better nutrition, time spent moving or out in nature, or simply more patience with oneself.

Whatever form it takes, the practice and the integration are, to me, the most important parts of the whole process.