To me it (integration) is essential like a rest phase after physical sport, inevitable, necessary, not open for interpretations. After deep fysio-psychological "sport" you need such a phase too, recuperation. Very natural.
^^^
OP, integration is absolutely not only necessary, but seemingly a factor that actually regulates itself! A person would have to be of a very eccentric psychic constitution to bypass the integration process and still be a functional member of humanity. Of course, if you don't want to be human, then by all means. Personally, I find I only need to "trip" about twice a year. For example, last year, I consumed 5 grams of dried psilocybin mushrooms in the month of March and then again in the month of September. I haven't taken that kind of a dose since. (I've just inoculated some new jars, however
) See, it's around that six month time by the time they are in again.
The mushroom regulates itself. If a person overdoes it, there will be consequences somehow somewhere, always, because you cannot simply ingest a "food of the gods" and expect not to be burned, or enlightened. This is something I've never understood. Some people seem to be able to take these things, for example, like every two weeks! That's nuts. I'm not saying that because it seems to take myself six months for integration that that's how long it should take for everybody else. I'm saying that for me, with the aid of five grams dried of psilocybin mushrooms, after about two hours of the agony of the ego, I dissolve back into the heart of the Soul of I, the that which than which there isn't a whicher, the that which that cannot be named, the that which of which we must consign to the eloquent language of silence. Buddha. I come to a place where there are no problems to be solved, because it is unconditionally felt that everything in the universe, that everything in life is in perfect synchronous divine order. Everything is simply exactly right somehow.
When one is there, he is everywhere, totally present, nothing can disturb him. He has attained the peace which passeth understanding. I knew that if I were to cross the yawning grave then and there, I would be enblissed. For me, the psychedlic experience always brings me back to Self; the mushroom brings me always back to the shores of eternity. Psilocybin is the catalyst for the dissolution of all that which is your illusion, your game, your mask. For me, I discover, with an incredible amount of joy that I am the same Soul that peers through all eyes each believing themselves an I.
I say these things only to defend the community of anyone who is open to any method to aid them in his or her search to find out who they really are. I believe integration should not be underestimated. You would be much better to overestimate it instead. Then, you'd be cautious, rather than foolishly (sorry) believing that the psychedelic experience could be reduced to the mere extraction of one insight to a billion nonsensical thoughts. No, my friend. Everything is relevant, because Everything is connected. Everything shares a relationship! If a person goes in fumbling around on their raft out there on those stormy seas believing most of it's not real, or that one must discern the shit from the shinola, I think that person will soon have a reality check, because
everything in the world is gold! We are asleep to it. Psilocybin is but one member of the biosphere, the intelligence of the Earth herself, that acts on the human psyche to awaken it, to remove the dust off a human being's eyes, helping him realize he was a buddha from the very beginning of no-beginning. But if a person has quite the mental corruption ( mental baggage - and an addiction to thoughts ) and is resisting what the mushroom is trying to show him, the mushroom will come down even harder. This will then result in a bad, a very bad, trip, because you weren't working with it, but against it in a hostile spirit. And these are not simply "trips". These are returns to our real perception, to our Real Self, the Self behind the mind. (Ever notice how synchronicity happens altogether at once "tripping"? How about telepathy? How about symbience? Well, you're in real space, where there is only one mind, one being, one self. Of course everyone else's thoughts are your own, because you are not separate from the other person.) By comparison, this reality we think we live in is but a detour into the human domain because we thought some time ago it might be fun, and we might even Learn something while we're at it - what it's like to live inside of space-time, an egg in which thoughts require some time to manifest themselves. Human life is a trip. That's the real awakening. Life really is a dream.
Another person stated this thing about synchronicity. I totally agree. In fact, I think all these comments about the nature of the psychedelic experience being something apart, distanced from the real, to be absolutely ridiculous. I always feel in my returns to the authentic Self that the time of six months between the "trips" was a literal instant, like a mere second of time. The real reality is inside there folks. Some say we can get there through meditation. There are perhaps millions of ways to get there. But I know for myself, that psilocybin (5 grams!) will take me there, or better to say, allows the brakes to be taken off so that I can venture there. Don't demean the mushroom and say it is only a helper. You are as much a helper to the mushroom. The great event is when these two intelligences merge - then, you've got something, which leads you back to Nothingness, the great mysterium tremendum.
Integration, then, is an incredibly important aspect of every domain of life. If you don't have integration, which is the process of (not sorting shit from shinola), but rather the conscious process of re-membering, by going through a process of anamnesis to bring back together the gold one uncovered in one's journey back to Self. It is the awakening that requires reflection and integration. The human mind takes it in bits and pieces. It it is the mind specifically that requires the integration. Not the soul. The soul is what is telling you (some call it a higher self) to address your problems, call your mother, fix your life, abandon eating unconsciously, be kind to others, and this kind of thing. The soul has no problem with a psychedelic experience. So, abandon your mind. Yes, I'm saying one must go out of his mind to come to his senses. This the mushroom helps with if you approach its intelligence in this spirit. Integration is the download of cosmic consciousness into the limited perspective of the human mind. That's why it takes awhile for integration, because the mind is like a monkey, and difficult it is to train it. You can only do that by letting go of it. Right now, we're strangling the monkey inside the cage. Let it go. It'll go nuts for awhile because it's been contained so long. But it'll settle eventually.
I hope i didn't hijack the thread but this is an important subject.
