This is a nicely put article. Though you don't discuss Hero's Journey much, I went on and look for PTSD relation.
Here is an extract from The power of Myth:
Set and Setting, a view from Joseph Campbell
---"They even speak a special language, a negative language. Instead of saying yes, for example, they say no, or instead of saying, "We are going," they say, "We are coming." They are in another world. Then they come to the threshold of the adventure. There are special shrines that represent stages of mental transformation on the way. And then comes the great business of collecting the peyote. The peyote is killed as though it were a deer. They sneak up on it, shoot a little arrow at it, and then perform the ritual of collecting the peyote. The whole thing is a complete duplication of the kind of experience that is associated with the inward journey, when you leave the outer world and come into the realm of spiritual beings. They identify each little stage as a spiritual transformation. They are in a sacred place all the way"(...)"These are all very important concerns, but they have to do with physical conditions, mostly. But how are you going to communicate spiritual consciousness to the children if you don't have it yourself? How do you get that? What the myths are for is to bring us into a level of consciousness that is spiritual."---
I think this ritualization of the process is highly important. It's a structure for the experience, a set of rules, a geometry, and so will help digestion. It is something you hint at with the concern about food and having a proper diet.
If an Ayuascha or any form of psychedelic trip can help digest trauma it is because of said stages of spiritual transformation, because there is a map to the subconscious, if we were to infuse our lives with such stages - which implies rituals both personal and collective, a leaning toward a more symbolical and archetypal perception of the world - we would be healing ourselves better. We would be in continuous healing, realizing the healing power of the symbolical is reconnecting with the world in the most intimate sense - ecology means nothing without it.
The next tool he uses is Myth, which really is his thing but also ours. As the ritual is a mapping of stage, so is the story, on a different and less interactive/involved level maybe but still highly communicating and with enormous potential for healing and transformation. There are different sides to this:
* How you tell the story, which medium do you use - I think leaning toward orality helps bring a more natural (and therefore healing) vibe. It is an ephemeral moment that will vanish (unlike this post I am writing), there is the modulation of the voice, the look of someone who has gone through what you've gone through, etc. Body language.
* Then the fictional realm comes in. In our society, we have dismissed the imagination as a petty fantasy but it is that which is the true nature of consciousness. Being afraid to sink into your imagination, this altered view of the world, is a fear to go within yourself. You cannot heal on the surface, only the depth of your soul, what is beyond you, holds healing.
The Myth is an incredible tool, a psychedelic one, far more effective than factual history because it incorporates the emotional energy, the psychic bonds and need of the mind to transform (which may if not expressed be repressed - and if expressed but not understood as real will not create a full recovery). Art is healing.
I think this combination of fictional weirdness - which is also an humourous thing, mythologies are absurd and quirky - and orality holds great key for such passing of trauma. It's a very simple thing. Like breathing. It's very natural, very primal. The ephemeral quality is quintessential, something that isn't written and vanishes, it dies, and so it transforms. The sand castles cannot stay forever, a soothing wave will take it away, you regret that sand castle which meant so much to you ... but look, the wave is beautiful, feel her quiet movements, hear her tenderous kisses ...
So beyond the Ayahuasca experience, I think we should thrive toward a complete psychedelic therapy that takes on every aspect of one's life, become one's life. It's actually just mindfulness.
