January 14, 2026 • 44 mins
As we kick off 2026, we’re exploring the power of setting intentions, and why they’re essential for any transformative journey. By providing a focal point, a clear intention helps you sort through the noise to find the insights most relevant to your growth. It also serves as an emotional "home" to return to, ensuring that you’re actively navigating your subconscious, and not just drifting.
Key Takeaways
- Focus on the "Why" over the "What": An intention isn’t a rigid destination or a list of goals; it’s the emotional fuel behind your journey. By honing in on your "why,” you create a sturdy foundation for challenging experiences.
- Practice Distillation for Clarity: Boil your intentions down to one or two core themes or a single word, making it easier to recall and use as a grounding tool during an altered state of consciousness.
- Bridge the Gap with Emotional Targets: True healing is felt in the body, not just in the mind. To ensure your intentions are actionable, identify your specific "emotional markers" of success so you can recognize when you’re moving toward your purpose.
This podcast is edited by Chad Eschman.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
All right, folks, welcome to the Psychedelic
Passage podcast.
My name is Jimmy Wynne, founderof Psychedelic Passage, and your
host.
Thanks for being here with us.
If you are new to the podcast,welcome.
So great to have you here.
I hope that you enjoyed thisepisode and that if you tune
into other episodes of thepodcast, that you find the
(00:28):
content valuable and enrichingto not only your psychedelic
discovery process, but also justyour wellness and healing
journey.
And if you are an avid listener,casual listener, been here with
us for a very long time, alsothank you so much for that.
It means a lot to havecommunity, to be in shared
(00:51):
community together.
I hear so much great feedbackfrom folks that these episodes
have been really helpful andmeaningful to people.
I was just watching it, readinga YouTube comment, and somebody
said, keep talking to us.
It's helping.
It really is helping.
And so I do hope that listeningto this episode does help.
(01:13):
And this whole endeavor here atPsychedelic Passage over the
past six years has really been agesture of service and a gesture
of care.
This is the first episode of2026.
So we made it through 2025.
I'm not going to speak foreverybody else, but I had a
doozy of 2025.
(01:35):
And so pretty glad that it'sover.
And I know that people havedifferent, you know, life
experiences.
And, you know, today's episodeis going to talk about setting
intentions for a psychedelicexperience.
And I actually find it verytimely as the new year's roll
around.
People are always thinking aboutokay, setting resolutions and uh
(02:00):
making goals and wellness goalsand uh life goals and all of
that.
And as we see with most people,which I think is actually pretty
akin to psychedelic experiences,there's huge motivation, huge
momentum.
And then life happens, and thenthings go a little sideways, not
according to plan.
(02:20):
And then usually by around, Isay tax time, March or April,
maybe those intentions or thoseresolutions are not necessarily
at the forefront.
So I think that this episode isjust super timely and super on
theme with this time of theyear.
(02:41):
Before we dive into today'scontent, I just want to speak
from the heart a little bit, asthis is the opportunity in the
beginning of the year, the firstpodcast message that I have in
2026.
And you know, this is auniversal message that I hope
applies to everybody listeningto this episode and this
(03:04):
podcast.
And regardless of yourworldview, your beliefs, your
ideology, your political view,what side, quote unquote, side
of the spectrum that you sit on,I just believe that in this
modern era, it is it's justreally complex being a human, to
(03:26):
be a good human and a human whotries to strive to be better.
And folks have heard me, youknow, say this before.
And the reason why I'm bringingit up is sitting here talking
about, you know, psychedeliccontent and kind of trying to
stay in my lane as it relates tothe content of this episode,
(03:47):
it's it's not lost on me justthe complexity of our culture,
our society, our country, andthe world.
Whether you believe or not thateverything and all of us are
interconnected or that thethings that are happening on the
larger scale are not related orrelevant or impactful to you, I
(04:08):
certainly have a lot of heartand a lot of understanding for
the everyday struggles thatfolks experience across a whole,
you know, range of lives andlife experiences that people
have.
And so this is just a message ofyou know, solidarity for me to
just recognize and honor whereeach of you may be at in your
(04:30):
lives.
We just did a QA last nightwhere somebody was sharing, hey,
I'm just feeling completely lostin my life.
Like, are psychedelics for me?
Is this a pathway?
Is this something that you knowI should explore?
And that's super valid.
That's very, very valid.
What I'll you know, tie in hereis that sometimes it can be
(04:53):
really hard to think about theimportance of choosing to find
joy or choosing to findhappiness.
It can almost feel selfishsometimes in the midst of
uncertainty, complexity, andunsurety.
(05:14):
But I will tell you, in my ownlife experience, in the
experience of my staff and myteam, and I hear it every day in
our community, it is possibleand it is very important to do
because where your focus goes,energy flows.
And so in the psychedelicdiscovery process, there's a lot
(05:36):
of people who are focused ontheir trauma and their grief and
all of their obstacles and allof their problems.
And of course, those thingsrequire care.
Those things require nurturing,but it is also important to
nurture joy, to nurturecontentment, to nurture
fulfillment as well.
And I find myself in my ownjuxtaposition.
(05:58):
You know, we've had people inour community who have uh passed
on last year.
We've had, you know, so manydifferent ups and downs.
And at times I found it reallyselfish to want to be happy, to
want to find uh joy andfulfillment.
And also, I feel like it's animportant model to model to the
(06:20):
people around me and the peoplethat I love, that that's okay as
well.
It's also important to not dothat from a place of sticking
your head in the ground, youknow, uh not from a place of uh
mindful ignorance.
And so this is the balance thatI think that a lot of us find
ourselves in.
And so if you are resonatingwith what I'm sharing here,
(06:43):
you're definitely not alone.
And I think that today's episodemay be helpful as you are
navigating your own life andyour wellness journey and
setting intentions for it.
The last thing I'll say beforewe dive into actual intention
setting for psychedelicexperience, as most people know,
(07:04):
like we I really try to givesome tangible and actionable,
you know, advice here for peopleengaging with psychedelics.
Something really cool that wasintroduced to myself and my team
from one of our former teammembers was that instead of, you
know, creating New Year'sresolutions like, I'm gonna lose
30 pounds, I'm gonna get out andtravel more, I'm gonna go
(07:28):
hiking, camping more.
These are things that are aresome of my goals.
They were actually moreintrigued about setting like
words and almost like themes forthe year.
And this is not new for somefolks, you know, the like the
word of the year or the theme ofthe year.
(07:48):
As I was doing my own internaldiscovery, a part of me was
like, okay, I want the word tobe celebrate because I don't do
a great job of celebratingmilestones.
And also, I think the notion ofcelebrating was more about like,
okay, how can I celebrate lifeevery day?
How can I celebrate being aliveevery day?
(08:11):
How can I celebrate the giftsthat I cherish and that I
sometimes overlook?
And at the same time, it feltkind of selfish.
This is what I was talking aboutbefore.
It felt selfish for me to belike, okay, well, is it
inappropriate for me tocelebrate when there's so much
suffering and so much like likemud out there.
(08:33):
And so that's been a word that Iwas playing around with.
But what I landed on, my wordand my theme for this year is
momentum.
And for those who have been, youknow, following like my story
and some of those things, I feellike I've come out of a two-year
arc of just working through alot of my own inner shadow work,
(08:59):
you know, really exploring someof the deep facets of my of my
life.
And what that has has done isthat has has caused me to
reflect and reorient all of myrelationships, my passion, my
purpose, my service here atPsychedelic Passage.
And now I feel like I'm reallylike coming out of that very
(09:19):
deep introspective process.
And so my word of the year ismomentum.
And later on in this episode,you'll hear me talk a little bit
about how themes play intointention setting.
So this is an invitation foryou.
What is your word for the year?
(09:39):
And maybe as you get to the endof this episode, that can uh not
only help you to set someintentions for a psychedelic
experience, but maybe this willbe a fun and thoughtful exercise
for you to find your word of theyear as well.
Our very, very loved andesteemed director of operations,
(10:01):
their word of the year wassurrender, just as another
example.
So um, I'd love to hear in thecomments or anytime you see me
in the next, you know, liveevent, just let me know what's
your word of the year.
Okay, let's dive into thisepisode for today.
So the episode title is prettystraightforward: Setting
Intentions for a psychedelicexperience.
(10:24):
And this is pretty commonnomenclature for folks who think
about, you know, recreationalversus intentional or
therapeutic psychedelicexperiences.
We also did an episode aboutthat in the past, about kind of
discerning the difference.
And one of the commondistinctions that people use to
try to determine the differencebetween a recreational or
(10:45):
intentional or therapeuticexperience is what are your
intentions surrounding it?
So we know that the intentionscan impact the outcome and the
effect of your psychedelicexperience.
What I don't see out there asmuch are practical, tactical,
and useful frameworks and waysof thinking through this.
(11:10):
So we've been doing theseintention-setting live events
through our online community.
And I've just kind of distilledthose conversations into some
thoughts that I hope are helpfulfor you today.
And I'll also say that I thinkthat this applies to both
microdosing with psychedelicsand macrodosing.
(11:30):
I think that this applies acrossa range of different psychedelic
substances and experiences andformats, whether you're doing
one-on-one work with one of thefacilitators or a network or
going to a retreat or traveling,you know, out of the country for
an international retreat ordoing clinical work at a service
center, let's say in Colorado.
(11:52):
Like I think all of this appliesin all the formats.
I also just think largely thatintention setting is probably
something that we can justbetter do as humans outside of
psychedelics, but that'sprobably a whole other
conversation and podcast episodein itself.
Okay, so to summarize what we'regoing to be chatting about
(12:12):
today, we're just going to coversome basics to start.
What are our intentions?
Why set intentions and theimportance of them?
We'll also talk about just somecommon pitfalls when setting
intentions, and then drop someknowledge on some intention
setting best practices.
And then we'll hear a couple ofthoughts and questions from our
community, and then we'll read atestimonial from one of our
(12:35):
program participants, and thenwe'll wrap up the episode.
Okay.
So let's dive in.
What are intentions?
The best way that I can definethis is kind of answering the
opposite.
What aren't intentions?
And I think that it's easy forfolks to conflate intentions
with goals and outcomes.
(12:58):
What I share with folks rightaway is that intentions actually
are not your goals and outcomes.
Intentions are really the driverof what's behind your goals and
your outcomes.
What I think intentions are moreof is that they are your
motivation and your purpose.
(13:18):
Okay, so when I think aboutthis, I am kind of positing if
you are a car.
So I don't know why I use somany car analogies, but it makes
sense to me at least.
If you are a car, and let'sassume in this very limited
example, that the psychedelicexperience, if you're trying to
(13:39):
use it for some momentum or someforward movement, the goals and
the outcome is like where you'regoing, of course.
You're the car, the engine ismaybe the psychedelic
experience.
And then the intentions are thefuel that actually allows it all
to operate, allows it all tofunction, right?
(13:59):
And so when I talk to peopleabout this, I'm trying to
deconstruct that there'sactually probably more behind
your goals and outcomes.
There's probably some reasonsbehind that.
And there's probably some whybehind that.
And so what I tell people, thisis one of the best practices
that I'm weaving in, but it'simportant to share up front, is
(14:21):
this notion of starting withwhy.
Now, starting with why is aconcept that uh was first
introduced by a gentleman namedSimon Sinek.
He is a public speaker, he talksa lot about organizational
leadership and organizationalchange, usually within business
and big companies.
And what he says is when you arewanting to go for big, lofty
(14:45):
goals, or when you are wantingto enact organizational change
within an organism or an entity,and you can see how this
parallels to individual progressand well-being.
He says that most leaders willfocus on the what and the how.
And what he says instead is thatactually you want to start with
(15:08):
why.
And he describes theseconcentric circles.
This is, I think he calls itlike the golden circle.
And why is in the middle, andthen the what and the how and
the when and the where actually,you know, radiates out from the
why.
And I think that this is reallypoignant because if you have a
(15:29):
banner under which you canoperate, if you have something
that you can understand, okay,this is the purpose of the what
and the how that I'm doing, itcan actually reinforce your
implementation of it.
And so I always really encouragepeople to really dig in under
the layers and start with yourwhy, start with your purpose,
(15:54):
and then using somecompassionate inquiry, which is
a term coined by Dr.
Gabor Mate, about trying toreally get to the bedrock or the
root behind all the layers ofwhat that why is.
So, why set intentions?
I talked about how importantthey are, you know, within the
(16:14):
nomenclature of therapeuticpsychedelic experiences, but
actually why?
Like, why does this matter,right?
So I think that there are somepractical things where setting
intentions actually isstrategic, it's it's it's
tactical.
So the first is that I believethat your why or your purpose is
(16:36):
really the foundation of thestructure upon which all of your
internal work is built upon.
Now, most people have heard thisbefore.
If you build a house on afractured or unlevel foundation,
then it does not matter how plumyou put up your wall, it is
going to follow the misalignmentof your foundation, right?
(17:01):
I almost envision yourintentions or your why being the
playing field, the landscape,the arena, or the foundation of
which you are engaging in yourpsychedelic work.
For folks who have heard me talkabout container setting, I
believe your why is at the baseof this container, meaning that
(17:26):
the better that you set thecontainer for your experience,
your life experience or yourpsychedelic experience, uh, the
better that you can likenavigate it.
And I think the why is rightthere down at the bedrock.
Setting intentions also helpsyou identify relevant content.
And so what I see a lot ofpeople do, which I'll talk about
(17:50):
later, is they they can havethis huge like laundry list of
intentions.
And that's natural, that's fairto feel that.
And at the same time, if youhave almost like too much
content, then it's gonna bereally hard to identify what is
the most relevant, what is themost impactful, and then what is
(18:11):
the most helpful to understandyour purpose and the goals and
outcomes that are related tothat.
And so we use this adage oflike, you are in ceremony or you
are in your psychedelicexperience the moment that you
commit to it.
And oftentimes what happensthere is that the non-specific
(18:31):
amplifier effect starts tohappen as well.
This is when content starts tocome up to the surface of your
mind or your awareness or ofyour being.
That being nonspecific, thatmeans that it can be somewhat
generalized and hard to discern,okay, what is relevant to my
healing process right now.
So your intentions can almost belike a filtering tool a little
(18:54):
bit to identify what is the mostapplicable to my psychedelic
journey coming up, or to mymicrodose for the day, or my
microdose protocol for the nextcouple of months.
I also think very practically itcan improve your preparation
process and then also canclarify your integration
process.
(19:14):
And finally, what I think is themost important around why
setting intentions is that Ivery much view your intentions
as being like the anchors ofyour experience.
Now, we mostly talk aboutpsilocybin mushrooms here
because that is our focus hereat Psychedelic Passage.
(19:35):
But if anybody's just beenthrough a large dose psychedelic
experience, you know that therecan be just a lot happening all
at once.
You're you're engaging andprocessing and consuming
information in a lot ofdifferent ways.
And so it can be easy for me togo down these uh mental rabbit
holes or these, you know, mentalimagery and these things that
(19:59):
can, you know, either put me ina state of inquiry, in a state
of awe, in a state ofdistraction.
And so oftentimes you needsomething to anchor you in
place, something that you canreturn back to, your emotional
home within your psychedelicexperience.
And I think that the intentionsare the structure around that.
(20:22):
That's also what I mean aboutthe foundation of the structure
of your psychedelic experience.
I also think working with thefacilitator can actually be a
great anchor, but some people dothis solo, some people do this
out in public, some people dothis at, you know, music
festivals and things like that.
And I also think that settingintentions are helpful in those
(20:42):
contexts too.
Okay, so we spent a few minutestalking about the importance of
intentions.
What are they, why set them?
We are gonna talk about somecommon pitfalls and I think
mistakes that I think can beeasily avoided.
And then after that, we'll go tosome best practices and then
(21:03):
answer a couple questions fromour community.
So the first you've heard me sayalready is that oftentimes I
think that there's just too manyintentions.
One of the double-edged sword uhphrases that are out there
around therapeutic psychedelicwork is that, oh, I experienced
(21:26):
10 years of therapy in oneevening.
I experienced uh 10 years ofprogress therapeutically in one
mushroom trip.
And though that's a very validfeeling, a lot of people can
feel that for sure.
I also know that that is a highexpectation.
(21:46):
That's a very high bar of ameasure of success.
And if you are talking abouttrying to distill 10 years of
human progress in a five and ahalf hour experience.
Then there's probably a lot ofintentions and purposes and
goals and outcomes associatedwith that.
(22:06):
And so what I share is that it'shelpful to have more bite-sized
approaches to this, to notexpect too much of the
psychedelic, of the psilocybinmushroom, to not expect it to go
in and do all of the work foryou, because again, this is a
symbiotic relationship.
You're going to have to show upand do a little work too.
(22:28):
And for anybody who feelsoverwhelmed, if you had a
laundry list of deadlines andgoals and things to achieve at
work, I think the same thingapplies here.
And so what I share with folks,and we'll talk about this in the
best practices part, if you arefinding yourself with too many
intentions, I think that if youwrote down a list and it was
(22:49):
more than two or three,honestly, by have 15 or 20 or
even more on your list, thatmight be too large of a number.
Now I'll talk a little bit abouthow we can distill this down in
our next section.
(24:34):
What I commonly see people doalso, and I use this analogy to
really drive this thought home.
Surprise, surprise, if anybody'slistened to my episodes in the
past, I love analogies and kindof like mental visualization.
And oftentimes intention settingsounds like this.
(24:55):
I want to heal my depression.
I want to get rid of my anxiety.
I want to feel better aboutmyself.
I want to feel fulfillment.
I want to be a healthier person.
I want, I want, I want, I want,I want.
Now, as you listen to all of thethings I'm saying, those things
(25:16):
are amazing goals.
But imagine if you were on adate.
And imagine if you were on afirst date with somebody and you
talk to them about, you know,their goals with dating, or
you're maybe just trying tounderstand their purpose and
their intentions around dating.
And imagine the other person onthe other side was like, I want
(25:38):
this in a partner and I wantthat, and I want kids one day,
and I want somebody who isfinancially abundant, and I
want, I want, I want.
I would imagine that the qualityof that date is likely not going
to be that great.
Because when you are talkingabout I want, I want, I want,
(25:59):
you're putting all of the focuson you receiving the benefit of
whatever that thing is.
And we discuss psychedelicsrelationally, right?
And so it can be actually almostan unconscious limiting of your
aspirations, your purpose, andyour intentions if it's all
(26:22):
framed up as I want, right?
So what I share with folks isthat it is actually more helpful
to just use differentterminology and use different
reframing as opposed to I want,I want, I want, which is very
common for people to do.
And I think that there isanother way for sure.
(26:45):
The third pitfall that I see arejust intentions that are that
are either too complex, have alot of different layers to it,
which actually makes them veryhard to remember and recall in a
psychedelic experience.
And so the shorter, the sweeter,the simpler wording,
(27:06):
wordsmithing around yourintentions can be really
helpful.
I've already touched upon theemphasis on the end result
instead of the process, whichI'm not going to go too much
further in there, but I do seethat as a major, you know,
pitfall for folks where they'relike, okay, I just want to feel
the results.
(27:27):
I really don't care about theprocess and getting there, but
it's actually the process thatmakes the change long lasting.
If you can pay attention to theprocess of getting to your goal
and your outcome, then that canactually make it stick.
And so many times I've workedwith people who have had amazing
(27:47):
psychedelic experiences.
They're feeling this therapeuticbenefit.
They maybe skip integration andthey're like, I'm good.
Like the psychedelics gave mewhat I needed.
And then lo and behold, three tofour to five or six months
later, they're reaching back outto me, being like, I feel like
I'm in the same place as when Istarted before I started my
(28:07):
journey.
And so this is an example ofwhat I'm talking about.
On if the emphasis is toofocused on your end results,
then you may be uh missing outon the lasting power, the
staying power of the therapeuticbenefits of psychedelics.
I think the fifth common pitfallthat I'll share is for a lot of
(28:30):
folks, there's not an emotionalresponse or an emotional
attachment to their intentions.
And I'll discuss this a littlebit more in the best practices.
However, I think that theintention setting for many
people is a mental exercise,like a cognitive exercise.
And I share that the emotionallandscape surrounding your
(28:54):
intentions are actually superimportant and super vital.
And I'm going to discuss that alittle bit more in our next
section, which is the bestpractices around intention
setting.
Now, this is not supposed to becomprehensive.
I'm just giving you my likegreatest hits and my thoughts on
what will be, you know, helpfulfor you.
(29:16):
And some of these are admittedlythe antithesis of some of the
pitfalls that I've shared.
But I'll dive in a little bitmore on a couple of other
nuances that I think areimportant as well.
Now, you heard me say beforethat sometimes there's just too
many, like a laundry list ofintentions.
So what I share with folks isthat in order to get to one to
(29:38):
three core intentions, you mightbenefit from going through some
sort of like a distillationprocess or a uh like a
summarizing or synthesizingprocess.
Now, what ends up happening islet's assume theoretically that
you write down a list of all thethings that you want to do to be
(29:59):
a better human and all thethings that you think that
psychedelics could uh help youwith, right?
And let's assume that list has50 things on it.
If you go through the process oforganizing those intentions
across different categories inyour life, or the tie-in to the
word of the year for me and NewYear's resolutions, is if you
(30:23):
can pay attention to the theme.
Like when I'm talking about myword of the year, I'm talking
about the theme, the major themethat I want to be through my
life this year, the thread, thecommon thread that runs along
the fabric of my intentions.
(30:44):
And if you can sort and organizeyour list of intentions, you'll
start to see some patterns andyou'll start to see some themes.
And that's what I mean in thedistillation process.
So very easily your list of 50things can turn into maybe four
or five different themes andcategories.
And then from there, you canfurther distill and be like,
(31:05):
okay, which ones are the mostimpactful?
If I can pick just one of these,what would I bring into the
psychedelic experience?
And then as you're doing thisdistillation process, you can
also go through this process ofuh simplifying and providing a
(31:26):
little bit of clarity.
I see people write like bigparagraphs around their
intentions.
And I'm like, okay, can youdistill that into a small three
to five-word statement?
Or can you distill that into amantra that you can repeat and
practice in preparation and sayin your psychedelic experience?
(31:48):
Or can you distill that down toone word that thematically
encompasses the energy and thepurpose and the meaning behind
that intention?
A little bit more practicallyfor best practices for intention
setting is you got to developthem before the trip.
Because I really believe thatthe folks who do the best in
(32:11):
bringing their intentions into apsychedelic experience are the
ones who practice and live themand embody them and sit with
them, meditate with them,journal about your intentions
leading up to the trip.
So the better that you can haveit on the surface of your being,
of your mind, of your mentallandscape, of your emotional
(32:31):
landscape, which we'll talkabout a little bit here in a
second, I think that it becomesmore easily accessible in your
psychedelic experience, whichthere can just be a lot going on
in your psychedelic experience.
Even if you're not able torecall your intention
consciously, the more that youpractice embodying it before
(32:53):
your trip, the better that itcan sit there in your
unconscious self as well.
And just as a note for folks,because I'm talking about so
much stuff that can beexperienced in the psychedelic
trip, I wouldn't worry too muchif the content of the experience
doesn't make sense to yourintentions as you're
(33:17):
experiencing it.
And I find a lot of people goinginto almost like analysis or
judgment mode, they have an ex,they have something come up in
their psychedelic experience andthey're like, that has nothing
to do with my intentions.
And they assign that judgmentand they assign that label,
which removes any potentialutility or impact that whatever
that experience or that piece ofcontent can carry.
(33:40):
It's in the integration processwhere meaning making happens.
It's in the integration processwhere interpreting happens.
During the psychedelicexperience, you should focus on
experiencing and witnessing andobserving and being.
And then it's in the integrationprocess where you're like, okay,
how does that apply to myintentions?
(34:01):
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.
And I would also say, like,don't worry if your intentions
shift and change over time.
As we evolve as humans, as weevolve in our life experience,
so do our goals and our purpose.
And very commonly, I'll use thisexample of folks who are like, I
(34:22):
want to show up better at work.
I want to be more successful inmy career.
I want to make more money, whichis also common and super fair
and valid for people to want.
And then they go through apsychedelic experience.
And then what they realize, forexample, is, oh, I'm realizing
that though I can be moresuccessful in my career, I
(34:43):
actually don't find itfulfilling, or I don't find it
my true purpose or my truecalling.
And so that then shifts andchanges the nature of the
intention, because instead of itbeing, in this example, being
more successful or performingbetter in your job or your
career, it then drives youactually towards finding purpose
(35:07):
and how you can use your careeras an outlet for that, for
example.
And so, you know, if I say thatintentions are are behind your
goals and your outcomes, thenwhat I see in the psychedelic
experience is that your rootcauses are the driver of your
(35:28):
symptoms, right?
The things that you areexperiencing, the symptoms that
you want to go away, likedepression and anxiety or
whatnot.
And oftentimes there's not avery clear linkage to that.
And so if you're going throughsomething in the psychedelic
experience and you're like, thisdoesn't make sense, just know
that you will have anopportunity to make meaning and
(35:49):
to drive that towards yourpurpose, towards your intentions
in the integration process.
And, you know, the last thingI'll say about intention setting
best practices is that, youknow, this is related to not
having an emotional response.
But very practically, it isimportant for you to establish
some markers of success.
(36:11):
In business, we talk about keyperformance indicators.
How do I identify the keyindicators that show me that I
am performing well in thisparticular project or goal or
department or whatever?
Right.
And I think it's the same withpersonal growth and wellness and
well-being.
And I find that the mind can betricky because I personally have
(36:35):
made a lot of progress in mylife.
And I've also told myself thenarrative and the story of, oh,
I'm not, I'm failing at this,I'm not doing well, I'm still
suffering, I'm still so on andso forth.
You heard me talk earlier aboutme being bad at celebrating wins
and successes and all of that.
And so I suggest for folks tonot have your mental and
(36:58):
cognitive process being the onlykey performance indicator.
And I actually believe that youremotional landscape is more
accurate in determining whetheryou are moving towards your
purpose, your intentions, yourgoals, and your outcomes.
What I mean by this is how willit feel once you've arrived at
(37:21):
your intention or your purposeand your goal?
Okay, you show up as moresuccessful in your career.
How does that actually feel?
What does that bring up for you?
Is it more abundance?
Is it more fulfillment?
Is it more peace, for example?
Okay, you've gotten rid of yourdepression, quote unquote, which
(37:44):
I honestly don't think ispossible, but I think
renegotiating your relationshipwith your depression is
possible.
How does that actually feel?
How are you gonna know?
Because if you've beenconditioned to be living in
depression or as a depressedperson for 20, 30 years, then
how will you actually know thatyou are moving on to another
(38:06):
phase in your life?
Right.
And so by attaching emotionaltargets, you can get actually
more clarity on whether you aremoving towards your intentions.
And so your emotions canactually be this very
interesting of compass orwayfinder through your
psychedelic journeys and throughyour personal growth process.
(38:27):
Now, like I said, we've donesome intention setting events
and things like that, and we'vegotten some a couple of
questions from the audience andour community members that I'll
bring up here.
And, you know, the first one isthis question about like, okay,
is my intention too focused oris it too vague?
(38:48):
And is it still a good intentionif it is too vague?
And what I share with folks isthat it's it's a sweet spot.
Like you want to have enoughclarity, but then you also want
to have enough openness tointroduce new things and things
that weren't in your awarenessand on your radar.
(39:09):
And so I talk to folks aboutleaving some space for the
mystery and leaving some spacefor the unknown.
Now, if you come in with veryrigid intentions, then you're
setting a high bar ofexpectation.
And if you come in with littleto no intentions, then you're
not building the guardrails orthe structure of your potential
(39:30):
benefit in a psychedelicexperience.
And so it's about finding abalance here.
I personally think that it isokay for people to have like
clarity around 70, 80% of yourintentions, maybe 50%, and then
just leaving the rest up to theexperience.
(39:51):
But you have to come in doingyour homework because if you
come into the psychedelicexperience making no effort,
then you're just going to limityour potential output and your
potential results.
And I'll also just comment thata lot of folks talk about the
difference between intentionsversus expectations, which
you've heard me kind of themeout through this.
(40:12):
And what I'll share is that it'scommon to have expectations.
You know, we expect the sun torise every day.
We expect if I leave my phonehere and I go into the other
room, I expect to come back myphone to be there, right?
So expect expectations are acommon facet of the human
(40:32):
experience.
Now, where I think people runinto trouble are expectations on
how things look, how thingsshould go, how things should
feel.
That's where I think therigidity comes in because the
psychedelic healing process isvery nonlinear and it can be a
(40:52):
little bit unexpected, some ofthe components that come up
there.
And so I talk to people aboutunderstanding your intentions,
setting your purpose, but thenputting down the expectation on
how it looks, how it progresses.
Oh, I should be feeling betteror making this progress by this
arbitrary point in time in thetimeline of my healing process,
(41:16):
which actually just puts a lotof pressure on folks.
So I hope you're understandingthat.
And then the last thing, which Ithink was a super poignant
question from one of ourcommunity members in our uh one
of our intention setting eventsis they asked, Well, isn't
getting better enough?
Like, isn't getting better avalid enough intention?
(41:37):
And I was reading this comment,I was like, I, you know, it
jarred something in meemotionally because I was like,
yes and no.
And what I share with folks isthat like the more clarity that
you have around your intention,then the more you will know what
to do with it when you maybeachieve that goal.
(42:00):
So the way that I answer thisfor this individual is like,
yeah, it's super valid.
Like there's a lot of folks whosuffer and have gone through a
lot of trials and tribulations.
And for them, they're like, Ijust want to feel better.
But what do you do when you feelbetter?
What happens then?
How do you show up for yourself?
How are you showing updifferently for your family or
(42:20):
your loved ones or your careeror your purpose or your hobbies
or your goals?
Right.
So, so it's it's almost likethat analogy people have heard
me say before like, what happenswhen the dog catches up to the
car?
Getting better is a milestone inyour healing process.
But okay, what do you do whenyou've experienced the privilege
(42:43):
of feeling better or gettingbetter?
And so I really encourage folksto look beyond the horizon of
getting better.
How does this actually apply tothe way that I live my life and
the way that I show up in thisworld, which, you know, similar
to a psychedelic experience thatlasts five or six hours for
psilocybin?
The decades of our life areactually very short if you look
(43:06):
at the history of existence.
It's like a the smallest,smallest blip out there.
And so it's that much moreimportant to get a sense of,
okay, what do I do from there?
And for many folks who have gonethrough a psychedelic healing
process, they understand thatthere's always more work and
(43:26):
that this actually is a lifelongprocess.
All right, we're gonna read aquick little testimonial from
one of our program participants.
They wrote, This is my thirdtime working with my guide.
I'm very comfortable in hisspace and talking with him
before, during, and after theexperience.
I'm so appreciative of the spacehe provides and his presence
(43:50):
during my travels.
I feel safe and at ease with himand am free to embark on my
voyage, knowing he is there tohelp me if needed, always in an
appropriate manner.
I found my guide very easy totalk to.
He shares his insights andobservations when asked and
allows me to find mine.
I always feel like they arethere to facilitate the best
(44:13):
long-term outcome for me.
I'm so grateful that thisindividual found, you know, this
guide and facilitator throughour pathfinding process, through
our matchmaking process.
Cheers to that person forcontinuing to do their work.
Cheers to you for listening tothis episode and continuing to
do your work.
That wraps it up for us on thisepisode of the Psedelic Passage
(44:38):
Podcast.
I very much look forward toseeing you all next time.
All right, folks, welcome to the Psychedelic
Passage podcast.
My name is Jimmy Wynne, founderof Psychedelic Passage, and your
host.
Thanks for being here with us.
If you are new to the podcast,welcome.
So great to have you here.
I hope that you enjoyed thisepisode and that if you tune
into other episodes of thepodcast, that you find the
(00:28):
content valuable and enrichingto not only your psychedelic
discovery process, but also justyour wellness and healing
journey.
And if you are an avid listener,casual listener, been here with
us for a very long time, alsothank you so much for that.
It means a lot to havecommunity, to be in shared
(00:51):
community together.
I hear so much great feedbackfrom folks that these episodes
have been really helpful andmeaningful to people.
I was just watching it, readinga YouTube comment, and somebody
said, keep talking to us.
It's helping.
It really is helping.
And so I do hope that listeningto this episode does help.
(01:13):
And this whole endeavor here atPsychedelic Passage over the
past six years has really been agesture of service and a gesture
of care.
This is the first episode of2026.
So we made it through 2025.
I'm not going to speak foreverybody else, but I had a
doozy of 2025.
(01:35):
And so pretty glad that it'sover.
And I know that people havedifferent, you know, life
experiences.
And, you know, today's episodeis going to talk about setting
intentions for a psychedelicexperience.
And I actually find it verytimely as the new year's roll
around.
People are always thinking aboutokay, setting resolutions and uh
(02:00):
making goals and wellness goalsand uh life goals and all of
that.
And as we see with most people,which I think is actually pretty
akin to psychedelic experiences,there's huge motivation, huge
momentum.
And then life happens, and thenthings go a little sideways, not
according to plan.
(02:20):
And then usually by around, Isay tax time, March or April,
maybe those intentions or thoseresolutions are not necessarily
at the forefront.
So I think that this episode isjust super timely and super on
theme with this time of theyear.
(02:41):
Before we dive into today'scontent, I just want to speak
from the heart a little bit, asthis is the opportunity in the
beginning of the year, the firstpodcast message that I have in
2026.
And you know, this is auniversal message that I hope
applies to everybody listeningto this episode and this
(03:04):
podcast.
And regardless of yourworldview, your beliefs, your
ideology, your political view,what side, quote unquote, side
of the spectrum that you sit on,I just believe that in this
modern era, it is it's justreally complex being a human, to
(03:26):
be a good human and a human whotries to strive to be better.
And folks have heard me, youknow, say this before.
And the reason why I'm bringingit up is sitting here talking
about, you know, psychedeliccontent and kind of trying to
stay in my lane as it relates tothe content of this episode,
(03:47):
it's it's not lost on me justthe complexity of our culture,
our society, our country, andthe world.
Whether you believe or not thateverything and all of us are
interconnected or that thethings that are happening on the
larger scale are not related orrelevant or impactful to you, I
(04:08):
certainly have a lot of heartand a lot of understanding for
the everyday struggles thatfolks experience across a whole,
you know, range of lives andlife experiences that people
have.
And so this is just a message ofyou know, solidarity for me to
just recognize and honor whereeach of you may be at in your
(04:30):
lives.
We just did a QA last nightwhere somebody was sharing, hey,
I'm just feeling completely lostin my life.
Like, are psychedelics for me?
Is this a pathway?
Is this something that you knowI should explore?
And that's super valid.
That's very, very valid.
What I'll you know, tie in hereis that sometimes it can be
(04:53):
really hard to think about theimportance of choosing to find
joy or choosing to findhappiness.
It can almost feel selfishsometimes in the midst of
uncertainty, complexity, andunsurety.
(05:14):
But I will tell you, in my ownlife experience, in the
experience of my staff and myteam, and I hear it every day in
our community, it is possibleand it is very important to do
because where your focus goes,energy flows.
And so in the psychedelicdiscovery process, there's a lot
(05:36):
of people who are focused ontheir trauma and their grief and
all of their obstacles and allof their problems.
And of course, those thingsrequire care.
Those things require nurturing,but it is also important to
nurture joy, to nurturecontentment, to nurture
fulfillment as well.
And I find myself in my ownjuxtaposition.
(05:58):
You know, we've had people inour community who have uh passed
on last year.
We've had, you know, so manydifferent ups and downs.
And at times I found it reallyselfish to want to be happy, to
want to find uh joy andfulfillment.
And also, I feel like it's animportant model to model to the
(06:20):
people around me and the peoplethat I love, that that's okay as
well.
It's also important to not dothat from a place of sticking
your head in the ground, youknow, uh not from a place of uh
mindful ignorance.
And so this is the balance thatI think that a lot of us find
ourselves in.
And so if you are resonatingwith what I'm sharing here,
(06:43):
you're definitely not alone.
And I think that today's episodemay be helpful as you are
navigating your own life andyour wellness journey and
setting intentions for it.
The last thing I'll say beforewe dive into actual intention
setting for psychedelicexperience, as most people know,
(07:04):
like we I really try to givesome tangible and actionable,
you know, advice here for peopleengaging with psychedelics.
Something really cool that wasintroduced to myself and my team
from one of our former teammembers was that instead of, you
know, creating New Year'sresolutions like, I'm gonna lose
30 pounds, I'm gonna get out andtravel more, I'm gonna go
(07:28):
hiking, camping more.
These are things that are aresome of my goals.
They were actually moreintrigued about setting like
words and almost like themes forthe year.
And this is not new for somefolks, you know, the like the
word of the year or the theme ofthe year.
(07:48):
As I was doing my own internaldiscovery, a part of me was
like, okay, I want the word tobe celebrate because I don't do
a great job of celebratingmilestones.
And also, I think the notion ofcelebrating was more about like,
okay, how can I celebrate lifeevery day?
How can I celebrate being aliveevery day?
(08:11):
How can I celebrate the giftsthat I cherish and that I
sometimes overlook?
And at the same time, it feltkind of selfish.
This is what I was talking aboutbefore.
It felt selfish for me to belike, okay, well, is it
inappropriate for me tocelebrate when there's so much
suffering and so much like likemud out there.
(08:33):
And so that's been a word that Iwas playing around with.
But what I landed on, my wordand my theme for this year is
momentum.
And for those who have been, youknow, following like my story
and some of those things, I feellike I've come out of a two-year
arc of just working through alot of my own inner shadow work,
(08:59):
you know, really exploring someof the deep facets of my of my
life.
And what that has has done isthat has has caused me to
reflect and reorient all of myrelationships, my passion, my
purpose, my service here atPsychedelic Passage.
And now I feel like I'm reallylike coming out of that very
(09:19):
deep introspective process.
And so my word of the year ismomentum.
And later on in this episode,you'll hear me talk a little bit
about how themes play intointention setting.
So this is an invitation foryou.
What is your word for the year?
(09:39):
And maybe as you get to the endof this episode, that can uh not
only help you to set someintentions for a psychedelic
experience, but maybe this willbe a fun and thoughtful exercise
for you to find your word of theyear as well.
Our very, very loved andesteemed director of operations,
(10:01):
their word of the year wassurrender, just as another
example.
So um, I'd love to hear in thecomments or anytime you see me
in the next, you know, liveevent, just let me know what's
your word of the year.
Okay, let's dive into thisepisode for today.
So the episode title is prettystraightforward: Setting
Intentions for a psychedelicexperience.
(10:24):
And this is pretty commonnomenclature for folks who think
about, you know, recreationalversus intentional or
therapeutic psychedelicexperiences.
We also did an episode aboutthat in the past, about kind of
discerning the difference.
And one of the commondistinctions that people use to
try to determine the differencebetween a recreational or
(10:45):
intentional or therapeuticexperience is what are your
intentions surrounding it?
So we know that the intentionscan impact the outcome and the
effect of your psychedelicexperience.
What I don't see out there asmuch are practical, tactical,
and useful frameworks and waysof thinking through this.
(11:10):
So we've been doing theseintention-setting live events
through our online community.
And I've just kind of distilledthose conversations into some
thoughts that I hope are helpfulfor you today.
And I'll also say that I thinkthat this applies to both
microdosing with psychedelicsand macrodosing.
(11:30):
I think that this applies acrossa range of different psychedelic
substances and experiences andformats, whether you're doing
one-on-one work with one of thefacilitators or a network or
going to a retreat or traveling,you know, out of the country for
an international retreat ordoing clinical work at a service
center, let's say in Colorado.
(11:52):
Like I think all of this appliesin all the formats.
I also just think largely thatintention setting is probably
something that we can justbetter do as humans outside of
psychedelics, but that'sprobably a whole other
conversation and podcast episodein itself.
Okay, so to summarize what we'regoing to be chatting about
(12:12):
today, we're just going to coversome basics to start.
What are our intentions?
Why set intentions and theimportance of them?
We'll also talk about just somecommon pitfalls when setting
intentions, and then drop someknowledge on some intention
setting best practices.
And then we'll hear a couple ofthoughts and questions from our
community, and then we'll read atestimonial from one of our
(12:35):
program participants, and thenwe'll wrap up the episode.
Okay.
So let's dive in.
What are intentions?
The best way that I can definethis is kind of answering the
opposite.
What aren't intentions?
And I think that it's easy forfolks to conflate intentions
with goals and outcomes.
(12:58):
What I share with folks rightaway is that intentions actually
are not your goals and outcomes.
Intentions are really the driverof what's behind your goals and
your outcomes.
What I think intentions are moreof is that they are your
motivation and your purpose.
(13:18):
Okay, so when I think aboutthis, I am kind of positing if
you are a car.
So I don't know why I use somany car analogies, but it makes
sense to me at least.
If you are a car, and let'sassume in this very limited
example, that the psychedelicexperience, if you're trying to
(13:39):
use it for some momentum or someforward movement, the goals and
the outcome is like where you'regoing, of course.
You're the car, the engine ismaybe the psychedelic
experience.
And then the intentions are thefuel that actually allows it all
to operate, allows it all tofunction, right?
(13:59):
And so when I talk to peopleabout this, I'm trying to
deconstruct that there'sactually probably more behind
your goals and outcomes.
There's probably some reasonsbehind that.
And there's probably some whybehind that.
And so what I tell people, thisis one of the best practices
that I'm weaving in, but it'simportant to share up front, is
(14:21):
this notion of starting withwhy.
Now, starting with why is aconcept that uh was first
introduced by a gentleman namedSimon Sinek.
He is a public speaker, he talksa lot about organizational
leadership and organizationalchange, usually within business
and big companies.
And what he says is when you arewanting to go for big, lofty
(14:45):
goals, or when you are wantingto enact organizational change
within an organism or an entity,and you can see how this
parallels to individual progressand well-being.
He says that most leaders willfocus on the what and the how.
And what he says instead is thatactually you want to start with
(15:08):
why.
And he describes theseconcentric circles.
This is, I think he calls itlike the golden circle.
And why is in the middle, andthen the what and the how and
the when and the where actually,you know, radiates out from the
why.
And I think that this is reallypoignant because if you have a
(15:29):
banner under which you canoperate, if you have something
that you can understand, okay,this is the purpose of the what
and the how that I'm doing, itcan actually reinforce your
implementation of it.
And so I always really encouragepeople to really dig in under
the layers and start with yourwhy, start with your purpose,
(15:54):
and then using somecompassionate inquiry, which is
a term coined by Dr.
Gabor Mate, about trying toreally get to the bedrock or the
root behind all the layers ofwhat that why is.
So, why set intentions?
I talked about how importantthey are, you know, within the
(16:14):
nomenclature of therapeuticpsychedelic experiences, but
actually why?
Like, why does this matter,right?
So I think that there are somepractical things where setting
intentions actually isstrategic, it's it's it's
tactical.
So the first is that I believethat your why or your purpose is
(16:36):
really the foundation of thestructure upon which all of your
internal work is built upon.
Now, most people have heard thisbefore.
If you build a house on afractured or unlevel foundation,
then it does not matter how plumyou put up your wall, it is
going to follow the misalignmentof your foundation, right?
(17:01):
I almost envision yourintentions or your why being the
playing field, the landscape,the arena, or the foundation of
which you are engaging in yourpsychedelic work.
For folks who have heard me talkabout container setting, I
believe your why is at the baseof this container, meaning that
(17:26):
the better that you set thecontainer for your experience,
your life experience or yourpsychedelic experience, uh, the
better that you can likenavigate it.
And I think the why is rightthere down at the bedrock.
Setting intentions also helpsyou identify relevant content.
And so what I see a lot ofpeople do, which I'll talk about
(17:50):
later, is they they can havethis huge like laundry list of
intentions.
And that's natural, that's fairto feel that.
And at the same time, if youhave almost like too much
content, then it's gonna bereally hard to identify what is
the most relevant, what is themost impactful, and then what is
(18:11):
the most helpful to understandyour purpose and the goals and
outcomes that are related tothat.
And so we use this adage oflike, you are in ceremony or you
are in your psychedelicexperience the moment that you
commit to it.
And oftentimes what happensthere is that the non-specific
(18:31):
amplifier effect starts tohappen as well.
This is when content starts tocome up to the surface of your
mind or your awareness or ofyour being.
That being nonspecific, thatmeans that it can be somewhat
generalized and hard to discern,okay, what is relevant to my
healing process right now.
So your intentions can almost belike a filtering tool a little
(18:54):
bit to identify what is the mostapplicable to my psychedelic
journey coming up, or to mymicrodose for the day, or my
microdose protocol for the nextcouple of months.
I also think very practically itcan improve your preparation
process and then also canclarify your integration
process.
(19:14):
And finally, what I think is themost important around why
setting intentions is that Ivery much view your intentions
as being like the anchors ofyour experience.
Now, we mostly talk aboutpsilocybin mushrooms here
because that is our focus hereat Psychedelic Passage.
(19:35):
But if anybody's just beenthrough a large dose psychedelic
experience, you know that therecan be just a lot happening all
at once.
You're you're engaging andprocessing and consuming
information in a lot ofdifferent ways.
And so it can be easy for me togo down these uh mental rabbit
holes or these, you know, mentalimagery and these things that
(19:59):
can, you know, either put me ina state of inquiry, in a state
of awe, in a state ofdistraction.
And so oftentimes you needsomething to anchor you in
place, something that you canreturn back to, your emotional
home within your psychedelicexperience.
And I think that the intentionsare the structure around that.
(20:22):
That's also what I mean aboutthe foundation of the structure
of your psychedelic experience.
I also think working with thefacilitator can actually be a
great anchor, but some people dothis solo, some people do this
out in public, some people dothis at, you know, music
festivals and things like that.
And I also think that settingintentions are helpful in those
(20:42):
contexts too.
Okay, so we spent a few minutestalking about the importance of
intentions.
What are they, why set them?
We are gonna talk about somecommon pitfalls and I think
mistakes that I think can beeasily avoided.
And then after that, we'll go tosome best practices and then
(21:03):
answer a couple questions fromour community.
So the first you've heard me sayalready is that oftentimes I
think that there's just too manyintentions.
One of the double-edged sword uhphrases that are out there
around therapeutic psychedelicwork is that, oh, I experienced
(21:26):
10 years of therapy in oneevening.
I experienced uh 10 years ofprogress therapeutically in one
mushroom trip.
And though that's a very validfeeling, a lot of people can
feel that for sure.
I also know that that is a highexpectation.
(21:46):
That's a very high bar of ameasure of success.
And if you are talking abouttrying to distill 10 years of
human progress in a five and ahalf hour experience.
Then there's probably a lot ofintentions and purposes and
goals and outcomes associatedwith that.
(22:06):
And so what I share is that it'shelpful to have more bite-sized
approaches to this, to notexpect too much of the
psychedelic, of the psilocybinmushroom, to not expect it to go
in and do all of the work foryou, because again, this is a
symbiotic relationship.
You're going to have to show upand do a little work too.
(22:28):
And for anybody who feelsoverwhelmed, if you had a
laundry list of deadlines andgoals and things to achieve at
work, I think the same thingapplies here.
And so what I share with folks,and we'll talk about this in the
best practices part, if you arefinding yourself with too many
intentions, I think that if youwrote down a list and it was
(22:49):
more than two or three,honestly, by have 15 or 20 or
even more on your list, thatmight be too large of a number.
Now I'll talk a little bit abouthow we can distill this down in
our next section.
(24:34):
What I commonly see people doalso, and I use this analogy to
really drive this thought home.
Surprise, surprise, if anybody'slistened to my episodes in the
past, I love analogies and kindof like mental visualization.
And oftentimes intention settingsounds like this.
(24:55):
I want to heal my depression.
I want to get rid of my anxiety.
I want to feel better aboutmyself.
I want to feel fulfillment.
I want to be a healthier person.
I want, I want, I want, I want,I want.
Now, as you listen to all of thethings I'm saying, those things
(25:16):
are amazing goals.
But imagine if you were on adate.
And imagine if you were on afirst date with somebody and you
talk to them about, you know,their goals with dating, or
you're maybe just trying tounderstand their purpose and
their intentions around dating.
And imagine the other person onthe other side was like, I want
(25:38):
this in a partner and I wantthat, and I want kids one day,
and I want somebody who isfinancially abundant, and I
want, I want, I want.
I would imagine that the qualityof that date is likely not going
to be that great.
Because when you are talkingabout I want, I want, I want,
(25:59):
you're putting all of the focuson you receiving the benefit of
whatever that thing is.
And we discuss psychedelicsrelationally, right?
And so it can be actually almostan unconscious limiting of your
aspirations, your purpose, andyour intentions if it's all
(26:22):
framed up as I want, right?
So what I share with folks isthat it is actually more helpful
to just use differentterminology and use different
reframing as opposed to I want,I want, I want, which is very
common for people to do.
And I think that there isanother way for sure.
(26:45):
The third pitfall that I see arejust intentions that are that
are either too complex, have alot of different layers to it,
which actually makes them veryhard to remember and recall in a
psychedelic experience.
And so the shorter, the sweeter,the simpler wording,
(27:06):
wordsmithing around yourintentions can be really
helpful.
I've already touched upon theemphasis on the end result
instead of the process, whichI'm not going to go too much
further in there, but I do seethat as a major, you know,
pitfall for folks where they'relike, okay, I just want to feel
the results.
(27:27):
I really don't care about theprocess and getting there, but
it's actually the process thatmakes the change long lasting.
If you can pay attention to theprocess of getting to your goal
and your outcome, then that canactually make it stick.
And so many times I've workedwith people who have had amazing
(27:47):
psychedelic experiences.
They're feeling this therapeuticbenefit.
They maybe skip integration andthey're like, I'm good.
Like the psychedelics gave mewhat I needed.
And then lo and behold, three tofour to five or six months
later, they're reaching back outto me, being like, I feel like
I'm in the same place as when Istarted before I started my
(28:07):
journey.
And so this is an example ofwhat I'm talking about.
On if the emphasis is toofocused on your end results,
then you may be uh missing outon the lasting power, the
staying power of the therapeuticbenefits of psychedelics.
I think the fifth common pitfallthat I'll share is for a lot of
(28:30):
folks, there's not an emotionalresponse or an emotional
attachment to their intentions.
And I'll discuss this a littlebit more in the best practices.
However, I think that theintention setting for many
people is a mental exercise,like a cognitive exercise.
And I share that the emotionallandscape surrounding your
(28:54):
intentions are actually superimportant and super vital.
And I'm going to discuss that alittle bit more in our next
section, which is the bestpractices around intention
setting.
Now, this is not supposed to becomprehensive.
I'm just giving you my likegreatest hits and my thoughts on
what will be, you know, helpfulfor you.
(29:16):
And some of these are admittedlythe antithesis of some of the
pitfalls that I've shared.
But I'll dive in a little bitmore on a couple of other
nuances that I think areimportant as well.
Now, you heard me say beforethat sometimes there's just too
many, like a laundry list ofintentions.
So what I share with folks isthat in order to get to one to
(29:38):
three core intentions, you mightbenefit from going through some
sort of like a distillationprocess or a uh like a
summarizing or synthesizingprocess.
Now, what ends up happening islet's assume theoretically that
you write down a list of all thethings that you want to do to be
(29:59):
a better human and all thethings that you think that
psychedelics could uh help youwith, right?
And let's assume that list has50 things on it.
If you go through the process oforganizing those intentions
across different categories inyour life, or the tie-in to the
word of the year for me and NewYear's resolutions, is if you
(30:23):
can pay attention to the theme.
Like when I'm talking about myword of the year, I'm talking
about the theme, the major themethat I want to be through my
life this year, the thread, thecommon thread that runs along
the fabric of my intentions.
(30:44):
And if you can sort and organizeyour list of intentions, you'll
start to see some patterns andyou'll start to see some themes.
And that's what I mean in thedistillation process.
So very easily your list of 50things can turn into maybe four
or five different themes andcategories.
And then from there, you canfurther distill and be like,
(31:05):
okay, which ones are the mostimpactful?
If I can pick just one of these,what would I bring into the
psychedelic experience?
And then as you're doing thisdistillation process, you can
also go through this process ofuh simplifying and providing a
(31:26):
little bit of clarity.
I see people write like bigparagraphs around their
intentions.
And I'm like, okay, can youdistill that into a small three
to five-word statement?
Or can you distill that into amantra that you can repeat and
practice in preparation and sayin your psychedelic experience?
(31:48):
Or can you distill that down toone word that thematically
encompasses the energy and thepurpose and the meaning behind
that intention?
A little bit more practicallyfor best practices for intention
setting is you got to developthem before the trip.
Because I really believe thatthe folks who do the best in
(32:11):
bringing their intentions into apsychedelic experience are the
ones who practice and live themand embody them and sit with
them, meditate with them,journal about your intentions
leading up to the trip.
So the better that you can haveit on the surface of your being,
of your mind, of your mentallandscape, of your emotional
(32:31):
landscape, which we'll talkabout a little bit here in a
second, I think that it becomesmore easily accessible in your
psychedelic experience, whichthere can just be a lot going on
in your psychedelic experience.
Even if you're not able torecall your intention
consciously, the more that youpractice embodying it before
(32:53):
your trip, the better that itcan sit there in your
unconscious self as well.
And just as a note for folks,because I'm talking about so
much stuff that can beexperienced in the psychedelic
trip, I wouldn't worry too muchif the content of the experience
doesn't make sense to yourintentions as you're
(33:17):
experiencing it.
And I find a lot of people goinginto almost like analysis or
judgment mode, they have an ex,they have something come up in
their psychedelic experience andthey're like, that has nothing
to do with my intentions.
And they assign that judgmentand they assign that label,
which removes any potentialutility or impact that whatever
that experience or that piece ofcontent can carry.
(33:40):
It's in the integration processwhere meaning making happens.
It's in the integration processwhere interpreting happens.
During the psychedelicexperience, you should focus on
experiencing and witnessing andobserving and being.
And then it's in the integrationprocess where you're like, okay,
how does that apply to myintentions?
(34:01):
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.
And I would also say, like,don't worry if your intentions
shift and change over time.
As we evolve as humans, as weevolve in our life experience,
so do our goals and our purpose.
And very commonly, I'll use thisexample of folks who are like, I
(34:22):
want to show up better at work.
I want to be more successful inmy career.
I want to make more money, whichis also common and super fair
and valid for people to want.
And then they go through apsychedelic experience.
And then what they realize, forexample, is, oh, I'm realizing
that though I can be moresuccessful in my career, I
(34:43):
actually don't find itfulfilling, or I don't find it
my true purpose or my truecalling.
And so that then shifts andchanges the nature of the
intention, because instead of itbeing, in this example, being
more successful or performingbetter in your job or your
career, it then drives youactually towards finding purpose
(35:07):
and how you can use your careeras an outlet for that, for
example.
And so, you know, if I say thatintentions are are behind your
goals and your outcomes, thenwhat I see in the psychedelic
experience is that your rootcauses are the driver of your
(35:28):
symptoms, right?
The things that you areexperiencing, the symptoms that
you want to go away, likedepression and anxiety or
whatnot.
And oftentimes there's not avery clear linkage to that.
And so if you're going throughsomething in the psychedelic
experience and you're like, thisdoesn't make sense, just know
that you will have anopportunity to make meaning and
(35:49):
to drive that towards yourpurpose, towards your intentions
in the integration process.
And, you know, the last thingI'll say about intention setting
best practices is that, youknow, this is related to not
having an emotional response.
But very practically, it isimportant for you to establish
some markers of success.
(36:11):
In business, we talk about keyperformance indicators.
How do I identify the keyindicators that show me that I
am performing well in thisparticular project or goal or
department or whatever?
Right.
And I think it's the same withpersonal growth and wellness and
well-being.
And I find that the mind can betricky because I personally have
(36:35):
made a lot of progress in mylife.
And I've also told myself thenarrative and the story of, oh,
I'm not, I'm failing at this,I'm not doing well, I'm still
suffering, I'm still so on andso forth.
You heard me talk earlier aboutme being bad at celebrating wins
and successes and all of that.
And so I suggest for folks tonot have your mental and
(36:58):
cognitive process being the onlykey performance indicator.
And I actually believe that youremotional landscape is more
accurate in determining whetheryou are moving towards your
purpose, your intentions, yourgoals, and your outcomes.
What I mean by this is how willit feel once you've arrived at
(37:21):
your intention or your purposeand your goal?
Okay, you show up as moresuccessful in your career.
How does that actually feel?
What does that bring up for you?
Is it more abundance?
Is it more fulfillment?
Is it more peace, for example?
Okay, you've gotten rid of yourdepression, quote unquote, which
(37:44):
I honestly don't think ispossible, but I think
renegotiating your relationshipwith your depression is
possible.
How does that actually feel?
How are you gonna know?
Because if you've beenconditioned to be living in
depression or as a depressedperson for 20, 30 years, then
how will you actually know thatyou are moving on to another
(38:06):
phase in your life?
Right.
And so by attaching emotionaltargets, you can get actually
more clarity on whether you aremoving towards your intentions.
And so your emotions canactually be this very
interesting of compass orwayfinder through your
psychedelic journeys and throughyour personal growth process.
(38:27):
Now, like I said, we've donesome intention setting events
and things like that, and we'vegotten some a couple of
questions from the audience andour community members that I'll
bring up here.
And, you know, the first one isthis question about like, okay,
is my intention too focused oris it too vague?
(38:48):
And is it still a good intentionif it is too vague?
And what I share with folks isthat it's it's a sweet spot.
Like you want to have enoughclarity, but then you also want
to have enough openness tointroduce new things and things
that weren't in your awarenessand on your radar.
(39:09):
And so I talk to folks aboutleaving some space for the
mystery and leaving some spacefor the unknown.
Now, if you come in with veryrigid intentions, then you're
setting a high bar ofexpectation.
And if you come in with littleto no intentions, then you're
not building the guardrails orthe structure of your potential
(39:30):
benefit in a psychedelicexperience.
And so it's about finding abalance here.
I personally think that it isokay for people to have like
clarity around 70, 80% of yourintentions, maybe 50%, and then
just leaving the rest up to theexperience.
(39:51):
But you have to come in doingyour homework because if you
come into the psychedelicexperience making no effort,
then you're just going to limityour potential output and your
potential results.
And I'll also just comment thata lot of folks talk about the
difference between intentionsversus expectations, which
you've heard me kind of themeout through this.
(40:12):
And what I'll share is that it'scommon to have expectations.
You know, we expect the sun torise every day.
We expect if I leave my phonehere and I go into the other
room, I expect to come back myphone to be there, right?
So expect expectations are acommon facet of the human
(40:32):
experience.
Now, where I think people runinto trouble are expectations on
how things look, how thingsshould go, how things should
feel.
That's where I think therigidity comes in because the
psychedelic healing process isvery nonlinear and it can be a
(40:52):
little bit unexpected, some ofthe components that come up
there.
And so I talk to people aboutunderstanding your intentions,
setting your purpose, but thenputting down the expectation on
how it looks, how it progresses.
Oh, I should be feeling betteror making this progress by this
arbitrary point in time in thetimeline of my healing process,
(41:16):
which actually just puts a lotof pressure on folks.
So I hope you're understandingthat.
And then the last thing, which Ithink was a super poignant
question from one of ourcommunity members in our uh one
of our intention setting eventsis they asked, Well, isn't
getting better enough?
Like, isn't getting better avalid enough intention?
(41:37):
And I was reading this comment,I was like, I, you know, it
jarred something in meemotionally because I was like,
yes and no.
And what I share with folks isthat like the more clarity that
you have around your intention,then the more you will know what
to do with it when you maybeachieve that goal.
(42:00):
So the way that I answer thisfor this individual is like,
yeah, it's super valid.
Like there's a lot of folks whosuffer and have gone through a
lot of trials and tribulations.
And for them, they're like, Ijust want to feel better.
But what do you do when you feelbetter?
What happens then?
How do you show up for yourself?
How are you showing updifferently for your family or
(42:20):
your loved ones or your careeror your purpose or your hobbies
or your goals?
Right.
So, so it's it's almost likethat analogy people have heard
me say before like, what happenswhen the dog catches up to the
car?
Getting better is a milestone inyour healing process.
But okay, what do you do whenyou've experienced the privilege
(42:43):
of feeling better or gettingbetter?
And so I really encourage folksto look beyond the horizon of
getting better.
How does this actually apply tothe way that I live my life and
the way that I show up in thisworld, which, you know, similar
to a psychedelic experience thatlasts five or six hours for
psilocybin?
The decades of our life areactually very short if you look
(43:06):
at the history of existence.
It's like a the smallest,smallest blip out there.
And so it's that much moreimportant to get a sense of,
okay, what do I do from there?
And for many folks who have gonethrough a psychedelic healing
process, they understand thatthere's always more work and
(43:26):
that this actually is a lifelongprocess.
All right, we're gonna read aquick little testimonial from
one of our program participants.
They wrote, This is my thirdtime working with my guide.
I'm very comfortable in hisspace and talking with him
before, during, and after theexperience.
I'm so appreciative of the spacehe provides and his presence
(43:50):
during my travels.
I feel safe and at ease with himand am free to embark on my
voyage, knowing he is there tohelp me if needed, always in an
appropriate manner.
I found my guide very easy totalk to.
He shares his insights andobservations when asked and
allows me to find mine.
I always feel like they arethere to facilitate the best
(44:13):
long-term outcome for me.
I'm so grateful that thisindividual found, you know, this
guide and facilitator throughour pathfinding process, through
our matchmaking process.
Cheers to that person forcontinuing to do their work.
Cheers to you for listening tothis episode and continuing to
do your work.
That wraps it up for us on thisepisode of the Psedelic Passage
(44:38):
Podcast.
I very much look forward toseeing you all next time.
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