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As far as what to eat and what not to eat while journeying, what if the object that makes you react in a negative way (fear, disgust) is precisely the item that you should munch on (apologies if this is a dumb beginners question)? There are times that I've encountered things in altered states that have required reintegration, and several of them have produced negative reactions in me at first, sometimes for fairly obvious psychological reasons.
This is a different matter of course to instances where you literally have no choice but to run away. When you are facing something that has to be integrated, I think it is distinctively felt a clear cut ambivalence towards it. When I had the first cockroaches canapes, I was comfortably putting the "shrimps" in my mouth and biting through their crunchi carcass until I payed attention to what the person by my side was eating, definitely not shrimps. Then I looked into my hand and noticed the brownish living cockroach with its cutely thin antennas and legs -the other was still being crunched between my teeth- with a strikingly obvious division of my self. One remote, far away voice of my very recognisable "own", was yelling from distant recesses of my mind that I should be nauseated, that it was disgusting, and that I was going to throw up in matter of seconds, but to no effect, because my feelings where overwhelmingly quiet, I was at perfect ease and as I said above I felt everything was fine, and I also felt there was something "special" going on, and that it was decidedly good. So, I was dissociated indeed, but that voice in my mind could do nothing to disrupt my easiness and stress the disintegration. Of course, the particular altered state was what enabled me to experience such a twist of consciousness to eat cockroaches, something I would never eat in waking life, but that's precisely what altered states are for.
So, if you are facing something you have to integrate, my take is that you will only know for yourself if the time has come, while you are there in the situation. Check if your own feelings of appreciation and well-being overpower the feelings of disgust and make them pale and recede, I guess that's the indication. If fear and revulsion persists, I would advise not to force things -and I don't think you'll be able to force them anyway, the body has a powerful instinct and ways of signaling of what should be done in those states, as expresionless also indicates above. Notice that there are reports of life long "separations" in dreams and journeys, and at some point in time, even after years, the individual becomes ready to integrate.
Back to other type of less happy encounters, from my experiences and readings, I do think there are many things out there that would love to find a comfortable warm nest and shelter inside your own being, without having to pay any rent back for the goodies, and ready to move to the next shelter once your legs are plain stiff, and unless you are the same kind of chap -you? a Barbelither?-, it is likely you will perceive them as nauseating, threatening, and quite real cosmic parasites. |
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