093 | “Hearing the Call”? 5 Signs that You’re Ready to go Deeper with Psychedelics
“An ability to surrender control indicates that you have a willingness to confront and process challenging thoughts, emotions, and memories that may arise during a psychedelic journey, because they likely will come up.”
Subscribe and leave a review!
“I heard the call” is a phrase often used to signify readiness for a transformative journey. Have you “heard the call”? How do you know that call is true? How do you know you are truly ready to dive deeper into your own consciousness? These are the questions I am answering in this solo episode. And don’t worry—there’s no fluffy new age spiritual jargon in here! Everything I offer is grounded and operational.
For those who have dipped their toes into psychedelics, there comes a point where the desire to go deeper arises—to delve into the unexplored corners of the psyche. This episode is dedicated to those seekers, offering insights into signs that might indicate readiness to take the plunge into deeper psychedelic experiences.
In this episode, I talk about:
What does “hearing the call” mean and how do you know?
What it looks like to go deeper with psychedelics
Knowing the risks associated with psychedelics
Willingness to take a risk without knowing the outcome
Consolidating your fears with “the call”
Your capacity for preparation and integration phases
What to expect, in general, from altered states
Willingness to surrender control
Other general considerations such as health, intention, etc.
LISTEN
Things Mentioned In This Episode:
Where to Find Lana:
I was introduced to psychedelics in my early 20s within rave culture, and few years later I began to use plant medicine ceremonially.
Many circumstances aligned leaving me shattered, and I began the journey of putting myself back together. Plant medicine & psychedelics saved me from depression, anxiety, and a life of feeling unworthy. This is now my life’s work and I have devoted myself to sharing psychedelics and plant medicines with others because I have personally experienced how effectively they can catalyze growth, healing and connection.
This idea for Modern Psychedelics came to me during a journaling session in early 2020. I was learning so much about psychedelics at the time (while experiencing the benefits firsthand), and I had a deep desire to talk about these topics with people in the field. Upon launching the Instagram community, the page grew tremendously over a short period of time and continues to have high levels of engagement.
I am a 3x certified professional life coach, and I work with people who want to better their lives by deeply integrating insights from their psychedelic experiences. I believe that we don’t have to spend our entire lives healing, and that the purpose of life is to live in the present moment.
Looking for a professional coach to support you on your psychedelic path?
Look no further! Along with being the host of the Modern Psychedelics Podcast, Lana is a 3x certified professional coach who works with people on the psychedelic path.
-
Lana Pribic: [00:00:00] All right, you guys, I am going to get a little bit mushy for a second here. I just finished scripting this episode out and I'm so excited to record it. I just feel that the solos are getting better and better. The last one you guys loved, that was the episode where I gave tips on creating lasting lifestyle change, episode 90.
I loved it as well. And honestly, I'm just feeling so supported by my team. Their support is everything to me. I've been building a little team for about the past, I would say, six to nine months or so, and I just am realizing how much their support [00:01:00] is helping me to focus more on creating valuable content for you guys.
And I'm like, wow, having a team behind me is just Essential at this point. So yeah, I just want to I just want to acknowledge that and send some love to them Because ultimately their support is allowing me to really focus in on spreading these messages of love and hope for those who are healing and finding themselves.
So I just want to give a shout out to Kev and Karis at FWI, which is now actually Pixel Dreams and also to Mitch and the team at Pixel Dreams for embracing And supporting and just being fully behind what we're doing here at Modern Psychedelics. I also want to say thank you to my amazing angel from heaven assistant, Faith.
Her name is Faith and she is an angel, she's been helping me for the past few months and just taken so much off of my plate. And I want to say thank you to Brayden, my fantastic editor, who's just so [00:02:00] dedicated to wrapping. Each episode up in a beautiful audio package for you guys. I honestly would not be able to do this at the level that I'm doing it right now without my team.
So yeah, just deep bow of gratitude to them. And of course, as always, we wouldn't be doing any of this if you guys weren't listening, right? We wouldn't continue to do this if you guys did not find it valuable. So thank you to all of the listeners, old and new, We see you and we love you and know that a lot of the reason why we are doing this is for you Of course, we also find Joy and purpose in it.
So it is also for ourselves, but a lot of it is for you and for humanity Ah, yeah, just can we just take a moment to feel that love? and support. I feel like I had been pushing away support and making up stories in my mind about how I can't afford support and I can't have support and it's not time [00:03:00] yet and I have to do everything myself.
And I've just been so expanded over the past nine months or so to see that support and having a team is so important. So I don't know. Want to encourage anyone out there who's like trying to do it all themselves to seek out support and to have people there help you because it just unlocks so much when we feel supported.
Okay, On another note, as always, I'm onboarding people into my six month one on one psychedelics informed life coaching program. So as of today, May 10th, I am currently onboarding for the rest of May and then into June. So guys, now is really the best time for coaching. If you've been sitting on this, if you've been thinking about it, it's spring, it's summer, there's sun, There's more spaciousness.
We just naturally have more energy to pour into ourselves during these sunny months. So I would say capitalize on that. If you'd like to learn more about whether this program is right for you, go ahead [00:04:00] and book a discovery call and fill out an application form. I'm going to link that for you in the show notes.
So if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, just look at the show notes and everything will be linked there for you. You can also visit modernpsychedelics. net slash apply.
Okay. Let's talk about today's topic, hearing the call, one of the most used phrases in the psychedelic space. It's almost cliche. It's almost cliche. We all want to go into a psychedelic experience having heard the call. We say I heard the call and I answered, right? I picked up the phone.
What does it mean to hear the call, though? I believe that hearing the call happens when we are truly ready for a transformative experience with psychedelics. Many of you listening have likely experimented at least an intro into the world of psychedelics, perhaps a medium dose of mushrooms, perhaps tripping on acid at a music festival, drinking ayahuasca in a [00:05:00] neo shamanic setting with a local group, dipping your toes into this world.
And you're wondering. How much deeper can I go? What else is there for me? Maybe you've been listening to my podcast for a while and you have been following my journey from, dipping my feet in, in the festival scene and drinking with a local Ayahuasca community, and then eventually going to do a flood dose of Iboga followed by Shipibo Ayahuasca .
And then also followed by my most recent very deep dive with 5 MeO DMT. There's kind of these different levels and layers that we can approach psychedelic work with. But to really have a deep experience, a transformative experience, we really want to make sure that we are hearing the call. Hearing the call to go deeper means really going deeper with yourself. Yes, you're going deeper with psychedelics. You're taking the bigger dose or whatever. But really what that is, is going deeper into yourself, going into the parts of yourself that [00:06:00] you maybe aren't even aware of, are there.
This is serious work that only some people feel called to. Some of us want to just float around the surface and that's perfectly okay. This episode is definitely not for those people. This episode and this podcast and my entire platform is for the people who do want to go deeper. So some of the ways that you can go deeper with psychedelics could be just going for a higher dose in any setting.
It could mean attending a more Elevated retreat that works with high dose psychedelics attending a retreat where the facilitators really know what they're doing and they are truly able to hold you in a space so that you can explore this deeper altered state of consciousness.
It could also mean receiving a direct lineage medicine, such as going to Peru or sitting with Shipibo maestas or maestros for ayahuasca and really just going deep into that realm of Shipibo medicine. Overall going deeper just means committing [00:07:00] to a process that might last anywhere from 3 to 12 months at its potency.
I truly believe that we are always integrating our psychedelic experiences if we're doing it right. But that really potent period of integration with a deep dive may last several months. So signing up for a deeper experience really means signing up for that entire process, not just. The retreat or the experience,
but how do you know that you're ready to go deeper with psychedelics, deeper into yourself and deeper into your work? The answer to this question involves careful introspection, dedicated preparation and consideration of the. Various factors that I'm going to talk about today. So here are some signs that I believe might indicate a readiness to go deeper or might indicate that you are truly hearing the call.
Now, as a reminder, you guys, this podcast is for entertainment purposes only. And my views here are not to be taken as life or medical advice, nor [00:08:00] therapeutic guidance. So please use your own judgment and inner guidance. Don't just listen to what I say. Okay. You are responsible for your life. Please consult with a medical professional and your local legal landscape before taking any substances.
Okay. So now that's out of the way, here are five signs that you might be ready to go deeper with psychedelics and that you're truly hearing the call.
Number one, you are willing to take the risk. I will never forget what Jules Evans said when I interviewed him on the podcast that psychedelics are an extreme sport.
They will never be 100 percent safe. You know this, and yet you're willing to take the risk. As we get into these deeper, higher doses, the experience itself will go deeper. Therefore, the risks that you may be thrown off your orbit also increases. And so the more you will have to dedicate to integration and preparation.
I am definitely learning this with my 5meo integration journey. Like [00:09:00] I went really deep with Iboga, of course, but that integration journey was honestly really easy and gentle and beautiful. This 5meo deep dive has really been kicking my ass during integration. And that was a risk that I had to be willing.
to take. I knew that there is a risk of that happening. I didn't think it would actually happen, but it did. So you're willing to take the risk, right? You have an awareness that for some people, psychedelics can make things worse, or they can trigger a period where things get worse before they get better.
For some people, things don't get better for a long time or even ever, right? For some people, they are permanently damaged by psychedelics. Now, this is rare, but it does happen and it could happen to you. So you understand, you truly understand that no outcome is guaranteed and you're still willing to go through with it.
You are ready for whatever the outcome is for better or for worse. You're signing up for the [00:10:00] journey, not the end destination, right? We don't really know what the journey will look like. We don't know what the end destination will look like, but it's a risk that we are willing to take as part of listening to if it's a true calling or not.
And you are prepared to adjust the course of your life accordingly. based on what happens. This is another risk to consider things in your life , and you might be very different. That is a risk in a way. With this risk piece, you're just ready to be surprised.
and humbled because you know that you can never truly know what will come up during a psychedelic trip. It is always a risk in many different ways.
Sign number two that you may truly be hearing the call. This is my like signature. This is my signature indication, this is the thing that I go to When I'm trying to evaluate whether or not I am truly hearing the call. , sign number two is that the [00:11:00] calling is stronger than the fear.
So with psychedelics, it is perfectly normal to be afraid of them, especially at that breakthrough dose, the flood dose or the hero dose, which is a term that I actually prefer not to use. It's just perfectly normal to be afraid all the way up until you're actually sitting there about to take the medicine.
And that fear is a normal part of working with psychedelics because psychedelics are literally unlocking. The unknown and the unknown is scary to us all. Terrence McKenna spoke about how his hand would shake holding the DMT pipe every time and we all know how much DMT he smoked.
In the book Tryptamine Palace, it's a book about 5 MeO DMT, I don't know if I'm saying his name right, James Orak talks about how he was afraid every single time that he was about to smoke 5 MeO and Honestly, there's likely no other human on this planet who has consumed as much 5meo as he has.
So that fear is likely going to be there all the way [00:12:00] until you have the experience. It's just a natural part of the process.
But the difference here that I want to highlight for you guys is that the fear used to hold you back, but now you're willing to step forward despite the fear. Okay. So for example, I was afraid of Iboga and 5 MeO for years and years. Deep inside, I had a curiosity and a respect. Let's call it a small calling, right?
Let's call it a little micro calling, but I was way too afraid to try either. I kept saying no way in hell, I would never, I could never. And then one day I reached a point with both of these medicines where I was ready to try them. Despite the fear, I was still afraid, but my willingness, my desire, Was greater than the fear as in the fear never really went away, but the calling to the medicine became stronger than the fear.
So this is my personal rule of thumb. When the [00:13:00] calling is stronger than the fear, I know that I am being called. Talking about fear as I've gained more experience with psychedelics, I've learned that there's truly nothing to fear, which is the quality of fearlessness. Now, this is something that I teach in my coaching program, this quality of fearlessness.
It's different than courage because courage means that we act in spite of fear. But with psychedelics, as long as we're in a safe and supportive container, as long as we're following harm reduction protocols, as long as we're taking all of those precautions to address any potential dangers.
There's actually nothing to fear because fear lives in the mind. Fear is not actually a real thing. It's only real in our minds. Whereas danger is something that is real. So always make sure that obviously you are not in danger when choosing to work with psychedelics and recognize that there is a difference between danger and fear and know that the fear is perfectly normal.
And while it is perfectly [00:14:00] normal, it's also important to recognize that it is not real.
Sign number three that you are ready to go deeper with psychedelics. You have a capacity for preparation and integration. So this just means that you are prepared to make space for both the preparation and integration. journey. we always hear about integration in the psychedelic space.
I am personally becoming much more passionate about preparation as well. And that is because in working with clients and my one on one coaching practice, I have seen many of my clients go through A preparation process to do. It's usually Iboga, sometimes Ayahuasca, but I've just come to see how important that preparation processes to make the journey itself fruitful. Now, the preparation process may include things like addressing fear.
It may include addressing our intentions. It may include looking at our expectations, but going into a [00:15:00] high dose, deep dive experience with psychedelics. We will be set up for a much more fruitful experience. If we take the time to prepare and enlisting support for the stage is really helpful because we often cannot see our blind spots when it comes to these things.
So that's the word on preparation. Integration of course is so important and I did a whole episode on integration that you can check out. It's episode 81 and it's called 11 practical tips for psychedelic integration.
The main point here is that you have the capacity for both preparing and integrating the experience. You're not just going on a retreat and coming back and it's just going to fix everything for you, right? Like we all know that by now, right? We all know that psychedelics are not a magic bullet by now.
I think if you're a regular listener of this podcast, you know that I'm going to, I'm going to trust that you guys know that. So we want to have the time, the spaciousness, the [00:16:00] energetic spaciousness, the support from our network, right? Maybe the support from our work to really come back from a powerful experience and sit with it and integrate it and give ourselves the space and the time to start making those changes and start being the person that we want to be after this.
So with this, you really understand that psychedelic experiences do not happen in a vacuum, nor are they a magic bullet. You understand this and you're ready to do the work before and after.
Sign number four is that you have a solid understanding of what to expect and you have a solid understanding of what to expect.
Okay, so well, we know that every experience is different and there's no way to predict what will happen or what might come from it. There are general things that we can expect during deep psychedelic experiences. This could be potential effects and risks associated with psychedelic experiences, including the [00:17:00] possibility of really intense emotional or psychological states.
Altered states and highly altered states are nothing to be casual about. So having a solid understanding of what to expect in general when it comes to these altered states is important and it's an important indication of readiness to experience a deep dive with psychedelics. So you might be aware that psychedelics quite literally make people go quote unquote insane temporarily and lose our minds as we know our minds to be. This is what they do. Depending on the medicine and dose. You are also aware that you may leave your body.
You may lose consciousness. You may experience what is referred to as an ego death. Or as Steve Rio calls it a ego nap, which I find hilarious and deeply accurate because the ego always comes back. So you're aware of these things, you're aware that these things might happen, and you're aware that you may go into [00:18:00] corners of your psyche that you didn't know existed.
This includes seeing things from a totally new perspective. Getting that paradigm shift, it could include revisiting repressed memories. It could include receiving intuitions or, some people call them downloads about your life, just receiving new information and seeing things with a clarity that was not there before.
You are also aware that there is a great mystery to be explored in highly altered states, and that you will not be able to fully understand, comprehend, make sense of, or explain this mystery.
You are prepared to be humbled. You are prepared to be awestruck. You are prepared to potentially be confused and potentially shaken at your core. Really with this, you are ready for a potential paradigm shift in how you perceive yourself and life itself. And tip number five, that you might be ready for a deep dive [00:19:00] with psychedelics is that you are mentally and emotionally stable.
Now, I like to think of this as being grounded within oneself. And this one's tricky because a lot of people do seek out psychedelics to help them become more mentally and emotionally stable. So let's talk about the nuance here. What we're really looking for it with this one is that you have a readiness to surrender control.
This is important because an ability to surrender control indicates that you have a willingness to confront and process challenging thoughts, emotions, and memories that may arise during a psychedelic journey, because they likely will come up. They just probably likely will. You will at least have to deal with some challenging emotions at one point.
Most. Likely, some people definitely have that fully blissed out in love experience, but that's pretty rare. And most of the times those are accompanied with some sort of challenge that requires a surrender of [00:20:00] control. So even if that seems uncomfortable to you, releasing control, you are willing to at least entertain the idea of surrendering control and allowing the psychedelic experience to unfold naturally, trusting the process and your ability to navigate whatever arises.
I think this relates to Tip number one. I think it was where I talked about how we just don't know what to expect. Yeah, these tips kind of work together because when we know that it's always a risk and we don't know what to expect we can Become more prepared to surrender control So it can actually take a lot of work to get up to this point to be ready to surrender control.
And there are many ways that we can prepare for this, such as working with a therapist, working with a life coach, such as myself. I have seen quite a few of my clients who had not worked with psychedelics at the beginning of our time together, build up enough groundedness within themselves that they feel more comfortable with the truth.
There is actually not much that they can control in this world. And when we build up to that place through coaching, they are able to take that [00:21:00] truth with them to the psychedelic space and become a little bit more comfortable with releasing control. Because in all honesty, we don't have control.
We can only attempt to have control, but. We just don't have control of most things in life. So that's why we focus on only the things we can control while letting the other things pass in and out of our lives, learning and growing from them rather than grasping for something else. At least that is the way it is.
That's what I teach. So I used to work for a company in the psychedelic space. And one of the executives, I remember him saying that they want to see psychedelics at the forefront as the first line of defense against mental health problems rather than the last. And I was like, yeah, totally. That makes so much sense.
And my tune has really shifted since then. This was probably four years ago. I've learned a lot and I just don't see it that way anymore. I just don't agree that psychedelics should be the first line of defense for people. If someone is [00:22:00] just starting out with healing exploring their psyche going into their traumas psychedelics might not be the best first option, especially if they don't have any experience working past their need to control which honestly we could all work on and if someone is coming into a psychedelic space and they have no prior experiences releasing control.
They're probably going to have a very challenging experience and the whole entire experience will be about fighting and navigating that control, which honestly, isn't the worst thing in the world, because at least the psychedelic experience shows them that and this is Very typically what happens to people the first time they do a high dose experience, they have to struggle with that control.
And then in that way, the medicine is showing them the ways that they control. It's all good, but having at least a little bit of awareness that you will be challenged to surrender control. is important and having that groundedness emotionally and mentally within yourself will ground that in [00:23:00] and make it a little bit more comfortable for you to do that.
Okay, so there are my five indications that you might truly be hearing the call and are ready to go deeper with psychedelics. I want to just mention a few other considerations. So intention, you have a strong and clear intention for your experience. You know your why. So listen to episode 77 where I provide 10 tips and coaching prompts to help you set a powerful intention.
If you would like. Thanks. You have a support network, you have a supportive and trustworthy environment in which to undergo the experience, whether it's close friends, experienced trip sitters or therapists or other facilitators and guides. But. Just, you're not doing this on your own and that goes for every step of the journey.
So it's not just for the journey itself. It's for the preparation and the integration process as well. You have some sort of support network. You have someone in your life who holds you in love and holds your [00:24:00] highest intention in their heart, who is able to witness you, guide you, and support you through this really deep work.
Previous experience is another consideration. You have had positive experiences with lower doses of psychedelics and you're feeling more ready to go a little bit deeper. So a deep dive right away, like I said, isn't always the wisest idea. I don't know. That's just my philosophy. I know people who like just go deep dive, full release of 5meo right away and that there's definitely wisdom in that and an approach in that, but also might not be the wisest idea for some people.
And then physical health is another consideration. You want to be in good physical health and have taken any necessary precautions, such as avoiding psychedelics. If you do have a history of certain mental health conditions, or if you're taking medications that may interact with psychedelics. So you guys, psychedelics interact with many many medications.
So it's just really important [00:25:00] to be very honest with your facilitators about any medications that you are on, and then also just checking in with your physical health, because your physical health is going to have to be there to support you through the journey and after it. it's not to say that, if you are sick in some way or Your health is struggling in some way that you can't do psychedelics.
It's just something to consider when planning for it. So remember it's essential to approach psychedelic experiences with caution, respect, mindfulness, intention. These are very powerful tools for personal growth and healing when we use responsibly. I think that they are the most. powerful tools. That's just my opinion.
That's not ultimate truth. Just that's just my opinion. Okay. But we need to respect them. We need to be knowledgeable about them and we need to respect ourselves when engaging with [00:26:00] them. Which means being real with ourselves and not pushing ourselves into something we are not ready for. So if you're still uncertain, or have any doubts or concerns, please don't rush.
Take it slow. There is no rush. Seek guidance from experienced practitioners, therapists, trusted individuals in your network and look for that guidance along your journey. This is not something that you want to rush into. So I hope that this was helpful. I trust that it was. Please send this episode to someone who might benefit from this information or share it on social media and tag Modern Psychedelics.
I love seeing the episodes floating out there. And as always, my DMs and emails are open to hear from you. I love to hear from you. Sending you a big hug on this Friday and just so much love on your journey. All right. Thanks for listening. Bye.
