5 Red Flags in a Psychedelic Guide

Plant medicine has a shadow side, too.

I’m the biggest advocate for intentional psychedelic journeys.

I’m also a big advocate of undergoing those journeys with the support of an experienced guide.

Under the influence of psychedelics, you’re in an incredibly vulnerable state. So it’s critical to have the right support. One of the biggest problems the psychedelic movement is struggling with right now is sexual abuse. Even prolific, well-respected psychedelic practitioners such as Françoise Bourzat have recently come under attack.

That’s why it’s paramount you make the right choice when seeking support.

It’s hard to tell whether a stranger is qualified to serve this medicine and hold the space for you. Finding someone, to begin with, can be a challenge, but even if you’ve found someone, I recommend vetting them carefully.

Here are five red flags to watch out for.

Lack of Experience

When working with plant medicine, you go into dialogue with the spirit of the plant (or fungus).

How do plants communicate?

Very, very differently than us.

Namely through visions, symbols, emotions.

How do you learn the language of plants?

By interacting with them.

That means, one of the biggest things you should filter for is the experience of the guide. Unless someone has personally been working with plants for years, they should absolutely not be facilitating other people’s processes.

Their own work with plants will also be an indicator of whether or not their doing their own inner work. This includes both the plant medicine work itself and the integration.

A few good questions to ask are the following: How long have you been working with this specific plant yourself? How long have you been facilitating? What’s been your most challenging experience, and how did you navigate it? What has your integration looked like?

Inflated Ego

Inflated egos are sadly quite common in the wellness and healing space.

According to Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. and founder of a consciousness school in Berkeley, this can lead to problematic power dynamics.

Sometimes facilitators “take the power of the plants and wear it themselves”.

This happens when guides lead you to believe that the insights you’re having are a function of their facilitation, rather than a function of the plants themselves.

This tendency can also show when guides attempt to translate your experience for you, rather than helping you make meaning yourself.

Practitioners with integrity will always acknowledge that they’re a conduit, a “sous-chef”, as Isa says.

How can you spot this?

When a guide talks about their work, they may emphasize the interactions they’ll have with you over the interaction you’ll have with the plants. Similarly, if they guarantee that you’ll have a profound experience or promise miracle cures, that’s a big no.

If you sense even a slight sense of an inflated ego, I encourage you to look elsewhere. There are enough humble guides that you’ll be in much better hands with.

Spiritual Superiority

Related to an inflated ego, another thing you’ll want to look out for is “know-it-alls”.

This speaks to a concept that the New Yorker podcast “Cover Story” goes into detail when exploring misconduct in the space.

What the reporters are primarily critiquing is a concept inherent to psychedelic guidance, namely surrender.

While surrender is critical in navigating psychedelic journeys, especially challenging ones, there’s a threshold.

When you experience discomfort, your guide will repeatedly tell you to “surrender to it”. Maybe they do things that make you hesitant or uncomfortable, and when you voice that, they again tell you “to surrender”.

Guides that continue to hammer this in do so because they believe they know better what you need than you know yourself.

That’s extremely problematic.

Not only are psychedelic journeys deeply personal, but they also operate on the whole paradigm that you have an inner healing intelligence. Sometimes, it’s not that obvious or immediate though. When you don’t know what to do, and the guide lets you believe that they know better, don’t listen.

The practitioner should always assist you in finding your own inner guidance, rather than providing his. Yes, sometimes this means reminding someone to let go and surrender to the moment, but often this takes a different shape. Above all, they should make you feel safe.

Some good questions to screen for this: How do you help others navigate challenging journeys? How do you see your role when it comes to the process? Where does your guidance meet the guidance of the plant?

Lack of Boundaries

From your perspective, boundaries will dissolve during a psychedelic journey.

Boundaries between time and space, your conscious and your subconscious, boundaries between you and other people.

That’s nothing to worry about. It’s part of the process, it’s partly what makes psychedelic healing so profound.

However, under no circumstances should boundaries dissolve for the guide during facilitation.

A common phenomenon in therapy is transference, where you project feelings onto your therapist. The same happens in psychedelic therapy, and when it happens, it happens in a much greater magnitude.

That’s why your practitioner needs strong boundaries. When they don’t have boundaries, that’s when things like exploitation or abuse may happen.

The line is extremely fine in psychedelic guidance, however. That’s because certain actions like physical touch and “holding people” can be deeply therapeutic.

How do you know if a guide is able to draw the line?

You ask them ahead of time. How do they incorporate physical touch in their facilitation? Where do they set personal boundaries? Have they ever been romantically or sexually involved with anyone they guided? How do they determine what’s appropriate?

Yes, an ill-intentioned guide could simply make up untruthful answers to those questions. However, the way they respond should give you either comfort or doubt. At some point, you’ll simply have to trust your gut.

Gatekeeping

Finally, as this article suggests, you should be prepared to ask your potential guide a ton of questions.

If, at any point, you sense the guide’s reluctance to answer any of your questions — that’s your final red flag.

They should not only share openly about their qualifications, experiences, and approach but also encourage you to ask all the questions necessary to make you feel at ease.

They should welcome your questions.

They should make sufficient time to answer them.

They should absolutely never make you feel uncomfortable for asking so many questions.

Curious to learn more about psychedelic healing?

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