5-MeO-DMT Integration: Embodying Nonduality is Not What You Think

By Martin W. Ball

From the revolutionary and ground-breaking author of the books "Entheogenic Liberation," "Being Human," and "Facilitating 5-MeO-DMT," Martin W. Ball, Ph.D. brings his considerable experience and expertise to the topic of what it means to “integrate” one’s experience with the world’s most powerful and profound psychedelic, 5-MeO-DMT.

Back when Dr. Ball dubbed 5-MeO-DMT “The God Molecule” in 2008, “integration” of psychedelics wasn’t a topic of discussion or concern. It wasn’t something that was offered by underground facilitators or religious and ceremonial groups that served psychedelic sacraments. Today, “integration” is a hot topic in the psychedelic world, but what does it really mean, especially when applied to the uniquely profound and powerful 5-MeO-DMT, which, unlike most psychedelics, can reliably produce nondual energetic states of being?

Using his own energetic transformation process from 2008-2009, his time as a nondual energetic practitioner who worked with clients with 5-MeO-DMT (2009-2016), and his present role as a professional nondual integration guide and 5-MeO-DMT facilitator advisor, Dr. Ball describes in one-of-a-kind detail and comprehensiveness just what “integration” is in this context, which he characterizes as the process of energetic reformatting via the embodiment of nondual energy. Whereas the vast majority of psychedelic experiences still function dualistically where there is an observing and experiencing subject that encounters psychedelic content and objects of experience, 5-MeO-DMT obliterates this apparent divide in direct, nondual experience where the full energy of being is immediately encountered and embodied.

In focusing on the process of embodiment, Dr. Ball deftly presents why this process is not about mental concepts, beliefs, ideas, or any form of spiritual or religious doctrine or ideology. The profound truth of liberated being is available right here, right now, in the embodied experience.

In this unparalleled look at 5-MeO-DMT integration, Dr. Ball explains what therapists, facilitators, integration coaches, and clients need to know about working with 5-MeO-DMT, outlines what an integration session entails, further explores nondual somatics and embodiment, offers examples and case studies, and much more. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in this topic and, like his other books on The God Molecule, is sure to be considered an invaluable resource for 5-MeO-DMT education and empowerment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9781304584861

Book preview

Preface - For Whom this Book is Written:

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If you’re someone who’s experienced 5-MeO-DMT and are looking for help with the process of integrating and working with your experience, then this book is definitely for you.

If you’re someone who is planning to work with 5-MeO-DMT, or are curious about what it’s all about and what it entails, then this is a good book for you.

If you’re someone who offers integration services and wants to know what’s important to understand for working with clients who have experience with 5-MeO-DMT, then this is for you. If you offer integration services, but are unfamiliar with the unique actions of 5-MeO-DMT, then you’ll want to read this book.

If you are someone who is interested more broadly on the topic of integration, even though you may not specifically be considering the case of 5-MeO-DMT, then this is for you, as well, as the perspective on nondual energetics and embodiment applies to other psychedelics, as well.

If you are someone who facilitates 5-MeO-DMT experiences and wants to be better-informed as to what you’re working with and how your clients may be experiencing and processing their sessions with this unique molecule, then this is for you. And if you include integration as part of what you offer, then this will help, whether your offer integration circles and group sharing or focus on one-on-one integration sessions with clients.

If you are a therapist, psychiatrist, or psychoanalyst who is working with patients who are coming to you with issues arising from their 5-MeO-DMT experiences, then this is for you, as it will help you be well-informed about their experiences, reactions, and potential struggles, as well as breakthroughs and transformations.

If you are a student or explorer of nonduality and want to know what 5-MeO-DMT has to do with it, then while you’ll probably find this book interesting, it isn’t necessarily for you. I’d recommend getting my books Being Human and Entheogenic Liberation and starting there.

If you’re someone who wants to know about nondual embodiment and energetics, same as the above. This book is relevant and informative, but I’d suggest starting with those other two books of mine.

For anyone who is engaged in a form of somatic therapy, either as a provider or a patient, this work should be of interest and will present you with some fundamentally new information.

If you’re a student of spirituality, ceremony, and religious practice, this definitely isn’t written for you (though you could probably take much of what is written here to heart!). While we’re dealing with entheology, ontology, and the nature of being, everything presented here is from a neutral, energetic perspective, and is not involved with spirituality or ceremonial practice.

If you’re looking for a spiritual interpretation of your 5-MeO-DMT experience, then this book is still for you, though it doesn’t present the material in a way that will be familiar to you, so it’s an opportunity to learn and reframe how you think about these experiences.

If you just want to educate and empower yourself regarding the world’s most powerful entheogen, 5-MeO-DMT, The God Molecule, then this book is definitely for you! 

If you’re a psychedelic-assisted therapist, then you might want to read what’s in these pages. What’s presented here is a very different approach to working with psychedelics that might be largely unfamiliar to you and certainly isn’t what you learned in your training program or school. Even if you are trained in working with substances like MDMA, psilocybin, or ketamine, unless you know 5-MeO-DMT, you don’t know what you don’t know. Because what is presented here is also applicable to other psychedelic compounds and experiences, even though they mostly function dualistically, this might help you reframe how you look at what is considered productive or therapeutic when it comes to working with psychedelics.

If it sounds like this is a good fit, then read on! These pages are filled with practical information, examples, and clear and cogent analysis. There’s nothing overtly speculative or theoretical. It comes out of my own direct experience as having been personally transformed by my 5-MeO-DMT experiences, my work as a nondual energetic practitioner who used 5-MeO-DMT with clients, and my current professional work as a nondual energetic integration specialist. I’m bringing my considerable experience in these matters to this book, and have written it in such a way that it’s easily digestible, accessible, and straight-forward. I hope you find this to be of use, whatever your goals and objectives.

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Introduction:

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A hot buzz-word that is thrown around a lot these days in the world of psychedelics is that of integration. The prevalence of this concept is probably most directly tied to the rising tide of legal access to psychedelics in a number of spheres and the renewed interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy. In the realm of therapy, integration is touted as an integral and necessary part of the therapeutic process when psychedelics are involved. The therapy itself is broken down into several stages with intake/screening/preparation, psychedelic session(s) proper, and then integration, which can mean a variety of different things. The basic idea is that after successful work with psychedelics, people will need assistance reflection upon, understanding, unpacking and digesting what occurred within their psychedelic experience, and need to make use of professional after-care with a therapist or integration coach, perhaps coupled with ongoing group sharing and support. In the most dogmatic iterations of this formula, there are some who now claim that integration work is a must for successful therapeutic treatment or work with psychedelics, and those who do not seek it out aren’t doing the work, and facilitators who don’t provide integration are derelict in their ethical and professional duties.

Integration circles are also a fundamental element in the programs that many psychedelic retreats now offer. In addition to the rise of potential legal psychedelic therapy, the retreat movement has been growing rapidly in recent years, and has far-outpaced legal psychedelic therapy, with significantly more people having access to, and making use of, psychedelic retreats in order to access the many benefits of psychedelic experience. Retreats vary widely in what they offer in terms of psychedelic medicine experiences, intake, screening, and integration. For many retreats, integration work is largely relegated to post-psychedelic session group sharing, where participants share their experiences, insights, fears, reactions, etc., in a group setting, usually led by one or more facilitators at the retreat. Additionally, many psychedelic retreats also offer other options that are often considered as part of the integration package – nature excursions, yoga, meditation, journaling, art, ecstatic dance, massage, healthy foods, breathwork, cold plunges and ice baths, acupuncture, tarot readings, internal family systems therapy, Enneagram, astrology, etc. And, depending on the retreat, there may be strong spiritual or religious elements, so there might also be prayer, ritual, ceremony, and even sermons or spiritual lectures imparting various forms of wisdom and guidance to participants.

Another area of growth is in that of psychedelic churches, temples, and religious orders and congregations. Here too we are into a new generation and a new breed of religious practice, where integration is treated similarly to who it is addressed in various retreat settings. This is quite different from the previous generation(s) of psychedelic churches. For example, in 2008 I attended a couple different ceremonies in the Native American Church, where peyote was served as a psychedelic sacrament. This was before the term of integration was in widespread use in the psychedelic world, and nothing of the sort was ever discussed, advised, or promoted within the church setting. You came, ate peyote, followed the proscribed rules of the ceremony, and then went home. Similarly, in 2008 and 2009, I was a regular attendee at the local chapter of the Brazilian syncretic religion, Santo Daime, and integration wasn’t a thing. You showed up at the Work (what ceremonies are called in the Santo Daime tradition), drank daime (ayahuasca) 3-5 times over the course of the ceremony, followed the pre-set structures of the various ceremonial types offered at the church, had your experience, and then went home. I did that around 2 times a month for about a year and a quarter. No one, ever, used the term integration, nor was anything that might fit contemporary ideas of what that term means offered. And, you know what? That was perfectly fine with me. I seriously doubt I would have made use of anything along those lines, primarily because I didn’t feel that anyone at the church actually understood what I was going through, at the time, in my ayahuasca (daime) experiences (and elsewhere with other psychedelics). Santo Daime is a heavily doctrinal religion, and if you’re not a follower of the doctrine, it’s unlikely that talking about your experiences with other Daimistas will be of much help, because it all comes through the filter of the Doctrine.

Whereas integration isn’t really a thing (or, at least, wasn’t) in older, more established psychedelic religions and churches, it is a major feature of most newer psychedelic churches, temples, and religions. In addition to offering psychedelic sessions and communions, many organizations also offer either online or in-person (or both) integration sessions, and might also offer integration work on a one-on-one basis with a facilitator, ceremonial leader, spiritual guide, or professional integration coach who is affiliated with the religious organization. Using the language of psychedelic therapy, integration has become part of the package of duty of care for congregants. People join/participate in psychedelic religious organizations for different reasons, and not necessarily everyone is going to be looking for integration. Some people are (reasonably) just looking for legal cover for their personal use of psychedelic substances, and by joining a psychedelic church as a member, have access to religious freedom claims were they to be challenged by the law. Some psychedelic churches are just an online community and do not offer any kinds of actual religious services. However, many now do, and in those cases, psychedelic churches offer something fundamental to religion ever since people started being spiritual and religious in the first place: community and social support and sharing. In other words, many people do join psychedelic churches because they long for a sense of belonging with others, and here, post ceremony meet-ups and sharing circles are crucial for forging the bonds of social unity and cohesion. Many modern psychedelic religions and churches strive to be inclusive and tend to stay away from overt statements of doctrine, belief, and religious dogma. Overall, these may be considered as fitting within broadly conceived New Age religious traditions in that they tend to loosely borrow from a wide collection of various spiritual, religious, and metaphysical beliefs and ideas and are probably mostly focused on concepts of healing, transformation, personal growth, and perhaps spiritual evolution. For the non-spiritual, there are still a lot of beliefs and assumptions going on here, but they’re not presented as a unified system of doctrine or revealed truth.

The next area where integration is making the rounds is with local psychedelic societies, organizations, and groups. Such groups are growing all around the world. These are groups formed by psychedelic enthusiasts who want to provide education, community, support, and socializing for those in their local area who are interested in psychedelics. As part of the activities and events that they offer, many now include integration circles, either online or in-person or both, where community members are invited to join, share their experiences, listen to others, offer insight and commentary, if desired, and basically not feel alone in their experiences and efforts to make meaning, progress, and change through their use of psychedelics. These are often informal and tend to take place on a regular basis. They may feature specially-trained integration coaches, or not. There may be guest lecturers/presenters involved, followed by group discussion and sharing. In some respects, this is a secular form of religious integration circles, and at a practical level, might be indistinguishable, in some instances. Local psychedelic groups and societies might also offer lectures, book signings, conferences, legal or social actions, podcasts, movie screenings, and more.

Lastly, there is now the title of someone being a psychedelic integration coach or guide. Here too there is a great deal of variability. Some integration coaches aren’t much more than someone who has decided that they can help people integrate their psychedelic experiences. Others are graduates from either official psychedelic therapy training programs, or online schools, or of courses and programs now offered by various retreats or psychedelic churches or psychedelic societies. There are no uniform training programs here, and no uniform set of skills or education required for someone to claim the title of being an integration coach or specialist. Here, it can be similar to someone deciding that they’re a life coach, and decide they’ll make a living by telling others how to be successful and fulfilled in life, business, and love. People build their brands on social media, gain followers, and attract clients. While we might say that professional standards are in the process of being developed, they’re not uniform, yet, and it’s very much an open field. One need not pass an exam, fulfill a number of hours of training, or earn a degree to claim the title of integration coach, so the field is anything but consistent. It ranges from people who have had lots of training to those who have essentially none.

All of this is shared to highlight the facts that integration is still a relatively new concept and phenomenon, is widely open to interpretation, varies significantly in practice, and is still under development in a variety of fields. Integration definitely doesn’t mean the same thing to all people in all contexts.

This, in and of itself, should open the question of whether integration is always necessary and is a crucial ethical and professional need in any given context. It means so many different things to different people that it’s perfectly valid to always respond with: What do you mean by integration? At its most basic, it’s probably safe to say that when using the term integration, the idea is that one is engaging in some practices that will assist in the process of using psychedelics to achieve various forms of personal growth, healing, and transformation in their lives. But even here, this concept is already loaded. It’s loaded in the sense that it assumes that one is taking psychedelics in order to experience growth, healing, or transformation. Integration has become so dominant that there’s even the expression of the bias that if people aren’t seeking out help with integration or actively engaged with it, that they’re somehow disrespecting, abusing, or profaning the use of psychedelics. In other words, psychedelic culture has gotten a bit puritanical and stuffy. This emphasis on the idea that everyone should be making use of integration overlooks the fact that not everyone needs integration, that taking psychedelics can be done for fun, or reasons other than healing, transformation, and personal growth, or even that in some contexts, the work being done under the label of integration can be terribly misleading, harmful, and misguided. Integration is so new, so largely undefined, that it’s absurd, at this point, to insist that everyone who uses psychedelics needs it, because what it actually is is so variable. At best, it is a loose collection of various practices, techniques, and therapeutic, spiritual, and metaphysical approaches that vary considerably across different contexts and there’s no uniform agreement about just what does, or doesn’t, count as integration.

We could say this: if you can’t tell me what it is, don’t tell me that I need it!

Yet, there is definitely a need for integration for some people, in some contexts, and times. As someone who works as a self-identified nondual entheogenic integration coach, I know that my clients greatly value their time working with me, and many come out of our sessions together with a radically-changed perspective, deeper insights into what they’re currently going through or experiencing, and often feel deeply relieved, more relaxed, more centered, and more grounded through the process of speaking with someone who genuinely knows what he’s talking about, and being provided a space to be heard, given grounded reflection, and practical advice for moving forward. So absolutely, there’s a role for integration coaches and a deep need for such work, at times. But I’d be lying to you if I said that everyone who works with psychedelics needs integration work. That statement simply isn’t true. It depends. And it depends on a lot of things. And, in my experience, a great deal of what is touted as integration tools and practices aren’t really about integration, at least, not as I understand and practice it.

So, I thought I’d write a book about it, and here it is.

My primary area of expertise is helping people integrate their experiences with 5-MeO-DMT. While I’m not exclusive to 5-MeO-DMT and am always happy to talk to clients about their experiences with any psychedelic substances, it is my area of unique expertise, and is what most of my clients seek me out for help with. Integrating 5-MeO-DMT experiences is therefore the main focus of this book, though much of what is shared here is fully relevant to successful integration of any psychedelic compound, substance, plant, fungi, or material. However, 5-MeO-DMT is fundamentally unique in the world of psychedelic substances and cannot reasonably be lumped in with other psychedelics. This is an extremely important point. What it translates into is that anyone who is offering psychedelic integration but who is not intimately familiar with 5-MeO-DMT will not be able to provide adequate or relevant feedback about the process of integrating it. 5-MeO-DMT is just too unique, too uniquely powerful, and too profound to be grouped with any other psychedelic, and in order to provide useful and actionable integration help, one must be fully educated in the actions, reactions, and possibilities of 5-MeO-DMT. If you don’t know all the ins and outs of 5-MeO-DMT, please do not attempt to help others integrate their experiences or post-session reactions. You aren’t qualified. Sadly, in my experience, this also applies to a number of people out there who are actively facilitating 5-MeO-DMT experiences. I get a lot of integration clients who share their story of their facilitated 5-MeO-DMT experience with me and post-session events and experiences who tell me that they contacted their facilitator to talk about it, and are told by their facilitator that, I’ve never had anyone have an experience like yours or experience these kinds of after-effects. However, when they speak with me, after listening intently to what they’ve shared, I can confidently report that, Everything you’ve said is perfectly normal and within the range of what we might expect. There’s a wide gap between genuinely experienced and well-informed facilitators and those who actually don’t know what they’re doing and what they’re serving up to their clientele.

I’m a huge proponent of psychedelic education, and particularly education around the topic of 5-MeO-DMT. It’s terribly misleading to think of it as just another psychedelic. It isn’t. It’s uniquely unique. There’s a rather common attitude in the psychedelic world that values going in blind to psychedelic experience so as not to be unduly influenced by others’ experiences or interpretations. I’m a little shocked when I get the integration client who tells me, I intentionally didn’t want to learn anything about it before trying it, in referencing their experience with 5-MeO-DMT or toad medicine. People will do what they will do, but personally, I think this is a huge mistake. Here, informed consent and full disclosure is paramount. It’s foolish to walk into the most profound and intense experience available to a human being with a casual attitude of self-chosen ignorance. Know what you’re getting into and signing up for! Please. Trust me. It makes it easier.

To that end, I’ve been busy doing everything I can to inform anyone who’s curious about what 5-MeO-DMT is, and what it does, ever since I had my first full-release encounter with this molecule in January of 2008. At that time, there was virtually no reliable information available publicly about 5-MeO-DMT. Almost no one knew what it was, how it worked, what kinds of after-effects one might experience, or how it was so profoundly different from any other psychedelic. There was a deep void there, and I got busy filling that void, and have been at work on it ever since. This book here is just the latest iteration of this quest. For those who have read my previous books, there might not be much here that is genuinely new and different. As someone who’s written more about 5-MeO-DMT than anyone else and has been extremely thorough about the whole thing, I’ve already said just about everything I can about this topic.

However, here, for this book, the goal is to look at the whole thing through the lens of integration, and really dive into just what this means when it comes to 5-MeO-DMT. Now that integration is a hot topic, the field is ripe for a book of this nature, especially because facilitation of 5-MeO-DMT experiences has exploded around the world in popularity and it is a very different scene out there than when I had my first full experience in 2008. At the practical level, far more people are regularly experiencing 5-MeO-DMT than was the case when I broke through for the first time, far more people are serving it, and far more people need help grounding and processing after the experience. There’s a definite need for such guidance. Yet, 5-MeO-DMT is still somewhat obscure in the wider psychedelic movement. Many more people have experienced mushrooms, ayahuasca, LSD, MDMA, and mescaline than have experienced 5-MeO-DMT. Many people still confuse 5-MeO-DMT with its very different cousin, DMT. Many people who are working as psychedelic therapists and integration coaches have little-to-no direct experience with 5-MeO-DMT, so they’re not qualified to help people with their experiences with it. And, many of the integration techniques used with other psychedelics don’t really help with 5-MeO-DMT experiences.

There’s a need for a book like this, even if it replicates information that is already available in my many other books. I believe that targeted information about 5-MeO-DMT is most helpful. I’ve written books about working with 5-MeO-DMT, facilitating 5-MeO-DMT, understanding the radical nonduality that underpins the 5-MeO-DMT experience, the philosophical and theological questions raised by 5-MeO-DMT, and more. I’ve written elsewhere about my ideas for integration of 5-MeO-DMT experiences, but putting it into one book with one main theme can still be useful. It is my hope that this book will be used by a variety of interested individuals: those who want to use 5-MeO-DMT individually, those who want to serve it (in therapy, ceremony, or retreats), those who have experienced, or are planning on experiencing, 5-MeO-DMT, and significantly, anyone who wants to take on the mantel of being an integration coach or specialist, so that they are equipped, at least theoretically (practically – getting ample and abundant experience directly with 5-MeO-DMT is obviously beyond the scope of a book) equipped to help clients integrate and navigate their post-5-MeO-DMT experience life and world.

My aim, as always, is to present the question of integration of 5-MeO-DMT experience in a manner that is rational, grounded in extensive experience, and as free from speculative metaphysics, spirituality, and dogma as possible. My own approach, as articulated across my many books, interviews, and lectures, is that of nondual energetics. Because my approach is quite different and unique, I’ve gone to great lengths to articulate it and make it available to others. As such, I will need to repeat several important topics in this book as it’s important for me to start with the assumption that whoever is reading this book might not have read anything else I’ve written. For those who are familiar with my work, then this book can be a deepening of your understanding and an area of targeted applicability: the goal of integration for the 5-MeO-DMT experience. Having a guide-book can be useful. It doesn’t take the place of having the experience yourself or doing the necessary work and processing that comes with it, but it sure can be handy! As always, my aim is to create something that is easily referenced, accessible, and straight-forward with no filler, BS,  speculation, or unnecessary beating around the bush.

To start, we’ll begin with a brief history of 5-MeO-DMT in the modern world, as it’s still relatively new and obscure. From there, I’ll share my history with integration, what it’s meant (or not) to me, and how I entered the world of being a professional 5-MeO-DMT nondual integration coach. Next, I’ll provide a detailed outline of an integration call with a client, delineating the kinds of information that is relevant for such a call and why. Then, we’ll get into the topic of reactivations and post-session processing, which is a huge part of helping people with their 5-MeO-DMT experiences. We’ll also look at how, being primarily a nondual agent, working with, experiencing, and processing 5-MeO-DMT experiences is not really about having content, insights, realizations, etc., which are more common with other psychedelic experiences that are more situated within duality. We’ll then