What Really Happens Inside a Psilocybin Ceremony

In this episode of The Inner Trip, I take you inside a private psilocybin retreat I facilitated for a group of five female entrepreneurs. I share what actually happens before, during and after the ceremony, including the fears that came up, how we navigated them, and why integration is where the real transformation happens.

We explore the biggest takeaways from the retreat that apply whether or not you ever do plant medicine. One of the most powerful was the realization that more is not always better. More work, more stimulation, more healing, more doing does not necessarily lead to more fulfillment. Creating space, slowing down, and reducing input is often where clarity and joy actually emerge. You need to start trusting yourself instead of trying to control everything, letting go of the idea that you are a constant self improvement project, and remembering that healing does not have to be chased forever. 

For this week’s integration, look at your life through the lens of “more is not more better.” Where are you overfilling your schedule, your mind, or your healing process? Choose one area to simplify, slow down, or create space, and notice what shifts. And share this episode with a friend who you think might need to hear that too. Make sure you are subscribed so you never miss a dose. Until next time, trust yourself, follow your intuition, and keep asking, how good can it get?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi kittens, I'm Julie Savone, psychedelic facilitator, integration expert, and your guide for this wild ride, the Inner Trip. 365 days with plant medicine. I've helped hundreds of people use plant medicine, primarily psilocybin, to heal, expand, and step into their next level. But this year, I'm taking it even deeper. For the next 365 days, I'm bringing you with me. I'll be microdosing, journeying, integrating, and exploring what it really means to live a limitless life with plant medicine as a tool, not a crutch. So if you're ready to feel more alive, more clear, more limitless, and you're down to do it with mushrooms and a little bit of sass, you're in the right place. Let's take the inner trip. Hi, Kitten. My intention today is to share with you the absolutely amazing experience from this weekend facilitating a private retreat for a group of five women. Facilitating a private ceremony for them. And the things that I'm most excited to share with you are A, some big takeaways. There are points that come up in ceremony that are always just reminders for me and for the women, just as humans. And I'm excited to share them with you because I know one in particular, I'm like, you know, everyone gets to hear this, everyone gets to hear it. And that's why I think doing ceremony in community is so important. Like I can facilitate a private experience just for you, right? And I've had people who have done that, and for some people, it's all they feel safe with, and it's I love that I honor that. And truthfully, there's something to be said about healing in community, and you know, in the West, we really obsess over the pathologization of the individual. Like, I have OCD, I have ADHD, I am la la la la la. And we focus on our own specific crap, right? And and not to say that's not important or it's not hurtful for you, like the things that you've been through, or they're not salient, but or and when we heal in community and when we hear things from different people and different perspectives, and certain downloads come through, that to me is where the biggest shift happens because we are not islands unto ourselves, we are all interconnected with one another, and so the emphasis in indigenous communities on healing and com in community, healing in groups, I think is is really beautiful. And when I see it in action, I'm always like, ah, yeah, this is where the juice is, this is where the power is, right? So sharing those things with you, and then a lot of fear was super loud for these women this weekend, um, going in and kind of like how we navigated that. And then one woman even had sort of a difficult experience, and I want to share more about her time on the journey and how integration really wrapped a bow on the experience and how helped it shift for her and turned it all around. So let's dive in. Let's actually start with the fear because I I like chronological. Um, so let's let's jump in there. And you know, this is a private experience, meaning someone basically hired me to come in and facilitate to take her and her group of friends through a retreat, but it wasn't like one of my public retreats, right? It wasn't a retreat that, like, I am I'm hosting and organizing, and you know, not that there really is like a public sign-up link because we still have to have a conversation to make sure it's a good fit for you, but it's something that's more like you're not necessarily gonna know anyone there, and I would say most of the time people don't know anyone else there, but this was a group, a woman who I had met, and then her group of friends, so people who would all like said yes to this experience, so in that too, like one of the women there hosted the retreat, like at her house, and you know, also in terms of food and everything, like they they took care of all that. I was really just there as the facilitator. I will also say, um, this was a woman, a group of female entrepreneurs, and so they have their own brands and and stuff, and this has never happened to me before. But several of them made gifts for the group, and they all gave me a gift as well, like a gift bag. And I was just like so touched by that. Because also they have really awesome um products, and I was like, oh my god, like I don't know, it really it really tugged down my heartstrings. Like, I don't expect a gift, either as a facilitator, I do not expect a gift, right? But um, you know, for those listening that were part of the group, thank you. It really like that was so special to me. So leading up to it, I always tell people, you know, like, tell me what's coming up for you. Bring the fear to the light. Because what happens so often with fear is that fear is so loud and it becomes louder because it's like a mold. We keep it in the dark, we don't really want to look at it, we don't want to shine a light on it, we don't want to face it directly or confront it, and then it grows. And the thing about psychedelics is this idea of set and setting, meaning, yes, the environment that you're in when you take psychedelics, do you feel safe? Is it a place that you feel at ease and like you can trust? But also, how's your mindset? Because if you have a lot of fear, an unexpressed fear going into the experience, guess what's gonna manifest in the experience? Fear the exact thing that you're scared of. Psychedelics are extremely suggestible. So by just talking about the fears, they bring them to the light and they lessen their power on you, right? Anything that we are unwilling to face and to claim has power of us over us. The second we own it and we say it out loud, that grip starts to loosen. And so I was like, hey girl, like she sent me this email, right? This is what I'm afraid of, blah, blah, blah. Let's just hop on a call and talk some of these things out. This happened with a couple of the women. So I was so happy. Not everyone takes me up on it, and maybe not everyone's afraid, and that's okay. But I always put it out there if you want to talk about these things, like let's talk about them before we get there, right? So you're not like white knuckling, heart pounding going into this experience. So we talked. And um, I I'm never gonna convince you of anything. I'm never gonna convince you to do something at all, at all, at all. Um, because if it's not a yes from you, I never want you to be like, well, I only said yes because she could talk to me into it. I I've gotten into those situations where someone sold me and I never like the scenario of being sold into something more than I do when my yes is freely given. And that's on me. I'll take a full accountability for the times that I've been sold into something. That's on me. Those people were really good salespeople, yes. But I was ultimately the one who said yes and chose in, right? So I'm not blaming them, but it always the experience is better for me when I am fully a yes without needing to be persuaded into the yes. So I'm I'm not gonna convince anyone of anything. I want them to feel full bodied bodied yes. And we went back a few times and like, you know, in my retreats, because they are are a ceremonial dose, like a full dose, it's macrodosine, it's not microdosing, right? I typically say the end range is like two or the beginning range of like the lowest dose, two grams for someone to take. And this woman wanted to take less. I was like, okay, a gram, less. 500 milligrams, less. So if she ended up taking a true microdose, 100 milligrams. That's what she felt comfortable with. That's what she felt comfortable with. And I said, Hey, I'm gonna come back around at like a half an hour, an hour, and just see how you are. She still did the same process, which is I I facilitate in a therapeutic setting, meaning you lay down, you have an eye mask on, it's an inward process, right? It's not like outward stimulation, no, we're not, you know, at a rave or looking at the plans, although that's fun. And I do recommend, you know, go outside, see what life is like. It's pretty cool out there. Um, on mushrooms. But she laid down and she went within and she just took the microdose. And I I offered her, hey, should you want to like revisit this dosing conversation? She's like, Nope, I'm gonna. I'm like, all right, babe. And so, you know, she um she was really dialed in, like tuned in, just meditating, eye mask on, inward experience for a couple hours. And we chatted because she obviously she didn't really go anywhere, meaning she didn't have a journey in the in the sense that most people in my retreats are thinking of because she, you know, it's a microdose, it is a true microdose, and so that's great. I was so happy for her, like that's what she wanted to do, and I was like, Yes, lean in, amazing. And so uh another woman, she had gone in, and it's interesting, she had shared that she had some tummy upset this week, right? Um, leading up to it, and that she really just wanted her journey to look a certain way. Now, in my flight instructions, I always tell people you are exact getting exactly what you need, even if it is not exactly what you want. And I tell them certain things like, hey, the only way that you're gonna have a quote unquote bad trip is if you refuse to lean in. And it's one thing, I guess, to you know, to say these things to someone like very soberly before the experience begins, and it is a vastly different thing to actually, you know, go into the experience and have them have things come up that doesn't look exactly how they would like it or how they thought it was going to look because there were several times that she was like, This isn't how I wanted it to go, like I'm I'm meeting all these things and stuff was coming up. There was inner child stuff, there was stuff from um something that had happened like five years ago, something that had happened one year ago, and it was a difficult trip. There were a lot of big emotions. She was like, I just really feel like I want to cry and just like sob. And I was like, then do it, you know? Like the only the only sin of this, the only sin I and I use sin like in a in a light way, but the only mistake you can make in this or in breath work or really anything is a refusal to meet the experience where it is and to hold something. And I was like, just cry, but other people aren't crying, right? A lot of comparison, a lot of judgment for for her experience. And I shared something with her that I I know I've shared here, talking about how shame and guilt and judgment really keep us stuck. They're the things that don't allow for any forward movement, and when we can get to a space of neutrality, of acceptance of what is, even curiosity of like, hey, where is this coming from? That's when things start to shift. But if we're really stuck in in shame and guilt and judgment, we're going to stay there because it's just a low frequency emotion that doesn't have the opportunity for a lot of movement. So there was a lot of that coming up. A lot of the feedback, right, I was giving her was hey, lean in, babe, lean in. Just lean in. Because the more that you surrender to the experience, ultimately the more you the quicker that you get to the other side. And like that to me is the biggest metaphor of plant medicine, of psychedelics. It's like the only way to really, you know, get to the other side of a difficult part of your trip or a bad trip is to turn around and meet the fear. And sometimes that's looking at this traumatic event that happened, whatever, years ago. And sometimes that is looking at the scary image in your mind, a dinosaur or whatever. But when you lean in, that's when we get to the other side of something. And she really was having a tough time leaving leaning in. So much so that the trip, like, it was very uncomfortable for her. She she was really, um, I the best word that I the best phrase that I can think of to describe it is like she was over it. Meaning the next morning, so we were all at her friend's house. The and the woman that I'm speaking about is the woman who like organized this with me, right? She brought me in, she met me at a different uh in a different space and wanted me to facilitate this for her and her friends. And she was ready to just like go home. Like, you know, 7 a.m. We were all up drinking coffee. She's like, you know, I'm just gonna go home and be with my kids or whatever. Um, and I was like, hey, why don't you know? I can never control what someone does. Obviously, at my retreats, I have a little bit more control because, like, where are you going? You know, where are you going? We are all here in this place together. It's not just like you can run home. And in that way, I do. I enjoy it because you really get to surrender more to the experience. It's like truly, where are you going to go? No, you're gonna stay here. Not like I'm holding you hostage, but you're gonna stay here and at least observe the experience because that's like the only way, the only way to get to the other side of it. But I said, hey, I would really like it if you um, you know, stayed for share circle, and then yeah, and I know you she really wanted to talk about microdosing. She's like, I just like the microdosing, I don't know why I did this larger experience, shalala. And so we got into share circle, and that went really well, and we talked about microdosing that one really well. She's like, okay, okay, I'm gonna stay for like the integration exercises and everything. I'm like, great, like to me, that is truly what people are investing in because you can have a trip, and I know plenty of people who've had a trip. I know one woman who paid $20,000 to have a trip, and there was absolutely no integration, no support afterwards. She just like had to go figure it out on her own. She's like, What did I just pay for? That was so disorienting and confusing. So the the integration is really where we make sense of the experience. And so, you know, she stayed for integration, and after she did, after you wrapped that up, she was she was just so happy. She's like, This is what it's all about. I get it. Like, we're you know, I went through the exact same process that I share with on with you on one of these episodes. At the very beginning, you can go back and find my integration, my main like integration exercise that I use for after um after big sets, right? After my ceremonies and retreats. And so she's like, this all makes sense. I get it now, like I can see why I did it. And and the integration is all about what are the practical insights we're taking into the day-to-day, right? What are the things that we're actually like, where where are we going with this? And so these insights that that women were taking, this is really what I wanted to share with you today, because this is where the juice is. This is these are the things that are are true and salient, regardless of whether or not you want to experience psychedelics and plant medicine. And so a big one for these women was um that more is not more is not more better. And that's such a common misconception. Like, I need more followers or I need more um, you know, more money, sometimes more problems, but also I do believe that money can buy happiness to a certain extent because they're just things that you you don't have to worry about, money stress, and you can access healthcare and all sorts of things. But for her, it was like she just jam-packed her schedule, right? Of like, I wake up, I work out, I just have to feel productive. I'm always doing things, like there's no downtime, it's go, go, go, pack, pack, pack, do, do, do, fill, fill, fill. And the realization, because uh another thing that came up for her was her trip turned more difficult. At an hour, I asked you, Hey, would you like some more? Basically, like a gram. And she was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I gave her another one, and that's when this everything kind of started to turn for her. And it was like, more is not better. And so, really leaning into that idea of more is not better. Um, and and coming back to like, how can we have more less input, right? How can you create more space for for boredom and and for like a lack of stimulation in your brain? Because at the end of the day, like, this is not normal how much our brains are stimulated. We are animals. That's something that comes up for me every single ceremony. I just think we are animals, we are animals. Why aren't we outside more? We're not meant to be. I don't want to say this, like in my house, in my office as I record this podcast that you're listening to, probably like on your phone, right? But we are animals, like go outside more, connect more with nature. Um, and just this idea of like our our brains were not meant to be hyper-stimulated in the way they are now. And so when we really do allow for that quiet time, like that's when the idea is full, whether it be you journal before bed or first thing in the morning, or you go for a walk or a run without your phone, or you just like put your legs up the wall and and you know, let it be. I like to listen to frequencies in the sauna, just things that aren't so like dopamine little, you know, like the like the lights on a um casino machine, right? It's just we need some relaxation from that perpetual dopamine heads. Um, another thing that came up with this is like the relationship between like you feeling like you can handle it and this fear that it's all going to be too much, and like ultimately coming back to just trusting yourself. Like I can, like nothing, everything that's coming up for me is there for me, right? And what's on the other side of my fear and leaning in and trusting? Um, and another big one was like, I don't need to chase healing. I think for a lot of us, like, probably if you're listening to this podcast, it's like, oh, I want to heal my attachment style, I want to heal my relationship with my mom. Oh, I want to heal um my body image issues. And like, look, healing is beautiful. I am in the business of healing, I do a lot of my own healing work, but like looking at ourselves as a project where it's always like then and what else do I need to heal? What else can I heal? Like, what's next? What's next? Like the next layer, the deeper thing. It's like, what if you are healed? What if you don't need to chase the thing? What if you're in a really good place and like it's okay to not go any deeper now or if ever, right? I do think we in this world it kind of becomes like a lifelong pursuit and a lifelong project. In some ways that's noble to always know thyself deeper and better. But it can also become an obsession where we start to view ourselves as broken inherently, and like where where does the where does the fixing like like start? You know, when do I get to be healed? And she was like, No, no, no, I'm I'm healed now. And for a lot of the women, there was this just this feeling of trust, like I trust myself, I trust myself to handle it, whether it be like a new job, a new location, a conflict with someone, like I can trust myself and I don't need to control. And like control really is an illusion. And when we're trying to plan so many steps ahead, that is a protection mechanism in our brain to try to assuage the anxiety and say, like, hey, I know what's coming, but none of us know what's coming, baby. We are on a rock hurtling through space, like anything could happen at any time. Control is an illusion, and we waste so much of our energy, of our time, of our spoons trying to um orchestrate something in a way that we really I mean, who freaking knows, right? Who knows what's going to happen? So that was a big one, as well as just this idea like everything is alive, everything is in motion. Uh, you know, at the at the very smallest level of atoms, like atoms are bouncing around, they're always in motion, even things that look super solid, right? Your phone, as you're listening to this, or maybe you're watching me on YouTube on a computer or a TV, like it looks like this big solid object, but really it's made up of you know, billions of trillions of gajillion little atoms that are constantly moving around, they are all in motion. No matter how solid something looks, it is moving, meaning like everything is energy and we are all connected. And one woman had a really big experience with this. This is actually why I really like LSD a lot. Whenever I whenever I take LSD, I experience the aliveness of like literally everything. Rocks, sand, I remember being on the beach one time, be like, all of these sand grains are alive and moving. Um, in a cool and like it was a powerful way, it wasn't like I was having a bad trip, right? And so uh she was having this experience with with things and realizing, hey, everything is in motion, we just like don't always perceive it that way or see it that way. But then also she had a really beautiful experience with Mother Earth and feeling super connected to Mother Earth, and she's had this profound, you know, earth loves us, earth does love us. Sometimes we don't show love back to Mother Earth. But if like we all saw each other the way ourselves, the way that the earth sees us, we would stop talking to ourselves so poorly. So that was a big one for her of like, oh my gosh, let's just like let's speak love to ourselves, to each other, like let's let's let go of this judgment of self and this deprecation and this constant feedback loop of like, oh, this isn't good, or that's not good, or like this could be better, or how do we blah blah blah. Um, and that was really cool to see from her as well, just this like coming back to like a deeper sense of of self-love. And so it was truly a beautiful weekend. Um, I'm so like I love the women that I get to work with, and this was a really cool experience coming into this group of friends and being invited in to facilitate not only the journey, but obviously the integration, and I'm still gonna meet with them just like I would at my like regularly scheduled retreats because there's you know integration follow-up, and you know, they have my number to ask me questions, how are things going, and and you know, receive feedback and everything like that. So excited to stay connect with them and to see how their journey continues to unfold and also for to see them like meet their declarations and their commitments. I know for one woman, um, her commitment was to instead of rushing out, because she's like the her big thing was the more is not necessarily more better, right? Um to slow down in the morning for three days a week and journal instead of rushing off to a workout. So excited to see what shifts for her with that and how that can increase her overall sense of joy. My commitment was something that one of the women shared that every morning she's been asking herself, like, how much fun can I have today? I was like, wait, I love that. So waking up in the morning asking how much fun I can have today and really focusing on um on cultivating my own sense of joy. So excited to see how those things continue to unfold over the next month as I continue to support them because that's a big part of this process. It's not just like, you know, you go on this trip and then I never talk to you again. Um, and it made me really excited for Mexico because Mexico is a longer experience, a retreat that I'm hosting. The longest one I've ever uh facilitated, it's May 5th through 10th. And, you know, we're also doing two days of ceremony. So we're doing yes, we're doing mushrooms, but then we're also doing LSD, and I'm very much looking forward to that as well, and being able to um just bring a new experience because I don't think any of the women have experienced LSD and to do it in the retreat setting and like focus in on the integration around business because then the all the women were also like, oh, I want to know more about LSD, and so we're already planning another retreat with the same a private retreat with those same group of women, um, but facilitating an LSD experience with a business focus because they are business owners. Um, and that definitely LSD to me is more medicine for the brain, and mushrooms are more medicine for the heart, and so having that focus like we have to do the mushroom work first, but then once we do that, we can focus more on like the brain and the the Linking the execution and sort of that next level with LSD. So very excited for that. And as I record today, there are still spots left in for the Mexico retreat. So definitely if you're interested in coming to that one, it's in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, May 5th through 10th. Their retreat application is linked in the show notes. You can also message me on Instagram because there is no public link to buy. We have to have a conversation first to make sure it's a right fit. But you know, if you are interested, this group of women is absolutely amazing. Two of the women have already come on a retreat before. So we have some veterans there to really like hold it down and anchor it down for us. And Porto Escodido is absolutely one of my favorite places. So sending you is so much love today. Oh, and for your integration, where can you take that on? Where can you look at your life and say, hey, more is not more better, and like start to pair it back? This could be with your workout, this could even be with your healing. Like maybe you're doing too many things, trying to quote unquote heal and like just giving yourself space to be. So just like look through your la your life with the question with the with the lens of where um where is more not necessarily more better and how can I pair it down? I'm sending you so much love, and I'll talk to you next weekend. That's the end of today's trip. But remember, the real magic has always been inside of you. If this episode landed, send it to a friend who's ready to step into their next level. And make sure you're following the show so you never miss a dose. I'll be back again soon with another day on the path to your most limitless life. And until then, trust yourself, follow your intuition, and keep asking how good can it get?