“Imagine an online master class for aspiring psychedelic and spiritual guides. This comes pretty close.”
The Guiding Presence, is a free online begin-anytime program, in which we present the fundamentals of “holding space” for a psychedelic session.
The guiding presence
The Guiding Presence program features candid presentations by leading experts on the art of guiding others in psychedelic consciousness.
The program material can be streamed in either a video or audio format.
Beginning in 2024 we offer this program at no cost to new participants. We support open access against the trend of of the radical monetization of psychedelics. Please help us to share this program with anyone that you think will benefit from its content.
Learn at your own pace.
THE PROGRAM IS FREE
This FREE program covers the core competencies to curate the arc of a psychedelic session.
For those using psychedelic molecules, our presenters share with you the skillful means of using these materials.
Over 30 trail breaking practitioners share their protocols: for screening and preparation, to assess appropriate dosages, to navigate in expanded consciousness, to engage the challenges that arise in sessions, and to make meaning and integrate psychedelic experience.
Our presenters are among the most experienced practitioners in the world. They have collectively conducted over 25,000 sessions. They describe the ways they use MDMA, psilocybin, ayahuasca, ketamine, 5-MeO-DMT, LSD, 2-cb, and mescaline in their sessions.
The Guiding Presence brings you the practical wisdom our presenters have gained conducting psychedelic sessions for healing, spiritual exploration, and for psychonaught journeys. This program was developed specifically for those who seek practical information about the skillful use of psychedelics. Our seasoned practitioners offer granular explanations about: psychedelic drugs and combinations, client intake, set and setting, safety, ethics, the difference between being a “sitter” and a “guide” and more.
In addition, our program will introduce you to the Guild of Guides. These are individuals who, during the war on drugs, have skillfully held space for individuals seeking to explore psychedelic consciousness. The extensive session experience of these guides is rarely presented in the current psychotherapeutic and medical discourse about psychedelic use.
We are pleased to bring you an open source Manual for Voyagers and Sitters
Meeting the Divine Within, edited by James Fadiman (author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide). Click here to view or download for free.
This manual has been downloaded over 35,000 times.
The Guiding Presence program provides free access to a cornucopia of resources: over 50 hours of video and audio presentations, written materials and useful checklists. Both the seasoned guide and the newcomer to psychedelics will find these materials invaluable.
Since 2018 over 1,000 individuals have completed this program.
Our presenters introduce you to a diversity of practical approaches so that you may discover what best suits your needs.
Michael Ziegler, Introduction to The Guiding Presence
Diana Medina, How to Get Out of the Way
Mark Seelig, Music Has Power
Stan Grof, New Tools for Psychiatry
Tom Pinkson, Being a Clear Channel
Sylvia Thyssen, Our Complex Relationship with Psychoactives
Curious about the content of this program?
we bring you the collective wisdom of our presenters who cover the following subjects:
DESIGNING THE ARC OF A SESSION
Intake, Preparation, Set & Setting, Interventions, Integration
PLANT SACRAMENT WISDOM LINEAGES
• Case studies from the practice of the Huichol lineage (peyote), the Santo Daime Church (daime), the Amazonian shamanic traditions (ayahuasca), and the Mazotec lineage (teonancacatl- mushroom of visions) that can inform your practice.
• How to determine the right dose of a plant sacrament?
• How do you care for people who have taken a psychedelic sacrament in a ceremony?
• How to support the meaning making derived from the kinds of experiences that can arise from the use of psychoactive sacraments?
PSYCHEDELICS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
• How to provide a caring, safe, therapeutic milieu for a psychedelic session.
• The unique role of the therapist during a psychedelic session.
• Integrating a psychedelic session: cultivating real change within the Self and changing external behaviors.
• How the unique subjective effects occasioned by the psychedelic medicines MDMA and Ketamine can be used therapeutically.
MINDFULNESS PRACTICES AND PSYCHEDELICS
• How can the mind/body practices offered by meditation support the psychedelic journey?
• Do the kinds of experiences generated by psychedelics have anything to offer a meditation practice?
• What’s the difference between the expanded awareness induced by meditation and the kinds of amplified states occasioned by psychedelics?
PREPARATION
• What preparation is required to introduce someone to a psychedelic experience?
• How does one build the session container (trust, safety, security, confidentiality)?
• How do you assess a participant’s risks (medical and psychological)?
• Who is a not a good candidate for these kinds of experiences?
• The well-informed participant: preparatory disclosure, informed consent, and clear agreements.
THE ROLE OF THE GUIDE IN A PSYCHEDELIC SESSION
• The Non-Intervention Model (the psychedelic sitter): trusting the participant’s natural wisdom and inner guidance.
• The Guided Process Model (the psychedelic guide): providing a structure and guidance for focused inquiry.
• Exploring the Guide’s tool box and the use of invocations, inductions, meditations, touch and supporting a non-judgmental witnessing presence.
• The use of family constellation and family systems work in psychedelic sessions.
• Wrestling with life’s challenges: suffering, grief, and anxiety.
• Using psychedelics to engage the end-of-life journey and the dying process.
• The skillful use of music in a session.
• The role of Noble Silence.
• The use of psychedelics to support the cultivation of loving kindness, compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, joy, pleasure, and playfulness.
ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES THAT CAN ARISE IN A SESSION
•Addressing Fear and anxiety
• Supporting the physical and emotional body during a journey
• Control issues
• Near-death experiences and over dosing
INTEGRATION AND MEANING MAKING
• Finding a shared vernacular with your client to describe the subjective experiences that arise in psychedelic consciousness.
• Integrating and remembering what was revealed.
• Integration coaching to assimilate the experience, make meaning, and foster desired change.
DEVELOPING HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE AS A GUIDE
• The initiation/apprenticeship model.
• The mentor/supervision model.
• The self directed partner/dyad model.
THE ETHICS OF CARE
• What is the unique ethical sensibility required of the psychedelic guide?
• Conducting a comprehensive self inventory of one’s motivations for being a psychedelic guide.
• Balancing protection, permission, and connection with a client in a session.
• When to intervene, when not to intervene?
• Understanding the interpersonal field and the influence of transference and counter transference in a session.
• Ethical challenges for facilitators: sex, money, and power.
• Discernment of: religious visions, prophetic revelations, magical thinking, personal inflation, grandiosity and spiritual emergencies.
THE “DO IT YOURSELF” PSYCHONAUGHT- DOING SOLO PSYCHEDELIC JOURNEYS
• Harm reduction strategies for solo experiences for self exploration and/or recreation (We include a rave dance culture case study).
• Know your self, know your medicines, know your source!
• Preparing for the kinds of subjective effects that can arise in non-ordinary states of consciousness.
• Safety and contingency planning if things go wrong.
• How to use crowd sourced resources like Erowid.org for maximum benefit.
LOOKING AHEAD
• Exploring a post-denominational spirituality that uses psychedelic plant sacraments.
• The skilled use of psychedelic prescription drugs (Ketamine, MDMA) as tools that can be used to alleviate suffering and increase meaning making during the end of life journey.
“I HAVE BEEN USING PSYCHEDELICS FOR OVER 30 YEARS FOR MY PERSONAL USE AND WITH CLIENTS. IN THAT TIME THERE HAS BEEN VERY LIMITED INFORMATION SHARED AMONG PRACTITIONERS ABOUT how they conduct SESSIONS. I LEARNED A GREAT DEAL LISTENING TO THE PRESENTERS THAT I CAN APPLY DIRECTLY TO MY OWN PRACTICE.” ~ STEVE R.
“Wonderful, thanks ! I am loving this so much and getting a lot out of it. It was exactly what I was looking for. What breadth of information. Michael’s questions are spot on enabling presenters to share their work fully and always keeping us (people who one day would like to do this work) in mind. I feel so many doors and avenues of inquiry are opening for me as a result of this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” ~ Veronica S., M.D.
“I can’t thank you enough for The course. What a service you are doing!!! All this incredible wisdom and experience, hitherto spread all over the internet, so generously shared. I love the deep yet practical questions and the whole informal setting. The elders of the tribe share their wisdom and knowledge as if we are all sitting together on the sofa. It’s a privilege. All in all, an absolute treasure.” ~Vardit (The Netherlands)
“I appreciate the way the course presents the fundamentals of guiding that are common to psychedelics, BREATHWORK, meditation and trance AND HOW EACH PIECE PRESENTED IS A NECESSARY PART OF THE WHOLE. I found the diversity of approaches refreshing. IT PROVIDES LOTS OF PRACTICAL TOOLS I CAN USE.” ~ Jacob M.
psychedelic guide training:
holding a guiding presence
This online Program features candid presentations by leading experts on the art of guiding others in psychedelic consciousness.
The program material can be streamed in either a video or audio format.
Learn at your own pace.
FREE OF CHARGE