The art of trip sitting
Guides vs. sitters, the 101 of space holding, including five essential qualities in sitters
Happy New Year, my friend. I hope it is filled with love, joy, curiosity, wonder, and all the other beautiful raw, human emotions.
For the past few years, it’s been my tradition to journey into the new year, usually with mushrooms, but this year we enjoyed a low-key dinner with friends, I didn’t feel called to a journey.
Today’s topic is an actionable one: trip sitting. If you’ve been looking to have a journey yourself but don’t feel called to a guided session (or can’t afford it), this is a good alternative for some people (not all). Whether you’re looking to hold space for a loved one, or you have a loved one willing to hold space for you, this is a brief, focused guide to help prepare you. It draws on my experience as a guardian in ayahuasca ceremonies, holding space for individual and group high-dose mushroom journeys, volunteering with the Zendo project at Burning Man to provide support for those having challenging psychedelic experiences, and the dozens and dozens of experiences sitting in ceremony myself.
We’ll cover a few questions:
How does a trip sitter compare to guided journeys?
Who is suitable to journey with a trip sitter vs. a trained guide?
What are important qualities, do’s, and don’t for a sitter?
Trip sitter vs. guide
There’s a key difference between the two.
Guides are trained practitioners who facilitate the journey, holding space drawing on their extensive experience of working with medicines (and people). The extent to which they actively guide depends on the medicine. Some medicines, such as MDMA, benefit from more guidance, while others, such as mushrooms, benefit from less. Sitters have the more narrow responsibility of making sure you’re safe during your journey. This does not necessarily rely on extensive psychedelic experience or training.
As a trip sitter, your goal is to intervene as little as possible in the journey. The floor should be left to the medicine, your only job is to ensure that whoever you’re watching feels safe and comfortable in engaging with the medicine. This includes harm reduction, safety, comfort, and soothing (where applicable). Whereas trained guides may incorporate all types of modalities into the journey, such as bodywork, IFS therapy, shamanic tools, energy work, and so on — sitters just sit with you.
Now you may be wondering if you should experience your first journey with a guide or a trip sitter. This will depend on two factors:
Which medicine you’re journeying with
Your mental health history and psychedelic experience
There are a handful of medicines that require trained guides, such as Ayahuasca, Bufo Alvarius/5-MeO-DMT, and Iboga/Ibogaine. Others benefit from “professional” guidance but don’t rely on it, such as mushrooms, Huachuma, and MDMA. (If you, like me, can’t believe that I haven’t written an in-depth essay on mushrooms yet — it’s coming, I promise!)
The majority of people are generally fine to go with a trip sitter for journeys with the medicines detailed above, however, there are some exceptions.
I’d recommend a guide, if…
… you’re incredibly anxious/fearful about the experience, and/or have a history of panic attacks or paranoia
… you’ve tried psychedelics before and had challenging experiences (because I know many of you are wondering about this: this does not include weed. A bad weed experience filled with paranoia does not mean you’ll react similarly with psychedelics — weed inherently elicits paranoia in people not prone to it. A previous paranoid mushroom experience, though, would beg for caution.)
… you or someone in your family has suffered from schizophrenia or psychosis, bipolar disorder, or borderline personality disorder (it may not be safe for you to journey, only a trained guide will be able to assess this)
… you’re currently on SSRIs, which, for certain medicines such as mushrooms will require you to take more to have the same experience (again, a guide will know)
… you don’t meet any of these criteria, but are new to psychedelics, cautious, and want to experience a high dose while minimizing risks and maximizing therapeutic impact with proper support for preparation and integration
5 essential qualities of a good trip sitter
Below are some general guidelines, drawn on many years of participating, guiding, and trip sitting journeys.
If you have someone you’re considering as a trip sitter, you could assess their capacity to cultivate each of these qualities. If you decide they are suitable, you could share this with them, alongside some of the further resources shared below.
Basic psychedelic literacy
It’s imperative for any sitter to have a general understanding of how psychedelics work. I’m intentionally saying general here and not in-depth. While in-depth would be desirable, a basic understanding will suffice. This understanding should be built on the awareness that psychedelics are non-specific amplifiers.
This means, for example, that when you sit with someone who is journeying with mushrooms and they’re getting anxious, you understand that it is not the mushrooms making them anxious, but rather the mushrooms bringing anxiety to the surface that’s already present in their mind. You also understand that this happens so that the anxiety can’t be explored, transmuted, or broken through. Similarly, in more extreme cases, when someone eating mushrooms has the experience of thinking they’re going crazy, you know that they are, in fact, not going crazy. Rather, the mushrooms are bringing to light their fear of going crazy.
Here are a few articles to develop psychedelic literacy:
Any of the medicine-specific deep dives or resources linked here
Calm, compassionate demeanor
This one’s pretty straightforward. You want someone who will remain calm independent of how you’re reacting to the medicine. (It’s easier to remain calm if you understand how medicines work.)
When you journey your vulnerability to your environment is heightened, so if your anxiety is making your sitter anxious, it will only amplify your anxiety.
Compassion is further key because under no circumstances would you want to feel judged for what’s happening during your journey. (Any perceived judgment with an objectively compassionate sitter, then, becomes an invitation to observe the journeyer’s perception of being judged.)
Ability to be a mirror (with minimal ego involvement)
This may be the most important quality (and also the one that doesn’t come naturally to most). The role of a sitter is to act as a mirror. Psychedelics use your environment and setting, which includes the guide or sitter, to mirror beliefs and patterns hidden in the depths of your subconscious. For example, if a caring sitter is perceived as neglectful, it’s the journeyer’s perception of neglect that you focus on, rather than the sitter’s lack of care (assuming he’s objectively not neglectful).
Journeyers may project all types of emotions and sentiments on the sitter, ranging from pleasant ones such as love, admiration, and desire (aka, transference) to negative ones such as anger, neglect, frustration, and even fear.
As a sitter, you must not take any of this personally. Reflect it back with compassion, so that the journeyer can go deeper into the experience and arrive at what it is trying to teach them. This journey is not about you. (Again, this is all assuming you’re not neglectful, disturbing, careless, and so on.)
Lastly, minimal ego involvement means that as a sitter, before you say or do anything, you always ask yourself this question: do I need this or do they?
Beginners commonly overdo it. They overly insert themselves in the journey they’re holding space for because their ego wants to feel needed. Again, this is not about you.
Clear boundaries
As we’ve established, you put yourself in a position of vulnerability any time you journey. There are multiple layers to this vulnerability: you may experience sensitive emotions or revisit traumatic memories, you may project some of those emotions on your sitter, and you also may be incapacitated (depending on the dose).
A sitter who can uphold clear boundaries is a must. I recommend that boundaries be discussed before the journey begins. Is physical touch desired? If yes, should it only be initiated only by the journeyer, or is the journeyer comfortable with the sitter providing a comforting hand or a hug? What touch is OK and what isn’t? If no touch is desired, is it possible the journeyer may change their mind in the middle of the journey, and if so, how can you ensure consent is maintained? Unless you’re sitting a close friend or family member, this conversation should be a non-negotiable.
Dedicated, uninterrupted support
Lastly, as a sitter, you’ll want to make sure that you’re fully present (and available) for the experience.
Some journeys are “low touch”, where the journeyer is deep inward, eyes closed, immersed in music for sometimes hours on end. As a sitter, you may work, read, or do any other activity in the background that doesn’t disturb the journey.
Other times, the journey is more “high touch”, and you’ll spend the majority of the sit soothing and supporting. You won’t know in advance what’s going to happen, so you must be prepared for either. That means no pre-scheduled phone calls or appointments that require you to leave mid-journey and interrupt the process.
You’ll also want to ensure your journeyer has everything they need throughout the experience, which includes: water, music, eye shades, pillows and blankets (people can get cold, especially on mushrooms), and snacks (most won’t be hungry but food can help ground, aim for minimally processed, natural foods).
Any other questions about trip sitting? Have you ever sat for someone or had a trip sitter? What went well, and what didn’t? What do you find most important?
〰️ MAPS is offering a new trip sitting course through the Zendo Project, starting on February 5
〰️ Alternatively, there’s this trip sitting course through DoubleBlind Mag
〰️ InsightTimer kicked off a free, 21-day New Year’s meditation challenge on January 1 led by one of my favorite teachers
〰️ The Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Summit is taking place on January 16 and featuring some of the most prominent voices in the field (basic offering is free)
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explores why so many couples work together in the psychedelics industry“Consciousness does not just passively reflect the objective material world, it plays an active role in creating reality itself.” - Stanislav Grof
Once again, thank you for the great information!