Understanding Psychedelic Experiences Through Parts Work and Beyond
Introduction: Many Perspectives, One Experience
Psychedelic journeys often defy the limits of language, presenting profound, surreal, or ineffable experiences. These journeys touch on personal healing, universal truths, and mysteries that seem beyond human understanding. Making sense of these experiences requires a framework that respects their complexity, and parts work offers a meaningful way to explore these layers of meaning.
While parts work provides tools to navigate and integrate fragmented aspects of self, the psychedelic experience often points to something larger than the individual. The original wisdom of Indigenous medicine people must be acknowledged in any conversation about psychedelics. Through these frames, we can honor the deeply personal and the deeply mysterious aspects of these journeys and find ways to understand our experiences through multiple lenses.
What Is Parts Work?
Parts work, rooted in modalities like Internal Family Systems (IFS), views the self as composed of distinct “parts,” each with its own needs, roles, and histories. These parts can be protectors, exiles, or managers, working to maintain balance or guard against pain.
How Parts Work Aligns with Psychedelic Healing
Unveiling Hidden Parts: Psychedelics often bring repressed or disowned parts of the psyche to the surface, allowing us to interact with them more directly.
Facilitating Dialogue: In an altered state, it’s easier to communicate with parts as distinct entities, offering insights into their fears, needs, and protective strategies.
Reintegration: After a journey, parts work can help bring these fragmented pieces back into harmony, fostering a sense of wholeness.
Example: A psychedelic journey might reveal a deeply critical inner voice. Through parts work, this voice can be understood as a protector trying to shield you from perceived failure, offering a path to transform its role into one of encouragement.
Indigenous Perspectives on Psychedelics and Personhood
Parts work aligns closely with the philosophies of many indigenous traditions. Richard Schwartz, the originator of Internal Family Systems therapy has spoken about this overlap extensively in recent years, and has expressed gratitude to indigenous knowledge keepers for guiding the further development of parts work, particularly in the use of psychedelics with therapeutic intent.
Indigenous shamans worldwide are the original keepers of naturally occurring psychedelic medicines. Psychedelic rituals from these communities emphasize preparation, intention, and integration over recreational use. In many indigenous cultures, psychedelic rituals are not just personal but deeply relational and communal. Important ways of knowing about collective wellbeing are demonstrated in the ritualized psychedelic use of some indigenous communities. These ceremonies typically emphasize:
Interconnectedness: Healing the self is seen as inherently linked to the community and environment.
Personhood as Fluid: The self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic interplay of roles, ancestors, and spirits.
Collective Responsibility: Personal healing contributes to communal well-being, and vice versa.
Example: Ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon often involve collective singing and shared intentions, emphasizing the interconnectedness of participants and their environment. Sometimes entire families will attend ceremonies to support one or two members who are drinking the medicine, or sometimes whole villages will attend ceremonies together.
Bringing Together Parts Work and Indigenous Wisdom
By creating a container for exploring both individual and collective aspects of healing, these perspectives can support each other in framing psychedelic experiences.
1. Personhood as Multifaceted
Both parts work and Indigenous perspectives challenge the idea of a singular, fixed self. In parts work, the self is made up of internal roles, while Indigenous traditions often include external connections to family, ancestors, and nature as integral to identity.
Reflection During Integration:
Ask: Which parts of me showed up during the journey, and how might they connect to my relationships or community?
Explore: How does my personal healing impact those around me?
2. Healing as Relational
Indigenous rituals honor even difficult or disruptive spirits or energies, seeing them as teachers or guides. Similarly, parts work teaches that no part of us is inherently bad; all parts have a purpose.
Integration Practice:
In parts work, approach your internal critic, fear, or shame with curiosity and compassion.
In a broader context, consider how these parts might reflect larger relational dynamics within your family, community, or culture.
3. The Role of Mystery
Both parts work and Indigenous traditions acknowledge the limits of human understanding. While parts work offers tools to navigate the psyche, Indigenous rituals often leave room for the ineffable—the sense that something larger is at play.
Honoring the Unknown:
In parts work: Accept that not all parts will reveal themselves fully in one journey.
In the broader sense: Embrace the possibility that your experience connects to something beyond personal healing—a shared, collective, or spiritual transformation.
Example: During a psychedelic experience, you might feel a profound connection to an ancestral figure or a sense of universal love. While parts work can frame this as reconnecting with a disowned part, Indigenous perspectives might interpret it as communion with a guiding spirit. Both perspectives can coexist, enriching the meaning of the experience.
How to Integrate Psychedelic Experiences Using Parts Work
1. Identify the Parts That Arise
After a journey, reflect on the emotions, images, or voices that stood out.
What part of you was speaking during moments of fear, joy, or insight?
How does this part serve you, and what does it need?
2. Create Dialogue
Treat each part as an ally rather than an obstacle. Journaling or visualization can help you understand their motivations.
Example: If you encountered a part that felt overwhelming sadness, ask it: What do you want me to know? or What do you need from me now?
3. Recognize the Larger Context
While parts work focuses on the internal landscape, consider how your experience might reflect broader relationships or cultural influences.
How does your healing impact your family, community, or environment?
How might external factors (ancestral trauma, social roles) influence the parts that arose?
4. Honor Both Science and Spirit
Psychedelic journeys often blur the line between psychology and spirituality. Parts work offers a grounded framework for self-exploration, and Indigenous perspectives remind us to honor the sacred and interconnected aspects of our experiences.
Integration Practice:
Use parts work to navigate personal insights.
Complement this with rituals, such as lighting a candle or offering gratitude to the land, to honor the larger forces involved in your journey.
Conclusion: A Multifaceted Approach to Psychedelic Meaning
Making sense of psychedelic experiences requires frameworks that honor both the personal and the collective, the known and the mysterious. Parts work offers tools to explore internal dynamics, while Indigenous perspectives remind us of the relational and spiritual dimensions of healing. We owe more than we know to the wisdom of traditional medicine keepers. They deserve our deepest respect and support. Their healing work has a profound impact on the planet and on each of us through the intentions they carry.
By holding these awarenesses, we can create a richer understanding of ourselves and our place in the world, honoring the profound interconnectedness that psychedelic journeys so often reveal.
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