🫠 Ask a Guide Anything

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Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that isn’t afraid of death, as long we can call dibs on one of those biodegradable mycelium coffins. ☠️

Hey, you. (Yes, you. 🫵 ) You’re gonna die.

Intellectually, we all know this to be true. Even so, few experiences shake a person to their core like receiving a terminal or life-threatening diagnosis. Because all of sudden, it becomes real.

At that moment, people are often confronted with their deepest fears about mortality, meaning, and what’s waiting (is there anything waiting?) on the other side of death.

A growing body of research suggests psychedelics can offer support through the dying process. So, we asked our network of experienced practitioners: How can someone use psychedelics to deal with a terminal or life-threatening diagnosis?

They share their thoughts on finding peace at the end of life below.

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Browse the directory and find your facilitator.

Pick your care team wisely

Working with a terminal diagnosis requires extraordinary care in choosing your support team and setting, so that you can feel safe. Kari Roe-LaFramboise lays out the ingredients: “Creating a container with someone you have been able to build rapport and a sense of psychological safety with, in a space where you can feel physically safe, will maximize the benefits."

The stakes are simply too high to go it alone. Ryan Chanatry stresses the importance of "seeking out a qualified provider with experience navigating death, trauma, and uncertainty, while creating a secure ceremonial container." Sara Call recommends choosing "someone experienced with end-of-life work who offers preparation and ongoing integration support."

The truth is, not all facilitators (even excellent, qualified ones) are equipped to handle end-of-life care. Ideally, you can find someone who understands the unique emotional experience of facing mortality. As Angela Balboa shares, having navigated cancer herself with the help of these medicines, "it’s a situation that I don't think can be truly understood unless you have lived it."

Explore the other side of fear

Maybe the most profound gift psychedelics offer to those navigating the end of life is relief from the fear of death. Angela, speaking from her lived experience, explains how a “terminal diagnosis can bring an incredible amount of chaos, fear, disconnect, depression and/or anxiety.” She says psychedelics “allow for exploration of a subject that is deeply phobic in our culture."

Several guides mentioned that psychedelics can facilitate acceptance and surrender. Garet Free describes the "overwhelming sense that can come to you that everything is okay," and Summer MacCool notes how psychedelics "can soften fear and open the heart to a deeper relationship with life, death, and the mystery in between."

In fact, working with medicine can help people shift their perspective on what death means altogether. Kendra Branch explains that "psychedelics can help us to process the grief or fear surrounding death by offering spiritual insights, a sense of oneness with everything, ego dissolution, or a feeling of continuity beyond physical death."

Attend to unfinished business

While psychedelics can't cure terminal illness (except maybe suicidal depression), they can facilitate a different kind of healing that touches the spirit. Mary Decker explains how psychedelics can help people who are dying finally “find self-acceptance.” This end-of-life healing may involve emotions that have been suppressed or avoided for years. Jo Ross notes that "psychedelics can help you get to the bottom of feelings” by surfacing them so you can finally “feel and process them."

Wallace Murray describes how "the medicine invites you to feel what was previously unbearable: grief, fear, unfinished love." And with skilled support, this emotional processing can lead to profound revelations. Summer captures this phenomenon: "They help us remember who we truly are beyond the diagnosis—restoring harmony between body, mind, and spirit. In this space, acceptance, peace, and even awe can arise."

Ironically, the integration of such experiences doesn’t need to be overly fixated on death. Instead, it can be about living more fully in whatever time remains. Psychedelic medicine can reveal, as Summer explains, "that even in the face of death, we are deeply alive, connected, and held."

Our take

Hate to be the one to bring us back down to earth… but the practical stuff matters just as much as the mystical.

As a person approaches death, their physical body becomes more frail, and “the veil” becomes more thin. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to seriously consider how much the body can handle, physiologically speaking. This, along with your intention (forgiveness, fear processing, etc.), can inform your medicine choice, dosage, and approach. (Read our interview with Christine Caldwell for more on this topic.)

But here’s an idea. We're all going to die anyway, so why wait for a terminal diagnosis to face that reality? If you’re fortunate enough to be healthy, create a death practice now. Meditate on death and impermanence, or simply imagine how you'd like to feel about your life in your final days. What needs resolving? What relationships need attention? What are you still avoiding?

After all, the human condition is a terminal illness. Nobody gets out alive.

Thanks to Angela B. from Houston, TX for submitting this week’s question. 🫠

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UNTIL NEXT TIME

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.