Caryn Meininger describes an ayahuasca ceremony where she faced intense fear of death. She coaches people to meet fear directly rather than resist it, using journaling as a dialogue with the fearful part of themselves. Resisting fear amplifies it; surrendering to it brings calm.
I literally thought Ayahuasca was going to kill me because they made us sign a waiver that you could die. In that experience, all the fears were coming up. Something that I do in my coaching is I met myself in the fear, and instead of trying to avoid the fear, because it was just going to keep compartmentalizing in my body, and, like, I probably would have had a panic attack, I met myself in the fear, and I let myself be afraid. Even in my journal, I just wrote as if I was speaking from fear. As I let it come up, it started to calm down. I was resistant to the fear, and it was making the fear worse. And so once I surrendered to the fear and really allowed the fear to be there, it was like the ease and the calm came in.
Is Ayahuasca For Everyone? Preparing My Experience, Fears, Intentions, and Healing in Costa Rica
