Fleet MaullThe Entrepreneur’s Zen Master

Christopher Germer PhD, pioneer in self-compassion practices I Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Summit

30 Sept 2024 · 1 min

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Speaker Christopher Germer describes 'backdraft' as an emotional phenomenon where opening to love or compassion allows painful material to emerge; he links this to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, saying psychedelics both open people up and provide a holding environment that activates love to contain what's revealed. The excerpt emphasizes cautious, gradual opening rather than abruptly 'throwing the door of your heart open.'

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And anyhow, backdraft is the phenomenon of the oxygen going in and the flame coming out. Similarly, the love goes in, the pain comes out. But it's good to pick away a little bit and not just, like, throw the door of your heart open. And I have to say that psychedelic assisted psychotherapy throws the door open, but it also provides a holding environment. It actually activates the love that you need to hold what gets thrown open. This is the most astonishing thing that I've experienced with psychedelics, is it will open you up and it will hold you. It's amazing, the medicine.