The Process of Surrender During Ceremony

The Process of Surrender During Ceremony  

Release Control

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During a plant medicine ceremony, there is a required state of surrender in order to experience what is needed for the soul’s evolution. If there is a fear of the loss of control, one can grip too much onto the ego, and prohibit the fullness of experience. 

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Entering the ceremony with a state of curiosity rather than fear will change everything. As Victor Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

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The process of surrender is to relax into the now, and allow yourself to be guided because there is genuinely nothing for you to do. All a ceremony, and most of life actually, is simply getting out of your own way. Whether it is using ayahuasca for resolving trauma, dissolving the ego with 5 MeO DMT or exploring the subconscious with psilocybin, surrender is required.

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You do not need to resist during the ceremony. Most resistance creates mental pain. It was never you against your mother, it was never you against the system, it was never you against the world. It was always you against yourself. You can be your greatest friend or your worst enemy. It all depends on what you perceive your experience to be.

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The less clinging to thought the better. Practicality and rationality are great for living in the modern world, but let it go when you enter a ceremony. Plant medicine is beyond the mind, beyond the concepts, and beyond all logic. The foundation of letting go and surrendering to the moment is to trust what you are in and allow the medicine to nourish you. 

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Trust

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Much of Western thought is spiritually impoverished, and this shows in rates of depression and anxiety and the lack of connection with the sacred. We are not taught to trust life. We are taught to plan for it, to worry about the future, over analyze, and fear life’s mysteries. We are taught to control our environment and others rather than take power of our thoughts and emotions. We live in a masculine dominated vertical structure where maintaining external control means maintaining power. 

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If you are truly empowered, there is no need to control. You allow life to happen instead of shaping it into the way you think it should be. You trust that what happens to you is meant to happen because it has.

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What if everything in life that happens to us, even the painful, only happens because it is necessary? If something happens to us in life and we think it shouldn’t have, that belief is putting life at odds with ourselves. 

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Trust yourself and your intention for joining the plant medicine journey. Keeping your intention with you is crucial, to truly know why you are embarking on this journey. If the reason and intention is strong, it will be your anchor into the present moment. It will lessen the fear of the unknown. 

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Know that you are in a safe space where anything is allowed to surface and it will be okay. Know that at Behold Retreats you can trust your healers who have done hundreds of group ceremonies as well as private retreats and are experts in plant medicine and holding space. Trust that there is a force that is pure and benevolent, and only gives you the experiences you truly need to grow. 

Affirmations

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Trust can be built by rewiring the brain to believe more empowering thoughts. Affirmations use your cognitive biases to your own self development and growth. Your mind will work subconsciously to make affirmations true, especially if they are interwoven in your life ritualistically and consistently. 

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One of the primary psychological theories that support the effectiveness of positive affirmations is the self-affirmation theory by  Claude Steele. His empirical research proved that we can have a higher sense of self worth by affirming what we believe through positive words. According to studies in neuroscience, affirmations light up the reward response of the brain and fuels neural pathways to keep you aligned to the empowering words you speak.

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Below are a few affirmations to help you in the process of surrender. The more you can make them specific to your experience and tailored to your own life, the more effective they will be.

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1. I trust life to give me whatever I truly need.
2. I allow and accept what I cannot change.
3. I am taken care of by a divine force. 
4. The universe/god/source has a greater plan for me than I can ever imagine or plan for.
5. I let go of all expectations.
6. I release judgements and negative self-talk.
7. My emotional pain is a map into my being.
8. My higher self is always at peace. 
9. I trust the immensity of the present moment.
10. When I release control, I can allow life to flow through me. 
11.  I allow my spiritual journey to unfold in divine order. 
12. The universe aspires to help me grow. 
13. I am at my greatest when I can relax and let go.
14. I am beyond all thoughts or emotions. 
15. I am loving awareness.

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Letting Go Technique

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Dr. Hawkins wrote a fantastic book about the pathway to surrender which involves letting go. If you can, read‍ 'Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender', before entering the ceremony please do so. Take notes and highlight important passages. 

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Dr.Hawkins says “Letting go involves being aware of a feeling, letting it come up, staying with it, and letting it run its course without wanting to make it different or do anything about it. It means simply to let the feeling be there and to focus on letting out the energy behind it. The first step is to allow yourself to have the feeling without resisting it, venting it, fearing it, condemning it, or moralizing about it. It means to drop judgment and to see that it is just a feeling.”

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Most of us numb, and run away from what we feel. But if we just allowed it without being averse or attaching to it, the feeling will leave as quickly as it came. 

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The only thing that makes an emotion painful is our resistance to it. All sensations are passing phenomena. Accept and allow the thoughts and emotions that arise at any given moment during the ceremony.  Pain is sensation and resistance, if we take away the resistance we are just left with a sensation. And it all passes in time. 

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Here is the method of surrender in its most basic steps:

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1. See the feeling for the energy behind it, how does it come up in your body? 
2. Allow the feeling to be there for as long as it needs, do not distract yourself or push it away. 
3. Drop all judgements and resistance, because resistance is what fuels the negative feeling. 
4. Focus on the visceral bodily feeling instead of the thoughts around the feeling. 
5. Thoughts rationalize and reinforce, and they are not necessary. Allow them but do not cling.
6. As the thoughts diminish, so does the emotion.
7. To surrender is to no longer have the strong emotion, there is no attachment or aversion to the emotion of the moment. 
8. If the feeling comes back, just witness it, do not identify with it. 
9. A feeling is something that comes and goes, something that comes and goes can never be you. 
10.  Let the present moment nourish you as it is. 

Non-dual Meditation

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Many ceremonies have common themes, one of the most common is feeling oneness. When doing 5 MeO DMT or  any psychedelic therapy we see the interrelatedness of all beings and phenomena. When the ego dissipates, and there is less of a sense of the falsely constructed self, we see our true essence.

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Oneness is synonymous to non dualism, as there is no separation between the world at large and us. There is no division between subject and object. 

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Meditating before the ceremony and taking this frame of mind into the sacred space, will help cultivate the process of surrender. There will be a state of just being, rather than a strong sense of “I” that compares the experience to others,  judges itself, and feels  as if it has something to protect. 

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There is a break from self identification to self realization. And the realization is that you are beyond all labels, thoughts, and concepts. An emptiness takes place as there is a deconstruction of the egoic self. When we can surrender who we think we are, we are open to life expressing itself through us. Before the ceremony try a non dual mediation with your coach or energetic healer. 

Below is a basic instructional technique to enter a state of non dualism:

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1. Sit in a relaxing posture and just feel your body in the room.
2. Allow yourself relaxation and the relief that there is nothing to do.
3. Allow the silence and peace of the now to encapsulate you.
4. Acknowledge the quality of being, and notice the openness in just being here. 
5. Notice the content of the breath and the quality of the thoughts that pass.
6. Be curious about what or who is aware of the sensation in the body.
7. Self inquiry: What is here now? What is all around you but also within you?
8. Note how the sense of awareness is not separate from space and energy around you.
9. Glimpse at an object in this awakened space and see the interconnectedness of you and it. 
10.  Open your field of awareness and softly gaze at all the things surrounding you.
11. Relax into the now and the unity of all beings and things.  

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It’s all in divine order

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Methods such as non dualism meditation, affirmations, and the technique of letting go, are spiritual technologies to surrender. This letting go is the process of allowing life to happen in all its beauty and enjoying and allowing the process rather than resisting what is. When we put ourselves against the moment, whether that be our feelings or another person, we are resisting life.

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Life will happen regardless of our desires or fears. When we can see clearly the way things are, we do not need to fear them or try to control them. Life becomes gentler and kinder, because we are not using force against her. 

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Surrender to your spiritual journey by remaining committed to your intention and inner growth. 

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Something greater than you is at play, and when working with plant medicine there is a genuinely kind spirit holding you. You are loved and supported.

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