A Guided Introduction
What is Integration?
A research-informed guide to understanding psychedelic and non-ordinary state integration — what it is, why it matters, and what the evidence says.
The Clinical Definition
“Integration is a process in which a person revisits and actively engages in making sense of, working through, translating, and processing the content of their experience — gradually capturing and incorporating emergent lessons and insights into their lives, moving toward greater balance and wholeness.“
Bathje et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2022 — the first comprehensive concept analysis of psychedelic integration
The word integration comes from the Latin integrare — to make whole. In the context of non-ordinary states of consciousness, it refers to the ongoing process of bringing what was experienced in an altered or expanded state into meaningful contact with everyday life.
Research published in Frontiers in Psychology (2022) identified ten well-elaborated models of psychedelic integration, all published since 2017 — reflecting how rapidly this field has grown. Despite differences in approach, all models share a common foundation: the experience itself is not the endpoint. What follows is.
A separate Johns Hopkins research team defined integration as “the process by which a psychedelic experience translates into positive changes in daily life” — emphasising that integration is not passive reflection, but active, sustained work that shapes how a person lives going forward.
01
The Core Question
Why does integration matter?
Non-ordinary states of consciousness can be among the most significant experiences of a person’s life. But significance alone does not guarantee transformation.
The research is increasingly clear: the quality of post-experience support is one of the most important factors in determining whether a non-ordinary state experience leads to lasting positive change. Without integration, even profound experiences can fade, destabilise, or leave a person more confused than before.
In a landmark 2006 study at Johns Hopkins University, participants who received psilocybin rated their experience as among the most spiritually significant of their lives. Yet the researchers were equally clear that preparation and integration support were central to how those experiences translated into lasting wellbeing — the experience opened a door, but integration determined what was done with what lay beyond it.
“The experience opens a door. Integration determines what you do with what lies beyond it.”
— Core principle across all clinical integration models
71%
of participants in a Johns Hopkins psilocybin depression trial showed significant improvement at four weeks, sustained at twelve months — with integration support throughout
Davis et al., JAMA Psychiatry, 2021
67%
of long-term smokers remained abstinent twelve months after psilocybin-assisted therapy, with preparation and integration central to the protocol
Johnson et al., Johns Hopkins, 2014
10+
distinct, well-elaborated integration models identified in the first comprehensive review of psychedelic integration, all published since 2017 — signalling the field’s rapid clinical development
Bathje et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2022
150+
peer-reviewed articles exploring the therapeutic promise of psychedelics published by Johns Hopkins researchers alone, across depression, PTSD, addiction, anxiety, and more
Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic Research, 2024
02
The Process
What integration actually involves
Integration is not a technique. It is not a single session. It is an ongoing, multi-layered process of assimilation — operating simultaneously across the psychological, somatic, relational, and spiritual dimensions of a person’s life.
The most rigorous review of integration models to date (Bathje et al., 2022) synthesised the field into a comprehensive framework drawing on transpersonal psychology, Jungian analytical psychology, somatic psychology, psychodynamic approaches, and indigenous worldviews. What emerged was a picture of integration as holistic, sustained, and deeply personal.
Psychological — Making meaning from what arose, working through shadow material, difficult emotions, and anything unresolved or destabilising
Somatic — Attending to how the experience lives in the body — releasing held tension, restoring nervous system regulation, and embodying shifts that arrived as felt knowing rather than thought
Relational — Navigating how the experience changes — or reveals the need to change — your relationships, communication patterns, intimacy, and sense of connection to others
Existential — Engaging the deeper questions that often surface: Who am I? What matters? What is my direction? What needs to end, and what wants to begin? Integration frequently involves a renegotiation of identity and purpose
Spiritual — Holding and grounding mystical, transpersonal, or numinous content — experiences of unity, dissolution of self, encounters with the sacred, or contact with what lies beyond ordinary consciousness
Ancestral — Attending to lineage material — ancestral patterns, inherited wounds, and the threads of family and cultural history that often surface with particular clarity in non-ordinary states
Theoretical Foundation
Stanislav Grof and the Transpersonal Roots of Integration
Much of what we understand about non-ordinary states and their integration traces back to the foundational work of Stanislav Grof — Czech-born psychiatrist, co-founder of transpersonal psychology. Beginning with clinical LSD research in the 1950s and 60s, and later developing holotropic breathwork with Christina Grof, he proposed an expanded map of the human psyche extending beyond biographical memory into perinatal and transpersonal dimensions.
The word holotropic, which Grof coined, means “moving toward wholeness” — from the Greek holos (whole) and trepein (moving toward). This orientation toward wholeness, not symptom reduction, remains the philosophical core of transpersonal integration and underlies Kat’s approach to all integration work
Grof, S. (2010). Holotropic Breathwork. SUNY Press. | Grof, S. (1980). LSD Psychotherapy. Hunter House.
Grof’s work demonstrated that non-ordinary states — whether accessed through psychedelics, breathwork, deep meditation, or spontaneous spiritual emergence — activate the same underlying territories of the psyche, and require the same quality of skilled, psychologically informed support to integrate safely and meaningfully. This is the research foundation for why integration applies equally to all pathways into non-ordinary consciousness — not only to psychedelics
03
The Risk
What happens without integration
Non-ordinary states can open extraordinary doors. They can also leave a person disoriented, overwhelmed, or carrying material they do not yet know how to hold. The research is sober on this point.
Studies document that challenging experiences — including encounters with fear, ego dissolution, difficult somatic sensations, and destabilising material from the unconscious — are not uncommon in non-ordinary states. Research by Carbonaro et al. (2016) found that a significant proportion of people who have had difficult psychedelic experiences report that without adequate support, distress can persist into daily life.
Fading insights
Profound realisations that felt undeniably true during the experience lose their charge and become intellectually remembered rather than lived — the gap between knowing and being widens rather than closes
Unprocessed material
Shadow content, repressed emotion, or difficult memories that surfaced during the experience remain unresolved — sometimes surfacing in disrupted sleep, heightened reactivity, or unexplained emotional turbulence
Spiritual bypassing
Using the memory of a transcendent experience to avoid rather than engage the ordinary challenges of life — holding the peak as proof that one is beyond difficult emotions, rather than using it as a foundation for genuine growth
Destabilisation
For a minority, particularly where experiences were intense or occurred without adequate preparation, non-ordinary states can contribute to lasting psychological distress — especially without professional support to contextualise and process what arose
Missed transformation
The most fundamental risk: a genuinely significant experience passes through a person’s life and changes nothing — not because the experience lacked depth, but because the work of embodying it was never done
“Inadequate social and psychological support may lead to an inability to gain insight or work through less obvious or more challenging content.”
— Bathje et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2022
This is not a reason to fear non-ordinary states. It is a reason to take integration seriously. With skilled support — grounded in genuine psychological depth, somatic awareness, and transpersonal understanding — what was opened can become one of the most transformative processes available to a human being.
04
who is it for
Integration is for all non-ordinary states
Integration support is not exclusive to psychedelic experiences. Any experience that opens the psyche beyond its ordinary boundaries — altering perception, dissolving the habitual sense of self, or surfacing material from deeper layers of consciousness — may call for integration.
Stanislav Grof’s research established that holotropic breathwork, deep meditation, spontaneous spiritual emergence, and plant medicine ceremonies access the same territories of the psyche as psychedelics — and therefore generate the same quality of material requiring the same quality of integration. The pathway into the non-ordinary state does not change the nature of what arises or the work required to integrate it.
Branco (2023) confirmed this in a transpersonal research context, noting that “psychedelic experiences can be induced through substances or experiences and practices that alter consciousness — like meditation, breathwork, spiritual practice, music, etc.” and that “the integration approach may vary depending on factors like a person’s past experiences, the context and intentions that led to their experience” — but the fundamental need for skilled integration support is consistent across all pathways.
All Pathways Welcome
Integration support for every door into non-ordinary consciousness
Breathwork & Somatic
Holotropic Breathwork, Conscious Connected Breathing
Grof’s research established that breathwork accesses the same territories of the psyche as psychedelics — and requires the same depth of integration support.
Classic Psychedelics
Psilocybin, LSD, DMT, Ayahuasca, Mescaline
Clinical research at Johns Hopkins, Imperial College London, and MAPS has documented their therapeutic potential — and the centrality of integration to sustained outcomes.
Cannabis & Plant Medicine
Cannabis, Iboga, San Pedro, Kambo, Rapé
Plant medicines have been used in healing contexts across cultures for millennia. Their capacity to surface deep psychological and ancestral material is well-documented.
Meditation & Contemplative
Deep Meditation, Silent Retreat, Kundalini
Intensive meditation and silent retreat can produce experiences of ego dissolution or difficult material surfacing that require the same quality of integration as substance-induced states.
Spontaneous Experience
Spiritual Emergency, Near-Death Experience, Spontaneous Awakening
Non-ordinary states do not always arise by choice. Spontaneous emergence can be among the most disorienting — and most significant — experiences a person can have. Integration is equally vital here.
MDMA & Empathogens
MDMA-Assisted Therapy, Ketamine, Empathogenic Experiences
MAPS-sponsored research into MDMA-assisted therapy has demonstrated significant potential. Integration — the work done after the session — is central to translating therapeutic experiences into lasting change.
Begin the Work
Ready to explore what integration looks like in practice?
If you have had a significant non-ordinary state experience — through any pathway — and are ready to work with it properly, explore the ways we can work together.
- Bathje, G. J., Majeski, E., & Kudowor, M. (2022). Psychedelic integration: An analysis of the concept and its practice. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 827238.
- Branco, J. (2023). Psychedelic integration and transformation: Practices, guiding support and lifestyle for altered state experiences. Consciousness, Spirituality & Transpersonal Psychology, 9(2), 136.
- Davis, A. K., Barrett, F. S., May, D. G., et al. (2021). Effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy on major depressive disorder. JAMA Psychiatry, 78(5), 481–489.
- Grof, S. (1980). LSD Psychotherapy. Hunter House.
- Grof, S. (2010). Holotropic Breathwork. SUNY Press.
- Johnson, M. W., Garcia-Romeu, A., Cosimano, M. P., & Griffiths, R. R. (2014). Pilot study of the 5-HT2AR agonist psilocybin in the treatment of tobacco addiction. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 28(11), 983–992.
- Carbonaro, T. M., Bradstreet, M. P., Barrett, F. S., et al. (2016). Survey study of challenging experiences after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12), 1268–1278.
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