Geral Blanchard, LPC, is a psychotherapist who is university trained in psychology and anthropology. Formerly of Wyoming and currently residing in Iowa, Geral travels the world in search of ancient secrets that can augment the art and science of healing. From Western neuroscience to Amazonian shamanism, he has developed an understanding of how to combine old and new healing strategies to optimize recovery, whether from psychological or physical maladies.
MDMA, Force, Flow, and Synchronicity
Geral T. Blanchard • December 7, 2021
Allan Hunter’s book, The Path of Synchronicity, helps us understand some of the distinctions regarding how we posture ourselves in response to trauma and pain
Hunter asserts that if we are to get to a point of ease in living it will be necessary to relinquish some of our controlling ways.
Much of our need to forcefully manage life comes from a spot of fear and trepidation. Compulsive behaviors of all kinds are attempts to manage uncertainty. In so doing, much of our spontaneity and creativity diminishes. Hunter believes that growth occurs when we get out of our brains (confined egoic thinking) and open our hearts. In doing so our soul becomes pregnant with possibilities.
If we have been victimized and left feel afraid and powerless there is the tendency to see monsters out there and pray to a god outside of ourselves for safety to fix things for us. Instead Hunter suggests that we listen to the god inside us to be a guide. MDMA helps us descend into the self and awaken that which is divine and wise within, something far wiser than we previously imagined. Jung referred to it as a pure and deep wisdom residing in the Collective Unconscious of humankind.
Hunter writes: “When we stop looking at our lives through the ego-lens of ‘this happened to me’ and start seeing the patterns that link our lives to a much larger context, we can let go of pain or victimhood. The ego drops away. We are all part of a pattern that is ultimately mysterious, but which human beings have acknowledged in ritual and myth for as long as anyone can recall. Opening the heart is another way of saying that we need to operate from a place that is not ego-based; and presenting as a victim can sometimes be a powerful ego mindset, since it allows us to blame others [for our unhappiness].”
Trying to force our life to be better doesn’t work. That is an overcorrection from having lived in fear and uncertainty for too long. It is about control. Easing up a bit, we can “go with the flow” a little more and in that relational process we start to unlearn what was previously concluded about the dangerousness of life.
Flow allows us to welcome the new and unusual, not just rigidly and reflexively rejecting experiences that don’t fit our preconceived notions. MDMA encourages us to drop tall walls of defensiveness so that new perspectives and alternatives can more readily be seen, and with them, a world of greater flow.
Flow is about living in harmony with the Universe. It is about moving in tune with destiny, the rhythms of life that are all around us when we are closely attached to Mother Earth. When we are in sync with the patterns and movements surrounding us we start noticing predictable events because we have suddenly been sensitized to them. And we fall into the flow NOT by learning how to do it but by unlearning old persistent habits of the mind (e.g., worrying, obsessing, judging, and second-guessing ourselves) that have gone unchallenged far too long.
When in the flow we are simultaneously more humble, more compassionate, and see patterns and so-called coincidences all around us – synchronicity. By constantly looking to the future while filled with worry, it’s difficult to see the synchronicities that are all around us in the now. Worry boils down to focusing on what we don’t want much to the detriment of our wellbeing. In this state, we attract what we are feeling and being. In so doing, we further victimize ourselves.
Fear is needed in life to keep us for alertness and safety, and it can prevent us from becoming arrogantly distanced from others. And yes, it must be kept under mindfully managed some of the time. But how that is done is so important. When fear is approached and understood a person can move to joy. Alan Cohen summed it up by saying, “Joy is not the result of getting what you want; it’s the way to get what you want.”
We don’t want fear to become a barrier – a mental trap that ensnares us -- but rather a catalyst that moves us forward. Sitting on Mother’s belly, in the “heartspace” of connectivity, we fall in tune with the peace rediscovered in Earth’s rhythms while being cradled in Her pulse. Then, aligned with the energies of the cosmos, fear begins to dissipate and “coincidences” start to appear. By paying attention to the increasing number of synchronicities (inner promptings and awakenings of the heart) that follow MDMA treatment, the Universe conspires to show us the way ahead in life.
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The ancient poet, Rumi, gave us this guidance:
“Keep walking, though there is no place to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances.
That is not for human beings.
Move within,
But don’t move the way fear makes you want to move.”
Or, as Winston Churchill advised:
“If you are going through Hell, keep going.”
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Additional Reading:
Embracing Uncertainty by Susan Jeffers
Other Topics
Basics of MDMA
Rituals and Ceremony
Brain and MDMA
Trauma
Heart
Energy Movement
Quantum Physics
Native Cosmologies
Nature
Spirituality/Enlightenment
Kogi Tribe
Books written by Geral T. Blanchard
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