‘Psychedelics are no magic pill’: the narrative and embodied dimensions of psychedelic integration in Denmark

Psychedelic integration in Denmark involves a dual typology of narrative and experiential-somatic processes through which users weave understandings and modes of being from acute psychedelic experiences into their everyday existence, transforming their experiential orientation over time. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from November 2020 to June 2021, the article charts the lived experiences and practices of integration among Danish psychedelic users, arguing that integration is a processual self-transformation rather than a single event.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Within recent years, an increasing number of people and researchers in the Global North have become interested in psychedelic substances and their therapeutic application. While much of the current media attention and research effort mainly concentrate on the therapeutic potential and actions of the individual's acute psychedelic experience, this article explores the user‐perceived, therapeutic dynamics of psychedelics in a more long‐term perspective by charting the lived experiences and practices of ‘integration’ among psychedelic users in Denmark. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from November 2020 to June 2021, I offer a dual typology of self‐related integration as narrative and experiential‐somatic . Combining the two, I argue that psychedelic integration in contemporary Denmark can be viewed as a processual self‐transformation of the users' experiential orientation where understandings and/or modes of being from the acute psychedelic experience are woven into, prolonged, and/or embodied in their everyday existence .