Warning Signs When Selecting a Psychedelic Facilitator
By Joshua White (Fireside Project) and Juliana Mulligan (Center for Optimal Living)
This is a harm reduction resource only. Psychedelics are illegal in many countries, as is serving as an underground facilitator. Our organizations do not encourage or condone the illegal use of psychedelic drugs. These principles are intended for the use of people who have already made the decision to have a guided psychedelic experience and are seeking out the services of a psychedelic facilitator.
Neither the use of this article nor its accompanying questions guarantee a safe or positive psychedelic experience. You should use extreme caution, care, and diligence before entrusting someone with the privilege of supporting you during a psychedelic experience. Even if no warning signs are present, a facilitator may still engage in unethical, inappropriate, fraudulent, or abusive behavior. Engaging an underground facilitator is illegal, and will always carry risks.
Without further ado, here are the ten warning signs:
Allegations have been made about their inappropriate behavior
You should always thoroughly research a prospective facilitator. This research should include internet research, publicly available court websites for current or past lawsuits, and asking trusted friends and community members.
Some facilitators may be licensed professionals such as therapists, doctors, nurses, massage therapists, and social workers. Many of these professionals must maintain active licenses, and their licensing authorities keep databases — some of which are available online — about sustained allegations of misconduct. Before deciding on a facilitator, learn their disciplinary history.
2. They refuse to promise that they will never have sexual contact with you EVER under any circumstances, whether during or after the psychedelic experience
A psychedelic facilitator should not have sexual contact with someone for whom they have facilitated a psychedelic experience. This includes sexual contact DURING a psychedelic experience as well as AFTER that experience.
A prospective facilitator should also be willing to tell you whether they have ever done so in the past. If they have, this is an abuse of power and a major ethical transgression. This is true even if the facilitator tells you that their client initiated the sexual contact.
3. They do not initiate a detailed discussion at least one day before the experience regarding physical contact during the experience
In Warning Sign #2, we addressed sexual contact, and explained that there is no circumstance when sexual contact is ever okay with a facilitator during or after a guided psychedelic experience. In this Warning Sign #3, we address non-sexual contact during a guided experience. Your facilitator should initiate a detailed discussion with you — at least one day before the experience so you have some time to reconsider your agreements— about the physical contact with which you’re comfortable during the journey.
For example, they should ask you if you’re okay with hand holding, shoulder touching, and hugging. They should promise you, in writing if you prefer, that the agreements you make on that day will be held sacrosanct during the psychedelic experience. In other words, during that experience, you are incapable of moral consent, and therefore, a request from you for physical contact not agreed upon beforehand is meaningless, and the facilitator should tactfully refuse it. Likewise, a facilitator should assure you that they will not attempt any physical contact that you did not consent to beforehand, regardless of what arises in the moment during the journey.
