The Glimpse and the Ground: Ketamine, Psychedelics, and the Practice of Becoming Whole

Net of Being by Alex Grey

In this essay, I explore the rise of ketamine and other psychedelics in mental health treatment—a wave of curiosity and hope that is reshaping how we think about healing itself. Increasingly, clients come to me describing moments that feel nothing short of revelatory: a ketamine session that lifted the weight of years, a mushroom journey that softened lifelong shame, an ayahuasca vision that broke open the heart, an LSD trip that dissolved the edges of selfhood. These experiences can offer something precious: a glimpse—a fleeting but unmistakable sense of peace, clarity, or connection that stands in stark contrast to the noise and numbness of ordinary life.

And yet, the glimpse—no matter how profound—is not the transformation. It is an opening, a pointing, a remembering. The days and weeks that follow are where the real work begins: grounding what was seen into the body, the breath, the nervous system, the choices we make, and the way we live. Psychedelics can illuminate the path, but only practice teaches us how to walk it. This essay is about that difference: the shimmer of insight and the slow, steady practice of becoming whole.

The Modern Psychedelic Wave

Ten years ago, conversations about psychedelics in therapy felt like private whispers. Today, they show up in clinical conferences, neuroscience research, mainstream media, and everyday therapy sessions. Clients speak to me—sometimes with awe, sometimes with confusion—about ketamine journeys, mushroom ceremonies, LSD awakenings, ayahuasca purges, or MDMA breakthroughs.

The clinical data behind these stories is robust.Ketamine has been shown to rapidly relieve depressive symptoms and open neuroplastic windows for psychotherapy to work more deeply (Dore et al., 2019).Psilocybin reliably produces mystical-type experiences that correlate with long-term reductions in anxiety and depression (Griffiths et al., 2016).MDMA-assisted therapy has achieved unprecedented success for severe PTSD, outperforming anything the field has seen (Mitchell et al., 2021).Ayahuasca has demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects after even a single dose in a controlled study (Osório et al., 2015).And LSD-assisted psychotherapy shows measurable benefits for anxiety associated with life-threatening illness (Gasser et al., 2014).

We are living in a psychedelic renaissance, fueled by science, spiritual curiosity, and the human longing for relief.

But despite the promise—despite the miracles—there is one truth I return to again and again:

Psychedelics show us what is possible, but they cannot teach us how to live there.

That is the work of grounded practice.

“A psychedelic journey can open the window, but only practice teaches us how to walk through it.”

The Glimpse: Temporary Awakenings

There is a moment in nearly every client’s story where something lights up behind their eyes. They describe a depth of peace they’ve never felt, a clarity they didn’t know was possible. This is the glimpse—the temporary lifting of cognitive and emotional fog.

Clients describe:

“I felt like I was inside the truth.”“I saw myself without judgment.”“I met a version of me that didn’t feel broken.”

These are not hallucinations—they are revelations.

But as Eckhart Tolle warns, drug-induced spiritual states can mimic awakening without producing the stable consciousness that true awakening requires (Tolle, 2005). The glimpse feels like enlightenment, but it is only the doorway.

The glimpse is sacred. But it is not the transformation. It is the invitation.

“The glimpse is the invitation. The ground is the practice.”

Ketamine: Calm as a Mirror

Ketamine has become the most accessible and widely used psychedelic-assisted treatment in modern psychotherapy. Its physiological impact is dramatic: it interrupts maladaptive neural loops and opens a period of enhanced neuroplasticity (Dore et al., 2019). Clients often describe feeling “disconnected from the pain” or “able to see my life from a safe distance.”

One client said, “Ketamine muted every voice that ever told me I wasn’t enough.”Another: “It gave me five minutes of peace—and that five minutes changed me.”

Ketamine is a mirror. It shows you who you are without fear, without self-criticism, without the internal storm. But ketamine does not change your life for you. It reveals the path—your work is to walk it.

Without integration practices—breathwork, somatic grounding, new habits, relational repair—the calm fades.Not because ketamine failed, but because the body returns to familiar patterns.

“Ketamine showed me peace—but the breathwork taught my body it could live there.”

LSD: When the Mind Blows Open

If ketamine is a mirror, LSD is a cathedral.

LSD dissolves the usual mental boundaries and creates an expanded sense of consciousness. Clients describe the experience as “mind-blowing” or “limitless.” Clinical research supports LSD’s ability to reduce anxiety and support meaning-making, especially for individuals facing existential suffering (Gasser et al., 2014).

A client once told me about an LSD trip that “blew his mind open.” He described seeing the architecture of his thoughts, the illusions of identity, the smallness of fear. But in the same breath, he said:

“The real change didn’t happen until years later when I did the work inside myself.”

LSD reveals the terrain.Therapy teaches the path.The heart heals slower than the mind expands.

“The mind can be blown open in a moment—but the heart opens slowly.”

Psilocybin: Mushrooms and the Medicine of Meaning

Psilocybin is often described as the “medicine of meaning,” and clinically, this holds true. Studies show that psilocybin-assisted therapy produces some of the most meaningful experiences of participants’ lives and results in sustained emotional healing (Griffiths et al., 2016).

Clients tell me:

“I finally forgave myself.”“I felt love in a way I’ve been craving my whole life.”“I saw my trauma and didn’t collapse under it.”

Psilocybin opens the emotional center—it dissolves shame and brings compassion online. But the heart cannot remain open without practice, boundaries, and embodied regulation.

Insight does not replace integration.

“Psilocybin may open the heart—but integration teaches the heart to stay open.”

Ayahuasca: Purging and Embodiment

Ayahuasca is not subtle.It is not casual.It is not recreational.

Ayahuasca takes people into the depths—the shadow, the unresolved grief, the ancestral wounds.

The purge (vomiting, crying, shaking) is not a side effect—it is somatic release. The clinical literature supports ayahuasca’s powerful antidepressant effects even after one ceremony (Osório et al., 2015), but the emotional intensity is profound.

Clients describe:

“I released grief I didn’t know I had.”“It felt like dying and being reborn.”“I faced the truth—and it set me free.”

But ayahuasca shows what needs to heal.It does not heal it for us.

Integration is required to translate purging into peace.

“Ayahuasca does not heal you—it shows you what is asking to be healed.”

MDMA: Love and the Repair of Trauma

Of all psychedelic-assisted therapies, MDMA may be the most transformative for trauma. In phase 3 clinical trials, 67% of participants no longer met criteria for PTSD after MDMA-assisted therapy (Mitchell et al., 2021).

MDMA’s gift is not hallucination—it is safety.

Clients frequently say:

“I saw my younger self and held her for the first time.”“For the first time, my trauma didn’t feel like a death sentence.”“I finally felt love in my body.”

MDMA creates an internal environment where vulnerability feels safe.But the nervous system must practice safety for it to become embodied.

“MDMA can open the door to love—but only you can walk through it.”

Psychoplastogens: The Future of Neuro-Healing

Psychoplastogens—compounds that rapidly promote neural growth and synaptic repair—represent the next frontier in mental health (Olson, 2018). Ketamine is one such substance, but others are being developed with similar neuroplasticity-enhancing effects.

These compounds may allow the brain to “reset” dysfunctional patterns more quickly than traditional medication.

But neuroplasticity is simply potential.It is fertile soil.Healing is the planting, tending, and harvesting.

Without intentional therapeutic work, the brain will rewire itself in the direction of familiar habits—even harmful ones.

“Even if science opens the door to neuroplasticity, only intention can guide what grows there.”

The Nervous System Doesn’t Lie

One of the most important truths in trauma and somatic work is this:

The nervous system tells the truth.

A client may have the most beautiful psychedelic experience—feeling calm, safe, open—and then days later, anxiety returns. This does not mean they “lost the healing.” It means their nervous system has not yet learned how to sustain that state.

The body trusts repetition, not epiphany.

Psychedelics reveal peace. Daily practice teaches peace.

This is why integration is essential. Without it, the experience becomes a story. With it, the experience becomes a foundation.

Integration: From Glimpse to Ground

Integration is where the real work begins.

It is where the insights from the journey are translated into new behaviors, new beliefs, new nervous system patterns. Integration is where:

Insight becomes identityClarity becomes actionCompassion becomes boundariesAwakening becomes embodiment

In my work with clients, integration includes:

● Breathwork

● Somatic memory release

● Neural reprogramming

● Trauma processing

● Relational repair

● Value-driven decisions

● Grounding practices

● Movement and rhythm

● Internal dialogue and re-parenting

Psychedelics start the conversation.Integration continues it.

“The glimpse opens the window. Integration teaches us how to live with the window open.”

The Zen of Ordinary Awakening

Zen reminds us that awakening is not a peak state but an ordinary one. Psychedelics show us extraordinary consciousness; Zen shows us how to bring that consciousness into everyday life.

A student once asked a Zen master, “What is enlightenment?”The master replied:“Chop wood, carry water.”

Meaning: When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep. When sad, feel.When joyful, allow. When confused, breathe.

Awakening is not the journey to a mountaintop.It is the journey back into the moment.

Psychedelics reveal the extraordinary; Zen anchors it in the ordinary.

“Before awakening, chop wood, carry water. After awakening, chop wood, carry water.”

Conclusion: The Practice of Becoming Whole

Ketamine, psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, ayahuasca, and emerging psychoplastogens offer profound windows into peace, clarity, truth, and the deeper Self. They show us what is possible. They remind us of what we’ve forgotten. They reveal who we are beneath conditioning, fear, and trauma.

But the glimpse is not the ground.The ground is where we choose, practice, and become.

Healing is not a moment.It is a way of being.It is a commitment to turning inward, again and again, with honesty and compassion.

The glimpse is the spark.The ground is the path.And the journey is a lifelong becoming.

References

Dore, J., Turnipseed, B., Dwyer, S., Turnipseed, A., Andries, J., Ascani, G., Monnette, C., Huidekoper, A., Strauss, N., & Wolfson, P. (2019). Ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP): Patient demographics, clinical data and outcomes in three large practices administering ketamine with psychotherapy. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 51(2), 199–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2019.1587556

Gasser, P., Holstein, D., Michel, Y., Doblin, R., Yazar-Klosinski, B., Passie, T., & Brenneisen, R. (2014). Safety and efficacy of lysergic acid diethylamide-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 202(7), 513–520. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000113

Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Carducci, M. A., Umbricht, A., Richards, W. A., Richards, B. D., Cosimano, M. P., & Klinedinst, M. A. (2016). Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12), 1181–1197. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881116675513

Mitchell, J. M., Bogenschutz, M., Lilienstein, A., Harrison, C., Kleiman, S., Parker-Guilbert, K., … & Doblin, R. (2021). MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study. Nature Medicine, 27(6), 1025–1033. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01336-3

Olson, D. E. (2018). Psychoplastogens: A promising class of plasticity-promoting neurotherapeutics. Journal of Neurochemistry, 147(2), 190–203. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnc.14554

Osório, F. L., Sanches, R. F., Macedo, L. R., Santos, R. G., Maia-de-Oliveira, J. P., Wichert-Ana, L., de Araujo, D. B., Riba, J., Crippa, J. A. S., & Hallak, J. E. C. (2015). Antidepressant effects of a single dose of ayahuasca in patients with recurrent depression: A preliminary report. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, 37(1), 13–20. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2014-1496

Tolle, E. (2005). A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. Penguin Group.