Disclaimer

This guide is an educational overview only. It is not a substitute for professional training, medical advice, or legal guidance. Psilocybin remains a controlled substance in many regions, and working with it carries medical, psychological, ethical, and legal risks. Anyone considering psychedelic work should seek professional training, understand the laws where they live, and prioritize participant safety above all.

1) Philosophy of Underground Guiding

Inner healing intelligence: Many underground guides believe the psyche has its own wisdom and will bring forward what needs attention. The guide’s primary role is to create a safe and supportive container for that process.
Trust, let go, be open: These three anchors are often repeated to help participants surrender to the experience rather than resist it.
Ceremony vs. treatment: Underground guiding often blends elements of ritual, sacred space, and community practices rather than presenting the work as medical therapy.

2) Preparation: Setting the Stage

Intake and screening

Even underground guides take care to ask about family history of psychosis, mania, or schizophrenia, and about current medications that could interact with psilocybin.
Screening is not as formal as in clinical trials, but a responsible guide will decline to work with people at high risk.

Building trust

Establishing rapport can happen over multiple casual conversations, sometimes outside of a “therapy office” format.
Sharing realistic stories of past experiences, both challenging and blissful, helps participants enter with openness rather than fear.

Shaping set and setting

Participants are encouraged to set an intention for the journey, though they are reminded not to cling to specific outcomes.
Light practices such as journaling, meditation, or dietary adjustments may be suggested.
The guide prepares the physical space with items that feel comforting or sacred: art, candles, blankets, or meaningful objects placed on a small altar.

3) The Environment

Safe and sacred space: The environment is designed to feel welcoming and nurturing rather than clinical. Rugs, soft lighting, flowers, and meaningful objects help create that atmosphere.
Music as a guide: Carefully chosen playlists follow a journey-like arc, beginning grounded and gentle, building into expansive or emotional music, then moving into soothing and integrating tones. Some guides use live music, drumming, or singing.
Practical items: Eyeshades, water, tissues, cozy blankets, and a bucket are kept within reach.

4) The Guide’s Role During the Journey

Presence above intervention

The guide stays calm, grounded, and steady throughout the session.
Words are minimal. The participant leads the process. The guide only reassures if the participant becomes unsettled.

Touch

Supportive touch such as holding a hand or resting a hand on the shoulder may be offered but only if agreed upon in advance.
Guides often establish a clear “yes/no touch” agreement before the session so the participant feels safe and in control.

Navigation of difficulty

When participants encounter fear or challenging visions, guides encourage them to explore rather than avoid.
Somatic anchoring such as noticing the breath, feeling the feet, or focusing on body sensations can help.
Some guides use sound such as rattles, bells, or songs to help shift the energy if a participant feels stuck.

5) Integration: Making It Real

First hours: After the peak, participants may want to share feelings or sit in silence. Warm food, gentle conversation, and rest are prioritized.
First days: Integration can include journaling, drawing, voice notes, or dreamwork. The guide may suggest reflective exercises but avoids over-analyzing too soon.
Follow-up sessions: One or more check-ins during the following week are common. These help the participant translate the experience into meaningful life changes such as improved relationships, new habits, or personal clarity.
Community: Some underground circles hold regular sharing groups so participants can continue to integrate in community.

6) Skills and Qualities of an Underground Guide

Empathic presence: Able to witness a wide range of emotions without judgment or needing to intervene.
Grounding and self-regulation: The guide’s ability to remain calm serves as an anchor for the participant.
Personal experience with altered states: Many guides believe that personal experience with psychedelics helps them recognize and navigate the territory.
Strong ethics: Clear boundaries around money, confidentiality, physical touch, and personal relationships.
Integration support: The skill to help participants interpret symbolic or mystical experiences into practical, daily life without imposing their own worldview.

7) Ethical Compass Underground

Consent is essential: Consent applies to the medicine, to touch, to recordings, and to every aspect of the process.
Awareness of power dynamics: Participants are highly vulnerable, and exploitation in this context can cause deep harm.
Neutrality: A guide avoids pushing their own spiritual or psychological framework and instead respects whatever arises for the participant.
Referral: A responsible guide knows when something is beyond their ability to handle and refers the participant to therapy, medical support, or community resources.

8) Self-Care for the Guide

Grounding practices: After holding space, guides often spend time in nature, meditate, or journal to release what they have absorbed.
Peer support: Many guides meet with trusted peers to reflect on their work, get feedback, and process challenges.
Boundaries: Limiting the number of clients or sessions to avoid burnout and ensuring rest days around sessions.

9) The Flow at a Glance

Before: Build a relationship, check for safety, set intentions, and prepare the space.
During: Administer the medicine, provide music and eyeshades, stay present, intervene only when necessary, and support participants through challenges.
After: Allow a gentle re-entry, provide food and rest, offer integration sessions in the days or weeks that follow, and if possible, connect participants with supportive community.

✨ The essence of underground guiding is not found in techniques or tools but in presence, integrity, and trust. The medicine and the participant’s inner process do the real work. The guide provides the container, the steady ground, and the bridge back to everyday life.