Guides are trained practitioners who facilitate the journey, holding space drawing on their extensive experience of working with medicines (and people). The extent to which they actively guide depends on the medicine. Some medicines, such as MDMA, benefit from more guidance, while others, such as mushrooms, benefit from less. Sitters have the more narrow responsibility of making sure you’re safe during your journey. This does not necessarily rely on extensive psychedelic experience or training.
As a trip sitter, your goal is to intervene as little as possible in the journey. The floor should be left to the medicine, your only job is to ensure that whoever you’re watching feels safe and comfortable in engaging with the medicine. This includes harm reduction, safety, comfort, and soothing (where applicable). Whereas trained guides may incorporate all types of modalities into the journey, such as bodywork, IFS therapy, shamanic tools, energy work, and so on — sitters just sit with you.
Now you may be wondering if you should experience your first journey with a guide or a trip sitter. This will depend on two factors:
• Which medicine you’re journeying with
• Your mental health history and psychedelic experience
There are a handful of medicines that require trained guides, such as Ayahuasca, Bufo Alvarius/5-MeO-DMT, and Iboga/Ibogaine. Others benefit from “professional” guidance but don’t rely on it, such as mushrooms, Huachuma, and MDMA. (If you, like me, can’t believe that I haven’t written an in-depth essay on mushrooms yet — it’s coming, I promise!)
The majority of people are generally fine to go with a trip sitter for journeys with the medicines detailed above, however, there are some exceptions.
I’d recommend a guide, if…
• … you’re incredibly anxious/fearful about the experience, and/or have a history of panic attacks or paranoia
• … you’ve tried psychedelics before and had challenging experiences (because I know many of you are wondering about this: this does not include weed. A bad weed experience filled with paranoia does not mean you’ll react similarly with psychedelics — weed inherently elicits paranoia in people not prone to it. A previous paranoid mushroom experience, though, would beg for caution.)
• … you or someone in your family has suffered from schizophrenia or psychosis, bipolar disorder, or borderline personality disorder (it may not be safe for you to journey, only a trained guide will be able to assess this)
• … you’re currently on SSRIs, which, for certain medicines such as mushrooms will require you to take more to have the same experience (again, a guide will know)
• … you don’t meet any of these criteria, but are new to psychedelics, cautious, and want to experience a high dose while minimizing risks and maximizing therapeutic impact with proper support for preparation and integration