Why Psychedelics Work: a Ski Analogy

by Mark Haden

What sets psychedelics apart from other medicines, are their ability to promote states of altered perception, thought, and feeling. They are characterized by the activity they generate in the brain, specifically the serotonin 5-HT2A receptors. 

But what do these effects mean and why do they help people with such a wide variety of mental health challenges? 

How do psychedelics work?

While there are many attempts to explore neurochemical explanations for why psychedelics work, a simple ski analogy may be more helpful for those seeking to understand the psychedelic mechanism of action in the healing process. 

Downhill skiing has been used before to explore emotional regulation and navigating life’s ups and downs, so it’s a fitting analogy to better understand the psychedelic experience. 

Why Psychedelics Work: a Ski Analogy

Sometimes when we go skiing, we find ourselves in a rut - sound familiar? 

We take the gondola up, and when we start skiing back down, we feel like we are automatically drawn in a certain direction. A ski rut. 

It happens unconsciously and we don’t really know why, but we just feel compelled to go down the mountain on a very specific set of tracks.

Repeatedly, we ski the rut to the mountain's bottom, return to the gondola, ride back up to the ridge, and then descend the same rut once more. We would like to go down the mountain in a different way, but that's not what happens. We once again get pulled into this same deep rut going down exactly the same way. This process then repeats itself many times despite our attempts to find a new way down the mountain.

When we take a psychedelic, in this analogy, we take the chairlift up and then stop and take a moment to just sit on the side of the mountain. We contemplate the view of the village below us and the mountains in the distance. 

We have a moment of serenity where we can sit and examine the big picture of our lives and the choices we make. We can see both the rut and other slopes and we are given a choice as to how we can ski down the mountain.

Empowered to Choose

The element of choice is important, as up until this point we have not felt that we had a choice because that rut has been too compelling. The experience of choice, or a sense of agency, has not been there. As we sit on the side of the mountain, contemplating the beauty of the village beneath us, it starts to snow, and the rut starts to fill in a little bit and therefore becomes less compelling. 

We then ski back out to the ridge and realize that we don't have to go down that rut anymore. We ski down the mountain on this new bed of fresh powder. Not a thick bed yet, just a couple of inches, but we can go down the mountain in a different way.

We then take the chairlift up again and consider the fact that we've taken the slope down in a new way.  consider what that means in the context of a new choice. We then make a plan to keep doing this new way and practice the new ski tracks down the mountain. This is called the process of integration at the end of the psychedelic experience.

As this ski day continues, we can still see the old rut. The snow never gets deep enough that it's covered completely. The old rut is still there and remains visible, occasionally tempting us, but now we know we have a choice and can choose to disregard it.

Psychedelic Healing 

In this analogy, the rut can be anything from anxiety and depression to having intrusive unwanted negative thoughts.  Psychedelics allow us to sit on the side of the mountain and look at the big picture of our lives.  

Learning to ski down the mountain in a different way is the process of integration where we come back to the therapist and talk about the lessons we learned and how we can think and re-feel the issues that have been challenging us.

Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Vancouver 

If you find yourself stuck in a rut, unable to reframe your challenges and needing help to view the bigger picture, Ketamine-Assisted Therapy may be for you. At Qi Integrated Health, we’ve designed programs that offer a professional container of safety within which the transformative power of psychedelic medicine can be experienced. 

If you’d like to learn more about this break-through treatment, book a complimentary discovery call and chat to a member of our team.