Thursday, July 19, 2018 at 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM PDT
The Center SF
548 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA
- Have you experienced a profound awakening, dissolution, or feeling of interconnection through psychedelics?
- Are you looking for more tools to actively explore the realms of consciousness and awareness?
- Are you ready for practices to integrate your peak experiences into everyday life, and to prepare yourself for future ones?
BACKGROUND
With attention to set and setting, psychedelic journeys
consistently induce states of Primary Religious Experience. Coined by William
James, the term refers to mystical experiences that profoundly impact our
understanding of self and reality. While psychedelic peak experiences are
transitory, they show us what is possible for our lives and at some point,
along the path, we look for tools to integrate these experiences and ground
them into everyday life.
Far beyond the fitness modality taught in studios today,
classical yoga is a path for spiritual realization where the vehicle is our
body. Through a system of postures, breathwork, and meditation practices, yoga
purifies the body and mind for the attainment of samadhi or bliss. Yoga
provides a framework to purify the body in preparation to hold higher levels of
energy and awareness, for example during psychedelic journeys. Yoga's practices
comprise a time-honored pathway to embody these states of primary spiritual
experience, and ultimately awakening in a sustainable, lasting way.
DESCRIPTION
In this experiential workshop, we will discuss primary
spiritual experiences, what they are, why they matter, and where we find them.
We'll share about the use of psychedelics as medicine for awakening, the
importance of set and setting, and the "down and into the body" vs
"up and out" approaches to journeying.
You'll learn how yoga can purify the body and prepare us
to hold more intense energies, and how these practices can support psychedelic
journeys. We'll discuss the yogic pathway to realization, both through
kundalini rising and Patanjali's eightfold path to samadhi.
The second half of the workshop will be guided yoga asana
(postures), pranayama (breathwork), and meditation drawn from classical yogic
and tantric teachings. This will give you the experience of yoga, not as an
exercise, but as a spiritual practice.
Facilitator: Matt Sturm
Cost: $30
