When life changes, the terrain changes.

BEFORE INTENTION. 

Orientation as a Foundational Process in Psychedelic Preparation and Integration

A proposed framework for exploring the relationship between internal maps, lived terrain, expectation and intention.

We do not enter psychedelic experiences as blank slates.

We arrive with an internal map — the beliefs, assumptions, expectations, memories, identity and learned patterns through which we understand ourselves and the world.

At the same time, we inhabit a terrain — our current circumstances, relationships, environment, resources, constraints and possibilities.

We navigate life through maps, but we live in terrain.

The Mountain Protocol proposes orientation as a process that may sit before intention-setting: a way of becoming aware of the map we are carrying, the terrain we are currently navigating, and the relationship between the two.

Before asking “Where do I want to go?”, perhaps we first need to ask:

“Where am I?”

This raises a further question:

“What is your intention — and what might your intention be carrying with it?”

And:

“What are you expecting — and where did that expectation come from?”

The framework does not seek to provide a better map or prescribe what a psychedelic experience should reveal. 

Instead, it offers an externalised reference point that can be returned to before the experience, afterwards, and over time.

Integration may therefore be understood as reorientation.

This is a developing conceptual framework, presented as a proposition for discussion and future research.