Integrating Psychotherapy and Spirituality: Some Gestaltic and Psychedelic Thoughts on Clinical Practice

This essay discusses issues raised by research on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, especially regarding the misappropriation of ancestral knowledge, the need to consider ineffable and spiritual experiences, and the descriptive and analytical limitations of materialistic Western science in addressing such phenomena. The experiences reported by patients describe aspects related to spirituality and the production of meaning in situations of non-ordinary consciousness, phenomena that have not been sufficiently studied by mainstream academia. We argue that such research would benefit from dialogues with Amerindian epistemologies and shamanic knowledge. There is also a need for a clearer political and ethical stance in recognizing the knowledge produced by indigenous peoples.