when we get used to doing something, in many respects it becomes unconscious.

the unconscious is, in some respects, our second nature as in "it's second-nature to me." 

this is as true with our fears and pain as it is with manual dexterity.

sacred plant medicine can unpack those unconscious second natures. 

it can do it in ways that give us the experience of them fully-dimensioned. 

our unconscious second natures might appear to us as the Other, not us at all. 

when this occurs, it's possible to frighten ourselves with high energy, 

extremely emotional aspects of ourselves we weren't even aware of.

initially, this can be perceived to be invading outside entities or evil foreign possessions. 

in ways very real, even more real than real, we enter a drama of our own making. 

we become both villain and hero to ourselves. 

it is up to the our hero to face the Other in us, to flow into it, through it, 

recapturing and integrating the energy of that shadow, 

and thus be transformed.