Trip Sitting Fundamentals 4 Week Course by Julian Vayne

Learn the Art and Science of Holding Psychedelic Space in an exclusive online 4-week Course

About The Course  

This four-week online course offers a comprehensive and grounded introduction to psychedelic trip sitting, guided by Julian Vayne and based on his book Trip Sitting: The Art and Science of Holding Psychedelic Space. Designed for both beginners and experienced practitioners, the course explores how to prepare for, hold, navigate, and integrate psychedelic experiences with care, clarity, and ethical responsibility.

Blending contemporary research, lived experience, ritual frameworks, and practical skills, the course supports participants to develop confidence and discernment when holding space for others, whether in one-to-one, group, ceremonial, or informal contexts. The emphasis throughout is on safety, compassion, relational integrity, and sustainable practice.

What to Expect 

• Four live 2-hour online sessions with Julian Vayne
• Clear teaching grounded in both science and esoteric practice
• Practical tools for preparation, harm reduction, and aftercare
• Case studies drawn from real-world psychedelic settings
• Scenario-based learning to build confidence in challenging moments
• Guided practices to develop presence, neutrality, and resilience as a sitter
• Space for questions, discussion, and shared learning
• A supportive learning environment suitable for beginners and experienced sitters alike

Course Curriculum 

WEEK 1 – Preparing the Space & Setting the Tone 

• Roles, responsibilities and ethics of the sitter.
• Key concepts: set, setting, intention, safety, consent, boundaries.
• Science meets ritual: what current research says about psychedelics, neurobiology and altered states.
• Designing a trip-sitting checklist, including physical space, psychological space, and relationship dynamics.
• Evaluating different settings (one-to-one, small group, retreat) and identifying best practices.
• Pharmacological safety and harm reduction.

WEEK 2 – Navigating the Journey & Supporting During the Session 

• Mapping the phases of a psychedelic journey: onset, peak, plateau, return, especially in relation to psilocybin.
• Making a playlist.
• Addressing common challenges, including fear, other difficult emotions, relational rupture, meaning crises, ego inflation, and being underwhelmed.
• The sitter’s mindset: neutrality, attunement, non-interference, safe touch, compassion.
• How to respond to several scenario prompts (e.g. a participant experiencing intense fear, a visionary breakthrough, or social and relational confrontation).
• Guided meditation / trance exercise: centering the sitter’s awareness and building internal resilience for supporting another in altered states.

WEEK 3: Integration, Meaning-Making & Aftercare

• The post-journey phase: integration as essential to value and meaning.
• Ritual, art, journaling, community sharing, and other strategies.
• Ethical considerations: confidentiality, referral, legal context, cultural humility.
• Case studies.

WEEK 4: Advanced Considerations & Developing Your Practice 

• Beyond individual sessions: group settings, indigenous and ceremonial contexts, hybrid therapeutic and ritual frameworks.
• An introduction to psychedelic shamanic techniques.
• Risk management and harm reduction, preparation for emergencies, ethical dilemmas, institutional frameworks.
• How to hold space sustainably, avoid sitter burnout, and ensure relational integrity.
• Where to get training and more information to develop your practice.

All Sessions will include highly accessible taught content, questions and answer sessions, group discussion, and practical skills development. This course will be ideal for beginners but will also be valuable for even the most experienced of sitters and psychonauts.

Schedule 

• Wed 5th May 2027, 7pm – 9pm Google · ICS
• Wed 12th May 2027, 7pm – 9pm Google · ICS
• Wed 19th May 2027, 7pm – 9pm Google · ICS
• Wed 26th May 2027, 7pm – 9pm Google · ICS
   

Julian Vayne

Julian Vayne is a British independent scholar and author with over forty years’ experience in esoteric culture, spanning Druidry, Chaos Magic, Shamanism, Freemasonry and Witchcraft. Immersed in the countercultural currents of punk and rave Britain, he began practicing group ritual at sixteen and has since worked with practitioners across many traditions. A senior member of the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros, he is widely regarded as one of Britain’s leading occultists and has published pioneering works on psychedelic practice, including Pharmakon: Drugs and the Imagination and Getting Higher: The Manual of Psychedelic Ceremony.

Alongside his writing, Julian has edited Britain’s best-selling pagan newspaper, co-organizes the Breaking Convention conference, and serves as a trustee of The Psychedelic Museum Project. His work emphasizes open-source, earth-centered spirituality informed by chaos magic, ecology, and Wiccan and Tantric lineages. He teaches through workshops, retreats, and online courses, offering integration support and facilitating psychedelic ceremonies. With a collaborative and creative approach, Julian continues to bridge the worlds of occult practice, psychedelic culture, and academic study.

Your Organiser

Callum is an event coordinator for The Psychedelic Society and a life-long learner in the exploration of consciousness. He has completed a MSc in Medical Anthropology at University College London where he specialised in research on the phenomenology of consciousness, psychedelics and the therapeutic and healing arts in mystical traditions around the world. 

Callum regularly delivers talks and workshops on mental health, meditation and the breath to companies, groups and festivals across the UK. He is an advocate of transformative and psychedelic experiences that are grounded in transpersonal and somatic philosophy and psychology. These are the experiences that cultivate the experience and wisdom to remember and embody our connection with ourselves, others, nature and the beyond. Follow Callum on Instagram at @calibraid 

REFUNDS POLICY: Please note, we do not arrange refunds or exchanges. When possible we encourage reselling on Ticketswap.

ACCESS:  We do our best to include everyone in our events, regardless of health circumstances. If you have access requirements please email the event organiser directly to discuss. Many facilitators are able to offer reduced ticket prices for those truly unable to afford the ticket price. If this applies to you, do please get in touch with the event organiser.

For PSYCHEDELIC KNOWLEDGE AND RESOURCES please check out the Psychedelic Society website. 

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