Published work which includes examples of my writing and artwork.
There were twenty years between the winter when I was born and the summer when I unexpectedly became a barefoot guru. For many of those years, I collected symbols and stories in much the same way that a bird collects twigs to make a nest.
Breaking Open is an edited collection of fourteen real life stories of spiritual emergency by various authors, including my account of becoming an ‘accidental guru’ in the early 1990s. Edited by Jules Evans and Tim Read. Published by Aeon Books, 2020
An integration mandala for a session in an expanded state of awareness doesn’t have to be complicated, or even necessarily to depict what ‘happened’ in a literal way. It only needs to connect imaginatively and emotionally with something that feels important, or that might otherwise be difficult to verbalise.
Psychedelics and Psychotherapy is an edited collection of wisdom and insights from skilled practitioners regarding safe and ethical work in expanded states. Includes my chapter on using mandalas for integration in Holotropic Breathwork and four colour reproductions of my mandalas. Edited by Tim Read and Maria Papaspyrou. Published by Inner Traditions, 2021
In connecting with our own unexpressed stories and telling them, we feel our own share of the world’s collective traumas and contribute to the wider work of integrating them into society. In this way, integration is a necessary counterpart to the visionary flight of the Shaman or the Guru.
John Ablett
Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness by Marc B. Aixalá is a book about the process of supporting others to make sense of their experiences in expanded states of awareness. Includes my mandala on the cover and four colour pages of my artwork. Published by Synergetic Press, 2022.
Holotropic Mandalas 