Anne Other - Trust Surrender Receive: How MDMA Can Release Us From Trauma and PTSD

Nature abhors a vacuum.

Aristotle

For six years following the collective trauma of September 11th, 2001, the individuals responsible for this book responded to requests from friends in need. Seeing their often - dire plight, we felt a sincere obligation to pay forward the benefits we had received from working with MDMA and were moved to honour their requests by sitting with them at this medicine work, as attendants.

Our decisions were not made lightly. However, knowing of the works beneficial trajectory when administered by skillful meansand having, ourselves, experienced its lasting healing potentialthe decision was essentially made for us. Individuals in severe, chronic, and treatment - resistant pain deserve to have access to every possible method to heal themselves. Regrettably, this is not the case. This remarkable medicine is currently prohibited and is characterised as having a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical treatment use.

Prior to our own healing experiences with this sui generis medicine, we chose to do our due diligence by taking advantage of the wealth of public information to come to our own conclusions about the work. We knew from unbiased clinical research that toxicologists gave a clean bill of health to pure, medical grade MDMA, and our own experiences had borne this out. When approached by friends, who regarded us as having the skill - set necessary to administer the work, we responded with our hearts.

We come from all socio - economic groups and are as diverse as life allows; young and old, female and male, etc. This range allows clients to work with an attendant of their choosing, someone with whom they can identify and trust. Simply, our work is the work of human beings and their attentive presence.

When the news is this good, you have to share it.

An attendant

The testimonies in this book describe how each client approached the medicine work, their experience of the six - hour session itself, and descriptions of their outcomes. The task was to describe a little about who they were before the work, their experiences during the session itself, and some indication of how their lives may have been affected after the session. Each testimony was willingly offered by each client who chose either to write their own essay or to be interviewed.

A handful of testimonies are interviews conducted by a reporter who had, herself, experienced the work. The remainder are either self - penned essays or a spoken account transcribed and edited lightly for coherence, omitting no content. The attendant present at each session wrote a brief introductory and concluding paragraph to each edited testimony, which was then shown in toto to the client for approval. Revisions were honoured per the clients requests until they were satisfied that not only their words were authentic, but also that the attendants comments were true and accurate. Each then chose a pseudonym by which they would remain unknown, thus completing their sign - off on their testimony.

In bringing these testimonies together for publication over the past few years, we have given considerable thought to how they might be categorised for the readers convenience. This has proved a challenge. Arranging them according to the range of problems with which each client presented was one possible approach, but it is seldom the case that people come to this work with only one condition, and the variables prevented the possibility of categorisation. Similarly, with the medicine sessions and their outcomes, the range of experiences was simply too wide to have any value as categories. So, with the best will in the world, we have simply identified Men and Women with two sub - categories , Couples and Therapists.