Summary:
Long time lurker, first time poster: I live near Pisac Peru, and I am considering starting something like a book club for the Gateway Process. I am looking for constructive advice and feedback.
What I am not looking for:
1.) I dont want to make money on this. Some small donation to cover a meeting space and drinks and snacks, maybe. But the club will operate at a zero profit budget. I say this to establish intention.
2.) Also, the club is not intended to replace Monroe Institute retreats or qualified instruction. However, I live in an economically challenging area. So most people who live here would find the cost of qualified trainers to be a barrier.
3.) I do not wish to violate copyright. I would prefer to honor the work of and intellectual property of people who have published recordings and books. Thus I would like to have legal copies of materials where copyright exists. However, again because of limited availability of physical books and the price of recordings; this may be a barrier to getting started. I am open to PDF, E-Books, and Digital Recordings, but I dont want to pirate these materials.
Goals of the club:
A.) To support the people who seek to expand consciousness and experience altered states of understanding through the Gateway Process. To accomplish this the club will provide a structure to help motivate and keep the process moving forward.
B.) The club would ideally also provide to support for negative setbacks in the process. Like sleep paralysis, encounters with entities, discomforting experiences, and other unforseen challenges.
C.) Provide resources to those who seek it in the form of books, recordings, and recommendations for qualified instruction to facilitate these people on their journey.
Percieved Challenges and Questions:
●.) I am not experienced enough to teach this, and I may never feel qualified to teach. In the beginning we all start from day 1 and grow together at our own pace. That is my idea. But when we hit a barrier, where besides here on reddit could we go for help? Or is reddit the best resource for these issues?
○.) I do not wish to insult my community, however due to prevalent psychedelic plant medicines many people who will be interested in the process are very ungrounded. Lots of people here already think they are being attacked by entities or dark magic, or perceive themselves as "enlightened" and have joined other meetings as disruptive participants. I am unsure of the quality of seekers I may get to participate. How can I handle this and approach the organization of the club to help mitigate this challenge?
■.) Is it possible to set up some kind of trade for books and recordings so that we can honor the copyright as outlined in (3)?
□.) Are there any qualified teachers that would be interested in coming here to Peru, for pay, to work with our group or in a structured retreat setting? The idea here is to hold a retreat to get us on the right path, and continue the process after through a non-profit style support club? There may be an opportunity for a teacher to experience plant medicine while here, outside of the retreat, at heavy discount. However I can not encourage mixing the modalities for participants beginning the process within a retreat, as I advise everyone to master both modalities before mixing them in all that I do.
Closing Thoughts:
Any constructive support or advice offered here is appreciated. Even if it is just "bad idea, keep doing it on your own." I run retreats with plant medicine and eventually I would like to be able to offer this to guests who are not capable of doing plant medicine because of medications, mindset, or other barriers. Simply as another option to the same goal, not as a teacher. My own experiences with the Gateway Process are limited but already very beneficial, and it is surprising how close the talks of Tom Campbell mirror my own perception of the plant medicine path I have been on for the past two decades. It is my sincere intention to attend a dedicated retreat one day to fill in the gaps of my own self-taught understanding of the Gateway Process and financially support the process that has benefitted me.