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174 * THE SESSIONS great time giving me the experience of being loved. With each dose there was more and more of a fulfilling safe and comfortable familiar feeling. "It would be great to do DMT maybe once a year to put a perspective on things and see where I'm at and heal me. The freedom in my abdomen is still there. The clenching is back again a little bit, but on a more con- sistent basis I can remember that I was able to really clear it out." I added, "It can be a useful reference point." Freud coined the term transference, which refers to how people habitually react to others as if they were important figures from that person's earlier life. In therapy, countertransference feelings are those in the therapist simi- larly projected toward his or her client. Cassandra's life was full of transference feelings for those with whom she became involved. Because there's never transference without counter- transference, people reacted just as strongly to her. Sharing her comfort with me could be a trap or an opportunity. We needed to look at our relation- ship without the confusing dance of transference and countertransference. The next month Cassandra returned for the second half of the toler- ance study: four consecutive doses of placebo. After we wrapped up the fourth dose of salt water, I said, "Thanks for your participation." "Thank you. You've been easy to talk with." I took this as an opening to do a little bit of work before saying good- bye. She was in a sober and steady condition, so I directly addressed the underlying theme. "I wonder if you had some difficulty at first trusting a male physician who was going to incapacitate you with a drug." She answered, "I went for it. I trusted you. I never really was worried about it. You changed my life." Knowing Cassandra put people on pedestals before knocking them down, I countered very carefully, "I helped create the context for you to change your life." "I guess. DMT strips you down to your soul. I know that there is noth- ing to worry about. DMT showed me how to see beyond it all. Everything