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Did the mushroom trip enlighten you? Did it change how you view the world? Were you worried about a bad trip?

michaelbarton 5y ago
It changed how I see myself. I think I'm more honest and more compassionate with myself. I wasn't really worried about a bad trip, my life has been difficult enough at times that I felt I had little to lose. Few stable relationships, no family, no kids. But that's very specific to me.
tayo42 5y ago
> Were you worried about a bad trip? I feel like people need to start talking about bad trips in a more helpful and realistic way. The info I got about put me off to tripping for years. I avoided them until my late 20s, wish i did them sooner. I think bad trips are mostly just people who mix psychedelics with other drugs (weed is common) and freak out or aren't used to introspection (so is this really bad then?) or use irresponsibly. Like if you take 15 shots of vodka you're going to have a bad time, why is lsd any different? Or if you drink with assholes that ruin your night out why would you trip with them?
- jhardy54 5y ago
  > I think bad trips are mostly just people who mix psychedelics with other drugs (weed is common) and freak out or aren't used to introspection (so is this really bad then?) or use irresponsibly. Respectfully: this is dangerous speculation. You can have a bad trip even if you do everything right, and it’s an important risk that we should highlight rather than minimize. I believe that many psychedelic experiences are net positive, but some can be very negative for a very long time.
  - tayo42 5y ago
    Your post is basically my problem with how people talk about bad trips. You made the term "bad trip" ambiguous, scary and sound random. You're saying something might happen but no one can tell you what. Yeah that's horrifying, what is this horrible thing, Ill let my imagination run wild. But if you can be clear about the risks and how to avoid them I think you'll come out fine. I don't think if psychedelics were playing some game of russian roulette like you suggest they would actually be useful in therapy.
    - dagmx 5y ago
      I think you're entirely too dismissive of other people here, ironic for a thread on "How to change your mind" I've had to calm people down off of bad trips. Unlike what you say, it's something that totally happens with single drugs and non hallucinogenics. Hell you can have a bad trip on alcohol. It's all about the state of mind, and having an altered state of mind can make it much easier to start spiraling. This can happen even if you haven't taken drugs too, let's say from stress or lack of sleep. Again it's just about your mind being in a state it's uncomfortable with. Specifically I've had friends on weed who've had anxiety attacks and deep paranoia till I calmed them down. They were completely non functional in the same way someone having a sober anxiety/panic attack would be. I've had to help people on just E at parties who've started hyper ventilating and started having stressed delusional visions. That's not even getting into being there for someone who's on psychedelics, where I've had friends who've suffered fairly longer lasting bouts of out of body syndrome, even after the drugs wore off because of how it affected their perception of self. Drugs aren't the cause of a bad trip. They just increase the chances of one, and for many psychedelics, you therefore want to make sure you're in a calm, happy place. If someone is trying it for the first time, do it around people who will look out for you, and preferably those who can responsibly look after you if things do go sour.
      - tayo42 5y ago
        atq2119 5y ago
        I mostly agree with you, but your argument would be stronger if you didn't just blame everything on "overdoing" it. My understanding is that psychedelics work by disinhibiting certain self-regulatory mechanisms in the brain. This means a bad trip can come simply from a person's past, e.g. if they have some unprocessed trauma that's usually repressed, the result can easily be ugly. I agree with you that people who already know themselves well don't need to be afraid. It's the grey area of people who don't know themselves well but perhaps want to know themselves better that can get tricky.
mekoka 5y ago
> Were you worried about a bad trip? Many therapists and scientists have documented their personal experience guiding hundreds, sometimes thousands of trips with strong psychedelic doses (e.g. 20mg+ synthetic psilocybin, 200mcg+ lsd). They've written entire chapters on bad trips in the context of specifically psychedelics, what are their cause, how to avoid them, and how to handle them when they occur. Research papers, books, articles, etc. It's all in there. Sometimes, even reading just a single chapter from a single book is enough (James Fadiman's The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide is quite accessible. https://tripsafe.org/ https://tripsafe.org/ also offers good advice) Acquiring that knowledge requires to actually sit down and read the stuff. Sadly, what we have around us is people usually just spewing anecdotes and opinions. If you're considering taking the journey, do yourself a favor and research the topic a bit before. You might be surprised at the amount of misinformation that's out there (and in these very threads).

It changed how I see myself. I think I'm more honest and more compassionate with myself. I wasn't really worried about a bad trip, my life has been difficult enough at times that I felt I had little to lose. Few stable relationships, no family, no kids. But that's very specific to me.

tayo42 5y ago

> Were you worried about a bad trip? I feel like people need to start talking about bad trips in a more helpful and realistic way. The info I got about put me off to tripping for years. I avoided them until my late 20s, wish i did them sooner. I think bad trips are mostly just people who mix psychedelics with other drugs (weed is common) and freak out or aren't used to introspection (so is this really bad then?) or use irresponsibly. Like if you take 15 shots of vodka you're going to have a bad time, why is lsd any different? Or if you drink with assholes that ruin your night out why would you trip with them?

jhardy54 5y ago
> I think bad trips are mostly just people who mix psychedelics with other drugs (weed is common) and freak out or aren't used to introspection (so is this really bad then?) or use irresponsibly. Respectfully: this is dangerous speculation. You can have a bad trip even if you do everything right, and it’s an important risk that we should highlight rather than minimize. I believe that many psychedelic experiences are net positive, but some can be very negative for a very long time.
- tayo42 5y ago
  Your post is basically my problem with how people talk about bad trips. You made the term "bad trip" ambiguous, scary and sound random. You're saying something might happen but no one can tell you what. Yeah that's horrifying, what is this horrible thing, Ill let my imagination run wild. But if you can be clear about the risks and how to avoid them I think you'll come out fine. I don't think if psychedelics were playing some game of russian roulette like you suggest they would actually be useful in therapy.
  - dagmx 5y ago
    I think you're entirely too dismissive of other people here, ironic for a thread on "How to change your mind" I've had to calm people down off of bad trips. Unlike what you say, it's something that totally happens with single drugs and non hallucinogenics. Hell you can have a bad trip on alcohol. It's all about the state of mind, and having an altered state of mind can make it much easier to start spiraling. This can happen even if you haven't taken drugs too, let's say from stress or lack of sleep. Again it's just about your mind being in a state it's uncomfortable with. Specifically I've had friends on weed who've had anxiety attacks and deep paranoia till I calmed them down. They were completely non functional in the same way someone having a sober anxiety/panic attack would be. I've had to help people on just E at parties who've started hyper ventilating and started having stressed delusional visions. That's not even getting into being there for someone who's on psychedelics, where I've had friends who've suffered fairly longer lasting bouts of out of body syndrome, even after the drugs wore off because of how it affected their perception of self. Drugs aren't the cause of a bad trip. They just increase the chances of one, and for many psychedelics, you therefore want to make sure you're in a calm, happy place. If someone is trying it for the first time, do it around people who will look out for you, and preferably those who can responsibly look after you if things do go sour.
    - tayo42 5y ago
      - atq2119 5y ago
        I mostly agree with you, but your argument would be stronger if you didn't just blame everything on "overdoing" it. My understanding is that psychedelics work by disinhibiting certain self-regulatory mechanisms in the brain. This means a bad trip can come simply from a person's past, e.g. if they have some unprocessed trauma that's usually repressed, the result can easily be ugly. I agree with you that people who already know themselves well don't need to be afraid. It's the grey area of people who don't know themselves well but perhaps want to know themselves better that can get tricky.

mekoka 5y ago

> Were you worried about a bad trip? Many therapists and scientists have documented their personal experience guiding hundreds, sometimes thousands of trips with strong psychedelic doses (e.g. 20mg+ synthetic psilocybin, 200mcg+ lsd). They've written entire chapters on bad trips in the context of specifically psychedelics, what are their cause, how to avoid them, and how to handle them when they occur. Research papers, books, articles, etc. It's all in there. Sometimes, even reading just a single chapter from a single book is enough (James Fadiman's The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide is quite accessible. https://tripsafe.org/ https://tripsafe.org/ also offers good advice) Acquiring that knowledge requires to actually sit down and read the stuff. Sadly, what we have around us is people usually just spewing anecdotes and opinions. If you're considering taking the journey, do yourself a favor and research the topic a bit before. You might be surprised at the amount of misinformation that's out there (and in these very threads).