35 ms·

Shrooms: What You Need to Know

233 points by rzk 5y ago

upstarter 5y ago
If you ever had this feeling telling you "This can't be it, there must be more to this story...", then you should at least consider this avenue.
- shaky 5y ago
  I love this. This was me in 2017 and following the white rabbit led to a most spectacular year. It really is a birth right, and people chosing ‘no’ are really missing out on a fundamental aspect of being alive. On another note, I always love psych threads on HN. High quality posts all around.
  - lawlorino 5y ago
    I feel a bit sad hearing this, I'm a pretty anxious person so I'll probably never experiment. While I love reading about people's experiences I often hear warnings that people like me should stay far far away.
    - theli0nheart 5y ago
      You could always try microdosing, which 1) is safe and 2) over time, provides a lot of the benefits of a single, large dose.
mam4 5y ago
Tripsafe, Erowid, psychonaut and r/drugs are among the best ressources the web has been able to produce: thousands of actual trip reports, and empirically tested Risk Reductions procedures withtout stigma or judgement. Dont do drugs as a illegal thing that give you the thrill of being a bad boy. Take a scientifi approach of risk evaluation, read testimonies and reports and ensure your own safety, as you would do for something like diving and skydiving. Also never do drugs "because it makes you feel better when you are sad". Dont hesitate to ask more question
- __MatrixMan__ 5y ago
  Agreed. I wonder about the bad things that didn't happen to me because I read about them on erowid instead, and recall fondly the ones that did happen to me because I read about them on erowid first. Friendly reminder that they're community/donation supported.
- mistermann 5y ago
  > Also never do drugs "because it makes you feel better when you are sad". It's not risk free, but I disagree with this as absolute advice, a trip can fill up one's spiritual gas tank to keep on moving forward, they can demonstrate that one's depression is largely illusory.
  - mam4 5y ago
    Sure. But for a "one time" or "very small number of times". I was mostly referring to falling into an habit to numb the pain
    - mistermann 5y ago
      > But for a "one time" or "very small number of times". Is this based on personal experience, clinical studies, something else?
      - mam4 5y ago
        Mostly that all addicts w/ physical damages i know started using heavily to cope to some pain (heartbreak / mourning / loss of proffessional direction). Substances can help to realize stuff, but long term (1+year) regular using is never in my layman opinion
        mistermann 5y ago
        Are you basing your judgment only on those who develop addictions, rather than considering all people who use these substances, some of who do not develop addiction issues (developing addiction issues is not terribly common with psychedelics)?
hirundo 5y ago
I grew some last Spring but have been too chicken since to try them. They're dried, but I don't know if they're dried enough. Does anyone know if there's any additional risk if they've gotten at all rotten?
- __MatrixMan__ 5y ago
  Bacterial infection in shrooms typically smells like feet. Naturally they smell a bit like farts when you're eating then (but are mostly odorless when dried proper). I'd avoid them if the former and tolerate them if the latter. They bruise blue (and it's hard to pick them without bruising the stems) which can look nearly black when dried. This can make them look moldy when they aren't. If they're actually moldy I'd toss them. When I used to grow I settled on letting them sit on a grate with a fan blowing at them for a few days (the air is dry here, ymmv), then I'd store them with desiccant packets. They should be crispy like potato chips, no mushyness. As for trepidation, that's understandable. I'd start with a super light dose (.5 g) at first just to see what you're dealing with. I'm glad I've had potent trips in the past (I usually find 3.5 g is enough, but it'll vary by batch and by human), but these days I usually dose lightly.
- monetus 5y ago
  If there is a contamination then the risk is up to what contaminated them, but if they are just dried then the psilocin(1) breaks down eventually leaving you with just the psilocybin. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocin
- theli0nheart 5y ago
  You would probably know if they were rotten—smell and/or looks would be really off. As for whether they're dry, they're dry enough if they break apart easily—they should crack, not bend. There's also no such thing as a minimum dose. People have found benefits with very small amounts (1/20g) if you're just curious—it literally cannot hurt.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
Keep in mind that “harm reduction” material shouldn’t be interpreted as a guide to avoiding all potential negative consequences. When it comes to psychedelics, the pendulum of popular opinion has swung from an extreme of “extremely bad for you” to “actually good for you” but neither extreme is good, IMO. It’s worth reading some of the material about how psychedelic users are weirdly prone to picking up strange beliefs. Not everyone of course, but even a large number of psychedelic researchers who were supposedly doing it the “right way” were still walking away with bizarre and irrational beliefs: https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psychedelicists-so-weird/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psyched... These belief-shifting outcomes aren’t mentioned in harm reduction guides. In many cases, they’re actually celebrated by users with an implicit assumption that all belief changes from psychedelics must be inherently good. I think it’s important to understand that thoughts and feelings imparted by psychedelics aren’t real and may likely be entirely meaningless. It’s also important to know that the thoughts and feelings and experiences induced by psychedelics aren’t necessarily entirely positive. The negative anecdotes tend to get lost among the hyperbole about psychedelics producing magical experiences, but it’s not hard to find stories about difficult trips or trips that induced long-lasting negative mental states on Internet forums. They tend to be downvote, ignored, or explained away by blaming the victim for doing it wrong. However, it is a very real and not uncommon possibility, which is why harm reduction guides emphasize the need for sitters to monitor the user and why every psychedelic research study had included 10X as much therapy sessions as psychedelic sessions.
- theli0nheart 5y ago
  > Not everyone of course, but even a large number of psychedelic researchers who were supposedly doing it the “right way” were still walking away with bizarre and irrational beliefs: https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psyched https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psyched... That article gives examples of folks who most definitely were not using psychedelics safety. Timothy Leary is famous for his controversial experiments. Moreover, LSD and mushrooms are often conflated in discussions like this, but it should be noted that the two drugs have widely different outcomes and safe usage parameters.
shroomer 5y ago
I did 2g of dried shrooms about a week ago, having almost no prior experience. It was fun - I was seeing funny things, my friends looked funny, I laughed a lot, was a lot more talkative and social. My only issue was a tension headache which started about when the first effects came on and was even worse the day after, lashing until about 24 hours after the mushrooms were taken. My friends did not get the headache. Otherwise, while I found the experience fun, and I'd do it again if it wasn't for the headache, I really can't fathom how people describe it as one of the most profound experiences of their lives.
- arrakis2021 5y ago
  You fell just short of the “profound experience line” You need at least 3.5G to have that. While that may seem intimidating it’s not that much more than 2G, but enough to make your inner consciousness turn up to 11
  - dave_sullivan 5y ago
    Agreed. Up the dose. Dunno about the headache, never had that happen.
  - teaearlgraycold 5y ago
    Depends. I had a mildly profound experience with 2.5g. I was alone in nature with my thoughts for 2 hours and came away with some nice revelations.
- crawfordcomeaux 5y ago
  I ate 8g of dried shrooms a few days ago. Once things really got going, I spent the time mostly in the dark at home focusing on whatever came to me. The intentions I set were for ego death of some kind. Much of it was spent grieving childhood trauma and the state of the world, most of which was done while singing, snorting, making other mouth noises, laughing, crying, or some combination of those. Yesterday, I realized I have preverbal trauma and most people probably do, too. Sharing this with the person I'm partnering with, who went on a mushroom journey a few weeks ago to address their own preverbal trauma, seemed to open the door for them to soften toward me. We've been going through rough times, as she slipped into a PTSD episode upon getting pregnant, it's still going on, and how she acts when triggering into her trauma matches patterns of my own trauma, so we've had a difficult time over the past 3.5 years. I haven't been very compassionate/empathetic in how I receive her and often feel confused about what to do or say. Today, that wasn't the case. We both received each other graciously (and let it go quickly when we didn't), freely offered and accepted hugs, and created a lovely little Christmas scene for the child, as well as started collaboratively designing content for santaisdeadlonglivesanta.net. These are profound and immediate changes in my life. I look forward to what mushrooms have to further teach me. Oh, I also had the realization that ego death doesn't need to be this cataclysmic, big, scary, break from reality thing done with eyes literally closed and that if I already carry a cosmic identity, dissolving into the cosmos provides insight that can come from reflecting on being the cosmos. If you've read this far, do yourself a favor, look up CPTSD and preverbal trauma, and check to see if there's something you went through when little that's still alive and getting in your way.
tyingq 5y ago
Never did any type of psychedelics. You don't read much about "death by misadventure" associated with them though. I'm curious about this. Alcohol, for example, is pretty famous for clouding judgement, reducing inhibition, and so on. Such that otherwise rational people drive intoxicated, get into fights, fall asleep in inappropriate places, fall off of and into things, etc. Psychedelics obviously cause you to hallucinate. So why don't I hear about more accidents? Does they seem to leave your common sense, judgement, etc, in place?
- beej71 5y ago
  From what I hear, the idea of doing anything complex like driving a car is extremely unappealing under the effects of mushrooms.
  - convolvatron 5y ago
    I've wrecked a car on mushrooms...not-really-driving like a maniac with a bunch of friends hanging out the windows was arguably the most fun I ever had.
  - damontal 5y ago
    It’s hard to concentrate on traffic when the clouds appear to be in flames.
- CPLX 5y ago
  1) They’re not addictive in the classic sense where people are habituated and have to take them every day. 2) As far as I know there’s no straightforward way to test for them and I’d have to assume people who are high on psychedelics that get into an accident aren’t excited to volunteer the information.
- BrianOnHN 5y ago
  It can be quite tough to get out of your seat on sufficient mushrooms, which limits many possibilities of misadventures.
- c54 5y ago
a_throwaway_3 5y ago
What you need to know is that it will make you dumb and stupid, and you'll sit there giggling to yourself incapable of any coherent thought, like a drooling idiot. At least that's what it'll look like from the outside. From the inside, you'll feel like you've opened a door to a magical land of true understanding, like the veneer of convention has peeled off the world and you can finally see the underlying superstruture of reality. So not only do you turn into a drooling idiot, you turn into a delusional drooling idiot. And then it takes over your life because it takes days to really get down from those dizzying heights of sudden chemical revelation, only you don't realise you're still high so you still think you really made all those lofty realisations. Then you go and have some more because you 're still incapable of rational thought and who's going to stop you anyway? It can be years before something breaks you out of this vivious cycle of making yourself stupid and being too stupid to understand how stupid you have become as a consequence. So don't do it. Life's too short. Go read a book. Go learn a craft. Go get a hobby. Learn woodcutting. Learn to bake. Learn to cook. Have more sex. Maybe get a degree or two. But don't do shit that burns your brain because you only get one brain. And it is very easy to damage irreparably.
- celticninja 5y ago
  Reefer madness but for shrooms, this would make good copypasta elsewhere on the internet.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
  Counterpoint: psychedelics helped me overcome a lifelong problem with social anxiety and helped me to overcome fear of dancing in public. Over a decade later I can still say that the changes they made have had a profound and long-lasting positive impact on my life.
  - BurningFrog 5y ago
    How specifically did it help with your social anxiety?
    - meowkit 5y ago
toastercat 5y ago
This is a great resource to anyone interested in psychedelics in general. I've only done psychedelics twice in my lifetime, both with the same friend, and both times NOT in ideal scenarios (because we were both tripping without a sober person trip-sitting us). I would like to warn anyone interested that *tripping is risky if you suffer from high anxiety or OCD*. My first trip was an incredible experience, I couldn't wait for my next chance to trip. Unfortunately, my second trip went south very fast; I became very anxious and I started having fears that I would unreasonably kill myself or murder my friend. What I didn't know at the time was that I suffered from "Harm OCD" and that the psychedelics were magnifying my OCD tenfold, and thus triggered a horrendous panic attack that wouldn't end until the effects of the drugs wore off.
- mettamage 5y ago
  Sounds familiar, what is harm OCD?
  - kinjba11 5y ago
    > Harm OCD is a subset of classic obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The condition is characterized by having aggressive, intrusive thoughts of doing violence to someone, as well as the responses the person uses to cope with these thoughts... OCD makes the individual feel that they can’t trust their own mind. Wherein someone without OCD could have a violent thought and recognize that it is simply a thought, a person with OCD who has the Harm OCD subset worries that just having the thought is somehow meaningful. https://centerforanxietydisorders.com/what-is-harm-ocd/ https://centerforanxietydisorders.com/what-is-harm-ocd/
- t8e56vd4ih 5y ago
  I've tripped dozens of times on lsd, shrooms, dmt and a few RCs. I'm also suffering from such fears during the comeup. after it it's usually smooth sailing. but during my 50 to 100 trips i never actually did anything harmful in any way. so that's that. but it's really annoying.
  - pksebben 5y ago
meepmorp 5y ago
I feel like I'm alone in this, but I don't like mushrooms. I usually have unpleasant body effects, and I don't like the trip generally. I'm fairly confident in my ability to have dosed as responsibly as possible with a biological product. Usually, though, I just feel weird and uncomfortable for 10. LSD, by comparison, is positively therapeutic for me.
- colordrops 5y ago
  My experience is that LSD, when good, is great, but when bad, can be disastrous. Mushrooms, while not as crisp and euphoric as LSD, don't seem to ever leave me scarred, even with large doses. I'll be laughing about a bad trip on mushrooms after I come down, but will be left unable to function in society for 6 months after a bad trip on LSD.
  - gavinray 5y ago
    Same experience. Have PTSD from this, was not inexperienced either.
    - RikNieu 5y ago
      What kind of immediate and long-term side effects did you have, if I may ask? And what happened during the experience?
      - gavinray 5y ago
        I've written in-depth about that particular experience before on here, if you're interested here are the post links: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22991744 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22991744 (See chain of replies too) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993060 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993060 Short-term side effects were acute + severe panic attacks, triggered by flashbacks and feeling as though I was physically back in the same situation/it was starting to happen again. Even though entirely illogical and not being in the same place it happened, in my mind I felt dead certain that the events that had happened were starting to replay themselves and even physically I was reliving the sensations. This made me dysfunctional for a period of months, slowly over time the severity + frequency of this tapered off. It took about ~2 years for it to become what I'd call "mostly subsided". Even now though, if I am under a lot of stress or if I don't sleep well and am slightly sleep deprived, I will start to have flashbacks + panic attacks, but I know how to handle them better now and can force logic through a bit better. My vision is permanently altered, though it's minor. If you're not familiar with psychedelics, when you take a low dose of them, it makes everything have a sort of "oil-painting" type look to it, and textures are crisper. The bark on a tree is a good example of something that looks much more intense. The intensity of this has also subsided a fair amount, but even now I choose not to wear glasses most of the time because if I put on my glasses, everything is too "High definition" and visually intense. I prefer things to just be blurry, to be honest.
renewiltord 5y ago
I know lots of people will warn you about this stuff but with the caveat that every person is different: I have friends with high anxiety and all these things. We trip together quite pleasantly and enjoyably.
hidden_dude 5y ago
(Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons) I had a stroke a few months ago, resulting in some long-lasting effects in my visual field. I have read reports that mushrooms can help the brain develop new connections; and I'd like to see if they can help improve my vision. But I have no idea where to get shrooms, how much to dose, etc. Any tips?
- beervirus 5y ago
  Ask your shadiest friend who his shadiest friend is.
  - hidden_dude 5y ago
    Problem with that is then I have no idea about the quality.
  - betwixthewires 5y ago
    This is absolutely terrible advice, you're likely to get chocolate bars with something else in them at best.
- ryanianian 5y ago
  Check the various reddits for places to start plus speak with an informed and non-judgmental healthcare person.
- mmmeff 5y ago
  Look into growing them from uncle Ben’s rice. Doesn’t get easier. Spores can be legally bought online in most states and no special equipment is necessary. Just plan on doing a triple batch as without proper lab equipment, the chance of contamination is higher.
  - hidden_dude 5y ago
    Any place to buy them? I am not too far from Santa Cruz, CA and Oakland CA. I hear it's legal in Santa Cruz.
threwaway7880 5y ago
I’ve done LSD a few times, maybe a handful, and mild doses of shrooms maybe 3 times. On higher doses of LSD (> 1 tab), I tend to get a recurring fear and visual manifestation of bugs (spiders, specially). When I’m outside on a walk while tripping I tend to be hyper-conscious of bugs and the noises they’re making. Any thoughts on why and how to deal with this? It tends to have a very negative effect on my trips but it doesn’t always happen. Just stick to lower doses?
- criticaltinker 5y ago
  I highly recommend taking a look through the Yale Manual for Psilocybin-assisted therapy [1], section 6.9 is particularly relevant to your inquiry. Some excerpts: > We encourage you to take an attitude of curiosity and acceptance toward everything that happens during your session. Whatever comes up has some kind of meaning or wisdom that you can learn from, even if this meaning is not immediately obvious. > You may have bizarre sensations and experiences, and you may experience frightening images or thoughts. These may alternate rapidly. This is normal and does not mean anything is wrong. > We encourage you to “go with” or surrender to difficult experiences rather than fight them. Approach rather than flee; accept rather than reason away, lean into whatever comes up, including any impulse to run away. > There are methods for grounding and calming yourself, if you would like to use them. [1] https://psyarxiv.com/u6v9y/ https://psyarxiv.com/u6v9y/
- jungturk 5y ago
  A stock tactic for fears and anxieties during trips is to allow yourself to experience them, to accept them, and to allow them to pass. Another is to put yourself is a goofy/stimulating/amusing situation that distracts the mind from the negative loops it might be manifesting. But really, the "setting" part of "set and setting" might just mean staying away from bugsy walks and going somewhere cozy and comfortable instead. https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Set_and_setting https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Set_and_setting
stevehiehn 5y ago
Hmm, I worry about the doses listed. 1.6g of potent caps will get you right fucked. If you haven't done them before and are planning on having a couple drinks and socializing etc I recommend no more than 0.5g (for at least 1.5hrs) then re-access from there.
- stevehiehn 5y ago
  Maybe a more useful contribution is to say that mushroom 'highs' are cumulative. I've been a bit of a casual nibbler for 25 yrs or so. You can always eat a little more but you can't uneat them. So that's all. The quantity/duration of consumption ratio is very significant for a good experience :)
- Nbox9 5y ago
  Different mushroom species have different quantities of active ingredients. Describing the dry weight of a mushroom is really only a secondary measurement of the active ingredients. Elsewhere on the website they compare 2.4g of mushrooms to about 100ug of LSD. So 1.7g of mushrooms would be equivalent of about 45ug of LSD, and the micro dose range of LSD is 5-25ug. Tripsafe is attempting to describe a light dose, which should include only minor visuals. They are likely using P. Cubensis to describe dosage, which is very common in North America, but only half the potency of the most potent psychedelic mushrooms. “Liberty cabs” or P. Semilanceata are more common in Europe, and are often more potent than P. Cubensis. There might also be a cultural difference on the expectations for a psychedelic experiences and the activities one should do during it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Psilocybe_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Psilocybe_species
  - criticaltinker 5y ago
    Good point about the quantity of active ingredients varying by species. It’s worth noting that GP may have been referring to the physical distribution of active ingredients within the mushroom body. The “cap” of a mushroom almost always contains significantly more active ingredients. Thus, 1 gram of stems may yield a significantly different dose than 1 gram of “caps”.
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233 points by rzk 5y ago

If you ever had this feeling telling you "This can't be it, there must be more to this story...", then you should at least consider this avenue.

shaky 5y ago
I love this. This was me in 2017 and following the white rabbit led to a most spectacular year. It really is a birth right, and people chosing ‘no’ are really missing out on a fundamental aspect of being alive. On another note, I always love psych threads on HN. High quality posts all around.
- lawlorino 5y ago
  I feel a bit sad hearing this, I'm a pretty anxious person so I'll probably never experiment. While I love reading about people's experiences I often hear warnings that people like me should stay far far away.
  - theli0nheart 5y ago
    You could always try microdosing, which 1) is safe and 2) over time, provides a lot of the benefits of a single, large dose.

mam4 5y ago

Tripsafe, Erowid, psychonaut and r/drugs are among the best ressources the web has been able to produce: thousands of actual trip reports, and empirically tested Risk Reductions procedures withtout stigma or judgement. Dont do drugs as a illegal thing that give you the thrill of being a bad boy. Take a scientifi approach of risk evaluation, read testimonies and reports and ensure your own safety, as you would do for something like diving and skydiving. Also never do drugs "because it makes you feel better when you are sad". Dont hesitate to ask more question

__MatrixMan__ 5y ago
Agreed. I wonder about the bad things that didn't happen to me because I read about them on erowid instead, and recall fondly the ones that did happen to me because I read about them on erowid first. Friendly reminder that they're community/donation supported.
mistermann 5y ago
> Also never do drugs "because it makes you feel better when you are sad". It's not risk free, but I disagree with this as absolute advice, a trip can fill up one's spiritual gas tank to keep on moving forward, they can demonstrate that one's depression is largely illusory.
- mam4 5y ago
  Sure. But for a "one time" or "very small number of times". I was mostly referring to falling into an habit to numb the pain
  - mistermann 5y ago
    > But for a "one time" or "very small number of times". Is this based on personal experience, clinical studies, something else?
    - mam4 5y ago
      Mostly that all addicts w/ physical damages i know started using heavily to cope to some pain (heartbreak / mourning / loss of proffessional direction). Substances can help to realize stuff, but long term (1+year) regular using is never in my layman opinion
      - mistermann 5y ago
        Are you basing your judgment only on those who develop addictions, rather than considering all people who use these substances, some of who do not develop addiction issues (developing addiction issues is not terribly common with psychedelics)?

hirundo 5y ago

I grew some last Spring but have been too chicken since to try them. They're dried, but I don't know if they're dried enough. Does anyone know if there's any additional risk if they've gotten at all rotten?

__MatrixMan__ 5y ago
Bacterial infection in shrooms typically smells like feet. Naturally they smell a bit like farts when you're eating then (but are mostly odorless when dried proper). I'd avoid them if the former and tolerate them if the latter. They bruise blue (and it's hard to pick them without bruising the stems) which can look nearly black when dried. This can make them look moldy when they aren't. If they're actually moldy I'd toss them. When I used to grow I settled on letting them sit on a grate with a fan blowing at them for a few days (the air is dry here, ymmv), then I'd store them with desiccant packets. They should be crispy like potato chips, no mushyness. As for trepidation, that's understandable. I'd start with a super light dose (.5 g) at first just to see what you're dealing with. I'm glad I've had potent trips in the past (I usually find 3.5 g is enough, but it'll vary by batch and by human), but these days I usually dose lightly.
monetus 5y ago
If there is a contamination then the risk is up to what contaminated them, but if they are just dried then the psilocin(1) breaks down eventually leaving you with just the psilocybin. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocin
theli0nheart 5y ago
You would probably know if they were rotten—smell and/or looks would be really off. As for whether they're dry, they're dry enough if they break apart easily—they should crack, not bend. There's also no such thing as a minimum dose. People have found benefits with very small amounts (1/20g) if you're just curious—it literally cannot hurt.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

Keep in mind that “harm reduction” material shouldn’t be interpreted as a guide to avoiding all potential negative consequences. When it comes to psychedelics, the pendulum of popular opinion has swung from an extreme of “extremely bad for you” to “actually good for you” but neither extreme is good, IMO. It’s worth reading some of the material about how psychedelic users are weirdly prone to picking up strange beliefs. Not everyone of course, but even a large number of psychedelic researchers who were supposedly doing it the “right way” were still walking away with bizarre and irrational beliefs: https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psychedelicists-so-weird/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psyched... These belief-shifting outcomes aren’t mentioned in harm reduction guides. In many cases, they’re actually celebrated by users with an implicit assumption that all belief changes from psychedelics must be inherently good. I think it’s important to understand that thoughts and feelings imparted by psychedelics aren’t real and may likely be entirely meaningless. It’s also important to know that the thoughts and feelings and experiences induced by psychedelics aren’t necessarily entirely positive. The negative anecdotes tend to get lost among the hyperbole about psychedelics producing magical experiences, but it’s not hard to find stories about difficult trips or trips that induced long-lasting negative mental states on Internet forums. They tend to be downvote, ignored, or explained away by blaming the victim for doing it wrong. However, it is a very real and not uncommon possibility, which is why harm reduction guides emphasize the need for sitters to monitor the user and why every psychedelic research study had included 10X as much therapy sessions as psychedelic sessions.

theli0nheart 5y ago
> Not everyone of course, but even a large number of psychedelic researchers who were supposedly doing it the “right way” were still walking away with bizarre and irrational beliefs: https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psyched https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/28/why-were-early-psyched... That article gives examples of folks who most definitely were not using psychedelics safety. Timothy Leary is famous for his controversial experiments. Moreover, LSD and mushrooms are often conflated in discussions like this, but it should be noted that the two drugs have widely different outcomes and safe usage parameters.

shroomer 5y ago

I did 2g of dried shrooms about a week ago, having almost no prior experience. It was fun - I was seeing funny things, my friends looked funny, I laughed a lot, was a lot more talkative and social. My only issue was a tension headache which started about when the first effects came on and was even worse the day after, lashing until about 24 hours after the mushrooms were taken. My friends did not get the headache. Otherwise, while I found the experience fun, and I'd do it again if it wasn't for the headache, I really can't fathom how people describe it as one of the most profound experiences of their lives.

arrakis2021 5y ago
You fell just short of the “profound experience line” You need at least 3.5G to have that. While that may seem intimidating it’s not that much more than 2G, but enough to make your inner consciousness turn up to 11
- dave_sullivan 5y ago
  Agreed. Up the dose. Dunno about the headache, never had that happen.
- teaearlgraycold 5y ago
  Depends. I had a mildly profound experience with 2.5g. I was alone in nature with my thoughts for 2 hours and came away with some nice revelations.
crawfordcomeaux 5y ago
I ate 8g of dried shrooms a few days ago. Once things really got going, I spent the time mostly in the dark at home focusing on whatever came to me. The intentions I set were for ego death of some kind. Much of it was spent grieving childhood trauma and the state of the world, most of which was done while singing, snorting, making other mouth noises, laughing, crying, or some combination of those. Yesterday, I realized I have preverbal trauma and most people probably do, too. Sharing this with the person I'm partnering with, who went on a mushroom journey a few weeks ago to address their own preverbal trauma, seemed to open the door for them to soften toward me. We've been going through rough times, as she slipped into a PTSD episode upon getting pregnant, it's still going on, and how she acts when triggering into her trauma matches patterns of my own trauma, so we've had a difficult time over the past 3.5 years. I haven't been very compassionate/empathetic in how I receive her and often feel confused about what to do or say. Today, that wasn't the case. We both received each other graciously (and let it go quickly when we didn't), freely offered and accepted hugs, and created a lovely little Christmas scene for the child, as well as started collaboratively designing content for santaisdeadlonglivesanta.net. These are profound and immediate changes in my life. I look forward to what mushrooms have to further teach me. Oh, I also had the realization that ego death doesn't need to be this cataclysmic, big, scary, break from reality thing done with eyes literally closed and that if I already carry a cosmic identity, dissolving into the cosmos provides insight that can come from reflecting on being the cosmos. If you've read this far, do yourself a favor, look up CPTSD and preverbal trauma, and check to see if there's something you went through when little that's still alive and getting in your way.

tyingq 5y ago

Never did any type of psychedelics. You don't read much about "death by misadventure" associated with them though. I'm curious about this. Alcohol, for example, is pretty famous for clouding judgement, reducing inhibition, and so on. Such that otherwise rational people drive intoxicated, get into fights, fall asleep in inappropriate places, fall off of and into things, etc. Psychedelics obviously cause you to hallucinate. So why don't I hear about more accidents? Does they seem to leave your common sense, judgement, etc, in place?

beej71 5y ago
From what I hear, the idea of doing anything complex like driving a car is extremely unappealing under the effects of mushrooms.
- convolvatron 5y ago
  I've wrecked a car on mushrooms...not-really-driving like a maniac with a bunch of friends hanging out the windows was arguably the most fun I ever had.
- damontal 5y ago
  It’s hard to concentrate on traffic when the clouds appear to be in flames.
CPLX 5y ago
1) They’re not addictive in the classic sense where people are habituated and have to take them every day. 2) As far as I know there’s no straightforward way to test for them and I’d have to assume people who are high on psychedelics that get into an accident aren’t excited to volunteer the information.
BrianOnHN 5y ago
It can be quite tough to get out of your seat on sufficient mushrooms, which limits many possibilities of misadventures.
c54 5y ago

a_throwaway_3 5y ago

What you need to know is that it will make you dumb and stupid, and you'll sit there giggling to yourself incapable of any coherent thought, like a drooling idiot. At least that's what it'll look like from the outside. From the inside, you'll feel like you've opened a door to a magical land of true understanding, like the veneer of convention has peeled off the world and you can finally see the underlying superstruture of reality. So not only do you turn into a drooling idiot, you turn into a delusional drooling idiot. And then it takes over your life because it takes days to really get down from those dizzying heights of sudden chemical revelation, only you don't realise you're still high so you still think you really made all those lofty realisations. Then you go and have some more because you 're still incapable of rational thought and who's going to stop you anyway? It can be years before something breaks you out of this vivious cycle of making yourself stupid and being too stupid to understand how stupid you have become as a consequence. So don't do it. Life's too short. Go read a book. Go learn a craft. Go get a hobby. Learn woodcutting. Learn to bake. Learn to cook. Have more sex. Maybe get a degree or two. But don't do shit that burns your brain because you only get one brain. And it is very easy to damage irreparably.

celticninja 5y ago
Reefer madness but for shrooms, this would make good copypasta elsewhere on the internet.
SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
Counterpoint: psychedelics helped me overcome a lifelong problem with social anxiety and helped me to overcome fear of dancing in public. Over a decade later I can still say that the changes they made have had a profound and long-lasting positive impact on my life.
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  How specifically did it help with your social anxiety?
  - meowkit 5y ago

toastercat 5y ago

This is a great resource to anyone interested in psychedelics in general. I've only done psychedelics twice in my lifetime, both with the same friend, and both times NOT in ideal scenarios (because we were both tripping without a sober person trip-sitting us). I would like to warn anyone interested that *tripping is risky if you suffer from high anxiety or OCD*. My first trip was an incredible experience, I couldn't wait for my next chance to trip. Unfortunately, my second trip went south very fast; I became very anxious and I started having fears that I would unreasonably kill myself or murder my friend. What I didn't know at the time was that I suffered from "Harm OCD" and that the psychedelics were magnifying my OCD tenfold, and thus triggered a horrendous panic attack that wouldn't end until the effects of the drugs wore off.

mettamage 5y ago
Sounds familiar, what is harm OCD?
- kinjba11 5y ago
  > Harm OCD is a subset of classic obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The condition is characterized by having aggressive, intrusive thoughts of doing violence to someone, as well as the responses the person uses to cope with these thoughts... OCD makes the individual feel that they can’t trust their own mind. Wherein someone without OCD could have a violent thought and recognize that it is simply a thought, a person with OCD who has the Harm OCD subset worries that just having the thought is somehow meaningful. https://centerforanxietydisorders.com/what-is-harm-ocd/ https://centerforanxietydisorders.com/what-is-harm-ocd/
t8e56vd4ih 5y ago
I've tripped dozens of times on lsd, shrooms, dmt and a few RCs. I'm also suffering from such fears during the comeup. after it it's usually smooth sailing. but during my 50 to 100 trips i never actually did anything harmful in any way. so that's that. but it's really annoying.
- pksebben 5y ago

meepmorp 5y ago

I feel like I'm alone in this, but I don't like mushrooms. I usually have unpleasant body effects, and I don't like the trip generally. I'm fairly confident in my ability to have dosed as responsibly as possible with a biological product. Usually, though, I just feel weird and uncomfortable for 10. LSD, by comparison, is positively therapeutic for me.

colordrops 5y ago
My experience is that LSD, when good, is great, but when bad, can be disastrous. Mushrooms, while not as crisp and euphoric as LSD, don't seem to ever leave me scarred, even with large doses. I'll be laughing about a bad trip on mushrooms after I come down, but will be left unable to function in society for 6 months after a bad trip on LSD.
- gavinray 5y ago
  Same experience. Have PTSD from this, was not inexperienced either.
  - RikNieu 5y ago
    What kind of immediate and long-term side effects did you have, if I may ask? And what happened during the experience?
    - gavinray 5y ago
      I've written in-depth about that particular experience before on here, if you're interested here are the post links: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22991744 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22991744 (See chain of replies too) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993060 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993060 Short-term side effects were acute + severe panic attacks, triggered by flashbacks and feeling as though I was physically back in the same situation/it was starting to happen again. Even though entirely illogical and not being in the same place it happened, in my mind I felt dead certain that the events that had happened were starting to replay themselves and even physically I was reliving the sensations. This made me dysfunctional for a period of months, slowly over time the severity + frequency of this tapered off. It took about ~2 years for it to become what I'd call "mostly subsided". Even now though, if I am under a lot of stress or if I don't sleep well and am slightly sleep deprived, I will start to have flashbacks + panic attacks, but I know how to handle them better now and can force logic through a bit better. My vision is permanently altered, though it's minor. If you're not familiar with psychedelics, when you take a low dose of them, it makes everything have a sort of "oil-painting" type look to it, and textures are crisper. The bark on a tree is a good example of something that looks much more intense. The intensity of this has also subsided a fair amount, but even now I choose not to wear glasses most of the time because if I put on my glasses, everything is too "High definition" and visually intense. I prefer things to just be blurry, to be honest.

renewiltord 5y ago

I know lots of people will warn you about this stuff but with the caveat that every person is different: I have friends with high anxiety and all these things. We trip together quite pleasantly and enjoyably.

hidden_dude 5y ago

(Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons) I had a stroke a few months ago, resulting in some long-lasting effects in my visual field. I have read reports that mushrooms can help the brain develop new connections; and I'd like to see if they can help improve my vision. But I have no idea where to get shrooms, how much to dose, etc. Any tips?

beervirus 5y ago
Ask your shadiest friend who his shadiest friend is.
- hidden_dude 5y ago
  Problem with that is then I have no idea about the quality.
- betwixthewires 5y ago
  This is absolutely terrible advice, you're likely to get chocolate bars with something else in them at best.
ryanianian 5y ago
Check the various reddits for places to start plus speak with an informed and non-judgmental healthcare person.
mmmeff 5y ago
Look into growing them from uncle Ben’s rice. Doesn’t get easier. Spores can be legally bought online in most states and no special equipment is necessary. Just plan on doing a triple batch as without proper lab equipment, the chance of contamination is higher.
- hidden_dude 5y ago
  Any place to buy them? I am not too far from Santa Cruz, CA and Oakland CA. I hear it's legal in Santa Cruz.

threwaway7880 5y ago

I’ve done LSD a few times, maybe a handful, and mild doses of shrooms maybe 3 times. On higher doses of LSD (> 1 tab), I tend to get a recurring fear and visual manifestation of bugs (spiders, specially). When I’m outside on a walk while tripping I tend to be hyper-conscious of bugs and the noises they’re making. Any thoughts on why and how to deal with this? It tends to have a very negative effect on my trips but it doesn’t always happen. Just stick to lower doses?

criticaltinker 5y ago
I highly recommend taking a look through the Yale Manual for Psilocybin-assisted therapy [1], section 6.9 is particularly relevant to your inquiry. Some excerpts: > We encourage you to take an attitude of curiosity and acceptance toward everything that happens during your session. Whatever comes up has some kind of meaning or wisdom that you can learn from, even if this meaning is not immediately obvious. > You may have bizarre sensations and experiences, and you may experience frightening images or thoughts. These may alternate rapidly. This is normal and does not mean anything is wrong. > We encourage you to “go with” or surrender to difficult experiences rather than fight them. Approach rather than flee; accept rather than reason away, lean into whatever comes up, including any impulse to run away. > There are methods for grounding and calming yourself, if you would like to use them. [1] https://psyarxiv.com/u6v9y/ https://psyarxiv.com/u6v9y/
jungturk 5y ago
A stock tactic for fears and anxieties during trips is to allow yourself to experience them, to accept them, and to allow them to pass. Another is to put yourself is a goofy/stimulating/amusing situation that distracts the mind from the negative loops it might be manifesting. But really, the "setting" part of "set and setting" might just mean staying away from bugsy walks and going somewhere cozy and comfortable instead. https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Set_and_setting https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Set_and_setting

stevehiehn 5y ago

Hmm, I worry about the doses listed. 1.6g of potent caps will get you right fucked. If you haven't done them before and are planning on having a couple drinks and socializing etc I recommend no more than 0.5g (for at least 1.5hrs) then re-access from there.

stevehiehn 5y ago
Maybe a more useful contribution is to say that mushroom 'highs' are cumulative. I've been a bit of a casual nibbler for 25 yrs or so. You can always eat a little more but you can't uneat them. So that's all. The quantity/duration of consumption ratio is very significant for a good experience :)
Nbox9 5y ago
Different mushroom species have different quantities of active ingredients. Describing the dry weight of a mushroom is really only a secondary measurement of the active ingredients. Elsewhere on the website they compare 2.4g of mushrooms to about 100ug of LSD. So 1.7g of mushrooms would be equivalent of about 45ug of LSD, and the micro dose range of LSD is 5-25ug. Tripsafe is attempting to describe a light dose, which should include only minor visuals. They are likely using P. Cubensis to describe dosage, which is very common in North America, but only half the potency of the most potent psychedelic mushrooms. “Liberty cabs” or P. Semilanceata are more common in Europe, and are often more potent than P. Cubensis. There might also be a cultural difference on the expectations for a psychedelic experiences and the activities one should do during it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Psilocybe_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Psilocybe_species
- criticaltinker 5y ago
  Good point about the quantity of active ingredients varying by species. It’s worth noting that GP may have been referring to the physical distribution of active ingredients within the mushroom body. The “cap” of a mushroom almost always contains significantly more active ingredients. Thus, 1 gram of stems may yield a significantly different dose than 1 gram of “caps”.

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