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In my youth, I used to think psychonauts were cool. Now I realized it's a bunch of pseudoscience that puts the brain and sanity, our most precious resource, at

In my youth, I used to think psychonauts were cool. Now I realized it's a bunch of pseudoscience that puts the brain and sanity, our most precious resource, at risk. My advice to young people is: Do not screw around with this bullshit. Eat well, sleep and try to accomplish things without mind altering chemicals. Old age will thank you for it.

pwillia7 4y ago
Have you had negative or unimpactful experiences with psychedelics? -- I rarely if ever hear that when people think back to their experiences.
- smm11 4y ago
  College girlfriend of mine was way into LSD and magic mushrooms. Twenty-plus years on I ran into her, and to describe her as paranoid does not even begin to touch it. I mentioned something I remembered, and suddenly I was The Man, who was I working for, what was I trying to learn? Maybe not related at all, and I'm just one person, but just night and day difference. I changed my email address and phone number. Had to.
  - caymanjim 4y ago
    Sounds like schizophrenia. In my experience, there are a whole lot of schizophrenics who've taken psychedelics. I can't imagine what it's like to be schizophrenic, so I also can't imagine what it's like to be schizophrenic and take drugs, but it does seems to hit them extra-hard. I don't think the drugs cause anything that wasn't going to happen anyway, but it seems like people who might be in the early stages of schizophrenia come out the other side of a trip changed forever. Since schizophrenia tends to initially manifest in the late teens and early 20s, and this is the age most people start experimenting with drugs, it could be completely coincidental, but I still think LSD in particular pushes people over the line if they were headed there already.
- caymanjim 4y ago
  I had plenty of experiences with various hallucinogens in my late teens/early 20s (decades ago). It didn't "open my mind" or change my life in any positive way. It was fun for a while. I got high and saw weird shit. I had a lot of stupid conversations about nonsense. I had a few bad trips that probably scarred me for life. It can be pretty traumatic. I wouldn't do them again, and I'll never recommend anyone do them. In my experience, the people who are the most vocal about supposed positive effects of hallucinogens (LSD in particular) are the same people who can go to a seminar for some cult like EST or Scientology and come out thinking they have all the answers to some nebulous question about the meaning of life. Maybe I'm just not that malleable. It always seems to me that the people who "get the most" out of LSD are the people who were barely hanging on to an identity beforehand.
  - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
    > plenty of experiences with various hallucinogens in my late teens/early 20s Stop. If you're reading this, don't necessarily do psychs when your brain isn't fully developed. Don't do psychs more than once or twice a business quarter. Once or twice a year, if possible!
    - caymanjim 4y ago
      Anyone in their late teens or early 20s is going to roll their eyes right out of their head at this advice. That's when people try drugs. They're not gonna listen to your old ass. In fact, if your advice is "you're not ready, wait until you're older", they're far more likely to try them.
      - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
        Actually just said maybe wait til your brain's fully developed to do them habitually, and here's a hint at why.
      - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
        The people rolling their eyes are the ones who "gets it from a guy they trust" and have never heard of or seen a test kit, so....not sure I care what they think!
12ian34 4y ago
do you drink coffee?
Nursie 4y ago
In my youth, I did too. Still do. I don't have the energy or desire for it any more, but I found some of the experiences beautiful, mind-changing and life affirming. Others were simply ludicrous amounts of fun. And a few were merely boring. These days I'm a successful software engineer in a finance-adjacent space, making good money, living the dream. I don't think LSD is some wonder drug that will save the world, but I do think that there is value in these substances. Young people should be given access to safety advice and clean, measured substances, not scare stories.
- keepquestioning 4y ago
  Survivorship bias.
  - Nursie 4y ago
    Such a claim would be better with evidence. What proportion of people who use LSD end up not 'surviving'? What are the actual, quantifiable harms? And which of those could be mitigated without the oppressive force of the law being in place? How do these harms compare to other substances and activities people undertake?
    - pshc 4y ago
      Right? I've met thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands who have done psychedelics. The bad cases are just the most memorable.
  - denkmoon 4y ago
    As opposed to your own highly scientific statistically valid findings.
denkmoon 4y ago
Having a series of psychedelic experiences in my 20s were a significant event in my life and I believe they were absolutely beneficial to my relationship with myself and my relationship with my beliefs. That you put stock in cool sounding bullshit is your own problem, not that of psychedelics. Can you provide any solid evidence that recreationally engaging in psychedelic experiences puts "sanity" at risk any more than other common life experiences?
brooklyndude 4y ago
Steve Jobs may have had an issue with that one. He seemed to do OK. :-) Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could. Steve Jobs

pwillia7 4y ago

Have you had negative or unimpactful experiences with psychedelics? -- I rarely if ever hear that when people think back to their experiences.

smm11 4y ago
College girlfriend of mine was way into LSD and magic mushrooms. Twenty-plus years on I ran into her, and to describe her as paranoid does not even begin to touch it. I mentioned something I remembered, and suddenly I was The Man, who was I working for, what was I trying to learn? Maybe not related at all, and I'm just one person, but just night and day difference. I changed my email address and phone number. Had to.
- caymanjim 4y ago
  Sounds like schizophrenia. In my experience, there are a whole lot of schizophrenics who've taken psychedelics. I can't imagine what it's like to be schizophrenic, so I also can't imagine what it's like to be schizophrenic and take drugs, but it does seems to hit them extra-hard. I don't think the drugs cause anything that wasn't going to happen anyway, but it seems like people who might be in the early stages of schizophrenia come out the other side of a trip changed forever. Since schizophrenia tends to initially manifest in the late teens and early 20s, and this is the age most people start experimenting with drugs, it could be completely coincidental, but I still think LSD in particular pushes people over the line if they were headed there already.
caymanjim 4y ago
I had plenty of experiences with various hallucinogens in my late teens/early 20s (decades ago). It didn't "open my mind" or change my life in any positive way. It was fun for a while. I got high and saw weird shit. I had a lot of stupid conversations about nonsense. I had a few bad trips that probably scarred me for life. It can be pretty traumatic. I wouldn't do them again, and I'll never recommend anyone do them. In my experience, the people who are the most vocal about supposed positive effects of hallucinogens (LSD in particular) are the same people who can go to a seminar for some cult like EST or Scientology and come out thinking they have all the answers to some nebulous question about the meaning of life. Maybe I'm just not that malleable. It always seems to me that the people who "get the most" out of LSD are the people who were barely hanging on to an identity beforehand.
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
  > plenty of experiences with various hallucinogens in my late teens/early 20s Stop. If you're reading this, don't necessarily do psychs when your brain isn't fully developed. Don't do psychs more than once or twice a business quarter. Once or twice a year, if possible!
  - caymanjim 4y ago
    Anyone in their late teens or early 20s is going to roll their eyes right out of their head at this advice. That's when people try drugs. They're not gonna listen to your old ass. In fact, if your advice is "you're not ready, wait until you're older", they're far more likely to try them.
    - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
      Actually just said maybe wait til your brain's fully developed to do them habitually, and here's a hint at why.
    - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
      The people rolling their eyes are the ones who "gets it from a guy they trust" and have never heard of or seen a test kit, so....not sure I care what they think!

12ian34 4y ago

do you drink coffee?

Nursie 4y ago

In my youth, I did too. Still do. I don't have the energy or desire for it any more, but I found some of the experiences beautiful, mind-changing and life affirming. Others were simply ludicrous amounts of fun. And a few were merely boring. These days I'm a successful software engineer in a finance-adjacent space, making good money, living the dream. I don't think LSD is some wonder drug that will save the world, but I do think that there is value in these substances. Young people should be given access to safety advice and clean, measured substances, not scare stories.

keepquestioning 4y ago
Survivorship bias.
- Nursie 4y ago
  Such a claim would be better with evidence. What proportion of people who use LSD end up not 'surviving'? What are the actual, quantifiable harms? And which of those could be mitigated without the oppressive force of the law being in place? How do these harms compare to other substances and activities people undertake?
  - pshc 4y ago
    Right? I've met thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands who have done psychedelics. The bad cases are just the most memorable.
- denkmoon 4y ago
  As opposed to your own highly scientific statistically valid findings.

denkmoon 4y ago

Having a series of psychedelic experiences in my 20s were a significant event in my life and I believe they were absolutely beneficial to my relationship with myself and my relationship with my beliefs. That you put stock in cool sounding bullshit is your own problem, not that of psychedelics. Can you provide any solid evidence that recreationally engaging in psychedelic experiences puts "sanity" at risk any more than other common life experiences?

brooklyndude 4y ago

Steve Jobs may have had an issue with that one. He seemed to do OK. :-) Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could. Steve Jobs