4 ms·

I’ve had two hallucinagenic experiences (acid and 2c-I) and I never got any life changing experiences. Is it like hypnosis where you have to believe in it to ha

by meroes 4y ago

I’ve had two hallucinagenic experiences (acid and 2c-I) and I never got any life changing experiences. Is it like hypnosis where you have to believe in it to have it work? I know someone cured of an addiction from her hypnosis so I know these things happen. I would say I absolutely had hallucinations and the experiences were powerful and long lasting, but I’m still aware it’s a trip.

throbintrash 4y ago
out of curiosity, how old were you? becuase I've been wondering recently what would have happened if I only tried hallucinogenics for the first time now that my brain is much older?
- meroes 4y ago
  I was around 25 for both. Is that considered "late/older"? That's an interesting idea.
  - throbintrash 4y ago
    I would consider it older... it comes down to how quickly does each individual grows up. I think the wisdom teeth are a good paremeter to gauge/compare many individuals together. people's brains, specifically male brains get to full adulthood around 22-25; iirc women get there a couple of years earlier.
- tmnvix 4y ago
  My experience may be of interest to you. I first used LSD around 15-16. It was fun in that novel kind of way. Not life-changing. Around a year later I moved to a new place where LSD was much more accessible and much cheaper. Myself and some new friends started using it frequently (i.e. every 2-3 weeks). I was also smoking pot regularly at the time. Some months later I had become complacent and we decided to go into the city centre on a busy Friday night while under the influence. I had a very bad time. Bad set and setting as they say. Strong paranoia set in - not unlike a lot of people would be familiar with through smoking pot, just much more intense. That bad trip stuck with me. It really was life-changing. I developed strong anxiety, especially in social situations. It was as though, during that trip, my brain had learned some new associations and they persisted. I have a large extended family that includes some with bipolar disorder and one schizophrenic. Knowing this, I was privately very concerned for myself. It took me roughly five years to learn to overcome that anxiety (no drugs or counseling, largely just self reflection). As with most things in life, I don't regret it as it is a part of what made me the person I am today. I know that I missed a lot of opportunities during those years, but I appreciate that I understand myself in a way that I otherwise might not have. I actually feel that I have come out psychologically stronger - able to recognise what is triggering certain feelings and having simple strategies for dealing with them (or even avoiding them in the first place). Part of that whole process was learning that pot wasn't for me (fun as it was initially). Today I don't actually enjoy it at all. Surprisingly, I do occasionally use psychedelics these days. I feel very safe doing so and I put this down to the hard work I put in following that initial bad trip 20+ years ago. What I get out of psychedelics now (largely psilocybin and occasionally LSD) is very different from what I was looking for when I was young. I don't seek out an experience with strong hallucinations in general. I'm there for the psychological insight. I relish the opportunity it allows me for 'objective' self reflection. I know of no other way to be as honest with myself about my self. I get real insights that I later reflect on and that really help me get the most out of my meditation practice. There's a question that you might have come across sometime. "When did you realise that you were the arsehole?" When I first saw that, I didn't give it much thought. Now I do. It's just part of the development of the self. I now welcome those moments where I catch myself being selfish, or reflexively and narcissistically defending the (always) inadequate conception I have of my self. Psychedelics for me are a useful tool for honest introspection. Sometimes it can be exquisitely uncomfortable and you need to be prepared for that but I find it invaluable. Psilocybin seems to be better for this than LSD. It is the only drug I have ever experienced that leaves me feeling noticeably better the following day (I have similar thoughts when using LSD, but somehow it leaves my brain feeling a bit 'frazzled'). TLDR; When younger I chased strong 'fun' hallucinations using psychedelics and paid a price that taught me an important lesson. Today I use them for self reflection and the way they (ironically) help me to maintain and conceive of a more realistic self.
TinyRick 4y ago
Dosage matters a lot. 100-200μg of LSD doesn't do much for me, but 400-500μg is just right for a profound experience. YMMV.
- mtizim 4y ago
  This is some absolutely wrong dosage, please don't ever take actual 400ug doses unless you really know what you're doing. Most tabs sold as 200ug are in the 30-80ug range, so people tend to severely overestimate the dosage.
  - TinyRick 4y ago
    I absolutely agree that non-experienced users should start off with low doses, no more than 100μg. I am very experienced with psychedelics and knew what I was getting into when I took higher amounts. My point was simply that low doses may not result in "life changing experiences", for some to experience that (such as myself) higher doses may be required.
- giantg2 4y ago
  Didn't the scientist discoving it take a "small" amount which is like 10x that much? I always find that story funny for some reason. In this day no scientist is just like "let me try a few mgs of this thing I created" lol
throwaway284234 4y ago
Yeah I've never understood why people say that hallucinations are real, and even "more real" and the "actual reality". The very definition of a hallucination is that it's not real, it's false. What am I missing here?
- mistermann 4y ago
  You may be assuming that your ("the") normal conscious experience is base reality, as opposed to simply a much more common hallucination, which is what it can be revealed to be with a relatively small amount of investigation. Also, there is a distinction between the words that we use to conceptualize and communicate about reality, but consciousness (presumably due to evolution) tends to filter such things out.
  - throwaway284234 4y ago
    Yeah normal consciousness is normal, of course. That's not an assumption that I make, that just a basic fact.
    - mistermann 4y ago
      >> You may be assuming that your ("the") normal conscious experience is base reality > Yeah normal consciousness is normal, of course. That's not an assumption that I make, that just a basic fact. To me, this is fascinating: I clearly compared normal consciousness to base reality but you decided(?) to reply as if I had said "normal consciousness is normal". To me, this is an excellent demonstration of the very thing I am talking about...both the phenomenon itself, but also this part: "...which is what it can be revealed to be with a relatively small amount of investigation" - more precisely: compare how people describe (their) reality, to the objective, shared reality that is literally printed on this web page. Unfortunately, it is child's play for the subconscious to filter this sort of thing out before it reaches the "conscious awareness" stage of the pipeline (and then it still has to contend with ego, pride, cultural norms, post-hoc rationalization, etc) which may make this local maximum extremely difficult for humanity to break out of.
- 4y ago
jotm 4y ago
I guess it doesn't work on/for everyone? I have had extremely realistic hallucinations mostly from side/withdrawal effects, but they were not "life changing".

by meroes 4y ago

throbintrash 4y ago

out of curiosity, how old were you? becuase I've been wondering recently what would have happened if I only tried hallucinogenics for the first time now that my brain is much older?

meroes 4y ago
I was around 25 for both. Is that considered "late/older"? That's an interesting idea.
- throbintrash 4y ago
  I would consider it older... it comes down to how quickly does each individual grows up. I think the wisdom teeth are a good paremeter to gauge/compare many individuals together. people's brains, specifically male brains get to full adulthood around 22-25; iirc women get there a couple of years earlier.
tmnvix 4y ago
My experience may be of interest to you. I first used LSD around 15-16. It was fun in that novel kind of way. Not life-changing. Around a year later I moved to a new place where LSD was much more accessible and much cheaper. Myself and some new friends started using it frequently (i.e. every 2-3 weeks). I was also smoking pot regularly at the time. Some months later I had become complacent and we decided to go into the city centre on a busy Friday night while under the influence. I had a very bad time. Bad set and setting as they say. Strong paranoia set in - not unlike a lot of people would be familiar with through smoking pot, just much more intense. That bad trip stuck with me. It really was life-changing. I developed strong anxiety, especially in social situations. It was as though, during that trip, my brain had learned some new associations and they persisted. I have a large extended family that includes some with bipolar disorder and one schizophrenic. Knowing this, I was privately very concerned for myself. It took me roughly five years to learn to overcome that anxiety (no drugs or counseling, largely just self reflection). As with most things in life, I don't regret it as it is a part of what made me the person I am today. I know that I missed a lot of opportunities during those years, but I appreciate that I understand myself in a way that I otherwise might not have. I actually feel that I have come out psychologically stronger - able to recognise what is triggering certain feelings and having simple strategies for dealing with them (or even avoiding them in the first place). Part of that whole process was learning that pot wasn't for me (fun as it was initially). Today I don't actually enjoy it at all. Surprisingly, I do occasionally use psychedelics these days. I feel very safe doing so and I put this down to the hard work I put in following that initial bad trip 20+ years ago. What I get out of psychedelics now (largely psilocybin and occasionally LSD) is very different from what I was looking for when I was young. I don't seek out an experience with strong hallucinations in general. I'm there for the psychological insight. I relish the opportunity it allows me for 'objective' self reflection. I know of no other way to be as honest with myself about my self. I get real insights that I later reflect on and that really help me get the most out of my meditation practice. There's a question that you might have come across sometime. "When did you realise that you were the arsehole?" When I first saw that, I didn't give it much thought. Now I do. It's just part of the development of the self. I now welcome those moments where I catch myself being selfish, or reflexively and narcissistically defending the (always) inadequate conception I have of my self. Psychedelics for me are a useful tool for honest introspection. Sometimes it can be exquisitely uncomfortable and you need to be prepared for that but I find it invaluable. Psilocybin seems to be better for this than LSD. It is the only drug I have ever experienced that leaves me feeling noticeably better the following day (I have similar thoughts when using LSD, but somehow it leaves my brain feeling a bit 'frazzled'). TLDR; When younger I chased strong 'fun' hallucinations using psychedelics and paid a price that taught me an important lesson. Today I use them for self reflection and the way they (ironically) help me to maintain and conceive of a more realistic self.

TinyRick 4y ago

Dosage matters a lot. 100-200μg of LSD doesn't do much for me, but 400-500μg is just right for a profound experience. YMMV.

mtizim 4y ago
This is some absolutely wrong dosage, please don't ever take actual 400ug doses unless you really know what you're doing. Most tabs sold as 200ug are in the 30-80ug range, so people tend to severely overestimate the dosage.
- TinyRick 4y ago
  I absolutely agree that non-experienced users should start off with low doses, no more than 100μg. I am very experienced with psychedelics and knew what I was getting into when I took higher amounts. My point was simply that low doses may not result in "life changing experiences", for some to experience that (such as myself) higher doses may be required.
giantg2 4y ago
Didn't the scientist discoving it take a "small" amount which is like 10x that much? I always find that story funny for some reason. In this day no scientist is just like "let me try a few mgs of this thing I created" lol

throwaway284234 4y ago

Yeah I've never understood why people say that hallucinations are real, and even "more real" and the "actual reality". The very definition of a hallucination is that it's not real, it's false. What am I missing here?

mistermann 4y ago
You may be assuming that your ("the") normal conscious experience is base reality, as opposed to simply a much more common hallucination, which is what it can be revealed to be with a relatively small amount of investigation. Also, there is a distinction between the words that we use to conceptualize and communicate about reality, but consciousness (presumably due to evolution) tends to filter such things out.
- throwaway284234 4y ago
  Yeah normal consciousness is normal, of course. That's not an assumption that I make, that just a basic fact.
  - mistermann 4y ago
    >> You may be assuming that your ("the") normal conscious experience is base reality > Yeah normal consciousness is normal, of course. That's not an assumption that I make, that just a basic fact. To me, this is fascinating: I clearly compared normal consciousness to base reality but you decided(?) to reply as if I had said "normal consciousness is normal". To me, this is an excellent demonstration of the very thing I am talking about...both the phenomenon itself, but also this part: "...which is what it can be revealed to be with a relatively small amount of investigation" - more precisely: compare how people describe (their) reality, to the objective, shared reality that is literally printed on this web page. Unfortunately, it is child's play for the subconscious to filter this sort of thing out before it reaches the "conscious awareness" stage of the pipeline (and then it still has to contend with ego, pride, cultural norms, post-hoc rationalization, etc) which may make this local maximum extremely difficult for humanity to break out of.
4y ago

jotm 4y ago

I guess it doesn't work on/for everyone? I have had extremely realistic hallucinations mostly from side/withdrawal effects, but they were not "life changing".