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A trip can't be explained. You have to live it. From what I remember from my few experiences during my adolescence, a nice trip feels (visually) something simil

by joeyspn 12y ago

A trip can't be explained. You have to live it. From what I remember from my few experiences during my adolescence, a nice trip feels (visually) something similar to this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sZ_vwqwcE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sZ_vwqwcE. Pixelation, fractals and weird japanese voices included… =) I don’t think I will ever repeat it, and I don’t think I need it. I was very fortunate to try it before my 20s. That level of introspection and decoupling from reality changes your point of view for the rest of your life, so I think I got all the benefits quite early. I became more creative, in fact I excelled in creativity in the Uni. I would easily come up with engineering and design solutions that my professors couldn’t even imagine. I really think LSD made be a better problem solver. Steve Jobs (and many prominent artists like The Beatles) liked it for a reason… Here's one of Jobs quotes: “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 Think about what that means…

fragmede 12y ago
The whole "can't be explained" thing is really annoying. Visually, a trip is very similar to this gif http://i.imgur.com/w9ygNoP.gif http://i.imgur.com/w9ygNoP.gif Mentally, it's like a series of breakthroughs you'd get after years of therapy wrapped up into a couple hours. You have to give people some explanation, otherwise we'll never progress past "I heard Lucy makes people go crazy and they think they can fly so they jump off the Golden Gate Bridge".
- stef25 12y ago
  That's the only gif I've seen that illustrates the visual part of tripping quite well
- refurb 12y ago
  I think the sensory changes are easy to explain, but the psychological ones are harder. One way i've heard it explained is that it allows you to look at yourself and your life without being you. That is, it puts you in a state that somewhat strips away the filtering mechanism of your ego. You can look at an issue/idea/concern without your brain immediately reacting to it because of who you are. That said you can also have a lot of "revelations" that seem profound when in that state, but seem pretty silly when sober.
  - jarin 12y ago
    Yeah, to me the benefit was not the actual ideas I had while tripping (which were generally less profound than I thought at the time), but just experiencing a truly different state of mind. It was also pretty interesting having the subsystems of your brain (visual, spatial, temporal, etc.) kind of clearly delineated for a little while and having it really demonstrated to you that they're all different parts of what makes your mind "you". It's not something I'd recommend doing for a very long period of time, but I think a lot of people would get a benefit from doing it a few times and going to a nature environment, having philosophical discussions, etc. with friends.
- sillysaurus3 12y ago
  Another annoying aspect of LSD is that it's impossible to say anything bad about LSD without being jumped on by people who have made LSD part of their own identity, the same way being a Democrat is part of their identity. Try saying anything bad about either one, and you're in for a bad time. It's possible that the silent majority simply feel that spending a bunch of time in an altered LSD state is a crazy thing to do. People claim they are profoundly different after tripping, but if you look at what they do, not what they say, they don't seem much different. They seem like pretty much the same person, if you look at their accomplishments before and after. That's not to discount the therapeutic properties. If LSD can help someone in pain, whether physical or emotional, then it's a great tool. But that's a very different situation from what most LSD proponents seem to imply: that everyone should do it for no particular reason except curiosity. And curiosity is nice, but we should at least be willing to admit what it is: an interesting experience, the same way taking a vacation to a remote tropical island is an interesting experience. But you'll still be pretty much the same person before and after your vacation, though more relaxed afterwards.
  - pcthrowaway 12y ago
    Psychedelics are a part of my own identity, but moreso DMT and mushrooms than LSD. In fact, I have had several terrifying experiences with LSD that left me a bit shaken. I've also known people to go off the deep end with LSD. I think drugs should be taken with caution, and LSD is one that I am reluctant to take again (though there is a fair chance I will at some point). LSD has shown me a power to ravage the human psyche in ways that I haven't seen in mushrooms or LSD, and therefore I consider it to have the potential to be somewhat more dangerous.
  - eatmyshorts 12y ago
    A few counterpoints to your statement, "if you look at what the do, not what they say, they don't seem much different." Francis Crick attributed his discovery of DNA to LSD. Steve Jobs attributed much of his accomplishments in life due to his experiences on LSD (iirc, his aversion to buttons was developed during one particular LSD trip, and this led to the design of the one-button mouse, the click-wheel on the iPod, and the button-less front face of the iPhone). Jimmy Hendrix also attributed much of his creative abilities due to LSD. I think you'll find as many examples of people who are transformed by it as you want to. Put your blinders on, and it's just a drug to "turn on, tune in, and drop out". First-hand experiences of the drug, like psilocybin (chemically basically the same drug), show that people truly do have positive life-altering changes in their lives after the experience.
- maroonblazer 12y ago
  That gif is great. In terms of physical sensation, someone once likened it to the shiver you sometimes experience while urinating, except lasting several hours instead of a fraction of a second. I always liked that analogy.
- MichaelMoser123 12y ago
  how is that different from just getting drunk? i suggest drinking with your friends (if you have any) the experience is also truly mind-changing - all that without the risk of becoming psychotic because of substances abuse while moderately drunk analogies are created uninhibited, now Hofstaedter says that analogies are the core of cognitions, so much for that. And now i am wishing everybody here a happy new year ;-)

by joeyspn 12y ago

fragmede 12y ago

The whole "can't be explained" thing is really annoying. Visually, a trip is very similar to this gif http://i.imgur.com/w9ygNoP.gif http://i.imgur.com/w9ygNoP.gif Mentally, it's like a series of breakthroughs you'd get after years of therapy wrapped up into a couple hours. You have to give people some explanation, otherwise we'll never progress past "I heard Lucy makes people go crazy and they think they can fly so they jump off the Golden Gate Bridge".

stef25 12y ago
That's the only gif I've seen that illustrates the visual part of tripping quite well
refurb 12y ago
I think the sensory changes are easy to explain, but the psychological ones are harder. One way i've heard it explained is that it allows you to look at yourself and your life without being you. That is, it puts you in a state that somewhat strips away the filtering mechanism of your ego. You can look at an issue/idea/concern without your brain immediately reacting to it because of who you are. That said you can also have a lot of "revelations" that seem profound when in that state, but seem pretty silly when sober.
- jarin 12y ago
  Yeah, to me the benefit was not the actual ideas I had while tripping (which were generally less profound than I thought at the time), but just experiencing a truly different state of mind. It was also pretty interesting having the subsystems of your brain (visual, spatial, temporal, etc.) kind of clearly delineated for a little while and having it really demonstrated to you that they're all different parts of what makes your mind "you". It's not something I'd recommend doing for a very long period of time, but I think a lot of people would get a benefit from doing it a few times and going to a nature environment, having philosophical discussions, etc. with friends.
sillysaurus3 12y ago
Another annoying aspect of LSD is that it's impossible to say anything bad about LSD without being jumped on by people who have made LSD part of their own identity, the same way being a Democrat is part of their identity. Try saying anything bad about either one, and you're in for a bad time. It's possible that the silent majority simply feel that spending a bunch of time in an altered LSD state is a crazy thing to do. People claim they are profoundly different after tripping, but if you look at what they do, not what they say, they don't seem much different. They seem like pretty much the same person, if you look at their accomplishments before and after. That's not to discount the therapeutic properties. If LSD can help someone in pain, whether physical or emotional, then it's a great tool. But that's a very different situation from what most LSD proponents seem to imply: that everyone should do it for no particular reason except curiosity. And curiosity is nice, but we should at least be willing to admit what it is: an interesting experience, the same way taking a vacation to a remote tropical island is an interesting experience. But you'll still be pretty much the same person before and after your vacation, though more relaxed afterwards.
- pcthrowaway 12y ago
  Psychedelics are a part of my own identity, but moreso DMT and mushrooms than LSD. In fact, I have had several terrifying experiences with LSD that left me a bit shaken. I've also known people to go off the deep end with LSD. I think drugs should be taken with caution, and LSD is one that I am reluctant to take again (though there is a fair chance I will at some point). LSD has shown me a power to ravage the human psyche in ways that I haven't seen in mushrooms or LSD, and therefore I consider it to have the potential to be somewhat more dangerous.
- eatmyshorts 12y ago
  A few counterpoints to your statement, "if you look at what the do, not what they say, they don't seem much different." Francis Crick attributed his discovery of DNA to LSD. Steve Jobs attributed much of his accomplishments in life due to his experiences on LSD (iirc, his aversion to buttons was developed during one particular LSD trip, and this led to the design of the one-button mouse, the click-wheel on the iPod, and the button-less front face of the iPhone). Jimmy Hendrix also attributed much of his creative abilities due to LSD. I think you'll find as many examples of people who are transformed by it as you want to. Put your blinders on, and it's just a drug to "turn on, tune in, and drop out". First-hand experiences of the drug, like psilocybin (chemically basically the same drug), show that people truly do have positive life-altering changes in their lives after the experience.
maroonblazer 12y ago
That gif is great. In terms of physical sensation, someone once likened it to the shiver you sometimes experience while urinating, except lasting several hours instead of a fraction of a second. I always liked that analogy.
MichaelMoser123 12y ago
how is that different from just getting drunk? i suggest drinking with your friends (if you have any) the experience is also truly mind-changing - all that without the risk of becoming psychotic because of substances abuse while moderately drunk analogies are created uninhibited, now Hofstaedter says that analogies are the core of cognitions, so much for that. And now i am wishing everybody here a happy new year ;-)