Lately this has crossed my mind since I remember clearly thinking the first time I did ayahuasca that this is unlike anything I experienced before.

Some time after that, when I had the time to integrate and have some more trips under my belt in the meanwhile. I compared the both experiences in my head to see if there are any similarities besides the molecular one and what surprised me was the conclusion that even at the same intensity they are two very different things.

This is my personal comparison;

-Ayahuasca feels more ruthless than shrooms, not to say shrooms can't be hard but they are quite playful compared to ayahuasca.

-Shrooms tend to have an hard headspace. The mindfuck is more suited for having fun rather than going deep. Ayahuasca is very clearheaded on that regard and allows much deeper exploration without compromising that for the intensity.

-Ayahuasca has a nasty bodyload but a better body high once it passes. This goes so far that it actually made me want to die a few times just so I could stop experiencing this unbearable pain, nausea, sick feeling along with very heavy grief that comes with intense psychedelic experiences. Shrooms never made me feel like that even with bad trips, the worst thing that has happened to me was just mental.

-Shrooms arguably have better visuals. The amazement for the color enhancement was more prominent on shrooms than any other psychedelic I tried. Also the closed eye visuals seem very tribal in touch with something ancient. On the other hand ayahuasca visuals are also mindblowing but very different IME. It seems more visionary than tribal. I could close my eyes and see like they were open, and when not I would enter a trance like state and go into some wild dreams.

In conclusion: for me they are two very different tools, much like acid and shrooms. Both have some amazing benefits but they are also different, and both have some quirks that are quite annoying so neither is the perfect entheogen. Which would I say is better? Personally I prefer aya but only slightly since it seems more suited for my needs right now (which might not be the case in future).

How would you describe the differences and similarities? Which one do you prefer and why?

After all these years I've only ever got shroom visuals once, on doses as high as ~3.5g. Saw some tracers behind a bumble bee and some vague crystal-y shapes in the sky.

LSD didn't give me any visuals either. Never tried Aya so I can't compare.

Blessings
~ND

I feel sorry for you man... IME as you dose higher you will certifiably please your eyes more but the experience will be much more intense too.

I've maybe had just a few trips on acid and shrooms that were not visual, and I'm pretty sure the experience itself was very weak to begin with to get anything meaningful out of it. They were quite coincidentaly my first few trips since I didn't know what to expect.

I did ayahuasca with a lot psychedelic experience beforehand so this one was always visual, and a lot by the way.

For me, anything below level 3/4 isn't really tripping which means you get some very obvious visuals. So obvious that even walking in a familiar environment should seem like you're there just for the first time. If it is that visual be sure that you will get something powerful and meaningful out of it besides some pretty colors.

For less level of psychodelia it seems easier to just smoke some weed. Non visual trips are kind of a waste of psychedelics IMO. It doesn't let their character out and each one of them feels like the other as McKenna would say.

The problem is that there are so many variables when it comes to ayahuasca. First there are many different admixtures. I think that chacruna, chaliponga, jurema and acacia are the most often used admixtures these days (in the industrialised world). Then there's the difference between caapi (various species), rue, or pure alkaloïds. And then the specific mixture of these ingredients: what substance is dominant in a specific brew? The DMT or the harmala's? etc.

Generally, the more harmala alkaloïds are added, the less the experience will have in common with a shroom-experience.

With lower amounts of caapi, ayahuasca and psilohuasca are, visually at least, pretty close to shrooms in my experience. And the nausea or body load is not so bad.

I like ayahuasca and psilohuasca more, when the caapi is not too dominant though. The main difference for me, is mentally.

I find shrooms pretty superficial when it comes to the emotional effects. For me, shrooms are realy lacking in emotional effects.
Ayahuasca is almost the exact opposite of that. I find that the ayahuasca experience is, contrary to shrooms, so full of feeling. Wich is something i realy love about it.

LSD, mescaline and ayahuasca are my favorite psychedelics, exactly because of this element. These substances never leave me cold or indifferent emtionally. While with shrooms i sometimes realy do feel detached from my emotions.