DMT was my intro in to the real psychedelic experience and that was years ago. However I'm not able to stealthily purchase any root bark as of now.
I got hold of psylocibin and grew a few hundred grams.
But boy, this is madness. How can one be in such a sensitive state for such a long time? With DMT you barely have any control but with shrooms there is a responsibility to guide the trip.
Any thoughts?

Nil-Seer,

Welcome to the Nexus.

Sorry you cannot procure root bark currently.

I am not sure I fully 100% understand your post.

Seems to me the important things with DMT are also important with other entheogenic plants and drugs, it's just that DMT radically ups the ante.

You know, things like set and setting. Being able to let go and surrender. Acceptance and integration.

Those kinds of things in my mind are kind of universal to the territory of "doing the work."

Unless you are partaking in a John Hopkins or MAPS end of life or PTSD study I'm not sure about the value of "guided trips," or even if such a thing is possible.

I do see how one can set an intention and part of that can be a request for help or healing. But generally, as far as I can tell, the most successful requests of that type are made without judgement or attempts to influence outcomes. No guiding needed. Just letting go and a willingness to learn and grow.

Of course, all of this is just the opinions of one person. Perhaps I missed the understanding of your inquiry.

Regardless, welcome to the Nexus. I hope you find what you seek and look forward to seeing you around, .

Thanks for the reply Pandora.
What I mean is..the headspace during a mushroom trip is quite a sensitive one, and seeing that it lasts a long time..It just scares me really..

Thanks haha.. coming from Reddit, this seems like a fresh change of pace, much more maturity here.

Nothing wrong with a little healthy fear as long as it informs rather than rules us.

Also there is nothing wrong with starting low and working your way up until you find a sweet spot, assuming you have that kind of time available.

Maybe like 1 gram, then a week later 2 grams, then a week later 3 grams, then I would encourage to bump up 0.5 grams per week after that to get a good sense of the territory.

Many long trips have pleasant and challenging parts. Nothing wrong with feeling sensitive or vulnerable. There are many tried and true techniques, like changing the activity or music or company to turn difficult experiences around. Many people hum or sing.

The sensitivity and vulnerability are a way of seeing a part of oneself that is normally heavily impacted by consensual reality filters. It might inform us about deeper parts of ourselves or perhaps even lend us empathy for what others are experiencing on their journey through life.

If one knows one will be opened up in this way and perhaps need more recovery time than just a meal and a good night's sleep then I believe it is important to make sure that time is set aside in advance before embarking on a soul opening journey.

I think I understand where you are coming from as someone who currently prefers short duration psychedelic experiences, especially one that comes with DMT.

It's short, and it relieves you of needing to have any control because of the complete loss of ego associated with larger doses.

When I was younger and life was devoid of any serious life altering responsibilities like a flow of income and taking care of your health, taking psychedelics always came easy to me. I relished in 4g mushroom trips on a weekly basis and never had any issues albeit maybe some uncomfortable social interactions or generalized anxiety on a solo trip.

But now that I'm older and my brain is filled with anxiety ridden tasks like planning ahead of my future, excelling at my career, and being conscious about diet and exercise etc, I've found it difficult to let go during a psychedelic trip for a prolonged duration.

It's completely normal to feel unsure about your ability to handle a powerful hallucinogenic experience. Good news is you have options.

1) If you are hesitant to jump into the psychedelic abyss, maybe you shouldn't. Having doubts is a tell tale sign that you may not be ready for an introspective experience, especially if you feel like you are in a dark and unstable place in your life.

2) I encourage you to heavily research what it's like to take psilocybin. Read books like Food of the Gods by Terence McKenna. Read the vast amounts of trip reports posted here, on Erowid, and TheShroomery. Get a sense of the mushroom and make friends with it before taking it out on a date.

3) Start with very low doses and work your way up, allowing your body and mind to get to know the substance a little at a time. Take it out for a cup of coffee before asking it out to dinner or for a sleepover. (The analogy here obviously being a real date lol)

If you feel like you can only consume a substance that puts you in autopilot, psychedelics might not be the right medicine for you.

For me... I like to make sure my ducks are in row with my life before undertaking a psychedelic journey... as loving someone else can be difficult before first loving yourself. I know it's a cliche, but it most certainly seems to be the case for entheogenic plants that demand respect before engaging with.

TL;DR : Do your research, learn, start small, take your time, get your life in order. These substances are not "cure alls" as a lot of people like to preach. Yes, they can be temporary bandaids, but they should be treated as medicines for life's many ailments.

That's just my 2 cents from someone who is currently attempting to muster the courage to start trying mushrooms again. I will be trying Mescaline soon, which I hear is a bit easier on the psyche as it is a phenethylamine like MDMA and not a tryptamine like LSD or psilocybin.

As you noticed by Pandora's response (whom is part of the welcoming committee as I try to be, because I know what it's like to be new) this place is certainly different, and in no way like Reddit. We practice harm reduction here, we encourage the growing/cultivating/extracting of your own medicines, and we focus more on quality posts and family.

For sure it's like any other forum, we're only people, but our mission here is to strive for professionalism and empathy. I've only been active on the forums for the better half of 6 months and I certainly feel like family here. I care about this place, and with conscious effort one day you will too!

Also, as far as Cubensis dosing goes. Out of my 75 or so trips I had, half were 1.75g for a lighter trip like going on a hike, and 3.5 grams was for intense solo trips, listening to music, painting etc. I've never exceeded 4g as I felt it was a little too intense for me, but everyone is different, so like Pandora said, working your way up is a smart way to go. The difference between 2 and 3 grams is substantial from my experiences. So 1 gram, then 2, then maybe 2.5, then 3 and then 3.5. Most people find their happy place at 3.5, but this always depends on the strain and how potent that particular strain was bred to grow. Sorry for the rant! Hope it helps!

Welcome and be safe. Ask all the questions you want. That's what this place is here for.

You articulated it so well Toshido!
Really glad for the validation!
Yeah I'm going through a similar thing..
The fact of the matter is I'm already a introspective person by nature and shrooms amplify it by a thousand.. what I'm looking for is an immersive visual experience.. I've had only 3 trips so far and they were all too mental.. I didn't close my eyes.. which I'm planning to do if I trip again on shrooms
..
Yeah of course I've done a lot of research.. basically after my DMT trip I scoured the internet and raved to McKenna's lecture for hours,read his books too..his praise for the psylocibin experience is what yearned me towards it actually..
My first trip was 3.5gs + lemon tek and I could somewhat "handle'(by which I mean actively stop my ego from shattering), and I "met' the mushroom entity and she spoke and there was also something like a handshake kinda thing happening...my second was 1.5gs + lemon tek and it was fine.. The third was the one I grew and just 1.2gs knocked me off, I think they were too potent, like I could feel the shrooms energy taking over my entire body..
its not per se the trip that concerns me, it's the repeated exposure to it and it's effect on my psyche.. and that's what I'm starting to wonder, whether something such as 'my psyche' even exists or whether it's all a play of energies of the environment..

You should look into getting a hold of some san pedro cactus and try your hand at mescaline. I think this would be the perfect psychedelic for you as it does not come along with that heavy, mental head space as with other psychedelics(shrooms,lsd ect).

It is the most gentle i find of all the psychedelics and i have had my fair share of them all. Mescaline allows you to have profound experiences but at the same time it doesn't dominate your psyche during the experience. It falls under the same family as MDMA so it has that very uplifting/euphoric effect. It is very uncommon to have bad trips with mescaline from what i have read from others. I have had it many times and never had a bad experience as I have had with some of the other psychedelics.

Yeah, that happens even on a microdose of shrooms.

Thanks Pandora, I will keep this in mind if I trip again on mushrooms.

While I largely agree with this, it's still worth pointing out that several experienced members here have found that, once in a while, mescaline can prove very challenging - even at a dose level with which they were previously comfortable. Given the long duration of mescaline's action, these times were reported to be both gruelling and humbling, typically. Like all psychedelics, mescaline is deserving of a special level of respect.

For sure, I definitely do agree with what you are saying. There definitely is a level of respect involved with taking any psychoactive substance. As mentioned, i think it is much less common to have a bad experience on mescaline although not always guaranteed as there is always the possibility with any substance to have a intense/bad experience. There are many factors that could influence your experience, such as where you are mentally in your everyday life. I just think in my experience mushrooms can be alot more mentally draining/heavy headload compared to my mescaline experiences. But as always, proceed with caution and do research before doing anything for the first time as everyone can experience each substance differently.

[/quote] Yeah, that happens even on a microdose of shrooms.[/quote]

I agree with what Toshido said, mushrooms need respect like all entheogens, and I agree with your summation that large doses can be a real turnoff sometimes.

My average is 0.3 gm and sometimes up to 0.8 gm, if I go higher I take my life into my own hands. Like you I like what it does and have enormous respect for mushroom power. All I can add is to keep it low and slow, enjoy the small things and sometimes that's enough.

Hey there,

I can totally see where you're coming from. I am the opposite of you though, I can handle high doses of long lasting psychedelics but the short acting ones like DMT or salvia (which I personally dislike) scare me. For me being able to gradually adjust to the experience makes it way easier than suddenly having your world ripped apart. So sudden on salvia I forgot I had smoked any and thought I was dying! The head spaces in long lasting psychedelics are tricky at first. You're gonna go through emotion swings like no other. Everything will be greatly exaggerated. At first you are not used to/unable to control the mind loops and if you get caught in a bad one it can eat you alive for hours. Thats why set/setting is soo important. After you get more experienced though, you learn to just accept all the bad feelings. One of the best LSD experiences I have ever had was laying in a warm bath, listening to the white album and weeping at all the painful memories I associated with it that came flooding back. These experiences are extremely insightful and leave you with long lasting, different outlooks on times that were previously thought as bad. You will eventually come to realize that vulnerable is a great thing I wish you all the happiest trips one can have my friend.
Love

Talking about a short or long molecule experiance ... for me it can be timeless..

a 15 minute vaped experiance ... on the molecule..for me .. has a distorted sense of time...can be like a timeless trip through many evolving lifetimes ...

Time can be preceived in many ways...A short trip or a longer trip... is there any real difference/?

For some...a 20 minute vaped experiance..can be like 20 years....[like dreams]...Time is all in the way it is preceived...