That is the question.. I find, that I have more fun, more laughs, and more "strange" moments when me and a group are together on ANY such psychedelics.
But at the same time, When alone, you kind of experience the drug, and not "your friends on the drug". I am saying that when alone in a dark room, one might at times feel lonely, or paranoid. But if you can take "the drug" with the intentions of discovering the drug and not setting off to just have a good ol' time, the chances of having a profound experience are much greater. Almost every bad trip I have ever read or heard, comes from someone with a group of friends, or someone who was just taking it to get messed up.

Now ask yourself, how many times has one taken a psychedelic with no intention of learning anything? But rather to "get your kicks, get out of it quick, and make all kinds of money and chicks"? metaphorically speaking and reciting Bob Dylan there.

For those of you who have not heard Terence Mckenna say it, next time on any psychedelic, if your brave enough. Ask it to "stop pleasing me, and show me who you really are, do what you want to do, but show me the real you. I am in your hands now, if I die I die, But I have full trust that you will keep me safe within your realm"

Try it out, SWIM was skeptical at first, and after SWIMS last mushroom trip I think he is a strong believer of this method..

I am sure that many of the members in here are dedicated to working with psychedelics in exactly this way you are talking about, and have had many deep sessions alone.

I have to agree with Citta. Within the short period of time i have spent on these boards i am impressed with the overall attitude of doing "work" with these psychedelics, specifically DMT/aya. I think that if you are listening to Mckenna you are seeing how valuable this can be for personal and spiritual growth.

"We have to create culture, don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR; create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y.

This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world."
— Terence McKenna

to be honest.. swim has only tripped with people a handful of times... the rest all by swim's self,,countless... swim likes it this way... really gives the user a chance to dive in to theirself or into whatever it is that one is trying to learn... the ability to overcome paranoia and fear is all within yourself.. it also comes with knowing that you are eternal and within the oneness.. that you are one with all things period... knowing that gives you a "groundedness"..that you are connected to source and that source loves you with all of life.. with that "groundedness" one can go as far as they soul desire... now swim isn't saying to go and take a major dose by oneself all of a sudden... you have to develop relationship with the psychedelics.. so it's always good to start at the shallow end if you don't know how to swim and then gradually make your way in to the deep end..

SWIM has only ever found one other person willing to take the doses of the longer acting psychedelics that she found useful. So, beyond that year and a half, it's been pretty much alone.

I remember the first time I realized how easy it was to overcome the onset of a bad trip (that feeling where you realize your about to have a bad trip but you dont want to admit it yet). I was with a big group of about 8 people all tripping on acid and 2c-I up in northern michigan camping. I took 5 hits of blotter acid, I knew that the blotter was weak, reason I took so much.. so once i started feeling the rabbit, I dropped the sugar cube with 30mg of a 2c-i tincture on it. and within an hour i had more visuals than I have ever had on acid, or 2c-I. I walked off into the wilderness by myself because I thought I was about to fall off the deep end. I sat in the grass and started thinking back on past bad trips, and realized, that I know damn well what drugs I took, and I know how big my doses were for each, I am perfectly safe, and I am not going to die, and i have not been poisoned. suddenly BAM! I was finding myself rolling in the grass and leaves laughing because I finally learned how to overcome a bad trip, and realized it happened because I was ALONE. Since then, I have had way more solitary trips than in groups. group trips are reserved for a grateful dead show or pink floyd or something of the sort.

this is all lies, none of what i say is true, simply fiction.