Hello, I am a new member and would like to share my very first impressions of the site/community.

My very first steps were spent looking at trip experience reports. For some reason, hopefully not some natural morbid tendency, I gravitated towards the bad trip reports. What has utterly blown my mind, is not the report author, or indeed any of their replies, but the replies of the community members. I have simply never before seen so much wisdom and positive humnaity in such compact form. A person posting a report of a bad trip could not be in a better place than right here in the nexus, and even if they dont think so at the time, will probably realise this eventually.

Im actually so blown away by a couple of these threads that I would suggest that anybody thinking of trying DMT (or any psychedelic) for the first time should study these threads very carefully indeed.

I have yet to properly encouter the spice, but have experience with other psychedelics, and I have found the DMT specific information contained in these threads to be very helpful indeed.

May I humbly suggest a couple of these bad trip threads get stickied into a new member guide. While this may seem a bit of a negative impression to give to a new user, I feel the reality grounding content in these threads as positive a survival guide as can be given.

TLDR: My first impressions of nexus have been the best first impressions I have ever had. Thank you universe for guiding me this way

Welcome tripwire...

The Nexus is a true gem among the mountains of dung and fool's gold that make up the internet. Even among the generally good entheogen oriented sites, this place stands out. Perhaps the people who love spice are simply another breed. It does seem to engender a rare combination of increased rationality & compassion.

Spice is so shattering that it doesn't usually result in the kind of delusion reinforcement or fantasy that other psychs can engender. It is humbling. One thing it does do very well, is to expose you to the astounding and utterly miraculous power of novelty that underlies our reality.

That said, the psychedelic road is not always easy to walk. Especially not for people rooted in modern psychotic culture. The more entrenched one is in the mass hysteria we call the modern world, the more likely that they will have a "bad" experience with spice. You will have noticed, though, in following these threads, that the person who had such an experience often comes around to realizing something profound about their experience and many times realizes that they want to go back and do it right.

Anyway. Hope you have fun here. We certainly do.

You have arrived at your destination brother, welcome. As far as I know this is the best place you can come for just about anything. Community lives here.

Welcome tripwire brother.

I have x'd out of replying to this thread twice now, deleting everything both times! (ayahuasca) I just wanted to say that I understand what you mean by being grounded observing the possibilities experienced by others. There was once a time when I went absolutely mad because I was trying too hard to understand. We don't have the capacity for that yet. What happens on the other side could be the most powerful, bizarre, important, intense, healing, weird, beautiful, impossible, event of your life, and we all have found our own ways to integrate the reality bending possibilities of our experiences in our own unique ways. As Hyperspace Fool has pointed out, this is not easy, but if you are a seeker, there is no other way.

Could you provide links to the threads you have found so helpful? I am curious.

Looking forward to sharing more words, time, and mind with you around the forum.

Peace and Hyperspace +

Interestingly, Hyperspace, in my experience this is the inverse for me. Although I've had nothing but good experiences with spice even if they didn't go well, I am more inclined to gravitate toward softer psychedelics like mushrooms and acid. When I came back to this community, I was all about these types. However, there are what I consider 'elders' on this community that I look up to with great reverence, and their words point strongly to semi-regular use of visionary psychedelics like spice/aya and peyote/mesc. If it weren't for their inspiration, I don't think I would be so committed to my exploration of spice. There seems to be a direct connection to spicenauts and being a good person, and so the paradigm shift has been slow but sure for me as I want nothing more than to be a good person that others can hopefully find inspiring as much as these elders are for me. That is to say; The people brought me here, not the spice.

I again agree with everyone here, which you won't find a rarity of occurrence, I assure you It's hard to disagree with people who have an unflinching perpetuation to desire self-truth and through it, truth in others. I've helped so many people since the people on this community have begun helping me.

The Nexus is an abyss of humble truth-seekers and helpers/healers that I can't find the words to adequately express my gratitude for.

Welcome, friend. Thanks for providing ideas to better the Nexus right out of the gate

Hehehe. My dear Serenity... I don't find anything you have said to be inverse to what I said. I concur that the people here rock.

You yourself basically restated my point. "There seems to be a direct connection to spicenauts and being a good person"

So-called "softer" hallucinogens like L and mushies can certainly be challenging and cause growth. At high doses, they can even cause temporary ego death, and are certainly very potent spiritual development tools. The things that sets spice apart in my mind, though, are that:

A) It is far more humbling
&
B) The things it shows you are not wish-fulfillment or fantasy
(why would so many people wish to be boggled and bedazzled by entities they could never have imagined?)

It is the ultimate psychonautical device because it is endogenous, and the commonality of trip reports suggest that spicenauts are exploring an authentic consensual other reality... as opposed to the more personal and subconscious journeys of other avenues. Only the deep disso experience can even approach spice in this regard.

Not that you weren't gentle in making me aware that I appear to have smoked some kind of monster cannabis this fine Sunday evening, but I think I'm going to start spending much more time proofreading (or saying more with less) before submitting, LOL. This is a good lesson.

I agree with what you said, although I haven't yet experienced ego death so I can't say it with the conviction you do. Thanks for the heads up. I just read another post where someone said "The day I decided to let it go and just have fun with my trips was the day the light came to me." Sounds like the opposite of what I've been trying lately <--- shouldn't be trying. I suppose 'intent' and 'trying' are two different words referencing two different ideas (duh). So cheers to a finished bowl of infused chamomile tomorrow.

What I took from your original words is that spice leads good people here. I meant to say that in my experience good people lead me to spice. I'm not sure if that really needed to be mentioned

Can't add much else to the thread, but it's a pleasure reading your response as always.

Its a precious gem to take care of.

I'll second that!

Certainly. I would first like to declare that I have complete respect for the writers of these reports even though they may not have been as harmonized with the universe as they could have been. The point is they reported as they saw it, and when things go a bit crazy that takes a certain level of courage to do. I think i'm trying to say that I hope that by pointing to these threads i'm not inviting any form of ridicule on the authors. Delicate matters, not sure how to phrase what i mean, so simply respect to all.

The first thread selected is Dr Psyconaught's horror trip. Initially it looked like the author perhaps posted a little hastily, but in doing so he conveyed the totality of fear he experienced, and as such was remarkably honest with his information sharing. The perspective and comfort offered by Nexus members, and sheer depth of advice was abosolutely staggering to me. How easy it would have been to reply with ridicule at the author's obvious difficulty. But not here. Anywhere else on the internet, that would have been a ridicule thread. Remarkable. I have sometimes thought that certain psychedelic experiences can give the ultimate human moment. For me, the way the community responded here was a perfect human moment requiring no altered state at all.

Whether through bad luck, or bad planning, difficult experiences should always be expected when working with such potent substances. To know that you can find such support as here at Nexus when the time comes, made me lose a little fear of fear itself. For this very reason I would recommend a first-timer to study this thread. It shows the worst that can happen, and the support available should it do so.

The second thread selected is skinwalker's nightmare. This is selected for all the reasons given above and a few more. It shows the limits of acceptable behaviour on Nexus without ever becoming nasty. Highly emotionally charged communication reveals the essence of the contributors. With the curtain of control drawn just a little, there is exposed the true (raw) nature of the people involved. And yet even here, in a difficult discussion, the compassion and desire to help never ceases to flow. Sometimes the right answer to a difficult problem is to keep away from psychedelics, and many experienced users were prepared to give this advice where needed.

I am a great believer in seeing things in their worst possible light to know the most about them. Glowing reports and information often fail to give the complete picture. The cracks in the pavement tell me more about the pavement than the paving stones alone. This is why I loved these threads and felt compelled to write this thread. A starting voyager has probably heard of the amazing beauty to be found with psychedelics. By having a long hard look at how wrong things can go really helps build a full perspective of what is at stake.

And without a doubt, this material helps a new voyager to gain the highest order of respect he/she will need when dealing with such potent substances. Without even trying DMT, I feel much better prepared for reading these threads thoroughly. Which is why I think they are an essential part of a beginner's guide.

I didnt get such stark important lessons from the good trip reports...

If I could risk summing up a carefully written post, it seems the message is: "Things COULD go terribly wrong. Have courage. We are here for you." And of course, pairing this message with bad experience reports that are received well by the community would illustrate this point finely.

I really like how you've looked at this, tripwire.

Instead of bad experiences, I suppose I should say difficult experiences.