When I come down from a peak of an LSD trip, if the peak was enough to give me some form of ego death and connection to infinite oneness and the universe (as it usually does with moderate dosage), I find that the rest of the trip is rather uncomfortable.

I feel a pressure in my head that I never felt on the come up or peak, also I find that after the peak is over the rest of the visuals and whatnot are not as exciting because they aren't as defining and incredible as the peak experience. The head pressure/aches I feel I think are caused by splitting the ego, for some reason, I can physically feel it, I know I can!

Does anyone have any thoughts about this or the LSD comedown in general?

Safe travels~<3

the whole experience is excitatory, as opposed to inhibitory, as far as receptor signaling goes; it's only natural to experience some sort of side effect when the physiological effects of LSD subside. I mean, ffs...you're tripping for 8 - 12 hrs with a moderate dose.

Good LSD isn´t supposed to have these kind of side-effects. I find the come-down rather pleasant. It could be that you have had lousy LSD, fake-LSD (bromo-dragonfly, DOx, etc.) or that you´ve smoked an awfull lot of cannabis (with nicotine) during the trip.

Maybe you where in a room with little fresh air or with high a temperature. LSD is a vasoconstrictor and when these effects subside it could maybe lead to a very rapid change when you´re in a room with high temperature´s, dozed-out with cannabis or when you´ve taken lot´s of caffeine.

I've had the same effect from good lsd, it's a comedown effect.
your mind goes through a fireworks show for several hours, of course it'll have a rebound effect of some sort. once the vasocontriction ends, well..

I remember a talk that Kat Harrison gave where she mentioned how LSD always gave her headaches while she was comming down..she said she always had a pain killer on hand in case it was that bad and some really good cannabis to smoke.

Some people seem to be more prone to this lsd headache. My gf often has headache during the comedown of lsd, including with analysed pure acid, while I dont, even taking much higher amount.

I think it´s because the vasoconstriction ends. Could be a counter-reaction. Especially when there are other factors that would cause vasolidation (heat, caffeine, alcohol, etc)....sudden 'burst of circulation'.

I don´t think it´s psychological because a substance like mescaline can last much longer, and i´ve never heard of mescaline-headaches.

oh god I have felt like crap after mescaline a few times..stuff really has an ability to run me down and have me tired for the next day. Mescaline is extremely theraputic and beautiful for sure..but it feels harsher in the long run on the body for me compared to ayahuasca or mushrooms..I have had a headache and sore body the day after mescaline, and it is worth it-but keeps me from taking mescaline often.

Nah dude pure LSD, have tripped on it many times with the same head pressure every time, but only when my peak leads to fractured ego. Strange. It's like I can feel a separation of the left and right side of the brain.

I find that the fullness-in-my-head feeling lasts a few days after dosing. I love it. It's one of my favorite effects. I don't get headaches.

I dose with transdermal magnesium as well as turmeric + black pepper for anti inflammatory. This helps a lot. After the peak I LOVE to consume harmalas, like ayahuasca, or vaporized harmaline, because it counters any constriction and smooths out the stimulation.

Keep experimenting.

Could it be caused by a forced opening of the third eye? I've kind of associated it with that and too much light entering extra dilated eyes.

I definitely will house thanks! This has always been with LSD alone, I have yet too try DMT + LSD even though I have DMT around when I take it, just hasn't seemed like the right time and I am a bit afraid of going too far.

I believe it is because of the forced opening

You may be on to something.

As I experienced ego death/mystical union once while peaking on LSD, I felt a weird pressure where the third eye is supposed to be. I would describe it as an inward, horizontal pulling sensation, almost painful but not quite.

Maybe someone else can relate...

Stanislav Grof in his book LSD Psychotherapy (which I highly recommend) mentions alot of times that a poorly resolved psychedelic session can leave you feeling fatigued or with a slight headache the next day. A Poorly resolved LSD session is one that brings to the surface material from the unconscious mind and the user is trying to avoid them by "fighting" the experience, or the effect of the LSD ends before the material is fully brought into consciousness.

As for the headache only when you have some form of ego death on medium doses, it might well be elements of the reliving of your own birth. The so called "perinatal unfolding" is a highly important experiential sequence that is happening with medium to high dosages of LSD and it generally consists of reliving the horrors of birth in various forms and intensities in order to reach the final/total ego death. It is more of a rite of passage or a spiritual transformation. Pressure in the head is felt by the embryo when is pushed through the birth canal.

According to Grof, some people can have access to the positive elements of this process, in a sense, prematurely or, as mentioned earlier that your third eye is opened prematurely which is more of a symbolic term. Also, Grof states that he has met a lot of people who have taken LSD hundreds of times in an externalized way and they have never even started the process. But nevertheless, you cannot exclude the fact that LSD is highly unpredictable and it has the ability to concentrate into areas of the human psyche in which there is great emotional charge. So although your intentions and expectations of your trip could be anything, small elements from the perinatal realm could have "leaked" in your trip due to the higher dosage.

It is also been noticed that when an unconscious memory starts coming up in front, then all the rest of the trips, even if someone can find differences, are characterized by the same general theme until the material is fully relieved and integrated. This is an observation coming from sequential LSD sessions with 1 to 2 weeks intervals. But from my own experience with my own mind, this can happen with longer intervals in-between. What I want to point out is that you might never be able to get rid of this pressure by avoiding its occurrence. Instead, you can do some reading, see if it resonates with you, change your set/setting and invite this pressure in.

riiiight...
this is not a fact at all. if it was, I wouldn't have become bored with it from doing it so much.
I take Grov's writings (like Strassman's) with a grain of salt, as it transcends scientific reasoning into the metaphysical realm, a lot of which is still anecdotal, and subject to interpretation. mildly interesting, nonetheless.

Bored? Breakthrough on dmt a couple times and then take a stiff dose of lsd someday after that..you'll probably find it WAY different, like most do. I take their writings with a grain of salt to but also with a breakthrough dose of dmt so i have to disagree that its only 'mildly interesting'

I sometimes experience this pressure on the head too. Only once did I find it very unpleasant, but it allways fades away over time.
My girlfriend sometimes has migraine headaches and a tidbit of acid can make it disappear in minutes.


Because it's known to be able to instantly cancel migraines, it's not inconceivable that it could do the opposite in people
who do not suffer from migraine headaches. Just like Amphetamines can calm a person with ADD/ADHD, yet will excite and energise
those who do not have ADD/ADHD.

LSD is highly unpredictable in many ways. But to concentrate it more on the subject and what I really mean here is that because "somebody" has the desire to have a blissful experience, doesn't mean that LSD will offer it for him. For instance, MDMA is predictable. LSD is not.

And I cannot really get the logical connection between the predictability of LSD and the fact that you get bored on it. This is a personal reaction to the substance and the reason behind it could be anything apart from its qualities and certainly *not* because you have done it too much..Lot's of people have done it too much and they still get very very high on it every single time. There are also some people who take enormous amounts and they report minimal effects. But this is not the reaction an average person would have.

But this is the reaction of one person. If you give LSD to 10000 people and you collect data, then you can observe, think and try to make something out of it. That is what Grof has done. "LSD Psychotherapy" is the most scientific book written for one of the most non-scientific topics. In my opinion he does not transcend scientific reasoning into the metaphysical realm at all. I wonder where exactly did you see that?? I am really curious to re-open my book and find it. What he does is to give his observations straight on to your eyes and propose a possible explanation that fits best with the current theories of the psyche. He is extremely careful with the language he is using. And when things get bizzare and into the transpersonal reals, he avoids to "explain" them and he just gives them as a fact of people's experience,and for people's food for thought with a note of sceptisism that metaphysical reality could be possible. He has also tried to validate crazy stuff that people have mentioned to him that came from their experience. A very interesting read.

And when you say anecdotal what exactly do you mean??

I have read quite a few books about psychedelics but Grof was the best map I have seen for my experiences. It is the most complete work on LSD ever written and it can act as a brilliant guide for someone that wants to use LSD not just to experience the beauties of a "trip", but also how to use it to transform his consciousness in everyday life.

I am gonna tell you a little story now in order to reach a conclusion..

A couple of years ago I drunk Ayahuasca in a workshop being held in the UK. I remember at some point I got out and I was starring at the sky. I suddenly felt my body to be in a great state. It is difficult to describe the sense of balance and strength I felt in my body. It just felt amazing. Soooo nice but at the same time it felt so "normal". I thought that Ayahuasca had "healed" my body image and it will stay like that. Unfortunately it didn't and after that experience I started going to the gym in order to try and strengthen my body and heal it myself after years of mistreating it. What I noticed though was that after a few months, I could lift 2-3 times the kilo's I could lift when I first started but, when I was tryin to do something different, for example push-ups I was falling dead on the floor. So I abandoned the gym and started doing exercises with my body weight as I found it a more complete form of exercise. At some point, I had the chance to attend an Ashtanga Yoga class. I was magically touched by that practice. I stopped everything and I started practicing it 1, 2, or maybe 3 times a week depending on external circumstances. I also started reading about yoga and I was doing it just as a form of physical exercise.

But I was always getting tired and stiff and I was hurting alot even after a few months of practice. And my progress was small. So I started to think about it and try to read some more and find some info. The best solution was found by accident in one of the books of John Lilly, I think it was "The center of the Cyclone". To make a long story short, the solution was to do the practice as it is "prescribed" by the books on the subject. Which is, 6 times a week for 1 hour and a half, every week. With empty stomach. No matter if you feel tired, hungry or excused about "other things to do". Practice practice practice. And all is coming. So I did. There were times, many times that I wanted to just collapse on the floor. There were many times that I was questioning myself why I was doing that. There were times that I was cancelling my social life because I was too tired after practice to do anything. Now, after three months of this, I just do not have words to describe what is happening to me. I am close to this sensation that Ayahuasca gave me, but ALL the time. I feel light as a feather, calm and concentrated. I go up the stairs as if I am walking on straight pavement. (Not to mention a large increase on my sensitivity to LSD).

So the point here is that, I believe many people have read books or articles on Yoga. Some of them have seen them with sceptisism, others might have been inspired and others will immediately dismiss them. But very very few will do the sacrifice and follow what is written on a method and find out for themselves. It is the same thing with Grof's work. Of all these people who have read the book, how many did they do exactly what is proposed in this book in order to find out for themselves if Grof's model works or not?? It is not an easy work at all. It is very hard work indeed.LSD is hard work. But I believe it is worth the effort!!

LSD was completely predictable to me, I knew how it was going to be, even when meditating. That's a fact. You telling me that it isn't predictable, contrary to my past experiences with it, isnt.