I am considerably unexpirienced at tripping and have only used psilocybin in the past. I am curious as to the differences in some hallucinogens. Especially LSD and DMT. I hear that LSD Is more intense than shrooms, but more controllable. Shrooms is more of an ancient primitive perception shifter IMO, and DMT is the most intense shortest duration, and most traumatic. I want to use caution with my experimentation in psychonautry, and want to know what to expect. I have had a few bad trips on shrooms, not completely bad but more of panic and confusion. Frustration. And utter depression. But I've had wonderful trips also, and would be interested to hear if some drugs are more prone to bad experiences. What I should look out for?

Well to point you in the direction of a "reliable" positive entheogen, I refer you to this thread on cactus: https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=35520

I've done LSD many times along with mushrooms. "LSD more intense than mushrooms"??...both are intense in their own right. Both can throw you out there real far. It's not a matter of one being more intense than the other. I've had harrowing journeys on both and amazing journeys on both. It really depends alot on the mindset of the individual prior to and during the experience and the setting that the individual is in during the experience.

DMT being the most intense out of all them?....Yeah I'd say so, especially in the higher dosages. It's certainly the most profound.

Obviously there's many qualitative differences among these substances, and I'd suggest you browse this forum and the world wide web. There's endless information out there on LSD and mushrooms. Read, read. read has always been my philosophy

And yeah, mushrooms can do that. It could all be aliens and rainbows one minute, then you interject a random thought, and all of reality could flip on it's head. It happens to the best of us. I remember on a 5.3g dose of lipas I was out by a fire one minute, and the next I was dispersed throughout eternity, not being able to make out my friends that were around me, lost all contact with observable reality, and begged for my life for several hours but yet seemed like forever.

Just pay attention to purity, dose, set n' setting and do the aforementioned research beforehand.

I wouldn't say lsd is more intense than shrooms. Shrooms are more intense visually than lsd imho. Lsd can give you a more twisted ride maybe though, mentally i mean. Lsd lasts a lot longer too so if you have a bad trip it can lead to hours of madness but it usually subsides into extreme happiness ime. Shrooms are very heavy but only lasts 6 hours or so with a sharp comedown to reality, lsd seems to linger for ages.

DMT is the king daddy as far as hallucinogens go well except maybe salvia but that's also a dissociative.
Only dmt ime can take you to the outer realms of unknown reality. Absolute euphoric epiphanies etc.. lsd can do that also though

They're all good as long as you know what you're getting into. Happy travels and stay safe

As far as intensity goes, mushrooms have out powered LSD by far for me. DMT is a thing by itself, but yeah, just respect them as individual chemicals.

I have tried quite a few psychedelics. Mushrooms, LSD, Mushrooms+LSD, ketamine, DOC. It is difficult to compare them because they are so different. Mushrooms are probably my favorite because if you decide to sleep, you usually can. Shrooms also don't last nearly as long. Often when I take LSD or DOC there comes a point, hours later where I am just like "alright, that was very fun, but I want to not be on drugs anymore". As for shrooms or LSD being more powerful, it is impossible to say really. You can have some really intense experiences on both. Of everything I have tried, the most intense (by %1000) is DMT. Taking DMT is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever done.

They're all very different, yet similar at the same time. They also have a tendency to affect people differently, so what one says about mushrooms could true of LSD for someone else. It's all subjective really.
LSD is a direct line to the Divine as far as I'm concerned. It's very cerebral & visual. Synesthesia to an incredible degree. Pure Love, pure Light. When I hear people say that LSD is not visual I question the quality of their doses, and how much they took, because IME when you take a solid dose the visuals are astounding. Mad colors, patterns, fractals, eyes everywhere, unbelievable trails (actually playing with the very fabric of existence), visions of people, places, beings, hieroglyphics, angels, the White Light, etc….. It was the first psychedelic I ever took, and it was the most transformative in my life. I learned a lot about myself, and grew a lot; spiritually & otherwise. My first trip was on a very strong dose & I experienced ego-loss from the gate. That left quite the impression on my young mind.
I find LSD much easier to handle then mushrooms. When shit gets dicey with LSD I can generally remind myself that's going to be OK, and to just let go. As soon as I let go things are fine. That's not to say that LSD doesn't take me on wild rides or to dark places though. It definitely does. I just seem to handle it better. Out of all the psychedelics I have the most experience with LSD. It just fit me like a glove, and I was in a position where it flowed like water for many years. So I took a lot. I had a tendency to go balls to the walls with LSD, and take very high doses. 1+ milligram doses on multiple occasions, sometimes 2+ milligrams. Those experiences were beyond intense, and beyond description. I didn’t just jump into doses like that though; I’m very experienced, and I paid close attention to set & setting. I also knew exactly what I had; LSD as pure as it gets, in a liquid solution of known potency (100mics per drop). Not many people are in a position to know that information. I was at the time. These days I’m not, and I wouldn’t dive in like that. Nor do I feel the need to.

Mushrooms on the other hand, well…..they hand me my ass on a platter. I could drink down 20+ potent hits of LSD & handle myself fine. An eighth of potent cubes & I’ll be curled up in a ball on the floor or bed for hours. I’ve heard it said like this; “With LSD you’re in the driver’s seat, with mushrooms you’re the passenger.” In my case I’ve found this to be true. Mushrooms send me on confusing rides, and it’s hard for me to let go. Whereas the same type of thing might happen to me on LSD, with the LSD I can accept it & let go. When it happens on mushrooms I tend to get “the fear” and automatically try to fight it even though I know better. Mushrooms have taken me to hell on many an occasion. They’ve also taken me to bliss though. It took me a while to accept them for what they are. I have though, and I do love them dearly. I haven’t taken them in years, but I plan to sometime next summer. The way I’m leaning these days I feel that a solid mushroom trip once or twice a year will probably be my main spiritual cleansing act. LSD took me where it took me, and nowadays it’s a nice little reminder, but I feel as though it’s now the mushrooms time. Mushrooms to me are very heavy. They have a heavy body buzz & dreamy feeling. Extremely visual at the right dosage. I’m not going to be running around & dancing. I’ll be laying down with my eyes closed, lost in hallucination. The visuals are more earthy tones & colors. Crazy patterns, visions of places, people, beings, eyes, hieroglyphics, etc….. There’s a very earthy vibe to the whole experience. Very emotional…… My emotions are totally overwhelming and out of control on shrooms. Hence me getting my ass handed to me by them.

DMT………. Yeah. Such a profound experience. Religious ecstasy at it’s highest point. Extremely visual, extremely realistic. Whereas LSD takes me into a journey into my mind & this world on one plane, and mushrooms do the same on another plane, DMT just straight up picks me up & plops me into another world entirely. There’s no introspection, no playing with the fabric of existence, no watching faces melt & floors breath, no watching colors, fractals, trails, eyes, and other visuals appear out of thin air in front of the world around me. This world explodes into fractal patterns, then BOOM! I’m not here anymore. I’m THERE, and I’m interacting with denizens of that world. Feelings of “Oh shit I’m dying…..but it’s OK”, then feelings of pure Love rushing through me as I enter this world. Other than that, what can I say? DMT is so other worldly that I struggle with describing it. This is all from smoked DMT freebase. I’ve never consumed an oral concoction, so I can’t comment on that.
As far as other psychedelics go, I’m not going to comment. I’m just going to leave it at this for now.

Thanks for the well written responses. I agree with you dark star that mushrooms are very earthy and to me they give off a more ancient and primitive psychedelic experience. So far I've only taken DMT once and didn't get anywhere near breakthrough. I felt like I was on shrooms again. Saturation of colors, extreme vividness and dreamlike lightness to everything. I am wondering if tripping is a universal feeling in psychedelics if the doses are ratio'd correctly, more or less the same no matter what substance. Ego death, extreme perception changes, I just feel like I went back to the same place I'd been last time I tripped.

Yeah man, every time I take mushrooms I'm reminded of the fact that people have been doing this for thousands of years. There's always a moment where I'm lost in the experience & I feel connected with all those people, and have visions of ancient people bemushroomed in South America, as well as Africa. It's one of my favorite aspects of the mushroom experience.

I can relate alot with what dark star said, each one fits different people differently.

For myself, LSD is one of the best. The visuals can be quite strong in higher doses especially when potentiating factors are included and LSD's psychedelic 'signature' seems to be one of just twisting all around the other perceptions and cognition too. Distorted sound, thought loops, etc. It doesnt seem for me to be one that scrambles emotion, or effects emotions much at all unless one gets caught in a giggles-loop, however the feeling of exploration and discovery can be quite enjoyable. Emotion is a secondary or tertiary thing with the dominant effect being scrambling of cognition and secondarially its perceptual changes. Its also nice and smooth. One mistake many people make is thinking that one hit of standard potency acid is one dose, that might have been the case in the 60's but most certainly not in the 90's when I used it the most, all the brands I've had were best at either 2, 2.5, or 3 tabs.

Mushrooms can be more visual at their peak than acid, they can even be fully encompassing sending you to another realm breifly which I never achieved on acid. For me its uncomfortably abrupt tho- either side of the peak being a bit harsh and unforgiving in somatic (body high) and emotional effects. They are a much more emotional critter than acid, that can be a good thing if emotion is where you need work done. Emotion never came naturally to me, I was born with very little of it and difficulty in comprehending and relating to it in myself or others, acid never lead me to any breakthroughs in emotion but mushrooms sure did and I owe them a big debt of gratitude for one such instance.

Cactus is much more philosophical than either of the above, very gentle and forgiving in the course of the experience (not counting potential gastric effects ) its got the emotional activity of mushrooms but in a more loving and more directed way as opposed to mushrooms more primal and sometimes unforgiving emotional lessons. Like a stoic, wise, and loving elderly teacher.

I dont have enough experience with DMT for meaningful comparison, Salvia can be a rather unforgiving teacher and it feels like theres someone in that one but it has its lessons to teach, I never got auditory hallucinations with Heimia , I tried cannabis nearly every way- even rubbing juicy buds on my nipples til it soaked in and it was never hallucinogenic but some sativa strains smoked during a LSD peak will just rocket you to another world... gumby land, and chloroform is a hallucinogen I once explored but seriously- dont go there bad mojo.

I've actually entered other realms on LSD......but only on massive doses.

For all my years of psychedelic exploration, I've actually never consumed Cacti, or mescaline in any form. That's a pretty big oversight on my part, and I'm looking forward to rectifying that next summer. It sounds right up my ally, especially with where I'm at & what I'm looking for from the psychedelic experience these days.

Mushrooms are more sedative and more of an intoxicated all over body buzz compared to LSD;

Which LSD is more of an electric euphoric mental projection more energetic and awakening.


"i sometimes call LSD 'Electric Mushrooms' "


DMT is that trip only your subconscious realises, TOTAL TRIPPING at its Finest heights.

All of the classic hallucinogens (mescaline, LSD, DMT, Psilocin, bufotenine) have more or less the same effects. They affect roughly the same group of receptors and the differences in effects between them therefore lie in the ratio between the affected receptors.

-LSD is active in very tiny amounts. Once a threshold dose of around 60 micrograms is exceeded, the hallucinogenic effects quickly become more powerfull with higher doses. When the dose is further increased beyond 200 micrograms though, the increase in effects will diminish untill evetually a ceiling in effects is reached where taking more LSD will not increase any of it´s psychedelic effects any further.

-Magic mushrooms (and most other hallucinogens) are different in that respect, wich is also why some people believe that shrooms are less powerfull than LSD: There are some mushroom species available, that have very mild effects only. Much milder than the effects of LSD. While LSD already seems to have quite powerfull effects, the moment the threshold is reached where they become noticeable in the first place, the effects of low doses of psilocin seem to be milder than the effects of a low dose of LSD. Psilocin doesn´t seem to have a ceiling to it´s effects though: increasing the dose will always increase the effects. A high dose of psilocin will therefore be much more intense than a high dose of LSD, because the LSD will not become more intense once a certain level of intensity is reached and psilocin will. A high dose of psilocin will therefore induce more or less the same effects as DMT. High doses of psilocin compare in no way to low doses and when you have only had weak mushroom trips, you can have no clue to how far a large dose of shrooms can take you. Psilocin can take you to the same places as DMT can, when taken in the right amounts. The molecule is also very simmilar to that of DMT. It actually is just another form of DMT: 4-HO-DMT.

-Bufotenin is yet another form of DMT (5-HO-DMT), that has virtually no mental effects but stronger visual and aural effects than DMT has. It´s mental effects are limited to being able to make (weird) mental associations easier and faster.

Most of the hallucinogenic tryptamines are less 'speedy, energetic or electric' than LSD because contrary to LSD, they have little to no dopaminergic effects. The visuals they produce are often described as more 'organic'.

-Mescaline belongs to a different class of chemicals called phenethylamines. It is different and yet the same as all of the substances i have mentioned before. I would place it somewhere in between psychedelic the tryptamines like DMT and LSD. Like LSD, it has dopaminergic effects, but it is in many ways much more organic, and like DMT and psilocin, it can take you to other worlds, way beyond where LSD can take you to.

Actually that's not strictly true about LSD. There's a huge difference between say 300mics & 1 milligram of LSD. Also, while there isn't much difference between 1-5 milligrams, there's a huge difference between 1-5 milligrams & 50 milligrams. Taking a thumbprint of LSD crystal blows the lid of any ceiling, and I have some old friends that corroborate that.

Actually it's not true: DMT, and 5-MeO-DMT are active at D1 receptor, psilocin at D1, and D3, LSD in all dopamine receptors(D1-D5), and mescaline isn't active at all.
Psychedelics and the Human Receptorome
But this article also says that mescaline, and 5-MeO-DMT don't bind to 5-HT2A in sufficient level .

But that´s exactly what i meant: compared to LSD, most of the psychedelic tryptamines are almost inactive at the dopaminergic system, wich is why LSD is more energetic, more stimulating.

I alwasy thought that mescaline had strong dopaminergic effects, but apparently not according to the study you posted.

I have never taken 50 milligrams of LSD (you could make 200 to 300 blotters that are quite strong with this amount, or 1000 'weaker' blotters). But i can say from experience that there is practically no difference in effects between 800 micrograms and 8000 micrograms. With 8000 mic´s i felt a little more disoriented than with 800, but that´s it realy. So upping the dose ten times has little to no effects from a certain point. The difference between 100 and 200 mic´s on the other hand, is huge. If you would make a graph of this, you would see a line that´s called assymptote in mathematic´s: a rising line that becomes less and less steep the more it rises, untill it´s almost completely flattened.
Maybe 50.000 micrograms can indeed cause effects that you don´t yet have with the 8000 i once took, but i don´t know if i would want to experience those effects as it seems quite risky to me to take such extreme amounts. Maybe you get some delirium-effects on top of the normal psychedelic effects, but that´s not a healthy thing, nor is it very pleasant.
Any substance becomes toxic at a certain dose. LSD is definately no exception: it´s effects are very simmilar to those of lysergic acid. At a certain dose, you will have the same effects as you´d have from an overdose of lysergic acid. Besides that there is another issue: no LSD in the world is 100% pure. By taking 200 to 1000 doses of LSD at once, you also take 200 to a 1000 times the amount of impurities that you would normally ingest. Some of those impurities will be quite toxic as well in these gigantic amounts.

It's safe with the purer types of crystal (needlepoint, fluff, silver). After that it can be dicey. Some LSD is pretty close to 100% pure. Needlepoint & fluff are both 95% + pure. There was a small batch of fluff that was around 99% pure, tested & confirmed with GC/MS.

That said, thumbprint doses aren't for everyone. Only the upper levels of the distribution networks took them, and I'm not even sure if it's still done. I never took one personally, but I know people who have. The peak is around 12 hours & totally out of body. You'll just lay there for the duration. The trip there can be dicey, and the comedown lasts days, so babysitting is required.


I'd also like to note that I feel those doses are in no way necessary for most people. They serve a purpose, but not one that need worry the majority. Personally I don't even feel the need to go above ~300mics or so anymore.

Even with a low dose of DMT or during the comedown during which time the intensity and types of effects are closest to a strong LSD experience, the character or quality of the experience is markedly different. LSD simply has a different aesthetic to me regardless of dose. For me LSD visuals are much more symmetrical, and fall along a grid (that is sometimes more obvious than others). On LSD a lot of times I'll notice that details in the physical world (like sand, snow, concrete, dirt, clouds, etc...) will be rearranged into these fractal clusters. They are often flowery or lizard-like. These clusters, even though open-eyed, still seem to fall along the LSD grid. DMT seems to have a lot more freedom in creating its geometry, color and energetic phenomena.

LSD has always felt like sticking a plug into a socket, mentally and physically. An electric sort of energy to it. Closed eye with LSD seems to me to be much more intricate in design then mushroom CEVs..which tend to be more "fluid" but still hyperdimensional in quality nonetheless.

Mushrooms also have a very dreamy aspect to them, while LSD usually keeps me on my toes.

Mescaline tends to be very empathetic, very vibrant. Super saturated color enhancement. CEVs on mesc are VERY beautiful. Very intricate rainbow-eque colors mixed with everrotating geometric shapes. Theres a very speedy quality to mescaline as well, and dosage-wise, you can get away with a much higher dosage than say mushrooms or LSD.