If you just wait in this closet for 2 hours,I don't think you'll need any of them to see something.

If you're a beginner, I would strongly suggest not taking any psychedelic by yourself, let a lone in a dark closet. you're asking for a rude awakening my friend. try getting a good friend to trip sit you, and if possible get out in nature. Also, please don't take ayahuasca if you're a beginner, mushrooms are definitely a good starter into the psychedelic paradigm, but dose low. Please do some more research on this stuff, it sounds like you're jumping in with some ignorance that could definitely bite you in the butt.

I've never done ayahuasca, but considering my experience with smoked dmt I don't think I'd ever do it alone. It's a personal requirement that I have someone sober there to make sure I don't do anything stupid. Mushrooms on the other hand I think I could handle alone. It all depends. Sometimes it is nice to have someone there just in case you need a hand to hold onto but if you are brave and are sure you can stay strong I think mushrooms by yourself might be okay. Trust your own judgement, and don't do anything unless you are doing it 100%.

actually mescaline can be a lot stronger of an exp than mushrooms. maybe start with a lower dose of mushrooms out in nature. get some good music to help guide your exp.

You could try a Caapi-only brew before you venture any further. Mushrooms should be totally fine too as long as you don't take too much for your first trip.

^ if you want some good healing, caapi is perfect.

Yeah, I'd recommend getting used to the possibilities of the experience with others around, probably more than once. Then, when you're able to take them and relax during the full-on effects, you're ready to explore I'd think. But there's no map, sometimes you have to stumble around and make mistakes, that's part of it too.

For me, taking a psychedelic alone is super, super intense, I don't do it very often (there's no need).

Hi ManifestTheMind,

You can try both (but separately ). Starting low in both cases sounds like a good advice, especially if you have no, or low, previous experience with psychedelics, as both substances can take you deeper than you/we/people could ever imagine.

I personally have been using Mushrooms and Pharmahuasca mostly alone, in the dark nowadays... But I can tell you that I am really glad that I had started low, something like 1g of dried cubensis / 30mg of DMT with Harmalas, slowly working up from there. There is absolutely no need to rush these things, trust me

since you live in the city you should make an arkana in your place. this is a special area that you bless with sage or other incense as well as prayer/intention before you start your experience. the arkana is basically just setting up a force field of good intention and feeling around a space in your place that you've setup with pillows and what not that makes you comfortable.

don't just go into a dark closet and hope for the best.

You'll be fine, just carefully prepare your mind and the environment you're tripping in before hand and alert a friend of what you're doing so that you can phone them if you need them to come over for support. i'd also get into meditation, it can be a very useful navigation tool

i don't buy into all this "dont take aya if your a beginner, take mushrooms" malarkey.. its such a subjective and personal thing that i don't understand how someone can tell another person that. After doing aya hundreds of times and doing mushrooms about 2 dozen, i actually would be more inclined to look at it the other way around. but see, everyones relationship and take on these things is different, so i wouldn't even give anyone that advice..

just start off low and work your dosage up over the course of a few trips

peace and good luck! <3

universecannon, I wouldn't say that's malarkey...and there is an objective difference between the effects of psilocybin vs harmala/DMT on the brain/body...

& in terms of the feeling of the trip itself, there's a HUGE difference between the aya and mushroom exp. I'm pretty sure a beginner would be better off without the purging, body & head load, paralyzed movement, and the intensity of visuals with aya compared to mushrooms. The best advice for beginners is to wade into the water, not dive in. So I don't think it's "malarkey" to suggest mushrooms before ayahuasca... I think a beginner doing ayahuasca first can be disastrous, ESPECIALLY a lone, ESPECIALLY trapped indoors. So, yes, I do think it's better to go with mushrooms first and build up with them as well as your relationship with mescaline. These two substances are lot lighter, with aya you usually go through some difficult confrontations with the self at the beginning of the exp, and if you aren't ready for that it can shape the rest of your trip for the worse.

my first trip was a mushroom trip in the dark by myself. out in the woods wrapped up in a blanket with juice and snacks. it was in CA tho, so there weren't many stars out. (i love the lack of light pollution up here in ak, the stars are brilliant)

one the the best trips i had, it was truly an amazing time.

it was three grams eaten in two 1.5g doses (i ate the second dose as i felt i was sobering up, as i learned later that these trips can feel like they are fading away, and then come back strong without a second dose).

it was an incredible experience.

How much experience do you have with ayahuasca? A lot of people dont experience much of this whole inability to move or visuals more intense than an equally large dose of mushrooms. Ive used both many many times and cubensis can actaully have more body load and sick feelings for me.

Basically everything you said above for ayahuasca can be true of mushrooms. The main thing about ayahuasca is dosing..people new to it just dont understand dosing..it gets more complicated having to combine 2 plants in the right ammounts..it takes a while to figure out the right ratio etc for you to be where you want to be..so overshooting the dose or undershooting are common. Hitting the mark the first try can be difficult..

I think to a degree it is all malarky..and leads people to assume mushrooms are easier to deal with. At least in my experience with large enough doses of mushrooms that is not always true.

This comes from a place of having had a couple hundred ayahuasca experiences and at least 100 mushroom experiences..and just my feelings on the whole thing at this point. I sort of want to say that ayahuasca is somewhat hyped..but I dont want to give people the impression that it is not what it is claimed to be-becasue it is..just that mushrooms are underrated in comparison for a number of reasons that I dont always think are valid..

Underestimating mushrooms is not a good thing to do, you kind of learn that once you eat a few too many of them..it can and will do everything DMT is going to do..with added mental warping. The harmalas make ayahuasca different, but I would not say it makes ayahuasca more difficult..just different.

Of course larger doses of mushrooms can be just as intense if not more, but then you're just comparing dosage...how can you compare large dose mushrooms vs low/moderate ayahuasca, that to me is malarkey and splitting hairs. OP was not asking if he should take high dose mushrooms vs ayahuasca as a beginner...
Anyways, there are objective differences between the effects of psilocybin vs harmala/DMT on the brain/body. The notion that they're basically the same as long as you are comparing using high dosage mushrooms is splitting hairs stupid... From my personal experience I don't recommend ayahuasca before mushrooms. It has always been a far more intense experience, physically and mentally. It's not something I would recommend for a beginner who is a lone and trapped indoors.


I'll quote minxx as well:

the dose for that is quite high, and dosing is infinitely easier with cubies.

but yea, the experience in and of itself can be perfectly fine for beginners.. but i know i am glad i waited till i had some experience under my belt before i dove into that world (even tho it took a couple dives to actually hit water)

I have tripped alone more than with others. My first time was with a sitter, but after that, been solo. My second trip was pretty intense. I had a shitty scale and weighed out probably a lot more mushrooms than I intended. I ran around my yard giggling like an idiot chasing my dogs for hours. It was a BLAST! So, be careful on the dose, but you'll probably be fine either way.

I have no experience with DMT in the form of Aya (changing that tomorrow), but I have done mushrooms probably about 50-75 times. In my experience, they don't start getting out of hand for a while. Where I'm at now, my trips are usually a handful. For some reason they are very light hearted when you begin, but get more real as you go. Terrence McKenna said something like this, "Early on they go easy on you, but after a while, it's as if there a guy there with a clipboard with your info on it. He says, 'Yep, he's been here a time or two, lets take the gloves off on this guy and see what he can do!'""
This has been very true for me.

Because of this, I'd say the likeliness of a bad trip early, alone or not, is pretty low.
Go for it man! Just be careful, be in a good place, and a good frame of mind.

Oh, and music is one of my favorite things in the world when tripping. It's like the difference between 2 dimensional drawing of an apple, and eating the real thing. If you've only seen a picture your whole life, eating a real apple would blow your mind!

achuma

Hands down my favorite band is Porcupine Tree. Some of their best tripping songs are: Dark Matter, Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, Synethesia, and Voyage 34. My trip mix of theirs is about 50 songs long, so there's tons to hear. Kaki King is a really talented guitarist I've been super into lately. She's mostly instrumental. One of my favorites of hers is Montreal. Pink Floyd's album Meddle is also an epic trip.


Don't get me wrong, I still love my shroomies. My trips still have really fun and light hearted parts, and above all, mushrooms should always be approached with a sense of humor. They're tricksters. I just remember a peak in there somewhere. I was comfortable with the experience, and they were still pure fun. It culminated in a trip that was utter bliss for four straight hours. Not a single hint of discomfort, anxiety, negativity or anything bad. Pure awesomeness, for the entire time. Unfortunately, I don't think that will happen again. I have learned far more from the rough times than the fun, and my last four or five trips have been most revelatory.

I typically trip alone.
That said, in order to do so, you must be able to clear your mind and accept. The meditation skills are going to need to be of a higher order, there is no one there to calm you or help you out, so you have to be skilled in finding a way to work it out.

be careful, and enjoy the ride.

tool
shpongle/ott/hallucinogen
certain primus/claypool songs.

tool is by far my favorite. (lateralus and 10k days are my two favorite trippin albums)