Back in my callow youth I believed that psychedelic drugs were suitable for everyone, and that they should be forced on people.

It's quite an unbelievable thing to me now, and strikes me as an incredibly immature viewpoint.

The reasoning behind it was quite simple; my first mushroom trip revolutionised my life. The reasons why/how are probably shared by most of you and I won't go into them in this thread.

When I thought about the people I knew who clearly ‘couldn’t handle’ psychedelics I justified it in by saying tough love is sometimes important.

Who might not be able to 'handle' psychedelics? Examples include people who can never be alone and don't have any self-awareness or desire to analyse themselves, people who continually act in a selfish/greedy way, using others, people with huge anxiety problems etc

I saw these people as somehow deficient, and thought that, yes psychedelics would crush them (in an unregulated environment), but say they did mushrooms, how long could they cry for? There’s only a certain length of time the body’s adrenalin can run for. Surely after some point they’d start realising things about themselves and would eventually emerge from the other side a stronger individual. I thought that this would surely help the individual as well as society.

Imagine if our political leaders took psychedelics?

I say this at least part based on my own experience. Without going into the details, my first mushroom trip was absolutely mindblowing and very difficult to get through. I did it alone and I had far too many. As difficult and crushing as it was I learnt a lot about myself and my relationships, as well as key lessons about drug use, particularly psychedelics.

I no longer think that psychedelics should be forced on anyone. My reasoning behind this is:
----> A better understanding of latent schizophrenia and the problems of psychosis

----> The psychedelic experience is one that should be sought, not imposed. The lessons we learn from psychedelics, even if they are very helpful to us, may not be helpful to other people. They certainly wouldn’t be helpful if they were forced. If I acknowledge that psychedelics aren't suitable for these people, then giving them is inflicting pain. How can you inflict pain for good? That's the same logic that leads us into senseless wars.

It would also only breed resentment towards what are beautiful substances. I came through my horrific first experience because I have always loved the idea of altered states of reality.

One of my earliest memories is realising that I would take these substances and would love them. I looked at what I learnt from my mushroom trip, why it went wrong, blamed myself rather than the mushrooms. If people were forced to take them they would blame the drugs because they never think about themselves as worthy of blame anyway. I don't like the idea of any of these substances becoming yet another governmental tool, even if it was a government run by me! Particularly since any government I was involved with would be loosely Libertarian Socialist and therefore in favour of free choice without harming others.

I'd be interested if you guys have an opinion on anything I've said. Could it be conceivable to have some kind of mandatory (or at least strongly encouraged) regulated psychedelic dosing, to help people gain self-awareness and learn about themselves, to bring us all to a greater understanding of the world?

Are some people just not suited to psychedelics? Are they just 'not suited' because the government keeps on telling them its bad? How do we change this situation?

There's definately some people that I know that I would like to see trip but I don't think they ever will.

One problem is, say taking smoked DMT; From my own experiences a one time experience isn't enough. You don't really know how to do it well enough first time - what the effects are - to take the next hit that really blows you into outerspace...

It takes a few times to really get the desired fullblown effect.

It is something you have to seek out.

It's something that your world needs to be ready for. For many people that I'd like to see have this knowledge, but they won't do it, it probably wouldn't be a good thing for them anyway, or at least it would be impossible for them to handle (integrate). That's because much of their beliefs that prohibit them, are part of a family of beliefs they hold, that a strong psychadelic would blow up, but their world is based on that belief system.

MalargueZiggy,

I'm very glad you have grown beyond the belief that you know what is best for others. I would add to your list of reasons NOT to force any mind altering substance on another person: legal ramifications and the safety of others. Not only mental safety but actual physical safety.

Please do not ever give a person anything against their will and/or without their knowledge and consent.

^^ agreed 100%.

as a psychonaut, you have a certain responsibility...use your best judgment whether or not to advocate the use of strong consciousness-altering agents.

Some societies do require males to use psychedelics before entering man-hood, so this idea you have is not that unusual.

I do believe that all people can greatly benefit from the use of psychedelics if done properly. But it should always be their choice to partake in the experience.

I also believe that the only time force should be applied to another human being is to stop them from hurting themselves or other people. The only exception to that rule is when you are raising children in which case there are times when force is needed to guide them down the right path.

I once read about a guy who tried to get his friend back for steeling some marijuana from him. He invited him over and made him dinner with an overdose of Datura stramonium seeds in it. His friend was tormented by the experience and could have even died. To me, that's a reason to lock someone up. If someone I know did something like that, I'd call the police ASAP, even if it was something as safe as acid. That's a really fucked thing to do to another human being.

I think EVERYONE (every member of the genus Homo) should take entheogens, but ONLY by their own free will.

I do believe EVERYONE has something to gain from the use of entheogens!

Totally agree Coat'l. Swim has friends who have loved lsd and mushrooms but think smoking dmt is crazy. Swim has gave up on these people because at first he was like you have to see this knowing fine well they would love it, but reading this site and hearing swims reports and other friends reports have put them off, now he doesnt even bother with them.

I agree with 69ron, it should always be someones own choice to use entheogens. However, our society has for the most part been conditioned to view psychedelics as either unsafe, unneccesary, or both. This is a very new idea, that came along about the same time as other great concepts like witch burning, and the idea that rats spontaneously appear from moldy rags. They still view Peyote as the 'Devil Root', as the damn Spaniards called it. Were still living in the dark ages man. As a result not all that many of us understand the potential of shrooms, LSD, etc.

I think if we can start getting people to understand the link between humans and entheogens a little better, more people may want to experiment with these truly amazing and beneficial substances. Hell, if I can convince even one person that LSD wont make them go insane, perhaps be a little more tolerant, that would be a step in the right direction at least.

SWIM has introduced a number of people to certain psychedelic substances. Some benefited from them others it was just for kicks some didn't like it. Regardless I think its completely wrong and criminal to drug someone without their knowledge or consent.

I think it was Terence McKenna who said: Drugs aren't for everyone, but they are for most people

I agree with just about everything MalargueZiggy said in his first post.

Nice thread dude.