Psychedelic users seeking therapeutic benefits should refer to medical resources, not recreational groups. Casual drug users often prioritize emotional, cognitive, and spiritual highs rather than sustained improvements to well-being. Recreational use exists in contrast to clinical settings, which offer far more psychological support.

While recreational use may evoke meaningful or healing experiences, psychedelics should nonetheless always be respected as powerful medicines. Clinical psychedelic therapy is conducted with considerable safety and medical forethought to ensure maximum therapeutic outcomes. Adhering to clinical research protocols helps avoid unnecessary risks.

It common for users to take psychedelics in a recreational situation while still expecting benefits associated with clinical therapy. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in traumatic experiences, due to the user being made unexpectedly overwhelmed or vulnerable. Casual users often just want to have a good time, and may overlook users who are struggling or subject to abusive behavior.[1][2]



Psychedelics have a number of potential effects that can occasion rapidly-escalating intimacy, co-dependence, and the impairment of informed consent:

facilitate deep feelings of connection to others

increase suggestibility[3] and empathy with ideas similar to one’s own[4]

dissociative symptoms and ego loss[5]

religious or metaphysical experiences that invoke magical thinking and a sense of personal significance[6][7]

re-expose the user to potentially traumatic memories or imagery

invoke emotional re-association and object transference, including trust and sexual interest that may not otherwise be present[8][9]

manifest a sense of paranoia or suspicion, sometimes as a result of being involved in illicit or risky activities

intensified symptoms of mental illness in vulnerable users, increasing reliance on external social and economic support

The ability of hallucinogens to facilitate intimate feelings is notable. It is critical to make sure participants in psychedelic therapy sessions are physically safe and feel secure. Any situation which puts individuals in a vulnerable situation has the possibility of attracting bad actors looking to take advantage of others. In order to avert these scenarios, guidelines for identifying and addressing problematic behavior is provided below.

In addition to the potential activity of bad actors, there is a tenuous association between psychedelics and cliquey, tribal, or cult-like group behavior. This should be taken seriously, especially when considering group whose members bond through regular psychedelic sessions. Psychedelics have played a role in many intentional communities, initiation rituals, and cults.[10][11][12] In part due to their effects, many psychedelic groups feature cohesive group bonds, ideological nuance, or social volatility.[13]

Recognizing abusive practices

Indicators of potentially abusive psychedelic therapy practices include:

Charismatic or egotistical leaders of social influence, who are not held to any external authority, and self-legitimize their own beliefs.

Condoning sex with participants who are under the influence of mind-altering drugs, especially by men targeting women or other vulnerable populations, employing psychedelics and other drugs as “tools of seduction.”

Provoking participants who are under the influence by violating their consent in any way.[14][15]

Punishing or harassing participants who are critical of organizational policy or facilitators. Maintaining a culture of misinformation, fear, or threats, where members are easily excluded or blacklisted.

Illicit dealings and or abuse that is concealed by secrecy, including: promoting risky non-psychedelic drugs, physical abuse, sexual or romantic manipulation, harassment, or stalking.[16]

Psychedelics can destabilize and rearrange one’s sense of self, increasing susceptibility to the influence of others. Users who are mentally liable or require a secure set and setting should ensure they feel in control of their drug use. Personal autonomy is critical for psychedelic experiences that are safe and serve personal growth.

Recognizing & maintaining safety

The following guidelines for finding a safe psychedelic practice and resisting abusive practices is adapted from the article Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse, authored collaboratively by Chacruna:

Take psychedelics with friends. Abuse is more common when a user partakes in psychedelic ceremonies or activities alone. Bring a trusted companion.

Take psychedelics with facilitators who can relate to you. If you are female or marginalized on the basis of identity or ability, ensure there are facilitators with whom you feel safe.

Research psychedelic groups and leaders before engaging with them. Search online to investigate the reputation of any center, therapist, or shaman that you want to work with. Find former participants you can relate to and ask them about their experiences.

Avoid groups that are enablers of drug abuse. Avoid groups that encourage regular use creating adverse effects and physical dependence. Seek out non-recreational groups with members who are actively involved in harm reduction, clinical research, or complementary therapy practices.

Psychedelic guides do not need to touch your body in ways that you do not consent to. Some psychedelic and shamanic therapies may involve planned physical contact for therapeutic or spiritual purposes. If you feel uncomfortable with how you are being touched, it is your right to object and raise the issue with trusted facilitators, organizers, or friends outside the session. These practices should never involve touching intimate areas.

Guides should not required you to completely undress. The privacy and security of participants should be respected at all times. Some traditional rituals involve herbal baths or other activities necessitating undressing; participants should prepare by bringing swimwear or other appropriate attire.

Protect your personal space. Do not feel obliged to engage with physical or verbal contact with guides, facilitators, or anyone else. Therapists and shamans are not necessarily bound to any ethical or moral code, and may demonstrate misconduct or indiscretion. Maintain your right to feel comfortable and secure. If a guide offers to do a “special” individual healing away from the group, feel free to deny or ask a trusted companion to accompany you.

Look out for warning signs that your guide has sexual intentions. If a guide comments on your looks, is overly “touchy”, talks about romantic affairs, encourages pacts of silence or secrecy, discusses “love magic”, emphasizes sex-enhancing effects of psychedelics, grooms you as special or chosen, or unexpectedly offers you some spiritual or social status, beware alarmed that the guide may be trying to seduce you.

Sexual intercourse between the guide and therapy participant is never appropriate in traditional or clinical settings. Guides and shamans are in a position of power over participants, who cannot give meaningful consent while under the influence of drugs. Abusive guides may try to coerce participants into thinking that sex may offer psychological or spiritual benefits. These offers should be considered during a period of sobriety, if at all. Feelings of attraction towards a psychedelic guide before, during, or after a session are not unusual. These feelings may be temporary or associated with the healing context, and the participant is advised to use discretion when pursuing them.

Consider cultural differences when interacting with Native Healers. Overt or internalized misogyny is a widespread problem in South American and elsewhere. Women should consider cultural differences or accidental sexual signaling in activities such as being alone with men, being complimentary, prolonged eye contact, and free spirited expression. Although misinterpretation is never justification for abuse, self-awareness can help prevent potential misinterpretation.

Consider local clothing customs. Psychedelic subcultures often emphasizes freedom of expression. Additionally, some traditional customs may view non-local women as desirable, exotic, or sexually promiscuous. For these reason, some spiritual, meditation, or healing retreats may request that revealing clothing not be worn.

Report abuse. We are all responsible for resisting abuse within the psychedelic community. Reach out to family, trusted friends, or long-established community leaders. Report on the spot, or at a later time when you feel comfortable. Confide in people who demonstrate compassion and have your best interest in mind.

Signs of a safe psychedelic group or guide are:

respect for clear emotional and physical boundaries

organizers admit mistakes, accept criticism, and uphold personal accountability

values critical thinking, self-respect, individual growth, and personal autonomy

encourages communication with family, community, and pre-existing friendships

publicly discloses information about its organization structure, history, and financial operations

will not vilify ex-members or ex-participants, or forbid current participants from associating with them

Psychological effects of manipulation

Undergoing an abusive experience during a psychedelic session can result in significant distress or trauma. Victims of abuse may not find a venue to have their voices heard or resolved. Psychedelic abuse is never the fault of the victim, and often occurs due to irresponsible behavior by facilitators.

Gaslighting is a common tactic used to manipulate or conceal abuse by confusing victims into doubting their own experiences. This is often done by invalidating what the victim says, trivializing their worth, withholding information, verbal abuse (including jokes), social isolation, and other attempts at undermining their self-confidence. Especially when under the influence of psychedelics, these behaviors can be traumatizing to victims while remaining undetected by others.[17]

In order to help identify manipulative behavior, some effects of gaslighting are listed below:

constantly second-guessing yourself, feeling confused, or as if something is wrong

feeling very sensitive throughout the day

frequently apologizing to people who hold power over you, avoiding abusive group members, feeling as if you can’t do anything right, or running over things you may have done wrong

lying to group members to avoid being put down or manipulated

paranoia about bringing up innocent conversation topics

making excuses to or withholding information from your friends or family

friends or family try to protect you from the group

becoming furious with people you used to get along with[18]

If you have been abused, harassed, or manipulated in psychedelic contexts, you may be experiencing regular instability, dissociation, or feelings of uncertainty. Although it can be difficult at first, finding a new group that demonstrates a high degree of member safety and accountability may help rebuild one’s sense of safety and trust. It may be beneficial to seek out a professional psychedelic integration therapist to help emotionally contextualize these memories. Victims may also benefit from traumacentric therapies practices such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Radically-Open DBT, somatic bodywork and movement therapies, therapeutic massage, and other complementary therapy practices.

Works Cited

Doblin, R. (2015, March 4). Rick Doblin: Psychedelic Healing with Marijuana, MDMA, Psilocybin, & Ayahuasca – #200. Bulletproof channel on YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/MEk_4wwvSLE?t=2150.

Mayorga, O. and Smith, P. (2019, May 19). Forgiving psychedelic abusers should never be at the expense of their victims. Psymposia. Retrieved from https://www.psymposia.co...ng-psychedelic-abusers/.

Carhart-Harris, R. L., Kaelen, M., Whalley, M. G., Bolstridge, M., Feilding, A., & Nutt, D. J. (2015). LSD enhances suggestibility in healthy volunteers. Psychopharmacology, 232(4), 785-794.

Preller, K.H., Schilback, L., Durler, P., Pokorny, T., Vollenweider, F.X. (2019, Jan 29). LSD Increases Social Adaptation to Opinions Similar to One’s Own. European Neuropsychopharmacology. S226-S227 [#P.257]. Retrieved from https://bibliography.map.../default/resource/15878.

Nour, M. M., Evans, L., Nutt, D., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2016). Ego-dissolution and psychedelics: Validation of the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI). Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, Article ID 269.

Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology, 187(3), 268-283.

Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Richards, W. A., Richards, B. D., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2011). Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: immediate and persisting dose-related effects. Psychopharmacology, 218(4), 649-665.

Phelps, Janis. (2017). Developing Guidelines and Competencies for the Training of Psychedelic Therapists. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(5), 450-487.

Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse. (2018, November 19). Chacruna Institute for Plant Medicines. Retrieved from https://chacruna.net/com...reness-of-sexual-abuse/.

Douglas, James. (2017). Inside the bizarre 1960s cult, The Family: LSD, yoga and UFOs. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian....cult-anne-hamilton-byrne

Windolf, Jim. (2007). Sex, drugs, and soybeans. Vanity Fair. Retrieved from https://www.vanityfair.c...s/2007/05/thefarm200705.

Neiswender, Mary. (1971). Manson Girl’s Acid Trips Detailed. CieldoDrive.com. Retrieved from http://www.cielodrive.co...ls-acid-trips-detailed/.

Bieberman, L. (1967, August 5). The Psychedelic Experience. The New Republic, inc. Retrieved from http://www.luminist.org/...chedelic_experience.htm.

Fernandez, A. C. (2018 ). Sexual abuse in the contexts of ritual use of ayahuasca. This text is an adaptation of the original: Fernandez, A. C. (2018 ). Power and legitimacy in the reconfiguration of the yagecero field in Colombia. In B. C. Labate & C. Cavnar (Eds.), The expanding world ayahuasca diaspora: Appropriation, integration and legislation (pp. 199–216). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate...ecero_field_in_Colombia.

Peluso, D. (2018, October 5). Ayahuasca’s attractions and distractions: Examining sexual seduction in shaman-participant interactions. Retrieved from https://chacruna.net/sex...s-ritual-use-ayahuasca/.

Langone, M.D. (2015, November 3). Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups. International Cultic Studies Association. Retrieved from https://www.icsahome.com/articles/characteristics.

Evans, P. (1996). The verbally abusive relationship: how to recognize it and how to respond. Expanded 2nd ed. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Media Corporation.

Stern, R. (2007). The gaslight effect: how to spot and survive the hidden manipulations other people use to control your life. New York: Morgan Road Books.

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This article is a part of https://www.psychedelic.training, a freely-licensed collection of materials covering psychedelic harm reduction and complementary therapies. This article is a Free Cultural Work available for reproduction and adaptation under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Great post... I've seen people who have experienced this and suffer from it...

People are people, too... Everyone makes mistakes, even facilitators. Communities are hard, sometimes favorites get played between cliques... Regardless of if they are spiritual based, psychedelic based, or not... People can just be, difficult sometimes...

The key is looking at the overall behavior rationally, how often do bad things happen, was it intentional or inadvertent? Does it happen often enough to not excuse? Gotta be honest with yourself.

Obviously some things, like sexual advancement and public shaming/joking among other things you listed, are not acceptable in any context, intentional or not...

The types of people that are attracted to healing + healing communities are often the ones who are most damaged...

Gotta learn to use your judgement to be able to look at the things on this list you provided... and decide... are we healing together, or being taken advantage of emotionally and psychic'ly ? Both scenarios are very real... And any one group can seem to shift between those two perspectives...

Great post, very informative. Thank you for posting this.

I enjoyed the read. Thanks

Thanks for spending energy on this. It has become an increasing concern of mine that the potentials and promise of psychedelics as tools for betterment or transformation will go unapprehended and driven back into the shadows because of abuses of individuals by practitioners.

When I got back "on the bus" with psychs, after having taken a detour down a PTSD paved road of addiction, I jumped up on a soapbox as an apologist. Many of my posts here reflect this, and the slow change of ideals as I became more involved and cognizant of the movement as a whole. Now, I spend more time refuting misinformation, and speaking reason to deluded followers and calling out abusive leaders.

It began for me as a (successful) campaign to refute the lies and educate potential customers of a certain "sham-man" in the U.S. who had posted all over social media about his $2,000, allegedly "legal" ceremonies and to drive him out of business. Not learning from that to be wary of these people, I went on to introduce a local audience to another huckster- the well known abuser and fake doctor, Gerry S. The guilt and shame I feel now for having been duped into believing this asswhole after going on to learn of his illegal and unethical practices, not to mention (it is not alleged, it is true, sue me) sexual and physical abuse has driven me to rethink my postion and apologism.

I have personally seen and heard of far more concrete and verifiable, measurable ill efects from practioner abuses and user bypassing in the community than I have witnessed lasting positive changes.

That said, a single psychedelic experience changed and saved my life and I'll continue my prosylitization and may even finish the damn book I've been writing since 2012. In my transformative encounter I was alone, I did not have a shaman,what I had was a solid intention and knowledge of what I was doing and trying to do. I used my personal perspectives, a solid world-view and spiritual foundation as a filing cabinet to help integrate the things that came up and went on to practice all of that in my life. In the years since, I have certainly changed and realized amny of the things I wanted to gain from that injection. If I had undergone this experience in some shack, with some jerk -off blowing smoke in my face and singing unintelligible songs to me, with a bunch of strangers in the room and went broke doing it, well then I think I'd just be another one of those fools asking "how come the feeling doesnt last?"

Shoot, sorry for the ramble, all caffed up and nowhere to go this morning....

IMO these full-traditional style ceremonies do suck sometimes. The simple plain icaros all night... its tough...

There are a LOT of groups, communities and even centers that take the more modern approach with a variety of instruments and sound healing tools with immense musical talent... Things that cannot be replicated at home with a speaker... With modern multi-cultural medicine musics in a variety of languages... Guitars, charngos, Ukulele, harmonium, didgeridoo, crystal frequency generators (bowls, and held pieces, tuning forks)... Songs in english, spanish, portuguese, other languages. Traditional songs, modern songs, Rainbow Family songs, the full spectrum...

IMO this is what makes it worth it. You gotta get something for your $$$ other than just feeling your your "have" to sit with a "shaman" to be "safe"... and IME finding a community that offers this higher-skill higher-talent musical experience can inspire you to be excited to go...

Just BEING A PART OF the community is nice too... Meeting others, supporting each other, developing contacts... This has to be enjoyable and with people you like...

IMO and IME... Some places/facilitators/communities are a total waste of $$$ with some/many being outright fraudulent or even dangerous + abusive.

But once you find that one magical group with great leadership, much talent, and a good community... It makes it worth it, versus going at it alone...

A good rule of thumb is to not put yourself in the hands of strangers when it comes to psychedelics.

Salutations StoryTeller,



To the risk of sounding primitive i just do not adhere to the "medical" vs "criminal" (now "recreative"...) bipolar model as this conveniently serves my enemy's ideology, which is why i do not allow perfect strangers to force me to fit into any of those 2 artificial man-made boxes... Call me claustrophobic if that helps.



Much like religion it's OKay for individuals to choose their own path, but i'd be equally concerned if that means conforming to something i'd rather view as a possibly deceiving mirage. Yet i can respect people's need for guidelines, just play safe!



Good day, have fun!!

This may be good for you and me....

But I've seen a handful of times on mushrooms and a dozen or so times on Aya... People (almost always first-time users) totally LOOSE it...

Kicking, screaming, running around and endangering themselves, suicide attempts, etc.... Sometimes needing to be restrained... Sometimes just needing to be talked down for hours...

Having a community environment is nice and supportive, but i mean at least having a sitter your first time so you know how you react...

You never really know just how close to the edge of psychosis any one person may be...

Yea but dont you think it best to have your sitter(s) be people you know/trust?