Hello,

Terence McKenna has a bad trip on mushrooms, and he never used them again.


Ram Dass spoke about when he went to India, and was up on a mountain and a man was asking him questions, then Ram Dass started to get paranoid, and he said something like it opened a locked door in his chest (feeling of pain) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyFnY9d42CI


Question:
- Can bad trips really have a long term negative effect?, and if so how would someone new to psychedelics stop a bad trip form happening?:

- Dosage ?
- Sitter ?
- Mind set ?


Thank you.

I wouldn't say you would have a long term negative effect, although it does depend on the drug/dose and what you define a bad trip to be.

For example, would you say that a trip is bad because of something buried deep in your subconscious being brought to the surface? This could be a negative memory and dampen the trip, but it's all subjective, because you may decide afterwards that it was important for you to know about it properly, and enable you to do something about it.

Or perhaps you mean the fear? Being confused? Perhaps being overwhelmed? etc? Again, this all comes down to how you handle it during and after.

Either way, you are pretty unlikely to have a bad trip, unless you treat the drugs like a recreational substance like coke or mandy. The trick is all set and setting, so be somewhere you know or can cope with, and with people you trust.

Dosage wise, if you are new to psyches, I recommend low doses just so you begin to realise what you are dealing with. In terms of more precise doses, I'd recommend 1g of dried mushrooms, 100ug tab of LSD, or 200mg of mescaline. You should be able to experience the more psychedelic side without getting locked into anything too overwhelming that way. Just be sure that you aren't going to be interrupted, that you are in a safe environment with people you like, and that you have the day after to yourself, and you should be fine.

Sitters are there are a preference for whoever is taking the drug. I've never had one or wanted one, but if you are anxious, it may help calm your nerves. Whatever you do, don't get a sitter who knows jack about psychedelics - they will likely only make matters worse should you have a bad trip.

Be positive going in, and have a reason for why you want the experience. Remember at all times that it is just a drug, and should you enter a bad phase, know that you will always come down. You can even write "I will come down" on your hand, but I'd consider this overkill, and worrying about it is likely to make it manifest itself.

There's also the 100% guaranteed way of ensuring a good time - do MDMA with the dose. Psyches do play on your state of mind, so if you are in happy la la land due to the MDMA, your trip will be as well.

Best thing you can do is to relax when you take the dose, keep the conversation upbeat, and listen to music you love. You'll soon realise there's nothing to fear.

With regards to DMT, bad trips are generally made worse by the fact that you can't get off. Given that a small dose of DMT (0.02mg-0.03mg) will only last 5-10 minutes, you won't have this worry. If you find it uncomfortable, just kick back and relax as much as you can as it will be over very quickly anyway.

This is one of the reasons many nexians don't dose other people with DMT. You just have no idea how it will effect them or how strong there mental state is. Bad trips can manifest on many different levels from just a slightly rough ride to extremely traumatic. That being said the level that it reaches and the mental strength of the user comes into play as far as long term/short term negative effects. The lasting effects are variable as well.

Dosage, a sitter, and set and setting are your main weapons against fighting the possibility of a bad trip. ALSO, different psychedelics as well. Mushrooms can tend to lead some down that road, as mescaline rarely produces negative experiences. Increase the dosage and the strength of a bad trip increases as well (if it happens). There are also many different things you can do to abort a bad trip as well. Singing, receiving positive reinforcement from a sitter through suggestive speaking, (everything is going to be alright) removing yourself from the environment that may be causing it (simply getting up and walking around). I also enjoy choosing a fry buddy before hand, thats the person you confide in when your having issues or want to go on an adventure.

Bad trips often scare people away if they have never tried psychedelics, or if they have had one. I had a very scary experience one time on mushrooms that I dealt with great but it did not allow me to enjoy the experience until i started coming down from peak. I gave up on psychedelics after that. I have since returned and have had several amazing experiences on mushrooms. They are my favorite.

When Ram Dass talked regarding meeting the guru and the talk that they had regarding his mother, what he was describing regarding feeling 'pain' from his chest - this was emotional pain, not actual physical pain.

As far as I can tell, Ram Dass led an amazing life, and I don't understand how you correlated this video with 'long term negative effects'? And how did you correlate his taking a psychedelic (in his case LSD) with him experiencing 'paranoia' or a 'bad trip', because as far as I can ell, his dialogue on the mountain the next day with that guru had nothing to do with him getting paranoid due to being on a psychedelic.

Bad trips are very subjective. All depends on the person; their perspective.

Calm setting, calm mind state, sitters optional. All these things can vary, it's hard to say.

'Bad trips'...this phrase i don't care for. All experience are a learning process, and 'stopping a bad experience' doesn't make much sense to me. Start with low dosages, be thoughtful in your setting, research, learn, apply, be humble. Imo, the 'wanting to stop a bad trip from happening' should be chucked to the side. Throw all notions to the side.

You can prepare to an extent, and with psychedelics, especially DMT, when the experience takes you, it takes you, and how how you perceive it from that point on comes down to your subjectivity as a human being and what you deem to consider 'bad', 'negative', 'evil' etc.

Just remember, the experience IS WHAT IT IS. Learning to accept that and just roll with the punches is the best option, as i've learned over the years.

Give in.

<3

I agree with you tat except one thing. Often times an uncomfortableness can overcome you during a trip that isnt necessarily part of a learning experience (in some ways it can become one). In many instances this can be due to some sort of issue other than with in yourself. These types of things can be dealt with by removing yourself from said situation or other methods can be used as well.

There was a dog running around one time that had eaten my puke, i believed he was tripping too (there were mushrooms in my puke) but his running around in the tall grass was making things very difficult from me. By removing the dog from the equation it definitely helped although I was having a rough ride before all that. My point being this type of outside influence on the experience not really being part of a learning experience that you must go through. These can cause bad trips.