Recently i broke ties with a partner because i felt they were being irresponsible in the planning of large group trip. I felt that not only was security not being taken into consideration but was also concerned for the physical and emotional well being of participants. There were other factors at play in my decision to cut off the relationship, but this was pretty much the last straw. The dissolution was a time ago, but i touched base with one of the participants last night, who told me of her experience.

This person had been on hand (and was recruited after i walked out) because not only were they trained professionally as a therapist and counselor but are also very experienced with the entheogenic experience. She told me that it turned out well, for the most part, but that the person who had agreed to be a sober sitter did not show up unexpectedly, and that there was one individual who required all her attention through the night as this person was inexperienced with psychedelics and had a difficult time. I understand everyone dosed 3.5 gm cubensis.

My friend is eminently capable as a therapist but she felt that it was too much responsibility for her to be the only one there to calm things down. There were ten people tripping. Also, this happened at a state park, at the beach. ( EDIT) there is another scheduled as well.

Upon discussing the whole thing with her, i realized that a big part of my trepidation involved a trauma i have around larger groups tripping. When i was young and tripped every weekend pretty much, there was one time (& only this one time) that i didn't partake with everyone, and i think it was because there were too many people there, 12. During that evening i noticed a friend acting disoriented in a strange manner. Since i was (relatively) sober, i tool him for a walk and when that didn't ease his distress, for a drive. His breathing became labored and he began going in and out of consciousness so i took him to hospital (this was 1986, & i was questioned by two undercover pigs there and I'm still proud of how vehemently i cussed them and demanded care for my friend). The story is, he went through cardiac arrest and was brought back and fwiu, there was found trace amounts of cyanide in his system. Soooo.... (EDIT) the point here is that had I not for some reason NOT dosed, my friend could very well have suffered more serious consequences, and at the least an ambulance and police would have shown up.

Am i being reactionary, cautious, or what to still want nothing to do with this exercise in group tripping? Actually, i don't think I'd be comfortable in such a larger group anyway but still...

I have hard times with groups with more than 3-4 ppl. It's honestly just not fun lol, unless you guys are all THAT close and have known each other for a long time. That's not usually the scenario though. Sooo if it's a small group, go for it, anything more than 5 I'd pass.

I agree with Godzy.
Tripping is best as an intimate affair within a small group.

Very true words above.

Honestly I have never had a very powerful experience with more than one other person. It seems nearly impossible to focus internally and work towards self improvement. I generally like to be alone, however, with extremely close family/ friends it was very powerful. Since we were so close and connected, the experience really helped deepen our connection and gain insight to our personal lives.
It just seems unrealistic to have a personal, spiritual experience with 10 other people.

I had really goods experiences with large groups (15-20 ppl) and mushroom (not huge/heroic doses) but everyone knew each other very well and it was more for partiing.
I would not do it again cause it's sure risk of 'bad trip' increase exponentially with dose and number of participants. Small groups FTW (with a sober sitter )

I think you're being wise about this, per yourself and your situation.

Me personally - I've tripped with a few groups several times; it never went beyond 5 people. The 5 people were relatively close and we knew each other decently. While I never had any issues really, looking back on it, now I prefer to be with one other person who's extremely close or fly solo. The more people - the more variables, ime.

Anymore, I prefer to be by myself, or with my best friend; anything else beyond that ime lends to too much distraction from the immediacy of the experience and anchors me much more than if I were to be by myself or with one other person. Nothing wrong with having a group, I enjoyed it very much.

Any of the times I had a group - we were by a fire, at night, under the stars and near the woods. Minimal distractions and it lent us to really concentrate and be aware of the experience and engage it without having to worry about endless other factors. Plus there's something about sitting in a circle around a fire and having nothing but the the blackness of nighttime and the infinite backdrop it creates; allowing everyone to really RELAX and open up to their imagination and their mind, without much distraction. There's something intrinsic about a fire that soothes this deeper aspect of ourselves (the essence psychedelics illuminate imo). The element of a fire has always been a great equalizer in terms of soothing people from start to finish ime.

Sometimes, the littlest nuances can perpetuate this cascading effect, that can quickly consume much of the energy of the group. That's why for me, if there's going to be a group I try to make sure I square away as much as possible. You could call it ritual I guess. It's not a bad thing though. Some might find it rigid, but honestly I think having some sort of framework when diving in to the deep end, especially when with a group, can provide 'rails' for each persons awareness of the experience, allowing the person to sit back, engage and enjoy, without having to be bombarded with tons of external factors (which can easily perpetuate things to sail downhill).

These are just my thoughts and opinions. These are whats really helped me and what I find to really be beneficial.

hmmm......

i like to keep it below 100.
above 100 there tends to be some degree of mayhem.

if 50% of the crowd is NOT tripping,
up to 500 is cool,
as the non trippers dim the crowd response.

^ this kinda thing was the norm for concerts and clubs in
the 70s -80s when acid was common , almost a promoters loose guidline.

large venues and " dead concerts" of course exceed those,
suggesting peeps have proven the ability to trip "en masse',
with reasonable safety.

it comes down to personal liability and preferences.


as for small groups ( under 6)
im not interested in anything less than pros for comrade cosmonauts.
the worst thing is 3-4 people who decide the dont like each other while tripping.

^THAT isnt safe.

Null, what were they taking that night that you had to drive the guy to the hospital? That sounds pretty freaky.

I think there is a pretty valid reason that many people are hesitant to trip in groups of 10-15 people. It can get weird, distracting, and end up taking more out of you than potentially growing. I suppose it all just depends.

If it does not feel right, don't do it. If it feels right, and the group of people are experienced enough not to negatively impact you or others, then a group trip can provide MORE growth than a solo. But, it all just depends.

Purple micro-dot. Yeah really f###ing freaky. We lost contact years ago, but the event changed the guy's life. It's actually one of my favorite stories to tell, maybe I'll post the whole thing someday. He had the whole NDE, through the tunnel, the whole thing. When he emerged into void, he said, he was aproached by a group of faceless entities standing in light. One leaned forward and said "hey Pete- Who do you love?" and when he said he didn't know, the being told him it wasnt time for him yet and pushed him back into his body. He opened his eyes and the doctor was lifting the defib paddles off his chest.

Yeah, I've never eaten micro-dot since. Does anyone know WTF that could have been, any reason for the presence of cyanide in a cornstarch pill? Could it have been something else? Could the doctors have been full of it? This isn't a FOAQF tale, this happened.

BTW paperjack, your avatar is the funniest one on the Nexus

Anne: I grew up following the Dead, so yeah add some zeroes to those numbers. One in 10,000 come for the show! I get all that, that's good, there's a focus, it's a celebration, a Dioysian festival. This is amore intimate affair among virtual strangers, thta turned out well planned. They may have a good thing going on, there are good people in this community to recruit, but still....not my thing...

I will add, when I spoke of groups I was not thinking about big concerts, festivals or gatherings. I find these events usually less personal and more geared towards fun and letting go. Because of this it seems easier for large group trips to go off better. Not to say these negative things do not happen at these events because they most certainly do!

I have yet to have a bad experience group tripping. I have tripped with friends on Mushrooms and LSD and I have tripped at festivals where there are hundreds upon hundreds of people around. My all time favorite trips included the time I tripped on LSD at a Slipknot concert during Halloween and at the hangout festival with Modest Mouse and Flaming Lips. Another great time I was on mushrooms at the hangout festival and the Damien Marley concert did it for me then. Skrillex was at this show too and I had never experienced any of these concerts before, let alone while tripping. It was AMAZING. The crowds were the most fun to watch. As the music was playing you could see the crowd moving to the tide so to speak.

The first hangout festival I went to I saw a girl having a bad trip. I couldn't help her because I didn't know her and it looked like one of her friends was already trying to help her. Her eyes were huge, wide open and had a cold pale look to her face. She looked extremely frightened by something and couldn't look anyone in the eye. I hope she was okay. All times I have tripped around close friends or strangers, I have had no fear and felt that overwhelming sense of serenity all the time. I felt like I could tap into other people's minds and feel them as I walked pass them. Obviously don't know how true that could be but it felt good enough to keep me from having any bad trips.

I wanted to be friendly to everyone and especially on LSD I feel like I can communicate better with people. It opens my focus up more and I feel like I can say what I mean when I'm tripping on LSD. When sober, I have the hardest time focusing and my words stumble when I try to speak. I cannot speak my point of view very clearly. I have to reiterate what I am saying a lot to get the full meaning of what I mean out and when I am on LSD, I feel the opposite. Everything flows off my tongue the way I mean it and anything that would normally make me angry or jumpy is just completely gone when I'm tripping on LSD. I don't feel the need to react on this drug instead I feel the need to focus and keep my mouth shut in places that if I were sober I wouldn't. It's interesting to me how it takes over me like that. I feel like the best me I could ever be when I'm on LSD.

I would not recommend this to anyone because everyone has a different chemical makeup but I can even drive when I'm on LSD. I don't drive on LSD if I don't have to. This is that circumstantial kind of decision. Like when you had to drive your friend to the hospital. I had a strong dose of LSD one time that I couldn't come down from and was running out of time and was forced to drive home the next morning (when I thought the trip would be over) and I was an hour away from home. I was more focused driving on LSD than when sober. I couldn't believe it.

Mushrooms, however is the COMPLETE opposite so I will always choose a safe environment where I will never be forced to drive if I take mushrooms. My boyfriend and I tried to drive home a night after mushrooms and we both realized the moment we got in the car that that was a bad idea. Depth of field perspective was WAY OFF so the best thing to do in that event was to call in sick the next day at work. I'll never put myself in that position again. If we had decided to drive home that night we would have most definitely wrecked. The few feet we got, the tiny little 4 way stop was colliding in on itself and we looked at each other and were like... nope. So we turned back and drove the longest 10 feet feet back to the driveway we have ever driven. So there again, I will never put myself in that position again. LSD is a different story though. I can hold complete mature and realistic conversations while on LSD and I feel the most awake and grounded. So I prefer LSD when in big crowds of people. Mushrooms for me is best with a smaller crowd. Mushrooms felt less impacting when around a big crowd. I didn't get to really feel it's full effects as I was distracted by so many people and trying to stay focused.