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tips for keeping your head on a psychedelic

dakaen said:
Can't agree more. Nearly all my most terrible trips occurred when I was around people - people who were either no tripping at all or tripping much less then me;
In contrast nearly all if not all of my solo trips have been quite peaceful if not at times slightly overwhelming but still manageable.

Recently I tripped with my brother and a friend who has only tripped once; we hiked into a nearby forest on the night of the full moon. I took between 2-3 drops of LSD and then a few bong rips (bear in mind I hadn't smoked weed in nearly a month!)

Suffice to say that by the time we reached the part of the hike where the vegetation began to close in all around us and the spiders and fire ants were everywhere including on us I completely lost my shit.

If you're interested in the full story I posted it in the Trip Report forum;
http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/729133-(LSD-2-5-drops)-XP-LV3-5-The-Heart-of-Darkness

But yeah I'd say from the experience of all my other trips that set and setting are so important; but perhaps even more important or just as important is you state of mind going into it as well as the people you choose to bring with you. I made the mistake of bringing along someone who was nowhere near prepared for what can go down when psychedelics go dark and we all paid the price because of that (well partly because of that)

Lol now I feel bad for that guy because even though I was the one that lost my shit I probably scared the living hell out of him too. xD
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God this sounds like so many times I've tripped. The messed up thing about my past trips were that I was dating a guy that would very much pressure me into tripping with everyone, saying things like "well you'll make everyone really uncomfortable if you're not tripping" or "If you don't trip just go home" (which I really would have done, but he would not have let me near the car and if I got a ride from anyone he'd make it into a very dramatic situation involving physical harm or verbal harm later on when he came home from tripping without me) so basically I was in between a rock and a hard place and pressured into an intense psychedelic experience that I wanted no part of due to social anxiety.


Now that I'm finally out of that relationship and with someone who truly respects and cares for me, I think I would love to try tripping alone. I would though like to figure out some coping mechanisms because I do very much want to trip with my boyfriend.
 
I'm very happy to hear you got out of that bad relationship. In particular, I feel the need to point out that this:
well you'll make everyone really uncomfortable if you're not tripping
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is completely false. I always feel much safer and have a much better time if I trip with at least one sober person (the "anchor") around to keep an eye on me.

Oh man this is so cool, I'm totally blasted... awesome!
Shit, I'm getting lost in the trip, hope I'm not acting too weird...
Should I tone it down and get a grip?
Nah, Laura's here, she'd definitely tell me if I were acting weird.
What an awesome woman!
Wheee!
 
I personally like to trip with my closest friends and roommate. I can literally do anything and they wouldn't judge me. I feel that in order for me to feel comfortable, I need to be around people I can pour my heart out to. My best friends are people like that, and are generally the only people I trip with. I can cry and tell them I love them (platonic) and shout out absurd things and roll around on the ground in almost no clothing, and they will accept me. That, I feel, is the key to grounding yourself.

Also, a sober companion can be wonderful, if they are one of these understanding people; someone you feel close to, who has tripped HARD before and thus can understand when your crying and shouting and speaking gibberish. Plus, sometimes you gotta have someone to answer the door and tell people nothing is going on in here hahah.
 
My functional analogy of stoned-ness, not including set and setting which relates to CONTENT of the trip, but STONEDNESS which is the state of mind, is LAYERS.

The more layers of fading moments, (basically due to longer fadeout of signal pulse trains in the brain,) the more stoned you are.

This is not a thing you can change with attitude, nor by preparation of setting, it is entirely DOSE DEPENDENT.
You can plan escape routes which will basically take care of the baby, who is yourself, in case you dose your psychedelics to the degree that you cannot track conversations, cannot track time, or any time related motion or events.

A bed makes a lot of sense, a couch is good, even a floor.

Take extra care with cannabis which some people think is sedative, it is actually intensely psychedelic and it will increase your general STONEDNESS if you already have taken something that way. Trails will be extended, colors enhanced and time can begin to run backwards or stop if it has not already done so.

There is no way to reduce the layered nature of a stoned mind by behavior or planning, this is the effect of the dosage, and until it is metabolized or passed, or until benzos have been applied or something else to counter the chemistry of the effect (AND RUIN IT) it is the way the way the mind will resonate will all things.
 
Clocktower said:
I'm very happy to hear you got out of that bad relationship. In particular, I feel the need to point out that this:

is completely false. I always feel much safer and have a much better time if I trip with at least one sober person (the "anchor") around to keep an eye on me.

Oh man this is so cool, I'm totally blasted... awesome!
Shit, I'm getting lost in the trip, hope I'm not acting too weird...
Should I tone it down and get a grip?
Nah, Laura's here, she'd definitely tell me if I were acting weird.
What an awesome woman!
Wheee!
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hahaha yeah and that's always been my favorite place in the group since I don't feel comfortable tripping with others, I always really felt fulfilled by being that "anchor" and making sure everyone was safe and having a good time. And I could even keep up with weird psychedelic-minded crazy talk-I'm already friggin' crazy, so if you start talking to me about the weird little mushroom men marching around your brain, well I could talk all day about them! "Oh, the universe is inside you and you're inside it and all beings ever created are spiraling in and out of your consciousness? Wow I've been there before!" I always felt like it was a good thing to be the sober one, but he knew he could appeal to my self-consciousness with saying I'd make everyone uncomfortable, because I will avoid doing that at all costs and he knew it. I very much care about everyone feeling safe and comfortable no matter how I have to go about making that happen.

I'm even the token designated driver when everyone goes out drinking-I'm just more comfortable sober unless I'm in the safety of my own home :)
 
240sxLover said:
Also, a sober companion can be wonderful, if they are one of these understanding people; someone you feel close to, who has tripped HARD before and thus can understand when your crying and shouting and speaking gibberish. Plus, sometimes you gotta have someone to answer the door and tell people nothing is going on in here hahah.
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bahaha oh god so important that that person has lost their mind before! I actually did have a very small group of friends at one point who I felt that comfortable with. I miss that feeling of community more than anything in the world. We all ended up each going our separate ways eventually, but the times we had were so very special. I remember this one LSD trip we had where we were trying to drive somewhere but the acid was very quickly coming on in full force so we had to pull over, put a white rag in the window and run into this cornfield. Basically one of those ridiculously typical places for hippies to happen upon while tripping. We got to the other side of the cornfield and trampled into the woods where we all completely lost our shit in unison and ended up on an epic journey helping each other overcome all of our personal fears and laying in the dirt and leaves just letting our bodies do whatever and each of us almost returning to infancy in a way. If anyone had happened upon us...I can't even imagine what they'd think. They'd probably think we all somehow got rabies 8)
 
pupnik said:
Take extra care with cannabis which some people think is sedative, it is actually intensely psychedelic...
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Dude nobody ever gets it when I say this! Everyone I know says that when they are having an intense trip, if they smoke they'll calm down completely. This could not be further from the truth for me-It literally skyrockets me into a whole new set of "layers" it feels like. And by skyrockets I mean more like a very slow motion rocket leaving earth inch by inch until BAM I'm in space.
 
I stay the goddamn hell away from pot edibles, pot in general is 50/50 overwhelming. Your description of pot on trips sounds like how people describe salvia - might just want to not go there unless you're ready for that kind of intensity!

I too am the "anchor" friend who takes care of people and volunteers to be the DD when we go out, and I second the recommendations that you try a solo trip. Your will to survive will likely keep you calm, and not having to worry about social situations/other people's trips/etc will really let you get in there and explore the backs of your eyelids and inner workings of your mind.
 
If you take too much of a psychedelic (loosely defined as a 5-HT2a agonist), then you are pretty much guaranteed to lose your head for a while, although antipsychotics and benzos can help a lot. It's like my friend told me when I asked him about trying a thumbprint (before Pickard got busted and White Fluff--who, believe it or not, was an actual man--died of a drug overdose), and he said, "I'll tell you one thing: You WILL lose your mind."
 
Thomas Davie said:
...otherwise my tripping companions are 3 dogs and 2 cats.
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I'm the human responsible for two cats. One's mine, the other my housemates. They occasionally end up a little stoned off my weed smoke and it can be hilarious. Especially when we get into an argument. But I've found cats are very forgiving when their human is off their face. Hehe
 
^ I only know because my friend's cat ate a small nug and had to go to the vet, she was trippin balls. That was how his dad found out about his habit unfortunately hahah. I'm sure a bit of smoke wont kill them, but it certainly isn't good.
 
i've only done a handful of psychedelics recently, LSD, aMT, AL-LAD, 5-MeO-DALT, LSZ.... most of the times in doses far too high for a rookie with these sorts of drugs, but all i can say that really reassured me when i thought the trip was heading in a negative direction was just telling myself to accept that whatever happens, happens and that instead of being savage or irritated i should just savour the moment, accept that it's part of the trip and that it will end eventually (if it gets to that point - which it hasn't yet). it sounds stupid, but it actually really really calms me down. luckily i've not had a "bad" trip so to speak while on these, but i have had moments of severe "prangyness" as i like to call it, where my set and setting have been horribly disturbed by all sorts of factors.
 
One safe thought that comes to mind: there is nothing I can experience that is not part of the common store of experiences of humanity. If you unite your suffering with the rest of humanity, you will lead yourself into feeling more human and less of an oddity. You will also be led into having compassion for yourself inasmuch as you recognize your failures and weaknesses for what they are.
 
synthetix said:
i've only done a handful of psychedelics recently, LSD, aMT, AL-LAD, 5-MeO-DALT, LSZ.... most of the times in doses far too high for a rookie with these sorts of drugs, but all i can say that really reassured me when i thought the trip was heading in a negative direction was just telling myself to accept that whatever happens, happens and that instead of being savage or irritated i should just savour the moment, accept that it's part of the trip and that it will end eventually (if it gets to that point - which it hasn't yet). it sounds stupid, but it actually really really calms me down. luckily i've not had a "bad" trip so to speak while on these, but i have had moments of severe "prangyness" as i like to call it, where my set and setting have been horribly disturbed by all sorts of factors.
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I like this but it is too many words.
there has to be some handy phrase - short and true, when things are intense, memory and understanding are not strong.
better than a phrase, a practiced attitude which is open, brave, relaxed, and observing.
it has to be second nature to kick in.
 
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