Stuck in a loop on acid in large crowds?

[roseydosey]

So I recently went to a music festival, and tripped LSD (I may or may not have been on a few other drugs? ha). Everything was fine for a while and I was having a great time. Then my friends decided to chill back by our tents for a while before the next band. I don't even remember it starting, but I started to realize we were stuck in a loop. Everyone kept saying basically the same thing with the same syllabus and making the same movements. One other of the six also realized what was going on but didn't seemed as freaked out by it. I kept trying to get everyone to stop and get up, but nothing worked. I tried playing music, but that just made it worse so eventually I just dragged my boyfriend out of the tent and made him come with me to the band that had already started. Thought it might distract me...

But once I was there I started to look and thought the entire crowd was stuck in a loop, and they were all slowly realizing it but were unable to move. And I really thought it was somehow all because of me. I was so worried because I didn't know if I'd ever be able to get them out. I don't even really remember leaving that concert or anything else after that. But it's all I can think about I genuinely felt like I was controlling people's minds, but I wasn't trying to at all. Maybe it was just because I was tripping, but it seriously felt like it meant more than just to me.

 

[Hilopsilo]

Getting stuck in a loop is a very strange (and often scary) phenomenon and can happen at even low doses of psychedelics. I notice that the effects sort of begin to snowball; you notice something, start thinking you are in a loop, which puts you further into the loop, then you begin to panic/get paranoid, and then its all downhill from there.

Reading your story I think going back to chill at your tents may have been the catalyst, I notice loops happen when there are less changing environmental variables around you, you get a lot of consistency and you start to lose your ability to tell one moment from the next.

Were your friends with you also really in a loop or had you just convinced yourself they were too? In bad trips your trip and sensations you're feeling and thought you are thinking fully become your perception world around you.

 

[pupnik]

that's funny advice but probably true.

still if the crowd is oppressive, one must retreat, and it still take some time for the echoes of the crowd energy to subside,
so when you do retreat you have to actively pursue contact with your body and senses in your new environment, and become attuned to the less oppressive rhythms.
following the breath and becoming aware of the 5 senses and mind is the best for me.

 

[perpetualdawn]

Breath, the ultimate loop..

 

[Cream Gravy?]

I got stuck in a loop last weekend. I honestly find it greatly amusing these days and laugh uproariously when it occurs, though I recall it being frightening in the early experiences.

 

[Hilopsilo]

that's funny advice but probably true.

still if the crowd is oppressive, one must retreat, and it still take some time for the echoes of the crowd energy to subside,
so when you do retreat you have to actively pursue contact with your body and senses in your new environment, and become attuned to the less oppressive rhythms.
following the breath and becoming aware of the 5 senses and mind is the best for me.

crowds can certainly become oppressive, I'd just suggest going for a walk and to get a change of scenery rather than retreat to a semi-confined/constant space.

This biggest most terrifying loop i ever got in was when I was very young, starting to lose it on mushrooms so i just went to my room, turned the lights out and tried to go sleep. This made everything much, much worse.

 

[pupnik]

it got worse because you ran away.
I would not recommend running away, the stoned universe is like an "Alice in Wonderland" place.
escape becomes inverted.
When stoned, any attempt to avoid something or escape intensifies the connection to the thing you want to avoid.

However,
the breath is a regular cycle that was there before the trip and before the concert.
putting your attention on the breath is a refuge that does not involve the whole "approach vs escape" quandary that the looking glass world presents.

putting your attention to real sensations in the here and now is the connection you need.
contact where parts of the body touch the ground, a cool sip of water, fresh air...

the mind responds well to contact in the moment.

 

[Hilopsilo]

putting your attention to real sensations in the here and now is the connection you need.
contact where parts of the body touch the ground, a cool sip of water, fresh air...

the mind responds well to contact in the moment.

Yes, this is exactly what I meant.

 

[Volsam]

Breath, the ultimate loop..

Yeah! :D

Also I highly recommend to get a singing bowl a try. They are really awesome at helping people break the looped thinking cycle and using just one bowl can help a little circle of people at the same time and will also help creating connections between participants, elevate the trip and balance group dynamics.

I have used signing bowls numerous times on high doses of LSD and its a must have tool for me.

 

[PerpetualAnhedonic]

I got stuck in a loop last weekend. I honestly find it greatly amusing these days and laugh uproariously when it occurs, though I recall it being frightening in the early experiences.

Isn't it just wonderful how LSD (or w/e psych substance of your taste) can bring about this change in perspective? Constantly, I find myself laughing at things I would used to find scary or disturbing....it teaches us to find/notice the beautiful humor, amusement and irony within it, and of life itself, and simply laugh...suddenly, things just aren't so terrifying anymore.

-PA