How is it possible to have bad trips? I don't understand this

[Jesusgreen]

Try not to think of them as 'bad trips' but as a process of understanding. The night is darkest before the dawn.

Great post, and I very much agree. My worst two experiences were the hour or two prior to both times I've experienced ego loss, but when I experienced it, the negative emotions prior to it were so so worth it.

 

[Jesusgreen]

I've decided not to create a new thread.

On shrooms/acid is there a chance that whilst tripping with your mates that you will be too honest and tell them secrets that you intend not to share sober?

That's my main worry.

It's no more likely than with any other drug really. I'd say it's more likely with an empathogen like MDMA or Mephedrone.

 

[Raw Evil]

I don't get the whole "i can fly, watch me jump out a window" thing. Not even the most incoherent tripper would forget to test it out from a safe height of maybe 1ft first...

 

[psilocybonaut]

I don't get the whole "i can fly, watch me jump out a window" thing. Not even the most incoherent tripper would forget to test it out from a safe height of maybe 1ft first...

Or why not take off from the fucking ground? you don't see ducks going up excalators to take off from high buildings. They take off from the ground

 

[kingme]

some people cant really have good control over themselves while on higher doses (which they might not be used to) so they can get carried away with bad thoughts and emotions...
while on 2ce or 2ci sometimes i get scared by crowds of people, thinking they are all watching me or know something about me (like im so out there... though im pretty sure im quite inconspicuous), and can see how this might scare some if you let it control you. just be cool. try to always have a small anchor in reality (at least think that you are on something, this is temporary, lay quiet)


and about taking off... this reminds me of the news that went around a few years back about some kids watching too much pokemon on tv and finally decided to try flying for themselves by jumping out windows. really. so its kinda like that, you have to be mature enough to respect the substance, and then you can enjoy it and not take everything that you feel/think during a trip as fact/real.

 

[The Hebrew Hammer]

All it takes is one thing for a trip to turn bad... Forgetting that you took drugs.

I havent really had a bad trip myself, though I have had some very difficult experiences. The difficult ones all start when I have consumed more than enough psychedelic and forget that I took a psychedelic.

As soon as I remember I am just tripping I havea blast, but for about 30 minutes or so before the peak I can have a lot of wtf moments lol...

 

[MistaJeff]

I used to think I couldn't have a bad trip. I tripped over 70 times before I had one. I dropped acid and I let my friends pressure me into taking two hits when I really just wanted one. I wasn't really in the right mind set for a heavy trip. I freaked out and convinced myself that my life was over. I spent about four hours scared to death of my impending doom. I eventually took half a xanax and was fine after that. I haven't had a bad trip since then but I also stopped dropping acid every weekend. I was just taking too much to mentally process.

 

[Alldaykk]

Thanks for ALL the responses guys. I loved em and I read every single one!!!

Looks like I should just throw the idea of a bad trip out entirely and take it for what it is.

And if I ever do experience a "difficult trip" remember thats all it is and to try and process it, instead of just labeling it as a vague "bad trip" which will probably just trip you out even more processing that while you are tripping.

Generally the experiences I have are just so strange but at the same time enlightening and euphoric.

I also talked to a friend who said he has never had a bad trip ever on anything except one time he was on acid and he ended up shooting his friend right inbetween the eyes with a BB gun. He was SOOOOO FORTUNATE it didnt hit his eye, but obviously during his trip when he shot him and then he fell covering his face he thought for sure he hit him the eye which must of been the worst trip imagineable.

he says he didnt know how he got that gun or where it came from cause he was just so fucked up, but I told him bottom line is one of his homie supplied him that gun while he knew he would be tripping and that is just a stupid idea in the first place. If he would just do it ONCE AGAIN in a good SETTING he would have a blast. Anybody else have more to add? love the topic

 

[T. Calderone]

I knew a girl in school that kept saying she wanted to try tripping. A different friend gave her a cupcake with mescaline on top but didn't tell her. This girl freaked out so badly and I guess that's understandable when you feel it setting in (and not knowing wtf, right) She had been told eventually but by that time she was really angry. Not a good trip, plus damaged friendship.

 

[Damien]

You're pretty much on the right track - most 'bad trips' are just negative thought loops (thinking about something difficult or scary and not being able to stop)...

This is what all my difficulties have ever sprung from. I've never had like a "I'm not ever going to be sane again!" or "What are those crazy monsters?!" type thing happen. It's always just this thought that I can't escape from. It might not even a bad thought, it's just confusing to always come back to that same though no matter what else you try and think of.

Most of my friends and I don't really get bad trips but it does happen from time to time. I remember one of my friends was caught in this thought loop of "what do I do?" That's all he could think. We would try and reason with him asking "You mean like right now, or something with your life?" and he was just so confused. You could tell he would try and process it but he would just come back to that thought of "What do I DO?!".

 

[Godzilla]

lol , Im reading this thread and this weekend I was telling one of my best friends something similar.
I think Im done with big gatherings of friends. There is just to much babysitting going on. it seems like 1/2 the people are allways having a "bad trip" I know for a fact that me and two of my friends just dont get like that. I think it has to do with personality. I was jokingly telling him that I wish i could tell some of those people " cant you just snap the fuck out of it and have a good time for a few hours and I promise if you want Ill hold you and well cry together all day tomorrow." fuck me its not like every day we all get together and have the oppurtunity to share this type of expierience. thanks for shitting on my party. Ok off my soap box. sorry.

 

[Xorkoth]

I knew a girl in school that kept saying she wanted to try tripping. A different friend gave her a cupcake with mescaline on top but didn't tell her. This girl freaked out so badly and I guess that's understandable when you feel it setting in (and not knowing wtf, right) She had been told eventually but by that time she was really angry. Not a good trip, plus damaged friendship.

Dosing someone without their knowledge is a really terrible thing to do to someone... it's kind of like mental rape really. No one should EVER do that. Plus the friend WANTED to try it... the other guy could have easily just asked her if she wanted some. What a stupid thing to do...

 

[SirTophamHat]

bad trips are pretty much a self fulfilling prophecy imo

either that or real actual trauma happens when you're under the influence and your emotions/senses, being amplified by the drugs, emphasize the negativity just as they would positivity

 

[SpecialK_]

It's very difficult I find to describe 'bad trips', they are something that I feel need to be experienced - if even slightly, to be understood. One thing I do find that can be described about them is that a 'bad trip' isn't necessarily the whole psychedelic's trip. I find while tripping it's possible to fall in and out of 'trips' such as bad and good ones in as short as a matter of seconds and as long as a few hours.

A 'bad trip' itself normally makes the person feel extremely anxious and paranoid, crazy thoughts can come into the persons head which are absurd, but at the time seem reasonable. Voices can be heard if at higher doses or on certain psychedelics taunting the person or inputting thoughts into their head and due to it being a psychedelic trip it is difficult to escape. The psychedelic's visuals can also be affected such as producing a darker or more sinister feeling or appearance.

 

[Teotzlcoatl]

I knew a girl in school that kept saying she wanted to try tripping. A different friend gave her a cupcake with mescaline on top but didn't tell her. This girl freaked out so badly and I guess that's understandable when you feel it setting in (and not knowing wtf, right) She had been told eventually but by that time she was really angry. Not a good trip, plus damaged friendship.

He give her drugs without her knowing? I'd tie him to a chair and feed him datura, DXM and PCP... and I might punch him in the face a couple times as well.

 

[Xorkoth]

Finally we agree.

 

[Alldaykk]

He give her drugs without her knowing? I'd tie him to a chair and feed him datura, DXM and PCP... and I might punch him in the face a couple times as well.

LOL can you even imagine the sheer horror of a trip that would induce. Not even a "bad trip" it would be more like a "horror trip" lol being that dissacociated and trippin that hard, then next thing you know you are strapped to a chair getting punched in the face. You would probably have a heart attach from straight terror. SRS

But anyway,


The only time I can ever remember even having something that resembled a bad trip would be on salvia when I took maybe a double dosage full bowl of 20x salvia to my dome and I was litterally so dissacociated I didnt know anything about anything or anything about anyone or what anything was or what reality was. I remember the trip perfect too. Everything went dark and when I looked up I could only see my two friends faces, but just their faces and they were attached to a figure that looked like a totem pole. And thats it, i didnt even know what reality or life was. The only reason I would describe this as a bad trip is because it felt really bad to be in this state of mind. It basically boiled down to my mind racing a million miles a second repeating just one thing to me "Something is very very wrong, I dont know what it is, I dont even know whats going on, but something is very very wrong"

Ive had that feeling before on other stuff much much more mild. The "something isnt right, cant put my finger on it but something isnt" anyone ever get this before?

 

[DwayneHoover]

This is what all my difficulties have ever sprung from. I've never had like a "I'm not ever going to be sane again!" or "What are those crazy monsters?!" type thing happen. It's always just this thought that I can't escape from. It might not even a bad thought, it's just confusing to always come back to that same though no matter what else you try and think of.

Most of my friends and I don't really get bad trips but it does happen from time to time. I remember one of my friends was caught in this thought loop of "what do I do?" That's all he could think. We would try and reason with him asking "You mean like right now, or something with your life?" and he was just so confused. You could tell he would try and process it but he would just come back to that thought of "What do I DO?!".

I've had that exact same bad trip / thought-loop before!

Man you did totally the wrongest possible thing by asking him more questions like that or trying to reason with him. The bad-tripper just gets more and more paranoid and distressed that they cannot understand what you are trying to say and so there must be something wrong with themselves, etc. etc. They feel inside like they are being interrogated.

NEVER EVER question or reason with someone on a bad trip... it ALWAYS just makes it worse!

You should have firmly but kindly and gently, confidently, and definitively ANSWERED his question: YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING, NONE OF US CAN. SO JUST FORGET ABOUT IT AND DONT WORRY ABOUT IT... JUST TURN OFF YOUR THOUGHTS, TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES, LAY BACK, CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LISTEN TO THIS "Close To The Edge" record by YES! while we light this magical incense of enlightenment.

There's a reason why the Beatles song went: "Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream... it is not dying... it is not dying! Turn off all thoughts, surrender to the void... it is Being.... it is Being!"

 

[Alldaykk]

NEVER EVER question or reason with someone on a bad trip... it ALWAYS just makes it worse!

LOLOLOL "reason" with them, they are trippin to hard to be reasoned with

 

[Z Y G G Y]

I knew a girl in school that kept saying she wanted to try tripping. A different friend gave her a cupcake with mescaline on top but didn't tell her. This girl freaked out so badly and I guess that's understandable when you feel it setting in (and not knowing wtf, right) She had been told eventually but by that time she was really angry. Not a good trip, plus damaged friendship.

Dosing someone without their knowledge is a really terrible thing to do to someone... it's kind of like mental rape really. No one should EVER do that. Plus the friend WANTED to try it... the other guy could have easily just asked her if she wanted some. What a stupid thing to do...

I totally agree. It is one of the worst things you can do to someone IMO. This experience might have totally fucked the girl up for a long time. I definitely would not want to be friends with someone who would do that to anyone. It's not funny. It's very very wrong. Now she might never want to trip again. Why didn't this "friend" just ask her whether she wants to trip and planned a nice getaway. That is definitely the humane thing to do. I will never understand some of the horrible things that people do to each other. Why would someone do that to a friend? Why?!?! That friend will get whats coming for them.