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Bad trips really not that bad?

Tromps

Tromps

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Sep 7, 2009
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Is it just me, or is a 'bad trip' not as bad as what its made out to be? Sure you can start out having a bad trip, as your mind is thrown into the depths of hell and you're pleading for your life, but doesn't that just make it more rewarding on the other side? The more you push, the farther you go, for better and worse. I see it as the more something is bad, the more potential it has to be good. Just like the more its good, the more potential it has to be bad. For example, a very low dose of a psychedelic might not be that great, but it won't be that bad either. Compared to a higher dose might be really great, but also really bad. As you increase the dose (reasonable doses here), its potential for it to get better and worse both manifest equally. Even if it's bad at the time, if you get something out of it later on doesn't that eliminate it from being bad? I guess you'll get out of it what you put into it, and it all depends on how you look at it. Like the statement "Ignorance is bliss," the more you know, the worse things can become.

I don't want to sound arrogant, but I've experienced full blown ego death on quite a few different substances (lsd, mushrooms, 2c-x's, salvia, dxm) to name a few. Don't get me wrong, of course it's sheer terror and hell at the time, but doesn't that make the 'breakthrough' more profound? Once I'm on the other side its all the more good. The harder I die, the harder I'm reborn (if that makes sense). Once you've been around hells block a number of times and know what its like, can it really get any worse? I suppose it always can get worse, but doesn't that just mean there's more room for it to also get better? I don't personally consider that 'bad' in any way. Honestly, I know that for my highs to get any better, they have to get just as worse. And for them to get any worse, they have to get just as better. I don't consider any trip all good or all bad, they just are, but I do believe good and bad have a certain equality or correlating balance to them, all while at the same time getting equally farther and farther apart from each other, expanding their boundaries. I'm not just looking for the next greatest high, but also the next greatest low. I don't choose this, because I believe thats just how it is and if I'm going to get one then the other comes with it. I'm powerless to change it; they can be exactly the same yet completely opposite in my book. Maybe I'm just crazy? :p

Of course this is all from my point of view, and I may be completely wrong. But my question is, do you other experienced psychonauts believe in the ultimate bad trip? If so please share your stories and experience. I also want to encourage arguments against what I think (not offensive flaming arguments, but I think you know what I mean <3), but please... no one say "The first time I tripped on acid I got caught by the cops, was hospitalized/thrown in jail, and now I'm in a world of trouble, yeah that was nothing but a bad trip," because if that was your initial reaction then I think you missed the point. Please exclude external factors from ruining your trip.

I suppose you could consider dying a bad trip, but then again who knows whats on the other side ;)
 
I do think bad trips really are that bad, if not worse, but they also have some amazing benefits if you can allow yourself to take it away from the experience. For instance I wouldnt wish what I've gone through on bad trips on my worst enemies, but that being said these trips also served as major catalysts for change in my life. What my bad trips have all made me do is come face to face with my mortality, and it is always horrific. But that being said there is nothing like a complete and violent ego death to make you appreciate life. Also I have had several bad trips, that once I submitted and stopped fighting, turned into some of the greatest trips of my life.

Still I've read reports of bad trips causing PTSD. Bad trips are not jokes and should be avoided at all costs. They are not fun and if you are not mentally strong enough or familiar enough with strong psychedelics to submit to that kind of thing, situations can go from really bad to even worse.
 
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i think i have had as bad a trips as possible,,and yes once you break through and get to the good side it is great ,,but it was great before the bad trips ,,the bad trips only made me scared everytime i was to take acid again eventualy leading me to stop completely,,cause once you have a bad death trip your gonna have a bad trip everytime you dive into the cid,,and i knew everytime that i would have to go threw hell before haveing a good time which ussualy ment hugging the toilet bowl to help soothe and relax me till the bad passed ,sometimes throwing up etc,,,but ya eventualy i just became to afraid of the bad trip to even do it again ,at least for several years and then i tried it again a few times ,luckily it was week shit not from my old perfect conect,,but i was still terified that i was gonna go threw the hell of the death trip each time i took it afterwards,,but the shit wasnt strong enough to bring it on,,
now im 43 and i think i would like to try some good acid again even if i had that bad trip cause the good side of trippin was awsome ,i used to totaly get into the mindside of trippin,out of body experiences etc,,groovin and floating around on music ,,enjoying such little things to the extreme all that ,,,i realy want to try X as i was offerd the shit several times in my life but just didnt want to take it but now i do .i love the hippy peace trippin shit,,,while yer on some good cid ,,i think thats about as close to godly like as you can get ....
 
slowpoke1967 said:
the bad trips only made me scared everytime i was to take acid again eventualy leading me to stop completely
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For me, having a 'bad trip' just makes it harder to have bad trips again, since I already know everything will be ok. I would think that learning how to handle something the first time, would teach you how to handle it the second. But I guess everyone is different and the such unpredictable nature of psychedelics makes it a very fine line.

I like to go into my trips knowing the possibility I might be on a ride straight to hell. I imagine the worst case scenario possible. That way if things to start to turn bad, I tell my self "well 'that' isn't happening so it can't be 'that' bad." Usually by preparing like this for the worst thing possible, its always comes up short and isn't as bad as I imagined.

However, I can't say I would recommend imagining your trip will be filled with extreme fear and horror beforehand. Who know's what this might actually be doing, but for me, it works well.
 
i've had three 'bad trips'. the first was harmala+psilocybes and i'm still not quite sure what happened to my mind on that one. the second was a retarded repeat of harmala+psilocybes, and felt like i was thrust back exactly into the original bad trip, as if i had 'imagined' leaving the first one and was just returning to my old self.

the third was on one hoffmann bicycle blotter, and i got more spun than even bad trips 1&2. felt like another flashback, but at the end i was very much reborn and positive.

i haven't had any bad trips since my experimentation with 2C-x drugs. they seem to provide such an intensely positive body high that i can't even think about my past bad trips.
 
bad trip in Amsterdam

Hi,

I was in Amsterdam on my birthday, it was a strange holiday so most stuff was closed (i.e. Heineken Museum), and it was rainy...

but the coffee shops and "smart shops" WERE open.

I thought why not, I haven't tripped in years, I can get legal shrooms here, so I got a packet and ate it....

and it was SO weird... all these languages and stuff 8o

I ended up going back to the hotel, turning on CNN (so I'd hear english), and getting in bed UNDER the blanket (no light that way) for like 6 hours until it was more manageable.

then there was the time in Austin Texas I did 4 hits of blotter acid at a Dead show... to intense... I hung out in a field outside the concert (could still hear it) so I wouldn't have to deal with people. ;)
 
I think the answer to the OP's question is that its all in the eye of the beholder. Tromps you obviously have a positive outlook on things because you can still think of the good that comes from a bad trip and in your mind that negates it from being bad at all. Slowpoke on the contrary obviously focused on the bad part of the trip to the point it is not worth it to trip.
When it comes to things such as good and bad or right or wrong there is no definitive answer unless you yourself believe there is such a definitive nature to whatever it is your trying to describe as such.
 
SayWhatHEH said:
When it comes to things such as good and bad or right or wrong there is no definitive answer unless you yourself believe there is such a definitive nature to whatever it is your trying to describe as such.
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Exactly.

With this in mind, OP, do you believe in the possibility of an experience that offers absolutely nothing positive for YOU to gain?

Do you believe this concept is one that actually occurs in reality? or do you believe that NO MATTER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES, there is ALWAYS something to gain from EVERY experience?

if you believe in the possibility of an experience that offers nothing of positivity to you on any level, then I would say you believe in a bad trip, and thus, bad trips are real.

If you believe that EVERY experience offers something to gain from it, then bad trips are NOT real.
 
salvia

scariest trip ever i had,i got grabbed by an arm and it put me in the slots of time.. then the slots started shifting and i didnt have a frickin clue what was going on.
i woke up kinda and my friend was so trippy looking and i keep calling him the ring master cause he was video taping me but i thought that he waqs controlling the the slots of time.
for thirty minutes i was the most scared ive ever been in my entire life.
but later i realized it was a trip and i was like badass i just tripped sack!!!!!
 
I never believed in the term "bad trip" its not that simple it's not like a lightswitch good or bad but one moment can be complete and blissful and the next is confusing and scary, but then back to something completely different all in the range of 5 minutes.

we used to call temporary difficulty in a trip "having a spook", are you having a spook? oh no he's gonna be fine he's just havin a bit of a spook.
 
Bad trips suck, but they do serve a purpose, and they almost always lead to great things.

I find that I generally "deserve" difficult times. It is like negative psychic energy that I have allowed to creep in is brought to the surface by the medicine and exposed to light and vanquished. Experiencing this concentrated negativity is generally horrible, but once the bad stuff is expunged, it is happy time as my mind and body are clean and I have a new awareness of how to avoid negative build up in the future. Also, it is time to smoke mad weed.
 
once the bad stuff is expunged, it is happy time as my mind and body are clean and I have a new awareness of how to avoid negative build up in the future. Also, it is time to smoke mad weed.
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you made me laugh real hard dude

anyway on topic, i too don't consider bad trips to be bad, there are only difficult, mundane or extatic trips. however, puking my guts out, then dry heaving every 5 minutes for more than one hour was extremely unpleasant. when you toxify your body badly, and it starts to react too violently, i consider this as bad. real bad, barfing up blood is not cool and should be avoided at all costs.

so for me the line is physical (or maybe lasting mental) damage. other than that a difficult trip always helps me gain a new perspective afterwards.
 
Well, there are difficult trips, and then there are outright Bad. trips. I have had very difficult ego dissolving trips that upon returning helped me to more fully appreciate the beauty of reality. But then I have had one straight up bad trip. Complete amnesia and ego loss only to be brought down by Haldol administered by EMT's. It was necessary due to the situation though. So this leads me to say that depending on the Set and setting a trip Can indeed be all bad.
 
Well some can be hard to handle can't really say I've ever had a bad trip. Only bad trip is one where you stop over thinking. I mean I've always been able to take something, hell sometimes even more from the rough experience. They make you reexamine everything and it sticks with you even after the effects have died down.
 
This is another thing that really varies from person to person. Some people can expierence a bad trip and some what calm themeselves while others might have anxiety attacks that make them panic for hours on end. I have witnessed many severe bad trips while trip sitting for others so I can assure you yes bad trips can be quite demolishing
 
I tend to look at things the same way, that feeling the lows along with the highs offers a lot of growth. Just like the rest of our lives, experiencing without judgment, everything just is.

My last acid trip in particular was pretty rough. But I feel better off for it and that it has given me the strength to make certain necessary changes in my life.

Fear of painful experiences is worse than the experiences themselves. Just letting ourselves feel them can be extremely rewarding.
 
Legerity said:
Fear of painful experiences is worse than the experiences themselves. Just letting ourselves feel them can be extremely rewarding.
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This is very true, alot of bad expierences are produced from all the hype about a bad expierence. Its all in the mind of the indivual
 
i guess it could make you stronger as a person. but still, at the time its fucking horrible. especially being stuck in a loop and feeling like your going up end up permanently insane.
 
SayWhatHEH said:
^^What part of the situation made it necessary? Sorry I am just curious.
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Was at a concert surrounded by looooots people. I wasn't feeling in all too bad of a mindspace before blacking out either. I was sitting there, then entered darkness with some flickers of remembered thoughts and concepts then came to on a stretcher.
 
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