And how did you deduct that he's able to take shrooms being 18? Why not 19? Why not 20? Why not 17 and 5 months?
How is that proveful, or backed up by anything else than your own opinion - which, IMO, isn't any better than what others say by 'I did shrooms being 16 and I'm fine'.
PS: Sorry if it sounds offensive. It's not my intention.
I already explained that in the post but it seems you don't understand: yes it's all arbitrary, which makes it opposed to proof of anything or perhaps guarantee is a better word. But let's just say that it is hard to tell how you are developing and if you are ready so I am saying draw the line at 18, which usually designates the transition to adolescence giving you another role in your own life. No waiting until 18 is not a guarantee either I am not saying that but given the way people tend to develop over age I just feel it is best to wait until 18 to be sure.
19 or 20 is of course fine to be EXTRA sure but I understand if people don't want to wait and wait until it feels like they are guaranteed a good outcome because there is never a guarantee. 17 and 5 months could work if you are so inclined and REALLY lose your patience but realize that there is a big difference between 15 and 18. It is a much bigger difference than between 30 and 33.
Actually, I think you should not wait until you are about 25! That is too late in my opinion. Because while psychedelics can mess with your sense of identity, if you have an integrated identity it can reintegrate freshly and updated after the trip is over and you can process it. Around the age of 25, some developments of brain architecture stop and while in another sense you never stop developing at that point the foundation is laid and it is much harder to change it fundamentally.
I believe psychedelics have a place between 18-25, best of all in the early 20s... to put your identity into perspective regarding a bigger picture. To give you a sense of what life is about, not the answer to life!! But just a feeling of the meaning of pure and deeper Being. I think those are invaluable lessons that are best integrated before you turn 25. But like I keep saying: not too soon either.
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About the waiting until 19 or 20 or later: it really couldn't hurt to do that but it is like we did when I was volunteering to inform people about drugs at parties. We were called 'peers' doing that and the reason is that even though it was government funded the message was not 'don't do drugs', it was 'if you are gonna do drugs anyway do it responsibly'.
One of the most common questions was: how long should you wait in between MDMA use? The actual answer looking at serotonin levels etc is at least 6 months, but we advised people to wait about 1.5-2 months because at least that could be considered feasible or realistic as opposed to waiting 6 months. At least that is something people can live with. It's basically the same arbitrary thing: why not 1 month then, or 3 weeks? Well you can do that and you'll live but it's best to draw the line somewhere and keep it within a range that is deemed responsible using the evidence we got in that program.
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Some people mostly see sensory disturbances on mushrooms and acid and it does not get in the way of anything, but a lot of other people get a mirror shoved in their faced and are forced to take a long hard look and realize things about their own lives and see the dynamics of different elements and the way their identity has formed and how it relates to the world.
I have always been mature for my age, mostly because of 2 reasons: I have tested to be very intelligent, skipped a grade and even before that I was always surrounded by older people / adults who talked with me and treated me like I was older because of the first reason. But even so, I know that at 15, my identity was still forming as I am sure is entirely normal for the far majority of people even if they involve themselves with things of an adult level. And based on all this I just recommend against meddling with your identity and exploring the depths of your psyche etc. Again, this is not necessarily a consequence of all trips, but it definitely happens often enough to want to avoid this before you feel like having become an integrated person that goes into transition towards adolescence.
No, I am not trying to be dogmatic. This is one opinion of one person. But if you think I have weak reasoning to say all of this I would disagree.
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At some point, I will be merging this with the "Age & Psychedelics" thread so be prepared, TS.
