How NOT To Do Psychedelics: A Guide

[Toltec]

This is an article for anyone curious about psychedelics or for those who want to reflect on their use of them.

Let’s start by setting the record straight about psychedelics: they are what you make them. More than any other psychoactive substance, psychedelics can have a massive range of effects.
Your experience with psychedelic substances can be life changing, for better or for worse. How you approach your experiences with them will be the main determinant between a good trip and a bad one.

It’s worth taking the time to think about your use of them, whether it’s about to be your first time or if you’ve had your fair share of walks through infinity. While I am certainly not a neurophysiologist or an academic in the field of drug research I have done some… field work, shall we say.

My use of psychedelics has been transformative. I’ve had moments where I have made leaps and bounds in my understanding of self, my purpose, and the nature of the universe. I’ve also been in the pits of hell, thinking I would surely die…

Yeah, I’ve had some bad trips.

But I also know what it’s like to experience pure bliss and joy and feel a love that I’ve only found in my deepest meditations and in my most intense emotional experiences with a lover. Amazing would be an understatement.

Based on my experiences, I’ve put together a field guide for doing psychedelics.

Here’s how NOT to do psychedelic drugs.
Do It Randomly & Without Purpose

Psychedelics are powerful substances. They can open up areas of your brain and connect you to energies you never thought possible. Because of the intensity of experience, your journey with psychedelics should be infrequent.
Overuse of psychedelics can lead to a distorted view of our shared reality. I have met people who are truly living on another planet after abusing drugs like LSD too often.
Any psychedelic should be treated with great respect. I recommend doing it no more than 6 to 8 times a year. This will allow for an appropriate amount of time to reflect on what you may have learned during your trip before embarking on your next journey.

Psychedelics are teachers, not escape mechanisms. If you treat them as a way to escape sobriety then they will punish you. Sometimes terribly so.
Do It Inside

Now this one is up for debate, but I highly recommend doing powerful psychedelics in the outdoors only. The medicines will allow you to communicate with the energies and matter from which we came. Being out in nature will take your experience to a whole other level. I find that being inside (like in your friend’s dingy basement) is a surefire way to feel trapped and disconnected while on your trip. This is the last thing you want.
Do It With People You Don’t Know

If you’re new to expanding your mind with drugs, then you should only do it around people that you trust. Your new experience can be exciting, blissful, but also disorienting. You may feel vulnerable and confused. This is why it’s great to have a trusted friend around. Their reassuring presence will bring you comfort and allow you to let go and experience the now.
Do It With A Lot of People Around

For the same reasons, do try and keep your group small. Even if you know everyone, I don’t recommend a group larger than 4 people. A smaller and more intimate group will make for a better experience. You may remember your time with these people for the rest of your life.
Do It Without a Mentor or Shaman

If you and some friends are all trying a psychedelic for the first time, you should seek out someone more experienced, wise, and mature. This person should ideally be sober during your trip. Psychedelics can be unpredictable. You’ll want someone there who can guide you through any rough patches.
Do It And Tell Everyone You Know

It is best to keep your experience between you and a few people that you trust. It’s unfortunate, but some may judge you harshly for speaking of it. Live in your truth, but try not and spill your cup of truth wine on the white shirts of those with closed minds.
Do It Without Checking The Source

I can’t stress this enough. You have to know and trust your source. On more than one occasion, I was given a drug that was different than what I ordered. This can be terrifying for some and have you averse to experiencing psychedelics in the future, which would be a shame. I recommend sourcing your substance a month ahead of time. You don’t want to compromise on quality last minute because it was all you could find and people are counting on you to bring the goods.
Mix Them With Other Drugs

Drugs each have their own unique effect. When you mix two different drugs, you produce a whole new effect. Unless you are highly experienced and have excellent sources, I would never mix psychedelics with other drugs. You may be creating a Frankenstein monster that will be hanging out in your brain for a while.
Go In With Fear

Psychedelics will magnify underlying emotions. It’s best not to do it when pushed for time or if your mind is plagued with stress and doubt (although it can help this, just be prepared for a bumpy ride first!). Go in with a sense of calm and you will have a much more enjoyable experience.
Some people say psychedelics are not for everyone, but I disagree. They are for everyone, but only at the right time and place in their lives. Make sure that it is the right time and place for you.

This is a list based off my own experiences. If you have something to share from your own research, then please leave a comment below! You could really help someone with your knowledge

Happy Trials

 

[treezy z]

I would say this is mostly good advice except for dissociative.

Dissociatives are good in public, at the bar, at work anytime anyplace. I was arrested on them a number of times when I used them especially when mixed with malt liquor (best drink on them) but sitting in your apartment on them sucks especially when used frequently.

I had to quit all drugs however, I can't use anything in a controlled manner

 

[treezy z]

Let me add LSD shrooms etc can suck in public but not dissociative anesthetics.

 

[blistersinthedark]

Unfortunately not everyone has access to nature. I live in a big city with lots of parks, but I keep my outdoor excursions only for low/manageable doses of psychedelics. Too many uncontrollable factors (strangers on a completely different wavelength, cops).

Besides it's comforting to be able to lie down in bed if necessary, don't you think? If I'm going to get my sense of reality completely shattered, I'd rather it be in a private environment.

 

[Solipsis]

Yeah setting is difficult to generalize, since there can be so many differences between places..

Tripping indoors can be a problem if the place is dull, depressing, cramped... it can make your world feel small with more chance of introverted trips, and since you can't take a nice walk you cannot really have a 'change of scenery' that easily, which can really help keep the trip going forward without getting hung up on things. An alternative for that is to just switch to another activity, but still..
On the other hand, tripping outdoors can have its own issues and may become a problem if you are a long way from home and miss the safety and comfort when something is seriously up - it's usually much more beautiful, interesting and adventurous... but it also requires different planning since it is not really controllable so you can't always afford becoming 'dysfunctional' or 'immobile' as you can at home.

And aesthetically, places can also vary a lot - some people have not really that interesting nature - in enough parts of my country, with some exceptions like the far south where i am - there is just a lot of polders, which can be pretty boring... although granted, with some nice weather it can still be glorious even with a very plain view. And a dingy basement is a very different matter from a big and awesome home that is entirely at your disposal.

Dissociatives are less dependent on outside factors, and often best used at home where it can be made darker, since it can actually be uncomfortable to have intense light or to have to move around, especially on the more anaesthetic ones.

I think the formatting of the OP is confusing, with the headers not being spaced from the paragraph above it, and alternating between advice and the headers being the negative [what NOT to do]. I mean, I get it, but it doesn't help..

Have you seen the Beginner's FAQ? I don't know how many people use it, but we tried to cover basic questions about psychedelic use there... and if you think it is missing critical information for a beginner's faq or if you disagree with something important, it is probably wise to report it so that it can be added.

Link is in green letters high up at the top ^^.

I empathize with many of the general sentiments of the OP, like about personal development and learning from experience about what probably nobody should do because of universal risks independent on the type of person, or more speaking for myself, about preferences. (Which by the way can factor in a lot when deciding whether to trip with other people present or not, or making some of the other set & setting decisions..)

 

[RhythmSpring]

I would say this is mostly good advice except for dissociative.

Dissociatives are good in public, at the bar, at work anytime anyplace. I was arrested on them a number of times when I used them especially when mixed with malt liquor (best drink on them) but sitting in your apartment on them sucks especially when used frequently.

I had to quit all drugs however, I can't use anything in a controlled manner

To clarify--you think dissociatives are good in public, because you got arrested on them?

I'm confuse

 

[treezy z]

To clarify--you think dissociatives are good in public, because you got arrested on them?

I'm confuse

Na cuz it's fucking fun as hell. (not when you get arrested though.)

 

[MonoThom]

Although I agree with most of these points, there's a bit too much bias and magical thinking here for my taste, which is completely unneccessary.

- Psychedelic substances should not be confused with magic. They're not entities either. They aren't teachers, they can't punish. They have no intentions, no agenda, no values whatsoever. They're substances.
- "The medicines will allow you to communicate with the energies and matter from which we came." There is no such thing as communication with anorganics. You can talk to a ray of light all you want, but it won't talk back.
- There's no need for a mentor or shaman at all. I'd steer away from anyone calling himself that. It's perfectly allright to enjoy your trip without someone insisting it's all magical and spiritual, too.
- Psychedelics are most definitely not for everyone, especially not for the immature and/or mentally unstable.

The psychedelics scene has too many magical and/or wishful thinkers. To them I'd like to quote Douglas Adams' question: "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

 

[treezy z]

I agree. I also don't think there's any real spirituality in psychedelic use, it's fake.

I love these drugs (in recovery now, no drugs anymore) but that's what they are, drugs.

I certainly don't doubt they have potential for medicinal use or positive changes however.

 

[Solipsis]

I don't believe in supernatural things either, or religious, but I do think a modest part of the "spirituality" does not necessarily oppose a scientific or skeptical view. For me it has nothing to do with immortal spirits or energetic beings, but about the meaning of experiencing very lucidly who and what I am, and what I want to be like - stripping away the bullshit and leaving what is left of my "self". I don't think it matters whether drugs do this, or sober experiences that can be enlightening - which again is not elitist or esoteric or supernatural but just a way of describing potential to reveal and transform psychologically, especially on the more profound and less common end of the scale, but still something that many people experience at least at one point in their lives... therefore I'm not that interested in fake or real means, but rather whether the effect is real or not - placebo or no, if it helps healing for example... it helps. As long as you don't conclude imaginary things from it.

No a mentor or shaman is not needed, but for a complete beginner I'd say that an experienced tripper guiding a bit can be most helpful. Not at all because of anything magical or spiritual, but simply because their experience with navigating a trip can really help with a kind of empathy and tact - it helps a guide to know what it is like for a person and what can sometimes help them, to for example let go or to get over something.
You can definitely do it on your own, but that doesn't mean that it cannot reduce confusion from feeling lost and having to 'invent the wheel' from scratch. I probably gave more guidance than I received, but I never filled in anything for other people... but rather wanted to give what I deemed the right kind of support when people could really use it.

Yes there is too much magical thinking in the scene, the convincing nature of experiences is generally a lot stronger than people's skeptical or scientific explaining abilities... However, there are some things that are terribly hard for science to model helpfully, like body load. Sure, part of it is nausea from 5HT3 and such but for me the only helpful way to deal with the feeling of pent up energy from say 5-MeO tryptamines is to engage in activities that help that energetic feeling flow away. I'm honestly not interested in vague energies living in the body, it's rather that the whole sum of neurological and endocrine phenomena happening are too complex for science / medicine to explain or help with - so energies as a holistic description of those physical phenomena is a helpful model, it deals with feelings in this case much like emotions - and should not really be associated with energy in physics - it's a nondescript term. And engaging in those activities (freestyle dancing, meditation, martial arts, t'ai chi, or what have you) explain themselves when you do them and experience their efficacy... is that magical? I don't think so, it's very pragmatic. And there aren't good alternatives. Hardly changes anything about my beliefs either. Stimulation in the body can just manifest in a lot of ways, and often nasty ones if you don't choose nice ones.

But yeah much agreed with Adams, for wild and magical explanations of for example DMT trips, which do have alternatives.

 

[iksaxophone]

I agree completely, psychedelics are chemical lenses, not beings with humanoid qualities.
That said, I definitely would have appreciated a sober sitter on my first trip. Someone familiar with guide protocol (i.e. James Fadiman's book) is entirely different from an inflated ego calling themselves a 'shaman'.

 

[Xorkoth]

I also believe psychedelics are "chemical lenses" (nice term), and not entities or spirits. However a chemical lens can be a great way to discover things about yourself, and for me, I believe we are spiritual beings in the sense that we are more than what we seem to be (all of life is). Psychedelics showed me that life is the universe experiencing itself. It's not because mushrooms are a spirit contained in a plant with an agenda, but because the profoundly altered state I entered stripped everything down and I was left with that awareness. People have such experiences spontaneously, or through near-death experience, or whatever, as well as with psychedelics. Some people never have this experience with psychedelics too, despite years of use and in some cases, wanting such an experience.

I believe in what I experienced because it was entirely self-evident to me, it seemed clear that the experience was very real because it was like remembering something I had forgotten. I choose to believe it, but not everyone does, and that's fine too. I don't believe there is one "right way" to use psychedelics, and they can produce a lot of beneficial effects in people who never consider spirituality from them, in terms of positive realizations about personality and life or the world or whatever.

I've got no problem with people believing psychedelics are teacher spirits or the like, either. Different strokes for different folks. But, I don't think it's at all necessary to see them this way in order to use them "correctly".

 

[MonoThom]

I agree 100% with Xorkoth. And +1 for the lenses metaphor, too. I'll put my acid contact under "optician".

Funny how my last comment on this forum was about "saxophone" and now I like a lens metaphor by iksaxophone.

Psychedelics showed me that life is the universe experiencing itself.

YEAH! Eh.... NO! THEY DIDN"T DO ANYTHING!

It's damn tricky to talk about psychedelic substances without suggesting they are a they.

Man I love psychedelics.

(DOM kicking in right now)

 

[RhythmSpring]

How do you reconcile avoiding doing psychedelics with strangers and doing them with a shaman, who is almost always someone you don't know personally, and with other attendants of the ceremony, who are almost invariably strangers?

 

[treezy z]

How do you reconcile avoiding doing psychedelics with strangers and doing them with a shaman, who is almost always someone you don't know personally, and with other attendants of the ceremony, who are almost invariably strangers?

Why do them with a "shaman" (charlatan?)

 

[IamMe90]

How do you reconcile avoiding doing psychedelics with strangers and doing them with a shaman, who is almost always someone you don't know personally, and with other attendants of the ceremony, who are almost invariably strangers?

The only way to reconcile this is to ascribe some nonexistent attribute to the "shaman" that allows him to salvage bad trips at a statistically significant rate. I don't believe that's actually the case, thus I find advising people to trip with shamans to be bullshit.