I'm afraid to try mushrooms again...

[webbykevin]

Also, can someone maybe describe how an LSD trip could go bad? I first tried Morning glory seeds, extracted and it was the same nirvana-like heaven that couldn't go bad. And my LSD trip was simply that exponentially increased, I was ina heaven of rainbows and crystals, trees blossoming and energy bursting from every corner. And it's just the nature of the visuals, to be soft and rainbow-like and happy. While on the other hand mushrooms seems to be more freakish and dark, simply lending themselves to be more frightening. Peoples faces are scary to begin with on mushrooms, I can never look anyone in the face. While on LSD, every human being was beautiful, everyone's face was flawless.

It's not the visuals on acid that make it go left, it's getting stuck in intellectual loops in your own mind.

 

[Ismene]

And my LSD trip was simply that exponentially increased, I was ina heaven of rainbows and crystals, trees blossoming and energy bursting from every corner. And it's just the nature of the visuals, to be soft and rainbow-like and happy. While on the other hand mushrooms seems to be more freakish and dark, simply lending themselves to be more frightening. Peoples faces are scary to begin with on mushrooms, I can never look anyone in the face. While on LSD, every human being was beautiful, everyone's face was flawless.

But that's just placebo - you had a bad time on your first dose of mushrooms and now your mind tells you that you'll experience it again. It's nothing to do with mushrooms - they arn't "dark" at all, they're wondrous and to me a far more enjoyable drug than acid because you feel a thousand times better physically and you arn't awake for 10 hours after the peak.

 

[somaeye]

And you could have criticized the dude's conflating the myriad schools of Hindu thought into so simple, and monolithic an explanation.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say. I am simply reading the Vedas:

1. ENGENDERING the Sun in floods, engendering heaven's lights, green-hued,
Robed in the waters and the milk,
2 According to primeval plan this Soma, with his stream, effused
Flows purely on, a God for Gods.
3 For him victorious, waxen great, the juices with a thousand powers
Are purified for winning spoil.
4 Shedding the ancient fluid he is poured into the cleansing sieve:
He, thundering, hath produced the Gods.
--Rg Veda, 9,42

I have found it's better to just read the Scriptures and judge for yourself, rather than depending on someone else's interpretation which is likely subject to enforcement of rote.

Or are you referring to what I was saying about the identity of Soma?

Robert Gordon Wasson (the author of "Soma, the Divine Mushroom of Immortality") was greatly responsible for promoting the idea that Soma was the Amanita Muscaria.

Terrence McKenna (in his book "The Food Of Gods") was saying that Soma was Psilocybin.

There were others who suggested Marijuana was Soma based on Tibetan language and Sanskrit.

David Flattery and Martin Schwartz thought that Syrian Rue was Soma.

Maybe they were all guilty of "conflating the myriad schools of Hindu thought into so simple, and monolithic an explanation"?

I'm not really sure exactly what you are trying to say. Are you disagreeing with my belief that Soma is not one, but many Psychedelics?

Also, I'd be interested in hearing what you meant by

Treating clergymen as a cynical cabal bent on manipulation in an attempt to delegitimize a major spiritual text

. Could you be more specific?

 

[Flickering]

I don't so much mean positive thinking, as I mean keeping aware that your mindset can just as easily change from bad to good, as it can from good to bad.

For example, there was another hairy moment on my second LSD trip, where I decided out of curiosity to check my heartrate, and it was beating REALLY fast. Like, three beats a minute. I was just lying down, and at the thought of it hammering that fast for twelve hours straight, I got a bit worried. Something quite twisted happened then: the room darkened so all the blackness was as black as death, as cold and empty as a tomb. All my surroundings felt like decay. I could feel a blade formed of aether material appearing over my heart, incredibly sharp, and it began to press down on my heart and squeeze.

So what I did was get right the hell out of that room and change the setting.

Which isn't to say that would have worked on the mushroom trip. But when an experience turns bad, you're not necessarily doomed to have to just sweat the thing out that way.

It's nothing to do with mushrooms - they arn't "dark" at all, they're wondrous and to me a far more enjoyable drug than acid because you feel a thousand times better physically and you arn't awake for 10 hours after the peak.

Each time I've done them, there's been a distinct feeling of embracing the full power of my shadow side. It's like all the darkness, suffering and misery gets embraced, harnessed, and turned into something positive. It's an experience of dancing with and learning to love the darker side of life. If someone gave me a random dose of something and said "Tell me if it's LSD, psilocybin or mescaline," I'd be able to recognise it as psilocybin if it had that signature. I've only taken them three times though, and you have a lot more experience than I do.

 

[VerbalTruist]

You should be terrified of them. I have HORRIBLE reactions to mushrooms. It is positively the most uncomfortable thing I can do to myself. Maybe LSD would better suit you. Everyone is different though and if you decide to take mushrooms again the best thing you can do is attempt to prepare for the trip both mentally and physically. You're young, I don't know if you exercise or not, but being in some semblance of decent shape can help you in your trips. Health in body and mind lend for good trips.

 

[webbykevin]

....being in some semblance of decent shape can help you in your trips. Health in body and mind lend for good trips.

+1 great advice.

 

[Ismene]

It's an experience of dancing with and learning to love the darker side of life. If someone gave me a random dose of something and said "Tell me if it's LSD, psilocybin or mescaline," I'd be able to recognise it as psilocybin if it had that signature. I've only taken them three times though, and you have a lot more experience than I do.

It's easy to carry a mindset from one trip to another tho - particularly if you arn't doing them too often.

 

[Sn0wday]

I'm in pretty damn good shape, i work out a lot, I run. I can bench my own weight. weigh like 130, 5'8" about.

My diet is AWFUL though, and I've been struggling with this since I was a kid. I am the pickiest eater on this planet. And far too often i just eat junkfood instead of something good. LSD helped change this for a few months. but then I got back into the routine of just chowing down junk food.

But overall, the nature of mushrooms hallucinations I feel lend themselves to a far darker and less positive vibe that LSD. That I get sucked into.

The whole leaving the room, I guess that works. but I tried that and it didn't work too well.
I was having a great time coming up, playing video games with my two great friends, and then suddenly I caught a halluciantion out of the corner of my eye and instantly my stomach dropped, and the trembling words echoed through my head "no, no, no, we can't go back here. shit, were locked in, already ate them no going back, FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK, this is exactly like last time, fuck fuck".
I tried to turn away from the hallucination and squeezed my eyes shut, it followed and become even more terrifying as a CEV. I jumped up, ran into the hallway, puked.
And then my mental state was, you just ran from a problem. and this is all you do. run from your problems. and now they're here to take revenge. and the mushrooms cackled, they always do, the trip itself laughs at me and continues to torture me.

whether or not I really had problems i had to deal with, (I had to make up one drivers ed class before I could get on the road to my license, and I had 2 months to retake it, somehow it was urgent in my mind, stupid.) once again shrooms just turned on em so abruptly and quickly I couldn't react well. And that mindset spiraled down to hell.

 

[sinisterbotanist]

As you can tell from the thread I've recently made, I've experienced some pretty frightening stuff similar to what you have. A single tab of LSD was the greatest experience of my life. and 1/8th of mushrooms was very euphoric but way too weird. And my worst experience was a substance on blotter that lasted 16 hours with no noticeable come-up or come-down. There are a lot of things that go into having a good trip. The most important thing is to make sure you're in a place where nothing can really go wrong. I'm sure you know that already. I know that I'm never going to use mushrooms again and there's nothing wrong with that. I prefer clear-headedness.

 

[freehugs]

OP, research ego death. You seem to have had a bit of that. If you don't like it, don't do mushrooms. When your ego is stripped it should be a learning experience, not one where you shove your head in your pillow. Happy tripping