• MDMA &
    Empathogenic
    Drugs

    Welcome Guest!

Is "losing the magic" purely placebo?

I

Ismene

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 17, 2005
Messages
13,158
With the placebo effect being so powerful - eg if someone has had their leg blown off you can tell them you are going to give them morphine and then inject them with water and they will feel a massive reduction in pain - is "losing the magic" largely a product of people being told "If you take E lots of times you won't think it is as good" and then the placebo effect kicking into play?

This would explain why there's such a difference between people "losing the magic" at different points in their E consumption. The more susceptible to the placebo effect you are the quicker you're going to "lose it".
 
I Lost the magic way before I knew what a magic was.

Losing the magic is just your mind & body getting used to the high, and it not being as special.
 
200mg of crystal mdma i have found brings the magic back a little if only for a very short time but i guess it shows its still lurking in me somewhere and if only "molly" was as available here as it was one time, other than that i find it can rear its head at out of the ordinary events i not so often attend festivals and such like reinforcing to me the setting aspect i do believe it is for me at least largely psychological.
 
i know what you mean, i definately abused MDMA and defiantely suffered a good 6 months of side effects, now the same Euphoria isn't as good and i definately feel a loss of magic.. so much that i barely even bother with it as much.. Sometimes i think though, that if i were to take it in the right setting feeling good i am sure i would experience a better effect ...
 
I definately don't get the same feelings I used to, but more because I'm used to it and have overdone it in the past. Very much doubt it's anything to do with being told that I'd lose the magic though.
 
I don't really think that's how placebo works. You can't tell someone it's morphine the first time and they'll believe it's morphine.

However,If you give morphine to someone every Friday at 3PM. and one Friday switch to a saline solution your body will not be able to tell the difference.

The discovery in 1975 of Endogenous opiates alias endorphins (substances like opiates but naturally prduced in the body) have changed matters in investing placebo effect. When patients who claimed to experience pain relief after receiving a placebo were injected with naloxone (a drug that blocks the effects of opiates), their pain returned, suggesting that the placebo effect may be partly due to psychological reaction causing release of natural opiates. (Sauro 2005)


--

'loosing the magic' is purely psychological, it's just boredom usually.
 
Placebos have a strong effect on patients dealing with pain. That became clear in World War II, when a continual shortage of morphine for wounded soldiers plagued the battlefields and hospitals. As long as wounded men didn’t know they were getting a simple saline solution, their pain eased.

During the 1980s, a study[4] provided definitive proof of this phenomenon. People who had undergone tooth extraction were told their pain would be relieved by a machine emitting ultrasonic waves. What they didn’t know was that the machine was switched off for half the patients. Afterwards, the participants reported on their pain levels. Compared with a third group of patients who had not received any treatment, those treated with ultrasound scored higher. It didn’t matter whether the machine was on or off.

http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4294
 
I think the problem could be people sitting there saying to themselves "Someone told me the magic disappears, I bet they're right, I'm sure I don't feel quite as good as I did last time...".

I think if people have this mindset most of them will talk themselves into believing it wasn't as good as last time.
 
Ismene said:
Placebos have a strong effect on patients dealing with pain. That became clear in World War II, when a continual shortage of morphine for wounded soldiers plagued the battlefields and hospitals. As long as wounded men didn’t know they were getting a simple saline solution, their pain eased.

During the 1980s, a study[4] provided definitive proof of this phenomenon. People who had undergone tooth extraction were told their pain would be relieved by a machine emitting ultrasonic waves. What they didn’t know was that the machine was switched off for half the patients. Afterwards, the participants reported on their pain levels. Compared with a third group of patients who had not received any treatment, those treated with ultrasound scored higher. It didn’t matter whether the machine was on or off.

http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4294
Click to expand...
Ah, different type of placebo really, in your case the person might not notice much of a reduce in pain but has been told there is so believes it. However, the one I was talking about your body will actually produce opiates to ease the pain
 
I don't think the placebo works the same way on everyone - which would explain why some people "lose the magic" after 4 rolls while others are fine after 10 years.
 
I think its all about the situation being right. Like would you be having fun without the e, if so then its gonna be great with the e. but if the situation depends on the e to be cool/rewarding then you might start to lose satisfaction. My advice change up where/how/who you roll with sometimes,old memories are not new experiences. I know for a while it felt like the twilight zone when i rolled same 5 friends trying to capture the same thing, that had long flown away. Then i rolled with a new girl i met a week later. Abra Cadabra rollin balls. E's not coke or heroin you cant snort in the bathroom of a dingy hotel and call it a good time haha.
 
haha i guess i stand corrected, but im one of those annoying drug users that has to have the experience be sacred. I dunno my favorite thing to do when i pop a pill is make myself forget ive done it and carry on as if i was sober. Odd perhaps but to each his own. So to me that would be like hmm why i am chillin in a bathroom lookin at a toilet as i no longer let myself think or say "man im rolling so hard!!!"
 
i think alot of it is in ur head for me my magic might not be full blast like my first time but i still roll balls when i pop and i pop every weekend???go figure?
 
AmphetamineNinja said:
I think its all about the situation being right. Like would you be having fun without the e, if so then its gonna be great with the e. but if the situation depends on the e to be cool/rewarding then you might start to lose satisfaction. My advice change up where/how/who you roll with sometimes,old memories are not new experiences. I know for a while it felt like the twilight zone when i rolled same 5 friends trying to capture the same thing, that had long flown away. Then i rolled with a new girl i met a week later. Abra Cadabra rollin balls. E's not coke or heroin you cant snort in the bathroom of a dingy hotel and call it a good time haha.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with that. E is a mad drug. It doesnt instantly make you feel great you have to be having a good time in the first place to come up properly. if you try and chase a feeling you won't come up. Dropping and forgetting about it is the best thing you can do.

If you experience something different, a bit out of the ordinary, something you werent expecting, you'll fly to the moon and back. If you sit in the corner same old same old, it'll be crap.
 
I find that it is relational. The first year or so, I was able to just pop and sit back, wait for it to kick in and go with it. Now I have to be doing something else or I just sit there anxiously... it helps me a bit to have a few pints in me and walking around. If I'm at a club, this is not a concern.

I'm certain there is a point where the reason you don't get as much from MDMA is due to physiological reasons but really, I've taken quality rolls on one weekend, not had much happen at all, and then took the same rolls the weekend after and pinged hard as ever... it is all context I think. Plus I find if you are tired, you don't get nearly as intense of effects.

Bottom line... MDMA is what you make of it.
 
Something to add to what I wrote above...

I think another part of losing the magic is that YOU change. I'll use myself as an example...

I first started using MDMA when I was 16 (in Ireland) and was able to fully enjoy it because I had fuck all to worry about. I was young, naive and never let anything worry. I was invincible and had my entire life ahead of me.

Compare that to now when I'm 23 in the United States, getting ready to graduate uni and trying to get into grad school and get a proper job at the same time, plus having to worry about a girlfriend who still has lingering thoughts with her ex, my sick mum, etc, I mean, I have more to worry about now so I feel that I am not able to enjoy MDMA in the same way I enjoyed it when I was 16. It seems like now I use it more to communicate with people than to just run around and dance like a villain, which doesn't mean it has lost its magic, but its utility has changed.


Hmmm hope that makes sense :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top