i am beginning to think there is really no such thing as a "bad trip". ive done shrooms twice, and lsd once. acid was just amazing, electric and euphoric, and i had no bad thoughts or anything at all. however, both of my shrooms trips have had rough patches. like when i first start peaking, i just think about life and shit and my own life and everything and get real freaked out, plus on my trip last night i definitly experienced ego death. however, after like an hour or hour and a half, i am able to kind of gather myself, and end up having a pretty deep trip, filled with lots of euphoria. also, i feel like i have learned from the experiences. so, i ask, do you guys think there is such thing as a "bad trip?". if so, what are the requirements?
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qualifications of a "bad trip"
- Thread starter Gerald92
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bluffythefluffy
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Sometimes people freak out/try to harm others - I'd say that qualifies as a "bad trip". Ending up in the hospital also seems to qualify.
I have to say I strongly disagree on this one. There is definitely such a thing as a bad trip, and you will know when you've had one. I haven't even done hardcore psychedelics, but space cakes was enough to make me have the worst time of my entire life compressed into 4 hours of indescribable mental torture. It was like opening every door that shouldn't be opened in my mind, all at once, every second for the duration. I lay in bed shivering for all 4 hours, quiet, but my mind was total chaos beyond description. That to me isn't a good trip, it's a bad bad BAD trip. I can only imagine how nasty it can get if you get taken to that place on something stronger...
Maybe you just have a really strong psyche and can pull yourself out of bad situations. I couldn't, although I think today I could probably handle it better, cause I have more experience with drugs and hallucinations now from limited ketamine and mdma experience (I have had full blown hallucinations on mdma)
Maybe you just have a really strong psyche and can pull yourself out of bad situations. I couldn't, although I think today I could probably handle it better, cause I have more experience with drugs and hallucinations now from limited ketamine and mdma experience (I have had full blown hallucinations on mdma)
FluoTox
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A wise men once said:"It's all how you look at it"
There are so many aspects in the tripping state and not all people look at them the same way.
If it's someones opinion, that the only positive aspects of a trip are euphoria and halluzinations, which are just 2 out of many, then for sure, they can have a "bad trip". In this case the possibility of encounter more negative sides, is much higher.
When you look at a trip objectively, there does not exist something like bad, neither good.
Even the most uncomfortable aspect, has it's positives.
There is just a possibility for bad reaction to the trip.. but the trip itself cannot be bad. But thats just my opinion.
There are so many aspects in the tripping state and not all people look at them the same way.
If it's someones opinion, that the only positive aspects of a trip are euphoria and halluzinations, which are just 2 out of many, then for sure, they can have a "bad trip". In this case the possibility of encounter more negative sides, is much higher.
When you look at a trip objectively, there does not exist something like bad, neither good.
Even the most uncomfortable aspect, has it's positives.
There is just a possibility for bad reaction to the trip.. but the trip itself cannot be bad. But thats just my opinion.
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ikkyu
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For me, a trip stops being merely "difficult" and starts being flat-out "bad" when the tripper becomes violently detached from reality, i.e. psychotic breaks, acting out to the point of needing to be restrained, etc. I think the line I'm drawing here has to do with the degree to which these experiences can be integated in a useful and positive way.
The Hebrew Hammer
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For me, a "Bad Trip" is a trip which;
1) was not enjoyable
AND
2) did not provide any insight
Again, for me, BOTH of these are required for me to considered it a "bad trip".
If the trip was not enjoyable, but provided insight it, it was a "difficult trip"
If the trip was enjoyable , but did not provide any insight it was "fun"
1) was not enjoyable
AND
2) did not provide any insight
Again, for me, BOTH of these are required for me to considered it a "bad trip".
If the trip was not enjoyable, but provided insight it, it was a "difficult trip"
If the trip was enjoyable , but did not provide any insight it was "fun"
I use to not believe in bad trips either, even after 3-4 years of tripping i had never had one. But when I finally did, boy, that shit rocked me to my core. I have never experienced any thing worse before or since my two bad trips. Definitely gave me a new found respect for psychedelics.
My "bad trip" was so bad I was considering asking my friends to knock me out so I'd be out of my mysery for x amount of time. I was also under the impression for a while that because drugs can change perception of time, I would be stuck in this terrible state forever, because time would not appear to move for me. Truly terrifying
cogito ergo sum
Greenlighter
Bad trips can usually be predicted
...So this is my first post on Bluelight. Pretty stoked I finally decided to take a leap and join. I love this site and I have a lot of experience with psychedelics.
I would honestly say that in order to have a good trip, you need to evaluate: the drug, the set, and the setting.
The drug usually plays pretty heavily into how much social anxiety could potentially be induced. Mushrooms tend to induce more social anxiety and self doubt at times. LSD is more clear headed and less of a mind trip - it lets you experience more than just the drug itself. Drugs like 2CE, 2CI, 2CB are a little more dangerous in terms of the extremes you could feel.
But anyway, you should always want to try whatever drug it is you're about to do 100% with no doubt in your mind. This is the first step to a good trip. Getting excited about the experience you're about to have.
The second thing is the set. The set refers to you, and your overall comfortably with your life at that point in time. Are you a happy person? Do you have a lot of things on your mind? Are things going well in life? Do you like to make the best out of every situation. Are you in a good mood? Do you have self-confidence issues... etc. If your mind is in a good balance with reality and your life, this is the second key to a good trip. IF NOT, then try the drug when the time is right for you, don't force it.
The third key to a great trip is the setting. I like to call the people you trip with your "trip team". Are they close friends? Do you feel very open with them? IS conversation comfortable while sober with them? Are you in a good environment that won't bother you? I think the best time to trip is a nice sunny day outside so you can play frisbee and run around all over the place. Night tripping is awesome too. Just remember to always find something to do with your time, sitting inside in a room just usually doesn't cut it.
With all three of these things considered, you should be able to predict how well your trip will go. Of course something crazy out of the norm could happen and cause you to have a bad trip, but just always remember, it's just a drug, and it won't last forever, and that life is good. And you should be fine
...So this is my first post on Bluelight. Pretty stoked I finally decided to take a leap and join. I love this site and I have a lot of experience with psychedelics.
I would honestly say that in order to have a good trip, you need to evaluate: the drug, the set, and the setting.
The drug usually plays pretty heavily into how much social anxiety could potentially be induced. Mushrooms tend to induce more social anxiety and self doubt at times. LSD is more clear headed and less of a mind trip - it lets you experience more than just the drug itself. Drugs like 2CE, 2CI, 2CB are a little more dangerous in terms of the extremes you could feel.
But anyway, you should always want to try whatever drug it is you're about to do 100% with no doubt in your mind. This is the first step to a good trip. Getting excited about the experience you're about to have.
The second thing is the set. The set refers to you, and your overall comfortably with your life at that point in time. Are you a happy person? Do you have a lot of things on your mind? Are things going well in life? Do you like to make the best out of every situation. Are you in a good mood? Do you have self-confidence issues... etc. If your mind is in a good balance with reality and your life, this is the second key to a good trip. IF NOT, then try the drug when the time is right for you, don't force it.
The third key to a great trip is the setting. I like to call the people you trip with your "trip team". Are they close friends? Do you feel very open with them? IS conversation comfortable while sober with them? Are you in a good environment that won't bother you? I think the best time to trip is a nice sunny day outside so you can play frisbee and run around all over the place. Night tripping is awesome too. Just remember to always find something to do with your time, sitting inside in a room just usually doesn't cut it.
With all three of these things considered, you should be able to predict how well your trip will go. Of course something crazy out of the norm could happen and cause you to have a bad trip, but just always remember, it's just a drug, and it won't last forever, and that life is good. And you should be fine
Who doesn't know or believe in "bad trip", doesn't know psychedelics IMO.
Set&Setting is important, but there are never guarantees. Anyway, I agree with the "drug, set and setting" trio, but I would add another element - moderation.
If anyone wants to experience a bad trip, then abuse meth and all possible psychedelics together and it's gonna be pretty fast!
Set&Setting is important, but there are never guarantees. Anyway, I agree with the "drug, set and setting" trio, but I would add another element - moderation.
If anyone wants to experience a bad trip, then abuse meth and all possible psychedelics together and it's gonna be pretty fast!
guerillabedlam
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3 trips is not really a large pool of experiences to draw from eventhough some may have bad trips in that amount of trips. Taking care of set and setting can definitely improve your chances of having a positive experience but its like this to me:
In a sober mind set you have good days and you have bad days and days with both good and bad.
All psychedelics really do for me is magnify my thoughts and emotions as well as distort perception so it seems to me inevitable that a bad trip will happen eventually. I've heard people claim to trip for years and not have any bad trips but its hard for me to imagine unless its being used as an escape. Just as you can grow from a bad day though so can you grow and learn from a bad trip, but I've even had a few that were just not enjoyable or insightful at all.
In a sober mind set you have good days and you have bad days and days with both good and bad.
All psychedelics really do for me is magnify my thoughts and emotions as well as distort perception so it seems to me inevitable that a bad trip will happen eventually. I've heard people claim to trip for years and not have any bad trips but its hard for me to imagine unless its being used as an escape. Just as you can grow from a bad day though so can you grow and learn from a bad trip, but I've even had a few that were just not enjoyable or insightful at all.
Dark Horse
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Bad trips do happen.
Getting your ass kicked is one thing, having a negative thought loop is something else again (unless that is the means by which you got your ass kicked).
My first ever trip was at school on mushrooms attending two classes I knew I was failing. I toughed it out, and it was a stern, all too serious experience. Bad trip ? No. It was the unvarnished truth about where I was as a 16 year old student at a new school.
About a year later I was lying in bed while still on acid one night from a party that ended too soon. And I had an endless thought loop about going through life dependent on my parents and basically never being able to make my way in the world. That was a bad trip because it was an inaccurate portrayal of my future, a gross exaggeration of youthful uncertainty and I wasn't able to escape the negative vision until I finally went to sleep. True enough, I've been depressed at times but the drug and the circumstances made it much worse. It wasn't useful but difficult reflection as on the earlier mushroom trip, but something I thought was destructive.
Perhaps I should be asking - was my experience of feeling small and worthless, and unable to create a future for myself, ego death ?
Getting your ass kicked is one thing, having a negative thought loop is something else again (unless that is the means by which you got your ass kicked).
My first ever trip was at school on mushrooms attending two classes I knew I was failing. I toughed it out, and it was a stern, all too serious experience. Bad trip ? No. It was the unvarnished truth about where I was as a 16 year old student at a new school.
About a year later I was lying in bed while still on acid one night from a party that ended too soon. And I had an endless thought loop about going through life dependent on my parents and basically never being able to make my way in the world. That was a bad trip because it was an inaccurate portrayal of my future, a gross exaggeration of youthful uncertainty and I wasn't able to escape the negative vision until I finally went to sleep. True enough, I've been depressed at times but the drug and the circumstances made it much worse. It wasn't useful but difficult reflection as on the earlier mushroom trip, but something I thought was destructive.
Perhaps I should be asking - was my experience of feeling small and worthless, and unable to create a future for myself, ego death ?
The Hebrew Hammer
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If you can use "I" "me" or other indicators of separation to describe the experience then it was not Ego Death.
Dark Horse
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Actually, Hebrew Hammer, that helps me to understand ego death a lot better. Thanks.