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Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

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Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#61
Anecdotal info warning:

A few years ago, I thought I was completely incapable of feeling happiness. I hadn't experienced it for a long time and was completely numb. I was chronically depressed for 4-6 years.

I took shrooms from a friend at a security conference completely unaware of what I was getting into. For the first time in _years_, I felt truly happy. I have no idea, physiologically or psychologically, what happened, but when I woke up the next morning my entire world changed -- I didn't feel numb anymore.

That day, my chronic depression ended. I have been depression free for a few years now. We _need_ more research for this.

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone does not need to have a "family history of mental disorders" to become an acid casualty. Some people simply have a bad reaction to the chemical and there isn't a reliable way of knowing in advance how a person might react to it.

How do they know if what they’ve taken is actually LSD-25, and not some research chemical? Research chemicals pawned off as LSD is more common than ever. They are dangerous psychotic inducing deugs.

How do they know if what they’ve taken is actually LSD-25, and not some research chemical?

Anyone who has become an ‘acid casualty’ was dosed with these dangerous research chemicals, and everyone who was just fine had legitimate LSD?

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#63
post #26
post #7

I’m a huge proponent of safe psychedelic use, specifically LSD. I was massively depressed and suicidal growing up (I had family problems, and two of my best friends killed them selves at 13 and 17). I dropped out of high school. I experimented with LSD and mushrooms around 17/18 years old. And while I didn’t realize it then, my life massively changed for the better. Maybe I grew up. Maybe I took responsibility for my…

Any tips for approaching such experimentation in a relatively controlled manner? (I've always been keen to try, but have avoided so far due to an unpleasant childhood experience when administered an opiate painkiller, which resulted in nightmares with conscious flashbacks for months.)

I found this resource quite interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn8V3KNSgDr1Dai77_y8JrQ

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#64
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen a friend become semi dependent and kinda disassociated from reality after multiple times a week use of various research chemical psychedelics. It seemed to bring out some underlying bipolar like condition. Anyway; also a strong proponent, but I’ve seen the potential harm as well. On the balance it seems worthwhile for many people, and good for many people to try a little LSD at least once.

Research chemicals are dangerous. They’re mostly all synthetics derived from amphetamine class of drugs like MDMA. 2CE. 2CB. 2CI. Etc. and countless others. No one taking them know what it truly is. They are dangerous. And more ubiquitous than LSD-25. You can never be sure what you’re getting. You can OD and have a psychotic episode. I do not classify them as therapeutic psychedelics, and always advise against. If yo…

The really dangerous stuff is the NBOMEs which were being sold as LSD maybe 7 years ago. This is why we need legalization, so people can be sure what they're getting.

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#65
post #7

I’m a huge proponent of safe psychedelic use, specifically LSD. I was massively depressed and suicidal growing up (I had family problems, and two of my best friends killed them selves at 13 and 17). I dropped out of high school. I experimented with LSD and mushrooms around 17/18 years old. And while I didn’t realize it then, my life massively changed for the better. Maybe I grew up. Maybe I took responsibility for my…

What advices would you give yourself, if you tried it again in the present time ? First time product, dosage, aquisition method and protocol ? Anything to read or other things to know ?

Only do it with an experienced guide. Read Jim Fadiman's book. If you're serious, sincere, and patient you should be able to find a guide through your local yoga, meditation, new age, etc. scene. Michael Pollan's new book is excellent if you need a bit more motivation.

These medicines are far more powerful than you could possibly comprehend. Once you are in it, expect to have zero control, so you need a safe, experienced environment.

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a bad analogy. I will add this: the shape of the hill stays the same, and mostly that fresh powder will melt back into those old ruts... the changes that these experiences bring seem, to me, more about knowing the ruts are there then they are about changing things in our lives. The change comes from the awareness of what can be done, because formerly "natural" things that are "just what people do" start to s…

yeah, one of the biggest misconceptions that i had was that it would be "fun" to try psychedelics. it wasn't fun, and it wasn't not-fun. it was different, and it was a learning experience. the long lasting effects were negligible for me. the biggest change was that i realized i might be "on the spectrum" but it isn't as though it was a life-changing realization. i agree regarding your final point. i do think that psy…

Any time I am given the opportunity to learn something new unexpectedly, I have fun.

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#67
post #26
post #7

I’m a huge proponent of safe psychedelic use, specifically LSD. I was massively depressed and suicidal growing up (I had family problems, and two of my best friends killed them selves at 13 and 17). I dropped out of high school. I experimented with LSD and mushrooms around 17/18 years old. And while I didn’t realize it then, my life massively changed for the better. Maybe I grew up. Maybe I took responsibility for my…

Any tips for approaching such experimentation in a relatively controlled manner? (I've always been keen to try, but have avoided so far due to an unpleasant childhood experience when administered an opiate painkiller, which resulted in nightmares with conscious flashbacks for months.)

Controlled? 4 grams of mushrooms will be anything but controlled - thats the whole point. You'll be swirling in the primordial energy of chaos and your rigid mental structures will be shred apart in an ocean of absurd humor.

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#68
post #46

I cannot find the author of the quote, nor the quote itself, but it was something like this: "You should take psychedelics and then work hard to experience the same, but without psychedelics itself". I remember one guy posting about his experience with psychedelics and then with long period of yoga and meditation. Interesting thing was, that he described something similar. On psychedelics it was as if you would take…

My friend in college gave a similar analogy as the quote in the first paragraph.

He said psychadelics can open the door but then you go thru the door. You don’t just keep re-opening the door.

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#69
post #7

I’m a huge proponent of safe psychedelic use, specifically LSD. I was massively depressed and suicidal growing up (I had family problems, and two of my best friends killed them selves at 13 and 17). I dropped out of high school. I experimented with LSD and mushrooms around 17/18 years old. And while I didn’t realize it then, my life massively changed for the better. Maybe I grew up. Maybe I took responsibility for my…

What advices would you give yourself, if you tried it again in the present time ? First time product, dosage, aquisition method and protocol ? Anything to read or other things to know ?

The first time I tried it was with a musician buddy. We met in jazz band. He was a transfer spring senior year, and we hit it off, and instead of playing with the band, we jammed out in the band closet and talked life and music theory.

While he was no guru, he had some experience, and he was one of the few and first people that had access to real LSD-25 (he was from a hippy town in CO). At the time, I was extremely interested in being able to see the world differently. I was suicidal, and desperate to escape from this internal mental hell that I had been living with for years, and trying to escape by more destructive means.

The first experience entailed a sleep over. We each took one hit. It wasn’t that potent.

It really didn’t do much. We talked about life forever. Girlfriends. Family. Just life. Laughing. Listening to stories.

I was expecting mass hallucinations, but there was none.

Just colors. Everything had more potent color. Vivid. Almost a halo of rainbow. I had a giddiness.

But no hallucinations like I was expecting.

We walked some suburban woodlands for a bit and everything was magical and exciting.

I couldn’t sleep, and was hoping for the marshmallow dinosaurs and electric zebras to manifest, but they never did.

The whole experience changed what I thought of psychedelics. I thought it’d be a more visual experience, but it ended up being much more psychological.

8-12+ hours in total.

*

My first time on mushrooms I was in a group of best friends. My friend and I had ventured into Florida cow pastures, donned in camouflage, the days after rainfall and had picked a pound or more. The Internet was crude back in 05, but we found resources for safely identifying them.

As a group of 7, we divided evenly and consumed. Probably 5 shrooms a piece of varying size. They were not dry. We ate with brownies and milk.

It was intense. Hilarious. Colorful. At times overwhelming. Smiling. Laughing. Confusing. We walked, we talked, we looked at the moon and stars, examined frogs and flowers and grass and trees.

All in all, a lot of bonding. It was an amazing experience.

4-6 hours in total.

*

Dosage is approximately 100-150mcg per tab. If it’s older, and not well kept, potency will diminish. Liquid is harder to determine, but one drop is approx the same as one tab.

If you take 1 tab, don’t expect anything dramatic. Mostly a body trip. But depends on mindset.

If you take 2 tabs, you will have a more powerful experience. More visuals.

As you take more, the trip is more intense. With that intensity comes a lot more unpredictability.

Your mind produces all kinds of images and connections, and you can get absorbed in those manifestations, for better or worse.

*

For any trip, set aside the day.

For LSD, it takes about 30-90 minutes for the initial effects to begin.

There is a period where you begin to peak— anxiety heightens, excitement peaks, things begin to jitter and perceptions loosen. There is usually an uneasiness, a giddiness.

This state is dose dependent, but usually lasts between 2-6 hours.

After the peak, the come down and “reintegration” can last another 6 or more hours. This period the mind is no longer “peaking” with energy. It’s making sense of the new perceptions, and integrating them back into a functional whole.

There are major perception changes on a trip. Senses. Time. Space.

Things and perceptions warp, and you gain an awareness of how flimsy and unreliable our perceptions really are.

When you go to sleep, you wake up as though nothing happened, except that you have memories of this experience that resemble a powerful dream.

There are no negative side effects, other than how powerful the experience was, how deeply it affected your notion of reality.

I usually feel very refreshed, as if the world was anew. Like the cobwebs have been cleaned and the fog lifted. There is a clarity.

*

One thing I always tell others and remind myself is that the entire trip is a manifest of my mind.

It’s not outside me, it’s inside me. As a result, there is no reason to lose control.

Do not react hastily to thoughts and feelings and perceptions. Accept them. Embrace them. Reflect on them. They are you. They are apart of you.

You possess them. Do not let them possess you.

Do this, and you will never have a bad trip.

I have safely tripped more times than I can count. Well over 100, with dozens and dozens of people.

Re: Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity

#70
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone does not need to have a "family history of mental disorders" to become an acid casualty. Some people simply have a bad reaction to the chemical and there isn't a reliable way of knowing in advance how a person might react to it.

Do you have any research to suggest people can become an “acid casualty”? This seems to be more lore than fact. And recent meta analysis shows that psychedelic use has no negative impacts on mental health (and in many cases, is beneficial).

Can you cite research that backs that up? I have a friend who it brought out/caused his schizophrenia. I understand it may have occurred naturally eventually because he has a family history but having it occur when he was 20 is much worse than later in life.

It’s incredibly irresponsible to say it has no negative impacts without more research being done in the area.

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