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Shrooms: What You Need to Know

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Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#91
post #81
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exact opposite for me. LSD is nice, but the visuals can be overwhelming. The visuals on mushrooms, for me are more “organic” I guess, and the mental state more natural. I haven’t done either in over a decade, but that’s what I remember. I used to do a heroic dose of mushrooms once a week - the feelings of euphoria once you peek and the subtle visuals were amazing. It’s also possible to go to sleep on mushrooms once y…

There are so many varieties of psychedelic shrooms. Some don’t have strong visuals, some can make you hallucinate far beyond the capabilities of LSD.

If you're talking about different mushrooms with different compounds in them (like fly agaric) we are specifically talking about psilocybin mushrooms here.

If you're talking about different species of psilocybin containing mushrooms like wood loving ones and what not, what are your experiences with them? I've only had cubensis mushrooms, but I assumed the primary difference between them would be potency considering they have the same active compounds.

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#92
post #14

Never did any type of psychedelics. You don't read much about "death by misadventure" associated with them though. I'm curious about this. Alcohol, for example, is pretty famous for clouding judgement, reducing inhibition, and so on. Such that otherwise rational people drive intoxicated, get into fights, fall asleep in inappropriate places, fall off of and into things, etc. Psychedelics obviously cause you to halluci…

I remember trying to imagine what it would be like before ever having taken any. Even the word "hallucinate" is misleading here. It's much more involved than that. It's also specific to the compounds and how they act on your body. They're not all the same, although similar molecules are similar. Specifically from tryptamines (ayahuasca/DMT, psilocybin, LSD, morning glory, etc) you don't hear about crazy accidents because they don't "do that" to you, they're not like that. You'd have to experience them to really understand, but I wouldn't say they leave your judgment in tact in the way you'd expect, but they do leave it in tact in the sense that matters, you're probably not going to find yourself running naked down the street from taking mushrooms or thinking you can fly and jumping off a building.

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#93

If you ever had this feeling telling you "This can't be it, there must be more to this story...", then you should at least consider this avenue.

I love this. This was me in 2017 and following the white rabbit led to a most spectacular year. It really is a birth right, and people chosing ‘no’ are really missing out on a fundamental aspect of being alive.

On another note, I always love psych threads on HN. High quality posts all around.

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#94

(Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons) I had a stroke a few months ago, resulting in some long-lasting effects in my visual field. I have read reports that mushrooms can help the brain develop new connections; and I'd like to see if they can help improve my vision. But I have no idea where to get shrooms, how much to dose, etc. Any tips?

Ask your shadiest friend who his shadiest friend is.

Problem with that is then I have no idea about the quality.

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#95

(Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons) I had a stroke a few months ago, resulting in some long-lasting effects in my visual field. I have read reports that mushrooms can help the brain develop new connections; and I'd like to see if they can help improve my vision. But I have no idea where to get shrooms, how much to dose, etc. Any tips?

Ask your shadiest friend who his shadiest friend is.

This is absolutely terrible advice, you're likely to get chocolate bars with something else in them at best.

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#96
post #14

Never did any type of psychedelics. You don't read much about "death by misadventure" associated with them though. I'm curious about this. Alcohol, for example, is pretty famous for clouding judgement, reducing inhibition, and so on. Such that otherwise rational people drive intoxicated, get into fights, fall asleep in inappropriate places, fall off of and into things, etc. Psychedelics obviously cause you to halluci…

Bad things do happen but hallucinogens tend to make you just not want to do misadventurous things. Like “I’d like to go walk to the store on the corner and get a sandwich, but that seems like it would be a little too intense right now” is a common sort of thought. Yes driving would be quite dangerous but it’s usually also quite an undesirable experience and your reason just isn’t so inhibited like with alcohol or many other kinds of drugs.

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#97

(Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons) I had a stroke a few months ago, resulting in some long-lasting effects in my visual field. I have read reports that mushrooms can help the brain develop new connections; and I'd like to see if they can help improve my vision. But I have no idea where to get shrooms, how much to dose, etc. Any tips?

Arm chair neuropharmacologist here, thinking you should look into microdosing along with lion's mane mushrooms.

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#98
post #2

Tripsafe, Erowid, psychonaut and r/drugs are among the best ressources the web has been able to produce: thousands of actual trip reports, and empirically tested Risk Reductions procedures withtout stigma or judgement. Dont do drugs as a illegal thing that give you the thrill of being a bad boy. Take a scientifi approach of risk evaluation, read testimonies and reports and ensure your own safety, as you would do for…

>> Also never do drugs "because it makes you feel better when you are sad".

Unless in a proper session/ceremony with professionals/shamans

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#99

Keep in mind that “harm reduction” material shouldn’t be interpreted as a guide to avoiding all potential negative consequences. When it comes to psychedelics, the pendulum of popular opinion has swung from an extreme of “extremely bad for you” to “actually good for you” but neither extreme is good, IMO. It’s worth reading some of the material about how psychedelic users are weirdly prone to picking up strange belief…

Responses to your comment are contrary, but my anecdata: Just after I moved away from a particular social scene, a bunch of close friends in it got very into psychedelics. Weekly usage or more frequent, all different kinds of che,ical (‘pure’ lsd, street acid, shrooms, DMT, RCs, etc.)

Many of them did adopt some real wacky beliefs that they have held onto many years past their use. ‘Radicality’ of belief seemed proportional to volume of use. I’m talking Q-anon levels of delusion and beyond. They all felt they were in touch with greater truths and pitied me and my judgement; my self-restriction of perception. They have a lot of flowery language about how I can’t know what I can’t see that you have to be some sort of logician to parse.

In one case, I have watched this ‘enlightenment’ morph over the years from communicationg with beings from beyond the veil to potentially violent political extremism. The guy has been sober for years but low-key views all of his actions and work through a lens of ‘ultimate battle of cosmic good and evil’. Naturally ‘good’ cosmically aligns with whatever his interests at that time are.

If you’re a young person reading this: taking psychedelics a couple times is an interesting experience, perhaps worthwhile. But I’m real damn certain that the ‘enlightenment’ is basically being high. Drunk on a false sense of peace with the universe which exists only as a malfunction in your brain’s wiring. Beware people who tout those effects. They are out of touch with reality.

*I have read there is clinical potential to help PTSD sufferers. I’m not denying this. But 99% of usage is not happening is carefully, scientifically studied and controlled situations. Keeping a trip journal is not scientific, even if you have a chem phd.

Re: Shrooms: What You Need to Know

#100

I’ve done LSD a few times, maybe a handful, and mild doses of shrooms maybe 3 times. On higher doses of LSD (> 1 tab), I tend to get a recurring fear and visual manifestation of bugs (spiders, specially). When I’m outside on a walk while tripping I tend to be hyper-conscious of bugs and the noises they’re making. Any thoughts on why and how to deal with this? It tends to have a very negative effect on my trips but it…

I highly recommend taking a look through the Yale Manual for Psilocybin-assisted therapy [1], section 6.9 is particularly relevant to your inquiry. Some excerpts:

> We encourage you to take an attitude of curiosity and acceptance toward everything that happens during your session. Whatever comes up has some kind of meaning or wisdom that you can learn from, even if this meaning is not immediately obvious.

> You may have bizarre sensations and experiences, and you may experience frightening images or thoughts. These may alternate rapidly. This is normal and does not mean anything is wrong.

> We encourage you to “go with” or surrender to difficult experiences rather than fight them. Approach rather than flee; accept rather than reason away, lean into whatever comes up, including any impulse to run away.

> There are methods for grounding and calming yourself, if you would like to use them.

[1] https://psyarxiv.com/u6v9y/

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