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How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

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Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#51

Bad trips are a real risk with all psychedelics. I don't like the attitude in psychedelic communities that there's "no such thing as a bad trip, only a challenging one". I had a couple bad trips. It felt like living in hell for a literal eternity. It's almost impossible to describe the agony that the human mind is capable of experiencing. It's absurd how much suffering the human mind can experience. The main message…

I'm not trying to dismiss your experience here, in fact I'm sure its all accurate, but I must make the curious observation that I don't seem to get the distortion of emotional state so many others seem to have on psychedelics (be it positive or negative). I get all the other distortions. Time is skewed, vision gets geometric patterns, stream of consciousness becomes more of an unnavigable white water rapids of consciousness etc. But the whole experience is mostly orthogonal to good or bad or scared or euphoric or any other emotion you can list.

Maybe its because whatever the distortion is, I inevitably start trying to figure out how it works, and the whole trip turns into scientific self experimentation. Perhaps a normal person would be scared seeing a friends face morph into a demonic figure, but I just find myself asking "why his face and not everyone's face?" and then proceed to systematically look at faces for what feels like hours. Because I'm actively trying to figure out the trick, I'm never losing sight of the fact that it is indeed a trick. And thus I never loose sight of the fact that my friend isn't literally morphing into a demon and none of this can actually hurt me. So I'm never for real scared.

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#52

Is it similar to "shrooms"? I was considered traveling from San Francisco to Oregon or Colorado (?) where I think psychedelic mushrooms were legalized and you don't need to "know people" to get them. I've wanted to try psychedelics for a while, I haven't done them before. Unless Salvia counts.

> I was considered traveling from San Francisco to Oregon or Colorado (?) where I think psychedelic mushrooms were legalized and you don't need to "know people" to get them.

They're not legalized anywhere in the US. Oregon legalized them for supervised mental health treatment, which is still a far cry from the kind of legalization you're envisioning.

It's basically just decriminalized in a handful of states. Which doesn't mean you're finding shrooms on the shelves of smoke shops and dispensaries next to the whippets cartridges.

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#53

Is it similar to "shrooms"? I was considered traveling from San Francisco to Oregon or Colorado (?) where I think psychedelic mushrooms were legalized and you don't need to "know people" to get them. I've wanted to try psychedelics for a while, I haven't done them before. Unless Salvia counts.

There are bound to be wild psychoactive mushrooms near you. Do some research and then do some bushwalking (or hiking if you prefer). Mushroom hunting is cathartic.

https://www.shroomery.org/8461/Which-psilocybin-mushrooms-gr...

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#54
I have friends who have done both Ayahuasca and DMT. Ayahuasca seems to be much longer acting and more intense when administered correctly (but a lot of it seems to be set and setting). DMT has two variants, the n-n and the 5-meo. Friends report the n-n to be much more visual and the 5-Meo to be more physical. 5-Meo has been known to cause seizures at high doses.

I think both of these compounds raise your blood pressure a lot. That’s not good for a lot of existing conditions.

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took mushrooms three years ago and immediately gained a pervasive baseline anxiety in my life. Haven't been able to shake it since. Wouldn't recommend if you have any issues with anxiety in your life beforehand.

I developed an anxiety condition from extensive periods of deep meditation. In my viewpoint it had been there all along and I had mostly just covered it up with other emotions - but the meditation amplified things a lot , I went through a crisis lasting months about a decade ago. I still get anxiety attacks sometimes and had never had them before. I don’t know if your trip caused something new or just uncovered somet…

I am sorry to hear that. You might find very useful this EP about meditation from Andrew Huberman: https://youtu.be/wTBSGgbIvsY

It’s the first time I saw someone differentiating different types of meditation and it seems to match your experience.

Basically, we can either exercise and build up our focus to our internal state and bodily sensations OR do the same but focusing externally.

The interesting thing is that some people are biased to one or another, and if you have issues like anxiety then you should probably practice meditation to strengthen your focus and attention less on your body and more externally.

Really recommend the whole EP, I think you’ll find particularly interesting given your story.

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#56
post #51

Bad trips are a real risk with all psychedelics. I don't like the attitude in psychedelic communities that there's "no such thing as a bad trip, only a challenging one". I had a couple bad trips. It felt like living in hell for a literal eternity. It's almost impossible to describe the agony that the human mind is capable of experiencing. It's absurd how much suffering the human mind can experience. The main message…

I'm not trying to dismiss your experience here, in fact I'm sure its all accurate, but I must make the curious observation that I don't seem to get the distortion of emotional state so many others seem to have on psychedelics (be it positive or negative). I get all the other distortions. Time is skewed, vision gets geometric patterns, stream of consciousness becomes more of an unnavigable white water rapids of consci…

> Perhaps a normal person would be scared seeing a friends face morph into a demonic figure, but I just find myself asking "why his face and not everyone's face?" and then proceed to systematically look at faces for what feels like hours

On some drugs, dosages, and settings, you can lose all concept of what a "face" is. Or even what "is" is. All I knew was pain, suffering, torment, spinning, and eternity.

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#57

Bad trips are a real risk with all psychedelics. I don't like the attitude in psychedelic communities that there's "no such thing as a bad trip, only a challenging one". I had a couple bad trips. It felt like living in hell for a literal eternity. It's almost impossible to describe the agony that the human mind is capable of experiencing. It's absurd how much suffering the human mind can experience. The main message…

We can get bad trips with any type of drug. Even weed and alchohol. It can be so bad that we never want to try it again. It's all apart of the journey and the experiment. I've had a couple bad trips, and I'm glad I had them. They created clear fear, paranoia and terror that I'll always remember. It caused me to appreciate the 'real' world a lot more.

Comparing a bad psychedelic trip to a bad experience with cannabis or alcohol is kind of trivializing it. A moderate LSD dose can last 8-12 hours and at its peak is much, much more intense. Unless you have some valium on hand, if things go south there is no escaping it. You can't just go to sleep like you could with alcohol or cannabis.

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#58
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate on what exactly you experienced (and your takeaways) from your bad trip? Do you feel like set and setting or your previous mental state going into the trip caused the bad trip?

> Could you elaborate on what exactly you experienced (and your takeaways) from your bad trip? I experienced the worst pain I could ever imagine, felt my consciousness stretched to fill the infinity of space, and was then convinced this was my eternal state, with no possibility of escape. > Do you feel like set and setting or your previous mental state going into the trip caused the bad trip? It did. Set and setting…

Thanks for sharing.

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#59
post #51

Bad trips are a real risk with all psychedelics. I don't like the attitude in psychedelic communities that there's "no such thing as a bad trip, only a challenging one". I had a couple bad trips. It felt like living in hell for a literal eternity. It's almost impossible to describe the agony that the human mind is capable of experiencing. It's absurd how much suffering the human mind can experience. The main message…

I'm not trying to dismiss your experience here, in fact I'm sure its all accurate, but I must make the curious observation that I don't seem to get the distortion of emotional state so many others seem to have on psychedelics (be it positive or negative). I get all the other distortions. Time is skewed, vision gets geometric patterns, stream of consciousness becomes more of an unnavigable white water rapids of consci…

I too feel quite similar. I have never had any experience approach bad. The experience just... Is

Re: How safe is ayahuasca? Large-scale study explores

#60
post #46

Is it similar to "shrooms"? I was considered traveling from San Francisco to Oregon or Colorado (?) where I think psychedelic mushrooms were legalized and you don't need to "know people" to get them. I've wanted to try psychedelics for a while, I haven't done them before. Unless Salvia counts.

Just buy spores, they are legal.

If you want to be under the radar go ahead. It is a strict controlled substance. Spores are just loopholes but can't be sure if you don't get a visit one day.
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