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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

#91

Post by RHSman2 »

Encrust6221 wrote: post #69
Trasmatta wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a risk that many psychonauts seem unwilling to accept. Hope you're doing okay. That anxiety is something that's almost impossible for people to understand if they haven't experienced it.

I'm doing okay. You are right, it's a very vulnerable and almost inevitable feeling, like I've been shown who I "truly" am inside, something that I only accessed directly during that trip, but which exists below the surface all the time. Which obviously cycles heavily back into the anxious feelings. I've never really put this experience in to words before, reading it back maybe it's time for me to try something other…

I had similar at 16 and took 10 years to process it but it was there for a lot longer.

However, 30 years later I have understood it and am very full and compete due to this process.

I think what is scary is that it takes us from unknowing children into fearful adults without the skills to self reflect in a way that we can heal ourselves.

High quality therapy with a sound and grounded therapist really helped me. Beyond words actually.

It is easy to blame the trip but it isn’t the trip. We can alter ourselves, or the way we react to things.

Hope you make some progress.

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

#92

Post by RHSman2 »

DenisM wrote: post #86
Trasmatta wrote: post #16

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…

You had a couple of bad trips? They way you describe them it was awfully bad, and yet you did it more than once?

Humans are dumb (me too!)

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

#93

Post by quechimba »

vga805 wrote: post #70

Ayahuasca ceremonies are among the most profound, cherished experiences of my life. I prepare for months before partaking in them to make sure my emotional, physical, and spiritual health is in a good place. And I can't imagine taking this drug without being under the care of experienced guides. I also wouldn't recommend it for anyone except those who really desire to push the limits of their mind. Some trips have fe…

They exist. Shamans work with different spirits and even have names for ones they work with.

I was skeptical in the beginning but it's a different reality. Just because we can't normally see them doesn't mean they don't exist.

I don't see spirits most times I drink, but I once had a gecko-like plant spirit climbing all over me... I often see beautiful patterns and landscapes.

It's an amazing medicine. It cured my depression and my daily panic attacks. It wasn't easy, and I even packed my bags a few times to leave, but if it wasn't for ayahuasca I wouldn't be alive.

    “We are completely unaware of the magical world of the shaman. It is quite simply stranger than we can suppose.“ 
    — Terrence McKenna

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

#94

Post by andrei_says_ »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #89

As someone who has thrown up a lot over the years and has a love-hate relationship with vomiting -- because sometimes it alleviates some of my symptoms -- I would be interested in hearing more about the experience of vomiting in reaction to taking this and why people apparently seek out the experience of vomiting.

Getting nauseous often happens in association with a recollection / reliving of something, or in relationship to the sluggishness / cotton-numbness of depressive states or negative ideation. After purging - immediate relief, clarity, shift of thinking process, vitality, presence.

Not sure about “seeking” it though - it’s mostly spontaneous. You get sick and purge.

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

#95

Post by elevenoh »

no_butterscotch wrote: post #43

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.

No post body was provided.

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

#96

Post by GaryPalmer »

system2 wrote: post #60
aosmith wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hard drugs and research chemicals are ordered and sent daily via mail, and the only people getting vists are the vendors. I highly doubt anyone cares enough about john doe ordering some spores to put him on a list or show up at his home.

I am in a conservative EU country and you can legally buy spores and growkits since forever here, nobody cares. You have to find specialized shops because there is not even enough demand.

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

#97

Post by ostenning »

estevaoam wrote: post #55
flatline wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 so…

I stumbled onto Huberman some weeks ago. He is a really great podcaster and exceptionally intelligent. I really enjoyed his talk about dopamine and addiction. Highly recommended!

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

#98

Post by andrei_says_ »

josh2600 wrote: post #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 press…

Set, setting, and the presence of a maestro. Sounds like fiction but there are lineages and training for working with the plants, and people capable of directing other people’s processes and experiences - in a repeatable manner, with awareness of others’ concrete experiences.

Taking the tea in the absence of this is a completely different experience.

Having a capable maestro in the room is like having a doctor in the ER - vs having only the patients getting high on whatever they find.

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

#99

Post by quickthrower2 »

elevaet wrote: post #27
quickthrower2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What disease is ayahuasca fighting off? And specifically what is the the clinical benefit of the vomit stage?

By that token, what specifically is the clinical benefit to the vomit stage of chemo? The argument is that the vomiting is a necessary step of this powerful medicine, and that the medicine is curing mental disease. I'm not defending ayahuasca, I actually do think it's a sketchy corner of the psychedelic world to be trodden on very carefully, if at all. Just trying to supply the perspective.

Chemo: you might vomit, if you do it is expected, if you don't that is OK you still got the treatment.

Ayahuasca (to some people): wot you didn't vomit? if you didn't vomit, it never happened.

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

#100

Post by bheadmaster »

vga805 wrote: post #70

Ayahuasca ceremonies are among the most profound, cherished experiences of my life. I prepare for months before partaking in them to make sure my emotional, physical, and spiritual health is in a good place. And I can't imagine taking this drug without being under the care of experienced guides. I also wouldn't recommend it for anyone except those who really desire to push the limits of their mind. Some trips have fe…

It doesn't seem far fetched to me that your own mind could've manufactured such a reaction - especially if the shamans all tried to convince you that the spirits are real, and you felt "guilty" that you didn't believe them. Your mind could simulate the reaction you'd have feared you'd get if you shared your thoughts with the shamans, perhaps?

I am personally very skeptical of the "realness" of anything that happens during a hallucination.

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