Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025) • Hacker News Board

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#41

Post by pstuart » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:15 PM UTC

crent wrote: post #34

bobbiebarker2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good crutch for the weak. I've tripped plenty of times; I'm an atheist; it was great. Next time you trip, you should reflect on your need for "spirituality" and what it says about whatever is going on or not going on between your ears. One of the most amazing things about humans is their imagination and ability to convince themselves of almost anything. In my opinion, one of the points of doing psychedelics is to rec…

The bastardization of the term “spiritual”/“spirituality” has done deep damage to the collective psyche. The view that spirituality is following dogma rather than an exploration of the ineffable from your own subjective experience is a widespread failure of communication.

Agreed. I use the term as "a sense of connectedness" rather than "seeing God"

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#42

Post by Loughla » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:21 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #32

Loughla wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spiritual doesn't mean religious, is my opinion. It means being grounded in something firm, whether that's inner strength or a reliance on an external deity. Religion is not required for psychedelics, but a strong grounding in something is, in my opinion. People have bad trips because there's something inside them that they haven't identified or dealt with properly. Anxiety and/or depression will ALWAYS flare up duri…

But we see people promoting psychedelics specifically to "reset" your brain and get rid of depression and anxiety.

My experience is that psychedelics will not get rid of anything on their own. They provide you with a different perspective on what you may or may not already know is going on.

This perspective can help you process those issues, absolutely. But they will not solve anything. I was always interested in finding a psychiatrist or therapist that would help me process during a shroom trip, but never found one.

And resetting your brain is just a nice way of saying, confront every single demon you have all at once. Some people are strong enough, mentally, to process things like that. Most are not. Most will take the bad trip as a sign that they shouldn't ever do psychedelics.

I'm firmly in the camp of not using them to explore my problems. I know what they are already, and I know how to fix them. I used to love psychedelics when I was younger (and had less stress and obligations). Now they just panic me and aren't fun.

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#43

Post by Loughla » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:22 PM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #22

stringfood wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that looking for God is spiritual but saying you've already found Him, know Him, know His kids, etc - that is religious

There are finders and seekers. I’m always impressed with people who ardently believe they know the truth, they can act without doubt, an interesting skill.

I'm with you. It's not for me but it's absolutely fascinating. There's something nice about letting go and just knowing that it's part of someone's plan. Again, not for me but I understand that appeal.

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#44

Post by sjs382 » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:23 PM UTC

bobbiebarker2 wrote: post #8

cj17382 wrote: post #4

It's important to have a spiritual practice to go alongside psychedelics to weather the ontological shock.

Good crutch for the weak. I've tripped plenty of times; I'm an atheist; it was great. Next time you trip, you should reflect on your need for "spirituality" and what it says about whatever is going on or not going on between your ears. One of the most amazing things about humans is their imagination and ability to convince themselves of almost anything. In my opinion, one of the points of doing psychedelics is to rec…

You define "spiritually" differently (more narrow, for one) than the person you're replying to.

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#45

Post by kloop » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:25 PM UTC

cj17382 wrote: post #4

It's important to have a spiritual practice to go alongside psychedelics to weather the ontological shock.

The article mentions that the "pranksterish" groups who took psychedelics weathered it just fine. They didn't have an expectation to disappoint. Irreverence seems to be just as good

It does sound like the opposite a bit, it sounds like attempting to create a spiritual practice, or assign spiritual significance at all was what did him in

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#46

Post by sjs382 » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:31 PM UTC

Don't incapacitate yourself during a major weather event.

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#47

Post by afro88 » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:34 PM UTC

state_less wrote: post #39

I wouldn't know what to tell someone about what entering a (the?) void is like, but the closest i can imagine is a situation where you're 1000 nautical miles out to sea in a small sailboat on a pitch dark cloudy moonless night, far away from anyone. A storm is brewing and the seas are getting large, though you can't see them, it's too dark for your eyes, though you feel the force as it throws your small boat around.…

Is this a quote from a book? Beautifully written

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#48

Post by t-3 » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:39 PM UTC

crent wrote: post #36

t-3 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belief in spirits is just as absurd as belief in deities, which are just a specialized category of spirit as far as these things are usually classified anyway.

spirituality doesn’t have to mean you believe in spirits in the sense of ghosts etc. I believe that if that’s where the definition of exploring one’s own inner world ends, then that person has missed the point.

If you don't mean to suggest you believe in some strange metaphysics without any grounding in reality, why do you call it spirituality? What "inner world" are you "exploring"? Can that be done in plain language without any mysticism? Why or why not?

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#49

Post by pixel_popping » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:44 PM UTC

sjs382 wrote: post #46

Don't incapacitate yourself during a major weather event.

Absolutely, Set and setting is critical while using psychs, ensure that no random events can happen, cut off all phones, doorbell and anything that can make abrupt noises to not derail you. Do not do it if you don't feel like it that day, or if the weather is unpredictable.

Re: Terence McKenna's Mega Bad Trip (2025)

#50

Post by pixel_popping » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 7:45 PM UTC

comrade1234 wrote: post #27

I tried lsd with friends in undergrad. It was to me a very interesting experience. Not spiritual in any way - it was like I could tell that my neurons were firing off all over and incorrectly. It was fun and I enjoyed it very much and I've never had the desire to do it again. My friends from that night did still continue doing lsd after that. For one of them he stopped when he had what sounds like a horrible trip whe…

You might want to consider retrying it in a "spiritual/meditative setting", i.e cozy with headset on, music pre-curated (nothing off-tune and so-on) and closed eyes then get lost to eventually breakthrough, strictly only with people you deeply trust.