(Obviously I'm not counting extremes like dosing someone and throwing them into a haunted house. That would be a bad trip.)
I recently had one of my friends -- a relatively experienced psychedelic user -- dive out of a window because he thought the world was going to end. Among other things this resulted in my friend barely escaping death by hemorrhage (I called emergency services, he was hospitalized), an uncomfortable police encounter, quite a few articles of clothing lost due to being soaked in blood, and some unsavory legal consequences for my friend. Not to mention a rather scarring mental experience for myself.
Set was good, setting was good, substance was known good. I had absolutely no reason to suspect anything going wrong. But it did go wrong.
Even if you know what you are doing and are experienced, it is always possible for bad things to happen. Getting cocky and saying there are no such things as bad trips is an invitation for trouble.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08...
I think a lot of people could benefit deeply from responsibly using psychedelics, but they're not always the answer. They're powerful tools with great potential for good and great potential for harm. When or whether to take psychedelics is a very personal decision; our psychological landscapes can be very difficult to map out even from the inside. Part of being responsible about psychedelics is not making blind judgments of what other people should do with their minds.
Salvia?
That said, I learned a lot from them. In fact, I'd say that I learned a lot more from my bad trips than from my good trips, and found the bad trips much more valuable and profound.
They helped me face a lot of things I didn't want to acknowledge or didn't realize in my ordinary life. They were, as they say, years of therapy condensed in to hours.
My bad trips also made me feel great respect for these substances, and made me very wary of casual use. I also believe you should always have an experienced sitter whom you like and trust.
I can't find it now, but there's an interview with Erik Davis where he tells a story of how Terrence McKenna had turned someone on. Afterwards, that person screams at McKenna: "What did you do to me? How could you! It was so..."
So McKenna asks him: "But would you do it again?"
"Why? Because what does not kill you makes you stronger?"
"No," McKenna replied, "It is what kills you that makes you stronger."
edit: in the interest of not misrepresenting hallucinogens, I wanted to clarify a few things. First, this was on LSD, and not mushrooms. I have never had a bad trip on mushrooms, whereas I always felt more out of control on LSD. Also, I've tripped dozens of times, and every other trip was either very positive or at least could be laughed at afterward. And overall I've gained more than I've lost by a long shot. My main point is that hellish psychotic breaks are indeed possible, but not the norm. The one time I did experience this, I was not following the guidelines of experienced trippers, which is to make sure your set and setting are good. My (mind)set was horrible, taking several other drugs in the same evening, and the setting was a shitty vegas hotel.
If you go in with a positive, respectful mindset, surrounded by supportive people in a good environment, the chances are almost nil that you will have a bad trip.
You can put it in whatever context you want, and for the most part I agree, but I myself have had what I would definitely describe as a "bad trip". It resulted in me having to deal with anxiety and panic attacks for the next 4+ years. I also personally know people who have had what could only be described as "bad trips" including one instance of police being called to the house and one instance of someone jumping out a window.
I know it is important to take every experience as a learning opportunity, but there are some people who physiologically have bad reactions to hallucinogens and those who are susceptible to mental disorders. Saying that "there are really no such things as bad trips" is really downplaying how powerful these substances can be.
I am in favor of legalization for many drugs, and bad trips can be minimized by attention to set, setting, dosage, and purity (I suspect quality control at my friend's bakery was shit and she got way too much of something or other). But the notion that bad trips are anti-drug propaganda and recreational drugs are perfectly safe is dangerous and hurts people.
The quality control may not have been to blame. I've smoked cannabis for many years, and know many people that do. I used to think as many do that these stories of mental breakdowns/freakouts were just anti-drug propaganda. Then one day a friend brought his coworker (whom I had never met) to visit. We smoked one joint between the three of us, it was not particularly strong. But the guy just went nuts. Talking nonsense that was obviously part of some paranoid thoughts he was having. Me and my friend spent the rest of the evening calming him down and by the end he had mostly returned to normal.
It's clear to me this guy had some underlying psychological issues that were triggered by cannabis. But it only took a very small amount to trigger that episode.
As my friend told me, he just stopped showing up for work after that and after a couple of months was let go. I don't know where he is today but I hope he recovered and realised that cannabis is something that he really should not touch again.
But again, this is one person out of dozens of people I've smoked with over the years. It's uncommon, but can be quite serious for those afflicted.
Enough 'pot cookie' stories and maybe society will start really wising up as to what we're dealing with.
I'm pretty sure that's exactly what they did and are still doing.
For the record, I think they're completely wrong, even after my friend's experience (and she agrees). People are going to seek out drugs no matter what. The best ways to protect them from the very real dangers are well-regulated legalization and honest education, not wild-eyed fear-mongering and brutal prison sentences.
https://deadspin.com/5549389/mushroom-tea-murder-man-removes...