(I've always been keen to try, but have avoided so far due to an unpleasant childhood experience when administered an opiate painkiller, which resulted in nightmares with conscious flashbacks for months.)
Find a nice time: for example, leave one-two days after your week-long vacation for a trip. You’ll have a clear mind and will be well-rested, so nothing to remind of a possibly stressful job.
Trip with the person from the first paragraph. One thing that I find is way more highlighted in people who are fond of psychedelics is knowing that people change when they trip and they expect that. So should be not many questions asked.
I would say approach the setting the way you would approach your therapist: personal stuff should remain in Vegas; and it will be a better trip if you can expose yourself.
Also the most imprtant part: don’t expect to feel “better”. It’s a two-sided experience, where it may swing you towards both depressing and incredibly positive. You learn how to manage that, but one thing that psychedelics are not is an escape.
https://www.maps.org/resources/responding_to_difficult_psych...
It’s all about mindset and setting.
We could discuss what that entails, but that’s a long conversation. Good attitude, good vibes, safe setting, comfortable and familiar. In your home. In familiar nature. I’d avoid public places and people.
And it’s preferable for the first number of trips to have a safe and understanding “sitter” or “guide” there who is reliable and calm and supportive.
As you get more experienced, you can explore the bounds of set and setting, to push your mind to places for therapeutic purposes.
Psychedelics amplify whatever thoughts or surroundings you’re in. They turn up the volume, so to say, for good or ill.
The bad trips are the most therapeutic. You’re working through repressed thoughts and feelings that otherwise go unnoticed or denied or suppressed as a natural psycho response to pain.
Ridding self deception is the root of all therapy.
When that negativity comes to mind during a trip it’s often uncomfortable as hell. You work through it. You accept it. You embrace it. You see it in the right light, with the right perspective.
What you don’t do is resist thoughts or feelings or experiences. That only causes more problems.
You can’t run from yourself.
IMO MAPS are irresponsible promoters of psychedelics.
If you are on a high-dose trip, you lose much control of your thoughts. I have read that some medical experts administer high doses in the hope to avoid bad trips often encountered with low doses.
What if your unwanted thoughts and tendencies must be resisted to prevent further misery ?
Examples:
- Try to stay calm and refuse to succumb to overwhelming terror and panic as reported on this web page.
- Try to stay calm and refuse suicide as reported on this web page.
- Try to stay calm and refuse thoughts about murder as reported here: http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/29599/1/a...
Do not use psychedelics to solve problems on your own. https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Set_and_setting
Let medical experts (therapists) use psychedelics as medicine as they see fit.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-ps...
https://www.livescience.com/16287-mushrooms-alter-personalit...