The Huberman Lab podcast episode on depression touches on this. According to Dr. Huberman the quality of the trip is not important, the chemical changes the brain function regardless.
The experience was sort of like an extremely intense workout, or emerging from a sweat lodge- it was painful, but led to a sort of rebirth. It may be simply, when you're already in good spirits prior to tripping, the results are just less noticeable afterward.
The terminology is actually being phased out, especially in the medical community. "Good" and "bad" might be appropriate descriptors if you're just trying to get high and have fun, but they're not quite right if you're trying to work on yourself and your mental health.
Some trips are easy, some trips are difficult, and just like in real life, it's often the difficult journeys which cause us to learn and grow most.
Everything is just strange when tripping, from the things you see to human interactions to life in general- whether the strangeness is beautiful or terrifying depends on the trip, but afterward it can have a lasting (at least long after the drug has worn off) child-like appreciation for things that might've been mundane, boring, or tedious. How long this break from monotony, or revitalization lasts, is hard to say.
https://youtu.be/Xu1FMCxoEFc?t=5928
99:33 But one of the things that came up
99:35 and is a fundamental question that I had,
99:37 that I think probably many of you are asking,
99:38 is does the experience that one has on these compounds
99:43 make a difference for whether or not somebody gains relief
99:46 from depression, from these psilocybin journeys or not?
99:50 In other words, does it matter what they talk about?
99:52 Does it matter what they think about?
99:53 Does it matter if they have a good trip or a bad trip?
99:56 And I don't want to hold you in too much suspense,
99:58 I'll let Matthew provide the more thorough answer.
100:00 But what's really interesting
100:02 is there are some common themes to psilocybin administration
100:08 and experience that lead to relief from depressive symptoms,
100:11 but they are subjectively very varied,
100:17 meaning that whether or not people feel
100:20 they had a good experience or a bad experience,
100:22 whether or not people thought about their parents
100:24 or thought about the color of the ceiling,
100:27 doesn't seem to have too much of an impact
100:30 on whether or not they receive relief
100:32 during these studies in these clinical studies.
100:37 It seems like different people can have
100:38 lots of different experiences and still receive benefit.
100:42 And that points to something deeper.
100:45 It points to the fact that these drugs,
100:48 which is really what they are,
100:49 are rewiring neural circuitry in a common way
100:53 despite a diversity of experience while on the drug.
100:57 And that itself is really interesting.
100:58 And it takes us back to a place that we've been before
101:01 in this discussion, which is layer five of the cortex.
101:04 This area that ketamine seems to impact as well
101:06 by generating rhythms of the,
101:08 I mentioned one to three Hertz activity
101:10 in layer five of certain areas of the cortex.