The Psychedelic Experience: A new concept in psychotherapy (1962) [pdf]
erowid.org
erowid.org
But damn. Here’s the rough schedule: 200 mcg LSD at 9am followed up an hour later by a full dose of mescaline and then 5 hours later a dose of amphetamine. At 5:30p they are sent home with a friend and given a sleeping pill.
I’ve tried a lot, but that’s quite a day.
Benzodiazepines and similar drugs can stop acid trips almost completely in their tracks, allowing you to sleep. People also keep benzos on hand in case they have a bad trip - so they can stop the trip.
I would say, amphetaminnes can have you "wired" much more, but maybe for less time. But I don't think benzos can stop an amphetamine high as well as they stop LSD trips.
I'm planning to try psychedelic psychotherapy to treat my BID. I doubt it will relieve the desires - it seems more like being trans than anything - but I'm desperate, and maybe it'll help me accept my condition, or decide whether to try getting (sketchy, grey-market) surgery. Psychedelics have helped with other kinds of body dysmorphia, at least. Worth a shot?
Unfortunately there's not yet enough known about these substances to predict whether they'll work for a rare condition.. besides, everyone's different, and everyone reacts to these substances differently. They're pretty unpredictable. So it might work for you, it might not.
A lot also depends on how they're used, where, and with whom -- what's known as "set and setting". I'd recommend reading James Fadiman's Psychedelic Explorer's Guide[1] for lots of good advice on this subject.
[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Psychedelic-Explorers-Guide-Therapeut...
Try asking around at psychedelic conferences or at meetings of a psychedelic society[1] near you.
While it feels like an artifact from the future, Berkeley CSP is now formally certifying "facilitators". And its important to note, because the cure is the experience. Not the actual biochemistry. We know a lot about the botany and chemistry of these compounds. And we can actually map phenotypes with human genes to predict certain effects. But the missing bridge between the two is the trip. The fact that we are finally after so many millennia attempting to apply Baconian methods to what was hitherto described as quasi-miraculous feats mystical exploration is exciting. And I believe will be fruitful, though in the short term generate many more questions than answers ;)
However, I suspect that science will run in to hard limits regarding the deepest questions that contact with these substances raise -- such as the fundamental mystery they often reveal that is ineffable, transverbal and non-conceptual.
These questions are more aptly addressed by philosophy and religion, and I expect that after an initial phase of medical and hard-science attempts to engage with the experiences these substances occasion (attempts that the highly rational and in some ways science-worshipping society demands before these substances can be legalized), most people's engagement will move to a religious and religio-medical model (or call it "spiritual" if you don't like the word "religious").
Psychedelics have shown to be catalysts for starting religions, occasioning mystical experiences, and converting people.. and these tendencies will only increase as psychedelic use becomes more popular. New religions will sprout and existing religions will try to incorporate psychedelic use once they see these substances revitalizing religious feeling and engagement.
We're only starting to see the barest hints of this now, because most religious people aren't aware of psychedelics' potential in this area.. but this trend will almost certainly flourish once they are. There might be a backlash on some level, as some religions are allergic to giving their adherents direct access to what their authorities are supposed to have a monopoly over.. but it's not clear whether such suppression will be effective this time.
Religious wars over psychedelic revelations might be possible too. It's too early to tell, but it'll be an interesting next couple of hundred years, that's for sure.
And that's what we are talking about here: seeing yourself, perhaps for the first time. Not societies expectation, the fount of all our neuroses. And undergoing the "ego-dissolution" the opens the door to healing.
If you think about it: what is an addict? Rationally, they wish to cease. But physically, behaviorally cannot. Yet, here is a substance that in essence super-charges the rational mind. Instantly. The transformation is so acute, the old habits seem impossible.
Now imagine your own mind, programmed to optimal turbo-charged rationality. Always picking the perfect action in any environment. Scale that across humanity and the possibilities, as stated, are not just new religions, but new evolutions ;)
Reminds me of the phrase cupio dissolvi, "I wish to be dissolved."
> But I am straitened between two: having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, a thing by far the better. But to abide still in the flesh, is needful for you.
I personally do not understand how someone interested in religion could not be interested in mysticism or psychedelics, as they almost literally put the golden chalice in your hands and can bring to life all those things many academics merely read about.
Even if mystical experiences occasioned by psychedelics aren't genuine (as Zaehner argued in the 60's -- arguments likely to be rehashed endlessly), they at the very least raise many questions of supreme religious importance and countless people do interpret their experiences in a religious/spiritual light.
With church attendance falling for decades now, with more and more people disavowing religious affiliation and identifying themselves as "spiritual but not religious" or outright atheist, you'd think more religious people and academics with a theological bent would take an interest in substances that pretty reliably cause mystical experiences, but they seem to be mostly ignored and the religious side of academia mostly seem content to cede the field to the scientific and medical establishment.
I hope the BCSP and other forward-thinking organizations can start opening people's eyes to the religious potential of psychedelics, because feedback and insight from religious professionals of all kinds could be very valuable.
psilocybin mushroom kicks down depression so hard it can't get up and bother you again.
no SSRIs, no marijuana after taking it.
anxiety and ptsd are still there tho so i think that requires something else. also something about THC that seems to reverse the benefits I got from psilocybin. cessation of THC seems to put me "back" on track if that makes sense.
disclaimer: ymmv, please get a sitter, if not, do it outside (best to do it on the grass) where you are safe, comfortable, and calm.
it makes sense why the body builds tolerance to psilocybin so rapidly and half life is quite long (at least a month or two) for evolutionary purposes. which to me is interesting because it shows that we've evolved to build tolerance against it but THC takes far longer and in very high doses to build tolerance.
all in all, I've read accounts of people seeing positive changes with microdosing but for my case, while I did not take heroic doses (McKenna's 5 grams), I took at best 2 to 3 grams. In higher doses I had a transcendental experience....
while nobody has died from taking psilocybin outright, there had been reported incidents where it had impact on somebody prone to schizophrenia and psychosis. However its extremely rare. This is why I suggest to people to have a sitter and be at a ground level.
It's not an issue for the millions of people that take it but if you've never even smoked marijuana before and this is your first try, please get a sitter.
The half life of psilocybin is only a couple of hours, not a couple of months. The mental after effects can linger for a long time of course, if that's what you mean.
Drugs can be great to poke and prod your psyche and help with questions like "why do I think or feel like this?"
Identifying things in your environment that trigger anxiety or paranoia can also make your home a more comfortable and cozy place. When your perception is altered, it's an opportunity to learn new things. The new perspective can be a valuable tool for becoming a better version of yourself.
It used to be a release from the grip of boredom and permit my brain to dance about joyfully.
Now it flips my anxiety switch and I get stuck in a self conscious loop. Almost the opposite. Wish I could go back.
some people don't seem to have it as bad but for me I really struggle with the popular belief that marijuana is harmless. We simply don't know, we are guinea pigs with these high thc marijuana.
I certainly wasn't my best with it, it magnified emotions and past memories, it exasperated my OCD/ADD. Looking back, I really wish I hadn't used marijuana but at the same time, glad I went through that phase when I was younger.
I just want to echo how important this disclaimer is. There's no free lunch, and psilocybin can be incredibly challenging. For some people it is massively helpful for depression, but this is not a guarantee. Do your research and have a guide (if at all possible).
If you're part of a research study at a respected institution, that's easy. Not so easy if you're getting it on the black/gray market or picking mushrooms yourself.
So if you have to get it from the black/gray market, educate yourself thoroughly on how to tell if it's real and what the dosage you're getting is.
Alan Rockefeller has some great videos on psilocybin mushroom identification: [1] [2]
Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
First, mushrooms can be misidentified, due to carelessness or ignorance. A misidentified mushroom can be poisonous. So that's my primary concern.
Second, it's easy to just add whatever chemical you want to non-psychedelic mushrooms, so it's quite possible that you'll get some non-psychedelic mushrooms with some mystery drug added to them.
Third, if someone on the street (or even a friend) offers you something they claim is psilocybin, there's no way of knowing if it really is psilocybin unless you test it.
Figuring out the substance's purity/dosage is even more difficult, as labs in the US that do commercial drug testing aren't legally allowed to report purity, and reagent testing isn't going to tell you.
The amount of psilocybin/psilocyin in mushrooms also varies greatly, so going by gram of mushroom weight (dry or fresh?) isn't very reliable.. especially if you don't know exactly which species each of the mushrooms are and someone's just selling you some mystery "magic mushrooms".
Nobody is on the streets selling psilocybin like they sell other drugs, it would be like people trying to pass off broccoli as marijuana.
I'm sorry but you sound like Nancy Reagan right now. You are trying to warn people about something that you yourself have barely experienced or knowledgeable about by taking some other tangent item and applying it here because it is "drugs".
They might have picked some "little brown mushrooms" in a field somewhere thinking they were psylocybin mushrooms but not gone to the effort to identify them properly, or just not known how to do it, or made a mistake. Or maybe they got it from someone who told them that's what they were, but themselves didn't know, etc.
Or they (or their supplier) might have gone the easy route and bought some mushrooms and sprinkled some "bath salts" on them.
As a consumer you just don't know -- especially if they're dried, crumbled mushrooms which could be just about anything or a mix of stuff.
It's just sad hearing people who are so adamantly determined to stick their head in the sand and trust whatever drug they're being peddled is what their dealer claims it is.
Nancy Reagan's famous line was "Just say no." I'm not saying "Just say no". I'm saying "Just say know."
Educate yourself. Test your stuff. Be smart. Don't just guzzle down whatever you're given without satisfying yourself that it actually is what your provider claims it is.
I heard more than one story, e.g. giving unsuspecting newbies tea under guise of weed. And that didn't even involve money, imagine how much you could earn by optimizing for finding shroom-curious laypeople. (If this is nothing to you, perhaps you are not poor.)
I'm not OP but I wouldn't want to take a gamble buying illicit substance from someone I don't know and can't vouch for.
You may end up on a list but that didn't stop marijuana for propagating through society when illegal; now legal in Canada, widely available, a big industry, and tax revenue source.
Instead we are just left with this hodgepodge of random completely different experiences controlled for nothing
Still probably a healthy mantra to recite to anyone in the midst of overwhelm as most people a fine, and its a caring act.
Or referring to the limits of modern biology?
Psychedelics are very powerful. Ayahuasca in particular can and does induce psychotomimetic states, as described in the article. If you are not in ceremony with a trained plant medicine practitioner, this "pseudo psychosis" can become very overwhelming and even damaging.
psilocybin's come up is frightening/anxiety/panic inducing as it is....I don't think I can ever jump over ayahuasca, that seems like a whole different animal.
For me I feel like psilocybin "reset" my brain and there's some long lasting protection mechanism against depressive thinking. Even if I do feel down, something pulls me out of it. Whereas depression once it pulls you in, it likes to keep you there.
Do not take psychedelics lightly, especially ayahuasca and heroic doses. Even for the come up on psilocybin, it required considerable self calming and focused willpower to overcome the fear of losing ego. But my god, what comes after, the clarity, the peace, love and lingering positivity....zero chance the pharmaceutical community will be able to replicate it.
I'd be very wary of some self-styled shaman adding datura or some other nightshade plant to the brew (which is not unheard of), and that's something I definitely want to stay far, far away from.
Unless I was brewing it myself I'd want nothing to do with it either, because I couldn't be sure of what I was getting.
Conversely, an untrained or despotic ceremony leader can create an unsafe setting, and can lead vulnerable people right into psychotic-like states.
For me that line is deliriants. I can even admit to a morbid curiosity myself, but I have no idea why people would ever put themselves through that more than once.
In my experience with various psychedelics, the intensity of the experience is purely a function of dosage, and not of the specific substance. Heroic doses with psilocybin, LSD, and DMT, are all very serious and challenging, and I don't think there's a singling out of any specific type. Could I be mistaken?
I used to suffer from depression many years ago too, but I have grown through it. Low doses of psychedelics are the best thing on occasion, and DMT/ayahuasca is by far my favorite. Usually a couple times per year, I like to make a Mimosa hostilis and B. caapi brew with the plant equivalent of ~15 mg of DMT. It's a low dose (the Cubensis equivelant of ~1.5 grams), but the experience is incredibly therapeutic, healing, and educational. Minimal anxiety, and no psychosis of any sort. And I've always come away from it with such an intense love and appreciation for life that I can take with me everywhere.
If my experience is anything to go by, I think the experiences of low doses of ayahuasca are incredibly valuable and safe, and I only hesitate to suggest it to others because I'm not sure if my experience is unique.
2. If no one is around stat with super low dose first time. And grow from there over months if you are scared. You'll understand after low dose what's coming and thank yourself later.
2. You can not have any and I mean any plans for that day. Not even I'll have to take the trash out in the evening, seriously. Turn the phone to airplane so no one can call and block messages. You do not want anything that requires functioning human from you. You could do that but it will ruin your time.
4. Outside - no matter how cozy your home is do it in your country house or somewhere where you are alone and feel safe, have a fallback house or place but still in nature. Dunno, rent something.
They're not ideal, but better than nothing.
Even better would be to start making friends in the psychedelic community -- which is getting easier to do all the time, and to maybe find an underground guide. Another way to go is to sign up for a research study.
U don't have to do it forever. If it comes back take another shot
LSD still has some scary connotations towards some of the older generation based on the sensationalism and scare-mongering of the 60's and 70's, while most people didn't know about psilocybin until researchers started reporting positive things about it in the last decade or so.
There have been some studies that showed that even experienced psychedelic users can't tell the difference between the major classic psychedelics, so there might be much actual difference between LSD and psilocybin in the last analysis... though more research is definitely needed.
Still, if any classic psychedelic is legalized in the US, the first one will probably be psilocybin.. and research will continue to focus mostly on it, for the above mentioned reasons.
Requesting people use “some” and “in my experience” and all that shit is just noise on a discussion board. Just read and comprehend what they’re saying.
A couple of years ago I was prescribed ketamine (multiple times a day, taken orally, a non-psychoactive dose) for an unrelated chronic neuropathic pain condition... and I feel like it's cured my depression! It really is an absolutely incredible drug - I only wish it was more widely available to others in my situation.
For those not in the know, growing your own mushrooms is super easy with the "Ben Tek" (see /r/UncleBens Reddit). And the items you need to buy are not illegal (since the spores contain no psilocybin they are not illegal to possess, and can be shipped across state lines, so a $10 website purchase is enough for dozens of trips).
New concepts are exciting, but the Indigenous Mexican use of psilocin in treatment of things such as depression, addiction, and other ailments of the soul are fundamentally integrated into their Christian beliefs and practices.
If the tech bros of San Francisco are seeking a cure to their existential despair, they should turn to San Francisco the man, the legend whose works were rooted in his unwavering faith to Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly the inspiration to the city's famous love for Bohemian living.
If the proliferation of psychedelic drugs from Haight-Ashbury was the answer to the ills of our nation and the ills of the heart then it would have worked already. Instead of trying more and more drugs, why not try something that really works? Before the 1960s, San Francisco in its free-spirited glory was closer to the light of God. It's not too late to turn things around.
Many times it did. Light shines on whoever listens to Jesus. But the evil one never sleeps.
Anyway not the place for this, I guess.