Anxiety about going back to the outer realms

[newground]

hello all

suppose a person is having fears and trepidations about aya.

nothing bad has ever happened to justify the emotion, but this fear still persists, most likely stemming from fear of ones self rather than the tool you are using.

how should you go about dealing with it?

meditation is a common answer, but you cant meditate day to day for pretrip anxiety hours or days before.

regular microdosing of harmalas seems to be a comprehensible idea, and although on a physical level it does something fascinating, the basic root is still there.

you could just say "man the F* up" and sure that is easy enough to say, but that wont get rid of idea if it is persistent.

so maybe the real question is this, is there a way to deal with a "spiritual" anxiety, please fill in your definition of spiritual as needed, but in jest an anxiety that cant be warded off by concentration, relaxation or medication. and short of that is there an archive on this site or elsewhere about pre voyage preparation rituals (food, iconography, setting placement, things used as stimulation during the trip to focus thoughts, so you feel prepared to go.)

so in short, how would you change your "set" from set and setting in preparation for another journey?

thank you everyone for reading. have a great day.

 

[bigmack]

so in short, how would you change your "set" from set and setting in preparation for another journey?

Great question.
I literally have zero input on this topic and probably shouldnt have posted. Just wanted to say good question and I'm looking forward to see what people have to say.

Just for contrast - my personal view has always been to eliminate pre-thought/preparation altogether...
(which may not be aligned with the status quo or orginal brewers of the medicine likewise).

SO I mean... if I were you... or maybe more so... if you were me...
I would say tis best not to allow even an inkling of consideration, nor the slightest inquisition - for how to go about conditioning an experience.
I simply try to avoid the mindfulness of the road that lay ahead. OR otherwise, I won't end up doing it.

 

[kyrolima]

The anxiety will go away.
It is hardwired, so you don't do it unintentionally.

 

[joedirt]

so maybe the real question is this, is there a way to deal with a "spiritual" anxiety, please fill in your definition of spiritual as needed, but in jest an anxiety that cant be warded off by concentration, relaxation or medication. and short of that is there an archive on this site or elsewhere about pre voyage preparation rituals (food, iconography, setting placement, things used as stimulation during the trip to focus thoughts, so you feel prepared to go.)

so in short, how would you change your "set" from set and setting in preparation for another journey?

thank you everyone for reading. have a great day.

Meditation.

You day to day meditation will help you to be at peace with whatever emotions arise. In addition your day to day meditation will actually reduce your overall anxiety as well.

My honest advice is to just do it. Don't go the microdosing route. Just consume a weak dose of aya...and make sure you have enough handy for another dose, because most likely once the warm glow of aya sets in you will realize that it's not only alright, but it's amazingly warm and comforting..

If you've done shrooms then you are pretty much prepared for what's coming...only aya is a little more warm at times.

The nausea can be tough though....but I swear to god the purge feels good! Make sure you consume enough caapi to purge! Seriously you want to purge because then the nausea fades away and you can get lost in the dreams.

I'd recommend finding a good place to lay down for the first 1-2 hours of the voyage. It's not like LSD were you can go running through the woods and party with friends....well at least I can't.

Peace.

 

[Ice House]

harmalas help me with anxiety, ever try micro dosing DMT? 10mg doses just to get comfortable.

 

[Visty]

Maybe anxiety is a way of letting you know you are not ready for it.

I guess this idea comes from the notion that one should not use psychedelics to get better but use them for enhancing whats is there. But all that depends on what you think these things are for and there are so m nay people with unique insights on this. I am not even sure if I stand by the above principle myself. I sure break that principle; I wish it to overcome some trauma's in my life that I have trouble letting go off.

I guess one of the questions I would like answered is whether forgiveness is truly something about myself or has it do with those that ...that...did it to me, you know. Caused me those trauma's. 'They' say that forgiving is a powerful...tool...thing...and that it helps you move on rather than stay connected through hate or fear or any emotion to the perpetrators.

But fear...is the mindkiller, per Frank Herbert's litany of fear, as described in his books. McKenna found it normal to have trepidations. He said something like if you aren't approaching this stuff with knees knocking in fear.... I seem to be referring to or quoting McKenna like a darn priest these days it seems, maybe I make a post why I love that man so much.

Actually, it is his voice in my head that pushes me to inhale deeply them hyperspatial fumes. Perhaps you need a guru too, to focus your mind on that it will be okay. Also, I think of all the myriad people here who 'done it', who 'do it' and on a regular basis. They haven't fallen over, dead?

Mind you, there are always risks involved here. The mind is a both the most vulnerable thing, hence my trauma's, but also the most omnipotent thing. We need to let go and not deny any anxieties. Better is to face them, accept them as a natural opposition to what your conscience knows is gonna get done, by itself!

Some here say it is a physical reaction, some will tell you it is your ego finding itself under threat.

So what are the risks then? I will give you my experience.

I took shrooms many years ago. I did it just a couple of times. That little streak ended with the last experience. After that I did not take the mushroom for like a decade. Being a Castanedian I thought of it as a clear message:'get the hell out of my face!' And I did, I had no choice.

But what happened was that I became clinically depressed. The mushroom showed me the status of my life. I was not happy and I had never been happy. It showed me my life wasn't worth living I suppose and that I had to change in order to make progress.

People call this a 'bad trip'. But those are often the best ones, if you seek evolution in your life, enlightenment or whatever keeps your boat floating. I cried for 6 hours straight. I was broken, devastated. I became suicidally depressed.

Society then declares that the psychedelic is to blame. Of course it is not. I must revaluate this excperience, even now, 12 years or so later. Maybe the ally didn't kick me out if its presence at all. Maybe it was pitying me and decided I needed a change.

But it is a hard friend to have. But 'friends' that tell you what you want to know are not the best friends at all.

Who would dare to give advice on such matters? Well, if I did, then I would say, befriend the ally. Too many people have no humble approach to these things. Too many people just wanna self medicate and 'do' drugs, without any spiritual bone in their body. I come from such a different place with these things.

When I took mushrooms again, like a year ago around this time I suppose, I had some fear. But then I had McKenna as a guide, Castaneda's insights still, and I asked the mushroom to give me a name to call it by. And I asked it humbly, if it would accept me again to visit with it. And I got the name and it was clear and very different than what I expected. And the name itself is a reminder of the reverence I feel I need to approach the experience with.

So I think you need to adopt a mindset of mutual trust with it, reverence and ritual. McKenna conveyed the mushroom when he said that ritual is for when you don't know what you are doing. It is ritual that helps focus your intention and helps overcome fear.

I hope these ideas of mine are of any use. And as you can see, despite my horrible trip 12 years ago, I am here, alive, renewed, in a life very different I can tell you, from what I had. Good luck!

 

[Hyperdimensional Cuttlefish]

harmalas help me with anxiety, ever try micro dosing DMT? 10mg doses just to get comfortable.

Dead. Correct.


To me, the fear is a healthy response. A good dose of harmalas sets me up to learn, and turns that unreasonable fear into a healthy-cautious respect.

 

[un-known-ome]

I'm relatively new to all this stuff, but I continue to be surprised at the variability of my personal responses to these substances. I had an extremely stressful trip several weeks ago after drinking what I thought was an incredibly mild dose of b. caapi and mimosa. I completely let my guard down and was taken by surprise at the intensity of effects, and I just wanted it to end and for everything to return to normal. So I've learned to expect nothing, and take it as it comes. To have no ego. One way to look at it is that nothing bad can really happen. If you purge, it's hardly a medical emergency and you will feel much better for having done so. I have successfully taken very small doses of b. caapi and mimosa gelatin in the past, but I cannot say if it truly prepares one for a full-blown trip. Certainly this method along with dosing other psychedelics will resolve anxiety.