• Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).

Any “bad” experiences?

Migrated topic.
Sillypills

Sillypills

Rising Star
I posted my introduction the other day (after reading others I realize it could use some work) but I don’t have much to say on the topic of psychedelics. I do have some questions though, the big one being about bad trips or scary experiences, I have experimented with a handful of chemicals more than a handful of times, and never had a bad time. Except maybe when I smoked salvia not knowing what it was (I was 16 and thought it was weed) but that was just not being prepared combined with an uncomfortable high. I’m mainly asking about dmt but any advice about bad trips is welcome:)
 
Going into a trip with a bad mindset or in a bad setting could lead you to have a uncomfortable experience. DMT isn't very predictable though in my experience. Check out this link if you're truly curious about the content of a dmt experience.
 
Going into a trip with a bad mindset or in a bad setting could lead you to have a uncomfortable experience. DMT isn't very predictable though in my experience. Check out this link if you're truly curious about the content of a dmt experience.
 
If someone only ever dabbles a little they might get away with only positive or easily handled trips, but if you trip like you mean it you will encounter challenging or 'bad' trips. This is just the nature of being a psychonaut or soulflyer. These are not pleasure drugs, even if they usually are pleasurable 😉
I've had hundreds of trips on a variety of substances including LSD, mushrooms, mescaline, mescahuasca, DMT, pharmahuasca, and salvia and I've had challenging trips on them all. Some I've considered bad trips while I was tripping, in retrospect I only call them challenging. I've learned from most of them. Sometimes when in that space I've been tempted to swear off psychedelics but in the end I never have.

Considering that challenging trips will happen if you keep tripping, my best advice to anyone is to consume these substances only with a clear mind and then, despite any pre-dosing anxiety, once the drug is inside you trust yourself 100% that you can handle it. If you can truly trust the judgement of your sober self, you will be able to handle it.

If you have a bad trip on 2,5 to 3,5 grams of mushrooms consider taking twice the dose a week or two later. Believe it or not it usually helps.
If mescaline tends to make your mind too foggy in and after peak try taking it with some harmine. For some reason that makes it mentally clearer.
If your tripping on LSD and you take a hit of cannabis and are unexpectedly rocketed to another universe you found yourself a wonderful strain of cannabis :lol:
If you predose on THH for the first time before pharmahuasca, keep the DMT dose quite moderate. I did that on 8 grams of ACRB for my THH introduction and, oh boy :shock:
Similarly if you take THH before mushrooms cut the mushroom dose down!
 
I've been trolling the Nexus quite a bit more recently than I have before, and notice that across the site, as well as in my own post Jurema Wine Experience, the bad experiences are often glossed over unless someone's in need of help or the entire experience was bad. In my limited use of DMT, it seems like you're going to just have to accept the good and bad times as they come because there aren't many reports I've seen comprised entirely of just one of those two experiences.

I'll assume you're not going to read my entire experience report, but there is a part where I mention how ~60% of the experience was horrifying. I'll agree with Seeingisbelieving that DMT is just really unpredictable, and all in all, I loved the whole thing afterwards. It wasn't even my own mindset that took me to those places or pulled me out. The whole thing was a freaking roller coaster, and so I don't even know if good/bad trips apply to DMT. It seems like people mostly just forget the bad times unless they helped, and were remembered after integration; or once again, brought them down real bad. I hardly see any DMT art reflecting the bad times even though a lot of experience reports at least mention them now that I think about it.

Every other psychedelic I've done, however, is completely dependent on the individual. If you're taking a dose you know, and are ready for it (set and setting), it should be up to you to dictate whether or not the trip will be good/bad. If bad thoughts creep in, you've got to SHUT THEM DOWN! But, for me at least, after the come-up on all the other psychs, if you've kept a positive mindset, you've "made-it". Should be smooth sailing.

That being said, I've only had one trip even start to go real south on me. My buddy and I decided to take 3 tabs of acid in the morning, and after I throw mine in, he gets real quite, and says, "I'm sorry." I look at him, and ask, "About what?" But I already know. I already know. "I think they folded over," he says to me. So I play with the tabs in my mouth, and sure enough. 3 became 6, and that was not the way I wanted to start off that morning at all. I was still hungover mildly from the night before. That was a ROUGH come-up. But after an hour of pure willpower keeping me positive once it set it, I "made-it".

So aside from DMT, I'm a firm believer that you can be talked out of, or think your way out of any trip that goes bad. Others might have very different opinions.

I'll agree with Elrik that if you're going to do psychedelics, there will definitely be some rough patches. I don't see myself ever stopping though. It's the closest thing I feel to a religion.
 
Thank you all for your replies! The video seeingisbelieving linked is saved in my playlist for when I get some free time, and I appreciate elriks advice as well, I know what he’s talking about with smoking good weed on LSD, I used to dab a lot before I quit pot altogether (not forever, just needed to stop using it the way I was). Not really interested in acid or shrooms at the moment, but the harmine and mescaline thing is something I might try, currently focused on doing my first MHRB extraction. Also Sinbad, I read your trip report, and that is unlike anything I have ever seen, I know people report about entities but every time I have smoked DMT it’s just a really intense trip, so I think I might have to make some jurema wine of my own.
 
One thing I would not recommend is to fight negative thoughts. There are different kinds of negative. One is "oh shit why there is a police outside" or "what if my [important person] calls right now when I am fucked up" kind of negative thoughts - these you should fight in advance by sticking tightly with set and setting rules, having a sitter. I you have to fight these anxiety thoughts, then you probably were not prepared.

Other is your suppressed negative thoughts, another part of you manifesting. Psychedelics give you a wonderful opportunity to see root cause why you are having such thoughts and integrate your negative self, accept it. Then it will be a healing experience.
If you suppress your deep issues, you will only deepen them.

I know this is easier to say than do, but to get clean you must get through a lot of dirt first.

In this sense there are no bad trips.

Only trips I consider bad, when unprepared people toy with powerful substances and ending their trips in emergency or police.
 
i have had my share of bad trips and bad moments in trips and they are almost always a result of bad mental/physical condition for me, the only exception being when i "go too far".
there has only been one time in the last few decades of tripping when i completely lost it from start to finish and would consider it to be a 100% scary trip where i completely lost control. that trip was the result of me making many mistakes (tripping while drunk, huge dose, angry mental state, no sitter, etc).

i completely agree with elrik that it is important to have faith in yourself and know that you will be okay. if the trip catches you off guard it can be difficult to remember that mindset, but if you slowly build your intake it is much easier to learn to control your mind.

the best thing you can do for yourself for any kind of trip is prepare yourself mentally beforehand. be sure it is what you really want and verify with yourself that you are in a completely positive state of mind. just take a moment to sit and relax and analyze yourself honestly.
a sitter you trust with your life helps in more ways than being there to help in an emergency too. they can give you comfort and reduce the negative responses to worrying thoughts that might jump into your mind during your journey. just knowing they are there allows you to completely submit yourself to the trip.

safe travels <3
 
what elrik said was very well said

I think this is very dangerous territory. There even exists the possibility of psychotic breaks. I dont mean to scare anyone, just to state the obvious (the obvious is often overlooked.) It only takes one bad trip to put a well versed psychonaut in his place. humble.

ITS really important to state that a bad trip isnt bad thoughts or feelings...not completley. A bad trip is a tragic event, malfunction of body and mind, a total disaster, chaos...can cause PTSD like effects...can be traumitizing. can be very hard to endure. can cause great pain. So...yes, meditation, philosophy--like Happiness and suffering only exist as two faces of the same coin. Dont attach to happiness nor to suffering--neither will last -- these things are effective for surfing it out, but AT THAT POINT ITS ONLY FOR SURFING IT OUT. The only way out of a bad trip is through. A BAD TRIP is a bad trip, surf it out, but the reality is, its a real bad time
 
I'm glad that you're thinking about doing a brew instead!

That being said, are you ordering powdered MHRB? Because I've actually meant to write up on the wiki all the things I've learned from doing the brew with powdered. Most of the teks don't describe the process in an easily understood way. If you are, PM me!

I only used 2 stainless steel pots and 2 receptacles. So long as the receptacles are also steel or glass, it actually doesn't matter.

I also figured out what I did wrong with the dosing that made it too strong. Foolish as I was, I didn't take into account the particulate at the bottom, which "doesn't count", in the DMT brew (it still takes up space), so I accidentally drank a bit more of the DMT solution than I meant to. Maybe it's because I didn't filter as much, but it looks like I took a dose of 4.3 grams of MHRB if I did my math correctly.

Really hope you make the wine though. Having 4 hours of an intense trip versus the short 10-15 min intense burst allows you to fully explore your mind. The Gods need time. If you have any questions at all or can't get it to work, I promise you, I can help ;)
 
Wow thanks for the reply’s, I have a problem with long response time, may bad. And I would like to touch base and just say like most others I am taking things slow and comfortable. It seems there will always be a little anxiousness before ingesting a powerful psychedelic, but maybe it’s just me. Never affected my trips in the past and I can always remind myself that I have been here many times before. As far as ayahuasca I have no idea what it will be like, and will most likely be working with mhrb or acacia. I am only a novice withDMT use and have a lot to learn. So when the time comes for my first ayahuasca session I will have many more questions, before and after. Thanks all
 
Good and bad are relative, the same thing (experience) of differing degrees. It is highly possible that a "Bad" experience could be the experience that promotes the most growth or wakes one up to something. Is this experience 'bad' in this instance? It is all too easy to push away that which is scary and uncomfortable, robbing ourselves of the deeper lessons which can be difficult to undertake. If we know this can occur, we can plan to learn during these difficult events. We can change the degree.

If you enter into an adventure, plan for things to be difficult along the way. Don't let it the difficulties of any journey disparage you from further adventures. It is not a toss of the dice, I feel we have much more control of the circumstances we place ourselves in had prepared before hand. Set and setting. Cultivating a skill set through slowly working one up to different states of altered consciousness. Soon we realize these are not toys, they are tools. Milk for babes, Meat for men as they might say. It is the meat to bite into that nourishes you and makes you strong. Gotta have a certain fortitude.

The military have a saying "Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance" nuff said

Salute! Good luck on your journey psychedelic soldier!
 
Sillypills said:
Wow thanks for the reply’s, I have a problem with long response time, may bad. And I would like to touch base and just say like most others I am taking things slow and comfortable. It seems there will always be a little anxiousness before ingesting a powerful psychedelic, but maybe it’s just me. Never affected my trips in the past and I can always remind myself that I have been here many times before. As far as ayahuasca I have no idea what it will be like, and will most likely be working with mhrb or acacia. I am only a novice withDMT use and have a lot to learn. So when the time comes for my first ayahuasca session I will have many more questions, before and after. Thanks all
Click to expand...

pre-launch nerves is perfectly normal even for seasoned psychonaughts. there is always the risk of a bad experience, which is nerve racking. its important to remember that good knowledge still comes from bad experiences and ultimately you will come out the other end just fine.

i think a lot of the nerves comes from deep roots of stories pushed around over the years by the war on drugs.
you know that guy you heard about who thinks he is a glass of orange juice? we all have a friend who says they know someone in that state :thumb_dow.. he is a lie created by the war on drugs, and just one of many examples of things that make people nervous before they are about to do a perfectly safe drug (as far as we know).
funny how people do not feel that way when they are about to drink a tonne of alcohol that is well documented to cause much more short and long term damage as well as make them do things that could destroy aspects of their life and living.
just some food for thought :)
 
:twisted:
Reflecting on my most recent experience, a little bit of philosophical reminder to self:

I wouldn't recommend any prolonged continuus or unplanned/spontaneous use of any entheogen.

If you consume entheogens regularly - I beg you to have solid intent for that.

Never, ever, loose respect for the molecule you are taking.

Never, ever, become so arrogant, as to think that you have understood or "mastered" something from the out space :lol:

There is always step after step in the spiritual quest and in time everybody will get to see and know everything in time.

:love:
 
PedroSanchez, I am pretty sure bad trips have become more common because of the war on drugs and all the negative propaganda. No way to prove it (maybe looking at hospitals and police reports for people who called 911 on themselves) but I did have a pretty challenging and scary experience a couple weeks ago. I may make another separate post about it but basically I had the sensation of something shaking me. I took a large dab of dmt and immediately felt something was wrong, as I closed my eyes something started shaking me while I asked it to please stop. With some profanity mixed in. I’m not sure if it did stop because it was hard to remember what happened afterwards. I don’t have many trips where amnesia sets it but I did not remember being “shaken” until my next session. During which I stupidly tried to fight it and keep my eyes open, only to be lucky and shown that I had nothing to be scared of. I haven’t had any experience with any other psychedelic that scary, uncomfortable maybe, but I’ve never had a bad trip, so anyone with advice or a similar experience, please let me know what you think.
 
Sillypills said:
PedroSanchez, I am pretty sure bad trips have become more common because of the war on drugs and all the negative propaganda. No way to prove it (maybe looking at hospitals and police reports for people who called 911 on themselves) but I did have a pretty challenging and scary experience a couple weeks ago. I may make another separate post about it but basically I had the sensation of something shaking me. I took a large dab of dmt and immediately felt something was wrong, as I closed my eyes something started shaking me while I asked it to please stop. With some profanity mixed in. I’m not sure if it did stop because it was hard to remember what happened afterwards. I don’t have many trips where amnesia sets it but I did not remember being “shaken” until my next session. During which I stupidly tried to fight it and keep my eyes open, only to be lucky and shown that I had nothing to be scared of. I haven’t had any experience with any other psychedelic that scary, uncomfortable maybe, but I’ve never had a bad trip, so anyone with advice or a similar experience, please let me know what you think.
Click to expand...

your experience seems to back up the theory. it seems to me that once you gained the confidence to face it and were no longer scared of it, suddenly it became okay.

i have never experienced the shaking, but DMT trips are so complex and intricate that everybodies experiences are unique. i think you have found your own advice anyway to be honest. next time you know not to worry about it because you discovered it is not something to worry about. now you can relax and enjoy the ride. even if you do get the shaking again there is nothing to fear, even if your whole trip is just shaking, what have you got to worry about? just laugh it off as a weird trip.

as much as i stand by my opinions there i also know it is far easier said than done.

safe travels <3
 
YES.

It convinced me I'd committed suicide once. And another time was just jesters choking me to death with absolutely no 'message' at all.

The suicide one was seriously bad. I cried after like I'd survived an actual attempt.

These are the two times in my life when I've been the most frightened I've ever felt.
 
"Bad trips" is one of the most misunderstood topics in psychedelics. One of the main reasons is there are 2-3 fundamentally different types of trippers, which no one ever discusses. There are so many aspects people never discuss. After having one for myself, and comparing it to everything people say about them, and then subsequently doing more reading on them, I've come to the conclusion that the topic goes well beyond a simple forum post to really get in to. I think the term itself is misleading because "bad trip" does not begin to describe how some people will become existentially phucked if they don't know what they're getting into, don't know what they're doing, and take too much. You are wise to be looking into bad trips. The good news is that the really horrific experiences seem to be when people just take too much. Never trust just one person's experience.
 
Back
Top Bottom