Children and psychedelics

[Lavos]

Hmm, I hesitate to type a response. I think the psychedelic experience for a child could be rewarding and preparatory for life. It could also be hard, difficult, possibly traumatic if done improperly? I think most likely one could expect the building of awareness, or perhaps the rejection altogether of mind bending substances.

I don't think the result would be too harmful obviously. No more than meeting or losing a friend.

 

[Jin]

i will agree with what Alexander Shulgin has to say about this ,
it requires a certain level of maturity to understand and learn from the experience

 

[deedle-doo]

Everyone should always have their own choice on whether to partake.

Therefore, I don't think I child should get psychedelics until they are mature enough to understand the choice and make it independently.

 

[dreamer042]

The Grey family had a nice lecture on the subject at burning man as part of the 2003 Palanque Norte lecture series.

Alex, Allyson, and Zena Grey at Palenque Norte 2003

A Palenque Norte conversation at Burning Man 2003

www.matrixmasters.com

 

[jamie]

^interestingly, Maria Sabina chose to take mushrooms at the age of only about 4 or 5 years old. Her sister and her apparently recognised the mushrooms as the ones she saw other people healing with and they would eat them out in the woods and her parents would find them and carry them back home laughing and crying. They never got angry becasue they new the mushrooms were calling to them.

 

[corpus callosum]

There do exist reports of children dying after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms but this may be a function of the amount ingested.

I think the culture one is nurtured in is very important when contemplating using psychedelics as a youngster.For example, the experience of a child in an indiginous setting would fare much better as the 'weird shit' they see is understood by their peers including adults, and the conclusions reached gel with their worldview.

For children in the Western/modern world, I think it would be more likely to be potentially disturbing-unless the child is at the age where wonderment exceeds inquisitiveness and a questioning attitude.

IMO, particularly in the Western setting, the partaker needs to be of a sufficiently mature outlook, and this doesnt necessarily mean the arbitrary age of 18.However, its around this age where ones key neural pathways do become established but not necessarily rigidly fixed.

These compounds will always be accessible to those who really want them, and I think they represent more than a crafty cigarette in the garage/the woods.Again, patience is most rewarding when dealing with compounds such as these.