Facing your fears in the Psychedelic realm

[WhereEaglesDare]

One thing I always encounter during a psychedelic experience (either mushrooms or DMT) is a period of facing my own personal fears, sometimes it is a brief fleeting thought which passes in a few minutes and other times it can make up most of the trip (especially on mushroom). I have tried numerous times to go with it and try to remind myself that I have taken something (not always possible when on mushrooms at higher doses) which is causing this fearful and often scary thoughts or feelings.

I have only broken through once properly with DMT and I am a little apprehensive that the next time I do I will face another terrifying episode (the firt breakthrough wasn't scary as such, more uncomfortable feeling that something was pushing me into a situation I wasn't ready for). I want to be as prepared as possible to handle the experience and take from it what I can bring back with me.

I have considered trying some sort of meditation to clear my mind before a journey and I know how important set and setting is. I think part of it is I cannot seem to let me ego go and this may be in part due to a horrible experience I had on pills (sold to me as E) which weren't and I ended up in hospital briefly many years ago.

From your personal experiences how have you combated these kinds of experiences? Do you still have uncomfortable trips nowadays?

I want to be able to enjoy and grow from the wonder that is hyperspace and need to let these fears not control me any longer.

 

[The Unknowing]

By going and doing it again. Facing the fear. I had a traumatic experience on ayahuasca once, but forced myself to take it again and had such a beautiful experience I couldn't remember why I was so afraid.

Good luck brother,
Fear is a liar.

 

[Felnik]

Confronting and learning to deal with fear with psychedelics is
A pretty standard theme . We've all dealt with it at one point or another .
The more you do it the better you get at it
And the more you learn about yourself . You mention set and setting wich is a good
Start . Meditation and deep breathing is helpful as well. I really encourage
Everyone and especially people having issues with fear to take they're time .
Don't be in a rush for the " breakthrough " it will come in time . Low doses is key .

Have a sacred space and a ritual . Meditate chant deep breath
Talk to yourself aloud like a coach when it gets tough it works . Tell yourself
Your gonna be ok and there's nothing to be afraid of . Witness it don't project
Or judge . Much of the dmt space is an illusion and a house of mirrors .
Hyperspace can amplify fear and weave it into incredibly weird scenereoes
That can be terrifying . Being a centered grounded rock is good .
Even pretending your not afraid can go a long way .

 

[hopefull]

Probably one of the hardest ways to deal with it but for me the most satisfying is learning to love the fear. So when entity's are flying at you and "things" are trying to get you and you fear for your life. Just muster up what little courage you have and say to yourself "ahhhhhhhh the wonders of the world." For me if I do that while peeking on a trip(much easier on trips other than DMT) I can use fear kind of like a toy. Just another emotion we can control. Personally I think the only person who makes fear bad is the person fearing. So if you learn to love terror than any dose can be achieved. I was only able to learn how to love fear after a terrifying sleep paralysis experience.
Good luck

 

[nicechrisman]

Meditation has helped me a lot. That said, I think part of the lesson of mushrooms is being shown our fears and our shames. It can be an amazing catalyst to help us make the changes we need to in our lives.

 

[Enoon]

If you have recurring fear during your experiences, perhaps it's something you need to investigate further. In my experience it is best to adress fears and find their very root, find what they are about and learn how to accept them. Once you understand them they usually hold no power over your mood, they come and then pass rather than drag you under.

How you can figure out your fears and overcome or integrate them depends and I suppose there is no one way to do it. Sometimes you can do it with psychedelics, sometimes it's better to do it without them first. But IMO it's really important to understand the fears for you to liberate yourself of them.

Aside from psychedelics I always find writing a great tool to figure out what's going on inside.

Good luck.

 

[WhereEaglesDare]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will not let fear rule my explorations!

I am starting with smaller doses and working my way up. Had some mind blowing visuals last night, some of the most amazing things I have ever seen and I felt like I was just touching on a breakthrough. Plan to keep slowly working my way up. Only issue is I am using an Arizer Extreme-Q to vape the spice with a ballon/bag, I am not sure it is the most efficient way of vaping.

 

[Phagopsytosis]

Witness it don't project Or judge . Much of the dmt space is an illusion and a house of mirrors .Hyperspace can amplify fear and weave it into incredibly weird scenereoes
That can be terrifying.

Agreed. On any trip I take, if I can just observe the weirdness and let it pass without it getting inside my head too deep... It usually goes away and I can go on to more 'constructive' though processes instead of just trying to deal with whatever's going on. That being said, I've had times where I've tried to just be the observer, to meditate and be centered, but the external environment seems to just twist and snarl too much for me to stay grounded... Perhaps this is where it's absolutely necessary to have a safe setting.

As for the recurring fear... I agree that it's something to be investigated further, but if you're in outer-space, do the investigating internally... Followed external manifestations of dealing with fears/shame can definitely lead to some strange and uncomfortable situations! I haven't concluded how exactly I can come to the very root of my fears/shame... Psychedelics definitely bring them up, but I find it especially difficult to deal with on a trip - who's to say if these 'roots' are truly the unresolved cause of our fear/shame or just fear/shame itself spiraling out of control, leading us deep into our past and planting a consipracy or false occurence into the murky depths of our memory?


Either way, if you have to externalize it, do so in a manner that it doesn't force other people into your 'sphere'. IE, instead of playing off whatever confusion/inconsistency is happening in your head, try to draw or write or paint or dance or free-style rap whatever it is that's happening... I find it's easier to let go of shame when I manifest it in an artistic, non-violent, non-intrusive way.

Thanks for the post! It's given me a bit more insight and a sense of togetherness... So often on trips it feels like I'm the only one who's ever had a bad trip and it's the end of the world

 

[Eudaimōn]

Daniel Waterman from the Netherlands posted on his site - here a few guidelines for coping with fear which I have found to work quite well for me.

Coping with fear:

Experience teaches us that fear is actually an illusion created by anticipation. There are many experiences in life that can show you this: when you anticipate pain for example, you almost experience the pain, and so you are afraid and in pain, whereas when you are actually in pain, there is none of the anguish of the anticipation! Anticipating pain, or fear, is actually quite pointless, since we are unable to prevent things from occurring. However when we are relaxed, we are much more readily able to react, and so we can either avert an accident, prevent things from getting worse, or else we are even in a lot less pain than we anticipated, simply because we accept the pain, as an experience that we may learn from. Fear thus works as a kind of veil, that prevents us from seeing things clearly, it quite literally distorts our view. The way of the warrior or shaman of dealing with fear is to follow it, and find out where it comes from. Again experience shows, that our fears always lead to great discoveries! Identifying their source means freeing ourselves from fears prohibitive influence, and accelerating our ability to learn.

Worth checking out his site as well, it makes for some interesting reading.

 

[DreaMTripper]

Reminds me of the very psychedelic star trek voyager episode 'Fear'..
Question the fear stand up it. Enquire what you can learn from it in your detached state look to see where on the ego is it hooked into? Fear isolated is merely an illusion it's a state of alertness that enables our senses to be at the most effective to ensure survival by taking I'm as much information about the environment and using it to our benefit.
That's not to dismiss the utter warped weirdness that occurs when fear first appears, to me it seems to twists the space-time I'm in and can be so intense you have to ride it like a cosmic rollercoaster, most of my fearful starts subside after a minute or so leaving 3 or 4 minutes of euphoric hyperspace.

 

[Cognitive Heart]

Inquiring before and after psychedelic experiences are great opportunities to learn from. It is incredibly difficult to inquire during these experiences because so much of what happens is unexplainable. Fear is just another form of perception or feeling, its completely natural to respond this way. It is within the spirit in where fear, doubt, misery etc, all topple over in incomplete, formless webs and you encounter where you have been all this time. I think having experiences like these bring forth positive and negative benefits for the subject taking it. It is in perceiving these experiences in which you decide whether or not to return to or leave these realms of incredible awareness.

By utilizing psychedelics, we promote universal understanding within ourselves internally, leading to connections externally. Use wisely, is the way. Plants and humans know this and have for a very long time.

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