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HPPD and Entheogens

Migrated topic.
C

Cactus Man

Rising Star
Someone has mentioned lately that they have experienced HPPD as a result of taking LSD years ago as well as Mescaline more recently.

I myself have zero first hand or even second hand experience with HPPD and as far as my travels go its certainly not something common, I wonder how to advise this friend of mine in regards to future use of classical natural psychedelics (both them and I have long ago decided not to use LSD ever again) being that im completely uneducated and inexperienced in even the first thing about HPPD.

Questioning whether such a thing should be taken as a sign to discontinue psychedelic ingestion entirely?

They claim it only gives them the visual effect of a psychedelic without the rest of the effects and that its not a horribly hindering thing but its also unpleasant while being at work or other tasks where you want to see "clearly".

What do yall nexians think of all this? What is yalls experience with HPPD?
 
I personally took Rue and Mimosa/Acacia daily/near daily for 4 years, and never encountered HPPD, then i tried LSD a few times, and that's when i got HPPD that lasted a good few weeks, mainly in the form of visual distortions. I've also tried mushrooms, 4-ACO-DMT, and Psilohuasca a good handful of times, and 25-D Nbome a couple times, and never had HPPD from them either, so it seems to be mainly LSD that causes it, i haven't yet tried Mescaline/Cacti. Cannabis potentiates the HPPD though. So my advice is to lay off the Cannabis if using that, and preferably stick to Tryptamines like mushrooms or DMT, LSD seems to be the common factor in HPPD. I will say though, for awhile there it also felt like i was coming up on DMT anytime i'd smoke Cannabis, but that too went away after awhile.
 
I’ve experienced HPPD as a result of high frequency LSD usage. It went away entirely after abstaining for a few weeks or so. Only visual distortions, nothing more. It was never a terribly distracting thing for me- maybe, in part, because of my comfort level in that particular space (?). I have never had the HPPD effects from any other hallucinogen, nor have I felt like any other substance “brings it on”.
 
ShamensStamen said:
I personally took Rue and Mimosa/Acacia daily/near daily for 4 years, and never encountered HPPD, then i tried LSD a few times, and that's when i got HPPD that lasted a good few weeks, mainly in the form of visual distortions. I've also tried mushrooms, 4-ACO-DMT, and Psilohuasca a good handful of times, and 25-D Nbome a couple times, and never had HPPD from them either, so it seems to be mainly LSD that causes it, i haven't yet tried Mescaline/Cacti. Cannabis potentiates the HPPD though. So my advice is to lay off the Cannabis if using that, and preferably stick to Tryptamines like mushrooms or DMT, LSD seems to be the common factor in HPPD. I will say though, for awhile there it also felt like i was coming up on DMT anytime i'd smoke Cannabis, but that too went away after awhile.
Click to expand...

They did say cannabis potentiated it as well.
 
HPPD is when the residue of psychedelia stays in the brain to an uncomfortable extent causing a distasteful feeling of "brokenness."

To the extent in which the residue of psychedelia in the mind does not feel terrible, then it is controllable and the person can snap out of it/not have problems due to it. It can prove beneficial for the traveller who grows spiritually from his or her psychedelic residue, being able to return to cosmic consciousness through subtle pathways in the mind of Being.

If for example while activley smoking DMT or drinking Aya one smokes cannabis one day and has a hyperspace feeling...this is to be expected. Having fractals or lines behind closed eye lids, or when falling asleep, this is to be expected and need not be HPPD. Cannabis is a psychedelic so its intended to cause visions or lead to hyperspace, even if just used on its own.

But to the extent that the psychedelia is ugly or damaging, hppd is present.

What caused me a scare that maybe I had hppd was a bad mescaline/amphetamine trip (dont combine psychedelics with any dark drug cause it will fuck you up.) This failed excursion to hyperspace gave me anxiety, something I was only familiar with from a couple panic attacks I had at 13. Even though I dont like the feeling, having anxiety is a blessing through which I have stopped most all stimulant taking (even yerba mate and caffeine gives me intense anxiety) and focus on meditation as a way of Being, growing in mind-body connection and computational power of the brain. Dream life became a puzzle to be solved, a lesson to learn each night (a leason generally about the nature of attachment.)

Having done DMT and shrooms and cannabis extensivley I can confidently say that these never seemed to present the potential FOR ME to give HPPD. But I have seen some threads on reddit about one single 2g shroom trip causing someone hppd.

What I intuitvley feel is the cause of HPPD is overstimulation/overdosing. Its all in the dose, and its all in the interactions which ocurr in the brain and body. And if you have hppd the ultimate consolation or cure lies in Being here Now--present awareness. This is key medicine--voidness is medicine.

The history of Being is a story of redemption--this is the eternal way. Make the right moves and the veil of dilusion is lifted.

We are as powerful as the stars, as insignificant as the soil.
 
I find it interesting that LSD always seems to come up as a common factor when discussing HPPD; personally this is why I'd rather do mushrooms again than ever touch LSD again. Nature knows best 😁
 
Hey Cactus, care to comment on why you stopped using LSD? I've never tried it personally but was thinking of trying it once if the opportunity presents itself, just to see how it contrasts with DMT if nothing else.
 
Jega said:
Hey Cactus, care to comment on why you stopped using LSD? I've never tried it personally but was thinking of trying it once if the opportunity presents itself, just to see how it contrasts with DMT if nothing else.
Click to expand...

Decided that I only enjoy using psychoactive substances that are from fellow living creatures rather than semi/fully synthetic chemicals.
 
Genuinely undeniable that a living being which extracted and concocted psychedelic compounds right out of the earth, water and air (also the fire 😉 ) has a completely unique quality to it which compounds created synthetically, which retain no life and are made only under the control of humans do not have.

A famous philosophical axiom from antiquity which describes one of the characteristics most profound to the qualities of psychoactive botanicals is "Heaven is never at rest", this is easily and practically demonstrated by showing how a "dead" dried herb will retain its properties long after it has been unearthed.

Such things as synthetic chemicals do not contain or retain "Heaven" as plants do because they are not made by God, they are made by Man.

Dont let them trick you into believing science hasnt proven that "life exists after death", in fact science has a mountain of proof for just that.

How do you think composting works? Why do you think everybody poops and pees?

Nature propagates nature, even when its being culled its still being propagated.
 
I also had few prominent HPPD events after use of LSD and couple of my friends experienced very strong and serious HPPD attacks from the same drug.
Never had it or heard about it from any other substance.
In my opinion, this is somehow connected with the energy draining feeling at the end of LSD experience.
 
There is nothing that the prohibition mindset and it's ancillary ignorance and distortions make better for humans.

The worst thing about HPPD is the anxiety over its "abnormality." Clinging to the problem solving (work-ready) mode of Consciousness, as the only "valid" state. The utter (intentional) ignorance of Modern medicine in regard to HPPD and psychedelic use in general ought to be a clue as to how much physicians can help with this. In most cases, they will tell you "you have damaged yourself."

The message could be to one experiencing (not suffering!) HPPD: "You are not broken, you are opened."

My own sense, of what HPPD is, based on Robin Carhart-Harris work, with frequent psychedelic use, new connections (neuroplasticity) are formed between regions that normally do not "talk" to each other during the psychedelic state, in this case the visual centers are getting inputs that they normally do not get resulting in activation. Tracers, phosphenes, colors, static etc are a result. I'm pretty sure there can be mild cognitive changes as well and expect he mechanism to be similar, but I'm not a neuroscientist, so I'm probably wrong.

I don't believe it is the substance per se, but rather frequent and repeated (dosing to overcome tolerance)which increases the time in the psychedelic state allowing more and more psychedelically-mediated neuroplasticity.

Frequency is the problem. Waiting out tolerance instead of overcoming it should be the practice. Example: LSD at least 2, or more, weeks between sessions.

Over time, if psychedelic use is attenuated, the phenomena also fade.

I do NOT believe for a moment that this is limited to "synthetic" Psychedelics.

Also notable that DMT/Aya do not cause tolerance while other psychedelics have profound tolerance features, so there may be some relationship to down-regulation of 5HT2a (DMT does not result in down-regulation).

Respect. Self care. Skillfulness. "Don't play marbles with Diamonds." ~Dr. Bill Richardson
 
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