Basically it hyper-connects your brain. When people talk about seeing shapes, its not that they are hallucinating, its that when they look at the random fuzz pattern on a rug, and pick out the particles of fuzz that make a creature face, its looks like someone purposefully put those pieces there to make that face.
As such, if you are "surfing" thoughts and find an association of something, that association can become very prominent. If you don't have the context to understand why you are making that association, especially after the trip, you can get stuck with beliefs about yourself that could be non optimal.
On the flip side this hyperconnectivity also allows you to see things like a completely different person would see them, which is where the true healing power lies. Its like you can be disugsted with a particular food when you are sober, but on shrooms you can truly feel what it would be like to enjoy that food. Once you have that context, you are able to move forward after the trip into right directions.
This is why set and setting are EXTREMELY important for significant trips. You want to be with someone who a) has done psychedelics, b) is in a very good mental state, and c) has a low ego not to project their own personality onto you. The best trip sitters are those that encourage exploration - they take everything you communicate to them and ask you questions about it without imparting any bias.
Exacerbation (and possibly development) of mental illness like psychosis, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia is entirely possible.
Along with two other blokes, I got interested in psychedelics in high school. Took one medium high dose and wasn't right for a few months. Never in my life did i ever experienced paranoia, delusions, or hallucinations that are genuinely hard to separate from reality, but I did after that.
Intense psychedelic experiences can fracture what you once knew as "reality" allows all sorts of ideas to float into your mind, with equal possibility. This might be helpful and give you more flexible thinking (helpful for depression) but it also leaves you incredible vulnerable to all sorts of garbage ideas that you never would have considered otherwise. ie conspiracy theories or straight up delusions about the supernatural. Remember: It's not paranoia if you genuinely believe they really are out to get you!
Fighting these garbage ideas is a lot of work once they take hold, but you'll only know too late if you were vulnerable, and worse, if you can successfully align your understanding of reality with most other people.
I got extremely lucky that I stabilized. I'm convinced part of this was only doing it one time. My two co-experimenters took many trips with various doses are still in and out of mental hospitals years later. Psychedelics are incredibly potent and nobody really understands them very well. A lot of what is written on the internet ignores, downplays, or denies the very serious risks to your philosophy of mind and mental function. Its like playing with fire when you don't have heat sensation in your hands.
Several other comments on this page echo these warnings. One even claims there is an 18% chance you could go from depressed to schizophrenic. I have no idea where that figure came from, but the risk is certainly not 0%
Anectodically, this is pretty rare. I know quite a lot of people who used psychedelics, and they are fine.
I think some important safety points is to know family history of mental illness and not do then until later in life.
Anecdotally I know so many people thrashing their lives and this of loved ones with alcohol and antidepressants while I can’t immediately think up of even a single one, okay I know one guy who was doing everything altogether, who went so badly down the spiral thanks to acid. And this one guy actually had a horrendous childhood with lotta abuse so perhaps was already scheduled for a cathartic experience.
need another dose to take it to the next level: I found that love is an action not a feeling, perhaps I never loved my husband and I should now begin to
The risk is that it’s a false idea triggered by the psychedelic.
Maybe a better example would be my friend who took psychedelics and then believed he was in communication with Elon Musk. This one is more obviously a false idea, but nevertheless he was convinced it was real for a period after the psychedelic experience.
There’s a mystical concept that psychedelics open your third eye to see the world as it really is or something, but psychedelics are notorious for giving false ideas and making them seem like revelations. It’s obvious when it’s nonsense (like telepathy with Elon Musk) but it’s less obvious when the implanted idea is something like “your husband secretly doesn’t love you”. Another strangely common report is the belief that people around you have been replaced by clones, which can get scary very fast if the person can’t separate the idea from reality.
Yeah I agree with you 100%. it's interesting folks immediately taking the experience and result at face value when we understand so little about what's happening, even without psychedelics is most cases.
In the referenced anecdote it could be as simple as an excuse needed for someone who's been thinking about it for years. Though maybe that's enough to be a benefit
Anyway I like your example and look forward to what is learned about using psychedelics to help people :)
It sounds like your friend had a predilection for psychosis. I feel like the nice things about psychedelics is that they don't alter my processing too much (as compared with other drugs), moreso they just give me different 'inputs' into my senses / experiences, and then I process those.
> It sounds like your friend had a predilection for psychosis.
No prior history of any mental illness in him nor any of his family.
This is a common excuse: Blame some hidden susceptibility, not the drug. It doesn’t matter what it was, though. The drug caused it and there were no warning signs. Fine before the drug. Not fine after the drug.
> a common excuse: Blame some hidden susceptibility, not the drug
It's the interaction between that person and the drug.
I have a crustacean allergy. That doesn't mean crustaceans are bad, or other people shouldn't eat shrimp. It just means it's a bad mix for me.
One of the benefits of administering psychedelics in a clinical setting is that telepathic nonsense is more likely to be noticed early and corrected for, whether by reducing dosage or suspending treatement. (And treating it as medicine allows us to study those people who react negatively to it, further reducing harm.)
HPPD and .. honestly, some people have bad trips, and while it is popular in psychedelic circles to say "There is no such thing as a bad trip just the way you interpret it" that isn't really true. Even Terrence McKenna stopped taking mushrooms for a decade after a bad experience.
That said, I _do_ recommend mushrooms to everyone I know with depression or anger issues.
I had a panic attack one time, not sure how I should “interpret” that one. I’ve get anxiety since childhood for context. That said I’d love to do a session with a professional rather than by myself. Self medication for mental health issues is a bit of a gamble. I’ve also had good experiences even at higher doses so it’s a bit random
As such, if you are "surfing" thoughts and find an association of something, that association can become very prominent. If you don't have the context to understand why you are making that association, especially after the trip, you can get stuck with beliefs about yourself that could be non optimal.
On the flip side this hyperconnectivity also allows you to see things like a completely different person would see them, which is where the true healing power lies. Its like you can be disugsted with a particular food when you are sober, but on shrooms you can truly feel what it would be like to enjoy that food. Once you have that context, you are able to move forward after the trip into right directions.
This is why set and setting are EXTREMELY important for significant trips. You want to be with someone who a) has done psychedelics, b) is in a very good mental state, and c) has a low ego not to project their own personality onto you. The best trip sitters are those that encourage exploration - they take everything you communicate to them and ask you questions about it without imparting any bias.