[Loughla]

Spiritual doesn't mean religious, is my opinion.

It means being grounded in something firm, whether that's inner strength or a reliance on an external deity.

Religion is not required for psychedelics, but a strong grounding in something is, in my opinion.

People have bad trips because there's something inside them that they haven't identified or dealt with properly. Anxiety and/or depression will ALWAYS flare up during your trip. It's best to deal with those properly (meaning change things in your life, not just medication) beforehand.

[stringfood]

I feel that looking for God is spiritual but saying you've already found Him, know Him, know His kids, etc - that is religious

[jazzyjackson]

There are finders and seekers. I’m always impressed with people who ardently believe they know the truth, they can act without doubt, an interesting skill.

[psd1]

I'm also impressed, but not in a good way. I consider certainty to be the biggest tell of falsehood, and I wish to deny the vote to people with certainty.

Certainty of opinion on a complex topic reveals a belief that organic brains can, in practice, judge the correctness of their own reasoning - a conceit that borders on the psychotic, and at minimum a complete failure of self-awareness. These people don't need agency, they need thorazine.

[jazzyjackson]

You sound awfully sure of yourself!

[psd1]

Have you accepted Bertrand Russell into your heart? Here's a pamphlet.

[stringfood]

yea it's like when someone is a really good liar - some skills you shouldn't want to have. Being insanely sure of the history of the universe when you have incredibly scant information, is surely not a good thing, unless you need to use it to survive through an illogical and chaotic world

[Loughla]

I'm with you. It's not for me but it's absolutely fascinating. There's something nice about letting go and just knowing that it's part of someone's plan. Again, not for me but I understand that appeal.

[vitro]

Right, there can be a religion without spirituality and there can also be a spirituality without religion.

[SoftTalker]

But we see people promoting psychedelics specifically to "reset" your brain and get rid of depression and anxiety.

[Loughla]

My experience is that psychedelics will not get rid of anything on their own. They provide you with a different perspective on what you may or may not already know is going on.

This perspective can help you process those issues, absolutely. But they will not solve anything. I was always interested in finding a psychiatrist or therapist that would help me process during a shroom trip, but never found one.

And resetting your brain is just a nice way of saying, confront every single demon you have all at once. Some people are strong enough, mentally, to process things like that. Most are not. Most will take the bad trip as a sign that they shouldn't ever do psychedelics.

I'm firmly in the camp of not using them to explore my problems. I know what they are already, and I know how to fix them. I used to love psychedelics when I was younger (and had less stress and obligations). Now they just panic me and aren't fun.

[LocalH]

A single deep DMT experience "cured" my ADHD for several months before it faded, and I had zero guidance

[Loughla]

I guess I was talking more about depression and anxiety than anything else. That's awesome for you. Any way to keep that going, or did you see diminishing returns?