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Why & Why Not To Trip: Motivations - Treatment of
Illness - General Precautions - -
Dynamics of a 'Good' & 'Bad' Trips - True
and False Hallucinations: - Levels of Sensory Modulation
- Visionary Experiences - Geometric & Organic Imagery
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Part 1: Motivations and Disqualifying Factors - are
you a good candidate for a 'successful' trip?
"LSD
is a substance well-known to cause paranoia and insanity,
in those who have never taken it"
-
Harvard Psychologist Dr. Timothy Leary
Taking Mushrooms, LSD, Peyote or DMT is not something I
would recommend to most people ...
without first having a a thorough discussion of any previous
or current mental illness, incl.
Epilepsy, identity instability, schizophrenia, PTSD, bipolar
& manic depressive disorders, family history of mental
problems, acute anxiety problems, or for anyone already
on psych meds of ANY type! *Do not
under any circumstances take ANY psychedelics AT ALL if
you are taking a prescription MAOI Inhibiting medication.*
Folks with most all of these conditions can still benefit
from psycedelic-assisted therapy, but they should
avoid self-experimentation and/or only take hallucinogens
under carefully & professionally supervised, thoughtfully
prepared conditions.
If there was no major history of, or overt indication of
mental/neurological problems ....
I'd have an in-depth discussion of their motivation
for seeking a mind-altering experience of such magnitude
and intensity.
Positive
Motivations might include:
 •
Having a chronic medical problem for which it is effective.
•
Psychological self-discovery
• Personal experiential
curiosity (just to know)
•
Scientific curiosity
•
Learning of it's use in native cultures as
a visionary tool for healing
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GREEN
IS THE COLOR SYMBOLIZING 'SAFE TO PROCEED' -
YELLOW IS THE COLOR SYMBOLIZING
USE OF CAUTION & GOOD JUDGEMENT !!! |
Negative
Motivations for "Tripping" which (in my
opinion) will dramatically increase the
chances
of an unpleasant, incomprehensible, dangerous or
simply useless trip:
 •
wanting to forget one's
troubles
•
reckless or self-destructive tendencies
•
substitution for some other 'drug
of choice'
•
thinking the effects are similar
to other drugs
•
to get 'fukked up' or 'wasted', or
decrease social inhibitions.
•
to go out and party, rave, or to
a public event, etc.
(Ravers, Teens, Newbies,
Wild People - Listen up: It's not that partying
is bad, but it usually leads to
multi-drug combinations, driving is not a
good
idea & trying to interface
with the 'normal' world in a psychedelic state is
most often pointless, confusing and potentially
dangerous. Learn to place
yourself in a SAFE, CALM and Beautiful PLACE &
SITUATION when you dose - turn your attention
to the universe inside yourself, You'll
get 1,000,000% more out of the trip) |
TREATMENT OF ILLNESS
The current body of clinical research indicates psychedelics,
(because of their extraordinarily broad potential range
of perceptual, psychological and neurological effects),
when used in a supportive and purposeful medical setting,
in conjunction with psychiatric counseling - have
shown VERY significant results in treating
an extraordinarily broad range of mental and physical
diseases and problems including;
Pain, depression and death-related anxiety in terminal
cancer patients,
Prison recidivism,
Self-image problems,
Obsessive/compulsive disorder,
Eating Disorders,
Cluster headaches,
even Alcoholism and Narcotic drug dependency -
(seems paradoxical, but this effect is due both to psychedelics
ability promote a 'self confrontational'
psychological experience, and to the drugs positive action
on the serotonin/dopamine regulation in the brain, offsetting
psychological/physical cravings for other drugs, while facilitating
personal insight into the root of one's drug-abuse
problem. Ibogaine in particular, seems
to work best in this capacity)"A
study of 135 alcoholics found that six months after treatment
with LSD, 53 percent of a high-dose
group reported abstinence, compared with 33
percent of a low-dose group. Alcoholics receiving
conventional therapy had a 12 percent
improvement rate."
from the FDA's webpage on new therapies:
Medical Possibilities for Psychedelic Drugs
Psychedelics are effective in helping one identify
and change subconscious motivations and habitual behaviors
(references).
They can also, on occasion, be a 'miracle' drug, for people
with severe mental problems, even catatonic patients(!)
who are completely un-responsive to the full range
of current
treatment modalities - it can be
the ultimate shock that snaps them back to 'normality'.
Dr.
Albert A. Kurland of the Maryland Psychiatric Research
Center cited a remarkable example
from among the 177 patients
whom he and his associates– Dr's. Charles Savage,
John W. Schaffer, and Sanford Unger– had treated
up to that time.
This patient was a forty-year-old male alcoholic,
black, brought to the hospital from jail after ten
days of uncontrolled drinking. He had dropped out
of the fourth grade at the age of twelve and had an
I.Q. of 70."He
had been draining whiskey barrels at his place of
work, a distillery. He gave a history of excessive
alcohol consumption over the past four years ... The
only limit on his drinking was his low income and
the need to support five children. During these years
his marriage had deteriorated." Given
a week of preparation and a single large dose of LSD,
this patient felt (among other things) that be was
being chased, struck with a sword, run over by a horse,
and frightened by a hippopotamus–– a
quite typical "bad trip." |
 His
own verbatim report of his trip then continued:
"I
was afraid. I started to run. but something said
"Stop!" When I stopped, everything broke
into many pieces.
Then I felt as if ten tons had fallen from my shoulders.
I prayed to the Lord.
Everything looked better all around me. The rose
was beautiful. My children's faces cleared up -
I thought of alcohol and the rose died.
I changed my mind from alcohol toward Christ and
the rose came back to life.
I pray that this rose will remain in my heart and
my family forever.
As I sat up and looked in the mirror, I could feel
myself growing stronger.
I feel now that my family and I are closer than
ever before, and I hope that our faith will grow
forever and ever. " |
This
patient was given psychological tests both before
and after his LSD experience.
His score on the Eysenck neuroticism scale
before LSD had been in the eighty-eighth percentile
– highly neurotic.
One week after LSD his score had swung to the normal
portion of the scale.
His pre-LSD depression, as measured by the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) had lifted
and his score was greatly improved. Tested a third
time, six months after LSD, his depression score
on the NIMPI was still within normal limits."
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Other
General Precautions:
Hallucinogens,
Psychedelics,
Psychotropics,
Psycholytics,
Entheogens
(the accepted word for self-help and spiritual
use), or
Indole-ring serotonin neurotransmitter/modulator (the
medical non-spin way of stating it), or whatever
you want to call them,
should always come with a warning,
(like
the 'Do Not Operate Motor Vehicles
while taking this Drug'
stickers on many medications), that
says:
Ø -
CAUTION:
Take this medication in a quiet, comfortable, clean &
naturally or artistically pleasing setting with very close
friends or family, do not leave the house unsupervised
or drive during the peak of your experience. If you start
to feel uncomfortable - simply relax, focus on your breathing,
move to a different room, open an art book or put on some
positive, uplifting music.
 It's
no mere 'coincidence' that native cultures scattered
around the planet
ALL developed nearly identical traditions of
using psychedelic plants
Generally
in a group, community or family setting, in a reassuring,
ritual manner, accompanied by music or drumming, for the
purpose of spiritual / psychological / physical healing.
There's a good reason for this - it prevents 'bad trips'
and feelings of paranoia or isolation; while reinforcing
the positive experiences
of group unity & identity and allowing attention the
focus on the
inner subconscious information folding out, for
inspection and healing
- If
a person is in good physical health,
has a stable personality,
no recent emotional tragedies, no
history of severe mental problems,
an average or above average intellect,
a bit of curiosity and courage,
an average or preferably above-average
ability to maintain self-control in
unpredictable or even impossible situations,
has an interest in arts, science, religion, neurology,
spirituality or self-knowledge ... and
has done at least the basic background reading
on the history of psychedelic plants, their method of
action in the brain, their medical uses, mental and physical
dangers, and widespread abuse/experimentation
in the 1960's and an explanation of the diversity of possible
effects .....
- Then (and
only then)
I would say they might be a
good candidate for trying a psychedelic substance
-
and they might even yield significant personal
insights from one or two guided sessions -
Most people I personally know (probably 85%) who
have tried LSD or mushrooms in the past,
but no longer ingest them, express the feeling
that overall they're glad to have had the opportunity to
experience a truly 'different' perspective, and it was one
that made them feel in some ways more aware of, connected
with, responsive to & grateful for 'life' in general.
The others (the remaining 15%) had frightening, incoherent,
negative or just neutral experiences - but even in this
group around half say they gained 'something beneficial'
from the trip (such as a greater understanding of the
dynamics of one's paranoia, fears or delusional thinking
patterns, or better empathy for people who are freaking
out) even though it was not very pleasant at the
time.
Internal
Dynamics of Having an Ideal Trip .....
Think of this as the self,
or your 'I'
- the normal conscious integrated 'you-ness'
Surfing the crest of a mental-tidal-wave of Supercharged
Perception / Awareness,
if you keep alert, calm and constantly adapting, changing
and letting go
then you can stay afloat (keeping your rational faculties
intact),
maintain 'control' (actually just balance)
and surf the crest of consciousness
to see the ghastly, beautiful un-distorted big-picture
view from above - just like being in an airplane
-
everything familiar seems small, geographically obscure
relationships are quite apparent, yet startlingly broad
NEW vistas are now visible past the horizon, and the meta-order
between things is seen in a more comprehensive fashion.
Then as an individual observer of this grand pattern
of life,
you can assess your place relative to all else and then
merge beyond the 'self',
experiencing the ALL as the grand pattern itself.
This is a successful trip!
- a positive journey into, through and beyond all
the normal limitations of habitual neurotic patterns, feelings
of separateness
& beyond the normally experienced realms of mind, identity,
time, space, language or concept,
and bringing back measurable results
in terms of positive motivation, stress relief,
creative inspiration, personal or social insights and self-actualization.
In the medical psychedelic
assisted therapy it's called a "peak experience"
or "Integrative experience"; According
to the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, six major psychological
characteristics of this experience are as follows:
1.
A sense of unity or oneness with all (positive ego transcendence,
loss of usual sense of self without loss of consciousness)
2. Transcendence of time and space
3. Deeply felt positive mood (joy, peace,
love)
4. Sense of awesomeness, reverence and
wonder
5. Meaningfulness of psychological and/or
philosophical insight
6. Ineffability (sense of difficulty in
communicating the experience by verbal description) (Pahnke,
1969)
But the flipside is .....
if the tidal-wave of experience, vision, emotion and novelty
overwhelms you,
and it outpaces your ability to track, correlate
and make-sense of the info-stream,
You lose footing & the wave of increasingly
un-referenced data
can crash you down into a chaotic sea of jumbled, confused,
disorienting weirdness.
The conscious experiencer is relocated to the trash can
of the mind.
If you project your fears and weaknesses onto this
cascade,
they can quickly multiply and mutually reinforce eachother
into absolute hell-like states or cosmic-scale paranoia
....
the table above of positive integrative experiences
is then reversed;
1.
A sense of separateness and being at-odds with the world,
or even the entire universe
2. Being trapped in a small endlessly repeating
pockets of time or space
3. Deeply felt negative, terrified mood
(confusion, anger, anxiety, grief, fear, abandonment, hopelessness,
dread, paranoia, etc, etc)
4. Sense of imminent destruction, or certainty
of innate 'evil'
projected on all experiences, memories or events
5. Feeling of meaninglessness to one's
life, family, job, world
or the ultimate futility of living and dying
6. Negative ego dissolution (fearful or
panic-inducing sense of dissolving,
going permanently mad, dying, being erased, or being devoured)
this is like being thrashed and drowning
in the wave of perception,
although, just as in drowning in water, to end a "bad-trip"
you can simply relax, breathe, relax more, breathe deeper,
focus on the process of drawing in life-breath & just
float to the top ....
- then - stay aware & recognize that you've simply lost
the wave and are free floating
in a potentially enjoyable wonderland until you get your
bearings again or catch another wave.
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