How to Forget That Bad Trip

[itsscience]

Hi Psychonauts, I'm hoping you can help me with something - before the question I'll give you some background.

I've tripped on mushies around 20 or thirty times. About 10 years ago a friend and I got hold of a lot and spent the weekend tripping. The last session turned very wrong for me. I became convinced that the police had been called, I had been kicked out of university and I was going to goal - this was not a case of a little voice inside me casting doubt, I was 100% convinced it had all happened and there wasn't even a little voice telling me I was just tripping. The I felt stomach cramps and took myself into the toilet. While sitting on the toilet I went completely blind. The world went black and I couldn't see anything, this lasted for about 5 minutes (the scariest 5 minutes of my life). Then I evacuated my bowels and immediately my vision came back and I was no longer tripping (it was the most abrupt end to a trip I've ever had). The experience was the worst I've ever had on drugs and I didn't touch shrooms for 7 years.

I eventually tried them again and had a number of pleasant trips. About 2 years ago I got some more, tripped pleasantly on the Friday and Saturday but then had more on the Sunday and it started going bad again. The exact same feelings started to occur but this time it was like my brain had split into two - one half was having a really bad trip and the other was completely conscious of the fact that the other half was having a really bad trip. I found the if I actively concentrated on giving voice to the conscious half it helped to stave off a full decent into the bad trip. I got the same stomach cramps again and my conscious half thought, "excellent, I'll have a crap now and it will be all over" so I took myslef into the toilet (had 2 friends with me who weren't tripping). As I sat there waiting I got the worst cramp I've ever had in my life through my whole leg, I immediately stood up to stretch it and as I stood I lost consciousness and fell (turns out I smashed my face on the bathroom sink and then the bathroom floor as I fell) and I came to, pants around my ankles, spasming, blood flowing freely from mmy face and my mate standing in the doorway looking at me trying to work out what happened).

I know now why I had a bad trip (mushies should be done once then left for a while) eating them a few days in a row builds up strictnine levels and that is why these things happened - I'm older and wiser now and won't do that again.

The problem I'm having is that my mind won't let me forget those bad experiences and now when I have LSD (or very rarely DMT - really hard to get here) that conscious half of me from the last bad trip will not surrender to the trip (like I know you need to) and fights to stay conscious. Does anyone have any advice on how I can calm that conscious part into surrendering for a pleasant trip?

 

[darkwolfunseen]

Look, first and and foremost, bad trips come with the territory. There are few people who can continuously trip and not thing a crazy clown is coming after them, or that they're going to die, or that their heart is beating waaaay too fast. For me personally, any time a trip starts going that way, I accept whatever fate comes my way. If the cops have been called, and the aliens are on their way, and the Earth is about to end, whatever, just accept it. Typically, it's that last conscious effort to hold on, to grate your fingernails along the edges of your boundaries that usually ruins it the most.

In other words, set up a decent set/setting, don't repeat over and over again, and make sure you have nothing to worry about prior to the trip and for a few days after. If you've done all of that, take about 15-30 minutes to meditate before hand, clear your mind, see all that negativity floating away. Also, even though you've been fasting I'm sure, avoid caffeine, sugar, or anything else that may affect you chemically. If you've done all of this, and you get to your trip and you're still having a bad time, well A) hopefully you have a sitter and B) learn to accept the things you can't control. I think that's what I love most about it, is that if you take these substances with a purpose, than you have to follow through, whether or not you want to. Good luck, and happy tripping :wink:

 

[HeartCore]

First of all, there is no strychnine in psilocybin mushrooms. What you experienced is not strychnine buildup in your body.

I can relate to the experiences you had, when you trip casual you don't know what will happen and your mind can play the most bizar games with you. In my personal experiences, the most rewarding and positive experiences are those that where well prepared. With that I mean that since sometime whenever I want to make a journey with mushrooms, I dedicated the entire day before taking the mushrooms with preparing for the experience. I clean my house, burn some special incense, clean myself, spent much time reading beautiful things (Rumi comes to mind), listen to music etc.. I won't see anyone else that day except in the rare occasion that someone is going to trip with me ofcourse, that/those person(s) ideally would spend the day with me. I also spent time introspecting who I am and try to work through as much relational crap that I've been collecting since the last trip to try getting that out of the way.

Before ingesting the tea, I meditate for maximum five minutes where I simply say 'ok here we go, please show me what you want to show me and please be gentle with me'. Then I ingest the tea, switch of the light and just lay back and wait.

Done that way, the odds for a positive experience are in your favor and it will be very hard to forget that you are tripping during the experience simple because you spent the last ten hours or so, preparing for it

 

[itsscience]

Thanks guys, seems the thing I haven't been doing is preparing - good advice.

As for the strychnine, that was what I was told and it seemed to make sense. Either way it's definitely got stuff that's poisonous in it and the only 2 times I have a bad trip is after a weekend's build up (and yes I know not to do that anymore).

 

[HeartCore]

There is no strychnine in psilocybin mushrooms and there is no toxic buildup also. It's probably just exhaustion from tripping too many nights as I mentioned. Or it can be a pre-existing condition, for example something with your stomach. Someone I know will get very sick from any psychedelic due to a stomach operation. Even the lightest mushroom dose will induce great nausea in her.

 

[tryptonaut]

The first trip I ever had on mushrooms went pretty badly (wrong setting) and also the - in retrospect - best trip I ever had wasn't really enjoyable for half of the time. Although I learnt a lot from tripping on shrooms and I will do it again and again because eventually I saw myself change to a better person with these experiences.
I am sometimes still afraid of doing a mushroom trip, because high-dosed shroom trips aren't always easy. But I still do them because I know that in the end I always value the experience, and quite often they become so immensely enjoyable that words cannot describe it. And all that with virtually no hangover, but only a more positive attitude towards life.

 

[ArthBH]

Hi man, those are some pretty horrific bad trips. Well I have tripped on pretty high doses of shrooms every weekend for the past 2 1/2 months, and haven't yet had any ill effects (touch wood). I'm a 16yr old kid, so I'm pretty young to be doing it, and some people tell me I shouldn't trip so much, and perhaps I shouldn't, but I just haven't had any bad trips yet so I haven't felt the need to stop. When the trips start turning sour, I will stop. This is exactly what I did with LSA. If you don't know what LSA is, its is the chemical that acid originally is before its turned into LSD. It can be found in a variety of different seeds, and of course ergot. LSA trips are extremely emotionally intense, and it is usually a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Its not as visual as LSD, but the sheer emotion introspection is much stronger. It is also a very tricky trip to keep on the rails, and is no where near as cleaner trip as LSD or shrooms. On my last LSA, I was having severe difficulty with stopping the trip from plunging into the black abyss which I know all too well. When things go bad on LSA, its not a matter of fear, its a matter of feeling as though all the problems in the world are on your shoulders, and death seems like an easy escape. Thankfully, I managed to stop myself from becoming completely lost in the abyss. But the emotion strain of doing this seemed to take its toll on me for the next two days after, which were a very difficult two days to get through. I felt emotionally detached, as if I was the only person alive in the world. What you need to cure this, is weed. Weed will raise your spirits and make you forget about all that shit. It will, so to speak, drive away all the demons. So there you go, sorry this is a bit long winded, but in the end, you need to get that good sticky green stuff out, within a day of your trip ending.

 

[ophiuchus]

there is no strychnine in mushrooms, you are exhausting your brain. drink lots of water (a half gallon a day is popular science's recommendation, a gallon if you regularly exercise.) you should feel a certain degree of clarity from this alone. watch what you eat too, because your body becomes hyper-aware of everything interacting with it, (especially) including it's energy supply.