[dnc]

I've recently read a seminal work on LSD and how it affects human psyche: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/196573.Realms_of_the_Hum.... Cannot recommend it enough. I feel it demystified a great deal of uncertainty and unknowns I had about LSD. The book was based on roughly 2500 LSD sessions (mostly high dose, in 150-300mg range) that the author conducted in 70s with different patients, including himself. AFAIK, it is the first book to systematically approach the topic and map psychedelic LSD experiences in roughly 4 categories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Grof#Encounter_with_....

Each patient would have series of LSD sessions in a regulated environment (usually in a room with an interior that feels secure and comfortable, a psychoanalyst guiding the session included). First sessions were used to test an individual high dose threshold. Once the high dose for a patient was established they would stick to it. According to the book, 'bad' or traumatic LSD experiences are mostly related to the 2nd (BPM II: Cosmic Engulfment and No Exit) and 3rd (BPM III: The Death-Rebirth Struggle), reliving of birth- and prenatal traumas that are suppressed. It takes usually several high dose sessions with a psychoanalytic integration work afterwards in order to 'resolve' traumas. Once they are resolved they don't resurface and the person generally can lead happier life.

Regarding 'bad trips' with lasting consequences in the aftermath: the author mentions that _in some cases_ when a trauma was not resolved or properly addressed in the course of one session the patient could suffer from various psychotic episodes after the sessions was over. As far as I could tell, simplistically speaking, this was attributed mainly to the fact that the traumatic content (normally suppressed) resurfaced and was sort of left uncovered and 'half-processed'. It was stressed in several places in the book how important is that the 'set and setting' is right for an LSD session and how it could be dangerous and counterproductive if LSD is consumed in a wrong environment or not followed up with an appropriate 'psychoanalytic' work after the session is finished.