[enjo]

My experiences have been universally negative often very much so. I have given LSD a good go. It has led to intense hallucinations with very long lasting PTSD like consequences for me. I have done it under the guidance of "professionals" (as close as you can get in a world where these substances are completely unregulated). Even in very small doses I have experienced intense anxiety and general feelings of dread.

This isn't to discount your experience but rather a general warning: all drugs aren't for everyone. It's easy to take away from these threads that psychedelics are universally positive and that negative trips are generally the result of misuse.

Which isn't true. Before going into this doing some deep introspection about yourself and your abilities is really important. Use these drugs with extreme caution.

[thinkingtoilet]

I did say "most" people. There are people who if they eat a peanut will die. It's a universal truth that everyone reacts to things differently. I will say, you jumped right in the deep end with LSD. A small dose of mushrooms is an order of magnitude tamer and much better for first timers I think. In the end, if it's not for you, it's not for you. I still stand by my statement.

[MyOutfitIsVague]

I had a similar experience on a very small dose of magic mushrooms. Significantly smaller than necessary to even have hallucinations (under 1g of dried magic mushrooms). I was filled with dread and terror and felt like I was going to die. I was told by my shrooming friend that it was probably just bad, and to take some of his good stuff. I took 1g, and again had hours of terror and dread, and thought I was going to die for several hours on end. I then had nearly constant anxiety for about a month afterward.

I think many pro-psychedelic and pro-drug people in general underestimate how much these drugs vary with people. I have a friend who will make a gram of weed into cannabutter and eat the whole thing in 1 sitting, getting about 200mg of THC at once, and not have any major problems. He was a big proponent of "there's no such thing as too much" until he saw another friend of ours have an incredibly intense panic attack on 10mg of THC. My wife has intense anxiety on as little as 2.5mg of THC, regardless of CBD and CBG levels (whether via gummies or straight plant matter); no dose can be thereputic for her.

Based on the number of people I know who have experimented with these drugs, I think there's a smokescreen effect where people who have bad experiences don't talk about it nearly as much as people who have good experiences, so it seems significantly less risky than it is. Of the 10 or so people I know personally who had a psychedelic experience, about a third of them have had bad ones. They just don't really talk about it and never want to try it again. I wouldn't say that most people should try psychedelics at least once unless I knew what the actual numbers were, otherwise I'm pushing many people into having a horrible nightmare for hours on end.

[winterpunk]

so who did you kill