The psychedelia conundrum

[Audley Strange]

In court.

You went to court tripping?!

I remember freaking cos I had to pay bus fare and was panicking over counting the coins!

(I normally avoided this sort of situation obviously, but sometimes..)

I was on jury duty, it was boring and I was going to a concert. The verdict had already been decided and the afternoon was just the post match pantomime to make the cunts in the wigs feel important, so I dropped a microdot at lunch. It was hilarious.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

My second best trip was doing shrooms and going to see Disney's Sleeping Beauty at the cinema - that was fucking MEGA!!11!! The best part was talking about it with my (also tripping) mates on the bus and this random stranger joining in - 3 months later, the same random guy turned up on the bus when the same group of us went to see Hawkwind live on acid!

My best trip was on acid and too fucking weird to explain properly, but it involved (among other things): my mate (also tripping) getting beaten up by the jock boyfriend of a girl that was (until that point) tripping with us, a visit to the A&E department of the local hospital, a guy with a 500 watt disco sound system (with sound to light) in his bedroom, the first time I heard Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, an "epiphany" type experience and about 5 hours of realising what it was ALL about, MAN!!11!

I tripped several times before and quite a few since but never experienced much that was a lot worse than just wishing it all was over - which, eventually, it always was. So, while I know that bad trips happen, I never really had much worse than a slightly-below-mediocre trip!

I once heard an interview with a rock star (I think it may have been Anthony Kiedis of the RHCPs) that said that taking acid is like going to Phoenix, Arizona - it's OK, but once you know what's there, there's really no reason to go back. I sort of agree - but I feel that I have to add that revisiting some place that you once knew can be entertaining from time to time...

[Audley Strange]

! The best part was talking about it with my (also tripping) mates on the bus and this random stranger joining in - 3 months later, the same random guy turned up on the bus when the same group of us went to see Hawkwind live on acid!

Funnily enough, that was who I was going to see too. My reasoning is that against the law to see Hawkwind on anything less than half an E.

I think I'm all but done with psychedelics, haven't touched any in years, though I've had a few giggles on Salvia. The last time I took any was a preposterous amount of mushrooms, the entire trip was unbelievably heavy and oppressive and filled with dread fear and unpleasant imagery and thoughts. Still even when I thought I was slipping I knew I was fine and it was like being on a ghost train.

Not something I'd recommend for someone looking to laugh at wallpaper for an hour.

[JimC]

Is taking powerful but non-addictive psychedelics any different than ingesting alcohol socially? Nicotine?


Why are psychedelics generally thought of as more serious than alcohol and tobacco?

Personally I believe they are more dangerous for mental health (let's not get into definitions of that!) certainly in my case and for a number of 'acid casualties' I knew in my early to mid 20s.

I used a lot of acid and a lot of hashish during that period and I developed what I believe now to have been a psychosis. Thankfully I recovered in my late 20s (though some might not agree!). It was at the root of a depression that has returned from time to time too and it has left me with a deep sense of the transparency and contingent nature of what is generally thought of as reality.

I am sure alcohol kills more people and that it is more physically dangerous, but a lot of people use it just to 'get by' I suspect. Acid is like playing Russian roulette with your mind.

It was a very edgy period in my life, too, Rum. Perhaps not as damaging as your experience, but it certainly could have been - I took tabs of acid, mescaline, or gobbled mushrooms like they were candy, and had some episodes that were genuinely terrifying. I don't regret it for a moment, but I suspect I was lucky...

[Rum]

Is taking powerful but non-addictive psychedelics any different than ingesting alcohol socially? Nicotine?


Why are psychedelics generally thought of as more serious than alcohol and tobacco?

Personally I believe they are more dangerous for mental health (let's not get into definitions of that!) certainly in my case and for a number of 'acid casualties' I knew in my early to mid 20s.

I used a lot of acid and a lot of hashish during that period and I developed what I believe now to have been a psychosis. Thankfully I recovered in my late 20s (though some might not agree!). It was at the root of a depression that has returned from time to time too and it has left me with a deep sense of the transparency and contingent nature of what is generally thought of as reality.

I am sure alcohol kills more people and that it is more physically dangerous, but a lot of people use it just to 'get by' I suspect. Acid is like playing Russian roulette with your mind.

It was a very edgy period in my life, too, Rum. Perhaps not as damaging as your experience, but it certainly could have been - I took tabs of acid, mescaline, or gobbled mushrooms like they were candy, and had some episodes that were genuinely terrifying. I don't regret it for a moment, but I suspect I was lucky...

I have sometimes been struck by the different ways people experience psychedelics. Some people seem able to treat them somewhat like a fairground ride - a fun experience, a recreational bit of an adventure perhaps. Others, of which I was one, find that they can undermine everything you believed about the reality you thought you inhabited. In the circumstances I was in at the time - Art college (therefore open season for any time of experimentation), parents abroad (still in Hong Kong) and no real foundation to fall back on, its no wonder I cracked up really.

[JimC]

I suspect I did treat them as a bit of a fairground experience, coloured by a certain amount of mysticism from the peer group I tripped with. However, I was in a fairly stable life situation, which no doubt helped...

However, several trips turned nightmarish, nonetheless...

But I suppose I saw them as transient nightmares, rather than a gaping chasm at my feet...

Anyway, old chap, the main thing is we both made it through that era!

[Rum]

I suspect I did treat them as a bit of a fairground experience, coloured by a certain amount of mysticism from the peer group I tripped with. However, I was in a fairly stable life situation, which no doubt helped...

However, several trips turned nightmarish, nonetheless...

But I suppose I saw them as transient nightmares, rather than a gaping chasm at my feet...

Anyway, old chap, the main thing is we both made it through that era!

Maybe. Have you ever wondered if your life after one particular trip is actually part of that trip and you haven't come down yet?

[Feck]

MMM LSD it's been too long ..I wonder if my tolerance levels have dropped to human levels yet .

[Robert_S]

It's all on the inside. I've had a horribly bad trip in a nice safe and friendly environment and I've giggled like a deranged villain in the back of an Oakland, CA cop car all my way to Santa Rita Jail, where the concrete walls were made of rubber.

(We thought we were still in Berkeley, where the cops had a much more laid back attitude dime-sized pupils at 3:00 AM. My friends were just mildly tipsy on cheap wine, so they got to go home.)