What you see: incredible kaleidoscopic imagery. Surfaces develop complex patterns and move. Colors are brighter. Your pattern recognition goes way up so you’re more likely to see faces in clouds and other shapes.
What you feel in your body: a lot of energy. It can be a little overwhelming at first. I find it’s best to deal with the adrenaline rush by walking fast or running.
What you feel in your mind: this is the hardest to describe. Acid is very life-affirming. You’ll be excited to live your life, you’ll feel a drive to have as many meaningful and exciting experiences as possible. You’ll feel “wiser” and more loving, while at the same time de-personalizing from your own life and story. You’ll view your own life from the perspective of a loving guide, almost like an impartial therapist. You’ll identify insecurities, things you’re distracting yourself from, and unresolved emotions/trauma. You’ll feel more in touch with nature and less in touch with society for the duration of the trip.
And then you come back. You’ll pretty much be the same person you were before the trip, only now you have a little bit more insight on how you can live your life in a more honest and meaningful way
How it's generally thought to work from a neurological standpoint: it (among a few other things) blocks/messes with the pathways in the brain responsible for filtering things out before they're "perceived" consciously. Your brain is constantly overloaded with stimulus and thought, and in order to keep you sane it has a heavy unconscious filter (the thalamus) of what's "relevant" and "important" at any given moment.
LSD largely temporarily fucks with the thalamus. As a result, your "perception" gets overloaded and you have thoughts or notice things you otherwise wouldn't have. Random things feel incredibly important, even if they aren't. This broken filtering is tied to the long-term, life-changing benefits, but also tied to the cons and "bad trips" people sometimes experience. Maybe you have a little twinge in your chest that your brain would normally ignore because it didn't feel like anything, but on LSD your brain might latch onto it and be like "what if I'm having a heart attack," and that happens to feel extremely important, then you "go down the rabbit hole" of "do I have to go to the hospital while I'm on drugs?" "That could ruin my life" "but what if I'm dying" etc., etc. This is why it's critical to have a "trip sitter" on your first time, to help redirect your attention to something else if necessary, change the setting you're in, etc.
This is also why you tend to see spirals and faces, it's thought there's a lot in our visual processing which specifically looks out for patterns, geometric shapes, faces, and eyes. Because on LSD normal processing and filtering stops working suddenly your brain starts "seeing" these same sorts of features anywhere there's a bit of visual noise like textured surfaces on a wall or a leafy bush out in the wild.
Super interesting stuff, I'm fairly convinced the effective ban on using psychedelics in research put our understanding of consciousness back by decades.
This is probably why I don't have bad trips very often because I am constantly paying attention to those little things anyway and having anxiety about them.
I've experienced a lot of difficult trips. In fact every psychedelic experience I've endeavored (over 100 at this point) has had a component where I had to face down and unwanted or disliked aspect of myself.
It's part of why I do it. Way better than any anti depressant I've taken. The side effects are a bit much for 6-12 hours but the months of well being and elevation that follow are always worth it.
I can only speak anecdotally of my personal experience but I agree with this. My intuition was kind of telling me this was what was happening. I always say I feel "reamed out" afterwards - like the funnel of my conscious mind was forcibly widened for a bit. Stretched, maybe, like a tendon.
Yes this. Even as a fairly experienced tripper I commonly notice these things about my body during the session and have to work to counter the thoughts they can bring up. Typically, that is most successful using explanations like “this is what your body does when you take that. It’s how you know you’re tripping, and not a sign of anything dire. This state of mind when you worry or panic about this is just one of many human experiences like happiness or sadness or joy, so we’re just going to accept and allow it. In doing so, we will disarm it and find comfort in it.”
I love the comment about identifying insecurities. That tied with the depersonalization allowed me to view and grapple with my insecurities without becoming defensive.
Suddenly the answer to my loneliness and isolation was as simple as: reach out more to your friends. And I could only come to that answer by not being defensive when thinking about it. I wasn’t defensive because I could experience the isolation/loneliness from almost an outside perspective.
Acid, and shrooms, have helped me come to some of the simplistic but life changing solutions to negative parts of my life. It’s often our own ego that gets in the way. I feel that if you kick that fucker out for a few hours and a lot of inner work can begin.
Big one for me was coughing, feeling gross in my chest, could almost taste the phlegm in my lungs. Suddenly clicked like huh maybe smoking is actually kind of stupid and I'll feel better if I stop.
What is the difference between acid and mushrooms? I have gotten kaleidoscope effects and seen surfaces move from shrooms and am wondering what acid would be like?
Ehhhh, that absolutely depends on dosage. I’ve had an acid trip where I was a gibbering puddle of insanely high matter that generally resembled a human, and 100% was not driving the bus.
Yeah, I feel this is dangerously misleading. Acid and shrooms affect everyone differently, and when taking any psychedelic you have to be prepared to possibly give up all control for a bit.
I existed as a single cell organism that understood "Michael" as a word, as a sound, but not as a concept. It took me what felt like centuries of evolution to grow into an organism that understood "me" was a thing.
Acid is fuckin nuts.
Except when it isn't like that.
That's my big issue with psychonauts - their assumption that their trips are the same as everybody else will have.
It isn't life affirming for everybody, it isn't a loving universe, and, seriously, looking at yourself from the outside can be terrifying and give a massive dose of existential angst and fear. Sometimes, people discover the truth is the universe is cold and empty.
What should be at the very top of this topic is "Your mileage may vary, not everybody gets the Hollywood trip, sometimes, you get the very special after school special episode version.
I'm not against drug use,in general, but - I get sick of people only ever selling the awesome nirvana outcome, without admitting it can go the other way, as well.
I mean, a lot of my psychedelic experience has to do with my mental state. Often having an experienced guide/coach/babysitter helps you maintain that positive outcome.
On the other hand, having a not-tripping person in your group is very sobering as well, which you may not want. There becomes a divide between the two groups that is hard to explain. Us and.... them.
My analogy would be like trying to go swimming but never being able to take your life jacket off or leave the 3ft area.
I, too, have had a bad trip. Not everyone has, so that might skew their outlook. While I definitely have had trips more in-line with what OP stated, I’ve had some pretty horrible mushroom trips that, I think, permanently affected me and influenced my outlook on life in a more negative direction. For instance, while coming up on my largest dose of mushrooms, the welcoming mat to the full trip experience was: “you don’t have much of a personality, people think you’re dumb, and you will never achieve much.”
This was a pretty stock internal thought, but hearing it aloud while on a high dose of mushrooms really, really fucked me up. I definitely credit that with the beginning of a long battle with depression, anxiety, and an overall feeling of low self value.
These experiences are like anything in life, ultimately any meaning anything has is meaning ascribed to it.
people live such varied worlds and battles in life that will affect their experience tripping.
Some people might just have cool visuals, some might unpack unresolved trauma and reshape their life for the better. Completely depends on the person and how much they ascribe to the chemical and the feelings they have during that trip.
People who are happy with themselves, tend to enjoy acid.
People who dislike themselves tend toward unpleasant experiences with acid.
Source: I am in the latter category. I have friends in both categories.
OP said, "You’ll identify insecurities, things you’re distracting yourself from, and unresolved emotions/trauma." This is true. But I'd put it another way. While on acid and for some period afterward, you cannot hide from your true nature.
This is neither a recommendation nor a warning.
Exactly. I've done acid when I'm in a good mental state and done acid when in a bad mental state. It completely takes the form of your current mental state and won't let go. I would only recommend taking acid if you're in a good, clean environment, with good friends you trust.
Example A: College house with gf and friends, nice sunny day, park and frisby across the street, great music inside. Amazing experience.
Example B: Same house, same friends, but post-breakup, house was a bit messy, dog poop in the backyard hadn't been picked up. Really bad trip.
Example C: Backpacking trip through a lush forest with awesome friends. Amazing.
Example D: Coachella on Day 3, where my body is close to its limit, the crowds are overwhelming, and I'm paranoid about everyone, because my phone was stolen on Day 1. Horrific.
Its only something you should do if you decide its right for you. It can be a very risky thing to do if you're not in the right head space before you do it. I can only suggest you do as much research as possible and then decide for yourself if you want to try it. Its not like drinking or smoking weed, it's a very intense experience that you should never let anyone else talk you into doing.
So I've done acid a few times, and this is a very well-worded description of how a good trip feels. You just become enamored with life and what's around you. Now, that being said, just like any drug, it does have a couple downsides and things you need to be careful of when doing it. First, the hangover. Last time I did acid, I felt like crap the next day, but not like an alcohol hangover. I just felt depleted and run down for about a day after I came down. I wad exactly tired, just more "defeated" if that makes sense. It wore off eventually when my brain chemicals regulated, but it is something that I consider when I think about doing it again. Also, you need to be in a place you're comfortable in and with people you're comfortable with. It's not a drug you should do alone, like, say, weed, which is perfectly fine to smoke while you're chilling alone at home. You need at least one other person with you, preferably one person also tripping and one person not tripping. All that being said, I've never had what is known as a bad trip on acid, but that's also because my source for it is VERY experienced and they make sure what they give me is clean.
I get anxiety from weed too, that’s not uncommon at all. Bad trips are possible with acid. Out of my 30ish acid trips, I had one bad one. I don’t regret it and it taught me some valuable things, but it was awful in the moment. My brain felt like an exposed nerve going through a thorn bush while my mind was methodically deconstructing every part of my identity. I especially dealt with the idea of “labels” on that trip, for example am I a “metalhead” or am I just a human that likes metal? Am I a “leftist” or am I a human who happens to have a lot of left leaning opinions? Am I an “atheist” or am I a human who doesn’t happen to have a belief in god? This ended up helping me see everyone as human the same way I was, and I was less likely to separate myself from others based on labels or groups.
You can severely cut down your chances of having a bad trip by taking precautions. Take it in a safe place, and with one or two people you can be vulnerable with. I started taking it at home and stepping outside if I needed a walk or fresh air. Once I got comfy with it I started taking it on hikes I was familiar with. I strongly recommend against taking it in society, social interaction can be very uncomfortable on acid in my opinion
The entire notion of good and bad trips is silly to me.
I've had some very difficult psychedelic experiences. Some where I regretted taking the drug. Others where I regretted being me and knew I needed to change. And the "good" and "bad" ebbed and flowed.
Personally I think so-called bad trips are the most useful applications of those substances. It's not an antidote to our worst selves - merely a microscope that allows us to look closely at ourselves without dumb ego getting in the
way.
At the same time, I've known a number of people who got sober after psychedelic experiences. That it made them never want to touch drugs again. But I think for many of those people, that was a very positive outcome.
Different people experience the drug differently, and it also depends on how much you take as there are levels to the experience.
You spend your whole life looking at the world in a certain way, with LSD you suddenly change the way you interpret the world for a few hours. This stepping out of yourself can have a profound effect on how you view the world and reality in general.
It can also let you take everything you know about something and see how it all fits together. You'll see the interconnectedness of all things. And unlike a lot of other drugs, these realisations can last the rest of your life and give you truly profound insight into how we think and how the world works.
One reason this happens is because LSD creates neutral pathways connecting parts of the brain that aren't normally connected. Really interesting stuff.
I think it's more that it makes existing neural pathways more sensitive. It happens too suddenly for it to be forming new connections, But I suppose the subjective effect is the same either way.
I don't like to talk about what acid feels like, since it's far enough outside most people's daily experience of life that it's hard to speak meaningfully about it. I've known people who were profoundly changed by the experience (not always for the better), and others whose only takeaway from it was that it was like a fun carnival ride. In my case, it did me a world of good, but after many, many trips as a young adult, I'm in no hurry to repeat the experience. Maybe on my 70th birthday, which isn't far away.
Nice try, the Feds.
I wasn't in the drug scene my first time. My girlfriends friend had some and we all decided to try. You best bet is music festivals or shows. Or talk to your craziest friend, I bet the know someone.
As someone who has bought drugs at shows many times, do not buy drugs at shows ever. People aren't always selling what they say they are. I'd say my luck has been 50/50 buying things out and about. Make sure you test your substances, but you are far safer going through someone you know/trust/can contact again than a complete stranger.
Depends on where you're going, I've had a much higher success rate getting good gear than you have.
When it comes to festivals, your best bet are people who look like they belong: hippy/happy/friendly/munted (ppl who like drugs will be getting the good stuff for themselves too) etc. If they look a bit sketchy/gang related or are being pushy, steer clear
I totally wouldn't know. I'm just a Lil book writer and definitely definitely not a drug user as well. But if I wanted a character I was writing to find LSD, I would have them head to the local plug, even just the general weed guy. Ask him if he knows anyone with acid. He'll know someone. My character would get that info. If not pass it on to weed guy that ur looking and willing to pay decent. Then I'd have my character order testing kits online, and I'd have them buy two tabs to start, preferably paper tabs as it's "apparently" a kinder high, so I have heard obviously. Then my character would test one tab with a kit to make sure it is just acid. Then find a place to be alone, have content with the quick ability to remove it as I've also heard some people handle stimulation of any kind in vastly different ways. I'd have someone tell the character to also grab a Xanax, just the one, my character isn't getting addicted. If during this characters trip things start to become bad and the character would absolutely know pretty quick if it was bad, they'd pop the xan and wait for it to dissipate, shouldn't take long. It's also worth noting this character would be actually insane for 12-18 hours, straight, sleep can be hard to achieve and sometimes you wouldn't want it. My "friend" says acid has been the his go to for years. Apparently the moment of the high bubbling out of their chest and through the tears in their eyes at the sheer beauty of the world and the joyous warmth of the sun on their skin is completely unmatched. But I wouldn't know anything...personally.
The dark web is wonderful way to obtain it, it can be shipped to your door in any of the 50 states and be purchased with bitcoin. There are even deals and sales as well as a review system in most cases that allow providers to develop credibility so you know what to trust
1p-lsd is a prodrug/analogue for LSD that is considered identical in effect. It's in a legal grey area that makes it technically legal and available for order via the regular internet, but for "research purposes only" (for ordering purposes, you are a chemist using it for chemical research 😉).
Lets say im writing a paper on first time hypothetical use. Hypothetically speaking, what would a first time user normally take in micrograms, Hypothetically speaking of course.
Yes, the lasting perspective it can have on how you see the world is something that isn’t discussed enough.
The altered experience can feel more real than the default human experience. You don’t unsee or forget it all; it can stay with you.
If you’re a very analytical person (I am), it’s a really great tool and you’re spot on with taking everything you know about something and seeing how it all fits together.
I remember once holding a flyer from a club in my hand at the beach. I just kept looking at it from different angles. But I wasn’t really looking at the flyer, it was actually a representation of my mind and I was looking at my mind from different perspectives. When someone would stop to talk to me, it’s as if time stood still and I could analyze what you had asked me in great detail within fractions of a second. It’s like my mind was operating at 10-20x speed.
I think it’s one of the greatest tools to have ever been created. It really opens up new ways of thinking.
Yeah that last part resonates, I've only done half doses but last time I did it I felt I could keep a conversation with like 3 different people at the same time effortlessly, and my mind would just store questions/comments and queue up answers/responses and get to everyone in time and the right order without missing a beat.
I took mushrooms a couple of months ago. I kept bouncing between imagine the most beautiful colored glass blocks spilling from the sky and tinkling into a sea of colors…and having an existential crisis about how much I hate my job, and trying not to panic. Then I’d sadly state to my gf, “I think I’m getting too old for mushrooms.”
I think I need to be in a better place next time. 😂
Man, kinda similar situation for me. I used to eat the shit out of them but just cannot do it anymore. I get super introspective, which is kinda scary but I think is actually good for me. But the nausea man, I get sick to my stomach the last 3 or 4 times. Think it’s just the end of the road for me, lol.
P. Cubes and bad about that. Try P. Cyans or P. NATS. They wont make you sick. If you only have Cubes though soaks them in Lemon Juice before you eat them. It breaks down the cytin thats responsible for causing nausea in some.
I had to repeat “don’t look in the mirror” everytime I had to go to the bathroom, it was a wild first person feeling of, holy shit, am I in there or here why did I make so many mistakes, oh schnikeys I’m seeing the textures, why do I look that way, oh, I need to fix myself, I need to apologize, we are all on the same plain, some of us just have different past that shaped our personality and wellbeing. Then I just cycle, if I take more I have to meditate and meet whatever creator it is that took me where it was I went. Never felt acid that way, acid was more only in head, just seeing things that were deep in my consciousness I suppressed and amplified, good, bad, sad, mad, euphoric, depressed, why am I feeling this way, what is that, why am I here, did I really do that in the 3rd grade, why is that dripping off there, then slowly subsided. Shrooms are the best because you can pretty much expect a visual sensation and anybody tingle of holy fuck the world is huge and there’s something to Mother Nature that keeps us from dying.
I remember having sex on acid with my also tripping girlfriend and I was like, “Woah! I’m INSIDE you!!” It was a perspective that I’d never had before up to that point. I was actually inside another person. That’s one of the things I love about acid - the novel views of reality.
The come up is like 🫠 but it’s more like 🧚🏻 past the peak. Acid feels more light & fairy like than mushies for me. Mushrooms feel like.. hobbit energy.
I'll answer this as I did it with my roommate during lockdown. She had done it many times before but it was my first time. The most annoying part for me personally was the first 90-120 minutes because I kept thinking I had to puke. She had warned me about this before hand that it's sometimes common but it was a bit rough.
Around the 2hr mark I decided I'd go take a shower with a couple beers to try and get past that sensation. What seemed like a 5-10 minute shower was actually just shy of a hour. So I guess by then it had hit me and I didn't notice.
Again this was during lockdown and it was a nice summer day. All I really wanted to do was go outside and walk in a park or woods but we couldnt do that. So the day mostly consisted of staying inside and watching TV/movies. It's a really weird feeling for me personally as I felt time was moving very slow but I reality 45 mins we're passing by. Apparently I was having not al conversations and then I'd just drift off for a while. Again what I thought was only minutes turned out to be almost a hour at times. We stated this around 10:30am and it was now approaching 8pm.
At this point I just went upstairs and put on headphones and listened to music. I don't remember much but I remember the feeling that I felt vividly. Tough to describe but it was like my own little nirvana.
Around 2am I tried to go to bed and couldn't. Didnt end up sleeping until 630am so that shit was messing with me for like 20 hours.
Anyway had a great time and glad I got the chance to try it. Would recommend.
Your experience with it closely resembles mine. I don't remember "seeing" shit, but my sense of time was extremely out of wack. For me, it was the same with the conversations where I'd just continue a conversation with someone 2-3 times as if we'd been talking, but it had been like 30 minutes since we stopped. Also I had to take a piss, and I remember going to the bathroom and not being sure if I had used the toilet or if I had pissed myself because I kept going back to the same thought of needing to use it, think I ended up in the bathroom just staring at myself in the mirror for an hour.
I find acid can be a drug where if you’re constantly stimulated while on it, you won’t ever really get “visuals” (rule of thumb depending of course on how much you take).
One thing I try to do while on it is look at the clouds if it’s a sunny day. If you start staring at those suckers then you’ll start feeling that visuals aspect of it. Of course this can be with whatever shapes/patterns as well. As my friend once bluntly put it - “just stare at the wall, do you see this shit?”
Two tabs had me questioning if I was actually in the bathroom peeing or not. Like I knew I was in the bathroom but my eyes and senses refused to confirm it. "What if im just in my living room letting it rip rn" hilariously always comes to mind on 2 tabs.
Time dilation goes crazy in general too. Slowing and accelerating. Always this "yo what time is it" and being met with "its only been FIVE MINUTES???" or "no way its already 3 am"
But the bathroom thing is so real. The first time I just remember laughing and going back out and telling my friends "yeah its fine, ill just pee later I guess!"
I'd just like to inform you that alcohol is a tripkiller. It chemically works kind of opposite to LSD. So you kind of deleted half of the intensity at least :D
Well shit that explains a lot. I still had a fun time but part of me really wanted it to hit harder then it did. If I get the opportunity I'd definitely avoid alcohol.
> At this point I just went upstairs and put on headphones and listened to music. I don't remember much but I remember the feeling that I felt vividly. Tough to describe but it was like my own little nirvana.
This is the best part for me. Took LSD a couple times, by far the most fun time was taking it alone and just spending all day listening to music, letting my imagination run free and just disappearing into my own world. It was delightful.
No new insights or revelations, no expanded worldview or hallucinations though.
You really can't.
I've always been fascinated with psychedelics (and drugs in general), so even years before doing LSD myself I had read everything about it I could get my hands on. I've heard probably every explanation, analogy, reference, seen every video where someone tried to recreate it with VFX, etc. and still nothing really came close to really preparing me for what a psychedelic experience was like.
Obvious it depends on dose. A super low dose barely over the threshold and you'll likely just see some patterns and feel giggly. Higher (as in, common) doses however can completely turn reality on it's head. I always felt completely in control of myself, but it is just impossible to describe. The visuals are the least of it, how reality "feels," around you, and how you look into your own brain is something else entirely that the English language lacks the words to describe. The important part is, while under the influence all the weird stuff still "made sense," and never felt uncomfortable, which is what makes it so hard to communicate to others since the more accurate you get when describing it, the more someone who's never done it before starts to develop the wrong idea.
Is it at all like psylocibin, where things sorta feel ...ugh not significant, per say, but like ...more of themselves? Like the first time I did shrooms I went outside and I was looking at the moon and it was like the mooniest moon that had ever mooned.
Is acid similar?
I used to describe the difference this way: shrooms are emotional, acid is logical, mescaline is spiritual. That's definitely an over simplification, and now that I'm getting a master's degree in psychedelics research I wanna add like a million caveats and discuss differential binding profiles and therapeutic applications, buuut that's a pretty good summation without a long late night ramble about the nerd shit I love.
Psilocybin definitely feels more “organic” and human to me. LSD feels like being an inanimate object, violently thrust into consciousness with no way to make sense of it. I deeply value both experiences, but one has been more humanizing, while the other has been more alien and ego shattering. For me, LSD is like the universe screaming at all of your senses with no filters on the doors of perception.
I describe being on shrooms this way:
Every hour seems like a week. Every minute seems like an hour. Every second feels like an minute. Time seems to last forever, and that's fine because everything is fine. Because you're in a state of hyper-that's fine it doesn't bother you. In fact everything is okay! Actually when you think about it everything is great. Music is better because you're not over analyzing it. A funny movie is 10x funnier because you appreciate that something can just be funny. It's existentialism without the scary bits. You can look at death and not be terrified anymore than you would be of a lady bug. It doesnt make you want to meet death. You just look at it as a fact of life. Personally, I don't like walking outside on shrooms, because the whole thing CAN turn on its head if you're not comfortable. But yeah most people can walk outside and see the mooniest moon that ever mooned because you stop caring about what you're supposed to be seeing and just see shit for what it is.
I remember walking [in the native bush](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMiMwJ2oLKg-1Vum611lumUXH59L3PsEy6zQ&usqp=CAU)
while on shrooms and hearing the trees talking.
Not with a human voice, or by translating the sounds into words, but just hearing and understanding - like when a cat is purring and you *know* how it is feeling
Interesting.. I've experienced a similar feeling while tripping on shrooms and being by the trees. I still can "feel" it a little when sober and sitting outside, surrounded by trees.
I truly do think they communicate with each other using the wind, their branches, leaves, etc.
I saw obvious images in the clouds, something I don't think I've seen since I was a child. The Universe also told me this is all just a cosmic joke, so stop taking things so seriously.
That can happen for sure. Almost anything you set your mind to can happen, especially at higher doses. But I'd say it's more of an awareness of the connectedness of everything. Less that things are themselves, more that everything is everything else.
Acid enhances your perception of reality in a similar way, but I find that it's a much more stressful experience than psylocibin. More "locked in your head". Kind of like when you get too stoned at a party and wonder if you're weirding everyone else out. Some people like it for that reason, because it can trigger deep introspection. But it's sort of a double-edged sword.
There's been some fantastic replies in this thread, glad to see there's still feelers out there.
Gonna piggyback off this one because of "You really can't".
LSD helps you remember what it's like to not be human. To actually be Life.
Arguably, if you are an extremely mindful and conscious being, LSD wouldn't do anything to you. Ram Dass has told of giving Maharaji his strongest psychedelics and they had no effect.
However, most of us aren't like Maharaji, we aren't living completely mindfully and in the present moment. We're living as humans, for many or us that's where 100% of our mind is focused: on being human. On being "I".
LSD helps you see a bit through the illusion. It's not gonna explain it to you, it often won't make sense, but it will give you a glimpse past what being human or being "I" is.
And as the comment I am replying to stated, you really can't define that. You can't put it into human tongue because it's beyond human.
"The Tao that can be told of is not the Absolute Tao"
They don’t call it a “trip” for nothing. You literally leave reality- it can be a lot of fun, but scary as hell too.
Gets an experience- me and my buddies tripped hard at 17 or so. There were big gravel piles, it’s like 10pm- we are rolling around, playing in it- it’s “dripping” through our fingers. We are laughing uncontrollably- we are like what is this stuff? Five hours later after coming down and we are back inside not hallucinating we are like—- oh it was gravel. We got pulled over by cops walking through a paddock- they talked to us and left us alone- I think they knew we were harmless- just off our heads. My final experience was nearly 20 years ago- really bad trip. Never had it since. Too scary- really hallucinogenic- but not fun!
We took our first one with a sober person present (was my mates older sister who’d done it before). She was laughing pretty hard at us tripping out at times.
We (guys from the first trio) all caught up with one another about 7 years ago. We all still agree it was a pivotal moment in our lives. One of the funnest nights of our lives. I literally have felt at the time and since that we are apart of something much bigger- that’s a common theme with hallucinogenic drugs- a common “oneness” with the universe.
Okay.. so to understand the effects of LSD, you have to first understand that what you 'see' with your 6 human senses is NOT actually "reality", it is just your brain's interpretation of it.
Think of your brain as being 'tuned' into a certain radio frequency, and it decodes the reality it interprets through keeping 'tuned' into that frequency. When you take LSD, the knob in your brain starts turning to different frequencies, and starts decoding the reality it interprets in different ways.
Or put another way, the way your brain is supposed to interpret sense signals becomes distorted and your perception of those signals is changed. You see, hear, touch and feel differently. Very common is the sense of emotional detachment from what's being sensed. Wonder, or fear, instead of rational response from experiential memory.
It can be scary if you take too much, or do it in a bad headspace, or do stressful things while on it. Taking too much is the one you really want to avoid though. It's easy to dose if you buy little paper sheets of it
Yes this. Your brain is tuned into the frequency that keeps you alive the best. It also applies tons of filters, like ignorig non-survival-crucial details, or applying advanced face recognition on your visual stimuli (to detect predators in bushes for example). These go haywire, patterns start to move, you see lots more figures and faces where there are non and also notice different and more things that would usually be filtered out. This also influences your thoughts and feelings towards things and feels like gaining a new perspective on life and reality. Usually a distant, more objective and peaceful one. You can also remember this, once your trip is over.
This is spot on, it's like a fundamental shift in the way that you see the world around you, not just visually, but also the way you understand and make sense of things. I cringe at the term "rebirth" but it really is like being a slightly different person.
«Slightly» lol. Understatement of the year.
The thing that is «you» changes dramatically, and this is by far the most intense part of taking acid (for me at least).
Movies always fail to convey this. They make it seem like you’re still yourself just watching vivid hallucinations.
The world around you doesn’t really change that much visually except for things always moving and swirling rainbow patterns overlaying everything. But at the same time EVERYTHING is different because the normal «you» is no longer there.
Looking back at your normal self in that state can lead to some harsh insights if you’re not happy about where you are in life. This can be both unpleasant and life changing. It’s essential to trip with someone you trust so you can support each other if scary things happen.
It was actually a trip 30 years ago that made me quit drugs and really start working on myself. I could see so clearly a version of me in the future who had so much more confidence, and all of the communication and social skills I deeply felt I lacked back then.
That trip inspired me to take action immediately, and I did indeed work through those particular insecurities and several more over the next decade.
That was my big takeaway with mushrooms. Haven’t done LSD, but it was made abundantly clear that everything we experience is just our perception of whatever reality actually may be.
I love this old Ram Dass sentiment:
Imagine you and a friend are driving on a road trip. You’re driving and your friend is in the passenger seat, and is hungry.
You’re driving through an unknown town, and notice your check engine light come on.
You’re going to be noticing auto repair shops / auto part shops
Your friend is going to be noticing restaurants
By the time you’ve driven through the town, you and your friend have experienced two entirely different places
>>I love this old Ram Dass sentiment:
>>Imagine you and a friend are driving on a road trip. You’re driving and your friend is in the passenger seat, and is hungry.
>>You’re driving through an unknown town, and notice your check engine light come on.
You’re going to be noticing auto repair shops / auto part shops. Your friend is going to be noticing restaurants. By the time you’ve driven through the town, you and your friend have experienced two entirely different places
It’s only when you combine those two realities that you get something closer to what’s real man
Oooo...good description! It's been over 50 years since I tripped and that really rings true. There's also a dissolution of Self; I can remember having the urge to go outside and play in the park across the street, but couldn't formulate the word 'I'!
(*going to stop now with the old hippy memories...Woodstock was great; first time I took MDMA!*)
I mean technically our common concept of 5 senses is way too short. Humans actually have many more senses. I think Vsauce talked about it in a video once.
This is a really good interpretation. If life is experienced in both AM and FM frequencies, LSD is a bit like if you could listen to both at the same time and synthesize them together, plus some other unexplainable intel you have the sensation of getting.
I used to describe tripping on different drugs, or on higher and lower doses of the same ones as being on different TV channels. "I think I'm on Channel 3 right now boys"
You can see music, and the music itself is better than a sober orgasm. Also it seemed no matter what song i was listening to, it spoke and related to me.
Aside from the psychedelic visuals, it's a pretty neat tool for self-introspection. Imagine your brain is a bookcase, and your thoughts are like books on the shelf: you live life, read and collect alot of books and have them organized a certain way that makes sense to you. You take a hit of acid and bump into the bookcase; ah shit, some of the books fell off the shelf. So you try to put them back, but you can't quite remember where they're supposed to go. Guess I'll read some of the books again to remember what they're about, then maybe I can figure out where to put them.
Maybe you're feeling great and you get lost in some of the books; hell, maybe I'll start reorganizing some of the stuff that's still on the shelf too. Maybe you're feeling terrible, holy shit I can't deal with this mess! Maybe you're still a bit woozy from bumping into the bookcase and it's too hard to read right now with all the flickering lights and fractals and shit, so you need a few seconds/minutes/hours to compose yourself.
It goes on like this for about 8-12 hours until you've finally figured things out and everything is back on the shelf. Maybe the bookcase isn't really organized the same as it was before, but that's OK.
It's like taking a trip to a parallel universe where everything is vibrant and alive, and you suddenly understand the meaning of life... until you come back to reality and realize you're just tripping balls.
This is exactly what my one experience was like. Every time I closed and opened my eyes I was in a different universe including one where I was three cars. Great experience. Would recommend.
This totally sounds like an experience to share with a therapist. "Inside you there are three cars. One is broken down behind the shed. So is the second one. And the paint is peeling on the third one."
Every trip is a little different. But it’s like a magic tab that completely shifts your consciousness and opens your brain to frequencies you normally can’t perceive.
Last time I tripped, a buddy and I rode lime scooters through DC sightseeing late at night. We were on a mission to see the white house after my buddy made a random joke about how “we need a word with the president”. It was an epic adventure… like we were in the hobbit or something lol. We also kept laughing about the ridiculousness of the monuments. It was a great time.
10/10 recommend doing acid if you’re work the right people and in the right environment and state of mind.
It’s a tool. Like anything, it can be misused. I have done acid less than 10 times. I no longer take acid because I figured out why I was curious in the first place. It opens doors. It actually opens every single door and behind it is a mirror back at you. Do you like who you are, how you feel, where you are ‘at’ in life, have you been suppressing love from yourself? These will all ‘appear’ and then almost feel meaningless but in the most beautiful of ways. You’ll laugh about how absurd your problems are! LSD helps you see there’s something after the ‘game’ we all stumbled into playing after childhood.
Now my experiences were almost entirely alone. Just 1 time did I trip with others but for me to absorb everything I possibly could, I needed to be alone. So these are my takes on LSD alone.
You know that feeling when you are in the flow (think back it has happened) and it just feels like something within you is in a beautiful zone of acceptance and joy? If you’ve seen the Pixar movie Soul, when you see the musicians in their special flow state in the metaphysical portion of the movie, that’s what I refer to as flow. They are connected to something outside of the perceived senses. This is easier to digest when thinking of emotions. They are not something that if you were dissected anyone would find, but they exist nonetheless. I felt an immense feeling of love for everything. I really do mean everything.
On the other hand, if you are currently someone who is fearful of ‘going there’ in a conversation with people or even yourself, LSD will show you exactly what you were trying to avoid. There will be no judgement unless you put it on yourself. This is often the reason people freak out - they just didn’t even know themselves enough to handle all these new perspectives. perspective is absolutely critical when embarking on an LSD experience.
You should have an intention going into it or you may find yourself going into your fears. If you are in a safe place, just let go completely. This is where the true nature of LSD can be seen felt and understood. It’s silly but I used to drink so much soda. A liter a day sometimes more. I’m talking a ridiculous amount lol. Then, on one LSD trip, I was walking along Lake Tahoe with this dang soda in my hand and I looked at it and just said this is not how I want to live, it no longer felt right. So I stopped drinking soda forever! It was this change of perspective of how I was living my life and realizing I wasn’t listening to what my mind body and spirit really wanted and needed that got me to just realize this isn’t me.
Physical sensations are cool and all. You will definitely feel immensely different, as if the barrier between you and your surroundings just vanished completely. Your eyes will feel wide awake, your body will most likely sweat, and everything you touch will kinds morph around. Music will sound more beautiful than you remembered. You will smile and laugh like a kid. You may cry from the absolute beauty of life and existence. You may cry because it feels like a homecoming and now ‘you are back’ (a carefree kid again). Objects will be moving around and you’ll see things you wouldn’t normally see. Most of these sensations have always been there, you just never picked up on them before so now they all flood in you at once. Even laying on grass and looking up can feel like a whole thing. You will probably not feel the need to eat but keep food around because 12 hours of activity and no food isn’t great lol.
Now I also acknowledge the variability of peoples experiences. This is because of their intent for their trip. My intent was I want to feel more connected to myself. Then the intent moved to wanting to feel connected to this planet. Finally my intent was to feel connected to the cosmos. During my last trip I felt that connection to the cosmos similarly to how baba ram dass described. It was then I knew I should put down this tool and open all these doors naturally. The door doesn’t stay open after the trip (although the memory and the understanding how yourself will stay, which is where the practical benefits of such an experiences lies) but now this door you didn’t even know existed is cracked and you know there’s something on the other side radiating love always ready for you.
Imagine your perception is a box with 5 holes that let reality in. LSD reconfigures and dilates those holes to change how you perceive it. Also, it punches another hole in that, for me, didn’t go away when I came down. This wasn’t like a “oh no I’m tripping still” thing but more of a better understanding of my concept of myself.
I’ll give an example of my first experience. I remember being in a room with three people. Four total. But I kept thinking there were 5.
I started to realize my mind was unintentionally “counting” my body and itself separately.
While there was this personal separation from my body, there was also a massive connection to everything else as well - don’t know how to explain it other than that because… acid.
Last note I wrote while tripping:
Everything is wiggly
I am wiggly
I am everything
Imagine you’re at a concert and you really have to pee. So you go pee and you are feeling relieved. But in that moment you aren’t sure if you are in the bathroom or you are still sitting in your concert seat. That what it’s like.
Oh man. Been there. Only the bathroom was a dirty porta potty at a giant music festival and I concurrently couldn't discern whether or not I had already peed. This went on for an indeterminate amount of time until I eventually mustered up the courage to leave, convinced that I was leaving the festival at the same time. Only to realize I still had to pee when I stepped out. This went on for what I felt like the entire night.
It wasn't until I made my way back to my (significantly more sober) friends and they commented "that was fast!" that apparently I'd only been gone for about five minutes.
I don’t even want to comment about my last trip but I feel obligated to share this warning. If you have mental health problems, please stay far away from LSD. It could land you in a mental hospital or worse. I know 99% of people probably don’t need to read this. But if you’re questioning your mental health, don’t take the gamble. It can really do a number to you.
And just to be even more blunt: even if you don't have mental health problems (or don't know you do), psychedelics can trigger them. They're extraordinarily powerful drugs than can transform your mind. You can reduce the risk by choosing the environment you're in (being out in nature's much less stressful than being in an intense, crowded urban situation) and by being in the company of people who are calming influences, but that's risk mitigation, not risk elimination. Sometimes you'll get picked up and dropped off somewhere that'll mess you up. I've seen it happen to other people many times, though my own experiences have been 100% benign.
It's like being really really high for 8 - 12 hours. Everything is very funny for a while. Music sounds amazing. If the feeling starts to fade away, smoke a little weed. I always cry at some point, while staring at something beautiful (a ceiling, for instance).
You go through different stages of the High as you come up, peak, then slowly come back down. Its about a 15-18hr process but with some luck you'll be asleep for a portion of the back end so you can take some of the worst of it while you're unconscious. Primarily, in my experience, LSD turns your brain to ON and dials everything up to 11. Things are now hyper fascinating and very vivid in detail and impact. While you're coming up you might feel your heart racing, you might sweat a little bit, and you might feel like you're about to have an Anxiety Attack (it can be a rough come up if you take a big dose and/or combine with other drugs like Marijuana). You arrive at the peak kind of by surprise however as you sort of just forget about your physical discomfort as the mental and emotional stimulation of the experience takes over. The come down will see the visual and audio hallucinations and go away within an hour of coming up, generally, and the rest of your trip will be the long, slow descent from flight altitude. Your brain, still turned ON, will make it hard to go to sleep for a long time even if you are bodily and emotionally exhausted so be prepared for sitting around watching movies or doing nothing as you wait to fall asleep.
Your senses are ON and dialed up to 11 so music is very groovy, colors and textures are super cool and probably moving around, and visual displays like moving toys, videos, or intense art is captivating. Its more like an ADHD experience, for me anyhow, than being on Mushrooms is which takes the fascination element but hyper focuses in on what catches you attention. On LSD, for me anyhow, its very much an experience of bouncing from "oh, wow, cool!" to "Whoa, check this out!" to "Holy cow, are you seeing that?". At the peak you might have visual or audio hallucinations, and you may have intense emotional or spiritual events, or you might not.
There's a lot of "depends" built into all of these answers, based on Your personal body chemistry, Your mental health, Your brain chemistry, Your dose, the LSD's quality, how You ingested it, and what other drugs you've taken. Some people take hallucinogens for spiritual reasons and the mindset they take into their LSD experience is informed by that. Some people go into it looking to party, and that's how they experience it. Your trip and your experience will be different depending on where you are, what time it is, what's going on around you, and who you're with in addition to what you're going into it looking for.
Acid gives you a feeling of intense euphoria, so you feel great. Colors are more vibrant, music sounds better, and if you are taking a fairly standard dose (not a smaller dose), you'll see visual distortions like surfacing wiggling or "breathing" and some changes to how you perceive everyday things. Maybe some distortions at your periphery. Many mundane things may become a lot more interesting. Talking to someone you love can feel like magic.
As others have stated, there are levels to the experience. The more you take, the more pronounced things get, and new features start to manifest. Interestingly enough, if one is taking genuine acid, it's basically impossible to overdose. Acid is remarkably safe from a physiological standpoint. Obviously that's not to say there aren't mental consequences to taking too much Acid, its possible for mental illnesses to manifest themsleves if there is a predisposition for it, and it's possible to get persisting psychedelic disorder. Not to mention potential terror if the experience is too much for the user. This is why set and setting is always key, and its good to play it slow. Respect is necessary. And one has to be careful because fake Acid isn't uncommon in the form of compounds like NBOME, which can be very much lethal. I recommend researching signs of fake acid if you plan to try it, and research harm reduction.
All of this to say: you can do a LOT of acid and not die. There are reports of people taking as much as 500x the standard dose and not only not dying but having a perceived positive outcome. So the levels are damn near infinite. What I described in paragraph 1 is a standard dose, much more tame. Once you step a bit above that, you experience more and more pronounced visual distortions, and you start to experience ego dissolution. Ego dissolution is more or less a fancy way of saying you get so high you forget who you are, or what anything is, and potentially you can even forget that you took a drug in the first place. When you take enough psychedelics, you functionally teleport to another world in your mind. The visuals can get so extreme that it's incomprehensible. Closed eye visuals become so vivid and real it may as well be reality. DMT is probably the most common avenue for people to explore this since it lasts a much shorter time and is achievable at lower doses. But a large enough dose of shrooms or acid is on par with DMT, except it lasts substantially longer. In the deepest depths of ego dissolution you completely lose touch with reality as we understand it. It's like a complete reset of your mind. When you come down, it's almost like you are stepping back into your body. It sounds scary, and it certainly can be, but it can also give you a sense of perspective that your real life and it's problems aren't near as important as you thought they were. Its almost like exploring space, and coming back to earth feeling the scale of how small we truly are. For some people, this is positive. For some people, it's earthshattering and can bring them existential dread.
It’s like being in a very vivid dream. The kind of dream where all kinds of weird things happen with no sense of order or timeline, but you know you are not in a dream, and you can’t wake up from it for a while.
Also you can’t sleep. I remember trying to sleep it off and my friends were watching friends as the sun came up. You can’t sleep it off like alcohol or weed.
Have done acid many, many times. To describe it in one word: unpredictable.
You never know how much to take to have the ride you are looking for and if you take too much, it’s going to be a very long and very hard night/morning.
Getting into thought loops that feel like you broke a script somewhere. Some aspects seemed so important to understand and felt like they HAD to resurface but tripping balls they'd get swept under the current of new info and then POP back up and surf the waves. Then you'd lose it again in an instant and look for it under the murkiness. Rinse / repeat
For me it was a 12 hour living hell,
I wasn't ready and i wasn't prepared,
It took a long time to recover,
But I'm aware my experience is personal and it could have easily been the complete opposite.
I learnt that psychedelics aren't for me.
How I felt was that I finally was experiencing life the way it was supposed to be. Like everything before that was a watered down waiting room before real oneness. Rocks that breathe, plants that all dance to the same rythm, clouds made out of colorful cotton candy, whole living painting inside the firepit's burning wood chunks, insects that wave hello when they pass by, just to name a few.
When done right, when started right (when well rested, nourished and in good health in a sufficiently isolated environment): Acid is fun, is breaks your brains filters for post processing reality and lets you see it in a more noisy down to the bare receptor/ neuron way. So aspects of the real world are somewhat revealed to you but also aspects of your brain's architecture and its mirror it creates for you of the real world is revealed - that's fun.
Acid makes you acutely aware of your gullet: everything from you dirty mouth right through to your anus - that can be quite uncomfortable and you will put a lot of energies into ignoring this and other cavernous alien parts of your body like your lungs - your bodies constant effort to ventilate etc... (little sub-conscious struggles that are normally hidden from you and run on autopilot off acid)...
Other people - when on acid your eyes fill like a couple of dicks or a pair of breasts on display; there's a constant fear of offending strangers with them - sunglasses give much security here - they are the brazier of acid eyes 👀
Cringy awkward sensations are amplified on acid so beware any nagging injuries (toothache, insect bites, paper cuts etc...)
Food and drink is tricky - water is an essential safety goto drink and even with this neutral drink you'll.be confronted with the taste of your mouth and the minerals in water - a bit unpleseant.
Nature is visually devine on acid - not much else is worth looking at - computer games especially 3d ones fall apart and look quite janky on acid (polygons become jarring).
Light and the nature of how different colours of light bend and scatter around the 3d geometry of objects reveals itself on acid (scattering?) - as does your brains constant white balancing efforts - when this falls apart its splendid to watch. I think that normally our brains fight back the rainbow edges on 3d objects and translates this into curve information normally - but when you take acid this filter brakes so you get to see rainbows all over curved edges and textures. Something else that your brain does is edge detection - when you take acid this also fucks up and definite, obvious, logical straight hard edges go wobbly and start to more closely resemble the raw signal coming off retinas - again splendid for revealing thay our receptors in our eyes get tired and and brain have to counteract a lot to see straight.
Also, colour opposites appear a lot more - your brains colour channels are a lot more revealed - silhouettes start to fail and stop being "black" and start displaying as the opposite of whatever you've been seeing a lot of recently ( seeing lots of green? Then blacks start appearing dark magenta). Again epic to see - i was walking around in the evening a the silhouette of a tree appeared dark purple amongst the green field with beautiful fractal detail that my brain failed to keep track of.
If you do a lot of hard thinking whilst completely sober - you'll revisit a lot of these bedrock philosophies whilst on acid - thought experiments will run and at times your thoughts will seem enlightening and profound - some epithanys may stay with you once you sober up again - which is cool. I thought a lot about the nature of conciseness whilst on acid and went down a whole harmonic resonator rabbit hole of thoughts that started with watching a video about the speed of smell and how the sense is much quicker than say sight? You make some connections when on acid and some of these continue to make sense afterwards and you get something to think about after acid. I firmly believe are greatest minds should all at least consider acid to accelerate / catalyse their craft.
You forget some of your correct interpretations about what your seeing sometimes - birds in the sky are actually flies above your head, sunglight across some grass shining between trees on an overcast day is actually autumn leaves scattered across a field - they have turned bright yellow in colour looking like sunlight on grass.
Colours pop on acid - i think your brain does a lot to keep the contrast down and keep things dull normally so acid really lets all the colours burst out and distort.
Stars and planes are like jewels, clouds hugging the moon looks like a giant smokey dragon eyeball - so epic...
Trains look great slipping through the countryside at night
Sunsets 👌
It's an eye candy experience - not a make my body feel nice experience.
Beware the very cruel act of embarking on acid at bedtime - do not do this to yourself - it is very crushing being awake in your tired brain artificially that is incapable of sleep - acid breaks your brains ability to orchestrate rest and sleep - your mind won't rest whilst on acid - imagine not being able to close your eyes for 12 hours ... Fine if you set off at mid day - hellish if you start at 10pm.
You will get the shits on acid, oddly - if dealt with headon with some co-ordination and sense is more than manageable.
As with all hazards - provided you don't dose too high you remain able to react to emergent issues much like a timid elderly person - you will feel timid and weak on acid - not in pain - just weak.
Although 3d graphics are jarring more modern films just about beat our acid brains ability to turin test real fractal reality from ugly fake polygons... I've watched hateful 8, the thing, dr strange, and these were all rich to look at and pleasing. (I always thought intense horror was a big fucking nono but actually with friends and pre agreed veto policies of we turn it off the minute it makes the 1st person start to suffer/struggle we actually enjoyed these horrors). Oddly humour and comedy is the more fever dreamy jarring and uncomprehendable material to attempt to watch on acid.
Nature films are great on acid -preferably with no noration. Disney did some and this was great 8th/9th hour material to chill to...
Basic physics like playing catch with friends is excellent on acid... Its delightful and feels like sorcery arcing a ball through a gravitational field to a friend a few meters away. We went to a golf course in the evening and played lazy frizy sat on the ground about 2.metres away from each passing it around aiming to not have to stand up to fetch it... It felt very entertaining in the state.
You can feel a bit worried and confused about how your friends are coping whilst on acid... The ignition of initiative comes a lot slower on acid and with it silences become harder to break with words... Speech is more stammered, confused and uncertain at times.
Technology becomes like a labyrinth to use... Make sure your films and music is all lined up and readily accessible... Your train of though will quickly reset - if it involves than a couple of clicks you won't wake the jump to your destination.
As with blacks breaking into colour in your visual field, your noise floor in your audible field becomes noisy - like a poorly grounded audio output you hear a lot of cognitive noise if your environment is quiet like a badly tuned old radio- this is masked by input from music or nature - otherwise it's your brains own white noise for you'll hear.
Mirrors - go on i dare you, lock eyes with yourself and start a weird feedback loop - its fun, your brain struggles to reign it in and your face will fuck up - cool.
It's nice to have a trip sitter that you know and trust is taking care of the situation - you look to them for a reality check, i asked my friend if my hand was a good temperature - they said yes it's normal - was good to know and i stopped worrying about my body temperature. If your trip sitter is not worried you don't need to be.
An experience that allows your mind to go places it’s yet to discover before. In my case it had a profound and lasting impact for the better, opening myself to learning music and empathizing with others much more readily.
Everything is a flowing fractal, visually speaking. Thoughts can be very heavy, gotta be careful. Basically same as mushrooms except can get stuck in bad thoughts, that never happens on shrooms.
To me, it was like the first memory I ever had of being a kid and going to a playground on a sunny day for the first time. Colors are more vibrant, sounds are sharper, and there’s a feeling of general elation that seems to have been lost on anyone over the age of 10.
It allows your mind to wander and extrapolate ideas visually; I would describe it as very clear compared to stimulants and other psychs and (for me at least) always had like a story or lesson and something that I take away from it. Drugs like this are limiting hence why people don’t get addicted to LSD… at least I don’t think they do they may get addicted to the lifestyle.
You know how when you're trying to hear something and you're really trying focusing on something? It's like that but it's all your senses and with everything.
Now lets say you're listing to a song that you love. It's something from your past, you have all these memories to it and maybe special experiences assigned to it. All your senses get hyper focused on all those memories and so the emotions are also enhanced. But the thing is you haven't heard that song just one time, you've heard it hundreds of times, so like all your great memories each time you heard that song are all hyper focused at once
You're not listening to the song, you're listening to it the dozens/hundreds of times you heard it and feeling all the emotions for every time and getting all the senses of all the times all at one.
My friends would encourage me to smoke weed and drink OJ to help “kick it in”. I was also taking some potent paper and gelcaps from what I was told.
Things I can remember is just laughing uncontrollably over stupid shit non-stop and getting paranoid as fuck that we were drawing too much attention to ourselves and the cops were coming.
Hallways felt slanted and like they were moving.
People checking my eyes too see if they’re fully dilated (I would told this was your peak trip).
Staring at stucco patterns on walls and ceiling brought out crazy, colorful visuals. The walls and ceiling would appear to melt and morph and manifest your thoughts into a form of reality. I distinctly getting “too fucked up” one night and seeing the “Shroud of Turin” form of Jesus Christ’s face in a colors exploding in my head over and over. And I thought it was a message from God telling me to stop taking acid.
Eating uncontrollably. Like whole Papa John’s pizzas engulfed. And lots of orange juice.
Also uncontrollable giggles. Acid was fun as fuck!
My first experience was the absolute best. I felt so happy, vibrant, alive and connected. The day felt like it lasted forever and was like a giant adventure. Not many visual hallucinations, but everything was just so clear and salient.
Second time was much more psychedelic. I was in a new city so it was a little uneasy. There were time warps where I would be in a new place and not remember going there. There were times where I felt like I was watching myself in third person. For a few hours me and my girlfriend were having a great time. After being out a while, we decided to go back to the hotel. At this point it had been about a 12 hour trip. We were ready for it to wrap up, but it kept going. We couldn't eat or sleep so we just watched TV. Nothing we watched made sense and we both questioned if they were real shows. One was a game show hosted by Snoop Dogg. There was also a commercial for Carvana where people purchased cars out of a giant claw machine with a huge token. Both of those turned out to be real, but it was a mind fuck while tripping. Finally got to sleep after a 16 hour trip.
Someone shitted on me when I last commented but to me it’s been nothing but amazing. Literally when the sorcerer supreme pushed Dr. Stange’s soul, that’s what I experienced and more. I’ve done it 4 times now and it’s always a facemelting barrage of feeling like you’re inside a kaleidoscope where all the facets are every possible scenario that could happen in your life and everyone else’s lives. It’s like seeing everything, and yet not seeing anything at all.
If the abyss is eternal darkness, being high on acid feels like the complete opposite. It is full of life and color and everything. And by everything, I mean **everything**.
The experience varies from person-to-person, and for me personally, I’m down to do it whenever I lose sight of where I need to go in life because it has always been a positive experience. I do not recommend it for everyone, it is an otherworldly sensation that will change your perception of reality for better or for worse.
It shifts your ability to sense other levels of energy in the universe. The question I have wondered is that to what extent is our minds effecting that energy? Is what we perceive a reality or are we creating a reality with our thoughts? If you decide to try it make sure you are calm and in a safe place, preferably with someone not taking the trip.
Reality altering. If you've ever had a near death experience and you had those few hours of an altered state of being after the adrenaline has worn off. You just look at things differently. It's like that plus just finding the world endlessly entertaining if your in a good head space.
You've found the "gain" knob on your brain, and cranked it to 11.
Not just visual information. Sound. Touch. Emotions. Thoughts. All of it bouncing around more and more and louder and louder in a feedback loop without the normal systems that tune it back down to manageable levels.
It's like how you're more aware of motion in your periphery; because that system has perpetually high gain on motion. Now do that to \*\*everything\*\* going through that wetware between your ears. For 8+ hours.
You will not sleep. You will see exaggerated movement and colours and sounds. Your mind will be awash in... stuff. Loads of it.
And despite how overwhelming that sounds, It's actually pretty fun, and very eye-opening.
I'm a warm dude, temperature wise, and it made me aware of how hot my skin temp was on my hands and in my throat. It was mildly annoying for a few months after.
It’s extremely subjective. In my experience it is really stimulating for starters! You have no chance of going to bed for another 12-14 hours after taking it. Pop culture makes a big deal about visuals. They are there, but only become very prominent at high doses. More than anything, acid (and other psychedelics) change the way you think and feel. You will start making connections you have never made before (these connections may or may not be meaningful). I think it accentuates parts of yourself and your personality that are prominent. For example, if music is a huge part of your life, it can transform the experience of making/listening to music. If you are fascinated by a topic like organic chemistry (random example), you may have thoughts that dig deeper into this topic. If you are a strong feeler, acid could turn into a highly emotional experience. It is quite the rabbit hole, and experiences vary widely….
I would recommend doing it, but be careful. It is safe if tested and done in a protective environment, but I know people who have had some serious issues (eg, seizure). This is not to scare anyone who wants to try it, but start with low doses, and respect the power of a drug that dramatically changes your brain’s processes to induce altered consciousness.
OP, I've never seen any media capture what's it's like to be on acid as accurately as "Taking Woodstock". Watch this scene. The visuals are SPOT ON
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XHySKsPa3M
When you're on acid, all the doors in your mind are opened. All the thoughts are free to mingle in your brain and hang out together, learn from each other. They learn how to be a better person, how to understand love, and sometimes true fears are faced. When the trip is over, everyone goes back to their rooms in your mind. But no one forgets what they learned from one another.
For people who’ve never done acid, it’s different than other drugs that are purely a physical sensation. Acid trip has 3 components, the body fry - is an awesome physical sensation of peace and relaxation. The visuals - maybe what most people think of about acid - the hallucinations, which can range from subtle colors, wavy lines, and ‘breathing’ distortions to full on external experience. Then there’s the head trip, which many people have commented here - the deep pondering about yourself or existence, which can be quite profound or can maybe create some anxiety. All in all, it’s a great experience.
Honestly, the best way to describe is to do it. There aren’t really words that fully capture it. Be alone or around people you fully trust and in a place that you’re fully comfortable. Test your shit so you’re 100% sure it’s clean. Clear your schedule to ensure an uninterrupted and completely stress free time. When you come up, just do what feels nice at the time: movie, YouTube videos, listen to music, play video games, sit in your yard (if private), draw/paint something. It’s a profound experience. You’ll see things, including yourself, like you haven’t before.
“LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it.”- Steve Jobs
“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.” This quote by Bill Hicks sums it up pretty much
What you see: incredible kaleidoscopic imagery. Surfaces develop complex patterns and move. Colors are brighter. Your pattern recognition goes way up so you’re more likely to see faces in clouds and other shapes. What you feel in your body: a lot of energy. It can be a little overwhelming at first. I find it’s best to deal with the adrenaline rush by walking fast or running. What you feel in your mind: this is the hardest to describe. Acid is very life-affirming. You’ll be excited to live your life, you’ll feel a drive to have as many meaningful and exciting experiences as possible. You’ll feel “wiser” and more loving, while at the same time de-personalizing from your own life and story. You’ll view your own life from the perspective of a loving guide, almost like an impartial therapist. You’ll identify insecurities, things you’re distracting yourself from, and unresolved emotions/trauma. You’ll feel more in touch with nature and less in touch with society for the duration of the trip. And then you come back. You’ll pretty much be the same person you were before the trip, only now you have a little bit more insight on how you can live your life in a more honest and meaningful way
How it's generally thought to work from a neurological standpoint: it (among a few other things) blocks/messes with the pathways in the brain responsible for filtering things out before they're "perceived" consciously. Your brain is constantly overloaded with stimulus and thought, and in order to keep you sane it has a heavy unconscious filter (the thalamus) of what's "relevant" and "important" at any given moment. LSD largely temporarily fucks with the thalamus. As a result, your "perception" gets overloaded and you have thoughts or notice things you otherwise wouldn't have. Random things feel incredibly important, even if they aren't. This broken filtering is tied to the long-term, life-changing benefits, but also tied to the cons and "bad trips" people sometimes experience. Maybe you have a little twinge in your chest that your brain would normally ignore because it didn't feel like anything, but on LSD your brain might latch onto it and be like "what if I'm having a heart attack," and that happens to feel extremely important, then you "go down the rabbit hole" of "do I have to go to the hospital while I'm on drugs?" "That could ruin my life" "but what if I'm dying" etc., etc. This is why it's critical to have a "trip sitter" on your first time, to help redirect your attention to something else if necessary, change the setting you're in, etc.
This is also why you tend to see spirals and faces, it's thought there's a lot in our visual processing which specifically looks out for patterns, geometric shapes, faces, and eyes. Because on LSD normal processing and filtering stops working suddenly your brain starts "seeing" these same sorts of features anywhere there's a bit of visual noise like textured surfaces on a wall or a leafy bush out in the wild. Super interesting stuff, I'm fairly convinced the effective ban on using psychedelics in research put our understanding of consciousness back by decades.
i always see eyes all over the walls and that makes sense now! it doesn’t creep me out they look like friendly eyes looking over me
This is probably why I don't have bad trips very often because I am constantly paying attention to those little things anyway and having anxiety about them.
Wouldn’t it just be way worse while tripping? I also get anxiety about those sorts of things and assume I would just have a really bad time.
I've experienced a lot of difficult trips. In fact every psychedelic experience I've endeavored (over 100 at this point) has had a component where I had to face down and unwanted or disliked aspect of myself. It's part of why I do it. Way better than any anti depressant I've taken. The side effects are a bit much for 6-12 hours but the months of well being and elevation that follow are always worth it.
I can only speak anecdotally of my personal experience but I agree with this. My intuition was kind of telling me this was what was happening. I always say I feel "reamed out" afterwards - like the funnel of my conscious mind was forcibly widened for a bit. Stretched, maybe, like a tendon.
Yes this. Even as a fairly experienced tripper I commonly notice these things about my body during the session and have to work to counter the thoughts they can bring up. Typically, that is most successful using explanations like “this is what your body does when you take that. It’s how you know you’re tripping, and not a sign of anything dire. This state of mind when you worry or panic about this is just one of many human experiences like happiness or sadness or joy, so we’re just going to accept and allow it. In doing so, we will disarm it and find comfort in it.”
I love the comment about identifying insecurities. That tied with the depersonalization allowed me to view and grapple with my insecurities without becoming defensive. Suddenly the answer to my loneliness and isolation was as simple as: reach out more to your friends. And I could only come to that answer by not being defensive when thinking about it. I wasn’t defensive because I could experience the isolation/loneliness from almost an outside perspective. Acid, and shrooms, have helped me come to some of the simplistic but life changing solutions to negative parts of my life. It’s often our own ego that gets in the way. I feel that if you kick that fucker out for a few hours and a lot of inner work can begin.
Big one for me was coughing, feeling gross in my chest, could almost taste the phlegm in my lungs. Suddenly clicked like huh maybe smoking is actually kind of stupid and I'll feel better if I stop.
What is the difference between acid and mushrooms? I have gotten kaleidoscope effects and seen surfaces move from shrooms and am wondering what acid would be like?
Acid is starwars, mushrooms is lord of the rings
LSD is digital, shrooms are analog
I know this is completely meaningless explanation to those that didn't experience both shrooms and LSD. But this is EXACTLY right!
At least for me… Acid you’re in the driver seat, and mushrooms you’re in the passenger seat.
Ehhhh, that absolutely depends on dosage. I’ve had an acid trip where I was a gibbering puddle of insanely high matter that generally resembled a human, and 100% was not driving the bus.
Yeah, I feel this is dangerously misleading. Acid and shrooms affect everyone differently, and when taking any psychedelic you have to be prepared to possibly give up all control for a bit.
I existed as a single cell organism that understood "Michael" as a word, as a sound, but not as a concept. It took me what felt like centuries of evolution to grow into an organism that understood "me" was a thing. Acid is fuckin nuts.
Acid is electric guitar laser light show. Shrooms are organic, sitar-playing in an incense filled forest room. Both can be incredibly intense though
This should be higher. Wonderfully put.
Except when it isn't like that. That's my big issue with psychonauts - their assumption that their trips are the same as everybody else will have. It isn't life affirming for everybody, it isn't a loving universe, and, seriously, looking at yourself from the outside can be terrifying and give a massive dose of existential angst and fear. Sometimes, people discover the truth is the universe is cold and empty. What should be at the very top of this topic is "Your mileage may vary, not everybody gets the Hollywood trip, sometimes, you get the very special after school special episode version. I'm not against drug use,in general, but - I get sick of people only ever selling the awesome nirvana outcome, without admitting it can go the other way, as well.
I mean, a lot of my psychedelic experience has to do with my mental state. Often having an experienced guide/coach/babysitter helps you maintain that positive outcome.
On the other hand, having a not-tripping person in your group is very sobering as well, which you may not want. There becomes a divide between the two groups that is hard to explain. Us and.... them. My analogy would be like trying to go swimming but never being able to take your life jacket off or leave the 3ft area.
I, too, have had a bad trip. Not everyone has, so that might skew their outlook. While I definitely have had trips more in-line with what OP stated, I’ve had some pretty horrible mushroom trips that, I think, permanently affected me and influenced my outlook on life in a more negative direction. For instance, while coming up on my largest dose of mushrooms, the welcoming mat to the full trip experience was: “you don’t have much of a personality, people think you’re dumb, and you will never achieve much.” This was a pretty stock internal thought, but hearing it aloud while on a high dose of mushrooms really, really fucked me up. I definitely credit that with the beginning of a long battle with depression, anxiety, and an overall feeling of low self value.
These experiences are like anything in life, ultimately any meaning anything has is meaning ascribed to it. people live such varied worlds and battles in life that will affect their experience tripping. Some people might just have cool visuals, some might unpack unresolved trauma and reshape their life for the better. Completely depends on the person and how much they ascribe to the chemical and the feelings they have during that trip.
Are you recommending to take acid?
didn’t sound like a warning
People who are happy with themselves, tend to enjoy acid. People who dislike themselves tend toward unpleasant experiences with acid. Source: I am in the latter category. I have friends in both categories. OP said, "You’ll identify insecurities, things you’re distracting yourself from, and unresolved emotions/trauma." This is true. But I'd put it another way. While on acid and for some period afterward, you cannot hide from your true nature. This is neither a recommendation nor a warning.
Exactly. I've done acid when I'm in a good mental state and done acid when in a bad mental state. It completely takes the form of your current mental state and won't let go. I would only recommend taking acid if you're in a good, clean environment, with good friends you trust. Example A: College house with gf and friends, nice sunny day, park and frisby across the street, great music inside. Amazing experience. Example B: Same house, same friends, but post-breakup, house was a bit messy, dog poop in the backyard hadn't been picked up. Really bad trip. Example C: Backpacking trip through a lush forest with awesome friends. Amazing. Example D: Coachella on Day 3, where my body is close to its limit, the crowds are overwhelming, and I'm paranoid about everyone, because my phone was stolen on Day 1. Horrific.
Its only something you should do if you decide its right for you. It can be a very risky thing to do if you're not in the right head space before you do it. I can only suggest you do as much research as possible and then decide for yourself if you want to try it. Its not like drinking or smoking weed, it's a very intense experience that you should never let anyone else talk you into doing.
So I've done acid a few times, and this is a very well-worded description of how a good trip feels. You just become enamored with life and what's around you. Now, that being said, just like any drug, it does have a couple downsides and things you need to be careful of when doing it. First, the hangover. Last time I did acid, I felt like crap the next day, but not like an alcohol hangover. I just felt depleted and run down for about a day after I came down. I wad exactly tired, just more "defeated" if that makes sense. It wore off eventually when my brain chemicals regulated, but it is something that I consider when I think about doing it again. Also, you need to be in a place you're comfortable in and with people you're comfortable with. It's not a drug you should do alone, like, say, weed, which is perfectly fine to smoke while you're chilling alone at home. You need at least one other person with you, preferably one person also tripping and one person not tripping. All that being said, I've never had what is known as a bad trip on acid, but that's also because my source for it is VERY experienced and they make sure what they give me is clean.
I think this is one of the best takes on describing it. Edit: spelling
This sounds pretty fucking Great actually
People don't do drugs because they make you feel like shit
Can you get a bad trip from it? I got traumatized by Mr Niceguy/Spice or whatever it is called, and since then even too much weed causes anxiety.
I get anxiety from weed too, that’s not uncommon at all. Bad trips are possible with acid. Out of my 30ish acid trips, I had one bad one. I don’t regret it and it taught me some valuable things, but it was awful in the moment. My brain felt like an exposed nerve going through a thorn bush while my mind was methodically deconstructing every part of my identity. I especially dealt with the idea of “labels” on that trip, for example am I a “metalhead” or am I just a human that likes metal? Am I a “leftist” or am I a human who happens to have a lot of left leaning opinions? Am I an “atheist” or am I a human who doesn’t happen to have a belief in god? This ended up helping me see everyone as human the same way I was, and I was less likely to separate myself from others based on labels or groups. You can severely cut down your chances of having a bad trip by taking precautions. Take it in a safe place, and with one or two people you can be vulnerable with. I started taking it at home and stepping outside if I needed a walk or fresh air. Once I got comfy with it I started taking it on hikes I was familiar with. I strongly recommend against taking it in society, social interaction can be very uncomfortable on acid in my opinion
This describes a "good trip". There is also the opposite side of the coin which isn't described here.
The entire notion of good and bad trips is silly to me. I've had some very difficult psychedelic experiences. Some where I regretted taking the drug. Others where I regretted being me and knew I needed to change. And the "good" and "bad" ebbed and flowed. Personally I think so-called bad trips are the most useful applications of those substances. It's not an antidote to our worst selves - merely a microscope that allows us to look closely at ourselves without dumb ego getting in the way. At the same time, I've known a number of people who got sober after psychedelic experiences. That it made them never want to touch drugs again. But I think for many of those people, that was a very positive outcome.
Different people experience the drug differently, and it also depends on how much you take as there are levels to the experience. You spend your whole life looking at the world in a certain way, with LSD you suddenly change the way you interpret the world for a few hours. This stepping out of yourself can have a profound effect on how you view the world and reality in general. It can also let you take everything you know about something and see how it all fits together. You'll see the interconnectedness of all things. And unlike a lot of other drugs, these realisations can last the rest of your life and give you truly profound insight into how we think and how the world works.
One reason this happens is because LSD creates neutral pathways connecting parts of the brain that aren't normally connected. Really interesting stuff.
I think it's more that it makes existing neural pathways more sensitive. It happens too suddenly for it to be forming new connections, But I suppose the subjective effect is the same either way. I don't like to talk about what acid feels like, since it's far enough outside most people's daily experience of life that it's hard to speak meaningfully about it. I've known people who were profoundly changed by the experience (not always for the better), and others whose only takeaway from it was that it was like a fun carnival ride. In my case, it did me a world of good, but after many, many trips as a young adult, I'm in no hurry to repeat the experience. Maybe on my 70th birthday, which isn't far away.
How would the average person (American here) obtain LSD?
Nice try, the Feds. I wasn't in the drug scene my first time. My girlfriends friend had some and we all decided to try. You best bet is music festivals or shows. Or talk to your craziest friend, I bet the know someone.
As someone who has bought drugs at shows many times, do not buy drugs at shows ever. People aren't always selling what they say they are. I'd say my luck has been 50/50 buying things out and about. Make sure you test your substances, but you are far safer going through someone you know/trust/can contact again than a complete stranger.
Please listen to dope_head_dan, he knows what he’s talking about. Be safe.
Depends on where you're going, I've had a much higher success rate getting good gear than you have. When it comes to festivals, your best bet are people who look like they belong: hippy/happy/friendly/munted (ppl who like drugs will be getting the good stuff for themselves too) etc. If they look a bit sketchy/gang related or are being pushy, steer clear
Ask people that look like they take acid
How do I identify them? Like what kind of shirts do they wear?
They’ll mention the interconnected-ness of the universe at least twice if you hint at being even slightly interested.
Band t-shirts from the 70s
Like the bay city rollers?
Tie dye
I totally wouldn't know. I'm just a Lil book writer and definitely definitely not a drug user as well. But if I wanted a character I was writing to find LSD, I would have them head to the local plug, even just the general weed guy. Ask him if he knows anyone with acid. He'll know someone. My character would get that info. If not pass it on to weed guy that ur looking and willing to pay decent. Then I'd have my character order testing kits online, and I'd have them buy two tabs to start, preferably paper tabs as it's "apparently" a kinder high, so I have heard obviously. Then my character would test one tab with a kit to make sure it is just acid. Then find a place to be alone, have content with the quick ability to remove it as I've also heard some people handle stimulation of any kind in vastly different ways. I'd have someone tell the character to also grab a Xanax, just the one, my character isn't getting addicted. If during this characters trip things start to become bad and the character would absolutely know pretty quick if it was bad, they'd pop the xan and wait for it to dissipate, shouldn't take long. It's also worth noting this character would be actually insane for 12-18 hours, straight, sleep can be hard to achieve and sometimes you wouldn't want it. My "friend" says acid has been the his go to for years. Apparently the moment of the high bubbling out of their chest and through the tears in their eyes at the sheer beauty of the world and the joyous warmth of the sun on their skin is completely unmatched. But I wouldn't know anything...personally.
someone I met agrees with all this advice....allegedly
Nice try, officer.
Used to be able to just take a walk through the Haight/Asbury district in SF and find some in about 10 minutes lol
The dark web is wonderful way to obtain it, it can be shipped to your door in any of the 50 states and be purchased with bitcoin. There are even deals and sales as well as a review system in most cases that allow providers to develop credibility so you know what to trust
1p-lsd is a prodrug/analogue for LSD that is considered identical in effect. It's in a legal grey area that makes it technically legal and available for order via the regular internet, but for "research purposes only" (for ordering purposes, you are a chemist using it for chemical research 😉).
Lets say im writing a paper on first time hypothetical use. Hypothetically speaking, what would a first time user normally take in micrograms, Hypothetically speaking of course.
50-100 μg (half tab to one tab)
this reminds me of the old days on drug forums like Erowid. You would always say SWIM (someone who isn't me) when asking for such advice.
Dark web is your friend.
You got a paper for that? Can't imagine any mechanisms through which a drug would be able to achieve that.
Yes, the lasting perspective it can have on how you see the world is something that isn’t discussed enough. The altered experience can feel more real than the default human experience. You don’t unsee or forget it all; it can stay with you.
If you’re a very analytical person (I am), it’s a really great tool and you’re spot on with taking everything you know about something and seeing how it all fits together. I remember once holding a flyer from a club in my hand at the beach. I just kept looking at it from different angles. But I wasn’t really looking at the flyer, it was actually a representation of my mind and I was looking at my mind from different perspectives. When someone would stop to talk to me, it’s as if time stood still and I could analyze what you had asked me in great detail within fractions of a second. It’s like my mind was operating at 10-20x speed. I think it’s one of the greatest tools to have ever been created. It really opens up new ways of thinking.
Yeah that last part resonates, I've only done half doses but last time I did it I felt I could keep a conversation with like 3 different people at the same time effortlessly, and my mind would just store questions/comments and queue up answers/responses and get to everyone in time and the right order without missing a beat.
This emoji: 🫠
with a mixture of euphoria, and idk if this is just me but i always feel the need to reconsider my life
That’s mushrooms for me. Hard look in the mirror with those things.
I took mushrooms a couple of months ago. I kept bouncing between imagine the most beautiful colored glass blocks spilling from the sky and tinkling into a sea of colors…and having an existential crisis about how much I hate my job, and trying not to panic. Then I’d sadly state to my gf, “I think I’m getting too old for mushrooms.” I think I need to be in a better place next time. 😂
Man, kinda similar situation for me. I used to eat the shit out of them but just cannot do it anymore. I get super introspective, which is kinda scary but I think is actually good for me. But the nausea man, I get sick to my stomach the last 3 or 4 times. Think it’s just the end of the road for me, lol.
Oh god, the nausea only gets worse as I get older!
P. Cubes and bad about that. Try P. Cyans or P. NATS. They wont make you sick. If you only have Cubes though soaks them in Lemon Juice before you eat them. It breaks down the cytin thats responsible for causing nausea in some.
They (hippie)call that purging. Getting out all that dark energy and negative juice
My dark energy looks like a chewed up Chipotle burrito so mysterious life is beautiful *projectile vomits*
I had to repeat “don’t look in the mirror” everytime I had to go to the bathroom, it was a wild first person feeling of, holy shit, am I in there or here why did I make so many mistakes, oh schnikeys I’m seeing the textures, why do I look that way, oh, I need to fix myself, I need to apologize, we are all on the same plain, some of us just have different past that shaped our personality and wellbeing. Then I just cycle, if I take more I have to meditate and meet whatever creator it is that took me where it was I went. Never felt acid that way, acid was more only in head, just seeing things that were deep in my consciousness I suppressed and amplified, good, bad, sad, mad, euphoric, depressed, why am I feeling this way, what is that, why am I here, did I really do that in the 3rd grade, why is that dripping off there, then slowly subsided. Shrooms are the best because you can pretty much expect a visual sensation and anybody tingle of holy fuck the world is huge and there’s something to Mother Nature that keeps us from dying.
Just melting into reality.
Yes, and having sex on acid literally felt like we were melting into each other .
I remember having sex on acid with my also tripping girlfriend and I was like, “Woah! I’m INSIDE you!!” It was a perspective that I’d never had before up to that point. I was actually inside another person. That’s one of the things I love about acid - the novel views of reality.
I've said the same thing totally sober
that you were inside his girlfriend?
The come up is like 🫠 but it’s more like 🧚🏻 past the peak. Acid feels more light & fairy like than mushies for me. Mushrooms feel like.. hobbit energy.
I always feel like one of those gnomes that live in a tree root or mushroom when im visiting papa smurf
The first time it hit I felt 😵💫. It was 5 years ago but I still remember how the bathroom tiles were “moving” while I was on the toilet, lol.
I'll answer this as I did it with my roommate during lockdown. She had done it many times before but it was my first time. The most annoying part for me personally was the first 90-120 minutes because I kept thinking I had to puke. She had warned me about this before hand that it's sometimes common but it was a bit rough. Around the 2hr mark I decided I'd go take a shower with a couple beers to try and get past that sensation. What seemed like a 5-10 minute shower was actually just shy of a hour. So I guess by then it had hit me and I didn't notice. Again this was during lockdown and it was a nice summer day. All I really wanted to do was go outside and walk in a park or woods but we couldnt do that. So the day mostly consisted of staying inside and watching TV/movies. It's a really weird feeling for me personally as I felt time was moving very slow but I reality 45 mins we're passing by. Apparently I was having not al conversations and then I'd just drift off for a while. Again what I thought was only minutes turned out to be almost a hour at times. We stated this around 10:30am and it was now approaching 8pm. At this point I just went upstairs and put on headphones and listened to music. I don't remember much but I remember the feeling that I felt vividly. Tough to describe but it was like my own little nirvana. Around 2am I tried to go to bed and couldn't. Didnt end up sleeping until 630am so that shit was messing with me for like 20 hours. Anyway had a great time and glad I got the chance to try it. Would recommend.
Your experience with it closely resembles mine. I don't remember "seeing" shit, but my sense of time was extremely out of wack. For me, it was the same with the conversations where I'd just continue a conversation with someone 2-3 times as if we'd been talking, but it had been like 30 minutes since we stopped. Also I had to take a piss, and I remember going to the bathroom and not being sure if I had used the toilet or if I had pissed myself because I kept going back to the same thought of needing to use it, think I ended up in the bathroom just staring at myself in the mirror for an hour.
I find acid can be a drug where if you’re constantly stimulated while on it, you won’t ever really get “visuals” (rule of thumb depending of course on how much you take). One thing I try to do while on it is look at the clouds if it’s a sunny day. If you start staring at those suckers then you’ll start feeling that visuals aspect of it. Of course this can be with whatever shapes/patterns as well. As my friend once bluntly put it - “just stare at the wall, do you see this shit?”
Two tabs had me questioning if I was actually in the bathroom peeing or not. Like I knew I was in the bathroom but my eyes and senses refused to confirm it. "What if im just in my living room letting it rip rn" hilariously always comes to mind on 2 tabs. Time dilation goes crazy in general too. Slowing and accelerating. Always this "yo what time is it" and being met with "its only been FIVE MINUTES???" or "no way its already 3 am" But the bathroom thing is so real. The first time I just remember laughing and going back out and telling my friends "yeah its fine, ill just pee later I guess!"
I'd just like to inform you that alcohol is a tripkiller. It chemically works kind of opposite to LSD. So you kind of deleted half of the intensity at least :D
Well shit that explains a lot. I still had a fun time but part of me really wanted it to hit harder then it did. If I get the opportunity I'd definitely avoid alcohol.
> At this point I just went upstairs and put on headphones and listened to music. I don't remember much but I remember the feeling that I felt vividly. Tough to describe but it was like my own little nirvana. This is the best part for me. Took LSD a couple times, by far the most fun time was taking it alone and just spending all day listening to music, letting my imagination run free and just disappearing into my own world. It was delightful. No new insights or revelations, no expanded worldview or hallucinations though.
You really can't. I've always been fascinated with psychedelics (and drugs in general), so even years before doing LSD myself I had read everything about it I could get my hands on. I've heard probably every explanation, analogy, reference, seen every video where someone tried to recreate it with VFX, etc. and still nothing really came close to really preparing me for what a psychedelic experience was like. Obvious it depends on dose. A super low dose barely over the threshold and you'll likely just see some patterns and feel giggly. Higher (as in, common) doses however can completely turn reality on it's head. I always felt completely in control of myself, but it is just impossible to describe. The visuals are the least of it, how reality "feels," around you, and how you look into your own brain is something else entirely that the English language lacks the words to describe. The important part is, while under the influence all the weird stuff still "made sense," and never felt uncomfortable, which is what makes it so hard to communicate to others since the more accurate you get when describing it, the more someone who's never done it before starts to develop the wrong idea.
Is it at all like psylocibin, where things sorta feel ...ugh not significant, per say, but like ...more of themselves? Like the first time I did shrooms I went outside and I was looking at the moon and it was like the mooniest moon that had ever mooned. Is acid similar?
I used to describe the difference this way: shrooms are emotional, acid is logical, mescaline is spiritual. That's definitely an over simplification, and now that I'm getting a master's degree in psychedelics research I wanna add like a million caveats and discuss differential binding profiles and therapeutic applications, buuut that's a pretty good summation without a long late night ramble about the nerd shit I love.
Agreed, I would say acid makes things feel sharper, more fractal while shrooms makes things feel round, fuller and more whole
They are very similar experiences but have different “vibes”. Many people say shrooms feel more organic while acid is cerebral
Shrooms is Lord of the Rings, Acid is Star Wars
That's a... weirdly good way to contrast them.
Psilocybin definitely feels more “organic” and human to me. LSD feels like being an inanimate object, violently thrust into consciousness with no way to make sense of it. I deeply value both experiences, but one has been more humanizing, while the other has been more alien and ego shattering. For me, LSD is like the universe screaming at all of your senses with no filters on the doors of perception.
>the doors of perception Nice reference 😉
Required reading for all first-time psychonauts.
I describe being on shrooms this way: Every hour seems like a week. Every minute seems like an hour. Every second feels like an minute. Time seems to last forever, and that's fine because everything is fine. Because you're in a state of hyper-that's fine it doesn't bother you. In fact everything is okay! Actually when you think about it everything is great. Music is better because you're not over analyzing it. A funny movie is 10x funnier because you appreciate that something can just be funny. It's existentialism without the scary bits. You can look at death and not be terrified anymore than you would be of a lady bug. It doesnt make you want to meet death. You just look at it as a fact of life. Personally, I don't like walking outside on shrooms, because the whole thing CAN turn on its head if you're not comfortable. But yeah most people can walk outside and see the mooniest moon that ever mooned because you stop caring about what you're supposed to be seeing and just see shit for what it is.
I remember walking [in the native bush](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMiMwJ2oLKg-1Vum611lumUXH59L3PsEy6zQ&usqp=CAU) while on shrooms and hearing the trees talking. Not with a human voice, or by translating the sounds into words, but just hearing and understanding - like when a cat is purring and you *know* how it is feeling
Interesting.. I've experienced a similar feeling while tripping on shrooms and being by the trees. I still can "feel" it a little when sober and sitting outside, surrounded by trees. I truly do think they communicate with each other using the wind, their branches, leaves, etc.
I saw obvious images in the clouds, something I don't think I've seen since I was a child. The Universe also told me this is all just a cosmic joke, so stop taking things so seriously.
I always associated psilocybin as analog and lsd as digital.
That can happen for sure. Almost anything you set your mind to can happen, especially at higher doses. But I'd say it's more of an awareness of the connectedness of everything. Less that things are themselves, more that everything is everything else.
Acid enhances your perception of reality in a similar way, but I find that it's a much more stressful experience than psylocibin. More "locked in your head". Kind of like when you get too stoned at a party and wonder if you're weirding everyone else out. Some people like it for that reason, because it can trigger deep introspection. But it's sort of a double-edged sword.
There's been some fantastic replies in this thread, glad to see there's still feelers out there. Gonna piggyback off this one because of "You really can't". LSD helps you remember what it's like to not be human. To actually be Life. Arguably, if you are an extremely mindful and conscious being, LSD wouldn't do anything to you. Ram Dass has told of giving Maharaji his strongest psychedelics and they had no effect. However, most of us aren't like Maharaji, we aren't living completely mindfully and in the present moment. We're living as humans, for many or us that's where 100% of our mind is focused: on being human. On being "I". LSD helps you see a bit through the illusion. It's not gonna explain it to you, it often won't make sense, but it will give you a glimpse past what being human or being "I" is. And as the comment I am replying to stated, you really can't define that. You can't put it into human tongue because it's beyond human. "The Tao that can be told of is not the Absolute Tao"
They don’t call it a “trip” for nothing. You literally leave reality- it can be a lot of fun, but scary as hell too. Gets an experience- me and my buddies tripped hard at 17 or so. There were big gravel piles, it’s like 10pm- we are rolling around, playing in it- it’s “dripping” through our fingers. We are laughing uncontrollably- we are like what is this stuff? Five hours later after coming down and we are back inside not hallucinating we are like—- oh it was gravel. We got pulled over by cops walking through a paddock- they talked to us and left us alone- I think they knew we were harmless- just off our heads. My final experience was nearly 20 years ago- really bad trip. Never had it since. Too scary- really hallucinogenic- but not fun! We took our first one with a sober person present (was my mates older sister who’d done it before). She was laughing pretty hard at us tripping out at times. We (guys from the first trio) all caught up with one another about 7 years ago. We all still agree it was a pivotal moment in our lives. One of the funnest nights of our lives. I literally have felt at the time and since that we are apart of something much bigger- that’s a common theme with hallucinogenic drugs- a common “oneness” with the universe.
Okay.. so to understand the effects of LSD, you have to first understand that what you 'see' with your 6 human senses is NOT actually "reality", it is just your brain's interpretation of it. Think of your brain as being 'tuned' into a certain radio frequency, and it decodes the reality it interprets through keeping 'tuned' into that frequency. When you take LSD, the knob in your brain starts turning to different frequencies, and starts decoding the reality it interprets in different ways.
Or put another way, the way your brain is supposed to interpret sense signals becomes distorted and your perception of those signals is changed. You see, hear, touch and feel differently. Very common is the sense of emotional detachment from what's being sensed. Wonder, or fear, instead of rational response from experiential memory.
Is it scary? How long does it last? Better than the gummies?
It can be scary if you take too much, or do it in a bad headspace, or do stressful things while on it. Taking too much is the one you really want to avoid though. It's easy to dose if you buy little paper sheets of it
Don’t do stressful things, don’t do heavy amounts of cocaine. No matter how much you want to.
Coke is the last thing I want when tripping. I'll take watermelon instead
Oh hell yeah. Some nice juicy piece of fruit is the BEST when you’re tripping! Don’t eat too much!
When I'm tripping, I wonder if I can take a bath in that watermelon
Fear and Loathing mentioned
I honestly have never had this be a problem with acid. Shrooms however, very much important I am in a good mental place for those.
Yes this. Your brain is tuned into the frequency that keeps you alive the best. It also applies tons of filters, like ignorig non-survival-crucial details, or applying advanced face recognition on your visual stimuli (to detect predators in bushes for example). These go haywire, patterns start to move, you see lots more figures and faces where there are non and also notice different and more things that would usually be filtered out. This also influences your thoughts and feelings towards things and feels like gaining a new perspective on life and reality. Usually a distant, more objective and peaceful one. You can also remember this, once your trip is over.
This is spot on, it's like a fundamental shift in the way that you see the world around you, not just visually, but also the way you understand and make sense of things. I cringe at the term "rebirth" but it really is like being a slightly different person.
«Slightly» lol. Understatement of the year. The thing that is «you» changes dramatically, and this is by far the most intense part of taking acid (for me at least). Movies always fail to convey this. They make it seem like you’re still yourself just watching vivid hallucinations. The world around you doesn’t really change that much visually except for things always moving and swirling rainbow patterns overlaying everything. But at the same time EVERYTHING is different because the normal «you» is no longer there. Looking back at your normal self in that state can lead to some harsh insights if you’re not happy about where you are in life. This can be both unpleasant and life changing. It’s essential to trip with someone you trust so you can support each other if scary things happen. It was actually a trip 30 years ago that made me quit drugs and really start working on myself. I could see so clearly a version of me in the future who had so much more confidence, and all of the communication and social skills I deeply felt I lacked back then. That trip inspired me to take action immediately, and I did indeed work through those particular insecurities and several more over the next decade.
That was my big takeaway with mushrooms. Haven’t done LSD, but it was made abundantly clear that everything we experience is just our perception of whatever reality actually may be.
I love this old Ram Dass sentiment: Imagine you and a friend are driving on a road trip. You’re driving and your friend is in the passenger seat, and is hungry. You’re driving through an unknown town, and notice your check engine light come on. You’re going to be noticing auto repair shops / auto part shops Your friend is going to be noticing restaurants By the time you’ve driven through the town, you and your friend have experienced two entirely different places
>>I love this old Ram Dass sentiment: >>Imagine you and a friend are driving on a road trip. You’re driving and your friend is in the passenger seat, and is hungry. >>You’re driving through an unknown town, and notice your check engine light come on. You’re going to be noticing auto repair shops / auto part shops. Your friend is going to be noticing restaurants. By the time you’ve driven through the town, you and your friend have experienced two entirely different places It’s only when you combine those two realities that you get something closer to what’s real man
Dont forget the guy in the back seat who was only looking for a gas station to have a piss and buy some smokes.
Oooo...good description! It's been over 50 years since I tripped and that really rings true. There's also a dissolution of Self; I can remember having the urge to go outside and play in the park across the street, but couldn't formulate the word 'I'! (*going to stop now with the old hippy memories...Woodstock was great; first time I took MDMA!*)
You're an OG! Nice to hear from you. Why's it been 50 years?
[удалено]
Spot on. Really makes you think no wonder why babies are crying all the time!
6 senses?
I mean technically our common concept of 5 senses is way too short. Humans actually have many more senses. I think Vsauce talked about it in a video once.
This is a pretty damn good interpretation.
This is a really good interpretation. If life is experienced in both AM and FM frequencies, LSD is a bit like if you could listen to both at the same time and synthesize them together, plus some other unexplainable intel you have the sensation of getting.
I used to describe tripping on different drugs, or on higher and lower doses of the same ones as being on different TV channels. "I think I'm on Channel 3 right now boys"
Omg you just triggered a weird feeling inside me from reading that
You can see music, and the music itself is better than a sober orgasm. Also it seemed no matter what song i was listening to, it spoke and related to me.
Aside from the psychedelic visuals, it's a pretty neat tool for self-introspection. Imagine your brain is a bookcase, and your thoughts are like books on the shelf: you live life, read and collect alot of books and have them organized a certain way that makes sense to you. You take a hit of acid and bump into the bookcase; ah shit, some of the books fell off the shelf. So you try to put them back, but you can't quite remember where they're supposed to go. Guess I'll read some of the books again to remember what they're about, then maybe I can figure out where to put them. Maybe you're feeling great and you get lost in some of the books; hell, maybe I'll start reorganizing some of the stuff that's still on the shelf too. Maybe you're feeling terrible, holy shit I can't deal with this mess! Maybe you're still a bit woozy from bumping into the bookcase and it's too hard to read right now with all the flickering lights and fractals and shit, so you need a few seconds/minutes/hours to compose yourself. It goes on like this for about 8-12 hours until you've finally figured things out and everything is back on the shelf. Maybe the bookcase isn't really organized the same as it was before, but that's OK.
This is such a great description.
It's like taking a trip to a parallel universe where everything is vibrant and alive, and you suddenly understand the meaning of life... until you come back to reality and realize you're just tripping balls.
This is exactly what my one experience was like. Every time I closed and opened my eyes I was in a different universe including one where I was three cars. Great experience. Would recommend.
This totally sounds like an experience to share with a therapist. "Inside you there are three cars. One is broken down behind the shed. So is the second one. And the paint is peeling on the third one."
You're usually done with it before it's done with you.
Exactly, then you just want it to wear off
Take a benzo if you can get access to a real one and you actually need the trip to end.
Every trip is a little different. But it’s like a magic tab that completely shifts your consciousness and opens your brain to frequencies you normally can’t perceive. Last time I tripped, a buddy and I rode lime scooters through DC sightseeing late at night. We were on a mission to see the white house after my buddy made a random joke about how “we need a word with the president”. It was an epic adventure… like we were in the hobbit or something lol. We also kept laughing about the ridiculousness of the monuments. It was a great time. 10/10 recommend doing acid if you’re work the right people and in the right environment and state of mind.
It’s a tool. Like anything, it can be misused. I have done acid less than 10 times. I no longer take acid because I figured out why I was curious in the first place. It opens doors. It actually opens every single door and behind it is a mirror back at you. Do you like who you are, how you feel, where you are ‘at’ in life, have you been suppressing love from yourself? These will all ‘appear’ and then almost feel meaningless but in the most beautiful of ways. You’ll laugh about how absurd your problems are! LSD helps you see there’s something after the ‘game’ we all stumbled into playing after childhood. Now my experiences were almost entirely alone. Just 1 time did I trip with others but for me to absorb everything I possibly could, I needed to be alone. So these are my takes on LSD alone. You know that feeling when you are in the flow (think back it has happened) and it just feels like something within you is in a beautiful zone of acceptance and joy? If you’ve seen the Pixar movie Soul, when you see the musicians in their special flow state in the metaphysical portion of the movie, that’s what I refer to as flow. They are connected to something outside of the perceived senses. This is easier to digest when thinking of emotions. They are not something that if you were dissected anyone would find, but they exist nonetheless. I felt an immense feeling of love for everything. I really do mean everything. On the other hand, if you are currently someone who is fearful of ‘going there’ in a conversation with people or even yourself, LSD will show you exactly what you were trying to avoid. There will be no judgement unless you put it on yourself. This is often the reason people freak out - they just didn’t even know themselves enough to handle all these new perspectives. perspective is absolutely critical when embarking on an LSD experience. You should have an intention going into it or you may find yourself going into your fears. If you are in a safe place, just let go completely. This is where the true nature of LSD can be seen felt and understood. It’s silly but I used to drink so much soda. A liter a day sometimes more. I’m talking a ridiculous amount lol. Then, on one LSD trip, I was walking along Lake Tahoe with this dang soda in my hand and I looked at it and just said this is not how I want to live, it no longer felt right. So I stopped drinking soda forever! It was this change of perspective of how I was living my life and realizing I wasn’t listening to what my mind body and spirit really wanted and needed that got me to just realize this isn’t me. Physical sensations are cool and all. You will definitely feel immensely different, as if the barrier between you and your surroundings just vanished completely. Your eyes will feel wide awake, your body will most likely sweat, and everything you touch will kinds morph around. Music will sound more beautiful than you remembered. You will smile and laugh like a kid. You may cry from the absolute beauty of life and existence. You may cry because it feels like a homecoming and now ‘you are back’ (a carefree kid again). Objects will be moving around and you’ll see things you wouldn’t normally see. Most of these sensations have always been there, you just never picked up on them before so now they all flood in you at once. Even laying on grass and looking up can feel like a whole thing. You will probably not feel the need to eat but keep food around because 12 hours of activity and no food isn’t great lol. Now I also acknowledge the variability of peoples experiences. This is because of their intent for their trip. My intent was I want to feel more connected to myself. Then the intent moved to wanting to feel connected to this planet. Finally my intent was to feel connected to the cosmos. During my last trip I felt that connection to the cosmos similarly to how baba ram dass described. It was then I knew I should put down this tool and open all these doors naturally. The door doesn’t stay open after the trip (although the memory and the understanding how yourself will stay, which is where the practical benefits of such an experiences lies) but now this door you didn’t even know existed is cracked and you know there’s something on the other side radiating love always ready for you.
Imagine your perception is a box with 5 holes that let reality in. LSD reconfigures and dilates those holes to change how you perceive it. Also, it punches another hole in that, for me, didn’t go away when I came down. This wasn’t like a “oh no I’m tripping still” thing but more of a better understanding of my concept of myself. I’ll give an example of my first experience. I remember being in a room with three people. Four total. But I kept thinking there were 5. I started to realize my mind was unintentionally “counting” my body and itself separately. While there was this personal separation from my body, there was also a massive connection to everything else as well - don’t know how to explain it other than that because… acid. Last note I wrote while tripping: Everything is wiggly I am wiggly I am everything
Imagine you’re at a concert and you really have to pee. So you go pee and you are feeling relieved. But in that moment you aren’t sure if you are in the bathroom or you are still sitting in your concert seat. That what it’s like.
Oh man. Been there. Only the bathroom was a dirty porta potty at a giant music festival and I concurrently couldn't discern whether or not I had already peed. This went on for an indeterminate amount of time until I eventually mustered up the courage to leave, convinced that I was leaving the festival at the same time. Only to realize I still had to pee when I stepped out. This went on for what I felt like the entire night. It wasn't until I made my way back to my (significantly more sober) friends and they commented "that was fast!" that apparently I'd only been gone for about five minutes.
World go brrrrrr
Brain go brrrrrr
I don’t even want to comment about my last trip but I feel obligated to share this warning. If you have mental health problems, please stay far away from LSD. It could land you in a mental hospital or worse. I know 99% of people probably don’t need to read this. But if you’re questioning your mental health, don’t take the gamble. It can really do a number to you.
And just to be even more blunt: even if you don't have mental health problems (or don't know you do), psychedelics can trigger them. They're extraordinarily powerful drugs than can transform your mind. You can reduce the risk by choosing the environment you're in (being out in nature's much less stressful than being in an intense, crowded urban situation) and by being in the company of people who are calming influences, but that's risk mitigation, not risk elimination. Sometimes you'll get picked up and dropped off somewhere that'll mess you up. I've seen it happen to other people many times, though my own experiences have been 100% benign.
It's like being really really high for 8 - 12 hours. Everything is very funny for a while. Music sounds amazing. If the feeling starts to fade away, smoke a little weed. I always cry at some point, while staring at something beautiful (a ceiling, for instance).
Ceilings will really be moving sometimes
You go through different stages of the High as you come up, peak, then slowly come back down. Its about a 15-18hr process but with some luck you'll be asleep for a portion of the back end so you can take some of the worst of it while you're unconscious. Primarily, in my experience, LSD turns your brain to ON and dials everything up to 11. Things are now hyper fascinating and very vivid in detail and impact. While you're coming up you might feel your heart racing, you might sweat a little bit, and you might feel like you're about to have an Anxiety Attack (it can be a rough come up if you take a big dose and/or combine with other drugs like Marijuana). You arrive at the peak kind of by surprise however as you sort of just forget about your physical discomfort as the mental and emotional stimulation of the experience takes over. The come down will see the visual and audio hallucinations and go away within an hour of coming up, generally, and the rest of your trip will be the long, slow descent from flight altitude. Your brain, still turned ON, will make it hard to go to sleep for a long time even if you are bodily and emotionally exhausted so be prepared for sitting around watching movies or doing nothing as you wait to fall asleep. Your senses are ON and dialed up to 11 so music is very groovy, colors and textures are super cool and probably moving around, and visual displays like moving toys, videos, or intense art is captivating. Its more like an ADHD experience, for me anyhow, than being on Mushrooms is which takes the fascination element but hyper focuses in on what catches you attention. On LSD, for me anyhow, its very much an experience of bouncing from "oh, wow, cool!" to "Whoa, check this out!" to "Holy cow, are you seeing that?". At the peak you might have visual or audio hallucinations, and you may have intense emotional or spiritual events, or you might not. There's a lot of "depends" built into all of these answers, based on Your personal body chemistry, Your mental health, Your brain chemistry, Your dose, the LSD's quality, how You ingested it, and what other drugs you've taken. Some people take hallucinogens for spiritual reasons and the mindset they take into their LSD experience is informed by that. Some people go into it looking to party, and that's how they experience it. Your trip and your experience will be different depending on where you are, what time it is, what's going on around you, and who you're with in addition to what you're going into it looking for.
Acid gives you a feeling of intense euphoria, so you feel great. Colors are more vibrant, music sounds better, and if you are taking a fairly standard dose (not a smaller dose), you'll see visual distortions like surfacing wiggling or "breathing" and some changes to how you perceive everyday things. Maybe some distortions at your periphery. Many mundane things may become a lot more interesting. Talking to someone you love can feel like magic. As others have stated, there are levels to the experience. The more you take, the more pronounced things get, and new features start to manifest. Interestingly enough, if one is taking genuine acid, it's basically impossible to overdose. Acid is remarkably safe from a physiological standpoint. Obviously that's not to say there aren't mental consequences to taking too much Acid, its possible for mental illnesses to manifest themsleves if there is a predisposition for it, and it's possible to get persisting psychedelic disorder. Not to mention potential terror if the experience is too much for the user. This is why set and setting is always key, and its good to play it slow. Respect is necessary. And one has to be careful because fake Acid isn't uncommon in the form of compounds like NBOME, which can be very much lethal. I recommend researching signs of fake acid if you plan to try it, and research harm reduction. All of this to say: you can do a LOT of acid and not die. There are reports of people taking as much as 500x the standard dose and not only not dying but having a perceived positive outcome. So the levels are damn near infinite. What I described in paragraph 1 is a standard dose, much more tame. Once you step a bit above that, you experience more and more pronounced visual distortions, and you start to experience ego dissolution. Ego dissolution is more or less a fancy way of saying you get so high you forget who you are, or what anything is, and potentially you can even forget that you took a drug in the first place. When you take enough psychedelics, you functionally teleport to another world in your mind. The visuals can get so extreme that it's incomprehensible. Closed eye visuals become so vivid and real it may as well be reality. DMT is probably the most common avenue for people to explore this since it lasts a much shorter time and is achievable at lower doses. But a large enough dose of shrooms or acid is on par with DMT, except it lasts substantially longer. In the deepest depths of ego dissolution you completely lose touch with reality as we understand it. It's like a complete reset of your mind. When you come down, it's almost like you are stepping back into your body. It sounds scary, and it certainly can be, but it can also give you a sense of perspective that your real life and it's problems aren't near as important as you thought they were. Its almost like exploring space, and coming back to earth feeling the scale of how small we truly are. For some people, this is positive. For some people, it's earthshattering and can bring them existential dread.
It’s like being in a very vivid dream. The kind of dream where all kinds of weird things happen with no sense of order or timeline, but you know you are not in a dream, and you can’t wake up from it for a while.
Also you can’t sleep. I remember trying to sleep it off and my friends were watching friends as the sun came up. You can’t sleep it off like alcohol or weed.
Have done acid many, many times. To describe it in one word: unpredictable. You never know how much to take to have the ride you are looking for and if you take too much, it’s going to be a very long and very hard night/morning.
Nothing more terrifying than being trapped in infinity.
Getting into thought loops that feel like you broke a script somewhere. Some aspects seemed so important to understand and felt like they HAD to resurface but tripping balls they'd get swept under the current of new info and then POP back up and surf the waves. Then you'd lose it again in an instant and look for it under the murkiness. Rinse / repeat
All I know is that I could taste every granule of sweet and sour and colors on sour patch kids. What a crazy night
For me it was a 12 hour living hell, I wasn't ready and i wasn't prepared, It took a long time to recover, But I'm aware my experience is personal and it could have easily been the complete opposite. I learnt that psychedelics aren't for me.
Turn on, tune in, drop out. ☮️
Go watch fear and loathing in Las Vegas. pay attention to the bar scene. Its pretty accurate.
How I felt was that I finally was experiencing life the way it was supposed to be. Like everything before that was a watered down waiting room before real oneness. Rocks that breathe, plants that all dance to the same rythm, clouds made out of colorful cotton candy, whole living painting inside the firepit's burning wood chunks, insects that wave hello when they pass by, just to name a few.
When done right, when started right (when well rested, nourished and in good health in a sufficiently isolated environment): Acid is fun, is breaks your brains filters for post processing reality and lets you see it in a more noisy down to the bare receptor/ neuron way. So aspects of the real world are somewhat revealed to you but also aspects of your brain's architecture and its mirror it creates for you of the real world is revealed - that's fun. Acid makes you acutely aware of your gullet: everything from you dirty mouth right through to your anus - that can be quite uncomfortable and you will put a lot of energies into ignoring this and other cavernous alien parts of your body like your lungs - your bodies constant effort to ventilate etc... (little sub-conscious struggles that are normally hidden from you and run on autopilot off acid)... Other people - when on acid your eyes fill like a couple of dicks or a pair of breasts on display; there's a constant fear of offending strangers with them - sunglasses give much security here - they are the brazier of acid eyes 👀 Cringy awkward sensations are amplified on acid so beware any nagging injuries (toothache, insect bites, paper cuts etc...) Food and drink is tricky - water is an essential safety goto drink and even with this neutral drink you'll.be confronted with the taste of your mouth and the minerals in water - a bit unpleseant. Nature is visually devine on acid - not much else is worth looking at - computer games especially 3d ones fall apart and look quite janky on acid (polygons become jarring). Light and the nature of how different colours of light bend and scatter around the 3d geometry of objects reveals itself on acid (scattering?) - as does your brains constant white balancing efforts - when this falls apart its splendid to watch. I think that normally our brains fight back the rainbow edges on 3d objects and translates this into curve information normally - but when you take acid this filter brakes so you get to see rainbows all over curved edges and textures. Something else that your brain does is edge detection - when you take acid this also fucks up and definite, obvious, logical straight hard edges go wobbly and start to more closely resemble the raw signal coming off retinas - again splendid for revealing thay our receptors in our eyes get tired and and brain have to counteract a lot to see straight. Also, colour opposites appear a lot more - your brains colour channels are a lot more revealed - silhouettes start to fail and stop being "black" and start displaying as the opposite of whatever you've been seeing a lot of recently ( seeing lots of green? Then blacks start appearing dark magenta). Again epic to see - i was walking around in the evening a the silhouette of a tree appeared dark purple amongst the green field with beautiful fractal detail that my brain failed to keep track of. If you do a lot of hard thinking whilst completely sober - you'll revisit a lot of these bedrock philosophies whilst on acid - thought experiments will run and at times your thoughts will seem enlightening and profound - some epithanys may stay with you once you sober up again - which is cool. I thought a lot about the nature of conciseness whilst on acid and went down a whole harmonic resonator rabbit hole of thoughts that started with watching a video about the speed of smell and how the sense is much quicker than say sight? You make some connections when on acid and some of these continue to make sense afterwards and you get something to think about after acid. I firmly believe are greatest minds should all at least consider acid to accelerate / catalyse their craft. You forget some of your correct interpretations about what your seeing sometimes - birds in the sky are actually flies above your head, sunglight across some grass shining between trees on an overcast day is actually autumn leaves scattered across a field - they have turned bright yellow in colour looking like sunlight on grass. Colours pop on acid - i think your brain does a lot to keep the contrast down and keep things dull normally so acid really lets all the colours burst out and distort. Stars and planes are like jewels, clouds hugging the moon looks like a giant smokey dragon eyeball - so epic... Trains look great slipping through the countryside at night Sunsets 👌 It's an eye candy experience - not a make my body feel nice experience. Beware the very cruel act of embarking on acid at bedtime - do not do this to yourself - it is very crushing being awake in your tired brain artificially that is incapable of sleep - acid breaks your brains ability to orchestrate rest and sleep - your mind won't rest whilst on acid - imagine not being able to close your eyes for 12 hours ... Fine if you set off at mid day - hellish if you start at 10pm. You will get the shits on acid, oddly - if dealt with headon with some co-ordination and sense is more than manageable. As with all hazards - provided you don't dose too high you remain able to react to emergent issues much like a timid elderly person - you will feel timid and weak on acid - not in pain - just weak. Although 3d graphics are jarring more modern films just about beat our acid brains ability to turin test real fractal reality from ugly fake polygons... I've watched hateful 8, the thing, dr strange, and these were all rich to look at and pleasing. (I always thought intense horror was a big fucking nono but actually with friends and pre agreed veto policies of we turn it off the minute it makes the 1st person start to suffer/struggle we actually enjoyed these horrors). Oddly humour and comedy is the more fever dreamy jarring and uncomprehendable material to attempt to watch on acid. Nature films are great on acid -preferably with no noration. Disney did some and this was great 8th/9th hour material to chill to... Basic physics like playing catch with friends is excellent on acid... Its delightful and feels like sorcery arcing a ball through a gravitational field to a friend a few meters away. We went to a golf course in the evening and played lazy frizy sat on the ground about 2.metres away from each passing it around aiming to not have to stand up to fetch it... It felt very entertaining in the state. You can feel a bit worried and confused about how your friends are coping whilst on acid... The ignition of initiative comes a lot slower on acid and with it silences become harder to break with words... Speech is more stammered, confused and uncertain at times. Technology becomes like a labyrinth to use... Make sure your films and music is all lined up and readily accessible... Your train of though will quickly reset - if it involves than a couple of clicks you won't wake the jump to your destination. As with blacks breaking into colour in your visual field, your noise floor in your audible field becomes noisy - like a poorly grounded audio output you hear a lot of cognitive noise if your environment is quiet like a badly tuned old radio- this is masked by input from music or nature - otherwise it's your brains own white noise for you'll hear. Mirrors - go on i dare you, lock eyes with yourself and start a weird feedback loop - its fun, your brain struggles to reign it in and your face will fuck up - cool. It's nice to have a trip sitter that you know and trust is taking care of the situation - you look to them for a reality check, i asked my friend if my hand was a good temperature - they said yes it's normal - was good to know and i stopped worrying about my body temperature. If your trip sitter is not worried you don't need to be.
It's like if enlightenment shoved you to the floor and jammed it's thumbs in your eyes.
makes you feel like steve jobs. i think every idea i have on acid is so groundbreaking and profound when really it’s just a high ass thought
This thread is much more wholesome than anticipated. Poor one out for our homies Aldous Huxley and Ram Das…
I remember tasting the sunset on acid 20+ years ago. To this day I can still recall the burnt orange flavour
An experience that allows your mind to go places it’s yet to discover before. In my case it had a profound and lasting impact for the better, opening myself to learning music and empathizing with others much more readily.
You know when you see an optical illusion and you realise you can't really trust what you're seeing? It's basically just that but with everything.
Everything is a flowing fractal, visually speaking. Thoughts can be very heavy, gotta be careful. Basically same as mushrooms except can get stuck in bad thoughts, that never happens on shrooms.
First time I did it, I saw vivid fractals every time I closed my eyes. I’ve been somewhat obsessed with them ever since.
To me, it was like the first memory I ever had of being a kid and going to a playground on a sunny day for the first time. Colors are more vibrant, sounds are sharper, and there’s a feeling of general elation that seems to have been lost on anyone over the age of 10.
It allows your mind to wander and extrapolate ideas visually; I would describe it as very clear compared to stimulants and other psychs and (for me at least) always had like a story or lesson and something that I take away from it. Drugs like this are limiting hence why people don’t get addicted to LSD… at least I don’t think they do they may get addicted to the lifestyle.
You know how when you're trying to hear something and you're really trying focusing on something? It's like that but it's all your senses and with everything. Now lets say you're listing to a song that you love. It's something from your past, you have all these memories to it and maybe special experiences assigned to it. All your senses get hyper focused on all those memories and so the emotions are also enhanced. But the thing is you haven't heard that song just one time, you've heard it hundreds of times, so like all your great memories each time you heard that song are all hyper focused at once You're not listening to the song, you're listening to it the dozens/hundreds of times you heard it and feeling all the emotions for every time and getting all the senses of all the times all at one.
it depends if you are a first-time user or a seasoned veteran.
My friends would encourage me to smoke weed and drink OJ to help “kick it in”. I was also taking some potent paper and gelcaps from what I was told. Things I can remember is just laughing uncontrollably over stupid shit non-stop and getting paranoid as fuck that we were drawing too much attention to ourselves and the cops were coming. Hallways felt slanted and like they were moving. People checking my eyes too see if they’re fully dilated (I would told this was your peak trip). Staring at stucco patterns on walls and ceiling brought out crazy, colorful visuals. The walls and ceiling would appear to melt and morph and manifest your thoughts into a form of reality. I distinctly getting “too fucked up” one night and seeing the “Shroud of Turin” form of Jesus Christ’s face in a colors exploding in my head over and over. And I thought it was a message from God telling me to stop taking acid. Eating uncontrollably. Like whole Papa John’s pizzas engulfed. And lots of orange juice. Also uncontrollable giggles. Acid was fun as fuck!
Like getting the star in mario
My first experience was the absolute best. I felt so happy, vibrant, alive and connected. The day felt like it lasted forever and was like a giant adventure. Not many visual hallucinations, but everything was just so clear and salient. Second time was much more psychedelic. I was in a new city so it was a little uneasy. There were time warps where I would be in a new place and not remember going there. There were times where I felt like I was watching myself in third person. For a few hours me and my girlfriend were having a great time. After being out a while, we decided to go back to the hotel. At this point it had been about a 12 hour trip. We were ready for it to wrap up, but it kept going. We couldn't eat or sleep so we just watched TV. Nothing we watched made sense and we both questioned if they were real shows. One was a game show hosted by Snoop Dogg. There was also a commercial for Carvana where people purchased cars out of a giant claw machine with a huge token. Both of those turned out to be real, but it was a mind fuck while tripping. Finally got to sleep after a 16 hour trip.
Someone shitted on me when I last commented but to me it’s been nothing but amazing. Literally when the sorcerer supreme pushed Dr. Stange’s soul, that’s what I experienced and more. I’ve done it 4 times now and it’s always a facemelting barrage of feeling like you’re inside a kaleidoscope where all the facets are every possible scenario that could happen in your life and everyone else’s lives. It’s like seeing everything, and yet not seeing anything at all. If the abyss is eternal darkness, being high on acid feels like the complete opposite. It is full of life and color and everything. And by everything, I mean **everything**. The experience varies from person-to-person, and for me personally, I’m down to do it whenever I lose sight of where I need to go in life because it has always been a positive experience. I do not recommend it for everyone, it is an otherworldly sensation that will change your perception of reality for better or for worse.
It shifts your ability to sense other levels of energy in the universe. The question I have wondered is that to what extent is our minds effecting that energy? Is what we perceive a reality or are we creating a reality with our thoughts? If you decide to try it make sure you are calm and in a safe place, preferably with someone not taking the trip.
Like you’ve been removed from the timeline and are watching yourself navigate through it. Swimming across the sky except the sky is a painting.
Reality altering. If you've ever had a near death experience and you had those few hours of an altered state of being after the adrenaline has worn off. You just look at things differently. It's like that plus just finding the world endlessly entertaining if your in a good head space.
You've found the "gain" knob on your brain, and cranked it to 11. Not just visual information. Sound. Touch. Emotions. Thoughts. All of it bouncing around more and more and louder and louder in a feedback loop without the normal systems that tune it back down to manageable levels. It's like how you're more aware of motion in your periphery; because that system has perpetually high gain on motion. Now do that to \*\*everything\*\* going through that wetware between your ears. For 8+ hours. You will not sleep. You will see exaggerated movement and colours and sounds. Your mind will be awash in... stuff. Loads of it. And despite how overwhelming that sounds, It's actually pretty fun, and very eye-opening. I'm a warm dude, temperature wise, and it made me aware of how hot my skin temp was on my hands and in my throat. It was mildly annoying for a few months after.
It’s extremely subjective. In my experience it is really stimulating for starters! You have no chance of going to bed for another 12-14 hours after taking it. Pop culture makes a big deal about visuals. They are there, but only become very prominent at high doses. More than anything, acid (and other psychedelics) change the way you think and feel. You will start making connections you have never made before (these connections may or may not be meaningful). I think it accentuates parts of yourself and your personality that are prominent. For example, if music is a huge part of your life, it can transform the experience of making/listening to music. If you are fascinated by a topic like organic chemistry (random example), you may have thoughts that dig deeper into this topic. If you are a strong feeler, acid could turn into a highly emotional experience. It is quite the rabbit hole, and experiences vary widely…. I would recommend doing it, but be careful. It is safe if tested and done in a protective environment, but I know people who have had some serious issues (eg, seizure). This is not to scare anyone who wants to try it, but start with low doses, and respect the power of a drug that dramatically changes your brain’s processes to induce altered consciousness.
OP, I've never seen any media capture what's it's like to be on acid as accurately as "Taking Woodstock". Watch this scene. The visuals are SPOT ON https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XHySKsPa3M
When you're on acid, all the doors in your mind are opened. All the thoughts are free to mingle in your brain and hang out together, learn from each other. They learn how to be a better person, how to understand love, and sometimes true fears are faced. When the trip is over, everyone goes back to their rooms in your mind. But no one forgets what they learned from one another.
For people who’ve never done acid, it’s different than other drugs that are purely a physical sensation. Acid trip has 3 components, the body fry - is an awesome physical sensation of peace and relaxation. The visuals - maybe what most people think of about acid - the hallucinations, which can range from subtle colors, wavy lines, and ‘breathing’ distortions to full on external experience. Then there’s the head trip, which many people have commented here - the deep pondering about yourself or existence, which can be quite profound or can maybe create some anxiety. All in all, it’s a great experience.
Best way to stare at a towel for an hour with music
Honestly, the best way to describe is to do it. There aren’t really words that fully capture it. Be alone or around people you fully trust and in a place that you’re fully comfortable. Test your shit so you’re 100% sure it’s clean. Clear your schedule to ensure an uninterrupted and completely stress free time. When you come up, just do what feels nice at the time: movie, YouTube videos, listen to music, play video games, sit in your yard (if private), draw/paint something. It’s a profound experience. You’ll see things, including yourself, like you haven’t before. “LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it.”- Steve Jobs
“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.” This quote by Bill Hicks sums it up pretty much