A serious question about a friend and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

[Kaz The Original]

Allow me to give you some background to this story. I am 20, and used drugs from the age 16 to 18. Mostly I simply experimented, but was for a brief period (two months) heavily into harder drugs.

Regardless, I have been clean for two years (saying clean seems like I disagree with my previous use. I do not. I have no objection to what I did, and do not regret it. I am merely showing that drug use is common amongst my friends. No moral judgements please.

So, my friend was telling me about a mushroom trip. He's a bit of background on the friend :

He is not violent at all, very passive, talks in a monotone sort of voice. He is popular at his school (he is two years younger than me and most of my friends and still in highschool). He has had many girl friends, and generally seems content in life.

The trip he told me about gave him flashes of his parents murdered. At one point he was going to pet his kitten and he got a flush of it's severed head with blood everywhere.

When recalling this trip to me, he described it with horror and how he forced himself to stay in his room the whole time.

What do you think?

(Drugs are bad replies will be ignored).

[A_C_Slater]

Staying in his room was the best thing he could do. When experiencing a "bad trip" the best thing to do is to "make a stand" in a single location. To start moving around to look for a "better place" to ride the trip out will only make things worse as each new location you go to will only reaffirm even more that "nothing is right anywhere" and that's when the true horror begins.

Although I've never had a bad trip on mushrooms, only acid, but the theory should hold the same weight.

[Kaz The Original]

lol not quite the reply I expected, but certainly pertinant advice and good old fashioned horse sense.

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

drugs are bad mmmmmkay?

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
drugs are bad mmmmmkay?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sometimes they are in the short term. But even a bad trip has huge advantages in the long run. Once you undergo the horror of a bad trip all previous fears turn into petty nonsense. "Am I liked and respected?"

"Does she really love me?"

"Will I be able to get a good job?"


In order to get past the everyday fear of being a man you first have to experience the loss of all hope. Only then can you acheive clarity.


"Their are four natural enemies for a man of knowledge. Fear, clarity, power, and old age.

Fear, clarity, and power, can be defeated, but never old age. It's affects can only be postponed, but never overcome."

---Mariano Aureliano (some wise old peyote taking indian brujo I play poker with at Soaring Eagle casino.)

[toots]

[ QUOTE ]
In order to get past the everyday fear of being a man you first have to experience the loss of all hope. Only then can you acheive clarity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. Never thought of that. Sadly, I never had the nerve/opportunity to try any hallucinogenics, and probably never will. But, that is a starkly interesting point.

(Sort of like after I spent a day on a sailboat in the atlantic in the middle of a squall line. I tell people that absolutely everything that's happened since has been "comfortable" by comparison.)

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In order to get past the everyday fear of being a man you first have to experience the loss of all hope. Only then can you acheive clarity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. Never thought of that. Sadly, I never had the nerve/opportunity to try any hallucinogenics, and probably never will. But, that is a starkly interesting point.

(Sort of like after I spent a day on a sailboat in the atlantic in the middle of a squall line. I tell people that absolutely everything that's happened since has been "comfortable" by comparison.)

[/ QUOTE ]


Well.... You don't necessarily need drugs to acheive clarity. There are many other ways. This is basically what advanced Buddhist meditation is all about. Drugs are just quicker and lazier. Traumatic experiences can work as well, and even better than drugs in some extreme instances, car crash, plane crash, brutal beating, you're stranded in the Atlantic or the desert (Moses), etc...


But of course with drugs you can create a "controlled chaos" scenario. And meditation is just plain boring.
Yet deliberate and careful meditaion, while being the most work would acheive the best permanent results. But that applies to everything in life.


"In this life, no one meets you half way" ---Sylvester Stallone in the movie classic 'Over the Top.'

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]

"In this life, no one meets you half way" ---Sylvester Stallone in the movie classic 'Over the Top.'

[/ QUOTE ]

Clearly, one of us thinks this board needs more quotes from movies about arm-wrestling.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to shove a shiv into my skull to stop the pain.

[tdp]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"Their are four natural enemies for a man of knowledge. Fear, clarity, power, and old age.

Fear, clarity, and power, can be defeated, but never old age. It's affects can only be postponed, but never overcome."

---Mariano Aureliano (some wise old peyote taking indian brujo I play poker with at Soaring Eagle casino.)

[/ QUOTE ]
This is a direct quote from Carlos Castenada's "the teachings of Don Juan"

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"Their are four natural enemies for a man of knowledge. Fear, clarity, power, and old age.

Fear, clarity, and power, can be defeated, but never old age. It's affects can only be postponed, but never overcome."

---Mariano Aureliano (some wise old peyote taking indian brujo I play poker with at Soaring Eagle casino.)

[/ QUOTE ]
This is a direct quote from Carlos Castenada's "the teachings of Don Juan"

[/ QUOTE ]


Well.... Good for you smart boy. I was hoping someone would recognize it.

This book is required reading for anyone really interested in this topic.