Philosophy of Use: A Mind to Trip

A lot can be said about where one should trip and how a location can affect that trip but where you are in your mind is of equal or greater importance. If location can "color" your experience, it would be fair to say that your state of mind can set its tone and it may make the difference between an evening of laughter and enlightenment or one of dark introspection and panic. How does one know that he or she has the proper mind-set to go into a psychedelic experience? This is a more difficult question than you may think but it is worth exploring and I think I can provide some helpful tips for achieving the right state of mind for a trip.

Stability of mind is key to having an enjoyable psychedelic experience. The exact thought process doesn't matter as much as how well you can handle strong emotions. This is not a special talent, mind you; anyone can learn to control their reactions to the intense emotions that psychedelic drugs can bring to the surface. The trick is to come to terms with the experience before you enter into it. Tell yourself that you are walking into something that will make you interpret the weight of your emotions very differently. Understand that things are going to get intense and strong reactions may send you down a path that you don't want to travel on. Submit to the experience and let your emotions simply exist. When one learns to do this, he or she will find that there is a new level to the journey that allows them to live in the moment and not focus on the past, present, and future of their feelings.

It is best not to overthink a trip. Planning is fine and so is reflecting on the experience that you are about to have. It, however, can be counterproductive if you don't know when to stop planning and reflecting. You want to avoid worrying about not having a good trip. Most psychedelic users will report that whatever is most present in their mind when they start tripping takes center stage throughout the experience. If "I don't want to have a bad trip" is what you are focusing on, you will likely give yourself that "bad trip". Instead, try to put yourself in a positive state of mind before you take your dose. After you finish your planning, watch a comedy or listen to some relaxing music. It really doesn't matter what you do as long as it is something that you enjoy doing.

It is important not to place expectations on your trip. We like to think that our consciousness controls our mind but the opposite is true. Consciousness is the product of our mind and when you take psychedelics, your mind is what reacts to them and that causes the shift in your consciousness. This means that your consciousness is at the mercy of your mind and will change in whatever way your mind compels it to. Simply put, you will get the trip that you get and not necessarily the one that you wanted. If you go into it being open to whatever comes you will be happy with the result. If, on the other hand, you take a trip looking for something, you may find only disappointment and, as we already discussed, that disappointment will be greatly magnified by the effects of the drug.

It is helpful to try to rid yourself of any guilt or sadness before you take a trip (if possible) and if something is really bothering you, it may be a good idea to postpone your psychedelic usage. This is likely the number one cause of "bad trips." We are all human, we all have difficult things happen in our lives, and we all do things that we are not proud of. These types of personal issues, normal as they are, can send one off on an unpleasant trip. I once saw an experienced user break down into tears for hours because he had cheated on his girlfriend. The guilt that was buried beneath the lies and justifications that he had told to himself was drawn to the surface by the mushrooms. He was forced to acknowledge what he had done for what it was and he had to come to terms with it, then and there. This is not necessarily a "negative" trip, in my opinion. The end result was, in fact, positive (he learned how to stop believing the lies that he told to himself) but it was very hard on him while it was happening. In short, the things that are going on in your life can change how your trip plays out and this is something you should always consider before you drop that acid or smoke your DMT.

Sometimes we forget all of these things and find ourselves climbing onto the back of a six gram mushroom trip before we realize that our mind isn't in right place, so it is important to develop some coping strategies. It helps to try to distract yourself. This can be done with very simple things. Changing the song or album that you are listening to or watching something on T.V. could lead you away from the darker path. Oddly, drinking soda seems to help (I never could come up with a satisfactory reason as to why soda has this effect but I think it might be that the carbonation and the sweet flavor provides a lot of sensory input and forces one to focus on something other than whatever is bothering them but your guess is as good as mine). Changing the setting can work very well too. Try going into a different room or even outside (if it is safe for you to do so) and you will find that your whole trip feels different.

This is a bit off topic but I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, unless you have a fair amount of experience with psychedelics, you should avoid tripping alone. Any difficult psychedelic experience can usually be improved by the presence of another person because they can help "talk you down" if you need to be "talked down". Tripping alone can be fine but you need to already know how to get through an unpleasant experience before you take that step.

All of these things can be helpful for getting into the right mind-set for your trip but this is just a very basic guide (and is based only on my opinion). I would love to hear your strategies for mentally preparing for psychedelic use. It is a very interesting topic and I suspect that some things work better or worse for every individual. The thing that is truly important is that you are in a place, mentally, from which you are comfortable exploring the lesser traveled parts of your consciousness.

Peace.

This was another installment of my continuing series of Philosophy of Use posts. If you liked this, please feel free to check out my page for more similar content.

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