- Different uses of Psychedelics: The four different ways to use psychedelics are for fun, naive spirituality, therapy or addiction recovery, and personal development/awareness expansion. The latter is most relevant for this discussion, as it can aid non-duality work and help gain insights into certain areas of life.
- Approach to Using Psychedelics: Psychedelics should be used methodically, starting with small doses and gradually increasing until a breakthrough experience is achieved. Negative previous experiences should not stop individuals from understanding the potential benefits of these substances.
- Preparing for a Psychedelic Experience: To prepare for a psychedelic experience, it's crucial to research and understand psychological concepts to navigate any possible negative experiences during the trip. Studying the self and self-deception, setting up a regular meditation routine, and ensuring a safe, quiet environment are important in preparation for the trip.
- Potential Risks of Psychedelic Use: Risks can arise from using impure substances, taking large doses, or using in public places. Starting with small doses and using home as a safe and controlled environment can reduce these risks.
- Intention in Psychedelic Experiences: Setting a strong intention turns the experience into a meaningful ritual. Eating lightly before the trip can help minimize discomfort and setting aside a full day allows for deep exploration.
- Lifestyle Changes for Effective Psychedelic Use: Changes such as avoiding bad food, distractions, stressors, and over-stimulation can enhance the effectiveness of psychedelic experiences. It's crucial not to mix psychedelics with alcohol or weed, and not to use during times of stress or bad moods.
- Combining Substances and Frequency of Use: Mixing substances like mushrooms and alcohol can cause bad trips. A focus on personal development means sticking to one substance and avoiding frequent use to prevent cross tolerance. Ideally, these substances should not be used more than once a week.
- Navigating Fear and Panic During Psychedelic Experiences: It's natural to experience panic during psychedelic trips, but remembering the trip is temporary and focusing on breathing can help. Believing phenomena experienced during the trip are real can lead to delusion.
- Avoiding Shortcut to Enlightenment Through Psychedelics: Psychedelics should not be seen as a shortcut to self-actualization or enlightenment. Rather, they should serve as motivation for the ongoing work in daily life. It's important to remain cautious due to the potential for delusion with psychedelics.
- Wrong Settings for Psychedelic Use: Psychedelic experiences can be impacted negatively when substances are consumed in the wrong setting or age, without proper knowledge about the substance, its effects or dose. One should take a proper and researched approach towards the use of substances, starting with small doses and gradually increasing the consumption.
- Importance of Education and Research in Psychedelic Use: Thorough education and research are vital before each psychedelic experience. It encompasses gathering information about medical studies related to the substance, review of others' experiences and understanding of potential side effects, appropriate doses, and complications.
- Setting an Intention for your Psychedelic Experience: Every psychedelic trip should have a specific purpose ranging from understanding reality or consciousness, gaining enlightenment or solving personal problems. This intention helps channel the trip in a beneficial way, yielding applicable insights for daily life.
- Studying Psychological Principles for Better Psychedelic Experiences:
- Understanding psychological principles that impact our emotions and behaviors can significantly enhance the psychedelic experience. Studying topics like happiness, depression, addiction, ego and, self-deception prepares an individual to handle any personal demons that might emerge during the trip more effectively.
- Importance of Non-duality and Meditation Prior to Psychedelic Experience: Studying non-duality or enlightenment can provide a grounding effect during trips, preventing the user from getting lost or overwhelmed by powerful visions. Alongside this, setting up a daily practice of meditation and self-inquiry promotes introspection and enhance the depth of the psychedelic experience.
- A Quiet and Safe Setting for Psychedelic Experience: To derive growth from psychedelic trips, having a quiet and safe environment is necessary. This allows for a deeper exploration of the subconscious mind, consciousness, and self. Noisy or distracting environments can potentially lead to bad experiences.
- Potential for Self-deception in Psychedelic Experiences: Trips can bring forward powerful emotions and visions, but it's crucial not to delude oneself by taking these phenomena too seriously. It's important to recognize that these experiences are reflections of our unconscious mind.
- Post-trip Integration Time: After each trip, it's necessary to allocate time to integrate the experience fully. This time allows for reflection on the implications of the experience on various aspects of life such as career, family, and finances. Without this step, the growth potential of each experience may be diminished.
- Psychedelic use and timing for maximum personal growth: Scheduling psychoactive experiences on weekends (ideally Saturdays) is beneficial for those in standard Monday-Friday jobs. This timing allows for the users to spend the entire day on the experience followed by an entire day or more for integrating insights from the trip. Keeping a journal during integration could help preserve the insights.
- Prioritizing safety in psychedelic experience: Major insights from psychedelic use can only be harvested when safety is ensured first. Safety measures include conducting vast research on every substance intended for use, understanding the dosage levels, the issues that might arise, and acquiring the purest form of the substance through reputable sources. Avoid taking pills and experimenting with untested chemicals. Use of testing kits for substances, especially notoriously impure ones like MDMA is crucial for safety.
- Starting usage with small doses: It's common for negative experiences or 'bad trips' to occur from ingesting large amounts of a new substance. Starting with small doses not only reduces the chance of negative trips, but also limits panic and fear. To ensure accurate dosages, invest in a high precision milligram scale.
- Creating a safe environment for intake: The experience should ideally begin at home, alone, to avoid distractions and maintain security. The home environment should be clean and free of any nagging issues. A trip sitter can be invited for a sense of security. Avoid taking the substance in public and uncertain places such as parks, middle of a city, restaurants, parties or clubs.
- Importance of Preparation for a Psychedelic Experience: Before attempting a psychedelic trip, put measures in place to ensure a safe, comfortable and distraction-free environment. This includes setting aside an entire day, tidying the environment, hiding dangerous objects, stocking up on food and drinks, and having a vomit bucket prepared.
- Achieving a Calm State Before Psychedelic Use: Meditating for 30 to 60 minutes before the trip can allow for a calm state of mind, lowered heart rate and breathing, and focus on the trip's intention. The consumption of the substance should then occur on an almost empty stomach to prevent nausea.
- Ideal Timing for Psychedelic Experience: Taking the substance around noon is recommended to allow for a full day's exploration without disrupting sleep. A 6-12 hour trip should be particularly considered, rather than consuming in the evening which may adversely affect sleep cycle.
- Avoiding Stimulation Before Psychedelic Use: A week prior to the psychedelic experience, avoid TV, movies, and web surfing. This allows for minimal distractions and avoids filling your mind with potentially negative images which could recur during the trip.
- Using Psychedelics as Part of a Personal Development Journey: Psychedelic trips should be incorporated into personal growth plan, which may involve detaching from bad food, entertainment, and information. This clean lifestyle approach can produce better outcomes from the psychedelic experience and overall life improvement.
- Ensuring Positive Mindset and Circumstances Before Psychedelic Experience: Avoid tripping if in a bad mood or during stressful periods. Wait until calm, peaceful, and in a good mood to maximize the positive effects of the experience.
- Avoid Distractions and Mixes During Psychedelic Experience: It is recommended to experience the substance naturally without distractions such as friends, TV or music, and definitely avoid mixing with other substances such as alcohol or weed, as this can lead to bad trips.
- Mixing Substances and Personal Development: If one is tempted to combine psychedelic substances, it means they are probably looking for an escape or recreation rather than personal development, discouraging this as one substance should be enough for profound experiences.
- Cross Tolerance: Psychedelics are not physically addictive, but a tolerance can build up if used too frequently, resulting in weaker trips. To avoid this cross tolerance, waiting two weeks between trips is recommended. Overuse can also indicate a psychological addiction, likely stemming from dissatisfaction with normal life and the desire for more pleasant psychedelic experiences.
- Frequency of Use: Psychedelics should not be taken more than once a week. If someone is using psychedelics multiple times a week, this could be an indication of a psychological addiction.
- Ensuring a Good Trip: To have a positive psychedelic trip, complete surrender to the experience is vital. If all safety guidelines are followed, there is virtually no risk of death during a trip, which can help to alleviate fear during the experience.
- Handling Fear or Panic: Fear or panic during a psychedelic trip can be managed by reminding oneself that the trip is temporary, relaxing the body, focusing on steady breathing, and acknowledging that any negative or frightening phenomena are not real.
- Psychedelics and Enlightenment: Psychedelics should not be mistaken as a shortcut to self-actualization or enlightenment. Enlightenment, a radical state beyond imagination, cannot be reached through drugs and requires sustained self-inquiry in everyday life.
- Avoiding Delusion and Belief Reinforcement: Caution must be exercised to avoid using psychedelic experiences to justify beliefs, fuel delusions, or falsely claim enlightenment. These powerful experiences can drastically influence one's perspective and should not be used to reinforce existing ideologies.
- Importance of Continued Learning and Self-Actualization: Continued association with Actualized.org is encouraged for further insights, research, and advice about the use of psychedelics. Staying in a self-actualized state and learning psychological principles helps to stay grounded and prevent being swept away by the powerful psychedelic experiences.