Is it your first time doing psychedelics? Personally I wouldn’t. The first time I took shrooms was amazing, but I also went absolutely wild, screaming in the streets, at one point I actually ran away from my friends and got lost in the woods, threw a bunch of almonds around my friend’s house and then was running in circles around his house. I sorta lost it. Which was fun though, but I’m glad I had people there, they were saints and put up with all my shit, but you don’t know how you’ll react and I think it’s good to have people there. I’ve also trip sat for people who absolutely needed it. It’s also good if you end up in a loop or a bad trip they can help talk you down.
Although as you say you only have people irl you don’t really trust. This could be worse than having nobody since that distrust could really come out in the shrooms and lead to a bad trip.
We used to buy them on the Silk Road (which is illegal). But once that shut down, we discovered you could have magic truffles (which contain the same active ingredient, psilocybin) shipped from the Netherlands into the USA. We had a P.O. Box at our local post office already (which we had used for Silk Road) and we would order them there. I’m not actually sure if that was legal, or some weird legal loophole, or what, but it worked. This was around 2013/2014 however and I’m not sure if this is still possible. Last time I checked the old site I used to order from doesn’t allow this anymore. Maybe other ones do? Idk
Edit: yeah a lot of people making a good point here, a lot of sober people will trip sit and decide to do the “haha this guy is on drugs” thing which is always a put off. A trip sitter needs to be respectful of the experience.
I don’t think it’s the best idea to do it alone the first time as you don’t know what to expect, but if youre adamant then make sure you do it in a place you feel really safe. Vibes get real when you’re tripping so where you are and how you feel will have a huge impact on how it goes.
Possibly unpopular opinion, sober people generally have no ability to calm down someone freaking out on psychedelics. Exceptions of course for experienced or particularly empathetic people. Also having other people around, tripping or not, tends toward irritating. Of course from a bodily harm perspective having a sitter will be beneficial, but the risk is low either way.
I do a lot of volunteering work that involves helping people who are having difficult psychedelic experiences. You can’t actively try to calm someone like that down; as you said, it doesn’t work. The better thing to do is just to be there to hold space and act as a “reality anchor.” Mild reassurance can be helpful if the person wants it (especially the reassurance that the state is temporary), but inexperienced people usually try to “guide” the trip, which basically never works.
What a cool way to volunteer, how’d you get into that? Also this sounds like really good advice
I got into it a million years ago when I was in college and got involved with Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. These days, I’m in a leadership position with the Black Rock Rangers, which is the public safety / conflict resolution volunteer group at Burning Man. That’s mostly where I do it now.
Agreed. That’s why I am skeptikal of these psychedelic therapies with a sober doctor. Theres a pretty good chance whatever they try to say to you will come off as super condescending since you know they’re not feeling the same way.
They would likely be using sub-trip doses. As someone that likes to take 0.5g on a lazy Sunday and go for a hike I can see it helping people relax and open up to a therapist if they’re particularly anxious/defensive.
Along with what others have said about tripping in a comfortable/familliar/very safe place, if you’ve straight up never tried a psychedelic at all then you might consider doing a sub-tripping dose first (a week or two before so your tolerance doesn’t eat into the trip dose), dipping your toes so you know a bit what to expect rather than cannonballing into a fullblown trip. It’s easy and fun to grow them yourself ✨️
Additional tips not that you asked: if you have dried mushrooms 100% make tea instead of trying to eat them. With a couple teabags for flavor it’ll just taste like tea and it hugely cuts down on stomach discomfort and bowel issues. If you grow em/have access to fresh ones though just cook em up in a pan with some butter because they’re quite tasty.
Agreed on the tea, in my experience it certainly doesn’t taste amazing but it makes it much easier to get down.
My “recipe”:
- weigh out desired dose of dried, pulverized shrooms (absolutely buy a cheap mg scale if you don’t have one)
- bring 8 - 12 fl oz of water to a boil
- add shrooms powder, turn heat to lowest setting possible, cover for 10 minutes
- add tea bag (I prefer peppermint) and optionally 1 tsp lemon juice - this will greatly reduce the come-up time, slightly increase the potency, and slightly decrease overall trip time - keep heat at minimum for another 10 minutes
- pour everything into a cup through a mesh coffee filter, add some sugar if desired, and drink when at a tolerable temperature
You do not have to drink the mushroom chunks, I can confirm it has no noticeable affect aside from being gross.
Nice, this is super close to how i do it too. I powder the dried mushrooms in a coffee grinder, pour em in a coffee filter or two that i tie closed like a giant teabag(s), and simmer them in the water on low for about fifteen minutes, squeeze out the shroombags into the pot, then pour that into cups with black tea teabags and honey. I find black tea and honey masks any weird dried mushroom flavor like 90% if not more.
I’ve tried adding lemon juice but i can’t say I’ve noticed a difference in come up/duration beyond the effect that making tea has in general, although it does make the tea (at least black tea) a little more unpleasant to drink imo. I was probably using more like half of a large lemon between two cups of tea though.
The lemon has always had a huge effect for me, I will start feeling the come up within 10-15 minutes and after an hour I’m tripping pretty good. Without lemon it’s usually 45-60 minutes before I start feeling it.
Definitely makes it more of an “acquired taste” though.
I would say you dont need a trip sitter IF you’re taking a reasonable dose and most importantly a place thats’s physically, socially and mentally safe.
Things that make a place more shroom-friendly (non-exhaustive):
Plants, fresh air, low-effort food, animals, ready-to-go playlists (you will not want to deal with the nauseus sguiggly rune screen once a trip is underway), ready water supply, art, silence, ambient music, pretty lighting, non-dangerous hobbies like painting
Things that make a place less shroom-friendly (non-exhaustive):
Strangers, behavioral expectations, loud noise, traffic (foot or motor, bikes are fine) bad smells (this is a big one), conflict, crowds, too many screens, really just generally negative or overwhelming stimuli. However, if you’re good at playing it cool, tripping in a liminal public space like a mall or museum is a very interesting time- def not for beginners though lol
Oh, and you might experience a thing where your mouth opens and you don’t know if you need to yawn, burp or vomit. Don’t worry, it’s never vomit. You kind of just end up croaking like the grudge for a second, it’s fine.
Last last edit: if you get a few hours into a heavy trip and you feel like a rusty old robot, drink something sugary
, bikes are fine)
Depending on motor skills during the trip; I usually find my body pretty useless.
