This is for anyone who is [someday] contemplating trying a hallucinogen for the first time [i]or for someone who will be guiding person or persons on their first trip.[/i]

Out of all of my friends I have, by far and away, the most experience with hallucinogens. Somewhere along the way it became sort of a given that when one of them got a new girl friend, and if she had never dosed, they would bring her over to old Meta's to guide her through her first trip.

[I know this is going to sound sexist; I don't mean it to be: Out of all of the people that I've been with during their first trip, only a few of the males had any trouble. But the females - to a one -had at least a small amount of trouble such that it required someone [me, usually] to talk them down. Again, I know I'm going to catch hell for this and I don't mean to imply that all females have/had/or will have trouble on their first trip [keep in mind, too, that the last one I helped was over 10 years ago]. I am only reporting what I experienced and while the numbers involved do not make up a good enough statistical base, it is still a telling trend... For some

Mind you, at first I wasn't too sure about it. Sure: I had help some people though some bad trips, but I eventually got comfortable in it and had it down to a fine art.

Anyway, I got to thinking about it recently, to see if there was anything I could pass down - that wouldn't take up volumes for me to describe. There are a couple, one more important and the other a bit trivial.

I'll start with the trivial first. And I'll put it this way: Mirrors are not always the best thing to have around people who are tripping.

Even for seasoned 'travelers' you need to be pretty damn comfortable with the way you look if you are going to spend more than a passing glance at a mirror.

And if it's you first trip and if you have any reservations about the way you look, I advise stay away from mirrors: They will not only distort your face the way everything gets distorted, but any flaws that you think you have become vastly exaggerated and can be kinda disturbing.

I know many of you think I'm joking or have finally lost one brain cell too many.

But there will certainly be those out there that know what I'm talking about.

But like I said; that is kinda trivial: it's only a matter of getting someone away from a mirror and getting them to attach their focus on something else.

This next one address something a little harder to deal with.

One thing that I've noticed that most people [male and female] who carpet dive [Carpet dive: A term to describe someone who is having a bad trip. It comes from a friend from years ago. He had a bad trip and in an attempt to get away from whatever it was that was 'chasing' him, he tried to 'crawl' into the carpet. I said it looked like he was trying to 'dive� into the carpet and the term has stuck since] have [at least] one thing in common.

And that is that they start to think that they are the only one who is tripping; that everyone else is sober and playing a big trick on them. They become real paranoid, then, that the way they are feeling at the moment will never go away: that they will be as they are forever.

This, if left unchecked, soon spirals down further and further.

Trying to talk to them, to convince them that others are tripping just as hard, that it's not a joke and [most important] that they will be straight by morning is not easy to do: Getting past that paranoia that everyone is in on the joke - including you [no matter how trusted a friend you may be] is not easy and takes a lot of time and effort and persistence.

The first thing I came up with, to help me in that task, was to get a book that describes what to expect on a trip [the one I used was called - I think [it's been many years after all ;-) ] was "The Encyclopedia of Recreational Drugs" [It may have been subtitled: "Everything you ever wanted to know about anything ever taken for recreational purposes"]. It sure covered a lot of stuff and was practically my 'bible' during my years of experimentation [I don't have it anymore, though I wish I did: I think some of the information wasn't quite right. Though it was the best that was available at the time and the LSD and other hallucinogen sections were spot on].

When I was first asked to guide someone new, I loaned them the book and had them read about it. [Assuming they still wanted to go ahead with things] Before the trip started I had them read it again [most times, after they took the hit and were waiting for it to come on]. Particularly some parts that I had highlighted. One of which address the fact that many people felt like a joke was played on them; another about people thinking they would be frying forever [I just loved that book].

Then, once the trip got going, and the [almost] inevitable carpet dive began to commence, I got the book out again and had them concentrate on trying to read it [failing that I had them follow along as I read it]. I would try to get them to remember reading it before they tripped and thus [hopefully] assure them.

That usually worked somewhat, but many times the person would think I had just brought the book as a joke and that it wasn't quite what they had read before the trip started.

I finally came upon something that worked 99% of the time.

After reading the book again before the trip started I had them take a pen and some paper and write what to expect mainly that they would come down again and that they were likely to think a joke was being played on them.

Then when carpet dive started, I would make them read what they wrote.

Almost all would recognize their own writing and that would be 80% of the battle.


I know this was long, as per my usual, but I think this could really help someone or someone�s sometime.

Tripping is something that I think everyone should experience at least once in life .It only takes once for your outlook on life and the way you see everything to change forever - for the better.

I also think that it shouldn't be tried until after high school - when the body and mind are pretty much done growing: hallucinogens are some pretty potent chemicals and can interfere with the growth process.

Afterthought: A good book to read on acid [at least until you can't read anymore ]is "The Tao of Pooh".


[This message has been edited by Metaphysicist (edited 10-15-2002).]

I wish I had taken some of those things into account the other day at school (don't ask).

Interesting read, and even more interesting info.

/me high fives meta

Just out of curiosity, how many trips does it take t start feeling more compfortable.

I know my first trip was on 12.5 wet grams of mushrooms, and it was low, so distortions where minimul, but I had some discompfort.

Second trip was 20g wet mushrooms. With weed smoked later. After we smoked the weed, thigns went insane, and I got all those feelings, as if I was stuck, and no one else was high. However I didnt freak out, I occupied myself with food. As well, when more then 1 or 2 people talked at once I felt as if I was being overwheled with anxiety. Oh, and finally, it was like feeling every emotion I had ever felt all at once.

Third trip was with 4.5g dried mushrooms. Had a 20 minute come on [way faster then when wet!] and we also smoked weed. Much like trip 2, as well, I experienced the mirror thing. A little more 'firmiliarity' with what was going on so discompfort was THERE but not a big issue.

Fourth trip. 5g dried mushrooms. Thats it. At the begining I started getting the 'I wish I hadnt done this!' feeling, but i began talking to myself aloud, and spent the entire night talking to myself, and I felt great!

So, those are my experiences. I think number 4 shows I am gaining a bit more experience with mushrooms, and #2-3 showed maybe I ushed it iwth encorperating the weed. Do you think 5g dried + weed now would send me too far out, or would the realizations form before [oh, I cant rmember what I realized, but I always remember what I realized last time i tripped when i trip] help keep me in a more compfortable state? what do you think?

I know you cant say for sure, just looking for soem input, because I want to get my body used to the mushrooms, so I can have good fun on them, but the dicompfort is a bit deturing!

Well first off props to meta for writing this huge long post for people who will probably end up disregarding it or wont give any thanks at all.

The mirror thing had me for a little while (about 1 hour) I stared at the mirror and just tripped on my own image, it wasn't so much scary as interesting ie. noticing things i hadn't before.

The second thing meta mentions is probably the most crucial to anyone tripping ever, i have experiance this somewhat, but i was with a very good friend, and it passed in a short while.

Another thing I would say that is very important to note while preparing to trip is not only the setting, but the people you are with. If there are people you don't know/trust or are just strangers, this will usually make for a bad trip (due to you thinking about them thinking about you all the time and being paranoid about it).

If you keep these things in mind you should be able to create a good trip for yourself, even if it's your first time.

I have a question meta, I'm not sure if you will be able to answer it but i was wondering how damaged normal weed is to your brain at age 16 - 17 as compared to the physcoactives ie. shroomz, cid etc...

I have only done shrooms twice and want to once this year probably, i did it twice last year, and both times i took a large break of a few months and this last time it's been almost 5 months and i only really want to do it once this year or maybe twice.

And also, how damaging exactly is weed to anyone if you know this please reply.

Thanks

smoking a joint is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes on the lungs, or so i've heard. it's not hard to find the excerpt from Snyder that outlines the comparative contents of marijuana smoke vs. tobacco smoke. i believe it's been quoted on totse, though i doubt his name was attached. any way you look at it, putting particulates and tar and such in your lungs is never a good thing, but if you're concerned more about your brain, you're relatively safe. marijuana kills no more brain cells than peanut butter, as long as you don't hold your hits for 3 minutes with no oxygen in between hits, and that damage is from oxygen deprivation, not THC.

nothing near a pack of cigs
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_info3.shtml

I've never tripped but my first time smoking I freaked pretty hard. If I was with someone that was really fucked-up, you know, crying and screaming, I'd (try to) give them a good dose of ativan (4-5 mgs). I've heard that what doctors give guys who smoke too much leak and flip out..

Yes, mirrors are to be avoided, especially if you are a girl. Guys Also, but not so much.

Try to not do them if you have open sores or cuts that you can easily see. I had an unhealed, deep cut on my thumb when I did a quarter, and I thought something was going to leap out of it and attack me. I quickly realized I would be ok, but I can imagine flipping out.

Also, try to have something soft to pet, like a piece of animal hide with the fur or a pillow. Animal hides are fairly cool to look at too, since it looks like a fur ocean. Ditto for actual pets. "Dude, the dog is a puddle." That's what my cousin told me.

Good post from what I read of it... I've tripped thousands of times, so I don't think its really relevant to me. But I sure could have used some advice like that the first few times.

Billowz, weed is fine at that age. Psychadelics are even fine for most at that age. Alot of it does depend on your maturity level though.

SeomEveryDay the only way to get more comfortable tripping is enviroment and people. Mushrooms always cause me discomfort, mostly physical. I have stopped doing them because of this, and prefer lsd.

Try smoking the weed before you eat the shrooms. The more relaxed you are when the trip starts, sets a better mood for you.

metaphysict, much thanks. i plan to trip for my first time this winter. i am 18 and just smoke weed. other than all the other pill concocutions i have. thanks nig.

Try to get something to eat before you trip. Trying to eat something that you think is still alive and is begging you not to eat it is not very easy.

quote:

---

Originally posted by slimpyman:
metaphysict, much thanks. i plan to trip for my first time this winter. i am 18 and just smoke weed. other than all the other pill concocutions i have. thanks nig.

---

There is a lot more that can help you, like the place & people that was mentioned.

I didn't mention any of that this time because it's been covered before; this was [as far as I knew] something new.

However seeing that there's many new folks around, it wouldn't be the redundancy I originally thought it would.

When you get ready to do it let us know and you'll get flooded with advice.

Here's some now: Spend the time until then reading this forum and get a feel for who's advice you trust and who's is less than you would want.

the first time i fried (shrooms) i heard my dad in the other room say "i dont know what he does" and i freaked out hardcore thinking he was referring to me, and the "what he does" being what drugs i was using.

turned out they were talking about some guy and wondering what his job was :\

you always have assure yourself your gonna way misconstrue things

btw thanks meta for typeing that all out, i found it VERY informative