Hey guys , i am trying shrooms for the first time tommorow. I want to take a small dose and also use it to self- reflect and heal my inner self . Any recommendations on the settings , dose and questions to ask myself ?

Hey fellow r/Psychonaut,

This October we're running free pilot calls for Nectara Groups: 90-minute online circles, each held by one of our guides. Earth Medicine, Navigating Change, Mindful Living, Women's, Men's, Beyond Binaries (gender & sexual identity), and one for therapists and coaches. Each meets twice this month, both calls are free, and they're medicine agnostic.

A lot of what comes up here is what to do with an experience once it's over. Something that seems to help is having the same small group to come back to, people who already know your story, where meeting regularly gives the insights somewhere to land.

Dates and times: https://circle.nectara.co/nectara-groups

RSVPs happen inside our free membership: https://nectara.org/membership

The pilots are there so you can try a circle, with no pitch at the end. If you choose to continue from November, it moves to a sliding scale of $30–60 a month, mostly paying the guides. Entirely optional, and the free membership stays the same either way.

Happy to answer questions, skeptical ones included. 🙏

Just over two weeks ago I had a colonoscopy here in the UK. I had gas and air rather than IV sedation (Entonox, 50% nitrous oxide, 50% oxygen, the stuff they give in labour and ambulances). I'd barely slept in the two days before it. When the pain started climbing I pulled on the gas hard and kept pulling, far more than you're meant to.

I was chatting to the doctor and nurses to take my mind off it and somehow we got onto flowers. I said my girlfriend's dad buys her flowers and she always smiles when she gets them, and it hit me that in two years I'd never bought her any. The doctor said something like: women don't always show it, but if she loves the flowers she'll show it, she'll smile, that's the ultimate test of love.

Then that sentence started repeating. He said it, the nurse said it, he said it, she said it, seven or eight times. They weren't actually repeating it. I could tell it was being repeated somewhere else and I was being made to hear it. That's the moment I knew something was happening to me. It felt like something above me had taken that sentence and was playing it back until I got it.

And I got it. I'd failed. I love her, I hadn't shown it, and I could have. At the same time I knew with total certainty that this reality wasn't real. Everything was constructed. The closest thing I can compare it to is The Sims: I was the little figure and there was a big player above who builds things and does things in his world, and out of hundreds of thousands of figures he'd stopped and focused on me because I wasn't doing what I'm here to do. I thought: it's too late, I've failed the test.

Then I became aware of a presence to my right, big, above me, male. I couldn't see it and I knew I couldn't. In my head I said something like: oh my God, none of this is real, you're real and all this is fake. It gave a little laugh and said: of course it's not. What did you think, it was real? Not cruel. More like I'd just noticed something obvious.

Then I was going up. There were levels above my head, about twenty of them, each roughly the size of a sheet of A4 paper, with gaps between them, and I was passing up through them faster and faster and faster. Near the top it felt like I was about to be taken completely out of everything. Not dying into somewhere else. Just ending. I begged for another chance. Then there was a feeling of "now you get it," and it chose to keep me in.

I came round crying and telling the room I'd met our creator and that it's all about love. I have very little memory of the room during all this. What I know about the outside comes from the staff: my eyes were open the whole time, breathing, pulse and oxygen were all normal, and I didn't respond to anything. The doctor, who looked like he'd been doing this for decades, and both nurses said they'd never seen anything like it. He said it looked like my soul had left my body. When I walked out later I found them in the corridor in a huddle, talking about it and acting out how I'd frozen.

Since then: I comforted a stranger in the hospital who was upset, which isn't like me. I messaged my dad to tell him I love him. I bought the flowers. Things that would normally wind me up don't. I'm not scared of dying the way I was. I've seen my GP, who heard the whole thing; the colonoscopy report was normal and he didn't think any further checks were needed.

I've been doing my own reading since. Nitrous oxide blocks the same NMDA receptor that ketamine does, and studies describe it as producing psychedelic-like and dissociative states. A study that gave healthy volunteers 50% nitrous for 20 minutes reported dreamlike states, scary and transcendental dreams, sensory overload and fear of losing control. DMT experiences have been shown to score as NDEs on the standard NDE scale, and there's a long-standing ketamine model of the NDE. Humphry Davy came out of nitrous in 1800 saying nothing exists but thoughts. And the sound-looping thing turns out to be widely reported on nitrous; there's an old Erowid report from a dental chair literally titled Looped Reality. So it looks like gas and air can open the same doors that ketamine and DMT open, and I'm trying to work out whether that's what happened to me, or whether it was something more, or both.

What I'm asking:

Has anyone had anything like this on gas and air, at the dentist, in labour, in hospital? The looping sentence, the levels, a presence just out of sight, the "of course it's not real" moment?

NDErs: does this look like what you went through? Where does it match and where doesn't it?

Anyone with ketamine or DMT experience: do you recognise this?

What do you think happened? I've had a religious friend read it one way and a doctor another, and I'm open to both.

TL;DR: Heavy gas and air during a colonoscopy after two days without sleep. A sentence about showing love looped seven or eight times from "elsewhere," I realised I'd failed at it and that reality was constructed, met a presence I couldn't see that laughed and said of course it's not real, went up through about twenty levels faster and faster, felt I was about to cease to exist, begged, was kept, and came back crying that it's about love. Eyes open and vitals normal throughout; staff had never seen anything like it. Looking for similar experiences and any insight into what happened. Another very important thing to add that I'll end with is that whatever being or entity that was, I felt judged by it.

I can't recommend Nature and being around other sentient life enough on a psychedelic trip. Or frankly anytime!

Swimming in the oceans, lakes, or rivers.

Hiking in forests.

We need to protect nature and other sentient life. It is part of us and incredibly healing.

And like I said elsewhere have a prepared fruit plate for extra yummy awesomeness hah. Peace and love!

Hi guys! I do lsd from time to time and i don't really do much more than lying in bed and listening to music SO what would You recommend i try?

Because of where I love ibcant go out but i have a small backyard if theres need for outside time haha

Thank You for You imput!

i want to hear about your favourite trip and why it was so special. want to hype myself up for my next macrodose on mushrooms and would loveee to hear about happy times❤️

I am wanting to get closer to a root fear using lsd or mushrooms.

I have some pretty decent parts protecting me from those feelings.

If I set an intention before a trip to feel the fear, am I just priming the psyche to put up the barriers harder?

I’ve tripped only at low does so far 2 g of gt and 75 of lsd.
I haven’t been able to get closer to the fear.

Feels like I am chasing shadows atm.

Advice would be very welcome.

I realize that due to the combination of high tolerance and low quality of cannabis, many people have never had the chance to experience what I and others in this subreddit have experienced with the herb. I didn't become "stupid" or "escape reality," I immersed myself in the matter itself and realized in practice how the world only existed in my consciousness. Closing my eyes was like entering a very strange DMT trip, with involuntary images filling my entire mental screen, and keeping them open was like realizing how much of the world was mental. All of this lasted 12 hours, a truly authentic psychedelic trip.

If you follow the same protocols you would for any other psychedelic (set and setting, interval to avoid tolerance, etc.), marijuana will also show you the power it has.

looking for advice on the order of experiences for two experienced psychonauts.

night 1 - hippieflip

day 2 - low dose dmt

night 2 - high dose acid candyflip

day 3 - moderate/breakthrough dose dmt/5-meo-dmt

night 3 - mid-high dose 2cb

day 4 - breakthrough dmt/5-meo-dmt/high dose mushroom trip

night 4 - high dose mushroom trip/5-meo-dmt

idea behind this order is it would be easier to increase acid dose than to eat more mushrooms to account for cross tolerance from day 1 to day 2, so mushrooms first.

ideally candyflip before 2cb to allow psychonaut #2 to experience candyflip before 2cb (psychonaut #2 hasnt experienced 2cb).

also ideally hippieflip first because thats both of our favorite experience.

both of us have tried entry/near-threshold doses of dmt, but never common, and definitely not breakthrough. id like to experience dmt towards the end, to prevent the "extreme" of dmt to make later trips feel "lesser". this leads us towards doing it either day 3 or day 4, but neither of us are opposed to doing it after the comedown on any of the nights. also willing to "work up" to higher dosages, so low dose on day 2, moderate day 3, breakthrough day 4 is fine by us.

the goal is to do all 4, the order of which to do is the main problem we're trying to sort out. we both have experience hippieflipping, only i have experience candyflipping.

in addition, a nice 5th, but not necessary, is 5-meo-dmt. this would ideally be done day or night 4, and of course only if the rest of the trips go well.

we've done research on everything, but would like additional anecdotal advice or opinions on the scheduling, especially looking for placement for dmt and 5-meo-dmt.

i have experience with MDMA, high dose acid (a strip), high dose mushrooms, 2cb, hippieflipping, candyflipping, honeyflipping, low dose dmt, k-hole ketamine, high dose DPH, and DXM.

psychonaut #2 has experience with MDMA, medium-high dose acid, high dose mushrooms, hippieflipping, low dose dmt, and high dose DPH.

last experience we shared was 3 nights in a row of high dose hippieflipping, and it went amazingly, this is why we are confident in planning something like this. we will test everything together, have proper anchors, environment, and harm reduction methods. in addition, we have various trip killers, but neither of us have ever needed any (always good to have and not need than to need and not have).

Hi, has anyone here tried both LSD and psilocybin specifically for severe anxiety/rumination and found one clearly more helpful than the other?

I recently did a 3g P. natalensis trip mainly for chronic GAD, depression and constant negative rumination. The trip itself was pretty difficult, but afterwards I had a few hours where I felt almost completely different - much more positive, motivated and like I could finally move forward with my life. Unfortunately that shift disappeared very quickly and within a few days I was basically back to my normal baseline.

I've never tried LSD before (not even microdosing), so im curious whether anyone with similar problems found LSD therapeutically different from mushrooms, especially for GAD and repetitive negative thought loops.

Not planning to immediately jump into another trip btw, mainly interested in experiences from people who have actually tried both

Thank you

Hey everyone. Looking for perspectives from people who understand high-dose psychedelics and mind-states.

A former friend of mine (let’s call him “Sam”) is currently in a high-security forensic psychiatric ward for an unprovoked, violent homicide . In high school, he was obsessed with The 48 Laws of Power and abused weed heavily. Later on, he began mixing massive doses of DMT, LSD, MDMA, and vyvanse.

Clinically, he’s diagnosed with severe Schizoaffective Disorder. His court docs states he complains of metallic/sulfurous odors and "unseen entities," and rapidly deteriorates upon relapse of drugs. Despite having no access to drugs and only takes anti psychotics as prescribed by mental ward doctors he still has these strong symptoms of schizophrenia and psychosis (according to the doctors). He also constantly changes his instagram bio with weird titles from combining phonetic entity names (⁠REDJINOLD⁠), inverted power names (⁠ROSHTHCHILD⁠), titles like JIN(NEPHIELUM) and astrological symbols (⁠♉⁠, ⁠♑⁠) and saying “@Rule” and random dates from the year he was born and the year 2000. He also calls himself El Diablo and claims “it’s not a name it’s a title”.

Did he forcibly tear open his own nervous system through chemical abuse and invite host attachment, or is this purely a broken brain projecting power archetypes? Has anyone seen a break like this?

HTTP://pscp.club ✌🏼

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So I took 3 of these "space trip" LSA pills which I legally bought in the Netherlands. Its badically 7 or so haiwaiian baby woodrose seeds. At first it was nice but then I started having EXTREME anxiety, i went for a walk because I thought i was going insane if i stayed in my house.

I went to this area near my house with benches and stuff. I sat there and this is when the nightmare began. I was literally 100% sure im getting a cardiac arrest, i couldnt feel my body anymore, i was lying on the ground and couldnt do anything anymore.

I had a full blown ego disullsion where I was dying but I accepted it, i was ready to die in that moment. Life flashes before my eyes with memories from the past.

Then i felt my soul literally being pulled from my body, i made weird movements like a person in some sort of demon movie, I thought I died, and then was revived because of some higher power.

For the 2 next hours or so I thought I was in the afterlife, i literally 1000% believed that nothing is real.

At this point I tried walking home, I couldn't find my house anymore, i called the emergency line and explained them that I "died". The lady on the line was so helpful and gave me some reality check. Then i hung up.

10 min later the police showed up as i was trying to find my house. They wanted to search me but I was so incredibly lucky that i just told them im gonna go home and sleep.

In the end i found my house again and lied in my bed and the trip faded out.

Please, if you read this DO NOT make the same mistake as I did. I was so lucky that nothing more happened to me. I couldve died easily.

Now i am worried that this will leave some lasting damage and will never be the same person. Ive heard stories from people who were fundamentally changed, im hoping I come out normal.

PLEASE THIS IS A WARNING NEVER TAKE A HIGH DOSE LIKE ME

I feel extremely dull and generally board a lot and very down I don’t really enjoy doing anything other than my two hobbies that are actually assessable at the moment… by moment I mean the last couple of years

I have a bunch of shrooms laying around in a closet life is so dull and boring and frustrating right now but I’m kind of worried I’ll have a dull trip that will keep me this way for longer

There’s really no reason I shouldn’t other than that I’ve tripped on shrooms a Lot over the past four years and at this point simple annoyances don’t really turn the trip bad

Thing is tho I can’t really just sit around and trip if I’m not active while tripping it just sucks and I’ve always had negative side affects if I’m not physically active
I went e biking on shrooms and that was extremely fun middle of nowhere saw the actual Milky Way for the first time in my life and yeah

I feel like a good trip would paint some much needed color back into my life…

I’m still trying to process what happened to me the other night.

So, my sexuality has never really been unlocked throughout my entire life — any kind of sensation, attraction, anything. I found myself relating to descriptions of asexual people, but I wasn’t okay with it. It frustrated me a lot. I felt like I didn’t have a sense of taste while the whole world was talking about the most amazing chocolate, writing songs, making films, etc. It was as if I wasn’t a member of some group that everyone else belonged to.

Anyway, I’ve had many psychedelic experiences, including ayahuasca, mescaline, psilocybin, LSD...

Believe me, none of those experiences came even close to the intensity of the altered state of consciousness I experienced with THC.

When I was younger, I went through extreme psychotic episodes of agony and paranoia every time I smoked. I used to call it a roller coaster through hell. Complete derealization, depersonalization, an extremely altered state of consciousness accompanied by paranoia. (Believe me, it was enough for me to slip into a psychotic episode just because someone was sitting next to me smoking.)

Anyway, a few days ago, after many years of fear and avoiding weed, I decided to give THC a chance.

I created some kind of personal ceremony. I set an intention for the trip, lit some candles, “cleansed” the room of negative energy, and put on shamanic drumming.

Guys, I have no words to explain what happened to me.

I had a complete experience of an extremely altered state of consciousness, accompanied by visual movies and physical sensations. I saw a completely alive universe with all kinds of beings and mechanisms. I fought a battle with the deformed, angry faces of my parents that kept following me.

And in the end, I had an orgasm.

Oh my God, is that even possible?

And it lasted — throughout the entire experience. Not only did it last, but it stayed with me the next day and the day after that, and it's still here.

I simply still haven’t processed what happened, and it’s hard for me to believe it. It feels like some kind of dream.

But my body has proof that something really did happen.

So, I’ve gotten back into psychedelics after not doing them for about half a year. I have been trying everything I buy from my guy before I let anyone else use them, so I’ve tripped about once a week the last 2 months which is more than what I would like to do.

Cut to a few days ago, I finally had a free day to go over to my brothers house and trip with him. Our schedules never line up so we were super excited to finally trip together. We planned on taking 2.5g of “DC Mak95 x Thrasher PE”together. I have never heard of either of those strains but google said they’re heavy on the visuals and light on the body load, so I just treated the dosing as regular PE.

4 hours into the trip we aren’t noticing much. Colors were brighter, contrast was bumped up a few notches, and things were waving slightly. Underwhelmed by the trip so far we both decided to take another gram or so. We both eyeballed a piece and ate it. 15 minutes later, my brother doesn’t notice any changes. I on the other hand, was hit with a crazy wave of heat.

I heard the familiar buzzing sound cutting in and out like I just hit a dmt pen. Everything I looked at lost its detail. It was like using the paint bucket tool on everything. My blood pressure dropped I’m assuming because when I stood up to leave the room and find a cozier spot, my brother said, “Bro your lips are blue.”

I acknowledged it and said that I’m chillin so I don’t worry him. I take a seat at my brothers desk, and the dmt visuals went away, but kept coming in and out for about an hour or so. I felt pieces of me disappearing as I forgot literally everything as it was happening. I couldn’t remember what I was thinking five seconds after I thought it. My brother never got to this level of tripping. The entire time I was just saying “Dude holy shit I’m tripping so hard” There was even a point in time where I genuinely was fearing for my life because my heart was beating so fast. My brother decided to put on Die Antwoords new album at full blast on his surround sound system so I took a step outside.

The grass was beautiful, and the trees in the distance looked drippy and swirly. My brother kinda picked up on the fact I was struggling and got me a cigarette which helped TREMENDOUSLY. We both chilled outside watching cars drive by the rest of the trip. The relief I felt when I finally got home and saw my fiancé cooking dinner was the best part. Nothing felt normal until that point, it felt like I was fake or I wasn’t supposed to exist. The whole experience made me grateful for what I have.

The lesson I’m choosing to take from this is to respect the mushrooms and psychedelics as a whole. I’ve heard countless stories and bits of advice that say to respect them or they’ll humble you, and that they did. Needless to say I’m not doing shrooms again for a while. I’ll stick to acid for the time being.

hey, I've not tried to watch a movie peaking to such a high dose before. are people actually able to comprehend stuff on this or do you just completely lose track and it just becomes background noise?

planning to peak to Pixar's Soul so its not like its a complicated plot, I just wondered if I'd even comprehend the fact I'm watching a movie or if I'll be completely out of it and not even aware its playing.

also if anyone has experience with hillbillies what's it like? I hear crazy juxtapositions of its either just like GTs or 2g was some of the most potent shit they ever had lol

hi. just making this post in case i need some positive energy during my trip. was reading through another thread some minutes ago and the guy was scared after eating the same dose and the comments were super positive and uplifting. kindly requesting that same energy :)

I had an incredible experience recently that I've never had before, and I'm trying to figure out exactly what happened, and honestly, how to make it happen again.
I was completely sober, sitting down with my headphones on, and my eyes closed. I was listening to some midtempo bass / EDM. Out of nowhere, I hit this state of total, deep immersion. It wasn't just listening to music anymore; it became a full multisensory experience.
I literally started "seeing" the music. It wasn't just random flashes of light or colors—it was a full, moving visual landscape that shifted and evolved beautifully along with the track. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It felt amazing and left me with this incredible sense of well-being.

For context:
I don't have permanent synesthesia. This was an isolated, temporary event.

I do get deeply into really good books sometimes, but it’s never gone this deep.

I love nature, but I've never had a sensory shift like this outdoors.

From a bit of reading, it seems like I stumbled into a state of deep psychological absorption combined with temporary sound-to-vision imagery/chromesthesia.
Has anyone else here ever triggered this kind of state completely sober? If you experience this regularly, what are your "tricks" for getting there? I’d love to hear what artists/tracks tend to trigger it for you, or any advice on mindset and setup so I can try to recreate the experience.
Thanks!

Long story short, I had my first few trips over the last half year, and my first trip was probably like 80% absolutely beautiful. I had done a crazy amount of research beforehand, like literally almost a whole year, so I felt extremely prepared. During the trip I was able to completely let go and just let the experience happen, and it was honestly one of the most beautiful and magical experiences ever.

However, the last 20% turned into a bad trip. A lot of things went wrong set & setting wise. We were in a cabin on a camping place and it started getting dark, and the effects were supposed to be wearing off. But for me they just kept going. My friend wasn't really feeling anything anymore and started watching Stranger Things, so I started getting anxious. I had to go to the toilet, but the toilets were outside on the camping place and it was completely dark, so I felt scared going there. We also didn't really have any food, and eventually I just started spiraling. Those last 2 hours became really fucking horrible and i really spiraled deep into childhood traumas and whatsoever..

After that I took a long break from all drugs, like a couple months. Then I had another trip with a very low dose. It started kinda rough because I couldn't fully let go anymore. It wasn't necessarily a bad trip, but it was very challenging with a lot of ups and downs. The whole trip basically revolved around letting go, because I felt like I couldn't do that as easily anymore after the bad experience.

Then my next trip was Acid. A relatively low dose again, and this was actually a really beautiful experience. Just pure bliss. I was able to let go again and just experience everything without constantly trying to control it or fight against it. The only difficult part was that upon the end, the 12 hour duration got a little exhausting and challenging, but besides that it was genuinely pretty good.

Now whenever I smoke weed I can only smoke a tiny amount, otherwise it gets way too intense really quickly. And it feels completely different from how weed used to feel for me. It used to just be funny and enjoyable, I'd be laughing at everything and having a great time. Now I constantly feel like I have to be careful that it doesn't turn into a panic attack. I get pretty strong derealization when I'm high too.

And I barely even smoke anymore, maybe once a week at most, often less.

I also haven't tripped in quite a while now.

I'm pretty sure this isn't some unique experience and that a lot of people here have gone through something similar. So I'm wondering: how long did you guys have to wait until things felt normal again? Were you eventually able to smoke normally again and trip without this constant fear of losing control? Or was there something else that helped you get back to being able to fully let go?

Maybe this is bro science, but I feel like my brain made a really strong connection between being HIGH = PANIC/FEAR. As soon as I'm under any kind of substance, or I KNOW I've taken something and I'm waiting for the effects to kick in, I can feel panic starting.

And this is weird because it wasn't like this at all before. It used to be basically the opposite.

It can even happen with alcohol, or something as harmless as melatonin before sleeping, or even when I take something like Voltaren when I'm sick. It's like my brain goes “you took something = something is about to happen and you cant do nothing about it and cant control it = Panic/fear”

Another thing I've noticed is that I used to be the kind of person who thought extreme shit was fun. Rollercoasters, scary stuff, whatever. I would always be the first person wanting to go on because I loved the feeling of the “ride”.

But since that bad trip, I went to an amusement park once and while waiting in line for the first rollercoaster, I suddenly started getting really anxious/panicky. I think it's because the feeling is kinda similar to taking a substance: you know something is about to happen, you're strapped in, you can't just leave whenever you want, and you have to give up control for a while.

I literally never had a problem with that before, but now I somehow do.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? And if so, how long did it take for you to be able to do psychs and weed normaly again? or was it something else than just waiting that helped you? Maybe intense meditaitopn for longer periods of time or something like that?

Hello, im new to psychedelics and 12 days ago i took 21 grams of raw mckenaii mushrooms, (first trip ever) I had a challenging trip, my heart was racing and i could feel many emotions at the same time like anxiety, happines, connection to space/nature etc. I had alot of existential thoughts at the peak, i've never felt so conscious before. I've also had mild visuals like colors were blue or green, walls and grass breathing and some fractals when i looked at my bed. The comedown was really beatiful, music felt very enjoyable and i felt euphoric. I want to try these mushrooms again but i dont want to feel the intense stress and anxiety i had in that trip, any tips?