The rise of the psychedelic guide

That's pretty cool, like a life coach for psychedelic explorers. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Mercer

Hard pass.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-california-ho...

Realistically speaking (IMO), no one should start tripping without a guide. Most people start tripping very young, with no one to show them what it's about, what potential it has, and how to manage situations where intense emotions may arise that may be difficult to manage and then later integrate. Learning to trip is definitely a process, and, again IMO, the recreational tripping model used by the majority of psychedelic consumers doesn't lend itself to an appropriate set or setting for really accommodating the needs of the psychedelic trip. Tripping at shows may be fun (for some) but is also really dangerous. In fact, many people who consider themselves expert trippers are still just reinforcing their own ego trips in subtle and not so subtle ways, and never really do the self-exploration and growth that psychedelics can, when properly consumed, facilitate and promote tremendous personal growth.

I feel like you've never really tripped until you've taken a monster dose accompanied by someone and just did your thing while listening to mellow meditative music. Dark room, or mostly dark, even candles can be much. Soft, gentle prolonged music. And if someone is with you, someone who you trust as being professionally capable of helping you through the hard parts and containing you in the easy parts. Eye covers can be useful, too. But hey, to each his own.

Good for MAPS!

Rebekah Mercer can fuck off!!!

>>>>>>>Proving yet again just which side of the debate is more open to the others ideas.

lol

Yeah, the Republicans and all their great ideas.  Sorry more democrats aren’t into racial, gender, and religious discrimination.

I hear ya Javs.

I believe anybody who wants to make the leap for the first time... should just jump.

I get the whole pre-planning and what not (set and setting).

But just do it!

dose a republican for america

I've never tripped with someone who didn't partake - that would be weird, so I've never had a "guide".

However, if trips had been legal when I started (1969), it might have been a good thing to have a guide.

At times.

i don't recommend having to take a dump at terrapin while tripping.

My first time was me just jumping in, as I imagine most people here was the same. It worked out ok, but probably could have been a million times more fruitful if I had been working with a trained professional. I agree completely that choosing a guide can be dangerous as you don't really know who the person is, their intentions, etc. That's why nowadays I just like to go solo style, but still, society in general would benefit if people had access to psychedelic therapy, rather than just finding acid and tripping out wherever, I think. 

Turtle, I had the pleasure of finally not being able to hold it anymore on Day 3 at The Clifford Ball back in '96, before people had thought out the whole festival concept too well. It was about 530 am, I was still high as fuck, and I'm still traumatized to this day. Next to that, I'm guessing Terrapin Station is a breeze! 

"California State Blottery... Can't win if you don't play"

What would be a million times more fruitful about having a guide? 

So Rebekah Mercer, the billionaire Republican and co-owner of Breitbart is looking to help guide people who trip? 

I’ll pass. 

The CIA already did this

Best guide for anyone tripping, IMHO, is a Grateful Dead show or mother nature.  

I guess this goes back to when people first started eating acid and you had the Kesey camp and the Leary folks.   The Kesey style was just drop acid and see what happens in the chaos that follows.   Leary, by contrast, was more into structured trips.   I prefer the former.

>>> The CIA already did this <<<

Yep and look what it gave us...

Bryen!

There's a scene in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test that illustrates this schism in a humorous way, as Furthur visits Millbrook.

"I guess this goes back to when people first started eating acid"

The use of psychedelics in general goes way back, much further in time than the Grateful Dead and San Francisco, and in every single culture that has ever consumed them, participants were either extremely skilled and experienced psychonauts, or they were ingesting in the presence and company of said skilled psychonauts. Clearly, the psychedelic explosion of the 60's had enough negative consequences so as to question whether or not the 'pass the acid test' mentality was actually a good thing. STDs, unwanted pregnancies, drug addiction and overdoses, mental trauma compounded by bad trips rather than helped out, not to mention the social rejection and general lack of hygiene. Indigenous cultures, on the other hand, seem to have a pretty good track record of making sure that those who ingest and are exposed to this powerful alternate perception are channeled into respectful relationships with their peers and nature, and into a respectful assumption of responsibilities brought about by having a specific role in society.

The sixties blew it? 

I wouldn't say the sixties blew it or succeeded at 'it', and I don't know what 'it' is in either case. The sixties was what it was, and it was bound by a time and context that set the stage for everything that happened. Nowadays is a different time and a different place. A more responsible approach to taking psychedelics could lead to huge benefits in psychotherapy for so many people, genuinely 'turning people on' and processing trauma and so much more. That's not to say there's not a space for recreational consumption for those who are into that kind of thing, just that an additional socially acceptable LEGAL format in which for people to explore their consciousness is a huge step in a positive direction. Dig?

I’m glad I went in young and boundless. It’s best to separate the wheat from the chaff, this shit ain’t for everybody. If you ever have spent an hour trying to convince someone that they actually have been breathing and they have not died will know what I am talking about.

And as far as a guide goes. I have been on a few trips where I have discovered the origins of life, the answers to life’s riddles, the keys to the universe, and I came out with no recollection. If they don’t have a map to there and back I would not trust them.