When To Put Down Psychedelics

[Shakazulu]

I’ve been sitting with this for a while and wanted to hear from people who’ve actually gone deep and then stopped (or heavily reduced) their use.

For years I’ve used psychedelics as a core part of my path. I’ve had all the classic insights drilled into me:

Mind and reality are one

The ego is a construction

Life is a dream / appearance in consciousness

“You’re not the body, not the story”

Cool. Got it. Burned into my nervous system.

But here’s the problem I’m running into now:

Is there a point where more trips just deepen detachment and spiritual bypassing instead of helping?

How did you personally decide, “Okay, enough chemistry, now it’s integration and real-world action”?

What signs told you psychedelics were becoming a crutch or an escape rather than a tool because look at Steve Jobs. He took plenty of LSD & created a successful company.

I just had a traumatic experience and I’m not sure if psychedelics with a spiritual practitioner would help. 

 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

When I relied on them to facilitate a 'spiritual connection'. And when they became an escape or cope.

I had to cut them out to maintain grounding with truth.

Also, I justified some of my use for 'healing' when plain old cognitive behavioural therapy would have been 100000% faster to fix my shit.

Live and learn  

 

[Hojo]

I eat 20 + grams and saw infinite circus clown realms in the light and said im done.

So I would say sit there and eat as much as you can until a portal opens up behind your head and you cant physically eat anymore cause you are entering a trance state.

Shit will get so weird you wont want to do anymore.

Edited 16 hours ago by Hojo

[Shakazulu]

@Hojo

infinite clowns 😂 good god lol. You ate 20 grams of what though?

[Shakazulu]

@Natasha Tori Maru

Appreciate this, Natasha. When you say CBT would’ve been 100000% faster — do you mean straight-up CBT, or CBT mixed with trauma work / somatic stuff?

 

I’m coming out of years of heavy psychedelic work + a recent accident, so my nervous system is pretty fried and I’m realizing I probably need something more practical than more trips.

 

In your experience, what kind of therapy felt most grounding and effective once you put the psychedelics down?

 

[Ramasta9]

When it feels natural to do so, eventually less becomes more. Try grow your own, that's definitely an enrichening process, especially cactus that takes years of time and care, but it will teach you something more than the psychedelic medicine itself  Its the journey not the end result.

These days its a rarer occasion when things align for ceremony or celebration. As for synthetics i never found them useful and tend to leave one more scattered energetically and less embodied than integrated and healing. They were missing the spirit and body of the whole. Nature didn't create isolates for a reason. There is intelligence there that needs to be respected.

Listen to your body, it knows, and this post you made maybe a call to take a long break and allow the nervous system to re-stabilize.

And who knows, maybe something else will ignite from within, and may never embark ever again.

One moment at a time, nature takes its course.

Edited 10 hours ago by Ramasta9

[Shakazulu]

@Ramasta9

Thank you, this really resonates. I now have to look at how much I’ve been pushing it. I’m leaning toward a long break to let my body catch up and focus on integration, therapy and building my actual life. I appreciate the reminder that it’s the journey, not chasing another big trip.

 

[Yimpa]

You learn to trust yourself.

I tripped deep asf 7 days in a row last week. Took a break 2 days ago and I’ll be back to deep tripping today.

I’m hardcore and I don’t play no games.

I am also not a newbie with my psychedelic path, so don’t copy me if you are. I’m not a pattern to be followed.  You should know yourself best, trust your intuition. 

Edited 9 hours ago by Yimpa

[Ramasta9]

1 hour ago, Shakazulu said:

@Ramasta9

Thank you, this really resonates. I now have to look at how much I’ve been pushing it. I’m leaning toward a long break to let my body catch up and focus on integration, therapy and building my actual life. I appreciate the reminder that it’s the journey, not chasing another big trip.

 

No worries bro, I actually wrote a very long reply but this forum has major issues and I got the error code. I felt inspired to share my story but ehh, a good 20 minutes out the window. What can i do, detach and move on.

Edited 9 hours ago by Ramasta9

[Ramasta9]

52 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

You learn to trust yourself.

I tripped deep asf 7 days in a row last week. Took a break 2 days ago and I’ll be back to deep tripping today.

I’m hardcore and I don’t play no games.

I am also not a newbie with my psychedelic path, so don’t copy me if you are. I’m not a pattern to be followed.  You should know yourself best, trust your intuition. 

Don't trip too much, you might trip over yourself and turn into a Yimp !

The point is to sober up, then you're really getting it

[Hojo]

@Shakazulu magic mushrooms. I have a tendency to go way too hard when I pick a drug.

[LifeEnjoyer]

When Leo told to me to take a few years off

[Shakazulu]

@LifeEnjoyer lmao

[Yimpa]

2 hours ago, Ramasta9 said:

The point is to sober up

The same substance (cannabis) is also keeping me alive for medical reasons. So I have legal and valid reasons to trip often 

I use high doses occasionally for spiritual consciousness work, then take breaks to integrate. Low doses are daily medicine - they help me function with autism, anxiety disorder, and C-PTSD.

Same tool, different intentions. I trust my intuition for what’s appropriate and when. I used to be rigid, but years of trial and error taught me to experiment responsibly and listen to my actual needs. 

My “sober” state is hell, so that’s not an option. I am sober while on cannabis.

Edited 6 hours ago by Yimpa

[LambdaDelta]

For me it was when I stopped seeing any divinity and wonder in everyday life and it turned into a tedious layover between trips. It's still a struggle, but a clear sign is when I'd ceased even attempts at contemplation/integration going to straight dismissal. Eventually even the peaks became more of the same, because my consciousness wasn't advancing to receive new ones. If you don't get qualitatively different insights for a while it is a telltale sign to take a break, unless your intention is to re-verify or deepen what you already got. Also tolerance kicking in was a factor, at one point I was doing so much so often that a 15-tab strip of LSD barely brightened the colors; it was getting unsustainable even simply from a financial standpoint. 

These days I don't trip very often, on average once a month, but each one is incredibly powerful. I rarely try new substances anymore as I've settled on a few that work the best after a long period of experimentation. I've also really attuned my intuition to when I truly should trip such that I'll withdraw or postpone as many times as necessary. Developing a communication with God helps with that, which won't work nearly as well if you don't see God all around. When the sober avenues have been exhausted is a good time to trip. 

While my human life isn't particularly important to me, my levels of contentment with it, especially the increase in capacity to love and provide value to others while remaining at peace, as well as consistently seeing and appreciating the divine intelligence animating everything around, are good indicators of growth I use. When I am fully ready to step onto the next level, which necessarily entails assuming more responsibility, God accommodates. I've learned not to force it and go at the pace reality sets. Trust the process. 

[Recursoinominado]

I stopped when i realized my consciousness was way more elevated than my material life. I was thinking constantly about enlightenment and God but was broke and lacking basic self-development skills like time management, discipline and daily routine. 

[Yimpa]

23 minutes ago, LambdaDelta said:

I've learned not to force it and go at the pace reality sets. Trust the process. 

I don’t feel obligated to do anything anymore. I’m not in control of any of it. 

A Force beyond me, and surrounding me, is.

[LambdaDelta]

9 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

I don’t feel obligated to do anything anymore. I’m not in control of any of it. 

A Force beyond me, and surrounding me, is.

Obligation is low consciousness. It's about voluntarily taking on more responsibility, simply out of love for reality. 'you' still hold some very limited control, and You are the entire force. Just a matter of aligning the two. Well, depending on how you look at it there's indeed no free will whatsoever, so I'm not denying that either. 

[Yimpa]

21 minutes ago, LambdaDelta said:

there’s indeed no free will whatsoever, so I'm not denying that either. 

I have been experiencing that, too.