The “heroic dose” of psychedelics, according to Johns Hopkins | Dr. Matthew Johnson 

The fact that psychedelics are still illegal is a crime against humanity

Psilocybin flipped the off switch on my social anxiety like a light switch. It's effect lasted long enough that I thought it permanent. My anxiety and doubts and lack of self worth was gone. Anything that can make you love yourself should be legal.

Alcohol and cigarettes addiction actually destroyed my life. I could remember several years ago after divorce with my wife which brought me into my disastrous journey on Alcohol and cigarettes. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Got diagnosed with cptsd. Not until a friend recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 8 years totally clean. Much respect to mother nature the great magic shrooms.

I just tried DMT and MUSHROOMS for the first time. I felt as if i was in the center of the universe. I didn't go crazy after such an extreme experience. Totally got rid of depression, anxiety and illicit pill addiction.

Psilocybin saved my life . I was addicted to heroin for 15 years and after Psilocybin treatment I will be 3 years clean in September . I have zero cravings . This is something that truly needs to be more broadly used in addiction treatment .

I had the universal empathy experience once. I felt the world's suffering, and it's changed me forever. Love you guys.

I had a psychedelic experience once that sent me to eternity and meeting the creator. My ego dissolved yet I was physically terrified. It's effect lasted long enough that I thought it permanent. It was so magical and so full of love, changed my life for good. In the most positive way possible.

Psychedelics are just an exceptional mental health breakthrough. It's quite fascinating how effective they are against depression and anxiety. Saved my life.

As someone with both Chronic Depression and PTSD, I have experimented with Psilocybin. While I didn't experience the "life changing" trip as some people describe, it's absolutely impossible for me to say that it did not vastly improve my mood and my internal dialogues in ways that were profoundly helpful.

I first experienced psychedelics as a teenager in the 90's, and it completely changed my perspective on life and relationships. Since then (early 40's now) I've taken psychedelics once every year or 2 to reconnect. Every adult should experience this.

Psychedelic really healed me years back. These are great healing compounds! When used in proper context.

Psychedelics have the potential to make a significant impact on mental health issues like anxiety and depression. They've been incredibly helpful for me personally.

I was grief stricken a year ago. Unable to function after my fiancé died traumatically I could only find relief in plotting how to make my death not look like suicide. I took a micro dose of mushrooms he’d left behind and went to bed expecting nothing to happen. 90 minutes later I was in my kitchen doing the dishes. Then I walked the dog and felt sun on my face. Then I ate dinner for the first time in weeks, drank water and went to bed. My grief was still there - painful, raw and vivid but somehow I understood that I would make it and that life was going to show me the way and let joy in again. Edit; I didn’t want my death to look like suicide - I wanted to find a way to have an “accident” that didn’t put anyone else at risk.

The biggest lesson psychedelics "heal" people is helping them realize they are not broken to begin with and that we're just speckles in this grand illusion. A kind of we-don't-matter realization that isn't nihilistic; we just are.

Psilocybin has saved my life. I was suicidal all my life. I researched this topic heavily. I microdosed, .25 of a gram. I do daily, four times a day. I do not hallucinate. It helps bring mental clarity, helps me to think outside the box. It helps me to see that life is beautiful, amazing. I am no longer suicidal. ❤

Psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms, have demonstrated great potential in supporting individuals dealing with mental health challenges.

My first trip was close to 38 years ago on LSD (I'm 60 now). It was done with some friends who were experienced in it. I remember being about 30 minutes into having taken it and being asked if I felt anything. I remember starting to say that I felt nothing out of the ordinary when all of a sudden this deep within my soul laughter just came bursting out. Game on. I really do remember that night as if it were yesterday. I also remember having looked into a mirror that night and I swear that I saw my soul opened up to me in its entirety to a point that I new I could never lie to myself. It also made me for years to come, find friends from the teenage years gone by that I had lied to or done wrong to and apologize and ask forgiveness. It's now been close to 30 years since my last trip, but its lessons from that first time still guide me to this day.

Had a heroic dose 8 years ago, still talking about it with enthusiasm! My experience was profound. After that, it became a sacrament and not a thing to treat lightly. I have so much respect for psilocybin. A divine respect. Changed my life. ❤

Other than growing a human in my body and birthing her, my first mushroom trip at age 63 was the #1 PEAK experience of my life. It changed everything for me. Truly magnificent and magical. I now do a medicinal heroic dose every 4 or 5 weeks. I wish I would have been open to this sacred medicine decades ago. I know I would have eliminated 40+ years of severe depression and lived a richer life. So I begin to invent myself now, into the person I most want to be in the last chapters of my life. With the help of these beautiful transformative plant teachers. So grateful!

I last took LSD in 1971 and I regard it to this day as one of the most ground breaking formative experiences I've had. I came away feeling as if I had witnessed the primal scene of the universe and that it was something humans weren't supposed to be privy to. I'm glad I had the experience.

Psychedelic mushrooms really healed me years back. These are great healing compounds! When used in proper context.

I can say Psilocybin saved me from alcohol. I took a big dose one night, laid in my bed. The next day I woke up and never touched alcohol again. I recently became one year sober last month and have no plans to ever drink again.

After my experience. Woke up one day and have not drank alcohol since. Definitely life changing.

Psychedelics have the ability to induce profound altered states of consciousness.

Honestly I took my first dose a couple days ago and I still feel different. Long story short for the past like 3 years my depression started hitting me really hard, and I basically felt like I lost a part of myself. Since two days ago I feel like the most complete version of myself and I am highly satisfied.

My experience with DMT changed my life forever; no more deep depression. My experiences with psilocybin and LSD always take me back to some element of my DMT trip that reminds me I'm loved, we're all gonna be OK, life is a trip and we're just here. Being.

Psychedelic is the answer to most severe anxiety and depression. The use of magic mushrooms completely helps one get over depression and makes you feel like yourself.

I took a pretty high dose and it's hard to describe everything in a comment. I felt in contact with something that is always there but that I normally can't communicate with directly. This thing was overjoyed that I was perceiving it but was urgently trying to tell me things in the limited time we had. It communicated in symbols. I felt my brain being temporarily rewired and saw hallucinatory representations of that. I saw a being sitting at the foot of my bed which communicated with me telepathically. I felt the perceived seat of my consciousness shift. I passed through a tunnel into a place where my constant inner narrative stopped. I finally realized why bands like Tool use so many staring disembodied eyeballs in their album art. As I came down, I kept seeing a brilliant light coming unexpectedly from different sources, and this faded into a kind of afterglow that lasted for a day or two. I came away from this with the realization that this had been not only the greatest spiritual experience of my life but perhaps the only one.

I absolutely give psychedelics credit for how my entire personality turned out. I was going a completely different way before my first solo mushroom trip, and afterwards I never looked back. I'm still unfolding that experience every day and it was almost 10 years ago.

What people must remember is that it's not what happens during the trip, but what happens after. It's possible that without support and a positive environment surrounding us, we can slip back in old patterns of thought and rigid states of consciousness. I have experienced trauma directly after a trip that I felt had healed me, and I slipped straight back into the deep dark hole I had been stuck in prior. The trip is just the beginning. We owe it to our minds and bodies to dive deeper and develop habits that ultimately decide our journey. Breathwork, meditation, journaling. The relationship you have with your mind must be nurtured always. Psychedelics don't heal - they simply show you how. When you are lost, they will show you the way. When you are lonely, they will connect you. They will show you love and often that is enough to guide a person in the right direction.

Almost came to tears watching this, remembering how my first trips affected me. I’ve felt so connected to nature and the universe ever since. I’m deeply grateful.

Absolutely life changing for me. Speaking as a former psych nurse, I can see one of the possible challenges to successful treatments is that although these experiences seem very “spiritual”, the medical community doesn’t really acknowledge that aspect of psychedelic assisted therapy. Some religious patients might struggle a bit if the specific types of experiences goes against their belief systems. The mindset prior to going in is the biggest part of it. Btw Ketamine is also another great tool. It’s my favorite because I don’t experience stomach discomfort as I do with Psilocybin. All of the classic psychedelics, including Ketamine, and even the right dose MJ edibles have all a place in psychedelic assisted therapy in my opinion.

I took 3 grams at 16. It was the most amazing experience. Words could not describe the body high, and the pure enjoyment. However, I started suffering from relapsing episodes of psychosis. Visual hallucinations were part of my daily life. Repeatedly hospitalized in psychiatric institutions for weeks from 2013-2019. Paranoid delusions of people trying to harm me. Hearing other people's voices in my head, and having persecutory delusions.

Accurate. I tried shrooms as personal therapy for depression; and one of the first thoughts that i had after my trip was that everyone in the world- especially politicians- NEEDS to do this... the deep emotions and empathy you experience really cannot be described.

Psychedelic therapy is just one of those great leaps in the mental health space. It’s wonderful and the fact they serve recreational use and health as well. Can’t say I don’t trip once in a while

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This such an incredible video. I can relate to everything he said. My first time taking a “heroic” dose was my second time trying them. I was young and my friends and I had only seen stoner movies and thought you ate them and saw little gnomes and everything was funny on them. They messed with me so much when I started to feel them that I ran and hid inside a dark room. That’s when I was transformed into a different and better person. I left my body, traveled through space and then hit a moment of pure clarity. I asked myself the questions to all my suffering and the answers resonated with me down to my very core. It cured my severe depression and gave me a positive outlook on life. Helped me overcome the sorrow and self pity I felt for growing up in an abusive home. I’ll never forget it as long as I live

I credit a psychedelic experience when I was a college dropout of twenty in 1970 for immediately changing the course of a losing life into one of terrific accomplishments. I had an epiphany that showed me that when I was a child I wanted to become someone important like my father, who was a physician. I saw why I had become a loser and I saw the path to accomplishments. I immediately reenrolled in college, excelled and entered law school then becoming a Prosecutor of some repute and six years later, a Judge.

I suffered the borderline disorder for over 23 years. With so much anxiety Not until I came across psilocybin mushrooms treatmentPsilocybin treatment actually saved my life honestly. 6 years totally clean. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms 0:04

One of my most important take aways from my first lsd trip (I'd done shrooms before) was that, if this was a state of mind where I could be under the influence of this drug, it had to be accessible to me during my regular sober life, too. It specially came to me when I realized that fear and anxiety have similar effects to what psychedelics do: they make you introspective, they make you focus on yourself, and suddenly your mind is having a bunch of crazy thoughts that come out of nowhere and you imagine countless situations where the worst could happen. And it's like... that's tied to creativity in a way. Close your eyes and try to walk through a room you already know. Even if you know that room perfectly, closing your eyes will trigger fear and suddenly you imagine a bunch of stuff that isn't really there in that room. It's... creating. And I think the state induced by psychedelics, creativity and fear itself are all related through that simple fact of letting the mind go to places that "make no sense". It's a matter of the path it takes (which is also why bad trips exist, and they have similar effects to what panic and anxiety do to you but amplified). So, I realized, if my sober mind can trigger all of that "creativity" while experiencing anxiety, I should be able to refocus that energy to trigger it in other areas of my life. Trying to make art, thinking about the big picture, understanding different perspectives, seeing new things where I was always seeing the same. I think the end goal of psychedelics used in a therapeutic or artistic way should be to reach that state without the use of the drug itself, and I think it is 100% possible, or at least that trying to get there is one of the healthiest things we could do after experiencing an eye opening possitive experience with drugs.

I think psychedelics initiates the union of all thoughts and experiences one has had. I noticed with myself lately that there are different realms of thoughts/perspectives that one lives or plays out in our everyday lives. We subconsciously avoid the ones that makes us feel uncomfortable, but the more in tune we are with ourselves....

Psychedelics are just an exceptional discovery. They are really effective against depression, stress disorders and the likes of other mental health issues. Saved my life

Getting yourself out of the depression hole is the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced, and I thank shrooms for how much they’ve helped me understand myself and my mind ❤

Psilocybin has been the most profound thing to ever happen to me. I suffered from childhood trauma, PTSD, PMDD and last year was diagnosed as severly depressed after being intoduced to psylocybin I have buried all my traumatic demons etc. I am so hopeful and positive and overall a happier, more focused, self-aware and intune individual. I can safely say that it saved my life.

I used to take all sorts of different substances in my youth, but the only thing I'd ever fancy doing again is liberty caps. I was lucky to live near two huge common's full of horses, and in the autumn they were covered in liberty caps. I would pick 30,000 in a season, dry them out, keep them in a jar and just have a big spoonful or 2 (or 3) of dried liberty caps powdered mushies in a chicken & mushroom pot noodle. 1 spoonful was about 100. The most I ever had was 1000 between two people (so 500 each), I know it was this amount because we counted them out after picking, so we would know it was exactly 500 each. That was unreal, but not in a scary way, just mind-blowing and amazing.

This guys description of the immense vulnerability such a state induces is commendable, but it barely scratched the surface.

4 months ago, i was dying of depression. Shrooms showed me that i should take the fight for my life. Got myself back up at 31 to training school. Met new friends in years. Facing the painful truth about myself. Now, im a faithful Christian. I truly believe that shrooms was sent to me by God. My intentions were to only get high, not change my life.

I took a large recreational dose of psylocibin mushrooms in 2015 and set an intention to rewire my brain to no longer be depressed. I was at the beach with a friend. The experience was incredible. We walked along the beach, spent some time in a fort some kids had spent, playing music, and seeing bald eagles flying in the honeycomb structure in the sky, did tai chi in the waves, watched the sun set from an incredible bluff overlooking the water and walked back along the beach looking at the stars, which I could all see in 3D. When I came down the darkness was gone. I could feel it sometimes for the next year behind me, this big hulking figure pressing on the outside of my consciousness, trying to find its way back in. I have experienced incredible loss and sadness since then, but the darkness never got back in. It finally stopped trying after a while.

Psychedelics saved me from years of uncontrollable depression, anxiety and illicit pill addiction.imagine carrving heavy chains for over a decade and then all of a sudden that burden is gone.Believe it or not in a couple years they'll be all over for treatment of mental health related issues

for a good two and a half years, there was a point in my life where i was taking at least 21 tabs of LSD a week that were dipped (as whole sheets, and not droplets) at least 3 times. I had lost 5 children before I turned 18, one sided relationship and whatnot and honestly, I can comfortably say that I would be dead had I not discovered LSD and mushrooms. I usually stick around an eigth for a mushroom trip. these substances absolutely changed my life and shifted my perspective towards life. I still dabble from time to time. they aren't for everybody though. I have some friends who get splitting migraines off of even 1 drop.

As a very experienced magic mushroom explorer, for 20 years, having done them dozens of times I give you this advice: don't do a heroic dose. Not without starting out with 1 dry gram for first time, wait a month or two, then do a 2g dose, wait again, then 3g, and so forth. If you really think you need to do a "heroic" dose of 7 dry grams, you BETTER have experience under your belt and do it properly, planning carefully for it, covering all your bases carefully like set and setting and who your with. Mushrooms and other psychedelics are dangerous, they're not always just medicine, and they're not always healthy for your mind or your body. I've had friends permanently lose their f*cking minds, I've personally known people that became drug addicts and destroyed their family and business and everything, from doing mushrooms like an idiot and confusing themselves about reality. Mushrooms and psychedelics are NOT AUTOMATICALLY GOOD FOR YOU.

All the best Psylocibin trips are done in and with nature. Out on the water by a slowly moving river, deep in the woods. Experiencing the world as it is on shrooms is insane. staring at the stars on a clear night and watching the world turn is insane.

The first time I did any psychedelics I did an entire quarter bag by myself in the mountains. Shit got fucked up more than words can explain, but it probably saved my life. I have no interest in doing this for "recreation." It's medicine and more; people should respect it.

I took my first dose of psilocybin mushrooms at the beginning of October. I took 3 grams and the psychedelic part of the experience was very uneventful. The mental health benefits were life-changing. I am blessed/cursed with depression and basically, after I took those 3 grams. I didn't have depression symptoms for the entire month of October.

The chills that I got, exactly at 7:20 mark, I just felt like that, was one of the most profound experience I ever had, I could feel the sadness of the world, we are all connected, all the suffering, all the pain.... and I felt that for all of those that was never heard and was never be able to found comfort in this life, and all of Sunden..... Peace.....like all my tears have washed away all the sadness I had experienced, and I was floating, gently, in the middle of nowhere, I was lighter, clean.... just in Peace with everything else, and after that I could not get angry with plp anymore, because I could see how broken we all are. Nothing is real..... ..........Love is everything,....... .............................................. and I know nothing.

I can never forget my first psychedelic experience. Part of me died, and I was reborn.

When I took shrooms for the first time, I was out in the desert at night observing shooting stars while my DJ friends played all ranges of EDM. I was really floored but still vibing to the music while visual patterns and colors formed as my eyes closed, and opening them would actually ground me back to reality. Strangely, as I was tripping, I felt alone and acceptance to it. It's honestly weird, almost had me tearing up a bit. Shrooms had me tripping for 4'ish hours, and the come up had me anxious too. Then recently tried a DMT cart, it literally had me floored and feeling like I was at the peak of shrooms (never tried acid) the visualizations happened really quickly, my thoughts were constantly racing, and the only time I snapped out of it was when my friends got my attention and had me follow them on their walk around festival grounds. DMT hit really quickly as I kept inhaling for a full lung pull & holding it in. Almost immediately, everything started getting muted, then exploded back in after I exhaled. Luckily, it only lasted me about 10 minutes.

Just to add my two cents, I tried to educate myself based on other people's experiences and information I could find online when I first tried mushrooms, and I had a truly perfect first experience. I was 20 when I finally tried them, and felt like I gained true self consciousness after eating 5 grams. It was like seeing the world and people through a whole new set of eyes and mindset. It has forever changed my life. And I continue to consume once or twice a year to keep my mind in balance. It feels like a reset every time I consume them.

Done it myself. It changed my life in every way. Was lazy and mentally ill sad well as an alcoholic. After one heroic dose something clicked. I stopped drinking the next day, 4 years sober. I found a career path after quitting every job I tried. Seeing yourself as yourself can help, I can’t say it’ll help everyone because it won’t. But for me, it blessed my life and changed it for the better.

Psilocybin saved my relationship and caused me to admit my lies to my self and others. It was a very hard experiment but I'm a better person for it.

The number 1 thing i learned from psychedelics is that life goes on for eternity, and you're a fool to think you arent apart of it for eternity. That realization made me realize suicide isnt the answer to my problems. It doesnt solve anything it just ensures the cycle continues.

all my life i’ve been on an insane dose of zoloft for depression and anxiety , it made everything worse , i stopped anti depressants a few months ago and i tried shrooms i woke up the next day, i feel as though it genuinely treated me , no way to explain it unless you try it BUT it genuinely opened my mind so much to understand why i was sad and what i needed to do to help that

I'm a huge proponent of psychedelic therapy and I had several profound experiences with lsd. But to anyone reading this, please don't take a large dose without a trusted sober friend around. It might go great, or it might end up with you in an extremely embarrassing and potentially dangerous situation. I thought I was smart and calm and rational and psychologically stable enough to be able to handle tripping alone. And I was... most of the time. On 4 different occasions - despite my best efforts to prepare a good and safe enough set and setting - I ended up either begging for help from a random passerby, calling an ambulance because I thought I might be dying (I had trouble breathing for a long while, probably because I was panicking), or having the cops called on me for acting like a crazy weirdo leaving some of my possession in the middle of the street. One time I even wrote down words like "planet", "time", "space", "sex", "moment" and "consciousness" with a sharpie all over the walls, the floor and the furniture of my apartment!!! Never in a million years did I think I was the sort of person who could do something like that.

It warms my heart to see more people finally start to understand and actual scientist endorsing the safe and responsible use of psychedelics. Neuroplasticity is the silver lining for so many people.😃

saved my life. I followed evidence based medical research studies. It took me longer to find them “in the street” than it did studying the beneficial effects of mushrooms related to cptsd, anx, depr, insomnia, panic d/o, Thank you to all the ppl who developed the research.

Took a 10g trip. Loss of ego, loss of one self. Coming back to the singularity and realizing what you and everyone and everything is all at once. So much information pouring in. Amazing experience.

I love how they touch on the "Duh" moment. The beauty in psychedelics is the ability to peel the layers back to everyday life, and to truly comprehend each part of it bit by bit and understand what the meaning is in each piece, and how they together create our experience. it is the total simplicities of life that we don't think about, take for granted, or don't take the time to understand. By doing that, your life is immediately so much fuller forever, and that is so hard to explain to someone, you can only experience it.

7:13 That's definitely something I felt, I was overwhelmed with empathy and I felt like I had to shower everyone alone me with all the love I could muster

The doors these substances open is mind boggling.

Very encouraging. It’s so sad, and frustrating that those of us that know first hand what mushrooms can do, have to sit on the sidelines and watch knowing full well that if everyone could/would experience them, the world truly would begin to heal. They really are a gift from the universe and we MUST learn from them, because human beings will never reach their full potential otherwise. “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.”

I took a heroic dose and it made me very emotional.. i also had bad anxiety and existential dread. I did learn a lot about myself and can say I’m in a way better place now than before taking it. So even though it was a bad trip it was still a valuable one and not for nothing.

I'm getting ready to embark on trying it. I'm 54 yrs old and have so much childhood trauma that I'm unsure if it's ever been resolved. Kinda nervous but also positive at the same time. There are so many positive reviews it's encouraging. Thanks.

I wish these documentaries would talk more about the risks of a bad trip, some people are able to recover quickly from a bad trip and others take a long time to recover. My friend had a bad trip, and it worsened their anxiety tenfold. It took two years for them to get it under control, and while they ultimately say they were built back up better than before, it was two years of a lot of pain.

I remember my first heroic dose, ego dissolution, feeling one with everything in the universe. completely life changing experience

Took an heroic dose in September. You can’t control what the mushrooms will make you face. It forced me to deal with my childhood trauma. It opened my mind and I swear I was receiving like some ancient information about humans in our early beginnings the fact we were once telepathic and aliens are constantly coming to earth but are afraid of us. It’s something one can’t fully explain as crazy as it sounds. It’s not a cure all but my depression and anxiety it nearly nonexistent. I microdose now but there is a huge difference when I don’t microdose which is how I know this works. No antidepressants can give you the results of mushrooms. No government has the right to tell people what to do or put into their body. Mushrooms being illegal is a crime against humanity because so many lives could have been saved if given mushrooms imo.

I used to suffer extreme depression and suicidal thoughts. I was at my wits end and was kinda just like fuck it and took the entire remainder of my stash, about 9 grams of golden teacher shrooms. I don't even know how to put the experience into words but it was profound and all but destroyed my ego and separated my consciousness from my body and whisked it away into a realm I can't even begin to explain. It wasn't just visuals or audio, it was everything. There was significant synesthesia and it seemed like I only had one all encompassing sense. It gave me true introspection and a way to evaluate myself without my ego interfering. It was definitely uncomfortable at times as I was basically forced to confront some things that I hadn't wanted to before, but from my perspective it wasn't a bad trip, just a learning experience. Something to grow from. Ever since, I've been doing much better. I'm not completely free of depression and anxiety, but the experience lead me to discover ways to cope with my issues and cope with uncomfortable situations much better which massively reduced my anxiety and depression.

Magic mushrooms killed my best friend. Don’t get me wrong, we had some of our best time together on shrooms, and I know he loved them more than anyone I know. But shrooms , at the ‘heroic dose’, have the power to access certain things in the psyche that are buried deep, deep down, good or bad - and boy did he have some demons down there. I would say to those considering, if taking magic mushrooms at a heroic dose - make sure all is well in your life. Don’t do the heroic dose as the saviour of yourself as it may well be your last. First try with microdosing , then a 2-3 gram dose. He took 28 grams over the course of a day and was lucky to survive his first heroic dose. I heard first hand what happened during that dose and it sounded true to him, but that truth was something he was not ready for and had not dealt with yet in a healthy manner. I never got the trip report for the next one.. Be careful when you take any psychedelic at a large amount. Please.

Psychedelics definitely has potential to deal with health issues like anxiety and depression , I would like to try them but it's hard to source them here

9:30 i really relate to that, everyone told me not to do shrooms if i wasnt going to make it a big life changing event but honestly i only did it bc i was drinking with my friends and we were all doing it while smoking weed. i had never done it before so i had no goals and was just taking it for fun, but it effected me so deeply anyways bc just like u described it enhanced everything i already was telling myself. My life completely changed afterwards, i quit every one of my addictions and focused on my work and studies. all my my self belief i was trying to force for years became reality. a true blessed feeling that no matter the circumstance i will always be able to hold my own. i am my own innocence and my own protector. I am not limited by how other people are able to help me bc i can truly rely on myself. its always been true but i never really believed it until i did shrooms. when i started tripping i actually left my group of friends and was on my own for a while to really reflect. ive always known what was right in my head but shrooms spoke the words into my heart and thats when i became able to truly live as i am meant to

The fact that these medicines are considered dangerous and of no medical use according to governments is a stance that I consider profoundly malevolent.

My first trip was on acid. I spent so many years before that trip wanting to die and had even attempted multiple times. Ever since that first trip I have never felt like I wanted to genuinely end my life again. Not once.

Since I tried psychedelics for the first time, I've been trying to describe the experience to others so they can try it as well, but I couldn't find the right words to describe it. This guy does it sooo well and so accurately !

I've taken psychedelics in strong doses many times. I've always returned to my usual low mood/semi depressed baseline within days. However, I am having success with micro dosing on a regular basis.

As a teenager, I was in a depression of epically crushing proportions. When I first took LSD, my world opened up and I felt like I could breathe for the first time. It was like I finally found what having fun was all about. The creeping and increasing wish to commit suicide was obliterated. EDIT: Actually, more like my early 20's

Where I live, Switzerland, LOT of people have all sorts of addiction caused by cultural absorbed behavioural patterns, defensive reactions, hereditary abusive actions, lack of trust, frustration and repressed anger. Most of young people smoke a lot and drink a lot and have very narrow way of thinking. It's a provincial world here and it's a disaster.

As someone who started psychedelics while young, and continued use until two years ago. It was what changed my life for the better. It's so hard to explain what it's like living as someone who isn't yourself, only to come back into your own body and judge every habit, every word said, every person wronged. It made me feel so awful that from that day on, I cleaned myself up day by day. I quite nicotine, smoking weed, drinking alcohol, and even stopped caffeine and large portions of sugar intake. Psychedelics may have some higher power meaning associated with them, otherwise I believe it's just you seeing yourself from the baseline. No bias, no "Dylan Beckham" just a human who is nothing but experience. Love you all, and I hope others learned the same things I did from doing heavy doses.

It is very important to remember that anecdotal evidence is anecdotal. I took a heroic dose of LSD during my second year of college in 1984. It was my first time, and it was accidental, as I didn't know what "double pane" meant. Basically, it was like taking 4 tabs. It ended up helping me with socializing, which I'd struggled with my entire life. The illusions and thoughts still stick with me today in 2022. It also inspired me to quit college, because I realized that I had not been truly learning, and didn't know why. There were LOTS of things where I didn't know why. Got tested and diagnosed with Autism in late 2017, at age 53, as well as Major Depressive Disorder. Autistic adults like me typically live to age 53, and when adding MDD to the mix, we typically don't make it to double digits in age. To this day, I view this experience as the most important experience of my life. Without it, I may not have lived long enough to have a life. Today, I'm enrolled to participate in clinical trials for psilocybin, with full support of my therapist. I couldn't ever ethically recommending doing what I did. I actually had no idea it would help me at the time, and nobody talked about it then like they do now. I'm definitely looking forward to participating in this relatively new area of study.

Yes, I took an entire ounce of shrooms within a 2 hour period. Let me tell you what……it was something I will never forget

I believe people only have bad trips because they refuse to let go and understand that what it needs to show you is what you need to see and fighting that is the only bad part of the trip. Sometimes it has to show you bad stuff to help you become a better person both internally and externally. I was only having a hard time at the beginning of a high dose because of wanting to maintain some semblance of control once I let that go and allowed myself to be a passenger on the journey it was easy. Edit: I should add it was my first and only experience at this time and by far the most profound experience of my life and allowed me to cut out alcohol addiction I had about 4.4 grams for my dose legally at a service center in Oregon.

When I was 19, I was really into psychedelics. One summer night, I made a pb&j sando with 7.5 grams. Off I went. I sang a lot that night. Performed my songs on my acoustic in a room full of ‘like-minded’ friends who loved listening to me play. Very warm atmosphere. We all drifted off into our own worlds eventually. Then more music on the comedown. And then, around 6am, as the sun was rising, buddy arrived with a 10 strip of gelcaps (LSD) and we all ate one. We were at a lake house that had a deck boat and two JetSki’s. I hopped on a JetSki and went tearing ass all over this lake, which was calm as glass. For anyone who has never been on a JetSki in calm water, it’s like being on a motorcycle only you can crash and it’s just more fun. Now imagine that experience while you are frying away lol. After a while, I wiped out. As I lay in the water, staring at clouds waltzing together above me, in the sky, a friend of mine swam up to the JetSki, climbed on it and sped off. Left me alone in the middle of this lake, floating on my back. I probably lay there floating for a good half hour with the sun rising on my face, listening to the sounds of life waking up. After a while they came back and picked me up on the boat. It was just an absolutely beautiful night and beautiful morning. I am probably lucky to be alive. I was a very reckless young man, to say the least lol. But I sure had a lot of fun and I had a lot of amazing experiences. And I’m pretty sure my adolescence would have been far more painful, I’ve had it not been for nights like that.

I want to start this by saying that I am still struggling daily with psychological issues and self-hate. Psychedelics are not a cure all and shouldn't be seen as that. Having said that, I've definitely had life-changing experiences on psy's, particularly LSD. One particular trip I will never forget was me physically walking in circles, while mentally walking around a truth that I had to see eye to eye. I was ~30 years old at the time and had accomplished nothing of substance that would be viewed as successes in today's society. I kind of knew what it was that I was evading. But at some point I broke through and had the guts to face it; I had the constant nagging belief that my life wasn't worth anything and that probably, I just wanted to die. I was literally circling around a decision point; Life or Death. It felt so real and HUGE and so, so scary. Once I reached the center of the spiral I finally realized, truly realized, that I did not want to die. That I wanted to keep on fighting. An immense strange mix of relief, hope, but also grief and intense sadness, for all the missed chances I already had in life, filled me up. I can never overstate how intense and overwhelming all these emotions were. I had always been a person with a fairly flat affect; emotions were very fleeting and most of the time the only real feeling I knew was just emptiness, probably just chronic depression. This was the most emotion I had ever felt and it was so freeing, but so uncomfortable at the same time. After this realization, probably 4-5 hours into the trip, I just started crying uncontrollably. I've always had problems crying. I can probably count the number of cries in all my adult life up to then on one hand. I must've stood in my bathroom, looking myself in the eye in the mirror, crying, for at least 30 minutes (maybe an hour even), profusely apologizing to everyone I knew, and especially to myself, for treating myself so badly over the years with self-hate and self-criticism after setting myself unobtainable goals and requirements. All out loud I was apologizing to myself and starting to forgive myself for everything. After this trip, nothing has been the same. I've developed an, although subtle, empathy for myself and others. I have learned to be more truthful to people about my competences and my shortcomings. And about the real reasons behind my actions. And through that I've learned that people are much more empathetic when you're just honest about all these things. The hard part is the integration, which for me, a couple of trips and 7 years later, is still ongoing. I still have difficulties trusting people, and trusting myself. I still find it hard to get up in the morning to actually do stuff and fight through the lack of motivation. But, I started a job that might give me good opportunities the coming years to develop myself and live up to my potential. I feel a little bit less shame for who I am and actively observe my shame and realize that it's unfounded. So, to conclude, the trip was an AMAZING experience and has had effects that I feel no other experience could've triggered. The lingering results are subtle, but noticable. It maybe saved my life. It was the catalyst for quite rapid growth over the years. Once in a while I still do an LSD trip for evaluation and I doubt I will ever stop doing this. EDIT: I feel it's responsible to add that psychedelics are no child's play. Please don't take psychedelics thinking you're gonna cure your mental issues. Educate yourself, also read about the bad experiences (there are tons of them), take precautions, prepare. Heck, go talk to your MD if you're set on doing it.

but what about those of us who tried psychedelics and were met with severe psychosis, and post traumatic stress disorder from a bad trip?

I love this man fighting for the psychadelics we need more like him.

After multiple experiences with acid and a month of microdosing.. I think I can safely say i have not been depressed since.. maybe 5 years have passed by and I can say with confidence that psychedelics completely saved my life and even turned it around for the best.

My first trip was 1/4oz and 8 hours later after it wore off I walked outside and felt such a strong appreciation and joy to be alive and on this beautiful planet. My anxiety and doubts and lack of self worth was gone for roughly nearly a year off of one dose if that isn’t a amazing result I don’t know what is. Anything that can make you love yourself and all others with no bounds that effectively should be legal.

That last comment from him right at 10:24, that was the most profound. Gotta blow open that toxic rust that's been enclosing in on your reality.

I have a very rare chronic pain condition and Psilocybin is the only thing that makes my pain mentally feel easier to live with. It's a magical substance to be treated with much respect.

The most meaningful experience I've had was also the scariest. I always say, "You don't get the trip you want. You get the trip you need." Basically, I took about 3.5 grams of some of the strongest mushrooms I've ever done and I went to go to the bathroom and shut off the light to trip in the darkness, with all the patterns and colours, I couldn't find the light after. I ended up falling in the tub and just kinda laying there. I remember feeling like there was an omnipotent presence with me that was showing me the secrets of the universe. I remember wanting the shapes and patterns to stop because I could feel the anxiety building. Eventually, I realized if this is some sort of extradimensional being, I can't just say "stop" in English and hope they'll understand. So I went from saying stop in French and Spanish to just making noises, hoping that the configuration of sounds would end up as me saying "stop" in whatever language they speak. I remember I felt a connection to every single religion and language that I've never felt before. I remember feeling like I could understand the way our 3d universe is woven through a 4d spacetime, and I was looking in on it through an outside view, as if I was in the 5th dimension. I can honestly say I've never had a more profound experience than that.

I recently took them after 3 years of trauma therapy and sever PSTD as a veteran. I was about to give up and these drugs helped me more than I can ever explain. I’ve only taken them 2 times. It was very profound.

@9:16 He says, "We need to limit the use of therapeutic touch." I completely disagree. If anything, we need to train therapists on how to incorporate SAFE therapeutic/somatic touch. So many of my clients tell me the ONLY place they are ever touched is in a therapeutic setting. Take that away from people and they will end up much sicker.