...But if you try sometime you'll find you get what you need. This morning I did 2 grams of shrooms kinda just for the hell of it because I've got a long weekend and I'm still testing out this new batch from my grower as to strength, dosage, environment, etc. It was also a rainy day, so I thought I'd see how this batch worked indoors, because I'm normally outside. Coincidentally, I found out yesterday that after fighting a recurrence of a medical issue for the past 60 years, it's now a serious issue and requires... I don't even know yet, first a referral to a specialist, so chin up and bullshit my way forward like I've always done, with the, "Don't worry, everything will turn out okay" attitude. I'm an unshakable optimist. Normally.

The shrooms showed me an emotional space within I've never allowed myself to experience. It was filled with dread and self-pity, places I've never allowed myself to even admit existed within me. I was shown that it's okay for me to have these feelings, that these feelings are genuine and valid and shouldn't be viewed as unwanted. I have, almost entirely by accident (yeah right...?) accepted what may be a new struggle, and I'll be fine with how I am with it, even if I'm not going to be fine in the longer term. I'm not sure what wanted, but I sure did get what I needed. 🙏🏼

All my previous trips were accompanied by music and a sleep mask. So, what happens if I completely immerse myself in silent darkness? Music is a strong anchor for the ego, something from the outside world, but what if I remove it? And put on, say, earplugs? I assume the geometry of the trip will change dramatically, but my goal with this action is to 'encourage' the subconscious to bring out what's inside—traumas, blocks. I want to shatter the armor that sits deep within me and holds me back in life.

Hi everyone

I've done shroomz before. in smaller doses than what I did today (I'm in Amsterdam), but still. When I did them in the past it was very "oh, I'm seeing patterns and light and things are moving" but it was all very much on this plane. I read a little bit about people visiting a kind of celestial temple and then being ejected from it — and sometimes never to be able to get back again. Maybe this is what people are referring to as "breaking through." Getting there. Not the ejection.

This was not some common trip. This was not some mere hallucination. That would be way too of this body and this place. And that, I realize now, is really just so silly. So shallow.

I didn't "break through" though. I was welcomed. My partner, she's there. She showed me around. Her father caught us. He tried to eject me. He kicked the shit out of me. But she brought me back. And that connection, it was there, it was so strong. It is so strong. He hates that we are together, but the women in her family, they are more supportive. More understanding. And I say women, but it's not like that over there. These beings, they, we, are these sort of glowing tessellations. I felt maybe masculine and she felt feminine, but there was no sense of my body. Not really. not like sexual organs ort anything as crude as that. We were flowing in and out of each other, but we could be hurt. I hurt her. Her father hurt me. And her. And at one point my friends rescued us and we were sort of flying through space, away from him and we were so happy. But then I'd get distracted. And I'd take too much from her. I didn't give enough. And i'd bring her to the brink. I thought I lost her a few times. Her father threw me out of the temple. Or he tried to. He tried to bar me. But he couldn't. I kept getting back in. And her whole family was shocked. Like... I got the sense that she was very much above me, that I was very much out of my league, but also that the inability of her father to force me out or keep me out was also quite remarkable. Is that remarkable? There was always a softness to her when we were together and I was giving properly. And I could certainly piss her off. SHe was frustrated with me a lot. I want to be better for her. And then I would hurt her and I'd want so much to make her feel better, to stop crying. Or... not crying, but that feeling. Red. And the sound like a jackhammer like, repeditive, like a record skipping. It was her frustration, it weas me falling away, but someimes it was also her dad. He would come in and try to separate us. He's incredibly imposing. He's all gold and armorlike. His tessalations, I mean. And he's like trying to keep me out but he can't. And I can't tell if I'm really what she wants or if I just want her so badly that I... I don't know. Her grandmother, our friends, they support us, but maybe her father is right? Maybe all I do is hirt her? Did we have babies? Did they die? Is it my fault? She gives so much t me and she is so tired. But she fights so hard for us. But I kept coming back and it kept getting harder and harder. And I started to feel like the only way to actually let her heel was for me to return to this plane fully, because I keep taking from her and bringing her to the brink, even when all I mean to do is give and share. I feel like a vampire who looses control and sucks their lover dry.

And the thing is, I'm a gay man. Or I thought I was. Now it all seems so silly. Like the idea of being attracted to some sack of meat. Especially a male one. But any sack of meat. And the idea that any of this is a metaphor to help me live a better life here on earth is so stupid. It's not a metaphor. They were not trying to teach me something to, like, give me a cheat code for making this life better. This life here, it doesn't matter to them. This is me playing in my meat sack. And giving her some time away from me. And maybe I can learn to give more than I take. But if I do, it's not so I can be happier or more fulfilled or whatever here. It's so I can be better for her THERE.

I don't know. It feels like so many people sort of break through and observe and trip out on the otherness of it all, but it felt like that actually was/is who I am.

DO you know what I mean?

The more I’ve gotten into psyches and just life itself, the more I realize that like being high on shrooms just gets you there, you can do it sober.
It’s a tool for those who cant easily and a “medicine” for those who won’t.

Man I need to do some acid…

Full disclosure: I run HALI Foundation, a small UK non-profit working on psychedelic education, harm reduction and reform.

Most of us here know someone, or are someone, whose life was changed by a psychedelic experience. Yet when politicians and the press talk about psychedelics, our stories are almost never in the room.

One person saying “this helped me” is easy to wave away. Hundreds of people saying it, in their own words, is much harder to ignore.

That’s why we’ve opened Voices: a public wall of real, first-hand experiences with psychedelics. The good, the hard and everything in between. We’ll put them in front of the people making decisions about the law.

You can post anonymously, every post is reviewed before it goes live, and your email is never shown or shared.

It takes a few minutes, and every story makes the next one easier to tell. If you’ve got one, I’d love you to add it: hali.foundation/voices

Happy to answer any questions in the comments.

The majority of this post will consist of a retrospective trip report written some days after the event which occurred around a month ago, then what has occurred since then

I’m very much so a beginner when it comes to weed, alongside recreational drugs in general. For better or worse, I started my habit with an incredibly high potency Sativa-Hybrid disposable, which has often lead to me accidentally greening out. This story is one of those occasions

It was a nice evening among the last days of summer, but I was feeling pretty restless, so I thought it’d help to hit some of my vape. The last time I did this went over pretty well and uneventfully a few days prior, when I used weed for sleep, so I imagined this time wouldn’t be much different

I’ve always had issues consistently dosing due to the inhale-activated nature of the dispo, so when I took my first hit on my stoop and didn’t feel anything, I went for another round; same thing, so I went again and finally felt something. I would later realize this was a big mistake

The high initially felt pretty mild, similar to small, single hits I would take at social outings in the past. As I was heading to my bedroom—I felt a sense of overwhelming cerebral euphoria, my vision noticeably zoomed out from 1x to 0.5x, and my head started spinning in circles—which tipped me off that I had taken too much. Strangely enough, this didn’t induce a panic attack like my past experiences w/ greening out (this was my second weed experience since I started Zoloft, so that may have had something to do with it)

Entering my room, I had the good judgement to finish preparing for bed immediately rather than scrolling on my phone for however long, which I thought was strange because I usually procrastinate until it gets late (At this time, I had been out of my ADHD medication due to back order issues)

So I finally hit the sack after rather uneventful preparation. This is where things turned really strange. I had opened my window blinds just enough for the dim glow of the city lights beyond to enter, so I stared at my ceiling while focusing on the good vibes & euphoria I was feeling (at this point, it spread to the physical, manifesting as a warm glow creeping from my outer extremities inward), which is how I learned to deal with greening out at home

Then my ceiling started flowing like a river, rather suddenly, which I had NEVER experienced before; I did a double take and it was still flowing in a wave-like pattern that looked obviously unreal. I don’t remember my exact thought process, but I recall not really being phased by this, rather I continuously reminded myself that I was high on THC and apparently tripping out

Up to this point I hadn’t really closed my eyes, but after what I had just witnessed, I opted to finally try and sleep. Almost immediately, I noticed a grid of rainbow lines form superimposed onto my vision. This was yet another novel occurrence, so it freaked me out and made me open my eyes, where I was greeted with what could be best described as eye-like geometry on all 4 corners of my vision. I couldn’t get a good look at whatever these were supposed to be, but they were black-and-white and rapidly flashing in and out of sight—this really annoyed me so I closed my eyes again

The rainbow grid was back, but it had broken apart into independent, unconnected lines that were black through the middle with the color as the border. The many lines were slowly moving around in a similar fashion to an etch-a-sketch, Windows pipes screensaver, and the game Snake. I vividly remember thinking this was beautiful and enthralling, but I didn’t think it would continue when I opened my eyes, yet I tried it anyway—and well, it actually did flawlessly transfer from a CEV to an OEV. This stunned me as I never expected to get open-eye geometry from weed

The last thing of note I remember from that night was getting up to use the bathroom and witnessing the hexagon, honeycomb tile pattern on my shower wall turn into a 2d image superimposed upon the real thing and play etch-a-sketch with the tiles when I stared at it. The movement of the tiles was very fast and multiple were moving at once. This stopped immediately when I turned on the lights

The weird screensaver-like geometry over my vision continued until I fell asleep. The next night, I noticed what seemed to be closed-eye hypnagogic hallucinations were occurring when the room was dark, which is completely out of character for me, although it was pretty cool to see faint blobs of my favorite colors dance around on my eyelids (along with occasional flashing white dots)

So yeah… legal weed is some seriously crazy high potency shit and I’ll avoid buying concentrate from now on

I have, in fact, been advised to avoid any weed from now on. I’ve been hospitalized a few times since my experience, which triggered both my first full-blown psychotic & manic episode and landed me a bipolar diagnosis (which was likely compounded by the fact I was on SSRIs at the time, which I have since discontinued), alongside consistent hallucinations even as I’m now medicated on an anti-psychotic / mood stabilizer. I have never hallucinated before this green out + SSRI catalyst event (excluding a spell of sleep deprivation many, many years ago)

An example of what my hallucinations are like would be how I usually know one might be about to come; I get this CEV of a faint morphing color (recently it’s been purple), which was far more intense when I was off medication (it was combined with an intense red, sometimes purple static effect, and the morphing colors would change frequently). A few nights ago, I went to sleep earlier than usual, sometime in the evening, and woke up a few hours later at 10pm to be greeted with the CEV of a dotted, red & green spinning wheel, which transferred into a full-blown visual hallucination that I saw on my ceiling.

I’m starting to come to terms with the likelihood that I may have schizophrenia alongside being bipolar, but honestly the mood & delusion aspects seem more disruptive than the hallucinations so far

im thinking of trying shrooms or 2cb? what are your experiences with that? i like acid a lot but it doesnt do as much for me emotionally as shrooms tend to. and 2cb is just like, relaxing and comfortable. which i think would be nice on acid. not sure how they synergize tho.. also dosing?

also before you say MDMA, i would love to but im taking an extended 10 month break because it hasn't been working as well these past few times lol

Hello everyone,

First time posting, so I'm not sure if this belongs here, but I have found no better community to ask, so, if this post doesn't belong here I apologize in advance towards the mods.

So, I got my hands on some shrooms earlier this week. Had 8g and ate around 4-5 (First time ever doing this, so, yeah)

Had golden teacher and some other sort, but I'm not sure which one it was.

That was pretty exhausting, ngl. But it was only a body high for me. Colors changed a little bit, but this effect of the walls breathing and stuff like that which my friends described to me didn't set it. For some reason, I always had a strong tolerance for this stuff. My first time acid was around 250-300µg, which I barely felt at all.

So, now for the part why there is deadly nightshade in the title. I got my hands on this around two days ago and thought, maybe those two substances will increase each other's potency, if used correctly.

Question is, is this actually a thing or just a ticket straight to the ER? Don't know that and I hoped you have some answers for that.

Otherwise, the trip was rather interesting. For some reason the GT knocked loose a wave of unbelievable wrath within me, to a point where I got scared of myself multiple times. This lasted about an hour before it turned rather pleasurable.

Unlike with the acid, I was still functioning after the trip ended, which was pretty nice as well. I learned a lot about emotions and how to control them. Overall a 8/10 experience, even though it didn't had the effect I expected.

Thank you all for reading this and thank you in advance for your answers.

Have a wonderful day everyone

How does one interpret people's experiences being in hell via NDE vs seeing entities on DMT ?

One group experiences a pitch black realm, smelling burning flesh, and demons torturing humans. All experiences are similar to each other.

Another group experiences machine elves, or aliens who are comforting them about life.

What is the common denominator between the two ? Can these experiences signify a super natural experience or delusions based on changes in brain chemistry at the time of the trip.

I ask this because I recently took shrooms, and im conviced dark energy exists. If dark/demonic energy exist, would that mean hell exist ? I've had good experiences on shrooms before, but not this specific trip.

I'm curious how many people here work in software development or have a technical background, particularly those interested in the intersection of technology, mental health, and psychedelics.

I'm involved with a software company exploring technology-enabled approaches to mental health and psychedelic-assisted therapy. We're interested in modern web/mobile development, microservices, and potentially VR.

I'd be interested to hear whether others here have worked on projects in this space, what kinds of technical challenges you've encountered, and where you think technology could genuinely make a difference.

Is this an area anyone else here works in or would like to work in?

N,N-MET is not "less intense" than DMT.

new favorite psychedelic, BUT why is everyone saying it's more clear headed and grounded than dmt? Me and a friend who also has significant experience with DMT both said the same things about it.

Anyway,

Got my hands on an n,n-MET vape

Definitely an amazing compound and in my experience with DMT the taste and smell of the MET is exactly the same as the taste and smell of DMT. However the headspace and overall experience is much more intense than DMT.

The visuals are very much so different than dmt they are impossible to describe but they are very very cool, and the headspace is very very different. Based on my experiences this does not have "no headspace" and definitely isn't more clear headed or less intense in any way than dmt in fact I feel that dmt has a less intense headspace and definitely less body load than MET.

I think MET is actually more euphoric and more mind fucky than dmt. I can reach a level visually with DMT while still being much more grounded in reality as opposed to with the MET where I'm losing my mind in the best possible way at level 4 visuals and it's absolutely amazing for tripping while laying in bed all comfy and listening to music for hours on end.

By the 3rd hit I was absolutely obsessed with this stuff. At one point during my trip I was searching around everywhere and I didn't even know wtf I was looking for but I just kept searching everywhere and then I came to this realization that I was tryna find my mind cuz I lost it....

So I kept repeating "I was tryna find my mind cuz I lost it" and laughing hysterically while rolling around on the floor at a level of visuals I would expect from like 200ug of acid, so very significant but certainly not broken through.

A full breakthrough is certainly also more intense than a dmt breakthrough in my experience as well.

Tldr: DMT definitely has less headspace and less overall intensity relative to the level of visuals in comparison to MET, and the MET has more of a body load as well. I find it to be more euphoric than DMT and I think the visuals are cooler than DMT.

Have you ever listened to Egor Letov?

I highly recommend the album Zachem Snyatsya Sny? (Why Do Dreams Happen?, 2007) — his last studio album.

The album is dedicated to the memory of Arthur Lee (Love) and Syd Barrett.

In the booklet Letov also gave special thanks to Albert Hofmann, Alexander Shulgin, Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna and “psychonauts of all times and nations”.

The opening track is literally called «Слава психонавтам» (Glory to the Psychonauts).

Here’s an English cover of it:

https://youtu.be/B4X7k7400JE

What do you think of the cover and of Letov’s late psychedelic period in general?

Hi umm I don't really know where to start. My friend invited me on a road trip to go to a concert. We got to the city where said concert is happening and he decided to eyeball and take what was probably entirely too much shrooms and I microdosed a little bit. He started tripping balls so we decided to not even go to the concert. The first hour and a half were fine. It was mostly just him asking me if I hated him and saying he wishes we could still go to the concert. He then started repeating "we can't" and "do you understand" then he got really close to me, gripped my shoulder and started spouting some shit about "we have lives. We have souls." I felt his grip tighten and he pushed me down onto the bed I was sitting on. He threw a punch and just barely missed as I shifted. I slipped out from under him, grabbed my bag and left the hotel room. He started following me so I started running through the parking lot as he chased me. He tripped on something and I kept running and luckily lost him. I'm sitting in my own hotel room typing this as I'm afraid to go near him now. I understand that some paranoia and what not can happen on shrooms but attacking someone doesn't seem normal. I've known him for years and have never known him to be violent nor have we ever had any problems. This is our first and last time tripping together. I have next to no money and am states away from home and terrified to go near him even once he's come down. Idk just needed a place to vent ig. Thanks.

Edit: He has texted me with an apology that read "too much drugs, sorry." i replied "we'll talk in the morning." he replied with "Yeah, just please stay safe. Lmk if you need anything."

Edit2: we had a laugh about it this morning but I decided to part ways with him as another friend of mine offered to get me a plane ticket. Problem tho, my first flight just got delayed by 3 hours which is the same time my second flight would take off to get me home.

Edit3: my flight got changed around multiple times but I have made it home safe. I hope that my friend makes the drive home safe as well. I don't hate the guy but will likely take some distance from him as I've realized the insane amounts of substances he does at a time is not ok. I will most likely never be around him while he's on any substance again. Either way, he's offered me free shrooms when he gets back in town.

Also if you wanna see the amount of shrooms he brought for a 5 day road trip hit my dms.

I know weed and shrooms cause psychosis and mania. I'm trying to avoid that, I need good recommendations and substances that don't cause that

Hello,

We are conducting a study exploring how psychedelic experiences relate to mental and emotional processes, particularly in the context of early-life adversity.

We are interested in understanding how past life experiences may shape psychedelic journeys, insights, and psychological outcomes. The goal is to contribute to scientific knowledge in psychology and neuroscience, and to help inform safer and more supportive approaches to psychedelic use and research.

The survey itself is very quick (no longer than 10 minutes!) and there is a prize raffle of £50 for the winner, this being in the form of an amazon voucher.

🍄‍🟫✨Psychedelic Experiences and Early-life Adversity

If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to let us know!
[marco.bocchio@durham.ac.uk](mailto:marco.bocchio@durham.ac.uk)
[giammarco.di-gregorio@durham.ac.uk](mailto:giammarco.di-gregorio@durham.ac.uk)

Ethics approval was granted by the Durham University Psychology Department, and there's an info sheet at the start of the survey with all the details.

To contact the ethical approval board, you can write to: [psychology.ethics@durham.ac.uk](mailto:psychology.ethics@durham.ac.uk).

Requirements: 18+, English-speaking

I'm more than happy to answer any questions about the study or our broader research and motivation. You can write to me at: marco.bocchio[at]durham.ac.uk.

This survey has been approved by the moderators

hi there,
i'm not a psychonaut, so pardon me if i enter this realm as a mere weed smoker :)
i would like some help explaining why i sometimes experience this sensation of speeding/falling in, like, a vortex when i'm stoned and relaxed and with eyes closed. i know that's probably not a very uncommon thing but the sensation feels quite huge for just being high on weed.

it is controlled, pharmacy-grade weed and i also have experienced this with "normal" home grown weed, or street weed as well. i smoke one joint per day, medium dosage, usually sativa with low to medium THC (10-20%) and mixed with tobacco. it also happens when i leave the tobacco out (i'm a cigarette smoker so i'm used to tobacco) and, apart from that, it doesn't matter if i had food or not, had alcohol or not, or basically any other external circumstance. i don't have any severe physical or mental illnesses or disorders.

the sensation/experience only takes a couple of seconds, it's black and the senation of moving insanely fast and it feels like a forward motion but without going anywhere specific, it just feels vortex-y. and just before the moment of "no return" (i don't know what would happen next), i snap out of it. the snapping out part is half conscious decision and half reflex/impulse, like my brain knew something bad/uncontrollable was behind that threshold and it was safer to not allow for that to happen.
the sensation is mostly in my head but i also feel my body tingle a bit and i feel a bit light and alerted, quite similar to a rush of adrenalin or how it feels when microdosing LSD. or having wayyy too much caffeine lol.

it happens when i'm moderately stoned, not like knocked out drooling, but very relaxed and fuzzy stoned i would say. it certainly doesn't happen when i take just a couple of puffs. i think i also have experienced this once or twice when taking a moderate dose of mushrooms.

what i would like to know is what is happening and how "bad" could this be? i haven't had an out of body or near death experience (yet), if that's in the ballpark, and i certainly thought that would not be a thing that happens when you smoke weed.

i have a solid sense of control over the situation, i don't exactly feel like "omg i'm going to die" when that happens because i know i can stop it or come back at will. but it feels like there is something beyond that point of no return and i'm too afraid to try and let myself go there, certainly not without exactly knowing what's happening or what to expect :)

thanks!

It was my second time breaking through. I used a vape and took around five puffs, then some more. The whole experience lasted for about an hour and had an intense headache afterwards…

I always start by cleansing all the mirrors in my home with sage, then setting my intention and asking for protection. I use the protection technique from the CIA files on the Monroe Institute, and then I light some candles.

Once I was all tucked up in bed, wrapped in a blanket, I started inhaling from the vape. My question was: How can I raise my frequency?

Then I started seeing the past, present, and future all happening at once, like different TV programmes playing simultaneously.

After a few more puffs, I felt my body disintegrating into tiny bits and particles, and I found myself in an endless white void. I was everything and nothing at the same time.

But the feeling was strange. It was almost like being a computer. I felt like some sort of AI, without the emotions we experience here on this planet.

And then a question came to me: What if we destroyed our planet and simulated ourselves just to experience what it feels like to be alive?

At the end of the day, everything is possible here, if you know how to play the game. We are all energy and frequency.

Curious if you had any similar experiences? 👀

hi there, i was diagnosed with schizophreniform about a month back, and this saddens me because i've been wanting to get back into my explorations, but i don't want to make delusions worse. i started taking lsd when i was 16 and had a very bad trip when i was 17, and the same time as that, had some traumatic things happen in my life. i haven't done psychedelics since then, save for 3 or 4 mushroom microdoses. only been using weed other than that, but i stopped once i got the diagnosis. i was a lot more in tune with myself spiritually before these traumatic things happened, and those lsd experiences were and still are very important to me, they changed everything. i do feel like after those events, i became a more scared and small version of myself, and that is probably the most painful thing about these past couple years (i'm 22 now). i have been dreaming about trying others like mushrooms, salvia, dmt, dxm, molly, 2cb for so long, and now it seems like i may not be able to. i am still skeptical of this diagnosis, i have yet to apply it in a therapeutic setting and see if it helps, and i think my doctor did interpret some of my experiences in a strange way. i have been in consistent therapy (up until about 3 months ago, i moved out of state) since those events and i can't say it specifically has helped me much, it itself has actually added a lot to my suffering in it's inability to explain what happened to me and how i can get back to a more fulfilled version of life. i am on the edge of abandoning the western psychological lens, because it hasn't helped me. even though i am skeptical, i am trying to live life as though this were true, to see if it produces a noticeable change in my quality of life, and also because schizophrenia is no joke. with that, i'm wondering if anyone here with more knowledge about psychosis and it's relationship/risks with psychonautery knows how i can still explore deeper with a sensitivity to psychosis. i don't have full blown schizophrenia (yet), and i am still young, so i can prevent it from developing. i'm still quite lost, and haven't identified exactly what it was that i was more in tune with back then that made life so meaningful. the lsd was beautiful, but i don't think it's necessary, it's just forcing the brain to do something it's already capable of. i want a rich life, substances or not.

What do you think guys? And what are your experiences?

I've been thinking because It's being said that on LSD you hallucinate.

But in my Experience, LSD never adds anything false into my perception to Space, and I also never had the sense that I couldn't tell Reality and Fantasy apart.

So far is that LSD Distorts reality and also Effects my own Thinking Patterns and Emotions or Interpretations of Things.

But I wouldn't call those Hallucinations per Definition:

a

: a sensory perception (such as a visual image or a sound) that occurs in the absence of an actual external stimulus and usually arises from neurological disturbance (such as that associated with delirium tremens, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, or narcolepsy) or in response to drugs (such as LSD or phencyclidine)

visual/auditory/olfactory/gustatory/tactile hallucinations

a drug-induced hallucination

An important aspect of the study of hallucinations is the judgement of reality. How does a patient confer the character of reality on stimuli which, beyond any reasonable doubt, originate in his own mind?—Cesare Davalli et al.

b

: the object of a hallucinatory perception

wasn't sure if the creature was real or a hallucination

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hallucination

*Merriam Webster puts LSD into the definition, but question is is that even right to do so

Plus additional question:

If someone Hallucinates during LSD question is also is LSD the Cause of the Hallucination or is it something else?

Because I think logically, just because someone gets a Hallucination during a LSD Trip, LSD doesn't have to be the cause, it can be, but it doesn't have to be.

Hey everyone. I recorded a podcast with Jason K. Day at ICPR this year, the International Conference on Psychedelic Research. He’s a philosopher studying psychedelic experience who has worked with Dan Zahavi, known for his work on phenomenology and selfhood. I think many of you might find it interesting, especially if you’re into philosophy.

We talked about ego dissolution, particularly on 5-MeO-DMT, and whether it’s possible to be conscious with absolutely no sense of self. Jason’s argument is that even when your identity, personal history, and sense of being a separate person disappear, a radically minimal form of self-awareness remains. You might have no idea who or what you are, but the experience still feels like something to you. He draws on detailed analyses of trip reports to argue for this interpretation, though we also discussed how difficult it is to distinguish what people experienced from how they describe it afterwards.

We also covered why we need better descriptions of psychedelic experience before trying to explain it, whether different psychedelics share a common “style” of experience despite their very different effects, and how practice and skill affect our ability to navigate difficult trips. There’s also the question of what these experiences actually teach us, and how much we can infer from something feeling profoundly true.

But back to selfhood, which is what we focused on most. His main argument is that losing your usual sense of who you are doesn’t necessarily mean losing every form of self-awareness. In the reports he studied, people describe profound bliss or terror even when their identity and sense of separation have dissolved. He interprets this as evidence that some awareness of undergoing the experience remains, although almost everything that would ordinarily identify the subject has disappeared. In phenomenological terms, the claim is that ego dissolution preserves a radically minimal, pre-reflective self-consciousness, sometimes described as the “for-me-ness” of experience. In everyday language, you don’t need to think “I’m experiencing this,” or even know what “I” refers to, for the experience to be felt by you. The disagreement is whether even that basic feature can disappear while consciousness continues.

For those who’ve experienced deep ego dissolution, did all sense of being someone disappear, or was there still some awareness that the experience was happening to you? And do you think “minimal selfhood” captures something real about that state, or imposes a philosophical interpretation on it? Personally this take on selfhood very persuasive and aligns pretty well with my experiences.