Ayahuasca, LSD, meditation etc - to ask if you or anyone you know tried and what’s it like

[Hulabalu]

I am never going to try drugs as I’d fear for my life / mind! BUT , from a spirituality standpoint I am curious about people’s experiences. Apparently meditation can create similar state, similar spiritual revelations ?? but I’m not good at that either 😂

I’ve tried acid and meditation. Did I get a higher state id enlightenment from both of them? Not really. Meditation clears your head of noise though and relaxes you.

Former colleague tried ayahuasca. She had a complete psychotic break and has never recovered. Lost her job and most of her friends.

I would never take any kind of drugs now. I have panic attacks taking basic medications from my GP nowadays

But I did do a lot of mushrooms in my early 20s. I know it sounds cheesy, but it really opened my mind. Allowed me to see things from perspectives I hadn't before. It made a real difference to the way I treated people

That being said, I also had some really bad a terrifying trips (mainly from smoking weed at the same time. Weed always gave me panic attacks) and I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it to anyone

I haven't (like you, too scared of what could happen) but when I backpacked in S America I met lots of people who had tried Ayahuasca out camping in the desert. They generally liked the perspective it gave them and would go off for a few days at a time until they came down from it but it can have unpredicatable consequences. As with most drugs, people respond differently.

I have microdosed magic mushrooms in the past. It's where you regularly take a tiny, subperceptual amount - around 10% of a dose that would make you 'trip'.

I don't even drink alcohol and would never do other recreational drugs (cocaine, E, etc). I do yoga, drink green juices, go on retreats; the microdosing was just supplemental to that kind of lifestyle. It helps you think of things in a different way, and adds a certain spiritual aspect to your life. I've done mushroom macrodoses too but I don't enjoy it, it feels too out of control. I prefer my tiny little doses.

Mushrooms have been used to cure medication resistant depression, treat PTSD, and even to cure cluster headaches. Unfortunately they are a Class A drug in the UK, the same as heroin and crack, so I no longer partake because a conviction would ruin my life. It's even hard for scientists to get funding to test their uses because of their classification.

I think teenagers with still developing brains taking 10g of dried mushrooms, hallucinating their tits off, and experiencing ego death give all psychedelics a bad name. They have their place in a holistic lifestyle when used by responsible adults.

Very interesting, they’re often talked about as mind expanding

Well I read books by Ram Dass and he would beg to differ ( if he were still alive )
But now I’m interested in why I sound like a child ?

I've never done it - I'm too much of a control freak - but I used to be on a sports team with a woman who credited Ayahuasca with her recovery from PTSD after a serious sexual assault. She'd travelled to South America to take it more than once.

Also very interesting. Like in 9 perfect strangers. Does micro dosing have lasting effect or need to keep it up?

Yes I dislike the idea of being out of control too. I hardly drink for this reason.

Because your title asks if people have tried ‘ayahuasca, LSD or meditation’ as if they’re much of a muchness?

I had a weird experience meditating once, I was concentrating on not coughing and then I remember thinking “I feel like a marshmallow”. Afterwards I’ve heard other people describing feeling like they have a massive head or hands and it’s similar.

Also had some weird experiences with breath work but think that’s more a feeling of dread brought on by messing with your oxygen levels.

So you can have trippy experiences without drugs but it’s hard to replicate.

I've heard people who are well-practiced at meditation and also have experience of psychedelics say that the latter can be a useful glimpse of what can be achieved through the former.

I've tripped plenty but never got any better at meditation.

the commonality is the possibility of mind expansion and enlightening spiritual experiences. That is my interest. Ram Das gave up LSD and found meditation the better path.

A friend had to go and get her son from Argentina after he was hospitalised in Argentina after taking ayahuasca in what he had thought was a safe and controlled environment. He had had it recommended for low mood, what he recognises now was a mild, situational, depression but Individual reaction to it is unpredictable and it cost him his job and nearly his relationship. It took 6 months back in England to get him back on an even keel and start rebuilding his life.

FWIW, I learned much more about consciousness from a handful of ketamine experiences than from many shroom and LSD experiences.

I took LSD on several occasions, magic mushrooms and and have also done deep meditation. This was all around twenty-five years ago and I don't even drink now. But my experience, since you asked...

LSD: Although looking back, I can't believe I used to take it, I have no regrets. For me it definitely did open my mind to different ways of thinking and having tripped pretty hard, I am left with the irrefutable knowledge that there 'is more' - whether that means there is more to our brains, our universe or different dimensional ways of experiencing things, I am not sure. But I am glad to have had the experiences I did. Some of my trips were just 'fun' - mild and often shared hallucinations (riddle me that!) and laughing that was definitely extreme and hysterical, but no less good for the soul for it. I have had more introverted trips where I felt more solitary and wanted to look at things, think, listen to music and allow the trip to take me wherever it will and I have had a couple of less pleasant trips where I understood the dark side of taking acid. Luckily I was able to bring myself back round though grounding myself (it will pass), listening to music and sharing my feelings in real time with people who understood and could help me back.

MUSHROOMS: Similar levels and variety of hallucination and visualisations. I remember feeling like I had experienced what it must be like to have synthesia and also experiencing the most beautiful and magical colours, lights, shapes and sensations of warmth and safety whilst in a forest after a night out. I definitely felt as though a door opened in my brain and has never fully shut - not in a scary way - I feel completely normal and grounded - but more of a 'once you've seen it, you can't unsee it' kind of way.

Deep meditation. I have mildly felt the euphoria from meditation but not on the level that I felt it on drugs and I didn't ever visualise. It was more akin to taking ecstasy than a hallucinogenic.

FWIW I don't think I am 'cool' for taking drugs in the past, I wouldn't advocate and I am the most boring square now, but I am glad that I experienced the things I did as it has given me more empathy and a more open mind to the possibilities of what could be going on in other peoples minds. It also makes me a bit excited for what we might discover our minds are capable of in the future.

I love Ram Dass too! I tried psychedelics a couple of times when younger but had too much "uncleared" trauma so had horrible trips and will never try again.

But love to meditate, especially loving kindness meditation and walking meditation. Have had a couple of totally consciousness-expanding experiences back when I did a couple of hours of meditation a day - found Ram Dass later and those meditation experiences really aligned with what he describes (though I'm by no way anywhere near as "evolved" down the path as Ram Dass was.) Do you listen to the Ram Dass podcasts on Spotify? I've been listening to them falling asleep for a couple of years and they've totally changed my perspective on life and God.

And found kriya yoga is especially powerful if you're looking for a "natural" safe alternative to psychedelics!

Ram Dass mentions in some of his talks how one of his teachers told him that (I'm paraphrasing) psychedelics, if done in a cool place, alone, while your mind is turned to God, they can be helpful, but they are a poor substitute for the real thing, because you can never stay in that place - you always come back to where you began after the trip is over. And that the only way to actually get aligned with God consciousness is via the more sustainable methods like kriya yoga/ prayer/ meditation/ these kinds of things

And especially if you don't like being out of control, I'd think there's a high risk of having a bad trip with psychedelics, whereas meditation/kriya etc is much much safer, and for me sustained meditation actually gave me much more expansion into "God consciousness"/ "the flow"/ universe than psychedelics ever did! It takes much more effort (ie practice) to see effects, but it really does work if you stick at it!

What are your experiences OP?

My autistic, adult DD tried DMT, she found it interesting, but said she prefers her brain how it is. No-one can say if she felt NT, but that's what some people claim.
I had time to spare and my local classes were offering meditation with crystals. I already meditated, had done Reiki etc and thought crystals were ridiculous. But they changed my meditation. We did walking/pathways and it was unsettling because it was as though I had less control and was being taken deeper into the meditation. I'm particularly attracted to Morganite.

Ayahuasca is a quick method to achieve what with meditation might take years. It can be pretty dangerous, conscious awareness overload etc with the person possibly not ready for it leading to serious mental health problems or alternatively issues with the people who sell "the experience". The slow meditative path is recommended.

There's a really interesting book about it where he discusses all this (and other plants such as tobacco) called Plant Teachers by Jeremy Narby.

I smoke weed.

It relaxes me.

Did LSD twice in my youth - teenager in the 70's. -

I don't even take a paracetamol and hardly taken an antiobiotic, unless necessary. Maybe twice in my life. I'm 70.

I would love to know more

What was the lsd experience like ?