My Experience With Psychedelics

For thousands of years, various psychedelic molecules have been in use by different human tribes all over Earth. Western culture has only recently noticed their potential, though they had been an “open secret” among intellectuals and scientists for a long time.

At higher doses, psychedelics quite reliably cause mystical-type experiences, which can be subjectively incredibly meaningful. In a clinical study, 80% of people that were given a large dose of psilocybin rated it as one of their most meaningful – sometimes even the most meaningful – experiences.

A single of these mystical-type experiences can stimulate users for weeks and months – although the stimulation is not “bottom-up”, as is the case with most biological interventions, but rather “top-down”.

Aldous Huxley advocated the use of LSD “to make this trivial world sublime,” and reportedly even took the drug on his deathbed.

While responsible use of psychedelics has many upsides (e.g., long-lasting positive attitude adjustments, a renewed sense of wonder, greater joy for life, helping users to find purpose), psychedelics are not toys and there are also significant risks. In the worst case, they can trigger psychosis, cause PTSD, or induce HPPD – all of which are discussed shortly.

This article is about taking “normal” doses of psychedelics. I discuss microdosing, and my experience with it, separately here.

Personal experience of a friend

A friend got interested in psychedelics after reading Sam Harris’ article“Drugs and the Meaning of Life”.

In total, he has had six larger-dose experiences in the range of 100-300mcg LSD-equivalent. All of them were very meaningful to him and after all, but one, his sense of purpose increased – at least temporarily.

The above is only a fraction of the article. This article is currently undergoing final revisions and is expected to be published within the next few weeks to months. To receive a notification upon its release, sign up for my newsletter.