Experiences - SWIM tried acid once and had a bad trip is it a bad idea to take it again...?

[alberry18]

SWIM took a microdot for the first time with a friend (who regularly takes acid) called "dave" at a psytrance rave and had quite a bad time. Peoples faces were all distorted and scary, even her friends were scaring her, except one guy "frank", sounds were all weird and she got slight paranoia. She managed to stay fine by sitting and talking to "frank" all night, when she left the rave things calmed down, people looked normal and she had a few nice hallucinations.
Twice since then, she has felt like she has been on acid when she hasn't purposely taken any and both times have been bad again. Both times she has been with "dave" and either "dave" is giving her acid or its just effcts from the first time. One time in particular lasted for hours and hours. Is this uncommen? Both times she had been on other drugs but she saw "dave" again the other day whilst on a lot of ketamine and she didn't feel as if she was on acid at all.
Both times this had happened she had drunk some of "dave's" water. Could this have had acid in it? Or is she just trippin out?
Is it a bad idea to take acid again? She was thinking about maybe taking it again in a year or so.
Pleaaaase help because "dave" is a really good friend and she doesn't want to think he would do such a thing. Is it all in her mind?
She also sometimes gets flashbacks when shes really tired or hungry where still objects will slightly sway.

[Mammon]

SWIM would say that if someone's on acid, they know about it. Now, if the water had acid in it and if SWIY only had a little of Dave's water and he drunk the rest, that would mean he should have been tripping a lot harder than SWIY was. Was he fucked on acid - it's usually quite easy to tell.

It might just be that SWIY is getting paranoid on drugs. It happened to SWIM a few times and he's found the best thing is to go a few weeks without taking anything. Do exercise, eat fruit and veg, that kind of shit. It allows you to get your bearings again and things become a lot clearer. I'd lay off the acid for a bit, definitely.

Also, ask Dave whether he's put any acid in his water.

Take care.

[Junket]

If you crash on a bike when first learning to ride, do you get back on and try again?

You tell me.

[alberry18]

Riding a bike isn't really in the same category as taking acid.
SWIM also has a history of mental illness in her family lol

[Junket]

Haha yea I know, just throwing that out there.

If swiAlberry doesn't feel comfortable, is worried or having doubts, then probably the best advice is to not do it.

She could do mushrooms because they are shorter lived and easier to dose small?

[Panthers007]

Being comfortable and feeling safe and positive are parts - very important ones - of what is called the 'set.' A very good set and 'setting' - location - are key to a positive and educational experience with any psychedelic. Being at a noisy party (rave) the first time out, and not knowing that people's faces are going to distort and such, was begging for an uncomfortable and uptight experience.

If the Mermaid should decide to venture forth again, the matter of set & setting should be paid close attention to beforehand. As well as doing one's homework about what sort of things are to be expected.

[alberry18]

She read into it a lot before taking it, she thought that might have been a reason what happened happened.
She read the psychedelic experience by timothy leary.
but she definatly thinks it was the setting.
on one of the occasion she felt like she'd taken acid again, sitting on a train listening to music, she found that listening to the beatles calmed her down lol
but whilst listening to dance music, the music would speed up or slow down and make her feel anxious.

never again at a psytrance rave may be the lesson learnt

[Panthers007]

One other caveat: Many have said, and would agree, that Tim Leary's bizarre version of the Tibetan Book of the Dead - The Psychedelic Experience - has caused more bad trips and freak-outs than any other cause. It's based on how the Tibetan's dealt with corpses! What was that nutjob thinking??

I would suggest reading The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley as a far better introduction to psychedelic thought and feeling.

[alberry18]

after she'd read the book everything they said might happen happened. if she hadn't read those things, would they have happened? exactly as the book said they might.
so that probably was one of the reasons.
thanks guuuuuysss!

alberry18 added 1 Minutes and 22 Seconds later...

she tried mushrooms and they were awesome!!
or so she says....

[cuddlesthefox]

Swim wouldn't let a bad trip put you off. However, swim and Acid just don't get along. Maybe it's swims sick and depraved brain spewing forth its darkest secrets, maybe it's a bad reaction. But every single time swim takes acid he always gets seriously horrific trips and then spends weeks trying to put reality and tripping into separate boxes again. But remember, Swim is the exception that proves the rule. Acid is damn good fun for most everybody.

[Songcycle67]

I agree about Leary's book of the dead. It seems to me that anything short of turning into a puddle of muck with no thought process and an eye on buddha wouldn't satisfy Leary's version of what the psychedelic experience should be. SWIM went through a period where he tried Leary's version of the LSD experience and he found it made him extremely self-conscious. Not self-aware, just feeling like shit all the time for being human and not some random array of cells feeding off of residual memory. Always fighting back the ego: but it's like quicksand, the more you fight the harder it pulls. A lot of people (John Lennon is a good example) destroyed themselves and made themselves into walking corpses because they felt guilty for having something completely essential to existence: the self. So they just took acid until their eyes were a void.

But anyway, back to the OP, SWIM would recommend that if the person does take it again that they take everything they're hearing and seeing and learning about themselves with a grain of salt. Wait til after the experience to make any conclusions about it or especially themselves. And remember, as long as they take it in moderation and relax, LSD is quite harmless. No one can make themselves not have a bad trip any more than they can make themselves have a good one. The key is not to care: let go. Just tell them to look at the things being shown as suggestions.

Leary was right about one thing: even the most frightening of visions is being created by that wonderful electric blob we call the brain. And for that reason, if none other, a terrifying vision is just as beautiful a thing to behold as any other creation.

[cra$h]

If you're truely unsure about acid, don't take it, but if you're in the mindset that everything's going to be alright, one bad experience doesn't mean they're all going to be the same, than you're probably good. Be optimistic, in every situation. But only you know if you're ready for LSD