Mescaline vs LSD

[Hyperreal]

I've started taking cacti recently, having been curious about mescaline since I read The Doors of Perception when I was 14. I reckoned I had as good an idea of what to expect as is possible with a new drug. Anyway, the thing that surprised me the most was how similar the mescaline high is to LSD. The visual hallucinations, the change in thought patterns, the bodily sensations, are distinct, but very similar between the two drugs. One reason this surprised me is that mescaline and LSD are nothing alike chemically.


Anyway, it seems not everyone has the same experience; one guy I mentioned this to likened the difference between cacti and acid to that between 'shrooms and ecstasy. So what do you guys think? Are cacti like acid?

[sterling77]

I've heard reports ranging from both extremes, some saying mushrooms
LSD and mescaline are all the same trip to "there's no
comparison".



I've also heard mescaline has more electric-y visuals is actually more intense than LSD, and is more spiritual.



Someone asked this on Ask Erowid:



"The effects of LSD and mescaline are often
described as being nearly the same in many older books and articles.
While there are many points of similarity, these are two very different
drugs from two very different chemical families. It is very hard to try
to explain the differences to somebody who has not tried both, and this
difficulty is made even worse because no two people will be affected by
both drugs in the same way.



</font></font> Many people feel that mescaline leaves you with a more lucid and
coherent state of mind, where LSD can often create a very confused and
disoriented state of mind. This does not at all mean that LSD is a more
intense experience though. Some people find that mescaline produces
stronger and much more organized visual effects, especially with the
eyes closed. While LSD visions are often mosaics of rapidly morphing
bizzarre scenes, mescaline visions tend to be more organized, less
changing, and more familiar - the difference might be compared to
watching a surreal music video compared to watching a movie. LSD tends
to be much more of a stimulant, whereas on mescaline many people are
more likely to lie down with your eyes closed. Some find mescaline
produces a strong euphoria which is compared to that from MDMA. Some
find LSD is more likely to cause anxious feelings.



</font>
Some people say LSD is much "deeper" while others will say that
mescaline is the more profound drug - and others will say they're both
equally deep. All of this is highly subjective, and varies greatly from
person to person. LSD and mescaline are very different drugs, but with
many things in common. Each has its own unique profile of effects, but
what these are will be different for every person."</font>

</font>

[prospero]

Alot of the older books do indeed equate mescaline, LSD, and mushrooms. I think part of the reason for this is that if a non-drug-user (eg a scientist) were to ask people to describe the trips from each of the three, the adjectives used would be the same, although the trips themselves would be very different. The scientist would then conclude the three drugs cause the same effects. That's because the words simply don't exist in our language to fully describe the altered states of consciousness they bring on.


For my own view, I find in low doses the three are similar or even indistinguishable, but at high dosages the particular characteristics of the three come out and they are very different indeed.Edited by: prospero

[sloppo]

In SWIM's experience mescaline and LSD are not very similar. The head space is different, the visuals are very different, the feeling is different. Good mescaline is so smoothone cannot really feel it, but it is there.





Sloppo

[Softrat]

Mescaline, acid and shrooms are all similar and different in various ways. They are all what could be called classic psychedellics, in other words their effects all play on a certain "theme".


On other hand they do what they do in their own way. The difference between these drugs is very obvious and any experienced tripper would have no trouble telling you if a certain drug belonged to the broad classes of Lysergic acid amide, tryptamine, or phenethylamine.