From: 4cHaOS (4chaos@altavista.com)
Date: Mon Nov 20 2000 - 16:50:06 MST
zero powers wrote:
>By smart, I mean psychoactives whose effects would be known prior
>to ingestion.
some might argue that the effect of psychoactives, as they exist today, would be more predictable if there were some standards used in the manufacturing or marketing of them. for example, when one buys a supplement at a nutrition store, the contents of the product are on the packaging in terms of type and weight.
informed use of psychedelics, in terms of knowledge of actual substances to be ingested, the amounts, and the date of manufacture, would clear up much of the ambiguity that can surround the ingestion of psychedelics. furthermore, this ambiguity, itself, negatively contributes to a user's mindset going in to a trip.
leary noted, and i support his hypothesis, that a trip is influenced by one's set and setting (when all other variables are controlled for). set refers to mindset and setting refers to environmental settings. if one can control for things like adulteration of the supposed substance and potency, then all that has to be worked on before a trip is one's set and setting. of course, i would not disagree with the statement that individuals experiencing or predisposed to psychosis or severe neurosis should avoid psychedelics unless they are tripping with an experienced guide or therapist (similar to the experiments done with lsd-25 in treating alcoholics in baltimore, maryland 40 years ago).
i can confidently say that i have not had a bad trip, or known people who have had a bad trip, when taking into account set and setting and when the psychedelic ingested has been locally researched and judged for it's potency prior to ingestion. (it could really suck to be the first local to make such a judgment on a new batch of a psychedelic; however, if the source/manufacturer is consistent between batches this can and should be minimized.)
the closest i have come to a system that provides such needed information to psychedelic users is in holland where i purchased psilocybin mushrooms at a smart drug/drink store by weight, knowing how long the product had been in storage since being harvested, knowing subjectively how potent the "batch" was, and knowing that the product had been refrigerated since being harvested. this made for a rather predictable trip since i was able to choose an appropriate setting and went into the trip with an appropriate mindset.
lastly, my observations and research of mdma have led me to conclude that 1)it can have psychedelic effects and 2)the effects are predictable in a diverse population. the only variables that probably need to be controlled for are dosage by weight and, again, mindset. while it is harder to have a negative experience on mdma because of mindset than lsd-25, i have been with individuals who have not had an empathic, ecstatic experience while on mdma. the experience was by no means negative, but it wasn't similar to the experiences of others who ingested mdma from the same batch. of course, maybe they received an improper dosage.
the bottom line(s): psychedelic trips may only be as predictible as we make them, and psychedelics can immensely increase extropic thought and open-mindedness!
-hENRY
http://fly.to/4chaos
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