How to avoid bad trips

We’ve probably all got the image of the bad trip in our minds: the terrifying, overwhelming, trippy, difficult journey with scary imagery and the feeling that it will never end. We’ve heard the stories and the warnings. But is there such a thing as ”a bad trip”, and if so, how do we avoid it?

Two words: set and setting – the cornerstones of a productive and positive journey with psychedelics. Your mindset as you embark on the journey, and the setting in which it takes place. If these two are properly taken care of, then I would argue that there is no such thing as a bad trip, regardless of how challenging the experience is. (Adverse effects do happen with psychedelic use, and I will cover that in more detail in a future blog post.)

I know someone who was travelling in Asia somewhere, she was young and inexperienced, she was with people she barely knew in a country where she didn’t understand the language and couldn’t read the signs. She didn’t understand the culture, the climate was hot and sticky, and she was overwhelmed by it all, even in her normal state of mind. Then someone suggested to take mushrooms. Now there’s a bad idea if I ever heard one, but she did it anyway and had the worst experience of her life! It was frightening and it sent her spiralling downwards into paranoia, fear and panic. Not to be repeated. Ever again. That was her lesson.

However, when you’ve actively prepared your set and setting, when you use psychedelics in a environment with someone experienced and caring, when you show the plant medicines the respect they truly deserve (and which native peoples across the globe have shown them for millenia), then the lessons you yield are of a very different nature.

The journeys one can experience during expanded consciousness are sometimes very challenging, ayahuasca in particular can be demanding in a very embodied way. But with the right preparation, support and set & setting, research suggests that the degree of difficulties during a challenging experience is positively associated with enduring increase in well-being (Reference: Survey study of challenging experiences after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms: Acute and enduring positive and negative consequences by T M Carbonaro, M P Bradstreet, F S Barrett, K A MacLean, R Jesse, M W Johnson and R R Griffiths in Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2016 Dec; 30(12): 1268–1278, accessed here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5551678/ on 30.11.2023)

That is to say, the more challenging the experience, the deeper, more durable and transformative the lesson.

Here is an excerpt from the article “Psychedelic integration challenges: Participant experiences after a psilocybin truffle retreat in the Netherlands”, by Anna Lutkajtis and Jules Evans (https://media2-production.mightynetworks.com/asset/d67e1302-cf8d-410c-b293-3dd73c9ccb41/Psychedelic_integration_challenges.pdf).

“A possible adverse reaction to psychedelics is a ‘bad trip’ (in lay language) or a ‘challenging experience’ (in therapeutic language) (Schlag, Aday, Salam, Neill, &Nutt, 2022). Such experiences may involve feelings of anxiety, panic, paranoia, confrontations with personal trauma, a sense of ‘losing oneself’ or the fear of ‘going crazy’ (Gashi, Sandberg, & Pedersen, 2021; Johnstad, 2021; Schlag et al., 2022). ‘Ego dissolution’ experiences episodes where the sense of being a separate ‘self’ distinct from the rest of the world diminishes or completely dissolves – may be particularly frightening (Gashi et al., 2021; Johnstad, 2021). Most challenging psychedelic experiences are short-lived and do not persist after the peak drug effects have worn off. Some researchers suggest that such adverse experiences under clinical settings are very rare (Schlag et al., 2022) and that when challenging experiences do occur they tend to resolve themselves in a way that the experiencer ultimately sees as positive and life-enhancing (Carbonaro et al.,2016;Gashietal.,2021).” They also state: "In modern Western culture, challenging altered states of consciousness are generally viewed pathologically as symptoms of mental illness, rather than as paths tomental wellness. However, evidence suggests that in the case of psychedelics, adverse or challenging experiences, when resolved, couldresult in lasting positive change (Carbonaro et al., 2016;Gashi et al., 2021)."

So while using plant medicines can be difficult during the journey and the days immediately after (even when the journey takes place in a safe and caring environment), this often can and does result in increased well-being, especially when participants have been screened and the set and setting have been accounted for, as happens at A New Day Retreats. We also schedule an after-session video call to make sure you are integrating the experience well, and if you feel you need it, our psychedelics informed psychotherapists can guide you onwards in a productive direction.

So yes, bad trips do happen, but at A New Day Retreats we provide a safe setting where you can feel free to lean into an extraordinary, and yes sometimes challenging, experience that has the potential to be extremely transformative. And you are always welcome to reach out after your experience in case you need it!