RiverFlower

Just saw your update - great. I've found with self-improvement work it's not linear - that is, do this course and you feel 2% better, etc. The feeling better can just pop up one day when you least expect it. Personally, I find if I keep doing self-improvement work my life does get better and better just not when I expect/want it to happen

Hi darling, I hear you that you think your life isn't worth continuing with right now. I've felt like that at times as well but I've been around enough years to realize that life usually does come back around to being fun again. And then sucks again and rinse repeat... Now when I feel crappy I remember that - this too shall pass. Being in service - karma yoga - can make one feel really good and useful. Volunteer for something really interesting to you if you have some time. A sense of purpose is important. Udemy (.com) has courses for around US$12 when there's a promotion (frequently) in all sorts of interesting subjects. It's hard to motivate when you feel depressed (you may have depression as well, so if you can therapy and or the docs may help for that). I've been able to push past low motivation at times - fake it til you make it. Made myself do stuff and eventually it does become enjoyable. I think one aspect of having a happy life is self-discipline. Doing healthy, positive, good for you life stuff even when you don't want to. Fast walks every day (if you can). Eating healthy. Volunteering. Learning something new. Getting a pet. Tough to get out of a hole but who knows what or who is around the corner. Big love to you sweetheart.

Oxytocin bonding is one reason to wait for sex. Have fun on your date, Kiko

Just thought - neurogenesis was still stimulated (maybe more so because of the high dose?) so some benefit!

@Arthur Thank you for this great information. It's so frustrating plant medicine is mostly illegal because it affects research and safe guidelines for healing. @Leo Gura Thank you. I understand. I feel a bit foolish...and slightly concerned about the high dose I received. Luckily I did have a brief oneness experience (mandala) rather than only terror. Maybe the placebo effect but I do feel an emotional shift. And I certainly faced my fear of psychoactives... Love

I wondered that from what I had read. Also, I am very sensitive to any substances, which I emphasized to my friend before smoking. Do you have an opinion about the effects of a dose that's too high? Is it more effective for release or just too traumatizing? Also, what's the effect of a correct dose -- retaining awareness for those first 20 minutes? Thank you (apologies if too many questions )

Only if he's taken out the trash for the Goddess Yes, a joke but also a statement that pre-Abrahamic religious dominance the Goddess was worshipped for tens of thousands of years. Love

I like and recommend this book: Illumination: The Shaman's Way of Healing Alberto Villold https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7131095-illumination Love

Greetings lovelies, Over 25 years ago, in my early 20s, I had a bad LSD trip. I have developmental trauma (from age 6 weeks), which is tricky to reach and heal. Somatic approaches can help, and plant medicine but I've been too scared to do a healing dose of psilocybin, ayahuasca, etc. since that bad trip. For years I've had a strong meditation practice and had glimpses of dissolving, oneness, egolessness, and sustained periods of deep acceptance. However, I still struggle with amygdala hijacking, which is distressing and destructive (like being possessed...). The psychoactive part of 5-MeO-DMT lasts 20 minutes on average so I decided to feel the fear and do it anyway (it took a year and a half to build up the courage). During the ceremony I was extremely scared before smoking the pipe. I had two very safe people with me -- the facilitator who is a wise friend and my partner. Holding the pipe, my friend, the shaman (I truly believe he is now given the phenomenal space he held for my banshee part...), counted as I slowly inhaled. Up to the count of 8. Hold. I must have exhaled. In the first few seconds I thought (I was still thinking then), oh, this is just like being very stoned [on marijuana]. The next second I was in another dimension. I could see my partner's face but through a worm hole or something like that (hard to describe...). I was somewhere else. I did not surrender to it. Instead I was absolutely (expletive coming up - am I allowed to curse here? - ok will bleep it a bit) f*cking terrified. I recall wailing quietly - "I don't want to be here", "I am so scared", "I knew I should not have done it." I experienced a "white out" (apparently) for the next 20 minutes with a few brief snapshots of awareness/sensory information: seeing the alarmed faces of the shaman and my partner; clinging onto both of them like a bush baby; hearing my partner cry; the strong command of "Surrender!" and me softening; and a brief experience of bliss/oneness/wonder when I saw the beautiful mandala on the wall, which now had glowing white light around it. That's all I recall for those 20 minutes until I was lying at my partner's feet. I briefly sat up to make one definitive statement about my trauma. Then led back down with intermittent shakes throughout my body -- the somatic release of my terror. The two people present later shared their witnessing. For the first 10 minutes or so I was fighting with something/someone and was kicking so much they couldn't get near me. It was so intense my partner felt traumatized by the suffering he saw in me. My friend was commanding "Surrender!" a lot and chanting and telling me to release but I didn't hear him until about 15 minutes into my journey. He suggested that fear is fear in my body regardless of trauma, bad trip concerns, etc. Since Mr Toad (4 days ago now) I've had flashbacks. All of which have been wonderful. Bright, oneness, peaceful experiences. I have been changed. I was triggered this morning and rather than react I was able to sit on my cushion and fully feel my emotions instead. That's huge for me. My partner reflected to me that I've faced something inside that was so hard for me to see before but that seeing has also made me more vulnerable and sensitive. That I've wrestled something out of my unconscious that's been silently ruling over me with fear, and I have stepped more into my power and fearlessness. I need to integrate a lot more though (TRE, yin yoga, yoga nidra, sound healing, etc.) which I've been a bit undisciplined about... I'm sharing to add to the catalog of 5-MeO-DMT trip reports in case it serves others. I'm also interested in any responses. And to be honest, I'm proud of myself for facing a big chunk of fear and I feel pretty kick ass . It was the most terror I've ever felt or rather ever recall feeling (my baby self may have felt it). I am planning to do it again to face more, release more, and heal more. I am hopeful for greater integration of my being for the lofty goal (always) of being love and loving others. Love