I can appreciate the view offered above and agree with much of what it says.  However, I'd like to share my opinion that once you undergo the dramatic transformation that mushrooms compel, I believe you will be forever altered from what your path would have otherwise been, and for many it may be by a significant margin.  Such a divergence of being from one's former self identity, I believe can be an experience potentially describable as death and rebirth.  In that sense, I do believe a person may "trip and never come back". 

I have commented with this elsewhere on the website, but in case it helps, I offer a summary below of my experience with magic mushrooms.

From one use of mushrooms, combined with marijuana, I endured an experience which transformed my sense of self, others, the nature of reality, and all things, to such an extent that I believe I died.  I felt spiritually enlightened in certain ways, but quickly fell from that grace into chaotic fear and confusion that consumed and overwhelmed me, accompanied by a visceral reaction of partial physical and non-physical death.

My experience with mushrooms and cannabis severed me from my former self and left me in a personal Hell which persisted with intensity for a year of my life.  For the majority of my time then, I physically isolated myself from everyone I knew and obsessively focused on reconciling deep inner conflict.  What was once a happy life, filled with love and friendship, became a prison of disturbed solitude where I walked the edge of insanity.

Throughout that year and continuing on past a second year now, I have continually contemplated and meditated with enough introspection and passionate soul searching that I have gradually, over emotional ups and downs, redeveloped or acquired enough good thought patterns and behaviors in the consistency of my character, that I feel mostly well, most of the time.  Which means for the most part, it seems I have dug myself out of the dark hole I was in.  But it has massively warped who I am, made my future very uncertain, and it is not clear to me whether it will end up being for better or worse.

I have known many people who've done drugs and a good number of people who've done mushrooms.  My perception is that it has significantly changed all of them, especially the ones who've taken shrooms.  I imagine it has changed them in some ways for the better, but in other ways for the worse.  From all my time spent obsessively discerning the effects of drugs on my self and others, I currently conclude that they almost always bring out some kinds of negative effects in people, whether subtle or severe.  More often than not, the person affected appears largely unaware of what catalyzed their problems, and many times they appear unaware that their is a problem at all, as they seem not to understand the psychological changes they express subconsciously.  It doesn't surprise me then to hear many drug users focus on the good they find in it, while being largely oblivious to the bad.

The moral of the story is that I advise great caution in dealing with drugs, and while I acknowledge you will likely find some reward in their use, I offer a serious warning that you may be giving up more than you bargained for.  I personally wouldn't recommend psychedelics unless you are willing to die for what you are in pursuit of and you aren't willing to find a better way to achieve your goals without drugs.  I'd say recognize your own power in your potential for free will, and choose wisely.

Just my opinion and personal experience.  Think of it what you will.

~Peace~




Edited 8/23/2013 2:37 AM