One Second!
If you’re reading this page, you may notice that it ends abruptly. What’s the deal? This just means I’m currently working on this guide! The reason I’m updating as I work is for a few reasons: data backup, feedback, and testing. Doing this helps with speeding up finalization of the guide making process so I can make more content for you guys in the future. Thanks for reading, and safe journeys!
Trip Sitting
Having some concerns about having your first journey alone? Reluctant about taking your first step into an expanded self? Maybe you should consider having a trip sitter (also known as sober sitter, spotter, or co-pilot) to guide you through your first serious leap into psychedelics. Keep in mind that if you’re microdosing, you shouldn’t be feeling any kind of trip so you can safely follow the James Fadiman Protocol (1 day on, 2 days off) without immediate assistance.
To put it briefly, a trip sitter is a trustworthy and sober individual responsible for ensuring the emotional and physical safety of the psychedelic tripper1. That’s it!
Alright maybe it’s not as simple as you think, so let’s dive in a bit deeper to a trip sitter’s responsibilities.
Proper Planning and Preparedness
To ensure the physical safety of the tripper, the sitter must go through a list of prerequisites before following through with the experience. The first box to check during preplanning is researching the substance being used. Remember: psychedelics can range from ayahuasca, LSD, psilocybin, DMT, peyote, and more2. If you’ve been reading scientific literature or have just heard the term ‘hallucinogen‘ thrown around, just know that it’s synonymous with ‘psychedelic.’ Hallucinogen is outdated terminology because hallucinations are a rare occurrence and it’s derived from the visual effects that are really only one part of the journey. However, ‘hallucinogen’ is the scientific nomenclature so it’s going to stick around, unfortunately3.
Although a trip sitter’s job is to understand the various psychedelics to be administered, I’m going to be focusing towards psilocybin since that IS our Kingdom. Most of what I’ll be going over will overlap with other substances but keep in mind not only are psychedelics different in their own kind of way, even different strains within a species of a magic mushroom can provide varied effects! Examples would be Golden Teachers, Cambodia, and Penis Envy that all provide different journeys. Then there are species outside of Psilocybe cubensis, like Psilocybe azurescens that are completely different from the cubes stated earlier. A well-versed trip sitter that specializes in mushrooms should know these differences and administer according to the patient’s needs!
Risks Involved with Psilocybin
Like with every medicinal substance there will always be risks involved, and it would be dishonest of us not to mention any of these risks that are unique to magic mushrooms, which tend to be more psychological than physiological3. Let’s go over the physical risks first.
Psilocybin generally has low toxicity to your body, but there are common physiological symptoms that occur during the journey. These symptoms include:
- Dizziness.
- Weakness.
- Tremors.
- Nausea.
- Drowsiness.
- Paresthesia – abnormal sensation of the skin (tingling, pricking, chilling, burning, numbness) with no apparent physical cause.
- Blurred vision.
- Dilated pupils.
- Increased tendon reflexes.
Psilocybin can also increase blood pressure temporarily4 but not at a significant risk to those who don’t have a cardiovascular condition. That goes without saying, if you’re teetering on the edge of a cardiovascular disease, you may want to address that first before consuming psilocybin. Other than that, there hasn’t been any reports on permanent organ damage and the physiological effects are acute, even at high dosages.
Bad Trips
Many of you have heard about the dangers of having a bad trip. A bad trip is characterized by anxiety, fear/panic, dysphoria, and/or paranoia3, and most frightening of all is that after a bad trip, these effects become a permanent part of your psyche. While under the influence of psilocybin, emotional experience is heightened and this might catch some people off guard. A trip sitter should prepare the patient, and let them know they will be in a controlled and safe environment to minimize any danger that could come with using psilocybin.
The cause for people that have prolonged psychosis after having a bad trip is currently being researched, but from what we know it seems that individuals that already have a mental illness are the ones susceptible to these negative reactions of psilocybin. There have been rare and extreme cases where unsupervised individuals have taken their lives, which is why it is imperative for the sitter to spend time with the patient, screening for any signs that can lead to dangerous results during the trip. Trip Sitters should also carefully select their patients, redirecting any individual who needs treatment to a specialist that psilocybin may not be designed for.
Another unique risk to taking psilocybin is something called hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD). HPPD, sometimes called “flashbacks,” is a syndrome characterized by prolonged or reoccurring perceptual symptoms, reminiscent of acute hallucinogen effects5. Not only is HPPD rare, but for those that experience HPPD, it is either benign or pleasurable. For the trip sitter, HPPD is something to ask during follow up contact. If the patient experienced it at all, ask the patient if they remember the cause and what were the effects.
Remember: you wouldn’t prescribe mushrooms to a person with a broken arm, but there are infinite reasons and degrees of why someone may have a broken mind, and it is up to the trip sitter to carefully determine the correct treatment.
Volunteer Selection
Alright, now that you’re properly armed with some knowledge about psilocybin, it’s time to go over the process for patient selection. The first criteria for selection, although not completely necessary, is if the patient has had prior experience with other substances6. “Experienced users” have a degree of familiarity with psychological and neurobiological effects from either other hallucinogens or substances. To be more specific, patients that have had a few past experiences are the ideal subjects for treatment because they are at far less risk of being overwhelmed from the effects of psilocybin. Those who normally consume other substances could have their past experiences influence the treatment. From personal experience, I’ve heard someone describing a psilocybin trip akin to, “getting really, really high (on cannabis) but not super duper high.” Go write that one down in a study, Stamets!
The second criteria for selecting a volunteer is to ensure they are in good general health. Now, I know not everyone has access to clinical assistance so you’ll just have to ask your prospect some questions about their physical health and make a judgement call. As stated earlier, people with a history of mental illness or people with high blood pressure should be excluded from treatment, as well as pregnant women. Some people may be reluctant to tell you what medication they’re taking, so you should let them know that psilocybin’s effects increase if they’re taking antidepressants, SRIs, and antipsychotics. It’s your job as a trip sitter to make the right decision, and your actions reflect on the psychonaut community, so choose wisely!
(More to come in the near future!)