Before I get into mitigation strategies, I’ll get into the two primary reasons that people have bad trips (and they are inherently tied to each other often). The first is the actual catalyst, the second is secondary but usually leads to the first. The primary thing that people describe as a “bad trip” is a positive feedback loop of negative thoughts. I use positive feedback loop in the scientific sense, meaning that when you have a positive feedback loop of negative thoughts, the thoughts feed on each other and create more negative thoughts. The second is feeling physically unwell. Unfortunately mushrooms don’t taste great and people react physically in negative ways oftentimes, including but not limited to puking (most common) but also upset stomach and weird bowel movements. Knowing this, it’s easy to see how feeling physically ill can lead into the primary cause of bad trip, positive feedback loop of negative thoughts. It’s hard to avoid feeling physically ill for a lot of people but knowledge of the physicality of what you are feeling (and contrasting that with the mental aspect) can help people to avoid bad trips. In other words, I can tell myself that the reason I might not feel too hot right now is simply because of the way my body is digesting mushrooms, vs any mental aspect of my psychology.

To mitigate a bad trip:

- Be in a comfortable environment where you feel safe. This is usually where you live or the abode of a close trusted friend. It’s not recommended for the first psychonaut voyage to try something someone hands you at a concert. That’s a risky way to go about things.

- Have several comforting escapes set aside. A warm blanket and a bed are two very easy ones.

- Music that you are intimately familiar with helps. It also helps to have multiple playlists of music style that you enjoy as change of music can help break any positive feedback loop. Under the influence of psychedelics, music enjoyment and perception is significantly enhanced and can act as a complete change of mood and does wonders to break thought cycles.

- An experienced sitter to talk you through what you are feeling. This is the single most important thing that can break the cycle for people, so try and have this if you can, although not everyone will have this luxury.

- I’ve found that I have less negative physical response when dealing with extract vs raw mushrooms. I like to make tea, but there are other ways that are preferable to just eating the mushrooms as they are.

- Depending on your mindset, it’s generally a good idea to avoid mirrors when undergoing your first voyage, as this will send you into a contemplation of self quite easily, and you might not be mentally prepared for that yet. Later on in your voyage of discovery, you might want this though.

Lastly, I want to try and dispel the notion of what psychedelics are based on your post. I cannot speak to your anecdote that you relay in your post, but no one I have known (myself included) experiences mushrooms in the way you describe. I feel like media in general does a very bad job of describing and portraying what psychedelic experience is like. Users typically do not hallucinate things out of thin air like spiders on arms (though I am not saying your anecdote is untrue!). Oftentimes the hallucinogenic experience is more along the lines of completely new life being breathed into things that you normally perceive as everyday objects. For instance, you normally witness much greater depth perception of fractal-like objects (tree leaves/branches are a classic example) or normally static patterns like patterns on wallpaper will begin to move, breathe, and pulsate with life. You can conjure patterns from nothing when you close your eyes, but this is only a much amplified effect of the normal experience you have when you close your eyes and attempt to perceive the patterns that your blood vessels create.

I want to wrap up by saying (and it sucks that I feel like I have to say this) that I’m a well-adjusted member of society who works 9-5 as a software engineer and pays taxes. Jobs was a big user of psychedelics. For a lot of people psychedelics can be a good thing. They helped me conquer a lot of long-standing anxiety issues I developed in my youth and helped me discover my love for dance. Used correctly they are a really powerful and helpful tool for self improvement and just connecting with the world in general.