By Bridget Huber and Jules Evans of the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project
High-Level Summary
Physical risks
The risk of poisoning or overdose from the classic psychedelics appear to be very low. There are some occasional unexplained deaths from drugs like psilocybin, MDMA, LSD and ayahuasca, but these are very rare. Ibogaine / iboga has specific cardiac risks and should not be used without medical supervision. Drugs like MDMA and ayahuasca can in rare cases cause serotonin syndrome, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by excessive serotonergic activity in the nervous system, leading to symptoms such as agitation, autonomic instability, and neuromuscular abnormalities. There have also been rare instances of deaths through dehydration. The risk of addiction to psychedelics is also very low, with the exception of ketamine, which is not a classic psychedelic. Another risk with taking any unregulated drug is that you don’t always know what you’re taking or how much you’re taking. One recent test of 12 “magic mushroom” edibles sold in gas stations and convenience stores in Oregon found that none of them contained psilocybin, two contained psilocin, and several contained other drugs, some of which have not been formally tested in humans.
Psychological risks
A challenging (negative, difficult, bad) trip can be one of the most terrifying experiences of your life. Roughly 40% of psychedelic users report having had at least one highly challenging psychedelic experience. People can feel they are dying, losing their mind, in hell, or that others are conspiring against them. They can forget they have taken a drug and that it’s a temporary experience.
People can be a risk to themselves or others while in an altered state. They are outside their usual consciousness and their rational reality-testing abilities are temporarily reduced or off-line. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a trusted trip-sitter or guide with you who will remain clear-headed.
In a 2023 survey, 9 percent of people reported functional impairment lasting longer than a day after a psychedelic experience. These can be visual, emotional, social, cognitive, somatic effects. Usually it passes within a few days. In some cases, these difficulties last longer – months, or even years. We are still learning how common or rare such extended difficulties can last. Sometimes people don’t find them too disturbing, for others they can involve intense suffering.
The most common extended difficulties include destabilization, resurfaced trauma; anxiety or post-psychedelic trauma; derealization; existential confusion; Hallucination Persistent Perception Disorder (extended visual distortions); sleep issues like insomnia or nightmares; somatic issues like tingling or burning scalp, and reactivations (feeling like you’re tripping again).
If you’re in the unfortunate minority for whom these extended issues occur and are disturbing to you, seek accurate information and support, either from informed friends or from therapists or psychiatrists familiar with post-psychedelic difficulties. Here is a brief guide to coping with post-psychedelic difficulties. There are other support resources at the end of this document.
Interpersonal risks
The behaviour of other people can precipitate bad trips. The psychedelic underground is the wild west and many guides have little-to-no training or medical expertise.
People can take advantage of you when you’re in a vulnerable and suggestible state – instances of sexual assault in psychedelic culture are unfortunately common. Make sure you know and trust the people you trip with.
Sometimes, power-hungry or money-hungry individuals or organisations can use psychedelics to try to exploit you for their own ends.
Epistemic risks
Psychedelics can undermine your existing worldview and raise perplexing questions – ‘is this a simulation?’, ‘are entities real?’, ‘what’s the point of life?’, ‘why am I married to this person?’, and so on. If questions like these come up for you and are troubling, who would you go to for help or conversation?
Legal risks
These are real: Psychedelics are still illegal in most parts of the world.
Risks of psychedelics: A deeper dive
How risky are psychedelics? For starters, assessing risk is tricky. A lot of what both scientists and the general public think they know about the potential risks of psychedelic use comes from the first wave of research and experimentation in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. But this body of knowledge includes urban legends and some studies that wouldn’t meet today’s scientific standards.
Also, reporting and describing adverse events is often subjective. Some people consider the drug-induced state itself pathological, while others believe even psychotic reactions could be a ‘shamanic initiation’.
Also, though it’s tempting to generalize from case reports or news stories, Johansen and Krebs argue it’s important to take a “statistical perspective to risk” and they point out that nothing we do is without risk (Johansen & Krebs, 2015).
When interpreting case reports on psychedelics, Krebs and Johansen argue, several factors must be considered. Most adverse effects are short-lived, with serious psychiatric symptoms typically resolving within days. Given the high prevalence of both mental illness and psychedelic use, chance associations are likely, especially as both often occur in late adolescence or early adulthood. Many reports fail to exclude pre-existing psychiatric issues, life stressors, or use of other drugs, and psychiatric disorders are often shaped by genetics and early experiences. Symptoms may be mistakenly attributed to psychedelics even when they appear months or years later, and clinicians’ views can be biased by seeing only those with mental health problems.
The aim of this report is to provide a comprehensive summary of what we know so far about the risks of psychedelics, compiling together the latest research in the field to better inform the public. The review will highlight the general safety information of psychedelics; neurological risks, toxicity and overdose; acute psychological risks; post psychedelics risks; and other risks related to sexual misconduct and cultic behaviour.
General safety information
In 2010, David Nutt and colleagues ranked 20 drugs based on their harmfulness, using criteria ranging from drug-related mortality (death by overdose) to environmental damage. Overall, psilocybin mushrooms were ranked as the least harmful, followed by LSD. Alcohol was ranked most harmful (more than ten times as harmful as mushrooms or LSD), followed by heroin, then crack cocaine (Nutt et al., 2010). However, this widely cited study relates to perceived harms to individuals and society, which in turn is connected to how widely these various drugs are presently used, so it’s unsurprising that a very widely-used drug like alcohol would be perceived as much more harmful than a more-rarely-used drug like psilocybin.
Neurological risks, Toxicity, and Overdose
In their 2008 guidelines for the safe administration of high doses of LSD and psilocybin in a clinical setting, Matthew Johnson, Bill Richards and Roland Griffiths write that hallucinogens aren’t considered addictive (with the exception of ketamine) and they don’t appear to cause organ damage or neurotoxicity. They can cause side effects like dizziness, blurred vision, weakness and tremors, while they are active. The authors also note that hallucinogens can raise the pulse and blood pressure, but they say none of their research participants ever experienced a medically-dangerous spike in blood pressure or had to take blood pressure drugs (Johnson, 2008). No serious cardiovascular adverse effects have been reported in clinical trials under standard doses in patients without cardiovascular disease (Andersen et al., 2021). However, in one survey by the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Service of over 2000 users of psychedelic drugs in unregulated settings, one sixth reported physical adverse events from psychedelic drug consumption, the most common of which were cardiovascular issues, like heart palpitations.
At high doses of psilocybin or in medically compromised individuals (e.g., a heart condition called acute coronary syndrome), rare cases of cardiac risks such as QT prolongation, ischemic changes, cardiac arrest, and arrhythmia have been reported (Nahlawi et al., 2025).
Microdosing is the act of consuming sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics (most popular are LSD or psilocybin) 2-4 times a week over multiple weeks, months, or even years. The reasons people microdose vary from improving mental health outcomes to boosting productivity and creativity. The literature presents mixed findings, with existing studies unable to determine whether observed effects stem from the drug itself or from placebo, owing to methodological limitations (Totomanova et al., 2025). Of particular concern is that the safety of long-term or repeated use remains unknown and may pose risks for individuals who microdose. The evidence is inconclusive at the moment.
Ayahuasca is a brew whose psychoactive properties are mainly due to DMT and β-carboline alkaloids (monoamine oxidase inhibitors). The latter ingredient prevents the breakdown of DMT in the body, leading to its psychedelic effects. Sometimes, this may lead to significant increases in blood pressure and contribute to hypertension and irregular heart rhythms (tachyarrhythmia; Bouso et al., 2022). This risk is heightened in individuals with pre-existing heart conditions and without proper screening the effects can be fatal, contributing to death by heart attack in extremely rare occasions. Ibogaine, another psychedelic drug, has known cardiovascular risks and should only be taken in a medical setting.
Other heart-related concerns include MDMA being linked to cardiac valvulopathy due to its affinity for the 5-HT2B receptor (Setola et al., 2003; Droogmans et al., 2007) and very rare cases of severe vasoconstriction such as a stroke due to high doses of LSD (Nahlawi et al., 2025). Most of these adverse events have been linked to high doses or patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease.
The safety ratio of most psychedelics is greater than that of ethanol or caffeine (Nahlawi et al., 2025). Most papers report that there haven’t been any documented deaths from LSD overdose. In 1985 however, there was one case report from a 25-year-old man whose death was attributed to LSD overdose based on toxicological examinations. The paper’s authors described it as “the first reported fatal case of LSD poisoning”, with very high plasma concentration that nearly doubled the known maxima on humans. The doses related to these adverse events are extremely high and beyond the standardised doses used in clinical trials which are safe and well tolerated in a controlled setting (Family et al., 2022). By one estimate, the fatal dose of LSD is 1000 times larger than the dose that causes an effect. So, it would be much harder to accidentally overdose on LSD than most other drugs — the fatal dose of intravenous heroin, for example, is just 5 times larger than the effective dose (Glabe, 2004; 2006).
Acute Psychological Risks
While classic psychedelics are not toxic to body organs, there are numerous popularaccounts of individuals harming themselves, dying, or injuring others while under their influence – the most well-known being incidents where individuals believe they can fly and fall to their deaths. Johansen and Krebs note that such cases are exceedingly rare. Both the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Dutch health authorities, where hundreds of thousands of servings of psilocybin mushrooms are legally sold each year, report that serious injuries linked to psychedelics are uncommon (EMCDDA, 2011; CAM, 2007). Nonetheless, in Australia, one study found 43 deaths due to LSD or psilocybin between 2000 and 2023, most due to accidents or self-harm. Other incidents have been reported in the news:
- In 2024, a teenager died after falling from a crane in Boulder, Colorado, while under the influence of psilocin.
- In June 2023, one man shot two people at a music festival under the influence of magic mushrooms, thinking the world was ending.
- In 2017, a 15-year-old boy fell or jumped off a balcony while on LSD and died
- In 2016, a 20-year-old man on LSD caused a three-car crash that killed a man
- In 2016 a man attacked his girlfriend, tried to cut off his penis and jumped out a window after taking LSD
- In 2016, a college student murdered his girlfriend after taking LSD
- In 2011, a 22-year-old died after jumping out of a vehicle after taking LSD
To complicate things further, the growing unregulated underground psychedelic market can be dangerous. One product sold as containing mushrooms, ‘Diamond Shruumz’, led to 46 hospitalizations and two deaths in 2024. Another case involving a couple that consumed the potent and dangerous synthetic hallucinogen 25b-NBOMe, mistaking it for LSD, led to death of the wife after having convulsions and the husband being charged with involuntary manslaughter. One recent test of “magic mushroom” edibles sold in gas stations and convenience stores in Oregon found that none of them contained psilocybin, two contained psilocin, and several contained other drugs, some of which have not been formally tested in humans. Four of the products contained no active ingredient.
People sometimes report having difficult, challenging, or “bad” trips that they don’t feel they benefited from. The most common adverse reaction to psychedelics can involve feelings of fear, anxiety, dysphoria and/or paranoia. Johnson et al (2008) write: “Distressing effects may be experienced in a variety of modalities: sensory (e.g., frightening illusions), somatic (e.g., disturbing hyperawareness of physiological processes), personal psychological (e.g., troubling thoughts or feelings concerning one’s life) and metaphysical (e.g., troubling thoughts or feelings about ultimate evil forces.)” Hallucinogens often intensify people’s emotional experiences, they write, which could lead to erratic and potentially dangerous behavior if people aren’t properly prepared and supervised. Other short-lived but negative effects can include: “temporary paranoid ideation and, after-effects in the days following a LSD experience, temporary depressive mood swings and/or increase of psychic instability.”
Fifty-two perent of people who responded to the Canadian Psychedelic Survey said they’d had an intensely challenging trip, and 45% of that 52% thought no good had come of it. The most common difficulties were: mental or sensory overload (61%), social paranoia (51%), worried about mental or physical health (42%), worried about never being the same after trip (34%), worried about dying (26%) (Lake et al, 2023). In a recent Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety (RMPDS) survey of over 2000 psychedelic users, 25% reported an adverse event – for which a third sought help in an emergency ward. In another survey of 1221 people who regularly took psychedelics, more than half reported experiencing an adverse experience at least once – the most common were ‘being frightened’ and ‘sadness’, though some people also felt afraid the trip would last forever and that they might lose their mind. (Kruger et al, 2024)
In one survey study where people were asked about their worst ever ‘bad trip’, 39% of people (N = 1993) who had a challenging psychedelic experience on mushrooms said it was one of the five most difficult experiences of their life. 16% of those surveyed felt they had ultimately not benefited from the experience, 11% reported putting themselves or others at risk of physical harm, and 7% said they sought treatment for enduring psychological symptoms. Nonetheless, many of the survey respondents still found even these bad trips to be meaningful and spiritually important. For 34% of participants, their most challenging trip on psilocybin was ranked among the top five most meaningful experiences of their life. And 31% said it was among the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their life. 84% of the respondents said they had benefited from the challenging parts of their trip and 46% said they would repeat that session if they could, despite the challenges (Carbonaro et al, 2016).
Emergency department admissions, psychotic episodes, and suicidality.
Federal statistics show that in 2013, LSD and psilocybin accounted for only 0.005% of US emergency department (ED) visits (Johansen & Krebs). In 2011, there were an estimated 4,819 ED visits related to LSD and 8,043 linked to “miscellaneous hallucinogens,” though these figures were based on self-reported rather than toxicologically confirmed use. More recently, ED admissions in California connected to psychedelics increased by 69% between 2016 and 2021, compared to a 24% decrease for alcohol-related visits and a 1.9% decrease for cannabis-related visits. Hallucinogen-associated hospitalisations rose by 74% in the same period, versus an 11% increase for alcohol and a 19% increase for cannabis (Tate et al., 2023). In a Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Service survey, around 8% of respondents reported visiting an ED or urgent care following psychedelic use at some point in their life. A retrospective study by Myran et al. (2024) found that individuals with hallucinogen-related ED visits were 21 times more likely to develop a schizophrenia spectrum disorder than the general population.The link between psychedelics and psychosis in genetically-predisposed individuals remains inconclusive. At the population level, studies show no strong correlation between psychedelic use and psychosis, even among those with a family history of psychotic or bipolar disorders (Sabé et al., 2024). Some research has found that psychedelic use is associated with fewer psychotic symptoms in those with a personal or family history of psychosis, but increased symptoms in those with a history of bipolar disorder (Honk et al., 2025; Simonsson et al., 2024). In eight modern double-blind, placebo-controlled psilocybin studies involving 110 participants and 227 sessions, no prolonged psychotic reactions or schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were observed. (Studerus et al., 2011). At the individual level however, Evans et al. (2023) reported that 5% of participants with enduring challenging experiences had a psychotic break, and Simonsson et al. (2025) observed higher rates of psychotic and manic symptoms in individuals using psychedelics in illegal contexts. Papers from the 60s support these modern studies: Cohen (1960) reported one prolonged psychotic reaction (>48 h) among 1,200 non-patient research participants and slightly higher rates in psychotherapy patients (1.8 per 1,000). McGlothin and Arnold (1971) similarly found a single prolonged psychotic episode among 247 participants, which followed repeated LSD administrations in a therapeutic setting. In light of these findings, current safety guidelines for hallucinogen research recommend excluding individuals with a diagnosis or family history of schizophrenia, bipolar I or II, or other psychotic disorders (Johnson et al., 2008). Although very rare, these findings underscore the need to minimise risks through careful screening and adherence to established protocols.
Increased suicidal ideation associated with psychedelics appears rare but has been documented in some cases, including in clinical trials, usually from resurfaced trauma and post-trip destabilization. In a survey of 1,993 individuals, Carbonaro et al. (2016) found three suicide attempts following self-reported, worst-ever psychedelic experiences. Similarly, Simonsson et al. (2023) noted that 6.7% of participants with challenging experiences had considered harming themselves or others. However, population-level studies show no strong association between psychedelic use and suicidal ideation or behaviour (Johansen & Krebs, 2015; Zeifman et al., 2021). Historical data supports this claim. Approximately 10,000 patients in LSD research during the 1950s and 60s indicate that rates of psychotic reactions, suicide attempts, and suicides were comparable to those observed in conventional psychotherapy (Passie, 2008). More recent large-scale epidemiological studies suggest a possible mental health benefit. Analysis of over 191,000 respondents in the annual US National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2008–2012) found that individuals who had used “classic psychedelics” were significantly less likely to report psychological distress, suicidal thoughts, suicide plans, or suicide attempts in the past year than non-users (Hendricks et al., 2015). A separate analysis by Johansen and Krebs reached similar conclusions, finding no increased risk of suicidality or other mental health problems and a lower likelihood of inpatient psychiatric treatment among psychedelic users. They concluded that psychedelic use does not appear to be particularly dangerous compared to other accepted activities.
Taken together, the evidence suggests that while suicidality linked to psychedelics can occur, particularly in vulnerable subgroups, it is uncommon, and overall use may be associated with improved mental health outcomes.
Post-Psychedelic Difficulties
Sometimes post-psychedelic difficulties extend beyond the acute effects of the drugs and last days, weeks, months, years or – in very rare but very unfortunate cases – decades. In a survey of 608 people who reported extended difficulties from the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project (CPEP; Evans et al., 2023), one third of the sample reported difficulties lasting longer than a year and one sixth reported difficulties longer than three years. The most commonly reported difficulties were anxiety, social disconnection, derealization, existential struggle and continued visual distortions. Eight percent of survey respondents had taken psychedelics in a therapeutic or clinical setting, so post-psychedelic difficulties can be reported even under ‘safe’ settings.
Between 2.6 % and 7.6% reported seeking medical, psychiatric, or psychological assistance in the days or weeks following their single-most challenging psychedelic experience (Simonsson et al., 2023; Carbonaro et al., 2016). Seven percent of people report persisting negative effects 2-3 months after naturalistic use of magic mushrooms, in this 2023 study by Nayak et al. In another study, 8.9% of people reported functional impairment lasting longer than a day after a difficult trip, and 6% considered harming themselves or others (Simonsson et al., 2023). In a large survey, 14% of people reported feeling more anxious for an extended period due to their psychedelic use, and half of these people felt these personality changes were permanent and unwanted (Weiss at al., 2023). The most common adverse mental health effects in the Global Ayahuasca Survey were feeling socially disconnected, anxiety, low mood and ‘feeling energetically attacked’ (Bouso et al., 2022).
With regard to Hallucination Persistent Perception Disorder (extended visual distortions after a psychedelic experience which the person finds disturbing), researchers aren’t yet sure whether the cause is psychological, neurological or both. Nor are researchers sure how often or rarely it occurs. Older studies in the 60s and 70s suggested that 1 in 20 people experience Type 1 HPPD (brief intermittent visual distortions) in a population of regular hallucinogen users (Horowitz,1969; Cohen, 1960; 1977). Grinspoon and Bakalar (1997) estimate that Type 2 HPPD occurs in 1 of 50,000 hallucinogen users. A modern study showed that 4-4.5% of people (N = 2455) who had taken psychedelics reported persistent visual distortions which they found disturbing and that were severe enough that the patients would consider treatment (Baggott et al., 2011).
Contrary to the above evidence, Krebs and Johansen (2013) expressed strong scepticism about HPPD after analysing data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2001, 2004), concluding that psychedelic use was not an independent risk factor for mental health problems. They found no association between lifetime psychedelic use or past-year LSD use and symptoms such as visual phenomena, panic attacks, psychosis, or serious psychological distress. Reported HPPD-like symptoms also occur in non-users and are common in the general population, particularly among those with anxiety disorders. No cases of flashbacks or persistent visual symptoms were reported in recent psilocybin clinical trials; in more than 500 Native American peyote ceremony participants, or in a survey of 120 US adults with persistent visual symptoms (only 5% of whom had ever used LSD).
Adverse events and extended difficulties still happen under clinical conditions
Taking psychedelics in a clinical setting is predicted to reduce the likelihood of having a challenging experience. For example, Matthias Liechti published a paper in Nature that reviews all of the clinical research on LSD that’s been done in the past 25 years. In these controlled settings, subjects’ experience of LSD was “predominately positive” and no severe adverse reactions to LSD were reported (Liechti, 2017). There are, however, exceptions, particularly in patients with a mental illness. Seven percent of patients in Compass’ trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression experienced treatment-emergent serious adverse events (Compass SEC filing). Here’s a testimonial by one participant who felt more suicidal in the days after her treatment. She ultimately felt she had improved compared to before the treatment but she thinks if she hadn’t experienced intense therapeutic support she could have taken her own life. Seven percent of participants in MAPS’ phase 3 trial of MDMA for PTSD reported increased feelings of suicidality. (McNamee et al, 2023). Two out of 30 participants in Braxia’s trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression reported severe extended difficulties lasting as much as two years, which they felt were not reported in the results.
Finally, a systematic review and meta-analysis of 114 studies involving 3,504 participants found that serious adverse events (SAEs) following high-dose classic psychedelic use were rare; none occurred in healthy participants, and around 4% of individuals with pre-existing neuropsychiatric disorders experienced SAEs such as worsening depression, suicidal behaviour, psychosis, or seizures. Nonserious adverse events requiring medical attention, like paranoia and headaches, were similarly uncommon, and no cases of suicide, persistent psychosis, or HPPD were reported in modern clinical research (Hinkle et al., 2024). While psychedelics are generally well tolerated, inconsistent adverse event monitoring highlights the need for stronger vigilance to better characterise their risk-benefit profile.
A systematic review conducted by Breeksema et al (2022) found that many psychedelic trials did not systematically assess adverse events. Furthermore, a recent study of adverse events in trials of esketamine (a form of ketamine) found that 40% of adverse events went unreported, and when participants felt suicidal, this was often not attributed to the drug by the trial scientists (Laportalière et al., 2023).
There has been little research on what helps people to recover after post-psychedelic crises. Therefore, if you’re one of the unfortunate 3-9% who experience extended post-psychedelic difficulties, there is no medically approved treatment, and some types of post-psychedelic difficulty (like HPPD or derealization) are poorly understood. Some forms of post-psychedelic difficulty, such as re-activations, sleep disturbances, weight loss, or immune problems, don’t have a single paper written about them. People coping with post-psychedelic crises sometimes spend many months and thousands of dollars trying different treatments and doctors to try and return to normal functioning. You can watch one person’s story of trying to recover here. Our best hypothesis so far is that many forms of post-psychedelic difficulty are a trauma response to a very frightening psychedelic experience, and are best treated as forms of trauma or PTSD. Here is a study on what people said they found helpful in recovering from post-psychedelic difficulties, and this is a good book on the topic by one expert.
Adverse events on ketamine
The ketamine market is already up and running in the US and elsewhere, as ketamine was FDA-approved as an anesthetic and is now used as an off-label treatment for depression and multiple other conditions, without much oversight. Indeed, during the pandemic, the DEA began allowing ketamine to be ordered online and delivered to your door. There are now over 700 ketamine clinics around the US, up from around 50 clinics in 2019. There is more research on the physical and mental risks of ketamine, but not much. There is evidence to suggest ketamine can become psychologically addictive. The problem has been particularly studied in China, where ketamine addiction has become a societal problem. In a June 2025 editorial in The BMJ, addiction psychiatrists said that 3,609 people began treatment for ketamine addiction in the UK in 2023-2024. That is more than eight times the number recorded in 2014-2015. There is also evidence of ketamine leading to physical harm, such as bladder injury and liver injury. Furthermore, ketamine-related deaths, although rare, can sometimes happen. For example, Matthew Perry, star of Friends, died in a ketamine-related accident after he was illegally sold ketamine, having been prescribed it legally for addiction and depression. For more on ketamine’s benefits and harms see this short guide.
Other potential harms under psychedelics
Psychedelics can lead to increased suggestibility and vulnerability in those taking psychedelics—this could be part of the reason they can be remarkably healing when taken in safe, guided settings. However, that also can make people vulnerable to abuse by those around them.
Sexual abuse by psychedelic facilitators has been reported in several high-profile cases (documented in the Power Trip podcast). There are also many more undocumented cases of sexual abuse and rape during psychedelic sessions in the underground (McNamee et al, 2023). In Kruger et al’s 2024 survey of 1221 psychonauts, 8% reported that they or someone they knew was the victim of inappropriate sexual contact by a psychedelic sitter, guide, or practitioner. In the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug survey of over 2000 people who had taken psychedelics, 13% said that someone forced sexual advances on them while they were under the influence.
There are several cases of financial abuse involving psychedelics involving unscrupulous individuals seeking money from vulnerable people while they are on or in the days after taking psychedelics. There are also some instances of cult-leaders who used psychedelics as a tool of indoctrination and control, including the Manson family, The Family in Australia, the Osho cult in Oregon, and the Aum Shinrikyo movement in Japan. (Of course, there are many other ways for cult-leaders to manipulate people, such as hypnosis and sleep-deprivation,) ‘Cultiness’ can happen on a smaller scale – the psychedelic therapist who doesn’t respect boundaries and encourages clients’ dependence or even reverence of the therapist; the retreat leader who insists they’re the Messiah; the psychedelic training programme that insists on high-dose group sessions, ego-dissolution, boundary-violations, and blind deference to the magical leader…These are all recent examples from the psychedelic underground.
Finally, perhaps one of the biggest risks of psychedelics is simply taking them too often. Over-use of psychedelics can lead to spiritual escapism or spiritual bypassing, to people becoming dangerously detached from consensual reality, magical thinking, superstitiousness, or conspiratorial-thinking. As Ram Dass put it: ‘Just because you are seeing divine light, experiencing waves of bliss, or conversing with Gods and Goddesses is no reason to not know your zip code’. This is the importance of integration – some people say it took them many years to integrate one single psychedelic experience, and to digest the lessons or insights it gave them. If you take psychedelics too often or at too high a dose, you’re in danger of becoming a space cadet.
Good luck with your explorations!
For more research on the risks of psychedelics and for a free monthly peer support group for people experiencing post-psychedelic difficulties, go to www.challengingpsychedelicexperiences.com
For support during or after difficult / bad trips, you can call the Fireside Project
ICEERS offers free online therapy sessions after difficult / bad trips
The University de Charite in Berlin has a clinic offering online therapy on a sliding scale for post-psychedelic difficulties
For advice on integrating psychedelic experiences, here is the MAPS Integration Station
Many psychedelic societies around the world also offer free or low-cost integration groups
If you’ve been a victim of psychedelic abuse, contact Shine Collective or EPIC