You’re recommending that the general public engage in consuming LSD. This is so incredibly irresponsible that I’m at a loss of words. Simply, there’s no reliable way to assess whether someone will have a bad reaction. Your recommendations for assessing safety are not reliable. And, trips are a one-way journey. You’ll never be the same after you trip.

Just keep in mind that you’re getting advice from someone who has already fried his/her brain on acid, and isn’t in any position to say whether that crap will affect you in any bad way, and they certainly don’t care, despite carefully framing their bad advice. This person is interested in “enlightening” as many people as possible, and his/her friends will disembowel you because there’s “twelve” of them. Quite simply, some people have a brain chemistry that doesn’t mix well at all with LSD.

You’re really irresponsible for posting this. Shame on you. How dare you post such a recommendation. Someone could listen to your advice here, think that because they’re stable that they’re safe, have a bad reaction and never quite be the same.

That garbage is pure evil poison for some, and one simply has no way of ensuring they won’t have a bad reaction, regardless of whether they are stable or not. One will never be the same after dosing, for better or worse. Johnny 95 IQ quarterback might not be profoundly impacted, but a typical nerd with an already creative mind will certainly have a life changing experience, and such changes are not always roses for all, despite your anecdotes.

I am cognizant of the fact that my viewpoint on this subject is not the norm in these parts, but someone needs to offer a responsible counterbalance. I recommend that most people do not try LSD at all.

It seems that you or someone you know has had a bad experience with LSD - I'm very sorry about that. I've known a couple people for whom LSD triggered or exacerbated some underlying conditions; however, when I looked deeper into these cases, there did seem to be a strong correlation with them having pre-existing issues.

If you look into the statistics, I think you'll find that most of the cases where LSD has triggered other issues, the unfortunates tend to be under the age of 25 (it seems that most of the neurochemical issues that don't play well with acid manifest in the early 20s for most people).

I agree that LSD will almost certainly cause a life changing experience, and that such experiences are "not always roses for all", however, I do believe that life changing experiences are, in general, good things if taken with proper perspective. Again, YMMV.

I kind of resent your statement that I've fried my brain - I think that anyone who knows me would disagree with that assertion, but I understand that you're presenting the perspective of someone who has had a bad experience (or who knows someone who has had a bad experience). Any chance you'd like to discuss the motivation for your viewpoint further? I'm very interested in more data on the subject!

In any case, my apologies if I have offended; my intent was to share my experience.

I'll emphasize again that anyone considering taking any drugs should do some research first (erowid.org presents both the good and the bad), and should know themselves well before experimenting.

I truly hope you'll share some more about your experience(s). Thanks!

You and the rest of this Silicon Valley hippie love fest is infested with possessed fried self important humans that live in a goddamn bubble. (Note how the previous comment was down voted). You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t have the whole picture at all, and your promotion of LSD here is damaging to society.

Oh, and you use the word “I” too often. You’re selfish. “Oh I hope you share your experiences!” I’ve never done that garbage, but I’ve known folks that had no indication of any mental issues totally lose their minds and never recover. Frame it however you want; had they not taken that poison, they wouldn’t have had that experience and wouldn’t have ruined their lives. One can have no indication of any mental hangups, dose on LSD in what they believe is a sound state of mind and trustworthy set/setting, and never be the same thereafter, for the far worse. It’s Russian Roulette for the mind.

There’s obvious survivorship bias here. Someone who lost their shit and ruined their life likely isn’t posting on hacker news. And such forgotten acid casualties are presumed to have already had pre existing issues by folks like you, which is just more self serving nonsense. It’s part of the counter-culture mental-tough-guy mentality. “Can you handle it?” “Yo that guy who went nuts on acid was already crazy”. Well maybe, not in every case, but his brain chemistry didn’t mix well with LSD.

People get damaged from that shit permanently (LSD) and there’s no way to know in advance if that’s the case. Your “research” on that subject isn’t relevant at all. You and the rest here are spreading dangerous information.

Check your ego, son. Your brain is fried. At the least I’m hoping this response doesn’t get totally flagged. It’s personal to me, very much, when you (and others, but you’re the worst offender in this thread) promote that poison in a place where people lurking don’t understand the hippie underpinnings of this community.

I think the down votes are due to you and the previous person attacking the poster instead of his post. I think you present some valid points and they would come through a lot better if you focused on them instead of attacking the poster.

I agree with OP’s recommendation that one should consider trying LSD only after much research and understanding. It has changed many lives, yes...mostly for the better, according to my research. Even “bad trips” can be for the ultimate good.

'LSD is the safest option'

Safer than cubensis?

In my opinion, yes. Dosage can vary wildly from mushroom to mushroom, even from the same batch. The physical side-effects of mushrooms can be much more difficult to deal with (in my experience, it is way more common for people to have intense vomitting on mushrooms than on LSD).

Furhteromore, mushrooms contain many more chemicals than just psilocybin/psilocin; they are often unsanitary(especially mushrooms that are found rather than grown). Assuming that you've got actual LSD, there's not much chance of it being contaminated with anything that will have any effect at the dosage level (consider: people typically dose mushrooms on the order of grams, while LSD is dosed on the order of a couple hundred micrograms).

I've never known anyone to eat several grams of LSD (this would be quite expensive),but even if they did, I suspect they'd just be largely catatonic for a day or so, and have minimal memory of the experience.

While it is, of course, possible to massively overdose on LSD, I think you'd be better off than if you overdosed mushrooms on the same scale.

While we're on the subject of dosage - I've found that people tend to have a harder time physically if they take too little LSD. Taking "just half a hit" is not recommended - On a proper dose, you'll have a bit of "body load" for a few minutes, but the psychedelic experience will take over and overshadow any physical discomfort. At the range of ~75 micrograms, I've seen people just feel twitchy and uncomfortable for hours.

Of course, YMMV.

Thank you so much for this thoughtful response.