Magic mushrooms have fueled many life-changing hikes, giggle-filled conversations, and profound experiences worldwide. Many consider psilocybin a great connector because of these shared experiences. It makes people feel at one with the world around them. However, the road to enlightenment is usually paved with nausea and anxious laughter also known as the come-up. After that, people generally ease off into the comedown after a few hours of a (hopefully) less uncomfortable trip.
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Countless psychonauts (people who journey with psychedelic compounds) share these experiences. However, research has rarely sought to understand why the phenomenon is happening. While the stress of a come-up often peters out, it sometimes deters people from trying the entheogen again. These adverse effects may also cause complications in therapeutic settings as more psilocybin centers become more relevant in the U.S.
Researchers recently looked at a mass of data about psychedelic mushroom experiences to understand the come-up and also dissected the anatomy of the comedown. By doing this, the team was able to form a hypothesis about why these experiences may accompany a trip.
Psychedelic trip research takes on new angle
The paper looked at personal psychedelic stories shared on Erowid. The non-profit online resource provides information on legal and illegal psychoactive plants and compounds. Researchers sourced about 50 stories about the come-up and 80 stories about comedowns, plucking out common words like “nausea” and “reflective” to gauge the essence of each experience.
They matched that word analysis against almost 300 more trip accounts to pinpoint which referenced the come-up and comedown without mentioning those terms explicitly to widen the scope of the data. Once compiled, research analyzed the frequency of relevant words to understand what people go through at the beginning and end of a mushroom trip.
There are limitations to this study. Since Erowid users were not prompted to answer a controlled survey about their states of being, they could have experienced something that was not shared. Certain omissions, if they were shared, could alter the data. Further research with a guided hypothesis and controlled feedback could provide a clearer picture.
Nausea is often listed as a side effect of this experience. 34 percent of stories included this. Additionally, people reported feeling anxious (28 percent), restless (21 percent), confused (17 percent), detached (11 percent), and uncoordinated (9 percent). People also commonly reported physical sensations like tingling (15 percent) or feeling cold (9 percent) and heavy (9 percent).
The comedown was perceived by those who shared on Erowid as much more enjoyable. People reported pleasant feelings (34 percent), peacefulness (22 percent), being reflective and insightful (17 percent), and an experience they enjoyed socially (16 percent). While this is interesting, it is the connection made between the two gateways inspiring more scientific inquiry.
Data indicates structure to psilocybin experiences
Researchers believe that the stress response listed in the above come-up experiences could be an indicator of the psychedelic experience to come.
“First, one may experience anxiety or fear, followed by visualizations or symbolic representations of fears,” the study reads. “Subsequently, feelings of fear subside, leaving one to reinterpret objects of fear from an unusually non-reactive, accepting and even loving perspective.”
The research poses a theory as to how psychedelics take hold and teach their proposed lessons, spinning up stressors that may be lurking in the mind and creating experiences built to tackle them.
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Research shows that overcoming a short-term stressor could be neuroprotective and energizing, but repeated sensitization to this experience may induce a psychotic disorder. This illumination points to the need for psychedelic integration to learn and grow from experiences rather than grit and bare them.
These reports may prove helpful as clinicians look to utilize psychedelics in therapeutic settings. However, the people who shared these stories were often in nature or at home. There is no scientific data on how this change in setting could alter the results.
For example, someone lying in a bed for a therapeutic dose of psilocybin may not be aware of feeling uncoordinated like a person hiking through a forest does. Even with limitations, the study may be one of the first to scientifically map the psilocybin journey.
The new data presented in this paper illuminates a topic few truly understand. As the researchers sought answers on the come-up and comedown, they may have figured out what connects them. The preliminary research is the first diagnostic look at the magic mushroom experience and might inspire further inquiry that helps reduce the uncomfy parts of tripping balls.
